Tag: startrek

Bumpy vs Smooth Klingon Heads

Ashley Bischoff4 Comments

So, I suppose you've been wondering why TNG Klingons have bumpy heads while TOS Klingons have smooths heads? Or is that just me? Well, Sci Fi Wire is reporting that an upcoming episode of Enterprise will deal the subject. (For those unaware, Klingons in “Star Trek: The Next Generation” had alien-looking bumpy heads while the actors in “The Original Series” had no such prosthetics.)

In the episodes, the Enterprise heads back to Earth for the official launch of the Columbia NX-02, Starfleet's second warp ship, commanded by Erika Hernandez. Phlox is abducted by aliens and finds himself in the presence of Klingons who tell him the Empire is facing its gravest threat in centuries. Along the way, as Archer and company investigate and pursue, it’s revealed that one of our main characters has a secret past, which comes into play, the site reporte. […]

I did some additional investigation and discovered that the episode, Affliction is scheduled to air on February 18th. And, as I enjoy Enterprise, I’ll watch the episode when it airs. But I’ve never cared that much about this issue — I just figured that 60s television shows didn’t have those kind of makeup effects. (On the other hand, some Trekkers have completely over-analyzed the subject, to the point of hypothesizing scientific theories within the Star Trek universe which could have explained the discrepancy.)

Picard Doesn’t Like Space Travel

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In an interview with the BBC World Service Radio, Patrick Stewart said that he’s not terribly enthused about space travel:

“I’m a bit of a wet blanket when it comes to the whole business of space travel,” he said in a BBC interview.

As commander of the USS Enterprise on the show, his character Captain Jean-Luc Picard is an avid space traveller.

In an interview with BBC World Service radio, Stewart said he backed unmanned missions such as NASA’s Mars rover Opportunity and the UK’s Beagle 2 mission.

[…]

“As I get older my unease at the time and the money that has to be spent on projects putting human beings back to the moon, and on to another planet, is so enormous,” he said. […]

Of all people, I figured he would be somewhat excited about space travel. Still, I can understand his concerns about the costs involved; while I support NASA’s efforts as a whole, I’m not sure how I feel about the proposed Moon Trip II.

Star Trek: Nemesis

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I watched Star Trek: Nemesis this evening and largely enjoyed it. MetaCritic gave it just a 47 (out of 100), so I was a bit concerned. But it turned out all right.

I enjoyed it more than Insurrection, though I haven’t yet decided how it compares to First Contact. Nemesis was directed by Stuart Baird and, if you look at his history explains much of the film’s feel. Baird edited Tomb Raider, Mission Impossible 2, and Lethal Weapon 2. As a friend of mine remarked, “The scene where they’re racing around in a dune buggy, that wasn’t very TNG-like.”

Still, its action sequences are some of its strongest points (and I say that as a good thing). The last third of the film was especially quite a ride. And for you visual-effects buffs, I was quite impressed with some of the particle effects in particular. (Particle effects of what? The answer is in the Spoilers section below.)

Spoilers follow. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, you may not want to read further.

The ending was a bit of a waste. It was very similar to the ending of The World is Not Enough (aka Bond 19) where the hero finds himself in a bit of a jam, finds a spear-like piece of metal, and impales the bad guy. The end. No cleverness, but mostly luck. Had that piece of metal not been there, the good guy would likely have died (but, lucky for him, it was just within reach).

The visual effects were very good throughout. As with most of the recent Star Trek flicks, all the ships were pure CG. And, though lighting is one of the most difficult aspects of computer generated effects (the human eye can spot lighting mistakes easily), the lighting was excellent and matched the non-CG elements well.

Ah, on to the particle effects. As you recall, the Enterprise is rammed into the Shinzon’s ship. As it makes impact, the Enterprise splinters apart and its shards break off into space. The effects crew could have chosen to do this over-dramatically, but the disintegration was almost tastefull (if that can be said of a such an event).

(End of spoilers.)

Wil Wheaton appears (as Wesley) in a non-speaking role, but his role was originally much larger. In the editing process, his role was cut away (Wil talkes about this on his blog). There were some scenes that could have been cut (to make room for Wil), including a hokey fight that Riker has (it doens’t advance the story much). With any luck, perhaps some of Wil’s scenes will make it onto the DVD.

In all, I had a good time, though I would probably only recommend this to people who are already Trek-fans. To be sure, it was good enough to see once, though I don’t think I’ll be buying the DVD (though if Wil’s scenes make it to the DVD, perhaps I’ll borrow it from someone to watch once through).

Nemesis May Not be Last TNG Flick

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

Though there had been rumors that Nemeis (trailer) might be the last Star Trek movie with the TNG cast, Sci-Fi news reports that there may be others after all:

Because of events that occur in the movie, “there is some degree of finality to it,” Berman said in an interview while promoting the movie. “But as to whether that means it’s the last film with this cast is yet to be decided. The next film could have this cast. It could have a combination of this cast and people from other casts or a combination of this cast and new people. We just haven’t decided yet.” […]

I still haven’t seen Bond yet (trailer), but Nemesis is the other movie that I’d really like to see this year.

Enterprise: Carbon Creek

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

I watched the Enterprise episode “Carbon Creek” over the weekend. I’m quite a fan of Enterprise, and I find that many of the episodes are just as good as TNG from years back.

In this episode, T’Pol tells the story of how Vulcans made First Contact with humans in Pennsylvania back in the ’50s. Spoilers follow.

There wasn’t much plot in the episode, and it was more of a character study (but, that’s ok, as sometimes that can turn out well). T’Pol tells of how a Vulcan ship crash-lands on Earth and, with little hope of rescue, the Vulcans start living among humans.

After several weeks of human life, they hear that their distress call was received after all, and that a Vulcan ship will pick them up. At this point, one of the Earth-living Vulcans mentions to his captain (T’Mir) that he would like to stay on Earth.

Cut to the rescue-ship landing scene, and the captain of that ship asks why only two Vulcans are at the landing point. T’Mir explains that two of her comrades died in the crash and that their bodies were cremated (really, only one body was cremated). So, she was covering for the Vulcan that wanted to stay behind — but she lied. And, Vulcans can’t lie, right? Bleh.