Showbits

Seven years after Star Trek went off the air in 1969, fans engaged in a letter-writing campaign to have NASA's first space shuttle christened the Enterprise. Now, fans of modern sci-fi have a similar opportunity to impact our culture. Until March 20th, NASA is accepting votes to name the third node to be installed on the International Space Station. "The name should reflect the spirit of exploration and cooperation embodied by the space station, and follow in the tradition set by Node 1- Unity- and Node 2- Harmony," they suggest. In addition to writing one in, voters can choose one of four default choices:

• Earthrise
• Legacy
• Serenity
• Venture

Naturally, fans of Joss Whedon's short-lived series, Firefly, and its subsequent feature film, Serenity, see only one choice out of the four — and I have to admit, there's a certain logic to it. It is the trend for science fiction to become science fact, as evidenced in one episode of Firefly when pilot Wash remarked, "That sounds like something out of science fiction," to which his wife reminded him, "We live on a spaceship, dear." Additional nodes on the ISS expand, in just the smallest way, humanity's ability to colonize space, which is surely a step in the right direction. So don your browncoats and cast your votes to launch Serenity once again!

(Hat tips to SJVN and Lisa Hoover)

Jerry Seinfeld's recent team-up with Bill Gates for a bizarre set of advertisements has put me in mind of other famous celebrity endorsements — especially when it comes to Star Trek. The show's futuristic setting has left Star Trek relatively immune to product placement, but that hasn't stopped the franchise from appearing elsewhere to promote services both related and otherwise. I'm not speaking of the show's actors, taken out of their galactic context, hawking wares such as the Commodore VIC-20, but actual in-character sales pitches.

The most recent and famous example may be William Shatner plugging DirecTV:

Of course, once you find the DirecTV channel you want, put down the remote and get your hands busy with some finger-lickin' goodness:

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It's April Fool's Day, which is often a relished opportunity for creative mischief. An outlet for such comic imagination used to be StarTrek.com — up until its managing geniuses were summarily executed. Fortunately, their past efforts are timeless and are still available through the magic of the Internet Archive. Courtesy its Wayback Machine, I present to you the hilarious news reports of April 1, 2005 (links will load slowly — be patient):

• Star Trek: Enterprise Saved … With Strings Attached
  
• Several New Star Trek Pilots Rejected
  
• Your Mirror Universe Twin and You
  
• The Galactic Enquirer
  
• GQ: Gorn Quarterly
  

Remember that three years ago this month, we were on the cusp of the cancellation of Enterprise. To see that first headline above set my heart atwitter — until I remembered the date. It was cruel of our overlords to toy with our emotions so carelessly… but they made up for it with the excellent Mirror Universe FAQ.

A few other pieces were not captured by the Wayback Machine but have been reposted to a Trek message board:

• Bakula Debunks "Holodeck" Rumor
  
• BBC to Remake Star Trek
  
• New Series Announced: Klingon Eye for the Starfleet Guy
  

It's nice to know humor will survive into the 24th century!

I was finishing up the second season of Quantum Leap on DVD last night when the opening credits for the episode "Sea Bride" revealed a John Hertzler. Suspecting that he would become better known by his initials, I did not keep an eye out for a face I wouldn't recognize without extensive makeup, but an ear open for an unmistakably gruff voice. Sure enough, there he was — the man better known as Deep Space Nine's General Martok.

In the above shot, he and Scott Bakula share a victory; below, they toast their glory with a mug of bloodwine.

His characters are surprisingly similar, with almost interchangeable lines. You'd expect the following retort to come from Star Trek — but it didn't:

This month marks a year until the release of Star Trek XI. Fans are so excited over this relaunch of the franchise that they can't wait for the official teaser (rumored to precede next month's Cloverfield) — so they've gone and made their own trailers, of which I think this one is the best:

And before that was a fly-by of a remodeled CGI Enterprise that proved to be cool yet false. Even the rabid paparazzi have gotten in on it by snapping some shots of the supposed Kirk and an Orion slave girl.

My curiosity occasionally gets the better of me, but in general, I'd rather avoid all these grovelling for media scraps. No news, rumor, or trailer is needed to sell me on this film, nor can any dissuade me from seeing it. I'm already sold and would like to see as much of the film for the first time upon its theatrical debut next Christmas. What about you?

[Hat tip to the Trek Movie Report Web site.]

May 13th marks the two-year anniversary of the airing of the series finale of Enterprise — what may've been the last episode of Star Trek ever. My viewing habits precluded catching most of the fourth and final season when it originally aired, so this past weekend, I engorged myself on the last 19 episodes (which I shall attempt to discuss spoiler-free).

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Via TrekToday comes this neat, two-page interview with Brent Spiner. He talks about the fortieth anniversary of Star Trek (which every surviving Trek alum is doing this year), Threshold, Enterprise, J. J. Abrams, and more.

I've always enjoyed the "trying to be human" characters of Star Trek, even if it has become cliché by now. And though TOS was my least favorite of the five series, it seems to make the best novels; I'll devour anything about Spock, for example. I would love the opportunity to engage some comparable narratives about our favorite android. Can anyone recommend any similarly spectacular Datacentric stories?