Star Trek Online to Offer "Thousands" of Races

— -- Star Trek hasn't boldly gone where no one's gone before since the show nixed miniskirts and found William Shatner a waterproof toupee. Color me skeptical about Star Trek Online, then, except for the part where it's being developed by the folks responsible for City of Heroes and that surprisingly cool MMO's villainous companion piece.

Cryptic Studios talked up the game at New York Comic Con this weekend, noting it'll be set post-Star Trek Nemesis in the year 2409. Think "in the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war," but less "WAAAGH!" and more "KHHHHAAAAAAAAN!"

What, you were expecting a peaceable, well-mannered trekkie-verse?

According to Executive Producer Craig Zinkievich, war is actually on the verge of breaking out everywhere, as something "dark" and "ancient" is threatening the Alpha Quadrant (home to the Federation and Cardassians). Your role? An officer in either Star Fleet or the Klingon Defense Force, captain and pilot of your very own customizable starship.

The game includes both space-bound ship-to-ship skirmishing as well as ground-based planetary exploration, replete with transporters and phasers and probably even tricorders. Yes, you can square off against the Borg, and judging from this gameplay video, even board enemy ships.

The big news out of NYCC? The game's race creator, teased in the following video.

Honestly? Do-it-yourself race creation with "literally thousands of combinations available" makes me nervous. Even if recent scientific speculation estimates there could be upwards of 37,964 intelligent forms of life in our galaxy, how do you even begin to explain away the possibility (assuming the game's successful, of course) of Star Trek Online's hypothetical in-game millions?

Matt Peckham still thinks Kirk takes Picard in a showdown with lirpas. You can follow him at twitter.com/game_on.