Spock Online Memorial

In honor of Leonard Nimoy's passing last week, the popular Star Trek Online multi-player game has added a couple of memorial statues into its environments so that fans can come by and pay their respects while playing.

Based on where our community chose to congregate and pay their respects, we will be replacing the central structure on the fountain on Vulcan with a stone statue of Spock with the inscription “Live Long and Prosper." We will be adding the same statue to New Romulus with the inscription “The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”, as building toward Romulan and Vulcan reunification was one of Spock’s great life works. The Romulan Republic would not exist without his teachings.

One on Vulcan...



And one on New Romulus...





They are also placing memorial plaques around for the other Star Trek family members who have passed.



Nimoy also provided voice work for the game not just as Spock, but as a narrator as well, providing a small description of a new region of space whenever a player entered it for the first time. Here is a short video released when the game came out in 2010.



I think it's a pretty cool way for fans to interact with the passing of a fictional character within the "reality" of the world in which that character lived.

I may just have to start participating in this free online game/world.

It looks and sounds....fascinating.

Leonard Nimoy

Very sad news today...

Leonard Nimoy, the sonorous, gaunt-faced actor who won a worshipful global following as Mr. Spock, the resolutely logical human-alien first officer of the Starship Enterprise in the television and movie juggernaut “Star Trek,” died on Friday morning at his home in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles. 

He was 83. 

His artistic pursuits — poetry, photography and music in addition to acting — ranged far beyond the United Federation of Planets, but it was as Mr. Spock that Mr. Nimoy became a folk hero, bringing to life one of the most indelible characters of the last half century: a cerebral, unflappable, pointy-eared Vulcan with a signature salute and blessing: “Live long and prosper”. 

His zeal to entertain and enlighten reached beyond “Star Trek” and crossed genres. He had a starring role in the dramatic television series “Mission: Impossible” and frequently performed onstage, notably as Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof.” His poetry was voluminous, and he published books of his photography. 



He also directed movies, including two from the “Star Trek” franchise, and television shows. 

“To this day, I sense Vulcan speech patterns, Vulcan social attitudes and even Vulcan patterns of logic and emotional suppression in my behavior,” Mr. Nimoy wrote years after the original series ended. But that wasn’t such a bad thing, he discovered. 

“Given the choice,” he wrote, “if I had to be someone else, I would be Spock.”



I have been a Star Trek fan since I can remember, so his passing is especially sad for me. He was my favorite character on TV and I always looked forward to him showing up in various films and TV shows over the years.

Like him, if I had to be someone else...I'd likely choose to be Spock too.



His final Tweet on Monday could infer that he might have felt his time was near...



He will be greatly missed and fondly remembered.

For the Love of Spock

The first trailer for the upcoming Leonard Nimoy documentary, For the Love of Spock (directed by his son, Adam Nimoy), was just released...



The film premieres Saturday at the Tribeca Film Festival’s television-oriented “Tune In” program. The film’s second Tribeca screening on April 18 will be followed by a panel discussion with Adam Nimoy, Zachary Quinto, “For the Love of Spock” producer David Zappone and critic Scott Mantz.

Adam Nimoy raised $662,640 last spring through a Kickstarter campaign to complete the documentary. 

The project is aimed at celebrating the 50th anniversary of “Star Trek,” which aired for the first time on Sept. 8, 1966. Quinto, who portrayed Spock in the two latest “Star Trek” films, is narrating the doc.

I will definitely add this to my must-see list once it's released. He was awesome.

What?

I'm not crying....YOU'RE crying!

New Star Trek movie trailer

The first extended trailer was released this weekend with the new James Bond movie. If you haven't seen it there (and it looks much cooler on a big screen!), then check this out...



If it's half as good as this trailer looks...we just might be in for a very fun ride with the Trek kids!

The official studio site for the movie was also updated yesterday. It's a nice visual concept, but unfortunately, it's a very flash-heavy site and tends to freeze up a bit at certain points (it happened twice for me in the photos section).



It never ceases to amaze me how some studios continue to build these huge, fancy, technology-filled sites, while forgetting that many people will have trouble viewing it on their computers. When that happens...people just stop going to their site, which is the opposite of what the studios want.

To the studios who do that, I say....

That is illogical.

Oh...and Duh.



Here are some additional photos from the trailer, like wee Spock (above).



Winona Ryder playing Spock's human mother, Amanda, and Ben Cross playing his father, Sarek.



Kirk and Spock brooding on the pristine iMac bridge.



Uhura lookin' sassy.



Sulu lookin'...well, just lookin'.



Kirk and a female in their space underoos, possibly, about to have relations.

Can you hear the sound of thousands of Trek fans getting inappropriately excited?

In space...no one can hear you ovulate.

I boldly went...

The new "Star Trek" movie was even better than I had hoped.

Whew!

My friend Andrew took me to a special screening of the movie last night on the Paramount lot. As much as I've tried to talk myself into having low expectations (so I wouldn't be disappointed if it was bad), my hopes were pretty high as I sat down in my comfy seat.

Don't worry...I'm going to keep this review very general so that it doesn't spoil any of the many surprises and twists in the film.



That being said....here are some of my general thoughts.

Overall, it is certainly the best produced "Star Trek" film ever. The effects were top-notch, the sets were great, the action was pretty much non-stop, the soundtrack was epic and each of the actors did a great job playing well-known characters without doing hokey caricatures of the original actors who played the roles.

Even if you've never been a "Star Trek" fan, but like a good action/sci-fi movie, I think you'll really enjoy the film.



Chris Pine, Zarchary Quinto and Karl Urban really do a nice job with their characters Kirk, Spock and McCoy. Seeing them all meet for the first time and, over the course of the movie, begin to get to know each other and build the strong bond that we all remember and love was a lot of fun.



It was also refreshing to see the supporting characters get much more screentime than they've ever received in past movies or the original TV show. Uhura, with her ear-piece in place, gets far more to do than just toss out a "Hailing frenquencies open" now and then.



Even watching a very young (he's 17 in the film) Checkov wrestling with his English dialect and actually looking Russian (unlike the original with his Monkees haircut) was enjoyable.



And, as the villan Nero, Eric Bana is unrecognizeable and quite effective as a sullen skull-tattoo'd Romulan seeking vengence against the Federation and, specifically, Spock. He's not as theatrical as Ricardo Montalban's "Kahn", but he's definitely got his moments.

Plus, the inclusion of Leonard Nimoy's Spock into the story really ties the original series and the new movie reality together nicely. Does it feel a bit convenient? A little, but you can forgive it because of the greater storyline possibilities for future Star Trek movies that it creates.



The most difficult part of the movie, for me, was...when it was over.

Other than my friend Andrew (who is not a Star Trek fan at all, but really enjoyed the movie...a good sign for all of you non-Trekkies out there), I had no one to discuss it with. My excitement and enthusiasm was bursting and it took all of my strength and restraint to not just call a friend and spoil the whole movie for them by spewing every miniscule detail, surprise and plotpoint that I had just experienced.

But, I didn't.



Bottom line...

If you've always been a fan (die-hard or casual) of the original series or any of the series that followed....you should really enjoy it.

If you've never really watched "Star Trek", but usually love a good action/adventure/sci-fi blockbuster....then you should also enjoy it.

If you hate "Star Trek" and/or anything Science Fiction related, then, although I think you could still enjoy it, you probably weren't planning to see it anyway.

If that's you, then I'm sure Matthew McConaughey will be thankful that you and four other people opted to see his film "The Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" instead.

Being a new Dad...he definitely needs money for diapers and tanning lotion.

Star Trek World Premiere

The world premiere screening of the new Star Trek movie was "officially" last night in Sydney, Australia at the famous Opera House.

However, there was a surprise in Austin, Texas yesterday at the Fantastic Fest Star Trek convention going on there. Fans were told that there would be a special 10 minute screening of footage from the new Star Trek movie after their showing of the original "Star Trek: Wrath of Kahn" viewing. However, that all changed....



Two minutes in to the showing of TWOK, the film appeared to have ‘melted’ and the guys came back out on the stage and appeared to be stalling for time while the film was fixed…and then, wearing a ball cap, Leonard Nimoy came out in front of the audience holding a film can.

Nimoy noted to the crowd that it just didn’t seem fair that people in Australia were the first to see the film and asked them "wouldn’t you rather see the new movie?" And apparently the crowd went wild. After that they showed the entire new Star Trek movie.

So, it looks like fans in Austin got to see the world premiere a little earlier and with the original Mr. Spock.

Lucky bastards!



Meanwhile, back in Sydney, the premiere event seemed to go off without a hitch. JJ Abrams (director), Zarchary Qunto (Spock), Chris Pine (Kirk), Eric Bana (Nero), John Cho (Sulu), and Karl Urban (McCoy) were all in attendance.









From what I've read so far (and I'm trying to avoid reading any spoilers), the feedback has been very positive, which is nice to hear.

I'm sure, like all blockbusters, there will be reviewers out there who already hate the movie before even seeing it. It's par for the course in the entertainment world. The hardest part for me will be to avoid reading the reviews (good or bad) as they start hitting the internet today.

I want to be able to go into the film and be surprised.



So, I'm still going to be there opening night and no ass-hat with a Debby-Downer review is gonna stop me!

Things that make you go...

Spock's expression kind of sums up how I felt after I got done watching Star Trek Into Darkness last night.

Perplexed. Conflicted. Excited. Disappointed. Bueller.

As most of you know, I loved the 2009 movie.

LOVED it!

So, I think I went into this one with my expectations a bit too high for the sequel to realistically satisfy, no matter how hard it tried.

That being said, I don't want to spoil anything (since most people will start seeing it this weekend). So, I'll keep this short...

I feel like the 2009 movie was great and "Into Darkness" is...good. It's like how I felt after seeing "Search for Spock" after the previous awesomeness that was "Wrath of Kahn".

Into Darkness has great action, visuals, and the characters are still developing nicely into real emotional people you can relate to, which is nice.

However, this film doesn't "grab you" like the previous one and, because of some of the questionable story choices, you just aren't as engrossed or surprised by what happens as the film wraps up.



So...if you loved or even liked the 2009 movie, you will likely enjoy this one too.

If you're a die-hard Star Trek fan with mixed feelings about the 2009 movie, you'll likely not be satisfied with this one.

If you hated the 2009 movie, you will likely hate this one too.

Honestly, I think that the people who will enjoy it the most are the people who really never watched or cared about Star Trek at all. They have no preconceived notions or expectations.

That being said, other than my feeling that they tried too hard to integrate familiar Star Trek references/storylines into this movie, it is still a really fun action movie with some great performances and "she can't take much more, Captain!" fun.

So...if you're going to go see it (and I recommend that you do), keep your expectations in check, get some popcorn, a giant beverage, and just relax and have a good time.

Speaking of a good time, watch this Honest Trailer for Star Trek 2009. It's very entertaining...



As is THIS funny Everything Wrong with Star Trek 2009 in Five Minutes...



I love that movie, but both of those videos made me laugh a lot.

Enjoy!

Stellar box office

"Star Trek" did a great job hanging on to audiences for the crucial second weekend (a time when some movies take a drastic drop and then fade away quickly). Here is what BoxOfficeMojo had to say:

Unphased by “Angels & Demons”, “Star Trek” excelled in its second weekend, logging an estimated $43 million. Reaching $147.6 million in just over ten days, it has eclipsed “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home” as the highest-grossing picture in the franchise.

Slowing 43 percent, Star Trek effectively had the best second weekend hold for a Star Trek movie since “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock”, and it had a smaller decline than “Iron Man” last year.



Of course, the biggest difference with this movie, compared to past "Star Trek" movies, has been the overseas market response. This movie is, thankfully, drastically different according to DeadlineHollywood:

As of today, the pic's international cume is $70M over two weeks. This already makes Abrams' version the highest grossing international “Star Trek”, beating “First Contact” which did $57.4 million internationally.

No movie in the franchise has ever cracked $100M overseas before. But Paramount is predicting that this latest Star Trek should do around $150 international and around $400M worldwide.

So now Star Trek's worldwide cume is $216M.

Really good news for the zesty new Star Trek franchise.



Even President Obama, frequently referenced in the media as our Vulcan president, gave the movie a good review, according to Newsweek:

And the last movie you saw?
Now, movies I’ve been doing OK [with] because it turns out we got this nice theater on the ground floor of my house … So Star Trek, we saw this weekend, which I thought was good. Everybody was saying I was Spock, so I figured I should check it out and—[the president makes the Vulcan salute with his hand].

Very good?
Yes, absolutely.

Did you watch that when you were growing up?
I used to love Star Trek. You know, Star Trek was ahead of its time. There was a whole—the special effects weren’t real good, but the storylines were always evocative, you know, there was a little commentary and a little pop philosophy for a 10-year-old to absorb.

Just one more reason I enjoy having him in the White House...

What's in Spock's scanner?

If you've ever wondered just what Spock used to see in that little private scanner on his station, well...now you'll know.







It's amazing how much can be conveyed with just a look or facial expression.

Hilarious.

Many Spocks

Here is a funny clip from the Robot Chicken show that spoofs the scene in the 2009 Star Trek movie where new Spock meets his future self. In this case...selves.



Entertaining.

Boldly moving on

With all of the sad celebrity news the past couple of days (and the media's nauseating focus on every tiny detail about Michael Jackson and the world's apparent inability to cope with his passing), I thought I would just post a few entertaining Star Trek-related clips that I've seen over the past couple of weeks.

Here is a clip of Zachary Quinto (Spock/Sylar) freaking out last week while walking his dog...along with a man dressed as meat and a bloody butcher.



It's just one of those things that brings about more questions than anyone could possibly answer.

Here is a clip of Taylor Swift on the Country Music Awards talking about how she wants to be in the new Star Trek movie.



And, finally, here is a clip of the original "Star Trek" cast studying a very interesting phenomenon...



Maybe George Takei and William Shatner could finally resolve their longtime feuding by doing a CD together.

It would certainly sell tens of copies.

Space Relations

Slash Fiction has been around for a while, so I suppose that it was only a matter of time before someone used technology and fancy audio-editing, as this person did with Zachary Quinto's reading of the "Star Trek" movie novel, to take things to the next erotic level between Kirk and Spock.

I don't usually post NSFW stuff on the blog, but it's audio-only...so you can turn down the volume or just pop in your headset if you don't feel like sharing "Brokeback Enterprise" with the rest of the office.



I have seen the new "Star Trek" movie many times and I'm pretty certain that that particular scene was not in the film...

Blast from the Past

Two trailers for upcoming films based on previous movies were released this week. The first is the prequel to the X-Men Films titled X-Men: First Class.



Aside from the awful publicity photo, this looks like it could be a fun film about how the all the kids came together. I really enjoyed seeing how Kirk, Spock and McCoy all met in the reboot of Star Trek. We'll soon find out if Xavier and Magneto meeting will be anywhere near as interesting or compelling.



We're also getting a remake of one of my all-time favorite movies, Arthur.



I think Helen Mirren will be great (although John Gielgud will always be THE Hobson to me), but I'm not as sure about Russell Brand as Arthur. He's certainly British and acts immature, so that could work to his favor. But, he seems more wacky than real in this and it'll be interesting to see how that translates to making an audience care about him in the film.

I just hope this movie is not anywhere near as awful as the Bewitched remake that Nora Ephron wrote a few years ago.

I will never forgive her or the studio for putting together the perfect cast and then eviscerating the story and sucking every last ounce of magic out of, what was, such a fun and magically-entertaining show.



Endora will get your for that, Nora.

Goodbye Nurse Chapel

Majel "Nurse Chapel"-Barrett-Roddenberry passed away yesterday.

The widow of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the influential science fiction series (Gene passed away in 1991), played Nurse Christine Chapel in 33 episodes of the original series, as well as in two of the spin-off Star Trek movies throughout the late 1970s and 1980s -- Star Trek: The Motion Picture and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.



Some fun facts about her:



In the original unaired pilot for Star Trek, titled "The Cage" (which later was repurposed for the award-winning two part original Star Trek episode "The Menagerie"), she was cast as the First Officer of the Enterprise (Spock reported to her) and Jeffrey Hunter played Captain Pike (no Kirk then).



She also played Lwaxana Troi, the mother of Counselor Troi on Star Trek: The Next Generation (seen here with her husband and "Star Trek" creator, Gene Roddenberry).



She appeared as Nurse Chapel in the short-lived Star Trek: The Animated Series too.

She also provided the voice of the ship's computer on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" (and all of their movies), "Deep Space Nine" and "Voyager".



So it's very cool that J.J. Abrams also brought that bit of nostalgia and detail into his upcoming "Star Trek" movie, where she also provides the voice of the computer on the new iMac Enterprise.



Which, if all of the Star Trek worlds collided (hmmm...there's a movie idea), she would be on board the USS Enterprise as the First Officer, Nurse Chapel and the voice of the ship's computer.

She'd be a triple threat!

But for now...she will just be missed dearly.