Report

Away Team Report: (2013.0210) The Stanford Savoyards present HMS Pinafore: The Next Generation

Posted by Amy MacKinnon on 2013.0211
Posted in: Away Missions, Report. Tagged: , , .

Members of the USS Loma Prieta beamed down to Palo Alto on Saturday, February 2nd to see the Stanford Savoyards performance of H.M.S. Pinafore: The Next Generation. H.M.S. Pinafore is a classic Gilbert & Sullivan comedic opera, but the Savoyards turned an old production into something a little new and different by changing the setting from an 1800’s sailing vessel to a 2300’s starship. This was a remarkably easy transition due to the similarities of the settings and there was no problem with suspension of disbelief.

There are no scene changes and so the entire show is set on the bridge of the USS Enterprise. The songs and story itself were true to Gilbert & Sullivan’s piece, with only a few word changes here and there. The show opened with many actors already out on stage laying flat on the floor, waking up disoriented as the lights came up. From there it was quite the delightful romp sitting there wondering who might walk out on stage next from the Star Trek universe. Most of the choices for who the Gilbert & Sullivan characters would mirror in the Trek universe were quite logical, and the acting was great from all the leads. In addition to the main characters you would expect from The Next Generation, featured characters were: Lwaxana Troi, Admiral James T. Kirk, and a contingent of Original Series alien ladies headed up by an Orion Slave Girl. There was even a very fun cameo made by a multitude of tribbles.

The venue was large enough to warrant having at least hanging mics, let alone having the leads individually wearing mics, but unfortunately neither was to be found. Our group was sitting about 5 rows back and we had trouble hearing the actors half the time. I can’t imagine that the people who were in the very back were able to hear much at all. When we could hear, however, it was almost always pleasant. Most of the leads were quite accomplished vocally, with one or two outshining the others, but the chorus as a whole left something to be desired. I realize that this was not a professional performance and the singing shouldn’t be judged as such, but I was nonetheless underwhelmed by their chorus.

The set itself was simply magnificent. A lot of work and attention to detail went into recreating the bridge. The helm stations swung out, and the doors leading onto the bridge opened just the way they do in the television show. They even had a view screen projected onto the wall, which was effective and well-done. We had the opportunity to go on stage afterwards and the set looked just as great close-up. Their costumer made all the costumes the actors wore; nothing was bought pre-packaged, and they all looked great. It was easy to recognize who all the characters were supposed to be, and on that note the makeup was also well done. The production staff as a whole was really what made this show extraordinary and worth seeing.

If you’re interested in learning more about their recreation of the USS Enterprise bridge, or their show in general, you can view their tumblr here: http://starshippinafore.tumblr.com.

Lt. Amy Sloan
Cybernetics Officer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4

Away Team Report: (2012.0218) The San Francisco Star Trek Convention 2012

Posted by Zach Perkins on 2013.0211
Posted in: Away Missions, Conventions, Report.

Starfleet Command has been hounding me to submit a report for our mission to the official San Francisco Star Trek Convention 2012. It’s gotten to the point that they’ve threatened to revoke my holodeck access codes, so I really need to get this damn thing written. To be perfectly honest, I figured that all the mainstream media attention that the USS Loma Prieta received at the convention (everything from SF Weekly to StarTrek.com and even VICE) would have sufficed for Starfleet, but as I look back on our photos and records, I remember how much went down that weekend that deserves a proper summary. On Friday of the convention, Security Chief Captain Erik Roberts and Chief Engineer LtCmdr Tom Hesser scouted the Westin St. Francis Hotel in civilian 21st-century garb. Unfortunately, the only 21st-century clothes we had available on the ship were USS Loma Prieta t-shirts, so it comes as no surprise that their cover was blown when a StarTrek.com photographer easily spotted them.

Despite this setback in stealthiness, we proceed with a full landing party on Saturday. Since our Friday recon mission had already been spotted, we decided to forego any further charades and went in full 24th-Century Starfleet duty uniforms. With eleven officers in our away team, we stormed the convention: not long after our entrance we set up a public round of something we call “Pop-Up Artemis” in the lobby. Using a portable holoemitter (disguised as a standard PC projector), a wifi router, a netbook, and 5 iPads running the Artemis Starship Bridge Simulator, we conducted a public demonstration of how a real Starfleet bridge crew handles a tactical situation. Needless to say, this display drew some attention from convention goers and the press alike, luring photographers from SFWeekly and VICE.

After a few pop-up games of Artemis, the crew dispersed to try to fulfill their next mission: an SFSO Covert Convention Ops challenge. Starfleet Intelligence had tasked our crew with a photo-based scavenger hunt for intelligence-gathering purposes. Captain Erik Roberts will file a supplementary report detailing this Special Operations mission.

After we’d taken in all the vendor room had to offer, we settled into the main hall programming to gatch a glimpse of Marina Sirtis and Michael Dorn hamming it up together, with the final appearance of the day from Walter Koenig. After the stars cleared the stage, the costume contest began, where our own Chief Petty Officer Tria Connell entered as her glitzy alter-ego “Bea Dazzler”! Meanwhile, Captain Perkins and Cmdr Jon Sung snuck off for a diplomatic rendezvous with key officers of Region 4 as a part of a covert operation to infiltrate Nichelle Nichols’s hotel suite at the Westin St. Francis, rubbing shoulders with Trek stars up close and personal (but not TOO close: temporal Prime Directive, after all).

On Sunday, experiencing a hangover with a gravitional pull powerful enough to slingshot us back to the 23rd Century, we dispatched a smaller away team of seven officers in TOS uniforms. Several crewmembers continued gathering photo intelligence for their SFSO Covert Convention Ops Challenge, and we enjoyed a measurably lower-key day. After witnessing several proposals from adoring fans to the ever snarky Brent Spiner, we enjoyed the spirited stories of hometown hero George Takei.
While there can’t be any doubt that the USS Loma Prieta made a major splash at the 2012 San Francisco Star Trek Convention, it was not without its cost. Conventions are TOUGH, and this Captain is finally starting to understand why Picard always sent Riker on all the grueling away missions.

Perkins, out. =/=

CAPT Zach Perkins
Commanding Officer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4

Security Chief’s Log (2012.1101): Security, Tactical and Special Operations Report

Posted by Erik Roberts on 2012.1101
Posted in: Report, Security.

The Starfleet Special Operations events for October had to be rescheduled. Captain Perkins was in sickbay with his significant other, and the Team Leader had a small collision with another shuttle so resources had to be diverted. What was planned was a phaser refresh course with other member’s of the chapter. However, plans are underway for an excursion into the wilderness for some phaser re-training and possibly shipboard battle tactics simulations  We have been chosen to beta test the PADD (iPad) version of Artemis and believe that with the right equipment, can use this new technology to test anywhere. Once more solidified plans for the rural excursion come about, they will be relayed to the rest of the ship.

On a Tactical note, development of a custom made shipboard simulations (Artemis) is in full swing and the Tactical department has made some amazing strides developing a battle bridge. I don’t want to divulge too many details (it’s better for the reveal when it’s completed), but suffice it to say that the end result will nothing short of epic.

For the Security side of things, I want to encourage everyone to check the STARFLEET Academy courses for security. They can be found here. They are online and pretty easy to complete. The only caveat is that you need to be a paid member of STARFLEET: The International Star Trek Fan Association (you do that here!). If you’re not  a paid member yet, why not? Anyway, the courses are easy, and everyone should have basic security training. Plus, it’s fun, so why wait?

CAPT Erik Roberts
Chief of Security/Tactical
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4

Team Leader
ADU-008 “Section 8”
Starfleet Special Operations

First Officer’s Log (2012.0917): August 2012 Artemis Tactical Simulations – “Peak Performance”

Posted by Jon Sung on 2012.0918
Posted in: Artemis, News, Report.


[Above: CMDR Sung mans the helm station]

If you like Star Trek and you haven’t played Artemis yet, I don’t know what to tell you. Wait, I do: you should play Artemis. You’ve probably got a laptop that can run it. Find five other people who do, too, plus a TV you can connect one of the computers to, and you’ve got yourself a bridge crew.

Or you could find a friend with an office space, a wide-throw digital projector, and the best crew in Starfleet. You might end up making a video like this one with some friends:

And that was the FIRST run of the night, with the reckless and bloodthirsty Anthony Carboni of Rev3Games in the big chair.

Our next mission featured the crew of the USS Loma Prieta herself, with Captain Zach Perkins in command. I would give a complete roster, but the stresses of taking the helmsman position prevented me from paying attention to much other than flying the ship. Flying the ship to victory. [Captain’s addendum, our crew was: Cmdr Sung on helm, Capt Roberts on tactical, LtCmdr Hesser on engineering, Lt Dolgoff on sciences, and Lt(jg) Roodman on communications]


[Above: CAPT Perkins takes the big chair and CAPT Roberts sets up at tactical]

The rest of the night consisted of civilian crews taking to the bridge, some in various states of inebriation that may have helped or hindered; I’m not sure. But they were all awesome. We agreed we had to do it again.

And so we did! For the second night a handful of days later, we gathered some of the first night’s participants and more of the USS Loma Prieta crew, and made some important discoveries:

  • The Artemis missile gunboat is a fearsome engine of destruction and surprising vulnerability
  • Engineers make excellent captains but need some training on the use of shields
  • Space monsters can be an effective if unexpected ally when dealing with massed enemy fleets

It was more fun than we’d ever had. However. We’d long wondered what would happen if we could get another ship’s worth of computers together and try to fly two ships at once: would it be possible to double our fun? No. We quadrupled it. At least.


[Above: The USS Loma Prieta crew on the main bridge]

It turns out that having two ships in the same sector, flying under two different captains, with communications officers talking to each other via FaceTime on dedicated iPads, is at least four times as much fun as it is with just one. The fun expands exponentially (I would expect a third ship to increase the fun by nine).

For our third and last night in the space formerly occupied by Bolt | Peters, we once again assembled the bridge of the USS Artemis, but in the empty upstairs office, the bridge of the USS Intrepid came online. iPads with FaceTime were set by the communications stations, and our missions began. And they were amazing.

We were thinking about trying to battle each other, real Wrath of Khan style, but we had much more fun tackling enemy fleets together, coordinating our movements and battle tactics, warning each other when nukes were being deployed, taking turns flying cover and staging raids on enemy fleets. It was outstanding.

We said goodbye to the Bolt | Peters space that night with simulated battles and a lot of booze, which may explain why we thought it was a good idea to try something at the very end of the night that I later dubbed “WOLFPACK MODE.” We took four computers and made each one an entire ship. Yes, an entire ship: one person manned all five stations, switching between them as best he could, with the highest-ranking officer (me) assuming strategic command of our battle fleet. And we did it! It was not without its travails — we nearly lost one ship — but we emerged victorious after a lot of planning, communication, and frantic, frantic multitasking.

I think it’s been definitively proven: Artemis is the most fun any Star Trek fan with a computer and some buddies can have, full stop. But we may not stop there. You have been warned.

=/= CMDR Jon Sung
Executive Officer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4


[Above: VICTORY!!!]

Away Team Report: (2012.0805) The Mars Curiosity Rover Landing at Chabot Space and Science Center

Posted by Zach Perkins on 2012.0814
Posted in: Away Missions, Report.


[Above: Two observatory telescopes at Chabot Space and Science Center]

On August 5th, 2012, the USS Loma Prieta beamed down a five person away team to the Chabot Space and Science Center. Our mission was to witness NASA’s historical landing of the Curiosity Mars Rover in the Center’s Planetarium holodeck. We arrived early and quickly learned that we were in for much more than we bargained for.


[Above: LT Dolgoff mans the Apollo Lunar Landing simulator]

While searching for LtCmdr Hesser, Ensign Smith and Ensign Sherry, Lt Dolgoff and I were immediately side-tracked by an Apollo lunar lander simulator housed inside a replica of an actual Apollo cockpit. After several disaster landing attempts, the rest of the away team spotted us and we continued our exploration of the facilities together. The team took turns photographing each other inside the cockpit a full size Mercury space capsule replica, trying on space helmets, examining the Center’s many telescopes, and exploring the Bill Nye Climate Lab.


[LT Dolgoff, EN Sherry and EN Smith aboard the Mars spacecraft]

Just when we thought we had expended all our options and were ready to get planetarium seats early for the Mars landing, Ensign Sherry discovered a mysterious room marked ‘air lock’. Like a good red-shirt, Ensign Sherry stepped inside the dark cylindrical room and shut the door. Much to our surprise, he emerged a moment later, alive and with a very exciting report to make. He had just been transported onto a spacecraft headed straight for Mars!

As the entire away team stepped into the mysterious room, we were seemingly transported into the interior of a manned NASA space craft on a scientific mission to mars. The hexagonal ship interior was packed full of scientific stations along the walls, as well as navigation consoles, communications equipment and a medical bay. The ‘mission director’ greeted us as we entered and ushered us to stations. The crew took turns trying to collect martian rock samples, analyzing radioactive material in isolation bays without contaminating the rest of the ship (with very little success), navigating the craft to Olympus Mons, and at one point LtCmdr Hesser and I were even trapped in the airlock’s clean-room.


[Above: EN Smith contains a radiation leak]


[Above: CAPT Perkins at a science console]


[Above: CAPT Perkins and LTCMDR Hesser share Spock’s Wrath of Khan fate]

Having completed our own simulated Mars mission in the nick of time, we quickly ran to get seats in the planetarium, only minutes before Curiosity began its complex descent onto the Martian surface. The “Seven Minutes of Terror” went by without a hitch, and only minutes after making a perfect landing, the crowd at Chabot Space and Science Center celebrated along with the JPL team as Curiosity’s first images of Mars were beamed back.

~Capt. Zach Perkins
Commanding Officer
USS Loma Prieta
Starfleet, Region 4


[Above: Success at JPL! via NASA.tv]

Away Team Crew Manifest:

CAPT Zach Perkins
LT CMDR Tom Hesser
LT Samantha Dolgoff
EN Andy Smith
EN Eden Sherry