Star Trek

[andersonh1]

I miss having a weekly Trek series some days. It feels like it did back in the 80s when the only new Star Trek we got was a new movie with the original cast every two or three years. That's where we are now, and I hope "Into Darkness" delivers on the plot. It's a lot easier to ignore a bad episode when a new one will be aired next week, but when there's only one movie every few years, it had better be good.

[Sparky Prime]

I miss having a Star Trek series as well. There has been some talk about Bryan Fuller and Bryan Singer working together on creating a new series but no idea where that stands. I saw something about Michael Dorn having an idea for a 'Captain Worf' series not that long ago as well. Interview I saw about that though, he said there was a lot of 'political' stuff with Paramount. At any rate, good to know there are people out there who are still pushing for a new Trek television series.

I know I'd like to see a new series taking place sometime after Voyager concluded, maybe explore a little of what the destruction of Romulas means for the political powers of the Alpha Quadrant to connect it with events of the Abramsverse, while firmly establishing they are two separate universes (since time travel in Star Trek has never worked the way it did in that movie).

[Sparky Prime]

It's official, Benedict Cumberbatch will be playing a character named John Harrison. I've seen some fans believe this character may be "Johnny", the kid Kirk drives past in the first movie before he sends his uncle's car over a cliff. A role that was originally meant to be his older brother, George Kirk.

[andersonh1]

So, I asked for and received the first season of the original Star Trek on DVD for Christmas. This is the set where they went back and scanned the original negatives, cleaned up the picture and replaced the effects shots with CGI, so it's about the best that old show has ever looked. I'm really enjoying re-watching these old episodes which I haven't seen in a number of years.

Anyway, one of the episodes in the first season is "Space Seed" which introduced Khan. I watched that one and then decided to watch Star Trek 2 since it's a sequel to the episode. And of course there's the whole question of how Khan could know who Chekov is since Chekov wasn't on the show during the first season. The explanation has always been that he must have been on the Enterprise at the time, and we just didn't see him. It turns out that Chekov's first episode, "Catspaw" has a lower stardate (3018.2) than "Space Seed" (3141.9), even though "Catspaw" is a second season episode. Yeah, in real life it just proves they were careless about the stardate in the old show, but chronologically it would indicate that Chekov was indeed on the ship when Khan was found.

[Shockwave]

Fascinating.

[andersonh1]

Fascinating.

Alright, Spock!

[JediTricks]

So, I asked for and received the first season of the original Star Trek on DVD for Christmas. This is the set where they went back and scanned the original negatives, cleaned up the picture and replaced the effects shots with CGI, so it's about the best that old show has ever looked. I'm really enjoying re-watching these old episodes which I haven't seen in a number of years.

Anyway, one of the episodes in the first season is "Space Seed" which introduced Khan. I watched that one and then decided to watch Star Trek 2 since it's a sequel to the episode. And of course there's the whole question of how Khan could know who Chekov is since Chekov wasn't on the show during the first season. The explanation has always been that he must have been on the Enterprise at the time, and we just didn't see him. It turns out that Chekov's first episode, "Catspaw" has a lower stardate (3018.2) than "Space Seed" (3141.9), even though "Catspaw" is a second season episode. Yeah, in real life it just proves they were careless about the stardate in the old show, but chronologically it would indicate that Chekov was indeed on the ship when Khan was found.

Good find! I doubt Nick Meyer and Harve Bennett knew that when writing ST2, but it's a great find none the less.

I've been thinking about asking for TOS:SE on blu-ray, but they're pretty expensive and available free on Netflix and Amazon Prime. Still, all those extras...

[Shockwave]

Fascinating.

Alright, Spock!

It seemed like the appropriate response and like JT said, good find.

[andersonh1]

I still haven't bought the Star Trek remake from 2009 yet, and so in anticipation of Into Darkness, I was watching a few clips on YouTube. One of them was the one where Kirk provokes Spock and gets beaten up pretty soundly. And I realized that I had actually just watched the same scene... in "This Side of Paradise", where Kirk has to get Spock mad to get rid of the influence of the spores. With all the little in-jokes and references that I caught when I saw the movie, I somehow missed this one. What kind of Trekker am I?!?!

After watching a whole season of Shatner, Nimoy and the others, it really does become apparent just how different all the actors in the remake are from the originals. I guess that's to be expected, and it's probably best that they didn't try to imitate the old actors, but it does invite comparison. I have to say that I vastly prefer Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley in the roles, not just for sentimental reasons, but because they honestly bring such life and personality to Kirk, Spock and McCoy. There's a lot of heart and feeling in the original series that I don't quite see in the 2009 Trek, even taking into account the fact that Pine, Quinto and Urban are playing younger versions of the same characters and so the relationships are different.

That's not to say I don't enjoy the new movie, because I do, and I'm looking forward to the sequel. But I think the original Trek was vastly superior to the remake.

It's also interesting just how much they changed Kirk for the new movie. If you listen to all the tidbits about his past in the original series, he was (perhaps surprisingly, given Kirk's reputation) a real bookworm at the academy ("In Kirk's class you either think, or sink!"), teased endlessly by upperclassman Finnegan. He worked his way up through the ranks, including a stint as a lieutenant on the Farragut under Captain Garrovick. He was also quite the ladies man, with McCoy remarking in one episode after meeting a beautiful old friend of Kirk's that "all my old friends look like doctors, but all his old friends look like you!". The impression one gets of Kirk is that he was a very hard worker, driven to get to the top and almost totally dedicated to that goal, to the point that he's the youngest captain in Starfleet history. I'd like to have seen that depicted onscreen, and it's a shame so much of it was dropped for the "angry drifter who needs direction in life" Kirk of the reboot, who gets promoted to captain largely through luck and being in the right place at the right time.

[Tigermegatron]

I still haven't bought the Star Trek remake from 2009 yet, and so in anticipation of Into Darkness, I was watching a few clips on YouTube. One of them was the one where Kirk provokes Spock and gets beaten up pretty soundly. And I realized that I had actually just watched the same scene... in "This Side of Paradise", where Kirk has to get Spock mad to get rid of the influence of the spores. With all the little in-jokes and references that I caught when I saw the movie, I somehow missed this one. What kind of Trekker am I?!?!

After watching a whole season of Shatner, Nimoy and the others, it really does become apparent just how different all the actors in the remake are from the originals. I guess that's to be expected, and it's probably best that they didn't try to imitate the old actors, but it does invite comparison. I have to say that I vastly prefer Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley in the roles, not just for sentimental reasons, but because they honestly bring such life and personality to Kirk, Spock and McCoy. There's a lot of heart and feeling in the original series that I don't quite see in the 2009 Trek, even taking into account the fact that Pine, Quinto and Urban are playing younger versions of the same characters and so the relationships are different.

That's not to say I don't enjoy the new movie, because I do, and I'm looking forward to the sequel. But I think the original Trek was vastly superior to the remake.

It's also interesting just how much they changed Kirk for the new movie. If you listen to all the tidbits about his past in the original series, he was (perhaps surprisingly, given Kirk's reputation) a real bookworm at the academy ("In Kirk's class you either think, or sink!"), teased endlessly by upperclassman Finnegan. He worked his way up through the ranks, including a stint as a lieutenant on the Farragut under Captain Garrovick. He was also quite the ladies man, with McCoy remarking in one episode after meeting a beautiful old friend of Kirk's that "all my old friends look like doctors, but all his old friends look like you!". The impression one gets of Kirk is that he was a very hard worker, driven to get to the top and almost totally dedicated to that goal, to the point that he's the youngest captain in Starfleet history. I'd like to have seen that depicted onscreen, and it's a shame so much of it was dropped for the "angry drifter who needs direction in life" Kirk of the reboot, who gets promoted to captain largely through luck and being in the right place at the right time.

I decided to use the Spoiler space tags below because you said you didn't see the movie yet & I didn't want to spoil anything for you.

Spoiler

I have both positive & negative mixed emotions about this newer Trek film. I don't like how they basically did a time travel erase where some stuff got re-written. I'm dure Gene Roddenberry would have never approved this had he been alive. I'm sure he's rolling over in his grave right now.

I found it extremely cheesy/fan fank & just lame-o that this 2009 newer star trek movie borrowed heavily from the "un-liscensed fan created movies called " of gods & men." stuff that got borrowed was Uhurra having a realationship with spock. time travel interference effecting present time. Kirk being at the center of the time travel shifted events & the list goes on.

I personally think this time travel partial erase of events for the 2009 Trek movie is a huge INSULT to the established devoted Trek fans from decades ago. It just sends a wrong fandom message from the creators/writters that their invested time does't matter because stuff they knew got a partial erase.

Then theirs the whole thing of how much of the time travel partial re-write has effects on other star treks shows like TNG,Voyagers,Deep space nine & all the live action star trek movies.

I would have preferred a alternate universe type newer star trek movie. where the 2009 trek movie was it's own created entity like the various newer TF comics from IDW,Newer TF cartoons & movies are.

I find it kinda of a insult to the 1966 "Uhurra" character that she gets passed around like the ultimate guy achievement prize. First it was scotty in the trek movies,now it's spock in the un-liscense fan made "of god & men movies & the 2009 Trek. Scotty got uhurra because the trek writters noticed his personal life that he married a young-young girl. spock gets uhurra now gets horny trek-fan boys wrote it into that un-liscensed movie. Enough is enough,neither in the original 1960's trek series attractive,physically fit,young enough or special enough to get Uhurra. Uhurra is/was the hottest Trek girl,she deserves better.