If you haven’t seen it, it’s probably is as bad as you’ve heard. If you’ve watched it, you probably didn’t see much or any of the fourth season. That’s a shame, because that’s when the show actually got good.

Both Star Treks Voyager and Enterprise are the brainchild of Brannon Braga, a scriptwriter-turned-producer from the days of Next Generation. His signature trademark consists of stories based on strange temporal/spatial anomolies, hence their preponderance in Voyager (and indeed the premise of the entire show), and the ill-advised Temporal Cold War that consumed Star Trek: Enterprise from the inside out.

The beginning of the fourth season saw Braga replaced by Manny Coto, who put an end to this horrible storyline. What followed were several three-episode arcs dealing with Trek history. From Kahn-like genetically-enhanced humans, to the history of Surak and Vulcan, and an explanation for the Frito-Lay (i.e. “ridgeless”) Klingons of Kirk’s era, this season fulfilled the inherent promise and potential of the series after three grueling years.

[Read the rest of this entry…]

TrekMove.com, a site I can only assume was founded to unearth information about the still hazy JJ Abrams movie, has some news on a possible new animated (!) internet(!!) series.

Under the headline “CBS Considering New Animated Trek Series For The Web” Trek Movie reports:

The idea for a new animated Trek started back around the time that Star Trek Enterprise was cancelled. David Rossi and his partners didn’t buy into the notion that Star Trek ‘needed a rest’. “We wanted to spark a little life into Star Trek and to keep it alive in people’s eyes,” explains Rossi. They knew CBS and Paramount weren’t going to be keen on a new (and very expensive) live action show so they decided that animation was the way to go. Their first notion was to do a show set in the Original Series era (but not on the Enterprise), however that notion didn’t sit well with the people at CBS. Rossi then took the advice he got from LeVar Burton on how ‘Star Trek should always be about moving forward and what is next in the human adventure.’ So the team came up with the notion of taking a big leap forward and setting a show 150 years after the time of Picard and Star Trek Nemesis, but in a very different and somewhat dark Trek universe. CBS were more open to that idea and over the last year and a half have asked the team (now formed into Zero Room Productions) to flesh out their idea. Although CBS have not committed to the series, they have asked the team to develop test artwork and scripts for 5 mini episodes.

I always liked LeVar Burton.

No more prequels, no ancient history, no revamps. Taking a big leap into a “Next Next Generation” will give them lots of room to play around while not abandoning the races and planets we know.

So I’m firmly in the camp that loves the concept. Why am I nervous? Because they’re going for “mini-episodes” meaning all stories will have to be low character development but high action. This is not Trek’s strong point. At the risk of comparing to Star Wars (cue groaning), All the characters there were defined by actions and broad dialog, where as I didn’t feel like I knew a character like Picard until the show had been on for years, and they still managed to surprise me for years afterwards. Star Trek may be overshadowed by Battlestar, Stargate, and other sci-fi series these days, but lets not forget that the character based sci-fi drama began with Trek and its only fair that Trek come back to reclaim it. I don’t think they’ll do it with cartoons for the YouTube audience.

Best case scenario: The ‘toons take off and a real new series is developed to flesh out the new timeline. Worst Case scenario: we’re pretty much already living it, so we’ve got nothing to lose.

Thanks Shiv’Kala

Like the lower price-point game consoles you can get at Gamestop, Star Trek (the original series) is getting refurbished.

You can read the entire article here, at StarTrek.com (from yesterday), but the rundown is that the original episodes are going to be re-mastered, namely in the special effects department, but also in the music. Among the things to be re-done are the show’s opening, backgrounds from on-planet moments, exterior shots of the vessel, and viewscreen shots. Expect a lotta CGI work to go down.

Oddly, instead of heading directly to DVD, it’s going to air on TV first, with the first episode dropping on September 16th. Didn’t anybody tell these guys all the cool kids are on DVD sets? And besides, what channel is it going to be on? All news reports are telling me to check my local listings, but my local listings don’t go out that far. Will it be on CBS? UPN? I’m assuming it won’t be on G4 or SpikeTV. Or at least, it won’t be for a good 10 years.

Interestingly, there was a fan doing work on this already, who put in a bid for this project. Obviously, without the vast resources of a visual effects company, he couldn’t compete, but on the upside, a clip of what he made is available on YouTube. You can find it under the title Trek Refurbished.

It’s an interesting look at what we might be seeing when this hits. His site can be found at TrekEnhanced.com, where the most interesting draw right now is his talk about this new development, where he discusses his bid, and how he actually pitched this three years ago in 2003.

Diamond Select Toys has announced that will be offering a fifth Mirror Mirror figure from its Star Trek line of figures. Marlena Moreau will be limited and available only at the San Diego Comic Con this year.

From the site:

Marlena Moreau Beaming Down for San Diego!

Diamond Select Toys is pleased to announce the addition of a fifth “Mirror, Mirror” figure – available only at this summer’s San Diego Comic Con! In addition to the previously announced Star Trek “Mirror, Mirror” action figures, a limited Marlena Moreau figure sculpted by Art Asylum will be available exclusively at the Diamond Select Toys booth!

When purchasing the “Mirror, Mirror” Uhura, McCoy, Sulu and Chekov figures from their respective retailers, con-goers will be able to have a special Star Trek card punched at each booth. Upon completing this card and returning to the Diamond Select Toys booth during the convention, fans will receive the “Mirror, Mirror” Marlena Moreau figure at no cost, completing the “Mirror, Mirror” set!

Internet retailers New Force Comics, Action Figure Xpress and Entertainment Earth will be offering their exclusive McCoy, Sulu and Chekov figures while the Uhura figure will be sold by DST. Quantities of the Marlena Moreau figure will be limited and subject to availability, so interested fans should complete this Star Trek challenge early to claim their free prize!

Alias and Lost creator and Mission Impossible 3 director JJ Abrams has been offically handed the reigns of Star Trek’s 11th feature film outing.
The story involves a young Kirk and Spock in Starfleet Academy. So its a prequel?
I’ll give them the befit of the doubt here, but my biggest gripes about the series following The Next Generation is taking all the action out of Federation space to the outskirts, way outside, and then into the past. Its like, we lost contact with this big universe TNG took so much care to create and only got further away the longer it went on. This movie hardly fixes that but the character credentials are all there so I won’t damn this outright. Lets hope JJ aborted Superman script is a fluke.