[VIDEO] Tim Pool and his crew with Daily Wire's Jeremy Boreing talk about a recent episode of Star Trek Discovery. The 2018 Democrat nominee for Georgia Governor who almost narrowly lost that bid and is trying again in 2022 is seen portraying the president of United Earth over 1000 years in the future.
I hear Abrams - hey can I call her my Spelman Sister - is a Star Trek fan. I hope when I finally run for IL Governor there will be a guest shot available for me in the Star Trek Universe.
When I find video of Abrams' guest shot I'll share it with you on the "beta". I have a tough time following Discovery and they really lost me when they went into the 32nd or 33rd Century. Then again it's not me that determines the creative direction of that program.
This post from Instapundit discusses Marina Sirtis - who played Deanna Troi from Star Trek: The Next Generation and I had a crush on that character - getting all political talking about the weather related issues in Texas. I'm disappointed....
[VIDEO] Having subscribed to CBS All Access I need to do some catching up on Star Trek Discovery. I've already enjoyed the first season of Star Trek Picard. During the second season of Star Trek Discovery the titular starship was commanded by legendary Capt. Christopher Pike. For those of you who aren't familiar with Star Trek canon, Pike preceded Kirk as Captain of the USS Enterprise.
This has been speculated and certainly more accurate people have been calling for this new Star Trek spinoff which has been announced on Friday. You see John Campea further discuss this news in the video above.
We never really had much material involved Capt. Pike on Star Trek. There was a pilot that was unaired known as "The Cage" which featured Pike, his first officer a woman known as Number One, and a curious but well known alien named Spock. That Pike was portrayed by movie star Jeffrey Hunter.
In Star Trek's first season Capt Kirk's Enterprise was essentially hijacked to a forbidden planet under the penalty of death (I'm glad Starfleet didn't go through this) in the two-parter "The Menagerie". Anyway the mission was to deliver a now disfigured and essentially paralyzed legendary Capt. Pike to this forbidden planet to live out the rest of his days under the illusion of full autonomy. Jeffrey Hunter was replaced by another actor Sean Kenney however this episode although footage with Hunter as Pike from "The Cage" was reused as evidence for a court martial scene, remember, the Enterprise was going against starfleet orders to travel to this forbidden planet.
In 2009 Star Trek and in 2013 Star Trek into Darkness Christopher Pike is played by Bruce Greenwood. He recruits the delinquent James T. Kirk to attend Starfleet Academy is the first Captain of a newly launched USS Enterprise and was taken prisoner by a time traveling Romulan. He eventually is promoted to admiral and made a brief appearance in into Darkness however his character was killed off during the movie.
And then we see Pike and Spock and Number One during the second season of Discovery. Pike is portrayed by Anson Mount and per Starfleet orders Capt. Pike is ordered to assume command of USS Discovery by the end of the season he continues his adventures abord the USS Enterprise during the final episode of the second season.
I haven't been able to see when this series will be ordered - and I'm sure it's noted that it probably won't start shooting until we're out of current circumstances. Still it would be cool to see adventures only hinted at not only during the 1960s Star Trek run, also during the course of Discovery's 2nd season. We get to see more of an Enterprise captain whom Trekkies have never really had the chance to get to know.
[VIDEO] For the first time I've purchased a subscription to CBS All Access which streams a number of original programming in addition to a library of classic TV programming owned by CBS and Paramount. This enables me to watch episodes of the new Star Trek series about Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
Picard in this series is a retired starfleet admiral who finds himself trying to get back into the saddle. He mourns the death of a friend he served with as Captain of the USS Enterprise. If I had nostalgia for the adventures I often watched from Star Trek: The Next Generation on WPWR-TV 50 here in Chicago it came back. We only see a quick look at the USS Enterprise D in this series looking better than it had the last time we saw that ship in Star Trek: Generations where it was destroyed.
One disheartening thing about the first three episodes I watched over the weekend is that Picard is treated as a pariah. I'm sure there was a variety of disagreements that occurred that led to this development, however, a man of Picard's stature and legend shouldn't have been treated the way another starfleet admiral treated him as he sought to return to duty to the service he faithfully served.
This transmission from Junkball Media mentions at least the drama I mentioned. We get the good and bad and some of this I would agree. The melodrama between some of the characters on this show leaves us numb, however, I think this series has time to develop.
What has been established so far has me interested in what's next. The next episode drops tomorrow and hopefully it's a good one.
BTW, one thing noted concerns me although I wish I had read up on it more. Do the people who wrote and produced this program have any great knowledge of the United Federation of Planets and the Star Trek universe. Unless some research is down by the creative team behind this series I can only wonder if this series is doomed, especially for long time Star Trek fans like myself.
Finally, it's probably about time I catch up to Star Trek Discovery. I hadn't seen a full episode since the series premire actually aired on the CBS Network on a Sunday in Primetime in 2017.
[VIDEO] Here are some Star Trek concepts you'll never see and why not. The first one would've been a tourist attraction in Las Vegas that didn't happen because Paramount Pictures who owned the Star Trek franchise was concerned about eventually waning interest in such an attraction.
And everything else is about future projects that never got off the ground.
For example Star Trek: Phase II, an Assignment Earth spinoff, and a prequel set during the Earth-Romulan War.
Some of those could've been great however Paramount wanted to maintain Star Trek as a more utopian future not a very dark one. I think I can agree with that but some of those projects would've been cool.
And as for that Vegas attraction, did it have to be permanent? It didn't have to be built to last, they could do to this realistic version of the Enterprise that the city has done to other casinos that went out of style.... [VIDEO]
[VIDEO] This video features the legal drama contained within "The Measure of a Man" which was an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation airing during that programs 2nd season. Unfortunately this wasn't an episode I caught on it's first airing years ago since I only started watching TNG during season 6. This episode I only saw in reruns during the week tuning in to WPWR Power 50 here in Chicago.
The plot of this episode is basically a request from Starfleet Medical to acquire the Enterprise's Ops Officer Lt. Cmdr Data for the purposes of scientific study by a Cmdr. Bruce Maddox. Ultimately a hearing is convened by a Starfleet JAG to determine whether or not Data is the property of the Starfleet service and thus can choose to not subject himself to Cmdr. Maddox's experiments.
So this YouTube channel Legal Eagle examines the legal ramifications of this episode. I accept most of what you see in the scenes leading up to that fateful hearing where Data is determined to not be property of Starfleet and can choose not to be subjected to experiments. I wish I got the name of the lawyer who examined this episode in the above video.
It's fascinating to see the research done hear especially the principles we currently know about various rulings with regards to individual rights. He notes as the Dred Scott ruling as a precedent that could relate to Data's case. Dred Scott was a slave who moved to a free territory and was sent back to a slave state and then tried to sue claiming he was free only for his case to go to the SCOTUS (Supreme Court of the United States) and it was determined that free or enslaved Black Americans aren't US citizens and thus aren't entitled to the rights thereof.
Examinations. As you will see in the above clip Cmdr. William Riker was forced to advocate against Data as his next most senior officer (something dinged by this attorney in his analysis). He takes Data's arm as a form of an examination. It was noted that something similar was done in the OJ Simpson case with that glove that didn't fit. Even with a clip of the late Johnnie Cochran declaring that "If the glove don't fit, you must acquit".
Basically, I agree that this episode is mostly dramatic with a few really good examples of good procedure (while also noting bad procedure). I really like how he broke down the various arguments both good and bad. I wondered if the legal system of the 24th century would be very different from the legal system of the 21th century. Although it cool to see that some of the arguments and procedures seen here could actually work in today's courtrooms.
BTW, how appropriate that we're talking about this episode of TNG when the Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise will return with his own series to be streamed on CBS All-Access later this year. Who knows what adventures await the elderly and retired legendary Starfleet Captain.
DO NOT GO ANY FURTHER THAN THIS LINE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE A CLIP FROM PRESUMABLY THE SEASON FINALE OF STAR TREK DISCOVERY NOW SEEN ON CBS ALL ACCESS!
[VIDEO] A new take on a TV classic. The bridge of the original USS Enterprise seen on the CBS All Access series Star Trek Discovery. The Enterprise itself was redesigned for this series different from the 1960s model and now the interiors which we should see in the 2nd season finale.
You can read more about it at TrekMovie. And now I want to subscribe to CBS' streaming service. Time to binge watch a series!
[VIDEO] Time to return to the Star Trek beat for a moment, and if you believe John Campea I would hate that the latest installment of JJ Abrams' Kelvin universe is shelved. Why is this going on with the fourth installment of the new film series? A contract dispute...
It's time, but at least Trekkies can look forward to a new Capt. Picard series and of course episodes of Star Trek Discovery as well.
[VIDEO] You know why I thought of this? In the pilot episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Cmdr Benjamin Sisko described to some aliens known as "the prophets" the game of baseball. That's the scene you will see above. I like how simply he describes a game that he's passionate about, although the heyday of baseball was hundreds of years in the past. He was born in the wrong century I'd say.
Well I do consider myself a baseball fan although I'm sorry to say once the Cubs had been eliminated from contention, I hardly followed the post-season (where the Boston Red Sox defeated the LA Dodgers in the world series). I guess it's time for me to recognize that I'm just not a huge sports fan although as of late I became far more of a fan of pro-wrestling, especially the "sports entertainment" of WWE. And I'm glad for my subscription to the WWE Network.
Either way if I was in Sisko's shoes how would I describe to the prophets professional wrestling?
Professional wrestling is a performance art that mimics a combat sport such as boxing or mixed martial arts. Often it's a mixture of athleticism and theatrics as most of the performers in wrestling often portray larger than life characters.
The theatrics often is heighted by storylines that either emphasizes personal issues between the performers or often a championship is involved. Often the performers are put into two categories either good guys or babyfaces and bad guys or heels. For the most part in storylines the heels' jobs are to get the babyfaces over. For the most part babyfaces - especially at the main event level - are the ones who are expected to be the faces of a given wrestling promotion.
Most performers have an athletic background. Often they may have played a team sport such as football (which is very common) or they may have a combat sports background. A performer might have a background in mixed martial arts or in a martial art such as karate, judo, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu etc. Often another background for most performers is in amateur wrestling.
Often the matches are choreographed usually by the performers themselves. Usually the matches will end in a pin fall with the referee counting one-two-three with the wrestler's shoulder on the mat. Or they may end in a submission. Less commonly there may be a disqualification often due to an outside competitor's interference, usage of a foreign object, or other rules infractions.
Finally another part of the theatrics is the promo. Wrestlers often give speeches that usually to promote an upcoming match. Often this promo is given in front of a wrestling audience or usually on the broadcast medium of TV (or perhaps a stream service). The promo often serves to heighten the theatrics of a particular storyline between performers.
I think I wrote more than enough on this subject. Knowing me it's probably still not concise enough. However, I think this explains the "sport" of pro wrestling.
[VIDEO] As I check out this woman who does a video about a future world war in the Star Trek universe - which helped to usher in a better future for humanity believe it or not - I just want to say where is this girl. To find a woman into geeky stuff, that's attractive...
It's great to know she knows enough about Star Trek lore to talk about the Eugenics Wars and then the future world war which goes nuclear. This leads humanity to eventually create warp drive, get the attention of the Vulcan race (think Mr. Spock folks) and finally Earth unites under a world gov't which ultimately become a member of the United Federation of Planets.
You know it gives me an even geekier idea of a movie where people try to cause a third world war and using the Star Trek universe as a rough guide. In which case it needs not be taken seriously, and certainly to be taken comically!
[VIDEO] Stephen Hawking PhD died last night. For most of the time I knew him in the public eye he was always in a wheelchair - due to his longtime suffering of ALS - and often seemed to speak via computerized voice. Also he made an appearance as a holodeck character in Star Trek:The Next Generation.
Dr. Hawking beyond those minor traits is often hailed as one of the greatest scientific minds in humanity. Through his work as a physicist he changed how we look at the universe. Yes I stole that from the graphic in the vid from ABC News.
[VIDEO] Recently I watched a YouTube video with regards to the starship Enterprise. In passing the video noted an effort with a link - which was inactive - to a website that provided more information of a project to build a real live USS Enterprise. Then it gives me an idea.
Man I wish I had come up with this idea in time for Star Trek's 50th anniversary in 2016.
Anyway, my idea is for a real life Starfleet. The Enterprise - well all ships named Enterprise on Star Trek - serves an organization known as Starfleet. It is the diplomatic, exploratory, scientific and defense service of the galactic power know as the United Federation of Planets. Starfleet is not considered a military organization, but the service itself is built along military lines with a naval tradition.
Now a real life Starfleet - which wouldn't be a mere fan organization - would basically be a private organization dedicated to scientific & technological research & development in addition to exploration. From what I've casually observed with what's going on in space these days is there is a trend towards privatizing space. Who says government has to do all the work to send people and probes into space?
Perhaps this Starfleet could be the organization that is able to send people to the "red planet". Perhaps they also send people back to the moon. In both cases establish settlements or at the very least actual bases for scientific purposes. Of course this Starfleet could send astronauts around the solar system all the while developing better technologies - such as warp drive - to get our people exploring in shorter periods of time.
Of course to bring this back full circle, what about building the real starship Enterprise? Well the proposal I've heard involves using the design of a Constitution class starship - not clear if it's either the original series version or the movie refit version or even the one redesigned in 2009 - with nuclear reactors to power the ship, an ion engine for propulsion, & a gravity wheel in the saucer section. This proposed ship would get astronauts to the moon in three days - the same amount of time as the Apollo astronauts - and astronauts to Mars in 90 days. Mars in 90 days? OK worth a shot!
Of course using the Constitution class design seems like over kill. I always though a more practical design for today's spacecraft engineers is to use a design similar to the USS Defiant from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine or the NX-01 Enterprise from Star Trek Enterprise. While I recognize conventional wisdom is no need to built a space crusier - hence no Constitution based design - I think a practical design for a real live spacecraft based on a design from Star Trek should start with the compact or submarine based designs of the Defiant & Enterprise.
In my mine Enterprise would be what I wish we could start building for that mission to Mars. I'm not an engineer, however, this design could incorporate that gravity wheel. As far as the nuclear reactors or ion propulsion the real engineers of the world can figure this out.
So here's the NX-01 Enterprise as portrayed in the prequel eponymous Star Trek series in action. [VIDEO]
Meanwhile if it takes a few years to design, plan and build this advanced spaceship, what I will say now is let's get started!
BTW, this has got to be the geekiest post written here!
Man this movie might actually get me excited although the idea of an rated R Trek is an odd one. I can only imagine the violence, language or nudity. Although I hate to bring up Tarantino's foot fetish, it has come up in a few of his movies.
To me Tarantino has a strong affinity for those old style 1970s motif (I hope I used that correctly). Pulp Fiction was full of that 1970s style with hatchbacks. Often he also seems to go for those old school "blaxploitation" style which we may see in Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown or even Django Unchained. Also think about the Kill Bill movies which I certainly loved especially the first one, he seems to be a fan of B-movie action and portrays them very violently.
And now Star Trek. Will he give Star Trek a retro feel? Would this new Trek be far more violent than most Trekkies are used too? Will the sex be turned up on high in a new movie?
BTW, I didn't know this Star Trek Beyond didn't make money last year. The 50th anniversary movie lost money and to be fair I liked it but was it a great memorable movie not as much as the 2009 Stark Trek. Which reminds me...
[VIDEO] John Campea was debating a Tarantino Trek. Perhaps Paramount who owns this franchise might want to shake things up and find a new direction. Think prior to 2009 it was considered unthinkable not only to recast the original characters with new actors as they had in the JJ Abrams Trek. It was also unthinkable to even tweak the design of the original USS Enterprise.
It would be quite interesting to see Tarantino's take on Gene Roddenberry's universe. Will it be faithful? Or will it simply be a Tarantino story set in Roddenberry's universe telling his own story? All we can do now is wait...
I also want to note the new Trek series Discovery. My initial take on it is that the show started off interesting with the pilot that aired on CBS. It ended with the Captain asserting her authority against her first officer who essentially wanted to contradict her C/O in handling the newly revamped Klingons. I have no idea about this f-bomb Campea said occurred in the series and he also claims Trekkies took issue with the insertion of that.
[VIDEO] I'm giving you a quick spoiler if you didn't see last year's Star Trek Beyond - the USS Enterprise as we've seen it since 2009s Star Trek had been destroyed. As you see above in the alternate timeline we see another USS Enterprise-A. So as the Star Trek franchise goes into the next 50 - 2016 was the 50th anniversary of the original series having first premiered in 1966 - there is a brand new starship Enterprise casting off in the next cinematic adventure.
In this above video we look at an artists conception of this new Enterprise and then shows what we saw in the STB. Basically a different design than the concept to be honest I hardly noticed, hell I hardly noticed a huge difference when the Enterprise was redesigned at the end of 2013s Star Trek into Darkness. Or admittedly all I noticed was the change in the impulse engines.
Either way this video wonders why they keep changing the basic design of the Enterprise making little tweeks here and there in each of the new JJ Abrams Star Trek film series. It seems to the author of this video gratuitous to make these changes.
Consider that many fans weren't that happy with the redesign of the original Enterprise in 2009, the original 1966 design by Matt Jefferies has never graced the silver screen. To be honest I wanted to see that ship on the silver screen only to see this new take on a TV classic. Whether tweaked or not, this Enterprise maintains the form we expect from Star Trek.
So I'll open the floor to "Trekkies". What do you think of this new Enterprise-A?
A series of links found on Instapundit. Different philosophies of Star Trek. Particularly political & legal philosophies. Questions about the Prime Directive, especially.
Better yet the philosophy of American when Star Trek premiered 50+ years ago. How did America go from a robust pro-liberal philosophy to a more UN-centric "moral relativism".
Then what if Star Trek was written by libertarians.
I can only image a different vision for Star Trek and different drama if someone decided to reboot the universe of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Check this video from reason which is what you see on Instapundit.
[VIDEO] The new ship for a new Star Trek TV series coming in the new year. If you can't wait for that new series to premiere in 2017 then Star Trek Beyond is out in theaters now. Hopefully I'll see it during the course of the next week or so. Can't wait!
BTW, Discovery will air the series premiere on the CBS TV network and then further episodes will air on CBS's online streaming service. Which I hope they'll change if this return proves to be very successful.
The use of online streaming for TV programs have expanded as of late with such shows as Orange is the New Black, House of Cards, and Fuller House have taken advantage of this medium. For a Star Trek series this is not unfamiliar territory since a new Star Trek series in the 1970s would've premeired on a new network. Also two Star Trek series aired in syndication and two others aired on a new TV network as well.
[VIDEO] Right now because it's coming out soon moviegoers are excited about the new Star Wars by JJ Abrams. Next summer is Star Trek Beyond and just in time for the 50th Anniversary of the classic Star Trek series.
Not enough given away of Beyond in the trailer but then that's a good thing.
I've often heard that today's previews are giving too much away of the movie their seeking to sell. Either way can't wait to see more in the future.
The fact that the film makers and producers of the current crop of Trek films are making the franchise seem cool by injecting elements of today's pop culture into it is a nice touch. Have little idea how other Trekkies may view this, however.
From the first Star Trek movie in 1979 to the last film featuring the cast from the original series in 1991 we see a list of trivia from those original series films.
I found this bullet point to be the funniest one. It involved a certain computer seen in 1986's Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home - yes the one with the whales...
31. Hello computer?!? The Apple Mac wasn't supposed to be in the factory, and the original Commodore Amiga model was originally supposed to be in its place. Commodore Business Machines refused to send a sample machine for filming and simply told the film crew that they had to buy one. Apple just sent a machine and a member of staff to help out.
Commodore also stated it didn't want to be associated with Star Trek. Facepalm...
BTW, here's the scene in question Scotty is trying to use a 1980s Apple Macintosh machine but speaking through its mouse. Well it was an hilarious scene and even better while Scotty may not know how to use a mouse he typed the hell out of that keyboard! [VIDEO]
Not bad for a guy who seemed to have started off only with two index fingers at first!
[VIDEO] Star Trek's 50th anniversary is coming up next year. So hard to believe it's that old as I remember the 30th anniversary - a program aired on TV in 1996 that had been recorded on VHS tape at home. Even better hopefully a new Trek film will be ready to go by next year.
In the above video Trek creator Gene Roddenberry gives us the rundown on the first pilot "The Cage". Little did I know that not only this pilot never aired on TV in the 1960s (it first aired in 1988 according to the Trek wiki) it had also been shown in black & white. Although when I've seen this episode it was always in color.
Most of what Roddenberry said isn't entirely unfamiliar to me. The idea of a TV pilot, his concept of the series, and perhaps the network's expection. That network being NBC who did air the series between 1966-1969. It's recognized that the series from this pilot to it's eventual cancellation was very different from not only other series from it time but also the sensibilities.
Of course there were other concerns such as advertisers. Tobacco companies advertised in those days. These days well we want to really discourage smoking and that means we won't see many smoking ads on TV now.
Judging by some of the effects and the sets Roddenberry was walking around this had to have been taped at least in the early 80s. According to the video description this came from a DVD featuring a color version of this pilot episode. And that seems to contradict Roddenberry who said there had been only black & white footage of this episode. Even though we see here both color and black & white footage.
