This Week in Trek – October 28th edition

After taking a week off, This Week in Trek is back. We got Star Trek (2008) rumors, Picard giving Kirk an award, a new convention, Trek’s favorite android in a robot competition, and much more.

Star Trek (2008 film):

  • Citing an anonymous but “reliable” source, IESB reports that actor Josh Lucas (Glory Road, Poseidon) is being considered for the role of Captain Christopher Pike.
  • Screenrant claims that an “anonymous source” has leaked unverified plot details about the movie. You can read them here.
  • Simon Pegg‘s (Scotty) friend and Shaun of the Dead/Hot Fuzz co-writer & director Edgar Wright has some ideas on how Scotty should look.
  • IESB has video interviews with Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, and Walter Koenig about the new actors playing their characters in the upcoming film. You can check them out here.
  • Zachary Quinto (young Spock) discussed his character, some of his co-stars, and the set designs for the new film in an interview with MTV.
  • Tom Cruise has personally denied being in the new movie.
  • Actress Keri Russell (Felicity, Mission: Impossible III) revealed to TV Guide that she was in discussions for a role in the film, and although she does not believe she will have a role, she did say that “something may work out.”
  • William Shatner thinks Chris Pine, the actor playing Kirk in the new movie, “looks good.” However, Shatner believes not including him in the movie will be a mistake.
  • So that’s right…William Shatner still isn’t in the movie.

Trek Stuff:

  • Bethesda has released new screenshots, details and a new trailer for their upcoming video game Star Trek: Conquest. Check them out here.
  • Screenings of the HD remastered “The Menagerie” (to promote the upcoming release of TOS on HD-DVD) have been expaned to theaters in Europe and Canada.

Trek in the World:

  • The 25th anniversary of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was honored at Spike TV’s Scream 2007, which aired Tuesday. In addition, Star Trek (2008) writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman‘s Transformers won a number of awards, including Best Sci-Fi Movie.
  • Germany’s FedCon (Federation Convention) is coming to the United States, with the first event scheduled for June 13 through 15 in Dallas, Texas. See FedConUSA and StarTrek.com’s report for more information.

Trek Science:

  • Canadian scientists have built a particle accelarator which they claim is the first step towards learning what it would take to create the first transporters
  • Scientists at North Carolina State claim to “have fired the most powerful antimatter beam ever created” from a device called a PULSTAR reactor, which supposedly “looks amazingly similar to a warp reactor from Star Trek.”

Trek on the Web:

  • Commander Data worked all the way up to final round in the Crave ‘nonviolent robot tournament,’ but lost out in the end to Honda’s Asimo.
  • Peterborough Today has two stories in which they discuss Trek fandom with a number of Star Trek fans; you can read them here and here.
  • Gorgon from the original Star Trek series episode “And the Children Shall Lead” was #10 in TV Squad’s list of the all-time scariest TV characters.

Trek Celebrity News:

  • William Shatner (James T. Kirk), Leonard Nimoy (Spock), George Takei (Hikaru Sulu), Nichelle Nichols (Uhura), and Walter Koenig (Pavel Chekov) reunited at Scream 2007, in which they were honored as part of the 25th anniversary tribute of Star Trek II. They were introduced by Zachary Quinto, who will be playing young Spock in the upcoming film. You can see video of this event here.
  • Star Trek: The Motion Picture director Robert Wise is one of 19 people who will be inducted into the Indiana Performing Arts Hall of Fame.
  • Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard) won Best Performance in a Play for his portrayal of Macbeth at the Theatrical Management Association (TMA) Awards held last Sunday.
  • Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi) is among the actors who voice characters in the upcoming video game Mass Effect.
  • Dominic Keating (Malcolm Reed) made a brief return to Heroes this past Monday, in the episode called “Fight or Flight” (which was also the title of the second episode of Star Trek: Enterprise). Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) also appeared.
  • Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar, Sela) was seen on the FOX series Bones this week, in an episode entitled “The Secret in the Soil.”
  • Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher) is currently working on an episode of the CBS series Numb3rs, according to his October 24th blog entry. StarTrek.com reports the Christopher Lloyd (Kruge) will also appear in the episode, which involves a sci-fi convention.
  • On Tuesday George Takei will participate in a live chat on Britain’s GMTV
  • On Demeber 9th at the Jules Verne Festival in Los Angeles William Shatner will be given a Lifetime Achievement and it will be presented by Patrick Stewart. More info at the Festival Website.
  • The Original Halloween Horror Show, created by veteran Star Trek makeup artists Starr and Dean Jones, is currently running its 18th annual performance in Snow Camp, North Carolina.
  • The DVD of the film adaptation of science fiction writer Jerome Bixby‘s The Man from Earth will be released on November 13th. Bixby wrote four episodes of the original Star Trek series; Man from Earth stars Trek alumni John Billingsley (Phlox), Richard Riehle (Batai, Seamus, Dr. Jeremy Lucas), and Tony Todd (Kurn, Adult Jake Sisko, Alpha Hirogen in VOY: “Prey”).
  • The final season of veteran Trek producer and writer Ronald D. Moore‘s Battlestar Galactica will premiere in early April 2008 and Moore himself will make his directorial debut on one of the episodes, according to the Los Angeles Times.
  • Voyager and Enterprise guest actor Daniel Dae Kim (Gotana-Retz, Corporal Chang) was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving on October 25th, making him the third actor from Star Trek 2008 director J.J. Abrams‘ Lost to be charged with a DUI. By the way…the last two Lost actors who ended up in the drunk tank, ended up dead on the show

Is Dae Kim doomed?

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I will not write “first!”
It is stupid to write that.

I’ll second that.

third.

we want a big name for pike!!!!!

with lots of letters in it!!!

I really hope those plot rumours are fake… id personally like to see a least some Academy stuff

Hmmm, more disturbing stuff on the Movie front this week again…

Ugh…William Shatner is coming off as bad as the fan boys. Oy!

#5 which particular bit disturbed you?

Vic from Screen Rant here. I can assure you that I did not make up the info in that post on my site and that the person who sent me the info seemed quite certain of it. He has sent me other (granted, non-Paramount but another studio) accurate info before.

The only bit that I think may be in question is that there may be at least a tiny bit of Academy stuff in there.

And Anthony, thanks for mentioning it!

Vic

Wasn’t that first clip from Star Trek: New Voyages? I wonder if that was intentional?

I think JJ’s got a thing for blue eyed fellas.

I almost hate to say this, but is id *canon* that Robert April was the first captain of the Enterprise? Was it made canon in TAS?

#11 — TAS is not considered canon; however, Robert April was revealed to be the 1st captain of NCC-1701 in TAS (“The Counter-Clock Incident,” I believe…).

The new “Metamorphosis” preview is up on startrek.com. Thought it was a pretty good preview, shows a few new shots.

Dominic Keating was on Prison Break last Monday, too.

If Kim can be killed off well, with great impact to the story, Then they would do it, I think. I would certainly be okay with it. Like Charley. I liked Charley alot but…his death, helped the story, was heart wrenching, and meant alot.

#7 ZoomZoom

Josh Lucas as ‘Pike’…

I really like the screenrant spoiler.

I can’t see how the plot spoilers could be true when the have cast Uhura and Sulu who didn’t apear in the pilot under the command of Pike. I can see them doing brief scenes of Pike’s command of the Enterprise at the beginning of the Film…but eventually they have to skip to Kirk’s command…this is not to say that Pike won’t still have a large part in the movie, just that I don’t think it will center on his command. Also the idea of them doing a TOS movie that doesn’t revolve around kirk is depressing…I really hope he doesn’t just show up briefly.

This website is not only fascinating, but highly addictive, and dangerous to people who have access to it at work, myself included.

I have been puting this off since I am mostly a lurker, but the debates and discussions that go on here are too interesting to pass up. Very rarely do you have something of this nature that does not degrade into spamming, flamming and personal attacks. Kudos to Anthony.

I’m actually very excited about the screenrant rumours, if they turn out to be true.

The way they make it sound, it can be compared a little to empire strikes back, a very well made movie. You’ve got the main plot, which is the millenium falcon with all the secondary characters onboard, fighting the empire, and ultimately pushing the main story arc forward. And as an interesting subplot, you’ve got luke, the main character, who is on a sort of personal growth mission. You know he is gonna eventually turn into this powerful jedi night, but in this movie, you get to see all the little interesting moments as he struggles with getting there, which as a fan, I find is just as interesting as seeing him fling objects at vader with his mind.

By comparison, you’ve got this interesting main plot of how the crew came to be on the enterprise as it took off for its maiden voyage (and where most likely most of the “starship adventure” will take place), which will probably be riddled with obstacles. And on the side, the film cuts back and forth to kirk, as everyone on this website has clearly and rightly so identified as the most important character in star trek, who is finding his way from a life altering misshap on the farragut, to an eventual command on the enterprise. It will be all the little moments throughout his personal journey that will make this entertaining.

Plus, if he joins the rest of the crew at the end as the captain, think of the awesome sequel possibilities.