Today StarTrek.com confirmed rumors that the next film (ST XI) will be about young Kirk and Spock. No news on who the actors are yet, but the film will be directed by J. J. Abrams (who created Alias and Lost, two of my favorite modern TV shows), and will be released on Christmas day 2008.
Can't wait until 2008 for more the original Star Trek? Check out Star Trek: New Voyages (ST: NV). These are Internet-only free new episodes created by folks who loved the original series and are producing a 4th season as if the original series was never cancelled. You won't recognize the actors playing Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc. but you might be surprised by some of the guest stars: William Windon (Commodore Matt Decker), Walter Koenig, and (coming in Spring 2007) George Takai.
The first episode I watched was "In Harm's Way" (season 4 episode 2). It's time travel story involving The Guardian of Forever, The Doomsday Machine, and Christopher Pike. The writing and production values are amazingly good. They've captured Trek right down to the music and the NBC peacock. It's a hoot seeing how close they come to the original (and best) series. In case you are wondering why it's not a copyright problem, Eugene Roddenberry, Jr. is one of the producers.
The cast and crew are devoted to the original series and want to continue it without parodying it, so the actors are good but are not imitating the original stars. They are excellent, especially when you consider no one is getting paid for this. They have a sense of humor, too. It you watch "In Harm's Way," be sure to watch through the credits for a clip of Jeff Quinn (Spock) singing a line from "Bilbo Baggins" (but he's a much better singer than Leonard Nimoy).
Watch a review on CNET.com.
The only problem I'm having with ST: NV is downloading episodes! Most episodes are posted on mirror sites, with 4 or 5 parts per episode. Windows Media Player seems to be the standard format (and that works fine on my Mac PowerBook G4) but not all mirror sites use the same format. If you dowload WMP format, be patient; it will take a while. If you download .avi files they may not work with QuickTime 7; you may need to download VCL Media Player or something like it. Some files are zipped, so Mac users will need something other than StuffIt to open the files.
Despite my download problems, I've now watched everything available (three episodes and one vignette) and I can hardly wait for the next new episode! That should tell you how impressed I am. Actually, I'm more than impressed, I wish I were involved.
May ST: NV live long and prosper.
Friday, March 02, 2007
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3 comments:
I still stop and watch Star Trek TOS every time it's on. I've seen them all so much I can almost recite the dialogue, but it was such a good show. I'll have to check out the "new" ones. Did you see George Takei's rebuttal to Kevin Hardaway's gay rant? Absolutely hilarious.
Horror Movie Whore said...
"I've seen them all so much I can almost recite the dialogue, but it was such a good show."
I'm glad I'm not the only one! :) I've GOT to get the DVDs. TOS is the only ST series I'd even consider buying -- plus movies 2, 4, and 6.
"Did you see George Takei's rebuttal to Kevin Hardaway's gay rant? Absolutely hilarious."
I haven't seen it yet but I'll bet I can find it on Youtube.com. :)
Do you know the newest business trend in Africa is the phone charge stand? http://www.kk.org/streetuse/archives/2007/01/phone_charging_booths_in_ugand.php
Also, check out http://www.whatsthediff.com/2007/03/womens_heart_he.html#more
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