This Sunday at 8:00 p.m. ET (7:00 p.m CT), The History Channel is premiering a brand new documentary called 50 Years of Star Trek, which will include the last ever interview conducted with Leonard Nimoy. Since there have already been countless documentaries already made about the franchise, we got on a call with executive producer Brian Volk-Weiss to get the inside scoop on what makes this one different.
Millions of people every year will now be able to see the original model of the USS Enterprise at the Smithsonian – unfortunately for them, just like as Picard tells Data in First Contact, they won’t be able to touch it.
The Twilight Zone and Star Trek both occupy a special place in science fiction history. But, perhaps more interesting is the surprising amount of crossover between the two shows (and I’m not just talking about the more well-known instances a la Captain Kirk screaming on an airplane). Hit the jump to read my top 10 Twilight Zone episodes that every Trekkie should see.
The first trailer for For The Love of Spock, the Leonard Nimoy documentary that raised over $660,000 on kickstarter, released its first trailer, warming hearts and watering eyes everywhere.
In honor of our beloved holiday, First Contact Day, listen to music from all five live action series and 12 movies of Star Trek on AccuRadio’s newest channel created especially for the occasion, Spock On: The Music of Star Trek.
Tonight, the 42nd annual People’s Choice Awards airs on CBS. While no Star Trek productions are up for a win this year, we can take a look back to 1980 when William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy presented at the 6th annual award ceremony. Take a gander, and marvel at Leonard’s epic mustache.
Some 200 5.25-inch floppy disks from late Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s estate have been unlocked revealing about 3 MB of decades old words typed by the Great Bird himself.
Webcomic creator, cat-lover, and drawer of funny things, Matthew Inman (a.k.a. ‘The Oatmeal’), took to the interwebs today to tell the story of a young Gene Roddenberry in glorious webcomic form.
Longtime Trek author Larry Nemecek (Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, Stellar Cartography: The Starfleet Reference Library) is releasing the fourth volume in his “On Speaker” audio series in celebration of Voyager‘s 20th anniversary.
The story behind Star Trek’s first feature film was an epic drama of its own.
Trekkies, hide your pocketbooks if you don’t want to be tempted by Propworx’s Star Trek auction, which boasts an impressive haul of original screen-used props from throughout the Star Trek Franchise: from props, to artwork, to costumes, to scripts. The most unique (read: priciest) item up for bid is one of only two screen-used fiberglass TOS phaser props known to exist. The prop, which was featured in the hands of a security officer in the episode “Assignment: Earth”, is expected to fetch upwards of $60,000.
The Smithsonian Air and Space Museum is overseeing the 4th and latest restoration of the original Enterprise model used to film The Original Series. For one day only they let the public in on the process, and TrekMovie’s Jared Whitley has the scoop and photos below.
Two fearless climbers have captured the eyes of the world this week with their amazing ascent up Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan. After climbing for 18 days and nights, Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson today became the first climbers ever to use only their hands and feet to summit a 3,000-foot sheer path called the Dawn Wall. The climb has garnered incredible amounts of media attention. El Capitan is of course known to Trek fans, who saw Captain Kirk free climb it in Star Trek V.
Just in time for the film’s 35th Anniversary, the long-awaited oral history of Star Trek: The Motion Picture will be released this week from author Preston Neal Jones and Creature Features Publishing. More info after the jump.
Author Marc Cushman would like to release the third volume of These Are The Voyages this fall, and he’s turned to Kickstarter to make it happen. More after the jump.
Over the weekend TrekMovie reported on the Star Trek: TNG reunion event at NYCC, which included a comment from Marina Sirtis about how Gene Roddenberry would have felt about Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Today DS9 co-creator Rick Berman responded to Sirtis’ assertion. More details below.
Gary Kurtz was the producer of the original Star Wars movie and the first sequel, The Empire Strikes Back, and in a new interview he talks about how George Lucas was influenced by Star Trek.
Star Trek: The Next Generation premiered on September 28, 1987, returning the franchise to its television roots. The success of the show spawned three additional series which ran through 2005. Today celebrate TNG’s 27th birthday by watching some of the original pre-air interviews with Gene Roddenberry and the TNG cast and crew, plus a rare pre-launch campaign video for syndicated stations.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is still considered by most to be the best film in the franchise, but that doesn’t mean making the movie was easy. In a new interview writer/director Nicholas Meyer talks about how William Shatner had problems with the script and how he fought with the studio over the treatment of Spock’s death. Details below.
The studio model for the USS Enterprise from the original Star Trek series is on the move. Earlier this week the ship was removed from its latest display at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, in preparation for move to a new location within the museum. The model will also be undergoing evaluation and conservation treatment. More details and photos below.
Today TrekMovie finishes up our exclusive interview with writer David Gerrold – this time Gerrold talks frankly about his troubled time working on Star Trek: The Next Generation and coming into conflict with Gene Roddenberry and Rick Berman, being ‘blackballed’ in Hollywood and he even gives his thoughts on JJ Abrams Star Trek.
A few days ago we had Douglas Trumbull talking about "saving" Star Trek: The Motion Picture and now in a new interview George Takei is talking about how that first Trek feature was "in trouble from the start." Listen to Takei talk about TMP, failed Paramount salary negotiations and more below.
As part of our celebration of Star Trek’s birthday we have TrekMovie video from the weekend’s Salt Lake City Comic Con where Leonard Nimoy beamed in via Skype and talked about how he got cast in Star Trek following his appearance on Gene Roddenberry’s previous show The Lieutenant. We also have clip of that episode. Watch it all below.
On September 8, 1966 the first episode of of an ambitious sci-fi show created by Gene Roddenberry aired on NBC – in color! 48 years later, Star Trek is still going strong after hundreds of episodes over five series and twelve feature films (with another on the way). Watch the first commercials and interviews for Star Trek below, plus get info on TrekMovie’s ‘livetweet’ celebration and giveaway set for tonight.
Visual effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull was a late edition to the crew for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, after he initially turned down a deal to do the effects for the movie. In a new video he talks about how he came on board to ‘save’ the movie. Watch it below.
Yesterday the world was shocked by the death of actor/comedian (and Star Trek fan) Robin Williams. Many Star Trek luminaries, including some who worked with Williams, went to social media to express their condolences. We have compiled those below, plus take a look at some Star Trek/Williams connections – including the TNG role written for him (but played by someone else).
Veteran Star Trek artist/designer Doug Drexler has produced another great Star Trek video. This time it is a tribute to the late Matt Jefferies, art director and production designer on the original Star Trek series (who also happened to be the designer of the iconic USS Enterprise). Watch the tribute video below.
A couple of weeks ago TrekMovie previewed upcoming non-fiction Star Trek books, and now the list is getting longer with newly announced titles covering the history of the franchise, Trek fashion and even Trek ‘travel books.’ More details below.
A lengthy rare interview with Gene Roddenberry that was believed to have been lost has now been found, and is hoped to become the basis for a new documentary on the birth of the Star Trek series he created. Catch a glimpse of the footage below, plus find out how you can help.