October 22, 2026
Star Trek Online has grown massively since 2010, but as a long-time player, my favorite updates are always the remasters. There is something incredibly refreshing about replaying classic episodes with updated visuals, new voiceovers, and expanded lore. The latest of these, City On The Edge of Never, is a phenomenal callback to The Original Series. Warning, spoilers ahead.
Immediately upon landing on the planet and just walking around, the story feels entirely different. The planet itself looks amazing with all the ruins. We fight Klingons who are trying to stop us, and come across a PADD from Miral Paris with a message from the past. If memory serves, the very first version of Miral Paris in STO was a scared girl who didn’t want to embrace her destiny as Kuvah’magh. Now she’s telling us what to do, a great testament to her parents’ personalities.
Obviously the title of the episode alludes to the TOS episode “The City on the Edge of Forever” in which Kirk and crew meet the Guardian, a sort of living time traveling portal. While the Guardian appeared in the original show, we never saw it act quite like this. It is truly formidable here! Did you hear him? “Time may bend to you, but it bows to me.” Yes sir! It’s also interesting how the Guardian continues to help us throughout the episode, a departure from what we saw in TOS but a welcome change to serve this story.
The Guardian sends us to Drozana station in the past, in which many early episodes of STO take place. Here we meet Miral Paris voiced by Lisa LoCicero, a young B’vat voiced by Jon St. John, and none other than Lieutenant Spock voiced by Ethan Peck (indicating this episode takes place sometime during Strange New Worlds). This is a great lineup of voice actors!
Officially my character is Vulcan, but I consider him to be a Vulcan-Human like Spock. So seeing my character mind meld with the greatest Vulcan of all time was exciting. I think it's also really cool that Spock recognized I’m a Vulcan when I talked to him. We never had anything like this early on and I always thought it was a little odd that our character’s species never played a part in the story.
What I like about this episode is the tie-ins to Strange New Worlds while on Drozana. I have to say that the team at Cryptic do an excellent job of bringing in lore from the shows (old and new) and tying them into this game, making it feel like we’re really part of the Star Trek universe. This is true across the entirety of STO. It can be its own thing, but also include elements which make it feel like an ever expanding universe.
The team at Cryptic did an excellent job remastering this old episode into something new and amazing. The cutscenes add new depth. The length of the episode was just right with the perfect balance of story and combat. At one point in the episode it gives us control over Miral Paris and Lieutenant Spock, while not a new gameplay mechanic, it at least gives us the opportunity to be a part of the story rather than just a side character waiting for something to happen.
It wouldn’t be a time travel episode if we didn’t do a few time hops thanks to the Guardian. After Drozana we are transported to Kirk’s time aboard the Enterprise, where Spock is now a Commander. Anytime we get Leonard Nimoy as the voice of Spock brings a smile to my face. I love how they continue to use archived audio to bring one of the most beloved Star Trek actors and characters to life. Sure, other voice actors reprise their roles as well, but Leonard Nimoy is one of the first actors who transported us into these strange new worlds, paving the way for the game we’re all playing today. There’s just something special about having this pioneer along for the ride with us.
Not only do we see Spock as a Commander, but we also get to see him after “The Voyage Home” where he is now Captain of the Enterprise. The time jumps are fun to see Spock at three points of his career, all in an attempt to track down B’Vat from our time and stop him from altering history. Captain Spock is voiced by Piotr Michael who does an excellent job. I can barely tell the difference and am shocked how close his voice sounds to Leonard Nimoy.
I remember when Leonard Nimoy passed away in 2015. It was the 5th year anniversary of Star Trek Online and we all heard the news. At the time, the STO Academy fleet in the game was extremely active and a bunch of us visited Vulcan to honor him and his legacy. That was truly a touching moment.
Playing this episode made me feel a bit nostalgic. It would be fun if there was a feature to replay the older versions of these episodes as well. An “alternate reality” mode perhaps? Just as a way to let us older players who have been with STO from the beginning recapture that nostalgia. It would even showcase to newer players how far this game has come since 2010. In the Episodes screen, after the first playthrough of an episode is complete, we could be shown the option to play older versions of that episode. Maybe even with special rewards for completing them.
If nothing else, this episode is a great tribute to the legacy of Spock and all the actors who have brought this beloved character to life. The needs of the many may outweigh the needs of the few or the one, but in Spock’s case, the legacy of the one is immortalized by the efforts of the many.