News

Jonathan Frakes explained why newer shows in the Star Trek franchise have inconsistent VFX and CGI. In a Reddit Ama, Frakes joined writer Ken Lazebnik and science consultant Andre Bormanis to ask fans’ burning questions about the franchise. Among other things, the director and actor explained the reason behind Star Trek’s VFX woes.

The franchise has largely been successful in the longer format, with the original series starting out as a TV show. Unlike its competitor sci-fi franchise Star Wars, which only got into streaming and TV after the movies, Star Trek has always been a TV-friendly IP. Hence, a lot of time crunch has reportedly led to some inconsistent quality in the VFX.

Jonathan Frakes explained why the newer Star Trek shows have VFX issues A still from Star Trek: Tng | Credits: Paramount

While it is tradition for cast members to direct an episode in Star Trek,...

Star Trek: Voyager’s central conceit was that the eponymous ship was stranded in the Delta Quadrant of the galaxy, 70,000 light years away from Earth. The series shows the 75-year journey of the Voyager and the various alien ships and planets they encounter. The crew is joined by the former Borg drone Seven of Nine in season 4.

The series finale of the show reduced the travel time of the Voyager by a large amount and featured a time-travel storyline, including an encounter with the Borg Queen. However, the show was reportedly also going to kill off Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine. In fact, producer Brannon Braga revealed the death was set up in a previous episode.

A still from Star Trek: Voyager | Credits: Paramount Star Trek: Voyager series finale would have seen Jeri Ryan’s Seven of Nine sacrifice herself

The Star Trek franchise has almost always seen the...

Like any other writers, those who write for Star Trek try to make sure they get things right before the script goes to film. Of course, there are bound to be errors, but usually, fans can overlook them. They might point them out on Reddit, but, for the most part, we're okay with a bump in the road here and there...unless they really stand out because it's our field of expertise.

And that's exactly what happened during the fifth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. After the season's sixteenth episode Ethics aired, a viewer wrote in with some corrections for Dr. Beverly Crusher [Gates McFadden], which were accurate and appreciated.

Andre Bormanis was the science consultant for the series and was trained in several sciences, but he understood they couldn't always get the tech stuff right. He told Deborah Fisher in the August/September 1997 edition of Star Trek Communicator,...

Lt. Hemmer on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds honors the legacy of Andre Bormanis, creator of the Aenar race on Star Trek: Enterprise. Bormanis, a science consultant and writer for Star Trek series, recalls his role in shaping the alien species on the show. Despite his contribution to the Aenar, Bormanis humorously notes there are no alien character royalties in the industry.

Lt. Hemmer (Bruce Horak) on Star Trek: Strange New Worlds owes a debt to Star Trek: Enterprise writer Andre Bormanis, who invented the Aenar. Bormanis was a science consultant and writer for the Rick Berman-era Star Trek series, and he worked on Star Trek: Enterprise as a writer and producer. Bormanis is credited with writing 12 episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise, including "Silent Enemy", "Horizon", "The Crossing", "Babel One", "Terra Prime", and, of course, "The Aenar", which introduced the blind subject of the Andorian race.

Andre Bormanis appeared...

Get ready to dive deeper into The Orville universe with the new guidebook, packed with info straight from the crew members themselves. Even if the future of the show is uncertain, fans can still explore the world of The Orville and learn secrets they never knew before. With exclusive accounts, detailed tech info, and a deluxe edition with extras, this guide is a must-have for any die-hard fan of the show.

Fans of the hit sci-fi show The Orville are about to discover more than they ever thought possible thanks to a new guidebook. While the future of the show hangs in the air, a new release from Dark Horse Books will take readers back and answer any question about The Orville's world.

Screen Rant has an exclusive first look at The Guide to the Orville, an illustrated guide to the sci-fi universe. Written by Andre Bormanis, the guide...

This article contains spoilers for The Orville, Star Trek: The Original Series, and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Featuring broad comedy and characters who don’t seem to be taking their jobs very seriously, the first trailer for The Orville suggested that the Fox series would be a spoof of Star Trek.

In said trailer, Captain Mercer (Seth MacFarlane) tries to eat a marble and asks an alien to move over so he is framed better in the viewscreen. Lt. Gordon Malloy (Scott Grimes) drinks beer while on duty, flying a shuttle, at 9:15 a.m. Commander Kelly Grayson’s (Adrianne Palicki) former marriage to Mercer is treated to rather stale “comic” arguments about going to therapy. Mercer’s reaction to Lt. Commander Bortus’s (Peter Macon) species being entirely male is to observe, with truly cutting and original wit, that they probably don’t have many arguments about leaving the toilet seat up.

Enterprise would have continued what worked in season 4, setting up the Romulan War and having Shran join Captain Archer's Nx-01 crew. Commander Trip Tucker wouldn't have been killed off, while Enterprise season 5 would have expanded on season 4's Mirror Universe story. Enterprise faced complications from franchise fatigue, frequent schedule changes, and network executive regime changes.

Star Trek: Enterprise was canceled by Upn Network after season 4, but plans were in place as to what Enterprise season 5 would have been about. Created by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, Enterprise aired on Upn from 2001-2005, bowing out as the only Star Trek series produced by Berman not to run 7 seasons. This has caused fans to protest both at Paramount Studios and online forums with diehards even fundraising money so that the series can have one last go for a fitting finale. However, the campaign to save Star Trek: Enterprise ultimately failed even...

Jonathan Frakes admits that the Riker Maneuver, where he swings his leg over the chair before sitting down, was actually just a byproduct of the low chairs on set. He acknowledges that it can come off as an a**hole move. Frakes praises Jack Quaid's improvised "Riker" move onto the saddle in Star Trek: Lower Decks, calling it brilliant. A different Riker Maneuver happens in Star Trek: Insurrection, but it is unclear if it becomes an official maneuver in the eyes of Starfleet.

Jonathan Frakes has a surprising opinion about the Riker Maneuver he often employed in Star Trek: The Next Generation. As Commander William Riker, Frakes had a particular way of sitting in chairs that has since become iconic in its own right. Throughout Tng, whenever Riker needed to sit down in one of the chairs on the USS Enterprise-d, he would swing one leg over the back...

"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...

This review of The Orville: New Horizons contains spoilers.

The Orville: New Horizons Season 3 Episode 9

When The Orville: New Horizons was introduced eight weeks ago, it appeared to be everything you’d want to see was on the horizon. It was shiny, big, bold, exciting, and most importantly: it introduced new ingredients that promised to take the show in directions it had yet to explore.

Yet it would be all for naught if the scripts didn’t bring that same revitalized energy, or take any chances in terms of the story. If New Horizons lacked vision, then this could easily be an overinflated last horizon for the show.Proving once again that the writing team had a cohesiveness that makes this third season easily the strongest, “Domino” opens ominously on the rainy planet of Krill, where Chancelor Teleya (Michaela McManus) and a Moclan delegation meet to discuss an alliance against the Planetary Union.

This review of The Orville: New Horizons contains spoilers.

The Orville: New Horizons Season 3 Episode 4

Good science-fiction should challenge us. It should contain subtext that can teach, subvert, and even make us uncomfortable by shining a light on aspects of our world we don’t want to look at. Whether it is the golden standard of this layered writing style such as The Outer Limits, the legendary The Twilight Zone, or recent forays into the genre like Black Mirror, these tiny vignettes of fiction are loaded with political subtext and important morals. This week’s “Gently Falling Rain”, much like the season 3 premiere of The Orville: New Horizons perhaps goes from subtextual to “textual”, but can definitely be considered one of the biggest episodes of the series in terms of scope, impact, and timeliness.

Jon Cassar, director of “Gently Falling Rain”, chooses to open the story in a very ominous and almost silent fashion,...