space: no uglies

Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin announced Monday actor William Shatner, 90, will be on the next Blue Origin flight alongside Audrey Powers, Blue Origin's vice president of mission and flight operations, Chris Boshuizen and Glen de Vries.

"I've heard about space for a long time now," Shatner said in a press release. "I'm taking the opportunity to see it for myself. What a miracle."
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The New Shepard NS-18 flight will lift off October 12.

The journey will take 11 minutes and soar past the Kármán Line, the internationally recognized boundary of space.

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What we know so far... ✨ #StarTrek https://t.co/Oe0n0LS2EM

— Star Trek (@StarTrek) July 14, 2021

Matt Shakman, who was recently nominated for an Emmy for his work directing WandaVision, is beaming into the Star Trek universe. He'll be directing the upcoming Untitled Star Trek Project for Paramount Pictures, with a script written by Lindsey Beer and Geneva Robertson. The first time that women will be writing a Trek movie script.

J.J. Abrams, who helmed both Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness and produced Star Trek Beyond, will be returning as a producer.

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Host Wil Wheaton (The Ready Room) sits down for a very special panel with George Takei (Star Trek: The Original Series) and Rod Roddenberry. The trio discusses Star Trek's continuing legacy, Takei's personal activism and experiences on the set of Star Trek, and more.

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IDW is wrapping up their two-year-long Star Trek: Year Five series this summer, and today they just announced a brand new year-long series to follow that up, with a return to the 24th century’s Mirror Universe.

The classic Star Trek episode “Mirror, Mirror” introduced The Mirror Universe and Terran Empire, and various Trek shows revisited this dark and dangerous place in the decades since. However, we never saw Star Trek: The Next Generation’s take until IDW’s “Mirror Broken” in 2017. And beginning on “Star Trek Day” (September 8th), the Star Trek comics publisher returns with a new series where they invite readers “to witness what the galaxy could be like at the mercy of a Captain Picard whose greatness is measured in cunning and cruelty.”

The series will kick off a month early in August with a special Star Trek: The Mirror War #0 issue illustrated by Carlos Nieto.

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Star Trek: Enterprise has become an influential Star Trek series that now serves as the canonical springboard for all of Star Trek that follows. A prequel set in the 22nd century, Enterprise was the fifth Star Trek show and the last of the era that launched with Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987. While Enterprise was the only show of the TNG era to last 4 seasons and its cancelation in 2005 marked the end of Star Trek on TV for 12 years, the series has since earned new admirers in the last two decades and the Star Trek franchise has recontextualized Enterprise's greater importance.

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In celebration of First Contact Day 2001, a panel was held for Star Trek: Prodigy (and other franchise entries), and it was there that fans learned the upcoming animated series takes place in the Delta quadrant in 2383 and will feature Captain Janeway not in her character's human form, but rather as an emergency training hologram aboard the starship. This means that, at least for now, Kate Mulgrew's return is technically to voice an AI based on Captain Janeway, and not the actual Captain. A pretty tricky move made by co-creators Dan and Kevin Hageman, no?

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'Star Trek: Picard' season 2 teaser trailer reveals the return of a familiar 'Next Generation' foe https://t.co/9rpLKOSFc2 pic.twitter.com/C7qZWtFp6D

— SPACE.com (@SPACEdotcom) April 5, 2021

Just revealed to kick off CBS’ celebration of “First Contact
Day”—the day Zefram Cochrane became the first human to achieve warp flight
and encounter the Vulcans in Star Trek: First Contact—Sir Patrick Stewart
debuted an early teaser for the currently filming second season of Star
Trek: Picard for Paramount+.

YouTube link, if you can't see it above.

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With Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks, Star Trek: Prodigy, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Paramount+ already has five shows currently in production. As reported earlier today, Paramount+ is planning on debuting the first season of Prodigy this year, along with season two of Lower Decks, and season four of Discovery. Presumably, season two of Picard and the first season of Strange New Worlds will arrive in 2022. According to Variety, Paramount+ is planning on having new Star Trek content debut every quarter.

And Paramount+ already looking beyond those shows. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, EVP Julie McNamara said:

“We are in discussions about the next phase of the Trek universe beyond those five shows that Alex has built. We are invested in growing the universe of Star Trek. That said, it’s important to make sure that we are curating these properly. We’re always incubating a number of things together and then working out what the right cadence is and what the right next show is. Those are active and constant conversations. There are multiple things in the hopper right now that represent that next phase but we don’t want to expand it too much, too fast to where anyone is ever saying, “It’s just another Trek show.” We don’t want that.”

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is close to beginning production as series star Ethan Peck arrives in Toronto to reprise his role as Lieutenant Spock. Strange New Worlds is a spinoff of Star Trek: Discovery. Set about a decade before the events of Star Trek: The Original Series, Strange New Worlds chronicles the adventures of the USS Enterprise when it was commanded by Captain Christopher Pike (Anson Mount), alongside his trusted first officer Number One (Rebecca Romijn).

There are currently five Star Trek series in production, four for Paramount+ (the animated Star Trek: Prodigy will debut on Nickelodeon). Production on Star Trek: Discovery's fourth season is already underway, as is production on the animated Star Trek: Lower Decks. Things have been a little more complicated for Star Trek: Picard, which is shot in Los Angeles, a city currently being ravaged by the pandemic, but series star Jeri Ryan confirms production will begin on that show's second season very soon.

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Oscar-winning actor Christopher Plummer, the legendary actor best known for The Sound of Music, has died. He was 91.

"Chris was an extraordinary man who deeply loved and respected his profession with great old fashion manners, self deprecating humor and the music of words," Lou Pitt, his longtime friend and manager of 46 years said in a statement to Variety. "He was a National Treasure who deeply relished his Canadian roots. Through his art and humanity, he touched all of our hearts and his legendary life will endure for all generations to come. He will forever be with us."

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