Sci-Fi Storm

Apparently not only were the fans disappointed with the Enteprise finale (and more than a few with the series as a whole, although I personally liked it) – so was Jonathan Frakes, who reprised his Star Trek: The Next Generation role of Commander William Riker, along side his co-star Marina Sirtis (Counselor Deanna Troi). If you remember, the finale basically put the whole series as a holodeck recreation of historical records of the first ship named Enterprise, being watched by Riker and Troi.

At Central Canada Comic-Con during a Q&A session, someone asked what it was like to be the “guy who wrapped up the whole episodic Star Trek series”.

“They said it would be a Valentine to the fans, but all of it ended up doing I think was hurting Scott Bakula’s feelings,” he said. “He was such a gentleman about it and I said to Scott this is weird for me to be on your show and your show is being taken off before it should be taken off and he was such a gentleman about it and said ‘No, glad you’re here’ so it was awkward on all accounts, except with working with Marina again which is always lovely. But I wasn’t crazy about it. And it was so thinly connected, I thought too. Thanks for bringing up such an unpleasant memory.”

In honor of the 45th anniversary of Star Trek (it was yesterday, but I was pretty busy), here is a neat infographic that puts the franchise into a timeline with a few other events…
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Many have tried, none have succeeded: With such heavy hitters are Bryan Singer, William Shatner and JMS supposedly associated with Star Trek series that went nowhere, does a small production company stand a chance? We’ll see, as David Foster of 1947 Entertainment, which has a number of things in development, is apparently readying a pitch to CBS for a post-Voyager series in the old continuity, according to this interview with owner David Foster.

Interestingly, this series has been in development since 2006 under the code name S.E.T.I. (the acronym used by the real-life Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence project), between David Foster and the late Kevin Severson.

So it will be interesting to see if given the J.J. Abrams “new continuity” if there is room for a TV series in the “old continuity”.

The long-awaited Star Trek reboot sequel will wait a while longer – Co-writer/producers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman reported at SDCC that they hope to start shooting in January 2012 – while Paramount still has it penciled in for a June 29th, 2012 release. Fellow co-writer/producer Damon Lindelof also said, “Right now my days and nights are consumed by Star Trek 2. We were supposed to dive in on that as soon as I finished Lost, but JJ [Abrams] was so busy on Super 8, Alex [Kurtzman] and Bob [Orci] had their own sort of empire to manage. Now finally the four creative minds that made the first movie what it was are all back in a room together and that was the only way we wanted to do it.”

I don’t know…should we start a pool on what the first day of principal photography will actually be?

First learned this from a tweet from Wende Doohan, Jimmy Doohan’s widow – William Campbell, best known to Star Trek fans for his fanciful Liberace-like performance of Trelane in “The Squire of Gothos” as well as Klingon captain Koloth in “The Trouble With Tribbles” (a role he reprised on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s episode, “Blood Oath”), passed away peacefully yesterday evening after a long illness.

Actor John de Lancie, best known for is role as the antagonistic alien Q in the Star Trek franchise, has signed on to a guest role in the upcoming Torchwood: Miracle Day, according to a tweet from writer Jane Espenson:

I just this minute got permission to tell about the Torchwood guest star I was tweeting about. Two great Sci Fi fandoms collide…

He’s de licious. He’s de lightful. He’s de lovely…

Yes. Our friend Q from Star Trek: TNG, John De Lancie, is part of the #Torchwood family!

I can’t say I’m surprised at all, but as part of an interview with UGO, Jonathan Frakes talked about (among his other projects, which includes directing his wife in an episode of the web series Bar Karma and a possible Gargoyles movie) how Paramount milked Star Trek to death, and have since turned down proposals from Frakes, Bryan Singer, and even William Shatner for new shows. “They feel at CBS Paramount that they don’t want to make the same mistake that’s been made before, which was watering down the brand by having a TV show and a movie,” according to Frakes. “That’s what happened with Star Trek: Nemesis, and that’s why I think Star Trek: Enterprise didn’t last the way they expected to. It was the classic corporate greed of ‘we’ve got something good, so let’s continue to milk it’ and we milked it so dry that the fans had no appetite for a movie.” So wait, someone in Hollywood actually learned a lesson?

A copy of the reportedly original pitch for Star Trek made by Gene Roddenberry has been found online. Although some of the things revealed are generally well known (the ship was originally the Yorktown, the captain was Robert April – who was later canonized as the captain of the Enterprise before Pike in the animated series, etc.) you can see that as early as 1964 several of the ideas for stories that were eventually produced.
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SFX Magazine in the UK posted the results of a number of polls, including the “Favourite Monsters, Supernatural Beings & Fantasy Creatures” – and the Daleks lead the list of the top 20. Other notable entries include Gollum (5), Babylon 5‘s Shadows (6, not bad for a show nearly 12 years gone…still wish we were getting more), The Borg (11), Pilot from Farscape (12), and the Cybermen (13).

Perhaps Shakespeare isn’t far off…”u”, the “First Authentic Klingon Opera on Earth”, will see it’s earthly debut on September 9th, 2010 at the Zeebelt Theater, The Hague, Amsterdam. A later performance exclusively for Klingons will happen at The Celestial Vault, Kijkduin on the 18th of September 2010.