Happy 25th Star Trek: The Next Generation

On September 25th, 1987 Star Trek: The Next Generation debut in syndication around the country. Today is the 25th Anniversary of the bit of television history. StarTrek.com, probably at one of their convention appearances Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner, Gates McFadden, Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, Wil Wheaton and Denise Crosby, asked them the same questions as they looked back. They spoke about how fast 25 years past, how they learned of getting their parts, favorite guest stars, and best episodes. Below are links to their answers and after that is Stardate Revisited: The Origins of Star Trek: The Next Generation documentary (in 3 parts) that is one of the extras in Star Trek: The Next Generation Season One on Blu-ray.

25 Years | Casting | Guest Stars | The Movies | Best Episodes | Sir Patrick?

Sir Patrick Stewart: Replacement Correspondent

Last night Sir Patrick Stewart appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart as a replacement correspondent. The joke was having fun with the NFL replacement referees whose inexperience has resulted in many blow calls, only in this case the replacement was an improvement over regular John Oliver. Stewart often does comedy as a regular voice for Seth McFarlane's American Dad, Family Guy, the movie Ted and pretty much anything that interests him. The idea of Stewart as a regular correspondent is one I could easily get behind. By the way, the referee lockout has been resolved.

IDW December 2012 Star Trek Comics

IDW Publishing has released their publishing plans for December 2012. Three comics and two trades are being released that month. Star Trek 2.0 concludes its Mirror Universe storyline while the Doctor Who and Hive mini-series reach their conclusion. 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 #16
Mike Johnson (w) • Stephen Molnar (a) • Tim Bradstreet (c)
Concluding the two-part re-imagining of the classic “Mirror Universe” episode! Don’t miss this radical transformation of Kirk & Co., as events unfold leading up to next summer’s STAR TREK sequel! Overseen by STAR TREK writer/producer Roberto Orci!
FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Star Trek TNG Doctor Who #5 Preview

Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation2 #5 will be out tomorrow at comic book stores. The issue continues the crossover between the Star Trek and Doctor Who universes. The last issue had the Borg betrayed by the Cybermen leading to a tough decision for Picard who must decide his next move - help the Borg end the Cybermen threat or join the Cybermen in wiping out the Borg. Either way a threat will remain. A preview of the issue can be read here.

Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation2 #5 (of 8)Scott & David Tipton with Tony Lee (w) • J.K. Woodward (a & c) The two greatest science-fiction properties of all time cross over for the first time in history, in STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION/DOCTOR WHO: ASSIMILATION2! Captain Jean-Luc Picard faces one of the most difficult decisions of his life, but the fate of the galaxy may depend on it! Can the Doctor convince him to make the correct choice? FC • 32 pages • $3.99

Nimoy: The Origin of the Vulcan Salute (Updated)

Leonard Nimoy write an article for StarTrek.com where he discusses the origin of the Vulcun salute with the phrase "Live long and prosper." The salute was created by Leonard Nimoy while filming the TOS episode Amok Time that it first appeared in. As he said told the site, “The idea came when I saw the way Joe was staging the scene. He had me approach T'Pau and I felt a greeting gesture was called for. So I suggested it to Joe [Pevney, director of the episode], who accepted it immediately. Gene was not involved.” The salute and phrase's origins tie directly into Leonard Nimoy's Jewish upbringing which will be soon celebrating Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Below is his story from his childhood that helped with the salute's creation.

I grew up in an interesting inner-city neighborhood in Boston. The area was known as the West End and was written about in a book called the Urban Villagers. It was a desirable area since it was within walking distance of downtown Boston and the Boston Commons, as well as being situated along the banks of the Charles River.

The population was mostly immigrants. Maybe 70% Italian and 25% Jewish. My family attended services in an Orthodox Jewish Synagogue, or “Shul.” We were especially attentive to the high holidays, Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

Starship Enterprise-D Bridge Restoration Project

A Star Trek fan named Huston Huddleston has started a project to restore the Starship Enterprise-D bridge from Star Trek: The Next Generation. This bridge was from Star Trek: The Experience (I assume the now closed Vegas one). The grand plan is to restore the bridge with interactive elements and possible put in tour for conventions and charities. The estimated cost of the project is $240,000. As a result, the cost is being crowd sourced via IndieGoGo. If you are interested in donating and learning more go to NewStarship.com. Note this is a fan project, not part of Paramount.

10 Things About Star Trek: The Original Series

Along the same lines as their recent post about DS9, io9.com has posted 10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Star Trek: The Original Series. The culled 10 facts about the series from various sources you might find interesting. Below is the bullet points, click link above for the full article.

1) The Cage (1st Trek pilot episode) was redone because Broadcast Standards Office thought it was too sexy.
2) Spock's skin color was going to have at least a red tint but black and white TVs were still common, also would require hours of makeup everyday.
3) Spock's "nutrition" would have come from energy fed to a plate in his stomach area.
4) Paramount tried to sell all rights to Star Trek back to Gene Roddenberry for $150,000 but he didn't have the money (if had would have had empire to rival George Lucas' in annuals of film history).
5) The Enterprise has a six lane bowling alley on Deck 21.
6) Gene Roddenberry, during screening of 2nd pilot, shushed Isaac Asimov.
7) Starfleet's uniforms were not made by a union but overnight by a sweatshop because couldn't afford it.
8) William Shatner has never watch Star Trek, avoids watching any of his performances.
9) The first interracial kiss on television was supposed to be between Spock and Uhura but Shatner wanted to be part of that piece of history so scene re-written.
10) The Andy Griffith Show's Mayberry set was used for "Miri" and "City on the Edge of Forever" with little or no redressing so shops and other landmarks remained the same for both shows.

Walter Koenig Receives Walk of Fame Star

After more then 50 years of acting, Star Trek's Walter Keonig has finally received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. His is the 2,479th star and the last of The Original Series crew to get one. Many of the guests on hand includes alumni from previous Star Trek series including eorge Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Tim Russ, Garrett Wang, Chase Masterson and more. Babylon 5 (show Keonig starred on) creator J. Michael Strazynski spoke at the vent saying "About God-damn time!" Leonard Nimoy also spoke saying:

I remember when Walter came on board the Enterprise there were people that had reasons for bringing this character on board. At the time our major adversaries were the Russians and it was decided for the sake of showing a positive aspect of the future it would be a good thing to have a Russian on board. Also at the same time the Beatles were a big deal and they had these interesting hair cuts and someone said "maybe we will pick up a bit of the Beatles audience we should put a Beatle wig on him." So Walter came in with his excellent Russian accent and a Beatle wig and something interesting happened. It turned out that Walter was a good actor and he took these slim dimensions of a character that had been handed to him and he created a three dimensional flesh and blood person who made an enormous contribution to Star Trek over the years.

The star came in large part thanks to Rod Roddenberry, son of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, who provided the funds and support necessary to get him the star. I am unclear on why it took so long but apparently it has been a bit of a fight.

Star Trek: The Original Series Soundtrack Priced

La-La Land Records has officially priced the Star Trek: The Original Series Soundtrack 15-disc collection that I posted about before. The price is $224.98, aiming for a late November 2012 release date and limited to only 6000 sets. If interested you can learn more about the set here.

Karl Urban on Becoming McCoy

In an interview with the Huffington Post to promote his new movie Dredd, Karl Urban spoke a little about his approach to playing Leonard "Bones" McCoy in Star Trek and why he made sure that DeForest Kelly's take was part of his approach in playing the legendary character.

Is there anything about your performance as McCoy in "Star Trek" that you want to do different in the second film?
[Pauses] I didn't approach the role like that. You know, when you get a script you just look at the story and break down what your character is doing and how to serve that story the best. But, I didn't sit down and go over everything to find if there was something I didn't get right or that I wanted to correct or anything like that.

But it has to be difficult. DeForest Kelly is so known for that role. Do you go in trying to do what he did? That seems like a slippery slope.
Oh yeah. It's a slippery slope. Here's the thing: As a longtime fan of "Star Trek," I would have felt short changed if I had gone into that cinema and not seen a character that was identifiably McCoy. So, for me, it was the process of analyzing DeForest -- sort of internalizing, I guess, certain elements about that character. And, then, from there it was a process of presenting a younger version of what that character would be. And I think what we ended up with was kind of a combination of some obvious nods to DeForest, but then, you know, I also have to make the character my own. And it is, ultimately, my interpretation of what Bones is. But, having such huge admiration and respect for what he did before, it was important that the character be recognizably Bones.

Sequel Titled "Star Trek Into Darkness"

TrekMovie.com is reporting that they have confirmed the title of JJ Abram directed Star Trek sequel will be called "Star Trek Into Darkness". The title has not been officially confirmed by Paramount or Abrams. A bit of evidence that supports this is it seems the domains StarTrekIntoDarkness.com and StarTrekIntoDarknessMovie.com are not available (depending on WhoIs search engine). The owners are masked though so can't confirm if owned by Paramount. Currently the websites do nothing.

It has been hinted at a while that the sequel to 2009's Star Trek reboot would not have a "2" in the title. As Damon Lindelof pointed out "The normal, why can’t you just call it "Star Trek 2" because there is already a Star Trek II." However, they also wanted to take it a step further by losing the colons and try to go The Dark Knight route. As Lindelof said "Not that ‘Star Trek: Insurrection’ or ‘First Contact’ aren’t good titles, it’s just that everything that people are turned off about when it comes to ‘Trek’ is represented by the colon."

There just isn't a phrase associated with Star Trek that is as universal as "The Dark Knight" is with Batman. If mention phrases Trekkers know to non-Trekkers like "Federation", "Enterprise", etc., that could invoke many different subjects depending on the person. About the only Trek phrase that might be universal is "Beam Me Up Scotty" and maybe "To Boldly Go".

This title really does seem to be a pale attempt to copy Batman and Spider-Man's style title wise. Hopefully someone can ask the Trek Supreme Court what the difference is between "Star Trek: Into Darkness" and "Star Trek Into Darkness". It seems silly to create such a bad title to avoid a colon. Not saying it is any better with a colon. I am hoping it turns out the sources are incorrect (or more likely floating this out there to see how critics react) because Abrams and company are capable of better. The sad thing is this title, if true, took over a year of discussion to come up with and now comes across as an afterthought.

Update: Deadline is reporting they have confirmed the title but so far Paramount has not released anything official.

Google Doodle Celebrates Star Trek's 46th Anniversary

To celebrate the September 8, 1966 premiere of Star Trek, Google posted a Star Trek themed interactive doodle on their home page. After today, the doodle will join the Doodle Gallery. The doodle has three segments to it. The first is the Enterprise bridge crew re-imagined as letters in the word Google. If you hover over certain elements (Uhura, console) you hear classic Trek sounds. Click the elevator takes you to the second doodle in the transporter room. Clicking the bin door in top left reveals tribbles, clicking the red shirt gets him to cry and the console brings you to the final doodle. This last doodle was inspired by the episode "Arena" where Kirk was forced to fight the Gorn on the planet surface. Like in the episode, there are objects on the surface to use against the Gorn. Doodle Team leader Ryan Germick spoke with Star Trek.com about today's homage. Segments below, full interview here.

Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2 Blu-ray Set for December 4th

The first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation on Blu-ray with remastered video and special effects just came out a little over a month ago. It turns out that the wait for season two isn't going to be as long as expected as Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2 Blu-ray is now set for release on December 4th, 2012. The 5-disc set will have all 22 episodes from the season with extras include an extended version of "The Measure of a Man, audio commentaries, gag reel, new documentaries and more. There will also be an in-theater event to celebrate its release as occurred with the first season set. The retail price is $129.99 but already Amazon has it listed for $90.99 and probably get cheaper by release date.

Quinto "Fulfilled" by Star Trek 2 Experience

While at The Wrap's Short Film Festival, Zachary Quinto (Spock) spoke with the website about his experience working on the film. As usual no specifics provided. Quote below, video after.

"It was bigger. It was bolder, I think, than the first one, and that was pretty big and bold from my stand point. I’m really excited to see what they do with it. I feel like, you know, my work is done on the movie right now and until we have to go and promote it, then my work remains done and I let J.J. and his incredible team of people get in there and do the work that they need to do now. I feel very fulfilled, but I don't feel particularly attached to what the outcome of that project will be because I have faith in the people that I was collaborating with to make it as good as it can be."

Pine on Star Trek 2: "Not Making Batman"

In an interview with TotalFilm for their sci-fi issue, Chris Pine (Kirk) commented on Star Trek. As usual the cone of secrecy remains in place but he did make an interesting analogy to enforce the tone of Star Trek 2 that will be out next summer.

"We're not making Batman. That's not our deal," Pine told us.

"There's comedy, which I think J.J. does a great job of, but, like the first one, there's some serious issues being dealt with. And I'd say the threat is even greater in this one."

"The force [the Enterprise crew] are met with is much more frightening. It's relentlessly action-packed and in terms of character development it goes places you'd never expect. The arc is huge for all the characters. It's a really big story - I can't hype it enough!"