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
In a new lengthy feature Business Week takes a look at the current crop of film franchises in Hollywood, including Star Trek. In their introduction they note that some franchises come to a natural end (like Lord of the Rings), others (like The Matrix) peter out, "but some franchises—a Bond or a Star Trek—will keep on going until the studios stop making money on them." The article includes a snapshot of 16 franchises, including Trek. On Trek they surmise…
Creation’s Sixth Annual Official Star Trek Convention kicks off on Thursday at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel (home of the Star Trek Experience). Creation are expecting over 15,000 Trekkies from all across the world to attend. 75 Star Trek Celebrities including Trek ‘captains’ William Shatner, Kate Mulgrew and Avery Brooks will be appearing. In addition to Shatner, all other surviving TOS cast members will be there (Takei, Koenig, Nichols and Nimoy). This year marks the 20th anniversary of Star Trek The Next Generation and and much of the cast will be in Vegas to celebrate: Jonathan Frakes, Brent Spiner, Will Wheaton, Gates McFadden, LeVar Burton and even Dwight Schultz (Barclay). This year there will also be some big behind the camera names appearing, including Nicholas Meyer, Brannon Braga, Bob Justman and D.C Fontana.
It is well known that TOS’s "Assignment: Earth" was originally a pilot concept from Gene Roddenberry for a show centering on the character of Gary Seven. This week’s Friday Night Movie is a glimpse at a possible opening theme for that show…
I ran into three different Trek writer and producing vets today at Comic Con and had quick moments to get reactions on the news Zachary Quinto is the new Spock and Leonard Nimoy will be joining him in the new Star Trek movie. Here is what they had to say. Ron Moore (TNG, DS9, ST: GEN) [Quinto] is a great choice…sure why not? I am curious who they pick for Kirk. I think they should go with an unknown…somebody we have never hears of.
Everyone knows that this week’s comic con in San Diego is going to be a big moment for Star Trek. The two biggest news events will be on Thursday the 26th.[all time PST] Thu 12:30 – 1:30 TOS-R on HD-DVD: All about new Remastered Trek on HD DVD. Thu 1:30 – 3:30 Paramount Presentation: Covers multiple Paramount films including Star Trek and 1-18-08. JJ Abrams to attend with other producers…Trek expected to be last TrekMovie.com will report from both as soon as possible…so keep checking back. Later on Thursday I will also be a panelist on a Geek Monthly.com Star Trek Panel. Plus there are other Trek related panels & events (details on all Trek events below)
Dorothy Fontana (aka D.C. Fontana) was with Star Trek since the beginning as both a writer and Story Editor for Star Trek: The Original Series. She had the same job for The Animated Series and went on to write episodes for both TNG and DS9 (and even for the recent Trek game and New Voyages fan series). Fontana is interviewed in the new ‘Focus on Trek’ from IDW Comics. The interview covers a number of subjects, but her comments on the often debated issues of canon were noteworthy. Regarding TAS and canon Fontana says that Gene Roddenberry never took TAS seriously. She also does not seem happy with the makers of Star Trek V who gave Spock a half brother (details below)
Star Trek writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci have already declined to write a sequel to their monster hit Transformers (in theaters now), but in a new interview they seem a bit more open to it for Star Trek. When asked if the film is a ‘one off’ they had this to say… Orci: I think maybe on this one more than even on Transformers, we were imagining possibly a bigger universe. Kurtzman: I think that’s part of the responsibility of taking on this franchise. It’s going to continue. That’s part of the whole theme of Star Trek. There is always going to be a future. The pair also talked about the vetting process for the script and what it was like to meet Shatner and Nimoy, saying "it was totally insane." Read the whole interview at GeekMonthly.com.
This week had an American theme with "The Omega Glory" and our 4th of July Tribute, but we cannot forget that Star Trek knows no borders. Almost a third of the readers of this site live outside the USA (about half of those are from non English speaking countries). In fact lately we have been getting more tips and help from friends in the UK, Iceland, Japan, Germany and elsewhere. I see links coming in and news sites from all over the world reporting on TrekMovie.com stories: from Croatia to Brazil to Isreal. So for our Friday Night at the movies I have put together some random Trek clips from around the world in a small way to say ‘Hola’ ‘Guten Tag’ ‘Bonjour’ ‘Konichiwa’ (etc) to all those non-American Trekkies out there.
Last week’s rumors of a new Star Trek (2008) teaser trailer were of course wrong – we are still many months away from the real thing. However, that has not stopped many fans from making their own. Here is a collection…the first of which is from TrekMovie.com community member Buckaroohawk.
Yet even more on Star Trek from Mr. Orci’s press tour for Transformers. In the second part of the IESB interview with Orci there is one Trek question related to the future of the franchise and if it will ‘re-establish’ the universe. Orci replied: Absolutely, it’s gotta bring in a whole new generation, it’s gotta bring in people who don’t know Trek so it absolutely trying to re-establish what this universe should be…
[MINOR SPOLIERS]Transformers is sure to be one of the big blockbusters of this summer. The mainstream action movie is full of pop culture references including one nod to Star Trek. The reference comes from the character of Bumblebee (pictured right). Bumblebee is probably the most realized Transformer in the film and certainly gets the most screen time. He befriends the movie’s hero Sam Witwicky (played by Shia LaBeouf). One of the running gags is that the radio in Sam’s Camaro (aka Bumblebee) tunes into all sorts of things all on its own.
Based on Trek demographics there are lots of Trekkie dads out there and we solute you. Here is a great StarTrek.com documentary on one of Trek’s famous fathers.
Star Trek fans have been creating their own stories since as far back as the 60s. Some of these fan writers have even got their work published. The first of these compilations was "The New Voyages" in 1976. For the last decade Pocket Books has issued a series of fan fiction compilations starting with "Strange New Worlds" in 1998, but that all comes to an end next month with the final planned book "Strange New Worlds 10." However, CBS have just announced a new deal with FanLib.com for web-based fan fiction contest called ‘Kirk v Picard.’ The contest will have fans collaborate to write a script for an ‘episode’ of the ultimate captain showdown with the help of a virtual showrunner in the form of VOY/DS9 science adviser and ENT writer and story editor Andre Bormanis. The contest site goes live Wednesday June 13th [UPDATE: Site is now Live] and TrekMovie.com talked to Bormanis about the project.
Star Trek may be off the air and still a year away from being back in theaters, but it still manages to show up at award shows on Sunday. At Canada’s Spacey Awards Star Trek The Original Series won an award for Favorite Classic TV show, beating out Batman, Buck Rogers, Battlestar Galactica (Original) and The Twilight Zone. George Takei accepted the award on behalf of the show in a taped segment where the award was ‘beamed’ to his home. Veteran Star Trek make-up designer Michael Westmore also picked up a Special Achievement Spacey for his lifetime of work. Star Trek XI director JJ Abrams’ movie Mission Impossible III had five nominations and his show Lost had three, but neither picked up any awards.
There was a Battlestar Galactica special screening in Hollywood on Wednesday and TrekMovie.com was there. BSG co-creator and executive producer Ron Moore had a quick moment to chat about the next season of BSG and Star Trek. On the subject of the new Trek film Moore tells TrekMovie.com that he is a fan of JJ Abrams. "He is tremendously talented and I think he is going to do a really good job," said the veteran Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine writer/producer. I also had a chance to ask the man who killed James T. Kirk (Moore co-wrote Generations) about the the the plans to bring Kirk back in the new film.
In the world of Star Trek we know that eventually the Earth is united both with a single government and a single space agency. This agency called ‘The United Earth Space Probe Agency‘ and ‘Starfleet‘ even predates the formation of the United Federation of Planets. To date in the real world there have been many forays into international cooperation between agencies, but they are still fully independent. Now comes news that some of that may change. This week thirteen space agencies (including those of the USA, Russia, Europe, China and Japan) have agreed to co-ordinate future exploration – including the Moon and Mars. They have agreed to a (sadly non binding) document called "The Global Exploration Strategy: The Framework for Co-ordination." It is said to help with the exchange for information and most importantly "identify gaps, duplication and potential areas for collaboration."
Deep Space Nine executive producer and showrunner Ira Steven Behr has been spending the last few years running the time travel related show The 4400 on USA. TrekMovie.com attended a press round table discussing the premiere of season 4 and the subject of Star Trek came up. Behr was asked if he had a view about J.J. Abrams taking over Trek and the return to Kirk and Spock. At first said that he didn’t have any strong feelings, but then went on to talk about the franchise, saying…
Just showed up on YouTube: In 1976 the Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder dedicated an entire show to Star Trek – includes interviews with James Doohan, DeForest Kelley, Walter Koenig, Harlan Ellison and (con organizer) Al Shuster. (in 5 parts) other parts below