Random Rants & Raves

Ok, I admit it – I was a skeptic about the choice of theme for the new Star Trek movie considering that it was to be based in the Original Series time frame and with new actors playing the iconic characters we know. How could someone else play Kirk, Spock, McCoy and all the others – each with their own distinctive personalities and styles of playing the character. I watched all the trailers and read all the reviews of how well the new Star Trek movie is doing – becoming the top grossing movie of 2009 so far, beating Wolverine, Angels & Demons and Terminator Salvation. I was still not convinced.

It was after I watched the movie that I realized I had been wrong – completely so. The movie was not just a great summer sci-fi action flick – it was Star Trek. As a full fledged Trekkie (see what I wore to the show – thanks Binesh), I loved the new movie. Here are some thoughts around it.

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Tags: movies, star trek, rave
Categories: Movies | Rave | Star Trek

Well, the long wait is over – the full official trailer of the upcoming Star Trek movie by J.J. Abrams is now available to watch online. You can also get a glimpse of walking through the Enterprise over at StarTrekMovie. The trailer is unfortunately hosted at Apple for this week but other sites will pick them soon.

If you want to simply download the HD trailer rather than just seeing on the Web page you can head here. It’s about 20MB in size. If you want the super-duper hi-res one (1080p version) you get that here. This weighs in at about 159MB.

Live long and prosper.

Tags: star trek
Categories: Star Trek | Movies

My recent visit to Las Vegas for the Mix '08 conference gave me the opportunity to finally visit what I've been wanting to do for a very long time - Star Trek: The Experience in the Las Vegas Hilton. This is a Star Trek themed area that consists of a large promenade, 2 ride shows, a bar and restaurant and a shopping area. There are many attractions to the place and even if you've never been a major Trekkie/Trekker, this is worth a visit to see the place.

The whole area is built up like the main Deep Space 9 Promenade. Including Quark's Bar where you can go and order fairly out of the world food and drink. There are two ride shows - The Klingon Encounter and Borg Invasion 4D. Both of them are very different from the normal rides you take and are a whole lot of fun with a bunch of interactive elements and surprises along the way.

You also get to go onto a fully to-scale bridge of the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D: Picard's original ship. The viewscreen shows the stars while in warp and at one point even Cmdr. Riker and Geordi La Forge talking to some StarFleet "personnel" around you. The rides are just great - with parts where you are weaving in and out of a dogfight in space between Klingon Bird-of-Preys and the Enterprise. A built to scale area even lets you wander around in the saucer section of the Enterprise and that's when you get to feel the size of this StarShip - it's huge!

I went ahead and got myself clicked sitting in the Captain's Chair of the Enterprise D as well as in Picard's and Seven-of-Nine's Borg Alcove. I also took both the rides, a behind the scenes tour, visited the History of the Future museum and had lunch in Quark's bar.

After all this, I went ahead and bought a bunch of stuff from the shops as well: a limited edition die cast model of the USS Enterprise D, a scale model with sound and light effects of USS Enterprise E, a TNG-era communicator, a copy of the Star Trek magazine and a couple of T-shirts! Cost me a bomb - but it was worth it.

If you want to take a look at some of my other photos, head over to my Star Trek Experience gallery. There are no photos of the rides and stuff since it's prohibited there.

Tags: star trek, rave
Categories: Star Trek

I've been a trekker for as long as I can remember and have loved all the Trek shows and movies (except maybe the last one). And it pleases me greatly to know that there'll be a new movie of the franchise this year. Simply called "Star Trek" - this is probably a reboot of sorts of the series - taking us back to where it all started from. The USS Enterprise NCC - 1701 - no A, B, C, D, E or J.

Paramount just released a new teaser trailer of the upcoming movie which you can view here. Starts of a bunch of guys busy building something while voice overs of famous sayings related to space play (I could identify JFK, John Glen, Neil Armstrong amongst others). The trailer then ends with the camera panning to show what that something is - it's the USS Enterprise being built - and the voice over changes to Leonard Nimoy saying probably one of the most famous lines on TV and keeping in tune with the theme of the other sayings - "Space - The Final Frontier!"

It sure sent a shiver of excitement down my spine. J. J Abrams does seem like a worthy guy to take on the Star Trek franchise helm. I'm now eagerly await more trailers till the actual release of the movie. DROOOOOL!

Tags: star trek
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