Latest in Trek

     Due to release sometime in 2016 Star Trek 3, is still untitled and undetermined whether or not it will be a complete flop at the box office.  With J.J. Abrams busy with Star Wars Episode VII, it's up to Roberto Orci to take up the reigns and make this an adventure worth going to see.  You might know some of Orci's other works like 2007's Transformers and 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2. As fun as those movies were, I think we won't be disappointed.  Orci was also a writer for the 2009 Star Trek reboot.  Perhaps with Orci at the helm of the Enterprise we might see Star Trek head into the direction that older Trekkies remember and new Trekkers might not like.  No one knows what's to come as of yet, but the original cast has signed back on with a few surprises.  We will keep you updated as new information comes out, but for now Star Trek 3 is sliding under the radar story wise as all the attention is focused on Star Wars Episode VII.

     In more news it has been hinted on several different occasions that Captain James T. Kirk himself, William Shatner, will have at least a cameo in Star Trek 3.  That's as much as we know now but will keep you updated as we find out more.

Science Fiction Shorts You've Got to See

Azarkant

This beautifully done, "foreign CGI" film that takes place in deep space involves a mysterious "abandoned ship" and a Master Chief look-alike. Confusing and entertaining, you won't regret giving this flick 8 minutes of your life. You may even ask yourself, "Is that supposed to be a Spartan?"

Runtime - 8:25

Written By: Andrey Klimov

Directed by: Andrey Klimov

The Archiver 

Another CGI flick, this film starts with a space pilot returning home after a (assumed) long mission. Pretty and short, it'll leave you with questions, longing for a few more minutes.

Runtime - 4:51

Directed by: Thoma Obrecht, Guillaume Berthoumie, Marc Menneglier

NORA

In this low-budget animated flick, a ship full of nanny-bots scours the universe for a human-life sustaining planet. The 8 minutes of story in this sci-fi follow one of the nanny-bots through her journey through a "nitrate desert".

Runtime - 8:44

Written By: Amy Engles

Directed By: Amy Engles

Payload

Set in the dystopian future in the shadow of a space elevator, a father and his two kids try to survive in a time when women are worth more than men. Live-action with no action and no space, the only thing science fiction about this film is the ideas spoken about that you never actually see.

Runtime - 17:56

Written By: Stuart Willis

Directed By: Stuart Willis

Cockpit: The Rule of Engagment

Taking place just short of 100 years in the future, live-action aliens invade our galaxy. Humanities objective is to exterminate them, but they aren't allowed to let the aliens see them. The film begins as a currently stranded human pilot in space thinks he has just found his rescuers.

Runtime - 11:38

Written By: Jesse Griffith

Directed By: Jesse Griffith

The Gift

Future Russia looks just as lonely and drab as communist Russia did in this short film that revolves around a mysterious package wrapped as a gift. Eventually devolves into a wintertime motorcycle/police chase, this short does exactly what a good short should do: leave you wanting more.

Runtime - 4:39

Directed by: Carl E. Rinsch

Firefly: The Story that Keeps Breaking Hearts

“If it was such a good show, why did it get cancelled?” you may ask. Black Donnelly’s, Freaks and Geeks, Family Guy, Deadwood, Arrested Development. What you just read was an incomplete sentence full of television shows that were also cancelled. Being cancelled doesn't make a show bad, the fan base dying after the cancellation does. Oh, I almost forgot one: Star Trek (yes, the original).

Anyways, Firefly wasn't treated very well by FOX. Fifteen episodes were filmed for the first season; three were never aired, two aired on the same night. There was also two separate occasions that FOX gave the viewers two weeks between episodes. It switched aired nights more than I’d ever seen in any other show too. All in all, it seemed like FOX bought it on accident to begin with and was just trying to put it out of misery. Plus, this aired in 2002, long before NBC and FOX realized that the internet was a super easy tool to gain viewership.

Joss Whedon tried to sell the show to other networks, failed, and decided to pitch it as a film. Universal bought it up, and the film Serenity was released in 2005, making just shy of $39 million in the box office. It was a great show, and a great movie. At the end of both, fans were left 

But Whedon wasn’t done there. Or should I say, the Whedon’s weren't done. Joss and his brother, Zack, wrote a total of 9 comics. I just recently finished the "Leaves on the Wind" series, a six book series telling a story shortly following the conclusion of "Serenity". The illustration in the books is phenomenal, definitely something that you should let yourself appreciate with a slow eye wander every page. My wife had never read a comic book before I introduced her to this, and even she appreciated it, proving that you don't have to be a fan of comics to enjoy the latest installment of Firefly. You only have to be a Browncoat. Which, especially after being a part of yet another ending, I consider myself to be.

The six issues of Leaves on the Wind will be re-released as a consolidated hardcover on November 18th of this year. Otherwise, they can be purchased anywhere comics are sold individually.

Episode 7's Super Secret Plot Leak

Ridley (left), Boyega (right)

Alright, what I know about the alleged introduction plot of Episode Seven in under a paragraph: Daisy Ridley and John Boyega (who may/may not be an ex-Stormtrooper) are walking through the desert when a hand attached to a lightsaber falls from the sky and lands in front of them. They recognize this as an obvious Jedi weapon, and immediately pick it up and start an adventure to return the lightsaber (and hand) to its rightful owner. They hunt down and talk to the only people they know of that know a Jedi, Han Solo and Chewbacca, who tell them that they know who the hand and lightsaber belong to, Luke, but haven't seen their friend in 30 years (since the events of RotJ). So the four set out on a galactic adventure to find the missing Jedi Master...

Okay... I can't... As much as this plot infuriates me as an Expanded Universe fan, I can't be mad at it as a Star Wars film fan. I'll explain why later.

The loudest complaint I've heard regarding this is that this leaked synopsis implies that John Boyega and Daisy Ridley are the new lead actors in this franchise. It seems as if people are upset that 60 year old Luke, Leia, and Han aren't running the show anymore, which I am 110% fine with. If you want to see 60 year olds wrecking shop, go see the Expendables. Star wars needs a torch passing not a gimmick from the 1970s.

My complaint is that this rumor implies that literally everything the Expanded Universe has built is now dead. Han and Luke don't become best friends, Han doesn't marry Leia and move to Coruscant, which means there's no Solo boys or Jaina Solo (that one hurts). The fact that Luke and Han haven't seen each other in 30 years implies that there was no continuation of the Galactic Civil War post-RotJ, or if there was, Han and Chewbacca didn't have a part in it, which means no Thrawn/Noghri story (EU people will understand the pain of this one). This also implies that Han had no part in the New Republic, or maybe the NR doesn't exist, and didn't help Wraith Squadron take on Warlord Zsinj... Everything that I hoped for as an EU fan is now gone.

Even when Disney said they were doing away with the EU, at least as cannon, I still had hoped that they were going to use some of it. That being said, if this is the route they're going, I'm not opposed to them completely rebooting everything that we know that comes after Return of the Jedi within the Star Wars timeline. This clears the slate that was full of just as many beloved storylines as nonsensical and arbitrary ones. As much as I love the EU, I'll be the first to admit that the lack of writer organization and communication in the 90's almost killed the franchise. *cough*CrystalStar*cough*  And the "Tales From..." books are basically just fan fiction written by actual publicized authors. Skippy the Droid? Really? Wiki that one and tell me you're still upset JJ Abrams isn't using stories from the 90's for the new film.

There's also, apparently, a non-Empire affiliated villain building a super-weapon on some ice planet somewhere within this new storyline. I'm also quite okay with this. If the story reboot ends the Galactic Civil War directly after RotJ, why would the Empire still exist. Enough with the story based around Jedi Vs. Sith or Politics. Apparently this super-weapon doesn't just destroy planets but whole star systems, so the stakes are almost immediately raised for the viewer.

This is all we really know so far. I highly doubt we're going to know anymore about the potential story until the first full length trailer is released, and I would suspect that trailer not be released until after Avengers 2 premiers.