Star Trek Online is shaping up to be a very interesting title, as it promises to bring quite a lot of innovations to the saturated space-themed MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) market out there. It will focus on the unique story found in the Star Trek universe, and will give players the opportunity to travel to various planets, across different solar systems.

We've already heard people from the development team at Cryptic Studios talk about some of the features found in the game, like combat or the fact that planet exploration will be intertwined with the possibility for the players to be commanders of their own space ship. Now, Craig Zinkievich, an executive producer for this game, revealed quite a few interesting details on its story.

He said that the event would take place after the ones in Star Trek Nemesis, and that the situation in the galaxy would be very volatile, filled with battles for the players. He went on to say that, although quite a lot of characters from the TV series would have retired by then, the team was working on placing some of the actors from the films in the game.

“Star Trek Online begins in 2409, which is about 30 years after the events in Star Trek Nemesis. In that time, technology has advanced, the Klingon Empire and the Federation are no longer allies, and the universe is a much more volatile place. We will be revealing the story of what has happened in the Star Trek Universe leading up to 2409 in a series of updates on our website. As far as the gameplay goes, there is both story-based episodic content within the universe and open-ended exploration content. Most of the major characters have retired or moved on. We’re exploring ways to involve some of the actors from the films and series in the game, but they might not be playing 'their' characters.”

All in all, some very interesting details, which are sure to make quite a lot of Star Trek fans out there very excited about this future game. As of yet, the title has been schduled for release in 2009, but no concrete launch date has been established. Let's just hope that the team at Cryptic will take Star Trek Online where no other space-themed MMO “has been before.”