The ashes of James Doohan were launched into space from New Mexico this morning. Family and hundreds of fans attended the event, more details at Rueters The Headline News report also discussed Trek fan films. [UPDATE: StarTrek.com have put up an on-the-scene report]
A new feature of TrekMovie.com, we take a look back on the news of the week reported here and elsewhere. Trek XI: The big news of the week was our report that JJ Abrams confirmed that Kirk will indeed ‘appear’ in Star Trek XI. This along with his ‘message to the fans‘ last weekend shows a bit of a growing openness on Abrams part. The only other movie news was a brief mention of Star Trek XI in Variety, where it was listed as one of the big movies that Paramount has high hopes for in the next year.
In the latest issue of Star Trek Magazine, Trek’s longtime producer Rick Berman has a sort of ‘exit interview.’ The interview was conducted last December, shortly before he packed up to vacate his offices on the Paramount lot after 22 years with the studio. When asked if he is considering writing about about his experiences not only did he say he would, but he has already started… I have started writing a book because I realized that in 1986, when Gene Roddenberry asked me to get involved in work with him on this thing, the number of stories that I have accumulated is amazing.
If you don’t know Herman Zimmerman’s name, you certainly know his work. Mr. Zimmerman has been the production designer on almost every Star Trek project for the last two decades, helping define the look of almost every Trek era. Star Trek XI will be the first film to without Mr. Zimmerman since the 80s, but the veteran designer tells TrekMovie.com he is just fine with that. I have enjoyed being the keeper of the flame as far as the look of the franchise since 1987. I knew Gene Roddenberry personally and was always a fan of the show,never dreaming I would work on it when I was a young art director at NBC in the 60s. I have had a hell of a good time. It is more fun than work, but I am officially retired.
Last week Rosario Dawson revealed her inner Trekkie on the Conan O’Brian Show. Hey JJ, there has got to be a role for her somewhere.
Just some little Trek items to tie you over…. The new companion for Dr. Who has admitted that she is more of a Trekkie. The Sun reports Freema Agyeman is a big fan of Patrick Stewart and the Next Generation and has even attended Trek conventions. more at Sun Online… Will Wheaton (TNG’s Wesley Crusher) is getting ready to head back to Trek. Wheaton announced that he will write a story for the next volume in ‘Star Trek: The Manga’ from Tokyo Pop. The actor says he was reluctant when first approached, but then a voice in his head said "Dude, this would be so cool! Come on, man, let’s do this!". more at his blog…
In the "Corbomite Maneuver" Lt. Baily says to Kirk "I vote we blast ’em," to which Kirk quickly replied "Thank you, Mr. Bailey, I’ll consider that when this becomes a democracy." But that attitude doesn’t stop fans from voting their opinions, including three currently running Trek XI polls on other sites. IMDB is asking for thumbs up or down on Matt Damon as Capt Kirk. Current result is a split decision of 48% for it, 52% against [UPDATE: IMDB have followed up with a new poll asking ‘if not Damon, then who?’…so far ‘an unknown’ leads with 34% with Ewan McGregor is 2nd with 11%] TrekToday also have a Trek XI casting poll going, asking what is people’s favorite casting rumor. The Sinise as Bones rumor leads with 40%. StarTrek.com have a tongue in cheek list of potential names for Star Trek XI, with "Star Trek XI: The First Generation" in the lead.
In a March 5th Newsweek article about the Star Trek XI announcement there were some general reactions from George Takei, Rod Roddenberry and Trekkies documentary director Roger Nygard. Something that caught our attention was the statement that Nygard was ‘interviewing Trekkers for the latest installment of his "Trekkies" documentaries.’ TrekMovie.com contacted Nygard to find out what was up and apparently Newsweek ‘got their tenses wrong.’ Nygard says that he is not currently at work on a Trekkies 3, but that he and producer Denise Crosby are planning on doing one. "We are on a 7 year schedule," said Nygard, referring to how the previous two came out in 1997 and 2004 respectively. The Trekkies team would like to catch up with some of the Trek fans featured in the previous entries, like digital artist Gabriel Kroener who Nygard called "a Trekkies success story."
If you have been following our little extras throughout the weeks when news is slow, you’ll notice we have found video clips of various Trek parody/references in Family Guy. The show’s creator Seth MacFarlane is an admitted Trekie and even had two cameos as an extra officer on Enterprise. Once again community member Kelvington has nicely put all the video clips into one giant Trek funny reel. I love it!
As the 20th anniversary of The Next Generation approaches (on September 28) you’ll start to see more and more tidbits, information, and a general celebration of TNG around the web and here at TrekMovie.com. To get an early start one of our intrepid community members Greg Mefford has put up an Entertainment Tonight clip of TNG’s announcement back in early 1987. It includes an interview with David Gerold as he writes a season one TNG episode.
Star Trek communications could help hospital save lives…Star Trek-like technology from BT could be just what the doctor ordered for staff and patients at Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in Nottinghamshire.Previously, according to the trust’s own research, it used to take staff members, on average, six-and-a-half minutes to get in touch with a colleague using a telephone or pager.Now, following a successful trial with 75 users in its accident and emergency (A&E), radiology and medical admissions departments at Kings Mill Hospital in Sutton-in-Ashfield, the trust is using the wireless local area network-based BT Managed Vocera solution, to enable doctors and nurses to communicate with one another in a matter of seconds.more at ITPro UK
Here are some some bite sized Trek nuggets to hold you over until the next item on TOSR or STXI. To promote TOSR StarTrek.com is running a giveaway for a new poster for Star Trek Remastered. Got to this page to enter to win this 2′ x 3′ poster made for syndicated stations. SciFi.com ran a poll on who should direct Star Trek XI and Joss Whedon came out on top with almost half the votes. Abrams came in 2nd to last with only 14%, click here for full results.
The History Channel is taking a break from its regular schedule of shows on ancient Rome and World War II to take a look at the history of Star Trek. They are running two documentaries, the first of which ‘Star Trek Tech’ will air tonight (Sunday) at 9pm. ‘Tech’ is a regular show that devotes each episode the the technology of a particular time period or event or in this case a fictional universe. The second and bigger documentary is ‘Star Trek: Beyond the Final Frontier’, a two hour retrospective on Trek hosted by Leonard Nimoy (airing Monday at 9 pm). ‘Beyond the Final Frontier’ focuses much of its attention on the Christies auction and includes interviews with actors from each of the Trek series, but notably not William Shatner. There are already some reviews in on the longer doc and so far they are mixed at best.
This week the long arm of Star Trek has stretched into the US political Arena. First up is U.S. Representitive David Wu (D-OR). Whether or not you agree with his politics, you got to admit he knows his Trek. The Oregonian has more on the controversey and suggests Wu may have a second career speaking at Trek conventions. But Wu wasn’t the only Trek fan making news in politics this week…
Fanboys is a film about a group of hardcore Star Wars fans who travel across the country to steal a pre-release copy of Episode I: The Phantom Menace so their terminally ill friend can see it before he dies. Although the film is about Star Wars fans, Star Trek makes an appearance in the form of original Captain Kirk himself William Shatner. Actor Jay Baruchel describes the Shatner cameo to MTV Movie News: Captain Kirk? Chalk that one up to the great ‘Star Trek’ wars…there’s a big-ass battle between all the Trekkies and all the fanboys. We fight with lirpa, which is the Vulcan weapon with the sickle on the top and mound on the bottom.
In honor of the new year TrekMovie presents some of the most memorable moments of Trek drinking. So sit back and toast to the new year with our list. Click more for the list
In 2003 the British ITV program ‘After They Were Famous’ did an episode on Star Trek, focusing on the Original Series. It includes interviews with all the cast alive at the time (including Doohan) as well as Bob Justman and Herb Solow. It has a lot of behind the scenes footage as well. It is now up on YouTube (in four parts…click more for parts 2-4)
As we reported recently Star Trek had 3 entries on TV Land’s list of Top 100 TV catchphrases. Here are William Shatner, Marina Sirtis, George Takei, LeVar Burton, and Wil Wheaton (along with a collection of quasi-celebrities) discussing "Resistance is Futile", "Live Long and Prosper" and "Space the Final Frontier…"
IGN Filmforce have been counting down the top 25 film franchises and Star Trek ended up as #5. Eric Moro, IGN Editor in Chief sums Trek up thusly: Ever since The Original Series debuted on NBC back in 1966, there’s been a steady stream of Trek within the pop culture zeitgeist. Sure, I can spew off franchise facts like six TV series, 10 feature films (with an 11th currently in development from J.J. Abrams), tons of videogames, action figures, novels, comic books and two Las Vegas themed attractions. But perhaps more impressive is the impact the property has made on fandom itself—I’m talking the fan fiction, the fan films (most found on the Internet) and the yearly conventions. Even more impressive still is the impact these fans have made on the mainstream. One of many examples: After a massive letter writing campaign, NASA names the first space shuttle the Enterprise. Now that’s a powerhouse franchise!
In the latest issue of the official Star Trek Magazine, Trek’s long-time producer Rick Berman talks about the end of his era. SciFi Pulse has excepts from the article where Berman defends his tenure and discusses why the last Trek TV show (Enterprise) failed. Berman says that the rumors of his hating The Original Series (TOS) are not true, but that doesn’t mean he has seen all of it: There was a feeling that Enterprise was going to be a show that was a precursor to The Original Series, and although I’ve read a lot of depictions of both Brannon and myself ‘hating’ the original series, that could not be farther from the truth. We were not obsessed by the original series. I can openly admit that I did not see all 79 episodes of the original series, or 80 if you include the various versions of the pilot, but it was something we respected and did our best to lead up to. But I think that was something that was unsettling for the fans. Not to jump on the ‘bash Bermaga bandwagon’, but it is not unreasonable to expect the creators and producers of a TOS prequel to have at least seen all of TOS.
Since the relase of Star Trek: The Motion Picture on December 7th, 1979 there had been a steady stream of Star Trek films. Over the next 23 years Paramount released new Trek films every 2-3 years. The longest gap of 4 years and 2 days was between Star Trek Insurrection and the last film Star Trek: Nemesis, which was released on December 13, 2002. As of this weekend that record has been broken and every day between now and the release of Star Trek XI will be a Trek franchise record. So if you were wondering why you were especially jonesing it isn’t just that this weekend is a Trek Remastered repeat. In honor of the occasion, TrekMovie.com decided to take a quantitative look back on the Trek franchise…see chart below
If you are kicking yourself for not picking up a piece of Trek history during the Christies auction then today is your lucky day. CBS and Paramount are unloading thousands of more items from the Trek attic. The sales is being conducted by It’s A Wrap Hollywood, a memorabilia seller is handling the sale of items from all 5 series and all 10 films. The available pieces include props, wardrobe, set pieces and even a few models (but of course all the major ones were sold by Christies). "Its amazing how much cool stuff there is, stuff that they didn’t even know was there, we are finding new things all the time," Its A Wrap owner Tiara Nappi tells TrekMovie.com. Nappi says there will even be items from the Original Series (actually from the 60s and not just replicas made by ENT or DS9). Due to the enormous volume of items, the sale will be conducted over the next 6 months with new items regularly becoming available. details below
TV Land, the nursing home of reruns, has searched far and wide to come up with its list of the best 100 catchphrases of all time…and of course Star Trek makes an appearance (or 3). The full list, which runs the gamut from "You look mahvelous!" to "Here’s Johnny" will be presented in a 5-night special series called ‘Greatest TV Quotes & Catchphrases’. The three Trek catchphrases (and their rankings) to be covered are: 93 "Resistance is futile." (TNG) 22 "Live long and prosper." (TOS)14 "Space, the final frontier …" (TOS)
Many have wondered when (or if) Star Trek will return the the small screen after an 18-year run ended with the cancellation of ‘Star Trek Enterprise’ in 2005. According to TrekMovie.com sources it certainly will not be until after 2008 and the release of Star Trek XI. Sources tell TrekMovie that there is some kind of deal between CBS and Paramount Pictures where no new TV projects will be developed now that Paramount is developing a feature film. Apparently this deal was part of the convoluted license sharing deal struck when Viacom split-up and separated the TV and film elements of Trek between the two companies. Although there is no indication that there was a new TV series in development, TrekMovie has learned that there may have been one or more smaller scale projects being considered. It appears that after Trek XI was announced any Trek on TV work at CBS was ‘frozen’. "It is in a holding pattern now" said a source inside CBS regarding Trek TV projects. Obviously this agreement does not effect the remastered Star Trek series project because it is not actually ‘new’ but a restoration of the original series. None of this is really a big surprise, as another insider put it "it makes sense, Paramount is about to pump a lot of money into the brand so CBS is better off waiting for that." When asked about the deal CBS’s official spokesperson only replied ‘no comment’ so for now file this under rumor, but TrekMovie will continue to look into it.
In ‘Shatner is Kirk’ news: UPI reports that William Shatner told the crowd at the St. Louis Jewish Book Festival that ‘there is a part of me in him…and Kirk in me’. The original Kirk also told the Massachusetts Republican that he is not going to retire anytime soon, saying "ss I shakily take my last breath, maybe that’s when I will whisper, ‘I quit.’"…did he just paraphrase Khan’s last words? Want to see classic Trek without all that Remastering and CGI?…well TV Land has got you covered.The home of retro TV starts airing the classic show later this month and have already started offering full episodes on their new Star Trek website (for one week only). The site offers a number of other Trek related video features and will host a live chat with Original Series stars Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols and George Takei on Nov. 19th. Oh My.
Robert Picardo, Star Trek Voyager’s lovable Holodoctor, seems to have a nuanced view of Star Trek under the command of JJ Abrams. According to an interview from Trek Magazine (via SciFi Pulse) the actor seems to be supportive of Abrams helming the franchise, but isn’t too sure he likes that rumored prequel idea. Look they’ve re-launched the Batman franchise and that worked out. I’ve heard that they may re – launch the franchise with a story about Kirk and Spock as younger guys, back in the day, but I don’t know whether that’s the way to go because it seems to remove some of the jeopardy to know what happens in the future. On the other hand, they did kill off Spock four times and bring him back to life. I lost count!
Bryan Fuller is certainly one of the more successful Star Trek almuni in Hollywood. Since his time as a writer on Star Trek Deep Space Nine and Star Trek Voyager, Bryan Fuller has been very busy with shows like ‘Wonderfalls’, ‘Dead Like Me’, and this year’s breakout hit ‘Heroes’. Comic Book Resources interviewed the writer/producer on his various projects, but spend quite a lot of time on Trek. Fuller said he got into the business because of Star Trek and he could talk about it all day. He certainly seems to be optimistic on Trek’s future under JJ Abrams, saying: I think the status right now is very encouraging, and I’m referring to the J.J. Abrams-helmed reinvention of the franchise, which it’s desperate for.
15 years ago today Gene Roddenberry, creator of ‘Star Trek’, passed away. StarTrek.com marks the date with an excellent article and retrospective. On the subject of what Roddenberry would think of Trek going strong in the hands of a new generation of professionals (including JJ Abrams) and even the fans themselves (in the form of fan films), it says: "it’s probably a safe bet that he would say something to the effect of, Star Trek no longer belongs to him, it belongs to the world." Well said. It is a true testament to Roddenberry’s vision that 40 years after he started the franchise and 15 years after his passing, Trek still inspires generation after generation. To mark the 40th anniversary of Trek, Roddenberry.com is selling a DVD of one of the last interviews Gene Roddenberry ever gave. More info at RodenberryInterview.com
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
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