Taken from Bizarro Central’s books section:

It’s Shatner VS Shatners!

It’s the first ShatnerCon with William Shatner as the guest of honor!  But after a failed terrorist attack by Campbellians, a crazy terrorist cult that worships Bruce Campbell, all of the characters ever played by William Shatner are suddenly sucked into our world.  Their mission: hunt down and destroy the real William Shatner.

Featuring: Captain Kirk, TJ Hooker, Denny Crane, Rescue 911 Shatner, Singer Shatner, Shakespearean Shatner, Twilight Zone Shatner, Cartoon Kirk, Esperanto Shatner, Priceline Shatner, SNL Shatner, and – of course – William Shatner!

No costumed con-goer will be spared in their wave of destruction, no redshirt will make it out alive, and not even the Klingons will be able to stand up to a deranged Captain Kirk with a lightsaber.  But these Shatner-clones are about to learn a hard lesson…that the real William Shatner doesn’t take crap from anybody.  Not even himself.

It’s Shatnertastic!

From the Canadian news, entertainment & sports channel the CBC, here’s a report on a Star Trek convention in Vancouver. Look at all the stuff that the great scifi tv series & movie franchise has influenced.

In one of the most memorable episodes of Star Trek TNG, The Royale, the crew of the Enterprise meets up with a lost early explorer from Earth. Or rather his remains. When the debris of a 21st century NASA space ship turns up around a planet of a previously unmapped solar system, the crew is puzzled. Initial scans of the planet show it to be quite inhospitable: Nitrogen, methane, liquid neon, surface temperature -291 degrees Celsius and wind speeds up to 312 meters per second.

They are lead to a structure that surround breathable air on the planet – even more curious. Commander Riker, Lts Data & Worf beam down to investigate and are confronted  by a revolving door that leads to a 20th century hotel & casino – The Royale. There’s tons of people there, playing cards & gambling but none of them are real. They interact with the ‘fake’ people who are intent on going about their ways. On further investigation, Data finds traces of  human dna and leads the team to one of the hotel rooms on another floor. They find a human skeleton, who had died 283 years ago, under the covers of a bed. The skeleton remains belonged to a NASA astronaut, a colonel Richley, whose crew met up with the unknown aliens who created the Royale on this planet.

Finding a diary that the colonel had maintained, the away team learns that Richey was the sole survivor of an alien contaminant that killed all the others on his ship. He then found himself in the Hotel Royale exactly as described in the novel he found in his room. He managed to survive there for 38 years, learning that the aliens created the hotel for him out of guilt using the novel on the shuttle as a guide. Unknown to the aliens, the recreation of the clichéd and shallow characters of the book only served as a hell for the colonel. He welcomed death as it would release him from it. They crew pay their last respects to the lonely explorer and leave the planet after figuring out how to leave the hotel.

A huge favourite of Star Trek & DS9 fans in particular, I just watched the season 4 episode Little Green Men last night post download. This episode is very Quark centric, along with Nog & Rom. The premise of the episode is that Quark takes his nephew Nog & his brother Rom on a newly gifted Ferengi shuttle from DS9 to Earth, as Nog is entering Starfleet Academy. After a going away party for Nog, where the young cadet also sells of some of his belongings in order to raise some capital, Quark takes Nog & Rom aboard his new seemingly perfect little shuttle.

He has also stashed away a load of kemocite which he plans to trade at a sizeable profit once Nog has been safely deposited on Earth. However, as the reach Earth Rom finds out that the ship was sabotaged; Rom says that if he can flood the cargo hold with plasma, its reaction with the kemocite should allow him to shut down the warp core. They do so but the reaction is that they also get transorted into the past – 1947 to be exact. They land on Earth unconscious and are found by the US army.

Now 1947 humans haven’t met any Ferengi or any other aliens and initially only the scientist on the base and his fiance nurse wish to communicate with them and gain new knowledge. The army men are a whole lot more suspicious and would like to know if they have any weapons and whether there is any immediate danger to Earth in the form of an alien attack. And the universal translators do not work  at first making communication extremely tough. Frightened at first and unsure of what to do, Quark becomes more confident when the translators are fixed and the humans and Ferengi can now understand each other. Quark is sure that he can manipulate this event into his benefit and profit from the greed in humans during that period of Earth’s history.

Only the scientist and the nurse are interested in the Ferengi for good will & learning new things. The military later turns hostile and it looks like their plans for the aliens might not be good at all. However the 3 Ferengi are saved by the intervention of Odo – the shapeshifter has snuck into their shuttle in order to keep an eye on Quark and now helps them to escape back to their ship. The scientist and the nurse come to their aid as well and soon the 4 non-humans are back in the shuttle and on their way back. They usean atomic explosion to ignite the kemocite in the same way and make their way back to their own time. Nog is dropped off at Starfleet academy and Quark, Rom & Odo go back to DS9.

While entirely entertaining and funny this episode lacks credible content towards the end. It seems rushed and is too quick to resolve all the issues. This should have ideally been a 2 part or 3 part episode arc with lots more interaction between the 1947 humans and the 3 Feregis plus Odo helping them out.  The solution was too easy in the end and it left me feeling incomplete once I watched it. Don’t get me wrong, it still is a very good episode but it could have been better.

One of the best episodes in any of the Star Trek franchises, and certainly one of the funniest, The Trouble With Tribbles takes place on Deep Space Station 7 in a section of space that has a disputed planet – disputed between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. According to the Organian treaty, each side is given a chance to show who is better suited to develop the planet’s resources. The Enterprise answers an emergency hail from DS7 but Captain Kirk is annoyed to find out that the alarm was raised to protect the storage of a grain, the only kind which can be grown on the planet. On orders from an admiral Kirk is forced to place guards to protect the grain. Meanwhile the Klingons appear, headed by Captain Koloth (played by William Campbell).

The Klingons claim that they are for shore leave and Kirk reluctantly allows them to send down only 12 soldiers at a time and he also allows his own crew to take shore leave on the station. While at the station’s bar, Uhura is gifted a tribble, a small furry creature that seems to purr in a manner that makes humans (and Spock too even though he won’t admit it) calm and affectionate towards the creatures. Unfortunately, feeding it only creates a problem – the tribbles multiply like crazy. Each tribble can deliver 10 at a time and soon they are all over the station and the ship.

While on shore leave Scotty & Chekov get into a bar room brawl with Koloth’s first officer Korax and it develops into a big fight between the humans and the Klingons. Funny part – when a drunk Korax insults Kirk, Scotty restrains Chekov from hitting the Klingon but when the drunk officer insults the Enterprise twice Scotty hit him. Equally funny is when Scotty admits to throwing the first punch and the bemused and embarrassed look on Kirk’s face when he finds out that insulting him was a lesser sin for Scotty than insulting the ship!

The humour carries on to the interaction between Kirk and Nilz Baris, a Federation official in charge of the planet development project. And the reactions to seeing lots of tribbles on the ship including the bridge. It also seems that the tribbles seem to like humans and Vulcans but do not like Klingons. This is crucial in unmasking Baris’ assistant Arne Darvin as a Klingon spy – the tribbles emit a shrill sound when in proximity to him just as they do with all Klingons. In turn the noise they make seems to make the Klingons nervous. Hence at the end, Scotty beams all the tribbles from their ship…onto the Klingon ship!

Truly classic episode and it has it’s fans far and wide. A must watch for anyone even if you are not a Star Trek fan.

Exotic, sexual, a mixed background, curvy as hell, you can’t go wrong with BarBara Luna. She’s of Italian, Hungarian-Jewish, Spanish, Portuguese and Filipino descent, and what a delightful recipe this is, resulting in a beautiful, multi-talented person.

Luna is famous for her appearance as Lt. Marlena Moreau & the alternative universe version of Moreau in the episode Mirror, Mirror. In this episode Kirk, McCoy, Uhura & Scotty are accidentally beamed to an alternative universe’s Enterprise. In our world Malena is a recently assigned Starfleet chemist for the USS Enterprise, while in the alternative universe she is also Kirk’s lover. Apparently she was the Captain’s partner in every way, and privy to all of his most private secrets. Lt. Moreau knew her Captain’s most sensitive secret of all: that he hid the deadly “tantalus device” in his quarters, and that with it, he could kill any enemy with the single touch of a button, without them even knowing what hit them.

Marlena is fueled by ambition in this mirror universe and that’s why she is with the captain. However, even knowing that something was amiss with the captain, in that he was not her Kirk but one from an alternative universe, she still came to his aid. When Kirk, Scotty, Uhura & McCoy are about to beam back to their world, she initially asks to come along. But it isn’t possible as the beam can only hold four lives. She stays back on her ship as our four heroes beam back to theirs.

Continuing on my theory that women in the 1960s were hotter than women of any other decade, let me present to you the absolutely charming, sexy, beautiful & demure Leslie Parrish who played Lt. Caroline Palamas in the classic episode Who Mourns For Adonais? Palamas was the archeology & anthropology officer of the USS Enterprise under Captain Kirk’s command and thus when the ship was confronted by a powerful alien being who dressed like, appear like and claimed to be an ancient Greek god, she joined the away team who met the being.

The alien who calls himself Apollo (an ancient Greek god) as moved by Palamas’ beauty, and quickly became infatuated with her. He transformed her standard uniform into a long peplos, which he felt was more appropriate attire. Appropriate for her and intoxicating for her male viewers. Wow, she is a sight to behold in that skimpy outfit which hides none of her curves.

On several occasions, Apollo left the remainder of the landing party alone, taking the young lady elsewhere to entertain her. This created tension between the alien and Scotty, who was also interested in Palamas; on two occasions, this drove Scotty to attack Apollo, with unfortunate results for the ship’s chief engineer. And, she began to develop feelings for Apollo, in return. Kirk knew that Apollo fed off attention and especially Palamas’ attention. So he ordered the young Lt to reject the “god”.

Heavy-hearted, Palamas left to meet with Apollo at his call, and on her captain’s orders she rejected him, pretending that her entire association with him was part of her study of alien civilizations. Apollo was first confused, hurt, and then enraged. He expended a great deal of power to impress her, summoning a storm and crafting a gigantic image of himself in the sky.

About this time, Spock and the Enterprise crew managed to pierce Apollo’s hand in places, and they attacked his power source through these holes. Apollo, having expended much of his energy in his rage, was unable to prevent the destruction of his temple. Without it, he was powerless, and he “spread himself on the winds”, joining his old companions in oblivion, an event that left Palamas weeping. But look at her power – she brought down a so called “god”!

I’ve often thought what I would do if I were on the TNG era USS Enterprise or the USS Voyager of Star Trek fame. Let’s say that I was a Lieutenant (well at age 33 I’d better be either a Lieutenant or Lieutenant-Commander atleast) from the Federation’s Starfleet assigned to one of these ships. I’d go about my duties and try to do my best to serve my planet and the Federation.

Once my duty shift was over, other than head back to my quarters and relax: what else would I have to do for fun? Head for the lounge area (10 forward) or the mess hall? Play games of poker along with my fellow officers? No, I’d go to one of the Hollow-suites. Ofcourse in this vivid imagination of mine, my dog Shawny is still alive and with me on the ship.

So I’d take my dog with me and head to the hollow-suite. I’d program the computer to run a relaxing simulation – a woods type area with lots of lush green grass and plenty of cool breeze. We’d walk down the path to a small lake or pond. I’d say “Computer, add boat” and a beautiful boat would appear on the lake – it will have soft cushions and arm rests too. We both would get onto the boat, where on one end my dog would curl up and lie down on her big cushion and one the other end I’d sit and recline back onto big pillows.

Something’s missing – ah yes food. From the replicator I’d get a big bowl of strawberry milk with huge strawberries in it for my dog and some dog food in another bowl. While she chowed down on that, I’d get a beer and a big ham sandwich. We’d eat our food and relax on the small boat, enjoying the water and the cool breeze until the time ran out on my time in the hollow-suite.

Or until I hear the code red alarms as those damn Borg attack us!

An absolutely stunning imagery of womanly sex appeal & beauty combined with a touch of class. My computer monitor almost melted when the first scene featuring the lovely Miss Sherry Jackson was playing!

Truly a magnificent example of my theory that women in the 60s were just sexier than of any other decade – plain goddamn simple for anyone with a brain & eyes to see. Sherry Jackson guest appears in the season 1 episode What Are Little Girls Made Of? as Andrea, a female android built sometime between 2261 and 2266, by Roger Korby. By Human standards, her behavior was quite simplistic, to the point where she would duplicate patterns of learned behavior.

To demonstrate that she was merely a machine and unable to feel emotions, Korby ordered her to kiss and then strike Captain Kirk. Later, when Kirk kissed her again, she next attempted to strike him, as she had done earlier. This time he kissed her much more passionately, and she became confused and upset, claiming she was “not programmed” for Kirk. William Shatner is one of the luckiest actors on television ever!

Ordered to protect the complex after Ruk’s destruction, Andrea mistakenly destroyed the android copy of Kirk. When she found Korby and realized her mistake, she became emotional. Perhaps threatened by his love for Christine Chapel, perhaps seeking his approval, Andrea began to kiss Korby passionately. This may have convinced Korby that Kirk was right, and the androids were vulnerable to unprogrammed emotions, for during this kiss, Korby activated a phaser, destroying himself and Andrea.

Actor Andrew Koenig, 41, who played the character ‘Boner’ in the popular sitcom Growing Pains was found dead in Vancouver’s Stanley Park by friends who were looking for him.

Andrew is the son of Star Trek actor Walter Koenig (Pavel Chekov) and has been missing since Feb. 14. He was last seen near a bakery in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on February 14, and missed a scheduled flight back to the U.S. on February 16. According to his parents, Koenig left evidence that he was depressed prior to his disappearance. The Venice, Calif. native had been visiting friends in West Vancouver before he disappeared. Andrew was expected back in Los Angeles Feb. 16, but he never arrived.

Among his few roles on television is the brief appearance in Sanctuary, an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

The City On The Edge Of Tomorrow is constantly voted as either the best or one of the best TOS episodes ever. And we see a young, classy, sexy and gorgeous looking Joan Collins in it. Collins plays Edith Keller, a social worker in the 1930s, who helps homeless & down on their luck people get food, shelter & work.

In an effort to find Dr. McCoy, Captain Kirk and Spock go through a portal back in time to the year 1930 and meet the lovely Edith. She helps them find small menial work and arranges for a room for the two of them to live in. Spock finds out that if Edith Keller lives, in an alternate reality, she goes on to influence a late entry of the US in World War 2 which leads to a Nazi victory and a very different Earth, one in which there is no Starfleet or Federation. In order to restore the proper timeline Edith Keller must die.

This proves too hard for the emotional Kirk, who has started to fall in love with Edith and she towards him. So when an unsuspecting Edith approaches the path of a speeding truck, Kirk restraints McCoy from saving her life. This means instant death for Edith, a tragedy for one but the proper timeline is restored and things are back to normal.

I really can’t get over how young & beautiful Joan Collins looks. She is 76 years old at present and I have always known her as the middle-aged Dynasty era look. She looks radiant & stunning here.

In my mind, Klingons were the best possible villains, except for the Borg ofcourse, for Star Trek. Maybe villains is too strong a word – anti-heroes is more appropriate I think. Brutish, courageous, warrior like, proud and honour-minded – they have some good qualities in them. They along with the Romulans were the strongest antagonists in The Original Series. Ofcourse by 1987 and the era of TNG, they were allies and part of the Federation and newer villains took over. However, I always liked the Klingons when they locked horns with Starfleet’s finest.

Today I watched the first episode to feature Klingons – Errand Of Mercy. The Klingon leader in this episode is Commander Kor – played by the late stage & television actor John Colicos. Colicos fashioned the look of the Klingons after Ghengis Khan – long mustaches with an oriental/Mongol look. As you can see here, the famed forehead ridges that we have known to feature on Klingons were not added to the fictional race at this time. But Kor still is menacing with his superiority complex and his rage.

Kos captures the neutral & seemingly primitive planet of Oraganos in Errand of Mercy and clashes with Captain Kirk & Spock. His plans to execute the two of them is spoiled by the Organians, who halt the war between the Klingons and the Federation by use of their superior powers, much to the surprise of Kor & Kirk, who thought that the race was a much technologically inferior one.

Colicos did a fine job then and in 3 episodes of DS9, where he played an older Kor. The Shakespearean actor died in 2000. Ofcourse he was more famous as the evil Balthar who sold humanity to the Cylons in the original Battlestar Galactica. Colicos’s portrayal of Balthar is, in my opinion, miles ahead of the bumbling English man in the new BSG. He was pure evil, greedy and manipulative and thoroughly enjoyable to watch.

Star Trek: TOS   Star Trek: TNG  Star Trek: DS9  Star Trek: Voyager  Star Trek: Enterprise

The Curve 83xx series. When I look at them like this, I keep thinking of the Star Trek Series.

It will not just suffice to call him Captain anymore.

Star Trek actor Patrick Stewart, most famously known as Captain Jean-Luc Picard,  said he was “very proud” to be awarded a knighthood for services to drama. The honour follows the return of the X-Men star to the British stage following many years living in Los Angeles. Stewart, 69, said: “I am very proud to receive this honour. The theatre is and has always been my great joy.

The Queen is reported to be a fan of the star, who has enjoyed a 50-year career in movies, TV and the theatre including 16 years with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

The Shakespearean actor shot to fame when he originated the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987. The sci-fi TV series ran for seven years, and Stewart later said the success of the show handicapped him because directors did not want to cast the captain of the Starship Enterprise in their films. On the big screen, Stewart’s biggest role has been as Professor Charles Xavier in all three of the Hollywood superhero X-Men blockbusters, which began life in 2000.

As far as Star Trek captains go – well I guess it’s safe to say that most fans want to be Captain Kirk and want to have a captain like Picard.

Although I don’t agree that Deep Space 9 was the best Star Trek series out of the 5, I do understand that it’s episodes like this one that feeds that particular opinion. And what a powerful & well acted episode it is!

Duet is the 19th episode of the 1st season of DS9 and features a Cardassian man who comes to the station for the purpose of getting arrested by Major Kira Nerys. The reason is that the man who is  actually Marritza, a clerk in a former labour camp where Cardassians tortured Bajoran prisoners of war, has been torn with guilt for not doing anything about the atrocities committed in the camp. So after he learns of the death of the camp warden, the notorious butcher Gul Darhe’el, he has his face surgically altered to resemble the dead tyrant. He also seeks out Kira’s station, knowing that there he would be apprehended and convicted. Imagine a Nazi German being ashamed for not doing anything to stop the killing of Jews in a camp and you get the picture.

Ashamed of being a coward in his own eyes, Marritza wants to be killed by Bajoran judicial systems to atone for the fact that he did nothing to prevent the killing of innocent prisoners. A powerful rant & rave proceeds between Marritza (acted by veteran actor Harris Yulin) and Kira (played ofcourse by Nana Visitor) while the former is at the heights of pretending to be Darhe’el. He taunts and verbally torments Kira for being a Bajoran and shows contempt and superiority complexes. However when Kira finally understands that he is infact Marritza, an even more moving & powerful dialogue ensues.

Marritza at first still claims to be Darhe’el but breaks down as he states about his own shame at being crowdly and not doing anything to help the prisoners. He wanted to be caught & punished and hence setup this elaborate ruse. Kira has him released but Marritza is killed by a Bajoran as they try to get the Cardassian off the station.

I finally like Star Trek : Deep Space 9 enough to download the series and start watching from scratch. Captive Pursuit is the 6th episode of the 1st season. It’s episodes like this that reminds me why I feel that the franchise is the best thing to ever happen for television.

Tosk is a reptilian-humanoid species bred for pursuit; to trained to be excellent prey by a hunter species. The hunters are another race also part of their planet that lies in the Gamma Quadrant. Tosk are only sentient because the Hunters made them this way (this implies a degree of genetic engineering on their part). The meaning of life for a Tosk is to outsmart the Hunters for another day. The only greater dishonor for a Tosk than being captured and returned to their home planet alive is to seek protection from another race. They take an oath of silence regarding the hunt preventing them from even talking about it with anyone else. The Tosk are treated with respect and admiration by the Hunters.

Now, this cannot be understood by human beings. In this episode, the Tosk is befriended by Chief O’Brien, who cannot come to terms with the fact that his new friend has to endure a life of being treated as prey and, since he is caught in the jail of another species, will be shamefully exhibited back on their planet. O’Brien defies his commander’s order & helps Tosk escape and thereby restoring his dignity & honour – the hunt goes on.

Can you imagine an exsistence like that? Being bred only for becoming someone else’s prey. What kind of an exsistence will that be? And yet, in Tosk’s case that is the only life he has known. Or even wants!

Another specimen (and what a sexy specimen at that) of my theory that the Star Trek Original Series women and women of the 60′s were of a sexier class all of their own. In Dagger Of The Mind (season 1, episode 10) we see Dr. Helen Noel, played by Mariann Hill.

Hill was born in Italy and lived in several countries before her family setting in the US. That Italian chic look, with pouty lips and a dimple – ohh, it was love & lust for me at first sight.

Her ability to learn a number of accents combined with a vaguely foreign beauty, earned her a number of feature film and television roles. She worked steadily from the early 1960s until the early 1980s. Her film work included a number of B-movies, such as The Invisible Strangler. She is cousin to retired American general H. Norman Schwarzkopf.

Dr. Helen Noel was a psychiatrist with a background in rehabilitative therapy, and a member of Doctor Leonard McCoy’s medical staff aboard the USS Enterprise in 2266. in Dagger Of The Mind, she and Captain Kirk visited the penal colony to talk with Dr. Tristan Adams and learn about the accident that occurred there. They discover a neural neutralizer whose effects render patients highly susceptible to suggestions and which was being manipulated by Dr. Adams and his staff to conduct unauthorized experiments.

Our lovely lady manages to get into the action, fighting off the villians and finds the power controls and deactivate the security force field. That field protects the facility, and prevents transporters from operating in it. Noel manages to deactivate the field long enough for Spock and a security force to beam down and secure the colony.

William Shatner appeared at Madame Tussauds on the 4th of November to unveil his wax likeness. As reported by TrekToday several days ago, Shatner was immortalized in wax as Captain Kirk.

Shatner pushed a button on a control and Captain Kirk from Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan was revealed, standing next to his white command chair and wearing the red uniform top and black trousers that the Star Trek crew wore in The Wrath of Khan.

“Oh my goodness!” exclaimed Shatner, who then went and stood next to the figure. “You know there’s wax in his ears,” he joked.