STAR TREK @ 50

I’m one year older than Star Trek. Of course, as memories of my early years are lost to the fog of infancy and toddlerhood, I don’t recall really becoming aware of its existence until I was about nine years old, when, in 1974, the Star Trek animated series became a staple of my Saturday morning cartoon viewing. Around the same time, I received a Mego Captain Kirk action figure for Christmas. Other random Trek toys – and a few James Blish paperback novelizations – followed, and for Christmas of 1976, my favorite cousin gifted me with a copy of Bjo Trimble’s seminal Star Trek Concordance.

You’ll have noticed that I haven’t mentioned the original series as yet, and that’s because, in the early Seventies, Trek rarely appeared on any of the four television channels our rooftop aerial was capable of snagging out of the ether. So my love for Kirk, Spock, McCoy, et al, was first nurtured via the cartoon and Blish paperbacks. When I got the Concordance, with its encyclopedic coverage of the classic series, I was able to familiarize myself with the episodes I had not yet seen, whetting my appetite to the point of nigh-insatiability.

Of course, eventually, I saw the entire series (although a few of those episodes eluded me until my sojourn to art school in Jersey in the early 80s, where I finally received a TV channel that aired the show nightly), and, already well-indoctrinated in the mythos, found my passion for the 23rd century and the crew of the U.S.S Enterprise continuing to grow and thrive. Then came The Motion Picture, The Wrath and The Search. There was a Voyage Home, a somewhat disappointing detour into The Final Frontier, and an emotional denouement on the shores of an Undiscovered Country.

Other treks followed, with next generations, lost voyagers and denizens on the edge of deep space, but it was always the (sadly truncated) original Five-Year-Mission that inspired and informed the person I became.

I learned the value of reason and logic from an alien with pointed ears and a Satanic visage. I learned the nobility of humanity and compassion toward all life, regardless of shape, color or form, from an anachronistic Southern medic. And, most importantly, I learned about the worth of boldness, courage, and tempered wisdom from a charming leader with a confident swagger sporting a gold tunic. Kirk was a fighter, a diplomat, a philosopher - and a libidinous wolf – but in my eyes, he was the best of us as a species. He wasn’t perfect – and to his credit, usually admitted his flaws and acknowledged his mistakes – but he was also a man of intelligence and action, who sought out brave new worlds and always had his eye on the future.

I have aspired to all of these things, and usually fallen woefully short. But Star Trek continues to fire my imagination, fuel my creative efforts, inform my social conscience and drive my personal ambitions. To me, it’s not just a television show, and apparently, many, many others feel the same way. If that wasn’t the case, then we wouldn’t be celebrating the anniversary of its debut fifty years ago today. The brand wouldn’t be gracing new movies and TV shows (regardless of their relative merits) on our screens, large and small(er). And Star Trek wouldn’t still be sparking imaginations and inspiring so many people, of all ages and backgrounds.

May Gene Roddenberry’s vision of humanity’s future live long and prosper... and the U.S.S. Enterprise and her valiant crew go boldly on forever.

Star Trek Continues...

There are numerous fan-made Star Trek series online. James Cawley's Star Trek: New Voyages/Phase II is probably the best known, and over the years, his team have produced a number of enjoyable Trek adventures . But, in my opinion, the best at capturing the feel of the classic series is Vic Mignogna's Star Trek Continues. The cast includes James Doohan's son Chris Doohan as Scotty and Mythbuster's Grant Imahara as Sulu. The sets, costumes, and overall production values are uncannily accurate, and the visual effects are terrific! Vic Mignogna, an experienced actor with lots of voice work to his credit, personally plays James Kirk, and he does a remarkable job of channeling the great Bill Shatner, and never lapses into parody. It's amazing how well he captures Shatner's swagger.

The first episode, "Pilgrim of Eternity," is a sequel to TOS' "Who Mourns For Adonais," with original actor Michael Forest reprising his role as Greek god Apollo. The second episode, "Lolani," revolves around a fugitive Orion slave girl and her owner - played by Lou Ferrigno (in green body paint, of course)!

The third episode, "The Fairest Of Them All," a direct sequel to the classic "Mirror, Mirror," went live this week (you can find it on the Star Trek Continues YouTube channel), and it's another winner.

If, like me, you find the new Star Trek films by J.J. Abrams and company lacking the spirit and style of Gene Roddenberry's original show, I highly recommend that you check it out.

Along with the three full-length episodes, the Continues crew has shot a couple of short Trek vignettes, too. Here's my favorite - and a nice sample of the show's production values.

Roaring Rockets!

This picture illustrates some of my most recent book purchases. Can you guess what sort of reading mood I've been in lately...?

Wednesday Cover: Star Trek!

In honor of the new Trek movie, I present the cover to Gold Key Comics' Star Trek #19 – "The Haunted Asteroid!"

Gold Key's Trek comics were a real trip; the crew was usually wildly out of character, the likenesses were vague at best (although the art was usually quite nice, it was drawn in Europe by artists who'd never seen the show), tons of technical errors (note Spock's red shirt on this cover!), and outrageously silly space opera plots. Still, for a lot of years, these comics were the only new Trek stories being produced in any medium, and when I was a kid, I ate them up.

I don't know who painted this cover, but it's actually pretty cool.

Star Trek: First Impressions

What can I say?

It works.

J.J. Abrams and his collaborators have pulled off something remarkable – make that astounding and perhaps unprecedented – a reboot that not only respects the continuity of the franchise, but still comes up with a way to throw it all out the airlock without actually compromising it.

I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, but I will mention some plot points, so if you want to see the movie completely fresh, you may want to wait and read this after you've seen the film.

Here's the big spoiler, and the only one that I plan to reveal, because it's necessary, if I'm to discuss my reactions to the story overall: the whole plot hinges on one of the classic Trek tropes – time travel and the dangers of changing the past through one's actions. But this time the cast doesn't – and cannot – fix everything by the end of the episode. This creates a whole new Trek timeline, an alternate universe where the original characters can have all new adventures and the future is unwritten. It also introduces to the series the concept of Fate with a capital "F"– that this particular group of characters are meant to be together, and that even when history is changed and their paths are different, that somehow, the bridge crew of the Enterprise is destined to adventure together.

Now, "fate" and "destiny" aren't very Gene Roddenberry-esque concepts, but they are appealing (at least in a fictional context), and solve the filmmaker's biggest challenge – making a new Star Trek that will appeal to a wider, more mainstream audience, without pissing all over the loyal fanbase that kept the franchise alive for forty years.

For this to work, the film does have to trot out a few scenes that, upon reflection, are almost ludicrously contrived, but, they are handled so well and fly by so quickly, that they don't hurt the film at all.

And there are some surprises here, BIG ones, things that will knock old school Trekkies for a bit of a loop. I know, I'm one of them. This is absolutely a new continuity, and nothing is set in stone. At the same time, there are numerous call-outs to various past Trek adventures, subtle and not-so-subtle references designed to warm fan's hearts.

Star Trek is a fast-paced, almost fully satisfying adventure story that is not only recognizably Trek, but Trek with a scope and budget and filmmaking acumen that we've never seen before. This one does not look like a two-hour TV episode. It's loud, bright, sexy and funny – like the original show was before all the spin-offs and sequels bled away the humanity. Like TOS, these characters get angry, get drunk, get laid, and take incredible risks and make giant leaps of faith. There's no sitting around conference tables endlessly debating courses of action, no retreats, no surrenders. Our hero may look different and his path to the center seat may be considerably different, but in the end, he's still James Tiberius Fuckin' Kirk.

And that brings me to the elephant on the bridge; how do the new guys live up to the legends? For the most part, very well. Chris Pine doesn't imitate Shatner (wisely), but he's got much of the swagger, the humor, the sly glint in the eye. Zachary Quinto doesn't have the gravitas of Nimoy, but then, he gets to play a slightly different Spock than the one we're used to. This is a young Spock, still struggling with the emotions seething within him, and Quinto handles the role well.

In fact, almost everyone plays their roles well. I think Zoe Salanada's Uhura is too skinny, but she gets considerably more to do with the role than Nichelle Nichols ever did. John Cho's Sulu is suitably professional – and delightfully swashbuckling, when required. Simon Pegg is a bit more Simon Pegg than Montgomery Scott, but he's fun to watch. Unfortunately, Ben Cross and Winona Ryder, as Spock's parents, didn't quite do it for me. Cross is no Mark Lenard, and Ryder is definitely no Jane Wyman. I was also underwhelmed (as usual) with Eric Bana as Nero, the villain/plot device that drives the story. He simply doesn't play it "big" enough. He's just sorta there.

The real standouts among the players are Karl Urban as Doctor McCoy, and Leonard Nimoy as Spock Prime. With Urban, he's so perfectly Leonard McCoy that it's almost as if he's been temporarily possessed by the spirit of the late DeForest Kelly. And Nimoy is the heart and soul of the picture, the one who makes it all hang together and assures us longtime Trekkies that this is, indeed, truly Trek. If the real Spock recognizes these kids as his friends, then, really, who are we to argue?

Any complaints? Well, I don't like the interior Enterprise sets at all, but it didn't ruin the movie for me. I do have a few minor quibbles with the story, but no deal breakers... and, well, that's about it.

Oh yeah, the effects work is pretty spectacular; Industrial Light and Magic really pull out all the stops, and give us outer space as we've never really seen it before in Trek. Even though the Enterprise has been slicked up, I still got that warm feeling in my gut when we get our first good look at it – she's still the most beautiful starship around.

I haven't seen a movie more than once in the theater in years, but I'm going to make every effort to see this one again as soon as I can. It's good. Maybe great.

Star Trek lives!

Whoa....

Saw Star Trek Thursday evening. I liked it quite a bit. Need to organize my thoughts before I write much about it. I will say, though, that it's definitely worth seeing.

More later.

I'm sold.

This is what I'm talking about! Yeah!

Love, Exciting and New

I would absolutely watch this.

Thanks to Michael May for finding this.

To Boldly Go... Again!

I'm sure that pretty much anyone who's interested has already seen this, but here's the new trailer for J.J. Abrams' re-imagining of the Star Trek franchise:

While the old school Trekkie in me is annoyed by the various and sundry changes to the classic Trek mythos – from Kirk knowing how to drive a car (although he didn't in "A Piece Of the Action,"), the shot of the Enterprise being constructed on the surface of the Earth in a desert instead of in orbit over San Francisco, the new iMac-inspired Enterprise interiors, etc. – the slightly more reasonable and marginally more mature side of my Trekkie-dom is starting to get excited.

Sure, it looks different, and it sounds like they're crafting a new continuity and giving the whole franchise a reboot, but maybe, just maybe... if they can keep the heart and soul of the characters and Gene Roddenberry's concept.... maybe it will work.

I guess we'll find out next Summer.

To Boldly Go...

Well, Paramount's finally starting to release shots from J.J. Abram's "reboot" of the Star Trek franchise to various web outlets, and the next issue of Entertainment Weekly's going to have more coverage.

Too bad the movie won't be out until next May.

This photo show the main cast on the new bridge set. From left to right: Anton Yelchin as Chekov, Chris Pine as James T. Kirk, Simon Pegg as Lt. Montgomery Scott, Karl Urban as Dr. McCoy, John Cho as Sulu and Zoe Saldana as Uhura. I'm very pleased with the updated uniforms, and think that Simon Pegg and Karl Urban look particularly well-suited to their roles.

You can see a round-up of the stills released so far, including several shots of Zachary Quinto as an uncannily Nimoy-esque Spock, here and here.

I'm excited about the film, but then, I was excited about the last Trek show – Enterprise – until I actually watched it....

My Second-Favorite Trek...

I was a Trekkie back when there was only one Star Trek, and that was Star Trek. I can't claim to have been on board with the show from the very beginning, although I suppose that as a toddler I may have staggered through the living room when the episodes originally aired (although knowing my parents, I'd be surprised if they ever watched the show), but by the mid-Seventies and my ninth or tenth year, I was already a confirmed Trek fan.

Early on, I was familiar with Trek more through the Saturday morning animated version and James Blish's paperback short story adaptations, which I spent most of my allowance money on and voraciously devoured on the school bus, playground and on long car trips. I also had non-fiction books like The Making of Star Trek, The World of Star Trek, and The Star Trek Concordance. One of my most treasured possessions was the Starfleet Technical Manual (though I never had the Enterprise blueprint set, damn it).

I still have all of those books, by the way.

As to the show itself, it took me a long time to see all of the original 79 episodes, as reruns aired infrequently in our television market, and when they did air, the schedule was maddeningly irregular. WCSH was the station most likely to slot in a Trek on a Sunday afternoon if a sporting event was delayed or ended early, though WMTW aired the series on weeknights for a few months around '74. Unfortunately, it was on during homework time, right after the news, so I rarely got to see it. On occasion, we would visit relatives or family friends who lived in major markets, and I'd catch an episode on their sets... man, it was tough to be a Trekkie then.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture in '79 was a big event for me. The Wrath of Khan and The Search for Spock helped me get through High School, and in '83, when I went off to art school in New Jersey, I finally found regular Trek on the tube, courtesy of cable and the New York TV stations. I only had an 8" black & white TV, but it was good enough.

When The Next Generation debuted in '87, several of my geekier friends and I gathered in my first apartment to watch the premiere... and while it was good to see new Trek, it just wasn't the same. While I watched the show regularly, I never really warmed to Picard and company the way I had to Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and the rest of the original crew. It certainly didn't help that that pompous, Anglo-Franco fop surrendered his ship three times in the first four episodes! The 24th Century just wasn't very exciting to me. Everyone got along too well, and there was virtually no conflict among the cast. Too much technobabble and pop psych, and not enough shooting of phasers and photon torpedoes. The final frontier had become far too tamed.

Deep Space Nine, on the other hand...

At first, I was unimpressed, and didn't make much effort to keep up with it. But while I was living in Florida, the show aired on Saturday afternoons in a large block of syndicated fantasy shows with Babylon 5 and Xena, so I started catching more episodes, and was soon watching it regularly. And I started to recognize that this one was different from Next Gen in some significant ways.

In this show there was a solid episode-to-episode continuity. The characters – and their relationships – grew and changed as the overall story progressed. Further, this show wasn't afraid to reference directly the original Trek, bringing back characters (Klingons Kor, Kang and Koloth) and concepts (Tribbles, The Mirror Universe) from the classic series, and like that series, DS9 wasn't afraid to do a comedy episode once in a while, either.

And then, they did something completely unexpected – they shook up the status quo by starting a galactic war. Plenty of phasers and photon torpedoes were unleashed, but more than that – alliances – both between individuals and governments – crumbled, and new ones were forged. New races and political entities were introduced from another part of the galaxy, and our main characters were forced into situations that required them to reevaluate their beliefs and codes of conduct/honor.

The final frontier got wild again.

(Unfortunately, subsequent ST series didn't measure up to DS9. Voyager was a cosmic bore, and Enterprise – well, I'd had high hopes for that one, but it just didn't work for me. I was never convinced that Scott Bakula's universe was the same as William Shatner's. It played far too fast and loose with continuity, and, like TNG and Voyager, it had no edginess at all.)

Recently, the wife won an Amazon gift certificate in an online contest, and as we had just completed acquiring the classic Star Trek on DVD, she decided to use it to purchase all of the DS9 seasons on disc, as well. The fact that Amazon was having a huge sale on sci-fi DVDs at the time influenced the choice, too.

We've been watching an episode or two each evening, and are now about halfway through season 2. I'm surprised to find that the producers and writers had planted the seeds of their universe-shaking star war earlier than I remembered. Also, the main characters started out a bit more three-dimensional than I originally realized, with a number of character conflicts built right into the original premise. Even episodes that I remembered being unimpressed by back in the early 90's, when the show originally aired, seem a lot better now.

As you've guessed, I'm really enjoying watching DS9 again, and I've decided that it's the best of the Trek spin-offs – at least as far as I'm concerned. In addition to everything mentioned above, there's something about Avery Brooks' broad overacting that brings to my mind the enthusiastic thesping of the great William Shatner....

...And that's Trek to me.

Barnabas Collins is Spock's Dad!

Another bit of interesting Star Trek casting to discuss.

Actor Ben Cross, probably best known for his role in Chariots of Fire and as vampire Barnabas Collins in the short-lived, 1991 revival of Dark Shadows, has been cast as Sarek, Vulcan father of Spock (Zachary Quinto) in J.J. Abrams' new Star Trek feature film.

Cross has been in an awful lot of bad movies, but I think he's a decent choice to play Sarek. I only hope he can bring to the part the same kind of multi-layered performance that Mark Lenard did on the original series and films.

I'm not sure why I'm so fascinated by the casting news on this project. Probably because the original Trek was a huge part of my life when I was a kid, and I've been feeling particularly Trek-nostalgic of late. Not long ago, I managed to pick up the first season of the original series on DVD – used – really cheap, and WallyMart has the 2-disc Special Editions of the feature films marked down to about $7.50 right now, so I've been picking up the ones I didn't already have. Yeah, even Star Trek V.

After watching one of the fan-produced New Voyages shows, I'm particularly looking forward to Abrams' project. I've discovered that I can handle other actors playing the roles, as long as the Trek spirit is intact and the story's good. I thought Abrams' Mission: Impossible movie was probably the best of the bunch, so I've got confidence that he'll handle Trek well.

More Trek Casting Notes

Sorry I missed posting yesterday – and very nearly today, as well – but I've been a bit under the weather for the last couple of days.

Anyway...

According to various sources, J.J. Abrams' new Star Trek feature has added a few more members to its cast. Canadian Bruce Greenwood will be playing the role of Captain Christopher Pike, the captain of the Enterprise before Kirk, originally played in the original Star Trek pilot, "The Cage," by Jeffrey Hunter. Presumably we'll be seeing Pike hand over the keys of our favorite starship to his successor in the new film.

For the role of the "Captain's Yeoman," Janice Rand, Abrams has drafted blonde bombsell Rachel Nichols, formerly of his television series, Alias. On the original series, the go-go boots and beehive were inhabited by the lovely Grace Lee Whitney.

Finally, Winona Ryder, of Heathers and Beverly Hills shoplifting fame, will be playing the role of Amanda Grayson, Spock's human mother, a role originally assayed by the dignified Jane Wyatt on the television episode "Journey to babel," and Star Trek IV. No word yet on who might portray her Vulcan hubby, Sarek...

The New Crew Review

Well, the main cast of J.J. Abrams' new Star Trek movie have finally been cast.

Chris Pine, whom I've never actually seen in anything, will be playing a young James Tiberius Kirk. (CORRECTION: I have seen Pine in something, I just didn't realize it. He played one of the psychotic "Tremor Brothers" in Joe Carnahan's Smokin' Aces. I liked the movie, but there were so many characters fighting for screen time that Pine didn't make much of a specific impression.)

Zachary Quinto, who plays the villainous Sylar on Heroes, will be Spock.

Karl Urban, who played multiple roles on Xena and Hercules, portrayed Eomer in Lord of the Rings, and starred in Pathfinder, will be playing a rather hunkier than traditional Dr. Leonard McCoy.

Simon Pegg, the brilliant star of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz will be Montgomery Scott.

John Cho, of Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, will be playing Hikaru Sulu. (UPDATE: Just saw Cho on last night's Ugly Betty. Seems like a good choice.)

Russian-born Anton Yelchin will be a very young Pavel Chekov.

And finally, the lovely Zoe Saldana will be playing Uhura.

The cast also includes Leonard Nimoy and Munich/Hulk's Eric Bana as somebody called "Nero."

For the most part, I'm pleased with the casting. It skews young, but that's Hollywood these days, and if they intend for this to launch a new series of features – and they do – it's probably a good idea to get a young, healthy cast who can grow into their roles over a number of films.

I particularly like the casting of Quinto and Pegg, though muscular kiwi Urban seems an odd choice for McCoy. Still, I've seen him play a couple of different roles on Xena (including both Julius Caesar and Cupid!), so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt.

Star Trek Lives!

There's this group of Star Trek fans, see, led by a gentleman named James Cawley, who have recreated the original Trek sets at a secret location in upstate New York, and are actually filming new adventures of the original Enterprise crew, distributed exclusively through this here internet thingy.

These "Season 4" episodes feature scripts by name Trek and sci-fi writers like D.C. Fontana, David Gerrold, Michael Reaves, Marc Scott Zicree and Howard Weinstein, and include on-screen appearances by original Trek cast members George Takei, Walter Koenig, Grace Lee Whitney, Denise Crosby, Malachi Throne, William Windom and Majel Barrett Roddenberry as the voice of the ship's computer. Special effects are state-of-the-art CGI, rivalling anything on the later Trek spin-offs, created by computer animation students and donated to the project.

And, believe it or not, Paramount – along with Majel and Eugene Roddenberry – have apparently given Cawley & company their blessing, as long as they don't financially profit from the episodes.

The original characters have been re-cast with amateur actors of varying talent, but the sets, costumes, props, lighting, photography, music and effects are all top-notch... at least in the one episode that I've downloaded and watched so far, Reaves & Zicree's "World Enough and Time," starring George Takei.

Now maybe I'm just a bit overwhelmed by the fact that I've just seen a new Trek episode – especially such a professional-quality one – but I thought it was terrific. Sure, the main cast are clearly not polished professionals, and sometimes the poor performances can be distracting (Cawley, as Kirk, has a tendency to overact with his eyebrows, for example), but Reaves and Zicree's story (considering that it mostly takes place on the ship) was one of the best Trek stories ever, with a solid understanding of the characters and themes of ST:TOS. Additionally, the key performers in the episode – Takei and Christina Moses as "Alana Sulu" – were so good that they more than made up for anyone else's thespic deficiencies.

Frankly, I'm astounded that a fan production can look so good and play out so well. In fact, I'll go so far to say that had this starred the original cast in their prime, this would be considered one of the top five Classic Trek episodes. But even with the mostly sub-pro cast, I was able to enjoy the episode immensely.

I'll be downloading the other New Voyages as soon as I can, and I have to say that this has given me considerably more confidence in J.J. Abrams' feature film Trek plans, as "World Enough and Time" proved to me that I can still enjoy the original Enterprise crew even with different actors in the roles.

You can download "World Enough and Time" in various formats, as well as a couple of earlier episodes here. The producers encourage people to download and burn the episodes to DVD, and even provide downloadable cover art, too.

If you're a Trekkie, you should check it out. Can't promise you'll like the shows, but you should definitely appreciate the hard work and salute the epic geekiness necessary to pull these things off.