It’s been a wild week for Star Trek. We have plot rumors, potential casting news, conventions, a new novel, new figures, news on a former Klingon child star, Edward Gorey’s take on tribbles, a military holodeck, and much more.
Star Trek(2008):
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TrekMovie.com announced Wednesday that actress Zoë Saldaña has been offered the role of Uhura in the new film.
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Ain’t It Cool News posted what is rumored to be the plot for the film. CHUD subsequently claimed to have “100% confirmed” that plot.
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Zachary Quinto is practicing his characterization of Spock on the set of Heroes – and is still practicing his Vulcan salute. Regardless, he believes he is fully prepared to play Spock.
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and in the same report Quinto’s his co-star James Kyson Lee is playing coy on if he is in the running for the part of Sulu
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According to The Toronto Star, Quinto is contracted to star in two more Star Trek films after this one.
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Anton Yelchin spoke out for the first time on playing Pavel Chekov in the new film – and revealed that his audition required him to say “nuclear vessel.”
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The Daily Record reported that comic Scottish actor Greg Hemphill has auditioned for the role of Scotty and is said to have a “big chance” of landing the role.
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William Shatner still isn’t in the movie.
Trek merchandise:
- J.M. Dillard’s latest Star Trek: The Next Generation novel, Resistance, was Resistance (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
published this week from Pocket Books.
- Diamond Select Toys & Collectibles announced that figures of Chief O’Brien, Ro Laren, Nurse Ogawa, and Doctor Crusher from Nemesis will be released as their TNG Series 5 line. This week, however, the company released TNG Season 7 figures of Beverly and Wesley Crusher separately and in a set with a limited-edition Starfleet Q figure.
- Season 1 of the Remastered Star Trek The Original Series on HD-DVD became available for pre-order on Amazon.com for $139. CBS also released a preview video and final box art of the DVD Box Set.
Trek in the world:
- It has been announced that a Star Trek event will be held at the Miami Lakes Branch Library on September 8th, where planned festivities include a showing of the trailer of the upcoming Star Trek movie made by TrekMovie.com.
- An award-winning comic film called Star Trek Versus Batman will be airing on a local cable channel in Madison, Indiana, the hometown of the film’s creator, Christopher Allen.
- This Sunday, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra will be performing music from Star Trek and other Paramount films at an event called The Big Picture: The Films of Paramount Pictures.
- I’m not sure it’s a compliment: BBC presenter Emily Maitlis has been nicknamed Balok, apparently due to her resemblance to that character’s more frightening puppet persona from the original Star Trek series episode “The Corbomite Maneuver.”
Trek science:
- Astronomers have discovered a “void” in space similar to but much larger than the ones the crew of the USS Voyager encountered in the episodes “Night” and “The Void.”
- University of Washington engineers are currently working on a device similar to Star Trek’s autosuture that can seal puncture wounds in the lungs using ultrasonic rays.
- The Marine Corps and the Office of Naval Research are preparing to introduce their own version of the holodeck: a training simulator which incorporates 3-D imaging and video game-style interactive combat.
Trek on the web:
- In an interview on Playbill News, actor Harvey Fierstein cited Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry as a writer whose work “touches your heart” and felt that a Star Trek musical might be a hit, “but people would come in costumes and probably watch each other more than they’d watch the show.”
- In that same news report, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager writer Bryan Fuller discussed his upcoming ABC series, Pushing Daisies.
- The New York Sun has an article on the fan series Star Trek: New Voyages, specifically the latest episode, “World Enough and Time.”
- The HD DVD Promotions Group is using TOS Remastered being exclusively on HD-DVD to promote the format.
- An article on memorizing lines by Armin Shimerman (Quark, DS9) is up at BackStage.com.
- The Daily Star has a review for Un Homme Perdu (A Lost Man), a French film starring Alexander Siddig (Bashir, DS9).
Where are they now?
- Michael Dorn (Worf, TNG/DS9) was among those in attendance at SAG president Alan Rosenberg’s campaign fund-raiser last weekend.
- LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge, TNG) was seen at the 74th annual Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach, California, on August 28th.
- Kate Mulgrew (Janeway, VOY) has been receiving rave reviews for her performance in the play Iphigenia 2.0.
- William Shatner (Kirk, TOS) lent his voice to a videogame called The Tuttles Madcap Misadventures for the benefit of The Starlight Starbright Children’s Foundation. In the meantime, his face can be seen as Michael Myers’ mask in the new Halloween movie.
- Patrick Stewart (Picard, TNG) can be heard as the narrator of the melodrama Enoch Arden, which was released on CD this week.
- Nana Visitor (Kira, DS9) has filmed scenes for an upcoming movie entitled Swing Vote, which co-stars Dennis Hopper and Next Generation guest star Kelsey Grammer (Captain Bateson, "Cause and Effect").
- Special effects whiz Jim Rygiel (vfx supervisor for Star Trek: Insurrection) will be directing the CG-animated film Bunyam & Babe.
- Star Trek film producer Ralph Winter will be producing the film version of C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters, to be followed by a number of films based on the works of Charles Williams.
- John Billingsley (Phlox, ENT) has signed up for a recurring role on the next season of 24. One-time Star Trek: Deep Space Nine guest star Jeffrey Nordling (Tahna Los, “Past Prologue”) also joined the cast.
- Brian Bonsall (Alexander Rozhenko, TNG) was sentenced to 24 months of probation for assaulting his girlfriend back in March.
- Brad Dourif (Suder, VOY) and Malcolm McDowell (Soran, Generations) are among the Trek actors who star in Rob Zombie’s remake of the classic horror film Halloween, which opened Friday. See the official site for more details.
- Next Generation stars John de Lancie (Q), Jonathan Frakes (Riker), Gates McFadden (Dr. Crusher), and Brent Spiner (Data) are on hand to sign autographs at this year’s Dragon*Con in Atlanta, Georgia. Also attending are original Star Trek’s Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), Voyager’s Robert Picardo, and Voyager guest stars Ron Glass, Lori Petty and Mark A. Sheppard.
- Deep Space Nine actresses Louise Fletcher (Kai Winn) and Nana Visitor and Next Generation’s Patrick Stewart are among the guests at this weekend’s London Film and Comic Con at the Earls Court Convention Centre.
- George Takei (Sulu, TOS) is co-hosting the Hugo Awards tonight at the 65th World Science Fiction Convention in Yokohama, Japan.
- Jack Donner, who played Subcommander Tal in the original Star Trek episode "The Enterprise Incident," has released a CD called "Hearts on Fire," the spoken word version of his one-act play, "Our Lives."
- Leonard Nimoy (Spock, TOS) is hosting the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra’s Big Picture: The Films of Paramount Pictures tomorrow.
In Memoriam
- It was reported on Monday that actor Richard Symonds died on August 23rd, 2007. Symonds played Vedek Porta in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode “Accession.” He was 80 years old.
Trek link of the week:
A blog entry on author, artist (and Trekkie) Edward Gorey speculates a Gorey adaptation of “The Trouble with Tribbles.”
YouTube Clip of the Week
What if Miss Teen South Carolina was on board the Enterprise D?
Special thanks to everyone who submitted tips for ThisWeek in Trek.
Hmm….I’d seriously doubt that anyone would have the script to the new movie and IF they did why would they ruin it by showing and discussing it all here for everyone.
Good reporting/summarizing Chuck. That was alot of info; your time and effort is greatly appreciated.
# 2: Marcia…..Marcia…..Marcia…..- Just had to get that out of my system. Jan was just as HOT and talented as Marcia…..so she had no need to complain and whine so much.
What anout the earth shattering Bring Back Mugatu campaign !!!!!!
Ugh, somehow the news of the AICN movie plot rumor being “100% confirmed” escaped me. My enthusiasm for the new movie has gone from “really high” to “tanked” this week. I know it isn’t politically correct on this site to be anything other than 100% rah-rah in favor of every piece of news that comes out about the movie, but that plot … yikes … just not doing it for me at all.
A lot of the old TV shows from the 50s, 60s, and 70s had guest stars that eventually showed up (or had been) on Star Trek. I just Netflixed a couple of old TV shows – Naked City, a pretty decent cop show set in New York (“There are eight million stories in the naked city. This has been one of them,”) and Banacek, starring George Peppard as an insurance investigator with a knack for solving bizarre disappearances.
The first episode on the Naked City disc was called Portrait of a Painter, and starred William Shatner as a struggling artist that wakes up on the floor of his apartment to find his murdered wife, and he doesn’t know if he did it or not. His psychiatrist was played by Theodore Bikel (character actor in a gazillion things) – Worf’s adoptive father on TNG.
On the Banacek disc, the first episode has a brief appearance by Madlyn Rhue (Lt. Marla McGivers – Space Seed), the second co-stars William Windom (Commodore Decker – The Doomsday Machine; I met him once at the LA County Fairgrounds), the third co-stars Louise Sorel (Rayna Kapec – Requiem for Methuselah.)
I know there are tons of old TV shows out there with tons of actors that were stars or guest stars on the various Trek incarnations, but I thought I would just pass these on if anyone is interested, since Naked City and Banacek were fairly decent programs apart from appearances by former or future Trek alumni.
# 5: Exactly how I feel (to some degree) I mean….how excited can I get about a film IF someone discloses the plot for it months ahead of time. IF anything…maybe they can
and will make last second changes to only make it better. But….its too late for anything like that. The idea of time travel (in space) is tired and boring. But…perhaps they’ll go with the Guardian Of Forever…..that MIGHT make it interesting. What do you think of that?
“I’m not sure it’s a compliment: BBC presenter Emily Maitlis has been nicknamed Balok, apparently due to her resemblance to that character’s more frightening puppet persona from the original Star Trek series episode “The Corbomite Maneuver.”
hey thats not very nice…i mean shes an attractive woman..
nasty jealous media types in the work place…..hey thats what some of them can be like..
As a Scot, I’m highly skeptical of this Greg Hemphill as Scotty rumour.
He used to be the rector of my university…
#3–I totally disagree. Jan way WAY hotter than Marcia, who was WAY hotter than Cindy! And as for Alice–not going there!
I love Edward Gorey’s work. I have his alphabet book:
“A” is for Amy who fell down the stairs.
“B” is for Basil assulted by bears.
“C is for Clara who wasted away.
“D” is for Desmond thrown out of a sleigh…
…and so on. Great stuff. Great drawings.
His take on Tribbles was terrific. I did not know he was a trekkie.
I *wish* I could have been at Dragon.con this weekend, but schedule said “no.”
Would love to hear from anyone who attended!
I don’t think that tribbles adaptation was actually by Edward Gorey, just someone imitating him for that web page.
I doubt what we have read on AICN is accurate. They just always HAVE to be first to report things….
#13. Jeff.
You’re right. It was done by the blogger. The artwork was a bit off, but the captions were spot on Gorey!
I can’t believe Brian Bonsall has turned into a hard core rocker!
How lame is it that some random blogger-slash-cartoonist has a better idea for revitalizing a franchise than the people writing the movie?
You’d love Gorey Trek. I know you would.
I’m sure there’s more to the plot than another tired time-travel cunundrum (sp?) We’ll see…
I also get a great grin that Shatner’s puss will once again by the mask for Michael Myers, although I seriously doubt I’ll be plopping down a remake of a 70’s schlock-o-rama drama.
I’m getting a little tired of Star Trek using the “reset switch” plot device, although it works well in certain episodes (“Yesterday’s Enterprise”). I’m keeping my mind open, however.
Regarding CHUD’s report of the plot rumor as “reported” by AICN being “100% confirmed,” I want sources, CHUD, sources! When someone who’s actually associated with the production lets us in on plot details, then I’ll sit up and listen.
And while I give my highest commendations to Anthony and the folks at Trek Movie for reporting it all (and, OMG, ain’t there a lot of it floating around out there!) anything else being reported by anyone other than Abrams et al and Paramount at this point is rank speculation at best and most likely a big, fat, stinky red herring.
So there! >:-)
Peace. Live long and prosper,
the Vulcanista >:-|
blah–not a good week.
I used youtube.com to try to find Clint Howard as Balock at William Shatners roast.
Does anyone have a link to it? A good one?
Thank You!
“I can’t believe Brian Bonsall has turned into a hard core rocker!”
Obviously, the family ties no longer bind.
On the plot note, the rumored plot sounds much more exciting than “this is how our careers started and how we all came together.” Yawn.
A Trek musical? Brings to mind the opening scene in “Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy”…
Well…..I looked under Balok in the Google Video options and Balok Returns did pop up but it was deleted. That was a funny clip. Did anyone retain a active site that has it that they could send to me? Thanks…..
well, the idea of putting the new trek in an alternate timeline would work. The trek universe does allow, and does have alternate time lines that play out. What I would love to see is a whole set of stories based around new characters, and new things in the Mirror univrse. I think that would be sweet. There has been some cannon made for it, but you could really flesh it out, and explore that universe to the hilt.
Any news of when (and if) Roberto Orci will come again? He metioned something the last the time that he will come into touch with the fans again for some discussion…
Greg Hemphill as Scotty? WTF?
Gonnae naw dae that…..
JUST – Gonnae NAW!
#6
I like you’re suggestions, here’s my suggestion to avoid, Mark Lenard with a removable head in Gil Gerards Buck Rogers. WORST SHOW EVER
Greg is listed as having been born in 1970. That put’s him a little outside the range of cast ages for the period (just before TOS) that has been identified.
There once was a group that wanted more Trek
Upon hearing the film’s plot, they all yelled, “trainwreck!”
Many of the core fans threw a hissy fit
While others involved didn’t give a s***
But with Paramount “suits”, what do you expect?
Greg Hemphill as Scotty? no cant be!
btw you guys in the USA seen him on this? hes the one playing the Captain McConnell…hope you can understand the scottish humour!
b****y brilliant!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaxpS4T8sxw
As for Vulcan exploding, I WOULD PAY GOOD MONEY TO SEE THAT. Talk about shaking things up! I think creating an alternate timeline is cool. Woot. My opinion.
Vulcan exploding via a Doomsday Machine or multiple Doomsday Machines, activated and controlled by some malevolant force now THAAAAAAAAAT would be cool. And of course only James T. Kirk can stop them for laying waste to the Federation. Hmmmm
“Ain’t It Cool News posted what is rumored to be the plot for the film. CHUD”
Great… I think I’ll just have to stop reading until X-Mass 2008 and tattoo SPOILER ALERT onto the inside of my eyelids.
I have a bridge you might be interested in if you believe that rumor about the plot is true.
it’s a nice bridge too.
It’s in New York.
It goes from Brooklyn to Manhatten.
– W –
* Smirks *
Your bridge sounds mighty nice. How much? (smirks+grins)
Iceland = Vulcan.
Just sayin’…
;-)
#36 Woulfe…
You hit the nail on the head.
why are some people assuming that rumor is real?
Someone that believes this, would you explain your thoughts to me please? I can’t understand the faith put in such a thing
Hey, you forgot to mention that Clint Howard is in the new Halloween as well. That movie is like a Star Trek convention! (except some people in the movie have sex).
Balok…..(as a adult) where are you? Looking for the video clip of him at the William Shatner Roast. That was a true classic – finding it and him is like looking for a needle
in a haystack. Or like pulling a gold tooth…..I’m sure its out there but where?
#40 Sean — I only listed the two Trek actors who were among the main cast members of the movie. There were many veteran Trek actors in Halloween that I didn’t mention. Besides Howard, there’s Adrienne Barbeau, Sid Haig, Richard Lynch, Daniel Roebuck, and Tom Towles.
We are about 2 months away from principal photgraphy!! We should be hearing the remainder of the casting shortly.
btw Shatner.com has posted this – Shatner stating catogorically he is NOT in the movie
http://www.williamshatner.com/Article321.phtml
I watched that clip twice, but I’ll be damned if I can understand what he’s saying! His mouth was too close to the mike, or a poor recording….the only words I could make out are ‘I’m not in the movie!’…..frustrating!
OOOOOOH!
I do NOT want to see a YouTube of Clint Howard as an adult Balock. I’m just getting over the nightmares I had back in the 1970’s with little Clint as the oh-so-CREEPY Balock.
He was much scarier than that puppet, in my opinion.
PS. — If Ron Howard was directing this, I’m sure Balok would be in it…Ronnie always finds a place in his films for his little brother.
This is all totally ridiculous. ANY plot which involves a ‘young’ Spock would involve Kirk as a sperm… Vulcans have a longer lifespan than humans…even half vulcans. Kirk and Spock did not attend the ‘Academy’ together, they didn’t know each other until Kirk replaced Pike as captain of the Enterprise… A ‘young’ Uhura? She was pretty young as a Lieutenant on TOS…so what? teenage Uhura running around Starfleet Academy, going to parties, flirting with Andorian classmates? Basically, at the end of the day, J.j. Abrams is allowing his new found fame with Lost, Alias, and MI3 (sic) to delude him into thinking he’s doing Trek fans a favor by writing a new movie. In fact, he is basically taking a steaming deuce on Star Trek for a paycheck that the Viacom/Paramount suits are willing to pay because they have left their artistic integrity at the gate to the lot. Abrams, do us a favor and start the rewrite… If you go through with this 20 car pile up, ditch the B.S. of trying to tie every character together and put together a story that adheres to ESTABLISHED CHRONOLOGY, try not to tank it the way Braga, Piller, and Berman did…
#47 J McC — Wow, not sure where you got your information from, but Kirk was born only one Earth year after Spock (Kirk in 2233, Spock in 2232). Also, there has yet to be any hard evidence to suggest that any part of this movie will actually be set at Starfleet Academy. Lastly, please don’t talk about the movie and production team as though you are so sure of what they will do or what their motives are. All your rant there proved is that, not only do you have no idea how the movie will turn out (just like we don’t), but you also have no idea what you’re talking about.
Add-on to my previous post: Spock was born in 2232 unless you don’t count information from the animated series, in which case, as stated in the Trek Chronology, Spock was born in 2230. Take your pick. :-P
“week in Trek ending 9/1/08….?!?!?
’08…..?
Wha…?!?!? Tempral shift…?