As we greet a brand new 2016, we say Q’Plah! to our dear friend 2015 with a look back at TrekMovie’s most popular articles of the year.
For those of you using the Gregorian calendar (does the stardate roll over on January 1st?), Happy New Year from all of us here at TrekMovie! With a switcharoo of writing and directing staff and completion of principal photography of the new movie, the reveal that it will be known as Star Trek Beyond, and of course the announcement of a new Star Trek television* series from CBS, 2015 was a big year in Trek. Here are the top 10 most discussed news stories from TrekMovie this year.
10. Pegg Interview from Set of Beyond
December 17th
This interview with co-writer of Beyond Simon Pegg published on The Nerdist has probably been the most information-filled thing to come out of the mouth of anyone involved with the famously tight-lipped production. With plenty of encouraging details giving Trekkies hope for a strong, exploration-filled plot, we could still only throw a “minor spoilers” tag on this one.
9. EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Invites “Star Trek Beyond” Fan Creator to Pitch TV Series
June 18th
The story that caused probably the most stir among the fan community (not to mention CBS and Paramount) was the announcement that Michael Gummelt, writer of a fan script called Star Trek: Uncharted (at the time, Star Trek: Beyond) was offered the chance by Paramount to come to the studio to pitch them his idea. The unprecedented opportunity turned out to be part of a deal for Paramount to buy the rights to the www.startrekbeyond.com domain name from Gummelt who, even knowing his chances with the studio giant were slim, couldn’t have been happier with the trade.
8. With Big Raises, Pine and Quinto Signing On for Star Trek 4
June 26th
Many fans were excited to know that the latest series of Star Trek reboot films were not slated to come to an end after Beyond, the third film in this latest series. No news yet as to what is in store for Star Trek XIV.
7. Pegg Dispels Elba Klingon Rumors
March 29th
We’ve only recently learned anything about the villain of Star Trek Beyond, played by British sci-fi actor Idris Elba (best known for his role in Pacific Rim). Back in March, co-writer Simon Pegg came out to dispel rumors about his character being a Klingon.
6. CBS announces new Star Trek series to premiere in January 2017
November 2nd
For years, many Trekkies have been angling for Trek to return to television, arguably the medium that does best by the franchise. This year, those Trekkies got their wish (sort of)! CBS announced a new Star Trek television* series to premier exclusively on the network’s streaming service CBS All Access. Star Trek All Access will debut in January 2017.
5. Director Justin Lin Confirms ‘Star Trek Beyond’ Title, Teases Starfleet Uniform Patch in Tweet
June 19th
Beyond director Justin Lin took to Twitter saying, “Let the next Starfleet voyage begin! #StarTrekBeyond #LLAP” confirming the title of the film after TrekMovie broke the news back in April. Attached to the tweet was an image of what appears to be the shoulder of a Starfleet uniform featuring a familiar patch.
4. Justin Lin talks Trek 3
June 3rd
Justin Lin hasn’t been too vocal about his role in the latest Star Trek film. Last June, he first broke his relative silence and revealed that he was, “a Star Trek kid”.
3. Pegg talks Trek 3, says Paramount wants a less “Star Trek-y” film
May 19th
This year’s biggest blunder was when Simon Pegg, co-writer of Star Trek Beyond, revealed that Paramount doesn’t want the new Star Trek film to be, well, to much like a Star Trek film. This came as a blow to fans who were hoping for the latest incarnation of the film franchise to go back to its more intellectual, plot- and character-driven roots, which many feel has been replaced in recent films with too much action.
2. BREAKING: Star Trek XIII to be titled ‘Star Trek Beyond’
April 21st
A big unknown about the new film was one very important detail: it’s title. TrekMovie was excited to break the news that the title of the thirteenth Star Trek film will be Star Trek Beyond, a move that suggested this movie will focus more on exploring the great unknown and going “beyond” what we’ve seen before.
1. BREAKING: Simon Pegg to co-write Star Trek 3 with Doug Jung
January 21st
After it was announced that Bob Orci, co-writer of the first two Nu Trek films and would-be director of the third, was removed from the production of Beyond, everyone wondered what would happen to the film and who would fill a few very important seats. The news that Simon Pegg (long celebrated by the nerd community and our new Scotty) along with Doug Jung would be penning the new script came as a pleasant surprise for most, giving us Trekkies hope for a good film to come.
Honorable Mention: ‘Star Trek Beyond’ teaser trailer makes online debut
December 14th
The biggest recent news regarding Star Trek Beyond is of course the debut of the first teaser trailer, the likes of which has had a… shall we say… mixed reaction (even from the film’s writer Simon Pegg).
Thank you, Kayla et al for helping to bring TrekMovie back to life!! All the best in Sweet ’16 as the Big E hits the Big 5-0.
Happy New Year!
Odd that the death of Leonard Nimoy did not make this list.
Happy New Year! LLAP
New Year’s greetings are highly illogical.
Hence, may all sentient inhabitants of Planet Earth participate in an illogically contented periodical, gravitationally determined elliptical circumsolar motion henceforth until the recurrence of this relative point therein, thereafter, and, preferentially, evermore.
Live long, and prosper.
No mention off George Clayton Johnson’s death either? This site just seems to be concentrating on Star Trek 3: Tokyo Drift…
Looking forward to the 50th! Thanks to all at Trekmovie (especially Brian, Jared and Kayla) for keeping us in the loop! We love the podcasts too! Keep ’em coming! Happy New Year!
Popular stories perhaps.
Most important store: The Passing of Leonard Nimoy.
Happy New Year!
And many thanks to TrekMovie team, Kayla, Matt, Brian & Jared for all your hard work.
Mr. Nimoy, Harve Bennett, Sarah Marshall are just a few of the Trek alumni that we lost in 2015. Would be nice to have a memorial post since these topics did not make this list.
8 Ahmed, I agree wholeheartedly!
Three cheers to our site managers!!!
AND HAPPY 50th NEW YEAR TO ALL TREK FANS
\\//_
Live long and prosper.
IT WAS A BAD YEAR, BECAUSE I NEVER GOT THE CHANCE TO MET LEONARD NIMOY AND THANK HIM IN PERSON FOR ALL THE JOY HE HAS BROUGHT INTO MY LIFE PORTRAYING MR. SPOCK.
Wow. Scrolling down I took it for granted that the Nimoy death would be the number one story by far. A total shock it’s not even mentioned.
Oh, no – Penny Juday has passed also.
http://www.trektoday.com/content/2015/12/juday-passes/
#12: I agree. Unfortunately just as Christians get upset about taking Jesus out of Christmas, I fear that we have taken Spock out of Star Trek.
The theme of this News item was “Most Popular Trek News Items”. You know…feel good stories of the year.
The passing of Nimoy, Harve Bennett and the other “Trek” related people were sad stories, not feel good stories.
I’m not at all surprised by the absence from this list of Nimoy’s passing. There’s nothing to argue about! Lol. Because of that, it was more than likely a small number of regular and first time contributors offering tribute.
I did think, however, the announcement of the new TV series would’ve generated more posts, landing it a lot closer to #1
Obviously, Maltz was not available to edit! :)
.
Qapla’!
11. AL – January 1, 2016
Thus I went and saw Shatner’s One Man show when he came to Brisbane, Australia in Oct, to a packed house.
Lots of fun and very energetic for an 84 year old.
What’s the definition of “most popular” story?
#1 most important: Death of Leonard Nimoy.
#2 most important: Death of Grace Lee Whitney.
To everyone arguing that the “most important” stories are missing on that list: It says right up there that the ranking is based on the number of comments (“most discussed news stories”). So it would seem that people don’t discuss what’s important. Or everybody just has a different definition of what they consider important.
I think the most “popular” stories were the ones that received the most comments, as in several hundred. “Popular” does not necessarily mean the most important. Perhaps the most “important” stories could be dealt with in another thread, but what has been considered the most important is not as easily gleaned as what has been the most popular threads on this site over the last year.
The Force Awakens was easily the biggest Star Trek story of the year. How it didn’t crack the top ten is beyond me. Get it, beyond. . .
Star Wars rules!
#22. Kylo Rum – January 4, 2016
I’m not sure but I think the following news service agrees with you:
https://tinyurl.com/star-wars-destroyed-star-trek
“… I definitely like Star Trek better, but as far as a winner goes, Star Wars is clearly the victor.
All you have to do is look at the Star Trek reboot by J.J. Abrams and the the trailer for the next one in the series by Justin Lin — lots of explosions, running around and wisecracks. It’s the Star Wars blockbuster formula shoehorned into Star Trek.
It’s hard to believe that Star Trek started out as a series of stories about exploration. It was right there in the opening to the show: “Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”
The Enterprise crew went out of their way to avoid conflict. They were diplomats who tried to peacefully resolve disputes. And if they weren’t able to do that, they considered it a failure.
Star Trek was inspirational because it hinted at a future world where we on Earth could settle our differences peacefully. If Justin Lin wanted to take Star Trek back to its roots, the next movie might involve a visit to a planet with a conflict similar to the one in Iraq and Syria. There would be a starship hero who is a Muslim.
We would be treated to an exploration of both outer and inner space.
I would be very surprised if this happened. Science fiction movies about exploration still exist, but the Star Trek franchise has abandoned them.
” — MARK ROGERS – Star Wars has destroyed Star Trek; BY Mark Rogers, Newsonaut; NEWSKAMLOOPS; January 3, 2016 4:32 A.M.
I actually thought that the death of Leonard Nimoy would be the number one Star Trek story of 2015. Nimoy was one of the main reasons Star Trek exists (and brought millions to see the Star Trek reboot in 2009) and is a cultural icon. Shame on you people!!! Nimoy’s death is still as potent today as it was almost a year ago (and still felt) and I can not believe it has almost been a year since he passed away. I miss him SO much!!!
And one more thing. I saw from the above posts that the most “popular” Star Trek stories were the ones with the most coments. On almost every single article concerning his death there were overwhelming responses and all of them have been positive. It seems everyone has been influenced in some way by Mr Nimoy and especially his portrayal of Spock. There aren’t many actors you can say that about. Again, it seems like this list is prejudiced in talking only about the Star Trek 3 reboot (not the Nimoy directed movie in the 1980’s).