I can't believe it's been 20 years ago, today, that Star Trek: Voyager premiered. It was one of my favorite of the various Star Trek series, primarily because they had Kate Mulgrew as the captain. I thought she did an awesome job and looked forward to watching the show weekly.
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).
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.
I'm REALLY looking forward to the new "Star Trek" movie!
I've always been a "Star Trek" fan and have watched all of the film sequels and most of the spinoff TV series, especially enjoying "The Next Generation" and "Voyager" (Janeway and Breasts of Nine were great). I wasn't too thrilled with "Deep Space Nine" (didn't like most of the main characters) or "Enterprise".
So, when I heard they were doing a new movie that went back to the time before the original TV series, I was a little apprehensive. The "Enterprise" TV series went back there and it just seemed dull. After going so far into the future with technology in the other series, watching the crew deal with the "new" transporter" and using bulky phasers just seemed...blah.
But, with J.J. Abrahms directing and Zachary "Sylar" Quinto as Spock (I don't think they could have found a better choice to match Leonard Nimoy anywhere) and Eric Bana as the bad guy, my reservations have quickly turned to excitement.
The cast looks pretty good and I'm looking forward to seeing how they all ended up together. It also appears that the character of Uhura may have more to do than state "Hailing frequencies open, Captain.", which should be refreshing.
I'm glad they stuck with the original uniforms and will hold judgement on the updated glass-looking bridge until I see the movie....the original bridge set wasn't really created for wide screen enjoyment at the time.
The first trailer for Star Trek: Picard was released this weekend and, besides looking awesome, it also featured another familiar Star Trek character...
Seven of Nine!!
She was one of my favorite characters on Star Trek: Voyager and I'm REALLY excited that she will be on this show as well.
Grace Lee Whitney, best known as Yeoman Janice Rand in the original Star Trek series, died on May 1 at her home in Coarsegold, Calif. She was 85.
Whitney was fired at the end of Star Trek‘s first season, but she went on to reprise her role as Janice in Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, and Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. She also guest-starred in a 1996 episode of Star Trek: Voyager that commemorated the 30th anniversary of the franchise.
It was always nice to see her pop up in the various Star Trek films and TV shows over the years.
After more than 40 years, we finally have the green light on a Star Trek theme park, thanks to King Abdullah of Jordan (who once was an extra on an episode of Star Trek: Voyager when he was still a Prince). And it only cost a measly $1.5 billion to do it.
The project is expected to be completed by 2014, and will be the crown jewel of the planned Red Sea Astrarium resort in the coastal city of Aqaba. The whole thing will have 17 entertainment areas and 4 hotels on 184 acres of land, and all powered by renewable energy.
Hopefully when it's finished, they'll have developed working Transporters so that all of us can just beam over there without having to pay a million dollars for a plane ticket.
