As some may be aware, TrekMovie staffers were mostly out of touch for a couple of weeks recently. Here is a round up of Trek news bits. We mourn the passing of Dahar Master Kang (AKA Michael Ansara), Breaking Bad references Trek in a drug haze, and a new book about the making of TOS debuted. Read on for more.
RIP Michael Ansara
Michael Anasra passed away on July 31 at the age 91. Trek fans know him as Kang, appearing in TOS and DS9 as the character. Ansara was a well known figure in 1960s and ’70s TV. He was married to I Dream of Jennie herself Barbara Eden from 1958–1974. Ansara can also be seen in other Sci-Fi shows including: The Outer Limits episode “Solider”, and as the reoccurring bad guy Killer Kane on Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. For those of us growing up in the ’90s, Ansara lent his voice to what many consider the definitive version of Mr. Freeze in Batman: The Animated Series (and it’s spin offs).
Happy Birthday Julie Newmar!
Julie Newmar perhaps best known as Catwoman from the late ’60’s Batman TV series, celebrated her 80th birthday on Friday the 16th. She played the feisty pregnant Eleen, wife of the leader of the Capellans in the TOS episode “Friday’s Child”.
Breaking Bad references Star Trek
Badger and Skinny Pete discuss an unwritten script for Star Trek. Cartoonist Matt Czap made an animated version of the scene, check it out below:
Kickstarter funded behind the scenes book about TOS production gets released
These are the Voyages, TOS, Season One, by Marc Cushman. Cushman had access to Gene Roddenberry’s archives and has spent years compiling an episode-by-episode account of the behind the scenes details of the making of Star Trek. This first book covers Season 1, Season 2 and 3 are expected at a later date. For full details, including a sample of the book head over the publisher’s website.
http://www.jacobsbrownmediagroup.com/these-are-the-voyages.html
Keating on podcast, says Enterprise revival unlikely
Dominic Keating was out celebrating the release of Enterprise Season 2 on Blu-ray and chatted it up with the folks at the Transporter Room 3 podcast.
http://transporterroom3.blogspot.com/2013/08/episode-48-dominic-keating-malcolm-reed.html
Thank you for the wonderful Trek perfomance, Dahar.
That book looks interesting.
Absolutely roared with laughter over that Breaking Bad scene. I’m an avid fan of the series and sad to see it wrapping up. Such a stellar example of writing and directing.
Having read the excerpt from “These are the Voyages,” I know I’ll definitely be buying that book.
Good to see you’re deleting messages that acknowledge your tardiness (again), Anthony.
btw, you were pretty sophomoric in your STID interviews.
Delete me again, because you’re pretty insecure.
Just ban tom. There’s no need for that kind of nonsense.
also, Screen Junkies did an “Honest Trailer” of STID
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6B22Uy7SBe4
I also remember Ansara as Cochise from Broken Arrow. He made quite an impression on my young mind for his character not being the stereotypical bloodthisty savage featured in westerns at the time.
It was good that he was able (with William Campbell and John Colicos) to reprise their Klingon TOS roles in DS9. I found it helped strengthen the sense of continuity in the Star Trek universe – even though their appearences were altered from that of the TOS episodes.
On a different note, the STID Honest Trailer has made its appearance ;-)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6B22Uy7SBe4
Well, better late than never. The Breaking Bad cartoon idea came about from BB’s creatpr Vince Gilligan. (X-Files) Link. According to Vulture Blog where this cartoon this animation originated, Gilligan is a Trekker. People of earth, we’re everywhere. Um.. CBS if Gilligan is a Trekker, maybe get him to launch a new TV series?
Link.
http://www.vulture.com/2013/08/breaking-bad-badger-star-trek-story-animated.html
@ 7
Just watched that new “trailer” for Star Trek Into Darkness. Funny stuff.
Ansara was easily the best version of Mr. Freeze.
THAT VOICE!
R.I.P.
Ansara’s work as Mr. Freeze was amazing, I just watched that first episode with him recently. One of the finest episodes of the series.
@6 — Thanks for sharing the Honest Trailer link — funny stuff.
IGN’s Transporter Room 3 podcast is entertaining and not dry at all. Phil and Scott are hilarious. They have had many guest stars including LeVar, Frakes, Bakula to name a few. Been listening since day one.
Honest Trailers has a point… or several.
Just sayin’…
Let me say I hope Anthony is okay. Wherever Anthony is, he has my thoughts and prayers.
and
Hello CmdrR @ 14.
@10 & 11 — Was going to add Mr. Freeze to his bio, and then I totally forgot! Doh! I grew up on Batman TAS, I love his Freeze. I’m going to go back and add it to the article.
Kang will be Remembered with Honor!!!!
The Transporter Room 3 dudes are pretty cool
In this case for sure, “Honest Trailers” is painfully… honest.
my gods in space, that BB cartoon was BLOODY FANTASTIC, ahahahahahahaha
(Voyager shoutout, whoooo)
I’m sad that so many Trekkies seem intent on bashing STID, a film that tried so hard to please us.
1. It featured a story with a metaphor for the problems of today – it was about something.
http://wilwheaton.net/2013/06/my-review-of-star-trek-into-darkness/
2. It was full of cool references for Trek fans, including a cameo from Nimoy.
3. This was no re-tread of STII or Space Seed, but an original story.
Not to mention that it currently has an 87% fresh rating on rotten tomatoes or that it is the most successful Star Trek film ever in terms of box office – likely to top out at around $470 million.
I don’t know if it is a small section of the hardcore Trek community that don’t like JJ Abrams’ Trek or whether it’s a larger group. Certainly fans have bashed it in the comments on Trek Core, TrekWeb and Trektoday. Then again, you read someone like Mark Altman or the review at aint it cool and they rave about the film.
I’d argue that Star Trek prior to Abrams was dead – it was like the MacDonalds of SF – you knew what you were gonna get. Reheated rubbish like Star Trek Insurrection and Nemesis or bland stuff like early Enterprise (loved Season 4 though).
For me, I’ve been a trekkie since 1991 when I first saw The Undiscovered Country and I can honestly say that STID is the closest that a Trek movie has come to matching that film. My film review of STID is here.
http://ryesofthegeek.wordpress.com/2013/06/18/star-trek-into-darkness-film-review/
#20 – James, the moment you said STID is an “original story,” you lost a lot of credibility. Defending it is one thing–the movie made a lot of money, so it’s obvious that a lot of people liked it. But claiming that STID’s story is original is a joke.
As for whether it’s a small group of Abrams haters or a larger group, I think it’s clearly both. There is a small pack of Abrams haters who loathed ST09 and went to STID looking for a fight. These folks didn’t even give the movie a chance.
On the other hand, there’s a decent-sized group (that I predict will grow in the next few years) who loved ST09 and embraced AbramsTrek, only to have STID spit in our faces. They rehashed Khan for NO GOOD REASON–he doesn’t act like Khan EVER in the movie. He’s a good enough villain, but he’s not even slightly like the original Khan. (Not talking about race/color here, I’m talking about characterization.)
There is no sense of wonder, no awe, no joy of space travel, no exploration of anything new. Kirk’s character arc is the same as in the first movie. Spock doesn’t have an arc, just a downqard spiral. McCoy–wasted! Carol Marcus–wasted! Chekov–wasted to the point of seeming like punishment against the actor.
The last half of the movie is basically Michael Bay action with Trek costumes. At the end, we’re being told AGAIN that they’re setting off to “explore strange new worlds,” but why should we trust that since we didn’t explore any strange new worlds in this film? (Nabiru doesn’t even come close to counting as exploring a new world.)
The list of legitimate, widely held criticisms of STID is long and valid. Yes, a few haters just spew vemon at anything related to Abrams, Orci, or Lindelof. Some of us have learned what to expect from Abrams (slightly smarter Michael Bay movies), from Orci (conspiracy and dumb action, and barely-grasped science), and Lindelof (third-grade philosophy masquerading as depth), so we no longer trust them as filmmakers. And some of us who loved ST09 were so disappointed to get a retread of that movie (STID is a HUGE retread of the first movie) and bad plagiarism from TWOK and other films, that we find ourselves disgusted and saddened at what Trek seems to be turning into.
Sorry to go on so long, but you wrote at some length, so I figured I’d reply with some detail.
#20 – P.S.: James, watch that Honest Trailer and then try to call STID “original” without laughing.
@20. James – August 21, 2013
You can love something and still laugh at someone poking fun at it. I’ve been a trekkie since 1966. TOS is my favourite, but I like all incarnations of Trek to a greater or lesser extent. I Iike the reboot movies as well. Despite some issues, they still feel very Trek to me, and are certainly NOT at the bottom of my Trek Movie list.
Having said that, I think Galaxy Quest is excellent, and I also got quite a laugh out of the Star Trek Honest Trailers.
There are a number of issues that will get me worked up – having my beloved Star Trek satirized is not one of them…
@23 Oh yes, I can laugh at Trek satire and the Honest Trailer did elicit some chortles and I too think that Galaxy Quest is excellent.
I’d just noticed a LOT of Star Trek Into Darkness hatred in general inside the Trek community, which I don’t think the film deserves. Also, there was some survey or something, where Trekkies voted STID the worst Trek film ever! which I frankly found astonishing!
@21 I’d agree with you that it’d be nice to have more exploration of strange new worlds…..but none of the original movies (bar the motion picture) really did much of that!
I’d also agree that the Spock/Khan smack-down was the weak point of the movie.
I did think that Khan was well-played and came across as cultured and driven like Star Trek 2’s Khan.
Story wise, please can you explain how the story is a rip-off of Space Seed or TWOK (barring Kirks sacrifice).
you also write that
‘There is no sense of wonder, no awe, no joy of space travel, no exploration of anything new.’
Again, I’d contend that this is a failing with many of the Trek movies. I’d also argue that it is untrue – the volcano scene was pretty awesome and new as was the red planet in general. I also liked the (brief) glimpses of the Klingons, Praxis and the homeworld.
@24. James – August 21, 2013
“…Also, there was some survey or something, where Trekkies voted STID the worst Trek film ever! which I frankly found astonishing!”
Yeah, that does annoy me. I’m not annoyed that (apparently) approximately 100 people in a room ranked the Star Trek movies from Best to Worst by verbal acclaim and put STID at the bottom.
What does annoy me is the level of publicity that ‘poll’ received worldwide – without reporting how the ‘poll’ was taken.
The tone of the reporting seems to fall in to 2 camps: either confirming how bad STID was; or confirming how weird trekkies/trekkers are.
yep…the honest trailer hit most of the points of why I think STID is a middle of the pack Star Trek movie
If it hasn’t been mentioned, Michael Ansara also reprised Kang in ST: VOY’s super-fun “Flashback” episode. He congratulates “Mr. Sulu” on his captaincy. RIP
Hope the book is worthy. Behind the scenes and ‘Making of’ Trek books are what I miss most in this new Trek era. *sigh*
Wouldnt it be nice if CBS and Paramount actually revived TREK on TV. Enterprise or some other new show.
Loved that Breaking Bad scene, classic.
I’m going to wait until I receive STID on DVD next month and rewatch it before I consider bashing it (some more). Still, saw it once in 2D and once in 3D during it’s run, and sorry, James. I’ve been a fan of all things Trek since about 1974 and this story was just thin. Pretty to look at, but that’s about it. Typical of the times today.
I’d love a new TV show – I think it should be done like Falling Skies. A short season which would allow a lot of money to be spent on each episode. To be honest, I don’t know why CBS aren’t making a ‘movie of the week’ (maybe 6 a year). The Voyager two parters always got incredible ratings.
People might be interested in this interview with Simon Pegg who addresses those who hate on the new movie.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/21/simon-pegg-the-worlds-end_n_3787056.html?utm_hp_ref=entertainment
There may be some ‘issues’ with that TOS book and photo clearances … probably more of an ethical violation than a legal one, but something to consider when deciding whether to buy it or not.
startrekhistory.com’s restoration work on images may have been used without permission, but hey, look up the info for yourself (trekbbs has 2 threads on this, in TOS and LIT, and I imagine there are some elsewhere on the net too) and make an informed decision.
Not trying to make this about the legal issue … this is more like a Trek ep, since it is about deciding what the right thing to do is in an ethical sense.
Some folks make comments that give one the impression that they pay for this site and are not getting the return on their subscription. Ha!
#32 I agree somewhat with Simon Pegg but he should take his own advice with the Star Wars prequels. What he’s complaining the fans are doing is exactly what he’s doing.
Enterprise revival unlikely? Have these dumbasses from netflix and CBS SEEN all the support it has from trek fans? They better make it likely, because I’m going to start writing and sending them letters about it DAILY! It’s going to be expensive, but they aren’t listening to anyone else so why not?
@32 – Pegg makes some interesting comments there, and I would agree with him to an extent…but it only addresses a small section of the fandom
In my opinion there several types of people responding to this movie:
“stick in the mud” fans who hated the ’09 movie and what the new universe is trying to accomplish…i think these people are a minority
fans who loved the ’09 movie but got hung up on the ‘originality’ points and found that this movie contradicted the purpose of the new universe…you could call these nitpickers…I’m one of them
fans who did not get hung up on the ‘originality’ points and ate up the spectacle of the movie…these fans would rather not nitpick
then there’s general blockbuster movie fans some of which thought it was nothing more than a ‘fun space movie’
I feel that with the ’09 movie there was a lot less segregation than there is with this movie, and it is still considered one of the good ones. This one has people much more divided and that really says something about it and fandom in general.
#35 Gavabot – I don’t think it’s fair to call that middle group nitpickers. Complaining that Kirk’s hair is parted wrong is nitpicking. Complaining that the film completely wasted the opportunities promised by the rebooted universe (and promised by those making it) isn’t nitpicking.
Complaining that Khan’s eyes are the wrong color is nitpicking. Complaining that the character bears no resemblance to the character from TOS/TWOK and is a complete waste of that canon character is not nitpicking.
Pointing out that huge swaths of STID are all but identical to chunks of ST09 is not nitpicking.
Sorry, I just disagree about dismissing legitimate concerns about major issues as “nitpicking.”
The lack of originality in STID is not a nit.
@36 fair enough…I was trying to speak from a more generalized point of view
some people think it’s great and would consider criticisms that you and i feel are valid as nitpicking…
it’s still early, but i feel this one won’t sit as one of the greats of the franchise and that is completely fair…
#37 – Agreed.
I wish the Klingon’s looked like that again. Classic and simple.
Into Darkness was excellent Trek film. To each their own.
Regarding Anthony, he should either take care of his site or take it down. Trek movie has become a pale shadow of what it once was. These “news” stories are old. TrekWeb, and even ComicBookMovie are scooping you guys. Anthony is lazy and really needs to give this up.
And on a breaking news note: Simon Pegg was interviewed by the Huffington Post, and when asked his reaction to the swell of anti-‘Into Darkness’ sentiment… he basically told all of you haters out there ‘F- you.’
So glad I don’t go into movies just to hate them…
32. – Do his opinions of STID and the people that didn’t like it and his own opinions of the prequels (that he didn’t like) seem somewhat contradictory?
EVERY movie, even the really really really really really bad ones are hard work.
#4 Tom
What are you, 12 years old?
He lived to be 91 and came home to Barbara Eden for 16 of them? He lived a pretty good life. Should we all have those graces.
#22. “But claiming that STID’s story is original is a joke.”
…yeah, it’s nowhere NEAR as original as Wrath of Khan…so what if WOK recycled a villain from the TV series in a futuristic “take” on Moby Dick. At least it was original! lol
Now really, I wasn’t thrilled with Into Darkness, but saying that it’s worse than Insurrection or Final Frontier is going a little overboard…
Loved Ansara, he had ‘screen presence’ (and could menace well). He did so many memorable roles from Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (The Movie) to the Technomage in Babylon 5.