Star Trek - Men of Trek #4 - Page 2

addicted2much · 02-03-2009, 05:26 PM

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TMC had a Ricardo Montalban marathon the week after his death so I recorded all the movies I had not already seen and finished the last one over the weekend. They were mostly from the late 1940s and 1950s. It was so strange seeing him singing and dancing and bullfighting and playing guitar, etc.

I bet he was wonderful. I always loved his accent.

The February 10 episode of Leverage is going to have a bit of a Star Trek reunion. Jonathan Frakes is directing , while Brent Spiner and Armin Shimmerman are going to be in front of the camera.

dukesmom · 02-04-2009, 02:04 PM

Frakes also had a bit part (pretty sure no lines) in the Leverage episode last week. He was in a hospital waiting room next to Timothy Hutton and was, IMO, barely recognizable.

***Chris*** · 02-06-2009, 04:27 PM

I don't currently watch any sitcoms.

ShoWest to honor 'Star Trek's' Chris Pine

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Chris Pine, star of Paramount's upcoming "Star Trek," will be honored as the Male Star of Tomorrow at ShoWest 2009.

dukesmom · 02-07-2009, 07:30 PM

Leverage isn't a sitcom. It's classified as "Crime Drama Thriller" at imdb. If you decide to give it a try, I'd suggest watching it in the following order (and no, this is not the order in which it has been aired

)

The Nigerian Job
The Homecomeing Job
The Wedding Job (directed by Jonathan Frakes)
The Snow Job
The Mile High Job
The Two-Horse Job
The Miracle Job
The Stork Job
The Bank Shot Job
The 12-Step Job
The Juror #6 Job (airing this week and directed by Frakes and guest starring Shimmerman and Spiner as mentioned by addicted2much)
The First David Job (airing next week)
The Second David Job (airing the week after next)

Actually, I'm not yet sure if 12-Step comes before or just after Juror. In some of the episodes it's obvious they are presented out of order, but not all. As soon as the season is done I hope to rewatch them all in the proper sequence.

***Chris*** · 02-08-2009, 06:22 AM

ah, aired out of order like Firefly.

Thanks for the info about the show. It looks like something I might enjoy. I used to get TNT but now it's Peachtree.

addicted2much · 02-10-2009, 07:45 AM

Why do they air things out of order?

Jonathan Frakes interview
The Telefile Blog - TV Shows & TV News - TV Reviews | TWoP

Quote:

After almost 20 years playing Commander Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation and its assorted spin-offs, Jonathan Frakes got used to being called "Number One." But it was while still on TNG that he took that nickname a step further, taking the helm as the director of several episodes and parlaying that into a successful directing career. With several Trek series, two Trek movies and two Librarian TV-movies under his belt, he recently took on two episodes of the new TNT series Leverage, and this week's episode guest-stars three of his old buddies from the Trek set. We talked to Commander Frakes about J.J. Abrams' new time-warping take on Trek, his mission to Mexico City to direct a Lost-esque series for Fox, and why he wants to be promoted to Captain... America.

TWOP: An episode of Leverage can get pretty complex, with all of the characters and relationships and costumes and scams -- does that make it harder to direct than your average TV show?
Jonathan Frakes: Not if you plan well. There are a lot of scenes in these episodes, and a lot of pieces to the scams. But if you've got a script ahead of time, you can pretty much plan what you want to do, and hopefully get it done in the little amount of time you have to do it. But I think that's one of the show's charms -- that it is so complex, and it does look like a little mini-movie every week.

Were you the one who reached out to fellow Star Trek alumni Brent Spiner, Armin Shimerman and Kitty Swink when casting this episode?
Yes I was. I've obviously worked so much with Brent, and this seemed like a great opportunity to use him in a way that was not Data. So I asked [executive producer] Dean [Devlin], who is also a fan, because Dean had used him in Independence Day, and he said "Sure, I'll offer that to Brent." And then, when casting the other parts, I said, "How about Armin Shimerman" -- who I also knew from other places; I'd worked with him in New York, as well as on Star Trek -- I said, "How about him for this corrupt juror?" And then, "His wife Kitty would be great as the judge, so why don't we bring her in?" And it was serendipitous, in that it made the set a pleasure, it made my job easier to have three actors who knew what the hell they were doing in those parts, and now we have the opportunity to promote it as a Star Trek reunion. So it's been a win-win.

This is your second episode of the show -- will you be directing any more?
Yes, the show has just been picked up, and Dean has asked me to come back and direct a few next season, so I'm really looking forward to maintaining my place in the family.

What's the next project you're working on?
I'm going down to Mexico to do a second episode of a new television series for Fox called Persons Unknown, which is Christopher McQuarrie's pilot, who wrote The Usual Suspects and Valkyrie, and it's run by a writer named Remi Aubuchon. It's a psychological drama in which people have been kidnapped and brought into an abandoned 1950s town, and they're trying to figure out why, and what they're doing there. It's loosely based on the English show The Prisoner, and feels a little bit like Lost, actually. It's a great show, and we shoot in Mexico City, so I'm going down there on Wednesday to do a second one of those.

What are you impressions of the new Star Trek movie?
I'm looking forward to it. I'm a big J.J. Abrams fan, and I think he had the franchise at heart when he made this one. If the trailers are any indication, it's gonna look great. I think hopefully it'll reinvent the franchise for all of us, so I'm very optimistic about it.

Is it true that you dressed as Captain America for Marvel Comics for a while?
[Laughs.] You've been reading some deep old bios! That is more than true. As a matter of fact, I just got a call while I was doing these interviews from my buddy who played Spider-Man, Charlie Davis, and his phone number comes up as "Spidey." It's funny that you should bring it up today.

You know they're working on a Captain America movie, right?
They've been working on a Captain America movie for 20 years!

Well, apparently it's happening this time.
I hope it's a huge hit. I wish I was doing it.

One last question: what are you rocking these days? Goatee, full beard, or clean-shaven?
I got the goatee wraparound. The goatee-mustache connector, no sideburns, and a little bit of the soul dot under the lip. But I gotta say -- entirely white.

***Chris*** · 02-10-2009, 04:58 PM

Thanks for bringing that over Maria.

dukesmom · 02-14-2009, 09:26 PM

Connor Trinneer was on last night's Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

***Chris*** · 02-15-2009, 04:47 AM

With or without his Southern accent?

TrekGoddess · 02-15-2009, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris (View Post)

With or without his Southern accent?

Conner? Was he the one that played "Trip" in ENT? If so, the accent is fake as he is from my neck of the woods and we certainly don't speak southern.

dukesmom · 02-22-2009, 09:43 PM

First: if anyone wants to give Leverage a try, TNT is airing a marathon on Tuesday. check local listings for times (and the order seems to be a little closer to what it should have been originally)

Second: The first picture shown of Ricardon Montalban during the Oscars in memoriam montage was him as Khan in ST II.

***Chris*** · 02-23-2009, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dukesmom (View Post)

Second: The first picture shown of Ricardon Montalban during the Oscars in memoriam montage was him as Khan in ST II.

It was nice that they used a picture of him in that role.

dukesmom · 03-07-2009, 02:20 PM

Robert Picardo is supposed to be in the 10th episode of Castle, the new Nathan Fillion show on ABC that starts Monday. Of course, there's no guaranty the show will air that many episodes.

***Chris*** · 03-07-2009, 04:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dukesmom (View Post)

Of course, there's no guaranty the show will air that many episodes.

Shush! Think positive!

LeVar here. Know a good pub? Want to go for a pint?

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It's not unusual to spot a celebrity in Yorkville. It is, however, unusual for a celebrity to casually tell his fans that he'll be at Hemmingway's on Cumberland in exactly 45 minutes, just in case anybody wants to join him for a pint.

On Monday, that's exactly what LeVar Burton - best-known for his role in Star Trek: The Next Generation - did via the Internet. It seemed to have the makings of a satisfyingly oddball adventure, but for the first few minutes, I have to tell you, the whole thing was pretty awkward.

"If anyone asked where I thought I was going to be today, this wouldn't have been it," said Marsha Mason, a Toronto actor who was hanging around the front door waiting for Burton to arrive. Mason had seen the open invitation, issued on the website Twitter, and since she was only a couple of subway stops away, she'd popped over on a lark.

Burton's not a Hollywood A-lister, exactly, but he did star in three iconic series of yesteryear - as Kunta Kinte in Roots, as Geordi La Forge, chief engineer of the starship Enterprise in Next Generation, and as host of the beloved, long-running kids show Reading Rainbow.

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The Twitterers who showed up weren't grade-A fans, either, or even the kind of Trekkies who arrive at conventions having memorized the Klingon translation of Hamlet. But Mason and so many like her have fond memories of watching Star Trek in their younger years. And now here's one of the stars of that show arriving in town and offering to go for drinks with strangers.

Burton is a perfect example of that curious batch of celebrity Twitter users - a strange assortment of figures ranging from TV personality Stephen Fry to hoopster Shaquille O'Neal to rapper MC Hammer - who use the micro-blogging site to maintain a personal rapport with fans in ways that weren't possible before. The most successful Twittering celebs aren't the most famous, but rather the ones, like Burton, who really seem to enjoy it.

Earlier that day, Burton had told the 78,000-odd people who follow him on Twitter that he'd be in Toronto to do an interview on CBC's The Hour, and asked if anybody could suggest a good pub in Yorkville. Some hours later, after hundreds of suggestions rolled in, Burton named the time and place, only 45 minutes off.

Exactly 45 minutes later on the first floor of Hemmingway's, about a dozen early arrivals found ourselves standing around nervously, like dorks on a communal first date, trying to decide where to sit. And then Burton walked in. He stood there for a second, looking at the semicircle of strangers there to greet him. The semicircle of strangers blinked back at him. It was as if he'd just crawled out of a television, and we'd just crawled out of the Internet, and here we were standing around a bar, not quite sure what to do.

He dove right in.

"Hi, I'm LeVar," he said cheerfully, sticking out a hand and introduced himself to everyone in turn.

"We have tables upstairs on the patio," someone volunteered. "It's heated."

"Well then, what are we doing hanging around here?" said Burton.

Upstairs, 20-odd people had seated themselves at long tables, clearing their throats and staring expectantly at the star as he walked in. Burton stood at the front of the room and gamely tried to make conversation.

"Do any of you guys know each other?" he said.

Everybody looked at each other, shook their heads, and looked at Burton again.

"So this is an opportunity to meet fellow Twitterers!" he said.

"This is insane! This is so bizarre," whispered Mason, sitting next to me.

And then the oddest thing happened. The beer arrived, the cameras came out, and as fans queued up to have their photos taken with their childhood hero, the other Twitterers in the room did exactly what he suggested, and turned to each other and started talking. Awkwardness gave way to banter. The party moved over to the bar. People talked, not so much about Star Trek but about work, and life, the recession and Twitter, and how we'd come to arrive at this curious gathering.

Twitter is all about the power of loose ties. People who use the site never claim to be "friends" with one another; they merely follow people they find interesting. When Twitterers meet in the real world, even with celebrities, it's not the forces of celebrity and enthrallment that draw them, but looser ties of interest, affection and curiosity. And, it must be said, of fun.

"This is the most spontaneous thing I've ever done," said Cameron Forbes, a 21-year-old pharmacy student who'd been kicking around in his friend's dorm room when the invite came up on Twitter. "This kind of thing never happens where I come from," he added. (He's from Almonte, Ont., near Ottawa.) "The closest thing we had was Tori Spelling filming at my English teacher's house. And nobody wants to meet Tori Spelling."

The evening rolled along. Mason got her photo taken with Burton. So did I. After more than an hour of drinks and amiable chit-chat, Burton put on his coat and cap and, before slipping out the door and off to his hotel, he shook hands and gave hugs, leaving behind a small knot of new acquaintances, talking among ourselves.

Does the Internet make us antisocial? I've never thought so. But you don't have to take my word for it.

Wes&FredFan · 03-11-2009, 09:10 PM

Big fan of Stewart, Frakes, and Spiner from TNG ... and from DS9, Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Shimerman (Quark), Robinson (Garak), and Alaimo (Dukat). Didn't watch VGR much, but I liked the Doctor and Neelix

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