They Boldly Went

May 16

Very Brief, Non-Spoilery Thoughts On The New Film

Ok, onto Star Trek Into Darkness:

When it does new things and shows the characters interacting, it’s terrific entertainment. The cold open in particular was exciting, and engaged me immediately.
When it calls back to the old continuity and starts playing with fan service, it gets heavy-handed and dull (Two episode-specific callouts were the exception. They were throwaways and perfect for what they were.)
The cast performs admirably. Cumberbatch is underwritten and relies too much on the audience knowing certain things from What Happened Before. Peter Weller is aggressively good and I’m glad to see him back in Trek.
Each member of the Enterprise’s bridge crew gets something to do. I love seeing the Magnificent Seven all contribute to stories like this.
The practical effects were stunningly realized and the CG integration only threw me off once, at the beginning of the film.
The movie is About Something. People who think there’s no heart to NuTrek missed out on the huge speech at the end.
If there is a next movie, I suspect we’ll see a Jim Kirk that much more closely resembles the guy I grew up with, and that’s good. 24-year-old hotheads are fine at exploding things, not so great at exploring things.

With the new film in wide release, we’ll probably go back to our regular schedule on Monday. Thank you for your patience during our standby mode.

May 15

Cover, Star Trek #13 (1972)

We received a copy of this as a gift from our friend Ming Doyle and while we’ve read all these stories in collections over the years, we’d somehow never purchased an individual issue of the series. Thanks, Ming! You’re the peachiest.

Curious about the story? Here’s a rundown over at Curt Danhauser’s site.

May 10

agreeablecomics:

Paperwork! It’s one of the best parts of being a Starfleet captain.

May 08

Original art by Alberto Gioletti, Star Trek #4, 1968

May 07

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May 05

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May 03

Gaming sourcebook, Star Trek III: The Search For Spock, 1984

[video]

May 02

Theatrical Poster Art by Bob Peak, Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, 1982

Still, “Plato’s Stepchildren,” 1969

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Still, “Errand of Mercy,” 1967

May 01

Behind the scenes, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, 1979

Many of the extras in this scene were fans who had been approached at a convention. Eagle-eyed viewers looking at the crew of the newly refurbished Enterprise can spot director Robert Wise’s wife, Grace Lee Whitney’s son as a Vulcan, original series uber-fan Bjo Trimble (who wrote The Star Trek Concordance and helmed the original “Save Star Trek” campaign), “The Trouble With Tribbles” author David Gerrold along with other members of the production staff.