By Chris Snellgrove
| Updated 23 seconds ago

Over on Red Letter Media, Mike Stoklassa once expressed an interesting theory: that Star Trek: The Original Series was more of a horror show than anything else. After all, exploring those strange new worlds often came at a price, with Red Shirts getting killed left and right by some of the scariest monsters in the entire galaxy. Later iterations of the franchise leaned into the idea of Trek as horror, including turning an entire movie, First Contact, into an Aliens homage. Now, even though no new Trek series is currently in production, the franchise is about to embrace horror like never before.

This week, Bloober Team and the Paramount Games Division announced an exciting new video game called Star Trek: Shadow Frontier. It’s a survival horror game where you take control of a Starfleet officer who crashes onto an alien planet and must safely navigate its frightening and often lethal environment. That officer is Ro Laren, the rebellious Bajoran officer from The Next Generation. Ro actor Michelle Forbes once turned down the chance to star in Deep Space Nine and only returned decades later for a brief appearance in Picard. But now, after more than 30 years since she left TNG, she’s ready to take her rightful place as Star Trek’s latest leading lady.

Ro, Ro, Ro, Your Boat

What do we know about Star Trek: Shadow Frontier? In an interview with IGN, Bloober Team’s Michał Gembicki said that Ro Laren crashes on a planet that serves as “a graveyard for ships,” and she must “figure out what happened there and why is there so much wreckage.” The game is designed as a psychological thriller, and a big part of that has to do with this planet’s biggest secret: namely, there is some kind of entity that has taken control of it! 

According to Bloober and Paramount, this is a “distant planet overtaken by a strange consciousness,” and “the more [Ro Laren] uncovers, the deeper she is pulled into a corrupted labyrinth where her memories twist, and the planet threatens to sever her connection to reality.” Figuring out this planet’s deal becomes more personal to her over the course of the game. “Only by solving the mysteries of this strange world can Ro hope to make peace with the demons of her past, boldly going into the heart of darkness like never before.” It’s unknown when this game takes place, but the presence of a TNG-era communicator indicates it may take place before Star Trek: Generations.

Star Trek Meets Resident Evil

Right now, Star Trek is getting a steady influx of new video games, including the recent Star Trek: Voyager–Across the Unknown. While we have no way of knowing if Star Trek: Shadow Frontier will be any good (it doesn’t come out until 2027), fans are already hyped because Michelle Forbes will be reprising her role as Ro Laren, the main character. Ensign Ro was introduced into The Next Generation in Season 5 as an ensign with a rough past and a chip on her shoulder; she left in Season 7 after joining the Maquis, a group she was sent to infiltrate. She popped back up in Picard, where it was revealed she had rejoined Starfleet.

One reason older fans like myself are hyped to see Michelle Forbes return is that she was originally meant to have a much larger role in the franchise. She helped to popularize the Bajorans on The Next Generation, and Star Trek’s producers wanted to bring Ro Laren to Deep Space Nine as a main character. However, Forbes didn’t want to commit over half a decade to one job (and the rest of her life to fan conventions), so she declined the offer. This led to Nana Visitor getting cast as a different Bajoran with a sketchy past and a chip on her shoulder: Major Kira.

Somehow, Ro Returned

For decades, most assumed we’d never see Forbes in Star Trek again. To everyone’s shock, she popped up in Picard as a Starfleet Intelligence officer, one who tried to warn Picard about Changeling infiltration of Starfleet before she was killed by the very shapeshifters she had been investigating. We don’t get much information about how she was rehabilitated and ultimately brought back into Starfleet, but that Picard episode (“Impostor”) establishes that she always felt guilt for leaving Picard and the Enterprise crew. It’s very likely that Star Trek: Shadow Frontier will explore that guilt and possibly contextualize how and why Ro ultimately left the Maquis and returned to the Starfleet fold.

Star Trek: Shadow Frontier is coming out sometime in 2027 and will be released on Windows PC and all major consoles. We’re likely to get more information on this game in the coming months, but it’s already made a splash: the trailer is moody and atmospheric, and many fans are excited to see this sci-fi franchise’s take on survival horror. Mostly, though, we’re hyped to see the return of Michelle Forbes, one of the greatest actors in the franchise. Just what happened to Ro Laren between Next Generation and Picard? There’s only one way to find out, so be sure to set your controllers on stun when this game releases next year!

Today’s NYT Strands hints are easy if you’re good with computers.

Strands, the New York Times‘ elevated word-search game, requires the player to perform a twist on the classic word search. Words can be made from linked letters — up, down, left, right, or diagonal, but words can also change direction, resulting in quirky shapes and patterns. Every single letter in the grid will be part of an answer. There’s always a theme linking every solution, along with the “spangram,” a special, word or phrase that sums up that day’s theme, and spans the entire grid horizontally or vertically.

By providing an opaque hint and not providing the word list, Strands creates a brain-teasing game that takes a little longer to play than its other games, like Wordle and Connections.

If you’re feeling stuck or just don’t have 10 or more minutes to figure out today’s puzzle, we’ve got all the NYT Strands hints for today’s puzzle you need to progress at your preferred pace.

NYT Strands hint for today’s theme: Something just clicked

The words are related to computers.

Today’s NYT Strands theme plainly explained

These words describe computer saves.

NYT Strands spangram hint: Is it vertical or horizontal?

Today’s NYT Strands spangram is vertical.

Meet The Mashable 101: Our list of the content creators shaping the internet today

NYT Strands spangram answer today

Today’s spangram is Download.

NYT Strands word list for June 10

• File

• Software

• Document

• Download

• Photo

• Application

• Song

Looking for other daily online games? Mashable’s Games page has more hints, and if you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now!

Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.

Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Strands.

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 5 seconds ago

I spend a lot of time dunking on Star Wars. Accordingly, many people think I’m just a hater who loves to see this iconic franchise fail. In reality, the opposite is true: I have loved Star Wars for almost my entire life, and I’d love nothing more than to see it succeed. However, under Disney’s stewardship, the franchise has had quite a few critical and commercial missteps, so now I love Star Wars the same way you love the drunk uncle that slurs his way through Thanksgiving get-togethers. You know, the one who’s fun to talk to, but you’d secretly like him to put down the sauce and get his life together.

Your uncle is deeply unlikely to put himself together anytime soon, but it might not be too late for Star Wars. You see, Disney doesn’t need to reinvent the franchise from the ground up; instead, they just need to release one really great movie to remind audiences how great this franchise can be. Unfortunately, The Mandalorian and Grogu didn’t scratch that particular itch, and many fans decided they wanted something more from Star Wars than a spinoff of an outdated show. That’s why the House of Mouse needs to bring back the one canceled movie that can finally save this franchise: Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron.

Going Rogue

In The Empire Strikes Back, we learn that Luke Skywalker is the commander of Rogue Squadron. The exploits of these pilots (who are basically the best X-Wing pilots in the galaxy) and their new leader, Wedge Antilles, were recorded in some excellent Legends books by Michael Stackpole. In December 2020, Lucasfilm revealed that Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins would be directing a Rogue Squadron movie. Eventually, Jenkins left the project because she wanted to focus on other films, and the project seemingly died, though Jenkins later revealed that she signed a new deal to write the script for this X-Wing movie. However, there have been no real updates since then.

Given its name and its post-The Rise of Skywalker setting (something Jenkins’ film was supposed to have), most fans assume that Disney dropped Rogue Squadron in favor of Star Wars: Starfighter. However, it’s unclear how well Starfighter will go over with audiences because its rumored plot (about a grizzled pilot escorting a Force-sensitive child through dangerous space) is so similar to The Mandalorian and Grogu, a movie that is (by Star Wars standards) flailing at the box office. Fortunately, it’s not too late for this franchise to get back its former glory. All Disney has to do is bring Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron film (which now has a completed script) to life.

You’re All Clear, Kid

Why am I convinced that Rogue Squadron would be a hit Star Wars film for Disney? While its exact plot details have been kept secret, it’s clear that in commissioning a movie about starfighter pilots, Disney wanted to have their own Top Gun in space. As it turns out, that was a fairly good instinct. When Tom Cruise returned for the belated sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, it earned over $1.5 billion, which is why Top Gun 3 is now in development. As it turns out, general audiences love the combination of sexy pilots and cool dogfights, and Rogue Squadron would be an easy way for Disney to get a piece of the action.

If done well, a Rogue Squadron movie would also help channel what originally made The Mandalorian so cool. Remember how hyped everyone was for that show when it first came out? A big part of the show’s early appeal is that it was free of Jedi and Sith drama and generally untethered from the various Star Wars trilogies. Eventually, it got bogged down with connections to other franchise shows and films, and the hype for Baby Yoda died, which is part of why The Mandalorian and Grogu fizzled at the box office. But a Rogue Squadron movie could deliver what The Mandalorian used to have: entirely new characters and adventures set in a galaxy far, far away.

Stay On Target

Finally, Rogue Squadron would be the perfect way to bring the franchise back to its roots. If you ask people what their favorite part of the first Star Wars movie is, it’s a safe bet they’ll say the attack on the Death Star. Pilots saving the galaxy through death-defying maneuvers is, quite frankly, what made the entire world fall in love with A New Hope, and one of the only weaknesses of that film is that we hardly knew any of the pilots. Rogue Squadron could finally shine a spotlight on these lesser-known heroes of the rebellion while giving us more of the coolest dogfights in the galaxy.

Unless the Force is with us, it’s unlikely that Rogue Squadron will see the light of day, and it might go down as the only Star Wars movie that got canceled twice. But the script is written, and Patty Jenkins still seems enthusiastic about directing it. All Disney has to do is give the green light to the most exciting franchise film idea of the last decade. If they wait until Starfighter bombs, though, they might have to send the director a personalized holographic message: “Help me, Patty Jenkins, you’re my only hope!”