Star Trek

I can't decide which record is more impressive. The one that was set by 99 Star Trek fans who established a new mark for the most costumed fans in one place at one time or the record set by another fan who was able to correctly name each TOS episode in order in under two minutes. Here's a video of his record-setting performance:

Considering the amounts of ums and pauses in his speech, I think there's the opportunity to shatter the record. Maybe it could be you who does it.

And frankly, the 99-fans-in-one-place record doesn't sound like such a big deal. I've seen bigger flash mobs like the crazy Star Wars light saber duel in a British shopping centre.

If record-setting isn't your thing, but you do like Star Trek, then how about the new Trek MMORPG? Here's the New York Times review.

It's going to be a while before the next Star Trek movie makes it to the big screen. Zachary Quinto, the man who played Spock in the last film, has said that he's swearing off all things Trek for the next two years. No more movies, no more conventions, no more games. Nada. His last turn in the Trek universe was to do some voiceover work for the new online game. He doesn't even play the role of everyone's favourite Vulcan in the game.

If you can't wait for the next film and need a Star Trek fix, consider listening to the audio episodes of Star Trek: The Continuing Mission. They are very well done and I think that audio is a better format for amateur productions than video because you can't compete with the big-budget effects of the real thing. I'm not the only one that thinks they're good, judging from this review.

If that's not geeky enough for your inner Trekkie, how about this project to modify a toy communicator into a bluetooth-enabled handset?

Does the thought of having your own working Star Trek phaser interest you? Check out this link for the instructions and gaze upon this video to give you inspiration. Just don't point it at anyone's eyes!

A science fiction film has never won the Academy Award for best motion picture, but this year they are expanding the number of nominees from the usual five to ten. That may increase the odds that a genre film gets nominated, but I doubt that any will win.

Hollywood trade magazine Variety wrote recently about the possiblity of a science fiction film taking the top honour this year. In the end, they concluded that the odds were long.

That didn't stop a bevy of commentators from weighing in on which sci-fi films they thought would merit the nomination. Movies like Moon, District 9, Avatar, The Road and even Star Trek are being bandied about as potential nominees.

Some believe the snub of The Dark Knight last year for the award will prompt Hollywood to add crowd-pleasing genre films to its best-picture list this year. As if.

I predict the genre movies will win the usual technical achievement awards, but few, if any, will be nominated for major awards. I can see some of them being nominated for best original or best adapted screenplay and maybe Sam Rockwell for actor, but the only SF movie that I can see making the cut for best picture is The Road because it's the most mainstream of the lot.

My gut instinct tells me the George Clooney movie Up in the Air will win best picture this year because it perfectly captures the zeitgeist.

Do you think a science fiction movie can win the best picture award this year, or even be nominated?

Even science fiction fans like to take the time to celebrate Christmas. According to reports, Hallmark's Robby the Robot ornament is flying off the shelves this year. It's not the only sci-fi ornament they are selling this holiday season. They've got a complete line of Star Wars and Star Trek ornaments.

Probably the oddest of the lot is this one from the Trek episode The Menagerie which depicts Capt. Pike in his iron lung, or whatever the heck that box is that he lives in. They've also got a bunch of other genre-related ornaments like this Twilight Zone TV and even an old arcade box from the 80s.

None of this is new. Hallmark has been doing this for years and there is a long line of scif-fi ornaments out there, many of which have become valuable to collectors.

I must confess that I have some Star Wars ornaments on my tree, but I bought them for my kids. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. They aren't the pricey Hallmark ones, though, but some other random characters that I picked up at a Canadian Tire store, of all places.

I don't remember Christmas ever having been mentioned in the Star Trek universe, although some fan with a long memory can probably tell me if it was. Do fans of the show celebrate Trekmas? Or how about Star Wars fans? Is their seasonal holiday Sithmas?

So Harlan Ellison has publicly offered his services to write the script for the next Star Trek movie. I'm sure the folks at Paramount, who he just sued, are going to be glad to hand over the keys to the franchise. That was sarcasm, in case you didn't notice. Maybe Ellison would be better off contacting Disney who want to film a remake of The Black Hole.

More interesting Star Trek news is the story that they recently discovered an early pilot of the series that was believed to be lost. A German collector offered the film to Paramount and they plan to release it in a future Blu-ray release.

An incarnation of Star Trek that I always thought was unjustly vilified was Enterprise. It took some time to find its legs, but I thought by the time the last season rolled around, it was pretty good stuff. I even didn't mind the non-bombastic theme song. Scott Bakula, who played the captain in that series, recently spoke about his role and his affinity for science fiction.

So what happens when a well-respected travel writer books passage on a Star Trek-themed cruise? He actually writes a decent report that doesn't trot out the usal Trekkie clichés that you read in mainstream news reports about fandom.

I wonder if anyone on the cruise told him about their black velvet paintings of Captain Kirk. Don't believe they exist? Check out this gallery and admit you want one.

Don't mock Trek fans. There are other popular franchises which exhibit equal levels of obsessive behaviour. What else would explain the motivation to buy replica boots from the Star Wars universe or learn how to write your name in Tolkien's version of the Elvish language?

Author Charlie Stross has explained why he hates Star Trek and just about any science fiction television series. The main reason seems to be that he can't forgive them for the formulaic nature of their stories and their disregard for realistic technology.

Needless to say, Trek fans aren't taking this attack sitting down as this reasoned response shows.

Scott Bakula, the captain from the Enterprise series, spoke recently about Star Trek fandom and he had the good sense to say nice things, although he admits they can be demanding.

It really doesn't matter what Stross or Bakula think because Trek fans will continue consuming Trek merchandise. The bigger threat to their franchise is the marketing war they are in with Star Wars. It's like the science fiction version of Coke vs. Pepsi. Neither side will ever win, but they will take turns besting each other until they switch places.

Star Trek icons William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy recently appeared at Dragon Con where they held an amusing discussion about why Shatner isn't in the new Trek movie and some other interesting tidbits like the fact that he's never seen Patrick Stewart perform as Capt. Picard in The Next Generation. Here's part 1 of their conversation:

If you want to see it all, there's a part 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. The running time for the collection of clips is about an hour.

Even if Shatner won't be in any more Star Trek movies, he may have one more role as a captain. Fans want the Canadian navy to name the Montreal-born actor as an honoury captain.

While Shatner, Nimoy and series creator Gene Rodenberry are lauded for their work on Star Trek, the real reason we're still enjoying the show today is because of the man who directed Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Still considered by many to be the greatest of all Trek movies, if that hadn't succeeded, there never would have been a third movie and, most likely, no more television shows.

It seems that the new Star Trek movie has breathed some life back into the creaky franchise. Walter Koenig, aka Pavel Chekov, was in Toronto recently for a convention where the National Post caught up with him to talk about the state of Trek and the fact that he's the lone actor from the original series who still doesn't have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Star Trek creator Gene Rodenberry's son, Eugene, was in Las Vegas recently for another con where he was pushing his latest science fiction project. He was interviewed on the legacy of his father.

The amourous entanglements of the characters was a minor sub-plot of the new movie, but sex was always a part of the show's fabric. This article looks at some of the complicated couplings that went on during its run.

And for some fans in the real world that are looking for some Star Trek action, they can hope that these Trek-themed after-shaves and perfumes will get some attention from the opposite sex.

Probably the sexiest of all the Star Trek incarnations was the last show, Enterprise. Could that be why it is one of the least popular? Perhaps that kind of stuff makes its core audience uncomfortable. Enterprise topped this list of science fiction sequels that should never have been made.

Perhaps those fans would be more content to make Lego models of their favourite Star Trek spaceships. For those with less fine-motor skills and a slightly more ghetto sensibility, there's always the U.S.S. Dog costume.