The new Star Trek movie is being released on May 8, 2009. Here is the official site.
Although we do have real lives, thank you very much Mr. Shatner, my wife and I, our kids to a lesser extent, are eagerly anticpating it. Since the cancellation of Enterprise in 2005, it has been a long drought for Trek fans. For those like us who are finding their interest in the Trek universe reawakening, we found a nice application here, appropriately sponsored by Cheez-it, that allows you to “Trek-Yourself”, or rather a photo of yourself. Being a middle-aged attorney, a pillar of my local community, of course I did not Trek one of my photos. I asked my wife to Trek a photo our terra-poo Baby. The results are above. Below is a version of Baby as a Romulan.
I trust this will seal my credentials as the geekiest contributor to this blog. I hasten to add however that we have never dressed Baby up in a Star Fleet uniform —-yet.
….WTF did they do to Romulans!?!?!?!
That does look rather strange doesn’t it? However, I think the program was not set up with dogs in mind.
I went to the site, as well, ‘cus I couldn’t tell what the heck… that thing looked like a TOS Klingon gone all tribal….
Just more weight on my “we’ll see it when it gets to the cheap theater” impression. (Hey, they want a trek movie that “isn’t aimed at star trek fans”– they’ll get fans that aren’t aimed at their movie.)
Here’s a question for your geeky-ness:
Have you ever considered where the heck the Church is, in Star Trek?
I’ve said since high school that Vulcans would be very good Catholics. (yes, even before Mr. Wright’s joke)
Gene Roddenberry had little use for religion and therefore religion was downplayed in the original series, except for the Bread and Circuses episode:
“McCoy: (to Kirk) I read in your report that Flavius was killed. I’m sorry. I really liked that sun worshipper.
Spock: I do wish we could examine that belief of theirs more closely.
Uhura: I’m afraid you have it all wrong. All of you. I’ve been monitoring their old style radio broadcasts. The Empire’s spokesman trying to ridicule their religion. But he couldn’t. (after a brief silence) Don’t you understand? It’s not the sun up in the sky. It’s the Son of God!
Kirk: Caesar and Christ. They have them both.
Spock: It will replace their imperial Rome, but it will happen in their twentieth century.
Kirk: And the word is spreading… only now. Wouldn’t it be something to watch it happen all over again?”
Not sure how many of you know this, but Archbishop John Myers of Newark, formerly of Peoria, is a big Trek fan and in fact submitted some suggested plots to the producers of one of the early-90s shows (not sure whether it was “Next Generation” or “Deep Space Nine”) with his friend Gary K. Wolf (of “Roger Rabbit” fame”). They weren’t accepted, however.
Mr. McClarey-
I know why there isn’t any showing, but if you treat it as a “world” instead of a show, you can make a lot of interesting stories– at one point I had a pretty good lineup of “evidence” that religion had been systematically repressed.
Interesting. My wife has devoured Star Trek fiction. I read a book by Esther Friesner where Aaron Stemple of the Here Come the Brides show was revealed to be an ancestor of Spock. The inside joke of course that actor Mark Lenard played this role, in addition to his role on Star Trek as Spock’s Vulcan father.
Et al.,
After living life and becoming aware of the social themes of star trek, my enthusiasm dipped a bit when I realized that Star Trek was a Communist Utopia. Where there was no money and people pursued their vocations, not necessarily trying to survive since everything was taken care of.
Of course this is incredibly unlikely with the demise of the Soviet Union, but I can see why some of the appeal being where there are no conflicts and people lived to fulfill themselves rather than God.
Star Fleet is the UN in space– part of why I enjoyed DS9 so much: socialist utopia gets smacked in the face with the folks they don’t control.
Of course the Star Trek episodes rarely took Roddenberry’s philosophy seriously. No war: The episodes of the show usually revolved around military conflict. No money: mentioned but never taken seriously. Just ask Cyrano Jones or Harry Mudd. The Prime Directive: Stamped on almost every time it came up. No religion: Star Trek Deep Space Nine reveled in religious themes. Utopia: Hardly, just ask the Maquis. Star Trek works because it barely pays attention to Rodennberry’s view of how the future might turn out. It is grand, and entertaining, Space Opera. Long may it go on providing amusement!
Mr. Roddenberry’s vision is kinda like the vision of most anything else: when it hits reality, it changes a lot.
Communism: from each by their ability, to each by their need. Reality: nobody works to the height of their ability, and the folks managing the “to” always seem to end up with a bit more for their trouble.
Ideal: “we hold these truths to be self-evident…”
Reality: anyone who’s been into a history class in the last ten years got those bashed into their heads.
ideal: Men and women are morally equal
reality: women have to act like men to *be* the same.