RAINBOW CONNECTION

I HAVE A USE FOR YOU

“I have a use for you…”

This has to be the single most entertaining, and most singularly entertaining, SOB I’ve seen in a long, long, long time…

 

THE COMMONER’S VIGIL, AND A FEW OBSERVATIONS ON POP CULTURE

I don’t watch TV during the week unless there is some kind of emergency, like a terrorist attack.

But I do watch on the weekends sometimes. To me TV was an utter wasteland for many decades. But in the past few years, maybe even for a decade or so now, it has undergone a real Renaissance.

That being said here are some of my favorite new shows. (I won’t mention shows I have watched awhile over time.) Yes, I know these might not be new shows to you, but they are all new to me as I don’t watch TV a lot (too busy) and so I might just now be seeing them for the first time.

I recommend them all.

FORGED IN FIRE – really, really appeals to the blacksmith and tool maker in me which I get form my old man. I love this show. I love the blades and weapons they create. And observing the techniques they employ.

THE SELECTION – really, really love this show and it gave me several very good ideas for the physical training program I was already developing called The Roman Way, which you can read more about on my other blogs. I am writing a book and training manual for the Roman Way. I liked the psychological aspects of the selection best however, even moreso than the training methods employed. A couple of the instructors I really like too and tow of them reminded me of buddies of mine.

EMERALD CITY – beautiful, without a doubt. The story meanders however and it is kind of more of a chick show to me. But I really like the Wizard of Oz and the displays of “magic.”

SIX – a little overemotional and overwrought to me, as far as the character depictions of the operators. Too much of an intent to hyper-dramatize for modern audiences. But the stories are awful good and the missions often solid. But still the emotionalism too often fucks up the outcomes. Which, personally, I would not allow. But it’s only TV.

TABOO – the best damned man show I’ve seen, maybe, ever… As in ever. In my whole freaking life. I can’t recommended it enough. This is a real work of art. High Art.

and, one of the shows I’ve watched before but which I am really, really looking forward to returning soon, THE EXPANSE.

Aside from the original STAR TREK it is, without a doubt, the best science-fiction television show I’ve ever seen in my life. Extremely good and incredibly solid.

CANDLE COVE – I’LL MISS YOU

I thoroughly enjoyed the final episode of Candle Cove tonight.

Probably the creepiest TV show I’ve ever seen in my life…

 

GOOD ONES

My two new favorite TV shows are Channel Zero: Candle Cove and Dirk Gently Holistic Detective.

Superb efforts.

Candle Cove may be the spookiest TV show I’ve ever seen in my life. Spooky and actually scary at times (I don’t spook or scare easy but last night two scene son that show actually made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end) not morbid or just a stupid hack and slash violent juvenile show.

I really, really like the fact that most of the show takes place in broad daylight and seems utterly mundane in background and atmosphere yet still there hangs a foreboding sense of darkness and dread over most everything. The dichotomy is fantastic.

Plus I have enjoyed researching the background internet and YouTube history of the show. Actually, before this show I had never heard of a Creepy Pasta.

As for Dirk Gently I find it to be one of the most original shows I’ve seen in a long, long time (admittedly I watch little TV, but this is one of the shows I do watch). Plus I really like the way he works as a Dick. Dirk. whatever…

And it greatly amuses me.

 

SUPES AND SUPERGIRL PREVIEW

THE WITCHQUEEN

I’ve always said that Cersei Lannister was the single greatest and most degenerate sociopath in the entire series of novels. She is also the Queen Mother of degeneracy and should have long ago been hung by the neck until dead. She is vile, not in the common usage of the term but in the accurate usage of the term, and she is a communicable disease.

Of course the other events in this episode were equally good (which I will not now mention), for the most part, and this was definitely the best episode of this season, the Battle of the Bastards being the next best.

But yes, even Jamie Lannister, a definite degenerate himself, must now fully recognize the twisted nature of his sister and that she is every bit as “mad” as was the Mad King.

If he has any sense at all he will behead Cersei as Sansa and Jon should do to Littlefinger, but will not.

 

 

IF I AM PROVEN WRONG

Although I continue to enjoy the story and the action I have to agree to a large extent.

My suspicion is, although this was mitigated to some degree by the past two episodes, that without Martin’s books as a general guideline and without his writings to more fully mimic (although the show long ago mutated from the books) the HBO show simply lacks the literary and historical background and allusions which made it so deep in ways other than mere action and fantasy. It has become, in essence, a thing separate and of its own.

It’s as simple as that. Although in the books Martin wanders incessantly and often needlessly so, the fact is that the books are filled with historical and literary allusions, sometimes of an almost Biblical or Shakespearean nature.

But without Martin’s books as a guide, and as the show outpaces and outraces the books, and strips the books to the bare story and skeletal plot outlines for the sake of the show, these allusions and this depth is mostly lacking.

That is my supposition at it’s simplest.

Although I am not a Geek (I am instead a Nerd) and these things (minutiae of this nature) do not upset me much (I will continue to watch) I no longer expect to encounter much in the way of historical or literary allusion or metaphor.

But if the show rallies and I am proven wrong, so much the better…

 

BATTLE OF THE BASTARDS

I thoroughly enjoyed the Battle of the Bastards.

Though Bolton should have been flayed alive, especially after having put an arrow through the eye of the giant. I had much hoped the giant would live. Of course I knew he would not. As I knew the Knights of the Vale would arrive too late for Jon’s Army to be fully preserved. It is Martin after all.

The dogs were a fine ending I thought, for Bolton, but he should have been flayed alive by the survivors of the men he murdered, both those of his own army and of Jon’s forces. Then set Bolton afire and burn all of the banners of the Flayed Man with his corpse and never speak of him, his house, or such a banner ever again.

I also very much enjoyed the way Dany dealt with the Slaving Fleet. And the Slave Lords.

More than time for that. Also a Queen who shakes hands, well, you can see where it will lead.

To either the Last Queen, or to far better than a Queen. And Jon Snow is no king, and neither should he ever aspire to be.

Though I do suspect that Euron Greyjoy by now has the Horn again (or on the show for once) and will attempt to use it to take control of Dany’s dragons. It’s just speculation on my part but he is widely traveled and it seems very likely to me that is his real motive in sailing to Meereen.

A singularly good episode. I hope the season finale is at least as good…

DREADFUL THRONE

 

Now that was an excellent episode of Game of Thrones.

And an equally excellent episode of Penny Dreadful.

It is hard however for me to imagine Dracula being more ominous than Lucifer, but perhaps he is. Just not as cunning. But I thought the writers did something rather brilliant with that juxtapositioning.

I had suspected for some time that the Children had created the White Walkers, but not in that way. Now it makes sense why they would turn on them. They weren’t ever meant to be controlled. It seems they were meant to be Wild Card. A Doomsday Machine.

Or monster in this case. One on which they misunderestimated.

Though I was hoping that eventually Hodor would fight and kill (for good) the Mountain. I guess that’s out of the question now. At least on a man to monster basis.

Maybe monster to monster it’s still on the card.

 

COME NOT BETWEEN THE DRAGONS – STC

I am really, really looking forward to this. If you haven’t seen Star Trek Continues then you really should. Superb work by everyone involved! It’s one of the best things on the internet. As a matter of fact it should be on TV.

And this episode has a Boarding Action!

I’m all about the boarding actions!

STAR TREK CONTINUES

 

 

Actually, I am finishing up a script for Star Trek Continues right now. Whether they will use it or not I don’t know, but I sure am having a ball writing it. And it’s science heavy and something I’ve always wanted to see in Star Trek.

 

 

SWORD OF THE MORNING – LOST LIBRARY

SWORD OF THE MORNING

This is, without a doubt, one of the very best scenes I’ve ever seen in Game of Thrones. And there have been a lot of truly exceptional scenes in Game of Thrones.

 

JON SNOW AND CONSEQUENCES

THIS SNOW DON’T MELT, OR HOW THE RED WOMAN MAY HAVE GAINED A SOUL BY REALLY TRYING

Yeah, well Kit, it’s not like nobody saw through it. It was as transparent as transparent aluminum..

What interested me most was not the Resurrection, saw that coming the moment you were killed. What was really interesting was the way.

I was right about the Red Woman. She was obviously different than all the other followers of the Lord of Light.

But is she now? She was obviously remorseful about her “failure of vision and foresight” (though who else might be resurrected in some odd way – Stannis – were all her visions false, or all true just in unexpected ways) though is she remorseful about her pagan sorceries and human sacrifices? Maybe so. Has she now learned a lesson? Will the Resurrection move her to becoming a Priestess of Light and not just a man and child burner, and a demon-birther? We’ll see I reckon. If she is really changed, and if so, exactly how.

And how will that influence the Truth of her real mission, what she is hoping to accomplish, and everything else that lies underneath her shell? The shell of her necklace that is…

Game of Thrones: Kit Harington breaks his silence — Exclusive

BY JAMES HIBBERD • @JAMESHIBBERD

Game of Thrones

Posted May 1 2016 — 10:03 PM EDT

This story contains a major revelation from Sunday’s Game of Thrones episode “Home.”

Jon Snow has returned to the land of the living.

As fans of HBO’s Emmy-winning hit Game of Thrones have now learned, Kit Harington’s murdered fan-favorite character Jon Snow was revived at the end of Sunday night’s episode. The Lord Commander was resurrected by the sorceress Melisandre, a reveal that caps 10 months of worldwide speculation following Snow’s death at the hands of his Night’s Watch brothers in last year’s finale.

During an in-depth interview exclusively with EW, Harington spoke about his incredible journey shouldering the show’s biggest secret. Actors typically only have to perform while in front of the camera. But to protect the Jon Snow twist, Harington was asked by the show’s producers to deliver an off-camera performance too — the role of an actor who departed a series that’s become a worldwide sensation.

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‘Game of Thrones’ recap: ‘Home’

The first thing Harington wants viewers to know after seeing his revival: “Sorry!” the 29-year-old says in the above video excerpt. “I’d like to say sorry for lying to everyone. I’m glad that people were upset that he died. I think my biggest fear was that people were not going to care. Or it would just be, ‘Fine, Jon Snow’s dead.’ But it seems like people had a, similar to the Red Wedding episode, kind of grief about it. Which means something I’m doing — or the show is doing — is right.”

RELATED: Game of Thrones: 17 Biggest Changes from Books to TV

For months EW has been working on a top-secret cover story on the extraordinary behind-the-scenes tale of Jon Snow’s death and resurrection — including an exclusive conversation with Harington.Subscribe to receive the issue in digital format and exclusive online access the moment the story is posted. Or buy the issue right now here. Follow @jameshibberd for updates – and check out our recap of “Home” now. More coming Monday on the shocking episode, including our Game of Thrones podcast, where we’ll break down “Home” — plus talk about our Harington interview.

Check out our exclusive cover below.

THE RED WOMAN

You know I’ve always known something was off about the Red Woman. That she was not who she appeared to be. For the first and most obvious thing she was far too interested in ancient and pagan human sacrifice whereas the rest of the followers of the Lords of Light were interested in things like Resurrection. (As a matter of fact she was rather stunned by both the evidence of resurrections she saw performed and even by the idea, wasn’t she?) Secondly she was far too consumed with political and collective authoritarian power whereas the other followers of the Lord of Light seem more interested in the individual and a rebellion against worldly authority (take the Brothers without Banners, as just one instance).

So she was a conundrum, a misstep, a paradox, an openly hidden thing compared to the others. So I never assumed she was actually a follower of the Lord of Light anymore than I assumed she was as she appeared. But today at lunch I rewatched that final scene from last night’s Game of Thrones and it finally struck me (though I had a suspicion a couple of times before, such as when she summoned the demon out of herself) as she disrobed and took that necklace off (which seemed to go dead the moment she took it off) to become an Old Crone. (A pregnant old crone, or a “carrier” crone?)

Now I suspect I know exactly who she serves and why. Something far more ancient even than the White Walkers. Something far more Chthonic.

And I also suspect that she wasn’t at all disappointed by the overthrow of Stannis, but rather she had been planning it all along.

The thing now is, what exactly does she intend by the White Walkers. She and they would be natural enemies I suspect, but does she intend the Walkers and mankind to wipe each other out (for if she is what I think she is, she is enemies of both) or just to weaken man enough that after the Walkers are defeated she and her kind can then drive men again from Westeros?

Of course, there is always the other possibility…

GENE RODDENBERRY’S FLOPPIES

How Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry’s words were freed from old floppy disks

When Gene Roddenberry’s computer died, it took with it the only method of accessing some 200 floppy disks of his unpublished work. Here’s how this tech mystery was solved.

While Gene Roddenberry is often associated with the Macintosh, he apparently did far more writing on this unknown-brand computer.

Gordon Mah Ung | @Gordonung

Executive Editor, PCWorld

• Jan 4, 2016 4:00 AM

Call the engine room and get Scotty to the bridge: When the long-lost words of Star Trekcreator Gene Roddenberry were found on 5.25-inch floppies—yes, floppy disks—it would take a Starfleet-level engineering effort to recover them.

Roddenberry, who died in 1991, apparently left behind a couple of shoebox-sized containers of those big floppy disks.

The problem? As any techie knows, floppy drives went out off fashion around the turn of the 21st century. Even if you bought a used 5.25-inch floppy drive off of Cyrano Jones on space station K7, you wouldn’t be able to read the files on a modern computer, let alone plug in the drive.

Roddenberry’s estate knew of two possible computers the author had used to write those final words. One had been sold off in a charity auction and the second wouldn’t boot when plugged in.

GEORGE CHERNILEVSKY

Most of Gene Roddenberry’s lost work was stored on the 1970s and 1980s era 5.25-inch disk, which here is flanked by the older 8-inch and newer 3.5-inch versions.

The computer’s dead Jim

Rather than accept that no-win scenario, Roddenberry’s estate turned to DriveSavers Data Recovery. The lack of an operative computer was less than ideal, but  Mike Cobb, director of engineering of DriveSavers, was optimistic, considering the company’s ability to recover data from most forms of computer media known today.

According to Cobb, the majority of the disks were 1980s-era 5.25-inch double-density disks capable of storing a whopping 160KB—that’s kilobytes—or about one-tenth the capacity you can get on a $1 USB thumb drive today. Cobb said a few of the disks were formatted in DOS, but most of them were from an older operating system called CP/M.

CP/M, or Control Program for Microcomputers, was a popular operating system of the 1970s and early 1980s that ultimately lost out to Microsoft’s DOS. In the 1970s and 1980s it was the wild west of disk formats and track layouts, Cobb said. The DOS recoveries were easy once a drive was located, but the CP/M disks were far more work.

“The older disks, we had to actually figure out how to physically read them,” Cobb told PCWorld. “The difficult part was CP/M and the file system itself and how it was written.”

As the data recovery firm couldn’t get Roddenberry’s old computer to power on, it had to sleuth the physical layout of the tracks on the disk. That alone took three months to reverse engineer; Cobb credits his own “Scotty,” Jim Wilhelmsen, with figuring it out.

DRIVERSAVERS DATA RECOVERY

DriverSaver’s Mike Cobb and Jim Wilhelmsen with Gene Roddenberry’s dead computer and a pile of the floppy disks they helped recover.

To make matters worse, about 30 of the disks were damaged, with deep gouges in the magnetic surface. As luck would have it, Cobb said most of the physical damage was over empty portions of the disks and he believes about 95 percent of the data was recovered.

Besides seeking the technical expertise required for the task, the estate also wanted high security, according to Cobb. The estate wasn’t going to just drop all 200 disks in a FedEx box and pray to the shipping gods they wouldn’t get lost. No, only small batches of the disks were doled out at a time,  and each batch was hand-delivered to DriveSavers’ secure facility in Novato beginning in 2012.

Once DriveSavers had recovered the data, the data had to be converted into a format the estate could open. It’s not like you can feed a 1980s-era CP/M word processor format into Microsoft Word, so Cobb personally converted each file to a readable text file.

The big reveal

All told, Cobb said when the operating system files were excluded, about 2-3MB of data was recovered from the 200 floppies. That may seem like a minuscule amount by today’s standards, but in the 1980s, document files were small. Roddenberry’s lost words were substantial.

So what’s actually on the disks? Lost episodes of Star Trek? The secret script for a new show? Or as Popular Science once speculated, a patent for a transporter?

Unfortunately, we don’t know.

Cobb ain’t saying. Understandably, when DriverSavers is contracted to recover data, it’s also bound by rules of confidentiality. PCWorld reached out to the Roddenberry estate but was told it had no comment on the data or its plans for the newly discovered writing of Gene Roddenberry.

DRIVERSAVERS DATA RECOVERY

For their work in recovering The Great Bird of the Galaxy’s lost writing, DriveSavers received a signed photo of the Star Trek creator in front of his computer from his son.

Related:

TO BOLDLY GO… AGAIN? – DESIGN OF THINGS TO COME

If they just concentrate upon science and exploration, as the original did, and even to some extent as TNG did, then I’m in. Totally in.

Strangely enough, at least from this write-up, that seems like the way they might be going.

But I can’t stomach another “Enterprise” or yet another Jedi-wanna-be science fantasy or life-action anime series. I just can’t stomach that modern pseudo-science and amoral modern crap in my Star Trek anymore. That kinda stuff is for Star Wars, not Star Trek.

 

New Star Trek Television Series Coming In 2017 To CBS All AccessThe new series will premiere on CBS, then move to CBS All Access across digital platforms

Posted on Nov 2, 2015 08:00am

A totally new Star Trek television series is coming in January 2017! The new series will blast off with a special preview broadcast of the premiere episode on the CBS Television Network, and the premiere episode and all subsequent first-run episodes will then be available exclusively in the United States on CBS All Access.

The brand-new Star Trek will introduce new characters seeking imaginative new worlds and new civilizations, while exploring the dramatic contemporary themes that have been a signature of the franchise since its inception in 1966.

Alex Kurtzman will serve as executive producer for the series. Kurtzman co-wrote and produced the blockbuster films Star Trek (2009) with Roberto Orci, and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013) with Orci and Damon Lindelof. Both films were produced and directed by J.J. Abrams.

The new series will be produced by CBS Television Studios in association with Kurtzman’s Secret Hideout. Kurtzman and Heather Kadin will serve as executive producers. Kurtzman is also an executive producer for the hit CBS television series Scorpion and Limitless, along with Kadin and Orci, and for Hawaii Five-0 with Orci.

The new program will be the first original series developed specifically for U.S. audiences for CBS All Access, a cross-platform streaming service that brings viewers thousands of episodes from CBS’s current and past seasons on demand, plus the ability to stream their local CBS Television stations live for $5.99 per month. CBS All Access already offers every episode of all previous Star Trek television series.

Sign up for a free trial of CBS All Access and prep for the new show with every episode of the classic Star Trek series available commercial-free!

Star Trek, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2016, is one of the most successful entertainment franchises of all time. The original Star Trek spawned a dozen feature films and five successful television series. Almost half a century later, the Star Trek television series are licensed on a variety of different platforms in more than 190 countries, and the franchise still generates more than a billion social media impressions every month.

Born from the mind of Gene Roddenberry, the original Star Trek series debuted on Sept. 8, 1966 and aired for three seasons – a short run that belied the influence it would have for generations. The series also broke new ground in storytelling and cultural mores, providing a progressive look at topics including race relations, global politics and the environment.

“There is no better time to give Star Trek fans a new series than on the heels of the original show’s 50th anniversary celebration,” said David Stapf, President, CBS Television Studios. “Everyone here has great respect for this storied franchise, and we’re excited to launch its next television chapter in the creative mind and skilled hands of Alex Kurtzman, someone who knows this world and its audience intimately.”

“This new series will premiere to the national CBS audience, then boldly go where no first-run Star Trek series has gone before – directly to its millions of fans through CBS All Access,” said Marc DeBevoise, Executive Vice President/General Manager – CBS Digital Media. “We’ve experienced terrific growth for CBS All Access, expanding the service across affiliates and devices in a very short time. We now have an incredible opportunity to accelerate this growth with the iconic Star Trek, and its devoted and passionate fan base, as our first original series.”

The next chapter of the Star Trek franchise will also be distributed concurrently for television and multiple platforms around the world by CBS Studios International.

“Every day, an episode of the Star Trek franchise is seen in almost every country in the world,” said Armando Nuñez, President and CEO, CBS Global Distribution Group. “We can’t wait to introduce Star Trek’s next voyage on television to its vast global fan base.”

CBS All Access offers its customers more than 7,500 episodes from the current television season, previous seasons and classic shows on demand nationwide, as well as the ability to stream local CBS stations live in more than 110 markets. Subscribers can use the service online and across devices via CBS.com, the CBS App for iOS, Android and Windows 10, as well as on connected devices such as Apple TV, Android TV, Chromecast, Roku players and Roku TV, with more connected devices to come.

The new television series is not related to the upcoming feature film Star Trek Beyond, which is scheduled to be distributed by Paramount Pictures in summer 2016.

THE DEVIL’S TONGUE AND KILL THE BOY

Verbis Diablo (Penny Dreadful) really bothered me.

You know I’ve seen a lot of evil things in my day. And studied a lot of evil men and even hunted my share.

And yeah, I know it’s just a fictional show… but baby butchery and Satanic voodoo?

I hope they behead those witches soon, then burn their bodies and scatter the ashes, because that’s going about as far as even I can tolerate in a show.

As for Kill the Boy (Game of Thrones) I thought that was a superb episode, especially the poetic recounting of the Doom of Old Valyria.

BRAVE NEW WORLD – ALLTHING

Syfy and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television developing Brave New World series

BY JENNIFER MAAS • @JMAAS421

ENLARGE PHOTO

Posted May 5 2015 — 6:16 PM EDT

Before dystopian future novels were all the rage, there were many classic tales predicting a dark future for mankind. Syfy and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Television will soon pay tribute to one of the most famous and acclaimed of those works: The network and production company announced Tuesday that they’re developing an adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.

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The novel was first published in 1932. It’s set in a future world that lacks poverty, war and disease—but where mind-altering drugs are distributed, and free sex and increased consumerism are the norm. Most disturbing of all, people no longer reproduce; instead, they’re genetically created in “hatcheries.” Those who refuse to conform are sent to “reservations.” All this, though, is about to change when one “savage” bucks the system and threatens the entire social order.

Modern Library ranked Brave New World fifth on a list of the 20th century’s 100 best English language novels. “Brave New World is one of the most influential genre classics of all time. Its provocative vision of a future gone awry remains as powerful and as timeless as ever. Promising to be a monumental television event, Brave New World is precisely the groundbreaking programming that is becoming the hallmark of Syfy,” said Dave Howe, president of Syfy and Chiller, in a statement.

Syfy and Amblin have collaborated before on Steven Spielberg Presents: Taken, which received an Emmy for Best Miniseries in 2003.

Amblin Television’s Darryl Frank and Justin Falvey (The Americans, Falling Skies, Under the Dome) will executive produce, along with Les Bohem (Steven Spielberg Presents: Taken), who will also pen the screenplay. Universal Cable Productions will act as the studio.

SPOCK DOCUMENTARY

Leonard Nimoy’s Son Is Making A Documentary About Spock

By Catarina Cowden 7 hours ago 4 Comments

It’s been a little over a month since the loss of Leonard Nimoy, and the wound still feels quite exposed. The beloved actor and artist touched fans with not only his acting and portrayal of Spock in the Star Trek franchise, but also with his beautiful words of acceptance beyond the screen. It is because of his expansive fan base and inspiration that a documentary about Nimoy’s life and the character whom he brought to life took fruition. And no better person to produce and direct the film than Nimoy’s own son, Adam Nimoy.

The project hopes to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of the cult-classic sci-fi franchise which aired for the first time on September 8, 1966. According to Variety, Adam Nimoy announced his plan for the documentary last week to play tribute to the Vulcan hero. Nimoy told Variety:

This will be a tribute to my dad and Spock. We have plenty to work from because my dad loved telling stories and he was very fond of the role.

Young Nimoy’s project is also something that him and his father had previously discussed several months before the actor’s passing. They agreed that it would focus on the enduring nature of Spock and Nimoy’s personal portrayal of the logical Vulcan-human first officer. Adam Nimoy discussed the extensive material they have to take from for the doc including the two books Leonard Nimoy wrote, I Am Not Spock and I Am Spock as well as a number of recordings. The late Nimoy was suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but had continued working on this project with his son up until about two days before his death.

Zachary Quinto who has played a newer version of Spock in the last two Star Trek films is signed on to narrate the documentary. And William Shatner, who played captain of the Enterprise, James T. Kirk, and is also a dear friend of Nimoy has agreed to appear in the doc.

As far as those behind the project. David Zappone, the president and owner of 455 films will produce. He has produced a number of Star Trek-related content including The Captains, William Shatner’s Get a Life and Still Kicking. The younger Nimoy has extensive history in the entertainment industry as well, starting as an attorney in entertainment law only to soon become a TV director directing episodes in shows such as NYPD Blue, The Practice, Ally McBeal and Gilmore Girls. He also wrote an autobiography entitled, My Incredibly Wonderful, Miserable Life.

The documentary still seeks financing, and Nimoy said he wouldn’t be opposed to starting a crowdfunding option. If this plans to release around the 50th anniversary though, we can expect it in 2016.

CBS/TV DOES THE FINAL FRONTIER

A government that is a dysfunctional, bloated, complacent mess prompting several other governments to abandon it and led by people who allow Star Fleet to become outdated and ineffective?

Next you’ll be throwing in a treasonous leader making secret deals with the enemy, the desertion of your own men in the field, a corrupt State Dept. (probably led by a Romulan) and a Senate of degenerates and cowards.

Now who could possibly believe in that kinda thing?

By the way there has been talk of this for years now. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Star Trek May Be Heading Back To TV, Get The Details

By Brent McKnight 6 hours ago 50 Comments

A lot of hardcore Star Trek fans have been critical of the rebooted film franchise, and almost every time a story drops about that, there is a minor clamor for the franchise to return to television, where it began almost 50 years ago. According to one new report, that could be closer than we think, and new series may be on the way.

Sources tell Latino Review that CBS is working to bring Star Trek back to your TV sets. They don’t offer much in the way of details, but the biggest tidbit they share is that  X-Men: Days of Future Past director Bryan Singer has been bandied about as an executive producer through his Bad Hat Harry Productions. We’ll have to wait and see if this news pans out, but there’s definite potential, and Singer is a well-known fan and has a history with the franchise.

Star Trek: Enterprise, the most recent series, went off the air in 2005, and since then there have been a couple of attempts to mount another in its wake. Bryce Zabel (Dark Skies) and Babylon 5’s J. Michael Straczynski worked on a version called Star Trek: Reboot the Universe. There was also another one called Star Trek: Federation, and wouldn’t you know, Singer was one of the main three involved with that project, along with Christopher McQuarrie (Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation) and Robert Burnett, with novelist Geoffrey Thorne handling the writing.

Singer is the only name specifically mentioned in LR’s report. There’s no concrete word on whether any of the others are still involved, but Burnett has continued dabbling in that realm, working as a producer on the fan-funded film Star Trek: Axanar, from the people behind Star Trek: Prelude to Axanar. McQuarrie is busy getting Rogue Nation in shape for its release in July, though he is working with Bad Robot on that one, and has mentioned Trek on social media as recently as last December. For his part, Singer is prepping X-Men: Apocalypse, but has sporadically talked about Star Trek over the years. If nothing else, they all still appear to have love for the franchise.

If Singer and/or any of these people are working on a new Star Trek series, it will be interesting to see if it is similar to Federation. That idea didn’t reboot the universe, but instead takes place in the distant future. In this vision, the United Federation of Planets has become bloated and complacent, and Starfleet has become outdated and ineffective. Basically, it imagines a world where the Federation is a dysfunctional mess, causing many worlds to withdraw due to the ineffective way the government responds to an emerging threat called the Scourge. That’s definitely fertile ground for a new series to explore.

Who the hell knows if this will actually amount to anything? Paramount is still working to get Star Trek 3 together, though there appears to be movement — Simon Pegg has been talking about the script, and Idris Elba is reportedly up for an as-yet-unnamed villain role. The Justin Lin-directed film is scheduled to hit theaters on July 6, 2016, but it would also be pretty cool to have more Star Trek on TV to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Gene Roddenberry’s groundbreaking franchise.