Trek Nostalgia

Playmates Warp Factor Series...

2010-04-23T03:03:00.000-07:00

If you are a regular reader of this blog you know how much I love the Star Trek Playmates toy line from the 1990s. In past articles I looked back at various different aspects of the line. Today I'll be taking a look at the line's last big push at retail with the final major assortment of Star Trek items from Playmates. These toys where released under Playmates new Warp Factor Series banner with the Paramount Toys logo right next to Playmates'. This new branding for the line featured one of the widest ranging assortment of Star Trek items ever put out by Playmates. With declining sales and constant battling for highly coveted shelf space in the boys toys aisles, Playmates figured the glory days of Star Trek toys at brick and mortar retailers were probably growing short. In prior years the company had started to focus more on exclusive items through specialty retailers. In Playmates mind if this was going to be the end of the line it would certainly go out with a bang. 5 more waves of figures hit shelves before Playmates officially cancelled the 4.5 inch line at mass retail stores. Along with these five waves of 4.5 inch figures Playmates released a wide assortment of role play toys and miniature playsets to compete with the highly popular mini figures fad of the times that had been so lucrative for such properties as Micro Machines, Mighty Maxx, and Polly Pocket.

The first wave of figures, which focused on the Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations" launched with a major promotional push featuring the Triple Tribble Game sweepstakes which was supported by some of Star Trek's major licensees of the time including Interplay, Marvel Comics, Simon and Schuster Pocket Books, and off course Playmates. Paramount even offered multiple prizes themselves including a trip to Hollywood, a piece of the Deep Space Nine set, and an official Starfleet Uniform crafted by the studio's wardrobe department. Other companies like Dairy Queen and Pioneer also jumped on the bandwagon offering their own prizes and promotions. This was a pretty big contest with some major sponsors for a toy line that had already been on the market for over five years.

Subsequent waves included such figures long requested by fans as Ilya from The Motion Picture, Leeta from DS9 and Spock, Kirk, & Edith Keeler from the fan favorite episode "The City on the Edge of Forever".

Playmates also finished up their earlier line of Starfleet Academy figures by releasing figures of Cadet Data, Cadet Crusher, and Cadet Troi completing the assortment of TNG characters in this subset that had originally hit shelves more than 2 years earlier. These three figures did not include the Academy Test Simulation CD-Rom that had been issued with the original assortment.

A line of 6 inch figures focusing on characters from the Next Generation also showed up at retail early on during the Warp Factor Series run. These figures all had a specific action feature.

I didn't particularly like these 6 inch offerings until the third wave focusing on characters from Deep Space Nine was released. This wave eliminated the stupid action features focusing instead on better sculpting and in packaging the figures with some really awesome display pieces in the shape of the characters' respective control consoles. Sisko came with a kick ass replica of his command chair from the bridge of the Defiant.

I really wished we'd gotten more of these 6 inch figures with such cool accessories. Looking back on them now it seems these Galactic Gear accessories were the precursors to the bridge pieces included with the new movie figures. The idea of including bridge pieces wasn't really new to the Galaxy Series Trek figures from 2009.

At least eight more 9 inch figures where released in the early months of the warp Factor series featuring such characters as Odo, Bashir, Janeway, and Chakotay. Kay Bee toys was the best place to find these. They had so many of these a year later they had to put them on clearance at most locations.

Playmates went full force into the mini figures and playsets market with their Strike Force assortment. Having previously tested the waters with their innerspace line the powers that be figured it was time to offer an entire line of these miniatures.

These ships and playsets followed in the footsteps of Galoob's Star Wars Micro Machines line. Two character heads opened up to reveal fully equiped play environments just like Galoob had done in previous years with their Boba Fett and Stormtrooper helmets. Playmates used the popular Trek Alien species of the Borg and the Klingons as the themes for these two sets. The Borg set introduced the ridiculously crazy idea of a Borg temple. Nowhere in the series mythology was there ever any hint that a Borg would have any use for a temple so I wonder what were the Playmates designers smoking when they came up with this atrocity.

Playmates popular line of Role Play toys came to an end with two of their best offerings ever, the Starfleet Phaser from Star Trek 6 and the long requested Klingon D'K Tahg knife. Both where welcomed by fans who regulary attend conventions in costume. Remember this was a time before companies such as Master Replicas came around, so the Playmates weapons where the best bet for cosplay fans.

The last vehicle released by Playmates would be the Defiant Destroyer from Deep Space Nine. This one didn't disappoint in any way. Even today it can fetch hundreds of dollars on ebay mint in box.

After this Warp Factor series wrapped up the only new major release from Playmates came the following year in the form of 9 inch and 12 inch collector's figures from Star Trek Insurrection. The other items in the Insurrection line where repackaged pieces that had been previously released. The Insurrection line was not as widely available as the Warp Factor line. The end was near. After that the line went on to a few more limited releases as store exclusives at Target and online stores such as New Force Comics. It would be a decade before we'd get any new Trek toys from Playmates. And now once again the future of the line is in great doubt.

Nostalgic G's Star Trek collection pt. 2...

2010-04-03T20:55:00.000-07:00

I recently updated the Star Trek collection display. Here's some pics from the latest changes.
Make sure to check out part 1 here.

Eat right, live long and prosper...

2010-04-03T20:52:00.000-07:00

From a 1989 issue of Rolling Stone Magazine here's an ad produced by the American Cancer Society featuring Spock.

DST Salt Vampire Figure Cancelled...

2009-12-18T03:44:00.000-08:00

It's official, DST sends word that they have canceled their plans to release the Salt Vampire figure based on the original unproduced Art Asylum figure from the early days of the line. Back in 2003 AA canceled the figure saying they had run across too many tooling problems during production. This year DST informed fans of their plans to finally produce the figure and they were going as far as locating the original AA molds. Now due to poor sales of the line, the release of this long lost masterpiece has once again been put on hold.

Starfleet Gear...

2009-12-14T23:55:00.000-08:00

Over the years Star Trek licensees have put out multiple collectibles based on items used by Starfleet officers or students at the Academy. Many of these have been exclusives to the Official Fan Club or Star Trek venues such as Las Vegas' Star Trek The Experience. Let's take a look at some of my favorite Starfleet-themed collectibles, gear, and supplies.

The Starfleet Away Team Kit -- Originally offered by the Official Fan Club for a brief period of time near the end of the club's existence this kit came in an awesome looking field backpack with a Starfleet survival team logo o its shiny metallic grey surface. Inside the pack you'd find a glow in the dark flashlight, water bottle, and a blanket made out of space age materials. This to me seemed like one of the coolest collectible ever, the backpack alone is one of the coolest looking trek items I have ever seen, but the fan club discontinued it rather quickly and then they closed their doors for good so I was never able to get it. I still check for it on Ebay from time to time but unfortunately I have never found a complete one for sale.

DS9ers baseball hat -- This is one of my favorite pieces of Trek wear. From one of the most fun Trek episodes ever, DS9's Take me out to the holosuites, this cap is an exact replica of the one used on the show by cast members in Captain Sisko's baseball team. I used to wear this cap a lot during my early college years and it brings back fond memories of my favorite Trek T.V. series and a very special period of my life every time I see it.

Starfleet Academy Diploma -- For those us us who've always dreamed of attending Starfleet Academy this diploma was an awesome thing to have. You could order it from the Official Fan Club and it would come in personalized with your name on it as well as George Takei's signature.
The diploma was printed on beautiful parchment paper just like the real deal. It would come encased in a blue vinyl holder with the Starfleet Academy logo embossed on the front. A beautiful collectible and a great conversation piece for your wall.

Enterprise crew shirts and hats -- Some of the coolest gear from Enterprise was the hats worn by the crew on away team missions, as well as the black undershirts. The fan club made these two pieces of apparel available pretty early on during the show's first season. I still wear these from time to time. They are perfect to wear anywhere and if someone recognizes them as Star Trek gear they are also hardcore fans since the only visible branding is the small NX-01 text. The only complaint I have about these is that the cap does have the Enterprise logo on the back, even though the ones on the show didn't.

The Starfleet Survival Guide -- Published by Pocket Books this book is written for Starfleet officers as a field guide to brief them on multiple subjects such as nonstandard uses for standard equipment, unconventional medicine, dangerous life forms, and extreme scenarios. Very creatively put together by David Mack, author of multiple Star Trek novels, and full of great illustrations by Timothy Earls. A perfect piece to go along with the Away Team Kit.

2 day only deal on 12 inch figures....

2009-12-13T22:54:00.000-08:00

Some of the best collectibles from the 2009 Star Trek movie were the 12 inch line of figures from Playmates. Toys 'R Us has a great deal on them today and tomorrow only. Originally selling between $29.99 and $34.99 at most retailers you can now get them for $19.99 each at TRU. The deal includes the Sulu and Pike exclusive figures too. If you haven't gotten these yet this is the perfect time to do so. This offer is good in stores only.

Star Trek Master Series from Skybox...

2009-12-11T14:20:00.000-08:00

Lets take a look at my all time favorite Star Trek trading card series, the Skybox Star Trek Master Series featuring original art compositions from some of the genre's top illustrators.
These cards were released back in 1993, and to this date I don't think we've gotten another trading card series with art as beautiful as these. I used to try and buy 2 or 3 packages of these every time I went to my local comic book shop back in the day.

Some of the artists whose work is included in this set had been illustrating Star Trek posters and novel covers for many years and they truly know how to capture the essence of our favorite characters, aliens, and ships. Artists like Sonia Hilios, Keith Birdsong, and even Trek production illustrator and FX guru Dan Curry all contributed paintings for this set. These are just beautiful to look at. There is so much detail in each image that you could just stare at them for hours.

Usually one has to spend a lot of money buying limited edition prints or lithos to get this level of quality in Star Trek art, but this set was the perfect way of bringing high end Star Trek art to every fan. Skybox did an amazing job at putting these together. During the many years they had the Star Trek license they put out some amazing card sets, much better in my opinion than what Rittenhouse Archives puts out these days.

SkyBox International Inc. was a trading card manufacturing company founded back in 1989 as Impel Marketing, the company became SkyBox not long after. In 1991 they picked up the license to produce Star Trek trading cards. Skybox, which was later bought by Fleer, continued to produce Star Trek card sets until the year 2000, when their license expired.

Since these cards were produced back in 1993 the set only features art from the first 6 motion pictures and The Original Series, The Next Generation, and DS9. There was a second series produced the following year, I'll share my thoughts on that one as well as my favorite images in a future post. It would be great to see a new series of art cards in the same style released today so it could include art from all the Star Trek shows and films produced since these Skybox sets were released. Now lets take a look at a couple more of my favorite images from the Star Trek Master Series 1.

Celebrate 30 years of Star Trek The Motion Picture with some help from DST...

2009-12-10T20:33:00.000-08:00

This week marks the 30th anniversary of the U.S.S. Enterprise's first silver screen voyage.
DST has just released its latest role play item just in time for the celebration. Their latest offering is a replica of the Starfleet Phaser as seen in The Motion Picture. As all the other great role play items from AA/DST this one's a must have. For some reason these guys can't make quality action figures anymore but they can still put out some impressive role play items and accessories. You can pick up the phaser from Entertainment Earth right now. Here's an up close look at the piece.

Trekin' through 2009: The Star Trek year in pictures...

2009-12-10T19:10:00.000-08:00

2009 has been the biggest year for Star Trek since 1994 -- when TNG was coming to an end, DS9 was starting to hi its stride, Voyager was about to launch, and the world was impatiently waiting for the meetings of the two legendary Captains of the Enterprise on the big screen in Star Trek Generation. Star Trek was at its Zenith, with Shatner and Stewart on the cover of Time magazine amongst multiple other national and international publications. And now 15 years later Star Trek has found its mojo once again in the eyes of general audiences all over the world (we true Trek fans know it had never really lost it). The launch of the new major motion picture from Paramount and JJ Abrams brought with it a huge amount of promotion, tie-ins, merchandise, and events to help usher in a new era for our beloved franchise in the epic fashion it has always deserved. Here's a look at some of my favorite images from the many promotions taking place during Star Trek's comeback year.

Unused teaser poster for the film from Paramount Pictures.

Chris Pine meets Leonard Nimoy at an event for Shatner's charity horse show and the press is right there to capture the moment.

The first official promo shots from Paramount introducing us to the new Kirk and Spock.

Star Trek dance parties in L.A. and New York become the "it" event in the cities' nightlife with Orion slave girls, special Trek-themed photo booths and cool giveaways like this awesome poster.

As a longtime fan I got great joy in seeing ads for a Star Trek movie in the newspapers once again.

Ads from promo partners lined up the walls of movie theaters.

Popcorn bags, buckets, and coke cups featured Star Trek in theaters all over the U.S.

Burger King launches a multi-million dollar national ad campaign and in-store promotions to tie in with the film.

After more than a decade since the end of Playmates previous Trek toy line Toys 'R Us and stores all over the world begin to dedicate big chunks of aisle space to Star Trek again.

Star Trek gets a race car!

Supermarket aisles are chock full of products with multiple offers for Trek items to help promote the big film.

Billboards and wraps cover up buildings, buses, and more prime spots all over the world to help promote the film with an ad campaign budgeted at over 150 million dollars.

A Premiere of epic proportions for the Star Trek film takes over Hollywood Blvd.

The Burger King Klingons show up at the Star Trek Hollywood Premiere to cause some trouble at the Mann's Chinese Theater.

The Nostalgic G's Trek Collection...

2009-11-24T16:07:00.001-08:00

I recently got started organizing my boxes, storage bins, and closets full of Trek stuff.
I have one room dedicated to the collection right now, but its kind of small. Since I don't have a lot of space to display the entire collection I'm going to start rotating it every few months. Let's take a look at the current set up featuring new movie stuff, classics from Playmates 90s toy line, and some of the awesome Art Asylum offerings.

Stay tuned for Pt. 2 coming soon featuring more action figures, the 12 inch figs, dioramas, playsets, books, movies, and even some Borg bubble bath...

SpockCation Pt. 2

2009-11-23T16:59:00.001-08:00

Part two of Spock's visit to L.A. with the Nostalgic Gangsta is up at Eclectorama.
Check it out now.

SpockCation Pt.1

2009-11-17T14:44:00.001-08:00

Eclectorama's traveling Spock just spent a weekend with the Nostalgic G in Hollywood drinking Romulan ale and hanging out at Star Trek: The Exhibit.
Check out the Spockcation feature at the Eclectorama for pt. 1 of Spock's visit.

Star Trek Blu-Ray and DVD Sales Ads...

2009-11-15T23:02:00.000-08:00

Magazine ad for the film's Blu-Ray and DVD release.

This Tuesday Star Trek will be making its debut on Blu-Ray and DVD and many retailers will be launchg the film with special events and offers. Let's go over some of them and take a look at the ads.

The DVD and Blu-Ray release of Star Trek takes the top spot this week's Entertainment Weekly "must list".

Best Buy will have every single edition of the film available along with the highly anticipated exclusive set packed with 4 Starfleet badge replicas produced by Quantm Mechanix.
This one is definitively my top pick from all the exclusive sets. Fans who show up at Best Buy during the first two hours of business on Tuesday will be able to save 3 dollars of the Blu-Ray or 2 dollars off the DVD. There's also a rumor that Best Buy will be having some Star Trek titles on Blu-Ray for the prie of $7.99 during their black Friday extravaganza. We'll keep you posted on that as more info comes in.

Many Best Buy stores will open their doors at midnight for all the eager fans who can't wait till Tuesday morning to get their hands on the film. Head on over to Bestbuy.com for a list of all participating locations. Best Buy will also have all the previous Star Trek Blu-Ray titles on sale with discounts raging between 5-35 dollars.

Target will have a special packaging for the film just ike they've done with previous Paramount titles such as Iron Man and both Transformers movies. This time around the case can be put together to form a mini U.SS. Enterprise display in which you can store the film's multiple discs.

Many other retailers will have sale prices on the film such as Toys R Us, which listed the film on their Sunday newspaper ad.

Some blockbuster stores will also have the film available at midnight for sale and rental. I'll be back later in the week with my take on some of these cool new goodies.

Playmates announces 2010 details for Star Trek toyline...

2009-10-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

STAR TREK - Live Long and Prosper *

With nearly 40 years of heritage in the STAR TREK franchise, Playmates will build on the excitement generated by the blockbuster STAR TREK movie directed by J.J. Abrams with an offering of new toys and collectibles based on the 2009 movie and the classic original series catalyst STAR TREK. In addition to new waves of 3.75” action figures, role play accessories and iconic vehicles two new segments will be introduced in the movie line that should appeal to both the long time fan and the younger fans alike. The STARFLEET DEFENDER line includes a full array of movie characters articulated in small-scale in dynamic animated-style action poses. Collectible iconic mini space ships from the 2009 movie include the U.S.S. Enterprise, the U.S.S. Kelvin, and the Narada. And for the first time ever, Playmates will introduce 3.75” GALAXY EDITION action figures and diorama’s based on the classic Star Trek series. These figures will be highly detailed with authentic life-like likenesses and feature over 16 points of articulation. Iconic scenes from the most popular episodes will be depicted in two-figure pack dioramas. So jump on the U.S.S. Enterprise and Live Long and Prosper with the STAR TREK products for young and older.

*From Playmates Toys Press Release

Fan Art: Homemade Galileo 7

2009-09-20T19:16:00.001-07:00

Our good friend and contributor DJTITOFLOW recently created this awesome foam board Galileo 7 shuttle. Head on over to his blog for a great article detailing the creation of this ship and his use for it on a school project.

Return of the Starfleet Utility Belt...

2009-09-19T20:44:00.001-07:00

The new Starfleet utility belt from Playmates Star Trek movie line is a welcome addition to an already great toy line. The folks at Playmates have really impressed me this year with their wide range of products based on the new film. The utility belt is a great toy for kids, the kind of toy I would've gone crazy for as a kid and would've gotten hours of fun and imaginative play out of.

The packaging is very nice and exciting since it gives kids a look at everything thats included on the set and once you open it up you'll find some of the coolest looking toy replicas available right now for any movie or TV show. The only complaint I have about this set is that the belt can only be adjusted up to 28 inches, but it wouldn't be too difficult to rig something up in order to extend it by adding some width to it for the back so adults can wear it too. The holsters for the communicator and the phaser are pretty sturdy and the previously released electronic movie phaser and communicator fit perfectly in them. The perfect way to play with this is to add the electronic phaser since the one this set comes with has no lights or sounds, but the phaser in this set looks much better than the previous one which suffered from a weird dulling and peeling of its shiny coat.

The big draw here for kids is the electronic unit in the belt which features lights and sounds and the ability to receive a series of messages from Starfleet for either Kirk or Spock so kids can decide what character they want to play as. The messages send kids on a variety of missions. You also get great sound effects like the transporter beam and communicator chirp.

The delta insignia in the middle of the utility belt buckle lights up -- yellow for Kirk and blue for Spock. Another great little detail which makes this toy even cooler. By placing the communicator in front of the insignia kids can hear all the messages from Strarfleet sending them on eight different missions.

I really love the way these accesories look. To me they are just as good as any prop out there at the cost of a toy. This is the kind of toy that offers kids the ability to use their imagination while at the same time making them feel closer to being a part of the movie. Kids can continue the adventure with their friends long after having watched the film. When I was growing up I used to love playing out scenarios from my favorite films or TV shows with my friends. The new generation of Trek fans are very fortunate to have such a great variety of toys to continue the adventure for the next couple of years until the next voyage of the Enterprise hits the screen.

"Star Trek: First Contact" Action Figures

2009-09-18T15:26:00.000-07:00

Released in the fall of 1996 to coincide with the theatrical debut of Star Trek First Contact the Playmates action figure line ushered in a new era for the Trek toys of the decade. For the first time we got action figures slightly larger than the traditional 5 inch ones Playmates had been releasing since 1992. The likeness for each actor was also much improved in these figures.
The Picard head is probably the best looking likeness ever in a Playmates action figure.

The line consisted of 11 figures with tons of accessories. A mini poster of the Phoenix was included with each figure. The accessories were great. The Starfleet Phaser rifle from First Contact is my all time favorite Trek prop and these figures came with a pretty decent version of this fan favorite prop. The great thing about the rifle is that its actually painted in black and grey instead of the weird neon colors Playmates used for all their action figure accessories throughout the 90s'. The Riker figure even came with a "sims beacon" -- the wrist flashlight prop invented by prop master Alan Sims which was used in most of the Trek shows from the 90's.

For the first time ever in a Playmates Worf figure the Klingon sash was an accessory which could be removed instead of just painted on, making the figure even more detailed. The Picard in space suit figure is a particular favorite of mine due to the great likeness on the face and the fact that the helmet is removable which is something many fans thought wasn't possible based on the first images of the figures that were released back in the day and the way they were packaged with the helmet on. The space suit was one of my favorite Trek costumes ever until the Enterprise E.V.A. suits came along so this figure definitively makes my list of favorite trek action figures from Playmates.

My one disappointment with this line was the Borg figure.
Starfleet's greatest enemies got an amazing make over for the silver screen but the action figure released by Playmates in this line lacks a great deal of detail, plus the body and face are very thin and frail-looking -- nothing like the menacing Borg drones we see on screen throughout the film.

Playmates did not release a Borg Queen figure with this line but they eventually got around to doing that years later in multiple sizes as part of their regular Star Trek toy line and their Latinum edition high-end line of cold cast figures.

For Next Gen fans this line is a must. First Contact was the TNG crew's finest outing on the Silver Screen and the film was not only a hit with fans but also with general audiences. Something a Trek film hadn't managed to accomplish since Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home. These toys were everywhere during the 1996 holiday season. First Contact featured the last big promotional and merchandising push for a Trek movie until the recent JJ Abrams film. I have great memories of walking into stores that holiday season and being able to pick up these figures as well as a ton of other pieces of First Contact merchandise. It think that was the Golden age of Star Trek before the market got saturated and people stopped caring about Trek.

The figures are still available at conventions and on E-bay at some pretty decent prices. If you don't have these yet I highly recommend adding them to your collection.

Stop motion fun with toys...

2009-09-09T13:08:00.000-07:00

Here are some cool stop motion vids courtesy of our friend djtitoflow. To check out more of his vids visit his blog here. These videos feature some awesome segments featuring Star Trek toys including the new Playmates movie line.

Quantum Mechanix exclusive screen accurate Starfleet badges

2009-07-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

QMX, the company responsible for the creation of all the Enterprise models used at the Arclight Cinemas in Hollywood will be producing a set of four screen accurate Starfleet badges.

These limited edition pieces will only be available with the purchase of the Best Buy Star Trek Blu-Ray gift set arriving on November 17.

The badges are cast in solid metal and can be attached to your favorite uniform.

The set will retail for $39.95 with the 3 disc version of the film on Blu-Ray and the badges. Sounds like a great deal since QMX is known for high end studio quality replicas. Their new U.S.S. Enterprise replica which will go on sale in the fall is now on display at the Sideshow Collectibles booth at Comic-Con. Be sure to check it out if you are planning to attend the event.

The rise and fall of Art Asylum...

2009-07-03T20:30:00.000-07:00

In 2001 the Brooklyn based toy design firm Art Asylum announced they would be taking over the master toy license for Star Trek 3 years after Playmates folded their succesful line. Unbeknownst to many, the team at Art Asylum had already worked on Trek in the past when Playmates hired them to design their Star Trek Alien Combat line. They also created a Klingon Warrior Worf statue which became Michael Dorn's favorite representation of the character. Unfortunately the statue was never released. Art Asylum was founded in 1996 by Digger T. Mesch and Donna Soldano as a development and design house. The company quickly became the home to some of the most talented designers and sculptures in the toy industry. Their work was manufactured by some of the top companies in the industry, including Toy Biz (Marvel Toys), Playmates, and even Hasbro.

Scott Bakula shows off the Captain Archer Away Team figure prototype.

Anthony Montgomery inspects the Mayweather figure prototype.

Taking over the Star Trek toy lincense had been a dream for many of the artists at Art Asylum. They even kept a drawer full of potential Trek toy designs for years hoping to have the opportunity to create more toys from the Star Trek universe, but not just as hired hands by a major toy company. After many years of work as designers the team at Art Asylum decided to branch out and begin production on their own lines of action figures by partnering with Play Along Toys. Soon Art Asylum began producing highly detailed figures under their own banner for such films as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and even a line of figures based on controversial rap artist Eminem.

AFD's Enteprise line preview.

When it came time to approach Paramount regarding their desires to take over the Trek line the inmates at the Asylum knew they had to put together the most creative proposal the studio had ever seen in order to convince them of entrusting a small company with one of the studios crown jewels. The team put together a full blown video presentation with computer generated animations, interviews, and some of their incredible toy design concepts for the Star Trek universe. The meeting was perfect timing since Paramount had been looking for licensing partners for the new series Enterprise as well as the soon to be released feature Star Trek Nemesis. It was soon decided Art Asylum would start off with a line based on the latest series followed by a line to coincide with the release of the 10th film in the franchise.

Prototype sculpt for AA's Away Team Phlox figure.

For the 2002 New York International Toy Fare the team at Art Asylum pulled out all the stops in order to introduce their Enterprise toy line to toy buyers from all over the world. They built a one of a kind display for the line recreating a section of the Enterprise NX-01's bridge. A few months prior to the event some of the artists from the company took a trip to the stages were the show was filmed at Paramount Pictures in Los Angeles in order to take detailed pictures and measurements of the bridge set. The team returned to their Brooklyn studio to begin work on their replica. At the event the display was populated with extras dressed in NX-01 starfleet jumpsuits manning some of the light up consoles.

Art Asylum's Enterprise display at N.Y. Toy Fare 2002.

The toy line grabbed the attention of everyone at the event as well as the attention of multiple toy collecting publications including Lee's Toy Review which revealed multiple images of all the prototypes and Toyfare magazine, which devoted their May cover to the new toy line.

May 2002 edition of Toyfare magazine.

Lee's Toy review previews the Enterprise Away Team line.

Art Asylum started of their Trek line with the launch of the "Broken Bow" in June 2002. These figures were all based on characters from the Enteprise two-hour pilot tele-film. This initial wave was followed by their Away Team wave in August. The wave consisted of multiple NX-01 officers in their E.V.A suits as well as an assortment of aliens including the Nausican, and Shran the Andorian. All theses figures where some of the best sculpted and detailed toys available in the market at the time. I'll go as far as saying that the level of quality and the attention to detail in these two waves has not been matched by any other line to this day. The figures took advantage of Gentle Giant's scanning technology to perfectly capture each actor's likeness as well as the use of a rubber-like material known as Kreaton which perfectly covered all the joints and gave the figure's jumpsuits a more realistic space age feel.

Print ad for the NX-01 Mirror Universe variant.

The toys were widely available online and at major retailers such as Toys 'R Us and Kay Bee Toys. Some exclusives were produced for such online ventures as figures.com, New Force Comics, and Diamond's Previews. Art Asylum also expanded their horizons by releasing their first ever line of role play toys and vehicles starting with the amazing Trek Tech Enterprise accessory 2-pack, which included highly detailed electronic replicas of the Starfleet issue Phase pistol and communicator utilized by the crew of the NX-01. These two accessories were created utilizing laser scans of the actual props from the show. This set was soon followed by one of the coolest ships ever released as part of a Star Trek toy line with the NX-01 electronic spaceship.

Print ad for the figures.com exclusive Kirk MiniMate figure.

Since working on the Borg figure for Playmates' Alien Combat line designers at Art Asylum had been interested in producing more Borg figures with the level of hyper detail these artists had become known for. It was very evident that one of the first things they would create after fulfilling their initial commitment with Paramount to start off with a line based on the most current show was to turn their attention to starfleet's most dangerous adversaries -- The Borg.

This species was perfect for the team at Art Asylum to show off their sculpting abilities and fans soon got one of the most intricately sculpted figures ever produced based on characters from the Trek universe. Those of us who had already been blown away by their Enterprise Away Team line were quite surprised when these figures came out since Art Asylum had managed to top the quality of their work in just a matter of months.

Conceptual art for AA's Borg Assimiliation Line.

Print ad for AA's Borg Assmiliation Line.

Blueprint for AA's cancelled Ferengi Borg assimilation figure.

For the release of Star Trek Nemesis Art Asylum had to rush a wave of figures in order to have them ready to ship on October 2002. The company wanted to make sure the toys would be available in plenty of time for the film's early December release. Although Art Asylum utilized Gentle Giant's scanning techinque in order to scan the actors as well as costumes and accesories. The figures themselves didn't quite hold up to the level of quality seen on the Enterprise and Borg assimilation lines. The wave included Captain Picard, Data, Shinzon, and the Reman Viceroy. The company had plans for a second line to coincide with the film's DVD release but plans were scrapped due to the fans cold reception to the film and the figures. Years later Art Asylum released figures of Worf, Riker, and Troi as seen in the film as subsets and exclusives to their TNG line.

Patrick Stewart gets scanned by Gentle Giant for AA's Nemesis line.

Ron Perlman during scanning session by Gentle Giant for AA's Nemesis line.

2002 closed out with the release of Art Asylum's Classic Trek mini-mates figures which paved the way for a full line of action figures based on the crew of the NCC-1701.

The initial wave launched with a Comic Con exclusive Captain Kirk figure during the summer of 2003. The figure featured Kirk in his traditional Gold tunic. The first wave of figures from TOS featured Kirk in his green tunic, so many fans were forced to get their hands on the Comic Con exclusive by paying higher prices in the secondary market.

Lee's Toy review Classic Trek cover.

Lee's Toy Review previews AA's Classic Trek line.

The Classic Trek line also included an electronic Enterprise NCC 1701 and a role play phaser hand pistol. The figures themselves were just as great as the Enterprise line, if a bit simpler due to the simplicity of the original series costumes and accesories. The material utilized for the costumes made them seem as realistic and detailed as those of the Enterprise figures. Something that was lacking in the Nemesis assortment. Soon more waves of TOS figures followed with some great releases including The Gorn, The Orion Slave Girl, and even a Mirror Universe assortment of figures.

Print ad for AA's classic Trek line.

With the launch of the Star Trek The Next Generation line in things began to take a turn for the worse. In May of 2007 Diamond Select Toys and Collectibles (DST) announced its acquisition of select assets of Art Asylum. The acquisition, which had been predicted by many, was the result of a long and prosperous relationship between the two companies. The effects of the acquisition were felt immediately in the toy industry, as the fast growing DST, one of the leading toy and collectible manufactures for the specialty market, gained the added value of an industry leading design house. DST was consistently putting out many new products a month from licenses including Marvel, 24, and Star Trek. With the added depth that the Art Asylum name and experience brings, DST power in the toy industry soon grew drastically.

Print ad for AA's TNG line.

DST also announced that many of the same artists involved in the process of making Trek over the years would remain with the company. However Digger, who had not been involved in the day to day operations of Trek or AA for years, would only remain as a consultant during the transition period. Digger had been known for bringing the work of the sculptors and toy design artists to the spotlight for many years. Art Asylum even listed the names of all the artists involved in the making of each figure on a credit box in the back of the packaging. One of the first changes to occur after the purchase was the dissapearance of artist credits on each figure's packaging. Fans soon questioned this move and DST informed them that it was not their policy to allow a credit box. According to them DST is comprised of way too many people in various cities including Baltimore, New York, and Hong Kong so a credit box listing every one it takes to make a toy would fill up the whole back, and since no one part is more important then any other part, according to them they choose to not list any “Staff”.

Art Asylum's electronic Enterprise-E.

More changes were soon felt with each subsequent wave of TNG figures, especially drastic changes in the quality of the material utilized to produce the figures which were soon plagued with multiple problems such as their inability to stand up straight due to their having one leg longer than another and the use of a heavier material which added an unnecessary amount of weight to the figures. The figures lost their detailed uniforms which instead of being made of a different material than the figure and placed over the figures body was now just painted over the figure. Fortunately the highly detailed and beautifully painted weapons and accessories were still a part of the line. The Enterprise-E released as part of these assortments also suffered from poor paint jobs and not enough detailing as the NX-01 or the NCC-1701-A which had been released prior to DST's takeover.

Print ad for AA's wrath of Khan line.

One of the latest nails on the line's coffin has been the low number of retailer orders and pre-sales on many future releases which have led to the cancellation of such offerings as the highly anticipated new Borg line, the Search for Spock Klingons two-pack, and the DS9 Sisko and Dukat two pack. I'm pretty sure these two packs have been low in presales because they are just idiotic. No one wants to be forced to buy another Sisko figure in order to get the Dukat figure, just as no one wants to pay for two klingon figures in order to get the one they really want -- Kruge. Instead of announcing these releases as two packs DST should focus on releasing individual figures of the characters fans really want rather than constantly trying to shove another repaint or variant of an old figure down our throats.

Print ad for AA's trek ships from DST.

Print ad for AA's Classic Trek tricorder from DST.

I really believe the DST line is on its way out and after seeing what Playmates was able to do with their new movie assortments I think they should be given the opportunity to take over the entire Star Trek toy license in the near future. They did a good job of releasing toys geared for kids as well as the adult collectors with their multiple movie assortments. Plus its great to find Trek toys at all the major retailers and not have to pay an arm and a leg from online retailers or the secondary market, which nowadays seems like the only way to get the stuff from DST.

Art Asylum had their chance and they did a wonderful job, but DST ruined it. I hope I'm proven wrong with the upcoming releases such as the Star Trek 4 Kirk and Spock two-pack, but I have a feeling this too might get cancelled.

Playmates' 2009 Star Trek line review (Part 1)

2009-06-25T13:27:00.000-07:00

I know it's been some time since the new Trek toys hit shelves but I have been swamped for the past two months and hadn't really had a chance to dig into these. This week I finally had a chance to start cracking all the toys open. I've been taking pictures of them and trying to figure out how the hell I'm going to display so many more aquisitions. On this first part of my review I will focus on the 3 3/4 inch line and the corresponding playsets.

I must admit that when I first saw the first images for these toys releassed by Playmates I wasn't really that excited about them. A lot of folks have also complained about multiple things online since the toys were first released. With so much negativity surrounding the line I was pleasantly surprised whrn I started opening these toys.

The pictures online haven't really done them any justice. The sculpts are pretty good looking even if the plastic is a bit flimsy. I would've preferred a harder material like the kind of plastic used for the G.I.JOE figures, but honestly that's a minor complaint. The toys look great and the paint job is awesome. These are a million times better than last summer's Indiana Jones line (which I'm also a big fan of, but suffered from shoddy paint jobs and terrible likenesses).

With the exception of Kirk all the figures capture the likeness of each respective actor.
The smaller size allows for more playability and the opportunity to produce more playsets.

The playsets themselves are awesome in my opinion. The boxes are kind of small , but when you put these toys together you end up with a lot of playability. The bridge looks huge once you roll out the mat and put all the bonus pieces together. Plus remember we are still missing about ten more pieces which will be included in wave 2.

The viewscreen on the bridge playset is much bigger than I imagined and the Narada image slides on so I''m hoping Playmates will release different images to slide onto the screen in the future, sort of like the Mego playset.

I'm a big fan of the old playmates TNG bridge playset. I always thought the beaming gag was one of the coolest action features ever. The new transporter has a very similar gag which makes the figure disappear. Plus you have the added feature of a removable chamber that you can place elsewhere to re-materialize your figure in a different environment.

The modular nature of the set is pretty cool too. You can add the 3 extra transporter pads in order to hold more figures, but by doing so the background must be removed and beaming functions can no longer be controlled from Scotty's station, which to me is the coolest feature. I really like these toys, they offer a lot of play value and are a ton of fun. The level of interactivity between the figures and the playsets is great, specially the ability to obtain more pieces to add to each playset by buying the figures. It's a great move from Playmates and I truly hope future releases continue this. I only wish the mats would've been made of a hard cardboard or plastic since the extra pieces and the figures tend to slide off the mat easily.
I'll be back next week with more of my thoughts on the rest of the new toy line including the 6 inch figures, 12 inch figures, and the role play toys.

Star Trek Toyfare Covers...

2009-06-23T16:47:00.001-07:00

As a toy collector I have been reading Toyfare magazine since its debut in the mid 90's.
To me it has always been upsetting how little Star Trek coverage the magazine has given us over the years. The amount of Trek covers can be counted in one hand. It annoys me that the same magazine has about a million and one Star Wars or superhero covers. Unfortunately that's just how it goes in this twisted world we live in. Here's a look at my 3 favorite Star Trek covers as well as some info on what you can find inside these issues.

Issue 11: July 1998

The cover of this issue features the latinum edition Seven of Nine figure. Inside is a bonus foldout poster with the same image. We also get a pretty cool column written by Playmates Toys' Star Trek product manager Chris Overly. His column gives us a cool look at what it's like to work on the popular Trek toy line.

Issue 17: January 1999

I really love this cover as I was really surprised to find the ST: Insurrection 9 inch line featured on the magazine's cover since the 9 inch figures were never great in sales. The Insurrection line tanked at retail ringing in the end of Playmates 90's Star Trek run. Inside you will find no Star Trek coverage whatsoever other than a brief mention on the Insurrection line as part of the Toyfare Holiday shopping guide.

Issue 141: May 2009

A great cover featuring the amazing 12 inch Spock and Kirk figures from the 2009 movie line. Inside we get a two page spread on the rest of the new line with quotes from Playmates' Senior director of marketing Pat Linden.

Premiere Magazine opens up the Star Trek vaults...

2009-06-13T21:21:00.000-07:00

Back in the fall of 1996 Premiere magazine celebrated the release of the 8th Star Trek feature film by running a two page article in their December issue highlighting a couple of the more famous props and costumes from the first 6 Trek films. Here's a look at the two page article featuring some iconic Trek pieces as Spock's Genesis torpedo and his ceremonial robe from Star Trek 3 and 4.

Keenser is coming!!!

2009-06-13T20:47:00.001-07:00

The folks at Playmates have listened to our pleas and have just announced the release of a Keenser action figure as part of wave 2 of their Star Trek galaxy collection. Playmates also announced more figures for each of their current lines including Bones and Chekov in starfleet duty uniforms (both for the galaxy and warp collections), Kirk in space jump suit (both for galaxy and warp collection), Ayel (galaxy collection), Sarek, (galaxy collection), Sulu in space jump suit (galaxy collection), Kirk in off duty uniform (black outfit -- galaxy collection), Spock in academy instructor uniform (galaxy and warp collection), and the Pollarilla and the ice lobster monster (both galaxy collection).

The 12 inch line will also continue in July with the previously announced Nero figure and the Toys R Us exclusive Sulu and Pike figures. Scotty and Uhura will also join the 12 inch line up.

The only new accessory for this wave will be the previously announced Starfleet utility belt with interactive phaser and communicator. This is great news since Playmates support of the line means sales must be strong and the chances seem good for that previously rumored third wave for the spring of 2010.

Star Trek, Inc.

2009-06-06T15:46:00.001-07:00

Back in December of 2002 during the week of Star Trek Nemesis' theatrical release Time magazine ran a two page article looking into the financial viability of the Star Trek franchise at that moment as well as looking back at all the profits it had generated for Paramount Pictures.
The article took a detailed look at the state of affairs within the Star Trek Universe at the moment and even went as far as saying that Nemesis featured one of the most riveting space battles ever -- which would surely bring out the trekkies in full force to theaters.

By now we all now they didn't get that one right, but what they did hit right on the nail is the viability and long life of the franchise which seven years after that article was printed we are fully witnessing with the release of the new Trek film, which so far has had a global box office take close to 330 million dollars in only one month of release.

Here's a scan of the complete article which also includes box office numbers for the first nine feature films adjusted for inflation by 2002 standards.

Star Trek: 2009's top film at the box office...

2009-05-29T15:19:00.000-07:00

For all the naysayers who kept insisting the new Star Trek film would be a critical and commercial disaster suck on this!!! Star Trek has not only become the best reviewed film of the year, with the highest positive review percentage of the year at Rotten Tomatoes (with nearly a perfect score), but this week the film has gone on to become the highest grossing picture of the year at the U.S. box office. Even better news is the fact that the film is still playing in 4,053 screens domestically with an impressive per screen average every week. The film has proven to have great legs and will continue to do solid business throughout the entire summer movie season.
More great news has come in from IMAX which has been cutting down on their screenings of Night at the Museum 2 in order to add more showings of Star Trek, which brought in the best receipts ever in the history of IMAX during its two week engagement.

And let's not forget international receipts, as well as TV and future home media sales for which the film has already made news with the purchase of the cable broadcast rights to the film by the FX Network for the sum of 24 million dollars in a deal that doesn't even grant the network the exclusive rights to the picture. Which means Paramount can make more sales simultaneously to both basic and premium cable networks, as well as broadcast networks.

Also think of all the money Paramount has collected so far on ancillary rights and tie-ins from their multi-million dollar, high profile partnerships with such companies as Burger King, Verizon, and Playmates Toys just to name a few. All these companies have paid millions of dollars to utilize the Star Trek brand and launch their products and ad campaigns utilizing elements from the new film.

I'm definitively seeing the film again this weekend. Here in Hollywood, even with all the big movies that have been coming out they still decided to keep it at the Cinerama Dome, which is the most coveted screen in town. By next weekend the film will have been playing at that venue for a month, quite a record these days when movies come and go in a matter of days.

Captain Kirk saves the galaxy one more time...

2009-05-20T18:05:00.000-07:00

Even though Kirk sacrificed himself in order to stop Soran from destroying all life on Veridian 4 in Star Trek Generations, the good Captain did manage to make one more screen appearance a couple of years after his death was committed to film.

Not many fans are aware of this but William Shatner reprised his role of Kirk in 1997 for the ending of the computer game Starfleet Academy.

The game not only gives player a chance to participate in training scenarios at Starfleet Academy, including the Kobayashi Maru, but it also has a storyline that deals with a terrorist group operating inside Starfleet and known as the Vanguard. Their goal is to overthrow the Federation government and bring down the Klingons once and for all. Part of their plan includes installing Kirk as a despot to lead them in their cause.

If you play your cards right throughout the game you are treated to an ending featuring a video clip where Kirk comes in and saves the day once more by stopping the Vanguard.

For those of you who've never played the game here's your chance to take a look at Captain Kirk's last screen appearance.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy 'Ending' video

Dan Mindel: Capturing the Final Frontier on film...

2009-05-19T14:01:00.000-07:00

With the rise in HD capture technology I was pretty scared that the new Trek film would end up being shot on High Definition video instead of the classic 35mm Anamorphic format utilized for the previous films. Most big effects heavy films these days opt to shoot HD since the acquisition of images digitally helps out immensely in the digital effects heavy post production work flow. By shooting on film the filmmakers need to scan the negative in order to have digital files for the non linear editing systems and CG visual effects composites. I was very relieved to hear that Dan Mindel was a big advocate for not only shooting on film, but for also utilizing the anamorphic format which gives the filmmakers the highest canvas to work on, as well as a very detailed negative which when scanned at 4k resolution gives us even better images than HD originated content. Spielberg stuck to the format for his last Indy film, even though executive producer George Lucas tried to convince him to shoot on HD as he himself had done for the 3 Star Wars prequels. I was very glad when Abrams and his production team announced their shooting format for Star Trek would be 35mm.

In a recent interview for the International Cinematographers Guild, director of photography Dan Mindel had the following to say regarding his approach to the film's cinematography and his decision to shoot anamorphic: “The first thing I did was try to convince everyone we should shoot in anamorphic. There’s a big surge of people who feel it’s an antiquated work flow, and yet, technically, it’s still the highest method of image gathering we’ve got that works in a corporate-friendly way. Studios and younger producers and some directors have really forgotten these facts.”

One of the most compelling uses of 35mm optics in the film happens on the Enterprise sets with the now infamous lens flares which add a great deal of realism to the scenes, as they feel raw and captured more than orchestrated. Mindel went on to explain his idea behind this approach and how the 35mm lenses made it all possible: “Literally, at every opportunity, we tried to allow the lenses to physically do what they wanted to do without interfering,” the DP explains. “We also introduced flares manually by shining lights at the lenses to take away from the sterile feel that often arises when you shoot on sets and with green screens. We could add atmosphere and kinetic energy to what was happening by physically flaring the lens. After some time, we came up with two Xenon flashlights, and had an operator mirror the flashlight with the camera’s movement. We’d also hide focus racks by flaring at specific points. Often huge focus racks can be visually disturbing, but if you put a flare in at the right time, before you know it, focus is where it’s supposed to be.”

JJ Abrams also chimed in on the technique: “Flares gave the images another layer, another level of interest,” Abrams says. “I’d seen different processes that work well with film, different silver levels, etc. That’s great and cool, but I was going for something beyond the usual kinds of color correction and contrast levels. And lens flares actually made certain moments in images with levels of depth have a distinctly analog and unexpected quality. “Flares are, by nature, unpredictable and a result, obviously, of light and glass. What’s so fantastic is that you can never quite know what you’re going to get. In a massively CG- and effects-heavy film, having another layer of pure, unpredictable, analog, tactile optics was important to keep the feel looking real, special, grounded. It created a sense not just of the future, but it alluded to other things happening not within frame.”

“Dan is a wonderful collaborator,” Abrams says. “He’s wonderfully opinionated and more wonderfully flexible in seizing an opportunity to try something cool even if it might not work. Often, the result is terrific and thrilling.”

Mindel believes the work of a cinematographer is only as good as the work of those on his camera team: “I have an incredible crew. The unwritten language and communication that takes place when you know someone very well allow us to deliver quickly and efficiently whatever the director needs. And the best thing about working with J.J. is that he’s completely open to suggestions. I’m incredibly proud of this movie for a number of reasons, but mostly the technical aspects that my colleagues and I managed to execute.”

For more on Dan Mindel's work on Star Trek, including his use of Previs and the challenges of shooting some of the most complex sequences in the film such as the orbital skydive and Kirk's run in with the Ice Planet creature pick up this month's issue of ICG magazine, now available at film, and production equipment rental houses as well as select newsstands.

Star Trek profiled in latest issue of Make-up Artist...

2009-05-14T19:40:00.001-07:00

The new issue of Make-Up Artist Magazine has a very informative, in-depth article on the creatures created for the new Star Trek film by prosthetic designer Barney Burman, and his team at Proteus FX. The article gives us a detailed look at the design process and the reason behind some of the choices made for the new look of such Trek classic species as the Romulans and Klingons. The later got cut out of the film but the article tells us more about how they were utilized in the new film before the scenes got cut.

We also get some more info regarding the events that lead to Nero's ear damage and scarring, as well as details on how the make-up team was able to design and apply the prosthetics and tatoos for the new lead villain and his crew.

Burman started out as a make-up effects lab technician in his father's shop during production of Star Trek 3. He also played an alien creature in the film during a scene taking place at a bar, but the scene was cut from the finished film. Years later he also did some uncredited work at the make-up shop for Star Trek 6.

Burman and his team also created a "Salt Sucker" alien for the new film as an homage to the M-113 creature from "The Man Trap". The creature was part of a scene that got cut from the film, but fortunately a picture of the creature has now surfaced courtesy of Barney Burman himself.

Issue 78 of Make-Up Artist Magazine is on newsstands now.

Meet Keenser...

2009-05-14T18:57:00.001-07:00

I know a lot of hardcore Trek fans are going to hate me for this, but I really love Keenser.
I'm glad the writers of the new movie created this character and introduce him alongside "Scotty". The two of them make a really good comedic duo without it ever becoming over the top. Keenser is the type of character that should help out in getting the attention of the younger kids who will be showing up to see the film with their parents, and hopefully turning them into the next generation of Trek fans. I can't wait to get my hands on a Keenser action figure. Playmates: make it happen! I'm surprised he wasn't included more in the film's merchandising strategy. A Keenser figure would've been perfect for the Burger King line of kid's meal toys as well.

Actor Deep Roy in the make-up trailer during production of Star Trek.

Here's what we know so far about Keenser:
He was assigned to the Starfleet outpost on Delta Vega along with Montgomery Scott. He and a tribble were "Scotty's" only companions for months until the arrival of James T. Kirk and Prime Spock during the events depicted in the new film. After Spock helps "Scotty" develop transwarp technology a few years before he normally would've. Kirk and "Scotty" beam up to the Enterprise, as a saddened Keenser stays behind with Spock. After the Enterprise crew defeats Nero, Keenser and Spock are rescued from Delta Vega. As the new movie comes to a close we find Keenser aboard the Enterprise working for his pal "Scotty" in engineering. He even gets his own starfleet uniform. Keenser was portrayed in the film by actor Deep Roy, who protrayed all 165 Oompa-loompas in Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He has also appeared in numerous other films and television shows including Doctor Who, The X-Files, Planet of the Apes (Tim Burton Remake), and Return of the Jedi.
Keenser's make-up was designed and supervised by make-up artist Barney Burman.

Even before the film's release the character had already made an appearance in the Esurance tie-in game "Meltdown on the Ice Planet". The game features Erin Esurance as a Starfleet special agent sent to rescue Keenser from Delta Vega after contact is lost with the outpost. For some strange reason the game takes place years after the events in the new film. Hopefully Keenser gets to stay aboard the Enterprise for a long time so we can see him again in the next film.

Star Trek Lives!

2009-05-09T13:49:00.001-07:00

The moment we've all been waiting for has finally arrived. After years in limbo Star Trek is back and better than ever. I had the opportunity to see the new film on Thursday evening at one of the first showings at the historic Hollywood Cinerama Dome with a group of 800 rabid fans and it was a mind-blowing experience. The movie delivers on its promise, and succeeds in giving the Star Trek franchise a new lease on life without ignoring everything that has come before. Never before has there been a Trek film depicting a story with such a sense of urgency and with so much at stake. I will have a full review of the film in the coming days but right now all I can say is you need to run to your nearest movie theater and check this movie out.

The film opens with what is probably one of the most exhilarating and emotional sequences of any film in recent history. Right off the bat we are thrust into a tale were we get all the thrills of recent big action adventure films without ever loosing sight of the characters and emotions that make it all worthwhile. There's a moment in these first minutes of the film were people had tears in their eyes. The crowd at the dome was going nuts throughout the entire film, especially every time we get to see one of our beloved characters for the first time on screen.

Star Trek Travis Oscarson ReelzChannel Movie News First Fans | Movie Trailers

The theater has set up a great display with some of the props and costumes utilized in the film as well as some of the Enterprise models from the Enterprise art project which have been painted by local Los Angeles artists.

Paramount had a great treat for everyone at the Dome. We all got a bag with an awesome Star Trek T-shirt featuring the Enterprise art that has been used at the recent Star Trek dance parties in L.A. and New York, as well as an Iphone cover featuring the new Enterprise from the film, and Promo cards from the Rittenhouse Archives line of trading cards.

Star Trek Iphone cover.

Star Trek promo cards.

Funky Enterprise T-Shirt.

It was an amazing experience to see the film with such a great crowd, and as we all left the theater it was pretty clear the film had succeeded in satisfying every fan in the house. I must say the film does have some controversial moments, but it all comes out of the Star Trek we have grown to love. The cause for everything is something that happens in the 24th Century years after the events of Star Trek Nemesis. The filmmakers were able to bring back a sense of mystery and risk to Star Trek and they had the guts to stick to their convictions and not end the movie with a typical pressing of the reset button. The film perfectly sets the stage for what could be one of the most exciting periods in the history of the franchise. Industry insiders including the folks at Daily Variety are predicting an opening weekend between 70-100 million dollars. Please do your part and see the film this weekend, and bring as many friends as possible. I got to see it a second time at the IMAX last night and highly recommend seeing it in this format. I will be seeing it a third time before the end of the weekend too. I'll be back with my in depth review next week. In the meantime do yourself a favor and go see Star Trek -- the best reviewed film of the year!

Star Trek invades Toys R Us...

Last weekend Toys R Us put up their new Star Trek section at the front of all their stores. They have been running a great sale on most of the Playmates toys and accessories. The sale ends today so if you still haven't picked up the new toys you still have a chance to get them at the best possible price.

The "Star Trek boutique" at Toys R Us will be up all summer long with new merchandise coming in over the entire run of the film including some exclusives like the Nero, Pike, and Sulu 12 inch figures. The store is not just concentrating its efforts on the Playmates line, you'll also find a wide variety of items such as bobble heads from Funco, model kits, comic books and magazines (even the Star Trek Manga trade paperbacks), die cast ships from Hot Wheels, board games from Mattel, radio controlled ships from Tyco RC, DVDs from CBS Home Entertainment, and even the higher end figures and ships from DST/Art Asylum.

Fan Film Focus: "Junior Star Trek"

2009-05-02T14:13:00.000-07:00

We all know about the modern rise in popularity of fan films and the many current projects out there that have tried to bring back to life the Kirk and Spock era. For whatever reason I've always had a tough time getting into them. A few weeks ago I was reading Clive Young's book "Homemade Hollywood", which details the history of fan films. Among the sea of superhero and Star Wars movies featured in the book I found an intriguing mention of a fan film produced back in 1969 when Star Trek The Original Series was still in production, and to make this even more interesting the project had been made by a group of kids under the command of a ten year old by the name of Peter "Stoney" Emshwiller. This sounded great to me as it felt like something that could be both charming, and nostalgic, and not just a modern day effort to show off what home computers and effects software can do to outshine the look or effects of the original series. Unfortunately the book didn't provide too many details about this project which was appropriately titled "Junior Star Trek". Disappointed with the lack of info in the book I took it upon myself to do a little research and I ended up finding the actual short online as well as info on its creator. Turns out the Young filmmaker behind the camera grew up to become a science-fiction writer with various novels to his credit, one of which -- "The Host" has even been optioned by Jerry Bruckheimer with plans for turning it into a feature film.

After watching the short I was totally taken by it. It's a nostalgic portrait of simpler times and a lot of fun to watch for any Trek or film fan in general. The film was shot on 16mm film and in order to bring the story's visual effects sequences to life "Stoney" utilized the AMT Star Trek models, as well as multiple effects techniques that date back to the days of George Méliés. When you think about it it's pretty amazing. How many 10 year old kids these days can operate a film camera and figure out the necessary techniques to tell a story on film? Imagine how rare that must've been back in the late 60's way before the introduction and rise of prosumer video equipment. The film went on to win "Stoney" the "Young People's Film Contest" at the age of 12 and he even got to do an interview for PBS. My excitement over the film led me to contact Mr. Emshwiller and he was kind enough to agree to answer my questions regarding the making of his film. If you've never seen "Junior Star Trek" I recommend you view it now before reading the following interview.

Trek Nostalgia: How and when did you become a Star Trek fan?

Peter Emshwiller: I was born in 1959, so I was 7 thru 9 years old when the original series first ran. My next-door-neighbor in Levittown Long Island was a wonderful, warm, middle-aged woman named Barbara Griffith (who’s son, incidentally, grew up to be Bill Griffith, creator of “Zippy the Pinhead.” Small world, huh?) Barbara was almost a second mom to me. My own parents were artsy “hippies” and didn’t believe kids should be allowed to watch much of anything beyond educational TV. But Barbara would frequently babysit me, and she introduced me to this amazing new show that ran Thursday nights at 8:30 (and later Fridays at 8:30) on NBC. She was a huge fan of Star Trek and, even when it moved to 10pm for the last season, she’d let me secretly stay up past my bedtime to watch it with her (as long as I didn’t snitch to my folks).

I was hooked from the start. In fact I vividly remember the thrilling “Next Week on Star Trek” teasers they would play at the end of each episode. Wow. Often I could barely take the anticipation! How could I wait a whole, entire week??? Even then I knew there was something very special about the show. Half the time I didn’t fully understand what was going on in a given episode, but I knew it was all SUPER cool. And not JUST cool, but also smart and challenging and sometimes complex and, often, downright deep. While friends of mine were drawing race cars and football players in their grade school notebooks, I was painstakingly doodling super-accurate sketches of the Enterprise and Mister Spock all over my margins. I would even saunter around the schoolyard during recess, ignoring everyone around me as I either dodged phaser fire or pretended to talk to my ship with an (invisible) communicator.

Trek Nostalgia: How did you come up with the idea of making the film and how did you go about recruiting friends and / or relatives to help you make it?

Peter Emshwiller: From the second I started watching the show, I wanted to be a part of it. I ached to somehow be involved in that “world.” And since as far back as I can remember I had ambitions to be both and actor and an author (both of which, incidentally, I make my living at now!) creating my own Star Trek movie seemed the perfect answer. My pals all wanted to be firemen or baseball players and there I was (nerd alert!) wanting to be a performer and a writer. So the idea just came quite naturally. I could write a film, star in it, and direct it. Since my father was an experimental filmmaker at the time, I knew I could borrow all his 16-millimeter equipment (camera, tripod, lights, etc.). And it was easy to convince my school buddies to help me out with it. “Wanna help me make a TV show?”

I meticulously created all the props and costumes and “sets” for months in advance. On the big first day of “production” I tried to get the captain’s chair out of my room where I had slowly, carefully constructed it. It was too big now. It didn’t fit out through my bedroom door. I burst into tears and threw myself on the bed, almost giving up right then. “Mini-Kirk throws a tantrum.” Eventually I calmed down and took the chair half-way apart, slowly re-assembling it again in my living room where we’d be shooting. Whew!

Trek Nostalgia: Tells us about the actual production process.

Peter Emshwiller: For all the spaceship shots, I filmed upstairs in my father’s “studio.” My dad (Ed Emshwiller) had covered the unfinished walls of our tiny Levitt house’s attic with black seamless paper so he could use it as a “void” to shoot images for all his experimental films. This was perfect for my outer space stuff. I strung my model kits on black thread and went to town, mostly panning and zooming the camera instead of moving the models. It was a lot easier that way. For the “live action” stuff, we shot on a Saturday in my living room. I told my buddies to show up in black pants and shoes. I’d supply the rest.

Since there was only one decent-looking blank wall in the living room, I shot in that direction for everything. I’d “redress” that same darn wall as best I could to look like we were facing a different direction or in a different location.

Trek Nostalgia: Tell us about your experience utilizing the AMT models in creating the visual effects as well as the other techniques you used.

Peter Emshwiller: I must have put together five or six of those Enterprise kits over the years. So I not only had finished models, I also had a lot of “spare parts.” For the long shots I used a completed version, but at one point I rigged a loose spare saucer section to the front of the camera for a “bridge POV” shot. I even “re purposed” a left-over secondary hull section by covering it with electrical tape and using it as a phaser pistol. Speaking of phasers: the transporter, phaser, and force field effects were what took me the longest. I did those by scratching, frame-by-frame, on the actual finished film with a tiny exacto blade while squinting through a magnifying glass. It took days and days. And when I was done scratching I colored these effects in, also frame-by-frame, with fine-point magic markers. (Yes, I was one obsessed 10-year-old!)

Trek Nostalgia: Do you still remember what it was like seeing your film on TV after winning the PBS award?

Peter Emshwiller: Sadly, I never got to sit home and watch my 8 minute “epic” broadcast on national TV. The “Young People’s Film Contest” was presented as a live show, and I was interviewed on live TV on a PBS soundstage in New York City on the evening it aired. After talking to some of the older winners, they interviewed me (at this point I was 12), then they played most of my film, and then interviewed me a bit more about it afterward. It all flashed by super quickly in an exciting blur of very bright lights, a loud studio audience, TV monitors displaying my movie, thunderous applause and laughter, and an ever-shifting array of massive television cameras pointed my way.

I wish I could find someone who had a copy of the footage. My mom watched the show from home and, believe it or not, she took some black & white Polaroid photos off the TV screen as I was interviewed. (These were the days before VCRs.) I still have a few of those faded, blurry, dim Polaroid shots taken of me appearing on our old RCA television set.

What’s sweetly ironic to me looking back is that, though I find the movie cute and charming and silly now, I certainly didn’t intend it to be taken that way when I made it. I took the project VERY seriously. I wanted to make a REAL Star Trek episode, dammit! Not some goofy, amusing, “adorable” little kid’s movie! (In fact, it secretly drove me crazy that people found it funny.)

Peter "Stoney" Emshwiller

Trek Nostalgia: How much of a Star Trek fan are you these days? Did you ever make any other fan films?

Peter Emshwiller: As soon as I finished that first Star Trek movie I started working all-out on a sequel. I collected anything — from packing material to broken toys to car parts -- that looked futuristic and “space-age.” I scoured the gutters of my neighborhood for colorful bottle caps to use as buttons, switches, and knobs on my control panels. I whittled amazingly realistic phasers and communicators out of balsa wood. I made far superior looking Spock ears out of liquid latex and tissue paper. I constructed tricorders out of cardboard and black gaffer’s tape and old leather belts. All this stuff actually came out pretty darned cool. (Only thing that didn’t work out was my Vulcan harp, which I carved from a huge piece of Styrofoam. Then I tried to spray paint it black. Oops. It dissolved in a cloud of nasty-smelling gas.)

I wrote many drafts of my sequel’s “screenplay” until it was just right. It would be around the same length as the original “Junior Trek,” but much more ambitious. There’d be location “alien planet” shots, better special effects, and much more realistic sets.. I even talked my parents into letting me turn our carport/garage into the bridge for the duration of filming.

Sadly, at some point just before I actually began shooting, nature took over. Pow. I went through puberty. Suddenly I was WAY more interested in girls than in Star Trek, so the project was never completed. In fact I then went through a very long period from my mid teens through late twenties where I was embarrassed to have ever been into Star Trek at all. “What, THAT corny old show??” I tossed out all those great props I’d built (Damn!!!) and feigned complete disinterest in all things Trek. (Boy to I wish I’d saved at least some of that cool, homemade stuff.)

Years later I became Managing Editor of Twilight Zone Magazine, an SF short-story & media monthly. While working there I met my future wife, who was a HUGE, unabashed Trek fan. (She got hooked by watching reruns when she was in college during the mid-eighties). Anyway, she helped me re-connect with my “inner Trekkie/Trekker.” It was great to finally come home. (In fact, a few years later I had two science fiction novels published by Bantam books. One of them is sprinkled throughout with dozens of inside jokes and references to TOS just for other Star Trek fans.)

So sadly, I never made another ST fan film after “Junior Trek.” (I did, back in college, work with a classmate on a Bond take-off movie called “Thunderfinger,” where — you guessed it — I played James Bond myself. But that project was also never completed.)

But, to answer your question: Yes, I am still a big fan today. Last year I visited “Star Trek: The Tour” when it was out here in California. I’m embarrassed to admit how much of a massive thrill it was to have my photo taken on the full-size mockup of bridge from the original Enterprise they had on display. I literally got goosebumps as I stepped through the turbo lift doors, walked around the familiar red railing, and settled slowly into the captain’s chair. What a thrill. I remember actually muttering to myself under my breath: “I’ve waited 40 years for this....”

And, yes, both me and my inner 10-year-old are very thrilled, excited, and maybe a teensy bit worried about the new ST movie opening next week. I’ve got my fingers crossed..

- I want to thank Mr. Emshwiller for taking time out to answer my questions. He mentioned the version of the film currently available online is a copy of an old VHS transfer and he promises to go back and do an adequate transfer of his original negative at some point in the future. Hope we can see it soon!

Playmates' "The Cage" figures

2009-04-29T14:34:00.000-07:00

Continuing this week's theme I thought I'd take a look at the figures released by Playmates in 1996 to commemorate Star Trek's first pilot episode. Playmates released 4 figures from "The Cage" episode as part of their Star Trek 30th anniversary assortment. The set consisted of Captain Pike, Spock, The Thalosian, and Vina as the Orion Slave Girl.

Each figure came packaged with a trading card from Skybox. Every time I dig out some of these figures I still find myself amazed at how great the 90s Star Trek line from Playmates was. The four figures from "The Cage" had great detailing and the actor's likenesses were pretty good for 1996. I was especially surprised with the Captain Pike figure, which in my opinion got pretty close to capturing Jeffrey Hunter's likeness. Spock too, but this was not the first figure released by Playmates depicting our favorite Vulcan, so I was already pretty happy with his likeness from the previous Classic Trek crew set.

Another thing I loved about the Playmates toys was the accessories each figure came with. Each figure always came loaded with accessories and the sculpting on these was always top notch. The only issue I had with those was the lack of paint detail and their decision to just paint the accessories with one color, usually some weird neon shade of color. Spock comes with some great accessories including a portable library computer terminal and a landing party specimen cage. The Thalosian figure comes with a pretty cool handheld view screen which even has an image of Jeffrey Hunter as "Pike" taken from the episode.

The packaging for this assortment was no different than for the rest of the line at the time. By 1996 Playmates had decide to consolidated all of their Trek figures from the various shows under one general Star Trek line and they all used the same packaging. These are still a lot of fun and they look great. I truly hope Playmates gets another chance at making more Trek figures after their movie line comes to a close. The Art Asylum releases have been getting more disappointing with each new wave. Playmates managed to deliver a mass market line in the 90s that was very satisfying to collectors even though it was created as a toy line first and foremost. I still think it had the perfect balance.

Mission Logs: The Cage

2009-04-25T16:27:00.000-07:00

This week the Star Trek Remastered project will come to a close with the broadcast of the final episode to get the digital remastering treatment: "The Cage". This historic episode was the first pilot ever produced for Star Trek back in 1964. In honor of its upcoming airdate as part of Star Trek Remastered I though it would be ideal to take a look back at the making of this groundbreaking hour of television.

On November 23, 1964 a group of recently cast actors including Jeffrey Hunter got together at Desilu Studios' Culver City lot in order to begin rehearsals for the pilot episode to Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek. With Robert Justman as Assistant Director, Robert Butler directing, and Herb Solow as the executive in charge of production for Desilu, Gene Roddenberry set out to make his concept of "Wagon train to the stars" a reality. The group took Thursday off to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday and then on Friday the 27th of November, on Desilu's stage 16 cameras rolled for the first time on what would become a television legend.

With a budget of $451,503.00 Justman had been forced to plan an 11 day shoot, a very short amount of days for something as complicated as "The Cage". The production was soon plagued with multiple problems that would go on to make it impossible to come in on time and under budget. Everything from birds and bees living on the rafters of the soundstage to problems with the stage's lack of adequate sound insulation made it especially difficult for the filmmakers to shoot such a complicated script. The show ended up going well over schedule and in the end the budget ballooned to a total of $615,751.00.

From day one NBC didn't really like the character of Spock, their sales department felt the character was too "devilish" looking and they figured they'd have a tough time selling the show to wholesome American families with such an odd creature in the cast. They never really liked Majel Barret either in her role of "Number One". That was a sentiment shared by many in the production, but there was no convincing Roddenberry to drop her before the start of principal photography due to the extra-marital relationship he was having with the young actress at the time.

Early on during the pre-production period "Lucy" art director Pato Guzman was brought on board to begin designing the main sets for the pilot. At the same time designer Matt Jefferies was brought in to figure out the look of this massive starship which would take the characters out into space for their weekly adventures. Halfway through this process Guzman decided to return to his native Chile, and soon a replacement was found in German designer Franz Bachelin.

Pato Guzman's designs for Pike's quarters.

Designs for modified chairs to be used on the bridge.

Even through this setback the design process never stopped thanks to Matt Jefferies, who not only designed the exterior of the ship, but soon began work on the interior as well designing all of the show's main sets including the now iconic bridge of the Enterprise.

Leonard Nimoy, a struggling actor at the time, who had already worked with Roddenberry on an episode of The Lieutenant, was the Trek creator's first choice to portray the character of Spock. Casting director Joseph D'Agosta suggested film actor Jeffrey Hunter ( The Searchers, The Longest Day, King of Kings) for the role of Captain Pike. Everyone involved was pleased to get a respected film actor as Hunter to join the cast.

With casting well underway Justman turned his attention to the daunting task of planning for the show's multiple visual effects on a television budget. Justman first turned to the Howard Anderson Company, an effects house that rented out space on the Desilu lot at the time. Under its arrangement with the studio the company became responsible for providing all the opticals for the pilot.

First Star Trek logo for the pilot's opening sequence.

Darrel Anderson became the supervisor for the show's effects on behalf of the Anderson company. He would be in charge of coordinating the shooting for every sequence involving optical work, and he would also be on set during principal photography in order to approve every camera setup involved in these sequences in order to make sure the shots would line up with the effects elements his company would go on to create.

The Anderson company would also be responsible for building and filming the miniature model of the Enterprise. This work would be completed off lot at another one of the Anderson Company stages.

During pre-production for the pilot multiple make-up tests were filmed in order to figure out the look of the many prosthetics and specialty make-up required for the show. Fred Phillips was brought on board to handle this and one of the specific tests he had to conduct in pre-production was for the Orion Slave Girl, a character the script called for which would have green colored skin. Majel Barret was brought to the make-up department and painted green in order to conduct the camera test since the role had not yet been cast. After filming Barret in full green colored make-up the footage was sent to the lab. Once the print returned the producers were surprised to find how the green on her skin barely showed up on screen. After a phone conversation with the technician at the lab, who told them how hard the lab guys had to work in order to get rid of that mysterious green tone on the actress' skin, the producers realized what had happened and informed the lab to re-print the takes without removing the green since it was there on purpose.

Fred Phillips and Leonard Nimoy weren't happy at all with the sets of Vulcan ears they kept getting from the make-up shop at Desilu. Frustrated, Phillips went on to call one of his friends at MGM and pay out of his pocket for higher quality prosthetic ears since Desilu would not approve the higher fee for the ears. A perfectionist, Phillips would not allow Nimoy to go on camera with prosthetics he felt were not up to his standard. Nimoy has said in multiple interviews that Phillips really saved him and "Spock" by doing that.

William Ware Theiss was brought on board to design the costumes and his Starfleet uniform design would influence every type of uniform used for the next 4o plus years of the Star Trek franchise. He would also return to Trek in 1987 to redesign the Starfleet uniforms for Star Trek The Next Generation.

William Ware Theiss' away team jacket design.

The last piece of the puzzle to fall into place was composer Alexander Courage, who during the episode's post production process would go on to write the now famous theme to Star Trek. Gene Roddenberry, looking to get some money out of the show's music publishing rights decided to write lyrics to Courage's theme without even telling him in order to include them on the sheet music and receive 50% of the piece's royalties. Insulted and upset by Roddenberry's move (the lyrics made no sense and didn't even line up with the music, plus they were never even recorded for that matter) Courage decided to remove himself from any future Star Trek productions. By February of 1965 the pilot was ready to be screened for NBC executives. The screening took place in Los Angeles at a projection room in the Desilu executive office building. The NBC executives appeared to be blown away by the show's production, its scope, sounds, and music. They seemed less impressed with some of the actors. The executives left the screening after informing Sollow that they were really impressed and they would soon be in touch regarding the future of the show on their network.

Then the unthinkable happened. Even though there where many elements the network and its sales department disliked about the pilot, what they liked was enough to grant the filmmakers a second chance. Soon NBC ordered a second pilot for Star Trek. The order came with a hefty list of requests including the removal of Majel Barret as "Number one" and Leonard Nimoy as "Spock", but Roddenberry and company where up to the task. They picked their battles with smarts and moved forward with production on "Where no man has gone before..."
The rest as they say is future history.

The Future Begins Part 5: FSM's Trek Music Extravaganza

2009-04-24T19:08:00.000-07:00

The Film Music experts at Film Score Monthly have put together an amazing podcast completely dedicated to the music of Star Trek. Among the guests is Jeff Bond, author of the book "The Music of Star Trek". Not only do they go over all the great cues from Star Trek's 43 year history but they also preview Michael Giacchino's score for the new film. I can not stress enough how good this podcast is. If you are a Trek fan or a film music enthusiast then you must check it out. The music of Trek has been created over the years by some of the most important composers in film history including James Horner, Alexander Courage, and the late great Jerry Goldsmith.
Does Giacchino's score hold up next to such great works? Find out by listening here.

Trek Merchandise bits...

The new toys for Star Trek have also begun popping up in international territories such as England, and Australia among others. Unfortunately the 3 3/4 line does not include the bonus bridge and transporter room pieces. Playmates is working with its international distributors to rectify the situation for future waves and shipments.

Here in the U.S. K-Mart and Walmart have joined Toys R Us in dedicating a considerable amount of space to the new Trek toy line. Walmart has a ton of the action figures and ships in a dedicated hallway display, plus more figures in the toy aisles. So far Walmart has the lowest price on the action figures starting at $6.47.

K-Mart has an end cap dedicated to Star Trek and Terminator Salvation (both toy lines are from Playmates) you should be able to find more items including the Scene it? game in the toy section as well.

The Future Begins Part 4: Burger King Toys

2009-04-22T20:12:00.000-07:00

We continue our look at the merchandise for the upcoming Star Trek film with this first look at the new toys available exclusively at Burger King's with the purchase of their Kids Meal. The promotion begins the week of May 4. These super deformed toys are very similar to the ones produced in 2005 for Burger King's Revenge of the Sith promotion. The cool thing about these is that they also come with sound chips, so each figure has a line of dialogue from the film. The promotion will also include some super deformed mini vehicles and props. The Enterprise toy will play a piece of the Alexander Courage theme to The Original Series. Other vehicles include The "Jellyfish" (Spock's Ship), The U.S.S. Kelvin (George Kirk's ship), A Federation Shuttlecraft, The Police Hoverbike seen chasing young James T. Kirk on the first trailer and a Klingon Warbird.

A TOS style communicator and tricorder miniature will also be available. Burger King will also have a set of four collector's glasses available for purchase. Posters advertising those have begun to show up at Burger King restaurants nationwide. Also keep an eye out for a TV commercial to go along with this promotion. The commercial was actually shot on the Enteprise set at Paramount during principal photography of the film.

The Future Begins: Part 3

2009-04-19T14:28:00.000-07:00

The official launch date for all the Playmates toys has finally arrived. I just got back from a reconnaissance mission around town and I'm happy to say that after many long years toy shelves are finally stocked up with Trek merchandise once again.

The most impressive assortment can be found at Toys R Us. My location had an entire section devoted to Star Trek, and I've been informed its going to grow in the coming weeks as we get closer to the film's release. The great thing about the Toys R Us section is that it covers more than just the new movie. You can find a lot of other cool Trek swag from its various incarnations and multiple licensees.

They pretty much had everything from the Playmates line, although they were running extremely low on the 12 inch figures and a lot of characters had already sold out on the 6 inch assortment by the time I made it to the store. The Enterprise ship, as well as the Bridge playset, and transporter room playset were also available, as were all the role play toys.

Also available was a wide assortment of Classic Star Trek bobble heads from Funco including a talking Kirk and Spock, as well as a Gorn and an Andorian. I was lucky enough to find one of the metallic color chase variant editions of The Gorn. The model kits from Polar lights were also on shelves. The assortment includes a TOS Enterprise and Klingon Bird of Prey, as well as the NX-01 from Star Trek Enterprise. Mattel's Scene It game was also in stock.

The Art Asylum stuff from DST was in very short supply and they only had a few of the Spock and Kirk two-packs from "Amok Time" as well as from "The Motion Picture". It was very cool to see so much space devoted to Star Trek in stores once more.

More items such as the Tyco RC remote control ships line and the 12 inch exclusives of Pike and Sulu should be arriving in the coming weeks just in time for a major shelves reset Toys R Us is planning. The entire Trek merchandise section will move to the front of the store which should grab shoppers attention as soon as they walk through the door.

Right now the merchandise seems to be selling well. At Target the entire Trek section had been ransacked. Only a few playsets and some phasers were still available. All the pegs where the figures used to be were completely empty. I hope fans continue to support this line. It's the only way we'll be able to get more items produced by the multiple licensees.

More magazine articles...

Also this weekend you can get your hands on Entertainment Weekly's summer movie preview featuring Star Trek. The article on the new movie features new quotes from Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto. The latest issue of Wired Magazine has also hit newsstands and the guest editor is none other than JJ Abrams. I just read it last night and I highly recomend it. Wired is one of my favorite magazines and to find some Trek content inside the latest issue is quite a treat. You also get a short comic book story by Kurtzman and Orci filling us in on Spock's whereabouts prior to the start of the new film.

Issue # 153 of Total Film Magazine has finally made its way to U.S. newsstands. I grabbed a copy this weekend and must say I was rather disappointed with their Trek cover story. The article mostly deals with the expectations to the film and the clips shown a few months back during JJ Abrams worldwide publicity tour. Not much info on the making of the film is provided. There is also a retrospective article looking back on all the previous incarnations of the franchise and the elements that JJ will hopefully take from each for his new film. The issue is available in four different covers, each featuring one of the main characters from the film.

Cinefex Magazine has also released details for their July 2009 issue (#118). The cover story will focus on the Visual Effects for the new Star Trek film. Here's the issue's description from the publisher: "For the 11th installment in the Star Trek feature-film canon, director J.J. Abrams reboots the franchise by returning to the series’ original characters, James T. Kirk and Spock, as they meet and compete at Starfleet Academy, then commence their illustrious careers aboard the newly-minted starship Enterprise. Industrial Light & Magic shares visual effects duties with Digital Domain, Kerner Optical, Lola VFX, Evil Eye Pictures and Svengali VFX".

Verizon Wireless has also launched their print ad campagin to tie in with the new Trek film.
They have also produced a new promotional site with exclusive content. The new site can be found here.

Lets close out this edition with Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine, together as they discuss their experiences during the making of the new film. The video interview can be found here.

Star Trek Generations: 15th Anniversary Retrospective

2009-04-18T02:18:00.000-07:00

15 years ago fans of the "Star Trek" franchise were in a very similar situation as we are today. We were all anxiously awaiting a major cinematic event in the history of "Trek" -- the meeting of the two historic Captains of the starship Enterprise. 1994 was a wild year for "Star Trek" with the end of "The Next Generation's" TV run, the simultaneous production of "Deep Space Nine", and development of a third spin-off series: "Star Trek: Voyager". It was all capped off with the release of "Star Trek Generations" -- one of the most controversial films in the history of the franchise. For as many people who hate "Generations" there's just as many who loved it. And the box office receipts as well as the merchandising sales bonanza certainly proved that fans did come out to see it. No matter how people feel about the finished product it's certainly a film that incites some very passionate reactions from fans. Let's take a look back at the process of making and releasing one of the most anticipated "Trek" films ever made.

Development:

In 1992 with the popularity of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" reaching a frenzy (at one point the syndicated series had even been able to beat the World Series of Baseball in most major markets), Paramount decided that the only logical course of action was to shut down production on the series after the seventh season (when every one's contracts would be up) and begin production on feature films with the now immensely popular cast. The show was only going to get more expensive to produce, and the worldwide profits to be made from a hit film were too lucrative to ignore. Producer Rick Berman was given the task of developing a film that would serve as the "Next Generation's" maiden voyage on the silver screen.

Concept art for the redesigned Enterprise-D bridge.

After getting the green light from Sherry Lansing ( the head of the studio's theatrical division who had just replaced Brandon Tartikoff), Berman decided to commission two screenplays for the project. One by former "TNG" writer-producer Maurice Hurley, who had been responsible for some of the show's early successes including the introduction of the Borg in the episode "Q Who?" and another by the hot young writing team of Ronald D. Moore and Brannon Braga, who were quickly becoming the show's star writers. Hurley's screenplay told the tale of a fold in space, through which alien creatures accidentally fall into our dimension. These creatures soon become a threat to the universe they are desperately trying to leave. The story was in essence a tale of survival at any cost by creatures who don't realize the amount of damage their attempts to return home is causing our universe. It's up to Picard and company to stop them. Hurley's tale featured the character of Captain Kirk in a series of scenes were Picard summons a holographic manifestation of the legendary Captain on the ship's holodeck in order to seek his advice.

Moore and Braga went for the more traditional approach of creating a villain who could motivate the story in their script. Their script also allowed the real Captain Kirk to be an integral part of the tale and not just a holographic manifestation of the character. Their concept of a nexus which could transcend time and space soon won over the Paramount executives who agreed the Moore / Braga concept would make for a more dramatic film. The same Paramount executives had initially told Berman to set out to make a "Next Generation" film and not worry about including any members of the original cast, but both Berman and Patrick Stewart felt they would be missing out on an opportunity to create something even more dramatic if this film wasn't treated as a transitional story from one Generation to the next.

Co-writer Ron Moore.

Early on during story meetings for their script Ron Moore and Brannon Braga -- looking for something powerful and dramatic to anchor the film with -- pitched the idea of killing off Captain Kirk to Berman. The group went on to meet with the studio heads who assured them that if they were truly sure about doing this then they should go ahead and contact William Shatner in order to tell him about their idea. Thinking Shatner would shoot them down Moore, Braga, and Berman became pleasantly surprised when the actor informed them that as long as the event was important to the story he had no objections to killing off his character. The writers set off to complete their first draft of the script featuring the entire cast of the original series in the first act of the film and closing things off with the death of the legendary Captain.

Producer Rick Berman and Production Designer Herman Zimmerman.

Once the Paramount executives read the Moore / Braga script they told Berman to contact Leonard Nimoy and try to get him involved. On October of 1993 Nimoy was sent a copy of the script with an offer to direct and portray the character of Spock one more time. After reading the script, Nimoy had a series of issues with the story. He proceeded to bring them up at a meeting with Berman. He said he was not opposed to the idea of taking part in the film, but in order to do so his concerns would have to be addressed.

By this time Paramount had set a goal to release the film in the fall of the following year and in order to make that happen they needed to go into pre-production in a matter of weeks in order to meet their late March '94 start date. Berman informed Nimoy that there simply wasn't enough time to make the kinds of revisions to the story he had in mind. Nimoy politely turned down the offer to direct. He also told Berman how he felt the character of Spock was not integral to the story and that they could take the couple of lines he had and give them to other characters without it making a difference, so because of that he decided to pass on the offer to appear in the film. After Nimoy turned down the film DeForest Kelley also decided to pass on the project feeling that his character had had an adequate send off in Star Trek 6.

I.L.M.'s miniature for the Enterprise-B.

I.L.M.'s miniature for the Enterprise-B.

I.L.M. model makers at work on the Farragut miniature.

After both actors turned down the film, Paramount contacted James Dohan and Walter Koenig. Both agreed to reprise their roles in the film, although it took Dohan a second offer before accepting to put on the Starfleet uniform one more time. George Takei objected to what he felt was a "walk on" role so on the next draft of the script his character's lines went to a newly created character; his daughter Demora Sulu. Nichelle Nichols was never even made an offer to appear in the film. The opening scenes of the film were re-written to only include Kirk, Scotty, and Chekov. Gone were also various scenes in which we got to see the original crew pilot the newly christened Enterprise-B out of spacedock while the new crew watched. The crew would even make the new ship do a barrel roll as it cleared spacedock, something writer Ron Moore had been wanting to see a Starfleet vessel do for years as a long time "Trek" fan.

I.L.M.'s computer rendered concept art for the Enteprise-B in spacedock.

Shatner also requested multiple changes to the script in order to make sure his character was truly integral to the story and also to make sure the audience could understand why he would desire to stay in the nexus instead of immediately leaving to help Captain Picard. Shatner felt the audience should truly get a sense of what had been going through Kirk's mind during the days leading to his entrance into the nexus.

Lynn Salvatori as "Antonia" - the woman Kirk never got to marry.

Script changes were made to accommodate Shatner's notes and present a side to Captain Kirk which audiences had never gotten a chance to see. This time Kirk was introduced as a restless, confused man who without the comfort of loved ones or a family to go to has begun to wonder what his purpose is now that starfleet has no major need for him anymore. The character of Antonia was also added to the script, as the woman Kirk had always wanted to marry but never quite got around to.

Concept art for Guinan's quarters.

Concept art for Guinan's quarters.

With an approaching start date and no director signed on Berman felt the best course of action was to go with someone who knew "Star Trek" and who was particularly familiar with "The Next Generation". He turned to David Carson who had successfully directed the 12 million dollar 2 hour premiere for "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" the previous year, as well as many episodes of "The Next Generation" including the fan favorite "Yesterday's Enterprise".

Director David Carson.

Around the first days of March 1994 William Shatner reported to Paramount Studios for the first read through of his scenes with James Doohan and Walter Koenig. Both actors had expressed their dislike for Shatner over the years due to their feeling that the leading man had always taken the spotlight and stolen too many scenes from his supporting actors during the course of the original series and the films.

I.L.M. concept art for The Lakul.

It was with trepidation that Shatner arrived on the studio lot not knowing what to expect when meeting up with the two actors again after more than 3 years away from each other. To Shatner's surprise the session went smoothly and in 3 more weeks he would return to the lot to begin principal photography on the film that would once and for all bring an end to Captain Kirk's adventures across the galaxy.

Production:

With a $30 million budget and a crew of hundreds of artists and technicians, cameras rolled on Star Trek Generations on March 24th 1994, under the direction of David Carson -- making his feature film directing debut, with the help of legendary Academy Award nominated Director of Photography John Alonzo ("Chinatown", "Lady Sings the Blues", "Steel Magnolias").

Longtime "Trek" production designer Herman Zimmerman.

Production designer and "Trek" veteran Herman Zimmerman returned to the franchise as well as the FX wizards at I.L.M. as the lead providers of visual effects for the film with a crew headed by effects supervisor John Knoll, who would later go on to make a name for himself as FX supervisor on the new "Star Wars" prequel films.

I.L.M. visual effects supervisor John Knoll.

Alonzo's approach to the film's cinematography was one that according to him would make fans realize all that they'd been missing from watching the Enterprise-D sets on TV instead than on the big screen. Zimmerman went on to make some additions and adjustments to the sets, including changing up the color scheme on the bridge as well as adding more control stations, but it was mostly Alonzo's dramatic high key lighting and his anamorphic photography that gave the sets an epic feel with greater depth and a richer texture than what audiences had been able to see on the show.

Zimmerman's updated Enterprise-D bridge.

Zimmerman's Enterprise-B bridge.

Production begins on the Enterprise-B bridge.

Production began with all the scenes featuring the original crew members in order to give the "Next Generation" cast a week off before reporting to the film set since they had just wrapped production on the series finale "All Good Things...".

Director David Carson at work on the Enterprise-D bridge.

This time around Carson had up to 4 cameras covering the action at times, a luxury compared to the simple staging and coverage the television medium forces on directors due to the quick pace of production on one hour dramas, which usually need to shoot up to 8 pages a day. On the feature the extended schedule allows for a shooting range of two pages a day.

Whoopi Goldberg ("Guinan"), Director of Photography John Alonzo, and Malcolm McDowell ("Soran")

Joining the "TNG" and "TOS" cast members where Malcolm Mcdowell as the film's heavy; Dr. Tolian Soran, as well as Whoopi Goldberg who agreed to reprise her role of Guinan in an uncredited appearance in order for the production to be able to utilize her without having to pay her regular feature film rate.

Director David Carson at work on the Lady Washington off
the Santa Monica coast.

Along with the multiple improvements to the show's standing sets production designer Herman Zimmerman got the opportunity to utilize multiple locations to convey the larger scope of the film's storyline.

The crew shoots on location in Santa Monica, CA.

Production moved away from the confines of the soundstages at Paramount for two weeks of location shooting. The crew got to shoot scenes in Big Bear, California, as well as The Valley of Fire -- located 50 miles east of Las Vegas, Nevada, and on a 19th century sailing ship off the coast of Santa Monica, California.

Walter Koenig ("Chekov") and Jimmy Dohan ("Scotty") while shooting the orbital skydiving scene.

The film's dramatic finale was shot on top of a 500 foot peak in the Valley of Fire under extremely uncomfortable circumstances.

Concept art for the new Stellar Cartography set.

Concept model for the new Stellar Cartography set.

Zimmerman also got to design and build one of the most impressive sets ever seen on any of the "Trek" shows or features. The stellar cartography set is a three stories tall structure where Captain Picard and Data get to figure out the trajectory of the mysterious ribbon of energy which Dr. Soran has been attempting to intercept by blowing up stars on its path and artificially changing its course.

Shooting in the multi level Stellar Cartography set.

The set ended up becoming one of the most exciting visual elements in the film along with what is probably the best action sequence ever put together on any version of "Star Trek"; the evacuation of the Enteprise-D's crew onto the saucer section moments before the destruction of the ship's engineering section and the subsequent crash landing of the saucer on the surface of Veridian.

Storyboards for the Enteprise saucer crash sequence.

I.L.M. contributed heavily to both sequences allowing the filmmakers to realize their vision for these two breathtaking sequences. An entire miniature unit built the surface of the planet as well as a miniature of the Enterprise-D's saucer section in order to complete the sequence by shooting the crash of the saucer onto the planet's surface.

I.L.M. concept render for the explosion of the Enterprise-D engineering section.

I.L.M. concept model for the Enterprise-D saucer crash.

Prior to the start of production director David Carson and Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data) expressed concerns over the use Data in the script. Once Data would get the emotion chip his only purpose in the script was to serve as the film's comic relief as the android discovers humor, love, and lust among other emotions.

Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data.

The script even went as far as giving Data a sexual encounter with the Duras sisters after which he proceeds to inform the crew that he's begun negotiations with the Klingon sisters just as his arm falls off from the physical strain of his sexual experience with the Klingon women. Based on the director and the actor's notes the script made a series of changes which allowed the character to get an opportunity to experience the human condition through bouts of confusion, anger, fear, and even guilt. Along with the reward that comes from the gift of emotion, Data discovers that there are also consequences.

Levar Burton as Geordi LaForge and Brent Spiner
as Lt. Commander Data.

These revisions to the script put Data in a similar situation as Captain Picard, who is also having a tough time dealing with the emotions triggered by the loss of his brother and nephew on a fire back in the family vineyards on earth. The scene in stellar cartography where both attempt to work on figuring out Soran's plan became a vital piece to presenting the parallels between the two character's arcs in the film.

Soran and Kirk duke it out during the film's finale.

The film's finale became a highly publicized fiasco as word spread to the press and fan community about the death of Captain Kirk months before the film's release. Also an early version of the script was leaked and soon it made its way to the dealers tables at multiple "Star Trek" conventions. Early on David Carson had voiced his concerns about the film's ending to the writers and producer. He felt having Kirk get shot in the back was not the adequate end for such a legendary hero. He was told by Berman to move forward with shooting the ending as scripted due to the budget constraints and the fast approaching November release date for the film.

After principal photography wrapped Carson, even more upset with the ending after reviewing it in the film's edit bay brought up the subject to Berman once again. At this point Berman, who had also reviewed the footage decided to mention the situation to Paramount Chairman Sherry Lansing. He also requested money for an additional two days of filming in order to fix the problems with the scene. Lansing was soon shown the rough cut and she agreed, but she also expressed her desires to see the results of a test screening before moving forward with any re-shoots.

Director David Carson on the Klingon Bird of Prey set.

The resulting test screening became a highly publicized affair. The test audience loved seeing the Klingon sisters back, as well as Whoopi Goldberg as "Guinan", and especially the crash of the Enterprise's saucer section. They laughed at Data's antics, but never really at him, just as Carson and Spiner had hoped when they requested the rewrite for his scenes. According to those present it was a great test screening until the last reel of the film rolled and Kirk's death was unable to top the previous sequences in the film. Lansing soon took action and requested the filmmakers to rewrite the sequence and prepare to shoot it as soon as possible since the November 16th release date was now set in stone. Surprisingly she told Berman and company not to worry about the cost since the studio had a great deal of faith in the picture and everyone wanted to make sure they could get the best product possible.

Rick Berman joins the two captains in the Valley of Fire.

On September 19th while in Toronto for principal photography on his USA Network "Tekwar" television series, William Shatner got a call from Rick Berman asking him how he'd feel about spending a few more days in The Valley of Fire. Soon after cast and crew members made the trek back to the Nevada dessert to shoot ten minutes of additional material that would hopefully provide a more heroic ending to Captain Kirk's human adventure. Kirk would now die taking a huge plunge while holding onto a bridge after one last heroic act in order to help Picard stop Soran.

Rick Berman and David Carson at work in the Valley of Fire.

The crew shot for days in the 110 degrees heat, dangerously close to a 300 foot drop. With less than 3 weeks to go before the film's opening date Carson returned to Paramount to complete the editing process and replace the original scene with the newly shot sequence. The filmmakers still needed to record the film's score provided by "TNG" veteran Dennis McCarthy, as well as mix the film and conform the negative in order to strike the 2,659 prints needed for the film's domestic release.

Marketing and Release:

Generations benefited from a hefty marketing campaign from Paramount, which at the time was riding high on "Star Trek's" success on television with "TNG's" high ratings and the growing popularity of "Deep Space Nine".

Multiple licensees who'd been producing merchandise based on the television series soon came aboard for the feature.

Back in the month of May the first collectible from the film was offered to fans during the television broadcast of the "Star Trek The Next Generation viewer's choice marathon". A television commercial played during the five hour broadcast offering fans a chance to order the new Starfleet communicator pins which would be making their debut in the upcoming film.

Later in the summer The Official Fan Club offered the first piece of apparel featuring the film's new logo; a black T-shirt with the newly redesigned Starfleet insignia in red.

As the film's release date approached multiple items such as the comic book adaptation, action figures, role play toys, playsets, posters, and the official novelization began to show up in stores.
Skybox produced a set of Widevision trading cards, and Starlog press pubilshed the offiicial movie magazine. GNP / Crescendo Records released Dennis McCarthy's score to the film.

Absolute entertainment released a video game for the Nintendo Game Boy and Sega Game Gear platforms titled: "Star Trek Generations: Beyond the Nexus". The game even featured the ability for players to punch in a code which was mentioned out during the film. Presumably this code would allow players to advance to a certain section of the game.

Paramount's "Generations" web site.

On October 1994, well over a month before the film's release Paramount launched one of the first ever web sites dedicated to promoting a feature film. Back then the web was used mostly to send e-mail, post on message boards, or visit news groups. When the site launched less than a million people in the United States had access to the internet. Fortunately, many of those people were Sci-Fi and "Star Trek" fans. After Sherry Lansing gave the project her personal greenlight a team was assembled at the Paramount Media Kitchen in Palo Alto, California to work on designing and launching the site. The site was built from print press-kit materials for the film, videotapes of the movie trailers and two dozen slides. The site became an immediate success. Pages were viewed millions of times by fans around the world. Soon after all of the major studios followed suit, building sites to promote their films.

A promotion with "Jack in the Box" fast food restaurants across the west and southwest resulted in an overwhelmingly positive response. According to a press release issued by the restaurant chain just a few days after the film's opening, the Star Trek collectibles offered at the restaurants were being sought after by fans from all over the country. Calls even came in from the east coast and even Canada from people frantically seeking out the promotional items since there were no "Jack in the Box" restaurants in those areas.

Every week of the promotion, the restaurant offered a new collector cup featuring characters and scenes from the movie with the purchase of a galaxy size combo meal as well as new milk caps and temporary tattoos with the kid's meal. There was a series of four cups and several cards with the kid's meal items.

Poster calendars celebrating the coming together of the two Star Trek generations became a hot commodity selling for only 99 cents. "Jack in the Box" ads designed to tie into the film appeared on the Cable Radio Network during the hour-long radio show, "Talk Trek" and in the Official Star Trek Fan Club Magazine which at the time had more than 180,000 subscribing fans. Ads even showed up on the early "Star Trek" computer bulletin boards.

On the evening of November 17th the cast and crew arrived at Paramount Studios for the film's premiere, just hours before fans all across the country would get to see the film. The premiere was even televised live on E! as part of their week long "Star Treking week" celebration.
The following day the film premiered nation wide to $23 million dollars at the box office in less than 3 days. An impressive sum for 1994.

Captain Picard and Captain Kirk graced the cover of Time magazine and the new film, as well as the "Star Trek" phenomenon in general was receiving coverage all over the media. Television shopping network QVC had multiple Star Trek Collectibles specials airing all throughout the weekend with exclusive merchandise and special guests.

European one-sheet poster for "Generations".

The cast of the film made the journey over to London's Royal Albert Hall to premiere the film in England and take part in a two day convention. Over 5,500 fans packed the venue daily. The film's cast, as well as producer Rick Berman, and director David Carson took part in the event.

The cast takes the stage at the London Premiere for the film.

Rick Berman during a Q&A session in London.

"Generations" went on to be released worldwide, becoming the film that helped jump start the "Star Trek" phenomenon in multiple international territories such as Japan -- where one of the most aggressive ad campaigns for the film was planned and executed.

Japanese poster for "Generations".

Japanese billboard advertising the release of "Generations".

Japanese one sheet poster for "Generations".

"Star Trek Generations" went on to gross over $118 million dollars at the box office and soon turned "The Next Generation" franchise into another profitable venture for Paramount. The future looked bright for "Star Trek" once more...

The Future Begins: Part 2

2009-04-16T17:35:00.001-07:00

As we get closer to the May 8th release of "Star Trek" more and more pieces of publicity are showing up on almost a daily basis all over town. The above image was taken this afternoon on Beverly boulevard in the heart of Beverly Hills, another prime spot for a high profile ad. You can even see the hills right behind it. The "Star Trek" ad is also popping up on the new digital LCD billboard screens that have been installed all over Los Angeles. The ad on those also plugs the film's IMAX release, changing from the standard poster to the IMAX version. I'll try and snap a shot of one of those soon.

This week is future week on ESPN and "Star Trek" is the main sponsor for a lot of the programming. "Star Trek" has been the presenting sponsor on Baseball Tonight, so if you tune in you can see the TV spots for the film throughout the broadcast as well as the film's logo right in front of the hosts throughout the entire post game broadcast. Also last night the "Not your father's Star Trek" TV spot for the film aired on HD during FOX's broadcast of "American Idol". Another big move from Paramount since "Idol" brings in close to 30 million viewers a week.

On the next edition of this section we'll be taking a look at the billboards and ads for the film on display at Paramount Studios on Melrose Avenue -- the home of the "Trek" franchise.

Let's close out this edition with some red carpet interviews from the "Star Trek" premiere at the Sydney Opera House courtesy of UK's Sci-Fi Now.

Free Star Trek promo card

2009-04-16T16:12:00.000-07:00

Rittenhouse Archives is sending out a free Star Trek promo card to everyone who registers on their site and sends in a self addressed stamped envelope. I did this about two weeks ago and my card just came in. I recommend you put in a protective card sleeve inside your envelope since my envelope was pretty beat up when it arrived, but the card was in perfect shape thanks to the sleeve. I was pretty sure I'd never get the free card since these type of offers are usually not guaranteed and if they do send out some promo cards its only a few and the offer runs out pretty quickly, but Rittenhouse came through on this. There should still be time to get yours so check out their website for more details.

The Making of Star Trek: The Next Generation trading cards

2009-04-15T23:19:00.000-07:00

In the spring of 1994 as "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was finishing up production on its final season the folks at the Skybox trading card company sent photographers to the set to document the production process of the last couple of episodes of the show. These images would become the basis for a collection of 100 trading cards that would give fans of the show a look at what it took to produce an episode of the top rated syndicated drama.

A few months after the show wrapped production, the trading card set was released in three different editions. Each edition contained the same 100 card base set, the difference in each of these editions was the bonus premium. One set included a series of three dimensional images, while another included a commemorative pin with the logo for the final episode of the show, and the third set included a holographic card of the Enterprise encased in lucite.

The reason I love these trading cards is that they give fans a peek at images they would not be able to see anywhere else. I hate trading card sets that only feature still frames taken directly from the show or film they are based on. There's nothing special about that at all, but these cards have some very exciting images that are quite insightful and do reveal a great deal about the process behind the production of a weekly television series.

The card set gives you a look at every step of production, from the early story meetings, to casting, principal photography, and visual effects. The back of each card features descriptions of the specific stage of production depicted on the front of the card.

1994 was a very exciting year for "Star Trek" fans and one of the most important events was the end of The Next Generation's TV run. These images take me back to those days and remind me of all the hype and excitement surrounding anything that had to do with "Star Trek". I hope those days come back soon. In the meantime a set of trading cards like this one reminds us of how popular "Star Trek" once was, to the point were even the people behind the making of the show were getting the opportunity to share the spotlight with those in front of the camera.

Starlog's Star Trek covers

2009-04-13T22:12:00.000-07:00

As we continue our series of tributes to the greatest magazine ever published I wanted to take a look back at my favorite "Star Trek" covers from Starlog Magazine's 33 year history.

Starlog has been the source for up to the minute info on "Star Trek" since day one. Back in the days when no one was sure whether we'd get a Star Trek feature film or a new television series Starlog was there keeping us up to date. When the time came for Paramount to launch "Star Trek: The Next Generation" Starlog brought us continuous updates on the show's early development with a series of columns written by show insiders David Gerrold and D.C. Fontana. Starlog was even the first to report about Denise Crosby's exit from TNG, and they always gave us a truckload of interviews and exclusive articles on the making of all the films and Trek spin- offs, as well as Trek related events such as the early conventions, the 20th anniversary show, and the Sea Trek cruise.

Let us now go back through time as I share with you some of my favorite Starlog covers featuring "Star Trek"...

Starlog 1: Star Trek: The Original Series.

Starlog 30: Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Starlog 42: Mark Lenard.

Starlog 112: Star Trek: 20th Anniversary Celebration.

Starlog 135: Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Starlog 144: Star Trek 5: The Final Frontier.

Starlog 171: Brent Spiner (TNG).

Starlog 175: Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country.

Starlog's: Star Trek 25th Anniversary Special.

Starlog 291: Star Trek: 35th Anniversary / Enterprise.

Starlog 349: Star Trek: 40th Anniversary Celebration.

Starlog beams out for good...

2009-04-12T22:38:00.000-07:00

Here's some crappy news for Sci-Fi fans everywhere. Starlog, the number one publication in the Sci-Fi / Fantasy community has announced they will cease publication of the fan favorite magazine after 33 great years. According to the news release on their website, considering the present state of the economy, the publishers feel its time for a major revamp and will be temporarily discontinuing publication while the model and redesign of the magazine are contemplated and executed. The last print issue available for the time being is #374, while issue #375 will be available exclusively as a digital edition in the very near future.
I grew up with this magazine and back in the days were we had no internet to research every single detail about our favorite films Starlog was there to deliver the goods. Their articles were in depth, seriously written, and they were always accompanied by great behind the scenes pictures as well as conceptual art, and sometimes even storyboards or blueprints.

I still go back and browse my back issues from time to time, always discovering something I might have missed in the past and finding myself surprised over and over at the quality and wide range of articles they published. The internet sites are great at spoilers, script reviews, gossip, and news updates, but there has never been an online outlet that can deliver the top notch writing, in depth articles, and interviews Starlog in known for. The magazine will be sorely missed.

Every time my brother and I would go to a bookstore together the first thing we'd do is seek out the magazines section and fish for the latest issue of Starlog. Afterward once we'd get home we'd read the magazine and begin our in depth debates and discussions about the films we just got to read about -- which were always the film we were looking forward to seeing in the near future. I'll miss our little ritual too.

This is rather unfortunate, but not totally unexpected. Now more than ever I will continue my quest to complete my Starlog collection once and for all by seeking out the back issues I've yet to add to my collection. Check back tomorrow for a look at some of my favorite Starlog covers devoted to "Star Trek".

JJ Abrams' Desilu Connection

2009-04-11T23:30:00.000-07:00

I find it pretty interesting that one filmmaker has been able to work on the two most popular properties from Desilu Studios back to back, even if it just happened by pure coincidence.

You see JJ Abram's last two films ("Star Trek" and "Mission: Impossible 3") are both based on TV shows produced simultaneously by Desilu studios . "Trek" and "Mission" were actually considered sister shows back in the day, even though they aired on rival networks. Executive in charge of Production at Desilu, Herbert F. Solow, was able to sell both pilots on the same trip to New York city during the 1966 Pilot season. "Mission" sold to CBS, while "Trek" sold to NBC.

Desilu Studios was formed by Hollywood sweethearts Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz back in 1950 with the hopes of creating television programming based on the comedic routines of the husband and wife duo. Lucy and Desi had been trying to convince CBS to let them adapt their radio series "My Favorite Husband" to television. The following year their dream came true when CBS premiered the now legendary sitcom "I love Lucy".

The couple decided to continue developing more programming and soon started buying up studio space. By the time the first "Star Trek" pilot came along in 1964 Desilu had sound stages in three different parts of Los Angeles, but not much original programming to fill them with, so they resorted to renting out the space to other productions.

Bruce Geller ("M:I" creator), Herb Solow (Desilu executive), Leonard Nimoy ("Spock"), and Bob Justman (Associate Producer -- "M:I" Pilot, "Star Trek") during a surprise party for Sollow.

When the Star Trek pilot was given the green light it was up to Herb Solow and First Assistant Director / Associate Producer Bob Justman to put together the biggest production ever in the history of Desilu. After NBC turned down the original pilot ("The Cage") and agreed to a second pilot it was up to them to do it all over again. This time with less money and much more at risk since the amount NBC had given them to produce both the first and second pilot was not enough and Desilu had to cover a lot of the production costs.

Desilu's Culver City lot -- where both Trek pilot's were shot.

After the second pilot wrapped production, Solow contacted Justman one more time asking him to help put together the pilot for a new series called "Mission: Impossible", which had been created by Emmy Award nominated writer Bruce Geller ("Have Gun, Will Travel", "Mannix") Both "Star Trek" and "M:I" went on the air in the fall of 1966 and the rest as they say is history.

The following year Lucy sold the company to Gulf + Western, which merged it with its other production company -- Paramount Pictures -- renaming it Paramount Television.
As a result, Desilu's four series on television at the time; "Mission: Impossible", "I Spy", "Mannix", and "Star Trek" became the property of Paramount.

Almost twenty years later JJ Abrams got to produce and direct the third installment of the Mission: Impossible film franchise for Paramount and due to the film's success he was soon offered a deal with the studio, making Paramount the home for his future theatrical projects.

At the same time the new administration at Paramount decided to bring new life to their family jewel -- the other hit show they had once inherited from Desilu; "Star Trek". Mr Abrams soon got the green light to take the reins of this relaunch, and that brings us to were we are right now, just weeks away from the theatrical release of his all new vision of "Star Trek". Abrams should consider himself quite lucky. I'm not sure any other director has gotten the chance to work on bringing to the big screen two classic Hollywood series from the same studio back to back. I wonder what Lucy and Desi would think of his accomplishment if they were both still around.

Creature Feature: The Andorians

2009-04-11T22:00:00.000-07:00

By Contributing Blogger: DJTITOFLOW

First appearing in the classic episode “Journey to Babel” in 1967, the blue skinned Andorians with their big antennas have since become one of the most recognizable aliens in the Star Trek universe, even though surprisingly they have only appeared a handful of times compared with other famous trek species.

In "Journey to Babel" a conference is being held to decide whether the planet Coridan will be admitted into the federation. The Orions desire the Coridian dilithium for themselves so they surgically alter one of their own, Thelev, to look like an Andorian ambassador. Spock’s mother and his father, the great diplomat Sarek appear in this episode. This is definitely a very memorable TOS episode, and it made the Andorians and the Tellarites unforgettable aliens.

Sadly the Andorians would only be mentioned briefly or glimpsed at in other trek series. They appeared three more times in the original series, and twice in the animated series. Some Andorians can be seen in the background during scenes in Star Trek: The Motion Picture” and in “Star Trek 4: "The Voyage Home”.

The ones in the first movie give me the creeps! The antennae are coming out of their foreheads and they look more like ghosts to me. Unfortunately on Star Trek: The Next Generation we only got verbal references to the Andorians. The only Andorian we get to actually see isn’t even a real one. In the episode titled “The Offspring” Data is trying to decide which species his daughter Lal should look like, and were treated to the sight of a weird looking Andorian holographic projection in the holo-deck.

To make things worse she looks kind of green, Andorians are supposed to be blue!! Supposedly an Andorian can be seen on Risa in th episode “Captain's Holiday”, but I don’t remember ever seeing any Andorians in that episode.

The Andorians finally got the attention they deserved more than three decades after they arrived on the scene. And we have “Star Trek Enterprise” to thank for that. They got an extreme make-over, for the better. The skin make up looks great, and the antennas are smaller and more realistic. Plus they move thanks to remote controlled prosthethics.

We also got treated to one of the most kick ass characters of any trek series, Shran -- of the Andorian imperial guard. Shran is played masterfully by Jeffrey Combs, AKA Weyoun of "Star Trek Deep Space Nine".

After Shran's shaky introduction to Captain Archer and his race of “pink skins” at the P’jem monastery they both start forming a friendship that eventually leads to the union of both their races. We also got to see an Andorian sub-species called the Aenar. These paler-skinned beings are a pacifist race, unlike the warrior-like Andorians.

The Aenar also posses psychic abilities. One Aenar was used by the Romulans to remote pilot a ship that threatened to destabilize the quadrant by instigating war amongst earth and its allies. But the pink and blue skins prevailed in the epic episodes “Babel One”, “United”, and “The Aenar”.

Eventually the humans, Andorians, Tellarites, and Vulcans made an alliance, the coalition of planets in 2155. This union brought victory against the Romulans in the Earth-Romulan war. And it led to the formation of the United Federation of Planets in 2161, which is briefly seen in the last episode of Enterprise, “These are the Voyages”. Sadly the Romulan war is never seen in the series. There's a jump in time from the penultimate episode to the last one. Lets see an enterprise reunion mini-series that chronicles the earth-romulan war!! A man can dream cant he?

The Andorians have appeared in all sorts of trek merchandise over the years. They've also appeared in numerous trek videogames, including the upcoming “Star Trek Online” massive multiplayer online RPG, where you can create and play as an Andorian character.

Most recently the Andorians appeared in a one shot comic by IDW that explains why Andorians aren’t seen much in the 24th century. Its called alien spotlight: Andorians. While they still belong to the federation they helped create, their participation in it has gone down dramatically. Many Andorians believe the federation has weakened them and they have isolated themselves in their homeworld of Andoria.

If the Klingons can become allies of the federation I'm sure the Andorians will eventually return to their original state in the federation. Let's not forget this comic book isn't really canon, but the story it presents makes a lot of sense so I'll believe it for now.

With the JJ Abrams movie only a month away I'm already starting to worry that Andorians will once again be overlooked. But the recently released clip “disease and danger” , which features McCoy meeting Kirk, has a reference to the Andorians as McCoy lists all the things that can go wrong in space including contracting a case of the Andorian shingles. Hopefully we will get to see some of them in the film, even if they're just in the background. Even if we don’t see them on the big screen this May I know they'll be back soon enough, because no one can keep these blue skins away for long. The Andorians are here to stay!!

New Star Trek toys popping up at retail a week early

2009-04-11T15:29:00.000-07:00

Thanks to our friend CB over at the eclectorama and to a lot of the guys at the TNI boards we are getting reports that the new Playmates toys for Star Trek are showing up at various stores already -- more than a week before their official street date. So far the 3 3/4 and 6 inch figures have been spotted at various Toys R Us and Walmart locations. The Bridge playset, transporter playset, and Starship Enterprise have also been spotted. No sigthings yet for any of the role play toys.

Some of the 12 inch figures have also been found at Toys R Us. If you have found any of these items in your area please let us know. I'm pretty sure they will continue popping up throughout the week as we get closer to the April 18 street date.

Toy Flashback: Playmates' Star Trek TOS Crew

2009-04-11T13:14:00.001-07:00

Back in 1993 after the success of the first couple of waves of TNG action figures released by Playmates the company decided to tackle the original crew. The crew was released as a set featuring a diorama of the Enterprise bridge as seen in the original series.

Print ad for the Classic Star Trek Crew Collector's Set (1993).

When this set first came out I was never able to get a hold of it. It didn't stick around long enough on store shelves. I remember maybe seeing it only once at Toys R Us and it had a price tag close to 50 dollars.

I was finally able to get my hands on this item thanks to the wonderful world of Ebay. The set is pretty impressive. The diorama looks great and you can remove the figures without causing any damage to it since it has two layers. The first layer is where the figure trays are attached, but you can lift it up to find a pristine background. The figures are just as great as all the other offerings we got from Playmates during the 90s.

With all the excitement over the new film and the new look for the Original Crew, I figured this was the perfect time to remind fans of how cool these classic figures are. A search on Ebay will produce a good amount of sets available from various sellers and at pretty decent prices.

For action figures that were produced before the days of Gentle Giant scanning actors for their likenesses these figures look pretty close to their real world counterparts.

If you never got a chance to grab these during their original release I highly recommend you add them to your collection now. I'm pretty sure once the new movie hits theaters a lot of the merchandise available on the secondary market featuring the original crew will probably be in more demand.

Playmates continued releasing more figures from The Original Series after this set hit the market and in the coming weeks I'll post some more images from those as we get closer to the release of the new film when we will be turning our attention to the new line of toys featuring the crew of the enterprise during their days fresh from Starfleet Academy.

Book Review: Star Trek Countdown

2009-04-10T23:21:00.000-07:00

With a great deal of trepidation I opened up my copy of the Star Trek: Countdown trade paperback a few nights after receiving it in the mail. I've been staying away from as much plot details regarding the new movie as possible. I've been so excited about the new Trek that I promised myself I wouldn't let spoilers ruin the experience of seeing the film and being surprised by the storyline. Temptation kept rearing it's ugly head until I finally succumbed to it and decided on reading Countdown. Most of the book is devoted to introducing the character of Nero and presenting us with the event that leads to his actions on the film.
The book raises even more questions than it answers. One of the few questions it does seem to answer has to do with the big debate as to whether Nero truly is a Romulan. The answer to that question comes accompanied by a major event in trek lore, something I never thought they'd do, which makes me wonder if it will be mentioned in the new film and considered canon.

For those who do not want to be spoiled please stop reading now. Countdown tells the tale of the destruction of Romulus after the explosion of one of it's neighboring stars spreads across Romulan space. Nero -- a miner with a great deal of loyalty to his homeworld, a loving wife, and a baby on the way -- discovers evidence to this potential catastrophe at the same time as the Federation ambassador to Romulus. The Federation ambassador -- who happens to be Spock -- brings word of his discoveries to the Romulan council where Nero also voices his concerns. When the council ignores their warnings they both decide to work together in order to save Romulus. Unfortunately their efforts are not enough and Romulus, along with everything Nero loved dearly, is lost forever.

The character of Nero, is introduced in a very compelling way and is one that by the end of the story has changed a great deal, but with some very clear motivations. My only concern is that he doesn't look like other Romulans. There's still something about his ears and forehead that seems odd to me. Many fans have also said the same based on what we've seen thus far.

The storyline in Countdown takes some big risks. Some work quite well, while others just don't. The good news is that the big majority of them are quite exciting and compelling and I truly hope they get picked up and further explored in the film, especially all the elements that have to do with Spock's and Nero's relationship. The one thing I found rather weak is the use of the characters from The Next Generation.

Worf shows up for no good reason and Data is introduced as the new Captain of the Enterprise-E, which to me just doesn't work, especially after the events in Star Trek Nemesis. I also didn't enjoy seeing Picard as an ambassador to Vulcan instead of the man in the center seat of the Enterprise, where as Captain Kirk once told him, he would always be able to make a difference. You would think that he'd follow Kirk's advice and not take any promotion that would take him off the bridge of his ship.

Geordi also shows up as the man behind the development of a new type of ship that will allow Spock to complete his mission. Based on all the trailers for the film it seems like Nero's beef is with Kirk, but by the end of Countdown all Nero truly wants is revenge on Spock for not being able to help him stop the destruction of his homeworld. At one point in Countdown we do get to see Nero do a bit of research on Kirk during his stay aboard the Enterprise-E, but it's pretty clear his anger is directed at the character of Spock. Is countdown worth reading? I think so, especially since it does a nice job at making us see that the new movie is not a reboot or a reimagining by placing the seeds from which the film will grow in the Star Trek universe we've come to know. It would be tough for this movie to ignore canon if the countdown storyline is the true prequel tale to the film. Everything that leads to the events in the new film happens in the 24th century some years after Star Trek Nemesis.

By the end of Countdown both Spock and Nero are in a very interesting dilemma, one that leaves them at the threshold to the latest cinematic Star Trek adventure. I for one can't wait to get the answers to all the questions Countdown raises.

The Future Begins: Part 1

2009-04-08T13:04:00.001-07:00

With only a month to go until the moment we have all been waiting for, ads for Star Trek are quickly popping up all over town. In this new section I will try and feature some of the ads in my part of the world. I'll try and snap as many shots as I can until the movie opens.

Let's kick things of with this gigantic ad covering the side of an entire building right by the entrance to L.A.'s trendy shopping and dinning complex known as The Grove. This is a prime spot for an ad since The Grove is probably one of the hottest spots in town, nestled right between Hollywood and Beverly Hills. I'm glad Paramount is taking their Trek ad campaign seriously.

Creature Feature: The Horta

2009-04-03T23:35:00.000-07:00

The Horta was the star of the first season episode "The Devil in the Dark", originally airing on March 9, 1967 during the show's first season from a teleplay by Gene L. Coon and directed by Joseph Pevney.

According to William Shatner in his 1993 book Star Trek Memories, the episode is one of his favorites for being exciting, thought-provoking and intelligent, all of the ingredients that made up the very best Star Treks.

The story about how the episode came together is quite interesting since it was one of the few, if not the only Star Trek story written to accomodate the use of a specific creature. Writer Gene L. Coon saw the Horta creature, or actually the prop that ended up becoming the Horta way before a word of the story had been written. Stuntman / creature designer Janos Prohaska was walking past the Star Trek production offices one day while dragging what looked like a big blob with a raised center and a fringe around its outer edge. Prohaska spotted Coon and soon crawled under the creature to perform and bring it to life.

Horta eggs as seen in "The devil in the dark"

The creature had even been setup to drop an egg on cue with a special gimmick that could be controlled by the operator inside of it. Prohaska demonstrated this special feature for Coon and the writer was soon marveled by the creature's design and functions. Coon went back to his office afterward and during the following weeks wrote the script for "The Devil in the Dark" in order to take advantage of this creature that had impressed him, as well as left him squirming on the Desilu backlot.

The story Coon crafted featured a sympathetic Alien who is willing to do whatever it takes to protect the existence of its offspring from miners who threaten their underground world. The episode also features one of my favorite moments from The Original Series as Spock attempts to complete a mind meld with the creature, but is unable to due to the creature's agony from its wounds. Spock soon screams out in agony: "PAIN!", in this classic moment.

The episode includes some of the ingredients that have always made Star Trek compelling, and the Horta is one of the coolest creatures ever seen in The Original Series. It's also one of the few non-humanoid looking alien creatures ever featured in the franchise's 43 years of existence. Unfortunately the Horta have never been seen again on screen after this episode, but according to Michael Okuda's text commentary in Star Trek 4: The Voyage Home, a Horta Ambassador was supposed to be included in the Federation Council scenes, but there was not enough time to create the costume.

Luckily for fans of the Horta the species made a special appearance in the comic book story "A Rolling Stone Gather No Nanoprobes", appearing in Wildstorm Comic's Star Trek Special # 1 (published in 2001).

The storyline features a group of Horta partnering up with the Federation on a mining planet which provides the Federation plenty of Ores to mine and the Horta with a unique mineral composition that can nourish them.

In the middle of a celebration to commemorate the centennial of this partnership between Starfleet and the Horta a Borg cube arrives on the planet and the drones attempt to assimilate every living life form in the mines.

The Horta help the humans fend off the Borg thanks to a pretty clever plan. The story is short and well told. I highly recommend it for those fans who are still waiting for the Hortas' return to Trek. The Horta creature also lends itself perfectly for an action figure two-pack featuring a mind melding Spock with the Horta as seen in "The devil in the dark". I always hoped Playmates would get around to releasing a set like this back in the 90s. Hopefully Art Asylum will grant me my wish in the near future. A Horta figure with the attention to detail, and top notch sculpting the folks at Art Asylum are known for would make any fan of the Original Series go nuts. Lets hope DST and Art Asylum can make it happen.

Trek Tech: Tricorder Mark 1

2009-04-02T02:12:00.000-07:00

Back in 1996 a Canadian company by the name of Vital Technologies Corporation released a very peculiar item. To most people this odd piece of technology which looked like a futuristic calculator must've seem like a royal rip off with a price tag of over $400.00. To Trek fans this device gave them hope about our chances of getting closer to replicating some of our favorite technbologies from the 24th century. The device I'm talking about is the TR-107 TRICORDER Mark 1.

This scientific instrument was marketed as the real predecessor, in both looks and function, to the fictional Mark 7 tricorders seen on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The Mark 1 offered various educational and scientific functions including an Electromagnetic Field Meter which could measure the levels of EMF radiation from multiple sources such as home appliances, electric heaters, and computer stations. According to the Mark I's promotional materials research studies show that EMFs can affect the health and well-being of humans, plants, and animals. So by utilizing this device you could detect potential health risks through radiation. Another function allowed you to predcit changes in the weather patterns through the use of the Tricorder's weather station function. This was supposed to come in handy for farmers and gardeners. The Tricorder also offered a light meter function as well as a colorimeter which could precisely analize color values. It's kind of tough to picture this device being used on a daily basis by anyone. The device was more of a novelty in terms of scientific aplication design than a practical tool.

Still it's pretty cool to think that a company put so much research and development into attempting to make a real world device based on a piece of science fiction storytelling.
It reminds us once again of the impact Star Trek has had on our culture. This is really not too different than when the Trek communicator paved the way for today's modern cell phones. If you think about it the Tricorder may very well be a source of inspiration behind such devices as the iphone which includes features such as GPS navigation, communications, and even basic sensor technology. I have no doubt that in our near future a more specialized type of device will fulfill the promise of a real world Tricorder.