Valentine’s Day Gift for TSJ — A New Scale Model Kit
It’s AMT 1332M.
Some of you Star Trek fans out there might remember the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Yesterday’s Enterprise from Season 3 in 1990.
It featured time travel, war, a battle-hardened crew, a ghost ship from the Federation’s past — USS Enterprise-C — and of course, Tasha Yar’s return. Yar had died during the show’s first season, but with some great writing rooted in a wonderful SF concept, the Chief of Security returned and played a pivotal role in the show’s narrative. It also featured a solid performance by Christopher McDonald, who we all remember as the baddie from Happy Gilmore a few years later in 1996.
Note the lighting in this episode. It was darker and an obvious metaphor for wartime. But it also was a precursor to the lighting that we see in today’s show Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. This TNG episode looked gritty and compelling. The dim lighting is a sign of Starfleet, which is now steeped in the military, heavy weaponry, and frequent battles. The episode still stands up today. One of the interesting changes is Riker; Jonathan Frakes played him as emotionless and angry; any trace of friendship between he and Picard is nowhere to be seen.
The two guest actors did a wonderful job. It was fantastic seeing Yar again, and McDonald really came across as a Starfleet officer willing to give his life for the greater good.
We also got to see a former Captain of Enterprise:
Captain Rachel Garrett learned a harsh truth about her fate.
Here are some views of the amazing USS Enterprise-C. You can see similarities with both old and new:
The USS Enterprise-C is a nice mix of old and new Starfleet technology. The nacelles are closer to what Enterprise looks like in Picard’s time, but the primary and secondary hulls are reminiscent of TOS. The deflector dish is still circular, and the “neck” has some grooves that we’d been seeing on USS Excelsior, in the TOS film series. The bend in the nacelle pylons is one of the greatest alterations, and their design is close to the Enterprise-D. An obvious difference from TOS is the blue and red lighting on the nacelles, bringing this ship decades forward from that series.
A big thanks to AMT / Round2, who continue to put out fantastic scale model kits from Star Trek. I can’t wait to build this. I’m still working on AMT’s Enterprise refit, but I’ll start on this one soon. Watch this space!
Thank you to Flora for this fantastic gift!
— TSJ, 19 February 2025
Check out my completed scale model kits. I returned to this hobby one year ago after a forty-year absence. Click the logo:
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Praise for Timothy S. Johnston’s A Blanket of Steel
“Fans of Clive Cussler’s NUMA Files will be delighted with Timothy S. Johnston’s undersea novels. Truman McClusky and Dirk Pitt are cut from the same adventurer’s cloth.” — Nick Cutter, author of The Deep and The Troop
“Action that ranges from close range combat to torpedo-fueled attacks. The result is a thriller that keeps moving from confrontation to confrontation … with constant danger and the vast depths of the ocean as a setting, there is always reason to keep reading.” — Kirkus Reviews
“Read the book and prepare to be blown away by one of the best writers I have ever had the pleasure to read. Timothy S. Johnston is simply amazing.” — FIVE Stars from Readers’ Favorite
“A Blanket of Steel is not simply a ‘daring do’ thriller … It’s prescient.” — Amazing Stories
“A priority selection. An action-packed story that is hard to put down. A Blanket of Steel is outstanding.” — D. Donovan, Sr. Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
“Innovative technology, Mac taking risks no one else would dare and thinking his way through to brilliant solutions … But the stakes are higher than they’ve ever been before. This is it. The countdown to the final battle … Johnston does an excellent job of keeping the tension taut as he plays with the reader’s perceptions of characters we thought we knew and trusted …” — SFcrowsnest
“Expect to be left breathless. Trust me here. Please. I COULD NOT PUT IT DOWN.” — Michael Libling, author of The Serial Killer’s Son Takes A Wife and Hollywood North: A Novel in Six Reels
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A BLANKET OF STEEL is out now!
WATCH THE GRIPPING BOOK TRAILER HERE.
FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE
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A Blanket of Steel from Timothy S. Johnston and Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Ltd.
Book Cover & Jacket Copy:
AN UNSTOPPABLE THREAT!
A mysterious assassin has murdered Cliff Sim, Chief Security Officer of the underwater colony, Trieste. Cliff was a mountain of a man, highly trained, and impossible to defeat in combat. And yet …
Someone brutally beat him and left his broken body in a secret Chinese facility at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
And included a calling card for Truman McClusky, Mayor of Trieste.
Taunting him.
Mac has led the underwater colonies in their fight against the world’s superpowers. Climate change has devastated the surface; nations suffer famine, drought, rebellion, rising waters, and apocalyptic coastal flooding. But now, as Mac leads the underwater colonies to freedom and independence, he’s faced with the gravest threat of his life: a Russian assassin, hellbent on killing Mac and everyone he cares for. Now Mac must uncover the identity of the killer, face him in combat, and at the same time lead people in battle against the largest underwater force ever assembled. It’s Mac’s final test, and to win the war, he must use every tool at his disposal, including the most surprising and devastating underwater weapons ever invented.
If Mac fails, all hope is lost for the future of human colonization on the ocean floors.
But the assassin could be anyone …
Watch your back, Mac.
A Blanket of Steel is the most gripping thriller yet in The Rise of Oceania.
FOR PURCHASE OPTIONS CLICK HERE
The other books in The Rise of Oceania series by Timothy S Johnston:
The War Beneath 9781771484718
The Savage Deeps 9781771485067
Fatal Depth 9781554555574
An Island of Light 9781554555819
The Shadow of War 9781554556007
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TSJ’s Awards
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THE WAR BENEATH: FIRST PLACE 2018 GLOBAL THRILLER Action / Adventure Category Winner, 2019 Silver Falchion Award Finalist, 2018 CLUE Award Semi-Finalist, 2019 Kindle Book Awards Semi-Finalist, & 2019 CYGNUS Award Shortlister
THE SAVAGE DEEPS: FIRST PLACE 2020 CYGNUS Award Winner, 2019 GLOBAL THRILLER Awards Finalist, 2022 Kindle Book Awards Semi-Finalist; 2019 CLUE Award Shortlister
FATAL DEPTH: FIRST PLACE 2021 GLOBAL THRILLER Award Winner, 2022 Silver Falchion Award Finalist (Best Action Adventure), 2021 CYGNUS Award Semi-Finalist
Praise for THE WAR BENEATH
“If you’re looking for a techno-thriller combining Ian Fleming, Tom Clancy and John Le Carré, The War Beneath will satisfy … a ripping good yarn, a genuine page-turner.” — Amazing Stories
“One very riveting, intelligent read!” — Readers’ Favorite
“If you like novels like The Hunt for Red October and Red Storm Rising,
you will certainly enjoy The War Beneath.” — A Thrill A Week
“If you’re here for thrills, the book will deliver.” — The Cambridge Geek
“… an engaging world that is highly believable …” — The Future Fire
“This is a tense, gripping science fiction/thriller of which Tom Clancy might well be proud . . . When I say it is gripping, that is the simple truth.” — Ardath Mayhar
“… a thrill ride from beginning to end …” — SFcrowsnest
“… if you like Clancy and le Carré with a hint of Forsyth thrown in,
you’ll love The War Beneath.” — Colonel Jonathan P. Brazee (RET),
2017 Nebula Award & 2018 Dragon Award Finalist
“Fast-paced, good old-fashioned Cold War espionage … a great escape!” — The Minerva Reader
