Walter Koenig's Son Found Dead

Today the search for Walter Koenig's son ended when Andrew Koenig's body was found around noon today in Stanley Park, Vancouver, Canada. The 41 year old, who had a long history of depression, apparently committed suicide. William Shatner tweeteds, "My deepest sympathies to Andrew Koenig’s family. I will grieve with them." My condolences to the family.

STO: Borg Raid Details and Trailer

Cryptic has released new information about their new Special Task Force missions that will be coming out soon for the MMORPG that involve taking on the Borg. Below is the trailer for those new missions. More details, screenshots and a survey about Klingons can be found here.

Walter Koenig Continues Search for Son

I was really hoping I wouldn't have to post about this, mostly because it meant Star Trek's Chekov has found his son. Walter Koenig's son Andrew has now been missing for nearly two weeks and last been seen in Vancouver, Canada area. He may be best known for his role on Growing Pains as the best friend of Kirk Cameron's character. Today, his father appeared on the Today Show while is sister Danielle Koenig appeared on Larry King Live asking for help in finding Andrew. Additional videos asking for help can be found at TrekMovie.com.

If you have seen Andrew since February 14th, contact Detective Raymond Payette of the Vancouver PD at 604-717-2534 (refer to case 202029519). Even more information can be found at WalterKoenigSite.com.

Star Trek 1975 Cast Reunion Video

Below is a great piece of Star Trek history, a must see for any diehard fan. The video is a transfer from 8mm footage shot at the Star Trek Chicago '75 convention held at the Hilton Hotel. This is the first time the core Enterprise crew was together on stage since the show was cancelled in 1969. The video has no sound but still cool to see not only in their youth but to see a vital and alive James Doohan and DeForest Kelley. The video was provided by and narrated by Rich Portney and posted for Broadbarn.com. My Star Trek Scrap Book has images of the original Time Magazine article on the 1975 convention or read the online version at Time. Thanks to TrekMovie for this cool find.

STO: Interior Ship Design, World Record

Cryptic has indicated that it has every intention of opening up ships for more player interaction. Currently the only interior of the ship available to players is the bridge but that may not last long.

"Anything we can do to make the game feel even more like Star Trek is something we want to do ... so, definitely, we want to give people more of their ship," he tells Inc Gamers, adding, "This is one of those things we want to get perfect before introducing it to players, though."

As someone with some experience with MMORPG's, often developers have great ambition for their games but time and resources can interfere with execution so this is one of those ideas that I would not focus on until official announcement of its release date.
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According to the Times Online, Star Trek Online fans in the UK showed their love on Valentine's Day by breaking the world record for most costumed Star Trek fans gathered in a single place with 99 total. Atari celebrated the record by giving lucky participants in the event free lifetime subscriptions to the game.

Gaz Deaves, editor of the Guinness World Records: Gamer’s Edition said “We’re pleased to kick off this category here in London and hope other Star Trek fans around the world will come forward to break this record again.”

Congratulations to them. I suspect this is just the beginning of these kind of records involving STO players.

Star Trek Online Borg Faction and Trailer

Cryptic has posted new information about their plans for the Borg Faction and Episodes (aka missions) that will involved them when the Borg Update is released. In addition they also released a trailer to introduce this new faction to game players. Screenshots of the Borg can be found here.

The Hive Mind Is Everywhere
The Borg are invading! Just in time for many of you to reach the rank of Admiral, we've got three new high-level Episodes centered around the classic Alpha Quadrant menace, the Borg. Here's what you can expect:

* Collateral Damage - Help save civilians caught in a battle between the Borg and Undine.
* Recovery - In this follow-up to Collateral Damage, Rescue colonists infected by the Borg virus and fight Undine determined to destroy them!
* State of Q - Q transports you back in time to do him a special favor.
* More to come!

STO Trailer, Update, Player Log and New Races

The first full day of the official release of Star Trek Online is done and already the game is doing extremely well with at least 1 million "accounts" according to a press release from Avatar. In addition a new trailer that shows ground combat has been released and two new classes have been added.

One Million Cryptic Accounts Created
Cryptic has issue a press release about the official launch of Star Trek Online with the note "Already, over 1 million Star Trek fans have created accounts at the official websites." Exactly how many of those accounts translate into paying players is unknown. The game is also number with Amazon for Video Games.

Federation Ferengi and Klingons Added
For the price of 240 (Klingon) and 80 (Ferengi) Cryptic Points you can add these playable species to your crew. I am not entirely sure what attributes they bring to your team but already they have ignited what is the first of many controversies the game players will be able to debate. I think Cryptic Points are a lot like points on PSN, XBox and other micro transaction systems where you trade cash for these online values but I am unsure what the trade ratio currently is.

Ground Combat Trailer
New trailer shows off some of the planetside game play elements with your away team and the various environments and enemies you may encounter.

STO Player's Log
If you’re sitting on the fence about getting this game and joining the STO world, Kotaku has posted a fairly detailed player's log that started last Friday with the "Head Start" program to Tuesday for their first half week of game play.

Star Trek Recieves Four Oscar Nominations

This morning the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced its official list of nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards. The goal - to win the coveted Oscar, which indicates the winners produced the best work in their field for 2009 and of course get to add that line "Oscar winning..." to their resumes from now on. The Academy gives out a lot of awards with only the prime categories being award live on ABC Sunday, March 7th, 2010.

Overall, Star Trek had a good showing. It did not get a nod for Best Picture which was a long shot bet anyway but it did get a nod for Makeup, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Visual Effects. Below is the major categories Star Trek is nominated for. Click here for the full list of nominees in the various categories.

Sound Mixing
“Star Trek” Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
“Avatar” Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
“The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
“Inglourious Basterds” Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson

Visual Effects
“Star Trek” Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton
“Avatar” Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
“District 9” Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken

Sound Editing
“Star Trek” Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
“Avatar” Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
“The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson
“Inglourious Basterds” Wylie Stateman
“Up” Michael Silvers and Tom Myers

Makeup
“Star Trek” Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
“Il Divo” Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
“The Young Victoria” Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore

Sadly I think Star Trek may have to live with just the nominations. About the only category the movie stand a chance of winning is for Makeup and that is a long shot because of period pieces like Young Victoria tend to do well in this category. The sound categories are not understood by most Academy voters so they tend to award their second favorite movie. I am thinking with The Hurt Locker likely a lock for Best Picture, both sound categories will go to Avatar. Visual effects is also an easy lock for Avatar.

Congratulations to the cast and crew of Star Trek!

Update: From question in the comments, the four nominations ties the Star Trek record of four for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. It is also the fifth film nominated with The Motion Picture (3 noms), Undiscovered Country (2 noms), and First Contact (1 nom). Sadly, despite 14 nominations, the franchise has zero wins.

Star Trek Online Officially Launches with Spock Assist

Today is the official launch date of the massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) Star Trek Online. While those that pre-ordered the game from Amazon and elsewhere had a head start as of Friday, now everyone else will be able to hit up their local store for a copy.

As part of that, the USA Today discussed the launch with Star Trek's two Spocks - Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto who both provide their voices for the game. Nimoy reprises his role as Spock, "I'm an omniscient voice that tells the player what is going on (and) what to do next." Quinto is an Emergency Medical Hologram, "I instruct players on how to navigate worlds early on and is someone to whom they report back to throughout about their progress and accomplishments."

Leonard Nimoy also participated in a quick Q&A about the game and Star Trek once again indicating that it is doubtful he will ever reprise Spock again in the flesh. Snippet below, full interview here.

There have been a lot of Star Trek-related ventures. Where does this one fit?
This is above and beyond anything I have seen before. There was some comparatively primitive work done in previous years. This is a very cutting-edge piece of work. It took a couple years to develop the programs involved and that is really fast. Typically looking at what this game looks like and works like you would think it would take longer than that. ... The complexity of it is extraordinary. It just goes on and on. No matter how deeply you get into it, it still continues to be challenging and more and more choices are available and (there are) more and more decisions to be made. I think it is great for the imagination and great for complex solving of problems, communicating with others. There is going to be an awful lot of people together online communicating with each other in this game.

Is there something at the core of the Star Trek stories that people come back to?
I don't think there's a simple answer to that. Star Trek has always been a hopeful view of the future, as opposed to some of the doomsday stuff that we have seen. I think the collection of characters has always been intriguing, the chemistry between these various characters and where they come from and what they bring to the party, particularly the Kirk, Spock and McCoy characters, the triumvirate. I don't mean to diminish anybody, the whole cast made contributions. I think people enjoy watching this group of characters solve problems together. This film (the 2009 Star Trek), I think gives us a really wonderful look at how these people came together as a group and how this team was formed. It's just fun to watch. It's an exhilarating movie. So we are on track again. I say 'we,' I really think - I've said, 'I am done' several times -- I don't think they need me anymore. I think I was useful in this last film. I don't think they need more for the next one. There will be another one.

Did Zachary Quinto have any lines as Spock that stood out for you?
He was very good in this movie. I was really impressed in the scene where he rejects the entry into the Vulcan Science Academy, when they tell him that in spite of the flaw in his genetic makeup they are accepting him and he refuses the offer saying in effect, 'Go screw yourself.' But what he did with 'Live long and prosper' in that moment was very refreshing to me. ... I don't know whose choice it was, his or J.J. Abrams' but whatever. When I saw that I thought, 'Whoa, that's good.' Nobody ever said, 'Live long and prosper' with that subtext before.

Feel free to post your game experiences in the comments. For newbies to MMORPGs, any new endeavor of this scope online have growing pains. Just be patients has developers will be working to fix bugs as fast as they can, have fun as what is the point otherwise and the enjoy the best part of meeting Trekkies from all over.