Scotty, we can’t take much more of this.

According to reports from ComingSoon.net, the new Star Trek sequel from J.J. Abrams has been pushed WAY back to May 8th, 2009.

It was originally scheduled for a December 25th release this year, but now we have five more months to see where Abrams takes the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise.

For us cadets, this means extended shore leave.

The article mentions the move as part of a major reshuffling of the Paramount release calendar, along with DreamWorks.

Insiders tell Coming Soon that the film has a lot more potential to bring in huge bucks if released in May instead of December. Currently that May 8th release date has no competition.

We probably can expect this to happen with some other films since the Writer’s Strike has thrown off a few movie schedules I’m sure and studios will want to balance out their earnings in the coming year or two.

So this basically means we saw the teaser for this film a good year and four months before we ever see the movie.

I for one am bummed at one of the most anticipated movies of 2008 suddenly delayed by such a long time.

Oh well, now I can say I know the first movie I’m looking forward to in 2009.

It seems like a long ways off, but according to the New York Times, The Office will return to NBC with new episodes starting April 10th.

Some other comedies will actually start earlier, like Two and a Half Men on CBS, but The Office is a more complicated shoot and thus takes a bit longer to produce. Men uses three separate cameras to tape, while The Office uses a one camera film style.

A whole lot of techno babble just to get across that we have awhile to wait.

The bummer is that the series will skip their annual Christmas episode, the first one being my favorite of all time (”We’ll sell it to charity, because that is what Christmas is all about” - Michael Scott).

They had a script all done and ready to go right before the strike, so it will be easy to start filming right away, but the next one was supposed to be the X-Mas episode and will have to be scrapped.

How many episodes will we get?

Greg Daniels, executive producer of “The Office,” said, “We’re going to do another six,” though he added, “We might be able to squeeze in seven if NBC asks for them.”

Not too shabby.

So what about Journeyman?

According to the NY Times article, there is still some semblance of hope.

And by hope, I just mean it’s not totally dead yet.

A few series got orders for hurry-up episodes this week and for those not on the list, their future is up in the air. The article states that shows like Journeyman and Bionic Woman have until May to truly know their fate as that’s when the networks announce fall lineups.

It’s not a big deal that new shows from last season aren’t coming back THIS season, because that is what is happening everywhere.

But when the fall schedule is announced, I guess we’ll know for sure. Although I thought I heard Bionic was pretty much dead, so who knows.

The cool news is that it appears Scrubs will be saved. Creator Bill Lawrence wanted to have 3-5 more episodes to finish off the series and NBC has to decide on just how many. That means with the five already in the can, we could have as little as eight and as many as 10 more.

Awesome. We may get that finale afterall!

And shows like 30 Rock and ER are still waiting to see how many orders they will get. ER may actually get extended another season NBC says despite the plans to have had it go the way of Scrubs this year.

30 Rock is expected to get around five more episodes.

Now comes the part of American Idol where my interest start to wane.

But honestly, I hope everyone realizes that there is going to be A LOT of singing coming up. 12 girls, 12 guys…lots of shows, lots of singing, lots of Simon, Paula and Randy, lots of Ryan Seacrest saying “…………AFTER the break….”

We’re down to the final 24 contestants though and I have to say, I really only feel like I know a handful of them.

The producers and editors this season have done a much more obvious job of highlighting the contestants THEY like. The big “Hollywood Week” episode showcased pretty much the same talent that we saw in more detail for the results show.

Either they are trying to steer us in the direction they want, or else the other singers are just too boring to put on TV at this point.

But no matter what, we’re going to get a chance to see ALL of them in the coming weeks, and weeks, and weeks.

So who do you like so far? I’ll get into who I’m sort of pulling for right now, but let me preface this by saying I suck at names, and I’m not going to re-watch it on the DVR, so you’re getting whatever comes to my head.

First off, I’m just happy the guy who could have been Patrick Dempsey’s double in Can’t Buy Me Love, didn’t make it. We’ve had enough of the Jim’s from season one. I really don’t get why Simon was so upset over it, there was NO WAY that kid went far at all.

Also, I’m pretty sad for little Josiah. I’m actually a bit worried for the kid. He left home, lives on his own out of his car and suddenly hasshow an English accent. Developing an accent out of nowhere is a bit odd.

I hope he comes out of this okay because he was devastated.

So far I’m really loving the Australian guy, Michael Johns and the Irish girl. Johns reminds me of Whistler from Prison Break.

And what about the Janis Joplin rocker chick? I like her voice, but can she go far?

They kept talking about how there was more talent than ever this season, and maybe there is, but I really haven’t seen anyone that would make me go out and buy their first album like a Chris Daughtry or Carrie Underwood might.

As far as Hollywood Week, I liked how they did it this year, getting rid of the groups was a good idea.

So who do you like? Any favorites?

Once again, the Ausiello Report comes through with all kinds of delicious Lost information. He spoke to Carlton Cuse, one of the head writers and co-creators of Lost, about what happens now with season four post-WGA strike.

The estimated 4-6 episodes that we’d been told that we’d possibly get has been narrowed down to five.

Not only that, but we’re assured that everything that was supposed to occur in the remaining eight episodes WILL be squeezed into the final five.

Damon [Lindelof] and I are going to try to make five more episodes before the end of May, which is ambitious. But we’ve found ourselves in a situation where we had eight episodes of story planned, and we’re going to try to fit that into five hours of the show. Even though it’s going to be very hard to execute, we felt like any less would be doing a disservice to the story we had planned. We really want to give the fans the best possible experience and ending… to Season 4.

This means a few interesting things, in my eyes:

The first is that usually fans have been critical of the show’s “pace” and how slowly things are revealed. This change that squeezes eight episodes into five will likely make them slick, fast and full of answers and new questions.

In other words, information overload. Riveting. Sweet.

The second thing is that this could almost be TOO MUCH information in five episodes. I truly feel that once the writers knew they had 16 episodes each season, they really planned out how they’d use them. The article mentions now that guest actors might have to be eliminated due to the fact that stuff will need to get cut out and trimmed.

I feel like we’re going to miss out on some good stuff that was in there and yet somehow it could feel rushed. I hope not.

The good news if you see it that way is the missing three episodes will hopefully be made up in the coming seasons:

Damon and I remain committed to producing the 40 additional hours of the show that we promised. We haven’t figured out exactly when we’ll put those other three on, but we’re not eliminating them from the show. You will get those three episodes downstream.

So with two episodes already aired, we have six more to go before we get a four-week break until the final five.

The break will likely suck again, but at least this time it’s expected and warranted.

And those final five episodes…man, they are likely to be frakking amazing.

It’s been quite awhile since I last updated my 101 in 1001 Plan and some new readers may not have any clue about it. The goal is quite simple:

Accomplish 101 things in 1001 days.

I started on September 5th of this year and have achieved quite a few of my goals. In fact, I was perusing the list this evening and realize I had forgotten some of the things I put on there!

Hence the realization that #51 had been done and I should post about it. I also finished another one that will be posted in a few days.

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