Vic
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For fans saddened by the deactivation of the USS Enterprise (CVN 65), take heart, a new USS Enterprise will sail the seas!
The good news was delivered by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, in a video played at the deactivation ceremony.
Mabus announced that CVN 80, the third ship of the new Gerald R. Ford-class carriers would be named Enterprise. This would be the ninth American ship to be named Enterprise.
Don’t expect to see the new USS Enterprise until 2025 though. It is slated to replace the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69).
To see what the new Big E is expected to look like, click on the thumbnail below. More pictures of the deactivation ceremony can be found at the referring site.
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For fans hungry for any news on the new Star Trek movie, Star Trek into Darkness, the first official poster is a welcome sight.
The poster features a man in a trench coat standing in the ruins of a destroyed building of some type, with debris falling around him and flames burning nearby.
In Star Trek Into Darkness, “When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis.
“With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.
“As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.”
The full-sized poster showing pieces of debris falling down and flames burning can be seen at the Star Trek into Darkness official movie site.
Star Trek into Darkness opens next May.
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A temporal accident flings O’Brien into the near future, where he witnesses his own death and the destruction of the station.
Plot Summary: Just after O’Brien is injured in an accident that gives him radiation poisoning, a group of Romulan officers arrives to study Starfleet intelligence on the Dominion, which they had been promised in exchange for the Defiant’s cloaking device. The Romulans are aggressive and rude, and Odo is concerned about hostilities because a Klingon ship is also docked at the station. While Sisko negotiates with the Romulans about how much information they’re entitled to demand, O’Brien finds himself jumping backward and forward several hours in time – once to join a brawl on the Promenade, then to witness his own death by an energy blast. Dax hypothesizes that his radiation exposure is triggering the time shifts. After examining the wall panel where O’Brien saw himself being killed, Odo sets up a surveillance field, but when he sees no one arriving to booby-trap the panel, he checks the sensors and discovers that someone has beamed a weapon directly into the panel. In another forward time shift, O’Brien sees own his dead body in the infirmary, where Bashir tells him to ask the Bashir in his own time to run a basilar arterial scan. Unnerved, O’Brien travels back for the life-saving scan and learns that his time shifts are being caused by a quantum singularity orbiting Deep Space Nine, which affects the radiation he absorbed. During the next time shift, O’Brien finds himself on a runabout from which he witnesses the destruction of the station and collapse of the wormhole. Desperate to save the lives of his colleagues, O’Brien asks Bashir to irradiate him so he can travel to the future before the disaster. There, he and his future self discover that the singularity is in the engine of a cloaked Romulan warbird targeting the station. As the radiation kills the forward-traveling O’Brien, he sends his future self into the past to warn the others about the coming attack. Sisko guesses that the Romulans intend to protect themselves from the Dominion by collapsing the wormhole, destroying the station to prevent Starfleet intervention. Though they admit nothing, the Romulans leave, and O’Brien tries to adjust to feeling out of time.
Analysis: Poor O’Brien – first he’s replaced by a replicant, now by a future version of himself! Despite some redundancy both with previous O’Brien storylines and with similar Next Generation time-jumping disaster episodes (“Parallels,” “Time Squared,” “Cause and Effect”), “Visionary” works very well, in large part because everyone is in character and the pacing makes the storyline dramatic even if we know perfectly well that O’Brien isn’t going to die and the station isn’t going to explode. The stakes get higher every time the Chief jumps through time – first it’s a brawl he witnesses, then his own death, then the deaths of thousands – and the consequences for his health get worse as well. Plus, although the time travel seems gimmicky and unexplained at first, the emerging explanation creates a further sense of menace…it’s a hallucination, no, it’s a quantum singularity, no, it’s a cloaked warbird! The personal and epic crises reach a climax at the same time, merging what originally appear to be A and B storylines – O’Brien’s health and the Romulans’ demands – into a single narrative. This is solid science fiction storytelling, enhanced by the fact that the technobabble is kept at a minimum despite a lot of tech driving the plot – the radiation accident, the weapon hidden in the wall, the temporal displacement mechanism. There are even some very funny bits, like Quark (apparently not having learned his lesson about time-tampering from the Grand Nagus) asking O’Brien to check out who’s winning at the dabo tables, Odo telling Kira that the Romulans were prying into his supposedly nonexistent feelings for her, and Bashir’s droll “Well, who am I to argue with me?” when advised of his future self’s warning to run a scan on O’Brien.
If Bashir seems a bit detached and devil-may-care at facing the possible death of a good friend, he is, at least, very much in character with the Bashir who refused excessive measures to keep Bareil alive. It’s laugh-out-loud funny when he offers to show O’Brien his autopsy results, and nearly as amusing when he seems hurt by O’Brien’s outrage that Bashir didn’t do more to save him. Plus Dax is very much on top of the scientific conundrums, Kira is aggressive and take-charge with the Romulans (though I want to know why she wasn’t informed that moving their quarters to the spot where O’Brien foresaw a hidden weapon would not be a good idea), and Sisko is in full take-no-nonsense irritated mode, which he does very well. It’s a bit odd that he’s making all the decisions, since I’d think Starfleet would have sent him a very thorough briefing on what he should and should not share with the Romulans; for that matter, I’d think Starfleet would send a few higher-ranked officers to make decisions about how much of the Defiant should be open to the visitors and to protect officers from Romulan interrogators, who have no more respect for privacy than they do for classified information. I also wish we would get more of an idea what they hope to learn from and about Odo when it seems they plan all along to destroy him when they blow up the station, thus stopping his people from ever coming through the wormhole. The Romulans might have wanted to pay more attention to Federation weapons because a few people are sure to survive an evacuation, as we see in the alt-future, and the Bajorans as well as Starfleet would be out for blood when inevitably they realized that the wormhole’s collapse was not caused by natural forces. I’d expect Sisko to be more threatening about the consequences should the Romulans return to the region.
The Klingons in the episode are pretty gratuitous, as is the bar fight (both red herrings to suggest that perhaps the Romulans aren’t the villains here). Kira’s suggestive exchange with Odo is a red herring as well; it’s all right now in retrospect when I know that they will ultimately find happiness together, but when the third season first aired, it all felt like a cruel tease, with the possibility that she would figure out Odo’s feelings being overplayed to such a degree that it started to feel like Odo never thought about anything BUT Kira. I like seeing her laugh with him even for such a reason, but I really love her snapping and talking back to her Starfleet commander after too many weeks of fawning over the Emissary. I could use some temporal education from the Prophets because I don’t understand why early O’Brien can occupy the same timeline as later O’Brien without violating the laws of matter and energy, and I particularly don’t understand why sometimes time travelers can interact with the “wrong” timeline while at other times the presence of a future-self creates a quantum fissure that can implode universes, but like Captain Janeway, I get a headache from all the temporal dilemmas (or, to quote a different franchise, from the wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff). The station doesn’t blow up regularly the way the Enterprise did, so I don’t mind an instance of alternate-future that we know will be rewritten, and I like it when O’Brien gets to live out his martyrdom fantasies from the Alamo in real life, though I share his existential dilemma about whether it’s really “him” living his life. It’s a shame his wife and daughter are never around these days to see his superhero side.
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Bif Bang Pow! and CBS Consumer products have announced a new Star Trek product based on the Juan Ortiz original series art, a series of shot glasses.
In addition to the shot glasses, the line will eventually include “tins, drinkware and other items.”
Sixteen shot glasses (sold in sets of four) are available for pre-order, with delivery set for next April. The episodes in each set include:
- Set 1: The City on the Edge of Forever, Dagger of the Mind, The Ultimate Computer, and The Way to Eden
- Set 2: Charlie X, And the Children shall Lead, Balance of Terror, and Wink of an Eye
- Set 3: The Alternative Factor, Catspaw, The Trouble With Tribbles, and Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
- Set 4: The Man Trap, This Side of Paradise, What Are Little Girls Made Of?, and The Immunity Syndrome
“For close to fifty years, the characters of the Star Trek universe have taken us where no one has gone before, and now Bif Bang Pow! will be transporting all-new collectibles into homes and offices all over the world,” said Jason Lenzi, CEO of Bif Bang Pow! “We couldn’t be more excited for fans to seek out what we have planned for the final frontier. Look for additional Star Trek news from us in the months leading up to Toy Fair 2013.”
Each set of four shot glasses will sell for $14.99 and can be pre-ordered here.
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Star Trek: Enterprise‘s Anthony Montgomery‘s Miles Away comic is now available for pre-order.
In Miles Away, shy teenager Maxwell Miles is an orphan with super photographic reflexes. After encountering alien refugees, Miles becomes involved in an interstellar war was turns out to be “connected to his family’s dark past.”
Miles Away features the work of Montgomery, Brandon Easton (Thundercats), Jeff Stokely and Jey Odin.
“[Max is] a human…he’s human,” said Montgomery. “People will relate to Max’s humanity; all of you guys will because you will see a piece of him, a piece of yourself, in the different adventures that we take Max on. And when I say we, I mean my entire creative team, because as the brainchild behind it, I can’t draw stick figures so I enlisted an entire team to help me and I told them that the biggest thing that I want to make sure my fans are able to take away from this and connect with is truly that it whatever you are watching on screen is nothing different than you. Max could be you. He just had something that evolved in him in a different way. So there will always be a human condition at the core of it and we’re going to be excited at watching Max’s triumphs as well as his failures. And in the experience that is life, we’ll get to go on his adventures with him and have a lot of fun doing it.”
Miles Away will be released as a trade paperback in April 2013 and will cost $14.95. Those desiring an autographed copy of the comic can obtain one, but the autographed edition will be limited to one hundred copies only.
To pre-order Miles Away, head to the link located here.
Click on the thumbnails for larger-sized images of two preview pages.
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On Monday, Season 2 of the Blu-ray edition of Star Trek: The Next Generation will make its debut and will include the extended version of The Measure of a Man.
In The Measure of a Man, in order to avoid being disassembled by cyberneticist Commander Bruce Maddox, Data must convince Starfleet that he is a sentient being and not just the property of Starfleet.
The extended version of The Measure of a Man was seen in theaters yesterday (along with Q Who,) and fans were able to see the ten minutes of additional footage from the episode.
Now, fans can see one of the scenes from the forthcoming release by heading to the link located here.
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There will be two conventions, shows or appearances in December and January that feature actors of interest to Star Trek fans. This listing of conventions and shows features actors from three of the televised series and one of the Star Trek movies.
The only convention in December is the Steel City Con, to be held from December 7-9 at the Monroeville Convention Center in Monroeville, Pa. In attendance at Steel City Con will be Dwight Schultz and Alan Ruck (Captain Harriman).
Starting off 2013 is The Hollywood Show, to be held January 11-13 at the Westin Los Angeles Airport. In attendance at The Hollywood Show will be DS9‘s Louise Fletcher, Christopher McDonald (Lt. Richard Castillo – Yesterday’s Enterprise), and Celeste Yarnall (Yeoman Martha Landon – The Apple).
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William Shatner will be present at the inactivation ceremony for the USS Enterprise this weekend.
On Saturday, the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) will be inactivated after being in service for over fifty years.
Launched on September 24 1960, the USS Enterprise was officially commissioned on November 25, 1961. In 1983, George Takei was on board for Enterprise’s return to Alameda, California, which was the Enterprise’s former home port.
According to Shatner’s representative, the actor “would give a short speech at the event,” which takes place Saturday at 1 PM at the Naval Station Norfolk.
For fans sad to see the end of the USS Enterprise, take heart. There is an online petition to name the next US Navy nuclear-powered aircraft carrier (CVN-80) the USS Enterprise.
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For Zachary Quinto, while playing a bad guy isn’t new for him, getting to be in on the creation of the character from the beginning is.
Last season on American Horror Story, Quinto was seen as Chad Warwick, the ghost of the previous owner of a spooky restored mansion. This year, he portrays a different character, Dr. Oliver Thredson.
Thredson isn’t exactly the type of doctor to whom one would want to go, after the recent revelation that he was a sadistic killer. “Yes, I knew [about it] from the very beginning,” said Quinto. “It was part of the conversation that I had with Ryan Murphy about me coming back to the second installment of the show in the first place. I very much informed on the character that I was building from the beginning.
“As a result, I felt like my responsibility became to create a character that people could trust, or at least trust initially, and have some hope that perhaps he is actually the one voice of reason and sanity within this chaotic world. So it was actually more exciting for me to know from the beginning. It gave me more to play with, more to hold back and more secrets to keep.”
Quinto was a bit nervous about playing a bad guy again, but the chance to create a new character was irresistible. “I think any time an actor revisits territory that they’ve been in before, it can be a source of trepidation, as it was for me,” he explained. “But part of the reason that I loved what the opportunity stood for was that I got to know, going in; I got to really build something. With Heroes, that character was built before I was ever attached to it. There were eight episodes of anticipation that were built before you met Gabriel Gray in Heroes, but I had no participation in that.
“So for me it was really exciting to get to go in having all the information, and actually be that part of the process of creating a character. That, to me, was a difference.”
American Horror Story airs Wednesdays at 10 PM on FX.
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Sir Patrick Stewart will be appearing as Professor X in X-Men: Days f Future Past.
Director Bryan Singer made the announcement via Twitter. “Thrilled to announce @ianmckellen118 (Sir Ian McKellen) & @SirPatStew (Patrick Stewart) are joining the cast of #XMEN #DaysOfFuturePast…More to come,” he said.
Speculation on Singer’s “more to come” statement has begun, with some hoping that Hugh Jackman will sign on to reprise his Wolverine role.
X-Men: Days of Future Past will be released in 2014.
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While Chris Pine feels fortunate to have landed roles such as James T. Kirk in the rebooted Star Trek franchise, there is anxiety that comes with appearing in a sequel to a successful movie.
“It’s a multi-million dollar movie,” said Pine, explaining why the anxiety exists. “A lot is riding on it to be a success.”
Plus – the Internet age can also contribute to the feeling of anxiety. “We live in a world with internet, where people can say anything,” said Pine, “and people say a lot of awful things – but it has to be water off a duck’s back. I remember Denzel [Washington] saying that when I worked with him on Unstoppable.”
Having J.J. Abrams as director helps to lessen the anxiety for Pine. “What helps…is that you have J.J. who’s a great leader; you have a really good team behind you and I really authentically like the people that I work with.
“I’ve grown to have a great affection for them and going to work tends to be fun. So you deal with the anxiety and then you get there and it just becomes another gig.”
And after a while, one gets used to the anxiety and begins to adapt to it. “There’s almost so much pressure that it dissipates,” said Pine, “because you can’t live in that space of ‘Holy shit what am going to do?’”
Pine knows that he was lucky to get roles such as Kirk or Jack Ryan. “I’m just another actor and I got really lucky,” he said. “You do have those moments where you can appreciate everything, but if I stayed there too long, I would be brighter than the sun.”
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UK fans of Simon Pegg can hear the actor on Disney’s animated Phineas and Ferb series next year.
Phineas and Ferb chronicles the summer adventures of Phineas and his English stepbrother Ferb.
Pegg voiced Paul the delivery guy as well as Paul’s father. “Recently, I tweeted a line from one of the songs featured in Phineas And Ferb – and a couple of weeks later I was asked to come and record some voice parts for the series,” said Pegg, “one for a character called Paul the delivery guy and the other for his father. I couldn’t say yes quick enough,”
Both Pegg and his three-year-old daughter Matilda are Phineas and Ferb fans. “I’m a massive fan,” said Pegg. “My daughter and I fell in love with it immediately and we watch episode after episode as part of our morning routine. I can rewind sections up to 16 times just to watch her laugh and laugh. It is truly joyous.
“Recording the characters has been a blast. I can’t wait to see my daughter’s reaction to watching her dad in our favorite show.”
Pegg’s episode, Delivery of Destiny, will air in the UK next spring. A clip featuring Pegg’s character can be seen below.
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Next May, Director J.J. Abrams will deliver “an explosive action thriller that takes Star Trek Into Darkness.”
Spoilers below the cut.
“When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis.
“With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.
As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew.”
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The latest Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab Conversations Series will feature Star Trek‘s J.J. Abrams.
Tomorrow at noon, Abrams will be the featured speaker, and the event will be webcast for those unable to attend the event in person.
The Media Lab Conversations series features “visionaries who work at the intersection of technology, art, and enterprise.”
The Media Lab Conversations Series featuring Abrams will be held on Tuesday, November 27 from noon to 1:30 PM at the MIT Media Lab, Building E14, 3rd Floor Atrium, at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The webcast can be seen live tomorrow here. Twitter fans can join in using #MLTalks.
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For Chris Pine, taking on the role of James T. Kirk was a bit scarier than playing the latest version of Tom Clancy‘s Jack Ryan.
The reason for that was Star Trek‘s passionate fanbase. “Star Trek has a very fervent, avid fanbase that is very protective of their characters and their stories,” said Pine “Jack Ryan not so much.”
Besides, Shatner was only played by one actor, while several different actors have played Ryan. “Obviously William Shatner put an iconic stamp on that role,” said Pine. “Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck [all played Ryan] … it seems to be more easily changeable.”
Fans waiting for Star Trek Into Darkness will be able to see the first nine minutes of the movie next month. What can they expect from the preview? Don’t ask Pine! “Unfortunately with our Star Trek world, we are just as in the dark [as everyone else],” he said. “J.J. [Abrams] is the master puppeteer, for better or for worse.”
A short video featuring the Pine interview can be seen at the referring site.
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Today is the day to score a good deal in Star Trek merchandise, with the bargains ranging from free shipping to 25% off.
Now is the time to purchase that special Star Trek item at a discount. Some of the vendors offering deals on Cyber Monday include: Bye Bye Robot, Her Universe, JumpinJammerz, Roddenberry.com, Star Trek Shop, ThinkGeek and We Love Fine.
At Bye Bye Robot, fans seeking Star Trek posters can score free shipping with the purchase of two or more posters.
Her Universe has come out with two new products today, a Star Trek Gorn shirt and a pair of Star Trek earrings. And fans making a purchase today can get free shipping on their orders and a free Chewbacca collectible pin.
JumpinJammerz is offering 25% off the purchase of their pajamas, which includes three different Star Trek ones. Use the code “Shopincomfort” to get the discount.
Roddenberry.com is offering 25% off everything at their site today.
The Star Trek Shop is also offering 25% off the items for sale at their site. Use the code “Cyber25″ to get the discount.
ThinkGeek has many Star Trek-themed items and several are on sale today only. Anything ordered today will be shipped for free.
Finally, We Love Fine, which sells Star Trek t-shirts is offering 25% off today only. Use code “TREKCYBER25″ when ordering.
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After an encounter with the wormhole aliens, the Grand Nagus rewrites the Rules of Acquisition in favor of altruism.
Plot Summary: Quark’s ear massage and attempted swindle is interrupted by the arrival of Grand Nagus Zek, who takes over Quark’s quarters, forcing Quark to move in with Rom, then announces that he has rewritten the Rules of Acquisition. Expecting a brilliant new scheme for profit, Quark is horrified to discover that Zek has instead taken up altruism…and sold all of Quark’s furniture to raise money for a new charity, the Ferengi Benevolent Association, of which Zek puts Rom in charge. When Quark learns that the Nagus is at the station to give a gift to the Bajoran people, he sneaks onto the Nagus’s shuttle and finds that the Nagus has acquired a long-lost Orb of the Prophets. The Orb gives Quark a vision of Zek receiving wisdom from the Prophets, whom Quark decides to confront about Zek’s changed attitudes. As these events unfold, Bashir learns that he has been nominated for the Carrington Award – the Federation’s most prestigious medical prize – and is somewhat embarrassed because the usual winners are elderly doctors nearing the end of their careers. Taking Zek into the wormhole, Quark confronts the aliens, who explain that Zek tried to use their knowledge of the future for profit. They reverted Zek to a time when Ferengi were less aggressive and plan to do the same to Quark, but Quark lectures them about how greed leads to ambition to better oneself and warns that if he, too, changes, more Ferengi will come to find out why. The aliens agree to stop interfering in Ferengi affairs so long as no other Ferengi visit them, and Zek returns to his previous avaricious state, though not before Rom embezzles a small fortune from the Benevolent Association. Meanwhile, the crew and Bashir learn that he has not won the Carrington Award, and he must put on a brave face for the rest of the crew.
Analysis: When I first reviewed “Prophet Motive” the night it aired in 1995, I called it the nadir of the series, making the Prophets and by extension their followers look stupid just after a terrific episode about the importance of the religion of Bajor. Until this week, I had not rewatched the episode since. I’m not sure whether time or South Park has mellowed me on the idea of ridiculing someone else’s gods, but I didn’t find it offensive this time around, though that wasn’t what struck me as interesting about the episode. It was a subplot so forgettable that I didn’t even remember it had been there – the filler bit about Bashir’s nomination for the Carrington Award – that fascinated me this time through, because when it first aired, none of us (presumably including Siddig and the writers) knew that Bashir had been genetically augmented as a child, which would later prove to be the reason for why he feels so strongly that he has something to prove and fears becoming successful enough for someone to go digging into his past. It’s fascinating how perfectly his reactions upon being nominated for this prize fit into that later canon, as if Bashir and his colleagues already suspected there might be a reason a major award might be so gratifying and terrifying to him all at once. The scene in which he and O’Brien play darts while O’Brien assures him that he has no chance of winning the award – which annoys Bashir but also seems to come as a relief to him, a fact demonstrated by his apparent inability to aim his darts successfully – is particularly poignant in hindsight, since Bashir will later admit that he could land a dart perfectly every single time if he wanted to. His combined gratitude and resentment toward Dax, his eye-rolling at a rather out-of-character gushing Kira and an even more out-of-character gossipy Odo, his discomfort around a proud Sisko all make so much more sense knowing that Bashir fears he is a fraud.
I still don’t like the Ferengi storyline, but that has more to do with how it’s written than with the issue of whether the writers are ridiculing anyone with respect for a religion they invented. I’ve never loved the comic Ferengi episodes, many of which have a mean-spirited underpinning to their humor, and though the actors playing the series’ major Ferengi characters are all terrific, they’re often given material so much the same from one story to the next that they start to seem like caricatures rather than real people. The Grand Nagus here is used entirely as a joke; Quark insists to the Prophets that he’s the respected leader of billions of Ferengi, but we never see him in that role, only as a sort of crazy uncle figure to Quark and Rom. His initial foray into altruism sounds like a poor rewrite of the end of A Christmas Carol, with Quark’s rebuttals coming a bit too close to the anti-Semitic allegory of that Dickens tale, and since it’s played out almost entirely in claustrophobic discussions between Quark, Rom and Zek, it’s not interesting to watch. The story doesn’t really get going until Quark realizes the wormhole aliens are involved, at which point Zek becomes irrelevant to his own story because Quark is the Ferengi to be reckoned with. Rather than trying to learn something about the Prophets, considering that he lives and works on a space station with many Bajorans, Quark goes racing off to give them a piece of his mind…and because this is a very silly storyline, the Prophets listen to him. It’s akin to having Stan Marsh tell off Jesus Christ for using performance-enhancing drugs, which admittedly makes me snicker, so I am embarrassed that I found the mockery of the Prophets so distasteful in the first place.
But the episode still sets up ethical and theological problems that it doesn’t begin to address, getting preachy without actually offering any new or interesting perspectives. We have never been expected to take Ferengi “religion” seriously since greed is their creed, but the flippancy with which the characters address the rewriting of the Rules of Acquisition, which has the status of the Bible in Ferengi culture, is hard to believe. The new Rules are a fine comic balance for the old ones, and how hilarious that Rom, who has no head for business, rejects them so thoroughly that he’s stealing from the Grand Nagus even before the old greed-is-good philosophy returns. It makes perfect sense that someone would sneak into the wormhole to try to see the future, though we’re never told how Zek managed this – covert Dominion allies? How did he know so much about the wormhole aliens in the first place? I never thought much about it before but not only every con man in the galaxy would want a chat with aliens who’ve seen the future; every Cardassian seeking to retake Bajor, every Klingon wishing to become the head of his house, every evil alien thinking he’s doing what’s best for Starfleet with a preemptive strike against the Borg would be poking around in there. To discover that the Bajoran Prophets are nothing but meddling fools who need Quark to set them straight (that the Bajorans in essence need a Ferengi god instead of their own) is bad enough. But not to deal with the full implications of this discovery – that not only the Emissary but any foreigners who approach the aliens may experience sweeping changes in themselves or their societies – is a cop-out, cheapening such huge series-changing moments such as when Sisko convinced the Prophets to intervene to save Bajor from the Dominion fleet. I prefer to look on the entire incident as an Orb vision experienced by the Grand Nagus, not something that really happened on the series.
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Next Monday is Cyber Monday, when online bargains are offered and WeLoveFine, which sells Star Trek-themed t-shirts, will be participating in the special sale day.
WeLoveFine will also be doing an interactive giveaway promotion on the same day on their Facebook page.
Fans looking for a bargain will have a chance to pick up one of WeLoveFine‘s Star Trek shirts; which include shirts based on original series episodes and featuring the artwork of Juan Ortiz, and shirts designed by fans in WeLoveFine‘s Star Trek t-shirt design contest.
The Cyber Monday special will give fans 25% off their entire order on Monday, November 26 only, beginning at midnight Pacific Time and ending 11:59 PM Monday night Pacific Time. The promo code for the sale is TREKCYBER25.
The interactive giveaway promotion will run all day Monday, November 26, on WeLoveFine‘s Facebook page, located here. Once a fan “likes” the WeLoveFine page, they can then participate in the activities for a chance to score some freebies!
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For Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s LeVar Burton, 2012 and 2013 are years of anniversaries.
2012 is of course the 25th anniversary of The Next Generation. Due to the anniversary, the cast of The Next Generation have done some joint appearances and plan on doing more of them. “The TNG Reunion Tour,” said Burton, “otherwise known as Geezers Unite.
“They are the best. There’s nothing like it when we get together. We make each other laugh more than anybody else in our lives. We all have our other friends, but when we’re together…it’s hard to explain how much we make each other laugh.”
Next year will be the 30th anniversary of Reading Rainbow. While the show is no longer on the air, Burton is heavily involved in the Reading Rainbow app, which marries technology and reading for today’s generation of tech-savvy children. “What you’ll find on the App is the best translation of the television show that we could possibly create in this new and digital environment,” said Burton. “It’s books, a library of books, and videos, video field trips, just like we had on the original series. So it’s Video Field Trips with LeVar.”
Burton is proud of his work on Reading Rainbow, due to his own roots. “…Reading Rainbow...is so education-focused,” he said. “I’m the son of a teacher. We’re all teachers in my family…, my older sister, my son, nieces, nephews, cousins. It’s what we do in my family. So, for the son of a teacher, this is pretty big.”
Burton is still acting and has a recurring role on TNT’s Perception, which has just been renewed for a second season.
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Sir Patrick Stewart and Soprano/Lyric Creative Consultant Renée Fleming will co-host The Second City Guide to the Opera next month.
The Lyric Opera of Chicago and Second City have joined together to present The Second City Guide to the Opera.
The Second City Guide to the Opera is a “mash-up” of improv comedy and music.
Taking place at Lyric’s Civic Opera House on Saturday, January 5, 2013, at 8 PM, the event features adult content and is not suitable for children.
Tickets for the event will cost from $25 to $95. More information can be found here.
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Several new designer USB flash drives from Mimoco feature Star Trek characters.
The Trek MIMOBOTS feature Kirk, Spock, Picard and Data.
The flash drives are available in four sizes, ranging from 8 GB to 64 GB and are pre-loaded with digital comics, videos, mimoByte sound software and “the mimoDesk personalization suite themed to resemble the iconic LCARS computer, which includes Star Trek themed wallpapers, icons, avatars and more!”
The mimoByte sound software is “powered with a huge offering of iconic sound effects and character dialogue that play each time a Star Trek MIMOBOT is inserted or ejected from one’s computer.”
“Star Trek is one of the greatest science-fiction sagas of all time, and we’re honored to add this revered property to our proud list of MIMOBOT characters.†said Scott Seraydarian, director of media at Mimoco. “We’re equally excited by the amazing array of bonus preloaded content that wholly enriches the product line and is sure to delight fans of all ages. Star Trek X MIMOBOT…Engage!”
Prices for the Star Trek-themed flash drives range from $19.99 to $69.99 depending upon the storage size of the flash drive. To learn more, head to the link located here.
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For bike riders, a new Star Trek uniform cycle jersey will allow fans to get fit and to show their love of Star Trek with fellow cyclists.
The jerseys are available in three colors; command gold, engineering red and sciences blue.
The Star Trek bike jerseys are made of space-age micro-fiber bicycle jersey, and designed to “wick away moisture.”
There is a hidden zipper down the front of the form-fitting jersey and an accessory and water pouch can be found in the back of the shirt.
The Star Trek Uniform Cycle Jersey will sell for $79.99-$81.99 and can be obtained from Think Geek.
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Back in April, TrekToday reported on a fun bit of Star Trek merchandise, an inflatable Captain’s chair based on the one on the USS Enterprise.
Unhappily for the grown-up but young-at-heart fans back then, the chair was only available in a size suitable for children, but now, just in time for holiday gift-giving, an adult-sized chair has been announced.
Think Geek‘s Star Trek Inflatable Captain’s Chair is designed to look like the Captain’s chair on the Enterprise, with buttons and lights printed on the arms for ‘imagination play,’ in which the Captain can order a red alert, yellow alert, or jettison a pod.
The adult’s chair is 32″ high x 33.5″ wide x 26″ deep and can support up to 250 pounds in weight. The child’s chair is 27.75″ high x 29.25″ wide x 18″ deep.
The adult chair sells for $34.99, and the child’s chair sells for $24.99. To order yours, head to the link located here.
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Several days ago, TrekToday reported that both a trailer and the first nine minutes of Star Trek into Darkness would be shown ahead of The Hobbit on December 14th, but now comes word that the trailer may appear earlier in front of some other movie.
Originally, the nine-minute opening of Star Trek into Darkness was going to be seen ahead of the IMAX version of The Hobbit, while a regular trailer would be shown to those seeing The Hobbit in regular theaters.
The Lebanese Cinema Movie Guide is reporting that the Trek trailer will *not* be in front of The Hobbit (regular version), but that trailers for The Wolverine and Man of Steel would instead be shown ahead of that movie.
The site also claims that the trailer for Star Trek into Darkness will appear at an earlier date online.
TrekToday will update readers when the situation becomes clearer. Until then, treat this as a rumor.
Thanks to Daniel S. for the tip!
Takei’s Strange Five-0 Find
in Trek News
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In preparing for his role on the new Hawaii Five-0, George Takei found something a bit creepy.
Takei will appearing in Five-0 thirty-seven years after appearing as a cop in the original Hawaii Five-O (1975′s Death’s Name is Sam episode). In the new episode, airing December 17th, Takei will play Chin Ho Kelly’s (Daniel Dae Kim) Uncle Choi.
“[Choi's] doing something illegal, not unlike the character I played in the ’70s,” said Takei.
Learning how to speak with an authentic Hawaiian accent was part of the job for Takei, but what the actor found in a rented run-down shack used in Choi’s home was not. Takei found “an NRA magazine, a photo of a blond Aryan youth and a portrait of Mr. Adolf Hitler! It was weird!”
Hawaii Five-0 airs Monday nights on CBS at 10 PM.
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