Category: Star Trek

Nimoy to reprise Spock role in Trek film!!
SAN DIEGO – Leonard Nimoy isn’t through with Spock yet. The 76-year-old actor will don his famous pointy ears again to play the role in an upcoming “Star Trek” film due out Christmas 2008.
“This is really going to be a great movie. And I don’t say things like that lightly,” Nimoy told a gathering of 6,500 fans Thursday at Comic-Con, the nation’s largest pop-culture convention.
He greeted the crowd with a Vulcan salute.
Nimoy was joined by the newly named young Spock, “Heroes” star Zachary Quinto, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Nimoy.
Both Spocks were introduced by the film’s director and co-producer, J.J. Abrams.
“This is a series I loved as a kid,” Abrams said, acknowledging that he was “more of a ‘Star Wars’ kid than a ‘Star Trek’ kid.”
“This matters so much to so many people,” he said. “I’m honored to be here and do this.”
While the character of Captain Kirk has yet to be cast, Abrams said that William Shatner, who played the role in the original TV series, would likely also have a part in the film.
“It has to be worthy, of him and of you,” Abrams told fans, adding that production is slated to begin in November.
One fan asked Nimoy what he thought of his “replacement.”
“It was logical,” the actor said dryly. He then closed with Spock’s classic line: “Live long and prosper.”

A Christmas 2008 gift for Trekkies
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Captain’s log: December 25, 2008.
Paramount Pictures has set a Christmas Day 2008 release date for the 11th “Star Trek” feature, to be filmed by “Mission: Impossible III” director J.J. Abrams. Shooting will begin in the fall, Paramount said Tuesday.
The screenplay, from “M:I 3” scribes Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, is said to follow James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock during their Starfleet Academy years and into their first space mission.
The previous film in the series, the 2002 box office bomb, “Star Trek: Nemesis,” was directed by Stuart Baird, and starred Patrick Stewart.

Heroes Recruits Captain Sulu
Superman had Jor-El. Batman has Wayne Manor. And now Hiro Nakamura has Captain Sulu.
Figuring all great Heroes need to have come from somewhere, the hit NBC series has tapped Star Trek icon George Takei to play the father of Hiro Nakamura, the plucky Japanese office worker who happens to be able to bend the space-time continuum.
E! Online’s Kristin Veitch reported Monday that a new character “who has been around a lot longer” was joining the serialized drama, which has become one of the few solid new hits of the 2006 television season, attracting more than 14.4 million viewers a week.
“This is absolutely brilliant,” Masi Oka, who plays Hiro, told TV Guide. “Hiro’s father is this big honcho who shows up in America with his bodyguard. He has this whole elaborate scheme to kidnap his son and take him back to Japan.”
Which probably won’t go over too well with Hiro, who, after traveling five weeks into the future just in time to see New York go boom, has journeyed to the States to save the world.
“I just hope I get to say, ‘Dad! Sulu is my hero, not you!’ The sci-fi fans would love it!” Oka said.
Takei, 69, a cult figure among Trekkies and currently the unlikely official voice of The Howard Stern Show, will show up on Heroes in a Jan. 29 cliffhanger episode.
“It was just one of those lightning-bolt ideas,” series creator Tim Kring told TV Guide.
After his steady gig piloting the starship Enterprise came to an end after 1991’s Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Takei busied himself with a host of voiceover work in TV, films and videogames and guest spots on shows ranging from The Simpsons and Malcolm in the Middle to Scrubs and Will & Grace.
In fact, it was Takei’s trademark deep voice and flair for enunciation that made him a favorite on The Howard Stern Show back when the morning shock-jock was still on terrestrial radio. After a few engaging interviews that proved just how open-minded Takei’s sense of humor is, he was tapped to be the show’s announcer when it made the jump to Sirius Satellite Radio.

For Trekkies, something to cling on to
Christie’s next week will sell a spaceship-load of Star Trek stuff in the first ó and probably last ó official auction of artifacts from the TV series turned pop-culture phenomenon.
CBS Paramount, which owns the Trek franchise, has decided to sell more than 1,000 of the tens of thousands of costumes, props, weapons and set dressings accumulated during the production of five live-action series and 10 theatrical films since 1966, when William Shatner’s Captain Kirk first uttered his now-familiar “Space, the final frontier” on national television.
Trekkies, who are famous for their mania for collecting, are said to be over the moon at the chance to bid six-figure sums on Kirk’s Starfleet uniform or that holy of holies, the Starship Enterprise-A model.
“Smaller collections have come on the market before, but this is the largest, the only one from studio archives and from all the films and series, and it’s the 40th anniversary, so there’s definitely a fervor about this,” says Cathy Elkies, Christie’s director of specialty auctions.
The entire hoard, grandly titled 40 Years of Star Trek: The Collection, will open for public viewing Saturday at Christie’s Rockefeller Plaza in New York with the auction Oct. 5-7. Buyers also will be able to bid live online at Christies.com. Throngs of people are expected; some might be in costume.
Christie’s is betting the sale will be huge, and the $3-million-plus estimated take probably is conservative.
Why? Because contrary to reputation, Trekkies are not just geeks with too much time on their hands. After all, Paul Allen collects Star Trek. In 2002, he bought Kirk’s captain’s chair from the original series for $250,000 for his Science Fiction Museum in Seattle.
“There is not a stereotypical Star Trek fan; they represent a wide spectrum of the population ó attorneys, doctors, engineers, teachers and astronauts,” says Denise Okuda, who with husband Michael worked on the series and films as scenic artists and wrote The Star Trek Encyclopedia.
The Okudas were hired as auction consultants and for the past six months have combed through five vast studio warehouses to pick out “the most valuable, iconic and coveted” items for the sale.
The Okudas expect that the items most prized by Trekkies will be the spaceship models, costumes (Elkies says some surviving cast members are interested in buying theirs) and behind-the-scenes items such as costumer’s continuity notes.

‘Star Trek’ Goes Digital
Remastered original series adds CGI effects
The original “Star Trek” series is going back into syndication next month, but the show may not look quite the same as fans remember it.
CBS Paramount Domestic Television, which syndicates the series, is remastering the old episodes to include computer-generated effects and re-recorded music, in hopes of offering a vision of the future that doesn’t look quite so dated. All 79 episodes of the show will eventually get the digital treatment, with several fan favorites undergoing the retouches first.
“‘Star Trek’ redefined science fiction and constantly pushed the envelope with concepts that were ahead of their time,” says John Nogawski, president of CBS Paramount Domestic TV. “By giving the series a digital upgrade using the best technology available today, it will continue to be a leader in cutting-edge television programming as we introduce the series to a new generation of viewers.”
Lest visions of the “special edition” “Star Wars” films that offended purists start dancing in your head, fear not: The remastering won’t be inserting any new scenes into the episodes. Instead, CGI artists will be updating the relatively low-tech special effects available in the late 1960s with present-day technology.
Exterior shots of the Enterprise and other spaceships will be replaced by CGI-created ships, with the new Enterprise based on precise measurements of the original model, which is now housed in the Smithsonian. Battle scenes and shots of space from the bridge of the Enterprise will be redone, and matte paintings used in exteriors will be replace with computer-generated backgrounds that give a better illusion of depth.
The episodes will also feature a re-recorded score and a remastered version of William Shatner’s opening narration.
“Star Trek” returns to syndication on Saturday, Sept. 16 on 200-plus stations across the country.

Space, the final frontier for “Star Trek’s” Scotty
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The remains of actor James Doohan, who played the starship Enterprise’s chief engineer “Scotty” on “Star Trek,” will be blasted into space in October, the company organizing the flight said on Monday.
The actor who inspired the catchphrase “Beam me up, Scotty” — even though it was never actually uttered on the show — died a year ago at the age of 85.
On the program, when Capt. James Kirk ventured off the spaceship Enterprise and faced peril, he would demand Scotty “beam” him back up to the safety of the ship.
Houston-based commercial company Space Services originally planned to blast Doohan’s remains into space last year but the flight was delayed to allow more tests on the rocket.
Space Services spokeswoman Susan Schonfeld said the new launch date was set for October. Doohan’s ashes will be blasted up along with the remains of around 100 other people, including astronaut Gordon Cooper, who first went to space in 1963.
After a short flight the rocket will return to earth with the capsules holding the remains. A second flight in December or January will send a capsule containing Doohan’s remains into orbit where it will remain for several years, Schonfeld said.
“Whatever goes up must come down,” Schonfeld said, adding that the capsule would eventually drop out of orbit and burn up in the earth’s atmosphere.
To mark the flight to his final frontier, Doohan’s family will hold a service for fans on the day of the launch to pay tribute to him, and Schonfeld said thousands were expected to turn up, many in costumes from “Star Trek.”
“Fan clubs from all over the world, including as far away as Africa, they’re ready,” Schonfeld said.
The company previously blasted the remains of “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry into space in 1997.

Star Trek: Animated – Official Announcement, EXTRAS!!! & Package Art
CBS DVD and Paramount Home Entertainment today announce the DVD release date of the highly anticipated Animated Series. Formerly known as The Animated Adventures of Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek, the four-disc set will hit stores on November 21, 2006.
The title now shortened to Star Trek: The Animated Series, the set will include all 22 episodes of the classic Roddenberry show, which originally aired on Saturday mornings in 1973-74. A final frontier of sorts, the Animated Series is the last of the Trek catalog to make it to DVD.
Creator Gene Roddenberry’s animated version of Star Trek features the voices of nearly the entire cast of the original live-action series, including William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, George Takei, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols and Majel Barrett, as they embark on the further adventures of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Comprised of 22 episodes, the four-disc set includes the Peabody award-winning episode “How Sharper Than a Serpent’s Tooth,î Walter Koenig’s “The Infinite Vulcan,î which was the first episode ever written by a Star Trek cast member, as well as a number of episodes that serve as sequels to original Star Trek episodes. Many episodes were written by veterans of the original live-action TV series, such as D.C. Fontana and David Gerrold, and the show won a daytime Emmy in 1975 for Outstanding Children’s Series.
Confirmed special features for the Animated Series include:
“Drawn to the Final Frontier – The Making of Star Trek: The Animated Series”
“What’s the Star Trek Connection?”
Photo Gallery
Show History
Wallpaper
AIM Icons
Text Commentaries by Michael Okuda and Denise Okuda (“Yesteryear,” “The Eye of the Beholder,” “The Counter-Clock Incident”)
The DVD set will be presented in its original full screen with Dolby Digital English 5.1 Surround, English Mono and Spanish Mono and will be available to own for a suggested retail price of $35.00.

Parents go where few have gone before in naming son
KENAI, Alaska (AP) — Like all parents, Marcus Weldy and his wife Rebecca McInnes Weldy of Nikiski are hoping their newborn baby will live long and prosper, but they went a step further to ensure their son’s future.
“We decided to name him James Tiberius Kirk Weldy,” said Rebecca in regard to the newest family member who, according to the Captain’s Log, was added to the family fleet at 4:31 a.m. on Friday, April 21, 2006.
For those not in the know, James T. Kirk – played by William Shatner – was the commander of the starship Enterprise in the 1960s science fiction series “Star Trek.”
Rebecca said she is not a convention-going “trekkie,”as “Star Trek” fans are called, but is a longtime fan of the show.
“I really, really liked the first ‘Star Trek’ and William Shatner. He’s the only captain in my opinion,” she said.
Rebecca said she is too busy to keep watch much television these days, but she remembers tuning in regularly to watch “Star Trek” as a girl.
“I’d watch the original series after school and watch ‘The Next Generation’ too,” she said.
“My whole family – my mom, brother, sister and my dad by forfeit – we’re all ‘Star Trek’ fans,” she said.
As Rebecca tells it, it was her mother who pushed to go where no one – or at least few – have gone before with regard to baby naming.
“We originally just liked the name James, then Tiberius was going to be his middle name. My mom loved the idea and said, ‘You’ve got to put Kirk on there too,'” she said.
James joins siblings Roy, Rosabella, Vincent and Nicolaus.
“James will be our last baby and with four older brothers and sisters we thought he might need some of the captain’s qualities. The original Kirk was bold, determined and brave, so hopefully he will be, too,” she said.
So far, James seems to be off to a good start, according to Rebecca. Like his namesake, who frequently ignored the rules when it suited him, young James wasn’t born when and where he was supposed to be.
Rebecca went into labor in the early morning and realized she couldn’t make it to the hospital even if her husband drove at warp speed. Dr. “Bones” McCoy, the doctor on the starship Enterprise, was unavailable to make a house call, so the couple did the next best thing.
“We called the Nikiski Fire Department and EMS, and, to their credit, they were here within three minutes, but James was already born. His dad delivered him here at home, which wasn’t the plan or anything, so I guess he’s already charting his own course,” she said.
Despite his early arrival, Rebecca said James is healthy and eating well, though he’s nursing rather than eating from a food replicator.
“He’s getting big, is bright-eyed and doing good,” she said.
Marcus, James’ father, said he also is a “Star Trek” fan and is happy with his new son’s name.
“It’s unique, that’s for sure. Not everyone catches on right away, but those that do get it have really liked it. Everyone calls him ‘Little Captain,'” Marcus said.
As to whether James will attend public school or Star Fleet Academy, his parents said it’s too soon to say.

Abrams Slams ‘Star Trek’ Rumors
Mission: Impossible III director J.J. Abrams is hitting back at unauthorized reports he is directing the next Star Trek movie. The Alias creator is furious the news was released prematurely and is also upset that key details regarding the storyline were incorrectly reported. He explains to Empire online, “The whole thing was reported entirely without our cooperation. People learned that I was producing a Star Trek film, that I had an option to direct it, they hear rumors of what the thing was going to be and ran with a story that is not entirely accurate.” Last week, Hollywood trade paper Variety, reported Abrams was on board and that the film would center on the early days of Captain James T. Kirk and Spock and that Philip Seymour Hoffman was in talks to play the ship’s doctor. Abrams won’t reveal the true storyline, but hints that it won’t feature characters Captain James T. Kirk or Mr. Spock at all, but doesn’t rule out bringing some of the original characters back for the new film, adding, “Those characters are so spectacular. I just think that..you know, they could live again.”

“Star Trek” franchise set for 2008 revival: report
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – More than three years after the last “Star Trek” movie crashed at the box office, the venerable sci-fi franchise is being revived by the director of the upcoming “Mission: Impossible” sequel, Daily Variety reported in its Friday edition.
The as-yet-untitled “Star Trek” feature, the 11th since 1979, is aiming for a fall 2008 release through Paramount Pictures, the Viacom Inc. unit looking to restore its box-office luster under new management, the trade paper said.
The project will be directed by J.J. Abrams, whose Tom Cruise vehicle “Mission: Impossible III” will be released by Paramount on May 5. Abrams, famed for producing the TV shows “Alias” and “Lost,” will also help write and produce.
Daily Variety said the action would center on the early days of “Star Trek” characters James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, including their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and first outer-space mission.
The paper described “Star Trek” as Hollywood’s most durable performer after James Bond, spawning 10 features that have grossed more than $1 billion and 726 TV episodes from six series.
The 10th film, “Star Trek: Nemesis,” bombed at the box office on its December 2002 release, earning just $43 million in North America. Last year, Viacom-owned broadcast network UPN pulled the plug on the low-rated series “Star Trek: Enterprise” following a four-season run.