Star Trek: Las Vegas 2023 -57 Year Mission-

 
You think being a life long Trekkie I would of gone to a Star Trek convention by now, but nope, yesterday was my very first. Star Trek: Las Vegas has been held at The Rio Casino, put on by Creation Entertainment for the last 22 years straight. Each convention is subtitled celebrating the years since Star Trek's creation, this year celebrates 57 years of the never ending fandom.

 

A wild, but very friendly Mugato was running around the convention halls.

Finally add Star Trek to my Monopoly collection.

Picked up two more Playmates figures I was missing.

Got these two great shirts, sadly they were sold out of TOS and Next Gen.

Had to pick up these awesome Destination: Star Trek prints. Was bummed there's not a Next Gen series one with the Enterprise-D, hopefully next year there's a Strange New Worlds one.

Beautiful models of Enterprise-G and D by Factory Entertainment.

Sat in on a live recording of one my favorite Star Trek podcast Mission Log.

 

Had the great honor to meet, and get autographs from six fantastic actors. Thank you so much to Gary Graham, Conner Trinneer, Garret Wang, Jeffrey Combs, Marina Sirtis, and especially a huge amount of gratitude to Anson Mount who came and sat in the vendor room for an extra round of signatures after doing a panel when he wasn't scheduled to that day. 

 

 

The absolute highlight of the day, and so glad he was there the one day I could go this week, was getting a photo with William Shatner, watching and hearing him talk on stage, and ending the day getting his autograph.

Had a fun Trekkie nerdy fanboy day, can't wait to go again next year, definitely gonna start going every year from now on.

Star Trek Into Darkness Review

SPOILERS AHEAD! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! SPOILERS AHEAD!

VINDICATION! I was right, I was right about everything; the villain was Khan, Admiral Macrus was with Section 31 who found Khan and was holding his crew as leverage, and I knew they would call Old Spock to confirm who Khan was. Those predictions aside there was still plenty of surprises, and Into Darkness is a hell of a ride to watch, hands down I give it 8 out of 10 Photon Torpedoes. I do have to say the previous film was better on the basis that it was completely original, every thing was fresh and new, but with Into Darkness it felt like Abrams and the writers gave in and pandered to not only the fans but also their own inner-fanboys to make the film's villain Khan and put in more Trek universe references and easter eggs for us Trekkies to chuckle at or point out to others.

So what I'm trying to say is Nu Trek 2 is a great sci-fi action movie, but in terms of being a Star Trek film I think it fell short, this was Abrams and the writers chance to create an entirely new tale for the young crew to blaze their own trail in the final frontier to discover new lifeforms and new civilizations and to boldly go where no Trek series or movie has gone before, but instead we got the Alternate Reality's version of Wrath of Khan, complete with lines lifted directly out of the 1982 script I might add. There are a couple of things that  did bug me, like Khan Transwarp Beaming all the way to The Klingon Homeworld, I mean I suspended my science fiction disbelief when they used it in the first movie, but really?! 90 light years?!, then I couldn't be the only one that was disappointed that they spelt the name of The Klingon Homeworld as Kronos instead of Qo'nos, and lastly the whole Khan's blood in dead Tribble situation felt sloppy thrown in the audience's face just to setup Kirk's resurrection which I think took away from his sacrifice to save the ship knowing McCoy already has that idea in his head. I don't want to say I hated how the Klingon who removed his helmet looked, but I do want to point out we haven't seen a Klingon that was bald (besides General Chang) or without any type of facial hair or ever wear earrings so I gonna say that particular soldier was not the best representation on the new forehead design, that if he had head and facial hair he would of been more recgonizable as a Klingon, but really Abrams?! Now Klingons have point ears WTH?!!

All that aside, Benedict Cumberbatch was a pure extraordinary joy to watch as Khan, some may think he wasn't portrayed as his usual megalomaniac self, but I think the writers did with him what they did with all the other new incarnations of the classics characters and took the core traits of him now affected by the different course of events of the Alternate Timeline, so with Khan being awoken and put to work under duress with his crew held hostage for nearly a year would strip him of his tyrannical superiority complex which just left his cold calculating mind wanting nothing but vengeance and the retrieval of his people. Chris Pine continues to amaze as the young James T. Kirk, you definitely see him getting closer and closer to becoming the Captain of the Enterprise we know from The Original Series, and even though the scene was rehashed and flipped from Wrath of Khan, Kirk's method of repairing the Warp Core and subsequent death was a real tearjerker, I will admit I myself got a little misty eyed. The next Nu Trek movie is up in the air 'til we see if Abrams comes back to make a third or if he'll be tied up making a second Star Wars film after Episode VII, but whoever makes the next film I'm hoping for something completely new and invigorating on par or even better then the 2009 movie, your move Abrams, Orci, Kurtzman, and Lindelof.

Star Trek Into Darkness Teaser Trailer

"When the crew of the Enterprise is called back home, they find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization has detonated the fleet and everything it stands for, leaving our world in a state of crisis.

With a personal score to settle, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction.

As our heroes are propelled into an epic chess game of life and death, love will be challenged, friendships will be torn apart, and sacrifices must be made for the only family Kirk has left: his crew."

The waiting to learn who the villain is in the this movie begins, a mystery that's going to be killing me 'til May or until it's leaks on to the net. My personal belief along with many others is it is Khan Noonien Singh, my theory is in this new timeline the Federation found Khan and his ship full of genetically engineered followers years before James T. Kirk took command of the Enterprise and has been using him to do off the books black ops mission until he is betrayed and left for dead which leads him to return with a grand plan to destroy the Federation. My evidence is in the trailer as we see the villain jumping down from an extremely high height, swinging around a very big weapon effortlessly, and showing superior and powerful martial arts abilities, and then in the extended Japanese teaser trailer he has the additional quote of "Is there anything you would not do for your family?" which I think is talking about his fellow genetic augmented brethren being held by the Federation as leverage for Khan to do their dirty work.

The official synopsis even says: "Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction." , sounds like a genetically engineered super warrior to me. "an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization" I believe points toward the shadow cabinet of higher-up Federation officials that's behind all the darker and secret events that keeps the Federation as a major power but still appear peacekeeping and exploring, perhaps Section 31. I also believe Peter Weller plays a member of this cabinet, perhaps maybe Commodore Decker, Weller did say in an interview he has his own ship.

New Star Trek Game Teaser

Ooo, looking good, almost getting a Mass Effect vibe from that footage.  I can't wait to hear the banter between Kirk and Spock during the game, I really hope they can get Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto to do the voices. It looks like the game will come out in the first quarter of 2013, so we can play it before the release of the next movie in May that year. 

Boldly Gone

Found this great new web comic: Boldly Gone, that shows what it's like to be a Starfleet Starhip Captain other then James T. Kirk but always hearing about all of he's exploits that are far more grandiose and attention getting thereby making other Captain's commands look mundane and forgettable. The main characters are Captain Paul Meredith of the USS Manadala, he's first officer former Orion Slave Girl Commander Arlynn D'Resh, and Chief Medical Officer Doctor Ken Chau. This is great, you've always wondered what the other Captains thought of Kirk's adventures, and seeing what the Kirk-praising is doing to Captain Meredith is fantastic storytelling entertainment. Boldly Gone has only had a few updates so you can get caught up real fast, new strips will be out biweekly.

Star Trek: The Next Generation on Blu-Ray!

Source: Startrek.com

The Next Generation Blu-rays Launch in 2012

"You've heard the rumors, and now StarTrek.com can officially confirm it: Star Trek: The Next Generation will be released in high-definition Blu-ray, starting in January with a sampler of several popular episodes, followed by a season-one set to be released later on in 2012, and subsequent seasons beaming down after that. Each of the 178 episodes spanning The Next Generation's seven seasons will be transferred to true high-definition 1080p for release in the Blu-ray format and, eventually, for runs on television and digital platforms in the U.S. and across the world. Star Trek: The Next Generation will, as fans know, be celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2012.

“Fans have been clamoring for a high-definition release of Star Trek: The Next Generation," Ken Ross, Executive Vice President and General Manager of CBS Entertainment, said in a statement. “Transferring the series to high-definition presented difficult technical challenges, but our team has come up with a process to create true 1080p HD masters with true HD visual effects. We can’t wait to show fans how pristine the series looks and sounds with our upcoming Blu-ray releases.”

CBS is, in fact, returning to the original film negatives, a mother lode of material encompassing 25,000-plus reels of footage, and editing the episodes together precisely as they were when they originally aired between 1987 and 1994. Visual effects will not be upconverted from videotape, but instead will be recompositioned. The freshly cut film will ultimately be transferred to high definition with 7.1 DTS Master Audio. And all of the work is being done in conjunction with respected, longtime Star Trek figures Denise and Michael Okuda, who are on board as consultants.

As for that sampler, it will be called Star Trek: The Next Generation -- The Next Level. CBS Home Entertainment has set a January 31, 2012, release date for the single disc, which will include the feature-length version of the series pilot, "Encounter at Farpoint," as well the fan-favorite episodes "Sins of the Father" and "The Inner Light," the former from season three and the latter from season five. The Next Level will sell for the suggested retail price of $21.99."

This, ladies and gentlemen is THE highlight of my day. I love Star Trek, I love Star Trek on Blu-ray, this is awesome news. I already currently own 2 out of 3 seasons of The Original Series, and I knew Next Gen would be remastered in Hi-Definition and released on Blu-Ray any day now, and Paramount has finally "Made it so". It's just a few episodes on one Blu-ray but I can't wait to watch it and see the new rendered ships and special effects, and then start getting the season sets.

Pic of The Day 06/26

Kirk Classic Vs. Nu Kirk

Bill, in you own words from Free Enterprise: "Kick he's ass!". Sorry Chris.

New Star Trek Video Game!

Well holy crap, I'd never thought I'd see the day, an actual awesome looking Star Trek video game. A third person shooter heavy on the action and wide word exploring based on the new Star Trek universe sign me the hell up. This looks great, I'm hoping they get the actual actor to voice the characters cause hearing Nu-Kirk and Nu-Spock banter back and forth will make this game a definite must own for me and any Star Trek fan.

Star Trek Girl Music Video

Oh, the wonders of the internet and Youtube. As a huge Star Trek fan I love this video, I just had to share this. Though this is second to my number one greatest super funny Star Trek video I found on the net awhile back...