The Admiral’s Log: My Journey Through ‘Star Trek Online’ – Part LXII

Written by John Edward Betancourt

‘The Measure of Morality (Part 2)’ Recap

Hello again my fellow captains and admirals. It’s hailing frequencies open for another edition of The Admiral’s Log, and I do hope you’re all still having a wonderful time with the Anniversary Event right now on Star Trek Online and that everyone is close to earning their T6 Alliance Battlecruiser. In fact, I know I’m close to finally getting my hands on that bad boy, but the quest to obtain that behemoth is going to be another log topic for another time. Because today, it’s all about recapping the finale of the ‘Legacy’ missions and well, I have to admit, that early on ‘The Measure of Morality (Part 2)’ kind of made me nervous with its storytelling.
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Because at first glance, this second chapter seemed like more of what ‘Part 1’ had to offer. Because once again you’re tasked with teaching the Excalibians about good versus evil and diving back into the end of the Iconian War to provide them with more data was a little disappointing at first. I mean come on, they already have three scenarios that give them the information they seek, what good will four do? But thankfully, this was apparently all part of the plan, one designed to bore and frustrate the player so that a surprise can come into play, and what a surprise it turned out to be. Because the end of this first sub-mission, brought about the return of the Excalbians version of the Borg, who were quick to take over the trials in the hopes of gaining freedom from their masters and that led to quite the follow up sub-mission.

One that takes you aboard a Borg cube to fight back this terrifying new iteration of Starfleet’s greatest enemy and well, this was quite the difficult segment for certain. Because there is a seemingly endless supply of drones aboard this cube, and they are relentless in their attacks, and the boss battles are equally as intense and truly, this is a humbling fight. One where I found myself on my digital butt on a regular basis. In fact, I made a point to beef up my first officer’s stats to Mark XV (I may have forgotten to do so before this) just to have a little help during this rough leg of the journey since Commander Flores took her lumps too. But the ending is worth it since it is a battle for the ages with a fascinating new version of the Borg Queen and that battle leads to the centerpiece of the episode.

Because what would a grandiose two-part mission be, without an epic finale? And this episode delivers on that, since you’re forced to fight the Queen and her seemingly endless resources in space and the only way to defeat a monster of her caliber is to bring in Starfleet’s finest, and the Excalbians deliver there. For they temporarily recreate some of the greatest captains in history to help with this battle. Which means you get to fight alongside: Captain Christopher Pike and his Enterprise from Discovery, along with Captain James T. Kirk’s NCC-1701 from both the Prime and Kelvin timelines. Plus, Captain Benjamin Sisko and the Defiant and Captain Kathryn Janeway and the Voyager join the fray and it doesn’t end there. Captain Jonathan Archer and the NX-01 are here to help, and so is Captain Gabriel Lorca and the Discovery, ​and you are also joined by a pair of Captain Jean-Luc Picards since the 1701-D and E are part of this fight and as icing on the cake, Captain Va’Kel Shon and the Enterprise-F are there to support you as well.

Which makes this grand finale is about as epic as they come, and fighting alongside some genuine Starfleet legends is pretty incredible in its own right, and there are plenty of geeky moments to be found as you hear these legendary captains bark orders to their crews and well, I have to tip my cap to the folks at Cryptic when all is said and done. Because this really was quite the incredible way to wrap up this particular tale, and they definitely had me fooled. But in the end, good writing prevails once again and the cinematics here are top notch and this really does celebrate every corner of the franchise in classy and fun fashion and well, now that these missions are all done, it’s back to the daily grind and earning that new ship and that particular journey is where we will pick up next time. Until then, Galactica out.

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