Where No One Has Gone Before

If you were one of the three people that watched my Sony 400 Disc Changer Review, you'd probably noticed that I like Star Trek. Particularly The Next Generation.

Well, last week (Sep 28th), marked the 20th Anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation, which came on the television screen in 1987.

I was born too late for the original Star Trek, but I was lucky enough to have caught TNG from the beginning. My favorite character, easily, was Data, the android played by Brent Spiner.

It's good news (depending on who you ask), is that Spiner released an album, Ol' Yellow Eyes Is Back in 1991. The album is mostly 1930-40 pop standards. From what I've heard of Spiner's songs, he actually does a pretty good job. However since he called it Yellow Eyes and had The Sunspots (back-up vocals, including LeVar Burton, Michael Dorn, Jonathan Frakes, and Patrick Stewart), it just seems like a tongue-in-cheek joke, and I'm not sure if I can take it seriously.

Since we're on the topic of Star Trek actors releasing music, no one can ignore the awesomeness of Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner.

William Shatner - Mr. Tambourine Man 1 comment

William Shatner/Joe Jackson - Common People 9 comments

Shatner's approach to music, isn't really singing, but acting his songs out. Although The Transformed Man is pretty much spoken words, his second effort, Has Been is more of a music album. This is partly because of his collaborator, Ben Folds and Joe Jackson. We're not exactly sure why a Canadian like Shatner would cover a Britpop song by Pulp ("Common People"), but I did quite like his version.

Leonard Nimoy - Highly Illogical 5 comments Leonard Nimoy - Piece Of Hope 2 comments

Leonard Nimoy had a bunch of covers on his The New World of Leonard Nimoy, including "Proud Mary", "Abraham, Martin and John", "Put A Little Love In Your Heart", and "I Walk the Line".

Perhaps the most bizarre song from Nimoy is "The Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins" about Bilbo Baggins from "The Hobbit" by J.R.R. Tolkien.

My favorite Nimoy album, which is the only one I own, is A Touch of Leonard Nimoy, which was a "serious" album. Most of the songs sounds very folk, which common for this time.

Half of Shatner's Transformed Man and Nimoy's pre-1970's releases were collected on Spaced Out.

Finally, did you know that Nichelle Nichols (the actress that plays Lieutenant Uhura) have released not one, but two albums ? I actually didn't know she was a recording artist until I started doing research for this article.

Nichols's 1995 song, "Rock the World", feels a little funky and has that 80s vibe to it. I couldn't help but imagined her in her Star Trek uniform singing "Rock the World" to an alien planet. This could really make a great episode.

Post Script: Check out even more Nimoy goodness on 6BaM and WB Mook. Also, there are a few spoken word albums that you may want to check out, such as Spock vs. Q.

Discography [1967] Mr. Spock's Music from Outer Space (Reissued on Rediffusion in '73 and Varése in '95) [1968] Two Sides of Leonard Nimoy [1968] The Way I Feel [1968] The Transformed Man [1969] The Touch of Leonard Nimoy [1970] The New World of Leonard Nimoy [1972] Space Odyssey [1974] Outer Space/Inner Mind [1977] Captain of the Starship / William Shatner - Live! (Reissued in 1978) [1988] Leonard Nimoy (Sears Records) [1991] Ol' Yellow Eyes Is Back [1993] Highly Illogical (Greatest Hits) [1995] Out of This World [1997] Spaced Out [1999] Spaced Out (Re-issue) [2004] Has Been [2005] Down to Earth [2005] Brian Evans Live in Concert with special guest William Shatner

 10/06/2007 16:16:49  vu my♥posts vu@weheartmusic.com www.startrek.com

Where's Captain Kirk? 3 comments

Mr. Spock 3 comments

Dr. McCoy 1 comment

Sixbucksamonkey wrote: Oct 6, 2007 9:01 PM

[das ist gut] Thanks! Delightful post as usual. I see a few things here I need to seek out. Nichelle Nichols is the QUEEN of awesomeness. She's like Shirley Bassey multiplied times T'Pau.

But, frankly the Spiner stuff creeps me out a bit.

I've just figured out that people who weren't on Star Trek sing about it. Yet another reason to live!