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Weird celebrity endorsements: The entire cast of ‘Star Trek’ uses MCI long distance calling
07.15.2013
09:51 am
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I barely remember being conscious of long distance providers. It was before I had to worry about bills and I’ve never had a land line—at this point, I think even my grandparents have seen the light of texting. I do vaguely remember the rabid flurry of phone company commercials, desperately trying to one-up each other and corner the market. As a Trekkie-by-birth however (thanks mom!), I would have totally remembered the weirdness of this 1990 MCI commercial, had I ever witnessed it.

Don’t get me wrong, I cast no stones at product endorsement, not even by my beloved science fiction heroes. I mean, Shatner’s a great spokesmen for Priceline—he has the smarm and the charm to make it work. George Takei appeared in commercials for television, and George Takei can pretty much do whatever he damn well pleases because he is a gift to all mankind. But it is weird to see the entire crew of The Enterprise promoting something as mundane and anachronistic as a long distance service.

Speaking of mundane, I like how they portrayed the MCI offices as a dynamic, mission control kind of atmosphere, instead of the fields of cubicles we know to be the call center.
 

Posted by Amber Frost
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07.15.2013
09:51 am
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Star Trek: The Middle School Musical
05.24.2013
11:13 am
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“To boldly go…”

Now, this I would go and see.

Star Trek: The Middle School Musical—a segment from The Mythical Show.

I hope Cameron MacKintosh is watching…
 

 

Posted by Paul Gallagher
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05.24.2013
11:13 am
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Impressive lifelike sculpture of Mr. Spock
04.11.2013
03:45 pm
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There’s really not that much to say about this, but, uh, holy crap you can actually see the five o’clock shadow setting in! It’s all in the details…

“Spock” by Schell Sculpture Studio. Damn this is good!

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Below, a medley of notable Spock quotes from all 80 original episodes of Star Trek:
 

 
Via Ian Brooks

Posted by Tara McGinley
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04.11.2013
03:45 pm
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The IRS’ ‘Star Trek’ training video that doesn’t appear to train (or amuse) anyone…
03.25.2013
10:20 am
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Let it be known that I am the very first person, ever, to point out that the rhetoric of “government waste” is almost always a political tool, a red herring, distracting the public from focusing on rampant wealth inequality and America’s real bottomless money-pit, our absurdly gratuitous military spending. The resultant alarmism is used to incite a panic so that the wealthy can promote debilitating austerity measures as necessary belt-tightening.

Moreover, the $60,000 the IRS spent on this video (and, to be fair, another unreleased one that parodies Gilligan’s Island), adds up to such a pittance to taxpayers, it barely means anything. Plus, I’m pretty sure working for the IRS sucks, so I don’t mind shelling out a couple extra pennies to bring a little levity to the lives of the folks auditing my taxes—I want them to be in a good mood.

That being said… $60,000?!? I guess I just feel like the production values or writing should have been better. It can’t even decide if it’s the original Star Trek or The Next Generation! The IRS has apologized for the poorly thought-out project, but I have yet to hear an apology to the canon!

As a tax-payer, I’m kind of “meh” about this. As a science fiction fan, I am incensed!
 

 
Via Associated Press

Posted by Amber Frost
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03.25.2013
10:20 am
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Fine literature on the set of Star Trek (‘What us worry?’)
03.06.2013
10:02 am
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That’s a Mad magazine they’re holding up, if you can’t tell. It doesn’t surprise me that Leonard Nimoy reads Mad, but the “Shakespearean” actor William Shatner taking a break with a little “low culture” humor mag? I am unnerved!

Posted by Amber Frost
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03.06.2013
10:02 am
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‘Star Trek’ cast at space shuttle viewing, in glorious 1976 fashions
02.06.2013
09:28 am
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After a flood of letters from Star Trek fans, NASA named its first Space Shuttle Orbiter “Enterprise”. On September 17, 1976, Enterprise made its’ media debut at the Rockwell’s plant in Palmdale, California, as the Air Force band fired up the Star Trek theme music. The show’s cast was naturally invited, although somehow William Shatner missed it.

Surely he owned a fabulous leisure suit? He’s Bill Shatner!

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From left: James Fletcher; NASA administrator, DeForest Kelley; George Takei; James Doohan; Nichelle Nichols; Leonard Nimoy; Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, George Low; NASA deputy administrator, and Walter Koenig;

Below, Leonard Nimoy recounts the events that led to the Space Shuttle’s name.
 

Posted by Amber Frost
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02.06.2013
09:28 am
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Trekkie!
01.16.2013
09:55 am
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Actress Nichelle Nichols tells the lovely story of how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. convinced her to remain on Star Trek after she had decided to leave the series for Broadway:

I was going to leave “Star Trek,” and [creator] Gene Roddenberry says, “You can’t do that. Don’t you understand what I’m trying to achieve? Take the weekend and think about it.” He took the resignation and stuck it in his desk drawer….

As fate would have it, I was to be a celebrity guest at, I believe, it was an NAACP fundraiser in Beverly Hills. I had just been taken to the dais, when the organizer came over and said, “Ms. Nichols, there’s someone here who said he is your biggest fan and he really wants to meet you.”

I stand up and turn and I’m looking for a young “Star Trek” fan. Instead, is this face the world knows. I remember thinking, “Whoever that fan is, is going to have to wait because Dr. Martin Luther King, my leader, is walking toward me, with a beautiful smile on his face.” Then this man says “Yes, Ms. Nichols, I am that fan. I am your best fan, your greatest fan, and my family are your greatest fans…. We admire you greatly ….And the manner in which you’ve created this role has dignity….”

I said “Dr. King, thank you so much. I really am going to miss my co-stars.” He said, dead serious, “What are you talking about?” I said, “I’m leaving Star Trek,” He said, “You cannot. You cannot!”

I was taken aback. He said, “Don’t you understand what this man has achieved? For the first time on television we will be seen as we should be seen every day – as intelligent, quality, beautiful people who can sing, dance, but who can also go into space, who can be lawyers, who can be teachers, who can be professors, and yet you don’t see it on television – until now….”

I could say nothing, I just stood there realizing every word that he was saying was the truth. He said, “Gene Roddenberry has opened a door for the world to see us. If you leave, that door can be closed because, you see, your role is not a Black role, and it’s not a female role, he can fill it with anything, including an alien.”

At that moment, the world tilted for me. I knew then that I was something else and that the world was not the same. That’s all I could think of, everything that Dr. King had said:  The world sees us for the first time as we should be seen.

Come Monday morning, I went to Gene. He’s sitting behind that same dang desk. I told him what happened, and I said, “If you still want me to stay, I’ll stay. I have to.” He looked at me, and said, “God bless Dr. Martin Luther King, somebody knows where I am coming from.” I said, “That’s what he said.” And my life’s never been the same since, and I’ve never looked back. I never regretted it, because I understood the universe, that universal mind, had somehow put me there, and we have choices. Are we going to walk down this road or the other? It was the right road for me.

TV’s first interracial kiss—between Nichols and William Shatner—also occurred on Star Trek. America celebrates Martin Luther King Day on January 21.

Below, an excerpt from a much longer interview with Nichelle Nichols—who also toured with Duke Ellington as a vocalist—in the archive of The TV Academy Foundation’s Archive of American Television, on YouTube
 

 
Via Media Post

Posted by Richard Metzger
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01.16.2013
09:55 am
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Lynchian test footage of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’
01.08.2013
03:40 pm
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Oh gawd, this late 80s behind-the-scenes test footage of the hair, makeup and wardrobe from Star Trek: The Next Generation just made my day!

Imagine the possibilites of adding your own soundtrack to this!?
 

 
Via Neatorama

Posted by Tara McGinley
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01.08.2013
03:40 pm
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The Beatles Meet Star Trek: The first pop mash-up?
07.30.2012
10:49 am
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I wonder if anyone has ever seen this film, The Beatles Meet Star Trek, which opened November 5th, 1976 at the Uniondale Mini Cinema in Uniondale, N.Y. From what l can gather, over at Temple of Schlock, this was either a mix of Star Trek bloopers and Beatles’ performances; or a cartoon fest of clips from the Trekkies and Fab Four’s separate animated series. Whichever, it would be good to find out if anyone has seen The Beatles Meet Star Trek, whether it was any good? and was it the first pop cultural mash-up?
 
Bonus: fan made slash clips of Beatles and Star Trek, after the jump…
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
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07.30.2012
10:49 am
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Star Trek: Gaseous Anomalies
06.22.2012
06:58 pm
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Because I’m not a fan, I had no idea that one of the recurring plot elements of the 726 Star Trek TV shows and 11 films are the numerous nebulas, ionic disturbances and gaseous anomalies encountered by the crew of the Starship Enterprise. In this totally silly clip, Vernon Wilmer digs deep into the existential pants of the men whose job it is to confront and monitor these often deadly vapors.

In the early 2290s, Starfleet were keen to investigate gaseous anomalies and equipped all starships with specialized probes that could monitor them. They also dispatched the USS Excelsior on a three-year mission to chart anomalies in the Beta Quadrant in 2290.

Normally I’d be too ashamed to share something like this with Dangerous Minds’ high class readership. But there is a narrative arc, some real tension and drama, in this video that can’t be denied. The memory of it still lingers in my pores like the insistent scent of a week-old omelet made of sulphuric acid, brussel sprouts and Limburger cheese.
 

Posted by Marc Campbell
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06.22.2012
06:58 pm
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Slash the final frontier: Exploring the forbidden love of Captain James T. Kirk and Mr. Spock
03.09.2012
01:48 pm
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So-called “slash” fan fiction has been around since the 1970s and is usually written by women. Slash fan fiction is notable for taking characters from popular TV shows, movies and books and imagining them in romantic and sexual situations... normally sans the involvement of any female characters. For instance, slash fan fiction written about characters from Twilight probably underplays Bella or leaves her out entirely in favor of some hot mano a mano action with the male characters? Why? SImply because the average (lonely?) author of sexually charged fan fiction tends to be so besotted by the objects of their affections that they want no competition from other females, even if they are fictional!

So, as must seem pretty obvious by now, this leaves only the male characters to, er, indulge the sexual fantasies of the slash fiction writers. Starksy and Hutch, Batman and Robin, Sawyer and Jack from Lost, even Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy get it on in the pages of fan fiction. (I’ve seen Master and Commander slash as well).

Here’s a fun slash music video that examines the love that dares not speak its name between Kirk and Spock.
 

Posted by Richard Metzger
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03.09.2012
01:48 pm
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The Galactically Hot Women of Star Trek
08.03.2011
11:57 am
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Flickr user Poletti pays homage to some of the most beautiful women from Star Trek. The Galactically Hot Women of Star Trek photostream features the female beauties with the name of the characters, what episodes they appeared in and their real-life names. Besides all the gorgeous faces, the intergalactic 60s fashion and make-up are added bonuses.

(via Super Punch)

Posted by Tara McGinley
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08.03.2011
11:57 am
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Primeval Trekkies
07.15.2011
04:48 pm
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I love this photo because I totally understand the use of a wastepaper basket as a hat. You gotta use what’s around you when you’re broke and trying to improvise on the spot. 

In the 70s I wanted to be Wonder Woman real bad, but I was stuck with a shitty Dorothy Hamill haircut my mother had given me. So, I put one of my mother’s dishtowels on my head for the long luscious locks-look and was completely convinced I was fooling the world. 

(via Nistagmus)

Posted by Tara McGinley
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07.15.2011
04:48 pm
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‘Star Trek Phase II’: Fan-made TV
05.30.2011
05:34 pm
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Star Trek: Phase II was originally planned as a follow-up series to Star Trek, but it never came to be. Still good ideas will out, and in 1997 actor, producer and Trekkie, James Cawley concocted a plan to make his own further adventures of Captain James T. Kirk, Mr Spock and Dr “Bones” McCoy and the crew of SS Enterprise.

Roll on a few years to 2003, and Cawley is not only producing these new on-line adventures called Star Trek - New Voyage but is also playing Kirk.

It proved an internet hit, and even enticed guest appearances from original Star Trek actors George Takei, Walter Koenig, and Grace Lee Whitney. In 2008, the series changed its name to Star Trek: Phase II and the adventures continue.

For a fan produced series Star Trek: Phase II is exceedingly good fun. Six episodes have been made, each one better than the last, the most recent, “Enemy Starfleet” is below. Filming begins on a new episode “Mind Sifter” next month, and certainly for the love, dedication and hard work of all involved, Star Trek: Phase II deserves its to succeed.

What next for fan-based TV? The Partridge Family, The Waltons, Dallas? Suggestions please.
 

 
Bonus episode of Star Trek: Phase II, after the jump…
 
With thanks to Tommy Udo
 

READ ON
Posted by Paul Gallagher
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05.30.2011
05:34 pm
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The ‘Star Trek’ uprising of 1968: The gathering of the geeks
04.26.2011
02:28 am
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In January of 1968, a couple hundred Caltech students gathered in front of NBC Studios in Burbank to protest the impending cancellation of the “Star Trek” TV series.

While a war was raging in Vietnam, these proto-hipsters (check out the fashions, man) felt compelled to deal with more pressing matters, a shitty TV show.

The uprising to save “Star Trek” worked. NBC picked up the series for the 1968-69 season.

In Vietnam, two months after the “Star Trek” protests, Charlie Company entered the village of My Lai and the slaughter began. This time, the trekkies stayed home and watched TV, contented as cows on Venusian plains.
 
Thanks, Nerdcore

Posted by Marc Campbell
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04.26.2011
02:28 am
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