January 2014

Nimoy is okay – but has COPD from years of smoking

On the 28th, Leonard Nimoy was seen being wheeled through New York’s JFK airport with an oxygen cylinder. Thankfully a day or so later he Tweeted that he’s okay, the oxygen was due to his development of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) from years of smoking. He quit during the filming of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Long flights and the wear of traveling seems to have taken a bit of toll on him, but he’s back home and doing fine. I quit smoking 30 yrs ago. Not soon enough. I have COPD. Grandpa says, quit now!! LLAP — Leonard Nimoy (@TheRealNimoy) January 30, 2014  


JJ’verse news bites

Sadly, we still don’t have anything concrete about the next Star Trek movie. But here are news bits to help try and tide us over in this drought. Orci speaks to the press about Trek 3, but it’s cryptic as usual. Pine says he’d like to see Kirk go even darker in Trek 3, and Into Darkness is nominated for an Academy Award for best visual effects. Read on for all the details.


Star Trek: Enterprise Season 3 Blu-ray review

We have come to Season 3 in the Blu-ray release schedule, this is the season many feel Enterprise became a show worth watching. Season 3 contains the season long arc of the Xindi threat. It also contains some great one-shot stories outside of the main Xindi narrative such as “Twilight” and “Similitude”, and a couple of pretty lame ones too, such as “Extinction” which is called “one of the singularly most embarrassing episodes of Star Trek I’ve been involved with” by Brannon Braga in the documentary on the set. Read on for the full review of this generally excellent season.



Phase II releases Kitumba as New Year’s surprise

Star Trek: Phase II (formerly New Voyages), the long running fan film project, has released its newest episode, titled “Kitumba”. This is a Klingon centric episode that was developed from an original 1977 Phase II script, when TOS was going to be re-launched as an updated TV series. Originally a two-part story draft for the Star Trek: Phase II TV series in 1977, it was rewritten into a one-part episode for this production. A good deal of the episode takes place on Qo’nos, the Klingon homeworld: which was shot on location at Fort Ticonderoga, New York, and at a local restaurant. Members of the International Klingon Federation helped out with the location shoots. The Phase II team is busy cranking out more episodes, their next episode “The Holiest Thing” is due out in February. And there are two more episodes at various stages in the production pipeline after it. “Kitumba” is the last episode in front of the camera for the founder of the project, James Cawley. He will be replaced by professional actor Brian Gross starting with the next episode due out in February. Click on to watch “Kitumba”