Vic
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A new Texas scratch off lottery game features Star Trek.
To celebrate the launch of the new scratch off Star Trek game, the Texas Lottery Headquarters will hold an event featuring prizes and a chance to break a Guinness Book of World record for Trek fans in costume. William Shatner will be in attendance.
“We bring word from our allies in the Dallas region of Earth that your presence is requested at a meeting of like-minded individuals,” said a Facebook posting for the event. “We request that you appear in the uniform or traditional dress of your people and bring as many diplomats as possible. With your help, we will convince envoys representing the Guinness Book of World Records of the strength of our numbers.”
The attempt to break the Guinness World Record will take place on March 30, at 10:00 AM at the Dallas Convention Center in Dallas, Texas.
The event seeks to attract more than 1,040 uniformed attendees to break the Guinness World Book record.
In addition to the Guinness World Book record attempt, attendees will have a chance to win Trek scratch off tickets, Texas Lottery merchandise, $50,000, and a Star Trek Convention Trip Package which includes airfare from one of four Texas cities to Las Vegas, five nights first-class hotel accommodations, round-trip car service between airport and hotel, dinner for two ($500 value), ticket for two to the Star Trek convention, and $1000 spending money.
Admittance to the March 30th event is free for those in costume.
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For Star Trek: Enterprise‘s John Billingsley, Star Trek: Enterprise episodes that dealt with serious issues were the better ones.
So when Dear Doctor came along, Billingsley was happy, and for more than one reason. “I figured it probably would be controversial,” he said. “I had, to be honest with you, two reactions to it.”
One of the reactions to Dear Doctor was a “selfish” one, said Billingsley. “…It was the first episode that actually featured me to any great extent and it was the first opportunity I had to, I felt, put a bit of a stamp on the guy. So I was primarily concerned as an actor about what I was going to do and less concerned with what the issues presented by the script were. But I had a feeling that probably there’d be some upset.”
Billingsley found the “issues episodes” the most compelling. “I definitely agree that, just for me personally, aesthetically speaking, the episodes over the arc of four years that I thought had the most impact and held the most interest for me were the ones that actually did deal with issues. The cloning episode (Similitude) in the third season was particularly good. There was an episode (Cogenitor) in which Trip interferes with a couple’s decision to use their quasi-servant as a person to breed for them. That was one that got people’s panties in a twist a little bit, and those are the kinds that are interesting.”
“[Dear Doctor] was dark,” said Billingsley. “It creeped people out: an entire race of people are going to be doomed to extinction. I rather liked the darkness of Enterprise when it chose to be dark. I always wondered, ‘Gee, what would Enterprise have been like if were a cable show?’ The fans might have rebelled. It might not have been what they wanted, but to me it would have been interesting.”
Billingsley is still acting, although the jobs are fewer. “Things were running pretty well for four or five years after Enterprise,” he said. “But as is doubtless the case with many character actors right now, I’m in my 50′s and there are fewer roles, and it’s a very, very tricky marketplace for a ton of reasons.” But Billingsley has just finished a Nikita episode and “I’m doing Southland this week,” he said.
When Billingsley is not acting, he enjoys reading and traveling.
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A new drama by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci was one of the pilots picked up by Fox last night.
Sleepy Hollow, written by Kurtzman, Orci and Phil Iscove, is a “modern-day supernatural thriller” based on the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
In Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod Crane and Sleepy Hollow’s female sheriff work together to “solve the mysteries of a town ravaged by the battle between good and evil.”
Directed by Len Wiseman (Underworld), Kurtzman, Orci, Wiseman and Heather Kadin will executive produce Sleepy Hollow. Iscove, who came up with the idea for the project, will be a supervising producer.
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George Takei and his husband Brad are guest-starring in the long-running Dick Tracy comic.
The duo is part of a storyline that deals with a seventy-year-old murder mystery.
“Beginning last Sunday (Jan. 13), and continuing for about two months, the Dick Tracy comic strip on Sundays is featuring a storyline involving me and my husband Brad,” said Takei. “I appear under the name ‘George Tawara.’ The story has a WWII internment connection, and we are truly honored to be a part of it.”
The storyline began January 13th, and can be seen here. Takei/Tawara makes his first appearance in the January 20th comic, seen here.
Dick Tracy, created by Chester Gould, has run in newspapers since 1931. Dick Tracy is now created by Mike Curtis and Joe Staton.
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Fans going to see Star Trek Into Darkness this May should bring along some Kleenex.
The villain John Harrison “tears into the fabric of the world and the Enterprise family,” said Benedict Cumberbatch, who plays Harrison. “It leaves a trail of devastation.”
“There is an insidiousness and ruthlessness and fierce intelligence to [Harrison] that almost undermines the interconnectivity of the crew,” said Zachary Quinto. “The stakes are much higher.” Quinto also warned fans that “there’s reason to worry” about favorite characters.
Kirk and Spock will have to work together in Star Trek into Darkness and put aside their differences. “The definition of who these two people are definitely comes to bear in this film,” said Chris Pine. “It’s central to what happens in the story. Spock is a logical man of cold reason who is run by laws, regulations and prescriptions. Kirk is a guttural, by-the-heart, instinctive and impulsive guy. Those two ways of looking at the world are central to these characters and their journey.”
Expect tears, said J.J. Abrams. “The goal of this movie is to make you cry,” he said. “If the movie does its job, then by the end of the movie, you will have had a reaction involving the eyes. If the movie works, then there’s definitely an emotional component.”
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Paramount Pictures and Bad Robot (J.J. Abrams and Bryan Burk) are going to make a movie based on disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong.
A deal was just made for the screen rights to Cycle of Lies: The Fall of Lance Armstrong, a book proposal written by Juliet Macur for Harper Collins.
Macur is a New York Times sports reporter who has covered Armstrong for over a decade, including his seven Tour de France wins, his recovery from cancer and allegations of doping.
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In April, five different IDW Publishing Star Trek comics will be released.
The titles will include Star Trek #20, Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness #4, Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness – Spotlight, Star Trek: John Byrne Collection, and Star Trek Space-Spanning Treasury Edition.
Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness #4, written by Mike Johnson with art and cover by David Messina, concludes the prequel which leads up to Star Trek into Darkness. In Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness #4, “Kirk, Spock and the rest of the Enterprise crew fight for the fate of the galaxy.”
Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness #4 is thirty-two pages in length and will sell for $3.99.
Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness – Spotlight collects all four of the Countdown to Darkness issues in one one-hundred-and-four page issue. Written by Roberto Orci and Mike Johnson with art by David Messina, Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness – Spotlight will cost $17.99.
Star Trek #20 features new stories that focus on Sulu and Chekov. “Witness their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and learn how their paths intertwined all the way to the bridge of the Enterprise.”
Written by Mike Johnson and overseen by Roberto Orci, Star Trek #20 features art by Claudia Balboni and covers by Tim Bradstreet. The thirty-two page issue will sell for $3.99.
The Star Trek: John Byrne Collection features four Star Trek titles in one oversized hardcover collection. Included are: Assignment Earth (the adventures of Gary Seven), Crew (a tale from the very beginnings of the United Federation of Planets), Leonard McCoy: Frontier Doctor (Dr. McCoy and the Frontier Medics Program) and Romulans: Pawns of War.
Three-hundred-and-twenty pages in length, Star Trek: John Byrne Collection features writing and art by John Byrne. The issue will sell for $49.99.
The last April IDW Publishing Star Trek release is the Star Trek Space-Spanning Treasury Edition, which features two complete stories from three issues; The Return of the Archons, and The Redshirts Story.
Seventy-two pages in length, Star Trek Space-Spanning Treasury Edition features stories from Mike Johnson, with art by Stephen Molnar and a cover by Tim Bradstreet. The issue will sell for $9.99.
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A new five-page preview of the IDW Publishing Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness is now available.
Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness is a four-issue prequel mini-series that “sets the stage” for Star Trek into Darkness.
The pages feature Spock’s dream which includes the memory of saving the Vulcan elders on Vulcan before its destruction, and the loss of his mother, plus new disaster on board the Enterprise shortly thereafter.
The first issue of Star Trek Countdown to Darkness, written by Mike Johnson, with art by David Messina, is now available. To see the preview pictures, click on the thumbnails. More preview pages can be found at the referring site.
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Christopher Doohan, son of the original series’ James Doohan, will have an appearance in Star Trek into Darkness.
According to SciFi Pulse, Doohan confirmed the news on his Facebook account.
“A big thank you to my pal Simon Pegg,” said Doohan. “This would not have happened without him.” Doohan appeared in 2009′s Star Trek alongside Pegg at the transporter.
Doohan is currently co-starring in the fan-made Farragut Film series Star Trek Continues.
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Kira joins her former leader from the Resistance in his struggle against the political ambitions of Kai Winn.
Plot Summary: Just after the unexpected death of the leader of the Bajoran Provisional Government, Kira is horrified to learn that Kai Winn has been appointed temporarily to the post of First Minister and is expected to win an election to cement her position. Determined to maintain whatever influence she may have with the Kai, Kira accepts Winn’s request to travel to her home province of Dahkur, where a group of farmers have seized soil reclamators that Winn wants to send to Rakantha Province to impress the Federation with Bajor’s ability to be self-sustaining. The group is led by the former head of Kira’s resistance cell, Shakaar Edon, who saved her life more than once. Kira agrees to speak to him because she believes that it is in the best interests of Bajor to produce agricultural exports, but Shakaar explains that Dahkur Province has had the use of the reclamators for only two months and that people will go hungry locally if they can’t bring in their crops. Though Winn tells Kira that she may set up a meeting with Shakaar to negotiate a compromise, the Kai sends troops to arrest Shakaar instead, and Kira flees with him into the mountains alongside their former Resistance cell members Furel and Lupaza. Sisko warns Winn that she is overreacting and that the Federation will not help her, but Winn insists on sending the military to hunt down the fugitives. When Shakaar’s comrades realize that they are badly outnumbered, they lure the Bajoran officers into a canyon to ambush them, but neither Shakaar nor Kira can bear the idea of shooting their fellow Bajorans, some of whom were Resistance fighters like themselves. Surrendering their weapons, they approach the military leader, Lenaris, who is equally upset that Winn has brought Bajor to the brink of civil war. Lenaris takes Shakaar and Kira to Winn’s office but announces that they are not under arrest; rather, Lenaris is supporting a bid by Shakaar to become First Minister. Rather than allowing Shakaar to expose the fact that the Kai asked Bajorans to fight Bajorans, Winn decides to support the popular Resistance leader’s campaign, thus maintaining her own popularity with Bajor’s people.
Analysis: “Shakaar” is an episode that I loved when it first aired, then hated for a long time afterward because I couldn’t stand the way Kira’s relationship with the titular character developed. Rewatching it after all this time, however, my initial reaction returns. This is one of the series’ best Bajoran episodes, giving us some terrific backstory on Kira and what the Resistance meant to her apart from an opportunity to fight Cardassians – it’s clear that she had good friends, even replacements for her own shattered family, and that despite their common goals, they weren’t afraid to argue with one another when they felt it was right. Shakaar is a terrific character, very much like Kira, a former freedom fighter who comes to accept that joining the establishment may be necessary to be certain those freedoms are protected, and if he’s perhaps too much like her for the sort of chemistry and challenges of a great romance, I must admit that his demeanor and wit and, all right, his looks go a long way to making up for that. “Shakaar” makes clear that Kira is trying to let go of Bareil and move on with her life – the episode is framed with scenes of her lighting a prayer lamp in his memory and blowing out the flame – and if Shakaar isn’t the man I wanted her to notice at the time, it’s clear in retrospect that Kira and Odo both had a lot to work through before they could fall in love the way they eventually would several years later. I suppose it’s not fair to complain that Shakaar isn’t Odo or Bareil or Li Nalas, all characters we know much better than this Resistance leader turned farmer whose greatest talents have yet to be utilized. If I were to judge the man only by the loyalty of his friends and comrades, I’d have to admit that he seems like a great guy.
I will grant that Odo still has my favorite line in “Shakaar”: “It has been my observation that one of the prices of giving people freedom of choice is that sometimes they make the wrong choice.” He’s talking about the public’s adoration of Winn, who has cleverly concealed Bareil’s role in leading the peace negotiations with Cardassia, thus portraying herself as the architect of a new Bajor, but he could just as easily be talking about the U.S. reaction to election results following the Arab Spring. In a series that often oversimplifies politics to the attitude that everything will work out if people just share resources and respect one another’s beliefs, the problems and crises surrounding Bajor’s application to join the Federation are handled with surprising sophistication. Winn believes that it is in Bajor’s best interest to join an interstellar community as quickly as possible, to demonstrate that proud Bajorans no longer need outside aid and indeed have much to contribute, an attitude that Kira very much wants to promote. But as Shakaar points out, Bajor can’t even feed its own, and the struggle among former Resistance fighters now officially in the Bajoran military shows that many of the people still have trouble defining their loyalties, trying to work out the extent to which they must go along with a provisional government rather than focusing on the needs and goals of their own regions. Until these internal problems are better resolved – without outside help, as Sisko insists – it isn’t in Bajor’s best interests to try to define itself within the larger context of the Federation, not even with the Dominion threat looming. I do wish we’d heard a bit more of the specifics of Winn’s and Shakaar’s thinking about who should make decisions about he soil reclamators. It’s pretty clear that Shakaar isn’t a Bajor-for-Bajorans type like Jaro was, but I’d love to have heard more specifics about how he’d compromise on an issue that doesn’t involve guns in people’s faces.
Even though I’ve watched all of Winn’s episodes over and over because she’s one of the most interesting characters (certainly one of the most interesting women) I’ve ever seen on television, I’m still not sure whether she’s a hard-nosed leader with a genuine belief in the moral and spiritual value of her actions for her people or whether she’s well over the line into megalomania and doesn’t care about anyone’s welfare but her own. When we first saw her attempting to assassinate Bareil to secure her own position as the next Kai, she seemed purely ruthless, spouting religious dogma less because she believed it than because it fit in with her personal ambitions. But while she was aligned with Jaro, she seemed determined to follow the will of the Prophets and her hatred of the Cardassians for what they did to Bajor was apparent. The fact that she keeps trying to make an ally of Kira – particularly now, when as First Minister she could probably have Kira reassigned just as easily as Jaro did – makes me think better of her; Winn may keep calling on Kira for selfish reasons, just as she did with Bareil when she needed a negotiator, but she’s shrewd enough to recognize their intelligence and confident enough to believe that she can manipulate them instead of desperately needing them out of the way. It’s fascinating to watch the push and pull of her relationship with her gods, the Prophets, whom she both loves and resents. In “Shakaar” she seems truly to believe that they are testing her, and that a show of strength rather than compassion is what they want; I wish we knew what shaped that belief, what circumstances of her own survival of the Occupation turned her into this kind of leader.
It seems clear that Winn did not have the sort of support group that Kira and Shakaar shared with Lupaza, Furel, and the others in their Resistance cell. The relationships among them are intense, even a bit incestuous – I’ve never been sure whether Lupaza and Furel were present-tense as well as past-tense lovers, and Dukat claimed at one point that Shakaar had slept with all the women in the Resistance cell except Kira. They are entirely convincing as former comrades who know each other much too well, who would die for one another but perhaps have trouble living with one another after all they’ve seen together. I love the way the episode approaches what it means to these people to be veterans together, personified first in the way Shakaar and Kira find themselves unable to shoot at Lenaris, then in Lenaris’s refusal to treat them like his prisoners when they have always been heroes to himself and to much of Bajor. There’s a truly shocking moment when a soldier’s gun goes off, then an even more shocking moment when nobody else shoots while the leaders on both sides shout for weapons to be lowered. It’s not the sort of grandiose, cliched instant peace that Kirk and Picard used to achieve with a single speech, but believable human(oid) behavior with lots of difficult work just ahead. If I’m giving short shrift to the episode’s very minor B storyline, O’Brien’s brief foray “in the zone” when his success at darts makes Quark a lot of money until Bashir insists that O’Brien needs surgery before he permanently damages his shoulder, it’s because those relationships seem like such fluff despite three seasons of TV development compared to the passionate ties and loose ends among the Bajorans…even compared to Sisko and Kira, who despite barely speaking as these events unfold are evidently on precisely the same page when it comes to Kira’s sense of obligation to Bajor and Bajor’s need to forge its own path.
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For fans of the old Colorforms, a new Star Trek publication will bring back memories.
Stuck on Star Trek, a new publication due out next month, features Star Trek backdrops and reusable vinyl stickers.
Based on the original series, there are ten backdrops included in Stuck on Star Trek. Some of the backdrops included are: the Enterprise bridge, transporter room, the sickbay, and the engine room, as well as planetary scenes from: The City on the Edge of Forever, The Devil in the Dark and Arena.
There are “over seventy” stickers included on two pages, however more than half of those stickers are Tribbles. Other stickers include the Enterprise, a Klingon battlecruiser, a Romulan Bird-of-Prey, the Enterprise crew, a redshirt, a Romulan, Klingon and a Gorn, phasers, communicators, speech bubbles and those Tribbles.
Stuck on Star Trek will be released next month, and can be pre-ordered here. The book will retail for $19.95.
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Ron Howard will be directing Kol Ma She’Yesh Li (All I’ve Got), an Israeli movie being produced by J.J. Abrams‘ Bad Robot at Paramount.
All I’ve Got is based on a 2003 Israeli TV movie of the week.
In All I’ve Got, the romance of a young couple is interrupted when the man is killed in a freak car accident. The woman moves on with her life and marries and has three children. Fifty years later, she dies and in the afterlife, faces a difficult choice. She can forget the memory of her life after the accident and become young again to be with her first love, or she can stay the same age and wait for her second husband to join her.
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The cover for IDW Publishing’s Star Trek Countdown to Darkness #4 might answer a question being asked by fans wanting to know if Klingons will be in the movie.
Star Trek Countdown to Darkness #4 will be the last part of a comic book series leading up to Star Trek into Darkness.
The front cover features a masked Klingon.
Star Trek Countdown to Darkness #4, written by Mike Johnson, with art by David Messina is overseen by Star Trek Into Darkness co-writer/co-producer Roberto Orci. The thirty-two page issue, selling for $3.99 is due out in May.
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According to Robert Meyer Burnett, who was one of the persons responsible for the new bonus features on last year’s Blu-ray release of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Trek fans can look forward to a Blu-ray release of The Animated Series.
The Animated Series was originally released on DVD in 2006.
“There are plans afoot to bring The Animated Series to Blu-ray,” said Burnett, in an interview with Trekcore.
“I love The Animated Series,” said Burnett, “because to me – despite the very limited animation and some of the lethargy on display from some of the voice acting, and James Doohan doing every other alien voice – there are some great episodes of The Animated Series. Episodes that I really like written by original series writers, whether it’s Yesteryear being case in point; Albatross and Bem, How Sharper than a Serpent’s Tooth and The Counter-Clock Incident and Jihad – there are a lot of really interesting stories there that I think are really legitimate.”
Burnett is already in the process of brainstorming about the project. “I have an idea that would be crazy to pull off, but if we could, it would be really interesting,” he said.
For more of the Burnett interview, where he talked about Trek from the original series through Abrams-Trek, head to the link located here.
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Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s Patrick Stewart will be taking on the role of Tobi in Match, a movie adaptation of Stephen Belber‘s play of the same name.
Written by Belber, Match will also feature Broadway vet Carla Gugino and Matthew Lillard.
In Match, Tobi, a “reclusive and eccentric” former choreographer and Julliard dance instructor, is visited by Mike (Lillard) and Lisa (Gugino), a couple from Seattle. Tobi believes that the pair is interviewing him for Lisa’s thesis on the New York dance movement of the ’60s, but they are there for another reason and Tobi must “face the impact of decisions he made in his past.”
A release date for Match has not been announced yet.
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Chris Pine and Zoë Saldana will be hosting the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Scientific and Technical Awards next month.
First presented in 1931, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Scientific and Technical Awards “honor achievements that improve the production, distribution and exhibition of movies.”
The pair will present nine awards to twenty-five individual recipients in a presentation set for February 9 at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
“We are thrilled to have Chris and Zoe host the Sci-Tech Awards,” said Academy President Hawk Koch. “Their film experience with the kind of technical advancements these awards honor makes them the perfect pair for the job.”
Part of the presentation will be aired on February 24 in the Oscar telecast.
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Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s Wil Wheaton will be appearing in a commercial that will air during this year’s Super Bowl.
And the commercial, for the Lincoln Motor Company, was filmed at a very familiar place to Star Trek fans, Vasquez Rocks.
It began with a phone call from Wheaton’s manager, telling him that he had been offered a part in a commercial at a special time. “You know that rather popular football event that happens in February,” said his manager?
“Shut up!” said Wheaton.
“Yes, it airs then.”
The commercial is part of a promotion that Jimmy Fallon has been doing with fans on Twitter, called steer the script.
Wheaton was well-aware of the significance of Vasquez Rocks to Trek fans. “Vasquez Rocks — or, as I like to call it, Every Planet Ever In The History Of The Star Trek Universe And Most Sci-Fi Movies From The Fifties — has an incredibly rich film history, but most of us know it from the aforementioned projects,” he said. “In fact, from the moment I saw the iconic rocks, my brain began a loop of the Star Trek fight music that did not stop until I left the set hours later.”
“It’s so cool to work here,” Wheaton told the director, “because even though Star Trek always came here, those sons of bitches never let Wesley on the landing party.”
In addition to Wheaton’s commercial appearance, Trek fans can also watch a thirty-second commercial for Star Trek into Darkness.
The Super Bowl takes place February 3 on CBS.
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Where No Man Has Gone Before – the Unauthorized Star Trek Parody Musical will premiere in Washington, D.C. this June.
Written by Clara Hoch and Eva Thorpe, and directed by Hoch, the musical parody is based on the original series episode of the same name.
In Where No Man Has Gone Before – the Unauthorized Star Trek Parody Musical, “all is well on the Enterprise under the hand of James T. Kirk (Gavin Cole) as the ship welcomes its new psychiatrist Dr. Elisabeth Dehner (Elaine Edwards). The cocksure Kirk immediately begins a torrid love affair with Dehner. But not everyone on the Enterprise is so happy, the ship’s librarian Gary Mitchell (Anthony Logan Cole) vows to kill Kirk and steal Dehner’s heart. When things go horribly wrong during a rescue mission and Dehner and Mitchell are blasted with space radiation and get psychic powers. Will they be able retain their humanity? Will Spock be able to overcome his Uncomfortable Bowel Syndrome and find love? Why is Kirk such as dick? All this and more will be answered in Hoch and Thorpe’s Pon Farr Fest of a musical!
Other actors in the production include Brandon Boling as Dr. McCoy, Marcus Schmidt as Mr. Spock, Michael Hawthorne as Scotty, Erich Hoch as Chekov, Emma Grey O’Brien as Nurse Christine Chapel, and Taylor LaCosta as Uhura.
The ensemble also includes Binta Barry, Greg Rosenburg, Zoe Hawryluk, Daniel Kirk Lindgren, Emma Eichenberger, Julianna Gonzalez, Stephanie Rathjen, Katie Eichenberger and Justin Janke.
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For fans looking for Star Trek merchandise, Diamond Select Toys has several items due out at various times this year, and four of the five items feature the USS Enterprise.
The Diamond Select Toy items include the USS Enterprise NCC-1701B, USS Enterprise 1701-D, Star Trek Enterprise Project Cutaway Ship, Star Trek Enterprise Rock Art and the Star Trek Legacy Minimates Series 1 Assortment.
First up is a new set of Minimates; the Star Trek Legacy Minimates Series 1 Assortment. This set features: Captain Archer, Xindi, Captain Sisko, Jem Hadar, Khan, Admiral Kirk, Borg Queen and Captain Picard. Two-packs of the characters will sell for $9.99 each.
The Star Trek TOS Enterprise Mini Vehicle, measuring ten inches long, opens up to feature an exclusive Minimate of Captain Kirk. This little ship will sell for $29.99.
The Star Trek Enterprise Project Cutaway Ship has transparent pieces that reveal the living quarters and machinery inside the ship. Eighteen inches in length, the Star Trek Enterprise Project Cutaway Ship will sell for $174.99.
Other ship releases will include the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-B (Star Trek: Generations) and the USS Enterprise 1701-D.
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Even though it has been almost twelve years since Star Trek: Voyager ended, Robert Picardo still maintains contact with his former co-workers.
Every year, the actors get together once or twice for a dinner and this year’s dinner fell on a special date.
“We have our dinner at the Palm (in Los Angeles), and last year I made the reservation on the 16th without realizing that it was our exact anniversary (of the airing of Caretaker),” said Picardo.
Most of the actors make it to these dinners too. “Once in a while it’s all of us, but it usually seems like we’re missing one person, and it’s usually a different missing person each year,” said Picardo. “But I love it. It’s fun that we all stay in touch. I talk to the guys pretty regularly, and I talk to Kate (Mulgrew) pretty regularly.”
Something else that helps the Voyager actors stay in touch is attending Star Trek conventions and appearances. “…We see so much of each other during our personal appearances that we’ve maintained the friendships,” said Picardo. “We have scheduled reunions, in a way, especially with the big show in Vegas every year. It seems that a chunk of us are in Vegas every year, and a couple of us are usually together at other events around the world during the year. So that’s already there, though getting together for dinner is definitely a choice, a social event. We go out of our way to do it, and it’s fun. I’m not in regular contact with Robert Beltran, for example, so it’s great to know I’ll see him at these dinners. I talk to Garrett all the time, but we don’t see each other all that much. So, it’s really important that we do these dinners. Everyone feels like, if they’re in town, they show up.”
Picardo had another cast reunion recently, this time with the cast of China Beach, which is celebrating the twenty-fifth anniversary of its premiere next spring with a box set DVD release. “We just had a reunion with the cast and all the creative people,” he said. “It was very fun to see all those people again.” Picardo has written the liner notes for season three of the China Beach release.
Nowadays, Picardo is currently working on The Mentalist, where he plays Jason Cooper, an executive in the Church of Visualize. He can also be found in various television episodes in guest roles, and is looking for roles on the stage as well.
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The next set of shot glasses featuring Juan Ortiz‘s original series art has been announced.
The glasses in this sixth set feature art from The Tholian Web, The Savage Curtain, Mirror, Mirror and Miri.
This is the sixth set of Trek shot glasses, the other five sets can be seen here.
The set of two ounce Bif Bang Pow! Star Trek glasses are available for pre-order now and will cost $14.99 for the set. To pre-order the shot glasses, which will be released in April, head to the link located here.
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Star Trek: Voyager‘s Robert Picardo shared his memories of joining Voyager and of the first episode, Caretaker.
Picardo was the last actor to work on the pilot which was a bit daunting. “I was the last guy to come in, and everybody else had already established relationships,” he said. “So I come in and say ‘Hello,’ and everyone knew each other already. That meant that there was that little feeling of I had to prove myself.”
Initially, Picardo believed that while working on Voyager would be good for his wallet, his role as the EMH would not be very satisfying emotionally. “I just had so little to do in the pilot,” he said. “I remember, when I first got the role, I was telling everybody, ‘I got the new Star Trek pilot. I’m sure it’ll run. I’m sure it’ll put my kids through college. But I’ve got to tell you, I’ve got the worst part on the show.’ That was an irony that I’ve lived with ever since. I thought I’d gotten the dull role in the show and that made the experience so much fun for me.”
Picardo assumed at first that Tim Russ would be playing the outsider character, played by Spock, Data and Odo on the other Trek televised series. “…I’d gotten the outsider character without being smart enough to realize it,” he said. “I assumed the Spock character on our show would be the Vulcan, would be Tim Russ. I didn’t know enough to realize that the artificial intelligence character, at least on Voyager, was the heir, the successor to that kind of role on our show. And that was very cool.”
Although years have passed since Picardo did Caretaker, the memories are fresh because of his convention appearances over the years. “…With Star Trek, we’re still constantly in the world,” he said. “We’re not making Voyager anymore, but we’re still making personal appearances. People are still watching it. The fans still even review the work. It seems a little bit more present in my memory than, say, China Beach, which was a show I did until just a couple of years before Voyager started. China Beach, though, seems like something I haven’t been a part of for a very long time, because we don’t have conventions for it, I haven’t really seen or talked about it in a long time. So that feels like more of a distant memory to me than Voyager.”
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A new art print features a ship from the original series’ Space Seed episode.
The ship is the S.S. Botany Bay, the sleeper ship on which Khan and his genetically engineered supermen were found.
The S.S. Botany Bay is the first in a new series of ships by artist Mark Brayer; illustrator, book-cover artist and cartoonist. Chris Wood, Bye Bye Robot co-founder, spoke about the artist and his work. “Working with Mark and the new series of prints is awesome,” he said. “His unique draftsman-type style is perfect for the vintage ships, and the anticipation of the other posters in the new series is palpable.”
The 16″ x 24″ poster is made of high-quality heavy weight 100lb acid-free paper and sells for $25 plus shipping. The poster can be purchased here.
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After a Ferengi inquisitor comes to visit, Quark and Rom travel to Ferenginar to punish their Moogie for wearing clothes and earning profit.
Plot Summary: While Jake tries to persuade his father to meet freighter captain Kasidy Yates, Quark is visited by Ferengi Commerce Authority Agent Brunt, who informs Quark that he is being held accountable for the misdeeds of Ishka, known to Quark and Rom as Moogie. She has been charged with earning a profit, but since Ferengi women are not allowed to be prosecuted – just as they are not allowed to wear clothes or conduct business – her eldest son is being held responsible. Quark travels to Ferenginar, reluctantly taking Rom with him, to demand that Ishka confess, but a defiant Ishka greets them fully dressed and says that she will not sign the confession as she does not believe she has done anything wrong. To his horror, Quark discovers that his mother has amassed a fortune by successfully trading with dozens of businessmen. Since Quark will be required to pay the FCA the equivalent of his mother’s earnings, he will have to sell the bar and everything he owns. Ishka claims that Quark is jealous that she has the lobes for business, which his father never did; Quark storms out, planning to turn her in for all her transgressions until Rom intercepts him to tell him that their Moogie has agreed to split her profits with him. Meanwhile, Sisko and Yates meet in the cargo bay and later go out for dinner, discovering a common love of baseball, which her brother plays on Cestus III. Ishka tells Quark that she never promised to split her profits with him – it was a ruse on Rom’s part to bring Quark home – but because she loves her sons, she will sign the confession and give back the money she earned. Once she is alone with Rom, the two chuckle that it’s a good thing no one else knows that she turned over only a third of her profits, keeping the rest hidden from Quark and the Ferengi authorities.
Analysis: I try to make myself like “Family Business,” and it’s certainly easier during a rewatch after the end of Deep Space Nine, when Kasidy Yates has become such an important character and when we know that Ishka and Rom are going to triumph over Quark and his ilk. For a long time this episode was on my “never watch again” list, which has now changed because I love Yates, but that doesn’t make the Ishka storyline any easier to swallow. I’m sure the writers thought they were being progressive, setting up Ferengi women as an oppressed group and then allowing Quark’s mother to begin a liberation movement, but since the storyline is only ever written for its comic potential and bears no resemblance to the real struggles of women anywhere on Earth for independence – financial, familial, sexual – it ends up being worse than stupid, and as much as I love all the actors who play Ferengi on DS9, I find it even harder to watch than the institutionalized Klingon sexism which is generally portrayed as wrongheaded or the sanitized storyline about Bajoran women sent to entertain Cardassian men who are more porn fantasy figures then believable characters. The fact that Ishka is so much stronger than her sons doesn’t make up for Ferengi misogyny, it heightens it, since she’s portrayed as being literally the only woman on the planet who combines such intelligence, force of will, and fearlessness. Otherwise, Ferengi women would have put men like Brunt – and Quark – in their place long ago. Even knowing that Ishka will persuade the Grand Nagus to make sweeping changes isn’t much comfort, since it ends up being a benevolent dictator and not a revolution on the part of half the Ferengi population who ultimately makes the biggest difference.
It would help if there were actual character development of the Ferengi in place of human stereotypes. Nobody learns anything and nobody grows as a person. Predictably, Quark reacts to his mother like a little boy having a tantrum instead of like a grown man facing a serious personal and financial crisis, while Rom has one of the creepiest Oedipal moments on television, encouraging his mother to get naked and play with his teeth. There seems to be a moment when Quark may realize that his mother could be the biggest asset ever to his ambitions and that quietly supporting her would make much more sense than spouting human cliches about how a woman’s place is in the home. But then the writers turn to one of the oldest traps for women, having Moogie declare that preserving the family is the most important thing, far more than her own worth as a person or raising her children to be better men. What could be a revelatory moment, Quark’s realization that his mother and not his father always had the lobes for business – which by extension means there may be plenty of Ferengi women in similar situations – gets turned instead into a sappy “I love you despite your faults” scene. Has Quark forgotten Pel, the cross-dressing Ferengi woman who demonstrated business acumen that rivaled the Nagus, who would seem to be Ishka’s natural ally and successor? The thumbprinting confession scene is painful to watch because Quark thinks it’s the real thing, even if the confession itself gets invalidated when Ishka confesses to Rom that she kept most of her money. It’s an entirely private victory, like her entirely private choice to wear clothing in her own home. Not only won’t the authorities have to deal with the fact that a woman has repeatedly outwitted them, but her own elder son won’t have any reason to rethink his own attitudes and behaviors.
Though the Ferengi storyline is played for more humor – apparently we’re supposed to find jokes about big lobes an endless source of hilarity, though there are more of them here than there are wiener jokes in the average episode of South Park – the Sisko storyline has more genuine wit and charm, particularly the priceless moment when Dax tells Sisko that if she were still Curzon, she’d have stolen Kasidy from him before Sisko had even met her. (“That’s one of the reasons I’m glad you’re not still Curzon!” retorts Sisko.) It’s pretty sad that Sisko can’t meet a woman without help from his son, but he does work long hours and he’s probably uneasy about bringing home a potential replacement for Jake’s mother, which makes things that much simpler if Jake has already met and approved the woman in question. The fact that the entire command crew knows Sisko’s business is pretty funny considering they all knew Bashir’s business when his former classmate was arriving a couple of weeks ago and everyone always seems to know O’Brien’s business. I remember being irritated once upon a time that what they had in common wasn’t commanding crews or dealing with bureaucracy but baseball, but now that seems to make perfect sense, that his biggest concern wouldn’t be whether he could share all the tribulations of his work life with her but whether she’d appreciate his cooking and sense of humor and secret fanboy side. I’m also glad that the writers let him confront Jennifer’s ghost, as it were, in the alternate universe, which must have made him stop idealizing his marriage; now he knows that if circumstances had been different, he might not have been the right man for her, nor she the right woman for him.
Abrams To Direct Next Star Wars Film
in Trek News
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Although he once said that he would not do it, word is that J.J. Abrams will be directing the next Star Wars film for Disney.
“It’s [a] done deal with J.J.,” an unnamed source told Deadline today.
Last year, speaking to Empire Magazine at ComingSoon.net, Abrams admitted being in discussions about helming the next Star Wars movie, but said then that he preferred not to do it. “..There were the very early conversations and I quickly said that because of my loyalty to Star Trek, and also just being a fan, I wouldn’t even want to be involved in the next version of those things,” he said. “I declined any involvement very early on. I’d rather be in the audience not knowing what was coming, rather than being involved in the minutiae of making them.”
Star Wars Episode VII is expected out in 2015. It will be written by Michael Arndt.
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