In an interview with Logo networks After Elton blog, Star Trek Voyager writer/producer revealed that two gay characters were considered for the series, which would have been a Trek first. However Fuller, who is openly gay, actually didn’t support the idea because he felt the characters were ‘two dimensional.’
According to Star Trek future history, on April 5th, 2063 Dr. Zefram Cochrane became the first man to break the warp barrier (with a little help from the crew of the NCC-1701E) and garnered the attention of some Vulcans in the neighborhood…sparking the ‘first contact’ between humans and aliens…and the beginnings of the United Federation of Planets and all that came with it.
Star Trek mash-ups on YouTube are ubiquitous and one sub-genre is alternative opening credit sequences (and a sub-sub-genre is credits made to mimic another show). In some cases it is a bit of fun, but in other cases they could be considered an improvement or at least a compelling possibility. So check out some of these ‘two great shows that taste great together’ mash-ups below.
“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” – Scotty, Friday’s Child Practical jokes are a serious concern for the crew of the Enterprise in the animated episode “The Practical Joker.” Luckily, practical jokes involving Star Trek on the internet are much less worrisome. Here are the Star Trek April Fool’s Day virtual pranks for April 1, 2008.
Today is St. Patrick’s Day, traditionally a day to celebrate that inner Irish person in every one of us…often with a drink in your hand. The staff at TrekMovie.com got to wondering, who in the world of Star Trek would we want with us as we hop down to the pub on St. Patty’s day. See below for TrekMovie.com’s ‘Top O’ The Irish.’
Last week we reported that Paramount was the last studio to announce support for the Blu-ray HD standard. At the time Paramount still had a number of planned HD DVD titles and even just announced two new ones. However today comes news from Video Business, HiDef Digest and The Hollywood Reporter that the two Paramount titles coming out next week (Into the Wild and Things We Lost) would be their last. All future announced HD DVD titles have been cancelled. Paramount has still not announced any Blu-ray titles or any plans for Trek.
The 80th Annual Academy Awards were held tonight at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. As TrekMovie.com reported last month, nine Star Trek alumni (present and future) were nominated for an Oscar this year including Michael Giacchino, the composer for the new Star Trek film. Of the nine ‘Trek’ nominees only two left with trophies and Giacchino wasn’t one of them. See below for our full coverage including photos from the show and Trek celebs spotted at Oscar weekend events.
Actors often have to sing for their supper, yet Star Trek actors have a tendency go above and beyond that. There is something about being on Trek that brings their inner Dion and Sinatra. While easy to mock these actors for "trying" to be singers, many have extensive singing and Broadway musical experiences. The latest effort is a new album, Dreamland, from TNG’s Brent Spiner. This has inspired this special Sunday edition of ‘The Collective,’ where we take a listen to some of the more memorable efforts offered from the Trek stars turned singers.
Several months ago we reported that the tiny town of Vulcan, Alberta was hoping to hold the world premiere of the new Star Trek movie. Paramount have yet to book the corporate jet for a trip to Canada next May, but that hasn’t stopped the Vulcanians who have now upped the ante by bringing in two more ‘Trek cities’ to bid on three global Star Trek premieres.
It’s Valentine’s Day and even though Paramount took our Christmas away, love is still in their air. Throughout the decades of Trek there have been many romantic moments and so the staff of TrekMovie.com thought we would pick some of our favorites.
In a new interview with Metro Weekly George Takei (TOS: Sulu) talks in depth about the diversity in Star Trek. Takei said that he he was proud to be part of the production with the first interracial kiss calling it “a real breakthrough.” But Takei also defended the series for not having a gay character saying that it would have pushed the envelope too far. Also in an unrelated bit, Takei revealed a bit about what we may see with John Cho’s Sulu in the new Star Trek.
Listen for the Trek ref in this excerpt from Bill Gates CES 2008 Keynote.
As the year wraps up, TrekMovie.com takes a look back and picks the best and worst Trek had to offer over the last year.
Last night one of the categories on the game show Jeopardy! was “Star Trek Jargon.” All of the clues were answered on the show correctly, with three being answered by the overall winner Max Zarou. See the questions below…the first TrekMovie.com reader to answer them all correctly wins a 2008 Star Trek Calendar.
On Friday in a surprise announcement, the entire staff for StarTrek.com team was laid off as part of a larger series of cost cuts at CBS Interactive. The layoffs have put the future of the official site for Star Trek in doubt. Now TrekMovie.com has been sent an official statement from CBS, see below
OK this just came out of nowhere. The last news item for the week at StarTrek.com, the official site for Star Trek, is titled “Goodbye from the STARTREK.COM Team” In short it states that CBS Interactive is restructuring and that the entire StarTrek.com team “has been eliminated. Effective immediately.” It also states “We don’t know the ultimate fate of this site, which has served millions of Star Trek fans for the last thirteen years.” There is also a big banner on the homepage that says ‘FAREWELL.’
Another List! AOL have issued a list of ‘TV’s 50 Sexiest Women Ever’ and like any good list, Star Trek makes an appearance.
As the WGA strike goes on, the guild is regularly doing “themed” rallies and pickets, such as the ‘Horror writers exorcism’ last week. For next Monday they are staging a Star Trek themed event at Paramount. The strike captain is currently rounding up Star Trek writers, producers and actors and already has confirmations from a number of them including Scott Bakula, Brent Spiner, Judy and Gar Reeves-Stevens, Harlan Ellison and many others. They also hope people working on the new Star Trek film will join them. There will even be a band (The Intergallactic Blues Band). Fans are also welcome to come and show their support.
On Thursday the annual Jules Verne Film Festival kicks off in Los Angeles and Star Trek is very much a part of this year’s event. Presiding will be Captain Picard himself, Patrick Stewart, who is the festival’s “President of the Jury.” Malcolm McDowell, William Shatner and other Trek celebrities will also be showing up. Details below
TrekMovie.com recently reported that the new Star Trek movie should not be impacted by the WGA strike scheduled to start on Monday, but it appears that many TV shows are not so lucky. Heroes, the hit show featuring the new Spock (Zachary Quinto) along with recurring guest spots for a number of of other Trek veterans (Nichelle Nichols, George Takei and Dominic Keating) may only get 11 episodes this season. TV Guide is reporting that the Heroes production has shot an alternative ending to the show schedule to air on December 3rd which will allow it to act as a ‘season 2 finale’ instead of just the planned ‘volume 2 finale’ (Heroes’ 2nd season was originally planned to have 2 ‘volumes’).
[WARNING: boring business article ahead] To all of us Star Trek is a hobby (or to some a way of life), but to CBS and Paramount/Viacom Trek is a ‘brand’ and a ‘franchise.’ The good news is that Trek is again getting the notice of the higher ups. In a conference call with Wall Street where he announced a big jump in profits, Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman talked up Paramount’s 2008 line-up with a shoutouts to J.J. Abrams and Star Trek…
GeneralGrin of YouTube has a 2nd set of Trek’s flexibility with continuity (click for part 1)
Spike TV, which is still the cable home of Star Trek Voyager and Star Trek Deep Space Nine, honored Star Trek at their Annual Scream awards held over the weekend in Los Angeles. William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig and George Takei were all on hand to receive a special award in commemoration of the 25th anniversary of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Ricardo Montalban was not in attendance, but Shatner solicited a “Khaaaaan” scream from the audience in his honor.
There has been a lot of fretting over canon and continuity for the new film. This new YouTube vid takes a look at the record of just the last four cinematic entries…
After 40 years, Leonard Nimoy is still amazed and grateful for the popularity ‘Star Trek’ and his character, Mr. Spock. In an interview with The Jewish Chronicle, the actor says he is "flattered, amused and delighted" that ‘Star Trek’ has endured They were good stories, interesting stories, stories that are universal and stand up over time. Star Trek has never been a millstone. It has always given me opportunities to make choices about what to do with my work and my life.
With the new fall season comes some changes for Star Trek series running in syndication on cable TV. The biggest change is that Star Trek The Next Generation is no longer being shown on Spike TV. Spike (when it was TNN) began running TNG in October of 2001, but the channel has changed a lot since that time and it appears they may be moving away from Trek. Spike is still showing Voyager in the early evenings and DS9 mostly in graveyard. TNG can still be seen on G4. Enterprise’s schedule on HDNet has also changed. Updated schedule for all 5 series on cable below.
Tonight (starting at sundown) is the beginning of Yom Kippur – the Jewish day of atonement. Although Star Trek was never overtly religious, there are many links between Judaism and Trek (including Shatner and Nimoy themselves). Below is a video of Leonard Nimoy talking about Trek and Jewish tradition (click to see video at YouTube). For more check out TrekJews.com.
William Shatner was all over tonight’s Primetime Emmy Awards. He was nominated for his third Emmy for Boston Legal and his Comedy Central Roast was up for an award as well. The spotlight was on Shatner early in the show as host Ryan Seacrest commented on the former Captain Kirk’s "snazzy attire" and later in the show, the Shat co-presented an award with Debra Messing (pictured). The two joked that their planned musical number was canceled because Messing "refused to have his love child." Beyond that, however, this wasn’t Shatner’s night.
In 1996 Free Enterprise director/editor/co-writer Robert Meyer Burnett had some free time with his AVID and created what is probably the best Trek mashup ever (before people knew what mashups were). This was so good it was even used by Paramount later…
Buffalo-based Independent Health is running a billboard campaign…and it is clear they do not have any Trekkies working in marketing. (image and story source: Adland) [h/t Trek Today] Independent Health needs to watch these videos, or read these statistics