Benedict Tired of Denying Khan

In an interview with Shortlist, Benedict Cumberbatch spoke about his recent projects including Sherlock season 2, BBC's Parade's End and Star Trek 2. As usual nothing specific was said about the movie but he did comment on enjoyment he had playing the unknown big bad of the film. As for the Khan bit, that will probably stick around until the name is finally revealed.

Going back to Star Trek 2, there’s been lots of speculation about your character...
Yep, it’s yet another thing I can’t talk about [laughs]. I’ll tell you this, it’s iconic and it’s exciting. I’m bored of denying that it’s Khan now, because people keep saying it.

Was it fun playing a villain?
Really, really good fun. It’s a great part and it’s really well written. I enjoyed the fights and the stunts, there’s lots of that and it really is proper action movie territory. I went off and did The Hobbit [doing motion-capture and voice work as dragon Smaug and the Necromancer] at the beginning of the job, so I literally came on set, established the look, did a day of filming and then f*cked off to New Zealand for two weeks before coming back. But it’s the stuff of dreams. I know it’s such a well-trodden, clichéd path, ‘Brit actor plays baddie in Hollywood’, but I channelled all of that and just really enjoyed it.

(via TrekMovie)

New Star Trek Toys Revealed

It probably comes as no surprise that there will be toys based on Star Trek 2 coming out next year. The surprise though is some of the new toys are not based on the upcoming movie but on Star Trek: The Original Series and The Next Generation. The toys are from Diamond Select and now available for pre-order through your local comic book store or favorite online store. The first wave of toys include Electronic Enterprise B, Enterprise E, and Wrath of Khan. Also have retro figure with retro packaging for the Borg and Picard, Mirror Universe Kirk and Spock, toy props and more. Details are here.

Star Trek: TNG Doctor Who #4 Preview

Today brings Star Trek: The Next Generation / Doctor Who Assimilation2 #4 to comic and online stores. The last issue took a generational turn with a flash back to the 60s era Doctor visiting The Original Series crew and Picard deciding Guinan and the Doctor need to meet. This one returns to the "present" as the gang must decide what to do next. For a preview of the covers and six issues click here.

Star Trek TNG/Doctor Who: Assimilation2 #4 (of 8)
Scott & David Tipton with Tony Lee (w) • J.K. Woodward (a) • Woodward, Francesco Francavilla (c)
The biggest science-fiction crossover of all time continues, in STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION/DOCTOR WHO: ASSIMILATION2! As the CyberBorg continue to carve a swath of destruction across the galaxy, the Federation is met with the possibility of assistance, but from an unthinkable source! Will Captain Picard and the Doctor agree to an alliance that could be worse than the enemy they face?
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

10 Things About Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

In what probably makes me strange compared to most Trekkies, my favorite Star Trek series is not The Orginial Series or The Next Generation but Deep Space Nine. Not at first as the first few seasons were pretty slow and typical Trek. However, once they were able to break away from the mold and tell more complex, darker stories the show really took off and never looked back with season 6 and 7 being the best seasons of TV ever created. Any case, io9.com culled some information from a wide variety of sources to bring you "10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The full article is here, summary below.

1) Alexander Siddig (Dr Bashir) was 1st choice for Captain Sisko
2) DS9 initially going to be like a western
3) Lwaxano Troi was going to be a semi-regular
4) Pagh was going to be in the feet (messaged by Kai) before moved to ears
5) Dax's Trill spots were numbered by lead makeup artist Michael Westmore on Terry Farrell's collarbone (reached 479)
6) Exec producer Ronald D. Moore wanted a musical episode.
7) A flying cow was first object through the CGI wormhole
8) Science officer was going to be wheelchair bound due to being from low gravity planet
9) Quark's nose in the pilot was really Rom's nose
10) Show has a lot of Man from U.N.C.L.E. references

IDW November 2012 Star Trek Comics

IDW Publishing has released their publishing plans for November 2012. Three comics and one trade is being released that month. The adventures of Doctor Who and the The Next Generation crew nears its conclusion. The ongoing series re-images the Mirror Universe, essentially creating the Mirror Universe 2.0 as part of the new movie continuity. Almost wish they would just have them meet the TOS Universe counterparts to create an experience where one sides knows what is going on while the other does not putting the 2.0 crew at a huge disadvantage while creating that quasi TOS crew meets 2.0 crew story. 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, TMNT, Transformers, Locke & Key and more click here.

Star Trek #15
Mike Johnson (w) • Stephen Molnar (a) • Tim Bradstreet (c)
The countdown to next year's STAR TREK sequel continues here, in an all-new re-imagining of the classic "Mirror Universe" story! Witness the transformation of the new Enterprise crew in part one of this blockbuster story, overseen by STAR TREK writer/producer Roberto Orci!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Star Trek The Game Gamescom Trailer

A new trailer is out for Star Trek The Game that will be coming out sometime next year for the release of Star Trek 2 in theatres. The Game is a shoot em up that lets you play as Spock or Kirk in a story that takes place between the two movies. Screenshots from the game can be found here.

Star Trek: The Original Series Soundtrack Collection Announced

La-La-Land Records have announced the ultimate score collection for Star Trek fans with the 15 disc Star Trek: The Original Series Soundtrack collection. La-La-Land previously released complete soundtracks from the Trek movies. This huge set will include every piece of music recorded for the series - both aired and unaired so lots of new music for fans.

“For 45 years, those like me who love this music could only dream about having it all,” album producer Lukas Kendall said. “This is the major, historical piece of sci-fi music, television music and pop culture music that we have always wanted to release in a definitive form for the collector.” Added executive album producer and La-La Land Records president MV Gerhard, “A majority of the music featured in this set has never been released. Of that unreleased music, there is a fairly large percentage that no one has ever heard because it was written and recorded for the show, but never featured in the episodes.”

Patrick Stewart: Olympic Ticket Scalper

Below is an amusing video from Funny or Die with Patrick Stewart as a master Olympic scalper at the 2012 London Games. Includes an amusing cameo from the new Scotty (Simon Pegg), gold medal winning swimmer Ryan Lochte (best not give up day job for acting) and Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones).

Star Trek TNG "Call Me Maybe" Parody

Taking a cue from USA's Olympic Swimming Team and a Star Wars cut, below is the Star Trek: The Next Generation version of the song.

Borg Cake and Non Canon Books

News on the Star Trek sequel front remains slow but here are two Trek things that grab my interest this weekend. The first is a post of a Borg wedding cake, complete with attacking Federation ships. Just have the one pic but it’s a cool one.

The second item is from long time Star Trek writer Dayton Ward who picked around 10 Star Trek novels that should be part of canon but are not. His list can be found here. Of the list I highly recommend reading Strangers from the Sky, Dark Mirror, and Federation. Along those lines I also submit Enterprise (first voyage of the Enterprise), Prime Directive (crew violates directive to save a civilization from nuclear annihilation) and William Shatner's Trek (mostly cause clever ideas on Trek stuff).