Star Trek News

Ber PerLee at Destructoid interviewed Executive Producer Dan Stahl earlier in the month. Give the interview a read here.

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Visit our screenshot gallery to view the latest screenshot from Season Two: Ancient Enemies.

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In the last year we have seen William Shatner and Zachary Quinto dip into the world of comics and graphic novels, and now Walter Koenig is jumping in with a new series about vampires plus a re-issue of his 1990’s comic series "Raver." We have more details below, including an exclusive image from the vampire [...] 19

Walter Koenig, best-known to Star Trek fans as Pavel Chekov, will be writing a new four-issue comic miniseries which will be published in 2011.

The miniseries, titled Things To Come, will be published by Bluewater Productions and features a story set in a post-apocalyptic world where vampires have become the dominant species.

In Things To Come, the vampires are seeking identity in the harsh environment that remains after the destruction of the world by humans. “The one intelligent species that can survive in this post-apocalyptic world are vampires,” explained Koenig, “and they are a bridge from what has gone before, which is this self-destruction of the human race, and what will come after. They are in pursuit of their own meaning. Why are they there? Why have they been created?

“There are those among them who think it is an act of god, and those who thoroughly reject that idea.”

Koenig is aware of the current vampire craze, but he plans on offering a different version of the creatures than is already out there. “As pretentious as it sounds, I don’t want to mimic what has gone before,” he said. “My purpose isn’t to capitalize on a theme, but inject it with some fresh ideas. That’s what makes writing fun for me. It’s always been what makes writing fun for me.”

Back in the 1990s, Koenig was the author of Raver, a three-issue comic series which was issued by Malibu comics. Bluewater Productions plans on reissuing that series next year and Koenig plans on writing a brand-new story for the series, with a new “more topical” story that offers a “metaphor for our involvement in foreign lands.”

Oscar-winner Michael Giacchino, composer of the 2009 Star Trek movie, is now working on that that other ‘Star’ franchise. Giacchino is headed to a galaxy far far away to compose the music for the latest Star Wars-themed attraction opening at Disney parks in 2011.   Giacchino composing Star Tours II The Star Wars themed motion simulator ride "Star [...] 39

One twelve-year-old boy, known online as “Legohacker” has figured out the trick of turning official Star Wars Lego sets into Star Trek ships.

Some four-year-olds will create art with Play-Doh or use crayons to create artistic masterpieces, but Legohacker was a bit different than his age-contemporaries, according to his father, Jon Ippolito. “When I had kids I was eager to see what kind of creativity they would spill on a page full of crayon drawings or a lump of Play Dough or, in this case, a bunch of Legos,” he said. “I was pretty astonished to see how sophisticated the kind of thinking outside the box they did was.”

Legohacker appeared to show that “outside of the box” thinking. “In particular my son, when he was about four, started to put blocks together in ways that I didn’t even think were possible,” said Ippolito.

The son, who is now twelve, is still a fan of Legos. Legohacker uses the official sets, turning them into something else using only the pieces that were included in the box (hacking the set). His latest Lego hacking includes turning Star Wars sets into Star Trek ships.

One hack shows what happens when a Star Wars Corporate Alliance tank droid is turned into a Federation Starship.

Another hack shows a Klingon battlecruiser, made from a Star Wars Republic Walker set.

Legohacker has a website where his creations are displayed. His family, including his sister, helps him to find appropriate backgrounds against which to display his Lego artwork.

Jeri Ryan, Star Trek: Voyager’s Seven of Nine, found that her work on Voyager has helped her in learning her lines for her newest role.

Ryan, who plays Dr. Kate Murphy on ABC’s Body of Proof, now has to learn complicated medical jargon for her role as the boss of medical examiner Dr. Megan Hunt (Dana Delany).

“I haven’t had so much of that [medical dialogue] but it’s not that difficult,” said Ryan. “I did four years on Star Trek. I did technobabble for years, so if I can do technobabble I’m not that concerned about the medical stuff!”

Ryan is unconcerned about the science as well, having confidence in the real-life medical examiners that are on the set to advise and make sure that the show is authentic. “We’ve got technical advisers that will be with us on set,” Ryan explained, “so we can keep all of [the science] realistic.”

Body of Proof debuts on ABC this fall on Fridays at 9 PM.

Earlier this month, a Star Trek auction by Propworx was held at the Las Vegas Hilton hotel, as reported by TrekToday; featuring props, furniture, artwork, models and costumes.

Two pieces from the original series era commanded the highest prices, while a photo of Data’s cat Spot brought in more than ten times its estimated value.

An original series translight from the TOS bridge sold for the highest price, $16,800. The bridge translight shows the actual schematic of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

The second-highest price was for a Klingon Battlecruiser model, which sold for $12,000. The model was created for Star Trek: The Motion Picture but was never used in the movie. This model was based on an original model now in the National Air & Space Museum.

Robert Picardo (EMH) was in attendance to auction off the chair in which he sat during his time on Star Trek: Voyager. The chair sold for $3,000 and a translight that had been behind the doctor’s desk went for $4,000.

The surprise of the auction was the popularity of Data’s painting of his cat, Spot. Originally thought to be worth between $200-$400, the painting sold for $8,400, with three different bidders in attendance at the auction vying for the honor of taking the painting home with them.

One of the elements that distinguishes Star Trek from other sci-fi on the big and small screen, is an emphasis on the science in science fiction. This penchant for "technobabble" has been criticized by some, but now Star Trek Voyager actress Jeri Ryan says that it actually helped her in her new role.   Ryan cites technobabble Jeri [...] 70

This week, Science Friday brings you alien life in the next 25 years, the infinite expansion of our universe, a map of a gigantic oceanic garbage patch, and shrinking planets (and moons!). All this and more plus our gadget of the week: terrifying shark-shaped submarine.     We Will Find ET Within 25 Years, Say Scientists Seth Shostak, senior [...] 30

Today, August 19th, is a big day for Star Trek. It is the birthday for the Star Trek: The Next Generation’s first officer Jonathan Frakes who is turning 58, and TNG’s one season chief medical officer, Diana Muldaur. It also happens to be the birthday of the man who started it all, Gene Roddenberry.     Happy Birthday, [...] 52

There are many lessons that can be learned from Star Trek. This has now been recognized by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs who have gone to the final frontier to get out a message about how to avoid the flu.   VA wants you to live long and prosper…and wash your hands The following is an [...] 14

John Billingsley spent four years aboard the NX-01 as Dr. Phlox in Star Trek: Enterprise. And in a new fan Q&A, the actor says he is ready to play Phlox again, as well as weighs in on the controversial finale for the series. Excerpts below     Billingsley on returning to Trek & Enterprise Finale The actor is open [...] 87

We want to wish Gene Roddenberry a happy birthday, wherever his adventures have taken him!

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Star Trek: Enterprise’s Dr. Phlox shares his opinion regarding the series finale of Star Trek: Enterprise.

Many fans may not have been happy with the finale to Star Trek: Enterprise, and Billingsley himself had mixed feelings about it, but he urged fans to rethink their annoyance toward Rick Berman and Brannon Braga.

According to Billingsley, the finale didn’t quite fit in with the rest of the fourth season. “The last season had so much of [writer and executive producer] Manny Coto’s fingerprints on it that I think one of the things fans felt was a tonal and almost spiritual disconnect between the nature of the scripts throughout the fourth season and the final script. It was as if suddenly somebody from another cosmos dropped in and wrote the script, above and beyond the fact that the Enterprise’s story was swallowed up by the framing device. I think people had just gotten used to Manny’s voice. I missed it in the final episode. Frankly, it should have been a two-parter. Our storyline needed to wind up.”

But Billingsley felt that Berman and Braga were expressing their emotion over what they felt was the ending of Star Trek after years of hard work on the franchise. “There are obviously mixed feelings among the fans about the legacies of Rick Berman and Brannon Braga,” Billingsley said, “but they were largely responsible for shepherding the franchise through many, many years of shows that people loved and kept watching. So they deserve a lot of credit. I think for them, the idea that they were going to be saying goodbye to Star Trek had a tremendous emotional weight. So they felt, and I can understand this, that they wanted to write the last episode of Enterprise.”

The finale story seemed to trivialize the third and fourth seasons of Enterprise, according to Billingsley. “I’m all over the map on this one because I have a lot of different feelings about it,” he said. “My problem with the final episode, ultimately, was that by jumping ahead however many years we jumped ahead, it was as if anything we did in the third and fourth seasons had no real weight. It seemed like the third and fourth seasons were being dismissed, which I’m sure was not the intention, but that was one of the things that bothered me.”

The finale meant the last appearance of Dr. Phlox. Would Billingsley return as Phlox again if he could in a Star Trek project? “I’d be delighted,” he said. “But is there any chance that one could make a wager on the odds of it happening? I’d bet my house it won’t happen, but if it did, sure, I’d want to be involved. I enjoyed playing Phlox.”

Hybrid Apparel will be unveiling a new line of Star Trek T-shirts at the Magic Marketplace show in Las Vegas this week.

The new collection will begin with t-shirts and in time other apparel will be added, all aimed at mid-tier and mass-market retailers.

“Star Trek fans love to connect with the brand,” said Liz Kalodner, Executive Vice President and General Manager of CBS Consumer Products. “This program with Hybrid Apparel will provide us with a great opportunity to bring innovative apparel design and products to the audience.”

“We are very pleased to be working with CBS Consumer Products on such an amazing franchise as Star Trek,” said Derrick Baca, Vice President of Licensing at Hybrid Apparel. “The customer base for this franchise transcends generations old and new. We are excited for the growing momentum that Star Trek continues to experience and look forward to adding value to the brand in the future.”

The shirts can be seen in larger photos here.

Syfy has been getting a lot of buzz for their upcoming origninal movie Sharktopus, but they have another Syfy monster movie coming this fall with Monsterwolf, starring Star Trek Voyager’s Doctor, Robert Picardo. More details on that, plus we have a Sci-Fi TV update with Syfy’s full fall schedule below.   Picardo unleashes Monsterwolf for Syfy [...] 56

Here is a bit of news to file under: no news is good news. A leaked email memo highlights Paramount Pictures upcoming slate of films and the Star Trek sequel (planned for 2012) is still on the Paramount list as a "go". More details below.   Star Trek still on deck The Wrap is creating some [...] 170