This week’s image shows Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard) and Gates McFadden (Dr. Beverly Crusher) discussing Star Trek at the 2022 Comic Con in San Diego, CA. You can watch the full panel discussion here. You can also watch the season three (and final season) trailer for Star Trek: Picard here, indicating our favorites from The Next Generation will be returning one more time.
This weekend we lost actress Nichelle Nichols, who played Lt. Nyota Uhura on the original Star Trek television series. She was 89.
Back in 1966, her role as part of the crew on the U.S.S. Enterprise was a risky and eye-opening move by creator Gene Roddenberry in a nation divided by race (as well as many other issues – sound familiar?). In an NPR interview, Mr. Nichols noted how civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. encouraged her to remain with the Star Trek series at a time she was considering leaving:
He complimented me on the manner in which I’d created the character. I thanked him, and I think I said something like, Dr. King, I wish I could be out there marching with you. He said, no, no, no. No, you don’t understand. We don’t need you on the – to march. You are marching. You are reflecting what we are fighting for. So, I said to him, thank you so much. And I’m going to miss my co-stars.
And his face got very, very serious. And he said, what are you talking about? And I said, well, I told Gene just yesterday that I’m going to leave the show after the first year because I’ve been offered – and he stopped me and said: You cannot do that. And I was stunned. He said, don’t you understand what this man has achieved? For the first time, we are being seen the world over as we should be seen. He says, do you understand that this is the only show that my wife Coretta and I will allow our little children to stay up and watch. I was speechless.
An impressive endorsement.
The last time I saw Ms. Nichols was on the History Channel special on the television series: The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek. I enjoyed listening to her stories about her time with the television series and related movies. I recommend the program as a way to learn more about Ms. Nichols as well as the other actors associated with the Star Trek phenomena.
While Star Trek is generally a better fit for an astronomy site, I did not want to ignore the release this week of Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi. As with the other similar releases in the last few years, including The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, Disney is mining the Star Wars stories for new angles. Of course, Paramount has also been doing the same with Star Trek.
Disney has been spending quite a bit of time on the planet of Tatooine in all three new series, be it bounty hunting in The Mandalorian, taking over Jabba the Hutt’s old business in The Book of Boba Fett, and now Obi-Wan watching over young Luke Skywalker’s formative years in Obi-Wan Kenobi. I hope you don’t mind sand. Here is a preview of what you can expect with this latest series.
So far I have enjoyed The Mandalorian and suffered through The Book of Boba Fett. Too often Star Wars seems to be mostly a vehicle to sell toys (think of Baby Yoda), and yet the creators kept it fun in The Mandalorian. Adding Amy Sedaris to the mix of characters was brilliant.
Maybe The Mandalorian worked because the main character said so little and Baby Yoda said basically nothing. I know Mr. Lucas is gone, but dialogue has not been the strongest part of the Star Wars universe. We can only hope the creators have finally learned how to use the talents of Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen in the latest series.
And yes, there’s more. Stay tuned for the next Star Wars series, Andor, coming out on August 31st. Season two of this new series is already in the works. It takes place 28 years after the film Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and five years before the events of the film Rogue One. I think this one will stay away from Tatooine, thankfully. Diego Luna will be playing the role of Cassian Andor. Here is a teaser for Andor.
Tonight is the premiere of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. If you are a Trekkie, then there is nothing strange about Captain Pike and the earlier adventures of the U.S.S. Enterprise. We have been waiting for the rest of the story since Star Trek appears in 1966.
You probably already saw Captain Pike in the second season of Star Trek: Discovery, but now it will be all Pike all the time. The most recent trailer is proof that you an expect a return to the fun early days was more like James Bond than the more serious captains that came later. The actors engaged with this series are top notch: Anson Mount as Captain Christopher Pike, Rebecca Romijn as Number One, and Ethan Peck as Science Officer Spock.
Yes, there are multiple Star Trek series now playing on Paramount, as one could also say about the Star Wars series on Disney+. And yet, with Star Trek each one has its place and time that makes plenty of sense without any overlapping confusion. I am not sure whether we really needed a movie on the origins of Han Solo, but the original adventures of Captain Pike seems like a void that needed to be filled.
I would even forgo more Star Trek movies as long as we can have quality television series. Beside, the movies blew apart the time line (creating the Kelvin Timeline), so I have less interest in what they have to say these days even though that bastardized timeline has infected the timeline in Star Trek: Discovery. Don’t get me started.
Time for a little more about our friend William Shatner. You may be aware of his various recordings over the decades where he speaks rather than sings the lyrics of the songs. Some of his albums include The Transformed Man and Has Been. One noteworthy song is his version of “Bohemian Rhapsody” from his album Seeking Major Tom. It’s all a lot of fun.
It gets even better with last night’s show in Washington, DC at the Kennedy. He joined singer Ben Folds, his friend and the organizer of the evening, and the National Symphony Orchestra to sing some of his new songs, including one for Earth Day and another about his adventures into space last year aboard a Blue Origin rocket.
In this premiere show, Mr. Shatner was relaxed and playful throughout the performance, which was impressive for this 91-year-old man who never seems to run out of energy or have enough projects. He came back for multiple standing ovations.
Even with all of the fun, he had a serious message about the need to protect this Earth of ours. He pointed out that sometimes you need to see its fragility from space to understand what is at stake.
One last note. Check out Mr. Shatner’s 1978 version of Elton John’s “Rocket Man.” He has been at this for quite some time, and I hope we can see much more of him in the years to come.
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