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Via TrekToday: Finnish Politician Campaigns In Klingon

A Finnish Green Party candidate has made his web site available for readers of Klingon, despite translation difficulties because he was unable to find a Klingon word for “green.”

MP Jyrki Kasvi, who describes himself as a passionate Star Trek fan, told Reuters that a Klingon version of his web site is part of his re-election campaign (via Yahoo). “Some have thought it is blasphemy to mix politics and Klingon,” he said, but “Others say it is good if politicians can laugh at themselves.”

The 43-year-old Kasvi represents the Greens from the constituency Uusimaa. A research scientist with a Ph.D. in engineering from the Helsinki University of Technology, Kasvi was elected to the Finnish Parliament in 2003.

What more could you ask for?

For those dying to practice their Klingon, the site is here.

[Cross-posted at PoliSciFi]

Classic:

I suppose that this belongs on PoliSciFi or Deportes, but it just seemed to deserve being on the main page (plus the whole Hardaway thing made the political Blogosphere because of a Michael Medved column and various responses).

h/t: Chris Lawrence.

When geeky analogies go awry courtesy of David Wu (D-OR):

h/t: Andrew Cory at Dean’s World

(Context: last night we watched Star Trek III and the kids have also been watching some of TOS)

My two youngest playing:

Youngest son: Let’s play Star Trek!

Middle Son: Ok! I’m Captain Kirk. But not the old one, the young one!

Indeed, my Oldest expressed confusion the other day over the fact that the Kirk in the movies was the same one as the one on TV

Via the NYT: Jane Wyatt, Mother on ‘Father Knows Best,’ Dies at 95.

While I wholly remember Ms. Wyatt as the Mom on Father Knows Best, the first thing I thought of was “Spock’s Mother” when I saw the headline. And, that does get a mention:

One of her more offbeat television parts was that of Amanda, the human mother of Mr. Spock, the pointy-eared Vulcan member of the “Star Trek” crew of space voyagers in the late 1960’s. She reprised the role in the 1986 film, “Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.”

It may be offbeat, but odds are that she will be remembered longer over time for those brief minutes on the small and large screens than for everything else–geeks have long memories after all.

Via E! Online: Extreme Makeover: “Star Trek” Edition

CBS Paramount gave Trekkers reason to throw their pointy ears in the air Thursday with the announcement that all 79 episodes of the original Star Trek are getting digitally remastered and will be heading into syndication next month for the first time in 16 years in honor of the sci-fi classic’s 40th anniversary.Manyof the series’ beloved yet decidedly dated visual staples, from the galaxy glimpsed in the opening title sequence to the myriad otherworldly landscapes seen from the bridge of the starship Enterprise, will receive a CGI makeover to appeal to the sons and daughters of 1960s-era Star Trek fans who actually found someone to mate with.

[…]

“We’re taking great pains to respect the integrity and style of the original,” Michael Okuda, a scenic-art supervisor on the Star Trek films and spinoffs for the last 18 years, told TVGuide.com. “Our goal is to always ask ourselves: What would [creator Gene] Roddenberry have done with today’s technology?”

Battle sequences, ship exteriors, galaxy shots and landscapes (which previously came courtesy of matte paintings) will be given more shading, depth and computer-generated believability. The original Alexander Courage-composed score has been rerecorded in stereo and, perhaps best of all,William Shatner’s opening monologue has been remastered, so that “Space, the final frontier” will sound better than ever.

[…]

Star Trek: The Original Series goes all 21st century on us Sept. 16, beginning with the first-season episode “Balance of Terror,” in which the Enterprise crew matches wits with the Romulans.

Intriguing. I had read some stuff in the last week or so about a CGI upgrade for the series for HD, but had gotten the impression that this was for an HD-DVD release, not for broadcast, and certainly not starting this month.  It is encouraging that the Okudas are involved, as they should know what they are doing.

Of course, spiffy new exteriors and fx may cause a sort of mental whiplash when some of the old sets come on screen.

And no, this is not an autobiographical post…

Via the The Age: Star Trek’s a thesis

It’s the PhD thesis that boldly goes where no thesis has gone before. Djoymi Baker watched 700 episodes - 624 hours without ads - of Star Trek and its spin-offs, dating from 1966 to 2005, in the name of research.

[…]

It may sound like torture for those with an aversion to William Shatner’s campy theatrics but, six years and 90,000 words on, it has earned Dr Baker a coveted chancellor’s prize for excellence at Melbourne University. And the respect of academics and Trekkies alike.Wow

–and I had to move to another continent to do my dissertation research.  Clearly, I picked the wrong field…

h/t:  Reader Ratoe via e-mail

The Trek Movie Report asks of the fellow heading up the next Trek project: JJ Abrams: The New Roddenberry or The New Meyer?

Let’s just say that I hope, as the piece speculates, that Abrams is more the new Meyer and not the new Roddenberry. While Roddenberry deserves many accolades for creating Trek and especially for the work he did in the first two seasons of the show, the bottom line is that he never seemed capable of fully understanding his own creation–or, at least, significant elements of its magic.

For example (and as the post at the Trek Movie Report rightly notes) ST:TMP was wholly almost devoid of the Trek magic–yet, after Paramount gave the reigns to Harve Bennett and Meyer with Treks II, III, IV, the magic was clearly back. After the hiccup that was V, Meyer was back for Trek VI.

I would also note that ST:TNG was better starting in season two, after Gene was no longer able to be hands-on with the show. Certainly his desire to portray humanity as having evolved beyond petty conflicts has a serious problem with it: no conflict=no drama. As such, the characters on TNG were pretty boring at first.
Although, really, the bottom-line is that Trek needs new blood at the helm, so I am willing to see what Abrams cooks up. Certainly if Roddenberry to be considered in this case as stolid and stale and Meyer is considered fresh and exciting, let’s go with the latter.