Today brings lots of news on the future of Trek vet Ron Moore’s Battlestar Galactica franchise. The BSG co-creator tells The Hollywood Reporter that he doesn’t expect the show to follow in the footsteps of Trek to the big screen. However, the show will be finally getting the TV prequel announced two years, ago as Sci-Fi have given the greenlight fo the pilot of Moore’s Caprica.
Four years ago this month, the Museum of Television & Radio held a ‘Tribute to William Shatner’ at their annual Paley Festival. Video for this 2004 event is now online at Fancast, where you can see The Shat on subjects ranging from meeting Spencer Tracy to the death of Kirk. Plus in videos for a separate MTR event for Boston Legal, Shatner declares which role is bigger: Kirk or Crane…see below
Just this week Diamond Select / Art Asylum has released the next item in their ‘Trek Tek’ line, the Kirk era version of the communicator. This joins the previously released TOS phasers and the forthcoming tricorder (announced at the recent Toy Fair). This is not the first TOS communicator made available, but for $29 it offers many features usually only available with high end replicas.
CBS just sent us some cool preview shots for the remastered Star Trek episode “By Any Other Name,” airing this weekend
The third in our series of guest blogs from Leonard Nimoy. I’ve had a great time working on the movie. I expect to finish around the end of March. The level of production, the quality, the size and the talent continue to impress me. The people I’ve worked with have all been extremely enthusiastic and JJ Abrams impresses me as a very special talent and as a person.
On Sunday Jeri Ryan, Voyager’s Seven of Nine, welcomed Gisele into the collective, her first child with restaurateur hubby Christophe Emé. A rep for Jeri tells People Magazine “Both parents are thrilled, Jeri is resting comfortably, and Christophe is playing the part of proud new papa quite well.” Gisele Emé weighs in at 7 pounds, 13 ounces and is Ryan’s second child, joining Alex (13), from her first marriage. Congrats Jeri!
The last director to go to the final frontier was Stuart Baird for Star Trek Nemesis. Baird (who is an Oscar nominated editor) only got the Trek gig as payback for help he provided re-cutting Paramount’s M:I:II and Tomb Raider movies. After Nemesis bombed, the TNG cast have made no secret about how they feel about their final director. The latest example is in a new SciFi Pulse interview with LeVar Burton and TOS star Nichelle Nichols.
Late last month we reported that William Shatner had signed a multi-project deal with Big Screen Entertainment. The first project for that deal is the already announced "Gonzo Ballet" documentary centering on the Milwaukee Ballet’s performance based on Shatner’s Album "Has Been." TrekMovie.com now has the exclusive scoop on the second project, a new comedy feature film to be produced, directed (and possibly starring) William Shatner.
Today, William Shatner boldly went where he’d never been before, The Oprah Winfrey Show. Shatner was featured as one of Oprah’s ‘TV icons’ series. The show also included Happy Days’ Fonzie, Henry Winkler and soap opera singing sensation Rick Springfield (who was also Zac on the original Battlestar Galactica). No big news (besides seeing Shatner using a cane) and no questions about the new movie, but was still interesting to see Shatner in this environment.
Last fall TrekMovie.com debunked a rumor that George Takei will be in the new Star Trek, but apparently you can’t keep a good rumor down. Today The Howard 100 News on Sirius ran an interview with Takei where he was asked number of questions on various topics which he did not answer because he felt they were based on “privileged conversations.” One of these topics was Takei’s meeting with director JJ Abrams. This sparked AICN to run a story “Is George Takei In J.J. Abrams’ STAR TREK Movie??” Of course this has sparked numerous “Takei in Talks” stories on other sites (examples: here, here, here). TrekMovie.com has talked to sources and Mr. Takei himself to get to the truth.
William Shatner is the gift that keeps on giving. A new ShatnerVision video shot at the opening of Star Trek The Tour (from a month ago) shows the original Captain Kirk answering that perennial question “are you in the new Star Trek movie?” He is very positive about not being in the film, but also very positive about the film itself. He then goes into a discussion of how Star Trek is like a frog…really..see it below.
Kristine M. Smith was a fan who became a friend and personal assistant to to DeForest Kelley, the original Dr. McCoy. Smith has already written one memoir on Kelley, and in an interview with the Australian Newsletter SciFi Reporter she announced she is working on another where she wants fan to submit stories. Smith also opined on how new Dr. McCoy, Karl Urban as some big shoes to fill.
Today the shared owners of Star Trek are making moves in the digital world. First up is CBS who announced they are offering ‘classics’ from their television library to a new “CBS Audience Network” of sites. The initial programming consists of The Twilight Zone, Hawaii Five-O, MacGyver, Melrose Place and (most importantly) Star Trek (TOS). Shows are streamed in their entirety for free, with advertising.
EXCLUSIVE: A couple of weeks ago TrekMovie.com talked to the producers of the Star Trek Remastered project about the "The Ultimate Computer," their big episode for February sweeps. We now continue the conversation with the trio, talking about the project as a whole, fan reaction, surprises and what they would do differently if they had the chance. We also have some preview images for this weekend’s episode "Operation — Annihilate!".
Last Fall CBS and Toshiba made a big splash over Star Trek coming out exclusively on HD DVD, starting with the first season of The Original Series. Toshiba reps dressed up in Trek uniforms at an industry trade show, they did a phaser remote-control give-away, and used Trek as a big selling point for their platform during the holiday season. However 2008 has been a very bad year for HD DVD and indications are that the format war is over and HD DVD has lost. Studios and retailers alike are jumping ship and all that is left is for Toshiba to finally call uncle…leaving Trek as a casualty of war.
This week Patrick Stewart hit the new York Stage in the title role of “Macbeth” at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In a couple of new interviews the actor talked about the show and of course a bit about Star Trek. Stewart said that he would consider playing Picard again, talked about his friendship with William Shatner, how he is glad to be back on the stage and even about his Trek collection. See below
In a new interview with The Jewish Daily, Star Trek’s once and future Spock spoke about his upcoming role in JJ Abrams Trek and how Trek connects to Judaism. Nimoy, who had retired from acting, said that photography was the major love of his creative live but that the new film was “something special.” More from Nimoy below…
Star Trek, Rescue 911, TekWar, and TJ Hooker are all shows where William Shatner was not able to break through the 100 episode barrier. Hopes were that he would finally do it with a fifth season of Boston Legal, but that is now in some doubt. Yesterday ABC announced pick-ups for their fall line-up and Shatner’s current series was not on the list. However, ABC will be bringing back Trek-related series Lost , Samantha, Who? and Pushing Daisies.
To quote one of my favorite bad Kirk lines: “Out of the nowhere; into the here!” It’s a pleasure to take a crack at another Trek Remastered review, and a very special one at that…Other than “The Doomsday Machine,” no classic Trek episode has been more anticipated in Remastered form than the late second season’s “The Ultimate Computer.” The spectacle of starship-on-starship action, achieved almost entirely through duped stock footage in the original episode, has had fans of the Remastered project slavering since the project was originally announced.
EXCLUSIVE: This weekend on the digitally remastered Star Trek airing in syndication we will be treated to a brand new version of "The Ultimate Computer." This effects-heavy episode features the USS Enterprise facing off against four Federation Starships in a wargame that turns deadly. The TOS-R producers talked exclusively with TrekMovie.com about the episode and also shared some new preview images.
CBS just sent TrekMovie.com a first look of a new image from this weekend’s TOS-R episode “The Ultimate Computer”…check it out below
The SciFi Channel announced today that Robert Picardo, The Doctor from Star Trek Voyager, has been tapped as a full-time cast member for the 5th season of Stargate Atlantis. Picardo’s recurring character Richard Woolsey is stepping in as head of the Atlantis Expedition. SciFi also announced that former SGA cast member Paul McGillion (who has a small part in the new Star Trek film) will reprise his role as Carson Beckett for five episodes.
The current issue (which came out last Friday) of The National Enquirer has a story titled WILLIAM SHATNER SURGERY TURNS INTO LIFE-OR-DEATH DRAMA which would be pretty big news if it were true. The story states that Mr. Shatner suffered heart complications during hip surgery. After being sent tips to the story, TrekMovie.com checked in at Shatner HQ and was told that Bill was fine, that he has had no surgeries and the whole thing was made up.