Getting into Star Trek Online with Agents of Yesterday

As a fan of Star Trek since the early 90s, I had been interested in exploring Star Trek Online for a while. I got into it a little during the Delta Recruitment event back in April 2015, because they said it was the perfect chance to jump in -- Delta Recruits would get more experience, as well as better stuff.

However, I had to reinstall Windows, and then just didn’t get around to playing any more, despite reinstalling the game. The save is on Arc Games’ servers, so I really had no excuse. I’ve also kept the game updated by opening it every couple of weeks to install all of the patches, and as such Steam reckoned that I had 11 hours of playtime logged. It was closer to three…

For those who are unfamiliar with Star Trek Online, it has been running since 2010 and had 11 seasons, as well as some half seasons, and three expansions. It follows after the storyline of the series’, taking place in the 25th century after Star Trek Nemesis and the destruction of Romulus as seen in JJ Abram's Star Trek reboot. You’re a new recruit for one of several factions (each of which have a bunch of races you can be). The first expansion brought a new faction (and races), and came out between season 7 & 8, the next one was between 9.5 & 10. 11.5 launched just a few months ago, and so it’s time for the new expansion.

I said expansion, not explosion!

Once I heard that Agents of Yesterday was coming, I got super hyped. Not so much for the fact the expansion would take place in the 23rd century, and thus the time of The Original Series, but because it involved becoming a Temporal Agent. The time travel storylines in any season of Star Trek were always highlights for me.

Space, it looked kinda different in the 2200s

If you’re a big fan of Captain Kirk, and his adventures on the Enterprise, then you’ll definitely get a kick out of Yesterday. You create a character in 2270, a couple of years after the on-screen adventures of Kirk, Spock and co. Keeping it era-related, you can only create a Human, Andorian, Vulcan or Tellarite Starfleet character, as the other races now selectable were either not discovered, or not in Starfleet at the time.

Second in command of a Pioneer class vessel, you soon prove yourself enough to captain it, as your captain is promoted off-ship. Your adventures take you to planets visited by Kirk, such as Taurus II and the one that everyone knows from the episode Arena - AKA “Where Kirk fought the Gorn (lizard man)”.

"Oh yeah, I know that one!"

You also meet some familiar faces, including most of the crew of the USS Enterprise! Most of the voice clips used are taken from the audio of the TV show, but Chekov and Scotty are freshly recorded. Chekov is voiced by his actor, Walter Koenig, though of course James Doohan understandably could not reprise his role. In his stead, his son Christopher Doohan puts on a Scottish brogue and does his best Scotty mimicry.

It's weird, however, they would paraphrase that other Star *something* franchise...

Eventually you come across the time travel elements. Another actor reprising a role from the show, Matt Winston is back as Temporal Agent Daniels, taking place after his time on the NX Enterprise under Captain Archer. He is investigating the Na'kuhl, a species capable of time travel, who have come to the 23rd century.

Agent Daniels and Ross Randall

It’s not long before they are routed, with the help of Temporal Agents Daniels and Chekov, and time is almost set right. However, there is one final mission which finds you at the Battle of Caleb IV, the first time the Federation found out that the Klingons had cloaking technology. It was awesome to see something in Star Trek that had only been mentioned in the show.

Needless to say, your character winds up in the future: the 25th century. From there you start the main quest line, and are introduced to things such as duty officers and side quests. 23rd century space is only nine sectors, so going from that map to the absolutely huge 25th century was quite a surprise and took some getting used to, but taking on a random encounter of Borg in my Pioneer class was a real test.

Honestly though, I was happy when I got to swap to a new ship, faster, stronger weapons and shields ... But I’m still working towards getting a much better ship, one worthy of the name Third Street. After all, my crew’s uniforms are all purple, fashioned after the Third Street Saints of the Saints Row series -- represent!

Third Street represent!

The only thing that people might not like about Yesterday, is that you have such a limited selection of characters to create. The 25th century options number about 30, so being limited to four (although show accurate) species risks putting people off using up one of their character slots if they’re only playing as a Trill or Klingon.

However, I enjoyed it a lot. I’m now in for the player vs environment experience, because damn I’ve missed Star Trek. I should probably check out the last two movies too, given that Joseph Gatt from Star Trek Into Darkness is also a part of Agents of Yesterday...