Daily Variety is reporting that Marlene Forte has landed the role as the (unnamed) Transporter Chief for the new Star Trek movie. The 40-something video store owner turned actress has appeared on many TV series such as Lost, ER, CSI, The West Wing, and Daybreak. Her film credits include Real Women Have Curves and Adrift In Manhattan. She starred in the 1997 independent film Lena’s Dreams (see clip below).
In the last week we have learned more about the ultra-secret new Star Trek movie being made by JJ Abrams than we learned in the previous 3 months. We have a picture of the Enterprise, a trailer, Q&A w/ Orci, Q&A w/ Abrams and Crew, a (fuzzy) shot from the bridge, a viral site (w/ secret images)…we got a lot. And yet, like after watching a great episode of his hit show Lost…it is all still a mystery.
EXCLUSIVE: As the creator of the independent fan production Star Trek New Voyages, James Cawley has sought to recreate an exact replica of Star Trek The Original Series, right down to the braid on Kirk’s sleeve and the color of the bridge railing. So it is not surprising that he has been on the skeptical side with regards to JJ Abrams’ Star Trek ‘re-invigoration.’ But a chance encounter on the Paramount lot has turned the purist Calwey around…so much so that he is now literally ‘on board.’ In an exclusive video interview (below) Cawley tells TrekMovie.com all about his new Trek adventure and what he now thinks of Abrams and his new Enterprise.
The first teaser for J.J. Abrams ‘Star Trek’ film has been released
Starting Friday many Trekkies will be heading to the theaters to see the new Star Trek trailer playing with Cloverfield. However, you just might want to stay and check out the overly-hyped but thoroughly entertaining JJ Abrams-produced monster movie. Review below contains some spoilers
It was announced long ago, but details have finally been released for ‘Star Trek: The Tour.’ The Tour is a 50,000 square foot traveling interactive exhibit of Star Trek sets, props, models, motion-simulator rides and more from all five Trek series and all ten Trek films. The tour will visit 40 cities around the country, kicking off in Long Beach California on January 18th, 2008.
Last September CBS commemorated the 40th Anniversary of Star Trek by going back to the original 35mm films and digitally remastering them for the HD era. The project not only cleaned up the images, but also added brand new CGI to replace the original shots that wouldn’t hold up well to the microscope of 1080p HD. This ‘Star Trek Remastered’ has been seen in syndication, but only in standard definition. Now finally with the release of Star Trek The Original Series on DVD/HD DVD Combo disk you can finally see the remastered show in full HDTV resolution, as it was intended to be seen. Plus the set comes complete with many new special features, many of which take advantage of the interactive features of HD DVD.
For many years, the enigmatic Q has been a recurring companion (or should that read nuisance?) to Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise. For the better part of two decades we have witnessed his exploits on the Federation’s flagship, as well as in other parts of the universe. But now, the ultimate riddler prepares to deliver the ultimate answer in Keith R. A. DeCandido’s new Star Trek: The Next Generation novel, "Q&A". Right off the top, "Q&A" sets itself apart from the recent batch of Next Generation novels, opening with quite possibly the most unique prologues of any Star Trek work I have ever picked up. To be honest, it felt more like the work of Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker’s Guide series) than anything else.
Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens have been writing science fiction books and TV for decades. They have written a number of Trek novels on their own and in collaboration with William Shatner (including "Star Trek: The Academy–Collision Course" coming out next month). They were also brought in for Star Trek Enterprise’s final (and most consider best) season. But the couple are also aficionados of science fact (see picture of pair on an actual Space Shuttle). They have written a number of non fiction books including one about real missions to Mars. Their most recent television project (the Race to Mars mini-series airing on the Discovery Channel in Canada this Sunday) brings fact and fiction together. Judy and Gar spoke to TrekMovie.com about their Mars project and also about their time on board Enterprise.
In the interest of full disclosure I must say that I have never been a fan of the so-called Star Trek fan films. Sure I can give them credit for good effort and they seem like they are a lot of fun to do, but in the end they usually are no more impressive than community theater…and often worse. The efforts of the Star Trek New Voyages team have so far been the shining star of this lot with very impressive production design, sets, costumes and even some stunt casting, but to date they have still fallen short of being something that I could consider a professional production due to too many weak links spoiling otherwise good work. This is why I am happy to say I was pleasantly surprised after watching latest episode "World Enough and Time" starring George Takei. Although it is not without its flaws, this fourth episode from New Voyages is certainly the best Trek fan production ever made and likely the first that could quality as a truly professional production worthy of the name Star Trek.
CBS has released details for the upcoming 1st season of Star Trek: The Original Series digitally remastered for HD-DVD: Disks: 10 (box)Format: HD-DVD Combo (double sided w/ HD-DVD on one and standard DVD on other)Sug. price: $217.99 [oh my]Release Date: November 20, 2007HD Features (include) a "Starfleet Access” interface picture-in-picture video commentaries, comparisons of re-mastered vs. original effects, encyclopedic information (science, life forms, technology), episode trivia and more on seven episodes. in-depth tour of the starship Enterprise documentary on making of remastered Trek behind the scenes footage (also on regular DVD side) [related story] more details below…
It’s one thing for television producers to torture their fictional characters, but it’s quite another when they torture their hapless viewers. Unfortunately, that’s the result of this pointless, turgid, plodding episode. “Plato’s Stepchildren” is among the “bitter dregs” of the third season, if not the entire series. Here’s the plot: The intrepid Enterprise crew responds to a distress call from a small society of aliens with psycho-kinetic powers who torture Kirk and Spock to force McCoy to make a permanent house call. The crew discovers the chemical source of the aliens’ power, juices themselves up with a super high dose, and beats them at their own game. The end.
“Welcome to Bad Science Fiction Theatre…” “I am your host, Leonard Pinth-Garnell.” Some readers of this site have expressed concern at what they consider the undue flippancy with which I’ve summarized some previous episodes of “Star Trek.” Therefore I shall endeavor, this week, to stick strictly to the facts of the plot in my synopsis.
GETTING INTO THE ACTIONWhether you’re a die-hard fan of the original series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine or Voyager (and, god help you, if you are), it’s hard to argue that there’s only one series which did comedy well and that was Classic Trek. Unlike Next Generation (which tried to be funny, painfully in episodes like "Manhunt" and the somewhat wittier "Captains Holiday" in which Picard vacations on a pleasure planet with the story eventually degenerating into mindless technobabble) and Voyager, Classic Trek and Deep Space Nine were the only series for which humor was an essential ingredient.
Giant CG Space Amoeba!
In recent years Star Trek fan films have been growing in popularity and the most popular has been Star Trek New Voyages. This is mostly due to the production values and some pretty serious guest stars. TrekMovie.com talked to show star and creator James Cawley to find out what is behind this attempt to complete Star Trek’s 5 year mission. “I felt that the characters had more to say, I think Kirk Spock and McCoy are more relevant now than even in 1969,” explains Cawley. That belief set Cawley off on his rather expensive ‘hobby’ almost 10 years ago. Now with two high profile episodes released, millions of downloads, and another star-led episode about to premiere Cawley feels like they are finally getting close to their goal of making their fan production ‘as if you were to sit down and watch the TV in 1969.’
THERE WAS, BUT NOT ANYMORE: DOOMSDAY HAS ARRIVED! Before getting to my review of the new “Doomsday Machine,” let’s get through the preliminaries first. First up, let’s address why it’s sacrilege to screw with the original Star Wars Films (ok, really SW and ESB, I never really cared what they did with Jedi – although putting a new song in Jabba’s court was not really a step in the right direction) and not Star Trek. The answer: because George Lucas, for all intents and purposes, is supplanting the original Oscar nominated versions of Star Wars (which resides in the Library of Congress among other places) for all time and, frankly, making them worse. The Enhanced Star Trek, on the other hand, is an alternate version of the original episodes which continue to be in syndication and on DVD and are not intended to replace the original 1966-69 versions, but rather exist as a companion piece to them.
For the last two reviews I’ve written for the site I deliberately took on Trek outings that I feel are a little undervalued by the community—not so here. Dorothy Fontana’s “Journey to Babel” is an acknowledged Trek classic and would be even if it had only conjured up Spock’s parents, Sarek and Amanda, in the flesh. But “Babel” offers much more than that—it’s a solid look at the Vulcan family relationship (albeit one somewhat disrupted by the presence of a human parent in the mix), an exciting tale of political intrigue, and an Agatha Christie-type murder mystery that also boasts satisfying action both onboard the Enterprise and in outer space.
“If I Ruled The World…”The Enterprise, leaving the galaxy, discovers the scarred and blasted recorder marker of the only other ship to do so, the Valiant. Upon reviewing the Valiant’s tapes, Spock discovers that the ship hit some kind of “unknown force” and as a consequence of some (inaudible) events involving (tape damaged) and ESP and such that ship’s captain ordered his vessel destroyed. Captain Kirk decides to forge on ahead, reasoning that since other ships will someday explore this region it’s important for the Enterprise to leave behind its own scarred and blasted recorder marker to warn them off. Turns out there’s a big Energy Wall around our galaxy, despite the fact that the only thing more scientifically ridiculous would be a big Energy Wall around the heart of our galaxy imprisoning a demon that claims to be God. The barrier (now given the full CGI treatment) zaps a number of Kirk’s crew, most notably his pal Gary Mitchell and Dr. Elizabeth “Hotlips” Dehner.
Imagine a race of aliens on a distant planet who exist in an accelerated state of being, moving so quickly in time that they are imperceptible to the ordinary world except for the insect-like buzzing of their sped-up voices. It’s an intriguing sci-fi concept with all sorts of dramatic and narrative possibilities, but the “Wink of an Eye” in this week’s Star Trek episode is from the writers to the audience telling them, “Yeah, we know this story makes no logical sense whatsoever but just ignore that and watch Captain Kirk bag another alien space babe."
While I’m curious as to why anything written by Dorothy Fontana would qualify as “underappreciated,” the second season episode “Friday’s Child” often produces a shrug of disaffection when you mention it to fans. I’ve never understood this and it’s always been a favorite of mine. Maybe it’s the patently ridiculous costumes, the mix of cyclorama “planet” sets and somewhat overused (but cool!) Vasquez Rocks location work, but I’ve always suspected that the chief thorn in many fans’ sides is one of the reasons I’ve always been drawn to the story: the unusual characterization of El’een, the pregnant tribal queen doomed to die by regime change. Despite being played by an actress known for her sex kitten roles, El’een is far from the usual green-skinned alien sexpot provided for Kirk to seduce. Pregnant, stubborn and disagreeable, she establishes her prickly personality early on by siding with the episode’s sneaky Klingon Kras (Mod Squad’s Tighe Andrews) when Kirk and company start their negotiations for the Capellans’ “rocks.” Even better, after Kirk valiantly sabotages her ritual execution after the coup, El’een asks for our hero to be put to death for daring to touch her!
part 3 of our series reviewing past Trek movies In the wake of 1982’s enormously successful The Wrath of Khan, and particularly before the universally despised Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Leonard Nimoy’s directorial debut, Star Trek III, was the whipping boy of the burgeoning Star Trek movie franchise. On the face of it the movie was a success—feverishly anticipated, given extra buzz by Nimoy’s presence behind the camera, the mystery of the fate of Spock after his death in Trek II, and the “final mission of the starship Enterprise” tagline that teased the movie’s shocking destruction of the beloved space vessel at the movie’s climax. Reviews were good, if not as glowing as the ones for Nicholas Meyer’s Wrath of Khan (one of the few Trek movies to garner non-condescending raves from the mainstream press), and box office business was brisk.
This is the second of our series of looking back to past Trek films and seeing what they can teach us about how to make Trek work again on the big screen. In the wake of Star Trek: The Motion Picture (TMP), which did solid business but was very expensive, Trek’s future remained uncertain. At one point there was even a rumor (reported in the New York Times) that Trek would return to the small screen with a new series involving all the leads. In the end Paramount decided to keep going with feature films, but make some big personnel changes. They bought out Roddenberry’s remaining interest in the Trek property, and handed the reins over to veteran TV producer Harve Bennett (best known for producing The Mod Squad, The Six Million Dollar Man, and The Bionic Woman). Bennett tells the story about how Gulf+Western CEO Charles Bluhdorn gave him marching orders “to make a movie that isn’t boring for less than 45 f—ing million dollars.” Coming from the low budget world of TV, Bennett assured Bluhdorn he could make 3 movies for that amount, and he just about did. Bennett then set off to learn everything about Trek and got to work on what would be the first of a trilogy of successful Trek films.
For weeks without TOS-R episodes to review, TrekMovie.com will instead review a Trek film to see where it went right and where it went wrong, and what Trek XI can learn from it. The year: 1979. Ten years had passed since NBC cancelled “Star Trek” and in that time it had become a hit in syndicated reruns. A growing fan base began holding conventions and were continually teased with the posibility of a return of their heroes from the 23rd century. After a short lived animated series in the early 70s, Paramount Paramount greenlit a low-budget “Trek” film entitled “Planet of the Titans.” About two weeks before “Star Wars” exploded onto American movie screens in May 1977, Paramount pulled the plug and then a few months later committed to bringing back “Star Trek” as a TV show. “Star Trek II” (which would have included all the original stars except for Leonard Nimoy) would be the cornerstone of a new ‘Paramount Network’. No sooner did Paramount move on that project then they did a complete about-face, killing the new network, canceling “Phase II,” and transforming its two-hour pilot script “In Thy Image” into a big-budget motion picture. The script was heavily rewritten, Nimoy came back to the fold, and legendary Oscar-winning director Robert Wise took the helm. And the rest, as they say, is history.
“You are under our power…”
Jonathan Frakes (TNG: Riker) seems to be one of the only ‘Next Gen’ actors who is ok with JJ Abrams plans to go back to the TOS era for the next Trek film. But in a new interview with IF Magazine he still thinks that we will eventually see some of the familiar faces from the recent Trek shows, and makes it clear he is ready as well. iF: Do you think there will ever be a return of NEXT GENERATION crew in one form or another?FRAKES: I think probably, they’ll use STAR TREK actors from different crews, based on whom they can get and whom they’ll want to use for a story. I think the audience really likes to see people again whom they have identified with. I could be wrong, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to use some of us in something. iF: Sort of like you coming onto ENTERPRISE for the final episode?FRAKES: Yeah. Marina [Sirtis] and I are always available.
You say ‘yes,’ I say ‘no…’The Enterprise visits Starbase 11, ostensibly because Spock has received a request from his former captain – Christopher Pike – to divert there. Right away we learn two important things: Uhura’s not a gossip. There’s been "subspace chatter for months" about the fact that Pike was crippled in an accident, yet she’s never passed that information on to anyone aboard the Enterprise (except, apparently, Mr. Spock) Morse code, binary digital computing, and the game "Twenty Questions" do not exist in the "Star Trek" universe. As a result, although the otherwise mute Pike can signal in two distinct ways – one beep for "yes" and two for "no" – it’s considered virtually impossible to get specific or complex information from him (like, say, the answer to the question "is Mr. Spock lying to us?"). McCoy, for one, considers Spock lying to be "absolutely impossible." Embarrassingly for him, then, Spock tells a few more whoppers and steals the Enterprise in order to return Fleet Captain Pike to Talos IV: "the one forbidden world in all the Galaxy." When Kirk and Commodore Mendez catch up and put Spock on trial, his defense consists of making them watch an old “Star Trek” rerun. Luckily for them, it’s a good one that they haven’t seen.
UPDATED: sorry for the delay…here are the screenies (as usual click for full size)
The folks at CBS Digital were kind enough to let TrekMovie.com visit CBS Television City to get a behind-the-scenes peek at how they are breathing new life into Star Trek. Getting chosen as the effects house to create the new CGI effects for the remastered Star Trek was quite the coup for CBS Digital. As Craig Weiss, Director of CBS Digital says "it is huge deal – the biggest thing we have done so far.” Every single one of their twenty artists does at least some work on Trek, with over half of them dedicated full time. CBS had to bring on about 8 new people in order to meet the rigorous work schedule. Most of the new people are crowded into a single dimly lit (to avoid glare) room that used to be called ‘the morgue’. It is quite a thrill to look around the workstations and see the various bits and pieces of recognizable Star Trek elements being worked on. It is clear from just a quick visit that each member of the team is dedicated to their craft and to digitally recreating the magic of Star Trek.
Watching Trek Remastered these past few weeks has been a real joy. It is at first a little odd to think that I would derive such pleasure from it — I’ve seen every episode of the original series many many times. Yet knowing that I am watching it on broadcast TV, not cable, not on DVD, means something. Watching it on broadcast TV is different. It takes me back to watching the syndicated repeats of TOS in the late 80’s and early 90’s that were on every weekend thanks to my local Fox station. I’ve had great fun watching these old friends restored and enhanced. Even though I know the stories by heart watching for the revised effects and seeing the sets, actors, and props in renewed detail is exciting.