Wow! Rittenhouse Does Women Right With The Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary Trading Cards!

The Good: Impressive chase cards, Flashy common set, Some very cool autograph signers, Neat costume cards, Awesome sketch cards
The Bad: Somewhat irksome collectibility
The Basics: Rittenhouse Archives proves they still have a winning formula for Star Trek trading cards with their new "The Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary" set!


Rittenhouse Archives has had the license to produce Star Trek trading cards for over a decade and a half and watching how the company has developed its products over the years has been fascinating to watch for both collectors and Star Trek fans. A decade ago, Rittenhouse Archives made the 40th Anniversary of Star Trek into a three-year affair, with four trading card sets commemorating the entire franchise and each of the three seasons of the original Star Trek. For the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek, Rittenhouse Archives has produced three major trading card sets, plus one boxed set focusing on the 50th Anniversary traveling art exhibition. The fourth and (final planned, at least at the time of this review) 50th Anniversary tribute set from Rittenhouse Archives is the Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary trading card set.

The Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary trading card set is a premium trading card set that focuses on the women of the entire Star Trek franchise. The final 50th Anniversary of Star Trek set is an obvious sequel to the very popular Women Of Star Trek trading card set released back in 2010 with a quality level meant to mimic the premium nature of the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary trading card set (reviewed here!).

The Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary trading card set is a magnificent set and it is the first set since I started splitting my rating system for trading cards to achieve a perfect score. This is an impressive, beautiful, trading card set and the only (comparatively minor) issue with it is its collectibility. Even with collectibility factored in, this is a near-perfect trading card set. The collector in me (I've been a trading card collector for almost as long as I have been a Star Trek fan) finds it unshakably problematic that with absolutely ideal collation, it would take 30 cases to assemble a true master set - and with this set, there's no cheating through Archive Boxes as the Archive Boxes do not include sketch cards, metal cards, or gold metal cards!

Despite the collecting gripe - a minor one compared to the other two 50th Anniversary sets that had more sketch cards and cut signature cards! - the Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary trading card set is an objectively perfect set that represents the pinnacle of Star Trek collecting!

Basics/Set Composition

"The Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary" is a set of high-quality trading cards that feature a sheen to them that makes them look like foil cards for most of the surface of the card. The set focuses exclusively on the women of the Star Trek franchise and expands the autograph set from the 2010 Women Of Star Trek, while introducing a new style of costume card and presenting some incredible sketch cards of the various women of Star Trek! For a television franchise that championed women in positive roles well before the sexual revolution began, the Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary treats the women of the franchise right!

Properly assembled, the "The Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary" set consists of three hundred seventy-one cards. The set is made up of one hundred common cards and two hundred seventy-one bonus cards, only eleven of which are not available in the actual boxes of "The Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary" cards. Boxes of these cards consist of twenty-four packs with five cards per pack and highlighted three autograph cards and one costume card per box.

Common Cards

The common card set of the Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary trading cards consists of one hundred partially-foil cards. These cards were made on a premium card stock and each card features a front that has a high-quality image of the female character and a second image, in a picture window, non-sheen, that features the character paired with another character. The set is oriented entirely in landscape format and features cards for comparatively minor women in the Star Trek franchise - like Shahna, Madeline, and Erika Hernandez - and multiple cards of each of the most important women from the franchise - Uhura, Kira, Janeway, Dax, Crusher, etc. It is hard not to be thrilled with the Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary common card set - after studying it, the only change I probably would have made to its composition would have been to swap one of the minor characters (my vote is Madeline!) for a card featuring Ezri Dax and Captain Sisko (the only Ezri card in the set is Ezri Dax and Dr. Bashir).

The backs of the Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary trading cards are well-written and most-frequently focus upon the relationship between the card's primary character and the character they are paired with. So, for example, card 7 details well the relationship Nurse Chapel had with Mr. Spock. Not limited to a single episode or incident, the card follows the many chances Chapel took to express her feelings for Spock and it gives a very complete view of that entire relationship! The cards are very well-written and the stand-outs and cards like 7 where the writers are able to show their mastery of the long arcs for the character, as opposed to simply detailing a one-off character's arc in a single episode. Despite having some limited characters based on their airtime, Rittenhouse Archives did an excellent job at fleshing out minor characters from fan-favorite episodes. As a result, both major women from "The Inner Light" are well-represented with common cards of their own!

This is one of the best-conceived, best-executed common card sets and it is nice to see that for its Star Trek: Voyager component, Kes was not neglected!

Chase Cards

The Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary trading cards have a good balance of bonus cards and for the first time in a few Star Trek sets, there are bonus sets that can be assembled in a single case of cards. The premium quality cards include 271 bonus cards, 260 of which are found in the packs and boxes of the cards. The Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary bonus cards include: Metal Parallel Cards, Women In Command, Quotable Women Of Star Trek, Women Of Star Trek Gold Metal, Costume Cards, Autograph Cards, and Sketch cards.

The common card set of Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary trading cards was replicated as metal cards. This process has become more popular in recent years and the Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary common set lends itself beautifully to metal card treatment. The metal cards are found only one per box, so with truly ideal collation, it would take nine cases to complete this subset! The truth, however, is that it is worth it. The metal cards are stylish and carry the images and border from the common set beautifully.

The first unique chase set for the Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary trading cards is the Women In Command chase set. The Women In Command chase set is a set of nine, landscape-oriented cards featuring a minor foil accent in the border that focuses on the influential women of Star Trek when they took command. Rittenhouse Archives aimed for precise with the set and, as a result, Uhura is not featured in the set - she never actually took command of the Enterprise (at best, she had command of a transporter station in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock). Number One from "The Cage" is featured and while it is odd that Saavik is card 9 in the set (chronologically, she should have been card 2), the cards are well-written and nice-looking and the set is comparatively obtainable at one Women In Command card per box.

Also found one per box are one of eighteen Quotable Women Of Star Trek cards. These cards feature a beautiful shot of the character featured on the card (different image on the front than on the back!) and a quote from the woman. The set is a good idea, but here Rittenhouse Archives is somewhat hoisted on its own petard. Rittenhouse Archives has released five different "Quotable" Star Trek sets, with additional "Quotable" cards being used as chase cards in other sets. As a result, Rittenhouse Archives has pretty well mined the franchise for great quotes. So, cards like QW9, which features Deanna Troi, has a quote from Troi that is hardly emblematic of the character. Conversely, it is somewhat shocking that the quotes for Major Kira (which provide some of her fundamental characterization) had not been used before! The Quotable Women set implicitly makes the argument that there is no point in a "Quotable" Star Trek: Enterprise set quite well, though the photography for this chase set is universally high and these cards look nicer than the common "Quotable" cards that made up the five "Quotable" Star Trek sets.

The style and quality of the Quotable Women Of Star Trek chase set is blended with the inherent value and quality of the metal parallel set for the Women Of Star Trek Gold Metal set. The landscape-oriented metal cards feature a big image of each major female character on the left, with a gold secondary image as the background on the right. These are magnificent cards and one of the tragedies of this subset is that fans can never collect this set and get them all signed (the subjects of three of the nineteen cards are now dead). Nineteen is a weird number of cards for a bonus card set, but Rittenhouse Archives makes it feel worthwhile with the quality of the Gold Metal set and the fact that they included Kes instead of culling the set at 18 major female characters.

One per box is a costume card in a new style. The Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary cards feature a portrait-oriented costume card style and they succeed in a way that is the opposite of the Quotable Women chase set; Rittenhouse Archives has done an amazing job in the past of representing main castmembers' traditional uniforms in their costume cards. The fifteen primary Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary costume cards feature recognizable and impressive female characters in their non-duty uniform costumes! As a result, Dr. Crusher gets two costume cards from her outfit from Star Trek: Insurrection and Torres has two casual costumes as part of her representation in the Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary set. Even fan-coveted T'Pol is given a dual costume card from one of her alternate personas! The costume cards feel fresh and have some very cool variants, like Guinan's hat having noticeable variants and Vash's jacket featuring a number of different colors to her fabric swatch. Even Jennifer Sisko's costume has some cool variants! The costume card set is fleshed out by an exceptionally limited Yeoman Rand costume card that fills in a gap from the prior Women Of Star Trek set!

Each box of Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary had three autograph cards and the complete set featured 68 autograph cards. The autograph cards continued the style begun in the Women Of Star Trek set and featured some incredible signers. Vanessa Williams signed for the first time in the Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary trading card set and Whoopi Goldberg provided an autograph card as well! The Women Of Star Trek set was exceptionally comprehensive for the main cast of women of the franchise - almost every major female cast member from the various Star Trek series's signed an autograph card in the (at that time) new style of autograph card back then. The Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary fills in the gap of Roxanne Dawson, but leaves Nicole de Boer, Linda Park and Jolene Blalock absent from the Women Of Star Trek autograph card format. Despite that, it is hard to denigrate the Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary autograph cards as they do include autograph cards from Yvonne Craig, Julie Warner, Susanna Thompson, Sharon Lawrence, Madchen Amick, and Meg Foster! First-time signers like Galyn Gorg and Laura Banks flesh out the set incredibly well, making this a must-collect autograph card set for fans of the larger Star Trek franchise!

One per case, there is a hand-drawn sketch card for the Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary. Thirty different artists contributed sketch cards for the Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary set and there were some truly magnificent works from artists like Emily Tester and Kris Penix. I was impressed by how familiar sketch card artists Chris Meeks and Warren Martineck - best known for starship and technical sketch cards - adapted to the Women of Star Trek subject matters. Meeks, especially, creates some immaculate works that show he has the ability to render characters with beautiful depth and shading, not just ships! The sketch cards for the Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary set are some of the best Rittenhouse Archives has ever presented! The sketch cards may create an issue with the set's collectibility, but tracking down 30 cases to assemble a sketch card set (if one lucks out on the collation!) creates a truly beautiful set!

Non-Box/Pack Cards

Very few of the bonus cards in the Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary set cannot be found in the packs and boxes, but some of the ones that are not found in the boxes this time are bound to be the most coveted! There are eleven cards (fourteen, actually) that are not found in the packs and boxes, but because Rittenhouse Archives includes the printing plates as a complete set (which is very much a decent thing to do!), I count them as one card to chase. There are two promotional cards - the general-release P1 card and a P2 card that is exclusive to the manufacturer-released Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary binder. The promo cards follow a format that accurately foreshadows the common cards in the set.

Similarly, there are 2 different casetoppers. The casetoppers are metal replications of the P1 and P2 cards and are found only one per case. Like the standard metal parallel cards, the casetopper metal cards are quite pretty.

In recent years, incentive cards have become incredibly important to collectors and the Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary set is no different in that regard. There is a six-case incentive autograph card that continues the Legends Of Star Trek autograph format. For the Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary set, the Legends Of Star Trek autograph is a Nichelle Nichols autograph, which is a great tribute to the pioneering actress.

The real drool-worthy component of the Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary trading card set is the 9-case incentive sketch card. Esteemed sketch card artist Charles Hall took the image captured in the picture window portion of each common card and replicated it as a painted art sketch card for the Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary. Charles Hall made artwork for these cards that is jaw-dropping good in its quality. Hall picked up subtle background details and included immaculate depth and shading for these sketch cards. They are the true gem of this set and the quality of them is astonishing!

There is an exclusive Women In Command Rittenhouse Rewards cards available for die-hard collectors who exchange wrapper points for the card. The WC10 card features Erika Hernandez from Star Trek: Enterprise. Hernandez is a comparatively minor character and makes for an underwhelming rewards card. There were plenty of other women in command - many of them villains, come to think of it, like Donatra from Star Trek: Nemesis or planetary leaders who might have made an intriguing rewards cards if one had to go with obscure - but the addition of a tenth card to a nine-card set seems pretty superfluous as it is. Despite that, Rittenhouse maintained the quality of the chase set with the reward's card. It is completely Monday Morning Quarterbacking, but as I wrote this, it occurred to me that the Rewards card should have been Captain Tryla Scott. Obscure? Absolutely! But die-hard Trek fans will know that with one-line, she became an essential Woman Of The Star Trek franchise - she is the captain who beat Jim Kirk's record to become the youngest Captain in StarFleet! Furthermore, using her as an incentive card would have been particularly clever as she was a character not utilized anywhere else in the set.

The other four bonus cards are exclusive to the archive box. Found only in the archive box was a Teri Garr autograph card in the Women Of Star Trek format. Also exclusive to the archive box was a WCC27 Seven Of Nine costume card that continued the Women Of Star Trek costume card set, much the way the WCC16 card in the boxes did. Rittenhouse Archives surprised fans with an Archive Box exclusive throwback costume card that they did not announce prior to the set's release! The archive box included a variant WCC11 from the Women Of Star Trek set with a variant fabric swatch from the previously-released version! Also one per box was a set of four printing plates used to make the common cards for the Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary set!

Overall

Ultimately, the Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary trading card set is a fitting tribute to its subjects that rewards trading card collectors with a truly impressive set worth tracking down for their collections. If Rittenhouse Archives never does another set focusing on the women of the Star Trek franchise, this is a fitting way to immortalize the heroic women; if Rittenhouse Archives ever revisits women of Star Trek as the subject for a trading card set, it sets the bar impossibly high!

This set culls images from:
Star Trek
Star Trek: The Next Generation
The Star Trek Movies
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Voyager
and Star Trek: Enterprise

This is a trading card set I proudly stock in my online store. To collect it, please check out my Women Of Star Trek 50th Anniversary Trading Card Inventory!

10/10 (objective), 8.5/10 (with collectibility factored in)

For other card reviews, be sure to visit my trading card review page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Better Than The Film In Which It Appears: The 2017 U.S.S. Franklin Hallmark Ornament!

The Good: Good rendering, Cool light effect, Decent balance
The Bad: Expensive, No sound effect
The Basics: The U.S.S. Franklin Hallmark ornament is a decent rendition of the starship from Star Trek Beyond, despite being expensive and lacking a sound effect.


The more I considered the Star Trek film that was released as a tribute to the 50th Anniversary of the franchise, the less I enjoyed it. Star Trek Beyond was a trainwreck in a lot of ways. So, it is hard not to feel bad about how Hallmark had to make a leap in its merchandising long before the film was released. Last year, it was announced well before Star Trek Beyond met with limited praise from fans that the U.S.S. Franklin from the film would be the 2017 Hallmark Star Trek starship ornament.

For those unfamiliar with the U.S.S. Franklin, this is the starship that Scotty and the Enterprise crew found on the surface of Kral's planet in Star Trek Beyond (reviewed here!). The ship was used by the stranded Enterprise crew to escape Kral's planet and save the nearby starbase. It was an Enterprise-era starship.

For 2017, Hallmark Keepsake released the retro-starship as its prime Star Trek ornament offering.

Basics

The "U.S.S. Franklin" ornament faithfully recreates the cinematic Federation starship in solid gray plastic. With very simple lines and generally basic, but accurate, coloring details, the U.S.S. Franklin looks just like it did in the film. The ornament, released in 2017, is an impressive casting of the StarFleet vessel with an immaculate paint job and decent-enough light feature. Measuring five and a quarter inches long, 3 1/2” wide and 1” tall, the U.S.S. Franklin ornament is a cool, if unnecessary, addition to the Star Trek ornament line. Despite cutting back the Star Trek line , Hallmark continues to bank on the Star Trek fans for revenue and charge one of its highest prices for an ornament - $32.95 – for the ornament which has a light effect, but no sound chip.

The Hallmark "U.S.S. Franklin" ornament is made of a durable plastic and has the starship on its own, as is typical for Hallmark's starship line of Star Trek ornaments. This ornament includes the batteries needed to power the ship for the light effect.

The U.S.S. Franklin is detailed incredibly, from the nacelle struts to the shape of the bridge. The U.S.S. Franklin has a few sections of baffle panels and nooks and crannies and the U.S.S. Franklin has each and every one meticulously detailed on the ornament. This ship looks weathered with a somewhat dirty finish to it, as opposed to a clean white Federation starship. Hallmark got this ship pretty right! Unfortunately, the U.S.S. Franklin features a very obviously-placed button for the feature. The bridge dome is topped by the button for the light feature. Similarly, the steel projection for the hook loop is very noticeable as it juts out of the back of the bridge on the saucer section of the U.S.S. Franklin.

On the coloring front, the U.S.S. Franklin has all of the appropriate markings, like the racing stripes on the sides of the warp nacelles. On the nacelle struts, the U.S.S. Franklin is realistically - if unattractively - colored bright orange. This starship looks great; Hallmark did a pretty impressive job with getting the details on this ornament just right for the exacting collectors and fans, despite the bridge button being problematically obvious.

Features

As a Hallmark Keepsake ornament, the "U.S.S. Franklin" has a light function, but sadly, no audio one. This was one of the many Star Trek ornaments to light up, but not play a sound clip. The ship is powered by batteries which fit into the bottom of the saucer section. There is a panel that requires a screwdriver to open. The ornament comes with the appropriate batteries and given Hallmark’s track record, it is easy to assume the one set will last at least one full holiday season.

After the batteries are installed and the battery compartment is closed, there is a button on the top of the bridge that lights the U.S.S. Franklin up, mostly on the bridge section. Pressing the button activates the light effects for the U.S.S. Franklin and as it is individually powered, it does a pretty decent job of lighting up only the two little bits that have the effect: the light effects on this starship ornament are fairly bright.

It is a little disappointing that the U.S.S. Franklin does not have any sound effect, especially for the ornament's price.

Balance

As with all ornaments, the intent of the Hallmark Keepsake "U.S.S. Franklin" ornament is to be hung on a Christmas Tree. And for those creating the ultimate Star Trek Christmas Tree, the "U.S.S. Franklin" ornament is an unnecessary addition and given how neutral many fans were to Star Trek Beyond, it is tough to believe that fans will flock to buying it up. The ornament has a longer and more obtrusive steel hook loop embedded into the top aft section of the saucer section.

From that point, the U.S.S. Franklin is well-balanced. In fact, this hangs perfectly level, without any balance issues, though it does swing easily when knocked around on the hook/branch.

Collectibility

Hallmark Keepsake began delving into the collectibles market in 1991 with Star Trek when it introduced the exceptionally limited edition original U.S.S. Enterprise ornament (reviewed here!). Since then, they have made ornament replicas of almost all of the major starships from the franchise and they have begun mass producing exceptionally minor ships like the U.S.S. Franklin. The "U.S.S. Franklin" ornament is unlikely to be a fast sell-out, making the implicit argument that for the 30th Anniversary of Star Trek The Next Generation perhaps Hallmark should have bet instead on a shuttlecraft ornament from that show. Given the price and obscurity of the ship in the source material, it is hard to bet on this being a good investment ship ornament. As a loyal fan of the franchise, I am banking on finding these after the holiday when they are put on 50% clearance.

Overview

The U.S.S. Franklin might, objectively, be an accurate and well-made Star Trek ornament, but it is overpriced and not worth rushing right out to buy.

For other Star Trek ship ornaments from Hallmark, please check out my reviews of:
2016 U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701 50th Anniversary Tribute ornament
2015 U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-C
2014 U.S.S. Vengeance Star Trek Into Darkness
2013 Battle Damaged U.S.S. Kelvin (Comic Con Exclusive)
2013 U.S.S. Kelvin
2012 U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D 25th Anniversary Edition
2011 U.S.S. Defiant (New York Comic Con Exclusive)
2011 Romulan Bird Of Prey
2010 U.S.S. Enterprise (Star Trek refit)
2009 Klingon Battlecruiser
2008 U.S.S. Reliant
2006 U.S.S. Enterprise (reissue)
2005 U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-A
2004 Vulcan Command Ship
2003 Scorpion Attack Craft
2002 Delta Flyer
2001 Deep Space Nine
2000 Borg Cube
1999 Runabout Rio Grande
1998 U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-E
1997 U.S.S. Defiant
1996 U.S.S. Voyager
1995 Romulan Warbird
1994 Klingon Bird Of Prey
1993 U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D
1992 Shuttlecraft Galileo

6.5/10

For other ornament reviews, please be sure to visit my Ornament Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Against My Original Standards, I Fall In Love With The Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary Trading Cards!

The Good: Awesome sketches, Very cool bonus cards, Neat common cards, Quality of cards
The Bad: Collectibility, One less impressive bonus card set, A few obscure autograph signers
The Basics: The Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary may be a bear to collect, but the end result is a pretty fabulous trading card set!


It seems like the last ten years have just flown by for me. Ten years ago, the Star Trek trading card market underwent a fundamental shift from which it could never turn back: the trading card hobby became the trading card industry. I adequately kvetched about that when I reviewed the set that destroyed collecting once and for all with the Star Trek 40th Anniversary Series 2 trading card set (reviewed here!). Since then, the bar has been raised several times for Star Trek trading card collectors and when there has been even a shift toward the way card sets used to be, the set released has not performed nearly as well in the marketplace. Go figure; I guess most collectors actually want the impossible find!

So, last year, when Rittenhouse Archives produced their Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary trading card set as a premium trading card release, I vowed not to simply complain about how uncollectible the cards were. I found my happy medium last month when I reviewed the Rogue One: Mission Briefing trading cards (reviewed here!) and I decided to review the product with dual ratings; the substance of the set and separately with "collectibility" factored in. It is with that new sense of standards that I sat down to review the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary trading card set.

And WOW! The substance of the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary set is amazing. For the money, the set is a bit small (a true master set only has 359 cards), but the content is absolutely incredible!

Basics/Set Composition

The Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary set was a set of trading cards produced by Rittenhouse Archives to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Original Series, instead of doing season by season celebrations of the 50th Anniversary. Boxes of the TOS 50th Anniversary cards contained only twelve packs with five cards per pack. One does not get a lot per box and the only guarantees are one common set and two autographs per box. One of the decent aspects of the Rittenhouse guarantee for this product is that one is guaranteed one of each of the two different autograph types on a box. Unfortunately for those trying to collect the set, there is not a single chase set that can be completed with even a single case of these cards!

The common set traverses the entire 80-episodes of Star Trek. The chase cards are focused largely on "The Cage" and "Mirror, Mirror" with generic crew cards and production artwork cards thrown in. The set has a beautiful tribute set to the late Leonard Nimoy (still nothing for Grace Lee Whitney, who also died since the last Original Series set!), a diverse array of autograph cards and sketch cards that are actually very dud-free. The element that makes the set virtually impossible to complete, though, are the 3 cut signature cards that made the cases a sell-out at the manufacturer's level and left a few very determined collectors hunting them down!

The TOS 50th Anniversary set consists of 359 cards. The 359 card set consists of 80 common cards and two hundred seventy-nine chase cards, eleven of which cannot be found in the packs or boxes.

Common Cards

The 80 card common set of TOS 50th Anniversary cards are a fairly cool design (though I still have not figured out how the form fits into the theme of the set/show). The common cards are die-cut so they have indents in the centers of the sides, top, and bottom. The corners are not squared; they have beveled edges. As a result, each card is a 14-sided (?,!) trading card with a text block at the top and one at the bottom that makes it vaguely resemble the viewscreen on the Enterprise bridge. Each card has gold foil borders around each of the four pictures on the front and a gold foil center that features the Star Trek 50th Anniversary symbol.

The common card set for the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary is another set that makes an episode by episode journey through all of the episodes of the original Star Trek. The twist on the familiar subject - other than the physical form of the cards - is that the backs are written as if they were Spock's logs about the plot of the episode. Spock makes perfect sense as the "writer" of the mission logs as he is the only character to appear in each episode and it avoids narrative hassles like "which version of Captain Kirk made the log for 'The Enemy Within' or 'Turnabout Intruder?'"

The writing on the cards is fun and done at a consistently high level of quality. The Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary are written to sufficiently capture Spock's sense of humor and observations on humanity, while adequately telling the story of each episode of Star Trek.

The Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary cards feature bright, beautifully-crisp images on each card. The four pictures on the front of each card tend to be different from shots used in prior sets, which is a nice thing. The photogaphy on the front of the cards also finds the right balance of character images without neglecting the special effect shots. The result is a structurally-weird looking common set that actually serves as a fitting tribute to the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek!

Chase Cards

The TOS 50th Anniversary set has two hundred seventy-nine chase cards, of which two hundred sixty-eight are available in the right packs! Some of those cards, though, are statistically improbable for a collector to pull from the packs or boxes. Ironically, there are some sketch card artists whose works are more rare than the Jill Ireland cut signature card that was pack-inserted!

The first level of chase sets are two expansion sets that explore "The Cage" and "Mirror, Mirror." Cards in each of these sets are found only two per box, which means that they take three cases to assemble each set (assuming one does not pull duplicates!). These two chase sets are substantive and incredible. The "Mirror, Mirror" cards feature foilboard borders that are shiny and distinctive. The "The Cage" bonus cards have neat purple borders and a thin gold border around the image on the card, which makes it look like one is using one of the Talosian's viewscreens to look in on the episode! These chase sets are reminiscent of the James Bond retro "throwback" sets that Rittenhouse Archives has produced for some of the older James Bond films. The result is essentially a flashy additional "common" set for two of the best episodes of Star Trek and it's hard not to gush over just how pretty the "The Cage" cards actually are!

Interestingly, Rittenhouse Archives continues to state the odds of its chase cards in terms of packs. I find this interesting because, especially in the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary trading cards, the odds for most of the bonus cards are more reasonably stated in terms of boxes or even cases! The Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary two chase sets where their components are found one in every four boxes and three that have only a single card from the set in a case!

The Bridge Crew Hero cards are landscape-oriented acetate trading cards featuring the seven core Star Trek characters, plus Nurse Chapel and Yeoman Rand. The Bridge Crew Hero cards look good, but I found myself split on them. The rarity of the cards is high, the content is hardly audacious and as an avid convention-goer, the Bridge Crew Hero cards are another set that is unfortunate in its timing. This is yet another set that fans cannot use to get autographed by the stars of Star Trek. For sure, the four cast members featured who are still alive and represented in this set could make thes cards look amazing by signing them in gold, but it's a set one could never possibly get completely signed and that's sad. While that is not an inherent problem with the Star Trek cards themselves, whenever Rittenhouse Archives makes a new-looking, cool card like this, it is hard not to look at them and consider the alternative use for them! That said, the acetate cards are clean and crisp and look very good.

Also one in every four boxes is one of the nine U.S.S. Enterprise Concept Art cards. Rittenhouse Archives managed to get the original production artwork that pitched various looks (and feels!) of the U.S.S. Enterprise before the first shooting model was ever made. These cards might be the low point of the set; they are gold-bordered and brown and do not look overly distinctive (the back of each card is, essentially, a visual checklist of the set). Sadly, the designer of the U.S.S. Enterprise is dead, which prevented Rittenhouse Archives from using behind-the-scenes interviews on why each of the concept sketches for the Enterprise was rejected. For an unfortunately unremarkable chase set, the rarity of these cards is vastly disproportionate to their value.

One per case is a "Mirror, Mirror" card. Reminiscent of the mirrorboard cards made popular in the Star Trek Season 2 trading card set (reviewed here!), each of the cards in this subset feature big pictures of the main cast, Marlena, and the Enterprise. On one side of each card is an image of the regular universe version of the character, the obverse has the Mirror Universe version. These high-quality cards are a great alternative to the Season 2 Mirror, Mirror set at a more affordable price point!

Also one per case is one of the nine Leonard Nimoy Tribute cards. Since Rittenhouse Archives started producing trading cards, they have made Tribute cards to the now-deceased stars of Star Trek: DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, and Majel Barret. The Leonard Nimoy Tribute cards are the first ones in the set that have been included in the packs (previously, they were casetoppers and there were only 3!). The standard trading card-sized Tribute cards are individually hand-numbered on the front out of 125 and feature bright, distinct images of Leonard Nimoy in Star Trek (no shots from Star Trek: The Next Generation, the Star Trek films or his Spock Prime role from the new film universe). The tribute to Nimoy is a fitting one and this is one of the nicest all-Spock sets ever assembled!

Like most modern Star Trek sets, the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary trading cards feature autograph cards. Found one per box is a Silver Series autograph card and one "Black" autograph. The "Black" autographs are the same format as the Bridge Crew autographs from the Star Trek Portfolio Prints trading cards (reviewed here!). The "Black" autographs feature a much wider range of characters than the initial bridge crew run - performers like Sany Gimple, Michael Dante, and the grail Teri Garr! The Silver Series autographs are an incredibly popular, landscape-oriented autograph card with a single characrter image and the autograph - signed in silver ink - over a black starfield. The Silver Series Autographs feature the likes of William Shatner, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, and Walter Koenig before going into the significant (and a few unfortunately indistinct) guest stars. The set has a Joan Collins autograph card and autographs from the now-deceased Grace Lee Whitney and Yvonne Craig. Regardless of the occasionally mundane subjects on the cards, all of the Silver Series autographs look incredible! Rittenhouse Archives assembled an impressive list of signers for the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary trading card set!

The Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary trading cards also featured sketch cards found only one per case. The sketch cards in the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary were beautiful and there is something to the overall value of the set when one of the most common sketches comes from the acclaimed artists Mick and Matt Glebe! The Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary features sketch cards from 42 different artists, with only 8 of them being done by artists who produced less than 25 sketches for the set. I have yet to see a lousy sketch from this set, with truly amazing works from Sean Pence, Kirsten Allen, Helga Wojik, and Melike Acar! Rittenhouse Archives advertised the set as featuring the best-yet sketch cards and they absolutely delivered!

Finally, found about one in every eighteen CASES was one of three Star Trek cut signature autograph cards. Rittenhouse Archives managed to get their hands on authenticated autographs from the long-deceased Jeffrey Hunter, Susan Oliver and Jill Ireland. Ireland's material is the most plentiful, while Hunter's cut signature autograph cards are now the rarest Rittenhouse has produced for a Star Trek set. The cut signature cards for the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary might be virtually impossible to find, but they look amazing!

Non-Box/Pack Cards

There are eleven cards that cannot be found no matter how many packs one opens. These include the regular P1 promotional card, which is easily available in the secondary market, as well as the P2 promotional card which was exclusive to the Rittenhouse-produced binder. The two promotional cards are distinctive from the other cards by being heavily-embossed, gold foil cards that advertise the Star Trek 50th Anniversary!

One per case, there is an alternate version of the common card #40. The 40a Casetopper card is a "Mirror, Mirror" card that features different images and alternate text from the common card. The 40a is written as it if were from the perspective of the Mirror Universe Spock and they look cool. Having had casetoppers that were once autograph, autographed-costume, sketch or dual-autograph cards, it is hard to get truly psyched about an "alternate common" card as the Casetopper.

For every six cases purchased, Rittenhouse Archives gave dealers a Silver Series Leonard Nimoy autograph card. If the casetopper is lackluster, the six-case incentive is absolutely incredible! Featuring artwork of Nimoy as the Mirror Universe Spock, the 6-case incentive autograph from the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary matches the quality of the other silver series autographs and has much higher inherent value to it!

For every nine cases purchased, dealers were granted a Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary William Shatner/Leonard Nimoy Dual Autograph card! The dual autograph for this set is similar to the Shatner/Nimoy Dual Autograph from the Star Trek Portfolio Prints trading card set. Where that incentive card featured Kirk and Spock in their Mirror Universe garb (and, in Spock's case, facial hair), the Dual Autograph for the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary features a traditional promotional photo of the Captain and First Officer. Oddly, its value has been depressed since the cards were released in the secondary market, but this card is poised to explode in value given the more universal appeal of the traditional appearance of Kirk and Spock.

Finally, there are the Archive Box exclusive cards. Rittenhouse Archives expanded the SkyBox "Mirror, Mirror" trading card set with an Archive Box exclusive M8 card of Marlena Moreau! Because Charendoff designed the original "Mirror, Mirror" card back in 1998, the new card exactly matches the style and quality of the prior release!

Rittenhouse Archives also included a set of printing plates in each Archive Box and it is hard not to give the company a huge amount of credit for the way they released them. Some trading card companies release the printing plates in the packs and collectors have to desperately attempt to cobble together one of four possible printing plate sets to achieve a true master set. Rittenhouse Archives takes a different approach and it is far more humane to collectors! The Archive Box includes one set of all four printing plates used to make a single common card (and the casetopper!), so collectors get a set of printing plates as opposed to trying to reconstruct a whole set of cards in printing plate form.

For the serious collectors, there is a Rittenhouse Rewards card as well, the E10 expansion card that makes the 9-card Enterprise Concept Art card set into a 10-card set. Available only through redeeming points from wrappers, the E10 features the familiar version of the U.S.S. Enterprise, which is a cool way to cap off the lackluster subset.

Overall

The Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary trading cards are well-organized, look amazing and make a potentially stale subject feel remarkably fresh again. While the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary trading card set is a fairly small trading card set for the price one would pay attempting to assemble it, it is a true celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek. Those who are not obsessed with creating a master set will still find ample material to gleefully collect in the Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary trading card set!

This set culls images from Star Trek, which is reviewed here!

These cards are available in my online store! Please check out my growing Star Trek The Original Series 50th Anniversary Trading Card Inventory!

For other original Star Trek trading card sets reviewed by me, please check out:
Star Trek - Season 1 Episode Collection trading cards
Star Trek - Season 3 Episode Collection trading cards
Star Trek In Motion
35th Anniversary HoloFEX Holofoil cards
Legends Of Captain James T. Kirk
The Art And Images Of Star Trek
Legends Of Spock
"Quotable" Star Trek
Legends Of Dr. Leonard McCoy
Legends Of Scotty, Sulu And Uhura
Legends Of Chekov, Chapel And Rand
Star Trek 40th Anniversary Season 2
Star Trek (2009 movie) cards
Star Trek Heroes & Villains

8.5/10 (substance/content)
2/10 (factoring collectibility)

For other card reviews, please visit my Card Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Fun But Utterly Inconsequential: Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War

The Good: Moments of artwork, Moments of character
The Bad: Incredibly basic plot, Some underwhelming artwork, Fails to capture the villains in a compelling way
The Basics: Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War is a marginally interesting idea with a pretty middling execution.


Back in my youth, I did not read comic books. In fact, it was not until late middle school, when I became obsessed with Star Trek that I ever recall picking up a comic book. Throughout high school and college, I read the various incarnations of Star Trek in comic book form, in addition to the vast array of novels in the Star Trek franchise. Back then, there were very few crossover events; it was a big deal when the original Star Trek crew had any sort of interaction with the crew of the Enterprise-D! In fact, the first out-of-universe crossover event I recall was when Marvel published the Star Trek/X-Men crossover.

Now, things are different and crossovers happen between even vastly incongruent universes in comic book forms. Last year, for example, I found Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation (volume 1 reviewed here!). Today, I discovered Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War. Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War is set in the universe of the 2009 film Star Trek (reviewed here!) during the five-year mission, after Star Trek Into Darkness (reviewed here!). And Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War is about as good as one might expect for a compilation of six issues that try to combine two such big universes.

Opening with the final Guardian about to be killed on Mogo with the last of the power rings, the Black Lantern is unable to kill him because he traverses universes. The U.S.S. Enterprises comes across a rogue planet suddenly, the dead Mogo, and on its surface they find the remains of the dead Guardian and a single example of each of the power rings. While Scotty and Kenser run tests on the power rings, a Klingon Bird Of Prey with General Chang decloaks, demanding Captain Kirk surrender to him. Scotty's test activates the power rings and Chang, Uhura, Chekov, and McCoy are chosen to be ring bearers. Hal Jordan appears with his Green Lantern ring to save the Enterprise, while Kirk advocates retreat.

While Yellow Lantern Chang seizes control of Kronos, only to be put in his place by Sinestro, the Orange and Red rings find their bearers on Romulus and the Gorn Homeworld. Hal Jordan explains how his universe ended when Nekkron tried to kill everyone in the universe again and that Ganthet must have used his ultimate escape plan to enter Kirk's universe with the rings. Hal Jordan was not teleported alone; Sinestro, Atrocitus, and Larfleeze also were saved from the destruction of their universe and they set out to stop the new ringbearers of their color rings. When Star Sapphire leader Carol Ferris arrives on the Enterprise with the near-dead St. Walker, she reveals that Nekkron was teleported to the universe as part of Last Light as well. Soon, Sinestro and the Red Lanterns are at war and Sinestro unleashes the power of fear on the Enterprise crew. With the Enterprise crew incapacitated, Hal Jordan takes control of the Enterprise and gets it to safety. When Nekkron resurrects Vulcan as Black Lanterns and Hal Jordan is rescued by other surviving Green Lanterns from his universe, the various Lanterns work to save the universe with the Enterprise crew.

Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War seems to be built on the premise that readers know who all of the various Green Lanterns are, as their characters are entirely glossed over. Hal Jordan is glossed over some in the book, while Guy Garner is given no distinct character; even John Stewart is characterized more. But the Star Trek characters are each given a few moments where readers are told explicit character traits that either contrast the DC Comics characters or apply to the ring color they were granted.

The very basic premise of Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War is much dodgier than its execution. The ridiculous notion of a Star Trek/DC Comics Universe crossover is somewhat negated by limiting the crossover to the interstellar characters from DC Comics - it's not like trying to integrate Wonder Woman and The Flash into the Enterprise crew. Nekkron is the appropriate villain for the combined Corps to justify the crossover, but characters like General Chang from Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (reviewed here!), get somewhat under-served by the speed of the narrative.

On the artwork front, Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War is a decidedly mixed bag. Writer Mike Johnson smartly includes a named Romulan from the correct era - the 23rd Century of Star Trek - in the form of Decius. But the Star Trek fans geeky enough to know who Decius is will see absolutely no resemblance between the aged Centurion and the character on the pages of Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War. In a similar fashion , the Gorn in Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War look nothing like the Gorn of Star Trek or Star Trek Enterprise.

Ultimately, Star Trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War is momentarily diverting and fun, but not at all an enduring, timeless or essential graphic novel.

For other graphic novel reviews, please check out:
Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation, Volume 2
Star Trek: Countdown To Darkness
Green Lantern: Sinestro

4/10

For other book reviews, please check out my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Beyond The Hype: Star Trek Beyond Actually Sucks. (2017 Review This Again Review!)

The Good: Most of the performances are good, Amazing sets and make-up
The Bad: Very basic, formulaic plot, Visual aspects that make little rational sense, Character arcs that are frequently nonsense, Huge continuity and scientific problems
The Basics: Despite my first impression, it does not take long before the viewer recognizes that Star Trek Beyond is mostly just a mess.


[There is a big meme in the art community going around now called "Draw This Again." In the meme, artists illustrate how they have grown in their chosen medium by putting side-by-side pictures of art they created in the past and now. My wife had the great idea that I should do something similar with my reviewing. So, for 2017, I will be posting occasional "Review This Again" reviews, where I revisit subjects I had previously reviewed and review them again, through a lens of increased age, more experience, and - for some - greater familiarity with the subject. In the case of Star Trek Beyond, I ended up seeing the film only once, on the big screen, and reviewed it based upon that. Rewatching the film, my perceptions changed fairly drastically and because I do not alter old reviews, I figured this was an excellent subject for a Review This Again review. The film was originally reviewed here and I opted to not revisit that review before reviewing it again.]

2016 was a very busy year for me and I spent quite a bit of the year, sadly, neglecting Star Trek. The significance of that was that 2016 was the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek and I became a fan of the show and franchise right around the time of the 25th Anniversary. My love of Star Trek has been a lifelong love and during the 50th Anniversary, the only real things I did to celebrate or acknowledge the anniversary was rewatch Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (reviewed here!) and watch Star Trek Beyond once in the theater. So, when my mother bought me the Blu-Ray of Star Trek Beyond for my birthday, I was actually super-excited to watch the film again.

Last week when I watched Star Trek Beyond for the second time, on the small screen, divorced from the hype, I felt physically sick.

When I watched Star Trek Beyond the first time and reviewed it, I wrote a review arguing that - despite its faults - Star Trek Beyond was not the worst piece of science fiction crap ever. Now on my third viewing, having watched all of the bonus features to try to get a different perspective on it, I am not so sure.

Star Trek Beyond is a mess. Watching it one the small screen, without any thought about what the film was supposed to be, uninfluenced by hype or preview trailers, the faults and issues within the film become surprisingly glaring. From pretty severe editing problems within the film to philosophical problems with Star Trek Beyond that come out when one watches the bonus features, Star Trek Beyond is unfortunately sloppy . . . even if it is often visually incredible.

It is tough to discuss Star Trek Beyond as an abstract and without some potential spoilers for those who have not seen the film. Ironically, for a tribute to Star Trek, the idea of Star Trek Beyond is most explicitly based upon events of Star Trek Enterprise (reviewed here!), which was the least-Trek spin-off in the franchise - executive producer Brannon Braga explicitly stated that he wanted to get a new audience for the show and was not worrying about things like continuity in his creation. Rather hilariously, one of the issues a lot of people had with Sulu being revealed as gay in Star Trek Beyond is far less of an issue when one looks at the franchise objectively - when Sulu is revealed to have a daughter in Star Trek: Generations, there is no reference to the family Sulu had that generated that daughter; there is no real conflict!

But, there are huge issues in Star Trek Beyond, both in basic story-telling and in the presentation of the film.

Opening with Captain Kirk trying to deliver a gift to an alien race, from the Fibonan culture, he is met with resistance from the leaders of the planet he is on. Attacked by the Teenaxi, Kirk returns to the Enterprise with the artifact (which was an ancient weapon), where he feels disillusioned with the exploratory mission the Enterprise is on. The Enterprise arrives at the Yorktown base where Spock, now broken up with Uhura, learns of the death of Spock Prime. Shortly thereafter, an alien escape pod carrying Kalara arrives and tells the StarFleet officers that she needs help; that her ship crashed on a planet within a nearby nebula. The Enterprise journeys to Altamid, where Kalara's ship supposedly has crashed. As the Enterprise approaches Altamid, the Enterprise is destroyed and its crew separated (most captured) by alien forces as they try to escape the ship.

On Altamid, Uhura finds herself in the custody of Krall, the alien who attacked the Enterprise, searching for the artifact Kirk tried to give to the Teenaxi. McCoy and Spock crash together and Spock is seriously wounded, impaled by a piece of metal from the escape pod. Scotty finds himself in the company of Jaylah, a young woman whose crew and family suffered the same fate as the Enterprise, but has survived in the wreckage of an old Federation ship. While Scotty and Jaylah repair the ship and try to find a way to rescue others from the Enterprise, Kirk and Chekov hike with Kalara to the ruins of the Enterprise's saucer section. There, Kalara reveals herself to be working for Krall and betrays Kirk while she tries to get the artifact for Krall. As the main bridge crew finds one another - or is rescued by Scotty - they find a way off Altamid, but Krall also finds the artifact he is searching for. Armed with a powerful weapon, Krall sets his sights on the Yorktown, which leads Kirk into a fight with him.

Star Trek Beyond is riddled with problematic contradictions, not the least of which is in the visual scope of the film. It is, admittedly, tough to do new things within the Star Trek franchise. Newbies might be thrilled by the visual aspect of Star Trek Beyond in the swarm drones that erupt onto the screen early in the film; fans of the Star Trek franchise will recognize it as a minor permutation of the adversaries from the Star Trek: Voyager episode "The Swarm" (reviewed here!). But beyond that, there is the huge question of should a film like Star Trek Beyond try to do something that is so visually spectacular as it does.

The films in the rebooted Star Trek universe happen at an earlier time than the adventures of Captain Kirk and his crew in the prime Star Trek universe. So, while the argument can be made that just because viewers did not see something like the Yorktown Base in Star Trek does not mean it did not exist (i.e. the Enterprise just went in a different direction in the original?), it is harder to make that argument about the alien races. There is a fairly small sphere of influence the Federation has in the 23rd Century of Star Trek, so the idea that Star Trek Beyond purposely features 50 new, different, background aliens is somewhat ridiculous. In the rebooted universe, there would be no practical reason why the Federation would have encountered so many vastly different alien races, as opposed to have places like Yorktown Base populated by Andorians, Tellarites, and even perhaps Caitians. Star Trek Beyond opts for scale over sensibility.

Even Yorktown has some oddly un-Trek issues with its generation. McCoy asks why the Federation did not make a planet-based facility and the given answer is that it could lead to political tensions. Wouldn't a vastly more-Trek response to political tensions be working through those tensions and illustrate that they did not break the alliance (i.e. that the Federation is not so fragile as to be unable to survive any single philosophical debate) than to use the massive amount of resources needed to make a moon-sized space base? Star Trek Beyond is packed with details like that that fall apart with even the most minimal tugging of the thread. And how the hell would StarFleet build such a massive base near such a large unexplored area?! Seriously, in the time it took to build the Yorktown, there weren't ships that bothered to explore the "nebula" nearby.

And really, guys, do you know what the hell the difference is between a nebula and an asteroid field?! Nebulas are made primarily of gas; asteroid fields are giant rocks. like what is shown in Star Trek Beyond. That's not nitpicking, that is basic science.

Films in the Star Trek movie series have, unfortunately, developed into a painfully repetitive series of "kill the villain" type plots and rather than buck that trend and return to something more philosophical, Star Trek Beyond tries to repackage the same, stale plot with bigger explosions, louder music and more movement. But, at the core of every "kill the villain" flick, there has to be a compelling adversary. Every Star Trek film that has used the "kill the villain" plot conceit has desperately tried to make an adversary who matches the villainy of Khan. So, what happens when you used Khan in the last film? You come up with villains like Kruge (who actually kills people as an example instead of just talking about it, as Khan does!) and Krall.

Krall is a mess who embodies many of the problems of Star Trek Beyond. Star Trek Beyond, at its core, uses style over substance - hoping the viewer will not think too much about what they are seeing. Krall is an adversary who has one of the most forced hatreds for the Federation of any villain to appear in the Star Trek canon. Krall (why did he change his name?!) is essentially a space vampire (how did he become that?!) whose physique morphs as he absorbs the DNA of alien races he encounters. So, as he absorbs more of the Enterprise crew, he becomes more and more human in appearance. That's a fine-enough idea, though it is technically ill-defined within Star Trek Beyond (visually it is clearly and cleverly rendered through make-up effects).

But conceptually, Krall is a huge problem. Krall was originally human and he found himself well outside Federation space. Regardless of the whole military backstory conceit inserted into Star Trek Beyond, the person Krall was would have known that he was well outside of Federation space and resue was unlikely . . . especially if his ship came through the same "nebula" as the Enterprise. Krall does not behave like a military officer in that he rails against the Federation for not rescuing him and his crew - even though he would have known the Federation and StarFleet did not have the resources to do so. But here's the thing, if Krall becoming less human made him forget the technical knowledge he had about the Federation, why would he bear it such ill-will? In other words, the only reason for Krall to be so angry is that he is trapped upon an alien world; if he becomes more alien and stops feeling human or attached to the Federation, why wouldn't he simply accept that he is king of his new world and rule it as such? If the physical changes for Krall did not result in mental changes, he should know that rescue was not coming from the Federation and work to survive on the planet with his crew, knowing there was no future off-planet for him . . . in short, the most reasonable character-based evolutions for Krall all have him accepting his life on Altamid instead of wanting to get revenge upon the Federation.

Then there is the swarm Krall controls, which is one of the most problematic character-based problems in Star Trek Beyond. Krall explicitly states that the Federation's weakness is its interdependence; he advocates a philosophy of growth through conflict. Okay, some people believe such things. People who believe that interdependence is a liability do not, traditionally (or rationally) use a drone army that operates on a hive mind. The swarm in Star Trek Beyond operates using a network that is entirely interconnected, which results in Spock and McCoy having to deactivate the alien fleet by disabling the drones. Krall decries working together . . . with a fleet that entirely works together. Krall implicitly proves his point that there is only growth through conflict by utilizing tools that operate entirely symbiotically (without conflict) and he stagnates in his anger for a hundred years?!

Come to think of it, Krall has a massive swarm of ships that he is easily able to use to leave the nebula and get (at least) as far as Yorktown base. Why the hell did Krall wait for the base to be done to mount an attack on it? Krall has spent lifetimes searching for the artifact that Kirk was given . . . he searched . . . where, exactly? If he hated the Federation so very much, he could have inflicted plenty of damage upon it with his swarm drone army without the specific weapon he was searching for . . .

So, Krall, despite his ultimately well-defined backstory, is a villain who succumbs to the generic conceits of being an adversary as opposed to being a sensibly-defined individual. Manas is an incredibly generic lackey character who acts as Krall's right hand without any real character of his own.

Star Trek Beyond descends into a big motorcycle sequence and highlighting playing the Beastie Boys loudly which is much more the genre for The Fast And The Furious than a tribute to the cerebral nature of Star Trek.

As for the essential characters, Star Trek Beyond has weird issues that are amplified by the bonus features. In talking about the destruction of the Enterprise, Chris Pine mentions in one of the featurettes how being a starship Captain is the most important aspect of Captain Kirk's life at this point. Hearing him say that, my first reaction was "did you actually read the script?!" My reaction comes from the fact that Captain Kirk is looking for a new job at the outset of Star Trek Beyond. Bored with space exploration, Kirk has applied to be the Vice Admiral of the Yorktown Base - if being a Captain was so important to him, why is he looking to be promoted out of the position?! But herein lays the problem; the big emotional moment viewers are supposed to see is in Kirk's reaction shot to seeing the crashing saucer section. Chris Pine's reaction is surprisingly flat, which actually plays to the idea that Kirk does not care about the Enterprise the way the viewer does (or that he is in shock). While many things are complicated, either Kirk is bored with being the Captain and is ready to move on from his position or he is emotionally invested in being captain and his ship is so important to him that losing him is enough to traumatize him. Neither aspect is fleshed out sufficiently in Star Trek Beyond to be compelling.

There are a number of editing issues in Star Trek Beyond; shots where cuts are made at odd places. As well, one of the most awkward moments in Star Trek Beyond comes when Uhura puts together the identity of Krall by looking at an old ship's log. As the footage is played backward (with Uhura rewinding it), the audio goes forward - Uhura hears the word "frontier" repeatedly as she keeps rewinding the tape!

So, what works in Star Trek Beyond?

Jaylah is an interesting addition to the mix of characters (smart money is that she could replace Chekov in the next Star Trek film following the death of Anton Yelchin) and she offers the opportunity for Scotty to talk about Federation values. Jaylah is a strong female character who has a good backstory and plays off the established characters well. Jaylah becomes a conduit for which Star Trek and Federation values can be explored and promoted. Jaylah comes to see that a crew working together can overcome immense odds; she watches as the whole bridge crew contributes to reasoning how the swarm ships work together and how their interdependence may be exploited. That is cool. Unfortunately, Star Trek Beyond turns from something philosophical to utterly generic action-adventure in that such high-minded reasoning and teamwork is not used to stop Krall in a compelling "Star Trek" way. Star Trek values would have been served by having the Enterprise crew use reason and high-minded values to convince Krall not to deploy his super-weapon, as opposed to launching the armed villain out into space. So, Jaylah learns a bit of Federation philosophy and an equal measure that some enemies need to be put down. Even in Star Trek, Kirk tried to save Nero; in Star Trek Beyond, Kirk tries to confirm that Krall is dead instead.

Most of the acting in Star Trek Beyond is fine. Idris Elba is wasted as Krall as the villain makes little rational sense ultimately and Elba is not given the chance to exhibit much emotional range in the part. In fact, the greatest moment Elba has in Star Trek Beyond is gutted when the film continues in the same vein as it has been instead of making a right turn back into Star Trek territory. Each time I have watched Star Trek Beyond now, I am shocked because there is an exceptional moment at the climax of the film where Krall sees himself in a reflection. Elba's performance in that moment screams that Krall sees himself and is upset by the reflection he sees. Each time I see that moment, I expect that this will be a moment of epiphany for Krall and that Elba will deliver a line about how he was wrong and then sacrifice himself to stop his own weapon. No, Elba is not granted a moment where his performance is rewarded with something so high-minded and character-based.

Chris Pine plays Kirk as an action hero with little in the way of an emotional journey after the initial bar scene. Zachary Quinto, Karl Urban, and Simon Pegg are each predictably wonderful in their roles of Spock, McCoy, and Scotty. Star Trek Beyond minimizes the roles of Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov (Anton Yelchin's final appearance in Trek is essentially as a sidekick for Kirk), but the performers involved do fine in the supporting parts.

It is easy to read a critique of Star Trek Beyond and think "that is a whole lot of nitpicking," but the problems exist within the film and they truly do gut the movie on almost every front except spectacle. Once one pulls at the question of "If the survivors of the Franklin had access to a drone ship fleet that could get them off the planet and back into Federation space, why did they spend a hundred years on the planet (or returning to it) to scheme against their home instead of getting back to the people who had no reasonable knowledge of where they had ended up?" Star Trek Beyond becomes difficult to watch; so much in the movie is forced and inorganic. Beloved characters like Spock make disturbingly uncharacteristic decisions - Spock and Uhura's relationship is on the skids arguably because Spock considers having children . . . but why would a mixed-race person like Spock be obsessed with the "genetic purity" of propagating full-blooded Vulcans?! Kirk is bored and wants to take a more stable, more boring job? And it takes one mission where his crew is put in mortal peril for him to want to go back to the same type of exploration he found mundane?!

In tribute to fifty years of a series that challenged social stereotypes and perceptions of what humanity's future could look like, Star Trek Beyond presents a surprisingly dull action-adventure film where the plot conceits and characters are so facile that they do not withstand any serious scrutiny. That is hardly a fitting tribute to Leonard Nimoy or Anton Yelchin, to whom the film is dedicated.

For other Star Trek films, please visit my reviews of:
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan
Star Trek III: The Search For Spock
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek: Generations
Star Trek
Star Trek Into Darkness

2.5/10

For other Star Trek reviews, please check out my Star Trek Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2017 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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50th Anniversary Cashgrab: The 2016 U.S.S. Enterprise 50th Anniversary Ornament Is Unimpressive!

The Good: Good sculpt, decent sound clip
The Bad: Vastly overpriced, Ridiculous coloring, Back-heavy
The Basics: The 50th Anniversary U.S.S. Enterprise ornament is a ridiculous collectible that poorly commemorates the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek.


I have been a fan of Star Trek since just before the 25th Anniversary of Star Trek. It astounds me to think that I have been a Trekker now for more than half my life. But having now lived through the 25th, 30th, 35th and 40th Anniversaries of Star Trek, I have watched how various companies exploit collectors during the anniversaries. Some companies make awesome limited edition items, while others rework previously-released items to have something to release and cash in on the hype surrounding the anniversary. Hallmark is going the latter route with the U.S.S. Enterprise 50th Anniversary ornament. For the 50th Anniversary, rather than coming up with something new and special, Hallmark released the U.S.S. Enterprise yet again (this is at least the third iteration) with an inaccurate, fairly unflattering gold finish.

For those unfamiliar with the U.S.S. Enterprise, this was the defining starship of Star Trek. Included in every episode of the original Star Trek (reviewed here!), the U.S.S. Enterprise is a science fiction icon. The home of the Federation crew whose mission was exploration and discovery, the U.S.S. Enterprise was popular with Star Trek fans and was the obvious choice for a starting point from Hallmark when they began producing Star Trek themed Christmas ornaments and, rather than spoil the new starship from the climax of Star Trek Beyond, Hallmark chose to simply remake the original Enterprise as an ornament yet again.

Basics

The "U.S.S. Enterprise" ornament poorly recreates the famed Federation starship in shiny gold plastic. The ornament, released in 2016 - as part of the show's 50th Anniversary celebration - perfectly captured the surface details of the original Enterprise, from the original model (not the CG-recreation from the Remastered Version of Star Trek). This was easy enough to do as the Enterprise had a rather simple mold and very few details. However, Hallmark created the starship with its distinctive bridge dome, engineering hull and warp nacelles, with the warp nacelles featuring the tiny needlelike portions at the front of the warp nacelle. Measuring six inches long, two and one-half inches wide and one and one-half inches tall, the U.S.S. Enterprise ornament is one of the essential Star Trek ships, but not in this form.

The Hallmark "U.S.S. Enterprise" ornament is made of a durable reflective gold plastic and has the starship on its own, as is typical for Hallmark's starship line of Star Trek ornaments. While it is called the "Pilot Version," the detailing on the nacelles is about all that defines it as being from "The Cage" on the sculpt.

The U.S.S. Enterprise is detailed adequately. So, in addition to details molded into the starship, like windows, phaser banks, plating on the saucer section and the deflector dish on the front of the engineering hull, but the Enterprise does not have a faithful paint job at all. The ornament is not detailed to include the running numbers and name painted on the ship. Instead, the coloring is completely inaccurate.

The U.S.S. Enterprise is a pretty easy ship to get right and Hallmark did a great job of sculpting it well, even if it was not colored at all appropriately.

Features

As a Hallmark Keepsake ornament, the "U.S.S. Enterprise" has a sound function, but no light function. Fans of the ornaments are likely to be impressed by the audio clip. The 50th Anniversary U.S.S. Enterprise ornament comes with the three 1.5V watch batteries that cause it to play the sound clip. The Bridge dome on the Enterprise is a very well-concealed button. When the button is pressed, the ornament plays the opening theme to the original Star Trek. The sound clip undermines the idea that this incarnation of the Enterprise is from the pilot episode as the sound clip includes William Shatner performing the opening monologue to Star Trek. Given the fact that Shatner was not present for the pilot episode, calling this 50th Anniversary the "Pilot Version" and sculpting it that way makes little sense to include the sound clip with Shatner's vocals. Still, the sound clip is loud and very clear.

Balance

As with all ornaments, the intent of the Hallmark Keepsake "U.S.S. Enterprise" ornament is to be hung on a Christmas Tree. And for those creating the ultimate Star Trek Christmas Tree, a "U.S.S. Enterprise" ornament is an essential piece, but not this one. The ornament has the standard brass hook loop embedded into the top, aft portion of the saucer section.

The location of the loop is the best that Hallmark could reasonably do. However, this forces the front of the saucer up about twenty degrees as the nacelles weigh the back down some. As a result, this ship does not cruise straight through space, but rather is always ascending. The 15 - 20 degree upward pitch makes it look somewhat awkward when hanging on a tree.

Collectibility

Hallmark Keepsake began delving into the collectibles market in 1991 with Star Trek when it introduced the exceptionally limited edition U.S.S. Enterprise ornament (reviewed here!). This Enterprise recreation is vastly more mass produced, but given its release during the collectibles-heavy 50th Anniversary, in combination with its $32.95 original release price, it was very hard for most collectors to justify spending on. As a result, it is still fairly easily available in the secondary market at the original issue price or a deflated one. Unlike what frequently happens when products are reissued, this Enterprise did not cause the original ornament to deflate in value. In fact, the ComicCon repaint exploded in value, while the gold common release has appeared to tank in the marketplace.

Overview

Fans of the Star Trek franchise, science fiction and the U.S.S. Enterprise specifically are likely to be utterly unimpressed by the overpriced, gold-finished 50th Anniversary U.S.S. Enterprise ornament.

For other Star Trek ship ornaments from Hallmark, please check out my reviews of:
2015 U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-C
2014 U.S.S. Vengeance Star Trek Into Darkness
2013 Battle Damaged U.S.S. Kelvin (Comic Con Exclusive)
2013 U.S.S. Kelvin
2012 U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D 25th Anniversary Edition
2011 U.S.S. Defiant (New York Comic Con Exclusive)
2011 Romulan Bird Of Prey
2010 U.S.S. Enterprise (Star Trek refit)
2009 Klingon Battlecruiser
2008 U.S.S. Reliant
2006 U.S.S. Enterprise (reissue)
2005 U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-A
2004 Vulcan Command Ship
2003 Scorpion Attack Craft
2002 Delta Flyer
2001 Deep Space Nine
2000 Borg Cube
1999 Runabout Rio Grande
1998 U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-E
1997 U.S.S. Defiant
1996 U.S.S. Voyager
1995 Romulan Warbird
1994 Klingon Bird Of Prey
1993 U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D
1992 Shuttlecraft Galileo

2.5/10

For other ornament reviews, please visit my Ornament Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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