I really don’t have a lot of things to talk about, but I mentally composed some concept posts over the past few days. Rather than devote entire posts to each topic, I threw them into the Grab Bag, shook them up, and dumped them on your kitchen table. Sorry about the mess.

Star Trek Continues

I was out walking through the Internet the other day and snagged my foot on a Federation-shaped rock which tipped me into a rabbit hole of fan-created productions of Star Trek. I had no idea there were so damn many of them out there. I am aware of the Axanar project (and it’s dogged legal issues) and have seen a smattering of other projects here and there, but Star Trek Continues is to TOS what Axanar wants to be to TNG. Watching the first of 11, one hour-ish episodes, I was blown away by how spot on the STC production is. The sets, the lighting, the camera work…even the textiles used to make the pillow for the bed in sick bay! All done circa 2014 or so with 2014 technology and techniques. I find it hard to believe that they didn’t find a surviving cache of TOS props and sets in a warehouse somewhere, but otherwise someone has been mainlining TOS minutiae and it shows.

The Achilles Heel (appropriate considering the first episode) is the acting, which is passable, but can be distracting. By today’s standards, the TOS crew’s own acting chops may seem a little campy, but I think we can blame the relative production values of the times for that; here, the cast isn’t done any favors by trying to fill iconic roles that are painfully synonymous with Shatner, Nimoy, Doohan, Nichols et al. (though James Doohan’s son Chris plays Scotty in this treatment, so there’s that). Whereas the stand-ins we see in Strange New Worlds are making the characters their own, the cast of STC are trying a wee bit too hard to mimic the TOS actors which might be forgiven as STC is meant to pick up immediately after the last episode of The Original Series.

Aside from nailing the look and feel of TOS, I was blown away by how many recognizable actors are involved in this production. Marina Sirtis is the voice of the Enterprise this time around. Jamie Bamber (Apollo from the BSG reboot) has a small but ignoble part in the first episode. Looking down the cast list on IMDB, I see Michael Dorn (TNG), Cas Anvar (The Expanse), Erin Gray (Buck Rogers), Colin Baker (Doctor Who), Gigi Edgley (Farscape), John de Lancie (TNG), Rekha Sharma (BSG), Jason Isaacs (Star Trek Discovery), and Lou Ferrigno (The Incredible Hulk), among others I’d probably recognize if I recognized them. Putting the “Continues” in STC in the very first episode, though, is the return of Michael Forest, reprising his role of Apollo from the Original Series episode “Who Mourns for Adonais?” which is a very nice touch and starts the series out with a bang of respectability.

What I’m wondering is how this production skirted the issues that Axanar ran into. STC is literally picking up the torch where it was dropped. My friend @Mindstrike says that Axanar was trying to set up a whole production company using Viacom/Paramount’s IP, so that might have something to do with it, but there are still questions that remain unanswered to my satisfaction.

Hytale

Hytale seems like a relative success story in an era where most video game business news is absolute shit. Originally created as a Minecraft server called Hypixel, the developers split from Minecraft to create their own, stand alone game, and a few years later the whole package (game and devs) was purchased by Riot. Unfortunately, due to the usual stumbling-blocks we see in software development (cost overrun, delays, protracted development, etc), Riot closed the project and laid off the developers. Down but not out, original founder of Hypixel Simon Collins-Laflamme successfully reacquired both the IP and assets for the game, rehired many of the original developers, and just yesterday (Jan 13, 2026), released Hytale in early access. Whew!

Kudos to the Hytale team, but at the risk of sounding dismissive in their moment of triumph, this is basically a new Minecraft-like in 2026. Everything old becomes new again, eventually, and there seems to be a steady stream of voxel-breaking Cubist fans out there, so I do wish Hytale well. In my limited time with the game, I find it to be a very competent Minecraft-alike which does not surprise me considering the game’s pedigree.

There’s block breaking, tool crafting, and cave delving within the first 15 minutes, as all good Minecraft-likes are wont to do. The early game takes only a few minor liberties with the tested Minecraft formula, such as requiring a “builder workbench” to create walls, doors, windows, stairs, and other house-construction parts rather than opt for a single, monolithic workbench that uses configuration of materials that determine the item build, but Hytale’s approach seems more about bridging the gap between other survivalbox construction titles than it is breaking new ground in the Minecraft-like realm.

If there’s one thing that Hytale has going for it out of the box it’s that it’s leaning more towards modern interpretations of “survivalbox” than Minecraft does. If you’ve ever played games like ARK, Valheim, or Dune: Awakening, then you’re probably familiar with the multiplayer options. Hytale can be hosted locally through the client, set up as a self-hosted stand-alone, or hosted by a third party service like g-Portal (who messaged me yesterday saying Hytale servers are available for rent). This makes it easy to create a scalable survivalbox for you and yours, which is a nice perk considering how much of a pain in the ass setting up a Minecraft multiplayer server can still be in 2026 (my daughter is always pinging me for help in doing just this, so I told her to rent a server and be done with it).

I’m not meaning to be down on Hytale. I am only less than an hour into the game and it’s pretty smooth for an early access title with a rocky history. I see signs of advanced features in the future, though, and there is support for mods through Curseforge right now. One interesting footnote is that the early access is not available through Steam, only through the official Hytale site. Some people will probably complain about this, but in a way it’s a genius move. Steam’s discussions forums are often a cesspool and “review bombing” by bad-faith actors is real, so I applaud Hytale for striking out on its own and fully expect them to offer Steam keys to early access adopters once the game approaches a 1.0 release.

Star Citizen

I’m still trying to play Star Citizen while under a cloud of ennui about it. While it feels forced every time I log in, it also feels like part of my dissatisfaction is the amount of time it takes to get anything done.

Case in point. I’m still trying to make a go of mining, considering the upcoming event in 4.6 and the eventual introduction of crafting. To get back into the swing of things, I’ve been trying ship mining (more miss than hit) and, more recently, ground mining. The Greycat ROC is a disaster, with the mining beam not aligning with the targeting reticle, meaning I can’t monitor progress and make progress at the same time which can lead to literal disaster. The ATLS-GEO works better, but has a low capacity hopper which, thankfully, can be removed, but that means I need a steady stream of backup crates to swap in when the hopper is full.

The other day I had spent a lot of time and aUEC putting together a mining expedition. I bought some crates, realized they were the wrong crates, and had to buy the ones that worked with the GEO. This required me to visit a different location to purchase them. I also had to ditch the ROC as it was ineffective, and opted to take the Mule, another ground vehicle, to carry the GEO crates while I worked. I got the GEO, the crates, and the Mule loaded into my MSR (an operation which is a complete circus in and of itself), and headed out to Lyria to find some deposits. Most of what I found were hand-mineable, which meant that the GEO was overpowered, but through careful application of the fracturing beam, I was able to collect four crates of various minerals. I had no idea if they were valuable enough to make the trip worthwhile as prices are kind of in flux these days, and that makes it difficult for third party tracking sites to keep up.

On my way back to the station, however, I jumped to an OM (orbital marker) point on my way to reach the other side of the planet, and just as I exited from the quantum jump at OM4 around ArcCorp, I rammed into another ship that had parked itself there. I was partly to blame, as I started flying immediately after exiting quantum, but in my defense the ship only popped in after I had throttled up. Thanks desync! At this point all I could do was watch my GEO, Mule, and crates of minerals float away through space, right before I woke up at my home hospital.

It’s alpha, meaning that all of this work is ephemeral anyway (there are rumors of a wholesale character wipe at some point, which hasn’t happened in years) so I’m not mad about losing the minerals or the vehicles. I’m annoyed at how long it takes to get things to a ready state though. Yesterday, I started again. I had to file insurance claims on the MSR and the GEO (I omitted the Mule this time), and then had to head up to the LEO station to get replacement GEO crates. @Mindstrike tagged along for this run, testing the ROC to verify that it’s issues are endemic and not just limited to my incompetence with the vehicle. I filled up another four crates, and this time managed to get back to the station safely. Tonight, I will transfer those four crates into a single box, and take that to another location for sale. Even if I don’t break the bank with the proceeds, I’m feeling pretty comfortable again with the mining system at this point.