Slice of SciFi Star Trek reporter Christine Roberts attended this year’s Planet Xpo celebration marking Star Trek’s 40th Anniversary. While there she was able to catch two new trailers for the highly anticipated mini series webisodes of Tim Russ’ “Star Trek: Of Gods and Men.” The first trailer was about 2-minutes in length, followed by a different 6-minute viewing. As fans of Star Trek know, Tim Russ starred as Commander Tuvok for seven years on the “Star Trek: Voyager” television series.
Christine, who also reports for the web fanzine “Hailing Frequencies Open” (HFO) stated that, in her opinion, neither trailer adequately conveyed, or gave a sense of what the story surrounding this production would be, so she tracked down actor Alan Ruck, who reprises his role of Captain Harriman (STAR TREK: VII Generations) in “Of Gods and Men”, and asked him about it.
Ruck revealed that “Of Gods and Men” will followup on an original series episode called “Charlie X,” which aired on September 15, 1966 and starred Robert Walker, Jr. as Charlie Evans, a teenager with exceptional powers, but in the angst-filled, hormone-raging body of a pubescent boy. If you have teenagers, picture them with unlimited power and you can imagine the nightmare.
In the continuing story imagined by Russ, it is now several years later and Charlie (with all his powers in tact) is on a revenge quest to find Captain Kirk and destroy him for forcing his hand back on the original Enterprise NCC-1701. One thing is for sure, a person would never gather that from watching the trailer provided by the series’ official website.
Our recommendation: If you haven’t yet seen the original episode of “Charlie X” or, are a bit rusty on it – view it first before watching Russ’ inventive followup.
“Star Trek: Of Gods and Men,” directed by and starring Tim Russ will showcase many Star Trek alum including the aforementiond Alan Ruck, Walter Koenig (TOS), Nichelle Nichols (TOS), Garrett Wang (VOY), Chase Masterson (DS9), Grace Lee Whitney (TOS), Gary Graham (ENT), Crystal Allen (ENT) and many more.
The 3-part Webisodes will be available for download in late December 2006 or early January 2007 from the “Star Trek: Of Gods and Men” official website.
Sorry to disappoint, but Robert Walker, Jr. does NOT appear in Of Gods and Men. And while there are some ties to the Charlie X episode, much of this article is incorrect. Finally, the story of OGaM was conceived by writers Jack Trevino, Ethan H. Calk and Sky Conway, not director Russ…
Ethan
co-author, OGaM
Sorry to disappoint – but re-read the article…never said that Robert Walker Jr would be in OGaM, but that he starred in the TOS episode called “Charlie X” and that this mini-webisodes of OGaM would be directly related to that TOS episode – which it is. I also mentioned Captain Kirk in the article – but neither Kirk or Shatner will be in OGaM.
So, I’m not sure what is meant by the article being mostly wrong — as is accepted practice – a film is mostly attributed to its director who is the helmer of the ship, therefore – regardless of who has been involved with the writing of a project – what is ultimately seen on the screen is the vision of the director as he/she applies the written word to the screen – therefore, the phrase in the article “In the continuing story imagined by Russ.” But, then as the co-author of OGaM you already know this.
Oh BTW Ethan – if all that I have heard about this groundbreaking project comes to pass – Kudos to you and the entire creative staff that is bringing this highly anticipated show to fans of Star Trek. You guys definitely rock.
This is exactly what I was looking for, thanks for the great information.