Trekin' through 2009: The Star Trek year in pictures...

2009 has been the biggest year for Star Trek since 1994 -- when TNG was coming to an end, DS9 was starting to hi its stride, Voyager was about to launch, and the world was impatiently waiting for the meetings of the two legendary Captains of the Enterprise on the big screen in Star Trek Generation. Star Trek was at its Zenith, with Shatner and Stewart on the cover of Time magazine amongst multiple other national and international publications. And now 15 years later Star Trek has found its mojo once again in the eyes of general audiences all over the world (we true Trek fans know it had never really lost it). The launch of the new major motion picture from Paramount and JJ Abrams brought with it a huge amount of promotion, tie-ins, merchandise, and events to help usher in a new era for our beloved franchise in the epic fashion it has always deserved. Here's a look at some of my favorite images from the many promotions taking place during Star Trek's comeback year.


Unused teaser poster for the film from Paramount Pictures.


Chris Pine meets Leonard Nimoy at an event for Shatner's charity horse show and the press is right there to capture the moment.




The first official promo shots from Paramount introducing us to the new Kirk and Spock.




Star Trek dance parties in L.A. and New York become the "it" event in the cities' nightlife with Orion slave girls, special Trek-themed photo booths and cool giveaways like this awesome poster.


As a longtime fan I got great joy in seeing ads for a Star Trek movie in the newspapers once again.










Ads from promo partners lined up the walls of movie theaters.




Popcorn bags, buckets, and coke cups featured Star Trek in theaters all over the U.S.












Burger King launches a multi-million dollar national ad campaign and in-store promotions to tie in with the film.


After more than a decade since the end of Playmates previous Trek toy line Toys 'R Us and stores all over the world begin to dedicate big chunks of aisle space to Star Trek again.


Star Trek gets a race car!
















Supermarket aisles are chock full of products with multiple offers for Trek items to help promote the big film.




Billboards and wraps cover up buildings, buses, and more prime spots all over the world to help promote the film with an ad campaign budgeted at over 150 million dollars.


A Premiere of epic proportions for the Star Trek film takes over Hollywood Blvd.



The Burger King Klingons show up at the Star Trek Hollywood Premiere to cause some trouble at the Mann's Chinese Theater.

Star Trek Blu-Ray and DVD Sales Ads...

Magazine ad for the film's Blu-Ray and DVD release.

This Tuesday Star Trek will be making its debut on Blu-Ray and DVD and many retailers will be launchg the film with special events and offers. Let's go over some of them and take a look at the ads.



The DVD and Blu-Ray release of Star Trek takes the top spot this week's Entertainment Weekly "must list".

Best Buy will have every single edition of the film available along with the highly anticipated exclusive set packed with 4 Starfleet badge replicas produced by Quantm Mechanix.
This one is definitively my top pick from all the exclusive sets. Fans who show up at Best Buy during the first two hours of business on Tuesday will be able to save 3 dollars of the Blu-Ray or 2 dollars off the DVD. There's also a rumor that Best Buy will be having some Star Trek titles on Blu-Ray for the prie of $7.99 during their black Friday extravaganza. We'll keep you posted on that as more info comes in.



Many Best Buy stores will open their doors at midnight for all the eager fans who can't wait till Tuesday morning to get their hands on the film. Head on over to Bestbuy.com for a list of all participating locations. Best Buy will also have all the previous Star Trek Blu-Ray titles on sale with discounts raging between 5-35 dollars.



Target will have a special packaging for the film just ike they've done with previous Paramount titles such as Iron Man and both Transformers movies. This time around the case can be put together to form a mini U.SS. Enterprise display in which you can store the film's multiple discs.



Many other retailers will have sale prices on the film such as Toys R Us, which listed the film on their Sunday newspaper ad.



Some blockbuster stores will also have the film available at midnight for sale and rental. I'll be back later in the week with my take on some of these cool new goodies.

The Future Begins: Part 2

As we get closer to the May 8th release of "Star Trek" more and more pieces of publicity are showing up on almost a daily basis all over town. The above image was taken this afternoon on Beverly boulevard in the heart of Beverly Hills, another prime spot for a high profile ad. You can even see the hills right behind it. The "Star Trek" ad is also popping up on the new digital LCD billboard screens that have been installed all over Los Angeles. The ad on those also plugs the film's IMAX release, changing from the standard poster to the IMAX version. I'll try and snap a shot of one of those soon.



This week is future week on ESPN and "Star Trek" is the main sponsor for a lot of the programming. "Star Trek" has been the presenting sponsor on Baseball Tonight, so if you tune in you can see the TV spots for the film throughout the broadcast as well as the film's logo right in front of the hosts throughout the entire post game broadcast. Also last night the "Not your father's Star Trek" TV spot for the film aired on HD during FOX's broadcast of "American Idol". Another big move from Paramount since "Idol" brings in close to 30 million viewers a week.



On the next edition of this section we'll be taking a look at the billboards and ads for the film on display at Paramount Studios on Melrose Avenue -- the home of the "Trek" franchise.

Let's close out this edition with some red carpet interviews from the "Star Trek" premiere at the Sydney Opera House courtesy of UK's Sci-Fi Now.

The Future Begins: Part 1

With only a month to go until the moment we have all been waiting for, ads for Star Trek are quickly popping up all over town. In this new section I will try and feature some of the ads in my part of the world. I'll try and snap as many shots as I can until the movie opens.



Let's kick things of with this gigantic ad covering the side of an entire building right by the entrance to L.A.'s trendy shopping and dinning complex known as The Grove. This is a prime spot for an ad since The Grove is probably one of the hottest spots in town, nestled right between Hollywood and Beverly Hills. I'm glad Paramount is taking their Trek ad campaign seriously.