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Sir Patrick Stewart was reportedly not interested in joining Star Trek: The Next Generation before he was persuaded by his manager to take the well-paying job. Though the actor seemed like a fish out of water initially, he never phoned it in with his performances and gave the character of Jean-Luc Picard a whole new dimension.

Despite his wonderful performance in the show, the actor never received an Emmy nomination, let alone an award for his role in Star Trek: Tng. In fact, many of the cast members have been denied the prestigious award despite giving amazing performances. One episode that proved the Emmys’ hate for sci-fi is the season 3 episode, ‘Sarek’.

Sir Patrick Stewart’s Performance In Star Trek: Tng’s ‘Sarek’ Deserved An Emmy A still from Star Trek: Tng | Credits: Paramount

The Emmys have always been biased against sci-fi and fantasy shows as opposed to true dramas.

The villain who everyone remembers from "Star Trek Into Darkness" is Khan "John Harrison" Noonien Singh (Benedict Cumberbatch). In the Kelvin timeline film, Khan's wrath is focused not on James T. Kirk, but on Admiral Marcus (Peter Weller).

Marcus, who's a warhawk and head of intelligence division Section 31, wants Starfleet to bring the Klingon Empire to heel. In the original "Star Trek" timeline, it was the Enterprise crew (in the classic episode "Space Seed") who discovered Khan and his other human "augment" followers. These superhumans had tried to conquer Earth in the 20th century, but were driven out and escaped Earth aboard the SS Botany Bay, going into cryosleep to weather the passing of time.

In the Kelvin timeline, Marcus reawakens Khan and puts him to work designing weapons, holding his other augment followers hostage. Khan escapes and wages a one-man war against Starfleet before fleeing to the Klingon homeworld Qo'noS.

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Fun trivia: "Star Trek" didn't have a full-blooded Vulcan character in its main cast until the introduction of Tuvok (Tim Russ) on "Star Trek: Voyager" in 1995. Until that point, most of the central Vulcan characters were partially non-Vulcan. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), of course, was half-Vulcan and half-human, with a Vulcan father (played by Mark Lenard in the original series) and a human mother (played by Jane Wyatt). Spock was raised on Vulcan, however, and had devoted himself to the Vulcan ethos of emotionlessness and logic. 

Saavik (Kirstie Alley) from 1982's "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," one might find, was also not fully Vulcan, although only deep-cut Trekkies might know about her true heritage. Saavik, for the uninitiated, was a Starfleet cadet who was serving on board the U.S.S. Enterprise as Spock's protégé. "Star Trek II" opened...

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home was a surprising blend of time travel, comedy, and environmentalism which made it one of the biggest hits in 1986. It was the most successful film in the franchise before 2009 and had an everlasting impression on fans. What makes it so lovable is the cast’s dedication and willingness to pitch their ideas for uplifting Star Trek.

A still from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home | credit: Paramount Pictures

The 1986 film would have headed on a little different route if it weren’t for an intervention made by Leonard Nimoy. Any Star Trek fan would be curious to know about these little details that would’ve changed the fate of the franchise, and that is precisely why everyone loves these tidbits, to theorize, and come up with their interpretations of what could’ve been.

Leonard Nimoy Suggested Snails Over Whales A still from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home...

When Gene Roddenberry was writing the series Bible for "Star Trek: The Next Generation" back in 1986, he had several strict rules that writers had to follow. Most frustrating of these rules -- sometimes just called the Roddenberry Rule -- was that no episodes could center on the show's main characters having personal disagreements. In Roddenberry's view, all the workers on a Federation starship had to get along, or at least responded to each other with nothing less than 100% authentic professional courtesy. Writers hated the Roddenberry Rule, as they felt the best way to generate drama was by inventing interpersonal conflict. By deliberately taking away interpersonal conflict, Roddenberry was creatively hamstringing them. 

Roddenberry also wanted "Next Generation" to be a cleaner, purer version of the original "Star Trek" he launched 20 years earlier. He wanted to be wholly in charge this time, and dictate every minutiae of the series. This often caused...

Two of the credited screenwriters on Leonard Nimoy's "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" were Steve Meerson and Peter Krikes, the screenwriters behind the Frankie Avalon/Annette Funicello flick "Back to the Beach," the two-Van-Dammes-for-the-price-of-one movie "Double Impact," and the 1999 would-be Oscar darling "Anna and the King." "Star Trek IV" was one of their first major screenwriting gigs, and it was a dizzying experience. The screenwriters remembered meeting with Nimoy and with producer Harve Bennett for a brainstorming session, and it seems that no one could come to any kind of solid conclusions. Bennett mentioned that he wanted the next movie to be a throwback to "The City on the Edge of Forever," one of the most celebrated episodes of the series. Nimoy was in a weird headspace, talking about environmentalism and biodiversity. Meerson recalls: "Leonard started talking about plankton, cells, that cells become plankton, that things eat plankton...

There were multiple crossovers between the original "Star Trek" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation." This first happened in the 1987 pilot episode of the latter, wherein DeForest Kelley appeared as a very elderly — 137! — Dr. McCoy. Then in 1991's "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country," Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and Dr. McCoy were put on trial in a Klingon court, and their Klingon defense lawyer was played by "Next Generation" Worf actor Michael Dorn. There is some debate as to whether or not Dorn was playing an ancestor of Worf's in that film. What's more, Sarek (Mark Lenard) appeared on "Next Generation" in an episode devoted to him.

Later still, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) appeared in a two-part episode of "Next Generation" as a rogue diplomat trying to reunify the Romulans and the Vulcans. Luckily, Vulcans are very long-lived. And finally, Scotty (James Doohan) appeared on an episode of "Next Generation," having...

"Star Trek: The Next Generation" famously struggled creatively during its first season. The inaugural villains, the Ferengi, flopped (to the point actor Armin Shimmerman felt the need to repair their reputation when he returned to play Quark on the spin-off "Deep Space Nine"). So, the writers dug up some old foes with a storied history -- the Romulans. The Romulans returned in the season 1 finale, "The Neutral Zone," and became enduring enemies of the Enterprise-d.

The Romulans were once Vulcans but split off centuries ago after rejecting the path of logic and serenity. As a result, the Romulans share most of their cousins' physical features, such as pointed ears. In "Reunification," a two-part episode in "The Next Generation" season 5, Spock (Leonard Nimoy guest-starring) is working on Romulus to bring the Romulans and his people back together.

However, upon the Romulans' reintroduction in "The Neutral Zone," make-up Michael Westmore gave them some cosmetic surgery,...

The first appearance of the Romulans on "Star Trek" came in the episode "Balance of Terror", wherein the U.S.S. Enterprise faced off against a mysterious Romulan Bird-of-Prey. It was said in the episode that the Federation and the Romulans had previously fought a war, but, thanks to primitive communication technology, had never laid eyes on each other. After managing to hack into the Romulan computers, the crew of the Enterprise was able to spy on their enemies for the first time, finding that they looked a lot like Vulcans. The Romulan Commander (Mark Lenard) merely sported angled eyebrows and pointed ears, very much like Spock (Leonard Nimoy).

In a later episode called "The Enterprise Incident", Kirk (William Shatner) and Spock find themselves on board a Romulan Bird-of-Prey facing off against a new Romulan Commander (Joanne Linville). It was the first time a human and a Romulan were depicted in the same room face-to-face.

I watch a lot of movies, but even ones that stab at my heart rarely make me tear up. "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" is, to quote Hayley Williams of Paramore, the only exception.

Spock (Leonard Nimoy) dies to save the Enterprise and his comrades, taking a lethal dose of radiation when giving the ship's engine a boost. He passes on after a final conversation with his best friend James Kirk (William Shatner). It's fair to say Nimoy was a better actor than Shatner, yet it's the latter who affects me most here. From the way his voice trembles as he yells Spock's name to the quiet heartbreak across his face as he watches his friend's final moments of pain, it's the most empathic acting I've ever seen from Shatner.

So, there's a part of me that will always resent the next film, "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock,...

Oh no, not the decontamination chamber. 

When "Star Trek: Enterprise" debuted in 2001, there was a conscious effort by the showrunners to work in as much brazen sex appeal as they could. Noticeably, the casting directors hired Jolene Blalock, who had worked as a professional model, to play the Vulcan First Officer T'Pol, and the costume designers were careful to outfit her in skin-tight body suits. She was clearly meant to replicate Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) from "Star Trek: Voyager."

"Enterprise" was set about a century prior to the original "Star Trek," and some of the more popular "Trek" tech hadn't been invented yet. As such, when a team of officers returned from an away mission, they had to spend a long span in a decontamination chamber. In later other "Trek" shows, the transporters took care of contaminants and idle spores an away mission might have accumulated. On "Enterprise," officers...

"Star Trek" is home to countless alien races, but few have as enduring a presence in the franchise as the Romulans. They're the most persistent adversaries of the Federation, so much so that blue-tinted Romulan Ale remains under trade embargo. This hostility makes it all the more ironic that they resemble humanity's first alien allies, the Vulcans, sharing their pointed ears and arched eyebrows.

The in-universe origin of the Romulans is that they were Vulcans, millennia ago. In that distant past, the Vulcans were a warlike people, far from the cold logicians that fans know. That changed when (in Earth's 4th century), the philosopher Surak taught his people to embrace logic and master their emotions. Not all Vulcans accepted Surak's teachings; "Those Who March Beneath The Raptor's Wings" were eventually exiled from Vulcan. These dissident Vulcans settled on the twin planets Romulus and Remus, evolving into the Romulans and personifying...

"Star Trek" is notoriously kind to its cast. If an actor manages to secure a small role in one episode of "Star Trek," it becomes more likely that they will be invited back for reappearances, either as the same character or as a new character. Actor Mark Lenard appeared on the original series as a Romulan commander, only to be recast later as Spock's father Sarek. Armin Shimerman appeared as both a talking treasure chest (!) and as a Ferengi before landing the regular role of Quark on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." Jeffrey Combs has appeared as multiple alien/computer characters on various Trek programs, including three regular roles on "Deep Space Nine." Actor Vaughn Armstrong currently holds the record, having played 12 different Trek characters.

This loyalty also extends to any cast members willing to make the move from acting to directing. Leonard Nimoy famously directed two Trek feature films...

1963: A live episode of Atwt was interrupted by JFK news.

1984: Days of our Lives' Tony battled lookalike Andre.

1985: General Hospital's Anna and Robin reunited.

2007: A turkey dealt with two witches on Passions."The best prophet of the future is the past."

― Lord Byron

"Today in Soap Opera History" is a collection of the most memorable, interesting and influential events in the history of scripted, serialized programs. From birthdays and anniversaries to scandals and controversies, every day this column celebrates the soap opera in American culture.

On this date in...

1963: President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. The clip below features Walter Cronkite breaking into the live broadcast of As the World Turns at 1:40 p.m. Et to deliver the news that shots had been fired at President John F. Kennedy's motorcade in Dallas, with first reports indicating the president was seriously wounded. The news...

Warning: This post contains spoilers for Sunday’s Star Trek: Discovery.

Spock’s father Sarek beamed his way back onto Star Trek: Discovery this week, with Burnham rescuing her adoptive dad after his shuttle was sabotaged by a Vulcan extremist who believes that “humans are inferior.” With the help of a “synthetic mindmeld augment” built by Stamets, Burnham used her psychic connection with Sarek to locate his shuttle and save his life.

Plus, in a flashback, we caught our first glimpse of Sarek’s human wife Amanda Grayson — and heard our first Spock mention! — when Sarek was forced to choose...

How you choose to budget your money for television viewing is an understandably personal choice. But listen up, “Star Trek” fans: sign up for your CBS All Access account now, because the most exciting and daring take on the franchise is happening there, and even if you don’t love it right out of the gate, it’s going to create conversations you won’t want to miss.

“Star Trek: Discovery,” the first new “Trek” series in 16 years, feels welcomely familiar and also surprisingly fresh, bringing together established iconography and new ideas for a series that, based on the first three episodes screened for critics, exists in a space where nothing, including the status quo, is safe. This is a story about exploration and adventure, but also a story in dialogue with the core values of this franchise, and what those values require of these characters.

“Discovery” is set 10 years...

We've got some good news and some bad news, Trekkers. In good news, James Frain is joining the season one cast of the Star Trek: Discovery TV show, as Spock's father, Sarek. Mark Lenard, Jonathan Simpson, and Ben Cross have previously played the Vulcan character. Learn more from CBS All Access, after the jump.As for that bad news: it seems possible fans will have to wait even longer to watch the first season of Star Trek: Discovery. Although CBS has not confirmed a delay, the network has reportedly released a statement (which is not currently on its press site), about being flexible on the series premiere date.Read More…...

So apparently Spock's full-green-blooded Vulcan father Sarek will be joining the cast of Star Trek Discovery, played by James Frain (Gotham, Orphan Black). And I'm sure Frain is a fine actor (and a dead ringer for a young Mark Lenard), but I do love his clearly written by him imdb bio: "James Frain is one of Hollywood's most versatile and respected actors who has a... Read More...

Juliette Harrisson Nov 8, 2016

We salute some of the finest guest stars of Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Some episodes of television are elevated by the performance of the regular actors, and with a star of the calibre of Patrick Stewart, Star Trek: The Next Generation is not short of such episodes. Equally important, however, are the performances of guest actors brought in for a one-off appearance who elevate any scenes in which they take part and work with the regular actors to create something really memorable. This list celebrates some of those performances.

See related Arrow season 5 exclusive: Kevin Smith talks Onomatopoeia The Flash season 3: featurette teases new costumes Legends Of Tomorrow season 2: trailer teases 1980s episode Supergirl season 2: Kevin Smith's behind-the-scenes video

N.B. This list is celebrating guest performers who came in for one, or at most two, guest performances as a specific character...

Sven Harvey Oct 18, 2017

Before Star Trek: Discovery, treat yourself to some Star Trek: The Next Generation classics...

Leading the charge back to television for the Star Trek franchise (just as Star Trek: Discovery is now), and paving the way for three further series to follow (fingers crossed that happens again), Star Trek: The Next Generation's 7 seasons had some very high points, and a couple of very low ones (that some would simply call “season 1....”, not that I’m one of them.)

See related Looking back at Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan Would Khan be right for Jj Abrams’ Star Trek sequel? Planet Of The Titans: the Star Trek movie that never was Star Trek: was Cumberbatch supposed to be Gary Mitchell? Star Trek: the battle to make The Motion Picture

These are the top 25 “must-watch” episodes, not necessarily the top 25 for quality, or indeed my 25 favourites,...

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These 25 Star Trek: The Next Generation stories are the series’ unmissable episodes…

Leading the charge back to television for the Star Trek franchise, and paving the way for three further series to follow, Star Trek: The Next Generation's 7 seasons had some very high points, and a couple of very low ones (that some would simply call “season 1....”, not that I’m one of them.)

These are the top 25 “must-watch” episodes, not necessarily the top 25 for quality, or indeed my 25 favourites, but the 25 stories that give you the best flavour of the series and its relatively unplanned story arcs. Just don’t forget that, like The Original Series, The Next Generation is a product of its time, and as such certain issues that writers wanted to bring to the screen not only necessitated allegory, but sometimes stretched it thin so as not to raise issues with censorship.

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As a new Star Trek TV show is planned for 2017, we select the show's top 25 episodes from its classic Original and Animated series...

The impact of Star Trek, a television series that altered the world's expectations and put an indelible mark on many cultures around the world, is often underestimated until you realise who it had an impact on and what they went on to achieve.

If you only ever watch 25 episodes or, rather, stories from the original(ish) run of Star Trek, these are they, at least in my opinion. The only rules in place being that this selection is drawn only from the series that just called themselves Star Trek (so that's what we now call Star Trek: The Original Series, or Tos and Star Trek: The Animated Series, or Tas), and two-part episodes count as one story... The more Trek-astute of you may realise...

From Buffy to Game Of Thrones via Grimm & more, geek TV weddings have a habit of going very wrong. Here’s our pick of the worst…

Warning: contains spoilers for Game Of Thrones, Buffy, Smallville, Farscape, Doctor Who, Torchwood, Grimm, and Quantum Leap.

Demons, demon-hunters, aliens and slayers have no luck whatsoever when it comes to plighting their troughs smoothly. There are many ways a wedding can go wrong in the world of science fiction and fantasy, from alien attack to mass murder to accidentally marrying a clone of your fiancée. With inspiration from Doctor Who, Star Trek, Grimm, Smallville, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and more, we’ve selected a variety of different disasters, focusing on occasions when trouble occurred either during the ceremony or during the reception shortly afterwards, listed in entirely subjective order of disastrousness.

Please stand then, as the Wedding March begins…

11. Quantum Leap, Sea Bride

The...

A classic Star Trek character returns in this week's look-back at a must-watch Tng season three episode...

This review contains spoilers.

3.23 Sarek

In a startling moment of originality, the Enterprise is once again acting as the glorified taxi for a Federation Ambassador and hosting their negotiations. But this time, it's not boring. This time, they're transporting Ambassador Sarek!

Although his entourage seem over-protective of Sarek, insisting that he's excused from all non-essential functions, Sarek himself seems surprisingly energetic. Nonetheless, Picard lets him off the Mozart concert he had planned, and also tells Worf not to bother setting up the Tri-Dimensional Guess Who? Tournament (probably).

When checking out the conference room, Sarek gets uncharacteristically agitated at the unpreparedness of it. Geordi and Wesley don't help the situation by complaining about the smell of the slime the Legaran delegation live in and talking about Wesley's upcoming hot date with Ensign Suzanne Dumont.

Charlton Heston movies: ‘A Man for All Seasons’ remake, ‘The Greatest Story Ever Told’ (photo: Charlton Heston as Ben-Hur) (See previous post: “Charlton Heston: Moses Minus Staff Plus Chariot Equals Ben-Hur.”) I’ve yet to watch Irving Rapper’s melo Bad for Each Other (1954), co-starring the sultry Lizabeth Scott — always a good enough reason to check out any movie, regardless of plot or leading man. A major curiosity is the 1988 made-for-tv version of A Man for All Seasons, with Charlton Heston in the Oscar-winning Paul Scofield role (Sir Thomas More) and on Fred Zinnemann’s director’s chair. Vanessa Redgrave, who plays Thomas More’s wife in the TV movie (Wendy Hiller in the original) had a cameo as Anne Boleyn in the 1966 film. According to the IMDb, Robert Bolt, who wrote the Oscar-winning 1966 movie (and the original play), is credited for the 1988 version’s screenplay as well. Also of note,...

Feature Juliette Harrisson 7 Jun 2013 - 07:00

In honour of this week's Game Of Thrones wedding (no spoilers here!), we toast ten of geek TV's finest nuptials...

This feature contains some spoilers for the featured shows (though none for Game of Thrones)

We’re fast approaching the height of wedding season, both in real life and on television, as Game of Thrones delivers rather memorable weddings two episodes in a row. So, to commemorate such significant events, let us all raise our glasses and toast ten especially funny, sweet, memorable or plain bloody weddings from the best of geek television.

Weddings are one of television’s more popular special episodes and there were a lot to choose from, so to cut it down a bit, any wedding that takes places in a dream, a vision or a future that may or may not come to pass has been excluded – so no Buffy and Angel,...

I find myself writing about Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Three more than any single season of any season from any franchise. And that’s fine by me given the quantum leap in quality improvement from the previous two seasons. I am happy to do it one more time as the Blu-ray set from Paramount Home Entertainment is due to arrive on Tuesday.

The behind-the-scenes turmoil that led to the first two seasons feeling incredibly inconsistent began to fade with the arrival of a new set of writers and producers. As Gene Roddenberry grew frailer and ceded more day-to-day control to producer Rick Berman, the show also bid farewell to the exhausted head writer Maurice Hurley. He was briefly replaced by Michael Wagner but illness forced him to leave after just four episodes, but his recommended replacement, Michael Piller, proved to be the turning point in the show’s fortunes.

Many of the early Star Trek novels, especially a few of the 1970s Bantam line, where generally written by fans of Tos. Authors like Sandra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath were huge proponents of the Kirk and Spock relationship, and more so it seemed a lot of the time, just Spock himself. Many of those Bantam titles and the early ones by Simon and Schuster’s Pocket Book line after Star Trek: The Motion Picture, were heavily Kirk, Spock and McCoy centric and a good percentage were written by women.

Which was not bad, just a rather interesting statistic. Back in 1985, author Barbara Hambly released her first Star Trek novel, Ishmael. And for the last 26 years, it has sat in either a bookshelf or in a box, unread. When I started collecting the Star Trek novels back in the 1980s, I had a lot of good intentions of reading them. But somewhere along the line,...

Movie sagas never die; they always come back every so often and in one form or another, and 2011 sees the cinematic revival of a very famous and enduring science fiction genre.

By effectively reversing Darwin’s Theory of Evolution, Monkey Planet is more of a satirical look at modern life and less of a science fiction story. Globetrotting journalist Ulysse Merou accompanies his friend Professor Antelle and physicist Arthur Levain on a space journey to the Betelgeuse quadrant of the Galaxy. Their ship lands on a planet similar to Earth, which the professor names Soror (Latin for sister).

Shortly after landing, the ship is destroyed by a tribe of primitive humans who also capture the astronauts. The tribe is later attacked by a hunting party of apes dressed in 20th Century clothes, driving trucks and carrying guns. Levain is killed during the hunt and Merou is caught and taken to an ape city,...

Yesterday we told you that the first season of the classic “Trek” has arrived on Blu-ray, and now we’re back to report that all six of the “first generation” films have also made their way to HD. Remastered in high-def and sporting new audio tracks, the collection presents the “Star Trek” films as they have never been seen before.

Two different packages have been assembled, one collecting all six films and another collecting the first three. Each of the films carries over the special features from previous releases, but more importantly delivers nearly three hours of brand new bonus content specially recorded in high-def (and 14 hours total including the standard-def extra).

Check out the full specs after the jump.

* Star Trek: The Motion Picture: new audio commentary by Michael & Denise Okuda, Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens and Daren Dochterman, 3 HD featurettes (The Longest Trek: Writing the Motion Picture, Special Star Trek...

Oh gosh, the hoopla surrounding the upcoming "Star Trek" is reaching mass hysteria, almost! Some folks in Australia are watching it today, April 7th, and director/producer J.J. Abrams and cast members Eric Bana, Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto and Karl Urban are going to be presenting the film to 1,600 guests in Sydney Opera House's legendary Concert Hall for the out-of-this-world experience!

But, "Star Trek" was also shown last night at Austin's Alamo Drafthouse! So what did the lucky ones think?

Here's some Twitter reviews from Slash Film:

bosmon: holy sh** we just saw world premiere of new #Star Trek and it.s Awesome

ColeAbaius: Yes, I.m the guy who.s never seen an episode of St and got to see Star Trek tonight. As a total St Virgin - the movie is incredible.

simplygreg: Just finished seeing new Star Trek flick introduced by the writers, Damon Lindelof and, wait for it,...

Anyone that has read this site for a long time knows I am a pretty big fan of the original "Star Trek" universe. I'm talking Captain Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty and the gang. I have reviewed all six of the last Original Series DVD releases as well as the DVD releases of Star Trek: First Contact, Generations, Insurrection, Nemesis and all four seasons of "Enterprise". Strangely enough I don't consider myself a Trekkie since I love the show, but don't have a very deep knowledge of the universe, and that's an understatement. My favorite movies from the franchise are Wrath of Khan and Voyage Home and I have no idea when was the last time I saw the original Motion Picture, Search for Spock, The Final Frontier or The Undiscovered Country. However, that will all change come May 12 as Paramount will release all six of the original Star Trek films...