Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry is still having his concepts used for television series. In this case it's not so much a creation as a remake. Imagine Entertainment is working with his son Rod Roddenberry to make The Questor Tapes, a series he created in 1974 which made it to the television pilot phase.
The series is about an android named Questor that is created with incomplete memory tapes. It then searches the world for its creator and purpose. A lot of the concept went into the Star Trek: the Next Generation character of Data. Maybe they could get Brent Spiner to play Questor, or would that be typecasting? I recall reading ages ago that Roddenberry originally wanted Leonard Nimoy to play Questor.
Tim Minear, who was behind The X-Files and much Joss Whedon stuff, is being pursued to produce the series. What do you think? Is it another Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda? Who should play Questor?
You thought the waffles weren't enough? Now it's possible for deep sea divers to get their geek on with these Star Trek wetsuits available at Roddenberry.com. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was pretty good as the whole "selling out" thing upon the success of the series, so it's likely he would have approved of these items. Possibly he would have even incorporated them into the show.
If you see anyone wearing these wetsuits, then you can at least conclude that they're fairly wealthy nerds given the $470 price tag. If they have the guts to wear them in the first place then they're doing so well that they don't care what other people think. No doubt if this product is successful, wetsuit versions for Star Trek: The Next Generation will be released at some point in the future.
The red one should come with a warning label. "If you wear this suit, there is a higher chance of getting eaten by a shark, drowning or accidental harpooning."
Some of these "let's combine one show with another show" ideas never quite come together because the cast of one show doesn't necessarily fit into the cast of the other show, but this pic that puts the cast of Mad Men into Star Trek: TNG uniforms is pretty funny and clever. Pete Campbell makes a great Wesley Crusher (at least I think he's supposed to be Wesley - if not, he should be).
Apparently, someone has gone to the trouble to cram Star Trek into the holiday season because why should Star Wars fans be the only ones who have to suffer?
Christmas may have come and gone as fast as Santa on his dilythium crystal powered reindeer, but that doesn't mean you still can't enjoy the unintentional hilarity of A Klingon Christmas Carol. The sci-fi io9 found a clip of the show from a morning show interview they did on Fox 9 in St. Paul. Here's a bit of a spoiler: it's hard to tell that Scrooge has been rehabilitated in the end since all Klingon-speak sounds like an anvil has been stapled to their tongue.
You know him as Captain Jean-Luc Picard or Professor Charles Xavier, but once Queen Elizabeth II is done with him, the bald leading man extraordinaire will arise Sir Patrick Stewart, Knight of the Realm.
This might sound more overdue than According to Jim's cancellation, but one of TV's greatest creators is getting the Hall of Fame treatment.
Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry will join the ranks of the Television Academy's Hall of Fame next year at a special induction ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Other inductees include Candice Bergen, production and art director Charles Lisanby, announcer Don Pardo, Tom and Dick Smothers and game show producer Bob Stewart. Is there anyone that they left off the list?
If you thought the phlegm filled syllables of the Klingon language couldn't make ordinary human music sound as sweet as the innocent cheeps of a nest of newborn birds, then you'd be right.
Klenginem, a member of the Klingon tribe (I don't know what the politically correct term for Klingon is these days, Romulan-Americans?), has turned Eminem's self-serving ditty "Without Me" into a self-serving Klingon ditty.
Don't try and sing along if you aren't fluent in the words of the warrior, or it will turn your esophagus inside out.
Did you watch Reading Rainbow yesterday? If you missed it, that's too bad, because PBS' third-longest running show (behind only Sesame Street and Mr. Roger's Neighborhood) ended its 26 year run on Friday.
According to NPR, the children's program is being cut from the PBS stable of educational programming because of ... wait for it ... the Bush administration.
The merchandise opportunities for classic shows like Star Trek has been outlandish, to say the very least.
You can show your financial love for Star Trek by buying Star Trek toys, Star Trekapparel, Star Trekcell phones, Star TrekPez dispensers, Star Trek burial coffins, Star Trekliving room furniture and even Star Trekerotic theme art. Don't click that last link if you're at work, school or don't really want to know what James Doohan would look like spread eagle on a Tribble skin rug.
Now the folks at Genki Wear, a geek themed jewelry manufacturer, have helped the Enterprise explore a strange new world of merchandising and seek out new lifeline accounts and financial liquidations with a line of Star Trek-inspired cologne and perfumes.
Being a nerd, I'm very familiar with Jeri Ryan's career. She helped make Star Trek: Voyager watchable for a while as a self-aware Borg and recently starred in CBS' Shark alongside James Woods. But it was her work on the David Kelley shows Boston Public and Boston Legal that has me thinking she'll be a good fit for Leverage.
The actress handled Kelley's sharp dialogue like a pro, and I'm guessing she'll bring the same confidence to her role as a "smart-ass, street-wise con woman" on the second season of Leverage. Ryan has signed on for a recurring role on the TNT heist drama. Her character will be a friend of Sophie's (Gina Bellman), Leverage's sexy grifter with a bag full of tricks and foreign accents.
Okay, I understand the mock phasers and the shirts and the action figures. But when someone releases a Star Trek casket and/or urn for when you die, I have to scratch my head a little.
Admittedly, I've heard of Star Trek weddings and even known people who have attended them. I guess since Star Trek fans are getting up there in age, caskets and urns are the next step. Hell, they probably still run Star Trek-themed weddings at Star Trek: The Experience in Las Vegas.
The truth is that most of the original cast is getting up there in age. I cannot help but wonder if someone is going to buy one of them a casket or urn from Eternal Image.
Besides all that, the real Star Trek fans would want a Klingon funeral. That's where they scream on top of the recently deceased body then let anybody else dispose of it however they wish.
With J.J. Abrams' Star Trek topping the box office charts, fans can now shape their Trekker energies into fresh, free cartoons with new characters added to the GoAnimate.com line-up.
The do-it-yourself cartoon site wrapped a licensing agreement with Paramount and CBS early in 2009, allowing fans to use stylized versions of classic Trek characters, sets and props in original short animations. Setting up an account is free - unless you count the time you're going to burn making your cartoon.
In addition to Kirk, Spock and other familar faces, the site just upped the supporting player factor with usable avatars of the Gorn, alien female Mara, Klingons and Nurse Chapel.
OK, so she turned evil and veiny and almost destroyed the world after someone murdered her hot lesbian lover. But at heart, Willow Rosenberg was always a computer-hacking, research-loving nerd.
The Buffy the Vampire Slayer character landed at number one on Topless Robot's list of "Pop Culture's 10 Greatest Nerds." I was surprised by the pick at first, but I can't think of a better choice to top the list. Willow was a great character, and will probably always be actor Alyson Hannigan's best role (sorry, HIMYMfans, but it's true).
I may be getting a little obsessed. Most of the postsI'vewrittenrecently have been about the soon-to-be-departing Doctor Who lead David Tennant. I'm also quite disappointed that a lack of time and funds did not permit me to take a trip to England to see Tennant in the RSC production of Hamlet. Thankfully, the BBC has come to the rescue.
For those like me, the BBC is reassembling the cast and filming that production of Hamlet for broadcast in late 2009, with American and Japanese broadcasts to occur in 2010 (I wonder which channel would show it in the States? BBC America? PBS?). To sweeten the deal for us nerds, former Star Trek: The Next Generation captain Patrick Stewart plays Claudius.
Perhaps they'll even let Tennant improvise the role a bit. I would love it if he could throw a little script that Neil Gaiman wrote for him upon hearing of his participation in the role.
Over at ComicMix, Alan Kistler has written annotations for the new Star Trek movie and how well it fits into the overall continuity of the show. It's a pretty impressive list and does prove that despite the blatant contradiction of the show's history as a result of time travel, they were actually pretty good with getting the details of the characters correct.
Spoilers follow this paragraph. You have been warned.