March will be the month of better weather, spring breaks, and also William Shatner’s 78th birthday. Therefore, we at TrekMovie have redefined March Madness to be March Shatness. At 78, Shatner continues to be a role model for how to age with vigor and enthusiasm for life, and TrekMovie has all the details on his recent adventures in this edition of ShatWatch.
In Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, James T. Kirk tells Gillian Tayler "I’m from Iowa. I only work in outer space", which started in motion an annual tradition in the real town of Riverside, Iowa: Trek Fest. Trekmovie.com brings you all the details about this annual event, with this 25th anniversary year promising to be the biggest and best yet, with guest stars Walter Koenig, George Takei, and Nichelle Nichols.
TrekMovie has previously reported that the animated Fox comedy Family Guy has an upcoming episode (“Not All Dogs Go to Heaven") with the stars of The Next Generation playing themselves, and today more info on this episode has been released, see below for details.
The 81st Academy Awards were held tonight, and Star Trek was all over the place, albeit indirectly. For starters, a few Trek alumni walked home with a golden statuette. Not only that, but several Trek veterans were on hand to co-present a few awards. Oh, and then there’s the fact that the show’s orchestra was conducted by the man who wrote the score this year’s Star Trek. Check it out below.
Yesterday it was reported that TNG’s Wil Wheaton participated in (and blogged about) the Star Trek segment of the MTV Spoilers show (airing Saturday at 8PM EST). Today Wheaton blogged some more about the show, and has some advice for his fellow Trek geeks, excerpts below.
Social networking and microblogging are the latest buzz words around the internet these days. Twitter is a social networking site that has become home to many celebrities, news organizations, and companies that want to join the conversation. Lately, there has been an surge of Star Trek alums, and even TrekMovie has joined in on the fun. Now, we take a more in depth look at life on Twitter, from a Trekkie’s perspective.
Tomorrow night LeVar Burton, better known to Trekkies as engineer Geordi La Forge on Star Trek The Next Generation, appears in the Lifetime movie Taken in Broad Daylight. Burton also has a number of other directing and acting projects in the works, so it seemed like a good time to see how life after the VISOR was treating Burton
Veteran Star Trek writer and producer Brannon Braga is keeping busy these days on the FOX series 24 and he even has a new genre pilot for ABC in development. Our friends at iF Magazine caught up with the man with the most Trek writing credits to talk about Jack Bauer, JJ Abrams and much more, excerpts below. iF also has more from Jonathan Frakes about his ‘Trek reunion’ episode of Leverage.
Jonathan Frakes started directing while still playing William Riker on Star Trek The Next Generation, going on to direct multiple Trek episodes, two TNG films, as well as many non-Trek films and TV shows. Next week TNT will air an episode of their heist show Leverage directed by Frakes and featuring guest spots for Trek actors Brent Spiner and Armin Shimerman, so we thought now would be a good time to check in with the bearded one.
February begins with good news for William Shatner (although TrekMovie sees all Shatner news as good news). First Bill’s Bio Channel chat show has been renewed for more episodes (and we have video of Shatner talking about Takei coming to the show). Plus the Gonzo Ballet has a film festival premiere date, the 2009 Horse Show has set a date, and we have a classic Shat vid from 1967 to round out this new ShatWatch.
It has been a busy week for the stars of the Star Trek movie. Below we have excerpts of Zoe Saldana (Uhura) and Leonard Nimoy (Spock Prime) talking about the new film, plus Chris Pine’s turn at Kirk has already garnered him a film industry honor. We also have more on what’s up with Zachary Quinto (Spock), Simon Pegg (Scotty), and Eric Bana (Nero) below.
The annual Phoenix ComiCon was held last weekend at the Mesa Convention Center in Arizona, and along with other genre, comic and anime luminaries, were four Trek alums — Wil Wheaton, Brent Spiner, Marina Sirtis, and Chase Masterson — holding a number of panels and events. TrekMovie was there to get the scoop on the event and the stars. Check out some pics, video, and con highlights!
At the Memorial for Majel Barrett Roddenberry earlier this month it was first announced that portions of the ashes of both Gene and Majel Roddenberry would be sent into deep space. Today Celestis, the memorial spaceflight company, has provided TrekMovie with more details on their final voyage, along with information on how fans can send a message along with them. We also have the video shown at the memorial.
Last month we reported that the Trek-crazy CBS sitcom Big Bang Theory incorporated the gift of a Leonard Nimoy autographed napkin into their Christmas episode. As it turns out, there really is a genuine Big Bang napkin signed by Nimoy, and it is being auctioned off for charity this weekend. See below for details and an exclusive picture of the napkin in question.
This year’s Academy Award nominees were announced this morning, and we’ll let you know the Trek veterans who made the cut. Also, we have William Shatner opening a red carpet (and opening up on Ricardo Montalban), Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes reuniting for television, LeVar Burton singing and giving love advice, and more. Read on!
Star Trek Enterprise’s Jolene Blalock will appear in a Star Trek parody on the TBS show 10 Items or Less, airing tonight. Blalock will be playing herself, having been lured to a "Star Trok" convention held in a grocery store, which is the main setting for the semi-improvisational comedy show.
This week, Star Trek fans were saddened by the death of actor Ricardo Montalban, whose portrayal of Khan has become iconic. Today TrekMovie celebrates Montalban’s many acting roles with some thoughts as well as some special never before seen pictures and a comment by director Nicholas Meyer.
Star Trek The Next Generation’s LeVar Burton was a surprise guest on tonight’s The Soup on E! and it is pretty funny and something we though you wouldn’t want to wait until next week’s CelebWatch to see, check out the video below.
This week, the Watch has more news on big news for Scott Bukula. We also have the low-down on new projects for Kate Mulgrew and Whoopi Goldberg, Malcolm McDowell taking pride in killing Kirk, William Shatner talking seal violations, LeVar Burton showing his ink, UK fame for George Takei, the latest Jeri Ryan sighting, and and much more below.
Ricardo Montalban, the actor who portrayed Khan Noonien Singh on Star Trek, died today at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 88. AP has just reported that Montalban’s passing was announced by Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti. RadarOnline reports Montalban died of natural causes.
As reported last night, the new Kirk and Spock (Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto), presented at the Golden Globe Awards. Before going on stage TV Guide talked to the pair about the new Star Trek movie and what it is like to be waiting until May. See video below, plus more Golden Globes pictures (including a couple of the ladies of Star Trek).
Tonight Star Trek’s new Kirk and Spock (Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto) had their first joint TV appearance as presenters at the 66th annual Golden Globe Awards airing tonight at 8PM on NBC. We have video from the show and pictures from the red carpet and the back stage press room.
The first CelebWatch of the year, and boy do I have some goodies for you! There’s plenty of Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto news, including a join appearance tomorrow at the Golden Globes. There’s also movie news for the likes of Simon Pegg, Colm Meaney, and Marina Sirtis. Plus LeVar Burton and Wil Wheaton ‘twittering’ to each other, and much more.
For those who miss Shatcemeber, it is time to start celebrating Shatuary 6th. On Tuesday, January 6th, the Bio Channel is showing the long awaited William Shatner’s Raw Nerve interview of Leonard Nimoy. The event is being celebrated with a special day of Shatnerific and Star Trek programming. We have more details including video and images below.
On Sunday the family, friends and fans of Majel Barrett Roddenberry came to Forest Lawn in the Hollywood Hills to pay their final respects to the First Lady of Star Trek. A large crowd, including many Star Trek luminaries gathered to for the official memorial. Details and photos below.
The Roddenberry family has announced the details for the memorial service for Majel Barrett Roddenberry, which will be at Forest Lawn in the Hollywood Hills on January 4th. The public are invited to attend, but are asked to add their name to an online list at Roddenberry.com so they can make appropriate plans. More details and info below.
It’s been a long time since the last CelebWatch, so let’s just get right on into it, shall we? We have all sorts of goodies for you this week, including real and fake new roles for John Cho, Wil Wheaton‘s possible Heroes role (or not?), the fate of Nana Visitor‘s Friday the 13th scenes, J.J. Abrams re-teaming with Harrison Ford, another nomination for William Shatner, the latest Zoe Saldana fashion sighting, Brent Spiner getting Quixotic, and much more!
The mourning of Majel Barrett Roddenberry, who passed away yesterday has just begun. Some of those who knew and worked with Star Trek’s ‘First Lady’ have already sent in their condolences for us to share with the fans, including William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, George Takei, Marina Sirtis, Robert Picardo and more. [3 UPDATES: w/ Wil Wheaton, JJ Abrams, Nichelle Nichols + more]
Today is another sad day for Trek fans, TrekMovie was just informed by the Roddenberry family that Majel Barrett Roddenberry passed away this morning at the age of 76. The first lady of Star Trek’ died of leukemia at her home in Bel Air. At her side were her son Eugene ‘Rod’ Roddenberry along with family and friends.
This week the TV Guide Channel’s "Hollywood 411" show did a brief segment on the new Star Trek movie, including some comments from director JJ Abrams, Zoe Saldana (Uhura) and Zachary Quinto (Spock). Not much is new, but the segment shows how the film is being positioned in the mainstream media. video below plus more photos from a recent event with Abrams and his stars.