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Star Trek – JJ Abrams Hits a Homerun!

Spoiler free!

My wife had but one request for her birthday (this coming Tuesday–she’ll be 21!) and that was a date to see J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek on opening night. A little luck, a babysitter and some Fandango magic later and Cathy and I had a date tonight! Star Trek officially opens tomorrow, the 8th, which with any other movie means the first showing is at midnight. Apparently, Hollywood recognized us old guys have jobs and families and did pre-release showings as early as 7:00pm. We hit the 7:30pm and us old guys it was! At first there didn’t appear to be anyone under 30 in the theater. For that matter, our theater closely resembled a Star Trek convention. We had munchkins, a blind lady, an albino (whom I went to college with and haven’t seen for like 15 years), grandparents supervising the 30 year olds, and a couple of guys who sounded like regulars for voice overs of Star Trek convention spoof videos spouting off Trek trivia.

The actual movie

Cathy said it first but I agree: Fans of the original Star Trek are going to absolutely LOVE this movie! It is packed full of references to the original TV series including one character that I wanted to reach out to and scream, "But don’t you understand! You’re wearing a red shirt!" People not familiar with the Star Trek franchise will see a technically good movie and should enjoy it but will miss the subtle inside jokes and references except for when the audience cheers at a few trademark lines. Live long and prosper!

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USS Enterprise NCC-1701-420

To boldly stoned where no man…zombies!

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Korean-born actor John Cho of "Harold & Kumar" fame has been cast as Sulu in the new "Star Trek" feature, playing a role immortalized by Japanese-American actor George Takei.

Additionally, Briton Simon Pegg (“Shaun of the Dead”) has boarded the Paramount project as Scotty, the ship’s Scottish chief engineer. [Source]

Dude, maybe they forgot the mission. "Star Trek? I dunno. Like some space spoof my grandparents watched. I think that Boston Legal guy was in it. Wanna get a burger?"

Update: Logtar has a list of the entire cast. That’s right. The new Star Trek crew is Sylar (brain sucker), Shaun (zombie killer), a pirate, Bruce Banner (you know..The Hulk), a murderer, and Harold Lee (herb that’s outta this world). They’ve boldly gone… (It’s actually a very good cast!)

Update: Kirill, (another killer) will be joining the cast. Thanks to Cinemagical for the Star Trek update and thanks to Cathy for the heads up.

Post narration: [audio:http://realityme.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/[audio:http://realityme.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/gwtakes2008withedits.mp3]

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Star Trek’s 5 no 3 no 5 year mission

If you are a Star Trek fan, you’ll know that the original 5 year mission only lasted 3 years. What you may not know, is that production on the original series has begun again. At roughly $70,000 per episode, 4 of a planned 22 episodes, including guest appearances from original cast members, have been completed and are available as a free download on the Internet as Star Trek:New Voyages. One script was written 30 years ago. Learn more at the Star Trek New Voyages website.

C|Net lists many other Star Trek stories including: