by Anthony Pascale – James Cawley is not the only veteran of the fan film Star Trek New Voyages (now Phase II) who is headed to the big screen in JJ Abrams’ new Star Trek. Jeff Quinn, New Voyages’ first Spock, has also landed a small Trek role. At the Saturday night screening for the Phase II episode “To Serve all My Days – 1969 edition,” Quinn talked to TrekMovie about his Star Trek movie experience.

Just like with Cawley, Quinn’s is a non-speaking part, but he did say that he is “front and center” in a couple of shots. Quinn couldn’t give any details on his role, but his partially shaved eyebrows might be a clue. Quinn did his scenes this last week and was there for the last day of shooting. Even though Quinn is no stranger to the film biz, from both his time with New Voyages and with his regular job doing visual effects for Battlestar Galactica, he was still impressed with the scale of the production saying “it was a marvel to see how they do it in Hollywood.”

Landing the role actually didn’t come directly from Quinn’s involvement with New Voyages / Phase II. Quinn tells TrekMovie.com that his path to a part started last year with that casting call looking for people with ‘unique features’ who were willing to shave their eyebrows. The lanky sharp-featured actor who portrayed Spock for four episodes with New Voyages quipped “clearly I was OK with that.” Quinn sent in an email and picture and then went through the traditional audition process until he was finally was selected. The visual effects artist turned part-time Vulcan clearly felt fortunate for the experience, stating “it was an honor and a privilege to work on JJ Abrams’ Star Trek.”

Congratulations to my friend Jeff Quinn. I owe you another cigar!!!

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Frisco, TX – What’s worse than a geek who crashes a party? A geek that wants to crash a party, and instead stares from a far. That unfortunately was me. We went to Dave and Buster’s in Frisco, TX to celebrate my parent’s 50th Anniversary. Things went great, until I noticed a sign went up with an arrow, Word Camp. What’s “Word Camp?” Word Camp is a consortium of users and developers of the WordPress, the same software I use on this blog.

I wasn’t sure if Matt Mullenweg was there, but I definately saw John Pozadzides. The Chief Marketing Officer of Layered Technologies, John is going to give a lecture on “45 Ways to Power Up Your Blog.” Of all the people I needed to pick their brains, it has to be this guy.

But instead, priorities Proxi…family first. But I couldn’t help but look at them. I wanted so much to start snapping photos or running in. Nah, I was pretty much freaking them out enough as it was.

If your in the Frisco, TX area, check out the conference at Word Camp. $20 to get in on March 29 and 30. Think of me, I have more family matters to keep me away.

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latimesblogs.latimes.com — He talks about the second coming of “Never Gonna Give You Up”

Over the last year or so, Astley has watched with puzzled amazement as “Never Gonna Give You Up” has been mocked, celebrated, remixed and reprised, its original music video viewed millions of times on YouTube, all by a generation that could barely swallow its Gerber carrots when the song first topped the pop charts.

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This was just announced on the Star Trek: Phase II website:

Well, this year’s final Hugo Award nominees were announced yesterday at 12:00 noon EDT. I’m am happy to announce that “World Enough and Time” is indeed one of the five nominees in the category of Best Dramatic Presentation–Short Form. So, part one of our mission is accomplished. (There were 483 people who sent in nominating ballots.) Our next step will be to get people to sign up to become WSFS members so that they can cast votes–now that they know WEaT really is one of the nominees. More details on that shortly (or just look back on one of my old posts).

In the meantime, here are the five nominees in the Best Dramatic Presentation–Short Form category:

Battlestar Galactica “Razor” written by Michael Taylor, directed by Félix Enríquez Alcalá and Wayne Rose (Sci Fi Channel) (televised version, not DVD)

Doctor Who “Blink” written by Stephen Moffat, directed by Hettie Macdonald (BBC)

Doctor Who “Human Nature” / “Family of Blood” written by Paul Cornell, directed by Charles Palmer (BBC)

Star Trek New Voyages “World Enough and Time” written by Michael Reaves & Marc Scott Zicree, directed by Marc Scott Zicree (Cawley Entertainment Co. and The Magic Time Co.)

Torchwood “Captain Jack Harkness” written by Catherine Tregenna, directed by Ashley Way (BBC Wales)

Congratulations to everyone who contributed to the production and to the Hugo effort (mostly to the production).

Greg Schnitzer
Gaithersburg, Maryland

I’m particularly thrilled by this since I participated in the filming of “World Enough and Time”. An experience I’m not likely to forget.

Congratulations to all the Phase II/New Voyages crew.

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Sony is finally seeing the error of its ways, but instead of removing the crapware altogether, Sony has the nerve to offer a $50 “Fresh Start” option, which “scrubs” the machine clean before shipping it your way.

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