Tagged: Star Trek

‘Star Trek’ when Sulu was black and Uhura was white

  • News
  • October 26, 2008

As an occasional Star Trek author, there are days when I have cursed Paramount’s licensing department for saying that you can’t do this with that character, or saying that Klingons aren’t warlike, or that Federation officers never disobey orders, or any other sort of restriction that seems arbitrary and picky that wrecks a perfectly good story idea.

But without them, you can get some truly strange occurences– like this Peter Pan comic book and record set for kids. The first story, "A Mirror Of Futility", drawn by Neal Adams or a very close fascimile, has Lieutenant Uhura as a white woman and Lieutenant Sulu as a black man– and he’s wearing the wrong color shirt to boot.

And it’s not a random fluke, either– because in the second story drawn by the late great John Buscema, "The Time Stealer", it happens again. (It also features an appearance by someone who looks very close to Conan, but that’s another story.)

And the line "Shutting down… engines now, Captain." We’ve apparently gone from Sulu to Yoda.

One has to wonder what George Takei and Nichelle Nichols thought of it…

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‘Star Trek: Countdown’ Begins in January

  • News
  • October 21, 2008

IDW has released details about the prequel comic book miniseries leading into next May’s Star Trek reboot. Entitled Star Trek: Countdown, it will focus on Nero, the villainous Romulan played by Eric Bana and said to be seen at the film’s beginning set in Trek’s present before the time travel elements kick in and we see the familiar crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise unite for the first time.

The miniseries will be written by Mike Johnson (Superman/Batman) and Tim Jones from a story crafted by Trek director J.J. Abrams and screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.  Art will come from Italian draftsman David Messina who has previously drawn for IDW’s Trek line.

Countdown launches in January and will run for four monthly issues with the trade collection already announced for April 29, just a week prior to the May 2 release of the feature film.

“[Star Trek: Countdown] is about how you connect the Next Generation era to our continuity, inspired by when we last saw Mr. Spock in ‘Unification’,” Orci told TrekMovie.com.

“I can assure you that we all (IDW and Bad Robot) are at work in order to be faithful to the spirit of Star Trek!” Messina enthusiastically posted at the site. “…and believe me, you can’t imagine how huge and picky is our ‘pre-production’ work for this book! Mike and Tim are great Star Trek fans, while even if I’m not a Trek’s guy, I’m a really great lover of Sci-Fi… I really hope that you’ll like our book, we are at work on it with great passion.”

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Review: ‘Beauty and the Beast’ The Complete Series

batb-s1-3-dvd-front-3128808In 1987, television was evolving.  Thanks to [[[Hill Street Blues]]], the way dramatic stories were presented became more complex, the storytelling more diverse and the stories more compressed. The subject matter was also starting to broaden, moving beyond cops, lawyers and doctors.  It was just before the SF wave kicked off with [[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]] but that didn’t stop CBS from trying something a little different.

On a Friday night, September 25, 1987, audiences were treated to a different look at the classic [[[Beauty and the Beast]]] tale.  The series starred Ron Perlman as Vincent, the beast, a mutant of some sort, who comes to the rescue of Linda Hamilton’s Catherine, a rich girl turned assistant district attorney.  Their connection became the stuff of fairy tale and from that pilot episode, their fates became inextricable.

It had all the lush romance of a Harlequin book and the action to keep spouses by their side.  The series had its ups and downs, making a star out of Hamilton who left the series after just two seasons, derailing the eternal romance. Jo Anderson was brought in for the third season but that, coupled with CBS’s insistence on increased action for the males, hurt and the series came to an end in January 1990 (although the final two were run that summer).  Its 56 episodes remain a testament to the creative vision of creator Ron Koslow and fantasist George R.R. Martin who wound up penning 13 of the episodes.

Paramount Home Video has released a 16-disc box set of the complete series and it shows its age.  Beauty and the Beast has the look and feel of the 1980s without fully embracing the changing storytelling in television. The storytelling is slow, almost plodding at times, and each week they seemed to focus on some new social ill without really offering long-term solutions.  The threats were fairly standard stuff for the most part, intertwined with the poetry between the characters.  Complete with lush music, long, lingering gazes into character’s eyes, it was truly a romance novel brought to the screen.

(more…)

‘Star Trek: A Singular Destiny’ Details Revealed

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  • October 10, 2008

There have been a lot of rumors circulating about the direction that the Star Trek books will be taking after the events surrounding the Destiny trilogy by David Mack.  The first book set in the new Trek universe is Keith DeCandido’s A Singular Destiny. 

DeCandido, a veteran Star Trek writer and editor, has the hurculean task of taking readers into this brave new universe.  He and Mack have done similar work in the past.  Mack wrote the penultimate two-book arc in the A Time To.. series, A Time tio Kill and A Time to Heal and DeCandio had to wrap up the nine-book series with Star Trek: A Time for War, a Time for Peace. He tehn di dthe first book that acted as a follow-up to the series, Star Trek: Articles of the Federation.

Here is the complete cover along with the back cover text.

Warning: Potential Spoilers:

The Shape of Things to Come

The cataclysmic events of Star Trek: Destiny have devastated known space.  Worlds have fallen.  Lives have been destroyed.  And in the uneasy weeks that follow, the survivors of the holocaust continue to be tested to the limits of their endurance.

But, strange and mysterious occurrences are destabilizing the galaxy’s battle-weary Allies even further.  In the Federation, efforts to replenish diminished resources and give succor to millions of evacuees are thwarted at every turn.  On the borders of the battered Klingon Empire, the devious Kinshaya sense weakness –and opportunity.  In Romulan space, the already-fractured empire is dangerously close to civil war.

As events undermining the quadrant’s attempts to heal itself become increasingly widespread, one man begins to understand what is truly unfolding.  Sonek Pran – teacher, diplomat, and sometime advisor to the Federation President – perceives a pattern in the seeming randomness.  And as each new piece of evidence falls into place, a disturbing picture encompassing half the galaxy begins to take shape, revealing a challenge to the Federation and its allies utterly unlike anything the have faced before.

A Singular Destiny will be published mid-January 2009.

Pegging Pegg

  • News
  • October 6, 2008

Simon Pegg, star and co-writer of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, describes the current "geek" film climate quite eloquently to Film School Rejects:

"You realize that now the film industry is sort of populated by film fans, by people that appreciate the medium. I think J.J. Abrams is a fan. If you look at the directors now, the current generation, you look at people like Tarantino, Sam Raimi, Edgar (Wright), you know, they’re all film geeks who are now making films. They were all people who grew up with cinema through the video boom and are now making films themselves."

Chalk it up to a class act like Pegg to not lump himself in that category, though he certainly has earned his place. From his cult classic, cult culture-influenced television series Spaced to his upcoming space-traveling adventure in Star Trek XI, Simon Pegg has precariously superglued his precious little bottom to the collective heart and mind of the fan community.

Pegg’s been hard at work promoting his latest film How To Lose Friends and Alienate People. As can be expected, the man’s silver tongued quips have made the rounds on many a Web site, either being misconstrued as fact or just being pointed out as a prime example of absurdity. We’ve gathered a sampling of some of the better Pegg quotes over the past few months regarding his upcoming projects and a whole lot of other cool stuff. (more…)

‘Pushing Daisies’ Creator Wants A New Star Trek on TV

  • News
  • September 21, 2008

Trek castAny fan of the ABC series Pushing Daisies is probably aware that creator Bryan Fuller was also the creative mind behind both critically acclaimed, yet short-lived series Wonderfalls and Dead Like Me, but it is not as well known that Fuller is also a full-on Star Trek fan, and in fact has even written 21 episodes for the lore: 2 for Deep Space Nine and 19 for Voyager. Fuller recently sounded off on J.J. Abrams’ new Trek film and his interest on taking the helm for a modern interpretation of the 1960’s hit.

I would love to do another Star Trek series, one where you could go back to the spirit and color of the original Star Trek, because somehow, it got cold over the years. I love Next Generation, but it’s a little cooler and calmer than the ones from the ‘60s, which were so dynamic and passionate. Star Trek has to recreate itself. Otherwise, all the characters start to feel the same. You always have a captain, a doctor, a security officer, and you have the same arguments based on those perspectives. It starts to feel too familiar. So all those paradigms where it takes place on a starship have to be shaken up.

After leaving Voyager, fuller went on to create the aforementioned shows, and also writing for a little show called Heroes. You can check out the full interview over here and fans of Fuller may have to wait to see how the film treats it’s legion of Trekkies before we see a televised revamp.

But until then, you can still enjoy his pie-making necromancer in Pushing Daisies returning to ABC on October 1st.
 

Bluewater Announces ‘William Shatner Presents’

  • News
  • September 16, 2008

Bluewater Productions has added William Shatner to their growing line of celebrity endorsed comic books.  Following in the footsteps of Ray Harryhausen, Vincent Price and Roger Corman, Shatner will have comics based on his novels including Man O’ War and Quest for Tomorrow. These will be published as miniseries, continuing the stories with talent yet to be announced.

His TekWar, written with Ron Goulart and an unnamed fourth title round out the commitment between the actor and the publisher. TekWar will also be a continuation. All four are scheduled to come out in the first quarter of 2009, available in comic shops as the hoopla surrounding the reboot of Star Trek edges towards its May 8 release.

The TekWar universe was adapted previously by Marvel Comics in the early 1990s and ran for 24 issues, written solely by Goulart.  Darren G. Davis, president of Bluewater, has promised the ongoing series will be more faithful to the source material which ran in nine novels.  It was also adapted as four telefilms and a one-season syndicated series starring Greg Evigan.

Bluewater’s publisher Darren Davis said in a release, “Mr. Shatner is a savvy businessman and a creative mastermind. We’re honored to be partnering with him and are confident our efforts will create comic books both his fans and ours will embrace.”

“With all of these comics, I have final approval," Shatner told the Los Angeles Times. "This is not a licensing arrangement; this will be me involved very directly throughout the process. They are going to do adaptations of my ideas and also sequels; they will be in the stores in March of 2009. I loved comics as a kid. I used to sit under the sheets with a flashlight and read Superman when I was six in Montreal and now, with the comics as they are today, it’s thrilling, really.”

Of the old Gold Key comic adaptations of Star Trek, Shatner enthused, "Oh, they were great. They always made me look so skinny."

Depp and Verbinski Reteam for ‘Rango’

  • News
  • September 11, 2008

Rango is a new CG-animated feature film from Paramount Pictures, set to begin production in January.  It is being directed by Gore Verbinski, making his animated debut, and he’s being joined by his Pirates of the Caribbean star Johnny Depp as the lead voice, that for a pet that goes on an adventure. The script is from John Logan (Star Trek: Nemesis) using an idea by Verbinski.  Industrial Light & Magic will handle the actual animation chores.

The studio has staked a March 2011 release date.

The ambitious method of animation, Verbinski told Variety "will allow us to capture and translate every aspect of Johnny’s performance, using it to drive the computer-generated character in a way that has yet to be seen in an animated feature."

According to the trade, Verbinski and Logan have are also collaborating on Bioshock, a video game adaptation for Universal Studios.
 

The Real World, by Mike Gold

  • News
  • August 18, 2008

In an environment where we debate the finer techniques of villains who travel the galaxy to gobble up planets for lunch, the awesome realities of day-to-day life have a habit of intruding upon our vocations and hobbies. Sometimes, the intrusion of reality shatters us completely.

Last Thursday night, 20 year-old Robbie Greenberger lost his struggle with leukemia, surrounded by his family. That’s a real-world horror of incalculable proportion; as we all know – yet, from time to time, must ignore – that sort of thing happens somewhere to somebody every minute of the day. And there’s no villain afoot to acknowledge our outrage.

Robbie was the son of Robert and Debi Greenberger and brother of Kate. For a long time, Bob was an editor and administrator at DC Comics and at Marvel, and an occasional comics writer. He’s also written a ton of Star Trek novels and stories and is editor of the Famous Monsters of Filmland website. Bob is also part of the ComicMix crew: he’s been involved in behind-the-scenes activities for quite some time (you’ll be seeing the fruits of these labors anon), and he’s contributed nearly 50 articles and columns to our site. He’s a real pro.

I remember when Deb went into labor with Robbie. The father-to-be showed up at DC’s offices, ready for work. I asked him if… well, if he was crazy. No, Bob just wanted something to do while waiting, and he had deadline stuff to clear off. He politely asked if it was okay if he were to leave early to join his wife at the hospital.

Unfortunately, I also remember working with Bob on Thursday. I knew the family was at the hospital with Robbie 24/7, doing what they could, giving Robbie comfort. Through Wi-Fi and cell phone, Bob was able to keep busy and meet his deadlines. There’s a strength there that would put a super-hero to shame.

I don’t know how Bob, Debi and Kate will be able to deal with this. There’s a saying that a parent losing his or her child is life’s greatest tragedy; by definition, you really can’t compare. Life has no “11” on the dial; we all max out at “10.”

But the Greenberger family is not alone, not by any stretch of the imagination. Our love and our support will always be with them.

Contributions in Robbie’s memory may be made to The Tommy Fund for Childhood Cancer, Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital, 20 York Street, New Haven, CT 06511-3202.

Mike Gold is editor-in-chief of ComicMix, and is proud to have shared many a credits box with Bob Greenberger.

The New Star Trek 4

  • News
  • August 11, 2008

After teasing us with just four close-ups of selected cast members of next May’s new Star Trek film, Paramount has released four additional teases. This time we can see Scotty, McCoy, Chekov and Sulu. While we can’t see the modified uniforms, we can tell the pointy sideburns remain in tact for which there will no doubt be much rejoicing.

 

Paramount’s publicity roll out appears to be carefully designed to release drips and drabs of clips and information before the first full trailer which is now not expected until the holiday season. Word is that a rough assemblage of the film was shown to enthusiastic execs at the studio and director J.J. Abrams indicated the film would have been ready for its initially planned Christmas release. Of course, the last few Trek films to open during the holiday season haven’t fared well so slotting it to kick off the summer 2009 season may actually be a blessing.

 

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