Television Treasures

The Enterprise picks up a distress call from Earth and travels back in time to recover some extinct humpback whales to save the planet.

Plot Summary: While Admiral Kirk and his crew prepare to return to Earth in their commandeered Klingon ship to stand trial for stealing the Enterprise, a probe approaches the planet, sending out transmissions that no one can decode. The probe drains power and vaporizes the oceans in apparent fury at the lack of a proper response. Because the complete lack of sunlight threatens all life on Earth, Starfleet sends out a general distress call warning ships to avoid the planet. A shocked Kirk receives the message and sets to work deciphering the alien message, which Spock identifies as the songs sung by now-extinct humpback whales. Because they have no other way to answer the probe, Kirk decides that the ship must risk traveling through time to obtain a breeding pair of whales in the hope that they can persuade the probe to stop its attack. When the Bird of Prey emerges from its slingshot around the sun, Uhura picks up whale song from downtown San Francisco of the 20th century, and Sulu lands the ship in Golden Gate Park so the crew can track down the animals. The time travel has damaged the Klingon dilithium crystals, so while Kirk and Spock go in search of the whales, and McCoy, Scotty, and Sulu seek materials to build a tank for them, Uhura and Chekov are sent to track down an atomic reactor to recharge the engines.

At the Cetacean Institute, Kirk and Spock find a pair of humpback whales but fail to impress their primary caretaker, Dr. Gillian Taylor, when Spock dives into their tank to mind-meld with the whales in hope of getting their permission to take them into the future. The whales are scheduled to be released into the wild because the female is pregnant, and Taylor is terrified that they’ll be targets for hunters. Kirk tells her that the whales will be safe in the future, but she thinks he’s either a liar, unstable, or both. Meanwhile, Scotty obtains enough plexiglas to build a tank for the whales in exchange for the formula for transparent aluminum – not yet invented in the late 20th century – and Sulu befriends a helicopter pilot to transport it to the cloaked Bird of Prey. Aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise, Chekov and Uhura obtain the nuclear material needed to repair the dilithium crystals, but when Uhura returns to the ship so Scotty can do so, Chekov is captured and injured by military officers who think he’s a Russian spy. Upon learning that the whales have been released prematurely, Taylor seeks help from Kirk, who asks in turn if she’ll help them rescue Chekov from a hospital. McCoy treats Chekov’s brain injury and the ship – along with the stowaway Taylor – locates the whales at sea, rescuing them from a whaling vessel. The ship returns to the 23rd century at nearly the same moment it left, carrying the whales, which Kirk releases into San Francisco Bay after a crash landing there. Having saved Earth, the Enterprise crew is brought to trial, but the Federation Council dismisses all charges except the one against Kirk for disobeying an order. He is demoted to captain, and as consequence of this rank, ordered to take on the duty for which he has repeatedly demonstrated unswerving ability: the command of a starship, specifically the new USS Enterprise, NCC-1701-A.

Analysis: I’ve never met a Star Trek fan who disliked The Voyage Home, though it’s admittedly pretty fluffy stuff after the two films that came before it in terms of both character development and scientific ambition. You’ll never hear me fault this franchise for a sensible environmental message – Next Gen‘s “Force of Nature” doesn’t count, it’s too badly written – and I love the idea that whales were communicating with aliens long before humans encountered them, given how little respect Star Trek often shows to non-humanoid intelligences. Plus it’s just plain fun watching the crew bumble around San Francisco, where their futuristic technical expertise is useless and even Kirk’s traditional charm with the ladies doesn’t quite work its magic. We know nearly from the moment of their awkward arrival (“Double dumb-ass on you!”) that things are not going to go according to plan, but that will be half the fun, while a few hundred years in the future, humans are about to pay for the arrogance and stupidity we never completely outgrow. I’ll admit that the first time I saw it, Spock made me nervous – he was so little recognizable, and at times seemed a parody of his old self – but he slowly settled into someone I absolutely believed was the person he’d become after the encounter with V’ger, then dying, then coming back. The fretful moment when he observes that Kirk is a man of deep feelings, after Kirk has thrown a bit of a tantrum, is one of the finest in the films.

The ensemble work in the trilogy – as the producers often refer to Star Trek II, III, and IV – gets better with each film, so that in this one, Uhura not only has communications expertise but gets sent on the dangerous task of retrieving nuclear material when she could easily have played Scotty’s companion while McCoy went onto the ship with Chekov. It’s nice that Chekov finally gets to take his Russian pride to its logical conclusion, too, though he seems a bit too clueless about how to try to play the Marines against each other to his own ends. In an odd way, some of the slapstick seems as dated as the old Macintosh computer and the Yellow Pages that appear in the film – the garbage collectors denying they saw the flying saucer in the park, the punk on the bus silenced with a Vulcan neck pinch – and I read other scenes through different lenses now than I did when I was much younger and first saw it…do I want to know what Sulu did to get that pilot to let him fly his helicopter? Ironically, Kirk is the only one who seems to feel the full weight of the world on his shoulders; for someone who equated Genesis with Armageddon, McCoy seems to be having a pretty good time in the past, even while he’s ranting about the horrors of the medical profession and passing out magical kidney pills, and Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov all seem to consider even the dangers an entertaining diversion after the darkness of Khan and Kruge, while Spock is still trying to piece together who he is (though he knows where he belongs – to quote Edith Keeler, “At his side, as if you’ve always been there and always will,” even if he’s having trouble keeping straight when it is or is not appropriate to call Kirk “Jim”).

If there’s a weak point for me in The Voyage Home, it’s not the heavy-handedness of the environmental message nor the fact that the characters at time seem to be caricatures of themselves (McCoy’s warning to Scotty, “Don’t get lost in the part,” could be applied to each of the rest, particularly Chekov while being questioned aboard the “nuclear wessel”). It’s Gillian Taylor. Here’s a woman who’s a PhD and possibly a DVM, a competent professional when we first meet her, seemingly Dr. McCoy’s dream woman since she balances medical and scientific expertise with compassion and emotional connection. She’s a bit of a tree-hugger, but compared to the jerk she works for, who’s in charge of the whales yet doesn’t believe they deserve rights, that’s forgivable. It’s adorable when she stops to offer Kirk and Spock a ride after having them kicked out of the Cetacean Institute, and she hits just the right note at dinner with Kirk…amused, affectionate, willing to play along, though she clearly thinks he’s either nutty or involved in a scheme that is. Then she has a complete nervous breakdown – a break from reality – which the film and the characters completely ignore because it’s necessary to further the plot. When her jerk boss condescendingly announces that the whales have been released without her knowledge to spare her feelings, she hits him, jumps into her truck, and races to Golden Gate Park in search of someone she knows in her heart of hearts to be a con man. The fact that we know she’s wrong doesn’t change the fact that this is completely irrational, frightening behavior.

In addition to the cameo roles – Chapel now a doctor at Federation HQ (before Majel Barrett will become Deanna Troi’s mother), Admiral Cartwright (who will appear again in later films before Brock Peters will become Benjamin Sisko’s father) – I particularly like watching Spock’s interaction with his old friends who have become strangers despite all they’ve gone through for him. McCoy, for obvious reasons, is the one having the hardest time settling back into their old roles; he wants to talk about what it was like for Spock really having gone where no one has gone before, whereas Spock refuses on the grounds that they don’t have common points of reference, then ducks the conversation claiming he’s receiving distress calls, to which McCoy retorts that he doesn’t doubt it. Would the old Spock have been so quick to realize that the probe might be looking for intelligent life in Earth’s oceans? He fails at colorful metaphors even more than Kirk – “They like you very much, but they are not the hell your whales” – and he lacks the subtlety he would once have had, at least waiting till evening to dive in with the whales. But there’s nice evolution, McCoy explaining to Spock that Kirk feels safer about his guesses than other people’s facts, and he finally makes true peace with his father, who admits that Spock’s associates are people of good character, to which Spock replies, “They are my friends.” It’s closure on an arc that began during the television series, though it isn’t the end of either character’s story.

I’ve never known what to make of the overlong sequence in which the whales sing to the probe and tell it what to do with itself, in the immortal words of Dr. McCoy. We get no translation, and shots of the whales that are unbelievable even within the context of a movie with time travel – they float in a sunlit, calm sea when they’re supposed to be in the dark, turbulent water churned up by the probe’s interference. Is it courage or cowardice to leave this contact to the minds of the audience? I appreciate that the producers didn’t take yet another opportunity to hit us over the head with the environmental issue, yet it’s as if they can’t fathom what two non-humanoid intelligences might want to communicate to each other, and what could be the most profound moment of the film dissolves into a big splash party. Of course the happy ending is delightful – now Kirk has his ship back as well as Spock – so I’m not really complaining.

Last week, TrekToday reported that Jonathan Frakes would be directing the ninth episode of Bar Karma, and it has just been announced that amongst the guest stars for that episode will be Frake’s own wife, Genie Francis.

The episode will “center around a woman, in the present day, who either has multiple personalities, or she’s a twin. In previous roles, Genie Francis has accidentally killed a few people, suffered a mental breakdown and been in a catatonic state. What will her character be up to in Bar Karma? And what is her karma dilemma?”

“Bar Karma, the first series to give viewers control of the show content before it hits air, was created by game creator Will Wright (The Sims/Sim City) and Worldwide Biggies CEO Albie Hecht. Set at a mystical watering hole at the edge of the universe, Bar Karma stars William Sanderson (True Blood, Lost, Deadwood) as James, the 20,000 year-old bartender, Matthew Humphreys (Obsessed, Big Love, The Forgotten) as bar owner Doug Jones, and Cassie Howarth (Deranged High, Deathclock) as the lone waitress, Dayna. The series answers the age-old question: ‘What would happen if you could change your fate?’ Set in a time traveling bar owned and operated by members of the mysterious organization Karma, Inc., each weekly episode follows a new bar patron as they enter at happy hour and must make a life-changing … and possibly world-saving … decision.”

Eric Stillwell, one of the writers responsible for one of the most popular episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation, started writing scripts because he was told it was the quickest route to becoming what he really wanted to be, a producer.

Stillwell began his Star Trek career as a production assistant on The Next Generation, after he was first turned down for a Trek job. “I sent my resume to Susan Sackett, who worked for Gene Roddenberry,” he said, “and during one of my trips to Los Angeles, I landed an interview with producer Bob Justman. I didn’t initially get the job, but I got a lovely letter from Bob which was very encouraging.”

After a move to Los Angeles several weeks after that interview, Stillwell took a job as a Paramount studio tour guide and guest relations page, which shortly led him back to Star Trek. “As luck would have it, I was assigned to do door duty at the cast and crew screening of Encounter at Farpoint to check off names of guests as they arrived for the screening,” said Stillwell. “When Bob arrived with his wife, he remembered me by name and seemed surprised to see me working on the lot – mostly because I hadn’t been bothering anybody in the Trek production offices during my time as a studio page. Literally, the next day I got a call from Bob telling me that there was an opening for a production assistant job and could I start the next morning? I nearly dropped the phone!”

Advice from Justman led Stillwell, who was interested in directing, to decide to try his hand at writing for Trek. “One of the things that stood out was when [Justman] said the fastest way to become a producer in Hollywood was to be a writer,” said Stillwell. “I gave that a lot of thought because I’d always excelled in writing in school and was definitely fascinated with the creative process.”

Trent Christopher Ganino and Stillwell were responsible for Yesterday’s Enterprise, and the popularity of the episode gratified Stillwell. “It’s really beyond description, just such a wonderful thing to experience,” he said. “I think part of me felt some sort of vindication for all the years of being teased for being a Trekkie, even by some of the producers and production crew. It felt good to know that a couple of Trek fans could write a story that other Trek fans would really love and appreciate. I think we brought some of the TOS spirit to TNG.”

While the Next Generation was on hiatus, Stillwell and Ganino took the opportunity to appear in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, where they both played Klingons. “Trent got to be one of the three Klingon judges and I was one of the nondescript Klingons in the rafters,” said Stillwell. “Honestly, the memory is more fun than the experience. Wearing heavy costumes and rubber masks under bright hot camera lights isn’t as glamorous as you might imagine. But it was fun to be directed by Nicholas Meyer. And we got to have lunch with Mark Lenard when he was on set for a costume fitting during one of our breaks.”

After The Next Generation, Stillwell co-wrote the Star Trek: Voyager episode Prime Factors, ran Star Trek conventions, became executive assistant, script coordinator and associate producer for Michael Piller, was operations manager for Piller’s production company Piller Squared, and worked in children’s programming.

Stillwell’s involvement with Trek was a “dream come true for a kid who grew up playing Starfleet versus Klingons. Having the opportunity to work with Gene Roddenberry and Michael Piller and to make a contribution to the franchise, however small, was a huge thing for me. I’m very proud of my work on Trek and very appreciative to have had the opportunity.”

Fans eager to watch Star Trek: The Animated Series online will now be able to do so at TV.com.

All twenty-two of the episodes are online, including the popular Yesteryear. Two episodes of the animated series – Mudd’s Passion and More Tribbles, More Troubles – are sequels to episodes from the original series.

The Animated Series featured voice work from all of the original series actors except for Walter Koenig. Episodes were written by writers such as David Gerrold, D.C. Fontana, Larry Niven and Larry Brody.

The shows can be seen here.

In the second part of a two-part interview, Chase Masterson talked more about Leeta, including her sexuality, relationship with Rom and what Leeta might be doing today in the Deep Space Nine universe. Masterson also shares the good and the bad of Trek fandom and her other non-Trek projects.

Masterson sometimes gets comments about Leeta’s sexuality, but for a Dabo girl, Leeta was rather demure. “As far as being scantily clad during the run of the series, yes, of course, my Dabo girl uniform was meant to be sexy, but they purposely didn’t make it as overt as most of the other Dabo girls, and I’m glad.”

In one nude shot with Robert Picardo, Masterson had more on than most realized. “I was actually wearing more during the shooting of that scene with Bob than a lot of girls wear running around town,” explained Masterson. “From the point where the camera’s view cut off on down, I had on a flesh-colored body suit that went down to my ankles. Polyester. Not at all attractive.”

A woman who dresses sexily can be anyone and her character can’t be judged by her clothes, says Masterson. “…keep in mind that dressing sexily, on camera or off, doesn’t necessarily say anything about a girl’s character, ability as an actress, intelligence level, or frankly, personal activities,” said Masterson. “An upstanding, good-hearted girl can dress sexily. Sometimes, it’s fun. And mostly, it’s pretty much just part of the job.”

During the series, Leeta and Rom became a couple, and Masterson felt that Leeta was able to handle that relationship between two people from very different cultures very well. “Leeta and Rom brought new meaning to the term ‘opposites attract,’” said Masterson. “And the pairing of people from a spiritually-oriented culture and a greed-oriented culture is the perfect allegory to give us a view into our own, individual relationships between spirituality and money. Don’t get me wrong, I fully believe that a good relationship with God and with each other, my definition of strong spirituality, can co-exist with a good relationship with money. But we are given choices in our lives on a regular basis that can compromise one or the other. Which do we choose? I think that part of the reason that Leeta and Rom had a strong relationship is because they made a lot of the right choices. And they focused on the many ways they were alike, instead of on their differences.”

If Leeta is still carrying on in the universe of Deep Space Nine, what would she be doing now? “Now that Leeta has a position of influence, as the First Lady of the Ferengi Alliance, I’d like to think she’s working to help people who need it,” said Masterson.

Masterson, like many other Star Trek actors, has interacted with Trek fans via the convention circuit. She has had both good and bad experiences when it comes to fans. “I’ve met countless inspiring people, fans and friends who care about Trek because they care about the world,” said Masterson. But some fans are not so inspiring. “There was an issue that I had years ago with a member of my fan club who committed a horrific act that involved serious invasions of my privacy and had horrible consequences,” said Masterson. “It took a drastic toll on my life, and on my son’s life, and on my career, my finances, everything. … But you can’t judge an entire fanbase by a few incredibly sick people’s actions. And in the long run, the good has been way more powerful than the bad. It always is, if you let it be. And I’m thankful for both. I’ve learned a lot about human nature and a lot about me.”

Post-Trek, Masterson has worked both on-screen and off-screen. “Onscreen, undoubtedly, I’m proudest of my work in Yesterday Was a Lie,” she said. “And there are off-screen projects of which I am extremely proud, too. For over three years, I’ve been a mentor at Homeboy Industries, which is the largest program for gang intervention in the U.S. Most of the guys and girls who come to Homeboy come to us straight out of jail. … when they decide that they want to turn their lives around, we help them do it.”

LeVar Burton celebrates his fifty-fourth birthday today, and in addition to reminiscing about his good fortune in landing the role of  Kunta Kinte in Roots, he shares several things about himself that fans might not know.

Burton was a young and aspiring actor who lucked out when offered the role of Kinte. “Mine is truly one of those unbelievable Hollywood stories,” Burton explained. “Roots was my first professional audition. I was a sophomore at USC, working towards my BFA in Theater. My goal at the time was Broadway, not Hollywood. The producers had been on an exhaustive search all over the country and still had not found what they were looking for so they came back to LA and broadened the casting net. They contacted Drama schools in the area. I was in the right place at the right time.”

According to Burton, not only was he in the right time and place, but so was Roots itself. “I don’t believe Roots could’ve happened ten years earlier in America, nor ten years later for that matter. Socially, the timing was perfect in every respect. The Civil Rights Movement had succeeded to the point where America was accustomed to accepting Black people as equal citizens in this society. Then came the Vietnam era which forced us to take an unvarnished look at ourselves and our politics. By the time the late seventies rolled around, I think we were finally ready to deal with the issue of slavery and how its legacy has impact even to this day.”

In 1986, Burton was tapped for the role of Geordi La Forge in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Not only was Burton happy because he was a Star Trek fan, but he liked Roddenberry’s attitude when it came to casting roles on the show. “Working with Gene was a dream come true for me,” he said. “I was a huge fan of the original Star Trek. I’ve always been a fan of the Sci-Fi genre and Gene’s vision was all about diversity. He put a Black woman in a visible position of authority on TV at a time when there weren’t many people of color on TV at all. It’s so important for human beings to see themselves reflected in the popular culture. Otherwise it’s incredibly difficult to develop any positive sense of self.”

Burton began directing while still on The Next Generation, and he explained why he decided to go behind the camera. “This is an inherently tough business,” he said. “Ups and downs are a given. One day you’re hot, the next you’re not! I simply believe it’s a good thing to be able to do more than one thing. Survival 101. As a producer on Reading Rainbow I had gotten used to being more at the center of the creative process. I recognized early on that ST:TNG could provide an opportunity to learn how to express myself creatively as a director as well.”

And what about those five things that fans may or may not know about Burton (or his family)? “I studied for the Catholic priesthood for four years,” Burton said. “Used to have Yoga classes on the Enterprise sets during lunch breaks when we were filming Star Trek: TNG. I’m very fond of Irish Whiskey. I am addicted to Family Guy. My granddaughter is a member of the current National Champion Hip-Hop Dance Team.”

TrekToday wishes LeVar a very Happy Birthday.

CBC Television and the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television announced that William Shatner will be hosting the 31st Genie Awards this spring.

The Genie Awards began in 1980 and are given annually to honor Canada’s film industry. Joining Shatner at this year’s ceremony will be Rachelle Lefevre (Barney’s Version), who will “act as the voice of the show.”

“We could not have asked for a more ideal person to host the 31st Annual Genie Awards and we can’t wait for William Shatner to bring his talent and charm to this year’s event,” said Kirstine Stewart, executive vice-president, English Services, CBC. “With an incredible collection of talented nominees, the biggest stars from the silver screen, special musical performances and the legendary William Shatner as host, the Genie Awards are going to be a night of celebration that Canadians nationwide won’t want to miss.”

“William Shatner is a beloved icon and a proud Canadian. We are absolutely thrilled that Mr. Shatner will be joining us at the Genie Awards to honor our country’s talent and to celebrate a phenomenal year in Canadian film,” said Sara Morton, CEO, Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television.”

This year’s ceremony will take place on March 10 at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa and Canadians will be able to see the ceremony televised live by CBC.

Shatner was born and raised in Montreal.

In other Shatner news, Shatner will be bringing his Kirk, Crane & Beyond show to Brisbane, Australia on April 11 for one night. Shatner will share “anecdotes, lessons learnt and pearls of wisdom gathered from almost sixty years in show business.” He will be interviewed in an “informal couch chat” by a guest interviewer.

Kirk, Crane and Beyond will be held at the Concert Hall of the Queensland Performing Arts Centre (QPAC), with tickets ranging from $149 (Aus) to $350 (Aus), the latter being a VIP ticket that enables fans to attend a special meet-and-greet. More details can be found here.

In the first part of a two-part interview, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s Chase Masterson answers fan questions which include sexuality, favorite Deep Space Nine moments and her life outside of Star Trek.

Masterson came from an acting family so it was natural that she gravitated towards acting. “My mom was a theater director and actress while I was growing up,” she said. “I did my first play when I was five, and continued working throughout high school; instead of going to standard activities after school, or just hanging out with friends.”

In addition to theater, the young Masterson was interested in other arts and the work ethic involved helped her when it came to her later acting career. “I also was a ballet dancer,” she said. “I danced en pointe until I was eighteen, so there was a lot of rehearsal and discipline involved in my life early on.”

Masterson’s Leeta was a secondary character on Deep Space Nine, but that was not a problem for Masterson. “DS9 was so well-written that there wasn’t really an issue of main characters without much to do,” said Masterson, “indeed, one of the strengths of the show was that our writers created an entire world in which the audience got to know individuals who weren’t always in the spotlight, just as you would if you were living in that world”

Plus – it gave Masterson the freedom to do other projects during Deep Space Nine‘s run. “I got a lot of experience playing a wide variety of different roles on other shows during the run of DS9 that I wouldn’t have had if I were a series regular,” she said. “Being a series regular would have been nice, of course, but I enjoyed the versatility of the other work I was free to do during those years.

Leeta may have been intended as “eye-candy,” but she had other elements of her character that made her interesting to watch. “Sexuality is a driving force in many women’s roles in television and film,” said Masterson, “you can’t fight that, but you do get to stand your own internal ground and bring the elements of humanity that make a character interesting. Sexy looking women, without compelling internal life, are pretty boring, right? Leeta had a lot of built-in elements that made her interesting: integrity, loyalty – and yes, Quark, her own brand of ‘brains’ that served her quite well, thank you.”

What was Masterson’s favorite Deep Space Nine episode? “We all had a huge amount of fun with Take Me Out to the Holosuite,” said Masterson, “partly because it was a drastic change of scene, everybody loved getting out of the studio, into the fresh air, and onto the baseball diamond.”

The Winter 2011 issue of The Herald, an online magazine created by The United Federation of Planets, an online community of Star Trek gamers, features interviews with Star Trek: Online‘s lead developer Dan Stahl and a developer of RPG-X, a mod for the Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force game.

In the interview with Stahl, UFP gamers were able to have their questions about the future of Star Trek: Online answered.

Topics in the Stahl interview include the reappearance of Q, uniform changes, new fleet content, game time-travel, Season Four, mini-games, Trek actors voicing characters in the game, and future plans.

The article is accompanied by many attractive photos, which will be sure to please Star Trek fans. Other articles in the magazine include the interview with a developer of RPG-X for Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force, UFP news, 2010: A Year in Review ( UFP), tweets from Star Trek actors, and more.

The United Federation of Planets (UFP) is a Star Trek gaming group that was founded almost nine years ago. They currently support a variety of Star Trek games from Star Trek: Online to more classic, “old school” games such as Star Trek: Armada II. Weekly events provide fun for UFP members, and an active community contributes to the fleet.

The website for UFP is located here.

Although those who regularly follow Jeri Ryan‘s Twitter feed already knew that she would be playing Sonya in a new series of the digital Mortal Kombat, a press release from Warner Premiere confirmed the news and provided more information on the project including which other actors have been cast.

“Kevin Tancharoen who directed and produced the popular, unofficial Mortal Kombat: Rebirth fan short that garnered over 10 million views worldwide,” said the press release, “is bringing the same immersive directing style to this live-action digital new media series. Fans will be able to delve deep into the history of the warriors they know and love including ‘Sub-Zero’ and ‘Scorpion.’ Shooting for Mortal Kombat is currently underway in Vancouver.”

Joining Ryan will be Michael Jai White (The Dark Knight) as Major Jackson ‘Jax’ Briggs, and Darren Shahlavi (300) as Kano. “It’s extremely gratifying to have such talented actors playing these iconic roles,” said Kevin Tancharoen, Director, Producer and Co-Writer of Mortal Kombat.” “They will bring the essence of Mortal Kombat to life and gamers will be deeply immersed into the game’s universe.”

The Mortal Kombat digital series will be written by Tancharoen, Aaron Helbing and Todd Helbing, and will debut online this spring.

When the Enterprise begins to develop intelligence of its own, crewmembers use the holodeck to try to decipher the sudden system changes.

Plot Summary: While Data is rehearsing The Tempest on the holodeck, a freight train suddenly runs through the program, injuring Picard. Not long after, the ship goes into warp and changes course without a command from the helm. When LaForge investigates, he finds that the ship has begun to create nodes of new circuitry protected by force fields. The nodes appear to be drawing power from the holodeck, so Riker takes Data and Worf to investigate. They find several different programs running, all centered around Crusher’s Orient Express scenario. When Data tries to depolarize the power grid, various Wild West and mobster characters demand that he stop, and the conductor throws the Enterprise crewmembers off the train. Meanwhile, the ship goes into warp again and LaForge discovers that the ship appears to be building something inside one of the cargo bays. The new nodes resemble the circuits in Data’s positronic brain, so Data theorizes that the Enterprise may be developing its own intelligence, and that the holodeck characters might represent different systems of the ship. He returns to the holodeck with Troi and Worf, who find a recurrent pattern that LaForge has also discovered in the shape of the new circuitry. The object being constructed in the cargo bay has the same pattern as well. When Troi and Worf offer to help the characters on the holodeck reach their destination, they are told that the ship must reach Vertiform City. With the crew’s help, Picard realizes that the ship requires vertion particles to finish its task and allows the Enterprise to travel to a white dwarf star producing the particles. But on the holodeck, the train derails and the characters panic. Since the emerging intelligence apparently requires vertion particles, LaForge finds a nebula where the crew detonates a photon torpedo to generate the particles. The holodeck characters announce that the train has reached New Vertiform City and disappear; meanwhile, the object in the cargo bay, which is apparently a new intelligent being, travels through the bulkheads and out into space. The new circuitry disappears and Picard expresses hope that if the Enterprise has created a life form from the sum total of the ship and crew’s experiences, it will reflect the honor of the Enterprise’s mission.

Analysis: If that plot summary above makes no sense, don’t blame me. “Emergence” is nearly as convoluted and preposterous as “Masks,” and I still have no idea whether the magnetic storm the ship encounters in the first minutes of the episode is supposed to be responsible for its abrupt decision to have a baby or whether – since the freight train had already come through the holodeck before the bridge crew discovered the storm – the ship’s desire to reproduce emerged as spontaneously as the circuits that surprisingly don’t seem to panic anyone, not even when the crew figures out that the ship may be planning to exhaust their life support and kill them all in its efforts to reach “New Vertiform City.” In a way I suppose this is the logical sequel to “The Quality of Life” – the episode in which Data was willing to risk human lives in order to save the exocomps, which no one was actually certain were intelligent life forms – but there are no explicit connections drawn, so there’s really no sense that the writers had any idea better than doing some huge goofy holodeck smorgasbord in the final weeks of production on Star Trek: The Next Generation. The only thing this one is missing is Reg Barclay.

Captain Kirk always claimed that his Enterprise was a beautiful lady with a mind of her own, and “Emergence” seems to take that idea a bit too seriously. It’s rather charming when it becomes obvious that the train’s conductor, engineer, et al represent aspects of the Enterprise, but when the crew then insists on explicating that for the audience – and when Crusher says that the replicators are like a reproductive system, which is stretching an already thin idea to the breaking point – it just sounds ridiculous. The fact that the ship’s manufactured intelligence takes the form of giant Silly Straws doesn’t help matters. And do I want to know which ship’s systems are represented by the holographic ladies of the night? I suppose it’s a saving grace that the crew seems more amused than alarmed at having stock characters on the holodeck running their lives, since an overly earnest Picard barking commands would just trigger more snickering. If Picard is hoping the ship has absorbed his crew’s values and goals, he must be disappointed that it absorbed so little imagination. Its personified systems have none of the wonder of Shakespeare’s characters from The Tempest, nor even the wit that one imagines Crusher’s holographic Sigmund Freud and Gertrude Stein might have shared, and where is Moriarty when an intelligent explanation is needed? Fans of pulp fiction and genre movies will probably appreciate the holo-stereotypes, but I’ll take “A Fistful of Datas” over this.

Nice aspects include a good balance of the entire ensemble cast (including some lovely throwaway moments like Worf shoveling coal on the train and Troi following a mobster through a holographic version of historic New York City). Poor LaForge gets stuck with most of the technobabble, which seems unfair since Data has a balance of fake science and timeless Shakespeare. I wish some of the excess plot had been dispensed with – the fear that the ship is trying to kill them to get vertion particles, the stop-and-start warp drive – to save time for some discussion of what it all means. This episode could tie into all the stories about whether Data is “alive,” how intelligence is defined, the limits of Moriarty’s defiant “Cogito Ergo Sum” (and does the crew now have an obligation to release his intelligence from his prison-cube?). It could also raise a whole host of questions for future Star Trek series about shipboard artificial intelligences. If Daystrom’s M5 demonstrates the dangerous negative aspect of trying to build a ship that can think for itself, with the Borg representing the extreme development of that technology, then isn’t the Enterprise’s evolution the positive alternative, the first step toward the spiritual breakthrough of V’ger? Picard has never much shared Kirk’s impulse toward anthropomorphism of his ship, but Picard is the one with a sentient android on his crew – the possibility of an intelligent ship is that much closer for him. Wouldn’t he be a bit more curious about what made his ship create an intelligence…and then send it out unsupervised into the universe, mission unknown?

Grant McCune, known to Star Trek fans for his visual effects work on Star Trek: The Motion Picture, passed away Monday from pancreatic cancer at the age of sixty-seven.

McCune, Douglas Trumbull, John Dystra, Richard Yuricich, Robert Swarthe and Dave Stewart were nominated for an Oscar for their work on Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979.  The visual effects for Alien won instead.

In 1977, McCune shared an Oscar win for Visual Effects for his work on another science fiction film, Star Wars.

McCune began his career in special and visual effects by helping to create the giant shark for Jaws. He also worked on movies such as Die Hard, Space Balls, Never Say Never Again, Big, Caddyshack, Speed, Batman Forever, U.S. Marshalls, Red Planet, U-571, Spider-Man and Serenity.

“He created a perfect work environment,” said Monty Shook, head of Grant McCune Design’s model shop. “If you had a question, whether it was in the field of science, math, medicine, or the arts, he would have an answer, not some half-baked fabrication, but a clear, informed, articulate response.”

McCune is survived by wife Katherine, a son, daughter and a sister.

Chris Hemsworth, best-known to Star Trek fans for portraying George Kirk, father of James T. Kirk, has married his longtime girlfriend, Elsa Pataky.

The Australian actor and his Spanish girlfriend were married over the Christmas holiday, according to a representative for Hemsworth. The wedding location was not revealed.

Pataky will be familiar to movie audiences for her role as Maria in 2006′s Snakes on a Plane, which starred Samuel L. Jackson.

Fans of Star Trek: Voyager‘s Roxann Dawson and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s Chase Masterson will enjoy the latest issue of Star Trek Magazine.

In Star Trek Magazine #31, as well as interviews with Dawson and Masterson, there will be a “look at the Haynes Enterprise Manual” and an article on Star Trek‘s strong females, featuring Lieutenant Uhura.

Dawson spoke about her days on Star Trek: Voyager, including a discussion with Brannon Braga which led to the episode Extreme Risk. “The episode Extreme Risk actually came out of a conversation I had had with executive producer Brannon Braga,” said Dawson. “He was wondering where B’Elanna would go next, and I began talking about her life and that maybe she was at a point where the conflict between her Klingon and human sides was so great that she began taking risks to know what it was like to feel. B’Elanna wanted to pit one side against the other and see which would win as far as her fears and vulnerabilities went. It was a very private thing that wound up obsessing her.

“I love what they did with that script. It was an emotional and exciting episode to do because it was so psychologically risky. In fact, I’ve spoken with a number of people who have gone through moments like that. They’ve taken undue risks to test the boundaries of life for one reason or another, whether because of something that has happened in their own life, or even due to clinical depression. Sometimes people will do things just to reaffirm to themselves what it means to be alive. So I thought it was a risky as well as wonderful thing that the writers were willing to go there with B’Elanna and really show this sort of psychologically tormented side of her that was crying out for some help, and I was thrilled to perform that.”

In the article about Star Trek‘s strong women, authors Kevin Dilmore and Dayton Ward show how one character, Uhura, set the bar for those who would follow her. Fans of the original series were aware of Uhura’s resourcefulness, from language skills to the ability to repair the systems with which she worked, but a new generation of fans saw a younger Uhura in Star Trek XI, who showed that same skill and resourcefulness as a young Starfleet cadet.

To subscribe to the Star Trek Magazine, head to the link located here. A digital version can be purchased here.

The Simon & Schuster Digital Catalog features four Star Trek books of interest to fans to be published in 2011.

The four new books, the first of which will debut at the end of May, are: Star Trek: Children of the Storm, Star Trek: Vanguard: Declassified, Star Trek: Cast No Shadow, and Star Trek: A Choice of Catastrophes.

In Star Trek: Children of the Storm, “Three Federation starships, the Quirinal, Planck and Demeter, have mysteriously vanished, and a contingency plan is developed for the Voyager crew to search for the missing ships. An unknown alien race who call themselves the Children of the Storm is at fault, announcing to the Federation that they do not negotiate with destroyers of worlds, and it is not the Borg being referenced, but the Federation itself!”

Star Trek: Children of the Storm is written by Kirsten Beyer.

Star Trek: Vanguard: Declassified will debut at the end of June. This book is the fifth book in the Vanguard Series. In Star Trek: Vanguard: Declassified, “Reyes works to uncovering the truth about the Taurus Reach. As forces align against the threat of the Shedai, a wild card returns to change the rules.”

Star Trek: Vanguard: Declassified will feature stories by David Mack, Dayton Ward, Kevin Dilmore and Marco Palmieri.

In July, Star Trek: Cast No Shadow, written by James Swallow, will debut. The story, set in 2300, is a sequel to and is set seven years after the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. “A space station orbits the planet Da’Kel, a Klingon colony close to the border. With the help of aid supplies plies from the United Federation of Planets, reconstruction is in progress—but the peace process begun by the Khitomer Accords is still fragile. And unknown to either the Federation or Klingon representatives, the plans of a third group are drawing to fruition. Unnoticed by security, a civilian transport ship docks at the station. The ship transmits a message, the words of an ancient Klingon proverb— ‘Traitors cast no shadow’ —before destroying itself in a massive blast of subspace energy that obliterates the space station, crippling the other vessels in orbit

Finally, at the end of August, Star Trek: A Choice of Catastrophes, written by Steve Mollmann and Michael Schuster, will arrive in bookstores. In this original series story, set in 2268, the Enterprise is returning from a medical mission and is under the command of Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu. “All is routine until the Enterprise comes within a light-year of the planet Mu Arigulon; the ship is suddenly thrown from warp and suffers a momentary power cut. There’s only one injury, a minor one, and the Enterprise is again underway. Before the ship can reach full speed, it hits another distortion, this one much worse. There are a few more physical injuries, but what’s more worrying is an officer that’s entered into a coma … for no apparent reason.”

The artwork for the books, which is not final, can be seen at the referring site.

Although fans know her for playing the woman who rejected Spock, Arlene Martel was up for two other Star Trek roles before she landed the role of T’Pring.

Martel originally auditioned for Where No Man Has Gone Before, but she had to say “no” to the role due to her sensitive eyes. “I couldn’t do it because I would have had to have worn contact lenses,” she said. “My eyes are very sensitive and I said, ‘I can’t do it.’ They said, ‘Well, something else is coming up…’”

The “something else” turned out to be Catspaw. Although Martel didn’t get that part, she knew from comments that she would be up another part in another episode, which she did get. “I went up for Catspaw,” said Martel. “I heard the buzzing and whispering and someone saying, ‘Well, let’s save her for that.’ I didn’t know what they were talking about, and what I didn’t know was they were talking about Amok Time. So when that came up and I read for it, that was it. I think there were eight decision makers in the room; Gene Roddenberry and Herb Solow and Robert Justman and others. And I got the part.”

Playing a non-emotional female was a change for Martel. “One of the joys was that I knew I had an exotic in me, but I didn’t know I had a flawlessly logical exotic in me, because I’ve always run on my emotional center and have usually been cast as very emotional women,” said Martel. “I’d played women with different accents and of different ethnicities, and this was a very cultured, sophisticated woman who insisted on specificity and got what she wanted, not because she was calculating and manipulative, but because she was smart.”

Martel found working with William Shatner to be amusing, although his antics drove Joseph Pevney, the director of the episode, a bit crazy. “The shoot itself was a hoot and a howl,” said Martel. “Given William Shatner’s proclivity for colorizing phrases with his own inimitable, risqué humor, I was in hysterics most of the time, to the chagrin of the director. Joseph Pevney would say, ‘Do I really have to come and separate you two? Take a break. Come back and stop laughing.’ I have tremendous concentration, but in spite of that Bill Shatner just broke through my reserve and he just had me in hysterics. Especially when dear, dear T’Pau would try to say a Vulcan word, he would twist that word so that it was really very, very naughty. And that made it a lot of fun.”

Leonard Nimoy was more reserved according to Martel. “Leonard Nimoy, on the other hand, was very isolated and very to himself, probably keeping in character,” she said.

Martel is still acting. Recently, she completed work on a TV pilot, A Matter of Family, where she was “one of the leads.” “I play the mother of a Mafia family and it was an excellent part,” she said. “It had an excellent script and exciting new actors. I hope that gets picked up. I’d love to do a series and really develop a character.”

Zoë Saldana‘s website has had a make-over, and there is plenty of content for her fans to enjoy.

The redesigned website has six sections, including: Film, Fashion, Charity, Photo Gallery, About Zoe and Press.

The film section includes information on the various films on which Saldana has worked, including feature films such as Avatar, and videos such as a Funny or Die one.

Fans looking for information on Saldana’s wear at various events would head to the fashion section of the website, while details on charity work/events would be found in the charity section.

The photo section includes almost two dozen photos of Saldana, including ones on/in magazines, and any red carpet appearances.

Those wishing to know more about Saldana would find that information in the About Zoe section, while any press on the actress would be in the press section.

Section 31′s Luther Sloan, played by William Sadler, who appeared on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, is remembered by Star Trek fans as the man who would do whatever it took to keep the Federation safe.

Eventually appearing in three episodes, Sadler leapt at the chance to take on the role, partly because he was a fan of the original series. “I was offered the role and I remember thinking, ‘How cool is this? They’re offering me something in the Star Trek franchise.’ I grew up on the original show and I’ve always thought Star Trek was such a great part of the American tapestry. And to be a thread in that tapestry, I just said, ‘I’ll do it!’ I said I’d do it before I even knew what the job was.”

Sadler explained who Sloan was and how he operated in the world of Star Trek. “I thought of him as an Ollie North character,” said Sadler. “He does what needs to be done, what he feels needs to be done. He breaks all the rules, all the rules of the Federation, in order to keep the Federation safe, or so he thinks and deeply believes. It’s that same argument that went down with the Iran-Contra affair and Ollie North. You do what needs to be done and somebody’s got to do it. I remember thinking, ‘How freaking cool is it that the Federation, this honorable group, these honorable people for all these years, had this little worm in there who’s been changing history for decades.’”

Like other actors in Star Trek, Sadler sometimes appears at conventions and autograph shows and is grateful for the fan support. “I am amazed by the passion of Star Trek fans,” he said. “They love this franchise and anyone who’s been a part of it. I’m actually amazed by the passion of genre fans in general. People talk to me about The Shawshank Redemption like it was a life-changing experience for them. It’s the same with Roswell. It’s like, for a lot of people, the sun and moon rose on that cast. People need and love what we do, apparently. We spin these dreams and these stories, and people connect with them in some important way. And I feel very grateful for, and humbled by, the opportunity to have helped people make that kind of connection. It’s a wonderful payback for an actor.”

Sadler is currently involved in the Hawaii Five-O reboot, doing voice-overs of his now deceased character (Steve McGarrett’s father).

A new editor and graphics staff have meant a “new look” and a “new feel” for Voyages, the eMagazine of The Federation Star Trek fan club.

The revamped Voyages is now “focus[ed] on the fans,” said Editor Kelly Rowles. “You see more photos of fans in action at conventions, doing public service and much more.”

In addition to reports about conventions, such as the 2010 Creation Entertainment Las Vegas Star Trek Convention and the official East Coast Star Trek Convention in New Jersey, there is a report on Star Trek: The Exhibition in California, and for Star Trek: Voyager fans, an interview with Manu Intiraymi (Icheb) on what it was like to play the Borg teenager.

Intiraymi shared his thoughts about acting on Star Trek, including how he felt about his Borg costume. “I was super excited, except for the leg,” he said. “I even made a big stink about the costume because they cut out my entire left leg. At the time, I was twenty-one and skinny and white, and I had this super cool robot Borg costume on, except for my really ridiculous skinny white leg sticking out. I just thought it was lame.”

Complaints to Brannon Braga and Rick Berman proved to be fruitless, so Intiraymi asked for a compromise, which was granted. “I begged them to let me wear pantyhose, which is not the most macho thing in the world, but at least it would hide a little somethin’. So, they let me wear panty hose under the costume with a couple of implants on; I was a little more excited about struttin’ around in that thing.”

To read more of the interview plus the other features in Voyages, head to the link located here and click on the Voyages Magazine link located at the bottom right side of the page.

Fans of the original series and Star Trek XI will be able to buy Star Trek costume replicas based on the uniforms seen the original series and the movie.

Two shirts and two dresses will be offered; a dress and a shirt in red, and a dress and a shirt in blue.

The uniforms, offered by Anovos, include an original series red shirt, an original series blue dress, a Star Trek XI blue shirt and a Star Trek XI red dress.

The red original series shirts “feature the exact double-knit fabric from the original uniforms and are fabric-dyed to match screen-used samples from the landmark 1960′s television show.” The original series blue dress will be available in two versions, a tri-cut pattern, followed later by a more conventional panel cut version.

The Star Trek XI uniform replicas were created in “collaboration with Bad Robot and CBS/Paramount, utilizing many screen-used pieces from the recent Star Trek feature for reference, and by replicating the same dyeing/printing processes used by the manufacturer of the film’s costumes.”

The new uniform replicas won’t be cheap. The original series shirt will sell for $275 and the dress will sell for $325. The Star Trek XI red dress will sell for $340 and the Star Trek XI blue shirt will sell for $290. The Star Trek XI replicas can be pre-ordered beginning later this week, with the original series to follow next week. Although not yet on the site, the uniforms can be pre-ordered by heading to Anovos.