Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 10, 2009 in Star Trek
For me the original Star Trek will always be my first fanboy love — and if you feel the same way and want to show it this collection of over 20 different Star Trek Peel and Stick Wall Appliques can be a fun low budget way (only $13!) of showing your appreciation for those who went boldly where no other TV show went before. There are also two additional versions: On that features Captain Kirk and other with Mr. Spock: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Apr 3, 2009 in Star Trek
This is a demonstration of the sound effects on the new Diamond Select Toys Star Trek Deluxe Chair — as you can see below the chair also includes a replica Kirk. However when I first spotted this video my hopes were for a full sized chair… Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 31, 2009 in Star Trek
Kirk is the original, but I have to say that Sisko is pretty much the coolest commander that I’ve come across in every incarnation of Star Trek. Kirk is a bit of a hot head, Jean Luc Picard is just too damn mellow, Janeway was generic and Jonathan Archer was just a tad too lovable: And that leaves us with Benjamin Sisko! Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 12, 2009 in Star Trek
Having watched the original series since my early childhood one of my early disappointments in life was the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture: You have to understand for me this was like Beatles getting back together again, but then producing a bad disco album. So it’s not surprising that I’ve blocked most of my memories associated with that “film” out of mind. But one thing that that the Paramount marketing dept. got right was the merchandising, and in this case I had forgotten that fast food giant McDonald’s had created a series of Star Trek themed Happy Meals to coincide with the film. Shown above and below are commercials that promoted fast food for Star Fleet officers in training. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Mar 10, 2009 in Star Trek
While wandering around Kenmare and Mott in Manhattan I spotted this stenciled Spock street art which features him in his Wrath of Khan outfit sporting a Marilyn Monroe hairstyle. Clearly a homage to Warhol (as shown by the near by tomato soup spray can below) the artist is Mr. Brainwash.
You can now pre-order the Star Trek Original Series Lunch Box — but frankly the design of this schlocked out trinket misses the point in my book. For starters the side of the lunchbox misses the spirit of the entire show, the typography and graphic symbols have nothing to do with the late 60s. But the biggest missing part is that a lunchbox from that era wasn’t always photographic — in fact for a science fiction show you’d expect to see an illustration. And this I present to you the real deal, an authentic Star Trek lunchbox from the 60s: Read more…
Shown above is the wonderful collection of Leonard F. Krieger. There’s a small but growing movement of fanboys who are making videos of their Star Trek collections and sharing them on YouTube. I have to admit that while such an endeavor sounds geeky that it’s a very positive use of technology. You see back in the days fans would acquire amazing collections of memorabilia but sadly with rare exception these gems would just sit on a shelf gathering dust only to be admired by a few. But putting these goodies on he web (and not just with video but on other sites like Flickr) fans are building a virtual museum and giving a free visitors pass to the rest of us. Here are a few wings of virtual Trek museum: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Feb 5, 2009 in Star Trek
I forgot just how much dancing was in the original Star Trek series — it’s rather amazing that thee was so much there that you could edit an entire music video out of it and hardly repeat a scene! Here’s another fan made video which isn’t as well choreographed but still entertaining: Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 29, 2009 in Star Trek
This is a fan made video that kit bashes the A Team opening theme with the original Star Trek cast. The funny thing is that I’ve forgotten how many silly scenes there were in the original series…
At first I had my doubts — but the one thing that won me over to the up and coming Star Trek film is the trailer — to be blunt it kicks ass! So as a fanboy who’s been following the show forever when I read that there was a comic book attached to the film (Star Trek Countdown) I was psyched. But then I glanced at the cover and I was in shock: The illustration looks like a bad tracing from a photo featuring some of the worst Photoshop coloring work I’ve ever seen in my life. I realize the cover is trying to match the posters for the film, but couldn’t they have put more than just ten minutes worth of work into it?Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Jan 21, 2009 in Star Trek, Tech
I would be a liar if I said that I spent the past day thinking of about anything but the inauguration of President Barack Obama. One one level I was just overjoyed to hear Obama publicly re-embrace the ideas of science and ecology, which in a way strikes me as sad as being something that “we have to return to” in the first place. And of course the two central issues at hand today are the economy (or rather the lack there of) and ongoing asymmetrical warfare — yet underneath all of that chaos was a very positive echo of the civil rights struggle of the 1960s. And in a sense part of the triumph of that struggle was an indirect result of a few bold visionaries who embraced the then very odd notion of the world growing smaller was a damn good thing.Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 18, 2008 in Star Trek
It was only a few days ago that I was so excited to hear that Majel Barrett-Roddenberry would be doing the voice of the computer in Star Trek XI and now I’m sad to say that this looks to be her last film:
“Majel Barrett Roddenberry, the widow of “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry who nurtured the legacy of the seminal science fiction TV series after his death, has died. She was 76. Roddenberry died of leukemia Thursday morning at her home in Bel-Air, said Sean Rossall, a family spokesman. Read more…
Posted by Michael Pinto on Dec 11, 2008 in Star Trek
According to Variety it looks like Majel Barrett-Roddenberry will be returning to Star Trek XI to resume her role as the voice of the Enterprise computer system! Although I wish they gave her an on screen cameo relating to her original role as Nurse Chapel, however to me this is a sign that J.J. Abrams is getting things right.
You know what I want for Christmas? I want William Shatner to have a guest spot in the upcoming Star Trek XI film! But if I can’t get that instead I’ll gladly settle for this old school Star Trek Phaser and Communicator Set from ThinkGeek. The phaser has the nice touch of including an overload setting that is followed by an exploding sound effect (or as my computer programming friends would say “If it’s not a bug it’s a feature!”). The communicator is also cool as it features 20 fanboy friendly phrases like “Spock here, Captain”, “Scotty here, Captain” and my personal favorite “Transporter room ready to beam up”.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 17, 2008 in Star Trek
The previous bootlegged Star Trek XI trailer did bring me back to the good old days of poorly duplicated VHS tapes that had a magical quality. But that said this official trailer does show off the spaceship battles much better. I’m sad that Shatner won’t be in this film, but man sign me up to stand in line on opening day!
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 17, 2008 in Star Trek
It’s hard to get a percentage of the Star Trek fanboy mindspace these days with everyone zombified with J.J. Abrams brilliant viral marketing campaign! However this promo for the remastered series (which has already be on the air for a while) does the trick nicely by using an enjoyable sense of humor. Found via TrekMovie.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Nov 13, 2008 in Star Trek
Despite the speed of my RSS reader I first learned about the Enterprise redesign via an angry chain email from a fellow fanboy who was quite pissed that J.J. Abrams was ruining everyones beloved starship. Well it seems the reaction was so bad to the new designs that movie production designer Ryan Church posted a online defense of fan criticism: Read more…
Someday in the future spaceships will make use of talented but perhaps blind engineers to rescue the day? Yes it sounds like the character Geordi La Forge from Star Trek: The Next Generation, but no it’s the year 2008 and our hero is Marco Midon who works for NASA: Read more…
Radiation shields on! One of the real limiting factors with space exploration is human biology itself. A good example of this are cosmic rays which are quite scary when you study them, and so far we’ve come up with some pretty crude protection methods. So it’s great to see some research being done to imitate the protection that we get here on Earth with the magnetosphere:
“Future astronauts could benefit from a magnetic “umbrella” that deflects harmful space radiation around their crew capsule, scientists say. The super-fast charged particles that stream away from the Sun pose a significant threat to any long-duration mission, such as to the Moon or Mars.
But the research team says a spaceship equipped with a magnetic field generator could protect its occupants. Lab tests are reported in the journal Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion. The approach mimics the protective field that envelops the Earth, known as the magnetosphere.”
By the way it should be noted that deflector shields pre-date Star Trek and have been employed in science fiction stories since the 1920s, although the show did popularize the concept with the general public.
Posted by Michael Pinto on Oct 26, 2008 in Star Trek
The above interview with Gene Roddenberry was from Good Morning America in 1986 (I believe that’s Joan Lunden with her big 80s hair asking the questions). Roddenberry came to my mind because he brought the series to life, but sadly was shoved to the side even during the original run of the series which as he points out wasn’t a success during its original run. In fact even after the movies brought the show back to life he was pushed over after the first film.
Having watched the original series since my early childhood one of my early disappointments in life was the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture: You have to understand for me this was like Beatles getting back together again, but then producing a bad disco album. So it’s not surprising that I’ve blocked most of my memories associated with that “film” out of mind. But one thing that that the Paramount marketing dept. got right was the merchandising, and in this case I had forgotten that fast food giant McDonald’s had created a series of Star Trek themed Happy Meals to coincide with the film. Shown above and below are commercials that promoted fast food for Star Fleet officers in training. 
