Stuff: Star Trek

Well I've decided to do something new as I'm fast becoming predictable, though this will end up likely being another series of semi-regular postings, that or fading into obscurity - time will tell. I also decided it was time to be a bit more geeky!! I've made my attempts to be a bit more analytical with some success and I think there's definitely room for that, but not at the expense of going "wow that was sooo coool!" and so I'm resorting to this post, which I'm labelling 'Stuff' to celebrate the amazing new ships, tech, aliens etc. that appear in new media focusing, for the time being, on movies. These posts will focus on movies a few months old so as to allow the relevant wikis and fan sites the time to get decent images and facts.

First up is the new Star Trek film, which recast the original crew and has 'rebooted' the series with a time-travel induced series of plot twists. It also introduced us to a great bunch of new spaceships!! By the way this will constitute spoilers for people who are waiting for the DVD.

Narada














This image is concept art, but I can't find many images of the full ship and I guess you've seen the promo images from the film anyway. With the Federation ships beinbg designed in 'classic' style this was a great way to put something new and alien into the movie. The long, spiky tendrils just screamed menace and the sheer size of the thing made me gawp first time it appeared. The later revelation that it was a mining ship - but a super advanced mining ship from the future made it fit even better. It set up the conflict well, even with the Enterprise in command, this was way out of their league. I love seeing original designs that can be cooked up be creative teams and don't stick to what we expect in ship design, this definitely pushed the boat out in creativity I felt.
There isn't much in terms of technical information on this ship other than what you see in the movie - one source claims the ship was upgraded with modified Borg technology, explaining it's appearance.

USS Kelvin











The team did create some great new Federation starships too. The USS Kelvin, commanded by Kirk's father was prominently featured at the start and was a fun mix of old and new. There was the classic round disk, but it featured 'top and bottom' nacelles, which marked it out from previous ships. Seeing new Federation designs is always a treat, from the first time I saw Voyager or Enterprise - E and then spotting my first Akira class in a movie was fun and so to be treated to a new class of ship right at the start was fantastic.
For geeks like me who love to know in-universe info: This ship is a Kelvin - class starship (presumably making it the first of it's type) which has a crew of 800 and used primarily as a survey ship.

Jellyfish












Another ship from the future, belonging to 'Spock Prime'. It was a smaller, one man craft and had gryoscoping sections that rotated as it glided through space like it's namesake. I thought this worked well, like the Narada as it just yelled 'other' at you and could not be attributed to the designs of Federation or other ships from the present era. It had an interesting set of weaponry and proved a decent match for the enemy vessel despite it's size. I enjoyed this innovative spaceship design.
Not much info on this one either. It is a prototype designed by the Vulcan Science Academy and described as their fastest ship. It was designed to be able to transport 'red matter' to create black holes and stop dangerous supernovas.

And that's enough on spaceships for now, before moving on I'll just leave you with two images, one of a spacedock and one of a Federation fleet.











OK one more thing before I ramble on too long - aliens!! Now I wouldn't rank Star Trek the highest in alien race creation, most species look like humans with funny bone structure, but they have put real effort into the personality and background of each of their races...and they also make some pretty darn good monsters!!

Hengrauggi

















This monster had everything you need, big teeth, large limbs and a way of catching you even after you think you've gotten away. Again the creature had a fairly original design with a pink body unusual for it's snowy domain and large gangly limbs. Perhaps unsurprisingly it was designed by the guy Abrams hired to create Cloverfield in his hit movie and you can see some similarities. But it was no copy of Clover and made for a good chase sequence across the snow.

I hope I wasn't too rambly here, I hope it was fun anyway. Possibly more 'Stuff' on the way soon!

And I'd also like to thank Memory Alpha the Star Trek Wiki for the info and some images as well as Ex Astris Scientia a Star Trek fan site which had a lot of good ship info.

Vehicle of the week 10 - Borg Cube

Well, this article will wrap up the weekly articles, covering the vehicles of various Science Fiction franchises, there's plenty more I could have done (and if you've read through my list and are incensed that I've left you're favourite out I'd be more than happy to pick it up again) but for now I think ten is a good number to stop before I run out of steam. I'm having a week off, so there won't be a weekly article for a bit, but hopefully I'll come back fresh with a new category and a bunch of other articles I've got in the pipeline - but for now it's time for the last ship, which falls to Star Trek and the infamous Borg Cube

Borg Cube



















Multi-purpose Borg combat vessel
Manufacturer: Borg Collective
Length: 28 kilometers
Speed: Transwarp capable
Weaponry: Tropedoes and cutting beams
Affiliation: Borg Collective
Captain: Borg Collective

The simplicity of the design for this ship is a remarkable feat in my opinion, before we even meet the borg, the fact that their ships are designed to look like simple geometric shapes says a lot about them. Of course the workings of the cube are much more intricate then it's general shape, but to see the design tells you the owners of this ship don't care about aesthetics, a need to create a tactical superiority or any need to try and prove to you that they are stronger - and that is what makes them scary. Whenever a cube shows up it is always an impressive sight - not least because they are absolutely huge - completely dwarfing pretty much any other ship in Star Trek, with a design as cold and frightening as their merciless inhabitants.

Cubes were the primary vessels of the Borg Collective, serving as bases, warships and centres from bringing new species for assimilation. Their basic design was signature borg, all their ships had simple designs from spheres to rectangular scout ships - even the Borg Queen's ship was a basic diamond. Aside from the sprawling technological masses of their larger bases, such as Unimatrix One, the Borg kept thing simple and always functional. Cubes were always a terrifying sight for any species that shared the Delta Quadrant with them or were subject to their further raids. One cube was sufficient to combat several of the warships of other species - at the battle of Wolf359 only 1 of the 40 Federation ships there survived against a cube. The Cube's strenth was the same strength as the species - assimilation. A Borg vessel could quickly understand the technology of other species and adapt it, and even steal it in the midst of a battle, and the capture of one valuable member would endow the Borg with enough tactical knowledge to hold off most assaults. It took all the combat power and ingenuity of other species just to hold them off.
It is unclear what the primary function of the cubes were - the presence of "Tactial Cubes" with greater armour and firepower suggests that they were not primarily combat vessels, though the Borg certainly used them as such. It is more likely that the cube's main function was to assimilate species and technology, and it was generally assumed that a cube could get past any defences stopping their way. Above all Cubes and thei crew lived to serve the collective and, despite their strength, were considered expendable as demonstrated when the Borg Queen detonated several cubes just to erradicate a small number of disconnected drones aboard them. Very few ships were able to survive multiple encounters with the Borg and escape assimilation - the most notable being the USS Voyager who'se crew proved remarkable adaptable to Borg techniques and successfuly survived attacks and even managed to take the fight to the Borg and win on several occasions. Before returning home Voyager was able to criple Unimatrix One and the Borg Transwarp hub, severely damaging the Collective and killing the queen - but it's unlikely the galaxy has seen the last of a borg cube.