Star Trek

By Captain Future(noreply@blogger.com) Trek Movie reports that Gene Roddenberry will be inducted into the TV Hall of Fame in January, along with fellow visionaries, game show producer Bob Stewart, announcer Don Pardo, Candace Bergen and the Smothers Brothers. Well, I suppose they were all pretty cool, but it does remind us tha...

By Captain Future(noreply@blogger.com) To some degree, Star Trek says, it is a matter of choice. "We are killers," Captain Kirk said. "But we aren't going to kill today." To some degree, it is a matter of what a society or a culture values and champions --including the culture of Starfleet, or simply the culture of the Enterprise-- wh...

By Captain Future(noreply@blogger.com) The first area is science. The original Roddenberry team did a lot of research in science and technology, as well as in science fiction, as they developed Star Trek. There got to be less of that over the years, but Star Trek still did keep developing stories that used new theories and ideas. But...

By Captain Future(noreply@blogger.com) In other Trek matters, two pieces of scholarship caught my eye: this piece by Harry Barber about scenes dropped from Star Trek JJA at some point in the process, and a TrekWeb edited analysis by Bill Williams of the evolution of Star Trek: Generations.

By Captain Future(noreply@blogger.com) If so, it's likely due to the coincidence of the new movie--which not only proved popular but evoked affectionate feelings and interesting re-evaluations of Star Trek in general--and a new and very popular President of the United States who is an unabashed Star Trek fan, and glories in t...

By Captain Future(noreply@blogger.com) Captain's Log: Star Trek Wars (and President Obama Groks Spock) It reminded me that seeing J.J. Abrams on a Star Wars documentary prompted me to suggest here on this site, almost two years ago, what Abrams might do with his Star Trek movie. Abrams, I wrote:

By Captain Future(noreply@blogger.com) There were several references or homages to Trek GR films, both visually (the Enterprise fly-by as in Star Trek: the Motion Picture) and in the dialogue (Spock Prime repeating a famous line from Star Trek: Wrath of Khan and both Spock and Kirk repeating or referencing lines from Star Trek...

By Captain Future(noreply@blogger.com) But Star Trek GR is honored in the sense that it isn’t just ignored. A connection is made—personified by Leonard Nimoy as Spock Prime—that acknowledges Star Trek GR, even making it integral to the plot. It also doesn’t completely negate the timeline of Star Trek GR. But this is a new timeline:...

By Captain Future(noreply@blogger.com) If it wasn't clear before, recent interviews with Leonard Nimoy and the screenwriters of the new Star Trek movie have made it absolutely certain: the Star Trek story universe that began in the 1960s will end with the new movie. The canon is now closed.

By Captain Future(noreply@blogger.com) Meyer did this before: in directing Time After Time and writing The Seven Percent Solution, he used established and historical characters (H.G. Wells and Jack the Ripper, Freud and Sherlock Holmes) in crime stories. This time he used Star Trek characters: while Captain Kirk puzzles thing...

By Captain Future(noreply@blogger.com) As even casual fans must know by now, there was conflict among them (which occasionally still surfaces.) But Nichelle Nichols, Jimmy Doohan, Walter Koenig and George Takei formed close bonds over the years, as did Shatner and Nimoy. DeForest Kelley was beloved by all. Let’s stipulate that...

By Captain Future(noreply@blogger.com) That Star Trek itself didn’t end is largely due to the continuing involvement of Majel, GR and members of the original cast. They were advocates at conventions from the beginning, especially in the years when no new Star Trek was being made. Over the years, Majel and the actors formed a bond w...

By Captain Future(noreply@blogger.com) When all is said and done, I won't be surprised if it turns out that Paramount spends more on promoting Star Trek XI than they spent on making and promoting Star Trek X. The hype is incredible. I haven't seen the movie (though I may be the only Star Trek blogger who hasn't) but the hype has certain...

By Captain Future(noreply@blogger.com) Meanwhile, in the UK the BBC will air the Doctor Who Easter Special, Planet of the Dead. It's the second of the five final David Tennant episodes, written by Russell T. Davies--the Doctor's last romp before the final darker stories. In their publicity blitz, Davies revealed this: "I would ha...

By Captain Future(noreply@blogger.com) Functionally, it is Star Trek—that is, the saga, its chronology and mythology, the whole story with all its events, characters, relationships, as well as worlds, ships, species and so on, as catalogued (though partially and unofficially, sort of) in the Star Trek Encyclopedia, and in...