Giant Freakin Robot

We’re moving on from fan posters. It’s been done. Instead here at GFR we’re on the lookout for more creative applications of the fan art principle. Here’s one done using nothing but polygons…

Peter Weller. Fringe fans know him as Alastair Peck from the beautiful White Tulip. Other folks might recognize him as the creepy disgraced cop who almost exposed Dexter in the Showtime series’s fifth season or Commander Chuck Taggart of Odyssey 5. Still others know him as the original Robocop or as Buckaroo Banzai. Weller will return to big screen science fiction in next year’s Star Trek sequel, although as who we still don’t know.

Like fellow castmembers Noel Clarke, Alice Eve, and Benedict Cumberbatch, Weller’s role is being kept a closely guarded secret. However, as with so many other secrets about the film, we are getting snippets of information here and there.  Weller’s agent stated that it’s a substantial role and that Weller would play a CEO. At a recent red carpet event for the RoboCop’s 25th anniversary, Weller let a little more information drop about his character.

When asked by TrekMovie.com if he would be playing an alien, Weller replied, “No. Do I look like an alien to you? No man. Let me put it this way. I have my own ship.” He then went on to show the reporter photos of his seven-month-old son wearing a yellow captain’s onesie and sitting on what appeared to be the captain’s chair of a Starfleet ship (or something very much like one).  It’s difficult to tell whether these two pieces of information indicate that Weller’s playing a Starfleet officer, but at least we know he’ll be human.

Who really needs to know when the Mongols ruled China? If you’re going to study history, you’re probably better off studying history that hasn’t happened yet. That might actually be useful some day. It just makes good sense.

So consider buying Star Trek Federation: The First 150 Years when it hits store shelves in November. As announced by CBS this morning the book will cover the first 150 years of Federation history in detail. Included along with a detailing of Federation events will be 50 previously unseen historical documents like important photos, illustrations, treaties, letters, and intelligence reports all taken from the United Federation of Planets’ recorded past.

It’s kind of like your high school history book, only with Vulcans and starships. In other words, actually worth reading.

Though Star Treks IV and VI are fantastic movies which have stood the test of time, Star Trek V is without question one of the worst movies ever made. It’s plot involves the Enterprise crew following around a Vulcan madman on a quest to find God and in addition to being horribly written it’s pretty badly directed by William Shatner, in his only feature directorial effort.

But it could have been even worse.

The film’s Vulcan madman, Sybok, was played by Laurence Luckinbill. Originally the production pursued Sean Connery for the part, but when he passed they went with Luckinbill. Apparently though, they almost went with Leonard Nimoy.

I’m not sure how this could possibly have worked but Luckinbill tells StarTrek.com that Nimoy wanted the film’s producers to let him play a dual role in the movie as both Spock and Sybok. He explains, “That was the scuttlebutt, and I got that from very high up in the food chain of information, that Leonard wanted to play Sybok and play Spock. That would have been a tremendous thing to do that, but since they weren’t twins, they cast me.”