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TOS Remastered | October 14, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 22 comments so far

Today is I,Mudd Remastered Day

The Enterprise gets taken over by an android controlled by the infamous Harry Mudd Video preview / Local Station & Showtimes / More at Memory Alpha This lighthearted episode is the first 2nd season episode, so listen for the different theme with the new soprano vocalist (read more about her here). This is one of the ‘easier’ episodes that CBS seems to be packing into their first couple of months and there really aren’t many opportunities for new effects. Expect the usual ship flyby and a new planets (there are rumors of an added ring to the android planet), other possibilities include: ‘overload danger’ indicator inner workings of the ‘Norman’ android extra android duplicates TrekMovie will have screenshots up late Saturday or Sunday, and a review by Monday UPDATE: Screenshots and Audio from I’Mudd Remastered so what did you think of I,Mudd Remastered? 

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Trek Franchise | October 13, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 39 comments so far

Berman: ‘I have produced my last Star Trek’

According to an interview in the new Star Trek magazine, longtime Trek producer Rick Berman has read the writing on the wall. Berman on being involved in Trek’s future:  Without sounding clichéd I’m not going to say never, but I assume that I have produced my last Star Trek, especially with the interest that Paramount has gotten from J.J. Abrams to do another movie, which if successful, could lead to other television shows

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Interview, Music, TOS Remastered | October 13, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 11 comments so far

Redone Theme For Trek Remastered In Good Hands

Although the new CGI effects get most of the attention for Trek Remastered, CBS also gave the show’s opening music new life. The classic theme written by Alexander Courage was re-recorded in digital stereo and most agree that it is pitch perfect. That is thanks to the people involved, starting with the man tasked with the job Greg Smith. Smith is a Trek music veteran who began working on Trek back in the early 90s . He worked on DS9, VOY and ENT as an orchestrator for composer Jay Chattaway and even composed a few episodes himself.  "I tried to remember how many Trek music sessions I worked on and I lost count," Smith tells TrekMovie. Star Trek up until Enterprise was one of the few shows that still used full orchestral scores. "For music, Trek always had the highest production values," says Smith, and Trek Remastered wasn’t going to be the exception.

City on the Edge of Forever

Review, TOS Remastered, Uncategorized | October 12, 2006 | By: Dennis Russell Bailey 39 comments so far

Review: “City On The Edge Of Forever” Remastered [w/ new pics & vids]

Captain Kirk Meets The No-Win Scenario The Enterprise crew discovers an alien time machine on an uncharted, lifeless world.  In a fit of drug-induced paranoia (it’s an accident, kids  — I can’t stress this enough; don’t do drugs, stay in school), “Bones” McCoy leaps back into 1930s New York and alters history such that the “Star Trek universe” never happens.  Kirk and Spock go back in time themselves in order to fix history; in a twist familiar to anyone who has read much of Harlan Ellison’s work, a blameless young woman who loves the protagonist has to be killed in order to make Everything Okay Again.

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Abrams | October 12, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 5 comments so far

Abrams Likens Trek To The Twilight Zone

Consider if you will JJ Abrams. In the new issue of Star Trek Magazine, Abrams still won’t talk details on Star Trek XI, but did discuss how he thinks Trek relates to some of his favorite franchises.  I always loved it when stories that were somewhat outlandish and larger than life were told with the intensity of a real life drama – things like Planet Of The Apes had such an impact when I saw it as a kid. Most episodes of The Twilight Zone were dramatically told. Star Trek is a good example too – in many ways, that series shared some of the qualities (and in some cases, crewmembers or cast members) of The Twilight Zone. I loved how Star Trek and The Twilight Zone would take things incredibly seriously – but that’s not to say there wasn’t humour of humanity built into those stories. The humanity was the thing that made those shows resonate and matter. Overall, I feel that watching larger than life, extreme and often preposterous situations told with the same commitment, as a true –to – life drama, was always my favourite kind of storytelling. Science fiction and thriller genres, when done well, seem to do that consistently.

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Abrams | October 12, 2006 | By: Rosario T. Calabria 5 comments so far

Is Abrams Spread Too Thin?

Star Trek fans eagerly await the time that JJ Abrams really begins to produce (and maybe direct) Star Trek XI, but it appears for now that Trek has to get in line behind all of Abrams TV projects. Abrams currently has 3 hour long shows running on ABC: ‘Lost’, ‘What About Brian’ and ‘Six Degrees’. As the headline in CTNow states: 3 shows keeps Abrams sprinting. It appears that the latter two shows are currently his focus. Abrams recently had to cancel plans to direct an episode of Lost so he can work on his other shows, telling TV critics in a conference call last week: "I’m depressed because I was supposed to leave today to direct an episode with a mind blowing story, but because of these other shows Iwas unable to do that." And it isn’t just Abrams. Bryan Burk and Damon Lindelof are also slated as Trek XI producers, but both of their ‘day jobs’ are on Abrams TV shows. Lindelof  keeps quite busy as a showrunner for ‘Lost’ (along with Carlton Cuse) . Bryan Burk, like Abrams, is an exec producer on all three shows (Lost, Brian and Six Degrees).

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ST09 Cast | October 11, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 13 comments so far

Kevin Weisman Wants To Be The New Scotty

Fans of JJ Abrams’ ‘Alias’ will recognise Kevin Weisman who played the resident geek; in a way he was the ‘Scotty’ of the hip spy show. In a new Moviehole interview with the actor the subject of Abrams new Trek movie came up and Weisman made it clear he was interested in a role… J.J [Abrams] is doing Star Trek now.Yeah. I don’t know if I look like a young ‘any of those guys’ so I’m screwed. I can’t be a young Mr.Spock… Greg Grunberg’s already got his hand up for that, hasn’t he?I’m sure he has [Laughs]. If there’s a job that J.J’s doing, Greg’salways  knockin’ on the door. Yeah look, I would love to work with J.Jagain – on anything – he’s a great guy, great director…. I’m sure we will, when something comes along. There’s gotta be a Young Scotty in there…Yeah, I gotta work on my accent. I’ve gotta start renting the old ones, researching them thoroughly, and then I’ll be calling J.J constantly and leaving messages. I’ll stop, when he gives me a role.

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Abrams, Comics | October 10, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 10 comments so far

Comics, Trinneer, Abrams, Futurama…and Foley? It is Slow News Day Roundup Time

Its been a slow couple of days around TrekMovie HQ…here a few things to tide you over 5 years after DC comics (through WildStorm) dropped its license, Star Trek is headed back to comics (not counting the recent ‘manga’). According to Newsorama, IDW (who do comics for CSI, 24 and other franchises) are picking up the Trek Comic baton. Their first foray will be for the 20th anniversary of TNG next year (has it been that long?). IDW also hint at a Trek XI adaptation. Anything has to be better than Marvel’s Trek/X-Men crossovers. Unlike some of his TNG colleagues, Star Trek Enterprise’s Conner Trinneer seems to be open minded towards Abrams Trek XI. The actor tells SFX Magazine (via Scifi Pulse) "I certainly hope JJ Abrams is doing it (Trek XI) I think that would be fantastic. And I’m sure Star Trek is going to continue in some form, at some point down the line." Trineer also says he prefers to get paid but is open to being in a fan film…they can certainly use the help.

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Abrams, Shatner | October 8, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 72 comments so far

Shatner Says He Would Play Kirk Again – Calls Abrams ‘The Perfect Person’ –

In the November Starlog Magazine William Shatner says that is willing to play Kirk again ‘if the opportunity were right’. Since Shatner recently played Kirk to hawk DirecTV one would imagine that ‘opportunity’ = large sums of cash. The last thing we heard from Shatner was his rapid backpedalling on stating he and Trek XI produder JJ Abrams were meeting. That was when Shatner issued his odd "there’s gas and in this case, the gas is coming from JJ Abrams" comment. In Starlog the Shat has only praise for Abrams: I think he’s the right guy…He’s the perfect person: He’s an aficionado and a brilliant storyteller and film-maker. If anyone can find the essence of ‘Star Trek’ and bring it up to date, he’s the man

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CBS/Paramount, Memorabilia, TNG, Trek Franchise | October 7, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 24 comments so far

Christies Trek Sale Brings in $7.1 Million – Enterprise D Sells For $576k [updated]

Article Updated: The Christies Trek auction is over and according to their release it brought in $7,107,040 (more than double their expectations). The highest priced item was the model for the ST:TNG Enterprise D for $576k, a new world record for Trek memorabilia. Other items that far exceeded expectations were McCoy’s TOS spacesuit for $144k and Picard’s flute from ‘Inner Light’ for $48k. Christies touts it as a truly ‘global event’ with bidders coming in from all over the world, however all but two of the top 10 items went to Americans. could have been yours for half a $mil

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TOS Remastered | October 7, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 37 comments so far

Today is City On The Edge Of Forever Remastered Day

Kirk and Spock go back in time to save McCoy. Video preview / Local Station & Showtimes / More at Memory Alpha This episode was written by Harlan Ellison and is often considered one of the best of the series. However there doesn’t seem much for CBS to play with for new CGI effects. We do know that there will be a new Guardian Planet, other possible things that might get a CGI upgrade the Guardian of Forever (the glow talk effect and/or the images seen in it) Guadian planet ‘set’ Spock’s tricorder display an enhanced Joan Collins? TrekMovie will have screenshots up tonight, and a review by tomorrow. so what did you think of City on The Edge Of Forever Remastered?   

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Feature Films (TMP-NEM), Shatner, Uncategorized | October 6, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 35 comments so far

Shatner Plays Kirk Again For Commercial…Plus Hosting New Gameshow

In the last week a new DirecTV commercial has shown up that features William Shatner playing a movie era Captain Kirk. The commercial is part of DirectTV’s new ‘fourth wall’ campaign were they show scenes from popular films re-edited to have some of the actors talk to camera about the clairty of DirectTV. Previuos commercials featured Vern Troyer from ‘Austin Powers’ and Ben Stein in ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’. The new Trek commercial uses footage from Star Trek VI. Walter Koenig and Leonard Nimoy are also featured, but it appears their footage is taken from the original film. And here it is… download wmv

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CBS/Paramount, Memorabilia, Trek Franchise | October 5, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 27 comments so far

Trek Auction Begins With Some Big Money [updated]

The auctioning of Trek’s history has begun and boy did Christies underestimate their prices. Not a single item has gone for anything close to their original estimates. For example: two empty Chateau Picard wine bottles (from Nemesis) were estimated to go for $700, in the end they went for $5500…for two empty wine bottles!. Christies and CBS Paramount had made around $250,000 off just the first 50 lots (out of 1000) which was at least double what they were estimating.Other highlights from the first 50 lots (note auction started with TNG films) Enterprise E Captains Chair: $52,000 (est. $9k)Enterprise E Blueprints: $2,400 (est. $600)Picards Sextent:  $5,500 (est. $300)Ent-E Dedication Plate: $7,000 (est. $600)Ent-E Engineering Table: $13,000 (est. $1200)Borg Alcove: $8,000 (est. $700)Borg Mannequin: $12,000 (est. $800)  Watch the auction live at History.com Click ‘more’ to see end of day update   

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Fan Productions, Interview, Of Gods and Men, Uncategorized | October 5, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 17 comments so far

‘Of Gods And Men’…The Other ‘Trek Movie’

TrekMovie visits with Of Gods and MenThe crew for the independent Trek web mini-series ‘Of Gods and Men’ (henceforth referred to as OGaM) did some location shooting in L.A. last weekend and TrekMovie.com was there. The first thing you notice when pulling up to the location is that this does not look like the proverbial ‘bunch of fans in a barn’ scenario. The scene looked like a typical L.A. filming location complete with honey wagons, equipment trucks, trailers, P.A.’s running around screaming into their headsets and extras milling about. What was different about this is that most of the extras had pointy ears. OGaM has turned a little corner of the San Fernando Valley into the planet Vulcan.

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Abrams | October 4, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 5 comments so far

Abrams Penned 3rd Season Premiere of Lost Airs Tonight

Star Trek XI producer JJ Abrams greatest claim to fame is probably the creation of the hit show ‘Lost’ which premiered in 2004. He along with fellow Trek XI producer Damon Lindelof are credited as making genre TV cool again. Since then no one has been able to duplicate it, and each network did try and fail last season  (including CBS’s attempt with Brannon Braga’s ‘Threshold’). Many feel that Lost dropped a bit in quality in its second season (during which Abrams was busy making MI:3). Tonight Lindelof and Abams are back as co-writers, which is their first Lost script since the Pilot two years ago. The script titled ‘Tale of Two Cities’ was written around the same time Abrams was writing the story for Trek XI (and right before starting the script) so we will see if he has ‘still got it’.  Early reviews indicate that  season 3 is off to a bang, here is what the USA Today had to say about it…

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CBS/Paramount, Orci/Kurtzman, Uncategorized | October 2, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 2 comments so far

Trek XI Writers Hold ‘Write A Line’ Contest For Transformers Movie

Next summer Paramount Pictures is bringing the Transformers franchise to the big screen in a live action movie. The film is directed by Michael Bay and written by Trek XI scriptwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman. Weeks ago we covered their streaming video Q&A session where they mentioned an upcoming fan contest. This week marks the start of the contest where they are letting fans submit lines for their script. 10 entries for a line of dialog will be recorded by star Peter Cullen (the voice of Optimus Prime) with the winning entry ending up in the final film. Paramont along with Orci and Kurtzman are to be applauded for their fan outreach on Transformers. With Orci and Kurtzman also having exec-producer credit for Star Trek XI we can only hope that this kind of feedback and involvement will be in store for Trek fans as well. The Transforms film is just finishing up principal filming and will be released on July 4th. The official website promises to provide many goodies like pictures, video, blogs, etc but so far it all says ‘coming soon’ Go to the Offical Transformers Site to Enter in the Contest

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Games | October 2, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 11 comments so far

Trek Game Drought Ends Tuesday

It has been more than two and a half years since the release of the last Star Trek video game (the lackluster ‘Star Trek Shattered Universe’ for the PS2). But Trek gamers can now rejoice, the long wait is over. Bethesda Softworks has announced the North American release dates for their first swath of Trek Games: Ocotber 3  October 24 November 7 Encounters Tactical Assault Legacy   PS2 PSP & DS PC & XBox 360 

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Editorial, Star Trek (2009 film) | October 1, 2006 | By: Dennis Russell Bailey 92 comments so far

Debunking ‘Go Forward Not Backward’

This editorial is the first of a series from Dennis Russell Bailey on ‘Bad Reasons for not doing a TOS movie’ Based on published reports, it appears likely that the storyline J.J. Abrams has conceived for his “Star Trek” movie takes place in Trek’s 23rd century and revolves at least partly around youthful versions of James Kirk and Spock.  Some long-time fans of the Franchise are excited by this possibility, and some are dead-set against it. Those fans who dislike the TOS-based movie premise have been active out on the Web advancing a number of assertions-passing-as-arguments as to how the premise somehow violates basic principles of “what ‘Star Trek’ should be about.”  There are several themes that crop up again and again on blogs and message boards.  Here’s one of my favorites: “Star Trek is about the future.  It should move forward, not back.”

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TOS Remastered | October 1, 2006 | By: Matt Wright 23 comments so far

The Naked Time Remastered Review

Watching Trek Remastered these past few weeks has been a real joy. It is at first a little odd to think that I would derive such pleasure from it — I’ve seen every episode of the original series many many times. Yet knowing that I am watching it on broadcast TV, not cable, not on DVD, means something. Watching it on broadcast TV is different. It takes me back to watching the syndicated repeats of TOS in the late 80’s and early 90’s that were on every weekend thanks to my local Fox station. I’ve had great fun watching these old friends restored and enhanced. Even though I know the stories by heart watching for the revised effects and seeing the sets, actors, and props in renewed detail is exciting.  

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Star Trek (2009 film) | October 1, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 12 comments so far

LA Times Columnist Compares Trek to the Bible, Suggests Abandoning the ‘Canon’ for Trek XI

LA Times Magazine Columnist Dan Neil devoted his regular ‘800 words’ column today to Star Trek.  Of the franchise he caims that Trek is the "the most successful entertainment franchise in history." Although certainly in the top ten, it is unclear that this claim can be backed up. But he doesn’t stop there… "Star Trek"—the horn-rimmed invention of an eccentric Hollywood scriptwriter—is one of the two or three richest, most thoroughly elaborated fictional narratives in human history. What comes close? The Vedas, perhaps. The Bible? In terms of the number of characters, story lines, the comings and goings of civilizations, the Bible is not even in the same ballpark, or quadrant of the galaxy, as they say on the bridge of the Enterprise. Neil then goes on to describe and denounce the rumored plans for Trek XI being a prequel, using the religious metephor to the hilt….

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TOS Remastered | September 30, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 50 comments so far

Today is Naked Time Remastered Day

The Enterprise crew catch a virus that removes their inhibitions. Video preview / Local Station & Showtimes / More at Memory Alpha TrekMovie will have screenshots up tonight, and a review by tomorrow. What to keep an eye out for beyond the usual establishing shots of the ship: early shot of Psi 2000 mountains and clouds multiple viewscreen shots of planet Psi 2000 coming in and out of view as it shrinks Fixing the missing phaser beam ‘goof’ of Scotty cutting through the wall into engineering new ‘timewarp’ effect …and of course Spock totally losing it NOTE: The episode guide has been updated…next week’s episode will be ‘City on the Edge of Forever’ and not ‘The Managerie Part I’ so what did you think of Naked Time Remastered?   

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Conventions/Events/Attractions, Fan Productions, Fandom, TNG | September 29, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 5 comments so far

Trekkies III: The Search For Fan Films?

Spotted this tidbit about Denise Crosby in the most recent Vegas con report on StarTrek.com After producing and hosting the first two "Trekkies" documentaries, Crosby said she is toying with ideas for a third one. "We’ll see — I’vegot it in mind to do. I’d like to do three; I just think three seems more complete — I’m looking at the boxed set down the line, y’know?" She said the theme of the next project would likely involve what she called "fan filmdom." It would be an interesting move for Paramount to put out another ‘Trekkies’ movie around the same time they are trying to expand the audience for Star Trek with Star Trek XI. If it does happen one would hope that Crosby and the other producers strived to be a bit more balanced then the previuos two films. Many Trek fans have felt that Trekkies I and II reinforced many of the negative stereotypes of Star Trek fans, some of which are now being dispelled by Trek Sociologist John Tenuto. The choice of the so called ‘fan films’ is also interesting, it could be seen as one step closer to legitimacy for these independent Trek films.  

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CBS/Paramount, Conventions/Events/Attractions, Star Trek (2009 film), TNG | September 29, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 6 comments so far

Roddenberry thinks Abrams ‘Gets It’, Dorn Does Not

StarTrek.com has posted a very belated con report from the Creation Vegas convention from 5 weeks ago (see our story here). This one covers many different people but has some more detailed comments on Trek XI from Michael Dorn, Rod Roddenberry and Paula Block…here they are… Rod Roddenberry Thinks Abrams ‘gets it” I am very open to J.J. Abrams doing this next movie. I like thefact that it’s someone new. I also like the fact that he’s an actualfan of the show … I’d be concerned that it might be, y’know, another version of ‘Star Wars’ but now called ‘Star Trek’ … [But] I think he’s one of us. He gets it, he has the passion, and I think he’s gonna do a great job. I just want to make sure he’s strong enough to stand upto the executives that say, ‘We need bigger breasts.’ That comes afterwards — let’s get the story first.

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Feature Films (TMP-NEM), TNG | September 29, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 26 comments so far

Spiner and Sirtis Talk About Treks That Might Have Been

SciFi Pulse has a couple of magazine excerpts up from TNG stars Brent Spiner and Marina Sirtis. Spiner talked to Dreamwatch magazine about the idea for Star Trek XI that he and Star Trek Nemesis story co-writer John Logan had:: the next film would have been was a Justice League of Star Trek. Something would bring all the great Star Trek villains together, from Khan to Shinzon, and Picard is the only person who could stop them and he actually has to go through time and pluck out the people he needs to help him. He goes back to the moment before Data blows up and takes him back to get Kirk and Spock, and go even further back and get Scott Bakula’s character Archer. The only problem Spiner saw with that idea was the cost…TrekMovie suggests he looks a little harder

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Conventions/Events/Attractions | September 27, 2006 | By: Anthony Pascale 2 comments so far

Trek Stars Perform Mock Trek XI Casting Call

StarTrek.com has just posted a con report from the recent PlanetXPo in Seattle which describes a Trek XI themed ‘radio play’ performed by a number of Trek Luminaries. The play was titled ‘My Kingdom for a Kirk’ and mimicked a theoretical casting call for a new captain Kirk. Star Trek Enterprise’s John Billingsley played the part of Trek XI producer JJ Abrams, assisted by his secretary "Miss Rand" played by Grace Lee Witney. Auditioning for the role of Kirk was none other than George Takei, Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig…all playing themselves. Takei self deferentially told ‘Abrams’ that he should actually do a movie about ‘The Adventures of Captain Sulu on the Excelsior’, then acquiesed to doing his best attempt at a Kirk (in full Shatner mockery).  Nichols tried to convince Abrams that he should have a woman play Kirk and Koenig tried to convince him he wanted a Russian Captain Kirkov. The original series stars were followed up by Tim Russ and Gary Graham vying for the part of the new Spock. Alan Ruck, J.G. Hertzler and Garrett Wang also show up with the play ending with ‘Abrams’ deciding he is willing to pay Matt Damon anything he wants.