Brian Hudson Combines Captain’s Log with Star Trek Online to Create Amazing Audio Drama

By Brian Hudson

I grew up on Star Trek, though it probably wasn’t until I started playing STO during closed beta that I REALLY got into it.

I’m still playing STO nearly 14 years later, and I’ve been playing as the Durandal and Captain Allerka the entire time, although the Durandal has gone through a few iterations over the years as power creep happens in the game, so I commission a new incarnation of the ship and write a backstory as to what happened to the old one. The first four incarnations (i.e. Tier 1-4) I wrote up as the “historical” versions of the Durandal, NX-9350 through NX-9350-C, prior to STO’s time, and Allerka doesn’t take command until NX-9350-D is ready to go. The ship in the audio drama is the Durandal-F. Each incarnation is used as a testbed for some kind of experimental technology, hence the NX prefix. In the Durandal-F’s case, it’s utilizing experimental antiproton weaponry that also utilizes protomatter, as well as new energy systems that also rely on protomatter, taking some notes from the Federation’s new Lukari allies.

Combining [Captain’s Log] with my Star Trek Online characters seemed an obvious choice.

As far as Star Trek Adventures goes, I’ve been collecting all the books and reading them, but unfortunately haven’t had a chance to actually play yet between scheduling issues and there being very few people around here willing to play anything that isn’t D&D. So Captain’s Log seemed like the perfect way for me to still have SOME kind of adventures. I actually tried to make a STO machinima back in the day after it first launched, and completed one and a half episodes. Unfortunately, it was an absolutely insane amount of work, around ten hours of work per minute of footage in the final product. Even so, I came up with backstories for everyone, and using this crew for Captain’s Log was perfect for giving them a chance to show their personalities again (since they don’t talk much in STO generally).

If it’s not obvious, I have a strong writing background (my degree is actually in creative writing), and have been writing in my own sci-fi universe for over half my life now, though I still love Star Trek, of course. My favorite character would be Captain Picard from TNG. He definitely had an impact on me growing up in showing me the value of thinking logically and being in control. Since Allerka is basically myself, you can see a few of Picard’s mannerisms reflected in the audio drama (“Make it so”, being willing to take a nonviolent approach even under duress, etc.).

Here’s a couple random pictures.

The small one is from the very earliest days of STO, hence the smaller size when I was probably only playing at like 1024 x 768 resolution. You have a squint a bit, but you can see some of the officers I’m still using today.

The second one is from a few years ago, during a mission where you actually travel into the Kelvin timeline to fight the Sphere Builders, and you can more clearly see everyone.

The third is a sort-of schematic I did for the Durandal, highlighting all its stats and showing what it looks like at various angles.

The Captain’s Log supplement of the Star Trek Adventures TTRPG allows for solo adventures in the final frontier. Combining this with my Star Trek Online characters seemed an obvious choice.

This series will follow the ongoing adventures of my ship, the USS Durandal, and her crew I’ve been playing since the launch of STO, presented in audio drama format with visual and auditory aids. In this first episode, the Durandal has been assigned to a remote sector of Federation space to both patrol the colonies there and engage in new exploration. Their first assignment has them upgrading the defenses of a mining colony, although it stands to reason things won’t go exactly as planned…

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