Genkos Adea

Now we’re on the other side of the Frontier Day blockbuster (well done to everyone who participated, it was a nail-biter!) we thought we’d throw up an interesting query to all of you… Who do you think is the biggest threat to peace in the galaxy? We’ll start off with the two most obvious answers - the Borg and the Changelings. As the architects of the Frontier Day disaster, they were responsible for the huge loss of life experienced across Starfleet on that day, as well as the sudden assimilation of every officer under the age of 30. But apart from that, both have been huge threats even before they joined forces. The Borg have posed a legitimate existential threat to life in the Alpha Quadrant ever since Q zapped Picard halfway across the galaxy to meet them, and they only became more credible as a danger at the Battle of Wolf 359 and in their encounters with Janeway. Ruthless and without feeling, the Borg are legitimately terrifying. The Changelings were responsible for the Dominion War, the largest and most bloody conflict in recent memory, scars of which still crisscross the galaxy. Whether you lived on occupied Betazed or fought them at Deep Space Nine, nobody can forget the threat of not truly knowing who your friends were coupled with the relentless march of the Jem’hadar. The Lattice Alliance, a xenophobic alliance of Tholians and Sheliak have pooled their technology to use weapons based on sencha radiation, using crystalline technology. This has allowed them to focus and amplify the effects of the radiation, creating cannons and blast weapons of a destructive power seldom seen before. The USS Ronin first encountered sencha radiation in 2400 and barely escaped the conflict in one piece, and the Alliance continues to menace the quadrant to this day. Also, we have the Orion Syndicate - possibly more insidious than the others in that they’re not actively engaged in battle with the Federation, but their methods can be brutal and barbaric. Skin colour to dye for, though! Or do you have another suggestion? Let us know in the comments!

Welcome!

I did email you, maybe it went to spam! Are you both on Discord? I'll invite you to the channel

Well hello there! It’s been a while since we’ve run a Poll of the Month, and we thought our 30th Anniversary month would be a fantastic time to come back from the dead (a Star Trek speciality). A huge thank you to @Gogigobo Fairhug for giving me the nudge needed to get this ship back online. Soooooo, with it being our thirtieth anniversary (!) and also the month of our beloved awards ceremony, we thought we’d ask you an interesting question about our avatars. Obviously at this time of year, we get our characters all dressed up in their finest black tie/prom dress/weird outfit that the actor wore to the Met Gala in 2017… you know who you are. And this raised an interesting little question for me this month. How did you select your avatar for Starbase118? I myself started off using my own image for Genkos (hugely embarrassing I know, but I was young…ish) and then moved to the beautifully angular Ben Whishaw when I got more of a handle both on simming and on the character of Genkos. I’ve also made more of an effort to try and include POC in my PNPC characters list (okay, I have three, but it’s a start!). So that brings me to the question of the week - how do you select the actors/models/random strangers that you’ve picked for your avatars? Do you develop the character and then think “who do I know who plays characters like that?” or do you think of an actor that exists and think “wow, they would be fun to play as - they normally play ineffable grumps”? It’s a bit of a chicken and an egg question, but we are interested to know! Or do you do something completely different - let us know what you do in the comments below!

I don't remember saying this, but it does sound like something I'd say. As I often say, the day I taught you in the Academy was the greatest day of your life, for me - it was a Tuesday.

Excuse me? ::blinks::

I wanted to showcase this fantastic sim from @Jovenan. She played Tevet Elain as a childhood friend of Genkos in the last leave, then we encountered a youthful version of the character thanks to time-hopping shenanigans. And now we're back in the present, having changed the past - and Jovenan came right out the gate with this compelling antagonist. Five stars.

@Doz Finch Hysterical response

I feel awful about this @Nolen Hobart - but I will point out that your cadet cruise might well have been the most important day of your life. For me, it was a Tuesday.

@Jovenan deserves all the points for this excellent callback.

Genkos Adea checking in! "Prepare for trouble! And make it double!"

@Yalu You are a monster.

@Yalu - I had to pause my reading because of you

I've been a fan of @LuxaLorana since she came aboard the Artemis, but this is a really lovely "nothing" sim. My act three opener for our current mission was intended to communicate time and boredom, and Olivia has seized upon that and taken it to wonderful depths. I particularly like the note on Genkos' drumming fingers and how she has built upon it beautifully. Keep up the good work!

This month’s poll celebrates the bottle show, a Star Trek production hallmark since the franchise’s earliest days. The term “bottle show” refers to an episode produced with a limited budget and a self-contained storyline. Such episodes are designed to minimize production costs by using existing sets and not involving major guest stars. Bottle shows were prevalent from The Original Series through Enterprise. Producers purposely sprinkled these budget-conscious episodes throughout each season to free up dollars for more expensive episodes, such as those featuring heavy special effects, location filming, new sets, or big-name guest stars. Bottle shows have largely gone the way of the dodo since the franchise returned to television in 2017. Shorter seasons mean less need to pad them out with low-budget episodes. In addition, serialized storytelling makes it harder to plop one-off episodes mid-season without disrupting the main plot. In the case of the animated series, the entire season is written before the actors are even brought into the recording studio, and there are no sets to build, rendering bottle shows obsolete. A well-done bottle show serves strong storytelling and character study instead of flashy visual effects. When done poorly, however, a bottle show feels like pointless filler, shoehorned into a Trek season to meet the 26-episode requirement in the cheapest way possible. Some of the most disappointing Trek episodes, including “Shades of Gray” (TNG), “Elogium” (VOY), and “A Night In Sickbay” (ENT), were conceived as bottle shows. Unfortunately, this means the term has developed an undeserved reputation as a euphemism for bad. Despite their limitations, some of the most memorable moments in Star Trek have come from bottle shows. The tight focus of the episode forces the writers and actors to get creative with dialogue and character interactions. Bottle shows are an opportunity for the cast to showcase their acting skills and for fans to learn more about their favorite characters. We have bottle shows to thank for Jean-Luc Picard’s chilling monologue that begins, “With the first link, the chain is forged…,” and Beverly Crusher’s meme-able moment, “If there's nothing wrong with me, maybe there's something wrong with the universe.” Even though they’re a mixed bag, bottle shows are essential to the Star Trek legacy. They offer an opportunity to tell stories that might not otherwise be told. They force the writers to think creatively and the actors to flex their muscles. They can also be a refreshing chance to have some fun and make an episode that is pure entertainment, free from the constraints of the series’ larger narrative.