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

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

Back to the Future – A Voyage to 2270 & Another Bonus Command:
U.S.S. Camden – NCC-1702

The U.S.S. Enterprise - NCC-1701 (Circa 2268)

It’s funny how sometimes, a casual conversation will make you realize exactly what you have in front of you and the other day, that happened to me when I was playing Star Trek Online to prepare this blog for all of you fine folks. For while I was in the 25th Century, meandering through Earth Space Dock and eventually uncovering the fact that the memorial to those Trek had lost actually features a vast list of names, a conversation with my Biffle Shae, wherein I used the word ‘immersive’ to describe how impressed I was with the detail in the game, led me to realize just exactly what I truly have at my fingertips when it comes to this all-important (at least to me) game.
 
Because the fact of the matter is, I have the entire Star Trek franchise within reach in this game at a moment’s notice. It’s doesn’t matter what era, or what story was told, somehow, it’s in here by way of locations and missions and uniforms, you name it. And really, that’s precisely why I cannot get enough of this game, for at any given moment I can venture out and enjoy whatever era tickles my fancy and it just so happens that before I hit that realization, I was enjoying the very thing I’m celebrating in this blog, since I was playing through the ‘Agents of Yesterday’ story arc and taking part in brand new missions set in the 23rd Century.
 
Which means, it was time for another new character and another new ship in order to properly enjoy this pastel heavy era and in keeping with my new way of naming vessels, since I am the son and the brother of Navy Men, I felt it was high time to pay tribute to my father in the game, and I named my new craft the U.S.S. Camden (NCC-1702) after the second ship he served upon and once we got the ol’ girl properly named and crewed it was off to explore 23rd Century space and my goodness, how cool was this? Well, the answer is very cool because I won’t lie, I was downright giddy venturing through this era of Star Trek.
 
After all, The Original Series era was my first real introduction to the franchise, and dad’s old ship received its respective naming rights since hey, he got me into this world in the first place, and it was just magnificent to sail the stars in this era and see all the old tech that once looked futuristic and take part in a grand and sweeping storyline involving time travel, one filled with all kinds of twists and turns that I eventually resolved in the 25th Century by way of my primary character. But while it was neat to fire those noisy phasers and beam down in a shower of glittering gold, I won’t lie, the fan service here is pretty phenomenal and made smile like a goon.
 
Because this set of missions allows for you to interact with some big time Trek names, since you get to hang out and interact with the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 on several occasions, and my little run ins with them included an inspirational chat with Commander Spock (played by the late Leonard Nimoy) and Commander Scott (played by his son Chris Doohan) and countless others and the biggest kicker of all, is that there’s a mission, pictured above, where you get to actually step aboard the Big E’s bridge and that…that was just stunning and humbling and every adjective you can think of to describe the wonder of such a moment and that mission alone, is probably my favorite for a great many obvious reasons.
 
If anything, this part of the game really was a blast to venture through and I am sorry I didn’t do it sooner to get my total geek on. But really, when all is said and done, this past week in playing the game really did allow for me to appreciate the love and care that’s gone into it more, and it’s wonderful to see how all the storylines are woven together and it motivates me further to explore strange new worlds in this game and seek out everything that I can find in the galaxy that relates to the franchise and now that I’m done exploring the past, it’s back to 2410, to dabble in the new Task Force Operations missions and then…well we will see. Until next time.

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