Overall, this is a “reboot” if ever I saw one. I couldn’t even identify it as Star Trek during the first part. The rest of it gets progressively more overwhelming until it’s like Attack Of The Clones and my head explodes. They’ve changed a lot of stuff, from the inside of the Enterprise to the crazy camera angles.

I’m still not sure about seeing other actors play the beloved trio of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, but at least trailer makes me want to see the flick. I hope the next trailer (if there is one) has more dialogue and shows the human, relationship side of Trek that I find more appealing that all this action / destruction stuff. But that said, this is a cool trailer for inspiring interest.

Thanks to What Would Tyler Durden Do.

But another issue is the film including Leonard Nimoy — reprising his role as Spock — and not William “The Shat” Shatner as the iconic Captain Kirk. Director J.J. Abrams had this to say regarding the oversight:

“It was very tricky. We actually had written a scene with him in it that was a flashback kind of thing, but the truth is, it didn’t quite feel right. The bigger thing was that he was very vocal that he didn’t want to do a cameo. We tried desperately to put him in the movie, but he was making it very clear that he wanted the movie to focus on him significantly, which, frankly, he deserves. The truth is, the story that we were telling required a certain adherence to the Trek canon and consistency of storytelling… Well, his character died on screen. Maybe a smarter group of filmmakers could have figured out how to resolve that.”

Here’s a recent video Shatner himself recorded with his response to Abrams’ reasons:

For some reason I’m more inclined to believe Bill’s side of the story.

The other personal annoyance is one person whom I’ve heard speak positively of the new flick — Kevin Smith. While that lends some geek cred, also knowing that Smith recently praised an early cut of The Watchmen, let’s not forget he praised Star Wars Episode III a while back — which while good, wasn’t nearly as good as he claimed. I think he’s a bit high on the hyperbole.

But back to Star Trek: Despite Smith praising it, this Trekkie is still extremely skeptical. Disrespecting “The Shat” is a big part of it. Here’s hoping they can still stick him in there, somehow, maybe using that molecule-levitating technology mentioned in the video.

3 seasons = 79 episodes

Star Trek The Next Generation

7 seasons = 176 episodes

Star Trek Deep Space Nine

7 seasons = 176 episodes

Star Trek Voyager

7 seasons = 172 episodes

Star Trek Enterprise

4 seasons = 98 episodes

Star Trek Movies

10 movies

701 episodes total x about 600 mb per episode = 420.6 GB

Plus 10 movies x about 1 GB per movie = 430.6 GB

Conclusion

Definitely doable, but I may never emerge from the nerdiness of 721 hours of Star Trek, enough to last two years if I watched an episode a day.

It remains to be seen if the all new, younger cast can relive the Trek feeling and they are nowhere to be seen in this teaser trailer. Hopefully another trailer will attempt that task.

Here’s a low quality leak of the teaser trailer, but it did the job for me. Yes I am a Star Trek nerd.

So in case you’ve been living under a pile of quatrotriticale for the past year, there’s a new Star Trek movie coming out in late 2008. It’s going to be one of those “reboots” or possibly a “reimagining” that takes us back to the beginning of the original series, with Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. But since those iconic actors are now well into social security collecting days (or at least starring in Sandra Bullock movies or doing “art photography”) — the brain of JJ Abrams is recasting younger actors in the roles.

Anyhow, earlier it was revealed that Zachary Quinto would play the younger Spock. Several more announcements have come to pass, so here’s the lineup as far as rumors go:

Spock: Zachary Quinto. He played Sylar on Heroes.

Chekov: Anton Yelchin. Russian, was most recently in the movie Alpha Dog.

Uhura: Zoe Saldana. She was in The Terminal as a security guard, the third Pirates of the Caribbean film, and Guess Who. Hopefully her audition didn’t include dancing with feathers on Vulcan.

Scotty: Simon Pegg. The Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz comedic touch will come in handy when Scotty uses a mouse to talk to a computer or hits his noggin an a bulkhead.

James Kirk: Chris Pine. This hasn’t been finalized yet, but he looks the part.

Sulu: John Cho. You may remember him from American Pie or Harold and Kumar.

So that leaves Dr. McCoy, possibly Yeoman Rand and Nurse Chapel, and endless hordes of phaser-fodder red shirts.

Anyhow, the best site I’ve found for all this new Star Trek movie rumors is Trek Movie Report. Added to my feed reader.

In the most cynical sense, a fan film has nowhere to go but up, but the latest episode of Star Trek New Voyages: World Enough And Time is the best I’ve seen yet, to where I can’t imagine any further improvement save hiring the original cast. This episode returns George Takei, the one and only Sulu, to the original series.

The Enterprise is dispatched to rescue a ship trapped in the Neutral Zone (similarities to the Kobayashi Maru simulation noted), where the Romulans are testing an experimental weapon. After the ships are destroyed with phaser fire, a gravity wave space-time flux is created, trapping the Enterprise. Sulu and a computer expert are sent to the Romulan ship wreckage get information regarding the weapon in order to free the starship. Something goes wrong on the transporter trip back, and due to the space-time flux, he’s beamed aboard aged thirty years, after spending time stranded on an abandoned planet in an alternate universe with his mission partner — where he fathered a daughter, Alana.

Yes, this plot is basically a contrivance to get the now older Takei back into the role of Sulu. However, Star Trek is generally full of such sci-fi indulgences, and in this case, the time travel cliche is a blessing, as the fact of an older, original actor is used to create a surprisingly satisfying story of sacrifice, mortality, and memory — Sulu must choose between saving the ship and his daughter.

One should be forewarned that this Star Trek features different actors playing the iconic roles. I’m still getting used to the idea (and better be, since the 2008 Star Trek movie will do the same), but some of the acting is still rough around the edges — Dr. McCoy still seems to be the weak link, and Kirk (James Cawley) still struggles to call up appropriate emotions. Still, the acting is consistently improving — the actress cast as Alana (Sulu’s daughter) is excellent and adds some welcome spark.

And once George Takei appears, the episode is wonderful. As an experienced actor among amateurs, I could really recognize and appreciate Takei’s talent as he sells some fairly corny lines and situations with stern believability. There’s one moment where he stomps onto the transporter pad with such sad conviction that’s it’s nearly worth waiting decades to see. He gets more lines here than in the Star Trek V, VI, and VI combined. For a Sulu fan, it’s the definition of a rare treat.

Yes, in case you haven’t guessed already, the whole episode is all about Sulu — but I found it largely worth it — despite a few nods to fan boys such as the reminder of “something” going on with Uhura, quoting Shakespeare, and a slightly gratuitous dwelling on his future commanding the Excelsior.

But despite my minor quibbles, with each episode Star Trek New Voyages raises the bar of fan films, and I’d say the show is about 75% there in terms of recreating the original, which is a truly amazing achievement. I’d daresay it’s better than many shows on television. If only we didn’t have to wait so long between installments.

I’ve checked out all the episodes of Star Trek: New Voyages over the past year or so, which isn’t too hard to do since the self-financed fan-film production doesn’t move very quickly. Essentially, the series centers around the idea of following a later year of the multi year mission of the starship Enterprise. All the production is done by fans with no profit motive, at surely great personal expense and time commitment, but thanks to the modern production available via computers and digital cameras, the end result has the potential to create a better product than a major television studio back in 1967. I say potential because while the technical aspects and over all effort of Star Trek: New Voyages is impressive, it’s frankly impossible to reach the high bar set by the original Star Trek.

The retro look of the new episodes is excellent, featuring exact recreations of the sixties starship Enterprise sets. Exterior effects of space happenings have been updated using CGI which in light of the recent effects upgrading of orignal Trek actually comes across rather well.

What’s not as good is that the original trio of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are played by different, amateur actors. Even experienced actors would be hard-pressed to recreate the camraderie of Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley, and fan-actors have little prayer. It’s also more than a little odd to see other actors play the roles so synonymous with the originals.

The second complaint is the mediocre writing, with some truly ludicrous events stemming from fan fantasies such as: “What if the original Enterprise flew through a massive Guardian Of Forever?” or “What if three starships from different time continuums faced off against a Doomsday machine?” rather than dramatic sense. Fan exuberance is great, but can leave the less passionate fan behind. In the absence of solid writers or actors, fan films tend to rely on special effects and action sequences, which are easier to excel at.

However, as Star Trek: New Voyages has gained in notoriety (a Wired article certainly helped) a surprising number original Star Trek participants have come forward to volunteer their time. The second episode, To Serve All My Days features Walter Koenig, reprising his role as Pavel Chekov, and a script written by D.C. Fontana, who wrote several original series episodes. The third episode will feature George Takei as Sulu, and the fourth, Denise Crosby who was on The Next Generation. So with some more than competent actors and decent writing, New Voyages may address some of its previous problems.

It was a pleasant surprise to watch To Serve All My Days and find it mesmerizing. Chekov begins to prematurely age due to an engineering accident, and Walter Koening takes over as an elderly Chekov. At this point, the original Star Trek feeling comes forward. The pace is appropriately careful, the script has a good balance of drama with current events (the falling value of credits and the desire to wage war to prop up a collapsing economy), and pulls off a tricky writing challenge — how to incorporate a much older Walter Koenig into the plot and give his character enough meat to work with without feeling gratuitous.

When Chekov fires a couple of well-aimed phaser blasts at a Klingon ship, I actually forgot this was a fan film. I felt I’d seen a small part of an un-aired original episode. And that’s probably the highest compliment possible for a fan film — that I forgot about the seams and rough spots and was caught up by the story that recreated the original template.

Also worthy of mention is Mary Linda Rapelye as an ambassador. She provides another anchor for the episode to pivot on (true Trek-o-philes: Rapelye played Irina Galliulin in the original series episode “The Way To Eden” and was romantically involved with Chekov until she became a space hippie).

I also must concede that the amateur actors are improving — the alternate casting didn’t bother me as much as before. But this may be because the lines delivered are coming straight from an original Trek writer.

After the pleasant surprise, I’m really looking forward to the next episode, World And Enough Time with George Takei, back as Sulu. It’s supposed to be available right now, but the demand took down the New Voyages servers. Just seeing Sulu playing a crazed lunatic barbarian will be well worth the free download.

In the meantime you can download the first three episodes at the Star Trek: New Voyages website.

I can only think of a few instances where Spock is seen eating a meal. First is the episode Amok Time where he undergoes Pon Far and throws a tray of plomeek soup that Nurse Chapel has made out of his cabin door. Plomeek soup has no meat and is some sort of bland breakfast dish. If you want to make an approximation for yourself, follow this recipe.

There, I found this info about Vulcans and vegetables:

Mr. Spock would NEVER eat a soup with a chicken stock base. Right from the start, everyone knew that Mr. Spock was a vegetarian, like all Vulcans. Yes, okay, Vulcans began as a warring, violent race, but they saved themselves from destruction by adopting a philosophy of logic and nonviolence… it is no more logical to kill another species for food than it is to hunt it to extinction.

The second instance the episode All Our Yesterdays where Spock is stuck in an ice cave with a woman (Zarabeth) back in time, and is forced to eat meat. In this episode it’s made clear that Spock doesn’t normally eat meat. He confesses:

“I’m behaving disgracefully. I have eaten animal flesh and I’ve enjoyed it. What is wrong with me?”

For more dirt on Vulcan eating habits, Wikipedia states:

Vulcans are vegetarians, though they are known to consume seafood. They are repeatedly stated to be herbivorous in the (non-canon) TAS episode “The Slaver Weapon,” by the carnivorous Kzinti. Vulcans do not like to touch their food with their hands, preferring to use utensils whenever possible (though there are numerous cases where Vulcans have broken this rule). It is a Vulcan custom for guests in the home to prepare meals for their hosts.

I think there’s an opportunity to explore some cool Vulcan vegetarian dishes. I could find this page with some names of Vulcan meals and Tufeen Hushani (Vulcan Wedding Cake)… but that’s it. Here’s hoping someone does some more research into the eating habits of Vulcans so more of us can live long and prosper.

I’m a pretty big original series Star Trek fan, so any news about a new Star Trek movie catches my interest. The latest news is that “Star Trek XI” will come out at year’s end, 2008. J.J. Abrams (responsible for Mission Impossible III, Alias, Lost) is supposedly directing this thing.

Most of the rumors I’ve read is that this flick will be a prequel set at Starfleet Academy — showing the early days of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.

So that’s why I wonder about this list of rumored potential actors: Matt Damon as Kirk, Adrien Brody as Spock, and Gary Sinise as McCoy. Other than Damon, they seem a bit… old. However, I’d much prefer these quality actors over other ridiculous rumors that suggested Ben Affleck as Spock.

I’m still skeptical however. I’m unsure how I’ll feel seeing other actors doing the roles so synonymous with the original cast. I don’t see “Captain Kirk” as interchangeable as James Bond. Will Matt Damon just do a Shatner impersonation?

Also, the whole concept might be flawed. The Enterprise television series was a strange attempt at a franchise reboot that failed miserably. Personally, instead of all this prequel, young Kirk stuff, why not go forward several centruies and start with a clean slate with totally different people?

On the other hand, seeing how Batman Begins and Casino Royale were successful “re-imaginings”, and that Rick Berman isn’t involved, maybe this Trek movie will succeed.

As long as they stick to the relationship between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy it could be cool. Just don’t screw with the miniskirts or the theme song please!

Note: Here’s the tongue in cheek cast list for the image I whipped up above: Kirk: Matt Damon, Spock: Adrien Brody, McCoy: Gary Sinise, Scotty: Evan McGregor, Sulu: John Cho, Chekov: Luke Wilson, Nurse Chapel: Reese Witherspoon, Uhura: Jennifer Hudson.

Note: I completely sympathize her responses, as I’d be equally as clueless if we went shopping for sheets with varying thread counts.

1. Captain Kirk

T: That’s Captain Kirk.

2. Mr. Spock

T: That’s Spock.

3. Dr. McCoy

T: Kirk? No — Dr. Nimoy.

4. Scotty

T: I have no idea. The Russian guy? Why does he have an orange shirt? Is his name “Eddie”?

5. The Starship Enterprise

T: A UFO?

6. Sulu

T: Dr. Chen.

Me: No, that’s Sulu.

T: Zulu? Is he from Africa?

7. A Gorn

T: An alien.

Me: This is a Gorn.

T: Corn?

8. Uhura

T: That’s… the first African American on a sitcom?

Me: Star Trek is not a sitcom…

9: Khan Noonian Singh

T: A guy with bad hair.

I didn’t bother to continue on to the photographs of a Horta, or the Guardian of Forever.

But I love being married — cheap entertainment, and I haven’t laughed that hard in quite a while. I can hardly wait for season two.

So why would anyone want to buy individual episodes of Star Trek online? Well, at work, casual discussion over this development led to someone mentioning one particular Star Trek Voyager episode where Tuvok remembers events that occured on the starship Excelsior around the period of Star Trek VI. I haven’t seen this episode, so I’d definitely consider it an “impulse buy” via iTunes… when it shows up. Right now, only the original sixties series (my favorite) is available, but hopefully the rest of the canon will follow.

Another reason for this pick-and-choose episode strategy is that there’s several thousand dollars worth of Star Trek DVDs out there — three seasons of the Original Series, seven seasons of Voyager, seven seasons of The Next Generation, four seasons of Enterprise, and seven seasons of Deep Space Nine — oh, and let’s not forget the ten Star Trek films… (Tunequest, maybe this is an idea for another blog). It’s highly unlikely that even a casual Trekkie as myself would ever pony up for all that merchandise, so a “pick and choose” strategy of the best episodes from some of the later series might be more appealing.

Anyhow, eventually we went on the tangent of the old suggestion that Sulu should get his own Trek series. Trek can always inspire an amusing — if highly illogical — conversation.

Most of them depict key scenes from particular episodes, while others profile exotic characters, aliens, books, comic book covers, and even collector plates. One card has a checklist so one can track all the cards in your possession. Each card’s reverse side has a good summary of whatever appears on the front. For example, the episode cards sport concise plot summaries.

Here’s the description on the back of the Gorn card:

“The Gorn are an intelligent race of reptiles, each bipedal and approximately seven feet in height… The first contact between the Federation and the Gorn occurred at Cestus II, where a Federation colony was massacred by a Gorn vessel.”

Pretty cool, huh?

I’ve never collected trading cards, so it’s a new world to me. A few years ago I attended a wedding where the bride’s father collected trading cards, comic books, and Halloween masks. He had several that were silver or metallic that held a certain fascination for me. It seems there is a wealth of cards for sports, movies, science fiction, cartoons, and the like.

Via Wikipedia, here’s a short list that I found interesting (or bizarre):

• Knight Rider
• Charlie’s Angels
• Grease
• Home Alone
• It’s a Wonderful Life
• Waterworld
• Saved by the Bell
• Sesame Street
• Speed Racer

My wife has a few Charlie’s Angels card from her childhood. They may deserve a second look.

Actually, I’d been wanting to see this for a long time, ever since a friend forced convinced me to watch Turkish Star Wars against my will. Well, not against my will, I actually laughed pretty hard at that ridiculousness as well.

Anyhow, here’s the link. This is an obvious rip-off of the early Trek episode The Man Trap.

Last night I watched one of the first Original Series Star Trek episodes with the “enhanced” treatment: basically CGI effects substituted for the at times cheesy 60s ones.

The episode was Balance of Terror, one of my favorites. Overall, the additions are appropriate and top notch. The Enterprise has a weight to it, and little things like phaser fire and cloaking and uncloaking of the Romulan ship are subtle, but professionally done and effective.

I think the trick is that the effects don’t draw much attention to themselves. They aren’t effects for effects-sake or to show how awesome computer generated images are these days. The point of Star Trek has always been the story and the actors. So it’s nice to see that the effects people realized this and didn’t go overboard.

What’s really cool, however, is the general clean up of the image quality. The whole episode had a depth to it and an contrast that was really impressive. It’s almost like watching a whole new show.

More information has come out about the “Enhanced” editions of The Original Series Star Trek, from the official Star Trek website. My apprehension has largely been alleviated after watching some of the sample clips. It looks like they are being respectful of the original series and largely limiting the new CGI to the spaceships, what Sulu sees through the viewscreen (planets), and other stuff like phaser fire. Other than that it looks like a lot of effort went into cleaning up the image and re-recording music such as the iconic theme song. I was also surprised to find out these remastered episodes will start airing as soon as next week.

Meanwhile, the “real” original trilogy of Star Wars (Episodes IV, V, VI) are now available on DVD. These versions are without the enhancements of the Special Editions — without a CGI Jabba, Greedo shooting first, and Hayden Christiansen’s ghost hanging with Obi Wan and Yoda at the end of Jedi. There’s a part of me that definitely wants to experience the Star Wars of my childhood, warts and all, but the packaging of these DVDs is pretty lame. Namely, that these original versions are packaged with the special editions, which I already own. So in order to buy this original trilogy, one has to buy the special trilogy all over again. I don’t get it.

Couldn’t all this Star Trek and Star Wars stuff be available for download from the iTunes Store? No, that would have made the customers too happy…

1. The Gallileo Seven

This episode demonstrates how Spock’s logic isn’t suited to lead a band of irritable humans. I feel rather sorry for Spock throughout this episode. It has a great ending though, when Spock bets the farm on an atypical hunch and saves the day.

Crew on planet can’t contact the Enterprise (check)
Cute female crewmember (check)

2. Tomorrow is Yesterday

Funny episode where the Enterprise goes back in time and has to fix stuff.

Time travel (check)

3. The City on the Edge of Forever

Joan Collins!

Kirk romance (check)
Time travel (check)

4. Operation — Annihiliate!

Flying fried eggs infect Spock.

Medical malady (check)
Seemingly omnipotent aliens with a weakness (check)

5. Amok Time

Now this is classic Trek. Spock is out of his mind, the weird Vulcan customs force Kirk into an unwinnable situation. Torn shirts ensue, and McCoy saves the day with a brilliant bit of logical, yet realistic fakery. Even the final moments are classic.

Torn Kirk Uniform (check)

6. Mirror, Mirror

Perfect idea, well executed. To see the same actors play bastard versions of themselves is a treat. It’s also great how both Spocks realize the illogic behind having these fishes out of water.

Cute female crew member (check)

7. The Doomsday Machine

I love this episode. A seemingly unbeatable foe plus a whacked-out Starship commander and you have great Trek.

Seemingly omnipotent alien(s) with a weakness (check)

8. Wink of an Eye

The Enterprise encounters an alien race that moves at a higher speed and are therefore invisible to the crew. Great concept and it’s neat to see Spock figure out the puzzle and put things right.

Cute actress (check)
Kirk romance (check)
Enterprise taken over (check)
Medical malady (check)

9. Let That Be Your Last Battlefield

The epitome of Trek that addresses social issues, by way of two alien entities with slightly different facial features, and for that reaason they are mortal enemies. Great acting.

Enterprise taken over (check)

10. That Which Survives

Kirk, McCoy, and Sulu are trapped on an artificial planet while the Enterprise fights off a female alien invader. Two puzzles going on in parallel. Best part features Spock prodding Scotty in a Jeffries tube.

Cute actress (check)

Crew on planet can’t communicate with Enterprise (check)

And here are my earlier posts on each episode of Star Trek: The Original Series:

Season One

Season Two

Season Three

read more | digg story

Since The Original Series Star Trek is coming up on its 40th anniversary, now there’s a possibility that the original episodes will be “enhanced” with CGI. I’m just hoping whomever is in charge of this project respects the “meat” of the original series: the characters, story lines, and the acting (however at times questionable). So long as the CGI is limited to the space scenes and whatever Sulu is gazing at through the window, I think it’ll be okay.

Having recently watched all the original episodes myself, I must say a large part of the appeal for me is the campy, 60s vibe. Much of the character of an episode like Operation Annihilate for example lies in the cheesy special effects. Even though the flying frying eggs look a bit ridiculous, the episode is already a great one and it would be distracting to have a more menacing CGI booger sticking to Mr. Spock.

The CGI enhancements to E.T. for example, although tastefully and professionally done, didn’t really improve the film for me, and in some instances were a bit jarringly useless. I’m also pretty sure that the CGI Yoda in the Star Wars prequels could have been more effectively handled with a puppet. Maybe it’s just my age, but I like the puppets.

So I’m in favor of Star Trek getting the CGI treatment for all light effects and spaceships, but pray that the computers don’t spread to the Gorn, the Horta, and definitely not the bulging veins on the heads of the Talosians. And if there’s a CGI tribble I’ll boycott the next Star Trek movie, Matt Damon or not.

Mac OS X update, just installed, things working fine as usual. Also, Camino has hit version 1.0 and I’m installing it just to see if all my websites look okay in it.

Pretty funny web page about the Top 10 Sci-Films that never existed. His points about the suckiness of the Star Wars prequels are well presented.

Did you know Logan’s Run had a television series? Also, here are two other sci-fi TV shows I’d never heard of: UFO and Sapphire and Steel. Lastly, if Star Wars and Star Trek had a space battle, who would win?

Final item: Karl Pilkington is famous. Why? Because Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant think he’s a moron. Favorite tidbit from the most recent podcast: Karl wonders if the big bang wasn’t really as big as people describe, because at the time there weren’t any other loud noises in the universe to compare it with.