Star Trek

I’ve been very busy working on a project that I can’t talk about, so I haven’t had time to make a proper post here. I feel like I’m neglecting my blog, and I would hate for it to feel left out, so here’s a picture I colorized with my magic coloring skills: Life is best when you’re easily amused, kids.

The first expansion for Star Trek: Online, The Legacy of Romulus is now available. In Legacy of Romulus, players can now play as either a Romulan or a Reman, with story-driven missions written “exclusively from the Romulan Republic’s point-of-view.” In Legacy of Romulus, Romulus and Remus are gone, and the survivors of the two planets are “struggling to survive in the aftermath of unspeakable destruction. “These are dark and dangerous times for your people, as the Tal Shiar crack down on any dissent and mysterious beings unleash terror throughout the far-flung colony worlds. “You will be the one to reshape an empire. Gather allies, go undercover and find the proof that will rally your people to revolt. “Together, you will rise up against an oppressive regime and demand freedom. You will fight for your people.” Denise Crosby has returned as [Empress] Sela in Legacy of Romulus.

Two new Her Universe clothing items will be of interest to female Star Trek fans. The items are a Command Gold tank dress, and a shirt featuring a quote from The Wrath of Khan. The tank dress is made of 95% cotton and 5% spandex, and runs from small to 4X in size (it’s recommended to buy a size larger than normal as this item runs small). The Command Gold tank dress will sell for $35 and can be purchased here. The Khan v-neck t-shirt features a Federation symbol and the KHAAAAAN! quote (which runs along the bottom of the shirt and continues on the back of the shirt). Selling for $28, the t-shirt comes in sizes from small to 2X. As with the Command Gold tank dress, it’s recommended to go up one size unless a close-fitting shirt is desired. The t-shirt can be purchased here.

When it comes to writing a novelization of a movie, for author Alan Dean Foster, it’s about “filling in the blanks.” Foster is no stranger to Star Trek novels, having written the Animated Series Star Trek Log novelizations as well as the story for what became the first Star Trek movie, but after thirty years, he had thought that his Trek days were behind him. When asked to pen the novelization for Star Trek (2009), Foster was “was surprised because it had been so long. I was not surprised because I’d been doing book versions of movies all through those decades right up and through to films like The Chronicles of Riddick,” he said. ” So it’s not like I’d been away from the work, but I’d just been away from Star Trek.” Foster explained what he felt was the core of Star Trek into Darkness. “It’s all about personality conflicts,” he said. “There are people who love science fiction who will say it’s insufficiently science fiction, and there are people who will say that’s what makes Star Trek great, and always has. For me, good writing and good story has always been centered on characters and everything else, however well developed, is window dressing. Certainly, Star Trek Into Darkness, if anything, is even more character-centric than the previous film.” Being able to add to the story, showing more of the characters’ thought processes during events is enjoyable for the author. “People think that one of the main things that novelizations do is to expand existing scenes,” he said. “That’s true to a certain extent, but the fun part of it, and the important people of it, I feel, is to fill in the blanks. One of the biggest blanks in any existing film, assuming it isn’t fifteen hours long, is to show what the characters are actually thinking. When they’re doing something on screen it’s just, well, ‘Sulu moved the lever forward.’ That’s about as short a sentence as you can come up with. But I get to show what he’s thinking, why he’s moving the lever, what’s going on in his head while he’s moving the lever, what the possible consequences might be for moving that lever, and on and on and on. To me, that’s one of the joys of doing it. I get to make my own director’s cut, in other words.” The Star Trek into Darkness novelization came out yesterday.

Last night, Alice Eve was on Conan and two short clips featuring the actress on the show have been released. In the clips, Eve reveals that she was attracted to performing from a young age, had a teacher whose negative comments made her determined to succeed in school, and was initially a bit confused during a call from J.J. Abrams to her regarding Star Trek into Darkness.

We talk to Lukas Kendall, one of the producers of the new expanded soundtrack to Star Trek: The Next Generation's "The Best of Both Worlds" from GNP/Crescendo. Lukas discusses the long road to release the complete BOBW score, the new material and the genius composer Ron Jones.

45 mins MT @Hollywood_com: TONIGHT at 9PM EST, @ctblauvelt talks @ReadingRainbow & #StarTrek with @levarburton!!

Several new Star Trek into Darkness collectibles will be offered by QMX beginning the second quarter of this year. The collectibles include a Starfleet class ring, phaser, ship models, Starfleet division badges, and a Starfleet flag. The class ring, as seen in the movie, will be available later this year in either limited -edition sterling silver, or open-edition metal alloy (the latter selling for $29.95). The Starfleet phaser has updated finishes, a servo spinner, and a working power dial. The servo phaser will debut next year. Some of the ship models seen on Star Trek into Darkness will be offered as Artisan filming miniature, or as value-priced replicas. The USS Vengeance will be offered in both prop and collector scale, the USS Kelvin in collector scale, the Ring ship in “a very limited prop-scale Comic-Con exclusive release), and the NX-01 in a prop-scale version. Four Starfleet division badges are available now as 1:1 scale metal replicas, and a UFP flag screen-accurate replica will be released this summer. Details will be updated when more information is released. Click on the thumbnails to enlarge. More pictures can be found at the referring site.

Damon Lindelof has taken a bit of heat lately for the Alice Eve underwear scene and now he has responded to the criticism. The scene in question was heavily featured in ad spots promoting the movie. The Eve scene really didn’t seem to serve a purpose in the movie other than showing a woman in her underwear, and critics and others have lambasted the writers over the gratuitous scene, to which criticism Lindelof has responded via his Twitter feed. “I copped to the fact that we should have done a better job of not being gratuitous in our representation of a barely-clothed actress,” Lindelof said. “We also had Kirk shirtless in underpants in both movies,” he said, attempting to justify the Eve scene. “Do not want to make light of something that some construe as mysogenistic. What I’m saying is I hear you; I take responsibility and will be more mindful in the future. Also, I need to learn how to spell ‘misogynistic.’” When asked by MTV News‘ Josh Horowitz why Eve was in her underwear, Lindelof said, “Why is Alice Eve in her underwear, gratuitously and unnecessarily, without any real effort made as to why in God’s name she would undress in that circumstance? Well there’s a very good answer for that. But I’m not telling you what it is. Because … uh … mystery?”

TrekCore recently caught up with Morgan Gendel - the scribe behind one of Star Trek: The Next Generation's finest episodes, "The Inner Light". In the first part of our exclusive interview, we discuss Morgan's introduction to Star Trek, flutes, Hugos, graphic novels and audio commentaries!