CBS Wants Trekkies To Get A Second Life

During his Keynote speech at CES this week, CBS Chairman Les Moonves talked up how CBS is getting hipper to the whole interweb thing. Moonves announced a series of initiatives and partnerships in the digital world, including making clips of its shows available for ‘video mashups’. Moonves told crowd: "there’s no such thing anymore as old or new media — there’s just media." Star Trek is part of this vision with the announcement of a partnership to build a ‘Star Trek Environment’ within the Second Life online community. Moonves brought out the Founder of Linden Labs, the makers of Second Life, to demonstrate the possiblities. 

(mov)

The project is still under development so details are sketchy, but Moonves’ comments (seen at the end of the video) are intriguing:

eSheep is currently building out our very own StarshipEnterprise to allow the Second Life community to mash-up a slough of StarTrek episodes. It’s a great way to give back to the fans who make the show as successful as it is. Who knows, maybe some day we can even broadcast one of their virtual works on one of our television networks.

Second Life currently has over 2 million registered users and over half a million of them were online within the last month. At any given time there are up to 100,000 people having a second life. Second Life was developed by Linden Labs who provide the platform for the environment. CBS have partnered with the Electric Sheep Company to help integrate their Star Trek content into Second Life. Electric Sheep is a consulting company that helps other companies build interactive environments within the Second Life virtual world. Electric Sheep founder Sibley Verbeck tells Trek Movie that he is very excited about the Trek project, "Second Life is the perfect medium for a media company to take 3D assets and let fans create new content withthem. I am a Trek fan myself, so I am thrilled that CBS is moving inthat direction." Electric Sheep have built environments for Sony/BMG, Major League Baseball, Reuters, Nissan and other comanies.

 

 
Electric Sheep’s Sony/BMG (left) and Reuters (right) environments within Second Life

see their flickr portfolio for more

It is worth noting that this project is not related to Star TrekOnline, the Star Trek MMORPG which is being put together by PerpatualEntertaiment. TrekMovie.com will get updates from Electric Sheep and CBS as things shape up for the Star Trek environment.

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This is all very macinthepants™ kind of news. Although after what Moonves did to Stern I question his motives but still that might be altogether different and inappropriate to discuss in relation to this news. I am pretty sure that the terms of the settlement require my silence in commenting on that further.

BIG DAWG AP, you score again with the grate TrekMovie.com and you sir, are very very very TrekMovie in the pants.

I hope you like that one, I made it up ONLY for you.

best!!

=h=

“This video is no longer available.”

?

“Maybe someday we can broadcast one of their virtual works on our tv networks.”

Or, Moonves could, you know, broadcast an actual Trek series on one of his networks. :lol:

Great – I don’t have to wait for Star Trek Online anymore!

That video is one of the stupid and silly things I seen in a long time. What was the point of making it? Well….I was stupid enough to watch it. I hope thats the last one ever produced. IF they (Paramount) decides to remake more animated Star Trek I hope they do it in with the same quality as The Incredibles (the movie) as it could be done though I doubt they would be willing to spend that amount of cash to do so.

We’re doomed.

oh come on… we’re not doomed. This is totally cool… just what a dude like me needs. I look just like the yellow shirt in the youtube video. minus the Moobs™, of course. But still… green slave chicks on the Bridge? shooting phasers on the bridge? Watching remastered TOS episodes on the view screen????

Lighten up lest we get you on a strict drug and alcohol regimen.

best!!

=h=

BEYOND LAME – Come on!!!!!!

This has got to be the most pointless thing I have seen this year.

Awful… truly awful.

Stupid®

i think i’m going to be sick

I’m sorry but if this tailored to the typical Star Trek Fan this is just sad . OK yeah its pretty much tops the most dumbest lamest silliest thing out there for Trek fans. It just drives to the point somebody who does marketing has no idea what the heck hes doing and doesn’t know his audience.

I’m shocked at the poopypants happening here. We need a Pampers mega-pack and an entre box of wipeys. Holy cowbells, the response to this new techMology is bad.

You guys didnt like the YouTube video? Seriously?

You know what, old hitch1969© was NEVER about the groupthink® but I think that maybe on this occasion… I dunno. the interweb hath spoken.

I guess that I am just too positive a thinker maybe. Maybe I’m just retarded. Who knows? Maybe the years of drug and alcohol abuses have rotted holes in my grey matter and thoroughly destroyed my Myelin Sheath™ and the neurons firing in my brain are no longer insulated down the spinal cord as I spastically react with giddiness at every new Trek item presented me.

OR so the government would have you BILLieve™…

best!!

=h=

I think that what BIG DAWG AP is saying here is that the techMology can be used for good and the power of good, and however that, perhaps the negative responses herein are in response to the specific presentation of the techMology. Yes, that is what he is saying and I agree in kind.

Whoever put this presentation together must have been reading MY site with the entire Beavis and Butthead® kind of thing that they put together. SO they get a failing grade for presentation because they did not understand that the core audience that they developed this for would probably be insulted by it. We’re talking men of intellect and high regard for canon.

They can’t put a couple of fat drunk guys on the bridge looking and talking like hitch1969© and expect the masses to dig it.

Moonves, fire those guys who put together the presentation BUT promote the ones the created the techMology.

best!!

=h=

I thought that film was hilarious!

Damn! People take this stuff way too seriously!!

Plus . . . hot green-skinned alien chick!!!!! ;)

Hmm… I like this idea.

But I hate Les Moonves.

But I like this idea…

But I hate Les Moonves!

AAAAAAAGGG–*crash* (sound of worldview collapsing)

Geez, it’s not like that’s a pilot episode for a new animated series, it’s all about interactivity online and giving Trek a presence. Personally, I like to watch my Trek and don’t really have the desire to interact with it to that degree, but to millions of fans out there I can see the attraction and more power to em if they have a Trek enviroment to play in. Nice detail on the bridge, by the way, right down to the ridged rocker switches.

Actually to put perspective on this. I run around in Second Life it is sort of like a real time 3D chat room where your can create your own stuff, but stuff for you avatar. Sort of like a Matrix world in a small way. It also has combat, cyber sex, education, all the social type of stuff. Funny it make sense for this to happen seeing I have observed many scifi vehicles roaming around in there. Yeah the video was sort of on the dorky side, but it did catch elements of what it is about. You can have really funny moments, sad moments, hell all types of emotions because you are dealing with real emotional humans. Boy what a mixed up lot they can be.;) I assume they are bringing in original TREK stuff first. Which all sounds good to me.

One additional note I guess when I joined I had STAR TREK on my mind as my cousin and I came up with Kirk’s middle name for my Second Life name. I guess I should get one of those cool uniforms next.;) Some of you should beam in. Also it just hit me you do tend to beam or teleport around the Second Life world much of the time. Also you can fly. I dig that part. Live Long and Prosper…;)

Gee on last note just reading over my message on 19. I see I am a bad grammar guy! Or I am too lazy to review and correct.;) I meant to type you can buy stuff for you avatar, bodies, clothes, etc. Also you can buy land, vehicles other things. Or get most of what I mentioned for free in other places there as well, except for land. So it does have a creative type vibe there along with an economy of sorts. Okay my last word on this topic and even though I live in the birthplace of Second Life and the Federation I have nothing to do with either. Although it would be fun.;)

Disgraceful is all I can say. And I am serious. This is not what Star Trek is all about. Lets respect it not make fun of it and take the piss out of it. Enjoy it, yes!! celebrate it ..yes. but don’t take the piss out of it, please.

Looking at the animation on this clip and the talkof a new Trek Animated web cast series I had a sudden thought. Paramount now owns Dream Works as well. Wouldn’t it be great if the people at Dream Works made a Trek animated series.
As for the video it was a laugh, some people should go out and buy themselves a sense of humor.

A new trek animinated series would be great, as long as it was true. I am a big fan of the original animated series. But this other stuff is terrible.

To Dave, #22 –
First of all, if you were a true fan in every sense of the word, you could take a little ribbing and learn to laugh at it yourself – because, believe it or not, there are a lot of Star Trek fans out there just like these guys. And remember, they represent EXACTLY two people – which isn’t even a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of fans out there that could be considered “normal”. Humans have this thing called a sense of humor, and that’s probably what they were aiming for with this video.

I personally thought this video was pretty funny – not hilarious by any means, but funny. But what caught my attention was not the way the guys acted or what they said – but what you could do and what the bridge looked like. I mean, until Star Trek Online comes out, there hasn’t really been any kind of Star Trek online game where you could do those things – I think its really neat. And the idea that a group of likeminded individuals could get together to create a kind of fan film from this thing is really cool to me too – anything to keep the dream alive.

I love Star Trek. I’m a season and a series short… err, make that two now that TAS came out… of owning every episode on DVD. That’s a lot of money. So I also take Star Trek very seriously – but I’m also able to laugh at it, and know when its bad, or when people are ribbing at it good naturedly. Its easy to tell when someone is just joking or when someone is really being hateful.

This video sucks…end of story. Waste of my life.

Wow you some of you guys don’t get it. The animation is not going to look great. It is real time 3D!!! Duh. You run around in Second Life meeting others, doing other things. When they get real time 3D looking like Pixar or ILM quality we know we have some damn powerful computers!;)

Yeah the sample they showed was a bit hookey, but I found some funny things in it. Hey you can find some funny stuff throughout the Star Trek shows themselves. Some intentional and some not.;) How about some SPOCK BRAIN for instance or the goofy villians in the first couple of seasons or VOYAGER. I forget their names, but the lack of water and hair style cracked me up. Or when some characters turned into salamanders…;) Hey it is all entertainment in the end.

Kazons

macinthepants

Just felt like saying it.

http://www.trekkiesonline.com

Kind of a YouTube meets MySpace. but just for Star Trek. Director of the Trekkies movies allowing us to use the name, so hope to be a repository for all Trek Fan-made media, and a community for all Trek fans. Multimedia message boards coming in late Feb.. in the meantime, come check us out, meet some fans.. and watch some great media!

Ok, I guess it’s nice, but Station K7’s TOS mod for Elite Force is better and available now, for free if you have EF already. This will probably go well for folks who play Second Life.

As the lead artist on the project, let me offer some unofficial comments here. First, I wanted to say thanks to Jonboc and others for your compliments about the bridge. I made the set and all the alien characters completely from scratch in an 80-hour marathon over a 4-day period. The filming, was done over the following three days.

Sleeping that week was like crying in baseball. There’s no crying in baseball. My brain was melting, and my eyes were falling out by the end of it, but it was still a hell of a fun project.

Now, will something like this ever go up against the likes of The Incredibles, and other traditional CG films that take years to make? No, of course not. That wasn’t the point.

The point was simply to demonstrate what can be done in Second Life, to announce that CBS appreciates the massive amount of us Trekkies who reside in it (there really are a ton), and to poke a little light hearted fun at ourselves while doing it. No one’s a bigger die hard Trekkie than I am, I can assure you, and no one’s quicker to make fun of myself for being one either.

I didn’t have much to do with the script for the film, so I can’t offer much response to those of you who did or didn’t like it, except to echo what Jonboc said, which is that it’s not a pilot for a new series or anything like that. It was just two minutes of machinima, put together in one week by a small, talented group of professional metaverse content creators who love Star Trek, and who were honored to have been asked by CBS to create something for them. That’s it.

I invite all of you to come into Second Life, and check out the experience for yourselves. It’s a wonderful platform.

You guys are missing the point of this video… which is to demonstrate that in Second Life anyone can create machinima without a gazillion dollar budget. It’s not a pilot for an animated series, it’s just a humorous demonstration of what is possible. So cut your whingeing and start your creating, and show us that you can do better!

not sure what to say, I love playing Star Trek on SL we build our own plots, stories and the only limit is our imagination. We all live like a real Trek community in peace and harmony… until of course we get attacked but what is Trek without a good phaser fight from time to time. Anyone is welcome to join our sim even Les Moonves!!!

There will be a convention on Second Life soon, Jonathan Frakes and Rod Roddenberry will be speakers at the convention so, not so lame after all especially for those of us in countries that have limited access to such things.