A celebration of Trek drunkenness for the new year
In honor of the new year TrekMovie presents some of the most memorable moments of Trek drinking. So sit back and toast to the new year with our list. Click more for the list
December 2006
Trek Auction – Week 2
The second week of Star Trek auctions on eBay from It’s a Wrap Hollywood ended like the first, with only 69 of the 100 lots selling. There is a growing grumbling amongst Trek collectors over the minimum prices, with many feeling that It’s A Wrap lack understanding of the Trek collector market. The fact that 1/3 of the items are not selling due to overly high minimum prices seems to bear this out. However It’s A Wrap may be getting the message, many of the items that failed to sell due in week 1 have now appeared for week 3, but now without any reserve prices. The week of Christmas is always the worst sales week of the year on eBay, none the less, It’s a Wrap Hollywood used the week to put a lot of small, less desirable background props on this week’s auctions. 22 items, mostly bags and fabric went for under $100.
Shatner’s New Years Message
It was a banner year for the Shat…see him talk about 2006 and his resolutions for 2007. Shatner Boldly Goes Online For A New Year’s Message
Remastered Mirror Mirror Re-Airs This Weekend [UPDATE: New ‘Mirror’ Desktops]
This weekend ‘Mirror Mirror’ is the last repeat for Star Trek Remastered winter hiatus. XBox 360 owners can download ‘Mirror Mirror’ in HD as XBox Live have recently added all the 2nd season of the Original Series (including the HD versions of the TOS-R episodes that have been produced so far). StarTrek.com have now put up a total of 7 TOS-R wallpapers, however they haven’t put up one for ‘Mirror Mirror’. UPDATE: since they didn’t make one…we thought we would make two. (Hopefully in the future we will offer higher res versions from the HD master) TrekMovie.com coverage: PREVIEW | VIDEO/SCREENSHOTS | REVIEW
Review – Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan
This is the second of our series of looking back to past Trek films and seeing what they can teach us about how to make Trek work again on the big screen. In the wake of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (TMP), which did solid business but was very expensive, Trek’s future remained uncertain. At one point there was even a rumor (reported in the New York Times) that Trek would return to the small screen with a new series involving all the leads. In the end Paramount decided to keep going with feature films, but make some big personnel changes. They bought out Roddenberry’s remaining interest in the Trek property, and handed the reins over to veteran TV producer Harve Bennett (best known for producing The Mod Squad, The Six Million Dollar Man, and The Bionic Woman). Bennett tells the story about how Gulf+Western CEO Charles Bluhdorn gave him marching orders “to make a movie that isn’t boring for less than 45 f—ing million dollars.” Coming from the low budget world of TV, Bennett assured Bluhdorn he could make 3 movies for that amount, and he just about did. Bennett then set off to learn everything about Trek and got to work on what would be the first of a trilogy of successful Trek films.
Trek Comic Publisher To Put Out Transformers Prequels
The meeting of Autobots and Decepticons in the feature film version of Transformers July 4, 2007 will be preceded by a 4 issue prequel comic published by IDW. Transformers comic writer Simon Furman and Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Chris Ryall will pen the issues with art by Don Figueroa telling stories set before the big screen adventure. The first issue will be available this February with a 4 issues adaptation of the feature film being released in June. IDW also happen to be the new licensee for Star Trek comics, with a TNG series coming this January. IDW tell TrekMovie.com that their license covers ‘all of Star Trek’ and they plan on releasing a Klingon series as well as a TOS series. Can we also expect Trek XI prequels and adaptations? For now IDW remain mum on this issue, but prequel comics are all the rage and have been made for the recent Star Wars films as well as Superman Returns . Considering that Transformers is a Paramount feature film written by the same screenwriters as Star Trek XI (Alex Kurtzman and Robert Orci) it seems likely we may get a prequel to the upcoming Trek prequel.
Slow News Day Video…’After They Were Famous’
In 2003 the British ITV program ‘After They Were Famous’ did an episode on Star Trek, focusing on the Original Series. It includes interviews with all the cast alive at the time (including Doohan) as well as Bob Justman and Herb Solow. It has a lot of behind the scenes footage as well. It is now up on YouTube (in four parts…click more for parts 2-4)
Star Trek Legacy (PC): Good Trek – So So Game
The results of the Bethesda Software’s Star Trek: Legacy game are like the recent solstice. Depending on your perspective, it is either darkness or light. The game is one of the first official Trek video games in two years, and certainly the most anticipated. It is also the first Star Trek venue of any kind to feature performances by all five Trek captains (in the form of voice acting by Shatner, Stewart, Brooks, Mulgrew and Bakula). The question is what will Legacy’s legacy be with Star Trek fans and gamers? Is it darkness or light? Perhaps a bit of both.
Merry Christmas From TrekMovie.com
Like Seinfeld’s Frank Constanza, Star Trek was never big on Christmas. But there still were a few passing mentions, the most notable being Picard’s Christmas fantasy in Generations. We here at TrekMovie.com hope the fantasies of all the Trekkie boys and girls come true this holiday.
TV Land’s Top 100 Catchphrases — The Trek Phrases
As we reported recently Star Trek had 3 entries on TV Land’s list of Top 100 TV catchphrases. Here are William Shatner, Marina Sirtis, George Takei, LeVar Burton, and Wil Wheaton (along with a collection of quasi-celebrities) discussing "Resistance is Futile", "Live Long and Prosper" and "Space the Final Frontier…"
New Trek Sale Week 1 Update
The first week of new Star Trek auctions on eBay from It’s a Wrap Hollywood ended yesterday, bringing in about $72,000. Surprisingly only 67 of the 100 lots sold, the others not hitting their reserve (or minimum) prices. These unsold items had received bids totalling over $24,000, but apparently CBS Paramount and It’s A Wrap wanted more. The item topping the sold list was a Captain Janeway Command Uniform which went for $4,150. However, this is less than half of what the same type of costume went for in the Christie’s auction. Other Voyager uniforms sold well, averaging $960 apiece. The big surprise was the price people were willing to pay for dress uniforms from Star Trek Insurrection and Star Trek Nemesis; two of which went for $3,505 each (three times what would be expected for items worn by background players). Other First Contact uniforms also went for more than expected indicating that movie costumes were suddenly more in demand. Oh and remember those skants? Well a gold one sold for $739 and the red sold for a whopping $993!
Trek And Abrams Making The Lists
IGN Filmforce have been counting down the top 25 film franchises and Star Trek ended up as #5. Eric Moro, IGN Editor in Chief sums Trek up thusly: Ever since The Original Series debuted on NBC back in 1966, there’s been a steady stream of Trek within the pop culture zeitgeist. Sure, I can spew off franchise facts like six TV series, 10 feature films (with an 11th currently in development from J.J. Abrams), tons of videogames, action figures, novels, comic books and two Las Vegas themed attractions. But perhaps more impressive is the impact the property has made on fandom itself—I’m talking the fan fiction, the fan films (most found on the Internet) and the yearly conventions. Even more impressive still is the impact these fans have made on the mainstream. One of many examples: After a massive letter writing campaign, NASA names the first space shuttle the Enterprise. Now that’s a powerhouse franchise!
Remastered Devil In The Dark Re-Airs This Weekend
This weekend is another repeat for Star Trek Remastered: ‘Devil in The Dark’. In honor of the event StarTrek.com has put up a wallpaper (in 3 sizes) of the excellent matte painting by CBS Digital’s Max Gabl. Click image below to go to their download page.
Spiner Questions Trek’s Appeal
Brent Spiner (TNG: Data) is already on record as being against the prequel concept for Star Trek XI and now he is also questioning the ability for Trek to again break out to the mainstream. In an interview with FilmFocusUK, Spiner jabs at JJ Abrams and Paramount saying that they spent too much money on Mission Impossible III. He then questions whether they will do the same on Trek XI And that’s the big fear with this Star Trek movie because this new regime at Paramount; I don’t know that they understand the franchise. Maybe [Abrams] will be able to do it, maybe he’ll be able to bridge the gap between the fans and the general public, but everyone’s tried to do that – that’s always been the intention – and they’ve never been able to do it. They’ve realised that if you spend any more than fifty million dollars on one of these movies you’re going to lose money. There are only so many fans that are going to go. If they come along and make an one-hundred and fifty million dollar movie they’re going to have problems. But I think he could be the guy to do it. He’s a perfectly capable guy and his shows are fun and he seems to know what he’s doing.
Justman Looks Forward To Trek XI
If anyone knows the original Star Trek it is Bob Justman. He was a supervising producer on the Star Trek: The Original Series and was even brought back by Gene Roddenberry to help launch Star Trek The Next Generation. Justman literally wrote the book on Trek (‘Inside Star Trek: The Real Story‘). In a new interview in Star Trek magazine, Justman discussed how he questions those who object to Star Trek XI being a prequel of TOS I don’t know much about the new film, so I don’t see why I should write it off in advance, I remember how some people tried to write – off Star Trek: The Next Generation before they saw the show. So all I’ll say at this point is that if J.J. Abrams can make a good movie that sheds more light on what has already happened and adds more creativity to the mix, that sounds great to me.
Hummer Boldly Goes Trek In New Ad
More proof that Trek, and specifically the Orignal Series, is still part of the cultural zeitgest.
Berman: I Do Not Hate TOS
In the latest issue of the official Star Trek Magazine, Trek’s long-time producer Rick Berman talks about the end of his era. SciFi Pulse has excepts from the article where Berman defends his tenure and discusses why the last Trek TV show (Enterprise) failed. Berman says that the rumors of his hating The Original Series (TOS) are not true, but that doesn’t mean he has seen all of it: There was a feeling that Enterprise was going to be a show that was a precursor to The Original Series, and although I’ve read a lot of depictions of both Brannon and myself ‘hating’ the original series, that could not be farther from the truth. We were not obsessed by the original series. I can openly admit that I did not see all 79 episodes of the original series, or 80 if you include the various versions of the pilot, but it was something we respected and did our best to lead up to. But I think that was something that was unsettling for the fans. Not to jump on the ‘bash Bermaga bandwagon’, but it is not unreasonable to expect the creators and producers of a TOS prequel to have at least seen all of TOS.
Transformers Movie Trailer Premieres
Today Paramount has released the first full trailer for next summer’s Transformers. The film is written by Trek XI scribes Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Transformers is a big test for them and Paramount to see if they can take a geeky franchise with a rabid fan base and make it palatable to mainstream movie goers. If Trek XI ends up being Paramount’s big summer movie for 2008, then perhaps a year from now we will be seeing the trailer for Trek XI itself. click to go to Yahoo Movies site to see the trailer Orci and Kurtzman have also picked the winners of their ‘Write a Line For Optimus Prime’ contest, details at the official site
Abrams Picks Chambliss as Production Designer for Star Trek XI
Studio sources have told TrekMovie.com that JJ Abrams has selected long-time collaborator Scott Chambliss to head up the design team for Star Trek XI. The award-winning designer has worked with Abrams on the TV shows Felicity and Alias as well as Abrams directorial debut film Mission – Impossible III. Although Chambliss has been repsonsible for defining the look on over a dozen TV and film projects, this will be his first time in science fiction (unless you count the few genre touches to Alias). For his work on Alias he received 4 Art Directors Guild ‘Excellence In Production Design’ nominations and 3 Emmy nominations (winning one of each). It is no surprise that Chambliss was chosen, and it highlights how Abrams is putting his mark onto Trek. This hire makes Star Trek XI the first Trek film without Herman Zimmerman as the Production Designer since Star Trek V in 1989. So far every single person associated with Star Trek XI is both new to the franchise and has worked with Abrams before (most on M:I:III).
Video Of Trek Remastered In Widescreen
As we have reported, CBS is future-proofing The Original Series by creating all the new effects for Trek Remastered in 16:9 widescreen and HD. Although CBS affiliates are broadcasting only in SD (where all effects shots are cropped to a 4:3 aspect ratio), many episodes are now showing up in HD on the XBox Live download service. Due to a fluke of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing at CBS, these XBox Live episodes include the widescreen effects shots mixed in with regular 4:3 live action shots. I have been told this is not how the TOS-R team want it to be shown, but it does give us a glimpse of what Trek can look like in widescreen. So for your enjoyment here are some clips of TOS-R WS. Opening Title (mov | avi)
Review: Star Trek The Motion Picture
For weeks without TOS-R episodes to review, TrekMovie.com will instead review a Trek film to see where it went right and where it went wrong, and what Trek XI can learn from it. The year: 1979. Ten years had passed since NBC cancelled “Star Trek” and in that time it had become a hit in syndicated reruns. A growing fan base began holding conventions and were continually teased with the posibility of a return of their heroes from the 23rd century. After a short lived animated series in the early 70s, Paramount Paramount greenlit a low-budget “Trek” film entitled “Planet of the Titans.” About two weeks before “Star Wars” exploded onto American movie screens in May 1977, Paramount pulled the plug and then a few months later committed to bringing back “Star Trek” as a TV show. “Star Trek II” (which would have included all the original stars except for Leonard Nimoy) would be the cornerstone of a new ‘Paramount Network’. No sooner did Paramount move on that project then they did a complete about-face, killing the new network, canceling “Phase II,” and transforming its two-hour pilot script “In Thy Image” into a big-budget motion picture. The script was heavily rewritten, Nimoy came back to the fold, and legendary Oscar-winning director Robert Wise took the helm. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Longest Period Without A Trek Film Since 1979
Since the relase of Star Trek: The Motion Picture on December 7th, 1979 there had been a steady stream of Star Trek films. Over the next 23 years Paramount released new Trek films every 2-3 years. The longest gap of 4 years and 2 days was between Star Trek Insurrection and the last film Star Trek: Nemesis, which was released on December 13, 2002. As of this weekend that record has been broken and every day between now and the release of Star Trek XI will be a Trek franchise record. So if you were wondering why you were especially jonesing it isn’t just that this weekend is a Trek Remastered repeat. In honor of the occasion, TrekMovie.com decided to take a quantitative look back on the Trek franchise…see chart below
Star Trek Remastered Refresher [UPDATED]
While TOS Remastered is taking a winter solstice we here at TrekMovie.com aren’t sitting on our laurels, we have updated all our past episode picture articles to include the new CG effects reels like you’ve become accustomed to in the new screenshot articles of the past few weeks. A huge thanks goes to Joe for making these important clip reels. Balance of Terror is being repeated this weekend so if you missed it the first time for gosh sakes watch it! …and then come on back by the Balance of Terror picture and video clip page or the review page and share your thoughts with us. Remember Balance of Terror is one of CBS Digital’s first episodes, so cut them a little slack this time through , we know it gets better. UPDATE: Just wanted to let you all know that there are now two new metadata tags for the articles so you can have the site show all Episode Screenshot articles or all Episode Previews. Click to visit the TrekMovie.com TOS Remastered episode portal for more
Shatner’s ‘Show Me The Money’ Shown The Door
ABC’s latest experiment in cheesertainment is coming to an end. The network has announced that it is scrapping its order for more episodes of the Shat’s game show Show Me The Money. The network had ordered some additional episodes for the game show to be its sacrificial lamb against Fox’s American Idol, but the latest ratings dip convinced them it wasn’t even worthy of that. ABC will however air the remaining 7 episodes they have already bought. So does losing one of his jobs mean his price for Trek XI just went down or up?
New Star Trek Sale Starts Today
If you are kicking yourself for not picking up a piece of Trek history during the Christies auction then today is your lucky day. CBS and Paramount are unloading thousands of more items from the Trek attic. The sales is being conducted by It’s A Wrap Hollywood, a memorabilia seller is handling the sale of items from all 5 series and all 10 films. The available pieces include props, wardrobe, set pieces and even a few models (but of course all the major ones were sold by Christies). "Its amazing how much cool stuff there is, stuff that they didn’t even know was there, we are finding new things all the time," Its A Wrap owner Tiara Nappi tells TrekMovie.com. Nappi says there will even be items from the Original Series (actually from the 60s and not just replicas made by ENT or DS9). Due to the enormous volume of items, the sale will be conducted over the next 6 months with new items regularly becoming available. details below
Video Of Shatner Talking Trek XI
Here is a newly uploaded video of the Shat appearing on The Late Late Show last month
Company Behind Trek MMORPG In Trouble? [Update: Perpetual President Responds]
Perpetual Entertainment, the company developing Trek’s MMORPG Star Trek Online, appears to be having some financial problems. Gaming site Gamasutra is reporting that the company has fired 35 employees including at least 8 who were working on Star Trek Online. The problems seem to be stemming from delays related to their premiere game Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising. Perpetual is just 2 years old and has yet to release any games. It would be a shame to see their problems result in more delays or even the shelving of the exciting new Trek MMORPG. UPDATE: Perpetual Founder/President Spins the layoffs
CBS Considering New Animated Trek Series For The Web
Star Trek may be set for a comeback into yet another arena, this time in the 2nd dimension. TrekMovie.com has learned that there is a new animated Trek project under consideration at CBS, but it has yet to get the green light. The series would most likely be broadcast on the web and be made up of ‘Clone Wars’ like 6-minute mini episodes. The yet-to-be-named project was originally pitched by long-time Trek producer David Rossi (well known to TrekMovie.com readers as a producer on Trek Remastered) along with his producer/writer partners Doug Mirabello and José Muñoz. Rossi sat down with TrekMovie.com for an exclusive look at how he and his partners hope to create a different kind of Trek set in the 26th century.
Abrams Confirms Trek XI Is Targetting 2008
Looks like Paramount don’t need to change their teaser posters with the prominent ‘2008’ emblazoned on them. Although TrekMovie.com didn’t buy into it, last week Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman’s comments made many question Trek XI’s 2008 target. Dauman had stated that Star Trek XI was for ’08 or 09′ release, however Abrams confirms in today’s Variety that 2008 is indeed the target for Trek XI. From the article: "He (Abrams) said work is on track to release the new "Star Trek" pic, which Abrams is overseeing for Par, in 2008." TrekMovie.com can also confirm that sources inside the studio seem very confident that Trek XI will be released in 2008, however (as we mentioned in a recent article) winter is looking more likely than summer. When TrekMovie.com interviewed Abrams last month he did mention that he would prefer winter because that would give him more time, so it is possible he has convinced Paramount to give him the additional time. For more see the Variety article
Trek XI Adds Additional Producer – Continues To Head Towards Greenlight
TrekMovie.com has learned that J.J. Abrams and Paramount have added Stratton Leopold to the growing list of Executive Producers for Star Trek XI. Leopold has a career that dates back to the 70s and worked with Abrams on Mission Impossible III. His other recent Paramount projects include The Sum of All Fears and Paycheck. Like with MI:III, Leopold will also function as the Unit Production Manager, who has the primary task of overseeing the budget. Leopold was not available for comment, but a studio source indicates he is expected to start working in January and his first task will be to help put together the budget. Budgeting is the last step before the official green light and usually requires a finalized script. TrekMovie.com has learned that the script is still not complete but apparently the first draft has been finished. Production is still believed to be going ahead in 2007 with a 2008 release, but it is possible that it will not be in Summer.