Star Trek copies Babylon 5 yet again!

[Joe Nazzaro]

I think the point of contention is not who's done a script book first (and BTW, I don't count Ellison's City on the Edge of Forever Book in this discussion anyway, because it's not so much a script book as a book that has a script in it, as well as tons of other stuff). The point is that apparently the Star Trek scripts will now be published as Cafe Press publishing-on-demand editions, using the publishing paradigm created by JMS for the B5 scripts. On that point, there doesn't seem to be an awful lot of doubt.

[Shr'eshhhhhh]

That truly was an awful movie.

I thought the Slow Motion Picture was the best Star Trek movie (particularly the fancy pants directors cut version).

It was visually epic, the characters were drawn a bit larger than in their TV versions and the story (though pinched from several episodes of the original series) at least touched on classic science fiction themes.

The music was one of Jerry Goldsmith's best (and that's saying something) and Wise's direction was spot on.

The one thing that really lets it down is the script. Lines like "It fell into what they used to call a black hole." should never be written let alone make it into a major movie release (unless the words irony are lit up in bright blue neon).

But my opinions on Star Trek movies has always been against the grain.

Everyone seems to like First Contact but I thought it was a shameless rip-off of Aliens.

[vacantlook]

Everyone seems to like First Contact but I thought it was a shameless rip-off of Aliens.

There are moments in First Contact that I enjoyed, but the nearly non-existant space battle with the Borg really bothers me. And I'm not exactly fond of the whole idea of the Borg queen feels cheap. Like with the rest of the NextGen movies, there are parts I like and parts that I really just don't.

[Dr Maturin]

First Contact and The Undiscovered Country are tied as my favorites. The former has that mix of blockbuster action fun and Trek that makes it fast-paced, funny and true to the name. The latter was just a great movie period. Christopher Plummer as a bald Klingon quoting Shakespeare? That's brilliant. That movie gets my adrenaline going. It's literally nailbiting.

And this line from Kirk is awesome:

"FIRE!"

[Shr'eshhhhhh]

I liked "The Undiscovered Country" too. (Iman with a cigar had nothing to do with it I assure you)

I only wish they had kept to the original idea of having Saavik working with the conspirators instead of Valeris. And the whole bit with the launch out of space dock was very wonky indeed. Just look at the black engineer chappy's face (behind Scotty)...quite hilarious.

The extended version with the Scooby Doo ending is a giggle too.

It's a shame they didn't throw the sort of money they did on the directors version of the slow motion picture at "The Final Frontier" it started well but they ran out of cash.

At least they had Jerry Goldsmith doing the music.

The music for "The Voyage Home" proves what a bad score can do to a half good movie.

[vacantlook]

The Undiscovered Country is also my favorite of all the Star Trek films.

(Iman with a cigar had nothing to do with it I assure you)

Iman is wicked cool. I've always thought that she would have been awesome as Storm in the X-Men films.

[Joe Nazzaro]

At least she would have had the right accent to play an African super-heroine!

[Dr Maturin]

It should be noted that the Special Collector's Editions of the films are all $10 right now.

[Shr'eshhhhhh]

I liked (and purchased) the special editions of one and two because the films themselves were either totally new cuts or rarely seen versions.

Not having a fancy home cinema set up, I don't need Dobly 5.1 etc and though the documentaries can be fun I don't want to but the films all over again just for the extras.

Now I'd pay good money for Star Trek 5 with the rockmen attacking Kirk, or Insurrection with the nudey Jonathan Frakes being menaced by the alien made of velcro...(nah that was just a weird cheese dream)

[Jan]

The Cage is on sale now.

One script (albeit a two-hour pilot). 95 pages. $24.99. Featuring a family photo and a quote.

And people said that the B5 script books are expensive. At that rate JMS's books should be at least $88 or maybe $100 given that he actually writes new material for each one.

Color me underwhelmed. There may still be a few of these I'll pick up out of nostalgia or curiosity but not many. I just don't see any value being given.

Jan

[Satai Delenn]

WOW that's all the extra's they get for 24.99 .Glad I am not buying any.

[frulad]

If I were a diehard Trek fan, I would feel hardpressed to defend the franchise against the accusations of just milking the fans for every cent they can in the face of something like this...

[Jan]

It seems strange to me. I mean, they're *already* selling scripts on their site for about $12 (very reasonable) so I figured there'd be at least something to make this more special.

Does anybody know if Eugene Roddenberry does anything for a living besides being Gene's sone?

Jan

[Garibaldi's Hair]

I have just received an e-mail from Cafepress announcing the launch of this and I notice that they are also advertising some limited edition merchandise, consisting of ... Gene Roddenberry (note ... not Star Trek or character) quotes on t-shirts, mugs, mouse pads ... etc.

Sounds pretty familiar too.

And, I can't escape the feeling that this thing is all about Gene Roddenberry, rather than Star Trek itself.

Having said all that, they are offering some nice t-shirts with piccies of the Enterprise on, and other such things, and it would be cool for WB to give permission for JMS to do some Cafepress stuff with the official B5 logo on, and some of the ships/characters to go with the quotes.

I would definitely buy me some of that!

[Jan]

Don't forget the limited edition prints.

Jan