We close out our Trek movie marathon by watching our beloved crew make a detour to 1986 as they take “The Voyage Home.”
Article By: Ryker XL

Movie Background:
Star Trek fans and non-fans alike are familiar with the notion that William Shatner is difficult to work with. In fact, many of his fellow cast-mates have some not so nice things to say about Shatner. Perhaps that is why you will NOT see William Shatner in the next film, but you will see Nimoy as an older Spock. Shatner was apparently offered a scene, but he turned it down saying, “it didn’t feel right.” Later good ol’ Bill posted a YouTube video blasting Abrams for not having him in the new flick… (Look for many other notable cameos in this movie…) In Star Trek 4, Shatner was also unwilling to return and Nimoy and Harve Bennet were working on a prequel concept based on characters from Starfleet Academy. Then Shatner negotiated a pay increase and signed on to do the movie.

Nimoy and Bennett began working on a time travel story where the crew would encounter a problem that could only be fixed by something only available in the present. Numerous ideas were considered including; violin makers, oil drillers, as well as a disease which had its cure destroyed with the rainforests. But the idea of thousands of sick and dying people was too gruesome for a light-hearted film. Bennett then read a story on animal extinction and decided on using the humpback whale as the stories premise.

When Nimoy approached “Beverly Hills Cop” writer Daniel Petrie, Jr. to write the script, he found that Star Trek fan Eddie Murphy wanted a starring role. Both Nimoy and Murphy acknowledged his part would attract non-Star Trek fans to the franchise, but it could also mean the film would be panned. A script was written with Murphy as a college professor who believes in aliens and who likes to play whale songs. Murphy disliked the part, explaining he wanted to play an alien or a Starfleet officer and chose to make “The Golden Child” instead. Great choice Eddie…

The studio combined a marine biologist and a female reporter to become the female protagonist, Gillian Taylor. Director Nicholas Meyer (The Wrath of Khan) wrote the script and it had some very interesting twists that never made it into the final film. First, Meyers had Gillian Taylor stay in 1986 Earth vowing to ensure the survival of the humpback whale. Meyer believed this stressed the importance of people in the present taking the responsibility for the ecology and preventing problems of the future by doing something today. The original script also called for Saviik to remain on Vulcan as she had birthed Spock’s “Love Child” while he was experiencing pon farr. Luckily for us, none of these ideas made it to the big screen. Instead we get a really fun adventure through time with our favorite Starfleet crew.
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Article By: Ryker XL
This week we continue where Star Trek II left off by joining Captain Kirk and his closest friends as they go on a “Search for Spock.”

Movie Background:

After the commercial and critical success of Star Trek II, Leonard Nimoy was more than ready to take up the role of Spock once more. When Paramount asked him if he might want to reprise his role he replied, “You’re damned right, and I want to direct that picture!” So Paramount allowed the pointy eared star to take the helm behind the camera. The script was written by Harve Bennett who noted, “seventeen other people could have written” due to the hints at Spock’s resurrection in the second film. Because of the story’s predictability, Bennett decided to have the Enterprise destroyed, and intended this plot element to be kept a secret. However Bennett’s surprise twist was ruined when a TV spot showed the scene two weeks before the film’s release.

Destroying the Enterprise was a delight for Visual Effects Supervisor Ken Ralston. Ralston hated the model of the Enterprise; it was bulky and hard to film. While only the saucer section of the main model was actually destroyed; insert shots of the saucer section dissolving were accomplished by dissolving styrene plastic with acetone, while the burning underneath was steel wool set ablaze.

The original script called for the Romulans to be the villains of the film, but Nimoy preferred the newly costumed Klingons from Star Trek the Motion Picture. It is interesting to note that the Klingon ship’s designated class is the “Bird of Prey,” a name held by the original Romulan cloaked vessel. In fact, early script drafts mention captian Kruge stole his ship from the Romulans, but this was eventually left out. Other slight modifications to the Klingons included less defined foreheads and more war-like costumes that had Japanese armor flair to them. Finally, Kruge’s dog-like pet was not in the original script, but was added by ILM for atmosphere. The full-scale puppet was controlled by three people, including Visual Effects Supervisor Ken Ralston, who hid inside Kruge’s chair.
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SPOILERS…..obviously.

Walking Dead #60

Written by: Robert Kirkman

Art by: Charlie Adlard

The BIG 6-0. 60 is most notably the time in your life when you start to lose your hearing, and your eyes start getting worse, along with your driving skills, and you go hobble your way into your huge, boat sized Cadillac and break off the odometer at 25 in a 45 mph zone while heading to your local Walgreens and buy some of those huge, wrap around glasses that look like some kind of virtual reality visor. Yeah, its those years when retirement homes scare you, along with all that new fangled technology, and don’t even talk about those young punks with their “raps” and “skateboards”. But you know what isn’t getting old? The Walking Dead.

60 issues in, Robert Kirkman hopes to bring back the original antagonist of the series: zombies. While most of the series has been about the fact that the zombies aren’t the worst thing roaming the land, issue 60 tries to convince us that they are still a contender.

Last issue, we finally caught a glimpse of the “herd” of zombies heading after our intrepid heroes. Rick & Co. could defend against a group of zombies with little to no effort, but a herd comprises of thousands of zombies. Not a walk in the park.

So in this issue, we witness our car-less heroes running from the herd, trying desperately to get back to their loved ones in time to warn them of the incoming danger. While not the most illuminating issue of the series, this issue does help emphasize the immediacy of the undead flock.

I have always said that the issues that deal with the more humanizing aspects of the story are my favorites. Issues where the characters are just sitting around trying to gather some shred of hope while being surrounded and confronted by acts of horrific violence and sanity breaking situations. This issue still brings that to the table. One character in particular gets this in spades.

So all in all, this issue doesn’t reveal a whole lot, but it does hint at the herd arc coming to an end, but not before a little preview at the end of the book. With preview pages with phrases like “”The dead do not stalk” and an accompanying picture of shadowy figures hiding in the trees right above some of the main cast.

Yeah, I don’t really need to tell you about the art and the writing because it is just so good. It’s just a given with this series.
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Article By:Ryker XL
 
We continue our Trek Movie Marathon this week with what is considered to be the best Star Trek film of all time; “The Wrath of Khan.”  Hold on to your tribbles, this should be good…
 
Movie Background:

When “Star Trek the Motion Picture” failed to meet studio expectations, Paramount removed creator Gene Roddenberry from the production of this and other sequels.  The studio would remain true to Star Trek’s ideas and characters, but his creative input would be severely limited.  After watching several old episodes of the original series, Executive producer Harve Bennett found a nice open ended storyline at the end of “The Space Seed;”  there we find the genetically-engineered tyrant Khan Noonien Singh trapped on Citi Alpha Five with his followers, hell bent on revenge.   The story screamed  for more and so Bennett wrote the film’s original outline, which Jack B. Sowards developed into a full script. Director Nicholas Meyer completed the final script in 12 days, without accepting any writing credit.
 
Director Nicholas Meyer’s took a less “heady” approach to the film and added in a lot of the swashbuckling action and witty dialogue that made the original series a success.  It is interesting to note that Leonard Nimoy reluctantly reprised his role as Spock for the film.  Nimoy had grown tired of Spock and felt type cast in Hollywood.  He agreed to the role only because Spock would die at the end of the film.  No resurrection, no Genesis planet, the pointy eared science officer would be DEAD.  Screening of the original ending created such a negative stir that Paramount re-wrote the script to provide hopes for Spock’s return.  And in fact the studio would continue this story arc and character development for 2 more feature films. 
 
The production used various cost-cutting techniques to keep within budget, including utilizing miniatures from past projects. However, among the film’s technical achievements is the Genesis planet animation.  It was the first complete feature film sequence created entirely with computer-generated graphics, and it still stands up to today’s standards. 
 
“Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan” was released in North America on June 4, 1982. It was a box office success, earning $97 million worldwide and setting a world record for first-day box office gross.  The movie is generally considered one of the best films of the Star Trek series and is credited with creating renewed interest in the franchise.
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Article By: Ryker XL

With the Eleventh movie in the Star Trek series (and a reboot at that) hitting the big screen in May, it’s time for us to take a look at this storied franchise and examine SOME of the work that made it a part of our Entertainment culture. This week we’ll revisit Star Trek the Motion Picture, provide a brief synopses and a forum for discussion.

Movie Background:

When the original television series was canceled in 1969, Gene Roddenberry lobbied hard to continue the franchise on film. Partly due to the success of syndication; Paramount to begin work on a feature film in 1975. After several writers and scripts hit the circular file, Paramount scrapped the film in 1977 and began work on a second television series instead; Star Trek: Phase II. However, with the box-office success of many sci-fi films such a “Star Wars” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, Paramount decided that bringing Trek to the big screen would be a great idea.

Paramount hired Academy Award-winning director Robert Wise to helm the $15 million dollar venture. To speed the film along, writers stole the pilot episode from Star Trek:Phase II “In thy Image” and adapted it for the big screen. There were many revisions to the script and the Enterprise was completely redesigned. It was perhaps these constant revisions and a skimpy effects budget that led to mixed reviews from both critics and fans alike. One lasting acquisition was the hiring of Jerry Goldsmith for the movie’s musical score; a relationship that would last the franchise until 2002.
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