SR Pick [Video]: How Star Trek Should Have Ended

How It Should Have Ended is back with another terrific episode, adding to the growing list of titles they’ve re-imagined with “improved” endings – or at least endings with a bit more humor.

The most recent addition tackles JJ Abrams’ recent Star Trek reboot.

It goes without saying that, even though the video features a different ending, some portions of the clip may be spoilerific for anyone who has yet to watch the film. Really though, how could you possibly have managed to avoid seeing Star Trek for this long?

Boldly go check out the video to see how Star Trek should have ended:

http://screenrant.com/how-star-trek-should-have-ended-benk-47263/

JJ Abrams predicts science-fiction win at the Oscars

Star Trek director JJ Abrams says he has high hopes of a science fiction film winning the best film Oscar.

"I think there's a real shot," he told the BBC. "I know everyone's looking at Avatar, but I was a huge fan of District 9 as well.

"I'm just excited that they're both up there, nominated for best picture."

Abrams was honoured on Thursday for his contribution to the film industry at the Oscar Wilde awards, which celebrate Irish-American film-making.

The 43-year-old, who also created the television series Lost, missed out on an Oscar nomination for best film - although his Star Trek reboot is listed in the technical, sound and make-up categories.

"I'm a huge fan of sci-fi and fantasy, horror," he told the BBC, "so as long as the films keep getting made, whatever awards they win or don't win is sort of beside the point."

A science fiction film has never won a best picture Oscar, the closest being Peter Jackson's fantasy epic Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, in 2004.

In 1977, Star Wars was beaten to the prize by Woody Allen's Annie Hall, and five years later Gandhi won best picture over ET: The Extra Terrestrial.

Star Trek sequel

Star Trek has a total of four Oscar nominations

Abrams was introduced at Thursday's ceremony by Tom Cruise, who described him as "a film-maker who doesn't set borders - a great guy and an incredible artist".

The pair recently announced they will be making Mission: Impossible 4, with Cruise reprising his role as as Ethan Hunt. The film is to be released in May 2011.

Abrams said: "I'm working with Tom on the script and we are getting a director very soon, so I'm very excited. We had such a good time on the one we did before."

Meanwhile, the director is also preparing a Star Trek sequel.

"We are at the beginning stages and a script does not exist yet so it's hard to know. But I would love to work with those actors again," he said.

"I want to do everything I can to make it the best movie possible which might, of course, mean that I shouldn't direct it - so we'll see."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/8552244.stm

Vintage Behind The Scenes Look At Making The Original Star Trek Movie

Take a look at how they went about making the epic Star Trek: The Motion Picture in the 70's!

SlashFilm had this interesting behind the scenes documentary on the making of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. It's amazing to me how they went about making an epic space movie way back in the 70's that still stands up today.

This movie is over 30 years old and has none of today's computerized special effects and it's still visually stunning to see.





Star Trek: The Motion Picture was released in 1979. It was directed by Robert Wise and starred....

William Shatner as Admiral James T. Kirk

Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock

DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard 'Bones' McCoy

James Doohan as Cmdr. Montgomery 'Scotty' Scott

George Takei as Lt. Cmdr. Hikaru Sulu

Walter Koenig as Lt. Pavel Chekov

Nichelle Nichols as Lt. Cmdr. Uhura..... all the original crew from the series.


Take a look and let me know what you think.




http://www.comicbookmovie.com/fansites/GulfCoastAvengers/news/?a=15548

Warp speed to San Jose 'Star Trek' exhibit

True "Star Trek" fanatics who visit "Star Trek: The Exhibition" at San Jose's Tech Museum may find some flaws in the life-size replica of the starship Enterprise's bridge.

Sure, Capt. James T. Kirk's chair sits in the middle of the bridge, encircled by panels, instrument consoles and blinking colored lights.

But the seats for Kirk's multiethnic crew are missing, and the funnel-like device that Science Officer Spock used to analyze space anomalies is on the wrong side of the bridge.

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Planning your trip

"Star Trek: The Exhibition," Tech Museum of Innovation, 201 S. Market St., San Jose; (408) 294-8324, http://www.thetech.orghttp://www.thetech.org $25 for adults, $19 for children, $22 for seniors and college students with ID. Includes admission to all Tech Museum galleries. 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays-Wednesdays, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Thursdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. -8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

---

Still, few visitors have complained about such discrepancies, says Janice Thompson, a museum volunteer at what is billed as the world's largest collection of "Star Trek" memorabilia.

"They take it all in good fun," she tells me as she cradles a replica tribble, the wriggling toupee-like creature featured on the original TV series. "They are having a blast."

I don't consider myself a Trekkie, but I watched enough of the television episodes as a kid to understand why the exhibit has drawn nearly 60,000 visitors since it opened in October. The show runs until April 11.

At the exhibit, I got to sit in Capt. Kirk's chair and pretend to order Chekov to fire photon torpedoes at Klingon ships.

Elsewhere in the exhibit, I stood in a replica transporter room while a museum employee zapped me off the ship to the surface of a planet.

The exhibit boasts more than 200 pieces of "Star Trek" memorabilia, but only about a quarter of items are authentic props from the television series and the subsequent movies, says Roqua Montez, a spokesman for the Tech Museum.

But even a hard-core Trekkie who speaks Klingon and can name all 11 feature films and five television series that spun off from the original would have a hard time telling the replicas from the genuine props.

The authentic stuff includes several costumes worn on television and in movies, plus scale models of various spaceships used in filming the shows. Among the real props are the cube-like Borg starship used in the television series "Star Trek: the Next Generation" and the Klingon captain's chair from "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier."

The replicas include a display of "Star Trek" tricorders (used to scan and analyze unfamiliar surroundings), a phaser rifle, a communicator and a universal translator.

The "Star Trek" exhibit arrived in San Jose after a stint in Detroit, where it was housed in a 9,000-square-foot space, Montez says. But at the Tech Museum, the exhibit is spread throughout a 15,000-square-foot space, large enough to hold additional items, including several costumes from the most recent "Star Trek" movies, plus an interactive table where you can play the three-dimensional chess game that Spock played in several television episodes, Montez says.

But when you see all the props and replicas in person, they look more like toys than gadgets from the future.

That was true for Bruce Dobben a San Jose resident who stayed up late as a kid to watch "Star Trek" with his dad. He says the light panels on the Enterprise bridge looked like a Lite-Bright set, the popular 1970s toy with the glowing bulbs.

Another visitor, Fred Sauer of Los Altos, Calif., who wore a sweatshirt with an Enterprise insignia, agreed.

"It's a little bit less than I expected," he says of the replica bridge. "It's still a very cool show."

But the exhibit is more than just a collection of "Star Trek" props and replicas. It's a look behind the scenes of a show that became a cult phenomenon.

For example, a panel in the exhibit explains that "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry came up with the transporter room to save on costs so the show producers didn't have to create a new docking port for each new planet visited by the Enterprise. Instead, Kirk and his crew simply zapped themselves off the ship.

And if you look closely at a starship Enterprise schematic that appeared in the background of the original television show, you will see that the prop makers had a warped sense of humor. The illustration that is supposed to show the layout of the ship's mechanical and electronic components instead includes tiny pictures of a duck, a mouse and a hypodermic needle.

Apparently, the production crew didn't think putting a duck in the artificial gravity substation would hamper the mission to boldly go where no man has gone before.
http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-startrek-20100308,0,1825575.story

Star Trek XI Makeup Crew Acknowledge Co-Workers

The three-person makeup crew for Star Trek XI were nominated for an Oscar for their work, but are quick to point out that it took more than just the three of them to create the species, old and new, which appeared in Star Trek XI.

During a Saturday afternoon symposium featuring the Oscar-nominated hair and makeup artists for 2010, one of the three Star Trek XI makeup artists, Mindy Hall, makeup department head, spoke for the group. “We’re thrilled there were forty-plus makeup artists, twelve of which are out here today, who stood beside us. They weren’t behind us. They were beside us, taking the designs and bringing them to life.”

“From the get go, all we wanted to do was work that was worthy of this,” said Barney Burman, special effects makeup artist. Burman also spoke about his work on Star Trek XI with TrekMovie.com, explaining how the duties were divvied up and sharing photos showing the work of the makeup artists. “I initially brought Joel [Harlow] on to be my key artist and to work as the supervisor on set for prosthetics, while I was designing and creating stuff back in the shop,” he said. “Once we started shooting I became so overwhelmed with stuff to do in the shop that I decided to have Joel take over the Romulans, close to where J.J. could see them every day, so we broke into two different camps. And Mindy [Hall] was always handling the straight makeup, so that were three different camps but we stayed in communication with each other and supported each other. We worked as close together as one unit, while being three units.”

What would Burman like to see in Star Trek XII? “I would love to see the Klingons unmasked,” he said. “To me it is kind of like with Batman Begins, and they made it anew. And in the sequel the knew they had to bring the Joker into it, because he is the most iconic Batman villain. So to me it is the same thing, if you are going to do the second Star Trek, hopefully we get to see the Klingons in the sequel.”

http://www.trektoday.com/content/2010/03/star-trek-xi-makeup-crew-acknowledge-co-workers/

Atari and Cryptic anger the people who bought Star Trek Online at launch

Remember Star Trek Online? Yeah, it come out waaaaay back on February 2nd of 2010. Well, it’s Cryptic’s game, but it’s published by Atari, and since there maybe hasn’t been the level of interest everyone was looking for, they are running a sale. It’s a pretty good deal too, since you get the game for $10 off (which isn’t so bad) and you an additional 60 days of free gameplay (which is the frustrating part). That’s a total of 90 days of free play, including the 30 days that come with the purchase of the game. That seems really unfair to the players who pre-ordered or bought the game when it first came out.

So the Star Trek Online forums are getting ugly, and subscribers are upset. Cryptic and Atari reacted by deleting the threads criticizing them for their actions, and then created a new sticky thread to consolidate all the comments. Needless to say, this decision has made the subscribers even more angry, and Cryptic and Atari have yet to make a decision about how they are going to resolve this issue. Now in the interest of disclosure, I’m currently playing STO. The game is very rough around the edges, and still feels like a beta despite the fact that it was formally released a mere month ago. It’s disturbing to me as a player to see a “fire sale” level promotion so soon, and it makes me fear for the future of the game. Hopefully Cryptic/Atari will realize that they are really burning bridges with the players and make a decision similar to what Blizzard did when World of Warcraft was released with so many problems.

http://www.crunchgear.com/2010/03/01/atari-says-screw-you-to-people-who-bought-star-trek-online-at-launch/

Star Trek Online Review

Space: The final Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) frontier. This is the review of Cryptic's Star Trek Online. My 4-page mission, to discuss the ups and downs of the latest offering from a company that knows a thing or two about MMOs. Their mission: to carefully create a game that is fun and engaging enough to convince players to part with $14.99 every month, while still remaining true enough the original material so as not to anger the legion of rabid fans worldwide. These are my adventures of a female (Of course. - Ed.) Vulcan Science officer named Major, the U.S.S. Pork Chop Express and the strange, sometimes fun, sometimes frustrating world of Star Trek Online (STO).

When I first heard of STO I was a bit skeptical as to how Star Trek would translate to an MMO environment. Without a doubt, it's a fictional universe that's ripe with conflict, drama, technology and mythos familiar to almost everyone, so in that respect, a large chunk of the developer's job is done for them right out of the gate. However, developing a MMO based on a beloved series is also a double-edged sword, because the Star Trek episodes and movies are not about 100% non-stop action. This is the first oddity I encountered wit h the game. Think back to The Next Generation with Captain Jean Luc 'Let's Talk About It 'Picard where diplomacy and non-violent solutions were his preferred course of action to most of the problems encountered in the show. Translating those sorts of diplomatic solutions into the primary source of player missions in a genre that is generally combat centered, would make for some boring gameplay. So, instead, Cryptic has opted to go in the other direction, in a big way. I think it's funny that the main point of the game seems to be combat, combat, combat. My point is, that it's ironic. Don't get me wrong, I personally prefer the two-fisted approach to solving problems of James T. Kirk, but there HAS to be some die-hard Trekies out there (like Vader) (Hence my knick, Vader - Ed.) who are probably LIVID that the whole game violates the Prime Directive like Oprah violates an all you can eat buffet. (And yes I know the Prime Directive is about not impacting Pre-Warp civilizations in any way, but the joke works better that way so spare me your emails.)

Now, let's show them what being a bad-ass Star Trek chick is all about!

Is there a way to land this thing?

But I am getting ahead of myself. Let's go back to the start of the game. Players start by creating a character who is a member of Star Fleet. Various races are available from the usual list of Federation suspects: Human, Vulcan, Trill, (among others) or you can opt to create your own custom alien. The choice is not mere window dressing as differing races come with their own racial perks that will affect (negatively or positively) different aspects of the gameplay. You can customize the look of your character using Cryptic's now famous character look generator. Just like its other games (Champions Online, City of Heroes) you have a nearly limitless list of ways that you can customize your look. This customization also carries over to your uniform and the Bridge officers of your crew.

Since the game is set in the same alternate universe that last year's Star Trek movie reboot (Red Antimatter, the destruction of the Romulan homeworld etc.) I guess I can cut Cryptic some slack for having a military organization allowing its members to wear a non-standardized uniform. However, it is a little off-putting at first to see so many different styles from all the series and movies in the same room at the same time. But frankly, after a few minutes, you won't even notice that some character from the first series is standing next to your toon who is wearing an outfit that would not be introduced some 80 years later in the mythos timeline (You insane, geek - Ed.). You complete your character creation process by choosing which (for lack of a better word) class you will play: Science, Engineering or Tactical officer. Each class has its own strengths and abilities similar to other games healer, damage dealer and tank classes and limits the kind of ships you have access to.

Once you have created your toon (Will you stop calling it toon! - Ed.), you are taken through a tutorial that guides you through the basics of space and ground combat, inventory management and mission acquisition and completion. By the time the tutorial story arc is complete, your character finds herself on the Stardock orbiting Earth in the Sol system and promoted to Captain of a starter starship (Miranda Class to be exact for us fans), which you get to name and design what it looks like and thus your adventure begins. The choose your own starship name is cool, but there are enough immature dorks out there that choose a stupid name for their ship (like The Pork Chop Express) that again reminds you that you are playing a game with immature dorks and geeks. From here you fall into the familiar pattern of visiting NPC's on the station accepting quests, visiting merchants to purchase or sell equipment from drops, browsing the exchange (basically the spacey sci-fi version of an auction house) and when ready, heading out into space to tackle your missions. From here you fall into the familiar pattern of visiting NPC's on the station accepting quests, visiting merchants to purchase or sell equipment from drops, browsing the exchange (basically the spacey sci-fi version of an auction house) and when ready, heading out into space to tackle your missions.

Missions are typically made up of ground and/or space combat, but some are the standard MMO fair of the Fed Ex style (of running and talking to an NPC in another location) or gathering a certain number of items to be turned in for a reward. Some missions advance the story arc and they play out like one of the TV episodes. These are multipart missions that flow naturally from one point to another. You may be asked to investigate a far flung star system where after combating some raiders, you find a clue that leads to a hidden asteroid base that you have to beam down to investigate. These are well done and offer a real sense of accomplishment when completed. Fans of the series will find lots of little gems hidden in plain sight through these missions but of course, knowledge of the Star Trek mythos is not required to play.

Space combat consists of warping into a system and if you are lucky, seeing several targets highlighted in red in the distance. You have to maneuver within weapon range before you can launch your attack. Since this is space, combat is a 360 degree affair. You have forward and rear facing beam weapons and torpedo launchers which must be brought to bear on your target before you can fire. Couple these firing arcs with fore, aft, starboard and port shields and you have an exciting combat experience. As your shields stop incoming attacks, they reduce and eventually fail leaving your bare hull exposed. As one shield weakens, you try to rotate your ship to allow your ship time to recharge the weakened section of shield (or pump more energy into it), while still keeping the enemy in your firing arc. Your ship officers have special abilities that can aid in combat by debuffing the enemy, healing yourself or allies or boosting your attack. This part of the game is fun and challenging especially when fighting a large number of enemies and when playing with teammates.

Ground combat is a bit underwhelming. For these missions you beam down to a planet or space station with you team mates or with NPCs in the form of your bridge officers. You then move around the map encountering groups of enemies whom you engage with phasers, disrupters, deployable items such as turrets and when the enemy gets too close, melee attacks. While directional attacks something you have to worry about in space due to shield strength, you have to pay attention to getting flanked while on ground missions due to increased damage and the chance to be stunned for a period of time. Also similar to space battles, you can make use of items or special attacks to help take out the bad guys. Fallen enemies drop items that can range from weapons, armor, and consumables like food and hypos that will heal your character. The combat, in my opinion, does not do much to distinguish itself from other MMO games. While the different environments do provide for a suitable sci-fi setting and you will face all sort of aliens from the Star Trek universe, in the end the enemies don't provide much difference as they all fight pretty much the same, one to another. Some enemies use ranged attacks, some fight close up but overall, it does not matter if its Klingons or Gorn, ultimately they all die the same.

One of these doors is bound to lead to the toilette.

So ends Vince's sci-fi opera!

Completing these quests grants bridge officer points that you use to upgrade your character's skills and other rewards like items to improve your starship, your bridge officers or gives you tokens that can be traded in at star bases for special items. Running missions with teammates speeds up the process of gaining officer points and moving you to your next promotion (aka level). While you start with a Federation character, once you hit level 5 you can create a Klingon officer which has a much stronger emphasis on player versus player (PvP) combat, not to mention ships that can cloak in combat. You can also engage in Fleet Actions which are essentially public quests that everyone in the area can participate in and in some cases involve PvP combat. These are fun and offer a break from the other missions but suffer balancing issues if you don't have enough people from your side. You can quickly find yourself on the wrong side of a warp core breach but in the end that's not as bad as it sounds. More on that in a minute.

Graphically the game looks great. Space backdrops are colorful and are usually populated with interesting little bits of window dressing. Planet side missions are likewise (usually) attractive. The developers talked early on during the games' development about the game's ability to randomize the various features of a planet to makes things alien, exotic and most of the time, interesting. This is good because some of the non-combat ground missions are deathly boring. Running around looking for five kinds of rocks to scan gets real old, real quick. Space combat is also visually pleasing as ship's shields fail from repeated attacks and the hulls change from perfection to a charred, pitted exterior venting atmosphere and flames from different points before exploding in violent fireballs. Straying too close to these eruptions will damage your own ship, but getting a closer look at the fireworks is sometimes worth it.

Audio in the game is top-notch. All the usual sound effects from the series are in place here. The original sounds for weapons, scanners, alarm claxons and even messages from computer are present and have not gotten old in all the time I have been playing. Music is also made up of many of the original orchestrations from the movies and TV series which really add to the whole Star trek experience in game. This is one area where the game really shines.

Gameplay is where things don't gel as well as they should. While the idea of going out to fulfill missions in a universe where everything seems to be against the Federation and its lofty goals sounds like a good thing, in practice, some things just don't add up. After all this is an MMO and you must to allow the player some level of freedom but some of this really hurts the suspension of disbelief. First, there are dozens of other players running around the galaxy going about their missions as you chase down your tasks which is what you'd expect in any MMO. However, with so many Federation ships crawling around the sector, it's a bit like rush hour in Los Angeles. With this many ships, the Federation should be roll over any threat that comes its way.

Next, I know you are a Star Fleet Captain, but it seems like you have a little too much autonomy. You can choose to take a mission to defend a star base from rampaging Klingons or decide to run out to another sector to talk to some science officer in a far flung corner of a galaxy. Regardless of how desperate the situation is, ultimately the choice on what to do and when to do it is up to you. Again, these are things to HAVE to allow the player to control in an MMO environment, but it does seem a little odd that you can take or leave any assignment that you choose considering you are part of a military organization and as such you are expected to follow orders.

Let's see now, umm... forget it. No way am I reading all that.

Wow, that thing is huge.

Finally, there is currently no penalty for dying in combat, be it in space on or on the ground. This takes any risk out of the game experience and ultimately turns the whole thing into an arcade game. Sure it may be annoying to have to fly back out to the point where the enemy took you out, and yes, that can be a time consuming experience, but the mission does not reset, you don't lose any officer points nor do you receive a hit to your skills for a limited period of time. NOTHING happens. You have to feel like you have something on the line when you go into a combat situation or else every victory feels hollow and you lose the desire to continue on. Especially after you have maxed your character.

Other issues abound that you expect now with the launch of a new MMO game: lag during combat encounters, disconnections from the server during transitions from one zone to another, missions that don't work as intended and other hiccups are annoying. To their credit, Cryptic is releasing patches almost daily to address these issues so they are clearing doing their best to remedy the situation. One thing that they can't seem to fix fast enough also was an issue with Champions Online: Lack of documentation. This is my biggest gripe currently. Too often there is not enough information within the game as to what you are supposed to do with items that you find, where to go for some missions that were not completed when you were last logged in or just what boosting one skill over another will really do for you. Players should not be forced to purchase a strategy guide for information that should have been included in the box or through some sort of interface in game. Yes, I know part of the fun of an MMO is the exploration and discovery of these new virtual worlds, but when a large part of the game is reduce to guesswork, it's more frustrating than fun.

In the end, Star Trek Online is a mixed bag. If you are a Star Trek fan you will get a huge kick out of being able to pilot your own ship into combat and having brushes with people places and things you have seen in the series and movies. Gamers who are not fans will still find a beautiful game with wonderful audio and music, but the shortcomings in gameplay outside of space combat leave much to be desired. Hopefully Cryptic will find a way to add some variety into the missions not part of episodes to keep people interested and paying that all important monthly fee. But I question that they can find a way to do so in a manner that stays true to Star Trek while still keeping players engaged. If not, this may remain a game that only the hardcore Star Trek fan will keep playing and paying for beyond the first month. And for even such a popular franchise as Star Trek, I am not sure that will be enough to keep it up and running. As for my Vulcan and the U.S.S. Pork Chop Express, their mission will expire after 30 days as I will not be renewing my subscription (Ha! - Ed.).

http://www.actiontrip.com/reviews/startrekonline_3.phtml