As reported before, John Cho (Sulu in the new Star Trek) is out promoting his new Harold and Kumar comedy, and usually saying the same stuff about Trek, but he did drop a new factoid in an interview with Canda’s Jam Movies. Apparently Jonathan Frakes (TNG’s Riker and director of two TNG films) came by the set for a visit.
At the New York Comic Con this weekend, Diamond Select Toys has revealed their (previously announced) Original Series era Tricorder toy, the final piece of DST’s TOS ‘landing party’ set. They also announced their seventh retro action figures set to be of Sulu and the Gorn, both of which are new designs (but in the MEGO style). Images, details and pre-order info below.
CBS has updated their syndication schedule for the next two weekend’s of Star Trek Remastered. “Mudd’s Women” which was to air this weekend, now air’s next weekend and this weekend will be a repeat of “Conscience of the King.” “The Cage” (the unaired TOS pilot), originally scheduled for next weekend, is now off the schedule entirely, but it may get back on the schedule in the future.
Dominic Keating (Lt. Malcom Reed on Star Trek Enterprise) reveals in a new interview with the official Star Trek Magazine, that he had an audition for JJ Abrams new Star Trek feature film. Keating also drew a sharp contrast between Enterprise’s 4th season showrunner Manny Coto and show creators Rick Berman and Brannon Braga.
The recently announced 2nd Season DVD set of the digitally remastered Star Trek: The Original Series now has box art and more details. The set includes similar bonus features as Season One, plus 2 special ‘bonus episodes’ and has a retail price of $99.00. UPDATE: Amazon have it available Pre-Order for $58.99. More details below.
The ultimate event of the Grand Slam Sci-Fi Summit was the appearances of the two Spocks, Zachary Quinto and Leonard Nimoy. The pair each had a solo portion followed by a joint appearance (in the same way they often do it when Shatner and Nimoy appear at cons). Of course the actors were not there to reveal big details about the ultra-secret Trek feature film, but their enthusiasm and chemistry was undeniable. Highlights + pics below.
Star Trek veteran writer/producer (and Battlestar Galactica co-creator) Ron Moore may be bringing space-based science fiction back to network TV. According to the trades Fox has greenlit Virtuality, a two hour ‘back-door pilot’ written by Ron Moore (and fellow Trek vet Michael Taylor). The show is set on a space ship equipped with a virtual reality system (cough, Holodeck, cough).
Confirming previous reports, today CBS and Paramount officially announced that Season Two for the digitally remastered Star Trek The Original Series will be released on August 5th, 2008…on DVD only. In addition, a new media player from Adobe allows you to view all of the (classic) TOS episodes for free (with ads).
Brent Spiner, Star Trek The Next Generations’ Data, took the stage Saturday at Creation’s Sci-Fi Grand Slam and entertained the large crowd with jokes and stories from his career in and out of Trek. He talked a lot about his new CD Dreamland, and also covered typecasting and gave his assessment of the TNG era films. See below for pics, quotes and also an exclusive video interview.
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.’
The live chat with William Shatner last Friday was rife with tech issues, but it is now available online (and totally audible). The whole vid (below) is about 40 minutes long. Due to the various tangents, he ended up taking only eight questions, none of which were related to Star Trek. The most interesting part was regarding Shatner’s beliefs on ET and his claim to have inside info.
Captain James T. Kirk is bigger than life and now, his action figure is too. Diamond Select Toys today provided the first image of their new Ultimate Quarter Scale line Kirk action figure, first reported by Trekmovie.com from Toy Fair in February. See below for details and full size image
This week Library Computer takes a look at a number of ‘making of’ books for specific Star Trek episodes, including a review of the latest one about making the classic TNG episode "Yesterday’s Enterprise." We also have an interview with the author Eric Stillwell (who co-wrote the story for the episode) where he discusses both the episode and his time working on the TNG staff.
AOL Movies has a new interview with William Shatner covering the new Boston Legal episodes (where he reveals Denny Crane will be running for president) his upcoming autobiography (which he says will have you “laughing out loud”) and of course Trek. Shat talks about how he feels about not being in the new JJ Abrams Star Trek film, but how he hopes the movie will give new life to his Trek novels.
Tonight Patrick Stewart opens on Broadway at the Lyceum Theatre for a seven week run of MacBeth. Rupert Goold’s Stalinist interpretation of the Shakespeare classic originated with Stewart on the London stage in 2007. In a new interview promoting the show, Stewart also talked a little Trek and how Jean Luc Picard influences his MacBeth.
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.
5PM Pacific (8 PM Eastern):Chat live with William Shatner (along with his daughter Lisabeth) today on Live Video. The room is open now. 10 PM (9 Central): Ron Moore’s Battlestar Galactica kicks off its 4th and final season. More info at SciFi.
CBS has sent us two shots from weekend’s remastered "The Enterprise Incident"
In a recent interview the new Chekov, Anton Yelchin, talked about Walter Koenig visiting him on the set of JJ Abrams Star Trek. Now in a new interview with the Joplin Globethe original Chekov says that, although it was ‘odd’ to see someone else play Chekov, what he saw on his visit to Paramount was ‘conscientiousness’ and ‘loyal’ to the original Trek.
George Takei appeared on Conan O’Brien last night and immediately Conan asked George about his ‘hate’ for William Shatner and how he got a chance to roast bill on Comedy Central. Takei talked about how Shatner never got his name right and how he thought Bill’s acting “sucked.” The original Sulu also talked about the Stern show, dubbing Godzilla, and appearing on a new talent show…check out video below.
Back in February we reported that Patrick Stewart (TNG’s Capt. Picard) had to ask fans not to come to his plays dressed in Starfleet uniforms. In a new interview with Newsweek, however, the actor gets a bit testy (much like Simon Pegg did recently) and shows his love for Trekkies, assuring that we are not, as Newsweek calls us, “weird.” He still doesn’t like those damn uniforms, though.
Captain Jonathan Archer and the crew of the NX-01 may have cut their TV adventures short, but they continue in print. This week’s Library Computer takes a look at the Star Trek Enterprise releaunch including an exclusive sneak peek at the next fall’s "Kobayashi Maru," written by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin, as well as a tease on next year’s Romulan War books.
The twice postponed Live chat with William Shatner has now been set for this Friday. Bill (and his daughter) will be taking fan questions at LiveVideo.com April 4th at 5PM (Pacific). Instructions on participating below. Plus we have some recent ‘ShatnerVisions’ videoblogs about Boston Legal season 5, his new autobio and Shat discussing some of his favorite things.
In January we ran early excerpts from an unpublished interview with Leonard Nimoy, and now the full interview is available. In the interesting discussion, the original Spock talks about aging, photography, his long career and politics. He also talked a bit about the character of Spock and how it has influenced his life, excerpts below.
It has already been reported that members of the new Star Trek crew have had a chance to meet their predecessors (Quinto and Nimoy, Saldana and Nichols, Yelchin and Koenig, plus Pegg has met James Doohan’s son, Chris). Now, finally, William Shatner reveals on a new ShatnerVision video that he has met the new Kirk, Chris Pine (and Quinto as well).
Today is Leonard Nimoy’s 77th birthday. Words cannot express the admiration and respect that we have for the the man and the artist. So instead we offer only this tribute…in black and white
Last week Ron Moore talked about his visit to the new Star Trek set and today there is more at Sci-Fi Wire. The TNG/DS9 vet writer/producer says after seeing Trek at Paramount again, “all that kind of really hardcore, Trekkie geek stuff came flying back.” Moore (who has not read the Trek script, but has experience rebooting the Battlestar franchise) opined on Abrams’ plan to bring Trek back.