Star Trek Dvds News & Reviews

Few franchises can claim as much success as Star Trek, and Star Trek trivia will show that the series has had incredible success across television and film. The characters have also been featured in books, comics, and video games. Many of the characters, symbols, and sayings from the series have entered the pop culture jargon, and most people are at least familiar with the series to some degree.

Star Trek

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I can sum up my feelings and thoughts for the new Star Trek film in one word. WOW! No seriously… WOW! This movie couldn’t be better; it is perfect on every level. From the brilliant script to the bold directing to the stellar acting, this Star Trek is a thrill to behold, jam packed with action, suspense and vision. The reboot makes the previous entries in the series look like they are standing still. Star Trek moves at warp 10 whereas the other films are moving at warp 1.

Who could have guessed, watching the Starship Enterprise first set out in the 60s, that its five year mission would span four decades and bring Earth so much of the technology that today we take for granted?

At a time when even a landline house phone was still seen by many as a luxury, families entered the fictional world of Star Trek, watching in awe as Captain James T. Kirk spoke to his crew via a handheld communicator. Forty years on, with satellite navigation a given, billions of us own mobile technology. Already considering flip-top cell phones pretty outmoded, we attach Bluetooth devices, with no thought of Lt Uhura opening the hailing frequencies through an elaborate earpiece. Nor do we take a second glance at the handheld PDA, the modern day development from Kirk’s daily captain’s log. The touch screen technology of Star Trek is rapidly becoming second-nature to us: not only do we use it on our mobile phones and other hand-held devices, we tap screens at the airport, the station, the library, the supermarket – and as we enter and leave these buildings, we pass through doors that magically glide open before us, not stopping to consider their link with Star Trek fiction.

The icing on the cake is our ability to see people at the same time that we’re speaking to them. In the original Star Trek series, the crew on the Enterprise bridge can be seen engaging in serious audio-visual communication with the outside, strange new worlds. Modern technology has developed this concept of video-conferencing on a huge scale, making it a crucial element in business and political communications, whilst also providing us with the more humble webcam. Even with Captain Kirk at its helm, the bold Starship Enterprise could also have been blindly going where no man had gone before – it had no windows. Without the giant viewscreen on the bridge, Kirk and his crew would have been unable to see where they were heading. It’s strangely ironic to think that today’s modern society can view Star Trek DVDs via their flatscreen TV. Read the rest of this entry »

Star Trek Celebration In Hollywood Salutes The Women Of  Star Trek

We were told that Star Trek would let us “boldly go where no man has gone before.”

But there were women who went into the unknown, too.

These are the women who traipsed among the stars. Read the rest of this entry »

I recently watched a few episodes of the original Star Trek series. It brought back a flood of childhood memories. Back in the day, Star Trek was a popular program in our household.

Although the next generation was a good show, I can’t bear to watch the other knockoffs. If nothing else, the latest brand of Star Trek serves to keep the show fresh in our minds. It may also entice younger viewers to watch the original episodes.

If these viewers can get past the cheesy monsters, paper mache rocks and ultra colored background scenes, they will be in for a pleasant surprise. The original writers were superb storytellers. Read the rest of this entry »

Star Trek Voyager

Nominated for 30 Emmys, including seven for Outstanding Special Visual Effects for a Series, Star Trek: Voyager continues the rich tradition of the original 1960s Star Trek franchise. Created by former L.A. police officer Gene Roddenberry, the Star Trek TV series morphed into a franchise famous for the unprecedented fanatical devotion of its fan base. Lasting only three seasons during its original network run, Star Trek struck gold with its syndicated reruns, launching a number of motion pictures featuring the original cast as well as novels, comic books, collectibles, and reams of Star Trek-related memorabilia. The third spin-off from the original Star Trek series, Star Trek: Voyager premiered in January 1995 to modest critical acclaim, but experienced great success with television viewers, slowly increasing its ratings as the series progressed. Following on the heels of Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987) and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), the series precedes Star Trek: Enterprise (2001) while boasting an all-star cast that includes veteran actress Kate Mulgrew (whose past TV appearances include such shows as Dallas, Cheers, and Murphy Brown). Yet instead of pursuing the classic Star Trek mission to “boldly go where no one has gone before,” Star Trek: Voyager is more about going where the crew has been before…

How well does director J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek (2009) stack up against the rest of the series? How is the film in its own right?

Overall, I was entertained, but with reservations. If you don’t insist on strict plot coherence, you’ll probably have a great time. Hardcore Trekkies (or “Trekkers” if they really take themselves seriously) will more likely to have mixed feelings about it than regular moviegoers. One of the reviewers on Amazon put it best: “Excellent film. Bad Star Trek.”

Star Trek 11: The Plot (Sort Of) Read the rest of this entry »

The thought of watching a new Star Trek film, at one time, was an exciting one. Seeing all your favourite characters up there on the screen taking on the latest galactic challenge while telling an engrossing and intelligent story brought a sense of glee and delight for many a Star Trek fan, myself included. With the exception of the fifth film, all the films up to and including “First Contact” made for some exciting cinematic experiences. And then, right around the time that “Insurrection” came out and “Deep Space Nine” departed the air waves, something unfortunate started happening to the franchise: it became stale. It was bound to happen at some time but this was still Star Trek; the most successful science-fiction television/film franchise ever produced. Seeing it degenerate was a disappointing experience to say the least because it is more than just a franchise, it is part of our culture.

Much debate surrounds which film is worse: “Insurrection” or “Nemesis”. Both are inherently weak but for very different reasons. Ultimately the lack of care taken with both of the stories presented in these films led to the demise of the feature film franchise, a demise which was simultaneously reflected in the television series being produced at the time (Voyager and Enterprise). Producer Rick Berman would create the often quoted phrase, “franchise fatigue”; Star Trek had been on for too long with too many episodes and films produced and it basically had just tired itself out of ideas. There is a certain logic to that, after all, if you keep doing the same thing over and over again, eventually you will run out of ways to keep it fresh and original.

For fans however, this sounded more like an excuse, and Berman, who for all intents and purposes did an excellent job of shepherding Star Trek after series creator Gene Roddenberry passed away, was becoming demonised in the fan community, along with co-Executive Producer from the television shows Brannon Braga, as the men who killed Star Trek. This is perhaps short-sighted and unfair; maybe all these guys needed to do was let it go and hand the baton on to a new set of producers who could bring something new to the franchise. In some sense, this has now happened, with new Hollywood wonder boy J.J. Abrams now the new keeper flame. Read the rest of this entry »

The original series of Star Trek (or Star Trek: TOS has fandom has renamed it) launched on NBC on September 8th 1966, that’s 40 years ago this Friday. The show, which ran for a mere three seasons finished its run on June 3rd 1969 and has been in re-runs almost ever since.

It’s popularity is such that 40 years after it started CBS are currently working on re-mastered versions of some of the original episodes complete with new CGI for release into syndication again.

But Star Trek is a lot more than just a science fiction show that has stood the test of time. It’s more even than the start of a popular franchise. Star Trek represents the entrance of science fiction into popular culture. Read the rest of this entry »

The Star Trek fans are alive and well to this day, Gene Roddenberry would be proud indeed. Although he died in October of 1991, it seems his fans have taken his brand and made it into a cult like following, propelling the future through Science Fiction.

In fact, if you want to learn more about it and see where all this has led then you owe it to yourself to read a bit of the Best of Trek. And to help introduce this to you, let me recommend an excellent read, a paperback book that will illustrate this point. The book is:

“The Best of Trek # 12″ from the Magazine for Star Trek; edited by Walter Irwin and G.B. Love; Signet; New York, NY. 1987. Read the rest of this entry »