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A New World, A New Star Trek Columnist Brandon Rhea explores what Trek is for tomorrow
I recently signed up to join the Planetary Society, a group led by Bill Nye that advocates for planetary science and exploration. When you become a member, they send you a T-shirt that says “I have a place in space.” In fact, I wore that shirt on the plane headed for the Creation Entertainment Star Trek convention in Las Vegas earlier this month. It felt appropriate wearing it given I was headed toward the largest gathering of Star Trek fans in the United States. Yet at the same time, the words don’t mean as much as they could. Part of me feels they ring hollow. The idea t …

BRANDON RHEA | Aug-19-2013 |

Set A Course For Star Trek Las Vegas A fan survival guide for the enterprising convention-goer
Our favorite DS-Niners along with more than 100 Star Trek and science-fiction favorites are descending upon Sin City for Creation Entertainment’s Official Star Trek Las Vegas convention. Go once more unto the breach to celebrate not only fandom, but the 20th anniversary of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” — the series that changed the way fans viewed the Roddenberry universe. Creation will pack non-stop, around the clock entertainment into an unprecedented four day Tre …

LISA GUETZKOW | Aug-6-2013 |

PREVIEW: ‘Trek Nation’ Special Edition Must-Have … even if it does have you yearning for more
It’s been almost two years since the Star Trek documentary “Trek Nation” premiered on Science channel to great ratings and solid reviews. More than six years in the making, “Trek Nation” was a journey by Eugene W. Roddenberry Jr. into what made the creation of his father, Gene Roddenberry, so special and enduring. And the final result was spectacular. Now, Roddenberry Entertainment, Atmosphere Pictures and New Animal Productions, bring “Trek Nation” to a new special edition two-disc release filled with expanded interviews, home movies from the Roddenberry family, and even a …

MICHAEL HINMAN | Jul-7-2013 |

PREVIEW: Don’t Waste Your Time With ‘Real Story’ Smithsonian Channel’s Trek-theme episode not worth it
I guess I should have realized that as soon as Herb Solow showed up, the Smithsonian Channel’s outing of “Real Story” featuring Star Trek was going to be nothing more than complete drek. And as I continued to watch this episode of the cable channel’s documentary series, I couldn’t tell if this was all designed to celebrate Star Trek, or simply attack “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry. Now that I’ve had a few days to reflect on it, I’m leaning toward the latter. Because “Real Story” is on a channel associated with a prestigious museum and owned by CBS Corp. (which also ha …

MICHAEL HINMAN | Jun-26-2013 |

Are Star Trek Fans Going To Hell? It’s time to have a serious conversation about differences
In my regular Internet surfing this week, I came across something that kind of surprised me. I guess it shouldn’t, considering “Star Trek: Into Darkness” came out recently, and there has been a lot of extra mainstream talk about Star Trek in recent weeks. But this site targeted Star Trek’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, directly … and basically called him a “wicked, unsaved atheist” who “died in his sins without Jesus Christ and went to hell.” I won’t link directly to the site here, but if you really want to look for it, I’m sure those words above will help in a Google search …

MICHAEL HINMAN | Jun-2-2013 |

REVIEW: No Sophomore Slump For ‘Into Darkness’ J.J. Abrams delivers a fun, rip-roaring sequel
This review may acontain spoilers. Right off the bat let me say that there’s no sophomore slump for J.J. Abrams and his crew of the Enterprise — “Star Trek: Into Darkness” not only is a rip-roaring good action movie, it further clears the way for all subsequent sequels. WHAT WORKED Just about everything worked. The opening scene of “Into Darkness” is simply fantastic. Though supposedly Abrams never got into the original show, he nonetheless “gets it” in spades now. Early in the movie, the crew is trying to save a planet without violating the Prime Directi …

JOHN VINCENT | May-21-2013 |

‘Star Trek: The Motion Picture’ – A Look Back Not as pleasing as a fist fight with Khan, but it was a serious, classy journey
This weekend “Star Trek: Into Darkness” warped into theaters as the franchise continues to generate millions of dollars as a tent pole for Paramount Pictures. Of course, it wasn’t always that way. And while the current wisdom tells us that only even number original cast Star Trek movies excelled, those people forget what a successful piece of movie making “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” was. While perhaps not as purely “Star Trek” as “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” or “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country,” it’s a beautiful film, one about friendship and bravery — and r …

JOHN VINCENT | May-20-2013 |

REVIEW: ‘Into Darkness’ Not Perfect, But A Fun Ride Spoiler Alert: What happens with all of that blood now?
This review contains major spoilers for “Star Trek: Into Darkness.” Please do not read this unless you’ve already watched the film, or don’t mind spoilers before you go watch it. Leading up to the film, I did everything I could to avoid spoilers. But I have to admit that despite those efforts, there were some parts that were spoiled for me before I had a chance to finally sit down and watch the film on Wednesday night for the fan sneak previews in IMAX. Primarily that Benedict Cumberbatch’s character of John Harrison was actually Khan Noonien Singh, and that his blood w …

MICHAEL HINMAN | May-19-2013 |

Not Exactly A Review Of ‘Star Trek: Into Darkness’ The Fannish Life: Ann Morris shares her thoughts on the new film
If you have not yet seen “Star Trek: Into Darkness,” you’re safe here. I’m not handing out any spoilers. I’ll just say that I thought the second in this new series of Star Trek movies is great fun, and if you have any Trekker or Trekkie leanings, you ought to see it. One of my pet peeves in science-fiction movies is that often they rely too much on special effects and have too little story. Don’t get me wrong: I like things that blow up good as much as the next guy, but I want the effects to be story enhancers rather than story replacements. “Into Darkness” has lots of explos …

ANN MORRIS | May-19-2013 |

Why Star Trek Matters — At Least To Me A small boy discovered better days were ahead
While I’m just old enough to have seen “Star Trek” when it first aired on NBC, it was in syndication that I first learned to love the crew of the Enterprise. Lucky, I lived in the Detroit area, which as it happened was one of the first cities to re-air the show in syndication. It aired endlessly for years when I was in grade school (as I suppose it’s done ever since). At the time, I was a smart, sickly kid with sheet-white hair and a dad who was a cop (like Gene Roddenberry himself). None of those things endeared me to my classmates, and I was often bullied. While eventua …

JOHN VINCENT | May-2-2013 |

Why Is J.J. Abrams The Bad Guy Here Taking a second look at the evolution of Star Trek
This past week, fans had a chance to hit the theaters and enjoy a classic episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” — the big Borg episode, “The Best of Both Worlds.” I remember when my good friend, my next door neighbor (who was also a school teacher) showed me that episode. I had actually taken a bit of a break from TNG at the time, because I was not that impressed with the second season, and it seemed I was ready to move on from the third season. But then came this episode … and it really was a gamechanger. We celebrate this episode, but at the same time, we forget …

MICHAEL HINMAN | Apr-28-2013 |

It’s Finally Here: 1701 News Company founded by Star Trek creator joins forces with Airlock Alpha owners
Almost 15 years ago, I started a website called SyFy World (later SyFy Portal, and even later after that Airlock Alpha). It was a science-fiction entertainment news site, but its primary focus was on Star Trek. In 1998, we had two television series going — “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” and “Star Trek: Voyager” — as well as a new movie, the Jonathan Frakes-directed “Star Trek: Insurrection” on its way into theaters. For me, science-fiction was Star Trek, and Star Trek was science-fiction. Yes, there was Star Wars, comic book films, various other sci-fi properties, and even …

MICHAEL HINMAN | Apr-25-2013 |

Birth Of The Starfleet Insignia Producer sought to correct starship assignment patches in ‘The Original Series’
Production errors can yield some fascinating twists to continuity. In the case of the original “Star Trek” series, the role of the USS Enterprise’s iconic assignment patch is a prime example. Crewmen aboard Capt. James T. Kirk’s famed ship could later boast that its emblem became the primary symbol for Starfleet personnel as witnessed in later films and series. Other ships in the show — like Commodore Matt Decker’s USS Constellation in “The Doomsday Machine” and Capt. Tracey’s USS Exeter in “The Omega Glory” — were shown to have their own uniform emblems, each appar …

BRYANT L. GRIFFIN | Apr-25-2013 |

SciFriday: Please Don’t Build The Enterprise In Real Life White House petitions for popular sci-fi icons is fun, but shouldn’t be taken seriously
The cost to build the Death Star from the original “Star Wars: A New Hope”? $850 quadrillion. Forcing the White House to respond to a petition to get the Death Star? Priceless. Yet, as fun as it is to talk about a real Death Star or even another petition to build the USS Enterprise, we have to remember that this is all it is: fun. I’m sure that’s what the petition writers for the Death Star request were thinking — let’s get 25,000 signatures in a month …

MICHAEL HINMAN | Jan-12-2013 |

SciFriday: This Is How You Treat A Piece Of History? Neglect of the Shuttlecraft Galileo becomes far more obvious
This is America, and we almost mold our lives on making money. But usually, we make money because whatever it is we have to offer has become more valuable than when we first obtained it. Yet, I think some of those ideals are lost as the original Galileo shuttlecraft from the original “Star Trek” hits the auction block. This prop has gone from being worth $3,000 in pretty decent shape (with some need for internal restoration), to nothing more than a pile of scrap metal. I hate to say that, because this is a piece of Star Trek history that I know many people — from crew (may …

MICHAEL HINMAN | Jun-16-2012 |