Those of you who were waiting for the various Star Trek television series to hit Netflix this month will be disappointed to know that they’ll have to wait a little longer. Trek Movie recently confirmed that the original series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star TrekVoyager and Enterprise won’t be available for instant streaming until July 1st. Deep Space Nine fans will have to wait till October. Why? Don’t ask me — the wait seems rather arbitrary, but I’m sure there’s a reason. Unfortunately, most of these series won’t be available in HD. Enterprise was shot more recently, and the original series has also been remastered, so both of those will be.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Romulan Ale suppose to be alcoholic? I thought as much — which is why I’ve found myself wondering why anyone would ever consider making it an energy drink. Maybe someone thought blueberry soda would be a great idea and realized it actually tastes pretty nasty so they upped the caffine and slapped the term “energy drink” on it. That’s one theory, at least. The last time I had something claiming to be Romulan Ale, it was actually German beer with some food blue coloring — not the best beer I’ve ever had, but the novelty was certainly there. Any way, if you’re interested in trying some, ThinkGeek is selling a six-pack for $15. Expensive, right?
One of the girls from GamingAngels.com — fantastic site, by the way — caught this amazing video of William Shatner’s Q&A session at this years Emerald City Comiccon. An audience member asked Shatner if George Takei is a giving lover, and if he’s interested in men with beards. Shatner’s reply was priceless. It’s fairly common knowledge that Takei isn’t fond of his old co-star, but what amazes me is that Shatner still isn’t quite sure why. Takei, for his part, has mentioned plenty of reasons over the years.
Posted by Michael Sacco on Mar 11, 2011 in Star Trek
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to any adult, but there’s been a candy tie-in for pretty much everything. Spongebob has Krabby Patty gummies nowadays, Nintendo had Game Boy bubble gum when I was growing up, and apparently before that, there were candy bars “based on” the short-lived Star Trek animated series. And not just any candy bars, but cream-flavo(u)red candy bars with sugar crisps! Fans could collect wrappers with each of their favorite Enterprise crew members, including the rather smug-looking Captain Kirk shown above. Big props to Jason Liebig for programming the replicator to spit these out and putting them on his Flickr page. Read more…
Every time Mr.Spock peered at that scanner by his station, I always found myself wondering what he was looking at. Well, this fan-edit by BlackMoonCGI lets us get our peek. It never occured to me that he’d spend all his time on Facebook, but that would probably explain the need for the added privacy. After all, it’s always worksafe if nobody else ever gets to look through your scanner. The video seems to be the first of what may become an ongoing series, so let’s hope for more of these hilarious edits in the future.
I never thought I’d need a Starfleet-issued bathrobe — that is, until I saw one. Fashioned after their Star Trek original series counterparts, these terrycloth robes come designed with fanboys in mind. For instance, “Command Gold” comes em captain’s rank properly embroidered on the sleeves, along with a command insignia on the left breast. “Sciences Blue” features a commander rank and sciences insignia. For now, those are the only colors available. If you’d rather hold out in hopes of picking up Scotty’s red, those should be available by April. The robes cost a hefty $49.99 via ThinkGeek, but something tells me it’s worth it.
If you’re a fan of the Trek and also happen to enjoy the occasional comic, you might want to check out GIT Corp’s Star Trek: The Complete Comic Book Collection. Produced back in 2008, this digital collection covers over 500 issues from 1967 through 2002. That said, the title might be a bit misleading — I’d hardly call it a definitive or complete collection — but it’s certainly a lot of content. To top it off, Amazon is currently offering the collection for 90% off its list price. Rather than paying the full $30, you can snag this collection for only $7. At that price, it’s practically stealing. Check the Amazon listing for a detailed list of comics included in this package.
Last Tuesday, Netflix reached a landmark deal with CBS to stream what no other service has streamed before — at least, without charging an arm and a leg for individual episodes. By now you’ve probably guessed it, but they’ve secured the license to stream every Star Trek series in their entirety, along with a whole catalog of classics like Cheers, Family Ties, and one of my personal favorites, The Twilight Zone. As far as Star Trek is concerned, this may be a first as I don’t recall any other service to date offering all six shows — that’s assuming they’ll be getting access to the animated series with this deal.
Posted by Michael Sacco on Feb 20, 2011 in Cinema, Star Trek
This is one of those stories that makes me wonder if things wouldn’t actually have been better if they had turned out as originally planned. Star Trek producer Rick Berman stated in a recent interview that the last film to star the Next Generation crew, Star Trek: Nemesis, was originally going to star a completely new cast of characters, but Berman fought to keep the TNG cast around for another film. At that point, Berman argues, Enterprise was just about to hit TV, so he felt like introducing yet another new Federation crew would’ve alienated series fans. Nemesis was not a great film by any means, its production was hampered with problems with both its script and cast, and it certainly didn’t make any money for Paramount, so one has to wonder if maybe a new cast and a fresh take on Trek would’ve made a better movie. Fun fact: Shinzon, Picard’s clone (shown above), was played by a young Tom Hardy, who you may know from Inception, and who’ll soon be playing Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. Read more…
In hindsight over 40 years later Star Trek is clearly the most successful science fiction television series of all time — but that wasn’t always the case. In the early 70s (before Star Wars) it was looking like Star Trek was pretty much dead. The only sign of life the series was in 1974 when Filmation ran a well done but poorly rated Saturday morning animated series. But then on September 13th, 1975 sci fi fans had a new option, and for this fanboy Space:1999 captured my heart for the next two years that it ran. Here are nine reasons why I think the show deserves some respect in the 21st Century: Read more…
Sure, one crew travels in Starfleet’s best ship, and the other travels in a phone booth, but they’re both credited for saving the universe several times over. And now, here they are, together at last: Kirk, Spock, the Doctor, and Amy Pond, ready to kick some Klingon tail! And Dalek tail, and Cyberman tail, and Romulan tail. What, only four evil races? Against these guys? The bad guys don’t stand a chance. Great work from Summerset over at DeviantArt. Read more…
The final piece of the current Trek miniseries, Typhon Pact, finally hit book stores late last month and I’ve been loving every minute of it. These novels have been dark, and full of gloom with just a glimmer of hope. It’s definitely not the Star Trek universe we’ve come to expect, but perhaps that’s a good thing. Some readers have expressed concern over the direction of the series. Specifically, that it doesn’t seem to know where it’s going — and it’s true, it doesn’t, but it’s that very same uncertainty it instills that makes me want more. Read more…
There’s nothing quite like owning your very own Tribble. They’re cute, adorable, and run on AA and AAA batteries — well, these ones do. Thankfully you’ll probably never have to worry about running into a Klingon, so I imagine they’ll probably stick to purring contently whenever you handle one. In addition to that, they won’t infest your starship, closet, or bed unless you purchase enough of them. Unlike their Original Series counterparts, they’re not born pregnant. As Kirk so poignantly put it, “Too much of anything, Lieutenant, even love, isn’t necessarily a good thing.” Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jan 30, 2011 in Star Trek
Before Star Trek became a worldwide phenomenon, it was just a pitch to NBC. We know that the show ended up being quite different from its original pilot, but even the pilot is pretty removed from Roddenberry’s recently-unearthed original pitch. Roddenberry describes the show as a “Wagon Train” analog in the future, starring Robert April, captain of the SS Yorktown. He describes Mr. Spock, April’s first mate, as having a reddish complexion, pointed ears, and an overall look “so satanic you might expect him to have a forked tail.” Most of the beloved characters are absent, and some character archetypes never made it into the show at all; Chekhov, for example, is replaced by hotshot South American navigator Jose Ortegas. In fact, Spock is really the only character who made it completely into the actual series mostly intact, though Phillip “Bones” Boyce kept his nickname even if his full name is quite different now. It’s a fascinating look into what might have been. Read more…
Poor Geordi. This litle edit from Star Trek the Next Generation has been floating around the net for quite some time now, but it never ceases to entertain. I’m not sure what it is about Star Trek that makes it so fun to edit, but I imagine a lot of it has to do with how easy it must be. There’s so much footage that I’m sure someone might be able to create an entirely new episode with little more than a few mouse clicks. On the other hand, every purist out there will look at each of these scenes and be able to tell you which seasons based on Riker’s hair, their uniforms and Troi’s ever-evolving wardrobe selection. Any way, if you’re interested in more edits like these, check out jandrewedits.com — beware, not all of these are work safe.
On Tuesday night the new season of the PBS show Pioneers of Television will showcase science fiction! The episode which airs on Tuesday will feature interviews with William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and Nichelle Nichols. The show will cover the shows that were made by Gene Roddenberry, Rod Serling, Irwin Allen. Read more…
A few years back, Star Trek fans got together to produce a series of new episodes featuring the continued adventures of the USS Enterprise and their five year mission. Star Trek: New Voyages, as they called it, featured decent production values and less-than-spectacular acting, but I had to hand it to them for trying. Of course, that series took far too long for them to produce in a timely manner. Now, it would seem someone else has taken it upon themselves to produce yet another fan series, Star Trek: Phoenix — this time opting for an original approach. Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Jan 1, 2011 in Star Trek
Star Trek Insurrection might not have been a great film, but it certainly had some intriguing behind-the-scenes development stories. In his book Fade In: The Making of Star Trek Insurrection, screenwriter Michael Piller details the original concepts for the film, one involving a fountain-of-youth story and Picard going through a Heart of Darkness-style “journey up the river” to take down an old Academy friend. The only problem? Rick Berman hated the initial concept, saying that Patrick Stewart would never go for a movie that “made him look old.” Its second revision was promptly shot down by Stewart himself, who said that it seemed like an overlong episode of TNG. Proving he was just as much a Trekkie as the fans, he directly cited several episodes that matched the script’s format. Brent Spiner even gave a laundry list of completely logical questions about the alien race featured in Piller’s original treatment that looks like a fan forum argument thread. Nice to know that the franchise was well-loved by its actors even if bad decisions were inevitably made (Nemesis, anyone?). Read more…
Like most viewers, I found Deep Space Nine far more entertaining than Star Trek Voyager, and a worthy successor to Star Trek: The Next Generation. Unfortunately, the series never really gained much ground in the litterary world — at least, in comparison to The Next Generation, or the Original Series. As a result, Pocket Books relaunched the series in order to bring Deep Space Nine in line with the current Trek timeline, as established by the Next Generation and Titan novels.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 27, 2010 in Star Trek, Tech
Apple has just filed a patent to make their logo on mobile devices double as an antenna — but what surprised me about this concept is that it’s taken directly from the Starfleet communicator badge that’s been around since Star Trek: The Next Generation in the 80s. I’m frankly surprised that Apple’s competition isn’t mining old sci fi series for other product development ideas like visors for the blind and holodeck theme parks. To be fair Apple is in a unique position to exploit these ideas because they really do a great job of combining hardware and software to create “magical devices”. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 26, 2010 in Star Trek
Look William Shatner survived the long lean years when nobody cared about Star Trek, so he’s entitled to do whatever he likes (including cash in) — because he’s earned the fanboy seal of approval. But as for you Scott Bakula: Shame on you! You sully your Starfleet rank when you engage in a comedy series about middle aged men who are search of their lost youth. Damn it man you should be out there flying starships instead of hanging out with a collection of antiques! Scott I beg of you — get your command back before you become an antique…Read more…
Posted by Michael Sacco on Dec 25, 2010 in Star Trek
Ah, Christmas. If you watched TV in the 90s, you probably remember Hallmark’s relentless commercials for new commemorative ornaments around this time of year. They had one for everything! I had a little light-up space shuttle ornament with opening loading bays, even. What space shuttles have to do with Christmas, I have no idea. Speaking of shuttles, though, check out this Christmas miracle — a video of Leonard Nimoy appearing in a 1992 Hallmark ad for a Star Trek shuttlecraft ornament. If you thought his trademark Vulcan greeting meant “live long and prosper,” well, you might learn a little something today. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 13, 2010 in Fandom, Star Trek
These wonderful Victorian styled Star Trek photos are he handy work of an artist known as Rabittooth. I really love how the artist has matched the role of each character on the show with an appropriate historical counterpart: Read more…
Last month I mentioned the latest Trek mini-series to hit book shelves, Star Trek: Typhon Pact. Following its monthly release schedule, the second book in the series, Michael A. Martin’s Seize the Fire, continues the story arc focusing on the crew of the USS Titan, and their brush with the Gorn in an attempt to secure an ancient terraforming technology similar to Project Genesis, ala Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. While I doubt the book contains any poorly choreographed fight scenes involving rock wielding men in lizard suits — hey, it was awesome for its time — it definitely gives us a better understanding of the Gorn’s social hierarchy. I honestly didn’t even know they had one. Read more…
In hindsight over 40 years later Star Trek is clearly the most successful science fiction television series of all time — but that wasn’t always the case. In the early 70s (before Star Wars) it was looking like Star Trek was pretty much dead. The only sign of life the series was in 1974 when Filmation ran a well done but poorly rated Saturday morning animated series. But then on September 13th, 1975 sci fi fans had a new option, and for this fanboy Space:1999 captured my heart for the next two years that it ran. Here are nine reasons why I think the show deserves some respect in the 21st Century: 
