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Walter Koenig Reprises His Role as Chekov
hords writes "Walter Koenig returns to the role of Lt. Pavel Chekov in an upcoming episode of Star Trek: New Voyages, a fan made series mentioned earlier on Slashdot. He will be re-imagining the role that made him famous. 'The folks from New Voyages approached and we started kicking around ideas for a Chekov story,' said Koenig. 'It occurred to me that what we were coming up with was what every actor dreams of: a second chance to get it right...it is almost beyond comprehension that this is happening so late in my life! Talk about belated reward!...I didn't believe I could ever again be this excited about performing a part...I guess it isn't so trite after all: perhaps, all good things do come to those who wait.' Amazingly enough they even got D.C. Fontana to write the episode!"
Don't get me wrong, he has nice comedic timing, but I can guess that if he has something to do with the script, it'll be more than 30 minutes of "Nuclear Wessels!"
That of Bester in Babylon 5, I mean, it was far more complex and he really showed he could play a bad(ish.. depends on your POV) guy in sci-fi.
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In the Star Trek world, was Chekov related in any way to playwright Anton Chekov? I know they liked to toss around all sorts of literary allusions (including the famous "Shakespeare must be read in its original Klingon" line.
More power to these guys! Star Trek continues, despite its critics, to (as Vulcans like to say) "live long and prosper".
Jesus saved me from my past. He can save you as well.
Whaa? You crazy. Kirk may have died (twice, IIRC) but William Shatner is doing pretty well with Boston Legal.
"For years, I struggled with reality... but I'm happy to say I finally won out over it." -- Elwood P. Dowd
nothing, he's getting nothing
Ron Moore of Battlestar Galactica said on his blog that with Star Trek: Enterprise cancelled and no plans on any future series or movies, that Star Trek had returned once more to its fans. I can understand now what he meant. Back when TOS was cancelled, fan run magazines popped up with fan fiction. Now, in the 21st century, the same thing is happening, only it's changed along with the technology we now have access to. And I can't think of any better hands for Star Trek to be in at the moment, then its fans.
Seriously it scared the hell out of me as a kid. Now when I watch it I'm just embarassed. Ah well.
Here was a good read I found not oo long ago about the choice to add W.K. to the series.
http://www.snopes.com/radiotv/tv/chekov.asp
there is so much going on in your post with your name and your sig and... wow. just wow.
As a Trek fan all I can say is "power to those guys", I'm looking forward to check out their stuff once their server recovers, but...
:(
what are the legal ramifications of this? Isn't there some Big Corporation who owns the rights to the Star Trek names? If New Voyages makes it big I fear they'll be sued out of existance...
The filesystem is the package manager
William Shatner has been getting consistent work for many years now. He's had supporting roles in several very successful films, from Dodgeball to Miss Congeniality. He has won last year's Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actor and is currently nominated for another Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor for his role in Boston Legal, a television show with bigger viewership than the original Star Trek ever got.
Any questions?
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It's dead, Jim.
In Soviet Russia, they really *are* called "nuclear wessels".
Somewhat off topic, but I was starshocked when I went to Circut City recently, and they had the original series on DVD for $129. I though, well, that's for the complete show, but it was one season. WTF. TNG is priced the same per season. I wouldn't mind owning these, but I'm not going to pay the rate of a newly released movie in widescreen enhanced def, for a forty year old TV series in low def TV format (I have an Infocus ScreenPlay projector and 6 ft wide screen).
Well, the market is supposed to set the price, but the price on these old TV shows on DVD are way overpriced, IMO, and I'm not buying. These old TV shows are worth about the same or less to me as a discounted old movie at Walmart, nowhere near $390 for 3 seasons of Star Trek. Maybe 1/4th that amount.
This ad space for rent.
*Begin Rant*
Come on, the dialogue in TNG is corny. The decision making....psh, command by committee?
At least in Voyager they dumped the "counselor" position.....which has to be the LAMEST position ever....well, next to W. Crusher's position.
*End Rant*
Seriously, I hope this project for Walter Koenig works out. It would be nice to have some Trek that doesn't suck...
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
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--
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
Don't forget his musical career :)
Relevant section:
Those who sacrifice security to condemn liberty deserve to repeat history or something. - Benjamin Santayana
We're the cunts, you're obviously the wanker.
Dear Wil,
/. post, I wonder if you have ever considered wrestling control of the character Wesley Crusher from those who have helped make your early life difficult. Have you ever considered using your own judgement to tell a story about this young man from an idealized future in a way that *you* see fit? The guy you like to call "William Fucking Shatner" has penned a number of books about Kirk. I think John De Lance has also written a novel about Q. You are an accomplished writter now, with two successful books to your credit and a number of magazine columns. What's to stop you from picking up a pen (or keyboard/laptop) and re-imagining Wesley Crusher in a way that isn't limited by political correctness, TV ratings, or studio beurocracy? In "Just a Geek", you seemed to have made peace with the tomultuous legacy Wesley have left you. But you still seemed some what regretful of the fact your left-on-the-cutting-room-floor cameo would be the last time you would bring Wesley to life. If you can pull it off, I think I wouldn't be the only one to find a Wesley Crusher novel told by the man who gave him life to be very worth reading. Please think about it.
Since discovering you as a blogger and an author, I've begun to know you as more than just Wesley Crusher. First up, despite the cheese dick writers at TNG who had no clue how to develope your character, I've always apploaded the role you portrayed. In the real world where mediocrity often rule over those who dared to dream or excel, Wesley Crusher was one of the few shining examples where the geek spirit was truly celebrated. For me, personally, you made it okay to be smart. After reading "Just a Geek", I think that aspect of Wesley Crusher is something you can truly identify with. The compeling story in your book about your own internal relationship with a controvertial fictional persona you helped create as an actor fleshed both of you out in a way Trek and Hollywood never could.
In the context of this
Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
Whaa? You crazy. Kirk may have died (twice, IIRC) but William Shatner is doing pretty well with Boston Legal.
And All Bran adverts in the UK..
You think of TOS, don't you?
In Star Trek 4, there is that great scene where Checkov gets caught in 20th century era aircraft carrier (to steal nuclear material. The ship is called 'Enterprise', of course). Being interrogated by two naval intelligence cold warriors, calling himself an UFP citizen, with a straight face, implying that national citizenship does not exist in the TOS universe. I really liked this scene, even if this is somewhat a story gap to TNG, where people of earth still have a kind of "national identity" (see Picard).
Screw the FSM - Real geeks believe in the Invisible Pink Unicorn
Fry: Melllvar, you can't let a TV show be your whole life. You can do anything you want. Look at Walter Koenig. After Star Trek, he became an actor!
Koenig: Not just an actor but a well rounded person! With my own friends, credit cards, keys...
That's not meant to be funny; William Shatner really is doing All Bran adverts here in the UK.
If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
I like goofy Shatner! He knows he's a big goofball and he has fun with it. The guy always makes me laugh.
(Stolen from his Wikipedia page:)
"I'm not a Starfleet commander, or T.J. Hooker. I don't live on Starship NCC-170... (some audience members say "1"), or own a phaser. I don't know anybody named Bones, Sulu, or Spock (picture of Dr. Benjamin Spock is shown on screen behind him). And no, I've never had green alien sex, but I'm sure it'd be quite an evening. (Pomp and Circumstance begins playing.) I speak English and French, not Klingon! I drink Labatt's, not Romulan ale! And when someone says to me 'live long and prosper', I seriously mean it when I say, 'get a life'. My doctor's name is not McCoy, it's Ginsberg (nude picture of Dr. Ginsberg shown on screen). And tribbles were puppets, not real animals. PUPPETS! And when I speak, I never, ever talk like Every. Word. Is. Its. Own. Sentence. I live in California, but I was raised in Montreal. And I believe in priceline.com, where you never have to pay full price for airline tickets, hotels, and car rentals! I've appeared onstage at Stratford, at Carnegie Hall, Albert Hall, and the Monkland Theatre in NDG. And, yes, I've gone where no man has gone before, but... I was in Mexico and her father gave me permission! My name is William Shatner, and I am Canadian!"
--from a Just for Laughs appearance; a parody of the popular Molson Canadian Commercial entitled "I Am Canadian".
We apologize for the inconvenience.
I totally agree with you on TNG, but I've always enjoyed DS9. Sure, it was more soap-opera-ish than the others, but that's what I liked about it - it actually had continuity, characters, and conflict.
:)
"Command by committee". Truer words were never spoken. I've got to remember that one.
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from Wikipedia :"has the joke goes, Nietzsche detested Nationalism, Socialism, Germans and mass movements, so naturally he was adopted as the intellectual mascot of the National Socialist German Workers' Party." He was also far from being a racist, believing that the "vigour" of any population could only be increased by mixing with others."
Morden gets a bit more development in that Technomage series.
Everybody had reasons and history for why they did stuff. The Bester character kept Garibaldi under his thumb because he was in such a perfect position to hear stuff. What malice there was was incidental, just bad blood between them.
Overall Walter Koenig, is the only real actor to come out of the series. Later work by almost the whole cast had a 'Phone it in' feel. See Nimoy's role in Brave New World, (it stank on ice)
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Damn straight. Let's put the angst back into space-travel. Next stop, Dostoyevsky...
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500% of the profits!
The decision making....psh, command by committee?
I'd be interested to hear you expand on this. Are you referring to the scenes where Picard gathered up his command personnel in the Ready Room? To me, that sounds like a good strategy: gather together people who are experts in their fields, obtain information from them, solicit their opinions, and then make an informed decision. Not to mention it gave the writers a chance to give backplot where needed.
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If I remember correctly, he said:
"We still have the mundane to deal with."
She responded:
"Can I do it?"
And we see the body floating out in hyperspace.
I talk about stuff.
Those Star Wars fan films exist at the behest of Lucasfilm. That permission can be withdrawn at any time and one can lose their permission to legally redistribute the fan films. This is part of the power a copyright holder gets--the power to set terms for derivative works. Sometimes this power is used for maximizing benefit for the many (such as the GNU GPL's implementation of copyleft which aims to preserve the freedom to share and modify for all recipients of the covered program), most of the time it is not.
The same situation exists for Paramount and Star Trek--Star Trek New Voyages is legally made and distributed so long as Paramount does not deem it a threat (like the Borg when people beam on board one of their cubes and walk around carrying big guns). And this doesn't even begin to get into trademark issues.
For copyright law, all the real power is with the copyright holders unless the fan film is a parody (which Star Trek New Voyages is not). I'd hardly call such a situation "safe" for the fan filmmakers. Even the permission Star Trek New Voyages receives appears to be selective and revocable.
Our copyright and trademark laws don't have to work this way, but they are structured to give more power to businesses. Multinational corporate publishers like Lucasfilm and Paramount have the means to sue and have lobbied the US Congress to make sure that copyright law is on their side. If you look at this in terms of one or two particular instances where smaller filmmakers get the permission they seek (for now), you're missing the point. Richard Stallman has been talking about a more sanely structured copyright regime, one which draws a clear line between commercial and non-commercial activity. Examples like Star Wars fan films and Star Trek New Voyages have a profound effect on his thinking. He ends up arguing for allowing all sorts of non-commercial activity that most copyright regimes prohibit by default.
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I agree. Many of the best moments in B5 related to the established supporting roles rather than the main players like Sheridan and Delenn. Bester was perhaps first among them (though a certain Ranger gave him a run for his money). The Core Is Mother, The Core Is Father was one of the most interesting episodes, and the depth Koenig brought to a character that only actually appeared in a handful of episodes during the five series was remarkable.
Part of me thinks it's a shame they never made Whatever Happened To Mr Bester, to resolve the Bester-Garibaldi storyline where you can work out what happened but you don't know how. Perhaps that's a trademark of the show -- you have to read between the lines, but if you do, there isn't much that isn't tidied up by the end -- but there was so much scope for an episode where Bester was viewed from both sides that it seems a missed opportunity. In another lifetime, perhaps...
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
This is really pretty good news. I noticed that there was distinct difference in some episodes I liked, and realized that they were written to emphsize the "people" problems and psychological adjustments of the characters rather than just the technology or new worlds/experiences aspects. Then I noticed that these episodes were almost always written by Dorothy (D. C.) Fontana. She also contributed some of the absolute best episodes of "Police Woman" with Angie Dickenson. If Walter and D.C. are enthused about this project, I look forward to seeing it.
"The mind works quicker than you think!"