Category: Star Trek Musings

About The Shatner Thing At The Oscars

So, at some point, William Shatner somehow stepped into the future and took command of the Enterprise, but for some reason, people refer to him as Captain Kirk… because that’s what I get. It isn’t Shatner playing Captain Kirk, but Shatner playing Shatner in Kirk’s space suit. And don’t get me wrong; Shatner played his part well in that opening skit, but it sort of emphasizes the fact that the guy’s too old to be playing that part in some major motion picture production or something.

Voiceover work in a CGI animated thing or a video game? That’s fine. Little joke sketches like this? Sure. Another movie or series? No, thanks.

The Weight Of Worlds… Cover

I don’t care if the story in this book ends up sucking. This is probably one of the best covers to come out of the Star Trek novel department… mainly because it’s in wondrous color, hearkens back to the days of colorful Trek novels, and looks somewhat, remotely vibrant and full of life.

We need more novels with this kind of cover artwork, not the drab monotone covers besieging the so-called expanded universe novels of TNGDS9VOY or whatever.

(2024 Update: Yeah, so… breaking the kayfabe on this thing over a decade later, the “art” used are stock renders of the various TOS characters that would be used for various press bits. Knowing that piece of business, this cover comes across as less than stellar. Within the context of everything else, however, in a sea of Trek novel covers that were nothing but CG images and seldom an actual character on the cover, this was brilliance. Fortunately, Trek novels would get some nicer looking covers over time.)

BluRay Review – Star Trek: The Next Generation: Season 1 (Blu-Ray)

Until I start my own swag of Blu-Ray collection or however it’s supposed to be written, I’m stuck nicking my bro’s collection at the moment. So I checked out the Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 1 Blu-Ray (will eventually go for Season 2 afterwards) and I’d have to say that I’m somewhat impressed by what they did with the remastering, where they actually remade the visual effects using the original film elements rather than a simple upconversion or using CGI effects that would look too modern even for a 1987 show.

The end result is visual effects that are the same as the original version, but with more lighting and details that would otherwise be lost in standard definition televisions. There’s very little in terms of actual changes with effects (particularly one notable change in “The Naked Now” that’s on screen for a second, but easily noticeable if you’re familiar with the show.) It looks really good for the most part (with some shots looking rather odd) and really does more to sell me on the Blu-Ray experience than anything else on the market.

As for the show itself, well, the first season of Next Gen was definitely a work in progress. When people compile a list of the best episodes from the entire seven-year run, only a very minute number of them are from the first season. For every quality episode such as “Where No One Has Gone Before” or “Datalore” or “The Big Goodbye”, there’s about four or five crappy episodes like “Justice” or the overly-sexist “Angel One” or the overly-racist “Code of Honor.” The show eventually got a bit better with everyone finding their footing, but the first season was definitely growing pains. Still somewhat enjoyable, I think.

On a whole, it’s a nice little job they did here. The effects are vastly improved, the picture quality is rather sharp, the bonus features (comprising episodic promos, a look at the remastering process, a retrospective with lots of screen test footage, an edited version of the infamous TNG Gag Reel floating around the internet, and they even snuck in the DVD extras) are plentiful, and it’s just a really well-done package. It’s definitely a worthwhile upgrade to the BluRay format that’s worth the double-dipping if you already own the old DVD sets.

Let's Go On A STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS… And Shit…

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Star-Trek-Sequel-Titled-Star-Trek-Darkness-32850.html

Rumor mill has the title for the next Trek movie to be called Star Trek Into Darkness… no doubt the grim and gritty version of Star Trek featuring a rambling psychotic Captain Kirk going on a murderous rampage to avenge some unspeakable injustice, while Spock gives into his emotional disarray and dumps Uhura for an older Sulu, as portrayed by George Takei…

Yeah, that one’s gonna be painful…

Bridge On The Captain?

You know, I’m reading the Agony Booth’s recap on Star Trek: Insurrection. And one of the first things the writer does is bring up how many commanders are on the Enterprise… which is true. Outside of Picard, every other senior crew member is either a Commander or Lieutenant Commander. (Funny bit: The writer assumes that Data’s cat might be a commander by proxy.)

Apparently, nobody clued the writer to Star Trek V and Star Trek VI, two films that took place on the U.S.S. Enterprise 1701-A… a starship with THREE CAPTAINS. Even though commander of the ship was Captain Kirk (because, you known, Captain Fucking Kirk), Spock and Scotty also held the rank of captain during these two films. (Spock having been captain since Star Trek II and Scotty getting promoted in the following film).