CONTENTS |
UPCOMING
EVENTS
Sat.-Sun., July 26-27: SAVE
THE DATES, KEEP THEM OPEN!
Saturday, August 2: Away
Mission to Guardians of the Galaxy
Saturday, August 9: Away
Mission to Night at the Museum
SAVE THESE DATES NOW: DETAILS
TO BE ANNOUNCED
Saturday, September
27: STARFLEET Bowling Challenge
Friday, October
31: USS Republic Halloween Spooktacular
Sat.-Sun., Dec.
6-7, 2014: Farragut Fest 2014 (Kingsland GA)
Saturday, Dec. 20:
USS Republic Holiday Party
& CO Election
NEWS
& ANNOUNCEMENTS
Capt. Watts and the Republic
to be featured in reality series
The TrekTrax Atlanta 2014
Postmortem Report
TrekTrax Atlanta, TrekTrak
and Scotty t-shirts still available
Personnel Records
Library Computer
Recent Chapter Event Photos
SIDEBAR
Belated June Birthdays
July Membership Renewals
About the Republic
For More Information
USS Republic Online
Crew Roster
News from TrekMovie.com
Orci
hints at new setting and aliens for next Star Trek;
talks directing,
Kirk sex, gay character & more
Star
Trek Into Darkness shut out at Saturn Awards + TNG wins
for Blu-ray
New
Star Trek writers: J. J. Abrams "still guiding light"
behind 2016
movie |
UPCOMING
EVENTS
Away
Mission to Guardians of the Galaxy
1:00 p.m. Saturday, August 2, 2014
AMC North Dekalb Mall 16
2050 Lawrenceville Hwy
Decatur GA 30033 |
From
Marvel, the studio that brought you the global blockbuster
franchises of Iron Man, Thor, Captain America
and The Avengers, comes a new teamthe Guardians
of the Galaxy. An action-packed, epic space adventure,
Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy expands the Marvel
Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where brash adventurer
Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty
hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful
villain with ambitions that threaten the entire universe.
To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced
into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfitsRocket,
a gun-toting raccoon; Groot, a tree-like humanoid; the deadly
and enigmatic Gamora; and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer.
But when Quill discovers the true power of the orb and
the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to
rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate standwith
the galaxy's fate in the balance.
Make plans
to join your USS Republic crewmates for this late-summer
science fiction blockbuster! Tickets for adults
are only $7.50 for this showtime, compared to $10.25
for an evening showtime at the same theater and $10.00 for
a matinee showtime at the nearby Regal Hollywood 24 in Chamblee.
(See? We really do check these things out
for you!) Click the link below to be taken directly
to Fandango's checkout page for this showtime at this theater. Buy
your ticket now to avoid a possible sell-out and join
your fellow crewmates on this away mission to Guardians
of the Galaxy! |
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Away
Mission to Night at the Museum
6:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Tellus Science Museum
100 Tellus Drive, Cartersville GA 30120
(770) 386-0576 |
Have
you ever wanted to ask the Wright Brothers about their first
successful flight? Or would you like to tell Galileo
how much the telescope has changed since his days? Or
maybe you'd like to tell Katniss Everdeen that you were rooting
for her in The Hunger Games!
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Ensigns
Lee and Tiffany Johnson, Republic
CO Capt Eric L. Watts and ENS1 Wil Sims at last year's
Night of the Museum event.
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On Saturday,
August 9, you'll have the chance to meet these and other popular
characters from science and science fiction when Night at
the Museum returns to Tellus! Actors portraying historical
figures like Albert Einstein and Marie Curie will impress
you with their scientific discoveries, while pop-science characters
like Indiana Jones and Captain America will explain how science
was important in their everyday "lives."
Every visitor will receive an autograph book to document this
special night. Children 12 and under are encouraged
to dress up as their favorite science or science fiction character
and participate in an Instagram photo contest. We will
award a special prize for the winner.
If that's not enough for you, then stay for a crowd-pleasing
show by the Tellus Madd Scientists! See how our wacky
experts experiment with science to bring you the best programs
in the state. The Tellus Madd Scientists crew will be
sure to entertain and amaze you with demonstrations that explode
with fun.
Don't worry about grabbing dinner on the runthe Café
will be open until 9:00 p.m. |
Tellus
Science Museum Members: $10, Non-Members: $20
Advance ticket purchase recommended, as this event may sell
out. Call (770) 606-5700 ext 431 to purchase your
tickets. |
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Characters
and cosplayers from several popular franchises participated
in the fourth annual Night at the Museum, August 4, 2012.
Photo courtesy of the 501st
Georgia Garrison
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NEWS
& ANNOUNCEMENTS
Captain
Watts and the USS Republic to be featured in new reality
series |
Exciting
news! USS
Republic CO Fleet Captain Eric L. Watts has
been asked to participate in a brand new reality series that
"celebrates the passion of fans around the South, while
showcasing how they take their passion to the next level." After
an exchange of several emails and a lengthy phone conversation
earlier this week, the producers of this new series have agreed
that it would be appropriate and desirable to film portions
of this episode at a USS Republic chapter event where
there are lots of Star Trek fans in costume. Filming
will take place in late July but an exact date has not yet
been confirmed. As soon as a date is confirmed, some
type of costume-friendly event or activity will be planned
and announced and all members and friends of the USS Republic
will be invited (encouraged, urged, etc.) to attend and participate.
It seems likely that the producers will choose the weekend
of July 26-27 for filming, but this is only a guess. If
you are interested in being included in this production, please
keep that weekend open and clear on your calendars and be
ready to commit to whatever time and location is confirmed. Please
note: You will be asked to sign a release form in order
to appear in this series.
One of Captain Eric's preliminary concerns about this series
was that it might be exploitative, sensationalistic or disrespectful
of Star Trek fans, similar to the criticism that the
SyFy channel's Heroes of Cosplay reality series has
received from the cosplay community. The producers
have assured Captain Eric that, although they've asked for
an opportunity to film a group of Star Trek fans in
costume, this new series is intended to showcase passionate
fans in a respectful and positive light. And what
better group of Star Trek fans to appear in such a
series than members of the Republic? |
The
TrekTrax Atlanta 2014 Postmortem Report
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The
fourth annual TrekTrax
Atlanta
(TXA), the science fiction/space opera convention hosted
by the USS Republic, was held April 25-27, 2014, at
the Atlanta Marriott Northwest at Galleria hotel in the Cumberland
area of northwest Atlanta. Our Guests of Honor were
Arlene Martel (best known to Star Trek fans
as T'Pring in the original series episode "Amok Time"), Felix
Silla (Twiki in Buck Rogers in the 25th Century,
an Ewok in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi,
Lucifer in the original Battlestar Galactica, a Talosian
in the first Star Trek pilot "The Cage," Cousin Itt
in the original The Addams Family) and Jeremy Roberts
(Lt. Commander Dimitri Valtane in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered
Country and the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Flashback").
Our special guest for the second year in a row was Keith
R. A. DeCandido, the prolific writer/editor of many Star
Trek and other sci-fi franchise novels, novellas, short
stories, comic books and eBooks.
Nearly three dozen additional guests included cast and crew
members from the Star Trek fan film productions Project:
Potemkin, Star Trek: Reliant, Starship
Farragut and Star Trek: Phase II; musical
acts Go, Robo! Go! and Hyperspace; puppet troupes
Felt Nerdy and Death By Puppets; cast members
from The Spirit of Broadway's The Skywalkers;
local sci-fi podcasters Mike Gordon and Bobby Nash
from Earth Station One; local radio talk show host
Dan Carroll from Seriously, Dan; and local personality
Betsy Goodrich, performing as her alter-ego "Danger
Woman."
Over the course of the three-day convention, TrekTrax Atlanta
presented over 50 different events on two concurrent tracks
of programming: one dedicated to the Star Trek universe
and the other dedicated to Star Wars, Battlestar
Galactica and Firefly. This is actually almost
the same number of panels and events that were presented in
2013 on three tracks of programming. We listened
to the feedback we received about there being too many different
things going on at the same time in previous years' conventions,
causing our attendees to miss too many events that they wanted
to see, but we also listened to the feedback about wanting
to see more events and activities related to other popular
science fiction TV shows and movies other than "just" Star
Trek. We accomplished both goals by 1) consolidating
the previous year's Star Trek, Klingon and Costuming
& Makeup tracks into one "all Star Trek, all the time"
track and creating a second track devoted to everything else,
and 2) decreasing the time between panels from a half hour
to 15 minutes. This allowed for more panels and events
to be scheduled on each track while cutting the number of
tracks down to only two, so more people could see more of
the programming we presented. This restructuring of
the programming schedule was successful and very well-received
by this year's attendees.
Special events this year included a VIP champagne reception,
a tremendously popular sci-fi puppet show, a Broadway-style
tribute to Star Wars, musical performances by two live
bands, the first-ever TrekTrax Atlanta Masquerade and of course,
the 15th annual Miss Klingon Empire Beauty Pageant, which
was won after an honorable competition by Albuquerque, New
Mexico, resident and University of New Mexico student Cree
Myers, whose victory was featured in her student newspaper,
here.
TXA also hosted a gaming room, a dealers room and a
con suite. During our second annual "Star Trek
Fan Film Festival," no less than 62 different Star Trek
fan films, including episodes from various series and several
standalone films, were screened in our Video Room. And
finally, on Saturday night, cast and crew members from Project:
Potemkin, Star Trek: Reliant, Starship Farragut
and Star Trek: Phase II came together to film a Project:
Potemkin vignette, "Ladies Night Out," which will premiere
on the Internet sometime next year. This marks the second
time that several independent Star Trek fan film productions
have collaborated on a single film, and TrekTrax Atlanta is
pleased to have hosted the production.
Most of this year's attendees will tell you that they had
a great time at this year's convention. All three of
our Guests of Honor were absolutely delightful, approachable
and entertaining, and we are grateful to have hosted them.
The addition of Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica
and Firefly programming events were very well-received
and brought new fans to the convention. Operationally,
things went fairly well overall, with most of our planned
events and activities starting and ending on time, with (as
far as we know) no major technical glitches with any equipment,
aside from not being able to get our badge label printer working
until several hours after Registration opened. That
said, we did have one major at-con disappointment and another
issue has arisen post-con.
We worked very hard to put together a brand new art show for
this year's convention, but all that went down in a spectacular
blaze of glory at the convention. Due to an out-of-state
family emergency, our Art Show Director was unable to put
together the kind of art show we had hoped for and about a
month before the convention, that responsibility was taken
over by members of our Convention Operations staff, who had
very little time to plan and prepare the event. Add
to that issue were the facts that one of our confirmed artists
had to cancel his appearance two weeks before the convention
and our other confirmed artist was an altogether no-show.
As a result, our art show was an empty room with no
art and no artists. Although this was a huge disappointment
for us, the majority of our attendees didn't seem to notice
its absence, probably due to the fact that we'd never had
one before. We remain committed to presenting an art
show next year and have already begun contacting potential
artists.
The other matter is a bit more serious. It has come
to our attention that an unknown number of attendees have
not yet received the prepaid photos that were taken of them
with our Guests of Honor by the photographer with whom we
contracted to provide that service. We are currently
in contact with the photographer and are working to resolve
this unfortunate issue as quickly and as amicably as possible.
If you paid to have your picture taken with our guests
and have not received your photo, please contact
the Chairman with the details of your transaction.
In 2011, TrekTrax Atlanta attendance numbered 25 guests, 45
staff volunteers and 187 paid memberships for a total attendance
of 257 persons. In 2012, attendance numbered 33 guests,
45 staff volunteers and 162 paid memberships for a total paid
attendance of 240 persons, a 6.6% decrease from the previous
year. In 2013, attendance numbered 43 guests and comps,
41 staff volunteers and 97 paid memberships for a total attendance
of 181 persons, a 24.6% decrease from the previous year. This
year, TrekTrax Atlanta attendance included 72 guests and comps,
40 staff volunteers and 134 paid memberships for a total attendance
of 246 persons, a spectacular increase of 35.9% over the previous
year, making this our second-best year ever and falling just
twelve persons short of being our best year ever.
This dramatic (and very welcome) increase in attendance may
be partly due to our increased focus on other popular science
fiction outer space franchises besides Star Trek, but
is more likely due to the unprecedented amount of advertising
and promotion that we did this year. We had fan tables
at last year's TimeGate and Sci-Fi Summer Con and this year's
Chattacon and AnachroCon conventions, and handed out marketing
cards and flyers at last year's Night at the Museum, The
Skywalkers, Project: Potemkin Open House and Farragut
Fest events. We also distributed those same marketing
cards and flyers at more than two dozen comic book and gaming
stores in the metro area and mailed them to a couple of out-of-state
conventions. We listed ourselves on more than two dozen
online convention calendars, promoted heavily on dozens of
Star Trek, Klingon and Firefly Facebook pages,
donated a dozen gift certificates for free memberships to
a handful of charity fundraising events, emailed a promotional
newsletter to more than 700 addresses, purchased a classified
ad in six local Hometown newspapers (Decatur Dispatch,
Lilburn Living, Norcross News, Tucker Times,
Ponce Press and Brookhaven Buzz) and a one-sixth-page
black-and-white display ad in the latter two, and purchased
a one-eighth-page color ad in Creative Loafing and
a banner ad on their web site. We also received an unexpected
and free plug in the April issue of the widely read and highly
regarded Atlanta magazine. While it's difficult
to quantify and qualify the return on investment (whether
time, effort or financial) that each of these marketing strategies
produced, it seems clear that in the aggregate, the end result
was a significant increase in awareness of and attendance
at our convention.
That said, and despite a more than one-third increase in attendance,
we still did not reach the attendance figure that we had hoped
to in 2014 and on which we based our budget. We hopedand
neededto reach the 300-person mark in attendance in
order to break even. Coming in at 246 for the year puts
us at 54 people below the red line, and if you multiply that
number by the price of a membership, you can quickly determine
that the convention fell short of its financial projections
by a couple thousand dollars. While that is a troubling
number, and one which must be addressed and included in future
fiscal and budgetary planning, the good news is that all our
bills are paid and our entire debt sits on the Total Amount
Due line of a single credit card. As we move forward
into plans for 2015, we'll be looking for every way possible
to reduce our expenses and increase our revenue while servicing
our debt and still putting on "the best damned convention
that no one's ever heard of."
TrekTrax Atlanta Chairman Eric L. Watts would like
to thank all those persons who worked to make this year's
convention the operational success that it was, including
Director of Convention Operations Charles H. Strobel,
Director of Technical Operations Matt Steinberg, Director
of On-Site Registration Russell Ruhland, Director of
Guest Transportation & Services Mark A. Ozanick, Star
Trek Programming Director Brian Holloway, Star
Wars Programming Director Cheralyn Lambeth, Battlestar
Galactica Programming Director Marcia Patterson,
Firefly Programming Director Jenna "Tink" McCoy,
Video Room Director Clay Leaphart, Videography Director
Marq Collins, Security Director Jeff "Legoless"
Moore and Con Suite Director Jay Cannon, as well
as everyone who served on their staffs. More than
a thousand photos from this year's convention can be seen
in our Flickr album here.
We are currently in negotiations with a hotel for 2015 and
hope to announce that location next issue. We have also
begun reaching out to potential celebrity guests and will
announce those names when they are confirmed. We are
also working on developing a brand new signature event for
next year that we hope will be the Next Big Thing, something
we believe will attract an unprecedented amount of attention
and recognition to our convention.
TrekTrax Atlanta 2015 will be held on April 24-27. We
want and need your support and attendance at next year's convention
and hope to see you there! |
TrekTrax
Atlanta, TrekTrak and Scotty t-shirts still available |
Still
available! A limited selection of commemorative souvenir
t-shirts from this year's and last year's TrekTrax
Atlanta, our
previously offered Scotty fundraiser t-shirt, and even a
few still-new shirts from the 2006 TrekTrak at Dragon*Con. This
year's con shirt features a full-color design with this
year's celebrity guests Arlene Martel, Felix Silla
and Jeremy Roberts on a high-quality Gildan 50/50
polycot blend shirt. Last year's con shirt features
an attractive three-color design with guest of honor Manu
Intiraymi. The TrekTrak t-shirt features
George Takei, Denise Crosby and Tony Todd. Available
only in the sizes and colors shown in the drop-down menus. All
shirts are only $20 postpaid to domestic US addresses. Please
select your shirt from the PayPal buttons below.
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TrekTrax
Atlanta 2014 T-Shirts |
SMALL,
MEDIUM AND LARGE
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XL
AND 2XL
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TrekTrax
Atlanta 2013 T-Shirts
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Scotty
T-Shirts
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TrekTrak
2006 T-Shirts
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Personnel
Records
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Congratulations
to ENS2 Tracey
S. Harwell, who received a grade of HONORS for the
STARFLEET Academy course "Officer's Training School"
from the Institute of Leadership Studies, completed
on May 26, 2014. |
STARFLEET
Academy is a special collection of correspondence courses
available to every STARFLEET member. Over 60 Academy
Colleges offer courses spanning all aspects of Star
Trek and science fiction; some courses even cover non-sci-fi
real world topics. Each college offers dozens of different
courses at varying levels of challenge from super-easy to
really hard. In total, there are nearly 1,000 different
courses available. Take
a course today!
Something
special going on in your life? Submit
your Personnel Record for publication in the next
issue of The Republiqué!
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Library
Computer
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE |
The
Spock That Might Have Been
Shown here is an earlyperhaps the earliestcostume
design for Spock, created by the Western Costume Company.
It included a black leather skull cap and appears
to have been heavily influenced by Western's previous
costume design for Space
Patrol,
a science fiction TV show that ran from 1950 to 1955
(below). Luckily, Star
Trek
creator Gene Roddenberry later met costume designer
Bill Theiss, who was eventually hired to design the
costumes for "The Cage," Star
Trek
and, twenty years later, Star
Trek: The Next Generation.
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Recent
Chapter Event Photos
CLICK ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE |
Outlantacon / Gaylaxicon || May
2-4, 2014
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USS
Republic
CO Fleet Captain Eric L. Watts had the opportunity to speak
with folks at Outlantacon about the prior weekend's TrekTrax
Atlanta, as well as sell a few leftover t-shirts.
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Left:
Captain Eric with ENS1 Russell J. Broomfield.
Right: Captain Eric with "Lt. Nea D'Angel, Chief Fashion
Consultant to the USS Enterprise"
(Jevocas "Java" Green) and "Moxie Ann Magnus,"
Chief Cosmetology Officer aboard the USS Enterprise.
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Trek Trance: Star Trek Dance Party
|| May 9, 2014
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Although
not an official chapter event, several members and friends
of the Republic attended this Star Trek-themed
dance party held at the Legend Cafe in Doraville. Click
the link below to see hundreds of amazing photos taken of
the fun, festivities and costumes.
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TimeGate || May
23-25, 2014
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ENS1
Mark A. Ozanick, FCapt Eric L. Watts and Remy Loste work
the TrekTrax Atlanta fan table at TimeGate.
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TimeGate's
guests this year included author and college instructor
Diana Botsford and the utterly fabulous "Moxie Ann
Magnus."
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BELATED
JUNE BIRTHDAYS
Wednesday, June 4
ENS1 Renardo Hunter
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JULY
MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS
These members' dues will expire in July. Please
renew now!
ENS1 Wilford B. ("Will") Sims
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ABOUT
THE REPUBLIC
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The
USS Republic NCC-1371 was originally commissioned
as a chapter of STARFLEET International on May 14, 1988,
at the Dixie-Trek convention in Atlanta, Georgia. As
of June 30, 2014, the Republic crew includes 28
members who are active members of STARFLEET in good
standing.
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The
Republic plans and coordinates an active schedule
of events for its members, but does not hold meetings
on a consistently fixed date each month.
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Because
the USS Republic is a duly commissioned chapter
of STARFLEET International and is bound and governed by
its Constitution and By-Laws, membership in STARFLEET
is a prerequisite for membership in the Republic. STARFLEET
dues for one person are $20 for a "Standard Membership"
or $10 for an "E-Membership" and chapter dues
are $10 per person for either membership option. A
combined payment for all dues is collected by the Republic
(family discounts are available with certain conditions
and restrictions). Additional information about
the two STARFLEET membership options, amounts due for
additional family members, payment options and payment
instructions is on the "How to Join" page of
our award-winning web site.
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FOR
MORE INFORMATION
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USS
REPUBLIC ONLINE
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CREW
ROSTER
AS OF JUNE 30, 2014
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CDT
Zarena Nova Tucker
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ENS1
"Wolfy"
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NEWS
from
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Orci
hints at new setting and aliens for next Star Trek;
talks directing, Kirk sex, gay character & more |
By
TrekMovie.com Staff
June 26, 2014
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In
a just-released podcast interview, Roberto Orci discussed
the challenge he faces as a first-time director for the
next Star Trek movie, dropped some hints for the
setting and about new aliens, talked about visiting the
set of Star Wars to pick up tips from J. J. Abrams,
opined on Kirk sex scenes and a gay character and more. |
Orci
talks about 2016 Star Trek movie |
Geoff
Boucherformerly of the L. A. Times Hero Complex
and Entertainment Weeklyhas a great new podcast
as part of the Nerdist Network titled "Humans from
Earth." And Star Trek writer/producer
(and soon-to-be director) Roberto Orci was a guest for the
second episode, which just went online. It is worth
listening to the full interview, which runs about an hour. |
TrekMovie
has grabbed some of the key quotes from Bob about the upcoming
2016 Star Trek film. |
Orci
hints at new setting and new aliens |
Much
has been said about how both the 2009 Star Trek film
and 2013's Star Trek Into Darkness were very Earth-centric.
But for the next one, Orci promises that will change. |
Orci:
In [Into Darkness], they set out finally where
the original series started. The first two filmsespecially
the 2009 [Star Trek]was an origin story. It
was about them coming together. So they weren't the
characters they were in the original series. They
were growing into them and that continues on in the second
movie. So in this movie, they are closer than they
are to the original series characters than you have ever
seen. They have set off on their five-year mission.
So their adventure is going to be in deep space. |
And
later in the podcast, the subject of creature design came
up, and in that discussion Orci hinted at new aliens for
the next Star Trek. |
Orci:
We have discussed [the challenges of creature design].
The advantage we have is there is new technology available.
Even though I am a fan and I know J. J. is a fan of
as much practical sets and creature design you can do, we
can also augment it with the technology that exists today,
CGI. So in a way, we have a freedom that is a
little bit unexplored. I hope to do that in the next
Star Trek. |
And
later, he picked up on that point again when discussing
aliens in Star Trek. |
Orci:
The Horta is actually the villain in the next onenothey
are in deep space now, so let's see what's out there. |
And
when a fan asserted that with the new Star Trek films,
"You have to go back to the Romulans or the Klingons," Orci
countered, "But wait, why do you have to go back to them?"
He went on to say: |
Orci:
Because this is an alternative universe, I think we can
choose. I don't feel the pressure to revisit anyone
or not. We are lucky that way, but we have the ability
to cherry-pick what has become before. It will depend
on what serves the story best. |
As
for his favorite Star Trek aliens, Orci cited the
Gorn, tribbles, Romulans and Vulcans. |
Orci
getting tips watching J. J. direct Star Wars + talks
Wars/Trek rivalry |
The
podcast was recorded a couple weeks ago, shortly before
Bob was to fly to the U. K. to visit the set where J. J.
Abrams is shooting Star Wars. He said that
the trip was motivated to get some mentoring from his longtime
collaborator, J. J. Abrams. |
Orci:
That is why I am going [to visit with J. J. Abrams the
set of Star Wars Episode VII]. I am going to
steal as much wisdom as I can. I am fortunate to have
seen a lot of directors direct and I plan on picking all
of their brains. Every one of them has a different
style and different tricks. And they also haveone
of them just sent me Directing for Dummies [laughs]. So
that is what you do. This is not a time to not
ask for help and not get the cumulative wisdom of all the
people I have been lucky enough to see and work with. |
Orci
later talked about the Star Wars/Star Trek
rivalry: |
Orci:
It is daunting to try and compete with Star Wars,
especially since they may be released so close to each other.
So it certainly motivates me to make it as good as
possible. It is interesting to me to have a friend
of mine working on the other one, so hopefully it doesn't
turn into I'm the team that Globetrotters play againstthe
Washington Generalshopefully it is going to be a little
more competitive than that. |
Less
Kirk sex? And a gay character? |
Boucher
asked Orci if he might try to "escalate" and try
to top the sex scenes with Capt. Kirk from the last two
Star Trek films, but Bob indicated Kirk might go
in a different direction: |
Orci:
In the first film, [Kirk] is like a college guyor
a cadetwho finds himself in a dorm, lights come on
and she's green! In the second film, he finds
himself with humanoid felines. In the third film,
he is a little bit more of an adult, so I don't know. |
The
subject of introducing a gay character into Star Trek
came up and Orci seemed open to the idea. When
asked, he responded: |
Orci:
I would like to see that. |
Delving
deeper, Bob had this to say about addressing social issues
in Star Trek: |
Orci:
It can be part of a character and not be the whole shebang. It
doesn't have to be like South Park, like "what
have we learned today." It can be so normalized
that it just exists. I agree it can't be shoe-horned
in. And it is not necessary for it to be the whole
point of the thing. It is an ensemble and there are
lots of people to represent, so no one point of view should
hog it. |
Promises
less secrecy |
Much
has been said about J. J. Abrams' penchant for secrecy. When
asked if he would follow the same course or be more open,
Orci was hoping to be more transparent: |
Orci:
I think it is going to be more of a mix. On the
one hand, you want the story to have surprises. Otherwise,
why even go to the movie? On the other hand, you want
to share enough of it to let people know what they are going
to get and what they can expect and what the experience
is going to feel like. In terms of behind the scenes,
audiences are now so savvy, I think it is kind of fun to
be more transparent. And let people into the process
of how you are doing things and let them watch you do the
movie. You can see behind the scenes without knowing
what the context of the scene is or what the story is. |
Shatner
or other TOS cast? |
Bob
was also asked if it was possible tolike they have
done with Leonard Nimoybring back William Shatner
or one of the other original series actors. He replied: |
Orci:
It's possible. Whatever serves the story. That's
my version of "no comment." |
There
is much more in the podcast including talking about writing
collaborations, his history with Trek (including
favorite episodes and characters), contrasting TOS and TNG,
meeting Shatner and Nimoy and much more. Go to Nerdist.com
to
listen to the full interview. |
|
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Star
Trek Into Darkness shut out at Saturn Awards + TNG wins
for Blu-ray |
By
TrekMovie.com Staff
June 27, 2014
|
Thursday
night in Burbank was the last stop in awards season, with
the 40th Saturn Awards, honoring the best in science fiction
and fantasy. Last summer's Star Trek Into Darkness
went into the night with five nominations, but got shut
out. There were also more Trek-related winners
and losers at the Saturns. |
Into
Darkness falls to Gravity at the Saturn Awards |
The
40th awards show for the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy
& Horror Films was held in Burbank, California. J.
J. Abrams' 2013 feature Star Trek Into Darkness was
nominated for five Saturn Awards, but wasn't triumphant
in any of its categories. The big winner of the
night was Warner Bros.' Gravity, starring Sandra
Bullock and George Clooney. The film picked up five
awards, three of which were in categories with Into Darkness. |
Star
Trek Into Darkness was nominated for Best Science Fiction
Film, Best Director (J. J. Abrams), Best Special/Visual
Effects (Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossman, Burt
Dalton), Best Supporting Actor (Benedict Cumberbatch) and
Best Costume (Michael Kaplan). The winners of
those awards were Gravity; Alfanso Cuoron (for Gravity);
Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk and Neil Corbould
(for Gravity); Ben Kingsley (for Iron Man 3)
and Trish Summerville (for The Hunger Games: Catching
Fire), respectively. |
Into
Darkness isn't the first Trek film to get shut
out at the Saturns. All the Star Trek
films with the exception of Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
received Saturn nominations ranging from two (Generations)
to ten (The Motion Picture and First Contact).
Four Trek films picked up one award at the
Saturns (The Motion Picture, The Voyage Home,
The Undiscovered Country and 2009's Star Trek).
The Wrath of Khan took home two and First
Contact has the record with three wins. |
The
Saturn Awards marks the end to "award season."
All in all, Into Darkness was nominated for
three People's Choice Awards, three Film Critics' Awards,
two Teen Choice Awards, an Academy Award, a BAFTA, an MTV
Movie Award and an Empire Award, along with some guild technical
awards... none of which it won. So far, the only awards
won were a Britannia Award for Benedict Cumberbatch, a Satellite
Award for the Blu-ray release and a Hollywood Movie Award
for J. J. Abrams, plus one silver and two bronze awards
at the Key Art Awards (for a trailer and the Star Trek
app). |
Star
Trek TNG Blu-rays win again + Trek nonfic author
honored |
And
for the second year in a row, CBS Home Entertainment won
for Best DVD or Blu-ray TV Series for Star Trek: The
Next Generation (Seasons 3, 4 and 5). Last year,
they won for Seasons 1 and 2. TNG beat out releases
for The Adventures of Superboy (Season 3), Search
(The Complete Series), Under the Dome (Season 1),
The Walking Dead (Season 3) and The White Queen
(Season 1). |
Author
Marc Cushman received a Special Recognition Award for his
two recent Star Trek books, These Are the Voyages:
TOS: Season One and These Are the Voyages: TOS: Season
Two, which detail the making of the original Star
Trek series and cover the making and development of
each episode. This project took six years of research
to complete. The third book (Season 3) will be published
later this year. |
Fuller
& McDowell pick up special awards + Fuller shares TV award
with Bad Robot |
A
number of Star Trek alumni were up for awards and
some were also getting special honors. Actor Malcolm
McDowell (Soran in Star Trek: Generations) picked
up the Life Career Award, and Star Trek: Voyager
and Deep Space Nine writing/producing vet Bryan Fuller
was honored with the Dan Curtis Legacy Award. |
In
addition, Fuller's latest series Hannibal was up
for four awards and took home two, including tying for Best
Network Television series with the now-cancelled Revolution
(produced by Star Trek producers J. J. Abrams and
Bryan Burk). One of the shows Hannibal beat
was Sleepy Hollow (from producers Bob Orci and Alex
Kurtzman). The Orci/Kurtzman-produced sci-fi film
Ender's Game was also up for three awards, but came
home empty-handed. Also shut-out was The World's
End, which was up for three awards, including Best Actor
and Best Writer for Simon Pegg. |
|
New
Star Trek writers: J. J. Abrams "still guiding
light" behind 2016 movie |
By
Matt Wright
June 30, 2014
|
In
a new interview, Patrick McKay and J. D. Payneco-writers
along with Roberto Orci for the upcoming Star Trek
filmtalk about their background with the franchise,
where they see the next movie headed and how much producer
J. J. Abrams is involved. |
Payne
and McKay talk next Trek |
Much
has been said about Star Trek and Star Trek Into
Darkness producer/director J. J. Abrams' involvement
in the 2016 Star Trek film now that he is focused
on directing Star Wars Episode VII. The
next Trek film is being produced by Abrams and his
Bad Robot production company, but some question his involvementeven
prompting Wil Wheaton to make a joke about it on his Syfy
TV show last week. However, in a two-part interview
with TrekCore, Patrick McKay and J. D. Payne say Abrams
is still very much involved in the creative process for
upcoming Trek feature. |
Bad
Robot, J. J. and his team are really at the heart of this
movie's development. They are the guiding light by
which we all do our work. J. J.'s been a key
part of helping us spin this tale from the beginning, and
if there are people who think that we've lost him to Star
Wars this time around, that's not the truth as far as
we see it. |
The
writing duo also discuss where the next movie is headed. |
Patrick
McKay: We're very much thinking about a movie that
would stand alongside the first two, in a general sense,
but more specifically, I would say that in working with
our wonderful co-writer Roberto Orci, it began very much
as a conversation. "Well, what would you guys like
to see in the movie?" "Is there an area we all want
to explore?" Nothing was off the tableall along,
it's been about the coolest, best movie we can write. There's
no sort of requirement saying we have to do this or that. I
think it's very much been a blank canvas. |
J.
D. Payne: What we keep on coming back to is the basic
credo of Star Trek, that opening prologue you hear
at the beginning of each original series episode. That's
our mantra for what we're trying to accomplish here. |
The
guys also talked about their introductions to Trek. |
Patrick
McKay: I've probably seen every episode of the original
series; I've seen the movies many, many times. I
remember when The Next Generation was premiering,
it was such a big deal. I watched at least the first
couple of seasonsyou know, I do actually remember
watching "The Best of Both Worlds" as it aired. That
was great. |
J.
D. Payne: I think that the first episode I ever saw
was "Frame of Mind," and it was like discovering jazz or
something. How has this been out there my entire life
and I'd never seen it before?! After that, I was just
plugged into it. I would tape it off of television,
edit out the commercials and I had my own little library
of Star Trek and got super, super into it. I
just loved the sense it had for the possibility of what
could be "out there." |
There's
much more over at TrekCore, including their thoughts on
Kirk's quick promotion, their writing process with Bob Orci
and how they take fan feedback. Read the full interview
(in two parts) at TrekCore. |
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