Star Trek in the News - September 15, 2010

Kim Cattrall, who appeared as Lt. Valeris in The Undiscovered Country and went on to earn far greater fame as the sexed-up Samantha Jones in the long-running Sex and the City television series and subsequent feature films, returns to mature territory with her upcoming film, Meet Monica Velour. The comedy-drama-romance follows a teenaged nerd (Dustin Ingram) who meets his fantasy woman, an aging, cash-strapped 1980’s adult film star played by Cattrall. Meet Monica Velour is currently on the film festival circuit in the hope of securing a distributor.

Stephen Collins, who starred as Commander Willard Decker in The Motion Picture, is back in the genre game with No Ordinary Family. The upcoming ABC series follows an everyday family that winds up with superpowers, and it casts Michael Chiklis and Julie Benz as the parents. Collins plays Dr. Dayton King, boss to Benz’s scientist character. No Ordinary Family will premiere on September 28. Collins is also set to turn up on another ABC series, Brothers & Sisters. He’ll guest star in the October 17 episode, “Righteous Kiss,” as a romantic interest for Saul (Ron Rifkin).

Sticking with Star Trek-No Ordinary Family connections for a moment brings us to Arne Starr. Starr is a veteran comic book artist who has worked on more Star Trek comic book titles than, well, anyone. He’s also provided artwork to several television shows, including Greek, Medium and now, No Ordinary Family. Oh, and he’s an actor, too. He’s often an extra, but sometimes he lands speaking roles. He appears un-credited as “Teacher” in the upcoming film comedy You Again, plays the “flower guy” in the No Ordinary Family pilot, and, if he makes the final cut, will appear as a reporter in The Green Hornet. That, by the way, was him as “Lt. Commander, Engineering” in J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek feature.

And how about one more Star Trek-No Ordinary Family connection? Jimmy Bennett, who played the young James T. Kirk in the recent Star Trek feature, co-stars in No Ordinary Family as J.J. Powell, the super-powered son of the characters played by Chiklis and Benz. Bennett is also attached to the upcoming family adventure film The Return of Captain Kidd. He’ll share scenes in the movie with Christopher Lloyd, Lloyd, of course, portrayed the villainous Klingon commander, Kruge, in The Search for Spock. Lloyd recently popped up on an episode of Chuck and can currently be seen in Piranha 3-D, and he’s completed numerous upcoming projects, among them The Witches of Oz 3-D, with Billy Boyd, Lance Henriksen, Sean Astin, Mia Sara and Star Trek favorite Jeffrey Combs.

Jeffrey Combs, a character actor who never seems to lack for work, is currently touring with his acclaimed one-man show, Nevermore, which is based on the life of Edgar Allen Poe. He’ll also be heard as Ratchet in the upcoming CG animated series Transformers: Prime, which will premiere in October. And if you want to dip just slightly into the land of the bizarre, visit Combs’ site, scroll down the left side of the home page and click on “Bill Shatner Interview.” It’s five minutes and seven seconds of archived geek bliss as Shatner interviews Combs, director Stuart Gordon and actress Barbara Crampton about their experiences working together on several horror films, notably Castle Freak. Finally, a favorite at horror and Star Trek conventions, Combs is confirmed for Creation Entertainment’s Weekend of Horrors, set for October 15-17 in Los Angeles, and Creation’s Official Star Trek Convention in Chicago, to be held from October 22-24.

Winona Ryder, who played Amanda Grayson in Star Trek, has several projects on the way. She co-stars with Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis and Vincent Cassel in writer-director Darren Aronofsky’s mind-bending ballet drama/fantasy Black Swan. Ryder tackles a supporting role as a star ballerina nudged not so gracefully off her pedestal. Ryder has also completed production on the Ron Howard-directed comedy The Dilemma, which stars Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Jennifer Connelly, Queen Latifah and Channing Tatum.

Lastly, we’ve got the latest on Madchen Amick. The actress counts among her earliest credits the part of Anya, the teenage girl in “The Dauphin” episode of The Next Generation. Amick, in the past year, has played recurring roles on Damages and CSI: NY, and completed the upcoming horror-action-thriller Priest, co-starring with Paul Bettany, Maggie Q, Cam Gigandet, and a few familiar Star Trek figures: Christopher Plummer (General Chang in The Undiscovered Country and the videogame Klingon Academy), Brad Dourif (Suder on Voyager) and Karl Urban (Dr. McCoy in Star Trek XI). Amick has also just been cast in Unanswered Prayers, an upcoming Lifetime movie based on the hit Garth Brooks song of the same name. Amick will play a woman whose return to her hometown threatens the marriage of an old suitor (Eric Close) and his wife (Samantha Mathis). Star Trek fans may remember that Mathis is the daughter of the late Bibi Besch, who played Dr. Carol Marcus in The Wrath of Khan. And if you like your factoids truly arcane: Mathis dated and co-starred in the films Pump Up the Volume and Broken Arrow with Christian Slater, who played Amick’s husband in the recent, short-lived television series My Own Worst Enemy and, of course, made a cameo in The Undiscovered Country.