Star Trek
Treknology: The Science of Star Trek with Ethan Siegel
What’s this? More Trek? We can’t get enough of it! This week, author Ethan Siegel joins Pete to talk about the science of Star Trek, talking through those questions that stumped us during our film series. From space propulsion to transporters, energy fields to sliding doors, Ethan builds a bridge connecting the fantastic technology that provides the foundation for the Trek future, back to the practical science of today.
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Star Trek Beyond
With JJ Abrams busy working on that other space franchise, the new Trek film needed a new director. And who better to bring on board than Justin Lin, the man who rejuvenated the Fast & Furious franchise. Yes, it meant he was going to bring his big action directing to this franchise. But was that a bad thing? It also meant there would be fewer lens flares. Was that a good thing? Join us as we close out our massive series with Lin’s 2016 film Star Trek Beyond.
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Star Trek Into Darkness
When Paramount asked JJ Abrams and his team behind the 2009 Star Trek reboot to get started on a sequel, they took a while trying to break the story. From interviews, it sounded like they had well over 50 iterations of the story before they finally came up with the idea they went with. With all that time and those iterations, though, it struck many people as odd that they ended up deciding to tell a story that brought back Khan Noonien Singh, the antagonist from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, as the villain.
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Star Trek
With the financial disappointment of Star Trek: Nemesis, Paramount wasn’t so sure they would return to the well again. But in 2005, when Viacom/Paramount split from CBS, they had to get a movie in the works or risk losing rights to the property. Hence, Star Trek was born. But screenwriters Robert Orci, Alex Kurtzman and director JJ Abrams didn’t want to continue the story from where it left off — they felt it had been played out. They went back to one of the early ideas to have Kirk and Spock in their Academy years.
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Star Trek: Nemesis
Star Trek: Insurrection was a success at the box office, but not so much that the studio felt the need to get another Star Trek film into production right away. In fact, there didn’t seem to be much motivation to make one. That is until John Logan met Brent Spiner and the two not only hit it off but also became intent on writing the next film for the franchise.
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Star Trek: Insurrection
With the success of Star Trek: First Contact, a more action-oriented Star Trek film, the team behind it wanted their next film to be lighter in tone and more character-driven. To a certain extent, that’s exactly what audiences got, and a lot of people were disappointed because they were expecting so much more. Join us as we continue our Star Trek series with Jonathan Frakes’ 1998 film Star Trek: Insurrection.
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Star Trek: First Contact
The introduction of the Borg as an antagonist on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” gave the crew of the Enterprise – and the teams on subsequent shows – one of their greatest villains. Not only are they a terrifying collective, assimilating everyone they come into contact with, but they thematically are the antithesis of everything the franchise has come to represent about technology and the future. Because of all of this, they seemed a natural element to include in the TNG cinematic stories. But the studio wanted them to include a way to personify the villain more than they ever did in the show. The filmmakers also wanted to make a time travel film. With all of these elements, were they able to pull it together to make a cohesive film?
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Star Trek: Generations
Does Data’s emotion chip make for a better or worse character when used? Just what kind of torture was Soran performing on Geordi? Why does Guinan conveniently appear in the Nexus? Tune in to this week’s show to get in on the conversation!
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Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Even though “Star Trek: The Next Generation” was entering its fifth season and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier had underperformed, Paramount wanted to bring back the original crew of the Enterprise for one last hurrah to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the franchise. To write and helm the film, they turned to the man who arguably made the best film thus far, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Nicholas Meyer co-wrote it and ended up directing it as well, making a film that stands out as one of the high points of the franchise. Join us – Pete Wright and Andy Nelson – as we continue our Star Trek series with Meyer’s 1991 film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
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Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Leonard Nimoy had directed two Star Trek films so naturally, William Shatner wanted to give it a go. He even had a great concept for a story – the crew of the Enterprise go on a quest to find God. Unfortunately, with a writers strike hitting Hollywood at the time, with an effects company that couldn’t deliver, and with a studio demanding as much humor as they could cram into the script, Shatner’s vision was muddled and became what many consider to be the worst of the original cast films in the franchise. But is it really that bad? Is it possible to get past the terrible humor and find a compelling story?
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