Next Club Meeting:September 20, 2025,at the Fountaindale Public Library in Bolingbrook from 11:00 am - 5:00 pm
The Animatrix Network is an anime & manga fan club located in the Southwest suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. We usually meet on the third Saturday of each month (except when holidays or conventions coincide). The meetings are free and open to the public. Join us for a day filled with anime.
This site provides news, reviews, commentaries, and previews of the world of anime and everything it inspires, such as live-action films, comics, music, art, and other weird things to enjoy and contemplate.
Season 2 of the Dexter Prequel "Original Sin” just got cancelled by Showtime, Paramount and Skydance; despite already having been given the greenlight several months ago, as they want to focus on flagship series Dexter Resurrection starring Michael C. Hall … and that should worry Alex Kurtzman and his iteration of Star Trek - because his Starfleet Academy series could be on the chopping block next. Let's visit the latest rumors from behind the scenes...
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy follows the adventures of a new class of cadets in one of the most legendary places in the galaxy. Under the watchful and demanding eyes of their instructors, they will discover what it takes to become Starfleet officers as they navigate blossoming friendships, explosive rivalries, first loves and a new enemy that threatens both the Academy and the Federation itself. Starring: Holly Hunter, Sandro Rosta, Karim Diané Network: Paramount+.
This is no rumor folks - Shatner himself posted on X that he has been approached to resurrect Captain Kirk, possibly the only thing that could save Star Trek at this point. We're elated at this news... but also worried, because the big question is: WHO has contacted him?
Star Trek Section 31 is "not the Trek fans want" according to actor Rob Kazinsky who publicly confessed he's "terrified" by how fans are going to react to this latest series from Secret Hideout. Was this public confession damage control from Paramount, or maneuvering behind the scenes by Skydance? Here's what Kazinsky said, along with some allegations leaked by a long-time source from behind the scenes, but from what I'm hearing folks, as strange as it seems, Section 31 may well be the WORSTEST Star Trek EVAR!
Star Trek Discovery Humiliated and REMOVED from CANON!?
Following the final episode of Star Trek Lower Decks, Star Trek fans feel something they haven't for many years, namely JOY over the prospect that Star Trek Discovery may be removed from canon. But is there truth to these rumors, as reported by OverlordDVD and if so, where does that leave Strange New World and the upcoming Section 31?
Star Trek Discovery was officially erased from canon this week in what amounts to a Christmas miracle thanks to the series finale of Star Trek: Lower Decks! What happened? How can this be official? Here's the scoop folks! Here's what Santa left under the Christmas tree for Star Trek fans EVERYWHERE! And, incidentally, I said all along that STD wasn't Star Trek...looks like once again, Doomcock Was Right! Star Trek Discovery was officially erased from canon this week in what amounts to a Christmas miracle thanks to the series finale of Star Trek: Lower Decks! What happened? How can this be official? Here's the scoop folks! Here's what Santa left under the Christmas tree for Star Trek fans EVERYWHERE! And, incidentally, I said all along that STD wasn't Star Trek... looks like once again, Doomcock Was Right!
Star Trek: Section 31 stars Academy Award winner Michelle Yeoh as Emperor Philippa Georgiou who joins a secret division of Starfleet. Tasked with protecting the United Federation of Planets, she also must face the sins of her past. Star Trek: Section 31 will be available to stream exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. and in all international markets where the service is available in 2025.
What Does This Mean for Star Trek? Rumor CONFIRMED?
Yesterday the news broke that Paramount is closing their TV Studio and laying off a large number of employees... how will this impact Star Trek? And is this confirmation of the rumored emergency Star Trek meeting?
In Season 2 of Star Trek: Prodigy, these six young outcasts who make up the Prodigy crew are assigned a new mission aboard the U.S.S. Voyager-A to rescue Captain Chakotay and bring peace to Gwyn’s home world. However, when their plan goes astray, it creates a time paradox that jeopardizes both their future and past.
Get ready to boldly go where no one has gone before as we dive deep into everything we know about "Star Trek: Prodigy" Season 2 in this video! Created by the talented Kevin and Dan Hageman, Prodigy has reimagined the Star Trek universe, captivating both new and long-time fans. The first season introduced us to a group of alien kids on a journey aboard the USS Protostar, guided by the legendary Captain Janeway and her holographic self, encountering new challenges and villains. But here's the big twist: "Star Trek: Prodigy" was canceled by Paramount+ as part of their merger with Showtime, leaving fans devastated. However, there's good news! The series has found a new home on Netflix, and season 2 is in the works. With a bigger potential audience, season 2 promises to be even more thrilling, with the return of the original voice cast and exciting new storylines. We'll explore what season 2 might have in store and the release details. Stay tuned for all the latest on "Star Trek: Prodigy" Season 2.
Boimler (Jack Quaid), Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Rutherford (Eugene Cordero), Tendi (Noël Wells) and the rest of the U.S.S. Cerritos crew prove they are more than just lower deckers in the official Season 4 trailer!
"Star Trek: Lower Decks" focuses on the support crew serving on
one of Starfleet's least important ships, the USS Cerritos, in 2380.
Ensigns Mariner, Boimler, Rutherford and Tendi must keep up with their
duties and their social lives, often while the ship is being rocked by a
multitude of sci-fi anomalies. The ship's bridge
crew includes Captain Carol Freeman, Commander Jack Ransom, Lieutenant
Shaxs and Doctor T'Ana. This is the second animated spin-off in the
franchise after 1973-74's "Star Trek: The Animated Series," but has a
decidedly more adult tone and humor.
[Source: TrekMovie] One of the most anticipated episodes in the upcoming second season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is the crossover with Lower Decks that
will bring Tawny Newsome as Mariner and Jack Quaid as Boimler onto
Pike’s USS in live-action. That episode was directed by TNG vet Jonathan
Frakes, who’s been talking about that as well as the state of Star Trek
movies and TV.
Full-on comedy on Strange New Worlds
Jonathan Frakes has an interview in the February issue of SFX Magazine, and in addition to talking about returning as Captain Riker in the third season of Picard, he also talks about his experience directing the Strange New Worlds/Lower Decks crossover episode:
Oh god, it’s so good. I have Jack Quaid and Tawny
Newsome, who are both amazing. It was such a treat for me because it is a
flat-out comedy. Full on. And they’re fearless over there, they take
some really big swings on Strange New Worlds. They’re animated at the beginning and at the end. It’s a clever and simple product. It’s not really Roger Rabbit
because what happens is these guys come over and they’re humans and you
accept them as soon as they’re on the Enterprise. God, the two of them
have got great energy, and it freed up the acting company on Strange New Worlds
to play more broadly. Anson’s a wonderful comedian, very dry, but so’s
Rebecca. It encouraged Ethan and everyone, there were just a lot of
positives that came out of them having the guts to do a full-on comedy,
let alone a crossover with an animated show.
When speaking to TrekMovie last year, Frakes said he was picked to direct the crossover because he had previously appeared as Riker in Lower Decks, noting “They’re stretching the limits of the comedy of Riker on Lower Decks and knowing me personally, this would be a good fit. And as you can imagine, it was a blast.”
Trek’s future is TV
By directing for season 2 of Strange New Worlds, Frakes is
now the only person who helmed episodes for all three current Paramount+
live-action Star Trek shows, which includes two episodes of the
upcoming third season of Picard and at least one from season 5 of Discovery. Combined with his directing work on TNG, DS9 and Voyager,
he has directed over 30 episodes of Trek TV and two Trek feature films.
When asked if he sees a future for himself directing for big screen
Star Trek again, Frakes pointed to TV as where it’s at with Trek these
days:
Movies are tough! Even J.J. [Abrams] can’t get this
fourth movie off the ground. All those wonderful rumors? Noah Hawley was
attached to a Star Trek movie, and Quentin [Tarantino] was
toying with people’s emotions about doing a movie. If those two names
can’t get a fucking movie made, I don’t know. TV is the future, it seems
to me.
In his late 2022 TrekMovie interview, Frakes did say he reached out to Abrams after Matt Shakman dropped out as the director of the Star Trek 4 project to remind the producer “If you need an experienced guy to take over Star Trek 4, I’m available.” In that same interview, he also said he felt season 3 of Picard
“could continue into the next story” and that he would love to be
involved with any follow-up show both in front and behind the camera. He
had the same sentiment in his SFX interview, saying “I hope the road
leads to another series.”
There is much more from Jonathan Frakes as well as interviews with co-star Gates McFadden and Picard showrunner Terry Matalas in the February issue of SFX Magazine.
(January 12, 1951 – December 5, 2022) Actress who played Saavik on Star Trek II has died of cancer
(Source: Yahoo!News) Kirstie Alley fibbed in order to
play her iconic Star Trek character who was, ironically, incapable of
lying.
In 2016, Alley participated in the
Star Trek 50th Anniversary Con in Las Vegas where she talked about being a part
of 1982's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, in which she played Saavik,
Spock's protégé and Starfleet commander-in-training. The film was Alley's first
professional acting gig, which she admitted she got by making up her
credentials.
The iconic TV and film actress died
Monday. She was 71.
"When I did Star Trek II,
before that I had done nothing, and I had faked my résumé," she said.
"I'm sure everyone knew it, but I thought it sounded good."
Calling Khan director
Nicholas Meyer her biggest career "champion," Alley said he kept
auditioning her for the Saavik role, so studio executives would see what he saw
in her.
"I was up against a lot of
people who had a lot of work," she recalled at the event. "And then
in the final, hour, he gave me the role."
Alley noted that amid the auditions,
her parents were in a serious car crash in which her mother was killed and her
father was severely injured. She flew back home to Kansas to be with her dad in
the hospital. She told her agent she would not come back to read again until
she knew her dad was okay. Rather than just pass on her, Meyer said he would
wait, the actress said.
"It still makes me want to
start crying because, 'Okay. We'll wait for her' — that girl who's done nothing
except clean people's houses," Alley said. "It was amazing he did
that."
As for the production, Alley said
the late Leonard Nimoy was an "icon" to her who she adored from
watching the original Star Trek TV series.
"My friends would make fun of
me because my eyebrow goes up at certain points and I have no control over
it," she said. "So, I would watch and when Mr. Spock would come on, I
would say, 'Wow. If I was ever an actress, I could play Spock's daughter.' When
I met him, he was an icon to me, and I was incredibly impressed."
Alley also noted that she was not
acting during Spock's funeral scene. "I just started crying because I
thought it was sad that Spock died when we were shooting the scene," she
said. "It was so surreal and so sad. I just started crying and they used
it. It wasn't some big dramatic coup. I was really sad."
On Monday evening, shortly after
news of her death broke, William Shatner paid his respects via social media.
"Saddened to hear of the
passing of @kirstiealley. Condolences to her family & friends," the
Capt. Kirk actor wrote on Twitter.
Nichelle Nichols has died. She was 89. The actress became an icon for groundbreaking performances across TV and film as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura on Star Trek: The Original Series, and its film sequels. Nichols' portrayal
of Uhura was ground-breaking for African American actresses on American
television. In addition to her prolific career, Nichelle was a devoted civil rights activist. She also became a passionate advocate for NASA as 'Star Trek' became a pop culture phenomenon around the world.
With Captain Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) on trial following the Season 2 finale, Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Tendi (Noël Wells), Boimler (Jack Quaid), and Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) are in for a host of new adventures--including a trip to Deep Space 9. Stream the Season 3 premiere of Star Trek: Lower Decks on Thursday, Aug. 25, exclusively in the U.S. on Paramount+.
Your favorite scrappy underdogs of the U.S.S. Cerritos return with exciting new adventures. The new season of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" premieres August 12, exclusively on Paramount+.
ViacomCBS today announced that the Star Trek Universe will head
to Paramount+. The news was revealed during ViacomCBS’ Investor Day
event for its highly anticipated new streaming service. Included within
the line-up is the upcoming all-new animated kids’ series Star Trek: Prodigy which will now premiere on Paramount+ in the U.S. in 2021. Developed and produced by Nickelodeon and CBS Studios, Prodigy is the first Star Trek series for the kids and family audience and will bow later this yearon Nickelodeon.
A first-look image of the Star Trek: Prodigy bridge crew was also released today. In Prodigy, six young outcasts know nothing about the ship they have commandeered – a first in the history of the Star Trek franchise,
but over the course of their adventures together, they will each be
introduced to Starfleet and the ideals it represents. Kate Mulgrew was
previously announced as reprising the iconic role of Captain Kathryn
Janeway to lead this brand new Prodigy bridge crew.
Take a Virtual Tour of one of Star Trek's most memorable starships ▶ Take the Tour
USS Enterprise – NCC-1701-D (or Enterprise-D) is a 24th-century starship in the fictional Star Trek universe and the principal setting of the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series. The Enterprise-D also appears in the pilot episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ("Emissary"), the series finale of Star Trek: Enterprise ("These Are the Voyages..."), and the movie Star Trek Generations.
The Enterprise-D is a Galaxy-class ship and the fifth Federation starship in the Star Trek universe to carry the name Enterprise. Enterprise-D is the flagship of Starfleet. The commanding officer is Captain Jean-Luc Picard for the majority of the ship's service.
