This Week in Trek – TNG@20, season premieres, parallel universes, and bowling Klingons [UPDATED]

This week marked the 20th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation…so it gets a special section. We also bring you new Star Trek: Year Four artwork, a fan-made audio series, a number of TV season premieres, evidence of parallel universes, Klingons who bowl with honor and much more…

Furries vs. Klingons… songs will be sung about this day.

TNG@20:

• To celebrate TNG’s 20th anniversary, Entertainment Weekly posted "An Oral History" of TNG, told by those who were involved in the show’s production.
• StarTrek.com has posted an editorial describing the phenomenon that is TNG, its impact on the television market, pop culture and Trek as a franchise. You can read it here.
• Star Trek 2008 co-writers Robert Orci & Alex Kurtzman joined producer Damon Lindelof in expressing their thought’s on TNG here at TrekMovie.com
• After analyzing scenes from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek Generations and Star Trek: Insurrection, 411mania.com wraps up its Star Trek week with an analysis of a scene from Star Trek Nemesis for this week’s Scene Anatomy 101.
• SyFy Portal’s Michael Hinman reminisced about first watching TNG and discussed the impact the series had on his life.
• From Picard’s delivery of "Engage!" to replicators to The Borg, The Star has a list of the "20 things we love about Star Trek: The Next Generation".
• TNG’s star, Patrick Stewart (Picard), wants to appear on the BBC’s Doctor Who and is "deeply dismayed" that he has yet to be invited to do so. In the meantime, critics have been praising Stewart’s performance in London’s Gielgud Theatre production of Macbeth, which will be coming to New York next year.
• John de Lancie (Q) is narrating the Cleveland Orchestra’s Peer Gynt concert at Severance Hall this week. In addition, he will also be seen in an episode of the series Shark with Star Trek: Voyager‘s Jeri Ryan. For more, see de Lancie’s interview with The Plain Dealer.
• Jonathan Frakes (Riker), will be a guest at the Rockland Public Library in Maine when it hosts an event called "Four Decades of Star Trek" on October 18th.
• Speaking of Frakes, the satirical news site BBspot reported that the former TNG star and several henchmen raided the Las Vegas Hilton to retrieve stolen Trek memorabilia (obviously fun at O.J. Simpson’s latest run-in with the law).
• On September 20th, Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher) recorded his voiceover for the episode of Family Guy in which the cast of TNG are kidnapped by Stewie, and on the 21st, Wheaton wrote about the experience on his blog. Ok, so that is technically Last Week in Trek, but I missed it, so sue me.
• Pocket Books has published its latest TNG novel, Q & A, written by Keith R. A. Decandido. In addition, The Next Chamber has posted an interview with Decandido.

Star Trek (2008 movie):

• Word on the street is that Poseidon and Texas Chainsaw Massacre actor Mike Vogel is up to play the role of James T. Kirk in the film (first reported elsewhere as "the front runner," but Trekmovie.com reported Vogel is just "in the running").
• Trekmovie.com learned that Stargate: Atlantis actor Paul McGillion has auditioned for the role of Scotty. In the meantime, McGillion’s fans are lobbying for him to get the role, and even James Doohan’s son, Chris Doohan, has given his vote of approval.
• Trekmovie.com also learned that actor Karl Urban (Lord of the Rings, The Bourne Supremacy) is being considered for a role in Star Trek (but not as a Romulan, as first reported). In addition, we acquired some new details regarding the film’s plot; check them out here, if you haven’t already.
• It turns out that Adrien Brody (King Kong, The Pianist) really was considered to play Spock… at least, he had discussed it with director/producer J.J. Abrams.
• George Takei says he "wouldn’t be too surprised" if he was asked to appear in the new film and supports Heroes co-star Zachary Quinto‘s casting as Spock.
• The tourism office of Vulcan, Alberta has officially launched its campaign to bring the premiere of Star Trek to the tiny Canadian town. See their media release for more information.
• Oh, by the way, William Shatner still isn’t in the movie.

Trek Stuff:

• MOGD has a new interview with Daron Stinnet, executive producer of Star Trek Online, the new Trek MMORPG.
• The IDW Publishing Forums have posted wallpaper teasers featuring nifty artwork by the two artists working on IDW’s fourth issue of Star Trek: Year Four.

A glimpse of the type of art you can expect in Year Four, Issue 4

Fan Productions:

• The pilot for an audio drama called Star Trek: Excelsior made its premiere online this week. For more information and to listen to the pilot, see Excelsior‘s official site.
• Star Trek New Voyages has announced the title for their 6th episode (written by Dave Galanter & Greg Brodeur based on a concept by Howard Weinstein) is "Rest and Retaliation" 

Trek in the World:

• The College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois is sponsoring a free event with the former publisher of Star Trek Communicator, Dan Madsen, to be held October 4th from 12 to 2pm. For more information, click here or contact sociology professor John Tenuto at jtenuto@clcillinois.edu.
• The Bowling Green Western Symphony Orchestra performed Star Trek music composed by Jerry Goldsmith as well as music from other space-themed films in the "Music from Outer Space" concert, which was held September 27th at the First Baptist Church in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
• Another science fiction themed concert scheduled to feature Star Trek music is "Sci-Fi: The Final Frontier" by the Huntington Symphony Orchestra. The event will be held at the Keith-Albee Performing Arts Center in Huntington, West Virginia on October 20th.
• A Star Trek fan dressed like a Klingon was among the 600 participants in this year’s AIDS Walk for Life event, which took place Sunday in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
• The Castro Theatre in San Francisco will be paying tribute to composer Jerry Goldsmith by running a series of movies he composed, including two showings of Star Trek: The Motion Picture on September 30th. See The Castro Theatre’s official site for more details.
• Mile High Sci Fi, a Denver-based comedy group who screens movies while providing MST3K-style commentary from the back of the theater, will be poking fun at Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan on the 28th and 29th. For more information, see their official site.
• Zachary Quinto has signed up to become the first actor from the new Star Trek movie to appear a Creation convention — namely, next year’s Grand Slam XVI, to be held April 11-13, 2008. Roxann Dawson (Torres, VOY) has also signed up as a guest at the event; for more information, see the Grand Slam page at Creation’s website.
• Today is a good day… to bowl? The second annual Furries vs. Klingons bowling tournament will be held today in Atlanta, Georgia. My money’s on the Klingons.
  UDPATED…see the video (below)

Trek Science:

• Think the mirror universe is purely fiction? Well, you’d be right, but a study conducted at Oxford University shows that parallel universes may actually exist. I wonder how I look with a goatee…
• A non-lethal laser weapon called a Photonic Disruptor (sounds very Star Trek-ish, don’t you think?) is available for military and law enforcement use at Wicked Lasers.

The Photonic Disruptor

Trek on the Web:

• Collider.com has posted exclusive interviews with TOS stars George Takei (Sulu) and Walter Koenig (Chekov), discussing their part in the Star Trek: New Voyages series. You can find them here.
• Devin at Cinematic Happenings Under Development (CHUD) explains how watching the remastered Star Trek in HD nearly ruined his love for the original series.
• Awww! The Northwest Arkansas Times has an article on a local married couple whose first date included seeing Star Trek Nemesis. Unlike the movie, the date wasn’t a flop.
• Chris Doohan, son of James Doohan, gave a first-hand report of his trip to Scotland and the unveiling of his father’s dedication in Linlithgow. You can read it here.  
• Actor Hugh Laurie tells the New York Post that the "please help me" line from the original Trek series episode "City on the Edge of Forever" defines an important element of his own series, House.
• CBS News calls Idaho Senator Larry Craig "the ‘Star Trek’ of politics." Um… yeah, anyway, moving on…
• The  conservative political magazine National Review Online has posted a series  of Star Trek-related articles: "Get a Life," "Growing Up Star Trek," "Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Federation Tax Collectors," "Replacing Reagan," "Prime Lesson," "Who’s Better Than Trek?," and "A Conservative Trek." Enjoy.

Trek Celebrity News:

• Veteran Star Trek guest performer Gregory Itzin is currently starring as Louis de Rougemont in the play Shipwrecked! An Entertainment – The Amazing Adventures of Louis de Rougemont (As Told by Himself) at the South Coast Reportory in Costa Mesa, California. Performances run through October 14th; see South Coast’s site for more details.
• The Seattle Times has an interview with Star Trek: Voyager writer and Pushing Daisies creator Bryan Fuller, in which the Star Trek fan explains how watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine helped him to understand scriptwriting.
• Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine, VOY) can currently be seen in the new season of Shark, which premiered this past Sunday on CBS.
• George Takei (Sulu, TOS) will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 8th Annual San Diego Asian Film Festival in October.
• Speaking of Takei, the former Star Trek actor had a pivotal role in the season premiere of Heroes, which aired on NBC on Monday. Appearing at the end of the show was Dominic Keating (Reed, ENT), making his first appearance as an Irish crook named Will; Zachary Quinto (Spock in the upcoming Star Trek) and Nichelle Nichols (Uhura, TOS) will appear later in the season (see the official site for more details).
• Dominic Keating also appears in the movie Species: The Awakening, premiering tonight at 9pm ET on the Sci-Fi Channel. See the official site for more details.
• William Shatner (Kirk, TOS) returns as Denny Crane for the fourth season of Boston Legal, which premiered Tuesday on ABC. Joining the series this season is Shatner’s Star Trek III: The Search for Spock co-star John Larroquette (Maltz).
• A star to steer him by: speaking of Shatner, an online poll has voted the Emmy-winning actor as being "the person most deserving of a star named in their honor."
• Nichelle Nichols (Uhura, TOS) was spotted at the Opera nightclub in Hollywood, California on September 26th. According to TMZ, Nichols "stole the show."
• Nana Visitor (Kira, DS9) will be making an appearance in the final season of Battlestar Galactica, developed by DS9 writer and producer Ronald D. Moore. Look for her as a cancer patient in the sixth episode of the season, entitled "Faith," airing sometime in 2008.
• Jeffrey Combs (Weyoun, Brunt, Shran, etc.) discussed his upcoming film Return to House on Haunted Hill in an interview with ShockTillYouDrop.com. 
• Writers Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens have informed us that the first part of Race to Mars, which aired last Sunday on Discovery Channel Canada, was the network’s highest-rated program ever. Part II of Race to Mars will air tomorrow at 8pm ET; see the official site and Trekmovie.com’s exclusive interview with the Reeves-Stevens for more details on the program.

YouTube Clip of the week – TNG special
A nice video tribute to The Next Generation and Gene Roddenberry

Special thanks to everyone who submitted tips for This Week in Trek!