Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor plays a martial arts instructor in the new David Mamet film, “Redbelt.” In the film, Ejiofor is a principled teacher who instructs his students not to fight for money or fame, but violates his own credo in order to pay off his debts.

Before starring in movies, Ejiofor was a prominent stage actor in England. Since then, he has been in such films as “Serenity,” “Dirty Pretty Things”, “Children of Men” and “American Gangster.” Ejiofor was nominated for a Golden Globe in 2007 for his performance in “Kinky Boots.”

Go HERE to Listen Now.

Our intrepid reporter Linda Craddock caught up with the very busy Tanveer Naseer, actor, director, co-writer and co-producer of the online audio series “Star Trek Unity” for an exclusive interview about the production’s latest sci-fi adventure starring the talented Kurt Carley in “Disunity - Part II.”

Linda Craddock (SoSF): How long have you and Matt Boardman been working on this particular project?

Tanveer Naseer (TN): Well, Matt actually started early on. He was one of the first people to work on this project. I came in, I think a few months afterwards, originally just as a voice actor. I saw they were looking for help for voice actors. I then started working on their marketing campaign and that slowly evolved to being someone who is involved in the production of it and when we finally decided to get going on our first episode “Disunity”, I asked [that] if anyone wouldn’t mind, I’d like to give it a shot to direct and the team was like “oh, that would be great” and basically took over and got more and more involved (laughter) and now I’m one of the executive producers, along with Matt running the series. It’s been an interesting ride because I just came into the series to do acting and nothing more, and here I am planning out series development scripts and such (laughter).

SoSF: How many are slated for the premiere season?

TN: We already have our first episode out, “Disunity” and we’re expecting to have the next one out this year. We have identified it on our boards that it’s the sequel to the first one. It’s (a two part episode) called “Disunity, Part II”. I am currently working on (& off) the treatment for our third episode and after that there’s one more audio-only episode, after which we’re going into our animated series. That’s our target. Ever since we made the announcement to move from the machinima style of animation to 3D CG animation we realized it’s actually going a lot faster as it is a field of animation [that] Matt’s more comfortable with and it gives him more latitude in terms of creativity and so on.

SoSF: Yes, I was going to ask you about the two techniques and describe the different formats for the fans.

TN: Sure. Machinima is referred to using game engine technology and all you need to do is construct new environments and if you have any ships you include those, then you create your characters but all the movement and associated aspects are kind of taken care of by the engine. A good example is the one I am working on playing the role of Ambassador Spock called “Star Trek: The Way Back;” well, Matt who recently joined with interest from the “Star Trek” from way back, they use a form of machinima. So, when you see the characters move, it looks like one of those role playing games you can play where these characters move in a computer generated motion and it’s not very fluid, it’s more jerky. And, it’s not the fault of the animator (attraction on the animation), it’s the limitation of the software, but the advantage it gives is it saves you so much effort about how to get your characters to move and how to render them and so forth. CG animation, on the other hand, is basically what you would see in movies like “Shrek” and if you’ve ever watched their blooper reels you can see how these people can spend a lot of time designing characters and when they start moving, their head moves but their face stays where they were before so that kind of thing you have to work on within your program to get the design. Since Matt really doesn’t want to use (, well, you can buy) pre-made character molds (pre-done) but instead he’d rather make it from scratch so that adds another level of challenge to it but it will give our series a unique look because everything is made within our “little” shop.

SoSF: Are the up coming episodes going to be the same in length?

TN: I’m not sure. I think the next one may be a little shorter. Matt wrote the first one and when I came in and started prepping for directing it, I read the script and it had all these interactions (visions) and so forth that didn’t work and I ended up working with him on the script and that’s why I have co-writing credit on it. This one Matt and I worked from day one on the script treatment. The approach Matt and I always have is we take as long as it takes to tell the story but we don’t want to fill in air time just to make it an hour and we don’t want to cut stuff to make it shorter to get that 45 minute mark. For example, we don’t have commercial breaks. We don’t follow the TV format, even when we go to making our animated series, and that’s nine minutes for the first act and so forth, it’s however long it takes to tell our story, then cut, then go to the next one. When I was looking at the script for “Disunity, Part 2”, and putting an introduction on it, but I believe and, my suspicion is this one might be a little shorter, maybe 10 minutes shorter than the first one just because [for] this one the pacing is a lot faster. Things happen really, really fast. The first one we had a lot to setup with establishing the series episode. We had to introduce all the characters and basically paint this new environment that we’d never seen in “Star Trek”. Now that we’ve done that we can just narrow it down to the characters in a very specific plot.

SoSF: In your commentary you shared your views on what I guess you can call it “inside Star Trek” where as you wanted to highlight the relationships between Starship personnel and the people who ultimately make what happens on screen work. Do you feel this aspect of the project, which reminds me a little of the “DS9” and “TNG”, character driven relationships. Is that what you intended?

TN: Yes, that’s exactly our intention(s). We’re actually trying to create a balance (follow a toss) where you can have stand alone episodes (if I were to use other series analogy but we want to) and yet have that kind of character development you saw in “Deep Space Nine”, but and we’re doing it in a way that we have on the one hand (with the exception of) “Disunity Part 1,” which you have to watch in order to understand what’s going on in ”Disunity, Part 2”, and yet, the third episode will be one you can just go into without having listened to the first two. Of course, I think the first two minutes of that 3rd episode you’ll probably won’t understand [or] know what they’re talking about but it’s not really an issue because it’s really just like casual water cooler talk if you will, and then the rest of the episode is just about a totally unrelated story. However, some of the things the characters say and do is really kind of building on this little element of the character you saw in the previous story. So there’s lots of character arcs, or acts that we’ve created (where we’re mapping out) but we’re doing it in a way where it’s not the story that keeps carrying over per se, it’s the character - where they were and how they would then react in this set of circumstances. But you’ll still be able to watch certain episodes on their own and you won’t really miss a beat or lose any of the subplot or subtext.

SoSF: You also mentioned sound effect(s) for a particular sequence, an explosion scene in your teaser which required a several hundred sound effects to find the right blend. Talk a little about that process and how long it took to develop.

TN: That took quite a long while. It was a little tricky, knowing this was to be an explosion that was supposed to destroy an entire ship, I knew the explosion had to be severe and I wanted to balance the “Star Trek” portrayal of noise in space where you can hear everything against the reality that basically all you would hear are vibrations and not really sounds. So when I first approached creating that segment, I was trying to make it sound less like an explosion that you’re hearing and more a vibration and that’s why the initial explosion is muffled and after that all that noise you are hearing is going on in the space station itself. It was tricky because the problem is trying to make it discrete enough to make out so that you can actually visualize that there’s this huge dining hall and people all over the place with different things falling in different places. But at the same time make it feel all continuous so it’s not like there’s these pauses or these gaps where suddenly these things are happening out of sequence and so forth. I joked with some people on the Unity team and said that I felt like I was actually composing a score with noise because it really was a matter of marking off where I would have the different sounds happening. I would actually say the shock wave was hitting the center so you should start hearing some sound effects on the left and the right should be even more pronounced because it’s really now shaking like crazy and that’s why it took so many because I used a lot of effects in trying to make it immersive so that people would not feel it’s a two dimensional sound effect but they would feel like they can almost imagine they are in the middle of this scene [with] the stuff way off in the distance occurring.

SoSF: Describe the casting process. What criteria you established for character selection.

TN: We had already in mind, when we first started working on our series, a lot of ideas about who these characters were going to be, what were their strengths, where were their weaknesses and personality traits. One of the reasons we wanted to do a precursor series, a prequel (pre- quote) to the animated series, was to setup some of this character backstory and explain what we’re going to be seeing in the animated series version and it’s interesting that some of the stuff that we’ve been doing in our audio-only episodes actually created these new character arcs that we hadn’t thought of when we started planning the animated series. When we started casting we wanted to look for people who could really show the audience that this person is just that kind of personality through their voice because it’s a challenge. You have to translate just with your voice so many different things. You have to imply physical movement, emotions, and atmosphere so we really had to rely on the people we chose to really convince people that they can see this person in front of them. The great thing is now that we’ve done the first one, with our second episode, we’ve started focusing on what our actors brought to their role. What really worked, what they were able to present in a natural way was emphasized in how we wrote this next episode and in a way we are working with our actors and what they were bringing to the characters to help them feel even more natural.

SoSF: Have you continued with, when we referred to the analogy of previous “Star Trek” series, the integration of alien species among Starfleet personnel?

TN: Well yes, it’s actually interesting because one of the interesting things (I was discussing within the groups was how with our series) about “Star Trek: Unity” is that it is set about 11 years after the founding of the federation. The assumption we all have is it was just created and we have basically the federation we all see in “Kirk’s” time happening here. One of the things I realize we have as a gift is having our show happening so close after [the Federation’s] formation since we can show it’s not so clear cut. For example, we don’t have a prime directive. We don’t have the non-interference clause. There are a lot of things that our crew doesn’t have to abide by and so we can take advantage of those things and show how their mentality would be that this is fine and we wouldn’t have to do this because they wouldn’t be thinking that far ahead but we can see how down the road it would become policy because of the things that are happening. So there are things that we’re looking at that we would talk about, that kind of xenophobia but use it as an allegory to what’s going on in our current society. We still have not gotten over our own social phobias and I think that to not present that in “Star Trek” is doing a disservice because “Star Trek” was always talking about what we’re going through now. And for me sure, it’s nice to think that in the “Star Trek” of the future everyone gets along, but I think we also need to show in a lot of ways that these people are still like us and they’re not always going to get along and there are always going to be groups of people that we just can’t see eye to eye with, just can’t relate to them and that would make it more realistic.

And that’s one point (if we could relate to it more but the key is what) we are trying to do in our second episode. In “Disunity, Part 2”, we have an antagonist who has been identified in the first part as the Shan Rihannsu Leader, which is the part being played by Kurt Carley, and he’s shown in our poster for our next episode because he’s playing a prominent role in this next one. I wrote his scenes and in writing them, he went from being a guy whom you can certainly (almost) hate to a guy that you can almost relate to if not empathize with and that becomes the question mark of how you define what’s right and what’s wrong. I personally would like that people would walk away and think about it rather than just telling them, well, this is right and that is wrong. I’d rather people look at it and try and figure it out for themselves. Putting them in a morality scenario and say this is what circumstance you’re under, now what would you do? I know the third episode is going to be a grey story. There’s no easy way out and there’s no clear cut way of what’s the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do because that’s really what we go through everyday.

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Ever want to ask the legendary Walter Koenig a specific question but never had the chance? If so, you won’t want to miss this opportunity of a lifetime. Roddeberry.com’s new show “The Que?” is the audience’s direct link to submit these questions and interview their special guests.

Click here to send them your questions. The deadline to have all questions in is May 2, 2008. Then tune in on May 28, 2008 where the show will be joined by actor, writer, director and teacher Walter Koenig who will be answering fan questions submitted to him. This is a must for all SF aficionados, especially if you are a “Star Trek” or “Babylon 5 fan.”

The first episode of “The Que?” is up now with their exclusive fan submitted questions interview with cartoonist David Reddick, creator of “The Trek Life” and the illustrations for “Gene’s Journal.” David cut his teeth at the Garfield Studio working on Jim Davis’ famous mischevious fur-ball series. David’s newest creation, “Rod & Barry,” is about two aliens sent to earth by their homeworld to scout it our for anihilation, and while monitoring earth’s communications (i.e., TV) they become hooked on Science Fiction Television, and continually stave off earth’s destruction while they catch up on their favorite episodes, all the while commenting on current sci-fi trends and shows.

Now that the writer’s strike is over and all the scribes are busy pounding out scripts on their keyboards, “Eureka” producer and writer Jaime Paglia returned to sit down with our reporter Linda Craddock for his promised second interview. You can read Linda’s December 2007 interview with Jaime HERE.

Enjoy this new post-strike talk with Jaime Paglia as he shares some “Eureka” news.

Linda Craddock (SoSF): I appreciate you taking the time as always.

Jamie Paglia (JP): No problem.

SoSF: So tell us about the process of arriving at a resolution to the Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike and some of the events that lead up to a long and difficult process for everyone involved.

JP: Well, I think the obvious key to the agreement was that the guild remained unified and we were not going to fracture [before] the producers and the things we were asking for were reasonable and fair. We didn’t get everything we wanted but as far as negotiations, both sides are going to end up a little unhappy. There has to be a compromise reached and there are certainly, looking forward that we want to try and get in three years but the main issues such as jurisdiction over new media, separated rights and residuals based on a percentage formula based on a distributors gross. Those were some of the key issues and the fact that we now have those things in place, the precedence has been set for the future and that was the main thing to ensure protecting potential participation and profits in the new media for future writers so I think that everyone felt that that was a big victory.

SoSF: Will the impact the strike had on the industry as a whole influence the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) with the upcoming actor’s guild contract negotiations?

JP: I don’t see how it couldn’t, especially considering how much of a team effort this was between the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the writers guild. We owe the Screen Actors Guild a huge debt for their support in this and there’s no way we would have managed to secure some of the things that we did, and these were issues from way back in October when we were coming up to the expiration date of our basic agreement that the AMPTP said were non-starting issues and they wouldn’t even discuss most of the things (terms) that we ended up getting in some small or in some large part. SAG joining with us, standing by us and marching with us, refusing to cross our picket line, shutting down the Golden Globes, I think sends a very clear message that this was not something they could ignore and the screen actors can count on the writers guild for our support should they end up not getting what it is they are asking for. So I think the precedence has been set and they are going to have to be reasonable from the beginning of negotiations or face another potential shutdown.

SoSF: And they would probably want to start negotiations early.

JP: I would hope so. I think it only makes sense. If you see a deadline coming up, there’s no point in waiting until the last minute. [We] might as well get through the process as quickly as we can so that hopefully an agreement can be reached without any kind of interruption.

SoSF: So you guys are pretty much satisfied with, obviously, the outcome.

JP: I think that clearly the overwhelming majority of the membership was in support of ratifying this agreement but, again, there are things that we don’t have jurisdiction over yet that we want. We should have coverage in animation, in reality. We should have the same basic rules that apply to network primetime that we’ve been talking about in terms of residuals, formulas as such. Those don’t apply yet to basic cable and for me and my staff, while other writers that work on shows that are on basic cable, clearly that we are hoping will be achieved in future negotiations, but given where we were and what we were asking for, yes, you could say the majority, as in the case with the vote of our membership, was in support of this agreement.

SoSF: Great and congratulations on your accomplishment. You’ve resumed working on ‘Eureka’ I gather?

JP: We have. We’re back in the writers’ room now for a few weeks and its fast and furious trying to get up and running. We’re doing 21 episodes this time and they probably won’t all air together. They will probably split the season like they do for ‘Battlestar Galactica’ but we will be doing 21 episodes and I have been beating my head against the wall on my season premiere trying to get it exactly right and we’ve got the first 6 or 7 episodes sort of mapped out and we’re breaking all those stories as quickly as we can so we’re off to the races.

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Our good friends over at SyFy Portal Radio are hosting a special episode tonight in honor of the Season Premier of Battlestar Galactica.

Special guest writer and producer of Battlestar Galactica, David Weddle, will be on as well as post-show commentary with listeners.

Join the SyFy discussion tonight at 11:30pm ET / 8:30pm PT on BlogTalkRadio.

The show streams live at the link below, it’s free to listen and call in. Registration is required (also free) for text chat.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/syfyradio/2008/04/05/SyFy-Radio-Battlestar-Galactica-Special

A text chat room, call in number and archive of the show (if you miss the live show) are available at that same link.

Our very own Slice of SciFi (SoSF) host and FarPoint Media company president, Michael R. Mennenga was recently interviewed by AMC for their official online science fiction blog called SciFi Scanner. They wanted to talk to him about the Slice of SciFi podcast and the phenomenal growth of the Slice of SciFi Website.

The article is a very positive take on our endeavour here at SoSF. You can catch the interview by AMC’s Clayton Neuman HERE.

Video courtesy of ReelzChannel.com

SaveJourneyman.net did a recent interview with cartoonist Darrin Bell, who is himself a fan of the NBC show “Journeyman.” Bell is the creator of the popular strip titled Condorville. Be looking for the interview sometime soon on the SaveJourneyman.net website. Until it gets posted here is one of the more interesting responses from Bell that came after being asked the following question:

What makes Journeyman particularly worthy of being saved?

Darrin Bell: There aren’t many shows that make me feel the writers respect our intelligence. As I said, they show the characters operating at maximum capacity. Contrivances don’t work on this show, and that’s a good thing. They’d unravel immediately, because none of the characters are stupid. None of the characters commit stereotypical mistakes: Zack hasn’t spouted off at school about his dad traveling through time, Katie hasn’t broken under the strain or gone along without a worry, as a stereotypical TV wife might, Dan doesn’t blunder in over his head without thinking, which would require a series of contrivances to save him, etc. These people are as smart and as three dimensional as the viewers, and it’s not often you get a show that can say that.

Bell is absolutely correct about this. The realness of these characters as they tackle an extraordinary, almost unreal situation almost daily in their lives, and the way they were written and acted is what made the show such a pleasure to watch.

Go to SaveJourneyman.net and keep an eye out for this interview with Darrin Bell.

“Eureka” has been one of those SCI FI Channel shows that we here at Slice of SciFi fell in love with right from the beginning and the actress that our intrepid reporter Linda Craddock had the honor of speaking with is one of the primary reasons we enjoy the program as much as we do.

Salli Richardson-Whitfield began her acting career on the stage with her first prominent gig being the 1991 production of “Up Against the Wall.” She then caught everyone’s attention with her breakout role as Valerie just two years later in “How U Like Me Now.”

Besides her outstanding weekly performances on the sci-fi hit “Eureka,” Salli has also appeared in SF programs such as “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” “Stargate SG-1,” voiced the character of Elisa Maza on the animated series “Gargoyles” and most recently appeared opposite Will Smith in the big screen, box office blockbuster “I Am Legend.”

Some of her non-SF productions has seen her star with such leading men as Denzel Washington in “Antwone Fisher,” Samuel L. Jackson for “The Great White Hype,” and Laurence Fishburne in “Biker Boyz.”

We know you will enjoy this fascinating interview with one of America’s finest actresses.

Linda Craddock (SoSF): Hello Salli how are you?

Salli Richardson-Whitfield (SRW): I’m good how are you?

SoSF: Just fine thanks. So, ‘I am Legend.’ I guess the excitement has slowed down a bit from the impact it had.

SRW: Yeah. (laughter)

SoSF: It must have been interesting, though.

SRW: It was. I expected and everyone expected it to open big, you know, it is Will [Smith], but not $30 million the first day. I was surprised when I saw the film. I always wait for the premiere. I don’t like to see screenings before hand. They change things. I just like to see the finished version of it and I really, really enjoyed it, especially his performance to hold the screen all that time by yourself.

SoSF: I find it amazing that the film was shot on location in New York City and find it especially amazing that they literally shut down parts of Manhattan for any given scene. It was totally incredible.

SRW: See that’s when you know it’s only for Will Smith, (laughter)

SoSF: Yes (laughter)

SRW: (laughter) and to see the city devastated like that is really crazy. You know how busy and crazy New York is for you to see it like that with the grass growing; it was really creepy which makes it more scary because you can’t even imagine that happening.

SoSF: Exactly. What do you think the success of this film is based on?

SRW: Well, like I said, and I really think it is 75% of his audience coming to see him but I think that that scenario is intriguing to people and it’s something that could happen with the way we invent viruses and the kind of diseases that are going around the world, is something that is conceivable, that could happen with these super bugs, not people turning into monsters, but everyone’s contracted something that no one can find a cure for so I think people are attracted to those kinds of films.

SoSF: Let’s talk ‘Eureka’ – The industry is in the middle of a strike launched by the writer’s guild. When are you supposed to start shooting season 3?

SRW: We’re actually supposed to be starting next month. We’re affected because our writers are supposed to be in the room right now writing for us to go back in February. We were already picked up for a 3rd season to go back so I think if the strike ends soon (laughter) it won’t push us back too much. I think instead of going back in February, we’d go back in March and usually we’re done shooting our entire season before it even airs so it’s conceivable they could premiere us like we normally would and we’d still be shooting, so right now it hasn’t killed us, but it’s getting a little scary. I mean it’s getting a little scary because I know the people, besides the fact that I would like to go back to work needing money to pay for my daughter’s tuition and all that stuff too, but I know our crew is sitting there waiting for us to get back to work and they really need those jobs.

SoSF: Season 2 offered more compelling stories with deeper character development from season 1. If you can give us an idea, if anything has been said about what we can expect in season 3 or is it too soon?

SRW: I have no idea and I’m sitting here going what did we end on, it’s been six months (laughter) and what happened, but obviously we have to deal with where did Debrah Farentino’s character disappear to and will she come back and we have to deal with Henry. Those are things we have to pick up on. Henry’s now been arrested, although he has helped us, he lied and broke the law, so we have to deal with that, and deal with issues with my son and the artifact. There’s a lot of things that I liked that are going to be continued such as I think my husband asked me to remarry him by the end of the season and all of that obviously puts a monkey wrench in my relationship with “Carter” so I think there are continuations to deal with.

SoSF: As far as character development for Allison, what would you like to see change or improve?

SRW: What I would like to see is if we are going to deal with my relationship with Ed Quinn’s character, that we really do start having a relationship where we are actually dealing with that relationship and dealing with whatever those lies are because we know that ‘Stark’s’ character is not completely above board so really deal with that a little bit more. But, they really started last season to deal with a lot of things I wanted to. My son got more involved and instead of seeing her so hard all the time you got to see the other side, a softer side of ‘Allison.’ So they started doing it already but a continuation of that.

SoSF: On some series, the writing, the creativity behind those shows are pretty much laid out by the writers and some shows allow input from the cast. Is that the case, are you allowed to be creative on that level?

SRW: I don’t know if we were supposed to be allowed to but let me (laughter) say they have been very, very generous with letting us put our two cents in or sometimes ten cents in (laughter) which is great. Especially the guys and I would say Colin [Ferguson] and Joe [Morton]. They really dive in there and bring it to the attention, because sometimes the writers are in that room and in that little room they maybe forget the things that connect or we start having more of a feeling for our characters and if there’s anything that’s inconsistent to the guys, or it just doesn’t sound right, they have no problem calling in and changing lines, just seeing if that’s ok and half the time they come in and say ‘ok, Salli, this is what you’re saying’ and I tell them, ‘oh, ok’ (laughter) and everyone is committed to making it the best show that they can and we appreciate the opportunity the writers give us to work with them.

SoSF: I’ll ask you the some questions about ‘Eureka,’ about putting your finger on the pulse of what makes ‘Eureka’ so popular and according to the SCI FI Channel, their most watched show.

SRW: Yes, well, I just think the show is fun. I think it comes down to the characters. They are fun and people like to watch them. You have the sci-fi element, obviously but you don’t watch a show just to see cool gimmicks, you watch because you want to know what’s going on with the people and that, mixed with enough comedy and darkness and I think it gives them just enough mixture that people can zone out and enjoy. I think it’s the right mixture.

SoSF: Are you personally willing to stay with ‘Eureka’ for the duration of its run, some actors say they will, but later don’t.

SRW: Well, as long as things stay written well and people are putting the same heart into it, then I want to be a part of it. Nowadays, on different cable shows, it’s not such a big deal to be on not one of the three big networks. I would enjoy if our show was more than 13 [episodes] a year, but I enjoy being there, I enjoy and look forward to my time to go to Canada and go to work and as long as the quality stays the same that’s what I want to be a part of.

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BlackFilm.com recently interviewed the beautiful Zoe Saldana about three of her upcoming films, two are blockbusters and one an independent project.

Saldana will be starring as Neytiri in James Cameron’s highly touted “Avatar” and a new indie titled “Blackout.” And, though not mentioned in the interview, she can also be seen in the upcoming political action film “Vantage Point” with Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker, Dennis Quaid, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver and “Lost” star Matthew Fox. However, the real buzz for the young actress is her taking over the reigns from the legendary Nichelle Nichols as Uhura for the next big “Star Trek” movie due out on Christmas Day 2008.

Here is the Star Trek related portion of that BlackFilm.com interview:

What attracted you to the film?

Zoe Saldana (ZS): (Director) J.J. Abrams had expressed an interest in working with me and he had liked my work. For an actor, that’s all you need. That’s all you want. To get the acknowledgement and respect from your peers; and so I went out and met him. He then said, ‘I don’t need to see you anymore’ and I felt really good. I felt like I did it. I earned it.

Were you a fan of the original series?

ZS: I never saw that. I was not a fan until now and I have so much admiration for what they did, and how much the series continues to grow after 45 years and I had the honor of meeting Nichelle Nichols and working with Leonard Nimoy and it was fantastic.

How was you meeting with Nichelle Nichols?

ZS: I was able to sit down with her and she told me the whole story of how Uhura came to be and where they were going with her character, but it all fell into place the moment she walked into the door and auditioned for the part. She named the character herself and it was a special thing and she felt as an artist, she was going to make the part big.

How did you feel when you first tried on the uniform?

ZS: It was very interesting. The moment everything came together from the hair, the costume, being on the set, and then you start to feel, ‘Okay, this is real. This is amazing and fun’.

You can catch her entire interview HERE.

On Friday January 25, 2008 Star Trek director JJ Abrams, along with executive producer Bryan Burk, executive producer/co-writer Roberto Orci, VFX supervisor Roger Guyett, executive producer Jeffrey Chernov and Unit Production Manager David Witz all dropped in to TrekMovie.com, the new online voice of Star Trek, to field questions from the fans for a LIVE chat session.

Also joining were castmembers were John Cho (Sulu), Karl Urban (McCoy), Zoe Saldana (Uhura), Anton Yelchin (Chekov), Chris Pine (Kirk), and Zachary Quinto (Spock). They posted online in between takes while shooting on the Enterprise sets! See the full transcript (in easy to read Q&A format) and a couple of photos below (including the very first picture from the Bridge) HERE.

Here is just one sampling of what I think was one of the most important questions asked of Abrams:

Josh: What was the greatest challenge you faced when you first decided to take on Star Trek?

JJ Abrams: This may not be a fair answer, but there were two greatest challenges: the first was getting a handle on the vision of the future. The fact that most of the tech that we use in our everyday lives seems modelled after — and actually more advanced than — TOS, made it tricky to find a way to make our movie’s world far more advanced than where we currently are, and yet also consistent with the original show.

The other challenge was, obviously, casting. How in the world were we ever going to find actors who can fill the shoes of that remarkable original cast? It was tough in theory and harder in practice. We couldn’t — and wouldn’t have — gone into production with a cast that simply didn’t WORK.
With the amazing efforts of April Webster and Alyssa Weisberg (our casting directors), we somehow did it. This cast is massively talented and smart as hell and funny and dedicated and completely inhabiting these roles. You will see. Kirk f’n LIVES. Spock is HERE, right now. I can see him. Uhura and Bones and Chekov and Sulu and Scotty are ON THE BRIDGE and they are wonderful.

In short, WHEW.

In January 2007 we wrote an article about Chris Doohan wanting to play his father’s famous role in the next Trek film. Now we learn that he did get a role in the new Star Trek movie from J.J. Abrams and Paramount Pictures. Chris is the son of the legendary actor James Doohan, who starred as Enterprise chief engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in the original Classic Star Trek television series, the episode “Relics” on Star Trek: The Next Generation” and in 7 of the 10 big screen Star Trek films. Chris also has a twin brother named Montgomery. Both appeared in minor roles in the 1979 film “Star Trek The Motion Picture.” Chris is also a well known alternative rock musician.

Of course, the role Chris really wanted to audition for was the same one his father did for almost 4 decades before his death in 2005. However, the studio decided to go with actor Simon Pegg (”Shaun of the Dead,” “Mission Impossible III” & “Hot Fuzz”) for the part of the gruff Scottish engineer. Doohan isn’t disappointed and is happy with Abrams’ choice of Pegg for the part of Scotty.

Also, Chris’ auditioning process wasn’t in vain. He has landed a role in the upcoming Trek film due to be released Christmas Day 2008.

Recently Doohan spoke, as much as he was allowed to, about his role with TrekMovie.com, the website quickly becoming the new mouthpiece for everything Trek after the demise in December 2007 of Trek’s official CBS/Paramount website StarTrek.com. Security surrounding this release is extremely tight so he couldn’t tell much, but what he could reveal is still interesting.

Here is that interview:

TrekMovie.com: When do you shoot and do you know where you will appear?

Chris Doohan: At this point, I’m tentatively scheduled to go in later next week to film, but, like James Cawley, I still don’t know exactly what I’m going to do. I can tell you that my father would be happy with my position on the ship.

TrekMovie.com: Have you seen your costume yet?

Chris Doohan: I went to Paramount Studios a couple of weeks ago for my fitting. After my déjà vu moment, I stood there in awe of the rows and rows of Star Trek uniforms that seemed to be everywhere. The uniforms are incredible and extremely well made. When it comes to wardrobe, they definitely spared no expense and I can only imagine what the Enterprise set will look like. I can’t wait to see it.

TrekMovie.com: Have you met Simon Pegg (the new Scotty), or (director) JJ Abrams yet?

Chris Doohan: Simon Pegg and I have exchanged a few emails and we may get together to toast my Father. I guess I’ll need to bring some green food coloring to put in our drinks. I’m really looking forward to meeting the rest of the cast and J.J. Abrams. I not only think that he was the right guy to do this movie, I believe he’s the only one who could do it in a way that respects Gene Roddenberry’s vision. The fact that he asked Randy Pausch to be in the film proves that for me. Definitely a class act. Being on this film is a dream come true and I can’t thank him enough.

This is the final interview in the series of “Kyle XY” interviews that Slice of SciFi participated in for the Online Press conference sponsored by New Media Strategies, the Meredith Corporation and AT&T. Our reporter Linda Craddock was on hand for this press interview and spoke with actor Chris Olivero, the 24-year old actor who stars as Declan in the series. Declan is Kyle’s best friend, confidant and on-again/off-again boy friend to April Matson’s character Lori Trager, Kyle’s adopted sister.

Before landing the important role of Declan McDonough on the ABC Family Network series, Chris had roles on such TV programs as “Boston Public,” “24″ and “CSI: Miami.” Olivero is married to actress Alexandra Picatto (”Summerland,” “Charmed”).

Moderator: Our first question comes from the line of Jamie Ruby. Please go ahead, your line is open.

J. Ruby: Hello. I was curious what you think of how the dynamic will change between your character and Lori now that the secret is out about what Kyle can do and everything.

C. Olivero: First of all, thanks for calling in. The relationship now, it takes a lot of pressure off of Declan as far as not knowing who he can tell, what he can say, when people want to know the answers about Kyle. Now he can try to protect his friend, but at the same time try to focus on his relationship with Lori and where that should or should not go. Basically, the characters now can focus on themselves a little bit. Protect Kyle, but focus on their relationship, what their future holds together, what their future holds individually.

The dynamic is going to be like a friendship, with that same kind of back and forth that we’re used to, with some new elements to it because we’ve already been through so much together. Declan is still into Lori, and it’s the same thing of friends or not friends? That’s going to continue. But definitely a lot of the pressure is gone and now it’s kind of back to the whole family protecting Kyle.

J. Ruby: Thanks and thanks for taking our call, too.

C. Olivero: No problem, thank you.

Moderator: Our next question will come from Wendy Moore, please go ahead.

W. Moore: Hello, Chris. The Declan/Lori relationship is probably the most real relationship on the show. Do you find that that adds an additional level of responsibility on your part to make that accurate, or do you just play it and have fun?

C. Olivero: No, I definitely feel responsibility to it because I do like the realness of it, where it’s the whole life-is-complicated and those complications affect your relationship. When you’re that age, when you’re in high school and stuff, it’s that element of what should you do? Do you kind of go with what the crowd thinks or what you think? It’s all that confusion about relationships and that’s what I like about it. It’s a strong relationship, which is also great to play.

It’s definitely, like I said, it’s a big responsibility in the sense of you have your own creative mind about your character and the writers have theirs and you have to kind of meld what you think. We’re always getting scenes with some of the writing changed or different things like that and we talk with them openly, continuously, so that we all are in connection with where the character should go. And yes, we want to be as truthful as we can, so the public can get that out of it and I’m glad to hear it; I’m glad that you feel that. That’s the best thing that we can hear is that it’s real and that people believe it because believability’s the biggest thing in what we do.

We want to continue doing that to the best of our ability and that’s what we hope the writers give us and we can hopefully make the fans happy.

Moderator: Thank you, Wendy. Our next question comes from Linda Craddock [from Slice of SciFi]; please go ahead.

L. Craddock: Hello, Chris, how are you?

C. Olivero: Good. How are you doing?

L. Craddock: Great, thank you. Declan’s commitment to help Kyle find the truth about his past has generated a maturity level well beyond the Declan we met in season one. Talk a little bit about that transition in the character.

C. Olivero: Absolutely. In season one Declan pretty much had the high school worries. The thing about Declan, though, is there was always a depth to him. He may have appeared to be kind of the typical high school guy and there is that part of him, but there was always a depth of who he is, a soul searching kind of a thing. That’s why he was into Lori, because she was different and she was unique. And that was part of him. And then, when Kyle came into the world, he didn’t know whether or not to be jealous. He didn’t know what to think of him and kind of felt threatened by him. And then the friendship developed and Kyle became basically his only true male friend and he did whatever he could to protect that.

You do see him grow up and it’s one of the reasons why I really liked the character in the beginning, knowing that he was going to grow up and stand up for what’s right. He cherishes what’s close to him and he sometimes doesn’t handle situations right or he makes mistakes, like maybe how he reacted to Kyle standing with Lori. But he means well deep down. He definitely wants to help Kyle find who he is. He kept his secret. He took all the price, the physical tolls and the emotional tolls that came with it.

But it was great to see that the writers went with that and it’s amazing to play and it’s just like you said, it’s a big transition between season one where he starts and where he ends. And season two it’s the same thing. You see that he is flawed; he’s not perfect. But he tries hard and he wants to do what’s right. That’s pretty much where he went with Kyle. He’s just trying to do what’s right and trying to protect what he feels is close to him because there’s not that many things or people that are close to him.

Moderator: Thank you, Linda. Our next question comes from Sandie Sahakikns. Please go ahead.

S. Sahakikns: Hello, Chris. I was wondering what’s in store for your character in the future.

C. Olivero: In the continuous part of season 2.5, now that the secret is out, the focus is going to be in Declan’s relationship with Lori and with Kyle as his friend. He just lost out on his basketball scholarship because of his injury. So it’s kind of going to be ‘where’s Declan going from here.’

He’s held Kyle’s secret. He’s focused on that; his relationship with Lori has suffered and he’s tried to repair that. Now that’s kind of where it’s at. All of a sudden, he’s thrown into [a situation] where now he’s friends with Lori again. Kyle has Jesse to worry about. Kyle has his own issues to get through and worry about and Declan now has his, with school and everything else.

So what’s in store is basically just trying to figure out he is; trying to figure out how to help Kyle; how to protect Kyle. We get to see more of that as the season will progress and, especially towards the end, more of the emotional kind of confusion. He tries to find some resolve and there’s always complications that are still going to arise in his life. Like I said, he tries to do the right thing, wants to do the right thing and sometimes things just don’t work out for him. But he’s going to try to search his soul and do the best he can and protect everybody as much as he can.

[Pictured above is Chris Olivero with his “Kyle XY” co-star April Matson]

(Read more…)

James Cawley, Executive Producer of Star Trek New Voyages talks about the new Paramount Star Trek movie and his encounter with J.J. Abrams on the set.

Before meeting Abrams, Cawley had some trepidation about the idea of making a new film dealing with such iconic characters from the original series before they became the famous characters most of us grew up with. However, after sitting side by side with Abrams on the set while shooting was taking place, and spending a good deal of time speaking with him and learning about Abrams’ vision for the future of the franchise, Cawley is confident, relieved and assured that Star Trek is now in good hands.

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Our friends at the OC Register had a chance for a sit-down with the great William Shatner on Friday. They contacted us because they thought our fans would like to read what Bill had to say and we totally agree. Here is just a sampling of the interview. For the full conversation go to the OC Register website.

Q: So you’re the ‘celebrity ambassador’ for the tour [Star Trek: The Tour] – what’ll you do?

A: My face will pop up all over the place in the tour. My being will pop up on the opening day and at other times, too. And I’ll be talking to people like yourself about what a great piece of entertainment it is for all the family.

Q: You’ve won Emmys for ‘Boston Legal’ and “The Practice,’ had a big hit with “TJ Hooker” too, and yet ‘Star Trek’ is the role everyone mentions first – what’s it like to have that legacy? Are you comfortable with that? Ever resist it?

A: I don’t find it uncomfortable, I’m not fighting it. As you point out, in the 40 odd years since I was in the series, I’ve done other things. Mostly I get Shatner (from people who approach him), but if people want to say Captain Kirk that’s all right too – all part of the working day.

Q:What do you think it is about Star Trek that continues to draw people to it after all these years?

A: I think that world that we do live in, the reality, it’s fairly unsure as to how long the world will continue. There’s some evidence that we’re not all that permanent. And here’s a show that says not only are we permanent 300 years from now, but we’re excelling – so there’s a sense of hope for the future.

Then there’s the good action-adventure stuff. And there are the good characters, who have good character things to do, and who are vulnerable. That’s a key thing I think – you’re leading characters being vulnerable.

Q: What do you think people will most respond to in the tour?

A: The interactive stuff, of getting on the bridge and interacting with the characters, and going on a flight in the theater – all of that joined by seeing the actual elements that went into making the show. A lot of people enjoy that they can see and touch the costumes and the props and the sets that were actually there.