Vic
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A new product from Westland Giftware features Doctor McCoy as a cookie jar.
The McCoy cookie jar is the third Star Trek character cookie jar; following a Kirk cookie jar, and a Spock cookie jar which was released in April 2011.
The ceramic bust Doctor McCoy cookie jar will be 10.25 inches tall, and will sell for a suggested retail price of $49.99. The cookie jar can be obtained beginning this month at Hallmark and other online retailers such as Entertainment Earth.
Other Westland Giftware Star Trek products can be seen here.
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Sir Patrick Stewart became interested in space beginning in World War II courtesy of the Germans.
At the recent Emerald City Comicon, Stewart explained how a long-ago event during his early childhood inspired him to do Star Trek years later.
The young boy was with his brother during an air raid in 1944, when something caught his brother’s attention. “My eldest brother Geoffrey, who was in his Royal Air Force uniform turned around – and this is actually my earliest memory – turned and said ‘Patrick, look’ and he pointed up into the night sky,” said Stewart. “I saw the flame of a V2 rocket going overhead. And that’s why I got into Star Trek.
But as an adult, it took several visits for Stewart to land the role of Jean Luc Picard, and a special delivery to make it happen. “It’s not well known, I think,” he said, “that I read wearing a hair piece.”
The hair piece had to be delivered from the U.K. “At Paramount’s expense, that toupee was hand-delivered from West London where I lived,” said Stewart. “I went to some distant far corner of LAX and it was put into my hands.” Stewart got the role, sans hairpiece.
Stewart may be in his seventies now, but for the actor, it’s never too late to learn something new about acting. “I’m trying to learn to be funny,” he said. “I was never funny, really. The Star Trek people taught me about sense of humor. I thought you had to be serious all the time. They taught me you can have fun and do good work at the same time, and actually, chances are you do better work if you’re having fun.”
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According to composer Michael Giacchino, if a composer is doing his job properly, the music will keep the audience riveted to the movie.
The composer’s job is to work on the emotions of the audience watching the movie.
Giacchino explained how his music helps to get across what J.J. Abrams wants the audience to feel, “…so that you as an audience are right there, following the story, every step of the way. Everything that J.J. wants you to feel and follow; I’m there to help kinda yank you through.
“And yes, you can call that manipulation, it is! All of it…Any film is manipulation, really. None of this is real. So anyone who says, ‘you were manipulating me!’ Well, no shit, of course we were manipulating you, that’s why you go to the movies – to be manipulated.”
Giacchino explained the opening scene of Star Trek into Darkness, and why the movie begins in a hospital. “The opening of the film is quite different from what you would expect from the opening, I think, of a Star Trek film,” he said. “It starts off in the hospital and you’re kind of like — ‘wait, am I in the right theater? What is this? Where the heck am I?’ And that’s intentional. We really wanted to give the audience a distance from the characters. Not speak too plainly about what it is that they’re doing, what’s going on, the music isn’t commenting too much about what’s happening.
“But the idea was to get across that — what you see in front of you, is what you see in front of you, but there’s something much bigger going on behind the scenes. And what is that? I don’t know yet. We don’t know. But it’s growing, and it’s evolving, in a way in which Star Trek music really traditionally doesn’t really do. It’s a slightly different way to approach it.”
Star Trek into Darkness opens in theaters on May 17.
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Three new Star Trek-themed products from Will Technology have been released.
The products include iPhone 4 and 5 cases, a pin-badge styled USB, and tablet or iPad messenger bags.
The iPhone cases come in yellow or blue and include a matching stylus. The case/stylus set will cost £14.99.
A 4GB USB Gold Pin Badge features an “easy button release,” and is both PC and Mac-compatible. The USB Gold Pin Badge will sell for £19.99.
Finally, the messenger bag (with matching stylus) comes in yellow or blue. The roomy bag features a shoulder strap and internal pockets. The messenger bag will sell for £24.99.
The items can be found at Forbidden Planet International on this page.
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Four new original series prints created by Juan Ortiz have been released.
The latest set includes art based on A Piece of the Action, Bread and Circuses, The Omega Glory, and For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky.
Ortiz commented on his artwork, explaining his designs. For A Piece of the Action, the poster features an alien from Sigma Iotia II holding a Tommy gun. “This may not be what they looked like in the actual episode,” said Ortiz, “but I can imagine this working in either the Gold Key Comics or The Animated Series. I consider the two mediums to be part of TOS world.”
The poster for The Omega Glory is based on the opening teaser of the episode. “The opening teaser seemed interesting enough to include in a poster,” said Ortiz. “The flag was added because of the episode’s story line. I think if you’re unfamiliar with the episode, this image should spark some interest in viewing it.”
A “redshirt,” often doomed on Star Trek, is featured on the poster, and Ortiz admitted to having wanted to depict one of them in his artwork. “I didn’t think that I would get the chance until I came to this episode,” he said. “This is one of maybe two where I paid homage to the redshirts.”
The four prints, plated-printed lithographs measuring 18×24, are sold as a set, and cost $34.95.
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Star Trek: Enterprise‘s Scott Bakula will be making a guest appearance on the CBS comedy Two and a Half Men.
Bakula will be playing Jerry, a “Cal Worthington-like auto dealership tycoon.
In Two and a Half Men, a television jingle writer’s life is turned upside down when his brother and nephew move in with him.
Jerry will be “dropping into ‘half-man’ Jake’s (Angus T. Jones) ever-evolving love life in a surprising way.”
The episode in which Bakula will be guest-starring will air on CBS on Thursday, April 4, at 8:30 PM.
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Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s LeVar Burton is not happy with what he has heard lately from some working with J.J. Abrams.
The actor feels that the comments are disrespectful of Star Trek that came before Abrams’s two Trek movies.
“Star Trek (2009) was a great movie, and he brought a whole new generation to Trek,” said Burton. “But I’m a little disquieted by things I hear coming out of his camp, things like he would like to be remembered as the only Trek – which would discount everything before he got there.
“There’s ‘breaking the canon,’ which he did (by re-inventing Star Trek‘s timeline). But there’s also honoring the canon. And to pretend to be the only one is really egocentric and immature.”
Burton highlighted achievements in real life that mirror Star Trek technology, and which may have been inspired by Star Trek. “I just came from a conference in San Francisco with Advanced Micro Devices, and they’re working on technology towards building a holodeck,” said Burton. “That was Next Generation. And that’s part of what Star Trek has brought to the culture. So when J.J. Abrams says, ‘there should be no Star Trek except the one I make,’ I call bullshit, J.J.”
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NCM Fathom Events has released a short trailer for the theater showing of Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s The Best of Both Worlds.
The Best of Both Worlds will be shown in more than five hundred theaters on April 25 at 7 PM.
The screening will include the double episode (two hours in length), as well as part of a special feature to be included on the Blu-ray release, “Regeneration: Engaging the Borg,” and a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the episode.
The Best of Both Worlds event is in honor of the April 30 Blu-ray release of Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Three.
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When Kira sets off on a mission to find the survivors of a long-lost Bajoran ship, Dukat insists on accompanying her.
Plot Summary: Kira learns that wreckage has been found from the Ravinok, a Cardassian ship that was transporting Bajoran prisoners – including a close friend of Kira’s – when it disappeared several years earlier. Kira plans to leave immediately to investigate, but Sisko tells her that the Cardassians have also learned of the discovery and want to send a representative on a joint mission. The representative turns out to be Dukat, who alternately brags and flirts until she orders him to be quiet. They track the wreckage to a system with a desert planet and find twelve graves. Dukat finds a bracelet in one of them and weeps, confessing to Kira that it belonged to Tora Naprem, a Bajoran woman who was his mistress. Since so many survivors are unaccounted for, including Kira’s friend, they scan the area and discover that the Breen are using both the Bajorans and Cardassians from the Ravinok to mine dilithium for them. Having looked at the Ravinok’s manifest, Kira asks Dukat about the identity of another passenger, Tora Ziyal, whom Dukat confirms is his daughter with Naprem. To Kira’s horror, Dukat adds that he finds the girl alive, he will have to kill her to protect his family and career from scandal. Kira vows that she won’t let that happen. The two manage to steal Breen outfits and break into the prison camp, where they rescue most of the prisoners, though Kira learns that her friend died years earlier in a cave-in. Though Kira tries to keep Dukat within view, he sneaks off to find Ziyal, who recognizes him and is overjoyed to see him. Dukat aims a rifle at her and Kira comes to try to save her, but the girl says that if Dukat doesn’t want her, she would rather die. Overwhelmed by this devotion, Dukat decides to take her home to Cardassia with him. Meanwhile, back on the station, Sisko and Yates have a disagreement when she considers taking a job on Bajor and living on the station, but Dax, Bashir, and Jake help them work it out.
Analysis: Like so many Deep Space Nine episodes, “Indiscretion” gets much better once one has seen the entire series. I’m pretty sure there are continuity errors – Dukat’s affair with Kira’s mother would overlap his affair with Naprem – and I have trouble reconciling Dukat’s behavior at this point in his career with the megalomania we see before and afterward, but the story sets up a lot of details that become important later, from Dukat’s affection for and Kira’s friendship with Ziyal to the unscrupulousness of the Breen. A lot of the plot of “Indiscretion” is rather predictable; Dukat never would have gone on such a mission if he didn’t have a personal interest in it, and given his obvious interest in Kira, it isn’t hard to suspect that he had a half-Bajoran child with a Bajoran mistress – which is the wrong word, though Dukat insists that it was a love affair, the consent issues for a Bajoran during the Cardassian Occupation are hugely problematic. I find it rather disturbing that the episode title and the A-B plots seem to parallel Dukat’s decision to seduce a Bajoran woman and Sisko’s trying to decide whether he’s ready for a serious relationship with Yates. It’s unsurprising that Dukat acts like an entitled Hollywood producer, much harder to believe that Sisko acts like a sci-fi nerd who needs advice from his own son to have the only relationship he’s had since the death of his wife. The romantic tension between Sisko and Yates seems forced as a result, though it’s easier to swallow on a rewatch having seen how it will develop. More disappointingly, the fireworks that usually fly between Kira and Dukat seem contrived, particularly when they show off how hilarious they find it that she has to remove a spike from his butt.
Some of this is a result of the pacing and the order of events in the episode. It would have made more sense to give us background no the lost ship before halfway through the storyline, since it’s hard to piece together who was on on the Ravinok and why. I’m not sure whether or not we’re supposed to believe Dukat when he says he was sending his lover and child not to a prison camp but to be met with transport to a comfortable exile; if he’s willing to kill Ziyal in the present to protect himself, surely he would have been willing to lock her up where no one could talk a few years earlier. Though Kira shows some of her old fire when she tells Dukat she won’t let him kill Ziyal, she’s unrecognizable for most of the rest of the episode – letting Sisko convince her to take a Cardassian along just by calling her Nerys, letting Dukat not only flirt but insult the Bajoran people for so long on the runabout that I was ready to shoot him for her, treating Dukat like a grieving lover and not like a man who didn’t do nearly enough to track down missing Bajorans and Cardassians alike when the Ravinok first went missing because it might have exposed his secret. Most importantly, she fails to point out that he is still the same murderous thug who disposed of inconvenient Bajorans during the Occupation and is willing to do the same to his own daughter. It isn’t that she’s trying to maintain some friendly sway over him because she doesn’t have any; it’s Ziyal’s appeal, not Kira’s, that convinces Dukat to let the girl live. Ziyal is a great character and the emotions of the episode work mainly because she has the conviction the others lackm but the Kira I know would have shot him in the rear while pretending to be checking his wound, beamed him back to the runabout, put him in stasis, and rescued the Breen captives herself. Bajor may have made peace with Cardassia, but this is Kira! With Dukat! There’s no way that forgiveness comes so easily to her.
You all know that I love relationships with my sci-fi, I love pretty much every pairing on DS9, I’m thrilled at the notion of a captain in a serious relationship. But a Sisko who takes advice not only from his teenage son but from a Ferengi – I hate Quark’s asides on women the same way I hate Seth McFarlane’s jokes about leering at boobs, even when they’re supposed to be obvious satires – and from Bashir, who appears to know less about how to have a sustained relationship with a woman than he knows about curing Jem’Hadar addiction to Ketracel-white. It’s a relief when Sisko admits that losing Jennifer in the line of duty has something to do with his fear of getting too close to Yates, but why doesn’t he say so earlier, to her, without having to run his every emotion by his old-male-friend-now-in-a-female-body and his son-who-has-his-own-problems? I have a hard time believing he’s only just realized it, since it seems so obvious to everyone. I like that Yates makes her decision about the job completely separately from what’s going on with her love life – it’s a great opportunity for her whether Sisko approves or not – but during the dinner scene, asking him how he feels then storming out, she doesn’t seem particularly better suited than he does for a solid relationship. In fact, I suspect the reason Kira seems surprisingly dull with Dukat and Sisko seems rather uninteresting with Yates is that Sisko and Kira have better chemistry than either of the above; that much is obvious even in the two minutes they spend sparring about Bajor. I think the writers needed to do a better job creating sparks between Sisko and Yates before lighting that particular torch, though it works out in the end.
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Jay Chattaway, an Emmy-winning composer who wrote musical scores for four of the five televised Star Trek series, has donated his entire Star Trek music collection to West Virginia University’s School of Music.
Chattaway is a graduate of WVU’s College of Creative Arts.
“I am deeply grateful for his extraordinary gift of his musical scores and materials, and I join the College of Creative Arts in our heartfelt thanks,†said WVU President Jim Clements. “This gift will help our current and future music students learn the art of arranging and composing from one of the greatest in the field. We are just blown away by this unique and valuable gift.”
Chattaway will be a visiting artist at WVU beginning next fall, also working with music students online. “Jay Chattaway is one of our most cherished graduates, and his work as one of America’s premier composers for film and television makes him a tremendous role model for our students,” said Clements.
“There’s going to be more [donated],” said Chattaway. “I have also composed the music for thirty motion pictures. I’m giving this gift to the School of Music because WVU is my alma mater, and the place where I learned my craft and where I was fortunate enough to study with great teachers.”
One of the songs includes the penny whistle solo from Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Inner Light episode. The Inner Light song is “one of the most requested musical selections in the entire Star Trek catalogue.”
Thanks to Dee Jay Bea Kay for the tip! Chattaway photo courtesy of Memory Alpha.
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William Shatner made a guest appearance at Boston’s historic Fenway Park to star in singer Brian Evans’s music video.
The video was shot during a Red Sox game last fall and will appear on Evans’s CD/DVD album At Fenway, due out April 1st.
In the music video, Shatner guest stars as an umpire. “Shatner as the home plate umpire is as iconic as the ballpark itself,” said Evans.
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Zoë Saldana spoke briefly recently about Uhura and Spock’s relationship in Star Trek into Darkness.
Since the destruction of Vulcan in Star Trek (2009), fans have wondered how that would affect the relationship between the two characters, but according to Saldana, there are other things happening that impact the couple.
“They’re figuring things out” said Saldana. “They’re definitely together, you know, because they work together on the Enterprise, and there’s so much that’s going on this time around with their situation as a crew, as the Enterprise, that it definitely is going to add a little stress to their relationship.”
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There will be eighteen conventions, shows or appearances in March and April that feature actors of interest to Star Trek fans. This listing of conventions and shows features actors from all of the televised series and several of the Star Trek movies.
March starts off with CifiMad which will take place on March 1-3 at the Hotel Las Provincias in Fuenlabrada, Madrid, Spain. In attendance at CifiMad will be Deep Space Nine‘s Max Grodenchik.
On the same weekend, the Emerald City Comicon will be held at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, Washington. Sir Patrick Stewart, Wil Wheaton, Walter Koenig, and Christopher Lloyd will be guests at this convention.
Also taking place on March 1-3 will be the Sci-Fi Weekender, which will be held at the Hafan Y Mor Holiday Park in Pwllheli, Wales. In attendance will be Manu Intiraymi and Chase Masterson.
On March 6-9, the Williamsburg Film Festival will be held at the Holiday Inn Patriot Convention Center in Williamsburg, VA. The original series’ Sherry Jackson (What Are Little Girls Made Of?) will be at the Williamsburg Film Festival.
Next up is Oz Comic Con Perth which will be held on March 9-10 at the Perth Exhibition Centre in Perth, Australia. Guests at Oz Comic Con Perth will include J.G. Hertzler, Robert O’Reilly, and William Shatner.
Also on March 9-10 will be the Toronto ComiCon, to be held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, Canada. In attendance will be Sir Patrick Stewart, LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, Marina Sirtis, and Brent Spiner.
DeepCon 14 will be held on March 14-17 at the Hotel Ambasciatori in Fiuggi, Italy. Deep Space Nine‘s Nana Visitor will be at DeepCon 14.
On March 15-17, MegaCon will be held at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. In attendance will be Sir Patrick Stewart, Daniel Stewart, LeVar Burton, Denise Crosby, John de Lancie, Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, Gates McFadden, Larry Nemecek, Marina Sirtis, Brent Spiner, Arne Starr, and Wil Wheaton.
Wrapping up March will be the Oz Comic Con Adelaide, which will take place March 16-17 at the Adelaide Showgrounds in Adelaide, Australia. J.G. Hertzler, Robert O’Reilly, and William Shatner will be at the Oz Comic Con Adelaide.
April begins with the Steel City Con, which will be held from Apr. 5-7 at the Monroeville Convention Center in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, USA. In attendance at the Steel City Con will be Dwight Schultz and Alan Ruck.
Next up is Planet Comicon, to take place Apr. 6-7 at Bartle Hall in Kansas City, Missouri. In attendance at Planet Comicon will be George Takei, Will Wheaton, Daphne Ashbrook (Melora), and Lee Meriwether (Losira).
On April 19-21, the Hollywood Show will be held at the Westin Los Angeles Airport in Los Angeles, California. The Next Generation‘s Dwight Schultz will be at the Hollywood Show.
The Fan Expo Vancouver will take place Apr. 20-21 at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Jonathan Frakes will be in attendance at Fan Expo Vancouver.
The Official Star Trek Convention will take place Apr. 26-28 at the Crowne Plaza Cherry Hill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. In attendance at this convention will be: Vaughn Armstrong, Rene Auberjonois, Casey Biggs, Avery Brooks, Jeffrey Combs, Michael Dorn, Aron Eisenberg, Max Grodenchik, Chase Masterson, Gates McFadden, Ethan Phillips, Armin Shimerman, and Nana Visitor.
On that same weekend, Chiller Theatre will be held at the Sheraton Parsippany in Parsippany, New Jersey. In attendance at Chiller Theatre will be John Billingsley, Bonita Friedericy, and David Warner (Chancellor Gorkon).
Another convention to take place on April 26-28 will be Sci-Fi on the Rock, which will take place at the Holiday Inn in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. Dominic Keating will be at Sci-Fi on the Rock.
Sun City SciFi will also be held on Apr. 26-28, at the El Paso Marriott in El Paso, Texas. In attendance will be Marina Sirtis and Joseph Gatt (Star Trek into Darkness).
Wrapping up April will be the Wales Comic Con, which will be held on Apr. 28 at Glyndwr University in Wrexham, Wales. In attendance at Wales Comic Con will be Robert Picardo.
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Chris Pine is no stranger to taking on high-profile roles, after playing Kirk in 2009′s Star Trek, but each time is still a bit nerve-wracking for the actor.
Pine has taken on the latest incarnation of Tom Clancy‘s CIA Analyst Jack Ryan, in a movie that is currently filming.
Taking on the role of Ryan was like “jumping off a cliff,” said Pine. But Pine is not daunted by previous takes on the character as performed by Harrison Ford, Ben Affleck and Alec Baldwin. “Once you kind of jump off that cliff, you’re off the cliff. I can’t be Alec Baldwin, I can’t be Harrison Ford; I can only really do my own thing and stay true to the pillars of this character.”
Pine explained the difference between Ryan and James T. Kirk. “Where Kirk’s a man of brawn, Ryan’s a quieter guy,” said Pine. “He’s not Jason Bourne, he doesn’t have 50 kinds of kung fu. He figures it out like MacGyver.”
In Jack Ryan, Russian Terrorist Viktor Cherevin (Kenneth Branagh) is plotting to destroy the U.S. economy. The film is due out at the end of the year.
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Sean Kenney, best known to original series fans as the original Captain Pike, and as Lt. DePaul, has written a book chronicling his Star Trek experience.
The book, Captain Pike: Found Alive! is available in both print and Kindle format, and the first two chapters can be read for free at Amazon.
Kenney decided to write about his experiences on the original series after being urged to do so by others. “There’s an old saying, ‘Baring one’s soul is most difficult,’” said Kenney. “I thought that this was going to be the case when I was prompted by friends, family and fans to write my memoir. There were many Star Trek fans who asked me whether I had thoughts of writing about my experiences on the Star Trek TV series in the roles of Captain Pike and also as the ship’s 1st helmsman, Lt. DePaul.”
Landing the role of Pike came courtesy of Kenney’s resemblance to Jeffrey Hunter. “To those people who may be interested in acting or a life of an actor, I’ve reminisced about how fortuitous it was when I got my first opportunity to act in a theater performance when the lead actor couldn’t show up for the sold-out performance,” said Kenney, who was able to snag the role because as the sound effects man for the production, he knew everyone’s lines.
“Through a lucky break, there was an agent in the audience that brought me to meet Gene Roddenberry, who was looking for someone who had the features and bone structure similar to Jeffrey Hunter, who couldn’t make it to complete the Menagerie episode. The rest is history.”
Being a guest star who was unable to speak (due to the Pike makeup) made Kenney a “keen listener” who “became like part of the set, invisible.” The actor started to hear interesting conversations from the actors. “I got an ear full!” said Kenney. “I soon realized that yes, Bill Shatner was not well liked and in fact he was disliked. But then again his role was the Captain of the ship and he took his role seriously, on and off the set.”
To purchase the book in print or Kindle form, or to read the first two chapters, head to the link located here. Click on the picture of the book to read the first two chapters.
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For Wil Wheaton, new acting success came when he figured out just what type of character he should be playing.
It turns out that the best character for Wheaton to play is not someone like Wesley Crusher.
After his initial success when young, Wheaton found that he wasn’t getting the roles when he auditioned, and was determined to do something about that. “This all started years ago,” he said. “I kept having auditions to play roles that were very similar to the roles I played when in was a kid. When I was a kid I played very sweet, sympathetic, heroic characters. And when I was going out for those roles as an adult, I never booked them. So I took a marketing class and I learned a while lot about marketing myself as an actor… The very short version is everybody has a type that they play—once you know what your type is, you can focus on roles of that type.”
Next time it was time to audition, Wheaton sought out the role of a jerk. “So my friend Kim Evey—who is a producer on The Guild and Learning Town—was doing a really funny [web] show called The Gorgeous Tiny Machine Show,” explained Wheaton. “And she asked me if I would come be on it and I said, “Yeah, will you have me play a super douchebag?” And she said, “Why?!” And I said, “I just have this feeling that playing a douchebag is what I’m supposed to do. I just feel like playing a nice guy doesn’t work anymore.” And she wrote me the part of this really douchey agent. And it was phenomenally popular. Then when Felicia [Day] asked me to do The Guild, I said, “Will you make me a douchebag?” She said, “Yeah, will you be a douchebag in a kilt?” “Absolutely!”…. Suddenly, playing characters who are very unlike me, I started getting hired all over the place. Getting cast in them all the time.”
Those roles included ones on The Big Bang Theory, Eureka and Leverage. “And I’ve found my type: my type is to play that guy you love to hate,” said Wheaton.
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The final tally for the vote to name two moons of Pluto is in, and Vulcan has outpaced all its competitors.
Vulcan, and the second-place finisher, Cerberus, were the two top vote getters, with only Vulcan receiving over one hundred thousand votes.
Vulcan received 174,062 votes, followed by Cerberus at 99,432 votes. Rounding out the top five are Styx (87,858), Persephone (68,969), and Orpheus (51,197). In all, 450,324 votes were submitted.
“174,062 votes and Vulcan came out on top of the voting for the naming of Pluto’s moons,” said William Shatner via Twitter. “Thank you to all who voted!”
Winning the contest does not mean that the winning names will automatically be used, however. But Mark Showalter, leader of the teams that discovered the tiny moons, temporarily named P4 and P5, said that he is leaning towards the popular vote.
On the Pluto Rocks website, Showalter asked voters to “please be patient now [as] it could take 1-2 months for the final names of P4 and P5 to be selected and approved.
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The latest issue of IDW Publishing‘s Hive comic series will hit stores tomorrow, but fans can see a preview of the issue now.
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Hive #4 is the “climatic finale of one of the most talked about Star Trek events of the year as past and future collide! Past and future intersect as Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Locutus meet to decide the fate of the United Federation of planets — and the entire Borg Empire!”
Written by Brannon Braga, Terry Matalas, and Travis Fickett, with art and covers by Joe Corroney, the thirty-two page issue will sell for $3.99.
To see larger images, click on the thumbnails. More images can be found at the referring site.
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In attendance at last night’s Oscars ceremony were some familiar Star Trek faces.
In addition to William Shatner, J.J. Abrams, Chris Pine, and Zoë Saldana were photographed at the event.
J.J. Abrams was accompanied by his wife Katie McGrath.
The fashionable Saldana is shown in a white Alexis Mabille Couture dress, with Neil Lane jewelry, Roger Vivier shoes and a Salvator Ferragamo clutch. She later changed outfits for the 2013 Vanity Fair Oscar Party, appearing in a black Givenchy dress.
More pictures of Pine can be seen at the Chris Pine Network.
Click on the thumbnail images to enlarge.
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At last night’s Oscars Award Ceremony, James T. Kirk paid a visit from the future.
Kirk, played by William Shatner, returned to give a little advice to Seth MacFarlane, who was hosting the event.
In the skit, Kirk warned MacFarlane that the headlines for the next day would claim that MacFarlane was the “worst Oscar host ever.”
“Your jokes at tasteless and inappropriate and everyone ends up hating you,” said Kirk.
Kirk went on to (rightly) criticize MacFarlane’s singing “We Saw Your Boobs” with a gay chorus, telling MacFarlane that he would be joining the chorus in July of 2015. When MacFarlane asked what he should do, Kirk told him not to mock the movies, but to sing a song that celebrates the movies, which MacFarlane does.
The headlines for the next day change to “Seth MacFarlane pretty bad Oscar host.”
MacFarlane gets more advice and again the headline changes; this time he’s only a “mediocre host.”
“That’s the best review I’ve ever gotten,” MacFarlane tells Shatner. “I’m going to take that.”
But he is persuaded by Kirk to do more, and is rewarded with “Best Oscars ever, says everyone except Entertainment Weekly.”
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When Bashir is taken hostage by a rebel group of Jem’Hadar, he agrees to help them fight their addiction to Ketracel-white.
Plot Summary: On a mission in the Gamma Quadrant, Bashir and O’Brien find readings from a ship in trouble and go to investigate, only to have their own shuttle disabled by a plasma field. When they crash on the surface of the nearest planet, they are taken prisoner by a group of Jem’Hadar who surprise them by not killing them upon learning that Bashir is a doctor. The leader, Goran’Agar, explains to Bashir that he had landed on the planet once before, and something in the atmosphere cured him of his addiction to Ketracel-white. He wants Bashir to figure out why the rest of his group remain addicted and to find the cure so that they can escape from the Dominion. Initially Bashir and O’Brien use their makeshift lab to work primarily on an explosive device to help them escape, but when the device explodes prematurely, the two men are once again surprised by Goran’Agar, who declines to execute both O’Brien and one of his own men injured in the attack. Believing that the Jem’Hadar may become a less aggressive, more compassionate species freed from addiction to Ketracel-white, Bashir orders O’Brien to help him find the cure, although O’Brien doesn’t believe they can or should help since the Jem’Hadar are bred to be killers. Furious when Bashir pulls rank, O’Brien instead goes to work on his own escape plan. Meanwhile, back on the station, Worf interferes with Odo’s work when Odo refuses to arrest Quark for dealing in stolen goods, not knowing that Odo is using Quark to try to infiltrate a much larger alien smuggling operation. When Goran’Agar’s men will not consent to bring O’Brien back alive, the Jem’Hadar leader realizes that they no longer share his wish to live free from the drug that makes them strong. During the chase, O’Brien circles back to Bashir to take him to the shuttle, and when the doctor refuses to abandon his research, O’Brien destroys his laboratory samples to force Bashir to leave. Once more, Goran’Agar refuses to attack them, telling them to flee to safety since he will have to kill his fellow Jem’Hadar before deprivation of the drug destroys their minds. As they travel back to the station, Bashir is still furious that O’Brien disobeyed orders, which O’Brien insists he did because it was the only way to save Bashir’s life.
Analysis: I just reread the review I wrote of “Hippocratic Oath” for a different publication when it first aired 18 years ago, and I discovered that I did not like it much. What the heck was wrong with me? I have only seen the episode twice since then – once with my son when we rewatched nearly the entire series, and this week to review it; in both instances, I liked pretty much everything about it. Amazing what the conclusion of an arc can do for what appear to be disjointed pieces along the way. Admittedly, it took me awhile to fall in love with the Bashir/O’Brien bromance (oh, hush, those of you who don’t want to see it: this is the episode that starts with O’Brien confessing that he wishes Keiko were more like a man and ends with O’Brien confessing that protecting Julian is more important to him than saving the entire Jem’Hadar race…but more on that later). I used to consider the male bonding storylines a distraction from the awesome aliens and even more awesome women of the series; there isn’t nearly enough Kira or Dax in the early episodes of Deep Space Nine‘s fourth season and there’s so, so much Worf. I understand that the writers felt like they had to reintroduce him and work out his relationships with every major character to integrate him into the storylines, but I had a few weeks of being genuinely terrified that we were going to be watching The Worf Show from that point forward. Now, knowing how good the show would become in its final two seasons, I’m much less bothered by things that made me grit my teeth when they originally aired, and much more pleased about what I thought were throwaway plots that ended up becoming important to later storylines.
There was, and remains a big unsolved plot hole at the center of “Hippocratic Oath” – the idea that a Jem’Hadar, a species specifically bred to be addicted to Ketracel-white so that the Founders could control them, apparently managed to be born with and hide a mutation that allowed him to survive and thrive without the drug. It seemed so unlikely that the first time I saw the episode, I was sure that Goran’Agar was a Founder in disguise, testing first his own men’s devotion, then the Starfleet officers’ commitment to the non-interference directive. Quite frankly, I still think that would be a better episode – Bashir and O’Brien debating Starfleet ethics rather than the practical need for defense against the Dominion, the Jem’Hadar slowly awakening to the realization that their belief in life without the Founders has been contingent all along on a Founder manipulating them. But the story is what it is, and if it shows that there may be cracks in the Dominion, rebel soldiers who can plan an escape right under their Vorta’s nose, the storyline never leads to anything bigger. The Dominion War does not end with a Jem’Hadar revolt. We never even find out exactly why Goran’Agar is the single exception to the addiction rule. Since breaking the addiction apparently means creating a Jem’Hadar who is independent, capable of true leadership, curious about other cultures, reluctant to use violence…this is an avenue that Starfleet should have explored far more aggressively than looking for a way to exterminate the Founders, especially since Bashir thought he was on to something before O’Brien destroyed his research. The Prime Directive might have applied for Bashir, making decisions as the senior officer on this mission about the future of a species that had developed almost nothing independently, but I doubt it applies the same way to the Federation when preparing defenses against a probable war.
I really thought that when O’Brien was called upon to justify his actions, violating a direct order from a superior, he’d come back to the question of interference. Bashir’s research, if successful, obviously could change the balance of power throughout the Gamma Quadrant, affecting all the worlds within or doing business with the Dominion. Instead O’Brien admits that he blew up the experiments because he was convinced that the Jem’Hadar planned to kill Bashir because he knew too much, whether or not his work succeeded, and Miles does not want Julian to die. The piece of me tempted to go on a feminist rant about this episode – in which Dax is utterly absent, Kira is present only long enough to serve as a comfort to Worf, and Keiko exists only as the ball and chain making O’Brien’s life miserable – gets set aside in favor of the piece of me that for five seconds thought maybe these writers, who were too chicken on TNG to do a proper AIDS allegory or a proper homophobia episode with Riker falling for androgyne, might actually deal with the fact that Bashir’s emotional, intimate feelings focus entirely on men – first Garak, now O’Brien. Sure, Bashir thinks Dax is beautiful and Melora is fascinating – who wouldn’t – but his inner life seems entirely occupied by fantasies of spy games with Garak and tragic battle reenactments with O’Brien. And how many times can O’Brien count on alien distractions to rescue him from his own wish to run away from wife and family while he’s declaring aloud that he longs for a partner who’s more like a man?
Bashir can’t stay mad at him for five minutes at the end, even though O’Brien betrayed him and his work in a far more serious way than Worf betrayed Odo, who’s still understandably resentful at Worf’s meddling – shades of Eddington early on, although Sisko clearly has Odo’s back to a much greater degree now. It’s probably inevitable that after so many years as chief of security, Worf couldn’t keep his nose out of the job, and there have long been hints that Odo’s much better at the job than we see on a weekly basis, that he keeps Quark around precisely because Quark gives him (sometimes willingly, sometimes not) a window into the larger crime problems in the region. It’s so nice to see Odo have a real plan, though Worf ends up looking more foolish and Quark more careless than I’d typically find in character. The conflict ends up feeling contrived as a result, not offering the shades of gray that Sisko warns Worf to expect on Deep Space Nine in comparison with the Enterprise. Even if I have Dominion and Prime Directive questions about the Jem’Hadar storyline, it gives the sense of being a story about real people making real decisions, maybe even all the more so for its messiness.
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Stand Off, a crime drama starring Star Trek Deep Space Nine‘s Colm Meaney, is opening in theaters today.
Meaney is playing Detective Weller in the movie.
In Stand Off, “In a misguided attempt to protect his family and pay back gambling debts to the local mobster, Jimbo (Martin McCann) robs a fish market, which is coincidentally owned by the same mobster. On the run, Jimbo is cornered in a local curio shop, where he takes hostage an assortment of colorful characters, including Maguire (Brendan Fraser), who may be his illegitimate father. Surrounded by the Police, the SAS, and the Mobster’s crew, the young man must find a way out of his precarious predicament with the help of his oddball captives. Meaney plays Detective Weller, a cop who has been called in to handle the ‘stand off’ after Jimbo is cornered at the curio shop.”
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For German fans of Klingon opera, tomorrow is a good day to hie….over to the Haus der Kulturen der Welt to see “U,” a complete Klingon Opera.
In “U,” the unforgettable hero Kahless is “betrayed by his brother [and] forced to go down into the underworld and to invent the close range conflict weapon Bat’leth to topple the tyrant Molo.”
“Using original Klingon instruments and sung in Klingon, the production staged by Floris Schönfeld has already enjoyed four years of success among Trekkies and friends of experimental opera alike, realized in collaboration with the Klingon Terran Research Ensemble and composer Eef van Breen.”
“U” will take place tomorrow, Friday, February 22 at 8 PM at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin, Germany. Tickets cost ten Euros, but those attending dressed as Klingons can get two tickets for the price of one. For more information, head to the link located here.
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More details have emerged regarding Sleepy Hollow, a modern-day supernatural drama from Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.
In Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod Crane finds himself transported to present day Sleepy Hollow, where troubles await the time-traveler.
Crane is described as a captain in the Revolutionary War, who is “catapulted to present day Sleepy Hollow, where he’s indicted for the murder of a police officer.” Not only does Crane have to prove his innocence in a future with which he’s unfamiliar, he had to convince a wary detective investigating the murder that he is from the 18th century.
Two actors have signed on for the FOX project; Orlando Jones (MadTV, Drumline) as Lt. Frank Williams, and Katia Winter (Dexter) as Ichabod Crane’s wife, who is a nurse with the 37th Regiment in the Revolutionary War.
Sleepy Hollow will be executive produced by Kurtzman, Orci, Len Wiseman and Heather Kadin. Co-writer Phillip Iscove, who came up with the idea for the series, will be a supervising producer.
Early UK Release For Star Trek Into Darkness
in Trek News
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Star Trek fans in the U.K. will get the see Star Trek into Darkness earlier than fans in the U.S., as the release date there has just been changed.
“In summer 2013, pioneering director J.J. Abrams will deliver an explosive action thriller that takes Star Trek Into Darkness,” said an announcement regarding the event.
The UK release date is now May 9, 2013.
Simon Pegg tweeted about the date change. “Looks like Star Trek Into Darkness will land in the UK first,” he said. “Release date May 9th. That’s about eight weeks away. Not long considering.”
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