We have
theme parties on Saturday's now for almost 5 years, so it is hardly avoiding repetitions.
We had a Star Trek party in 2012 with Tim as deejay.
We had a Star Trek party in 2012 with Tim as deejay.
Tim is a
Star Trek fan, no not a Trekkie, so when I saw that on Saturday March 22, William
Shatner (captain Kirk) becomes 83 years I thought it was a good idea to have a
Star Trek party again.
Tim jumped
so high he almost boldly go where no one has gone before. When he landed back
on earth he found out that on March 22 he is on a business trip. But he wanted
to do the party and asked DJ Rik to exchange with him. Rik forgot that March 15
is his Second Life birth date (March 15, 2010 ).
So, every
body happy and I have to explain why the next two parties not connect with the
date .
Star Trek
In 2012 I
published 4 posts about Star Trek.
Here are
the links and one with the snapshots of that party.
Because I
already publish so much about Star Trek and that the party idea came because of
William Shatner's birthday, this post is about Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS)
there Stars: Then
and Now.
Star Trek: The Original Series hit
television airwaves back in September of 1966 and changed television forever.
Now, nearly fifty years later, the show, the stars, and the future universe its
creators depicted, are arguably more popular than ever.
Many of the TOS stars, now in their 70s and
80s, are prominent fixtures in pop culture and the Star Trek convention
circuit. While DeForest Kelley and James Doohan have sadly passed on, William
Shatner, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Walter Koenig, and Grace Lee Whitney
are all regular fixtures at the annual Las Vegas Star Trek convention and
several others across the country and around the world each year. Leonard
Nimoy, who reprised the role of Spock (Prime) in Star Trek Into Darkness,
retired from convention appearances in 2011.
William Shatner (born March 22, 1931 ) is a Canadian actor, musician, singer, author, film director,
spokesman and comedian. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for
his portrayal of Captain James Tiberius Kirk, commander of the Federation
starship USS Enterprise, in the science fiction television series Star Trek,
from 1966 to 1969; Star Trek: The Animated Series from 1973 to 1974, and in
seven of the subsequent Star Trek feature films from 1979 to 1994. He has
written a series of books chronicling his experiences playing Captain Kirk and
being a part of Star Trek, and has co-written several novels set in the Star
Trek universe. He has also authored a series of science fiction novels called
TekWar that were adapted for television.
Shatner was first cast as Captain James T.
Kirk for the second pilot of Star Trek, titled "Where No Man Has Gone
Before" (although in one scene where the Gary Lockwood character Gary
Mitchell is "contemplating the death of an old friend," the headstone
he creates actually reads, "James R. Kirk"). He was then contracted
to play Kirk for the Star Trek series and held the role from 1966 to 1969.
During its original run on NBC, the series pulled in only modest ratings and
was cancelled after three seasons. In 1973, he returned to the role of Captain
Kirk, albeit only in voice, in the animated Star Trek series. In his role as
Kirk, Shatner famously kissed actress Nichelle Nichols (Lt. Uhura) in the November 22, 1968 , Star Trek episode, "Plato's Stepchildren." The episode
is popularly cited as the first example of an interracial kiss between a white
man and a black woman on scripted television in the United States.
After its cancellation, Star Trek unexpectedly
engendered a cult following during the 1970s from syndicated reruns, and
Captain Kirk became a cultural icon. Shatner began appearing at Star Trek
conventions organized by Trekkies. In the mid-1970s, Paramount began
pre-production for a revised Star Trek television series, tentatively titled
Star Trek: Phase II. However, the phenomenal success of Star Wars led the
studio to instead consider developing a Star Trek motion picture. Shatner and
the other original Star Trek cast members returned to their roles when Paramount Starfleet Academy
Leonard Simon Nimoy (born March 26, 1931 ) is an American actor, film director, poet, singer and
photographer. Nimoy is best known for his role of Spock in the original Star
Trek series (1966–1969), and in multiple film, television, and video game
sequels.
Nimoy began his career in his early twenties,
teaching acting classes in Hollywood
Nimoy's fame as Spock is such that both of
his autobiographies, I Am Not Spock (1975) and I Am Spock (1995), were written
from the viewpoint of sharing his existence with the character.
Jackson DeForest Kelley (January 20, 1920 –
June 11, 1999) was an American actor, screenwriter, poet and singer known for
his iconic roles in Westerns and as Dr. Leonard "Bones" McCoy of the
USS Enterprise in the television and film series Star Trek.
Kelley became
good friends with Star Trek cast mates William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy from
their first meeting in 1964. During Trek's first season, Kelley's name was
listed in the end credits along with the rest of the cast. Only Shatner and
Nimoy were listed in the opening credits. As Kelley's role grew in importance
during the first season he received a pay raise to about $2,500 per episode,
and received third billing starting in the second season after Nimoy. Despite
the show's recognition of Kelley as one of its stars he was frustrated by the
greater attention that Shatner received as its lead actor, and Nimoy received
because of "Spockamania" among fans.
Shy by his own admission,
Kelley was the only cast member of the original Star Trek series program never
to have written or published an autobiography; however, the authorized
biography From Sawdust to Stardust (2005) was written posthumously by Terry Lee
Rioux of Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas.
Kelley died of
stomach cancer on June 11, 1999. His body was cremated and the ashes were
scattered in the Pacific Ocean.
James Montgomery
"Jimmy" Doohan (March 3, 1920 – July 20, 2005) was a Canadian
character and voice actor best known for his role as Montgomery
"Scotty" Scott in the television and film series Star Trek. Doohan's
characterization of the Scottish Chief Engineer of the Starship Enterprise was one
of the most recognizable elements in the Star Trek franchise, for which he also
made several contributions behind the scenes. Many of the characterizations,
mannerisms, and expressions that he established for Scotty and other Star Trek
characters have become entrenched in popular culture.
Following his
success with Star Trek, he supplemented his income and showed continued support
for his fans by making numerous public appearances. Doohan inspired fans to
pursue careers in engineering and other fields, as a result of his portrayal of
Scotty.
The Scott
character, as conceived, would have been a semi-regular, but with fellow cast
members Leonard Nimoy (Spock) and DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy), was elevated in
importance to leads alongside William Shatner's Captain James T. Kirk. It was
made clear that, owing to his high technological orientation, Lt. Cmdr. Scott
was the third-in-command of the Enterprise, and at times the ship was left in
his care.
Doohan was quoted
as saying, "Scotty is ninety-nine percent James Doohan and one percent
accent." Using his considerable vocal skills, Doohan devised the Vulcan
and Klingon language dialogue heard in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Later,
professional linguists, particularly Marc Okrand, expanded Klingon into a fully
constructed language with a working grammar. In addition to playing Scotty, he
also did many guest voices on Star Trek.
Doohan suffered
from Parkinson's disease, diabetes mellitus, and pulmonary fibrosis in later
life. In 2004 he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
On July 20, 2005, at 5:30 in the morning,
Doohan died at his home in Redmond, Washington.
His ashes, 1⁄4
ounce (7 grams), were scheduled the following fall for a Memorial Flight to
space with 100 others, including Mercury astronaut Gordon Cooper. Launch on the
SpaceLoft XL rocket was delayed to April 28, 2007, when the rocket briefly
entered outer space in a four-minute suborbital flight before parachuting to
earth, as planned, with the ashes still inside. The ashes were subsequently
launched on a Falcon 1 rocket, on August 3, 2008, into what was intended to be
a low Earth orbit, however the rocket failed two minutes after launch. The rest
of his ashes were scattered over Puget Sound in Washington. On May 22, 2012, a
small urn containing some of Doohan's remains in ash form was flown into space
aboard the Falcon 9 rocket as part of COTS Demo Flight 2.
George Hosato
Takei (born April 20, 1937) is an American actor and author, best known for his role
as Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the USS Enterprise in the television series Star
Trek. He also portrayed the character in six Star Trek feature films and in an
episode of Star Trek: Voyager. He is a proponent of gay rights and active in
state and local politics apart from his continued acting career. He has won
several awards and accolades in his work on human rights and Japanese–American
relations, including his work with the Japanese American National Museum. He
has achieved celebrity status among a younger generation as a prominent social
networker, managing one of the most popular pages on Facebook.
In 1965, producer Gene Roddenberry cast him
as Hikaru Sulu in the second Star Trek pilot and eventually the Star Trek
television series. It was intended that Sulu's role be expanded in the second
season, but Takei's role as Captain Nim, a South Vietnamese Army officer,
alongside John Wayne's character in The Green Berets meant that he only
appeared in half the season, with Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov substituting
for him in the other episodes. When Takei returned, the two men had to share a
dressing room and a single episode script. Takei admitted in an interview
that he initially felt threatened by Koenig's presence, but later grew to be
friends with him as the image of the officers sharing the ship's helm panel side-by-side
became iconic.
Takei is one of a number of Star Trek
supporting cast members whose difficulties with William Shatner have become
public. However, in an interview in the 2004 DVD set for the
second season of Star Trek, Takei said of Shatner: "He's just a wonderful
actor who created a singular character. No one could have done Kirk the way
Bill did. His energy and his determination, that's Bill. And that's also
Captain Kirk." He appeared alongside Shatner on the 2006 Comedy Central
Roast of William Shatner in which the two mocked each other in good humor and
embraced, Takei noting that he was "honored" to be there
"despite our past tensions".
Nichelle Nichols (born December 28, 1932 ) is an American actress, singer and voice artist. She sang with
Duke Ellington and Lionel Hampton before turning to acting. Nichols' most
famous role is that of communications officer Lieutenant Uhura aboard the USS
Enterprise in the popular Star Trek television series (1966-1969), as well as
the succeeding motion pictures, where her character was eventually promoted in
Starfleet to the rank of commander. Her Star Trek character was groundbreaking
in U.S society at the time, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.
personally praised her work on the show and asked her to remain when she was
considering leaving the series.
In her role as
Lieutenant Uhura, Nichols famously kissed white actor William Shatner as
Captain James T. Kirk in the November 22, 1968, Star Trek episode "Plato's
Stepchildren". The episode is popularly cited as the first example of an
inter-racial kiss on United States television. The Shatner-Nichols
kiss was seen as groundbreaking, even though the kiss was portrayed as having
been forced by alien telekinesis. There was some praise and some protest. In
her 1994 autobiography, Beyond Uhura, Star Trek and Other Memories, on page 197
Nichols cites a letter from one white Southerner who wrote: "I am totally
opposed to the mixing of the races. However, any time a red-blooded American
boy like Captain Kirk gets a beautiful dame in his arms that looks like Uhura,
he ain't gonna fight it." During the Comedy Central Roast of Shatner on
August 20, 2006, Nichols jokingly referred to the groundbreaking moment and
said, "Let's make TV history again ... and you can kiss my black
ass!"
Despite the
cancellation of the series in 1969, Star Trek lived on in other ways, and
continued to play a part in Nichols' life. She again provided the voice of
Uhura in Star Trek: The Animated Series; in one episode, "The Lorelei
Signal", Uhura assumes command of the Enterprise. Nichols noted in her
autobiography her frustration over this never occurring in the original series.
Nichols has co-starred in six Star Trek motion pictures, the last one being
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
Walter Marvin
Koenig (born September 14, 1936) is an American actor, writer,
teacher and director, known for his roles as Pavel Chekov in Star Trek and
Alfred Bester in Babylon 5. He wrote the script for the 2008 science fiction
legal thriller InAlienable.
Koenig played
Ensign Pavel Chekov, navigator on the USS Enterprise, in the original Star Trek
television series (starting in Season 2) and in all of the movies featuring the
original cast (including Star Trek Generations). One of only two actors to
audition, he was cast as Chekov almost immediately primarily because of his
resemblance to British actor/musician Davy Jones of the Monkees; show creator
Gene Roddenberry hoped that Koenig would increase the show's appeal to young
people. As the 30-year old's hair was already receding, costume designers
fashioned a Davy Jones-style "moptop" hairpiece for him. In later
episodes, his own hair grew out enough to accomplish the look with a comb-over.
(The studio's publicity department, however, falsely ascribed the inclusion of
Chekov to an article in Pravda that complained about the lack of Russians in
Star Trek. Roddenberry asked him to "ham up" his Russian accent to
add a note of comic relief to the series. Chekov's accent has been criticized
as inauthentic, in particular Koenig's substituting the "w" sound in
place of a "v" sound (e.g., "wodka" for "vodka");
Koenig has said the accent was inspired by his father, who had the same difficulty
with the "v" sound.
Most of Koenig's
fan mail indeed came from children, and the high volume of letters contributed
to him soon receiving a contract as a regular cast member.
Grace Lee Whitney
(born Mary Ann Chase; April 1, 1930) is an American actress and entertainer.
She is best known as Janice Rand on the Star Trek television series and
subsequent films and as the original mermaid for Chicken of the Sea tuna ad
campaign.
Star Trek creator
Gene Roddenberry cast Whitney in the role of Yeoman Janice Rand, the personal
assistant to Captain James T. Kirk, in 1966. Whitney said: "I was on diet
pills trying to stay thin – and I was very thin. They wanted you to fit into
the uniforms and I couldn't quite so I went on amphetamines." Whitney
appeared in eight of the first thirteen episodes; then was released from
contract. She had reported that, while still under contract, she was sexually
assaulted by an executive associated with the series, and, later, in a public
interview, she stated that Leonard Nimoy had been her main source of support
during that time. She went into more detail of the assault in her book The
Longest Trek but refused to name the executive, saying in her book, "This
is my story, not his." In a later interview, she said of her termination
from the series:
"They wanted
William Shatner to have romances in each episode with a different person,
because for him to be stuck with one woman was not good for him and it wasn't
good for the audience. That's what they told me, so I was written out. There
were two blonde girls and one black girl. Nichelle was a more important character
and couldn't be written out. Everything's political in America. One of the
blondes had to go. The other one was engaged to the boss, so guess who went? I
just about killed myself. I drank, that's what we do, we drink to get rid of
pain. I was really mad. My God, was I bitter."
Whitney returned
to the Star Trek franchise in the 1970s after DeForest Kelley saw Whitney on
the unemployment line and told her that Trekkies had been asking for her at fan
conventions
photos: CBS
and TrekNews.net and others
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