Following a landmark year and a new drive to refresh fleet services starting with the website revamp to close the year, we’re in constant review mode to make sure that our systems and services are working for everyone within Q2. Despite January seemingly lasting three times as long as normal this year, we’ve already had a great start with Tesla and Proxima heading into their first away missions of the year, and new opportunities arsing from a temporary change of command on the Churchill and two new members on board the new Fleet Support Group. So we want to make sure that with a great start to the year, we keep that momentum going!
The past few years have been difficult from lockdowns to social changes and other things we wont get into! At times we’ve all felt a little disconnected and a little worn out. Changes in social media needs and habits, as well as an ever divisive and negative online landscape can be draining and trail off the excitement and energy we once embraced. Going forward, we want to make sure our output continues to be positive, accessible and most of all fun.
Ok, so surveys aren’t fun. But we’d like to make sure we’re doing our all for fleet engagement, ensuring our accessibility and output remains relevant to you without leaning to heavy on often unreliable metrics. And so, our first Admirals Blog of the year gives you the stage to let us hear your feedback, your view and keep us on track for the next adventures…
Engaging 2025 Survey
Our Engaging 2025 survey is a quick series of questions to help us ensure we are making the most out of the online world for our members, whether thats through Q2 directly, our social media channels and finding out how best to serve your membership needs in an ever changing landscape!
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[For The Uniform] The Pioneers: Mid 22nd Century
Giving us a glimpse of Starfleet's formative years, Star Trek Enterprise embraced a world before colourful uniforms, flashy computer panels and creature comforts all around. Set a century before Captain Kirk's five year mission and focused on the first line of Starfleet ships built to take on the final frontier, the show focused on Starfleet's first steps into becoming what we all knew and loved.... Offering a dramatic shift in visual identity, Enterprise took a massive step back from the comfortable styles of the Next Generation, and even further away from the colour coded optimism of the original series. Instead of bold colours and hidden zips, designer Robert Blackman took inspiration from his own century, using Enterprise's timeline to bridge the style gap between Kirk's era and our own.Taking inspiration from NASA's flight suits, Starfleet's were idealised as the next […]
[Treknology] Beam Me Up!
Step into the transporter and with the touch of a few buttons and sliders you're whisked away to an alien landscape ready to explore. As synonymous to the Star Trek lore as phasers and tricorders, the transporter is one of the most vital tools within Starfleet, letting officers and crew travel instantaneously between environments without the need for time consuming shuttle trips or finding a starship-sized parking space to land in. Developed as a narrative tool, the transporter lets the story move along swiftly without breaks in the action and in a budget friendly manner. All you need to film is someone stepping into the large chamber, paste over some special effects, then pick up in another filming location. Aside from the creative benefits, it also showed the enhanced technological nature of the 23rd century. How it works is fairly […]
That Guy From That Thing: Harris Yulin
Among the many acclaimed guest appearances from all corners of the Star Trek Universe, there are only a small few who gave as deep a performance as Harris Yulin in his sole appearance in the franchise. Taking the spotlight as Aamin Marritza in Deep Space Nine's first season episode Duet, a Cardassian civilian who arrives at Deep Space Nine and raises a massive red flag for Kira when she learns he has a condition that links him to a brutal mining camp that many Bajorans suffered through during the occupation. Yulin is an actor who you may not recognise by name, but you always recognise. Having made his name in the New York theatre scene in the 60's, he quickly established himself as a serious dramatic talent with an incredible command of language, subtly and presence before he'd ever step […]
A Fistful of Justice
Although it's one of the worlds most legendary science fiction shows, Star Trek has always dabbled with format and genre's, all dressed up behind deep space adventures. Whether using the holodeck for a touch of fantasy, or diving into the horrors of war through Deep Space Nine's run, the variety of story telling never seems to fit one mould. But out of all the different tales told in the wonderful world of Starfleet, one that always promises to deliver is the court room drama. This month we're diving into the most captivating of Star Trek's courtroom drama's with a Fistful of Justice! AD ASTRA PER ASPERA Strange New Worlds, Season 2 One of the most modern examples of Strar Trek's court room drama saw Pike's own Number One, Una-Chin Reilly, under court martial for a serious breach of Starfleet regulation […]
Who is The Borg Queen?
Since their first appearance in 1989, the Borg had been an oddly mysterious and chilling antagonist for the Federation. Following their first encounter with the Enterprise-D, an inevitable event accelerated by Q meddling to challenge Picard, the Borg would swiftly make their mark with the first of many attacks on Earth, forcing Starfleet to adapt and change to the new and unexpected threat. A cold, faceless enemy, the Borg are cybernetic beings acting as one collective mind. Spreading through the galaxy trying to find perfection, they absorb anything of value they see into their collective, spreading like a virus and wiping out individuality to become a drone serving their eternal mission. In trying to assimilate the Federation into their collective, the hive created a new leader in Locutus, a human given a unique voice to speak for the Borg and […]
[Q2&A] Fleet Recognition
While SFC's rank system is one of the most obvious form of rewards within Quadrant 2, with members informally given the rank and title for each grade, rank is just one level of recognition within the fleet for out Captains and Fleet Support to highlight a members contributions. While SFC's rank system is one of the most obvious form of rewards within Quadrant 2, with members informally given the rank and title for each grade, rank is just one level of recognition within the fleet for out Captains and Fleet Support to highlight a members contributions. A more common form of recognition are our Commendations and Citations. Having taken various forms over the years, our commendations are the more open of all with four categories – Service, Departmental, Leadership or Special Commendations. Commendations and Special Commendations are the most common […]
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Sixty Year Mission…
It's been a really weird year already for the world of Star Trek fans. We started 2026 with a new venture into a strange new future with Starfleet Academy. Then just as the show had won people over, we found out it's the latest in a long list of recent productions to get a cancellation order, is a bit of a weird way to start the 60th anniversary of a legendary franchise. The past few years we've kind of spoiled. Growing up it was exciting to have Deep Space Nine run alongside the Next Generation. In modern times we had multiple shows going at once with Discovery's launch spawning a new world of story telling from revisiting Picard in his post-Starfleet years, to animated comedy with Lower Decks, to finally telling the story of Captain Pike and even a peek […]
Power of Three: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The To Do List.
It's been a weird kind of year in the Admin office. Between work (real life work and fleet life work), life and now summer holidays, finding time to catch up hasn't been the easiest. Which makes it a bad time to be doing a full review of every single thing in Q2 from the ground up to try and overhaul and improve as much as we can and balance some of the most base Admin tasks there are. So first off, thanks to all who have been patient waiting on me to get back to everyone and for waiting an extra couple of days for changes, updates, application and usually a but longer for replies that – after a bit of a wait – must be incredibly underwhelming! Also thanks to Admiral Arlow who had me randomly dropping by while […]
Beta Quarter Plans and Progress..
Since the 50th anniversary of SFC as a whole, we've been on a mission to revitalise and update several elements of Quadrant 2, working on improving services and experience fleet wide for all members. Following some background changes and a lot of work in the Alpha Quarter behind the scenes, we're moving into the next phase with some more visibility in whats coming next! Balancing life and fleet life is always a trial. All too often things can lapse or take time due to finding that right balance; especially as life now is a little more chaotic than it was ten years ago and the things we'd take in our stride tend to take a little bit longer now. That balance has been on my mind a lot in the past year, particularly in how Q2 has changed and grown […]
Fleet Focus: Location, Location, Location…
Starfleet on screen has always been focused on the visual of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge with locations on each end being used. While various buildings have been added tot he mix including the Tillman Water Reclimnation Centre for it's sci fi appearance, or th eGetty Centre for a more traditional aesthetic, the bridge has always made for a great and recognisable visual for the franchise. There's other reasons, aside from the image, of course. San Fransisco was chosen as thats where the UN Charter was signed, which created a nice link to a unified fleet in the future. The main location for Starfleet Headquarters, which was very nicely refined for Star Trek Picard, is Horsehoe Bay, home of Fort Baker which had been a key port for the United Stated Navy since the early 20th century and now hosts […]
[Admirals Blog] ACME, Tesla & The Great Outdoors….
It's not exactly a secret that since lockdown, there's been a bit of a disconnect for a lot of people. Myself included. It's safe to say between lockdown keeping me tied to a desk job, moving into the middle of nowhere and generally finding a billion and one things to do for Q2, I'd become a bit of a shut in. But after what feels like years of promising to get back outside and rejoin the fun on the ground, Tesla's team convinced me to take a day off and head out on an away mission!
[Admirals Log] Sixty Years & New Frontiers
It's safe to say that the Star Trek Universe has been in a constant state of evolution lately. From the weekend announcements and showcases form SDCC (more on that later this week) to massive shifts in recent years that's saw more than a few new creative directions taken, change has always been key to a long and healthy franchise. As a ridiculously weak transition from that to the Admirals Update, change is just as important for us. Since joining Q2 I've beeen fascinated by the fleet being one of constant evolution and now I'm quite keen to see more change coming as we celebrate a landmark year for us all.
