Mat Bradley-Tschirgi is an American author best known for his books on pop culture, specifically video games and film. His latest book is Star Trek Video Games: An Unofficial Guide to the Final Frontier.
STARBURST: How would you pitch Star Trek Video Games: An Unofficial Guide to the Final Frontier to a younger relative who really likes Halo?
Mat Bradley-Tschirg: A long time ago, there were video games based on movies and TV shows. Star Trek had more video games than just about any movie or TV franchise, barring Star Wars. In fact, Halo takes a lot of inspiration from Star Trek, so by reading my book Star Trek Video Games, you can see how the older games inspired some of the plots and game mechanics later found in Halo, so it could be fun to connect the dots.
And how would you pitch it to a die-hard fan of Star Trek The Animated Series?
Star Trek: The Animated Series is a kind of underdog of all the Star Trek series. In my book, you can read about all sorts of video games based on Star Trek video games and movies, even the underdogs! While there hasn’t been a game solely based on The Animated Series, a few of the more modern games make reference to it.
Why Star Trek Video Games?
A while back, the site Good Old Games made a handful of classic Star Trek PC games for sale. They must have done well because another wave of them were made available the next year or so. As I pondered their available catalogue, I wondered why so many of the Star Trek games went unreleased, which led me in a roundabout way to pitching Star Trek Video Games to White Owl Books.
What one thing defines a good Star Trek video game?
A good Star Trek video game focuses on the ship’s crew working together to achieve a common goal. It isn’t about sending swarms of ships to attack the Borg or shooting phasers at Klingons; it’s about the crew helping each other as a whole to complete a common goal and, ideally, having ethical dilemmas along the way.
Why are there so many Star Trek-themed games? What about games that don’t have the license but feel very Star Trek? Why are they so popular?
Star Trek is a series with a large variety of characters (human and alien), planets, and storylines, so there are a lot of rich scenarios that can be explored in video games. A lot of games that don’t have the licence can still feel very Star Trek – Mass Effect or Masters of Orion come to mind – because of the focus on exploration combined with quirky characters.
What is the appeal of Star Trek? Why does it keep coming back?
Star Trek has so many different personalities among its crew members that it’s easy for everyone to have a favourite Star Trek character they can latch onto. The storylines tend to mirror the culture shifts and politics of when they were originally written, so they tend to be a product of their time, which is a large part of why fans keep coming back to the franchise.
Are all Trekkies also video game fans?
Not all Trekkies are video game fans, although most are probably aware of the video games in some fashion because of how long they’ve been around for!
What does your ideal Star Trek game look like?
The ideal Star Trek game is pretty close to one of the newer ones, Star Trek: Resurgence, because it combines piloting a ship in space, making ethical choices, solving puzzles, and interacting with your crew on the bridge. They did a great job balancing the action and stealth sequences to not be too difficult for those wanting to focus on the story!
What book are you working on next?
I’m under non-disclosure agreements, so I can’t specifically reveal what I’m working on next. That being said, one of the books I am working on is focused on a popular video game franchise that mixes elements of fantasy and science fiction.
Simpsons or Futurama?
I think The Simpsons is consistently a better show than Futurama, although Futurama is often more clever with its plots.
Picard or Kirk?
Kirk, but he was my first. It’s a bit like Saturday Night Live, your favourite crew tends to be whichever one you watched to begin with.
Truth or Beauty?
Truth, although it can be difficult to ascertain at times. The late producer Robert Evans put it best: “There are three sides to every story: Your side, my side, and the truth!”
You can order Star Trek Video Games: An Unofficial Guide to the Final Frontier here.
