Vic
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IDW Publishing has announced three Star Trek comics for next March.
The comics include Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness #3, Star Trek #19, and Star Trek Volume 4.
In Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness #3, “Captain Kirk and his crew will face an all-new adversary that threatens the future of the entire Federation.”
Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness #3 is part of the official prequel mini-series overseen by Roberto Orci. Written by Mike Johnson, with art and covers by David Messina; the thirty-two page issue will sell for $3.99.
In Star Trek #19 “events that shaped the lives of the Enterprise crew,” are shown, such as “what led young Montgomery Scott to devote himself to engineering.”
Also overseen by Orci, Star Trek #19 was written by Mike Johnson, with art by Claudia Balboni and covers by Tim Bradstreet. The thirty-two page issue will sell for $3.99.
Star Trek Volume 4 continues the countdown to Star Trek into Darkness. In this issue, “experience life on the Enterprise through a redshirt’s eyes” in The Redshirt’s Tale. “Find out how Scotty and his alien sidekick Keenser first meet.” Fans of Mirror, Mirror will enjoy a brand new re-imagining of that original series episode.
Written by Mike Johnson with art by Stephen Molnar and cover by Tim Bradstreet, this one-hundred-and-four page issue will sell for $17.99.
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Today, a new HD trailer for Star Trek into Darkness was released, with new scenes and a viral marketing clue.
The trailer is just short of two minutes in length. Spoilers are behind the cut.
Some of the elements have been seen before, but new things include:
- A voice-over by Captain Pike cautioning Kirk about his cockiness
- Scotty in a red shirt
- Uhura on Qo’noS
- Harrison surveying damage (caused by him?)
- Many body containers. Are they from deaths sustained in an attack or stasis tubes (à la The Wrath of Khan)?
- Explosion in a building
- A man in a space suit dodging debris above a planet
- Uhura kissing Spock
- Noel Clarke’s character dropping a Starfleet ring into a glass
- Scotty dangling over some steep drop
- Kirk punching Harrison while Spock and Uhura watch
- Harrison punching someone
- Kirk shooting out a window
- Spock jumping off of a building
The viral marketing clue comes in the scene where Harrison is in the brig (around the 1:06 mark), and can be seen in the control panel to the far right. In red lettering against the black, a website is listed: AreYouThe1701.com.
At this website, fans are asked to sign up for future updates and are thanked when doing so with the promise that “We will tell you when the search begins.” There are also links to AreYouThe1701 Facebook and Twitter pages, which as of yet, contain no new information.
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Kidnapped into the dark alternate universe, Sisko must take on the role of his dead counterpart in order to save Jennifer — his late wife’s mirror parallel.
Plot Summary: “Smiley” O’Brien abducts Sisko into the mirror universe visited previously by Kira and Bashir, who learned there that Captain Kirk from Sisko’s own universe had caused great changes in the alternate universe’s balance of power. Smiley explains that Sisko’s counterpart was similarly persuaded by Kira to become the leader of the Terran rebellion against the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance, but he has been killed, so the rebels need Sisko to pose as his double to try to sway a Terran scientist to defect to their cause. Sisko – who soon discovers that Dax is his lover and Kira his former lover in this universe – resists any involvement until he learns that the scientist in question is Jennifer Sisko, the counterpart to his dead wife, and that the rebels will kill her if she can’t be turned before she enables Intendant Kira Nerys to hunt them down. On Terok Nor, the Intendant promises Jennifer to help the Terrans, but Jennifer knows that Kira is still having Terran slaves tortured with the assistance of Garak. When Sisko and Smiley take a ship to the station, they must allow themselves to be captured by Kira, who sends Smiley to ore processing but takes Sisko to her quarters, eager to resume her erotic dalliance with him. Sisko soon discovers that Jennifer does not trust the Intendant, yet she despises him – or at least his double in that universe. He apologizes for his past misdeeds and explains that he is there to rescue her from the Alliance, which is using her knowledge to wipe out the Terrans. While Smiley leads a Terran escape in ore processing, Sisko tries to take Jennifer to their ship, but Kira and her guards trap them. Barricading himself with the other Terrans in the ore processing center, Sisko sets the station’s self-destruct codes, which are the same in his own universe. When Kira, Garak, and the guards arrive, Sisko tells them that unless he and the Terrans are freed, he will destroy Terok Nor. Once they escape, Jennifer asks Sisko who he really is. Again Sisko must part, seemingly forever, from his wife.
Analysis: If there’s a problem with DS9′s use of the Mirror Universe, it’s that that parallel takes on such a life of its own that in some ways it compares favorably to the universe of the show. If I were Sisko, and I wound up in a universe where Jennifer was alive and Kira and Dax both wanted to have sex with me, I’m not sure I’d ever go home – sure, it would suck not being there for Jake, but the way the parallel universes seem to work, I’m betting he’d be born there too, just at a later date than in Sisko’s own universe. I remember that my immediate reaction to “Through the Looking Glass” was that all regular characters should immediately adopt their AU counterparts’ hairstyles; Kira and Dax both look gorgeous, and scruffy Bashir, who looks like a cross between a Hollywood terrorist and a Hollywood Jesus, has never been hotter. It’s always delightful to get a good excuse to see major characters get sexy together, and an alternate universe is a vastly better reason than Lwaxana Troi’s menopausal hormones…plus Kira and Dax have much better chemistry with Sisko than anyone else they’ve been paired with thus far, and the nymphomaniacal Intendant, who’s apparently interested in everyone but Garak, is just plain fun. On a more serious canonical note, I would love to know how Sisko knows so many details about the alternate universe, right down to the fact that he should kiss the Intendant if she captures him – does Smiley tell him that on the way to the station, or did our own Kira report to Starfleet that in the universe James T. Kirk corrupted, lawless Captain Sisko was sleeping with her own tyrannical double? Yet again the writers are smart enough not to waste time on the mechanism of the crossover but jump straight into the action, giving Sisko a reason we’ll all accept for him to violate the noninterference directive, a living duplicate of his wife who’s not only in jeopardy but working for the bad guys. The presence of Bashir, Dax, and Voyager‘s Tuvok may be gratuitous, but again the sexiness makes up for that.
Though it’s all meant in fun, which makes the storyline easy to swallow though there’s lots of torture and murder – AU Rom meets a particularly grisly end – “Through the Looking Glass” brings up some interesting psychological questions about Sisko. He goes to bed with Dax without even trying to get out of it beyond a feeble insistence that they have work to do, and he’s apparently neither nervous, even though his counterpart had been involved with her for months, nor unsettled, even though he has no idea whether there was a Curzon who was his mentor in that universe. He’s quite enthusiastic with the Intendant, too, much more so than the Captain Sisko we saw in “Crossover” who resented her demands for sexual favors in exchange for far more freedom than most of her Terrans enjoy (icky, but not unlike the way marriage worked for many European women for centuries). Either Kira filled him in on all the details when she returned from this universe or Sisko has thought about planting one on his second-in-command for a long time. The Intendant is a fantastic character and Nana Visitor is fearless about making her as memorable as Kira herself: one minute she’s sexy, vulnerable, passionate, and the next she’s brutally ordering executions. Of course Sisko can’t take his eyes off her! By contrast, he seems oddly subdued when he meets Jennifer’s counterpart, though whether he’s playing a role or trying to protect his own feelings, it’s hard to say. He reacted with so much emotion when he met Prophet!Jennifer that it seems strange not to see the same intensity when he encounters a flesh-and-blood double, even if he knows that she isn’t the woman he fell in love with. It’s a bit silly how quickly he persuades her to turn – one expects him to have some big piece of information she’s lacking to explain her naivete, not an obvious statement that Terrans are slaves and the rebels fight for freedom – but I won’t complain because more serious conversations between the Siskos would take away time from Garak’s bug-eyed vitriol and Sisko’s two-handed phaser-shooting, a cowboy stunt which somehow makes perfect sense in this universe.
The more subtle crossover characters, Jennifer and Smiley and Rom, whose behavior more closely resembles that of ambiguously moral AU Spock-with-a-beard, aren’t very memorable. It’s the gleefully wicked ones who really stand out, though the Intendant has an interesting emotional range – part wounded little girl, part vengeful predator – and AU Garak, though not very subtle, is hilarious in his megalomania (oh, how I wish he had a scene with AU Bashir). There’s a strong campy element, particularly when anyone starts talking about the Rebel Alliance which sounds just this side of Star Wars parody. And the directing keeps it all in balance – the scene with Kira talking in the mirror is one of the most visually striking all season, far more interesting to me than the phaser battle. Much of the interest comes from the camera angles throughout, which make the Intendant look taller and more menacing than one might expect and which show Sisko and Jennifer as a pair even when the characters are fighting. The fact that the episode leaves Jennifer alive (and presumably aware from Smiley of where Sisko comes from) seems to beg for a sequel, which we will get, as well as another mirror universe episode involving the doppelganger of Kira’s dead lover Bareil, also a story of innate personalities and second chances. The AU Jennifer has lived a more difficult life than Sisko’s Jennifer, yet she is recognizable to him as a woman he could love; the AU Rom and O’Brien are the people we could easily imagine they’d become given different circumstances. It makes me think back to the James T. Kirk whom in various comics and novels was assassinated by Spock, relieved of command, or elevated to emperor. Why are he and Kira so fundamentally cruel in the AU when most of the others are changed mostly via status? The nature/nurture argument gets tied into knots trying to rationalize how they became tyrants.
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Eager Star Trek fans were finally able to see the first nine minutes of Star Trek into Darkness last night.
The nine minutes were for the most part, an expansion on what was seen in the much shorter teaser trailer released earlier this month. Spoilers behind the cut.
The movie opens in London, Stardate 2259.55. Two parents (Noel Clarke and Nazneen Contractor) take a hover car to a hospital, where their gravely-ill daughter is a patient. When the father steps out of the room, a voice behind him (Benedict Cumberbatch‘s John Harrison) says, “I can save her.”
Next up, planet Nibiru. Kirk and McCoy being chased by “white-faced black-eyed locals” after he swiped some sort of holy scroll from them, to draw them away from a volcano that threatens to wipe out their population. A giant CG-creature is stunned by Kirk, which causes McCoy to yell “You just stunned our ride!”
Meanwhile, elsewhere on Nibiru, Quinto, Uhura, and Sulu are trying to stop the imminent volcanic eruption, but something goes wrong. Uhura and Sulu must leave Spock in the volcano when the shuttlecraft in which they arrived is damaged.
Kirk and McCoy are still being chased and the chase leads them to the edge of a cliff with water below. The pair jumps into the water, but fear not, rescue in the form of the Enterprise is waiting for them beneath the waves.
Back on board the Enterprise, the crew learns of Spock’s peril, but in order to maintain the Prime Directive, a rescue mission can’t be mounted. Spock echoes Spock Prime in The Wrath of Khan, saying that the “needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.”
Kirk asks McCoy would Spock would do if it were Kirk in the volcano. Spock would let Kirk die, replies McCoy.
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Gay civil rights activist George Takei has a message for Antonin Scalia; recuse yourself from the two gay marriage cases set to come before the Supreme Court.
Takei believes that Scalia is “clearly biased” after making “repugnant” statements about homosexuality recently.
Scalia, speaking at Princeton University, said “If we cannot have moral feelings against homosexuality, can we have it against murder? Can we have it against other things?”
“I really do think – first of all, that statement was a repugnant statement to equate homosexuality with murder,” said Takei. “And any Justice who has so little thought before he speaks should not be participating in ruling on the cases involving DOMA or Proposition 8. I’m not a lawyer.”
Takei wants Scalia to follow the example of fellow Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan. “Well, it seems to me that if Justice Elena Kagan can recuse herself from the Boston case, Justice Scalia needs to consider recusing himself,” said Takei. “He is obviously not unbiased. He is clearly biased in this situation. So how can he look at the issue and make a judgment fairly?”
In the video below, Takei’s comments about Scalia begin at the 2:42 mark.
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Several of the Star Trek actors spoke recently to MTV about Star Trek Into Darkness, and in the interviews, they revealed a bit more about Benedict Cumberbatch‘s character, the peril of the Enterprise crew and Kirk’s interaction with Alice Eve‘s character.
As usual, potential spoilers are behind the cut.
Cumberbatch’s revelation of details about his character, John Harrison, gives more insight into Harrison’s motivations and powers. “[Harrison]‘s a terrorist,” he said. “He operates as a terrorist. He has extraordinary physical powers, but also mental powers. He can sow an idea, which is as powerful as gunshots or close-hand combat, which he’s masterful in. He tears into the fabric of both the world and the Enterprise family, and he leaves behind him a trail of devastation. It’s quite exciting to watch.”
Harrison is bent on vengeance of some sort, and Cumberbatch explained a bit about Harrison’s reasons for that vengeance, but tried to do so without giving away too much information. “Giving away the full motivation would ruin it,” he said; “but it’s personal. It’s also political, I think. He’s somebody who, at some point in the film, you should feel a certain amount of empathy towards his cause, if not his means. There’s no two-dimensional obstacle he presents purely and simply by the fact that he’s opposing our hero.”
Opposing our hero means using his crewmates against him whenever possible. “[Harrison] has an interesting relationship with Kirk, and with Spock in a way,” explained Cumberbatch. “He very much plays them off against each other. There’s an element of shadow to him and Kirk.”
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Meanwhile, Zachary Quinto warned fans not to be complaisant about the fates of Kirk or Spock in Star Trek into Darkness. “There is reason to worry. The enemy that we face in this movie…is entirely different than enemies that we’ve seen this crew face in the past. There’s an insidiousness, and a ruthlessness and a fierce intelligence to his character that almost infiltrates and undermines the connectivity of the crew to a degree that the stakes are much higher and it’s much more urgent and there’s a lot more at risk.”
Quinto’s video may be seen here.
And finally, what about Kirk and Carol Marcus, who hook up in the Prime Universe? Will romance also blossom in the new Trek reality? “So much happens, the action and plot is so fast, there’s really not much time for Kirk to do anything other than try to save the crew and save his own ass because danger is imminent and all that,” said Chris Pine. “But clearly Kirk being Kirk; Kirk loves a blonde…so the flirting and the connection is there.”
Marcus has a more important role in the film than romancing Kirk. “Her scientific knowledge and her education, scientifically speaking, plays a big part in helping solve the crisis.”
Pine’s interview (together with Quinto) can be seen here.
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Star Trek: The Complete Unauthorized History
Robert Greenberger
Voyageur Press
256 pages $40.00 list price ($24.34 on Amazon)
Star Trek: The Complete Unauthorized History, a new book about the history of the Star Trek franchise, spans a time frame from the early 1960s, when Star Trek was still only an idea in Gene Roddenberry‘s mind, to the present-day J.J. Abrams reboot.
The foreword for Star Trek: The Complete Unauthorized History was written by Shuttle Astronaut Thomas D. Jones (STS-59, 68, 80 and 98), a fan of Star Trek from its 1966 debut. Inspired by Star Trek in the form on the 1980s films, he joined the astronaut corps in 1990.
Almost half of the book focuses on the original series, including the Animated Series, beginning with Roddenberry’s dream and his efforts to get his show on the air. The Next Generation gets the next largest page count, and then the three spinoffs and the new rebooted Star Trek each get roughly a dozen pages to tell their stories.
The book finishes up with Star Trek‘s place in history, and the future of Star Trek.
Although the book is an unauthorized history, that has benefits, as author Greenberger was able to get the “real stories” about various incidents as opposed to sanitized versions. And here is where the book shines – Greenberger has found just the right balance between an “homage” book and a “tell all” book. For example, Gene Roddenberry is shown as a human being, neither fully saint nor fully sinner. Roddenberry’s flaws are acknowledged, yet Greenberger doesn’t dwell upon them; they are merely presented as part of the package that made up Roddenberry the man. There are stories in Star Trek: The Complete Unauthorized History that were new to this reviewer, a fan since the early 1970s.
Greenberger reached out to fans to get their stories and Star Trek fandom is explored, including fanzines, books, magazines and conventions. Many Star Trek authors of today began as fans of the series, and it was fans who began the conventions which thrive to this day. Greenberger agreed with his editor that the “fan element [had] never been properly integrated with a history of the franchise,” and he sought to remedy that lack of attention, beginning with the foreword by Thomas D. Jones.
One group of fans who suffered from a lack of attention however in Star Trek: The Complete Unauthorized History was the Star Trek online community. It was rather surprising that this modern-day virtual convention of fans got so little notice as online fandom is an important part of the continuing Star Trek fan experience.
Star Trek: The Complete Unauthorized History is richly illustrated with photos on almost every page. There are the expected photos; cast photos, books and such, but most of the photos in the book are of Star Trek merchandise items and it was enjoyable to look at them all; seeing which ones one has in one’s own collection and discovering others that somehow were missed along the way. From stickers and drinking glasses to figures and ship models, there are many examples of the large treasure trove of Star Trek merchandise that has been released over the years.
For fans of any of the Star Trek series, but especially those of the original series or The Next Generation, or for new fans brought in via the new Star Trek movies who are wondering what went before Abrams-Trek, this is a splendid book to have in one’s collection.
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Two Star Trek comic collections will hit store shelves tomorrow but fans can see previews of each collection now.
The collections include Star Trek: The Next Generation Omnibus, and Star Trek: The Newspaper Strips, Vol. 1.
Star Trek: The Next Generation Omnibus includes four graphic The Next Generation novels including: The Space Between, Intelligence Gathering, The Last Generation and Ghosts.
Authors for Star Trek: The Next Generation Omnibus include David Tischman, Scott Tipton, David Tipton and Zander Cannon. Joe Corroney created the cover art and other artists include Casey Maloney, David Messina, Gordon Purcell and Javier Aranda.
Four-hundred-and-eighty pages in length, Star Trek: The Next Generation Omnibus will cost $29.99.
Star Trek: The Newspaper Strips, Vol. 1 features Star Trek comics from December 2, 1979 through October 25, 1981.
Writers and artists for the comics include Thomas Warkentin, Sharman DiVono and Ron Harris.
Two-hundred-and-sixty-four pages in length, Star Trek: The Newspaper Strips, Vol. 1 will cost $49.99
Click on any of the thumbnails to enlarge.
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Several new items have come out regarding characters and locations in Star Trek into Darkness.
Spoilers behind the cut
The new information is:
- Alice Eve is playing Carol Marcus.
- Klingons will have forehead ridges, but with ornamental piercings and facial hair.
- Of fourteen Klingons in the film, only two speak and those two will remove their helmets.
- Quo’nos will be seen/was seen in the trailer.
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A new image and information released by Paramount Pictures today reveals the character played by Benedict Cumberbatch in Star Trek into Darkness.
The image and name will be behind to cut, so that those avoiding spoilers will stay spoiler-free.
According to Paramount, Cumberbatch will be playing John Harrison. Could this be the “Harrison” who served under James T. Kirk and was seen in episodes such as Space Seed, where he lost consciousness after being deprived of oxygen?
That would tie in with earlier information that some Wrath of Khan music will be in the movie and the “hands to the glass” moment echoing the Kirk-Spock scene in the Wrath of Khan.
Time will tell.
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Last night in Los Angeles, a nine-minute preview of Star Trek into Darkness was screened to journalists courtesy of Paramount Pictures and by J.J. Abrams, who introduced the preview.
The nine-minute preview will officially debut ahead of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey later this week, where more details will emerge. For this preview, Abrams asked that minute-by-minute details not be shared just yet. Spoilers below the cut!
The clip began in future London (Stardate 2259), where a couple visiting their comatose daughter in the hospital (Noel Clarke and Nazneen Contractor) are told by Benedict Cumberbatch‘s character that he has the ability to heal their child. Clarke asks the identity of the strange man, but gets no answer.
The next scene is on a class M red planet. In this scene, Kirk and McCoy are racing through a field of red trees running from an alien tribe (the same tribe where they had been working undercover), only to run out of real estate at the edge of a cliff. The two are forced to jump into the water below.
The tribe is said to be on the brink of extinction, unless the Enterprise can stop a volcano from exploding. This dangerous task is being attempted by Spock, (with help from Uhura and Sulu), who has a device that will stop the eruption, that is if Spock doesn’t become a victim of the volcano before his work is completed.
Empire reported that “there is a link to one of the original Trek universe’s most memorable lines of dialogue.” MTV said that “Spock invokes a very famous line uttered in the classic Trek film, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.”
According to Screenrant, “Kirk is put into a position where he must choose between the needs of the many or the needs of the few.”
Finally, Ain’t It Cool News reported that composer Michael Giacchino uses Khan’s theme. “You know the cue: James Horner‘s blast of French horns that signals the arrival of the hijacked USS Reliant. Here, it’s incorporated into a scene that finds Kirk and Bones running for their lives from a pissed-off pack of natives on a planet about to be ravaged by a massive volcano.”
As for the “ship under water” scene, that is said to be to keep from violating the Prime Directive, which probably means that this body of water isn’t on Earth, but on the alien planet with the red trees.
Star Trek Into Darkness opens in theaters May 17th, 2013.
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In order to save his own life after a telepathic attack, Bashir must confront aspects of his own personality manifesting as colleagues on the station.
Plot Summary: While Bashir and Garak are having one of their regular shared meals, Quark introduces them to a Lethean named Altovar who asks Bashir to sell him some biomimetic gel. Bashir refuses, but when he later goes to sickbay, he finds that Altovar is already there looking for the banned substance. The Lethean knocks Bashir out, and when he wakes, he finds that he is aging prematurely on a devastated station where only critical systems are working. Though he finds a terrified Quark and a pragmatic Garak still alive, plus the pursuing Altovar, Bashir can only hear strange whispers in the distance until he discovers Dax, O’Brien, Odo and Kira attempting to come up with a repair strategy. The crew behaves strangely, and after O’Brien fixes the communications relay, allowing all of them to hear the whispers that keep haunting Bashir, they hear their own voices saying that Bashir is in a telepathically-induced coma which will soon leave him dead. When the doctor scans his own brain patterns, he realizes that he is indeed comatose and the crewmembers are aspects of his own personality trying to repair the station, which represents his consciousness. A fearful O’Brien does not want to confront the Lethean, who abducts an overconfident Dax. Abruptly Bashir finds himself playing tennis with Garak, which seems to be a waste of time. The two decide to go to Ops to repair the damaged station since it represents Bashir’s mind. On the way, Bashir encounters Sisko, who has all of the doctor’s medical knowledge and skill, but Altovar abducts Sisko as well, then kills Kira and Odo. Quark, however, is alive and taking bets on how quickly Bashir will die. When Altovar appears and kills Quark, a rapidly aging Bashir breaks his hip trying to flee. Garak tells Bashir that it is hopeless, but this attitude makes the doctor realize that Garak is really Altovar, his enemy. He returns to sickbay, restores power, and destroys the Lethean, defending his life choices all the whole. When Bashir wakes on the real station, Garak is amused to learn of his role as the villain in Bashir’s unconscious drama.
Analysis: “Distant Voices” is an episode that I considered decent but forgettable when I first saw it. In retrospect, however – and I haven’t rewatched it since that first viewing – it seems like brilliant foreshadowing of things we will learn later about Julian Bashir, which just proves that the writers did a good job on this series of keeping track of even minor plot threads. The storyline suggests that Bashir is his own worst enemy, which doesn’t make a lot of sense in third-season series time; we’ve already heard the story about the pre-ganglionic fiber mix-up that tarnished his Starfleet record, and if Bashir is happy practicing “frontier medicine,” why would he resent his parents for his inability to have a brilliant career in tennis? Once we find out that he’s been genetically modified, it will all make much more sense: we’ll know the young Bashir couldn’t afford to draw too much attention to himself, and felt he didn’t really deserve accolades that were only made possible by the illegal procedure that gave him so many of his skills. I’m sure the writers hadn’t worked out Bashir’s augmentation when “Distant Voices” was written, since it would be ridiculous for his Inner Lethean not to have used that against him otherwise. But everything we do learn fits in nicely with later canon about Bashir, nicely rounding out his character, even if it seems like the payoff of this particular episode (he’s satisfied with his job, he’s proud of his principles, he’s afraid of losing Dax’s friendship if he makes a pass at her) is pretty thin. I mean, being depressed about turning 30 in a future where people live to be 150? That’s the series writers expressing their own anxieties, not explaining something that seems logical for the character!
I generally don’t love “alone on the ship”-type bottle stories, which always have pacing problems and often seem redundant – “The Omega Glory” on the original series, “Remember Me” on Next Gen, for instance – but it’s fun to see Bashir investing his companions with his own personality traits. How interesting that it’s Kira he sees as his aggression rather than someone formally trained in military tactics as Bashir himself presumably was while at Starfleet Academy, which is after all a military as well as scientific institution; how funny that he dumps his cowardice and pessimism onto his friend O’Brien; how odd that his interior Odo seems more like the mirror-universe changeling (or perhaps a fearful projection about the Dominion); how curious that despite his ostensible crush on Dax, Bashir sees her as representing self-reliance; how pleasant to discover the depth of his respect for Sisko’s skills and leadership; how hilarious that the villainous Garak of his inner thoughts is as flirtatious as the real one, a detail about which I’m sure someone with psychiatric training like Bashir can’t escape the implications. The allegedly secret attraction to Kira from “Fascination” is thankfully nowhere in evidence in this version of Bashir’s inner life. Given his often immature attitude toward women, by turns predatory and competitive, I appreciate that the Kira and Dax of his mind represent two of the stronger aspects of his personality. Plus I’m greatly relieved that the psychic projection crewmembers don’t age along with Bashir, since even the best aging makeup usually ends up looking silly; this episode won an Emmy for it yet I’m never convinced by the 30ish actor who’s supposed to look 100. (Hey, the makeup team had even less luck getting an older Diana Muldaur to look ancient on Next Gen.)
The pacing of “Distant Voices” has some plodding stretches where, instead of biting my nails waiting for the Lethean to appear, I’m wishing he would hurry up and kill someone already. And some of the devices by which Bashir figures out what’s going on seem ludicrous – it’s hilarious watching the crewmembers in his mind insist that they’re real and not figments of his unconscious, but it stretches credulity when he scans his own brain and sees delta waves. Ditto the moment when he sees himself on the viewscreen dying in sickbay, since he has little access to what’s going on in the real world apart from the snatches of conversation that end up not giving him as many clues to solving his dilemma as the title implies that they might. Fortunately, there’s quite a bit of distracting humor, mostly every time Garak is on the screen. Andy Robinson is always brilliant, infusing what could be boring conversations about aging and dieting with innuendo, but it’s particularly a delight when he has something substantial to do. Here Garak is only slightly more menacing than usual, so it takes quite a while for Bashir (and the audience) to guess that he’s more than just Bashir’s own doubts about whether he’s once again made the wrong choices. The moment when Garak turns into Bashir’s worst nightmare makes up for the slow parts beforehand, when the symbolism of Bashir’s mind is explicated in more detail than the audience actually needs and where we learn that even Bashir’s unconscious mind employs technobabble.
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Zoë Saldana and Benedict Cumberbatch spoke recently about reactions to the Star Trek Into Darkness trailer released Thursday.
For Saldana, her thoughts were on Cumberbatch, while Cumberbatch spoke about his talent agency’s reaction to the trailer.
After watching the trailer, Saldana admitted to loving the sound of Cumberbatch’s voice. “I emailed the whole gang (after watching the trailer),” she said. “I was like, ‘Benedict, your voice sounds better than Barry White‘s.’ I’m sure I made him blush.’”
Meanwhile, Cumberbatch liked the reaction of his talent agency after seeing the trailer. “My [talent] agency was just wetting themselves,” he said. “They were ringing me up and sending me emails. It’s really exciting. I, like everyone else, feel teased. I can’t wait to see the whole film now.”
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For those curious as to which IMAX theaters will be showing the first nine minutes of Star Trek Into Darkness, a listing of those theaters is now available.
The preview will be seen beginning December 14th, ahead of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
Previews will be available in the U.S., Canada, Austria, Australia, Brazil, China, Indonesia, India, Ireland, Malaysia, Mexico, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Turkey, Ukraine and the U.K.
The full list can be seen here.
Another teaser trailer, different than the IMAX preview, or the teaser trailer released on December 6, will debut online Monday, December 17th. The new teaser will be almost two minutes in length.
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The Haynes Klingon Bird-of-Prey Owners’ Workshop Manual
By Rick Sternbach and Ben Robinson
Gallery Books
121 pgs $28.00
The Haynes Klingon Bird-of-Prey Owners’ Workshop Manual is a book that will surely please fans of the Klingons as well as those Star Trek fans interested in ship design. For those who aren’t ship geeks, fear not, there are descriptions of Klingon culture that make the book well worth the read.
The book opens with a foreword by General Martok, who explains that he prefers his B’rel-class I.K.S Rotarran to any other class of Klingon ship, especially the Vor’cha class, preferred by his now-dead adversary Gowron.The story of the B’rel class ship begins with its commissioning, which is not done through a centralized source as in the Federation, but by the powerful Klingon houses. The actual shipbuilding, however, is done by the Klingon Navy Academy (KNA). The KNA designs and produces the ships, which are then turned over to the specific Houses to be fitted out to their own specifications.
The main part of the book explains the layout of the ship and describes the weaponry, propulsion, navigation and ship systems. Photos are provided, with cutaways, detailed deck plans, and individual photos of specific components, such as weapons. Screencaps from Star Trek episodes and movies show familiar Klingon faces as well as scenes aboard a Klingon B’rel-class ship.
The story then turns to life aboard a B’rel-class ship. This section explains the Bridge and its stations, crew descriptions and the ship shift system. Previously unknown facts about life on a Klingon ship are shared including the revelation that most Klingon engineers would prefer death rather than abandoning a ship after a catastrophic malfunction, as they consider their inability to save the ship a personal humiliation. It doesn’t help that even if the engineer does survive after his ship is destroyed, he would never be permitted to serve on a Klingon ship again!
Other interesting revelations include the knowledge that not only do Klingons have redundant systems in their bodies, but that their ships are also designed with redundant systems in case of failure.
The book finishes up with a comparison of the various classes of Klingon ships, and a two-page English-Klingon dictionary.
The Haynes Klingon Bird-of-Prey Owners’ Workshop Manual is a splendid book, and is chock-full of information and graphics to delight fans of the warrior race. This book does not merely detail the build and systems of the ship which are interesting in and of themselves, but it provides a glimpse into the lives of those who run that ship. One does not only see the Engine Room of the I.K.S. Rotarran, but one understands what motivates the engineer, and how he spends his off-duty time.
The photos throughout the book are sharp and clear, with the exception of the screencaps which come off a bit on the dark side.
Priced reasonably, this is a definite “must have†for the fan of the Klingons. This Romulan-loving fan hopes that a Haynes Manual for the Romulan Warbird will appear in due course, although given Romulan paranoia and xenophobia, don’t count on it.
The Haynes Klingon Bird-of-Prey Owners’ Workshop Manual can be ordered atAmazon, for a discounted price of $18.48.
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Eager fans can finally get a glimpse of Star Trek into Darkness, with the release of the first trailer for the movie, which was released today and is now online.
The trailer can also be seen at the official movie site.
UPDATE: A Japanese trailer, seen below, has an extra scene at the fifty-eight second mark.
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In honor of Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s 25th Anniversary, Talking Tom, the “wisecracking tom cat with six hundred million adoring fans worldwide” will become part of Starfleet.
Talking Tom is an app that repeats everything said to him with a funny voice. He is one of Outfit 7′s Talking Friend series apps. Talking Tom has appeared on ABC’s Modern Family.
Fans can now purchase red and yellow Star Trek TNG uniforms for Talking Tom. Later this month, Talking Tom fans will be able to purchase Geordi La Forge’s visor, and even the starship Enterprise!
“We’re humbled and honored to incorporate elements of Star Trek: The Next Generation into our app,” said Samo Login, Outfit7′s founder and chief executive officer. “Trekkers and fans of Talking Tom alike will revel in the opportunity to see Tom act as Captain or ensign.”
“These two great brands complement one another in many ways,†said Sharon Bennett of Iconicfuture. “With its mission to explore new worlds and new lives, TNG has found a rag tag team of friendly characters in Talking Tom 2.”
Talking Tom and the uniforms are available in the APP Store for iOS and Android.
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Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s Jonathan Frakes is grateful for Star Trek fans and very excited about the reboot of the Star Trek franchise.
It’s hard for the actor to believe that a show begun twenty-five years ago is still paying dividends. “It’s surreal that 25 years ago, something is still giving us this gift,” said Frakes. “I’m off to a convention this weekend to Comic-Con in New Orleans with all the cast. Just the idea that we still have an audience is astounding to me.”
Frakes appreciates the Star Trek fan base. “It’s a gift that I am eternally grateful for,” he said. “I learned from my wife, again who has the same type of situation from playing Laura for thirty-seven years on and off on General Hospital. The Luke and Laura phenomenon is not unlike the Star Trek phenomenon, only the fans are different. And the reason that these conventions are successful is that there are people who are so loyal to your show, that one should be – and I am – grateful. When you stop being grateful and stop enjoying it, I think it’s a good time to stop doing the conventions.”
Although The Next Generation is finished, Star Trek still carries on in the form of the J.J. Abrams-rebooted Trek universe. Frakes would like to see a TNG character or two in an Abrams Star Trek film. “I happen to be a fan and a friend of J.J.’s and I think he’s rebooted the franchise in the most successful and wonderful way imaginable,” said Frakes. “And I’m really excited about the second movie.
“I think maybe some version of what they did with Leonard Nimoy in the first movie would be the way to go: they would pepper in one of us. I would imagine they’d start with Picard if they could. It would involve our usual time travel/quantum anomaly/black hole/some sci-fi version of how we all get there.”
Frakes is currently directing television shows and two upcoming ones are Christmas episodes of NCIS: Los Angeles (Free Ride) and Leverage (The Toy Job), both airing December 18.
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Several of the actors from Star Trek Into Darkness spoke about their characters and the movie while on a promotional tour in Japan.
The Japanese press saw the first nine minutes of the movie, but have to keep mum on what they saw until the preview officially debuts on December 14 at the IMAX screenings of The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
Benedict Cumberbatch spoke about his villainous character. “He is very ruthless,” said Cumberbatch. “He is not a clearly good or evil character. He is a villain but the actions he takes has intent and reason.
“He is a complicated character not to be judged by white-or-black, or good-or-evil. But this is the appeal of J.J.’s works and I felt challenge as an actor.”
Chris Pine detailed what will change with Kirk in this movie. “In the previous movie, Kirk was a selfish young man,” he said. “This time, as a leader, he grows up to be a man leading everyone despite getting out of his mind.”
J.J. Abrams explained the movie title. “I would avoid saying ‘Part 2′ and hate titles with colons,” he said. “This time, each characters steps deeper into darkness. It reflects that….This movie has theme that Kirk and crew are ‘tried’ in face of an unexpected and horrible event.”
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Star Trek‘s George Takei will be seen in a forthcoming issue of Archie Comics.
Takei will be seen as himself in issue #6 of Archie Comics’ Kevin Keller comic.
Kevin Keller is a series of comics about fictional Riverdale’s only gay teenager, and Takei agreed to have a cartoon character of himself in the comic to send a message to young fans, that they can “aspire to be what they want to be no matter who they are.”“With Archie Comics, it’s a fun way and a natural way and an ideal way of advocating happily,” said Takei.
Archie Comics‘ Jon Goldwater (co-chief executive officer) and Writer/Artist Dan Parent met Takei at a convention, and asked the actor about appearing in the Kevin Keller comic. “I flipped when he agreed,” said Goldwater, a “huge Star Trek fan.” “Sulu was always my favorite character, so I said do whatever it takes to get him in the comic.”
“I remember as a preteen and a teenager, I used to read Archie Comics,†said Takei. “I was so flattered.”
“I’ve always been an advocate,” said Takei. I” grew up in two U.S. internment camps. I was too young to understand that at the time. As a teenager I couldn’t reconcile what I was reading in my civics books with my boyhood.”
Kevin Keller #6 goes on sale tomorrow.
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Four new Juan Ortiz Star Trek: The Original Series Retro Art Prints have been released.
The posters are taken from: Arena, The Naked Time, A Taste of Armageddon and Spectre of the Gun.
Three of the four posters feature skulls. “I didn’t pick this month’s titles, but maybe the person that did had just celebrated Day of the Dead earlier in November,” said Ortiz. “There’s no denying that skulls make strong statements, as well as look cool, however macabre it may seem.”
Ortiz made the Gorn more realistic than the B.E.M. featured in the original episode. “Fortunately for Captain Kirk, his Gorn moved in slow motion,” said Ortiz. “My Gorn represents what he may have looked like if TOS had today’s budget and special effects technology. The inspiration came from the sword and sorcery paintings that I used to ogle over as a teen, by Frank Frazetta.”
For Spectre of the Gun, the nacelles of the USS Enterprise are guns. “My very first idea was to create a ‘wanted’ type poster, but I felt it would be a bit too cliché and not a serious depiction of that episode,” said Ortiz. “The guns make a broader and more serious statement.”
The prints, 18×24 each, sell as a set of four for $34.95. To order, head to the link located here.
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Zachary Quinto appeared on Conan O’Brien recently, where he gave fans an exclusive Star Trek clip.
“I have a lot of respect for you and your audience,” said Quinto. “And I wanted to bring something to you guys today that was more than that (Abrams’ now infamous ’3 frames’ preview). I didn’t tell J.J.; I didn’t tell Paramount…But I wanted to show everybody something”
The clip will “give you an idea of what is happening in the film,” said Quinto.
To see the clip, which appears at the 2:36 mark, head to the link located here.
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Star Trek Into Darkness actors Chris Pine and Benedict Cumberbatch arrived in Japan to promote the movie.
The actors arrived at Narita Airport (which serves the Greater Tokyo area) where they were met by hundreds of Star Trek fans.
The actors, arriving separately from Los Angeles and London, took time to pose for fan photos and Pine, in dark sunglasses, signed autographs.
Pine is also in Japan to promote the 3D animated Rise of the Guardians, in which he voiced Jack Frost.
More pictures of the actors and J.J. Abrams in Japan can be found here.
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God Particle, a doomer movie written by Oren Uziel and to be produced by J.J. Abrams, now has a director.
Julius Onah, a Nigerian-born director (Big Man, Little Girl Blue) will be taking on the assignment.
In God Particle, “After a physics experiment with a large Hadron accelerator causes the Earth to seemingly vanish completely, the terrified crew of an orbiting American space station is left floating in the middle of now-even-more-empty space. When a European spacecraft appears on their radar, the Americans must determine whether it’s their salvation, or a harbinger of doom.”
December Star Trek Comic Previews
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Three IDW Publishing Star Trek comics will be released tomorrow, but fans can have a peek at the issues today.
The comics include: Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation2 #8, Star Trek 100-Page Winter Spectacular 2012, and Star Trek: The Next Generation: Hive #3.
In Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation2 #8, the Star Trek/Doctor Who crossover series ends. In this eighth issue, “Our heroes launch a desperate mission behind enemy lines in hopes of ending the CyberBorg threat, but there’s a traitor in their midst.”
Written by Scott and David Tipton, with art by J.K. Woodward and Gordon Purcell, and covers by Woodward and Andrea Di Vito, Star Trek: The Next Generation/Doctor Who: Assimilation2 #8 is thirty-two pages in length will sell for $3.99.
For this and the other two releases, click on any of the thumbnails to see larger-sized photos.
Next up is the Star Trek 100-Page Winter Spectacular 2012. In this issue, written by Marc Guggenheim, Scott Tipton and others, with art by David Messina, J.K. Woodward and others, and a cover by Joe Corroney, the “amazing worlds” of Star Trek are explored.
“How do you deal with killing a legend? Find out in the story of Captain Harriman, the notorious commander of the Enterprise when Captain James T. Kirk was lost and presumed dead. Guest-starring Dr. McCoy! Discover the devious inner workings of the Romulan military! Re-enter the Mirror Universe as Kirk’s Doppelganger plots to overthrow his superior… Captain Pike — and more.”
Star Trek 100-Page Winter Spectacular 2012 will sell for $7.99.
The last December release is Star Trek: The Next Generation: Hive #3. In this issue, “The Borg story to end all Borg stories warps towards it thrilling conclusion! In the far-flung future the Borg Queen faces off against the Borg King… an ancient Locutus! The stakes have never been so high, as the fate of the Enterprise – and the entire galaxy – hang in the balance!”
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.
More preview pages can be found at the referring site.
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