Sandy Damages Shuttle

From AP via Xnewsman comes news that shuttle Enterprise, the first shuttle that started the shuttle program, now being shown at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City, sustained minor damage to the tail structure during hurricane Sandy.

The shuttle sustained minor damage to its vertical stabilizer, or tail when a small piece of foam came off, was confirmed by a museum spokesman.

As you may remember, the Enterprise was used for atmospheric drop tests  in 1977, four years before the first shuttle launch. It was never designed for space travel. 

Down Town Las Vegas Almost Had Full Scale Enterprise!

According to The Goddard Group via Boing Boing, Down town Las Vegas almost had a FULL SIZED Star Trek Enterprise. The rational being that this would revitalized the sagging down town economy which had over the past few years had been loosing a large share to the strip.

Gary Goddard was to build a life-sized Starship Enterprise replica in downtown Las Vegas. Goddard successfully bid to build the attraction as part of the 1992 competition to revitalized Vegas's sagging downtown and bring back tourist traffic. However, the project was scuttled at the last minute when Stanley Jaffe, then CEO of Paramount, got cold feet.

The project was budgeted at $150,000,000 (in 1992 dollars) and the whole system was a ride based around a mock "tour" of the newly constructed Enterprise were replicated in the build. All of the most familiar rooms, chambers, decks, and corridors from the movie. Jaffe though was not as enthusiastic as everyone else however. “I don’t want to be the guy that approved this and then it’s a flop and sitting out there in Vegas forever.” was his reason for nixing the whole project.

Boing Boing article

How Patrick Stewart would never be Enterprise's captain

Shocking enough statement for you? Or confusing? Well I really wanted to peak your interest in what some of us have guessed in part, that Sir Patrick was not all that comfortable with his role as J.L. Picard.

In a recent article on TrekMovie.com, Stewart said about his casting as captain:

• Why would they cast a middle-aged bald English Shakespearean actor in this iconic role as captain of the Enterprise? It made no sense. But I guess Gene Roddenberry had some sort of instinct for it...

Nothing, in fact, could have been further from the truth. ST-TNG producer Robert Justman had heard Stewart doing a reading of Shakespeare and instantly knew that this was the man to helm the next Enterprise. However after speaking with Stewart, Roddenberry was very much NOT in favor of using him. In fact he is quoted as saying "I won't have him". Justman knew that the more he pushed the more Gene would dig in his heels. Instead he waited until Roddenberry had seen all the other prospects (Gene was looking for a masculine Frenchman with a full head of hair) finally capitulated.

But it makes you think. On person sure it was insane and the other totally against the casting and still we have one of the most iconic captains of all the Star Trek captains.

Read complete article here

Why did the starship Enterprise have such a stupid bridge?

From the techrepublic blog!

You know, I have thought this for years and now someone has had the balls to come out and ask the obvious! Who in their right mind would put a command and control center right out where it could be blasted and waste all the ranking officers in one shot?! I tell you why, because Roddenbury wanted that opening shot of the very first show where the camera zooms right down onto the bridge. (I mean the REAL first show that got chopped all to crap in the 2 hour recut Minagerie) I like the line the article writer in Techrepublic wrote..."Seriously, if Sulu ever misjudges the top of the doorjamb in spacedock, every major character gets scraped out of continuity like extra icing off a cupcake." Even their graphic was a laugh riot....check out the whole article or rant if you will... damn funny.