Cathy mentioned that she heard about a new Star Trek movie announcement. I checked the official Star Trek site and found
this announcement from paramount. Apparently Rick Berman is not involved, and the story will revolve around the early days of Kirk and Spock at the academy.
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There were two obituaries of note this month in the Star Trek Universe. Romulan Commander Tomalak of Next Generation fame died of Lung Cancer at 59 and Lt. Lee Kelso of the second original Star Trek pilot “Where No Man Has Gone Before” at 72.
Trektoday is reporting that George Takei will reprise his role (via the fan-film New Voyages) in an episode to be written by David Gerrold (the author of the classic Tribbles). I discussed the return of another Star Trek (The Original Series) cast member, Chekov,
in an earlier story. Sulu was always one of my favorite characters on the show. I remember wishing that Sulu would be given his own Star Trek show after he appeared as a captain in one of the Star Trek movies. “Shields!” I’m looking forward to seeing him in New Voyages, even if it is kinda campy.
I downloaded Star Wreck last night, a free parody film made by a group of Finnish Star Trek and Babylon 5 fans. It’s surprisingly good (as parodies go) and it’s worth a watch if you’re a Star Trek fan. Oh yeah, get the version with subtitles: it’s in Finnish. Finland was taken over by Russia three times in the 20th century - and the blundering idiot Russians in the film are evidence of the fond memories most Finns have of this history.
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I’ve mentioned the Star Trek fan film projects here before, but there was a big development for fans of the genre earlier this year that I missed somehow. Walter Koenig, the actor who played the Russian ensign of the USS Enterprise known as Chekov, will join the amateur all-fan cast of New Voyages for their third ‘web-isode’, another full length television show produced in the style of the original 1960’s Star Trek series, downloadable over the internet. More info on the return of Chekov and the writer behind the story…
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Although to many of the ‘Trek faithful’ this story may seem like “old news”, I just found it, so its news to me. Apparently, James Doohan, the actor who portrayed ‘Scotty’ on the original Star Trek television series may have some of his ashes launched into space by the same firm that provided a similar posthumous lift to the remains of Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the TV series that defined American popular Sci-Fi culture.I’ll admit it - I tune into startrek.com once in a while. If you’re a big fan of the shows, an occassional pilgrimage to the website is mandatory. The site has the latest news relating to all aspects of the franchise, offers a daily show clip and quote and the online database has details for every single episode for all the different shows.
The recent passing of James Doohan, 85, the Canadian-Irish actor who portrayed the Scottish engineer ‘Scotty’ on the original Star Trek series was the latest bummin’ event to fans of Star Trek which now with the cancellation of ‘Enterprise’, for the first time since the 80’s has *no* franchise related television show in production. For many, the original TV show was the only one worth watching. I personally don’t agree, but I always had a special place in my heart for the Scotty character.
From wikipedia:
“He suffered from Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, and lung fibrosis in later life. In 2004, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. On July 20, 2005, at 5:30 in the morning, he died at his home in Redmond, Washington with his wife Wende and long-time friend (and agent) Steve Stevens at his side. His agent identified the cause as pneumonia and Alzheimer’s disease. He was the second member of the original Star Trek cast to pass away, after DeForest Kelley, who died in 1999.”
According the StarTrek.com, some of Mr. Doohan’s remains will be launched into space sometime in September by Space Services, Inc., of Houston, Texas from California’s Vandenberg Air Force Base, on a Falcon 1 rocket.
‘Scotty’ won’t be the first person related to Star Trek to take the trip to the stars: already a producer who passed in 2002 and Gene Roddenberry, the show’s creator who died in 1991 have had their remains scattered in space by the firm.
The BBC has the story as well.
Back in July I sent an email out to friends about 5 Year Mission dot com (recently renamed to “newvoyages.com”) about a Star Trek fan project: “Man, talk about fan involvement. There is a group of Star Trek fans who have created a tribute to the original series in a unique way: they wrote, acted, filmed and have distributed a NEW episode with the original characters (with new actors, obviously) and all the original sound effects and campy dialouge!” Their website is http://newvoyages.com/. I just found out about another fan project producing new episodes based on the original series which is just as good if not better. Read on for the link.
