The TREK XI Report is noting a rumor that the next Trek flick will focus not on Kirk’s academy days, but on his first voyage as Captain of the Enterprise.
This makes more sense, because it was unclear to me that Kirk and Spock were sufficiently of the same age to have them both at the Academy at the same time.
It also makes the Matt Damon rumor make more sense, as Damon isn’t exactly Academy age.
Such a setting for the film would likely mean no McCoy, however, as if one goes by the series, McCoy wasn’t the ship’s CMO in pilot.
I have never been a big fan of the academy-era story in the first place, so this would be more to my liking.
I like this better than the other idea of the academy as well.
Now are the even Trek movies supposed to be the bad ones, or are the odd ones supposed to stink? I can’t remember . . . help me out here.
Comment by B. Minich — Wednesday, August 9, 2024 @ 10:04 am
Granted, I’m really rusty on my Trek, but I thought I recalled McCoy being on board during the “official” pilot.
Now, if you’re talking about the original pilot, then that was pre-Kirk and pre-McCoy. Christopher Pike was the original Captain in the original pilot that got chopped up later and used for the two parter Menagere, which I know I just spelled wrong.
In fact McCoy was not in “Where No Man Has Gone Before” — the second pilot which featured Kirk as captain. Scotty, Sulu (but not as helmsman), Spock and Kirk were in that one, but not McCoy, Uhura or Chekhov (who didn’t appear until the 2nd season).
Although I supposed that they could have been somewhere on the ship at the time.
Also, Spock wasn’t first officer, Gary Mitchell was.
See: I’m a true Trek geek. And did all off the top of my head!
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Wednesday, August 9, 2024 @ 11:11 am
Dr. Taylor is right on all counts. Although Mc Coy (and Uhura) did appear on the first two Trek shows broadcast, they didnt appear in the pilot (which was shown 3rd). There are quite a few differences between the rest of the show and this second pilot, but in the end I bet that Abrams will not confuse mainstream audiences with that level of minutae. If the film is indeed set on the Enterprise I think we will see our Dr. Mc Coy. The discrepency can be explained away in a dozen ways (Mc Coy was out shopping during the pilot for example)
Comment by Tony P — Wednesday, August 9, 2024 @ 12:14 pm
I’d forgotten about Gary.
But I do remember that Chehkov didn’t come until 2nd season because that caused a whole problem with Khan remembering him in the movie.
I am fairly certain that Mitchell outranked Spock in that episode.
I’d have to go back and watch it to make sure–although you may be correct.
I may be confusing the fact that Number One was the first office in “The Cage”.
For what it is worth, Memory Alpha (http://www.memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Gary_Mitchell) and Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Mitchell_(Starfleet)) note that it is “speculated” the Mitchell was the First Officer, so it may not be clear in the episode.
Some of the novels have Mitchell as First Officer, which may be where the notion comes from. Still, I was thinking that there was some indication in the episode itself.
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Sunday, August 13, 2024 @ 11:46 am
I always thought Gary out ranked Spock, because he had gone through the academy with Kirk, but Kirk was promoted to Captain before Gary (which would make him a Commander by rank). And Spock was a LT. Commander the first season of Classic Trek.
Comment by Phoenicianknight — Thursday, December 28, 2024 @ 10:34 pm
Since this project is categorized as being in production, the data is subject to change; some data could be removed completely.
Interesting, at least. I see this news has been floating around a while, so apologies if you’ve seen it, but Poliblogger is the Star Trek geek-fest, after all — Steven T. or no Steven T.
More than three years after the last “Star Trek” movie crashed at the box office, the venerable sci-fi franchise is being revived by the director of the upcoming “Mission: Impossible” sequel, Daily Variety reported in its Friday edition.
[…]
Daily Variety said the action would center on the early days of “Star Trek” characters James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock, including their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and first outer-space mission.
This idea has been rumored for a while–although I am not certain whether I like it or not.
I knew they wouldn’t keep the franchise on the shelf for too long–there is simply too much money to be made.
If you are a fan of Babylon 5, you will be saddened to hear of the death of Andreas Katsulas, at the very young age of 59. He died of lung cancer.
Katsulas played G’Kar on the series, and gave, especially in the later seasons, excellent performances in the role. G’Kar seemed liked a gardern variety heavy in the first season, but turned out to be quite the complex character, something Katsulas did an excellent job of presenting.
Katsulas also portrayed the recurring character of the Romulan Commander Tomalak on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Katsulas is the second of the B5 regular cast to die at a young age. Richard Biggs, who played Dr. Stephen Franklin, died in 2024 at the age of 44.
Katsulas was probably most famous in his role as the “one-armed man” in the Harrison Ford movie of The Fugitive, even though I doubt he had more than a dozen lines in the movie.
Star Trek actor William Shatner has sold his kidney stone for $25,000 (£14,000) to an online casino, to raise money for a housing charity.
The 74-year-old actor agreed on Monday to sell the stone to GoldenPalace.com.
“This takes organ donors to a new height, to a new low, maybe. How much is a piece of me worth?” said Shatner.
I was going to say “I think I’ll pass” but that would be too much of an unintended pun.
The money is going to Habitat for Humanity, so more power to them. However, I must confess to some trepidation over anyone who would want to buy the darn thing.
Shock jock Stern, who made his debut on Sirius Satellite Radio on Monday, will have Takei record segments for the show after this first week but will not have Takei regularly in the studio, reported MSNBC. “The revolution has begun,” said the actor, referring to the expansion of satellite radio.
Brannon Braga has announced that his relationship with the Star Trek franchise is at an end, adding, “There will be a lot of fans cheering about that.”
Not as many as would be cheering if Berman called it quits, but yes, I suspect there are.
Given that under the reign of those two true storytelling was lost in Star Trek and technobabble reigned supreme, I cannot say I am sad to see a change of those in charge.
There is a reason that both Babylon 5 and the new Battlestar Galactica are regarded so highly: they tell stories that are driven by the characters, not by the rote “problem, solve problem with brilliant, last minute, technological solution” that Star Trek became on television. What was worse was the endless repetition of the plot “The Wrath of Khan” in the Next Generation movies which worked well the first time, and even the second time around in “The Undiscovered Country”, but became a formula of “focal villian, Picard confronts focal villian, Picard wins usually with the help of Data making a key choice”.
Sigh…
Comment by Jack — Tuesday, November 15, 2024 @ 12:34 pm
Braga was a pretty good writing partner for Ron Moore back in the day (see, e.g. First Contact), but Berman & Braga together were just cringeworthy at times.
George Takei, who as helmsman Sulu steered the Starship Enterprise through three television seasons and six movies, has come out as a homosexual in the current issue of Frontiers, a biweekly Los Angeles magazine covering the gay and lesbian community.
[…]
The 68-year-old actor said he and his partner, Brad Altman, have been together for 18 years.
Takei, a Japanese-American who lived in a U.S. internment camp from age 4 to 8, said he grew up feeling ashamed of his ethnicity and sexuality. He likened prejudice against gays to racial segregation.
It is interesting to note that such a revelation is hardly a big deal these days, but clearly would have damaged, if not wrecked, Takei’s career early on.
I think James Joyner’s comment earlier in the week about another celebrity “outing” is indicative of the general reaction to these types of announcements:
Frankly, I’m more shocked that the WNBA is still around than I am that Swopes is a lesbian.
Indeed.
Now, I will grant, there will be individuals who react quite negatively, but certainly in terms of the general reaction to the entertainment industry, Takei’s public statements about his sexual orientation will not raise many eyebrows. For that matter I have seen rumors to the effect that he was gay for some time–and, as Joyner notes in a post on Takei
Clearly, given that he has been with Altman for longer than most married couples, his orientation has been an open secret among those who knew him for quite some time.
Now, of course, there are areas, such as male sports, where such outings would generate profound reactions.
I have caught several old episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (which, in some ways is still the “new” Trek in my mind) and have noted an interesting phenomenon that is clearly an artifact of mid-1980s thinking and writing. (TiVo is a wonderful thing).
On several occasions (the first I noted was in Darmok and then in The Naked Now) the idea of a computer search for some nugget of information is considered to be some sort of huge deal. In Darmok it seems like at one point the computer had found several hundreds references, and it was considered to be a multi-hour problem not worth pursuing because it would be too arduous to undertake the full search (and that was with Data doing it). I’m thinking a) that isn’t that many hits and b) don’t that have “search within results” in the 24th Century?
In fact, what seems commonplace now, really wasn’t so common place in the 1980s (indeed, didn’t exist), so it is no shock that the writers didn’t think like the Googlefied persons we have all become. (And a quick search of Google indicates that “Googlefied” is not a new word–something that it might have taken Data hours to figure out on TNG).
I will note that Data found what he needed in the Naked Now with far less info to go on than he had in Darmok. Granted, a lot of this is TV Show Script Logic, but still.
And yet Data himself was often portrayed as a walking, talking Google search engine. I remember one episode where Picard didn’t know what “QE2″ meant and Data was able to “self-Google” it instantly. Another episode has him giving a detailed history of the “dead” French language (much to Picard’s consternation); Data also spoke fluent French.
I also remember Data giving a recited-from-memory briefing on baseball (including a reference to a World Series win by the “London Kings”). And another episode had him mentally retrieving, in real time, another officer’s complete service record.
[…] G! This one had me rolling….Hardball, the Back To School Addition. Poliblogger is a trekkie TMH’s Bacon Bits are looking forward to a movie. The Nose on Your Face has the top 9 fabulous gi […]
I like this better than the other idea of the academy as well.
Now are the even Trek movies supposed to be the bad ones, or are the odd ones supposed to stink? I can’t remember . . . help me out here.
Comment by B. Minich — Wednesday, August 9, 2024 @ 10:04 am
Granted, I’m really rusty on my Trek, but I thought I recalled McCoy being on board during the “official” pilot.
Now, if you’re talking about the original pilot, then that was pre-Kirk and pre-McCoy. Christopher Pike was the original Captain in the original pilot that got chopped up later and used for the two parter Menagere, which I know I just spelled wrong.
Comment by N. Mallory — Wednesday, August 9, 2024 @ 11:01 am
In fact McCoy was not in “Where No Man Has Gone Before” — the second pilot which featured Kirk as captain. Scotty, Sulu (but not as helmsman), Spock and Kirk were in that one, but not McCoy, Uhura or Chekhov (who didn’t appear until the 2nd season).
Although I supposed that they could have been somewhere on the ship at the time.
Also, Spock wasn’t first officer, Gary Mitchell was.
See: I’m a true Trek geek. And did all off the top of my head!
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Wednesday, August 9, 2024 @ 11:11 am
Dr. Taylor is right on all counts. Although Mc Coy (and Uhura) did appear on the first two Trek shows broadcast, they didnt appear in the pilot (which was shown 3rd). There are quite a few differences between the rest of the show and this second pilot, but in the end I bet that Abrams will not confuse mainstream audiences with that level of minutae. If the film is indeed set on the Enterprise I think we will see our Dr. Mc Coy. The discrepency can be explained away in a dozen ways (Mc Coy was out shopping during the pilot for example)
Comment by Tony P — Wednesday, August 9, 2024 @ 12:14 pm
I’d forgotten about Gary.
But I do remember that Chehkov didn’t come until 2nd season because that caused a whole problem with Khan remembering him in the movie.
Comment by N. Mallory — Wednesday, August 9, 2024 @ 2:33 pm
IN re: McCoy, one way to explain it is to simply make him part of the medical staff and not Chief Surgeon.
And yep in re: Khan. I guess Pavel was working in the lower decks in season one
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Wednesday, August 9, 2024 @ 4:17 pm
Ben Affleck will be playing the part of Mr. Spock
Comment by PT — Wednesday, August 9, 2024 @ 4:58 pm
Hermano: that is one frighening thought.
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Wednesday, August 9, 2024 @ 5:08 pm
Also, Spock wasn’t first officer, Gary Mitchell was.
Gary Mitchell was helm officer. Spock was always the first officer aboard Captain Kirk’s Enterprise.
TRexx @ VRRRM.com
Comment by TRexx VRRRM — Sunday, August 13, 2024 @ 10:58 am
I am fairly certain that Mitchell outranked Spock in that episode.
I’d have to go back and watch it to make sure–although you may be correct.
I may be confusing the fact that Number One was the first office in “The Cage”.
For what it is worth, Memory Alpha (http://www.memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Gary_Mitchell) and Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Mitchell_(Starfleet)) note that it is “speculated” the Mitchell was the First Officer, so it may not be clear in the episode.
Some of the novels have Mitchell as First Officer, which may be where the notion comes from. Still, I was thinking that there was some indication in the episode itself.
Comment by Dr. Steven Taylor — Sunday, August 13, 2024 @ 11:46 am
I always thought Gary out ranked Spock, because he had gone through the academy with Kirk, but Kirk was promoted to Captain before Gary (which would make him a Commander by rank). And Spock was a LT. Commander the first season of Classic Trek.
Comment by Phoenicianknight — Thursday, December 28, 2024 @ 10:34 pm