Friday at the Creation’s SciFi Grand Slam XVI had three Trek related events (Tim Russ, Nichelle Nichols and a group of guest stars), plus a cabaret. The stars entertained the lightly-packed crowd, but there wasn’t any big news (and your humble editor was spending a lot of time chatting with friends and folks around the con). But here are photos from the day.
This week in Science Friday, we have more news on the space tourism race into sub-orbit, some awesome images of Mars’ moon, sugar-powered transportation, and a reported alien attack! Also, check out this week’s Trekkish gadget of the week: The Illumination Shower!
As mentioned in CelebWatch, John Cho (Star Trek’s new Sulu) is out promoting his new movie and we should expect a glut of Cho interviews in the next two week. Today Access Hollywood has a vid of Cho defending Trek’s secrecy, but he also compares his fandom for Star Trek and Star Wars (see below)
[NEW FEATURE] There may be no new Star Trek episodes these days (excecpt TOS-R), but Ron Moore’s Battlestar Galactica is keeping it real for ‘space based’ TV series. A Trek fan favorite, the show features many Trek vets behind (and in front) of the camera and so for it’s fourth and final season TrekMovie.com will run a special preview for each Friday’s episode and also BSG news.
Chuck is taking the week off so Tony has a truncated Celeb Watch with George Takei singing country and killing a TV show, Patrick Stewart getting rave reviews and talking the end of TNG, Harold and Kumar 2 clips with John Cho, William Shatner giving Boston Legal spoilers, and new acting gigs for Kate Mulgrew and Marina Sirtis.
The Star Trek location shooting in Kern County continues to be big news for the local media. A new article in the Bakersfield Californian reports Paramount was trying to keep the filming a secret, but the cover was blown when the TV crews ‘found’ the film crew while covering a traffic accident (reported here on Monday). Another report has more video and a better spoiler picture from Monday’s filming.
Tomorrow TrekMovie.com heads to Burbank to attend the three day Creation Sci-Fi Grand Slam Summit XVI. Many Trek celebs will be in attendence including the two Spocks, Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy. On Sunday TrekMovie.com is hosting a Q&A with Star Trek writers Alex Kurtzman and Bob Orci, maybe you can help
In an interview with Logo networks After Elton blog, Star Trek Voyager writer/producer revealed that two gay characters were considered for the series, which would have been a Trek first. However Fuller, who is openly gay, actually didn’t support the idea because he felt the characters were ‘two dimensional.’
The live chat with William Shatner last Friday was rife with tech issues, but it is now available online (and totally audible). The whole vid (below) is about 40 minutes long. Due to the various tangents, he ended up taking only eight questions, none of which were related to Star Trek. The most interesting part was regarding Shatner’s beliefs on ET and his claim to have inside info.
Captain James T. Kirk is bigger than life and now, his action figure is too. Diamond Select Toys today provided the first image of their new Ultimate Quarter Scale line Kirk action figure, first reported by Trekmovie.com from Toy Fair in February. See below for details and full size image
Earlier on Tuesday, TrekMovie.com reported that Paramount was in Bakersfield California shooting 2nd unit ‘Iowa’ scenes for the new Star Trek movie. Now we have video of executive producer Jeffrey Chernov talking to the local news about why they chose Kern County to stand in for Iowa. Plus another local news station caught the crew shooting an interesting spoilerific scene.
This week Library Computer takes a look at a number of ‘making of’ books for specific Star Trek episodes, including a review of the latest one about making the classic TNG episode "Yesterday’s Enterprise." We also have an interview with the author Eric Stillwell (who co-wrote the story for the episode) where he discusses both the episode and his time working on the TNG staff.
AOL Movies has a new interview with William Shatner covering the new Boston Legal episodes (where he reveals Denny Crane will be running for president) his upcoming autobiography (which he says will have you “laughing out loud”) and of course Trek. Shat talks about how he feels about not being in the new JJ Abrams Star Trek film, but how he hopes the movie will give new life to his Trek novels.
ABC23 from Bakersfield, Calif is reporting that the ‘site manager’ for location shooting on the Star Trek film has got into a car accident at the location. TrekMovie.com recently reported that principal photography has ended for film, but some ‘2nd unit’ filming would continue during early April. UPDATED: more details on accident and location (see below)
Tonight Patrick Stewart opens on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre for a seven week run of MacBeth. Rupert Goold’s Stalinist interpretation of the Shakespeare classic originated with Stewart on the London stage in 2007. In a new interview promoting the show, Stewart also talked a little Trek and how Jean Luc Picard influences his MacBeth.
The TrekMovie.com and io9 ‘Make a Fake’ Contest is now over. We have received a number of entries, some of which were attempts at fooling Vreenak, and others were just a bit of fun foolishness. Although fakes, it is likely some of the entries could have spurred some internet rumors if they weren’t labeled as such. See below for all of the entries and the winner.
This week, The Collective has your details and a guide to new Diamond Select/Art Asylum’s Star Trek items for 2008 (announced at ToyFair) which are now available for presale. This week you can reserve DST’s first Enterprise D, their first TMP figures and the latest Minimates.
The world of sci-fi movie news has "The Hobbit" looking realer, Indy 4 getting realer, Batman and Transformers 2 details, and a remake for "Short Circuit"? Plus new images including Hellboy 2 and DragonBall. Also there’s lots of new video, including Iron Man and Indy 4 TV spots. And we got NBC’s new genre shows, details on Ron Moore’s Caprica and lots more TV news
According to Star Trek future history, on April 5th, 2063 Dr. Zefram Cochrane became the first man to break the warp barrier (with a little help from the crew of the NCC-1701E) and garnered the attention of some Vulcans in the neighborhood…sparking the ‘first contact’ between humans and aliens…and the beginnings of the United Federation of Planets and all that came with it.
Star Trek mash-ups on YouTube are ubiquitous and one sub-genre is alternative opening credit sequences (and a sub-sub-genre is credits made to mimic another show). In some cases it is a bit of fun, but in other cases they could be considered an improvement or at least a compelling possibility. So check out some of these ‘two great shows that taste great together’ mash-ups below.
This week’s Science Friday is full of interesting science news, but, isn’t it always? We bring you a look into future Enceladus missions with the Cassini Watch, a lesson in ancient Bajoran inter-planetary travel thanks to a new discovery about our Sun, how coffee can keep you healthy, and the “poop” on 14,000 year old fossils, along with an exciting new gadget of the week: the Senisphere.
5PM Pacific (8 PM Eastern):Chat live with William Shatner (along with his daughter Lisabeth) today on Live Video. The room is open now. 10 PM (9 Central): Ron Moore’s Battlestar Galactica kicks off its 4th and final season. More info at SciFi.
This week, The Celeb Watcher brings you casting news for Trek vets Scott Bakula, Connor Trinneer, Simon Pegg, and George Takei. We also got appearances for Nichelle Nichols and Jolene Blalock, confessions of a Star Trek: Voyager writer, Saldana getting the cold shoulder at a Beverly Hills jeweler, and more. Plus: Win a date with Paul McGillion!
CBS has sent us two shots from weekend’s remastered "The Enterprise Incident"
In a recent interview the new Chekov, Anton Yelchin, talked about Walter Koenig visiting him on the set of JJ Abrams Star Trek. Now in a new interview with the Joplin Globethe original Chekov says that, although it was ‘odd’ to see someone else play Chekov, what he saw on his visit to Paramount was ‘conscientiousness’ and ‘loyal’ to the original Trek.
George Takei appeared on Conan O’Brien last night and immediately Conan asked George about his ‘hate’ for William Shatner and how he got a chance to roast bill on Comedy Central. Takei talked about how Shatner never got his name right and how he thought Bill’s acting “sucked.” The original Sulu also talked about the Stern show, dubbing Godzilla, and appearing on a new talent show…check out video below.
Back in February we reported that Patrick Stewart (TNG’s Capt. Picard) had to ask fans not to come to his plays dressed in Starfleet uniforms. In a new interview with Newsweek, however, the actor gets a bit testy (much like Simon Pegg did recently) and shows his love for Trekkies, assuring that we are not, as Newsweek calls us, “weird.” He still doesn’t like those damn uniforms, though.
Captain Jonathan Archer and the crew of the NX-01 may have cut their TV adventures short, but they continue in print. This week’s Library Computer takes a look at the Star Trek Enterprise releaunch including an exclusive sneak peek at the next fall’s "Kobayashi Maru," written by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin, as well as a tease on next year’s Romulan War books.
Over 40 years old and yet every week Star Trek still gets talked about all over the web…not just on Trek sites. This week the Great Links has discussions on the Prime Directive in relation to the real world, Trek making it into two different top 50 lists, and another chapter in the battle between Star Trek and Star Wars. Plus we have my favorite topic — Trek women!