Free Republic

A group of engineers working on a novel manufacturing technique at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., have come up with a new twist on the popular old saying about dreaming and doing: "If you can slice it, we can build it." That's because layers mean everything to the environmentally-friendly construction process called Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication, or EBF3, and its operation sounds like something straight out of science fiction. "You start with a drawing of the part you want to build, you push a button, and out comes the part," said Karen Taminger, the technology lead for the...

The world was starting to become a different place in 1991 when "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" was released. Not only were fans reeling from the 1989 disaster that was "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier," but the collapse of the Soviet Union created the possibility that enemies didn't have to be enemies forever. That mindset was brilliantly expressed by the writing team of Leonard Nimoy, Nicholas Meyer, Denny Martin Flinn (and we guess a little by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal, something that has been historically disputed by Nimoy) with the Federation, and especially Capt. Kirk, having to...

OK, so JJ Abrams, Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and a talented cast (to whom, if things are really fair, a lot of the credit must be given) successfully rebooted Star Trek. Obviously there will be another film, and if nearly thirty years of films in the franchise have taught us anything, it is that making a crappy Trek film is all too easy. So what next for the series? More Shakespeare? Or something else? Based on recent comments, it sounds like Star Trek 2 (or whatever it will be called) could get all sorts of modern, at least from a...

London, England (AHN) - Star Trek fans can now spritz their way just a little closer to their favorite characters with the release of newly releases scents designed to appeal to fans. The three scents take their names from popular character or aspects of the show. One of the colognes, Tiberius, is named for the middle name of Captain James T. Kirk, the character played by William Shatner in the hit series, England's the Telegraph reported. The Shatner-inspired scent combines citron, black pepper and cedar to evoke a "casual yet commanding" aroma, according to creators Genki Wear. It's billed as...

John Scalzi's Guide to Epic SciFi Design FAILs - Star Trek Edition So, before I bang on bad design choices in Star Trek, let's recap what happened last week when I discussed bad design choices in Star Wars:Me: Star Wars design is so bad that people have to come up with elaborate and contrived rationales to explain it. Star Wars Fanboy: YOU ARE SO VERY WRONG AND I WILL SHOW YOU WHY WITH THESE ELABORATE AND CONTRIVED RATIONALES. It's a little much to hope for (or fear) the same result two weeks in a row, but nevertheless I promised everyone...

When Sarah Palin resigned a few weeks ago every blogger with a keyboard chimed in on it. I didn’t want to be late in the game with a Sarah Palin blog, so I put this blog in the old hard drive of justice, right next to my Buffy the Vampire fan fiction and an un-produced screenplay about the Braves leaving Milwaukee. Then I saw one of my childhood idols, Bill Shatner goofing on Sarah Palin. At last, my geeked out political observation had new relevance! Apple “C.” Apple “V.” Send to Big Hollywood. We were treated to some really lame...

Oxford scientists have created a transparent form of aluminium by bombarding the metal with the world’s most powerful soft X-ray laser. ‘Transparent aluminium’ previously only existed in science fiction, featuring in the movie Star Trek IV, but the real material is an exotic new state of matter with implications for planetary science and nuclear fusion.

Oxford scientists have created a transparent form of aluminium by bombarding the metal with the world’s most powerful soft X-ray laser. ‘Transparent aluminium’ previously only existed in science fiction, featuring in the movie Star Trek IV, but the real material is an exotic new state of matter with implications for planetary science and nuclear fusion. In the journal Nature Physics an international team, led by Oxford University scientists, report that a short pulse from the FLASH laser ‘knocked out’ a core electron from every aluminium atom in a sample without disrupting the metal’s crystalline structure. This turned the aluminium nearly...

The top 10 Hottest Babes on Star Trek (TOS) 1. Kelinda from By Any Other Name This is probably the only episode in which Kirk not hits on a woman, but hits a woman. That’s okay because Kirk apologizes to her, over and over. Barbara Bouchet (born 1945) played Kelinda. 2. Lt. Marlena Moreau fom Mirror,Mirror In the alternate Terran Empire Universe the rank of captain has its privileges, and one of is Lt. Malena Moreau. Lt. Moreau did not love Kirk; she wanted to sleep her way to the top, as much as 1960s TV allowed to show. Apparently...

"Star Trek" makes faster-than-light travel look easy, but according to new calculations by Italian physicists, a warp drive could easily create a black hole that would incinerate any passengers on a space craft and then suck Earth into a black hole. "Warp drives are so far the best case scenario to attain faster-than-light travel," said Stefano Finazzi of Italy's International School for Advanced Studies. This paper "makes it much harder to realize, if not almost impossible, warp drives." ...Other physicists agree with the Italians' calculations, up to a point. "It's a good paper; their results are sound," said Gerald Cleaver,...

Your results:You are Worf Worf 65% Spock 64% Mr. Scott 50% Jean-Luc Picard 50% Chekov 45% Geordi LaForge 45% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 40% Will Riker 40% Data 39% James T. Kirk (Captain) 35% Beverly Crusher 30% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 30% Mr. Sulu 25% Uhura 20% Deanna Troi 15% You are trained in the art of combat and are usually intimidating. Click here to take the "Which Star Trek character am I?" quiz...

GM's recent bankruptcy seemed inevitable to longtime followers of the auto industry. But Barry Ritholtz, CEO of Fusion IQ, believes it could have been avoided. In his recent book, Bailout Nation, Ritholtz recalls an episode of the classic TV series Star Trek, "Mirror Mirror", in which Captain Kirk finds himself in an universe where everything has been altered ever so slightly. Applying this concept to Detroit, Ritholtz asks: What would have happened if Chrysler hadn't been bailed out in 1979?

NOTHING has surprised me more in the past month than the barrage of phone calls I received from reporters about the new Star Trek movie. Many asked me to comment on what Star Trek technologies have been realised since the original series, which ones remain a vague hope and which are impossible. Others wanted to know what I thought of the science in the movie, from space-diving to black-hole time travel. Frankly, I had expected quite the opposite reaction to the prequel, figuring that fans would pan it and pundits would bemoan an attempt to hark back to a 1960s...

CAPTAIN Kirk star Chris Pine has beamed a new ­girlfriend into his life – TV beauty Audrina Partridge. The Star Trek actor has been dating sexy reality show star Audrina after gate-crashing her 24th birthday party earlier this month. Chris fell for the babe straightaway and the pair were seen cosying up ­together at the Red Lion Tavern in Los Angeles the following day.

He bested the forces of Adolf Hitler on the beaches of Normandy and blasted genetic superman Khan Noonien Singh out of space in a far-flung galaxy. How can James Doohan not be the greatest Sarnia of our time? Heck, he might be the greatest of all space and time? Doohan is best known for his role as Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, the excitable, dependable and miracle-working chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise on the classic '60s sci-fihit Star Trek. If your dilithium crystals were ever fried, your photo torpedo tubes jammed or you were short a man in a brawl with...

During a conversation on politics with an old friend I offered the hope that all his faith in our new president: "Ain't been in vain fer nuthin'."With that he reared up and replied to my comment by saying: You always ridicule with clever solipsisms."Far be it from me to be solipsistic, so I pointed out that he probably meant solecism. Mistake 1: Never quote Lina Lamont at a New York City cocktail party. They won't know what you're talking about. Mistake 2: Never attempt to correct the tortured misuse of the English language by New York intellectuals who pride themselves...

The Problem There’s a scene—so I am told—in Angels and Demons where Tom Hanks is trapped in a glass room in which the oxygen has run out! To save himself, with his last breath he pulls out a gun and shoots the glass. It obediently cracks and then breaks. The day is saved! Bang! Do you know what would really happen if you pulled the trigger in an oxygen-free room? It would go click, and if you had any O2 left circulating in your little grey cells, you’d realize that explosions—such as those happening inside bullet casings that propel slugs...

What if “Star Trek” is a gift from God? We know that “Star Trek,” the number one movie in the country right now, is a gift to Paramount Studios, but seriously, what if “Star Trek” is a gift from God? If all knowledge comes from God, as we are told in Romans 11:33, then that’s where all creativity comes from, too. And also science and technological knowhow. ———–The political class no longer seems to hear the call of destiny, which is telling them that the same “cool” technology can be utilized for national defense and national survival, not just personal...

Having read every article she can about the the new "Star Trek" movie The Stiletto has noticed that, for some reason, most articles include details about the writers’ childhoods that seem utterly unremarkable to other Trekkies and pretty pathetic to those who did not grow up watching the iconic sci-fi series, either during its original three-year run or the decades of reruns that followed. Slate movie critic Dana Stevens asks, “can't you picture our president - levelheaded, biracial, implacably smart - on the bridge in a blue shirt and pointy ears?” For the MSM, this is not a rhetorical question,...

Now that the Star Trek timeline has been altered what new questions are now raised? 1. Will the two new black holes close to Earth alter the "nexus"? 2. What of Lazerus? What of Lazerus? (The Alternative Factor) 3. Will be get to see Admirial Garth? 4. How will Pike contribute to Starfleet? Who will discover the plaent of Talos 4??? 5. In the next movie, will we see the "classic" Klingons? etc., etc.,

A Strange Review: Star Trek Posted by Anthony Sacramone on May 10, 2009 I must admit right from the start that I will be reviewing this film having never seen it. I was going to see it, but there were just too many people on line dressed in strange costumes and looking way too happy, so I decided to see something else instead, but it was playing in every single theater in the multiplex, so I relented, only to leave after five minutes because I had been led to believe this was going to be another episode in the Star...

If you're talking about social commentary and science fiction, Star Trek is pretty much unavoidable: it's always been a franchise of markedly progressive intent, a weird blend of American expansionism (Manifest Destiny, with "California" replaced by "the boundaries of the known universe" - a space-as-Wild-West metaphor that Josh Whedon's Firefly took to its logical, and delightful, end), liberal utopian fantasy - just imagine! A crew of diverse nationalities, races, genders and points of planetary origin! In which a white, straight dude from Iowa magically ends up in charge! - and good old-fashioned lecturing ("...and now, the mostly-white crew shall visit...

Crowds are swarming to see the new, "rebooted" Star Trek movie. But there are many facts about the popular epic that most casual fans don't know: Star Trek featured many memorable cast members and characters over the years. Star Trek had several incarnations. The most popular series of the franchise was Star Trek: SG1. The least popular? Star Trek: 1999. The first interracial kiss on American television was between Capt. Kirk and Lt. Sulu.     The original show only broadcast 13 episodes before it was canceled by Fox. The starship "Enterprise" was named after the first Space Shuttle. Show creator...

8 problems I have with J.J. Abrams' Star Trek Martin Anderson If you haven't seen Star Trek yet, don't even THINK of clicking on this article… Published on May 11, 2009 MASSIVE AND TOTAL SPOILER APOCALYPSE ALERT! Before I launch into a welter of criticism, I have to say that I was very pleasantly surprised by J.J. Abrams' vision of the federation when I went to see Star Trek this weekend. The film delivered what the director of Wolverine promised, but could not deliver - an action-packed movie with characters you care about at the centre of it. It's one...

I’m madder than a Klingon at a peace rally! Now, I don’t much follow that Star Track show, but my grandson puts it on when his mom drops him off before her bingo. So I get stuck looking at it and I’ve got a pretty good idea what it’s about. I hear a bunch of libtard writers are saying Obama is like that Spock guy. Well, I kind of see their point when it comes to him having funny ears and being a bit like a robot. But other than that, I don’t get it. Spock seems way smarter than...

<p>My wife and I saw the new Star Trek movie today. It is a long, very loud, two-dimensional, inadvertent look at what we as a society have lost in the past 40 years.</p> <p>The good news is that the FX and production are state-of-the-art. The bad news is that the plot is embarrassingly stupid and retro, the acting ranges from good to awful, and the production as a whole is one huge rock video. On top of that, the movie is so horribly loud that the audience had to block its ears several times.</p>

It takes a certain mix of optimism and frustration to contemplate the possibility of space travel. To dream of navigating the cosmos is to assume that man has the resources and the know-how to propel himself into the heavens, but also some compelling reasons to exchange his home planet for the cold vast unknown. It was these seemingly contradictory impulses that shaped “Star Trek,” the supremely influential science-fiction television series whose three-season run yielded 40 years of sequels and spinoffs including a new feature film about the origins of Kirk and Spock that opened on Friday. Yes, the series is...

BLAST-OFF! 'Star Trek' Opens To $25M Friday; With $7M Thursday That's $32M So Far; Weekend Prediction Now $72M; Its Audience Wider Than Just FanbaseFRIDAY 9:45 PM: Sources tell me that the North American opening number for Paramount's No. 1 Star Trek grosses today is looking like $25 million from 3,849 theaters. So, adding in Thursday 7 PM-Midnight screenings, the reimagined space odyssey has made $32 million so far. My insiders say the total weekend number now could easily reach $72M. "But it still has a shot at $75M if it gets any bump on Saturday," an exec explains. (Rival studios...

Crowds are swarming to see the new, "rebooted" Star Trek movie. But there are many facts about the popular epic that most casual fans don't know: * Star Trek had several incarnations. The most popular series of the franchise was Star Trek: SG1. The least popular? Star Trek: 1999. * The first interracial kiss on American television was between Capt. Kirk and Lt. Sulu. * The original show only broadcast 13 episodes before it was canceled by Fox. * The starship "Enterprise" was named after the first Space Shuttle.

STAR TREK STAR TREK STAR TREK

This is simply a great movie. For those of us who grew up first on the television series, then the series of motion pictures, then "The Next Generation," this is the TV series on special-effects steriods, and in my opinion the second best movie of all Star Trek movies, next to "The Wrath of Khan." The first 20 minutes is jarring, and you have to pay attention. It runs the viewer from Capt. Christopher Pike (played by a one of my favorites, Bruce Greenwood), to the evil Romulan Nero (Eric Bana, sans Hulk get-up), to the young Spock, to the...

Naturally all Bush's folks are the Evil Characters In a transparently unhinged and partisan hit job against several Bush administration officials, Newsweek thought it would be amusing to compare the Bush era and the Obama era by analogizing them with Star Wars and Star Trek respectively. Naturally Newsweek's Bush Derangement Syndrome was given full throated expression -- phasers set to kill not to stun -- as the Bush administration officials were noted as representing one or the other of the evil Star Wars characters while all the Obama officials were compared to the good guys in Star Trek. What we...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Star Trek" debuts in movie theaters on Thursday backed by huge hype, but whether the film based on a 43-year-old franchise can win young fans and big box office returns has industry watchers scratching their heads.

Little has been revealed about Nero, the villain of J. J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot, other than the facts that he's a Romulan, he's played by Eric Bana and he looks a bit like an English football hooligan, what with the shaved head and the tattoos and all the threats and the yelling. Being scary won't help him blow up the Enterprise, though--many Trek villains have tried and few have succeeded. Nero could take a few pointers from the ultimate, composite Trek baddie you see here.

If someone stepped out in a futuristic silver minidress, we would have laughed at them. But when Kate Moss channels her inner Star Trek in a shiny Balmain dress with bold shoulders, we kind of adore her.

Gene Roddenberry's wife, Majel Barrett Roddenberry, an actress who also served as the voice of the USS Enterprise's computer, set up a nifty little multimillion-dollar trust for her beloved pooches to ensure that they would remain in the lap of luxury after she was gone. According to probate documents obtained by E! News, Roddenberry set aside $4 million so that her dogs could go on living in one of her mansions, while their longtime caretaker, Reinelda Estupinian, gets $1 million and residential rights in the expansive home. "I do not want the animals to be placed in a kennel or...

The entertainment business thrives on surprises, as has been proven once again by the sudden elevation to stardom of Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent. And there has been no bigger surprise for me this year than this movie. Like many people, I yawned at the thought of yet another attempt to breathe life into a series that seemed finished, after the pompous, pointless and all too aptly named Star Trek: Nemesis in 2002. The original cast had long gone, and the ideas had dried up. Why try to reanimate a corpse? The short answer is that J.J. Abrams had...

Fashion Time’s stylish newcomers club is becoming ever more crowded and impressive! We’re adding Star Trek star Zoe Saldana to our list, just because she wowed us with the outfits she wore to the Moscow, Paris and Berlin Star Trek premieres.

When Hollywood movies and their stars trash America's brave soldiers, the anti-war press can't give them enough attention. Yet, when cast and crew members of the soon to be released prequel of the sci-fi classic "Star Trek" visited service men and women in Kuwait on Saturday, newsrooms across the fruited plain couldn't care less. Spc. Howard Ketter filed this report shortly after the event concluded (h/t Big Hollywood, video embedded below the fold h/t Blackfive): "We feel priviledged to be here and to meet the people who are working hard on our behalf," said John Cho, who starred as Hikaru...

On Saturday, my wife and I went to see Knowing, starring Nicolas Cage, which is a strange mix of UFOlogy, panspermia, the destruction of Earth by fire (2 Pet. 3:10), the Edenic Tree of Life, and determinism vs. randomness. Cage’s character, John Koestler, is giving a lecture to his astrophysics’ class at M.I.T. when he presents the conundrum of determinism vs. randomness. 1 When the class asks him what he believes, he picks randomness. “There is no grand meaning, there is no purpose.” He ends the session with “I think s**t just happens.” The perfect summary of an atheist’s worldview....

THERE is nothing particularly unusual about the living room of the two-story town house that Scott Veazie shares with his wife in Washougal, Wash., except for one piece of furniture in a corner: a full-size replica of the captain’s chair from the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise, as seen in the original “Star Trek” television series.

The world of fragrance is about to boldly go where few have ventured before: the Trekosphere. Hoping to profit from the May 8 release of J.J. Abrams' new Star Trek film, chronicling the beginnings of Capt. James T. Kirk and the USS Enterprise, Maryland-based Genki Wear will release three Star Trek-themed scents on April 24. John McGonigle, president of Genki, said the two men's colognes and one women's perfume will retail for about $30.

KEEPING UPWITH THE CARDASSIANSEPISODE GUIDE. BY RUPINDER GILL - - - - Episode One Garak gets busted for a DUI and is caught on tape assaulting the officer and blaming his troubles on Klingon bloodwine. The Cardassians are accused of using photon torpedoes on paparazzi who are trying to snap photos of them at the Playboy Mansion. Episode Two A sex tape featuring Legate Damar's daughter Kata and two Ferengi club owners circulates around the Federation of Planets. Dukat posts a rant on his blog dissing Snoop Dogg and starts a West Coast–Delta Quadrant rap war. Episode Three Legate Damar's...

Click here for the new kick-*** trailer for Star Trek! Must have Quicktime. Available in HD.

In December TrekMovie featured some amazing ‘fan made’ images of the new USS Kelvin from the upcoming Star Trek movie, by German CG Artist Tobias Richter. Since then Richter has been at work on the new USS Enterprise, and today we bring a first look at what he has come up with. Check out his stunning Big E desktops below.

Actor Gary Graham knew that by writing about his personal experience and rejection of abortion, he would be incurring the ire of not a few among the Hollywood elite. Yet a blog column posted last Tuesday by the seasoned actor, known most recently for his roles as Ambassador Soval in the TV series "Star Trek: Enterprise" and Capt. Ingles on "J.A.G.", took an unflinching look at truths almost entirely ignored by those in the Hollywood establishment. "I’m going to say what millions know in the front of their brains, and many, many more millions know in the depths of their...

Ashes of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry and his actress wife will blast toward the far reaches of the cosmos in keeping with the show's famed opening line "Space, the final frontier." Majel Roddenberry died in December, two months before her 77th birthday, and will posthumously fulfill a "dream of journeying through space with her husband," according to Celestis Inc, the US company behind the memorial flight.

Majel Barrett Roddenberry, "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry's widow who nurtured the legacy of the seminal science fiction TV series after his death, has died. She was 76. Roddenberry died of leukemia Thursday morning at her home in Bel-Air, said Sean Rossall, a family spokesman. At Roddenberry's side were family friends and her son, Eugene Roddenberry Jr. Roddenberry was involved in the "Star Trek" universe for more than four decades. She played the dark-haired Number One in the original pilot but metamorphosed into the blond, miniskirted Nurse Christine Chapel in the original 1966-69 show. She had smaller roles in all...

NEW YORK - Majel Barrett Roddenberry, the widow of "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry, has died. She was 76. Roddenberry, an actress who appeared in numerous "Star Trek" TV shows and movies, died Thursday of leukemia at her home in Bel-Air, Calif., her representative said. Her romance with Roddenberry earned her the title "The First Lady of Star Trek." A fixture in the "Star Trek" franchise, her roles included Nurse Christine Chapel in the original "Star Trek," Lwaxana Troi in "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and the voice of the USS Enterprise computer in almost every spin-off of the 1966...

On Wednesday, I flew down to Los Angeles to attend a special screening of 20 minutes of footage from JJ Abrams‘ Star Trek. Everyone was packed into a large theater on the Paramount lot. And by everyone, I mean EVERYONE. Marvel head Kevin Feige was sitting behind me, Free Enterprise director Robert Burnett was a couple rows in front of me. Who knows how many other execs and filmmakers might have been in attendance. Trek stars John Cho, Zachary Quinto, Chris Pine and Bruce Greenwood were also at the presentation to see the footage. Director JJ Abrams introduced four clips....