Jack Trevino Talks Gods And Men & ‘Star Trek’
Written by Ian Cullen on March 25, 2008 – 1:04 am -25 March 2008
As many will know two weeks ago saw the premier of the second episode of the Internet Star Trek series ‘Of Gods And Men‘. SciFi Pulse recently caught up with long standing friend and one of the shows regular writers Jack Trevino who updated us about ‘Of Gods And Men’ as well as Phase II and some of his other writing projects. Below is a transcript of my latest talk with Jack.
SciFi Pulse: Jack when we last talked you were still heavily involved with new Voyages and you had just been asked along with your writing partner Ethan Calk to work on Star Of Trek Gods And Men. Could you tell us how you landed the job of writing for it?
Jack Trevino: Sky Conway had contacted Jack Marshall and James Cawley about using the fantastic sets of Star Trek: Phase II (formerly New Voyages). Jack recommended us to Sky and we began writing an outline. The original storyline was abandoned and I asked Sky to give Ethan and myself another shot at developing a new story. After a couple of months, we agreed on a new concept that would fit in with the original storyline that Sky and Tim had developed.
SciFi Pulse: What can you tell us about the plot? Is it set in a sort of mirror universe because well from what we have seen in the trailer Chekov doesn’t quite look like the Chekov we all got to know and love in the original Star Trek series.
Jack Trevino: It is not a mirror universe story, although I can see why many felt that it was. It is also not a parallel universe story. After Charlie Evans does something, all time changes, making the universe different and our characters thus become different people. It is not a universe that our heroes can escape from – it is the universe as it is. Just as we are trapped in this, our own timeline, so are our heroes. Charlie’s actions make the universe a tragic one in which many suffer. The question I wanted people to get from it is, “If the world is messed up, what can I do to fix it?” Our heroes find out that the answer to that question can only come from within “We” are the only ones that can answer the call to make things better.
SciFi Pulse: Your writing over the years has given you a somewhat unique perspective and you have gotten to meet and work with quite a few people from the Star Trek Universe. And Gods and Men saw you on the set working with Tim Russ and a fair few other big names from Star Trek. What was it like to work with them all and are their any humorous stories, which you’d be willing to share from your experiences on the set.
Jack Trevino: Well, as they say, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” so some things cannot be discussed. I will say that a heat wave hit upper New York the week we were filming and the temperature inside the sets rose to as high as 120°F. One can only imagine what those conditions will do to the Human body. We quickly discovered that filming late in the evening would be the best way to combat the heat. One time, Tim was about to get a shot in and the train roared by (the tracks were directly behind the building). The train passed and everything was set, he called for action and the train blew its horn. He waited again until silence. He called for action again and the train blew its horn one more time. Finally, it was gone. Tim called for action and a big rig blew past the front of the building and you guessed it – he blew his horn. Everyone exploded into laughter. The New Voyages people were a terrific help – we could never have made the film without James and his exceptional group of volunteers.
SciFi Pulse: Is Gods and Men about the redemption of Captain Harriman?
Jack Trevino: Partially, I always felt the character of Captain Harriman was never given the opportunity to show that he was not responsible for Kirk’s death. I thought that if the fans looked upon his character that way, so would the other Trek characters. Therefore, he should have been given the chance to prove he was Star Fleet material. Our story would elevate his character to hero status – something that Alan Ruck also felt was right for the character. I hope OGaM gives him a new audience and a new fan base.
SciFi Pulse: Obviously you are fan of Star Trek and have been for many years prior to your working on your DS9 Stories and of course New Voyages and now this project. That said have you ever read any of the Star Trek Novels. In particular the Lost Era novels, and if so do you have a favourite?
Jack Trevino: Unfortunately, I just don’t have time to read like I should. I try to keep abreast of the synopses as much as possible and respect the wonderful work done by the novel writers – they’re obviously great Trek fans themselves.
SciFi Pulse: Given that both are notably absent from Gods & Men. Will there be any references to the characters of Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Sulu?
Jack Trevino: We do make mention of the characters and one of them in particular, plays a key part in the events of the film.
SciFi Pulse: Are there any similarities of Gods and Men and Star Trek XI?
Jack Trevino: Since JJ Abrams’ script is top secret, there are only rumours to what the story is. If there are any actual similarities, then we will be honoured.
SciFi Pulse: What are your thoughts about some of the rumoured story lines for Star Trek XI?
Jack Trevino: I have always wanted to see how Kirk and Spock came to be friends and as to how Kirk decided on whom he wanted on his ship. I always theorized on the types of scenarios that might have occurred in which these characters interacted with one another and how those interactions served as the basis for Kirk’s decision to bring them on board.
SciFi Pulse: Do you think projects like New Voyages may well have influenced J.J. Abrams decision to actually reboot Star Trek by going back to a time before the original 5 year Voyage? Because when we last spoke I heard some rumours that Paramount had actually paid the set of New Voyages a visit?
Jack Trevino: I’m fairly certain Paramount was attuned to New Voyages and what they were accomplishing with their fan film series. I’m not in a position though, to comment on whether or not it served as the basis for JJ to do a reboot. That’ll be an interview for him to comment on.
SciFi Pulse: While on the subject of New Voyages can you give us any updates as to when your story will actually make it onto the screen? Perhaps offer a few very minor spoilers?
Jack Trevino: It’s still in the pile of backup scripts. Ethan and I hope it makes its way to production status and look forward to seeing it actually filmed. I think the effects might have been a little too ambitious, but with every production, Star Trek: Phase II gets better and better with their effects. They now have Darren Doughterman on board and his work is top notch. Look for his work in the director’s edition of ST:MP -great effects which make the film that much more enjoyable.
You can find out more about ‘Of Gods And Men’ here at their website.
Tags: Ethan Calk, Jack Trevino, JJ Abrams, Of Gods and Men, Star Trek, Tim Russ
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I Am Legend DVD Review
Written by Ian Cullen on March 22, 2008 – 12:58 am -
22 March 2008
Synopsis: Robert Neville is a brilliant scientist, but even he could not contain the terrible virus that was unstoppable, incurable, and man-made. Somehow immune, Neville is now the last human survivor in what is left of New York City and maybe the world. For three years, Neville has faithfully sent out daily radio messages, desperate to find any other survivors who might be out there. But he is not alone. Mutant victims of the plague – The Infected – lurk in the shadows… watching Neville’s every move… waiting for him to make a fatal mistake. Perhaps mankind’s last, best hope, Neville is driven by only one remaining mission: to find a way to reverse the effects of the virus using his own immune blood. But he knows he is outnumbered… and quickly running out of time.
DVD Overview: This is the third movie adaptation of the classic 1950′s Science Fiction Novel ‘I am Legend’ by Richard Matheson. The first being 1964′s ‘The Last Man On Earth’ which starred the late great Vincent Price. Then came 1974′s ‘Omega Man’ Omega being the last letter of the Greek alphabet, which starred Charlton Heston and was actually set in roughly the same time period, which the original book was.
The premise of the book is somewhat unaltered for the purposes of all the movies, only obviously the 2007 movie is set in the present day so as to make it relevant to the here and now. The original story by Matheson was set between January of 1976 and January of 1979.
All three-movie versions do not stay 100% true to the book. The first version ‘The Last Man On Earth’ has the main character renamed from Doctor Robert Neville to Doctor Robert Morgan, which is perhaps the most significant change in the first movie adaptation, and what keeps it apart from the latter two.
Most people today will probably remember ‘Omega Man’ slightly more than the original movie adaptation due to the fact that in terms of talent and writing, ‘Omega Man’ is perhaps the closest when compared to the modern day version of ‘I Am Legend’. Only ‘Omega Man’ discarded much of the vampire plotline with regard to the zombies.
Either way all three movies take liberties with Matheson’s original text, but understandably so given that it would be damn difficult for a movie to stay 100% true to any novel.
The present day version tells of a man made virus, which is sold as the great new hope for curing things like the common cold and cancer. Only the manufactured virus has a dark side and over time wipes out most of humanity, with of course one exception. Doctor Robert Neville who in this new version of the story is played by Will Smith who gives a very confident performance in the role, though he isn’t really able to give us the same layered performance which we enjoyed from Charlton Heston in the 1970′s adaptation. Though perhaps it is unfair of us to expect that given that Heston is a living legend when it comes to actors who embraced Science Fiction roles, especially in a time when Science Fiction movies were still regarded by the masses to be out of style and predominantly for geeks.
Anyway Neville is part of the military and a biochemist who studies retroviruses and as luck would have it. He is immune the virus which has killed most of his colleges.
We learn a lot about Doctor Neville throughout the movie via flash backs to him trying to evacuate his family from New York. We learn that he had a wife and a young daughter who both passed away during the evacuation.
The movie follows Doctor Neville’s quest to try and find a cure for the retro virus via experimenting on rats that are infected with it, and also experimenting on human beings who have become infected by it and turned into vampire type zombies who are extremely sensitive to sunlight.
The only company Doctor Neville has throughout most of this movie is a dog whose acting performance is just as confident as Will Smiths if not more so…
This movie while good is by no means what I would call a stand out hit the ball way out the park affair. The fact is like many remakes there is nothing new here. The film however does put a confident spin on the story and is good as a stand-alone film, but it lacks the impact of power that the 1970′s version Omega Man has.
The Zombies in the movie which represent humans who have been infected look a little too CGI’d and as such just don’t look very convincing. I feel that a good make – up artist with the right tools could have given us a far more convincing zombie. CGI in my humble opinion takes far too much away from the actors; perhaps the one exception is Andy Serkis physical interpretation of Gollum in the Lord Of The Rings Trilogy.
The implications of this movie as with its predecessors and the book are scary. But I think in todays more informed society the premise has lost its teeth somewhat. When Omega Man premiered in the 70′s we were living in a less informed era where the threat of a nuclear war was ever looming because the cold war between the US and USSR.
Extras: This DVD is so loaded with extras that they had to make it into more of a DVD Rom than your traditional DVD. Which basically means you have to insert your disk into your computer and watch the documentary’s on the small screen, which is a bit of a turn off for me to be honest.
The documentaries on the disk though include the usual making of special features with interviews with all concerned who talk about the movies creation.
The more interesting special features include a series of documentaries which talk about the dangers faced by us all today with viruses and pandemics, these are in many ways both quite alarming and eye opening, but also sort of reassuring given that we actually know about many of them and sort of have them contained.
The only none DVD Rom Special features other than the alternate theatrical version of the movie is a series of four animated shorts which tell the story of the virus and its effects on other peoples lives in different parts of the world. Each separate story sort of works well if you watch them all before or after the movie though all are very dark and gritty in nature. In one of these shorts a young woman who is immune to the virus is so lonely and desperate that she eventually resorts to suicide and takes her own life.
I do wish though that they could have included a few more extras on the actual DVD as apposed to making it into an interactive DVD Rom. Am afraid I’m one of these people that enjoys watching a documentary from the comfort of an armchair.
Overall: To sum up I’d have to say that this is a fairly confident interpretation of the story, but lacks the edge that the 70′s movie ‘Omega Man’ had. This version of the DVD includes the alternate theatrical version, which is just over 90 Minutes long and features a different slightly more controversial ending than the original theatrical version.
As far as the movie goes, it is entertaining to anyone who is a fan of despotic science fiction and Will Smith does a pretty confident job of portraying the lone scientist Doctor Neville. All in all a pretty good film, but not what I’d list as a great film. To me Omega Man remains as the best theatrical interpretation of the book. But for the 21st century this ranks a close second.
‘I Am Legend’ is available in the double disk special edition now and is available on both Standard DVD and Blue Ray DVD. For more information about this movie click here.
Score: 7/10
Tags: Film, Film Review, I Am Legend, Movie, Omega Man, Will Smith
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Stargate SG – 1: Ark Of Truth DVD Review
Written by Ian Cullen on March 7, 2008 – 12:33 am -7 March 2008
Synopsis: This thrilling feature-length film picks up where “Stargate SG-1,” left off, thrusting the Stargate team – Daniel Jackson (Michael Shanks), Vala (Claudia Black), Teal’c (Christopher Judge), Sam (Amanda Tapping) and Cam (Ben Browder) – into their most exciting adventure yet. In search of an Ancient artifact they hope can defeat the oppressive Ori, the team learns that the Ori are set to launch a final assault on Earth and a double-crossing I.O. operative is aboard the Odyssey!
DVD Overview: When I got this through the post I have to admit that I was quite excited about seeing the conclusion to the Ori story arc which became so much a part of Stargate SG -1 for its final two seasons.
However after having waited a whole year for this conclusion to the Stargate Story I couldn’t help but be somewhat disappointed by how the story tied up.
Sure, the visuals were bigger and better than what you would expect from a straight to DVD movie with a somewhat slightly higher budget than your average two part episode, but the story line and plotting really wasn’t anything special and seemed to play out like one of the weaker Stargate 2 part episodes.
Even in one of the documentaries which accompanies the extras on this DVD producer and lead writer Robert Cooper more or less admitted that the storyline of this was adapted from what would have been the original season finale of the series, and to be brutally honest as a viewer you can tell.
I hate to say this, but for a two-hour movie I was expecting much, much more.
Instead what we get is a two hour movie which may as well have been two separate episodes banged together.
Firstly you have the main story, which involved the team finding the mysterious Ark Of Truth in order to use it too defeat the remainder of the Ori who are launching a massive attack on Earth. So we are watching for about 40 minutes when bingo Dr. Daniel Jackson aided by some visions of Merlin discovers the Ark and proceeds to get nabbed by the Ori. Not that I had a problem with this. It just seemed tirelessly predictable, and there were any number of other ways that could have made this movie a little more epic.
To me there didn’t really seem to be enough mythology built in and around the Ark Of Truth. Sure we had some small flash back scenes at the start explaining its origins but where in the story did we learn about its existence. Why did we not discover any maps or cryptic clues along the way. It seemed to be very anticlimactic to me. Where as the premise had so much more potential to finish off the Ori storyline in a far, far more epic way.
Too much time was wasted with the B story line of this movie. I mean Sam Carter and Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell being left aboard ship in order to fight off a whole new batch of replicates which had been created by the OI Observer who happened to insist on coming along for the ride just seemed like a complete and utter waste of time and a waste of Carters presences in the movie. In fact the whole B storyline seemed to be wasteful, when you could have utilised that time with making the main story more epic and much more bigger.
The defeat of both enemies just seemed far too easy. I would have felt a little better if one of our heroes had to be sacrificed in order for the team to win this battle. At least that way I would have felt something. But unlike Stargate of the past I wasn’t thumping the air in victory as I witnessed a massive space battle and saw the team defeat the Ori ships.
If anything this DVD movie finale to the series only illustrates why the series was cancelled. There is nothing fresh here to really get your teeth into, at least not for the casual fan anyway. Which is why I would say only the hardcore Stargate SG 1 fans will enjoy this.
The final moments of the movie harked back a little to the nostalgia of the series where you had the team going off into the unknown. But overall I didn’t really see anything new in this movie to excite me. It just seemed like a very weak close to a mediocre story arc, which quite honestly should have been finished long before Stargate was cancelled. The Ori to me never really seemed to be as convincing as the system lords or any of SG – 1′s prior enemies. If anything they were weak clones of what came before.
Extras: The additional extras on this DVD make up for the disappointment of the movie. We have full coverage of the SG – 1 Comic Con Panel which was done last year at the San Diego Comic Con, and some very funny footage we have there too.
We also have a commentary track on the DVD, which includes comments on the making of the movie from writer, director and producer Robert C. Cooper, actor Christopher Judge and director of photography, Peter Woeste.
Another neat feature is ‘Stargate SG-1: The Road Taken: Prelude to The Ark of Truth’ which in a nutshell is a condensed version of the 2 years worth of Ori storyline which leads into the movie. You can actually play this prelude alongside the Ark Of Truth so you can refresh yourself about the Ori Story right before the main feature. Which is a neat feature for those who have forgotten certain events that do prove important to the plot.
And finally you have ‘Uncovering The Ark of Truth’ which is a 20 minute making of documentary, which includes interviews and comments from all the cast and crew.
You also have a small promo for the next DVD movie, which is a stand-alone, story called Stargate: Continuum, which I should imagine, will be a far better DVD movie than Ark Of Truth by the looks of things.
Overall: Considering we have waited a year for this it is disappointing. This will only appeal to the hardcore fan, but as a casual fan who has followed the show it is a little anti climatic to say the least. It perhaps would have worked out much better if this had been played as the final episode of SG – 1 instead of the series finale we got back in 2007.
We can only hope that the next Stargate SG – 1 offering Continuum is better than this. In spite of my opinions on this movie, am sure hardcore fans will still enjoy this. The DVD will be released in the USA on the 11 March 2008.
Score: 5/10
Tags: Ark of Truth, Stargate SG 1
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