Jennifer Does The Enterprise

Jennifer Morrison, star of House and the only woman on network television that always gets my attention, has been cast in J.J. Abrams’ new Star Trek movie. No word yet on who she’ll be playing, but please, please, please, put her in one of those old style uniforms with the mini skirts….

Oh, Shit….

So, I was reading a movie news site this morning and came across spoilers for the new Star Trek film that J.J. Abrams is working on. It sounded good. Really good, in fact. Got me geeked. Until I ran across another article and realized that nobody had consulted Harlan Ellison about the use of the Guardian from his episode, City On The Edge of Forever.

“If [director J.J.] Abrams — with whom I’m currently on strike — or anyone else at Paramount or elsewhere, thinks they’re going to use my creations — whether the City, the Guardians, Sister Edith Keeler or any elements created by Harlan Ellison … they had damned well better lose the unilateral arrogance, get in touch with me or my agent Marty Shapiro and be prepared to pay for the privilege of mining the lode I own.” 

There’s a couple of thing to keep at the front of your mind here. The first is that the Guardian is not a crucial element to the story. The only thing required is a time travel device. That could be accomplished many ways. Using the Guardian would be a nice touch, and perhaps easier to explain than a new device, but it’s not necessary. The second thing to remember is that we’re dealing with a rumor. If it’s even in the script, it may be a brand new draft, and it may not be locked in yet.

If they haven’t even decided to use it, the script probably hasn’t been through legal. Hell, it might not have gotten out of the production teams’ hands, the studio may not have even seen it. Or maybe it has and J.J. and crew are waiting till after the strike to approach and negotiate with Harlan. Maybe J.J. is still trying to convince Paramount that shelling out money so they can use the Guardian is a good idea.

There’s no way to tell yet, but having a bunch of people on the net stirring things up with Harlan over an unsupported rumor (especially when he’s already wound up over the strike) seems irresponsible and downright unpleasant.

Somebody needs to make a few phone calls and have a nice, rational conversation. In private. This isn’t our business, it’s between Harlan, J.J. and Paramount. At least until the facts are clear.

James T. Kirk

And batting cleanup, Chris Pine, star of, well, some movie with Lindsay Lohan.

Spock

Zachary Quinto, the villainous Sylar on the hit series “Heroes”.

McCoy

Karl Urban, better known as Eomer in The Lord of The Rings

Scotty

The one and only Simon Pegg, AKA Shaun of The Dead.

Uhura

The lovely Zoe Saldana appeared opposite Ashton Kutcher in the 2005 hit, Guess Who?

Sulu

John Cho, AKA Harold, of Harold and Kumar fame.  Among other things, he’s also appeared in the American Pie series.

Chekov

An actual Russian, Anton Yelchin is probably most recognized for his role on the Showtime series “Huff”. His work on David Duchovny’s film, “House of D”, was remarkable.

Star Trekking Across The Universe

It’s no secret that I’m eagerly anticipating J.J. Abrams’ take on Star Trek. With the movie getting ready to start production soon, I thought we’d take a quick look at the new crewmembers of the USS Enterprise…..