A game developed by Mad Doc Software and published by Bethesda Softworks, intended as the Spiritual Successor to the excellent Star Trek: Starfleet Command and Star Trek: Bridge Commander games, with even some RTS elements a la Star Trek: Armada.
The original concept for the game was that of a Worldbuilding Generational Saga Space Opera, uniting the cast leads from all of the extant Star Trek series in one story unfolding over hundreds of years of Trek history.
Originally, the various captains were going to face a crisis dealing with the Iconian gateways as seen in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Contagion". Eventually the writers settled instead on a tale about the possible origins of the Borg. It didn't turn out well.
The game was released on both the Xbox 360 and the PC in 2006.
Missions
- "Those in Need"
- "Breakwater"
- "Be My Shepard"
- "Poisoned Well"
- "Stirring the Hive"
- "The Squeeze"
- "Behind Enemy Lines"
- "Firestorm"
- "At the Gates"
- "Omega"
- "Revelations"
- "Ambush"
- "Anger and Mercy"
- "Generals"
- "Logical Conclusions"
This Game Provides Examples Of
- Badass Boast:
- A few over the different eras, but one in particular stands out when T'Uerell advises the Starfleet armada to surrender. Picard's response: "Sorry; that word is not in Starfleet's vocabulary."
- Both the Romulan and Klingon commanders in the final two missions give some of these, all of them unintentionally hilarious. Klingons will send those soulless Borg to Gre'thor anyway! And the Romulans acting like they have everything under control, they certainly didn't need Captain Picard's help!
- Big Bad: T'Uerell.
- Call-Back
- In 2270, Kirk is forced to take a mission to steal a cloaked Klingon vessel since the Romulan cloaking device he procured two years prior has proven disappointing.
- In 2368, Sisko recalls the recent Romulan attempt to conquer Vulcan when he finds the wreck of a warbird in Federation space.
- In 2380, Picard is feeling lonely in the wake of the loss of Commander Data, as well as Deanna and Will Riker's new postings. He is more than familiar with Admiral Janeway, and recalls her telling him that he gets all the easy assignments.
- Picard is aware that Janeway has faced a Borg tactical cube before, and Janeway points out that Voyager only defeated the cube with assistance from a Borg sphere, as well as the vessel sustaining internal damage.
- The Captain: All five of them!
- Captain's Log: Keeping with the missions being presented like episodes, most of them both open and close with captain's logs.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Played With. The later on in the story it is, the more T'Uerell is one of these. She starts out saying that she's a good guy, then acting like she's a Knight Templar, and finally, in the second-to-last mission, she calls herself a villain.
- Continuity Nod: Reggie assures Archer that his next mission will not involve Orion slave girls.
- Continuity Porn: Want to see Captain Picard take the reins as Captain of the Stargazer? Want to see how the Omega protocol came into being? Want to see the Enterprise-E and Voyager team up to stomp some Borg? Done, done and done.
- Cool Starship: Somewhat hard to mess up, this being a Space Combat Simulator and all. Ships from all across Trek canon appear, as well as a few made for the game. Of course, many community made ships have been modded into the game as well.
- Critical Existence Failure: Subverted....kinda. Ships look more and more damaged as they are...uh...damaged. Unfortunately, one of the Game Breaking Bugs the PC version suffered.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: Naturally for Star Trek, your ship explodes when it is destroyed.
- Earth-Shattering Kaboom: "Revelations" opens with the Stargazer observing the destruction of a planet on the Romulan side of the Neutral Zone, a result of its core destabilizing after the planet was liquified to molten rock, the resulting shockwave heavily damages the Stargazer and kills Captain Ruhalter. "Ambush" confirms that T'Uerell was responsible for the atrocity.
- Evil Versus Evil: The extras confirm that the Borg have clashed with the Dominion at one point. Ironically, both factions aggressively seek to bring their own sense of order to the galaxy and ended up engaged in a conflict with the Federation because of it.
- Faster-Than-Light Travel: The player can warp around at will.
- Field Promotion: "Revelations" shows the circumstances of Picard's aboard the Stargazer. Captain Ruhalter is mortally wounded and so Picard takes control as Acting Captain. He is formally promoted once the incident is over.
- Game Mod: Inevitable, it's a Star Trek Simulation Game. This has increased the game's life-span significantly. The Ultimate Universe mod brings in many other Star Trek factions, most notably the Dominion, the Cardassians and the Breen. The XI Mod introduces Starfleet vessels of the Kelvin timeline as well as the Narada from Star Trek (2009).
- Generational Saga: None of the main characters are directly related to one another, but the games storyline takes place over several hundred years, beginning with Archer's Enterprise being sent after a rogue Vulcan scientist named T'Uerell, and ending with Picard popping a Quantum cap in her ass courtesy of the Enterprise-E, post Star Trek: Nemesis.
- Insane Troll Logic: Meet T'Uerell, the Galaxy's least logical proponent of Vulcan logic.
- Joker Immunity: T'Uerell lives through hundreds of years of Trek history, doing god knows what, to who the hell knows how many.
- Karmic Death
- Karma Houdini: T'Uerell, for hundreds of years, until she messes with Picard, anyway.
- Kirk Summation: Naturally Kirk gives one, near the end of his turn in the spotlight.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Captain Archer gives himself a hard time over this. He even says that he should have listened to Shran about the Vulcans.
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Obvious Beta: The PC version. - Resolved Noodle Incident: Both Kirk and the player witness the Ketteract Incident, and it is Kirk that calls for the Omega Directive with Voyager will later follow when they find Omega molecules in the Delta Quadrant.
- Shattered World: In "Revelations", a planet explodes into multiple chunks of stellar debris which immediately threaten a nearby star system, forcing Acting Captain Picard of the Stargazer to lead the effort to stop it.
- Ship Tease: The banter between Janeway and Picard. It's enough to make one think that they're already in a relationship.
- Simulation Game: Space combat.
- Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Averted, or at least not how you'd think it'd be. Apparently, Klingon ships are much tougher than Borg ships, at least for the (fan patched to be playable) PC version.
- Space Compression: A-la Star Trek: Starfleet Command.
- Space Is an Ocean: Ships fly like aircraft and fight like naval warships, which this being Star Trek and all, is actually somewhat fitting.
- Space Opera:
Minus the "Opera" part. - Spiritual Successor: Intended as this for both Star Trek: Starfleet Command and Star Trek: Bridge Commander. Intended being the key word there. Bridge Commander was much, much more sophisticated than this game ended up being, and that game had an actual Space Opera plot.
- Stable Time Loop: The later missions hint, and the extras confirm, that the relationship between T'Uerell and Picard is this. Following the time-travelling Borg sphere to 2063, the Enterprise-E destroyed the ship, resulting in debris falling to the Arctic. At some point, T'Uerell discovered the Borg technology and adapted it for her own use, beginning a century-spanning campaign of terror against United Earth and then the Federation. Among other atrocities, she was responsible for the death of Ruhalter, Captain of the Stargazer, in 2333, resulting in a younger Picard receiving a Field Promotion to Captain. By 2380, Picard is aware of his role in T'Uerell's rise to power, which makes him all the more determined to stop her.
- Start of Darkness: The plot revolves around the origins of the Borg.
- Stuff Blowing Up: Much care and effort was taken by Mad Doc over making the explosions as awesome as possible. They arguably succeeded.
- Subsystem Damage: This game gives Scotty plenty of reasons to throw a fit.
- The Man Behind the Man: T'Uerell, for the frinxing BORG.
- 2-D Space: Averted, kind of. There's full 3D movement...somewhat, but it's less like actual space and more like a level from Star Fox 64.
- The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: Legions of mods. It's a Star Trek Simulation Game. This is to be expected.
- Units Not to Scale: Planets. Again, just like Star Trek: Starfleet Command, or Star Trek: Armada.
- Utopia Justifies the Means: T'Uerell's motivation. Kirk calls out her Insane Troll Logic for achieving it. Discussed in the second to last mission, with Picard almost saying the trope name.
- Worldbuilding: The story spans hundreds of years across the Trek timeline, and T'Uerell is like a villainous version of Been There, Shaped History. As well as operating behind the scenes during the Earth-Romulan War and the 23rd century conflict between the Federation and the Klingons, she is responsible for both the Omega Directive and the death of the Stargazer's Captain Ruhalter, resulting in Picard's Field Promotion.
- Zeerust: Throughout the entire game. First happens in the transition from the more advanced looking and sounding Enterprise era to the one of The Original Series. And was that an Excelsior-Class with the 1960s style phasers on it?!
- Zombie Apocalypse: It involves the origins of the Borg.They're everywhere!
