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Mighty_Emperor

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
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Aug 18, 2002
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I am suprised there isn't a thread for this here (or if there is I can't find it) so here is one for general trek stuff.

I thought this was impressive (if not new):

Old news:

"Star Trek" fan turns home into spaceship



Saturday, June 23, 2001 at 11:05 JST

LONDON — A British "Star Trek" fan has turned his home into a replica of television's most famous spaceship.

Tony Alleyne spent 8,000 pounds (,300) to convert his one-bedroom apartment into the starship Enterprise. The apartment now includes a command console and windows reshaped to look like portholes.

The centrepiece of his spaceship home is a three-dimensional ceiling with an "infinity" mirror at the center.

"It can make you feel a bit dizzy because it looks as if you're peering out into space," he told Reuters on Friday, posing in a space suit.

Alleyne, of Hinckley in central England, said he used magazines and information from NASA to get the design right.

"What really fascinates me about 'Star Trek' is the artistic and technology side of it," the ex-disc jockey explained.

Alleyne, 48, who said his wife left him for another earthling, lives alone in the apartment.

"My mother would say it's not very cosy — but I do make people a cup of tea when they come and visit," he said.

"Star Trek" was first launched in 1966 as a television series with William Shatner as Captain Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as the pointy-eared Spock.

The series and "Star Trek" films sparked a cult following around the world, with fans converging for regular conventions and memorabilia commanding high prices at auctions.

http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cach...m/gidx/news37536.html+Tony+Alleyne+trek&hl=en

and it was up for sale:

'Star Trek' Apartment Going For Million

By Caillan
May 31, 2003 - 6:38 AM

The next best thing to living in a Starfleet starship is now up for sale on the Internet.

British Star Trek fan Tony Alleyne, who spent three-and-a-half years transforming his Leicestershire studio apartment into a replica of the Enterprise-D, has now listed the flat on eBay. The asking price? million US dollars.

"I decided to list the apartment on eBay basically to see what reaction I would get," Alleyne told TrekToday over email. "YES! I know the asking price was ridiculous but, as they say, 'it's always best to aim high'. Having said that, I have received a lot of emails, mainly from the USA, asking about the apartment."

Alleyne based the design of the apartment on the Enterprise-D from Star Trek: The Next Generation, his favourite series because of its "scenic design, characters, storylines and the moral issues Gene Roddenberry addressed without worrying about the consequences".

The actual design and construction of the apartment's Trek interior, begun in 1999 and completed earlier this year, was the culmination of a lifetime as science fiction fan. "From the time I saw my first sci-fi film, The First Men In The Moon, at around 12 years old, I have been a complete fan of everything science fiction. The motivation to convert my whole apartment came following a series of events. As a result of a run of bad luck starting with my wife leaving me, I found myself unable to work and unable to focus on anything."

He found solace in one of the most unlikely places: a Star Trek reference book. "The only thing that held my attention at that time was a Star Trek technical manual loaned to me by a friend. I didn't realise it at the time what effect the Star Trek manual was going to have on my life."

In 1996, armed with the technical manual, Alleyne busied himself by constructing a transporter control console, eventually finishing it two years later. But while the console was the perfect size for a Galaxy class starship, it proved to be a little too big for a humble 20th century flat.

"Because my studio apartment is quite small I decided to get rid of my transporter control console to anyone who wanted it (free of charge)," Alleyne explained. "It was first offered to the science museum in South Kensington, but after a year of emailing and faxing their curator, Doug Millard, they eventually decided they didn't want it as it was 'too big' to include in their annual sci-fi convention. I have my own reasons why they didn't want it.

"I then offered it to the Space Centre in Leicester. They were very enthusiastic initially but then after a while I never heard anything more.

"So, as I couldn't give it away I decided to do the next best thing: build my apartment around it."

Alleyne, who has studied the work of veteran Trek scenic artist Mike Okuda, didn't use blueprints but "did a watch a lot of Star Trek". "I am an avid fan of Star Trek but then I am also a fan of their scenic and graphic designs," he said.

Just by looking at the pictures on the Internet, living in the apartment day in day out seems like it could be a very surreal experience. "I find the apartment very easy to live in," Alleyne said, "but then I have always dreamt about living in a spaceship!"

While areas such as living quarters, corridors and the mess hall are featured in almost every Trek episode, locations like the bathroom proved more problematic for Alleyne, since they are never usually featured in the television series. "Because the kitchen and bathroom areas in Star Trek: The Next Generation are almost never seen I have based my kitchen area roughly on a that aboard a sea-ship." Alleyne used "chamfered doors, clinical worktops and fixed diffused lighting panels".

"I have included an Infinity Mirror in the bathroom together with footlights for the shower. The Star Trek influence in the bathroom is the wall panelling (TNG) and the LCARS display around two walls at knee height so you have something to read when you're sat on the pot. Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar) was concerned that her name wasn't on the Official List of Starfleet Personnel Killed, Wounded or Missing in Action."

And what was Denise Crosby doing looking for her name on Alleyne's bathroom wall? She and director Roger Nygard recently visited the apartment to film a segment for Trekkies 2, the sequel to the 1997 documentary. "I really enjoyed myself with the crew from Paramount. Denise Crosby was lovely and so friendly. It was a bit surreal having someone I have watched on TNG countless times in my apartment standing on my transporter pad saying 'Beam me up, Captain'.

"The director, Roger Nygard, was thoroughly professional and never missed a trick whilst filming. He was, as was the rest of the crew, seven in all, very friendly and a joy to work with."

Alleyne said he had never actually seen the original Trekkies until visited by the production crew. While the documentary has generated controversy among the Star Trek community because of its depiction of fans, Alleyne said he "enjoyed it very much".

"There was a good point made by the lady juror that really sums up, to me, about anyone who is a fan of anything. She mentioned that football fans, baseball fans any other sport fan can don their teams colours everyday of the year without being looked on as a reject from society or something odd.

"Ask yourself this, if you were walking alone at night which would you prefer to have coming towards you, a gang of football fans angry and charged up on alcohol because their team has lost, or a gang of Star Trek fans on their way home from a convention?

"I have always subscribed to the saying, 'Do what makes you happy as long as it doesn't offend anyone'. In the Trekkies movie we saw individuals who were doing just that."

Look out for Tony Alleyne and his apartment to be featured in Other People's Houses on Channel 4 in the UK this summer, as well as the upcoming documentary, Trekkies 2.

The online listing of the apartment can be found here at eBay. Further images are available at 24th Century Design.

http://www.trektoday.com/news/310503_03.shtml

Its no longer on eBay but you can see pictures here:

http://community.webshots.com/user/aja24

and the company site is here:

http://www.24thcid.com

Emps
 
B% creator sez he can save Star Trek:

B5 Creator Pitches Trek

Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski told fans on a B5 Usenet group that he and Dark Skies creator Bryce Zabel have put together an idea for a new Star Trek series, which he said would revive the ailing franchise. "I got together [with Zabel] and wrote a treatment earlier this year that specified how to save [Star Trek] and develop a series that would restore the series in a big way," Straczynski wrote. "I actually think it could be a hell of a show. Whether that ever goes anywhere with Paramount, who knows?"

Straczynski added that Paramount called him last year to accept an executive producer position on the currrent Trek series, Enterprise, in its upcoming fourth season, but that he declined. "The series I mentioned has nothing to do with any current series," he added. "It's a new show."

Manny Coto, who created Showtime's SF series Odyssey 5, will take over Enterprise next year as show runner. "As for Manny, he's a good writer, and left to his own devices, I think he could be a big help over there without the other powers-that-be impeding the process," Straczynski said.


STORY
 
I never really liked Babylon 5 personally, although I had a few friends who loved it.
 
Colin said:
I never really liked Babylon 5 personally, although I had a few friends who loved it.

~notes name down on list~

I loved B5 (although it was tricky to get into and I know some people who didn't watch it from the first episode who never got into it) and it is interesting to see this development. If I have my history right he picthed the idea of B5 to the Star Trek people and they turned him down (so he did it himself - and wodnerfull well) but mysteriously developed a similar series themselves - DS9.

It will be interesting to see what comes of this but Straczynski should really go and develop his own project as he is (potentially) better than that.

Emps
 
Hmm - well I hope if this all goes through, it won't end up being B5 meets ST:TNG. B5 always struck me as being a bit hammy and space opera-like, whereas ST:TNG was just too sterile for it's own good. It'd be great if they tried to actually sit down and write some good stories - despite it's faults, the original ST at least played around with the genre, sometimes in an odd way. Even seemed to be making a nod at the Twilight Zone on occasions. As such, it was more story and plot driven than the more modern stuff, which is far too reliant on characters - and thus starts becoming more like a soap opera.
 
It's about time they rethought the Federation, collapsed it and had a civil war.
The most interesting part of Star Trek in recent times has always been The Marquee and their theory that the Federation are no better than the Borg in many ways.

B5 was horrible. Claudia Christianson had a stubbly top lip and there were a hundred million Amiga users prattling on about how the makers used Amiga computers to do the FX.
 
Boldly going online

Star Trek universe going online

Fans of Star Trek will have the chance to explore the final frontier in a multi-player online game based on the hugely popular TV series.

Games firm Perpetual Entertainment has secured the rights to develop the game which will allows thousands of trekkers to immerse themselves in the world of the United Federation of Planets.

The 24th century universe being brought to life by Star Trek Online will launch considerably earlier, in 2007.

It could attract millions of players.

Forget Spock

The game has the potential to be a huge money-spinner, given the millions of Star Trek fans worldwide and the success of other so-called massively multi-player games which create not only a games universe but an online community around it.

Games like Everquest, Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies have hundreds of thousands of subscribers.

Analysts DFC Intelligence forecast that the worldwide market for online games will reach .8 billion in 2009.

This estimate includes casual online games that are increasingly popular.

Encompassing not only the original TV series but also The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, there should be something for even the most pedantic of fans.

They will have the chance to meet some of their favourite Star Trek characters but anyone hoping to play the game as the ice-cool Mr Spock will be disappointed.

According to a guide on the official Star Trek website, players will not be able to play the role of one of the show's best known characters.

Similarly gamers will not get the chance to follow in the footsteps of Captain Kirk and command the starship Enterprise, although they may get to captain or crew their own lesser-known starship.

Characters will gain skills and rank by completing missions assigned by Starfleet command.

They will get to explore the surface of planets, although it is not clear whether those beaming down first will suffer the same sticky end that was often the fate of crew members in the original series.

Loyal fans

"Players will encounter characters, places and situations from the favourite Star Trek movies and television series, will explore incredible new worlds; and will co-operate with or battle friendly and hostile races throughout the game," said Chris McKibben, president of Perpetual Entertainment.

The game is expected to enter public beta testing in 2006 and go on sale early the following year.

The deal between Perpetual and the owner of Star Trek, Viacom, illustrates the way Hollywood and games firms are working more closely together.

Online gaming is becoming a huge growth area and firms launching such games are increasingly attracting venture capital.

There is a monthly charge of between £2 and £7 and the potential to create a loyal fan base.

Science fiction has proved fertile ground for games developers, although previous Star Trek games have had a mixed record in terms of sales and reviews.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/3635210.stm

Published: 2004/09/07 15:13:05 GMT

© BBC MMIV
 
River_Styx said:
and there were a hundred million Amiga users prattling on about how the makers used Amiga computers to do the FX.

:rofl: a friend of mine and I were just having this conversation the other day. Another guy we know would mention Amiga computers every time any reference to the show was made. it became a running gag which we never let him in on.
 
Forget the Amiga quips - I enjoy both B5 and some Star Trek (been to conventions, got the DVDs etc.) I remember seeing a short peice on this guys flat on a news show - it did look good but selling it for so much is unjustified. While I can sympathise when he's described as "posing in a space suit" by Reuters - a little too much piss-taking I think - but there is a limit on how involved in a show you can be.
 
The only Babylon 5 episode which didn't bore the socks off me was the totally mad one with Penn & Teller in it. Maybe Mr Straczynski's plan is to introduce Penn & Teller into Star Trek?
 
Star Trek Enterprise: Cancelled

Star Trek: Enterprise Cancelled!

After four seasons, Star Trek: Enterprise has reached the end of its mission ...

UPN and Paramount Network Television have jointly announced that this will be the final season of Star Trek: Enterprise on UPN. [Production will continue until the end of this season, which will finish shooting in March.] The series finale will air on Friday, May 13, 2005.

"Star Trek has been an important part of UPN's history, and Enterprise has carried on the tradition of its predecessors with great distinction," said Dawn Ostroff, President, Entertainment, UPN. "We'd like to thank Rick Berman, Brannon Braga and an incredibly talented cast for creating an engaging, new dimension to the Star Trek universe on UPN, and we look forward to working with them, and our partners at Paramount Network Television, on a send-off that salutes its contributions to The Network and satisfies its loyal viewers."

David Stapf, President of Paramount Network Television, said, "The creators, stars and crew of Star Trek: Enterprise ambitiously and proudly upheld the fine traditions of the Star Trek franchise. We are grateful for their contributions to the legacy of Trek and commend them on completing nearly 100 exciting, dramatic and visually stunning episodes. All of us at Paramount warmly bid goodbye to Enterprise, and we all look forward to a new chapter of this enduring franchise in the future."

A prequel to the original "Star Trek" series, STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE premiered on UPN on Sept. 26, 2001, and aired for its first three seasons on Wednesdays (8:00-9:00PM, ET/PT). On Oct. 8, 2004, STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE moved into its current time on Fridays (8:00-9:00PM, ET/PT). Through its four-year run, STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE produced a total of 98 episodes and earned four Emmy Awards.

http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article/9469.html
 
They really should have given it a rest after Voyager. There was some good stuff in Enterprise, but it might have looked fresher if everyone has taken a few years out to build up more anticipation for a new series.

And I think prequels always struggle there's too much continuity to shoehorn in, they'd have been better off with a 30th century series, perhaps after the Federation (or is that Andromeda?).
 
Only caught a couple of episodes; wasn't terribly impressed, but I'm sorry to hear that the once-mighty Star Trek juggernaut has suffered the singularly ignominius fate of series cancellation. Hopefully, Paramount will hedge their bets and allow the franchise a low profile for a few years. With any luck, absence will make the heart grow fonder, and we'll see a new, improved and reinvigorated Trek series after a brief respite.
 
While a fan of Star Trek, I never took part in the major conflict which revolved around the Love/Hate debate about Star Trek: Enterprise.

I liked one or two episodes of ENT but I couldn't care about the story; as much as I like Scott Bakula, I couldn't give a monkey's wassname about his Captain Christopher Archer. They had plenty of SFX to play with but their idea about 'retro' Star Trek limited what they could use it for.

A bit of a sad thing really. Paramount, clawing in as much money as the Star Trek franchise can give, tried to do a Spielberg, i.e. Use modern SFX to regenerate an epic when the conclusion had already been reached.

The trek has been completed. Waggon train reached Dodge City. Let it go and enjoy memories of the journey, FFS!
 
Emperor said:
Pity - I did quite enjoy it (apart from the theme tune).
Yup. Loathed the theme tune (even when they tarted around with it.) While the whole ST franchise has gone a bit stale, it's a crying shame that Manny Coto wasn't involved from the first season. (This is from someone hoping against all hope that Oddysey 5 returns. :) )
 
Now, the theme tune - that I can get irked about! Talk about soft rock with meaningful lyrics (Yeah, right!). Inspires teeth-itching memories of Survivor's Eye of the Tiger but played as a slow dirge. It was the first ST title music with lyrics (as opposed to lyrics being added to theme) - and it is rank!
Perhaps it was the theme tune that set one's expectation of the programme, thus they really couldn't win.
Does the composer have a mullet? I wouldn't be surprised!
 
It was a completely wasted oppurtunity IMHO. For starters, instead of doing something interesting with the whole design thing and taking their lead from the original Star Trek series (and trying to recreate an earlier version of that), they instead chose to make it look more like ST:TNG, etc.. So it doesn't sit right in the apparent ST timeline. It all looks too 'modern' in the sense of looking like ST:TNG. They also used the same 'personalities in a vacuum' approach to the characters, a la ST:TNG, etc., whereas they could have played around with the whole theme again. I'm not surprised that it's no more - it was pretty much a copy of the other modern ST stuff, which on the whole lacks any life, relies on daft pseudo-scientific jargon, and ropey aliens.

Whilst the original ST can seem dated sometimes, it's still watchable because it has some life to it, has better characters, and the storylines were often more in the realm of 'New Wave' sci-fi. The modern stuff is nowhere as original.
 
I saw most of the first series and thought it wasn't too bad.The fact that i had completely forgotten about its existance until reading this thread proves to me that it wasn't particluarly memorable!
 
JerryB said:
...

Whilst the original ST can seem dated sometimes, it's still watchable because it has some life to it, has better characters, and the storylines were often more in the realm of 'New Wave' sci-fi. The modern stuff is nowhere as original.
Quite right. The original series had a good tight cast of characters that worked well together, (even William 'It's acting, Jim, but not as we know it' Shatner) and scripts and story lines from great SF and thriller writers like, Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon, Robert Bloch, etc.
 
JerryB said:
they instead chose to make it look more like ST:TNG, etc.. So it doesn't sit right in the apparent ST timeline. It all looks too 'modern' in the sense of looking like ST:TNG.

I thought the external CG shots were a bit TNG-esque, but the internal sets I quite liked. Me and my friends actually discussed how in some cases they appeared to have made a point of making things look fairly modern for the "real" world, like LCD panels/etc. and how that made it a bit more relevant than TNG's more futuristic moulded panels and so on.

What I felt didn't sit right in the timeline was trying to shoehorn things that shouldn't have been in there, like after TNG's extensive stuff about Picard and his first contact with the Borg, they decided to throw in a Borg episode with Enterprise, and since Enterprise/etc. "win" then presumably records would have been made.

Whilst the original ST can seem dated sometimes, it's still watchable because it has some life to it, has better characters, and the storylines were often more in the realm of 'New Wave' sci-fi. The modern stuff is nowhere as original.

Oh, I can't stand TOS anymore, although I think that may just be down to having watched it repeated ad nauseum, possibly on BBC2. They did that to me with a few things, like Thunderbirds, Stingray, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and so on.

What I felt was wrong with Enterprise (and other Star Treks) was the obsession with dull, ongoing storylines. The "temporal cold war" thing was incredibly uninteresting to me, but they'd go on and on about it, frequently dedicating entire boring episodes to it, when I found more self-contained episodes with interesting storylines more fun.

Of course, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with ongoing storylines, just that if they're going to use them they should be less...crappy :)
 
Enterprise took the wrong tack because it seemed to ignore the original series. If you look at the design of the original series, it is of course vaguely '60s modernism with a dash of pulp sci-fi and a few other things. Now, they could have back-engineered Enterprise from that and done something interesting WRT the whole look and feel. But instead they decided to copy too much from TNG and it just didn't work. Even the ships looked too 'busy' visually - they should have done something sleeker, even more hood-ornamentish that the original Enterprise was. WRT storylines, they could've done the same - after all, they could have made alot of how weird it would be to meet aliens and/or how odd it would be for humans to meet the stranger side of exploring space. In TNG etc. humans and aliens alike are pretty much all cardboard cutouts - at least in the original series there was some weirdness thrown in. Okay, this was a sign of those times and the SF writing too - but at least it made for more interesting ideas. I got very quickly bored of Enterprise because it was all very predicatble and never stretched any confines. What I liked most about the original series compared to modern ones was that the original series didn't give two hoots about whether what was going on was all that possible - space was a weird place and human rules didn't often apply. In the modern series, everything is still pretty much within the bounds of Newtonian, etc. physics - it's trying too hard to be believable within the remit of what we think about space nowadays. It needed to be more New Wave than that, and toss all the realism contraints out of the window ;)
 
YAY!!!!!!!!! THE END!!!!!!!!!!!!

No more "stuck in a time loop" episodes like those voyager "it was all just a holodeck scenario after all" episodes!

Finally, all those that wear red shirts in the galaxy can breath a sigh of relief!
 
Another think that irritated me was Paramount's insistance of a 'stock' bad guy throughout the series.

TOS - The Klingons & Romulans.
TNG - The Cardassians, Romulans, Borg.
DS9 - The Founders, Cardassians.
VOY - The Kazon, Borg.
ENT - Those chameleoid time-jumping jobbies who entertained me so much I couldn't be bothered to remember their names.

I know that there were many episodes which didn't involve the usual suspects but ENT could've broken the mould and just had 'first contact' episodes involving older versions of the Klingons, Romulans, etc. as well as "These planets are new, aren't they?"

I always thought the scriptwriters used the 'stock' bad guys when they couldn't think of a new plot. At least, NG developed the 'bad guy' society, the DS9 confronted terrorism, occupation, sector wars etc. ENT just used the time-hoppers as an alternative to "Oh, it was all a dream" solution.
 
Stormkhan said:
I always thought the scriptwriters used the 'stock' bad guys when they couldn't think of a new plot. At least, NG developed the 'bad guy' society, the DS9 confronted terrorism, occupation, sector wars etc. ENT just used the time-hoppers as an alternative to "Oh, it was all a dream" solution.
It's actually formula. With a well established show like Star Trekk in its many guises, people want to see stock bad guys.

Take the new Doctor Who for example...Daleks a go-go! Suddenly you have a wider audience for nostalgia alone. it maintains and re-affirms a shows identity.
 
The thing with TOS is that it didn't rely on the bad guys as a plot ploy too often. I mean, the TNG-era Klingons are crap! Their only use was to show the wooden lifeless Federation types in a harsh light, which doesn't really take much. Yer average... I dunno... bath sponge... has more character ;)

The main thing I liked about TOS was that they were exploring, wheras in the newer series it just seems like they're hanging about frowning at things.
 
I'm surprised it lasted four seasons, to be honest, it was dull and self-congratulatory in that worst of Star Trek way. Mind you, I haven't seen the last two seasons where it was supposed to improve.

I'd have liked to have seen a shiny retro series instead of the "stuck on a space submarine" one we got.
 
AndroMan said:
The original series had a good tight cast of characters that worked well together, (even William 'It's acting, Jim, but not as we know it' Shatner) and scripts and story lines from great SF and thriller writers like, Harlan Ellison, Theodore Sturgeon, Robert Bloch, etc.

It's a shame that TV sci-fi series (and, indeed, films) are still stuck with the kinds of plotlines and characters as 1930's pulp magazines. Good humans, bad aliens, friendly cute aliens, big starships, lazer pistols and fisticuffs. I always thought the best episodes of the later Star Trek series were the stand-alone episodes where the writers were allowed to indulge their imaginations and take a break from the usual tedious plotlines.

Incidentally, I believe there was no end of trouble over the TOS Harlan Ellison episode, (called something like City on the Edge of Tomorrow?) which was deemed too expensive to shoot and rewritten by one of the staff writers - much to the disgust of Ellison himself. Perhaps TV sci-fi will forever remain the domain of the competent hack, while sci-fi writers with truly original ideas will have to confine themselves to the written word where things like special-effects budgets and time constraints aren't a factor.
 
TOS was a somewhat oddball mix of space opera and New Wave sci-fi, which sometimes hit and sometimes missed. But at least the hits were original in an off-kilter way - unlike the modern attempts.
 
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