Drafts of the Star Trek Opening Monologue

It turns out that back in 1966, Star Trek could have opened with completely different narration. Other drafts of that opening monologue have come to light through Desilu Production (later bought by Paramount) memos between creator and writer Gene Roddenberry and producers Bob Justman and John Black. It also serves as a reminder that "U.S.S." stands for United Space Ship, something mentioned in a few episodes of The Original Series but not sense then.

Draft 1 (by Gene Roddenberry)

This is the story of the United Space Ship Enterprise. Assigned a five year patrol of our galaxy, the giant starship visits Earth colonies, regulates commerce, and explores strange new worlds and civilizations. These are its voyages, and its adventures.

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Star Trek #4 Preview

Tomorrow will bring the next issue of Star Trek ongoing to comic book stores. Star Trek #4 concludes the reimagination of the classic TOS episode The Galileo Seven from the perspective of the new ST 2.0 crew. The first 8 pages of the issue can be seen here.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all
For the holidays's below is a promo video for the annual East Peoria Festival of Lights that was held several weeks ago. What makes it Star Trek related is very awesome USS Enterprise float that is 57 feet long, 22 feet wide, 14 feet tall and made of 52,000 lights. The Enterprise float appears at the 1:36 point. Click here for more images.

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Burk: "Original and Unique" Story

While making the rounds to promote Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Star Trek Bryan Burk spoke about the sequel. He told MTV that they have they are not going to re-set the characters but use Empire Strikes Back model of just diving right in from the previous film. He also avoided confirming or denying Khan (so that theory remains alive) but instead stated that they are going for "something that would be original and unique and different and again on paper I think we made the right choice." The video is below. (via TrekMovie)

Star Trek Sequel: Pike In, Khan Out, Orginial Cast Not Invited, and Post Converstion 3D

The last several months (really years) has been one long dry spell of useful news on the Star Trek sequel front. Suddenly today multiple pieces of information has come out that might be of interest to fans such as a new cast member, no TOS cast invited, Khan reportedly out (again), and Trek will not film in real 3D.

To start, it looks like Captain Pike will return. Sequel writer Bob Orci posted on TrekMovie.com "Spoiler alert! We wrote a part for Greenwood. Let us hope he says "Yes!". No additional details but Bruce Greenwood has indicated he is up for doing the sequel but would prefer not to be stuck in the wheelchair.

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IDW March Star Trek Comics

IDW Publishing has released their publishing plans for March that continues the adventures of the Enterprise 2.0 crew while the Prime crew and DC's Legion of Super-heroes conclude their own adventure. The ongoing series starts off a storyline that takes place after the events in the 2009 movie as Vulcan consider revenge for the destruction of their planet. Two comics, a reprint and one trade are being released that month. If you are interested in the books, just let your local comic book store know. For the full details of IDW's other books including GI Joe, Transformers, Locke& Key and more click here.

Star Trek #7
Mike Johnson (w) Joe Corroney (a) Tim Bradstreet (c)
The adventures of the new crew of the Enterprise continue in this all new two-part story that takes place soon after the events of the last film! While Vulcans struggle to survive in the wake of their homeworld's destruction at the hands of rogue Romulans, and some Vulcans believe that the logical response can be summed up in one word: revenge! STAR TREK writer/producer Roberto Orci oversees this original story set in the timeline leading up to the blockbuster film sequel!
FC 32 pages $3.99

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Star Trek Radio Special from 1982

Thanks to TrekMovie's John Tenuto, here is a piece of Star Trek history from 1982. The hour long radio special called "The Voyage of Star Trek" was created to promote the release of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. The special ran with a then popular radio network called "The Source". The special had interviews with all the main movie cast members, the directory Nicholas Meyer, and more as they talked about the movie, the popularity of Star Trek and their characters. The recording is a combination of most of the material put together for the special including various promotional recordings so the first seven or so minutes might seem repetitive. TrekMovie has more details here. In a weird way it shows the more things change (technology) the more things stay the same (promoting movie releases).

Bryan Burk, Simon Pegg Talk Khan

When it comes to the Star Trek sequel, there is one question that most fans want answered - is Khan in the movie? MTV brings this question to Simon Pegg (Scotty) and producer Bryan Burk while they were out promoting Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. Pegg says he hasn't heard anything while Burk provides a non-answer while talking about what he hopes the film will accomplish. Below are the key quotes. (via iO9)

"I haven't heard the name Khan come up. Not to say it won't come up, but I have heard no mention of him whatsoever," he said. "He is a great villain. I don't want to say too much and then have to eat my words as I often do, but we've seen Khan [in a 'Trek' movie before]. To see him again, how much value is there in that? I don't know."

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Star Trek: TNG - Next Level Release Date

CBS Home Entertainment has announced the release date of Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Next Level for January 31, 2012. Amazon currently has the disc for sale at $14.99. The Blu-ray disc contains high-definition transfer of four episodes from the series. The episodes were used as test cases to transfer all 7 season of The Next Generation into HD for the Blu-ray format. The first season set is expected later in 2012. Below is the press release.

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Star Trek Online Free-To-Play Opening Cutscene

Starting January 17, 2012 Star Trek Online will move to the free-to-play model. That will cause many chances to the game including a new opening cutscene narrated by Leonard Nimoy. The cutscene basically summarizes the state of the Federation in the game's universe which is set in the 25th century, about 25 years after Star Trek: Nemesis when pretty much every major enemy of the Federation is gearing up for war. (via TrekMovie)

Edgar Ramirez Replacing Del Toro in Star Trek?

Variety is reporting that Edgar Ramirez (Vantage Point, left pic) is the current front runner to replace Benicio Del Toro in the Star Trek sequel with Jordi Molla (Colombiana, right pic) also in the running. It seems whatever the villain role is for, it requires a latin male. Ricardo Montalban, who orginiated the role of Khan and reprised it for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, was from Mexico so definitely a plus in the Khan column. At this point, based on what I am reading, entertainment blogs and fandom in general have settled on Khan being the big bad of the Star Trek sequel. If Khan isn't the big bad, JJ Abrams and Paramount needs to seriousily consider revealing what the role is for as anything other than Khan will be viewed as a disappointment the more this rumor is allowed to fester.

Star Trek's Peter Weller Playing CEO?

Entertainment Weekly is reporting a few more details on the role that Peter Weller has been cast for in Star Trek 2013. It was confirmed that the actor was cast in the Trek sequel but no information was provided. “Of course J.J. Abrams is very tight-lipped about his projects,” said agent Todd Eisner, “but I do know that it’s a substantial role and that Peter is playing a C.E.O.” This is an interesting development that could mean anything since Star Trek never really explored the business side of the universe much outside of Quark's bar.

AICN has an interesting theory about the role; based on the assumption the movie will have Khan as the big bad, which remains an unconfirmed rumor. Their theory is he could be the CEO of the company that created Khan and his group of genetically-engineered soldiers. This means he could either be a Trek present day CEO demanding his "property back", in this case the S.S. Botany Bay and the soldiers it contains or part of a flashback that explains the origins of Khan. Something not explored in canon but told in detail via the book series "The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh" by Greg Cox. Considering sequel writer Roberto Orci is a fan of the many Trek novels, this idea does have legs. Again assuming the sequel has Khan in it.

Star Trek VI Turns 20

Today was the 20th anniversary of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country which was released on December 6th, 1991 for the 25th anniversary of Star Trek. The film marked the final adventure of the original Enterprise crew as they worked to stop war from breaking out between the Federation and Klingons. This was a time of renewed interest in the Star Trek franchise as The Next Generation was hitting new ratings heights in its fourth season, multiple celebration TV specials, and the death of Trek's creator Gene Roddenberry. I personally think the film is the second best of the franchise after Star Trek II and remember watching it way back when in theatres on its opening weekend. The "straight on til morning" with cast signatures is one of the best send offs that could have been conceived for these now iconic characters and their actors that played them (sadly could not find video of it). Too bad The Next Generation didn't get their own chance to say goodbye. For more details on the film's history including a nice video retrospective head over to TrekMovie.com.

Benicio Del Toro Out; Khan Back In for Trek Sequel?

NY Magazine's Vulture blog reports that Benicio Del Toro will not be playing the big bad of the Star Trek sequel. It seems contract negotiations fell through last Wednesday due terms of payment. This brings up a few questions. Does this mean Peter Weller is his replacement or doing a different role? Does this mean that Khan is back in play as the film's big bad?

This past Friday news broke that Khan was confirmed by various sources as the bad guy of the film but this was shortly shot down by J.J. Abrams with a short "not true" statement. However, Abrams loves his secrets. He doesn't lie to fans or reporters but he will either go with a non-answer or an answer that can be interpreted in different ways. In this case, it could be "not true" to Del Toro playing Khan instead of "not true" to Khan being in the film. As usual time will tell.

I think the production dodged a bullet with Benicio Del Toro backing out of the film. Based on his role choices during his career, the world of sci-fi would be an ugly fit. At the very least I seriously doubt he would be able to embrace Trekkies and anything associated with fandom. As for Khan, I still maintain that the Trek "Supreme Court" of Abrams and the writers are going to want to strike out in their own direction and try to create an original story that may have little easter eggs to past Trek stories but not rely completely on it like a Khan story would.

Peter Weller Joins Cast of Star Trek Sequel

Deadline is reporting that Peter Weller (Robocop, 24) has joined the cast of the Star Trek sequel in "a principal role but one they would not specify." The news was confirmed by Weller's PR reps making him the first official new cast member for the sequel. Alice Eve and Benicio Del Toro are likely to join the cast but both are considered to be in the negotiating phase.

Benicio Del Toro Not Playing Khan

It seems that the Latino Review jumped the gun when it declared that Benicio Del Toro would be playing Khan Noonien Singh for the sequel to 2009's Star Trek. The site made the declaration only citing sources but apparently the sites' "El Mayimbe" hit ratio in the rumor department is high enough that the report was considered credible enough to need verification. As a result Hitflix was able to reach out to Star Trek 2 directory JJ Abrams' who responded with a simple "not true."

This isn't really a surprise as the writers of the script have been dropping hints for a while that they were going to "trek" out on their own and not use Khan for sequel. I believe they are going to use a completely new character as this will be the first chance for everyone to truly plant their own flag on Star Trek without having to use any characters or stories from before. At most I am betting there will be hints and nods to previous series things but there will be no direct lifts of previous stories or major characters (like Khan). (via TrekMovie)

Mike Johnson Talks Star Trek Ongoing

Writer Mike Johnson recently spoke with Comic Book Resources about writing the new ongoing Star Trek. The series is the first ongoing in decades that re-tells some of the adventures from Star Trek: The Original Series but altered because now they are set in the new Star Trek 2.0 universe created by the 2009 movie. The first arc retold the pilot episode of "Where No Man Has Gone Before" while the next arc that began with issue 3 tells the story of "The Galileo Seven". Below are a few highlights from the interview, the entirety of which can be found here.

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Star Trek Online: Season 5 Update

Star Trek Online is a month or so away from going free to play but in the meantime players have the latest update called "Call To Arms". This Season 5 update brings new missions and new features to the game and will be the last major update until free to play kicks in on January 17th. (via TrekMovie)

New features:
- New Duty Officer System allowing you to collect and trade crewmembers with other captains
- The Borg Advancement: new missions confronting the Borg armada as they advance on the Alpha Quadrant
- Klingon Gameplay Updates: New improvements for leveling up Klingon characters
- Skills Revamp: Updated way to choose how to specialize your captain
- Mission Revamp: More streamlined way to play through episode content.
- Lore Missions: New type of non-combat play in social zones testing your knowledge of the game’s lore
- Economy Restructuring: For the first time ever, this update is going to allow players to acquire Cryptic Points without having to spend money.
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