MORE REVIEWS! ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ More of those elusive reviews that we couldn't fit in anywhere else! I know we've already reviewed the Space Wars video before, but I felt it was only fair that we should have it reviewed by someone who ISN'T a friend of Tobias's!! STAR TREK - THE FINAL FRONTIER ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ Board Game by BMI Ltd. ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ Reviewed by Simon Plumbe ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ Why is it that everything we seem to be reviewing lately is called THE FINAL FRONTIER? Joking aside, this was a board game released last year by BMI Ltd as a UK only release and, unusually for a board game, was released in TWO different versions in the same year, which are now both readily available at the bargain-basement price of around ฃ3! Ingnoring this for now, the game pits 2 - 6 players against each other, as Starship Commanders, in a race to visit a number of different planets and then be the first to return to Earth. Along the way, players pick up cards which will hinder or aid their progress throughout the game and there are "black holes" scattered on the board that will allow player's pieces to be moved randomly to another "black hole" on the board by one of the other players. At the start of the game, each player is given four destination cards with the names of the planets on the playing board that they have to visit, which are handed in as each planet is visited. Surprisingly, that's it! As far as the game is concerned, I can't see this holding ANYONE'S interest for more than one or two games, let alone the interest of a die-hard Trekker like myself. Put simply, the game is unbelievably BORING! It's all too easy for a game manufacturer to release a board game based on a film or TV series with little or no thought being put into the game itself, and this is what appears to have happened here. The game has very little to do with Star Trek, apart from the name on the box and the occasional references inside. The game fails completely to capture the feel and atmosphere of Star Trek and is vastly overpriced. There is really nothing to do in the game and it is overly simple - the "rules" fit onto a single side of A4 and that's in a large print with a good sized border around the text! Also, the final nail in the coffin is that the game is very badly flawed and dooesn't seem to have been checked for Trek accuracy. This is where the two versions of the game come into play. The original version came in a large box with simple line drawings of Kirk, Spock and the Enterprise on it, with the original Star Trek logo and underneath was the Starfleet insignia... in the form of the Next Generation communicator!!!! Things start to go down hill after that! On the back of the box is a description of the game to try to encourage people to buy it, which opens with the words, "Space, the final frontier, this is a game involving the SS Enterprise and it's missions to explore new worlds and seek out new civilisations!" Oh dear! Elsewhere on the back of the box, the game is referred to as "Startrek - The Final Frontier"! Onto the board itself, which is littered with faults. The "special" squares that allow players to pick up bonus cards again feature the TNG insignia, which is also featured at the bottom of the board, and, as with the rest of the game, it refers to the Klingon homeworld as the planet Klingon. Is this really acceptable for a game that was released AFTER Star Trek VI which clearly named the Klingon homeworld? The worst faults are to be found on the cards themselves. The destination cards are generally fine, with exception to "Klingon", but the bonus cards are appalling. The rear of the cards feature the TNG insignia, but the real disappointment lies with the comments on the back. They make references to Trek characters such as "Ohura", "Scottie", the "Romulons" and "Star Fleet" (it is supposed to be ONE word!). While on the subject of the cards, there are 24 destination cards and 24 bonus cards in the game, which are printed on two A3 sheets of card. However, on each sheet there is space for another 12 cards (it is even perforated ready to separate into cards!) which is unused. It would have only cost a few pence per game to print some extra game cards on these, doubling the number of bonus cards and therefore extending the game's long term appeal. This is where the "second edition" comes into its own. Not so much a re- release, but more of a major cosmetic surgery job! The packaging was completely re-designed with a brand new box featuring a colour photo of Kirk and Spock, with smaller photos underneath and all over the box of various stills from the series. The overall presentation has been vastly improved with extensive use of the classic Trek font all over the instructions and on the game cards. It's not much, but it does add to the game. While on the subject of improvements, the rules are also laid out better in a 4-page A5 booklet format littered with photos and also the rules have been slightly revised to extend the playing time. The real enhancement here lies with the bonus cards. The spellings of Uhura, Scotty, the Romulans and Starfleet have been corrected, and also the Klingon homeworld is correctly referred to as Kronos. The board has been re-printed and instead of using the TNG insignia for the bonus cards, they have been replaced with a star. Sadly, the insignia still appears at the bottom and the Klingon homeworld is still referred to as "Klingon". Finally, the wording on the back! Again, this was re-written to correct some major flaws and the opening paragraph starts with, "Space, the final frontier. This is a game involving the USS Enterprise and it's missions to explore new worlds and seek out new civilizations!" However, a fault lies here in the fact that the reference to the "Klingon Empire" found on the original version has now been adapted and called the "Kronos Empire"! Overall, if you MUST buy this game, make sure you get the newer version. You'll be disappointed no matter which version you buy, but at least the new version has a nicer looking box! STAR TREK 25TH ANNIVERSARY AUDIO COLLECTION ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ Reviewed by Simon Plumbe ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ This is a boxed set of four CDs released towards the end of Star Trek's 25th Anniversary Year, and is a collection of the audio adaptations of the first three giant novels - "Enterprise: The First Adventure", "Strangers From The Sky" and "Final Frontier" (here we go again, another "Final Frontier" review!!). Each of the 3 novels is read, as usual by one of the cast of Classic Trek, and each is also introduced by a short 3/4 minute piece by William Shatner in his first Star Trek audio work for the publishers Simon & Schuster. If you're not familiar with the audio novels, each is an abridged version of the original novel, narrated by one of the cast (usually James Doohan or George Takei) with the actors not only telling the story, but performing all of the dialogue as well. Occasionally, as with some of the novels in this collection, Leonard Nimoy guests to perform some (but not all) of Spock's dialogue. The novels are further enhanced with the use of incidental music and suitable sound effects from the series. But what of the stories themselves? Without giving any of the plots away, "Enterprise: The First Adventure" sees James T. Kirk on his first mission in Command of the USS Enterprise, who encounters a Klingon vessel that tries to provoke a war between the Federation and the Klingon race. While this is all going on, the Enterprise is carrying passengers to a starbase. Not bad, but not a classic, by any means. Next is "Strangers From The Sky", which is a story about the first contact between Earth and a small group of Vulcans. Nothing special here, but it's an interesting story to listen to from a Vulcan fan's point of view. Finally (!) is "Final Frontier". This the story about the Enterprise's first ever mission under the command of Captain Robert April. Serving on board the Enterprise is Kirk's father, George Samuel Kirk, and the novel takes the form of a tale in letters from George to his young son Jimmy telling of the ship's encounter with the Romulans! A very good story, and highly original, both in it's story and presentation. Overall, while only "Final Frontier" is truly superb, as an overall package it makes for a nice piece in any Trek fans collection. It's also reasonalby priced at $29.95 (around ฃ23) which is quite good value considering that the original CASSETTE versions would cost about the same price! "Space Wars" by Tobias Richter ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ Reviewed by Sven Harvey ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ Space Wars is a 5 minute animation created by Tobias Richter with music by Bj๘rn A Lynne. Though not actually a Star Trek animation I thought I would review it anyway as the U.S.S. Enterprise does make a guest appearance (shame it's blue really...). Basically the plot goes as follows. An imperial star destroyer enters a solar system where a planet suspected of being a rebel base is situated. Tie fighters are sent towards the planet and are met by a few rebel fighters (a couple of X-wings and a Y-wing). The rebel fighters are outnumbered and call out their secret weapon... NCC 1701-A then decloaks (I knew they could salvage something out of the "H.M.S. Bounty") and fires a couple of phaser blasts at the imperial ships. This puts the wind well and truly up the imperial pilots and the star destroyer flees back to the Death Star. Meanwhile the Enterprise recloaks and the rebel fighters, joined by the Millenium Falcon, warp after the star destroyer. After a couple of jokes and a few explosions one of the X-wings blows the Death Star up with a can of coke (must have been shaken up abit after the jump to lightspeed!) and what's left of the rebel fleet flies off back to base. The animation is very polished with about 8000 frames making it very smooth. This is backed up by brilliant music and a few good jokes. Unluckily the sound effects are not always in sync with the graphics and the price of ฃ11.99 plus 75p p&p is very high considering that some movies are now available for less than ฃ6 (and the Enterprise is the wrong colour, mumble, moan, etc). The video is available from 17-Bit Software, 1st Floor Offices 2/8 Market Street, Wakefield WF1 1DH or by credit card on (0924) 366982. (See elsewhere in this issue for an article on the making of this video... by the creators Bj๘rn and Tobias! - Simon) Q IN LAW - AUDIO NOVEL ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ Reviewed by Simon Plumbe ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ Now, you'll know, if you read the last issue, that I absolutely loved the original version of this novel. However, although they are a good idea, I haven't been too impressed with the audio novels released to date. Many of them have either been poor novels to start with, or the choice of actor to read the novel has been, at times, dubious. Without going into too much detail (if you want to read my full comment, read the last issue), the novel centres around the Enterprise being used to host the wedding ceremony and celebrations of a marriage between two rival factions of the space-faring race, the Tizarin. Lwaxana Troi turns up as the representative of Betazed and then Q decides to gatecrash... The rest of the story then revolves around the "relationship" between Q and Lwaxana. Most of the novel seems to be in the adaptation and the only thing I noticed to have been omitted was the Wesley sub-plot. This is a disappointment as it was EXTREMELY funny, but I couldn't really see how it could work in a sound- only format. This is one of the funniest Star Trek novels ever published, and so, to make an audio adaptation work, it has to retain all of the sense of fun that came across in the original publication. Fortunately, the novel was adapted by it's author, Peter David, so he was able to make sure it kept true to the flavour of the original. Also, the choice of readers for the novel makes this stand head and shoulders above every other audio novel ever -- Majel Barrett reprises her role as Lwaxana Troi (and she also plays all the other female roles) and John de Lancie returns as Q (and the male roles). Overall narration of the story swaps between the two. As I said in my original review, you could almost imagine hearing the dialogue in the novel being spoken by John and Majel and that's what makes Q In Law really spectacular -- you don't have to imagine anymore! All of the humour is enhanced by the brilliant performances all round, and the music and sound effects are superb (especially the accompanying effects when Q gives Worf the infamous gift!). Definately the best audio novel to date. If you only buy one audio novel ever, make sure that it's this one! FRANKLIN MINT STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION 5TH ANNIVERSARY MEDAL ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ Reviewed by Simon Plumbe ญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญญ Oh no, I hear you cry, not another one of those incredibly expensive models from Franklin Mint! Following the huge success of their 25th Anniversary Star Trek medal in 1991, Franklin Mint decided to try and cash in on TNG's 5th Anniversary with the release of two medals again, one in silver, the other crafted from pewter. One the front of the medal (as you will have seen from the photo in the last issue), there are portrait illustrations of Picard, Riker, Data and Troi lined in a row in profile. Behind them is the TNG insignia, with the Enterprise above the four heads. Around all of this, to flesh out the front are a number of small stars and planets. On the reverse, as with the Classic Trek medal, is a 1992 calendar with September 28th highlighted (although the series was technically premiered two days earlier on the 26th when the story was broadcast by Paramount on their satellite uplink system). Again, this features the TNG insignia, with the Enterprise underneath and the TNG logo at the top. On the rim of the medal is engraved the words, "TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO ONE HAS GONE BEFORE". Now, as I said, there are two versions of this available, but I'm still waiting for my pewter medal to arrive, so I'll just look at the silver one. In all honesty, it's quite dreadful! This comes no where near to the usually high standards you would expect from Franklin Mint. The portraits on the front barely resemble Patrick, Jonathan, Brent or Marina. The only way you can tell who is who is by general characteristics - a bald man, a bearded man, another clean-shaven man and a human woman without a hat! Also, while on the subject of the heads, surely Worf would have been a better choice than Troi? The only compensation is that the Enterprise itself is very good, but it's not hard to get that right! There isn't really much to say about the rear -- what can you say about a calendar? Overall, this is probably the worst Trek item I have seen released from Franklin Mint and is definately not worth the exhorbitant asking price of ฃ150. Steer well clear of this one! If it ever arrives, I'll review the pewter incarnation and see if that's any better! More next issue.