enterprise Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Rumors had been spreading throughout these internets for quite awhile that the character of Christopher Pike would play some sort of role in the upcoming Star Trek XI. Pike, as some of you may or may not know, was the first Enterprise captain before Kirk; he was featured in the TV show's unaired rejected pilot, then re-surfaced later on during a two-part episode where his backstory was explained. The Hollywood Reporter tells us Bruce Greenwood has landed the part, and while you might not recognize the name, dude's been around the block and then some. Greenwood, who most recently played two parts in Todd Haynes' I'm Not There, also has a role in the upcoming National Treasure: Book of Secrets and has played parts in the HBO show John from Cincinnati as well as a number of films over the years.

Pike was first played by Jeffrey Hunter in the pilot, and then by Sean Kenney in a two-parter called The Menagerie. In that episode, Pike is confined to a wheelchair due to a previous accident that found him trying to rescue cadets from a baffle plate rupture onboard a J-class training vessel (thanks Wikipedia!). The film will most likely take place much earlier than that episode however, because Kirk is already captain at that point. Originally, Spock had served with Pike for more than a decade. Greenwood looks like he'd play a good Pike; then again, I'm not a huge Trekkie and never watched either of those episodes ... so what do I know? What do you think? Should they have gone after a bigger name for the role of Pike? Should Pike be in the film? And how big of a part do you think he should play?

Over the years, I've often thought about what it must be like to be on a relatively successful, well-known TV series and get catapulted into the limelight. Or, how it must feel to see your picture everywhere and have a huge amount of fans swarm wherever you go. In some ways, it must be pretty cool. Although, it probably has its drawbacks too, right? One of those drawbacks has to be that once you establish yourself as one thing, one character on one show, that's all people see you as, and it becomes difficult for you to get other roles.

Such is the case, I feel, with the very attractive Jolene Blalock. Sure, she co-starred in the last TV incarnation of Star Trek for several seasons and had her picture plastered all over magazines like Maxim, but I seems like her career has pretty much lost its way after Enterprise -- as evidenced by this recent bit of news courtesy of Moviehole. According to the article, Blalock will be starring in yet-another sequel to Paul Verhoven's Starship Troopers, this time directed by original scribe Ed Neurmeier. The film, currently titled Starship Troopers: Marauder will reportedly feature Blalock as "tough pilot" Lola Beck and also marks the return of original franchise star Casper Van Dien as Johnny Rico.

When I was growing up I read Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers novel many, many times and was pretty thrilled to actually get to work on the first movie. I was less thrilled with how it came out and the direct-to-video sequel left me even colder, with little hope for the franchise -- at least in movie form. Sadly, this third go-around doesn't do much to change my perception, even with the inclusion of Blalock. I guess we'll find out one way or another when the film comes to the local Blockbuster later this year.

While the fifth Star Trek TV series, Enterprise, may have reached a sad and early end this spring with its cancellation, the franchise will apparently live on in the movies (if not in slash fiction). As The Can reports, Paramount has a new Trek movie project in the pipeline (or more appropriately, in the Jeffries Tubes), with the impossibly small-waisted Vulcan hottie T'Pol (Jolene Blalock) as a central character. Another actor whose name keeps popping up in discussions of such a project, which might be titled Star Trek: The Beginning or Star Trek: Academy (which sounds like there should be a lot of space T&A in it), is Angel star David Boreanaz (the subject of many a slash tale himself).

The whole "odd numbered Star Trek movies suck" rule went out the window when the widely-panned 10th Trek trek, 2002's Star Trek: Nemesis, tanked, so it would appear that its reputation as a franchise killer was premature. Whether this new effort, whatever its design, will truly reverse that curse has yet to be seen.