TREKCORE > GAMING > STAR TREK INVASION > References, Gags & In-jokes

References, Gags & In-jokes
Written by J.Swallow

Throughout the storyline of Star Trek Invasion, references and elements from the Star Trek universe crop up here and there, as well as a few subtle in-jokes and gags; here's some notes on some you may have missed…

The title of the game went through a few alterations before the final choice - the original working title was Red Squad, taking its name from the Starfleet elite cadet group seen in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode 'Paradise Lost'. I personally thought this was best moniker, but Activision felt it was too similar to the Star Wars game Rogue Squadron, and wanted something else. Other contenders were Nemesis (later to become the title of the tenth Star Trek movie) and Valkyrie, before Activision finally settled on Invasion. At the time, I pointed out that Star Trek Invasion was very similar to Star Trek: Invasion!, the collective title for a four-volume series of Trek novels published in 1996, but Activision were quite happy to have a name virtually identical to another licenced property, as long as it wasn't a Star Wars one.

Captain Blackwood's Oberth-class starship seen briefly during the introduction sequence was originally nicknamed the U.S.S. Develop, as no-one knew what to call it! In the final draft, I named it the Lovell, after the Apollo 13 astronaut James Lovell; this keeps with the tradition of naming Oberth-class ships in Star Trek after space pioneers. The intro also mentions the Phoenix Cluster, from the Star Trek : The Next Generation episode 'The Game'.

The opening of the game also unveils the two main starships in the game, the U.S.S. Typhon NX-85808 and the Valkyrie-class fighter. The Typhon, named after the Greek god of chaos, was devised as a contemporary to DS9's Defiant, a one-off prototype warship that was built to beat the Borg after the battle of Wolf 359. Inspired by definitely non-Trek starships such as the Rodger Young from Starship Troopers and Alien's Nostromo, it is a combination flying fortress/carrier vessel, pressed into service in the wake of the Dominion War. Still, I never did get a good explanation from the producer why it was that the Typhon was being towed by the Enterprise as the game begins…

For the most part, the player pilots the fighters, and a squadron of twenty-six Valkyries are based aboard the Typhon. The similarity between their sleek fuselage and Data's scoutship from Star Trek Insurrection is clear. In fact, there are five variants on the Valkyrie hull; the basic Orcus type; the mark two heavyweight Valor gunship type; the mark three version, which uses the biorganic technology of the alien Kam'Jahtae in its design; the Scarab, styled after the Defiant-class starship; and the Griphon, styled after the Saber-class starship from Star Trek: First Contact.

First seen during mission 1, the U.S.S. Sentinel, the troublesome Sovereign-class ship that sets the whole Invasion plotline in motion, was originally named the Encounter, but the name was a little too similar to Enterprise and I felt it just wasn't Trek-ish enough. The Sentinel is notable because of the black trim on its primary hull and modified 'transpatial' warp engines, which helped to differentiate it in the game from the U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-E. The Sentinel is mentioned (although never seen) in the ST: DS9 episode 'Treachery, Faith and the Great River', when Ensign Nog trades a phaser emitter for one of its graviton stablizers. Her captain, Marcus Brennan, was concieved as an older version of actor Malcolm McDowell with a 'Bruce Willis' haircut and 'Ahab'-style goatee beard!

During mission 1A, Picard mentions a Starfleet taskforce assembling in Sector 3-0, an area visited by the Enterprise-D in an episode called 'The Neutral Zone'. If you fail to complete mission 1B, Worf admonishes you with the words "This is not a rogue squadron, Ensign!", which is a gentle poke at Star Trek Invasion's rival space shoot-em-up, Star Wars: Rogue Squadron.

The team at Warthog wanted to throw as many alien adversaries as they could into Invasion, which is why some missions take you up against the Romulans, the Klingons and of course, the Borg. In order to create a scaled threat to the smaller Valkyrie ships, Invasion introduces fighter-class vessels for all three races; my personal favourites are the nifty bat-winged Klingon strike craft and the conical Borg attack ships, which were nicknamed 'piercing units' by the designers.

Mission 2, Unusual Suspects is of course a nod to the excellent crime thriller The Usual Suspects. At the close of the events, the Romulan captain you defeat mentions "the Treaty of Algeron", which is established in the ST: TNG episode 'The Pegasus' as the agreement that stopped the Federation-Romulan war.

The Cardassians in mission 2A are on the run from Outpost Sierra IV, a Federation base mentioned in the ST: TNG episode 'The Defector'. As Invasion is set after the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the Cardassian commander's mention of "..the Obsidian Order…rising from the ashes of Cardassia…" hints that the Cardassian secret police were not wiped out by the Dominion.

Mission 5A, The Infernal Machine, takes its name from the PC game Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine, which was very popular with both me and with the programmers at Warthog during the development of Invasion.

In Mission 5B, the organic starship Gomtuu returns from his apperance in the ST: TNG episode 'Tin Man'. We never got the chance to mention what happened to his Betazoid passenger Tam Elbrun though; I reckon the Kam'Jahtae tied him up and trapped him Gomtuu's colon for the duration.

The Klingon captain encountered in mission 6 addresses Worf as "ambassador", establishing that Invasion takes place after he took up that job, after leaving Deep Space Nine. The game assumes that Starfleet have temporarily re-activated Worf's Starfleet commission to take command of the Typhon's mission.

Mission 7 contains mentions of the Federation Science Council, first described in the ST: TNG episode 'Force of Nature'. This part of the game also includes the discovery of particle traces from the Gamma Quadrant on the enemy Kam'Jahtae ships, hinting at the revelation of their true origins to come in mission 14.

The ill-fated U.S.S. Discovery in mission 6 is a Steamrunner-class starship, a type first seen in the movie Star Trek: First Contact; her lucky survivors (you did rescue them all, right?) are to be picked up by the U.S.S. Excalibur at the mission's end, a ship that's gained notoriety in the Star Trek: New Frontier series of novels. The stricken vessel is close to planet Lycosa, which of course is home to the Lycosa tarantula, a breed of big, hairy spider that Chief Miles O'Brien keeps as a pet.

Mission 9 featured a few changes before it was finally locked down; originally, the pirates you face would have been Orions, but the game licence only covered races that had appeared on Star Trek: The Next Generation, so I made them Nausicaan radiers - the nasty fellows who once stabbed a young Jean-Luc Picard through the heart. Keen-eyed players will notice the raider fighters are actually Jem'Hadar warships, flying backwards! During the early development of Invasion, Warthog had built the CG models in hope of using the Dominion's shock troopers as the main villains, but the licencing agreement precluded it. The models were recoloured, reoriented and used here instead - something that often happens on the real Star Trek shows. This mission also features a Cardassian space station that bares a passing resemblence to Deep Space Nine.

The parasites that attack your ship in mission 10 are hanging out near the Merkoria Quasar, a stellar object once studied by the crew of the Enterprise-D.

One of the minerals the mining facility in mission 10B is refining is uridium, an ore that the Cardassians used to process on space station Terok Nor during the occupation of Bajor.

The Borg device you must steal in mission 13 is a transwarp coil, a piece of kit that Captain Kathryn Janeway's crew also pilfer during the later seasons of Star Trek: Voyager.

Mission 13C mentions Federation Starbase 212, a facility close to the Klingon border referred to in the ST: TNG episode 'Aquiel'.

The main villains are revealed in mission 14 as the Hur'q, a species who kicked the Klingon's collective asses in their early history. Described but never seen on screen in the ST: DS9 episode "The Sword of Kahless", the Hur'q were known to have vanished into the Gamma Quadrant, where the backstory for Star Trek Invasion picked them up. The Hur'q and Kam'Jahtae's insectile physiology were based partly on army ants and the armour of the samurai.

The metaphasic sheilds used in mission 14A were originally developed by Doctor Reyga, a Ferengi scientist, in the ST: TNG episode 'Suspicions'.

Mission 15, The Sentinel Returns, also takes its name from a PC game that was often played by the Warthog staff.