Star Trek

How Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Helped to Invent Everything You Love

20 years ago today, the very first episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine aired on American television. And Star Trek would never be the same again — but Deep Space Nine also had a lasting impact on all genre television. The grittiest of Star Trek series helped to give us a lot of the…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

William Shatner is sending messages to outer space — and getting a response!

More proof that we live in the future! William Shatner tweeted at an astronaut in space — who responded right away, in Star Trek language. Wrote Shatner: To which the Canadian Space Agency’s Chris Hadfield responded immediately: The future is pretty awesome sometimes. [via The Atlantic]

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

BS Your Way Through Starfleet Paperwork With Riker Ipsum

The next time you’re filling out your logs after a long shift on the Enterprise and need to pad it out, just hop on over to Riker Ipsum, which generates random text based on quotes from William Riker. Of course Picard was always far more quotable, but the mundane musings of the first officer make…

Tech News Andrew Liszewski

Why do so many villains get caught on purpose?

The first official promo image for Star Trek Into Darkness shows Benedict Cumberbatch’s mysterious villain John Harrison locked in a plexiglass brig. Which means that John Harrison is joining a long and proud tradition: villains who get caught in the middle of the story — often on purpose. From The Dark Knight to The Avengers,…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

What do Istanbul and Deep Space Nine have in common?

Well, I’ll tell you. Istanbul and Deep Space Nine have two things in common: 1) they both have alternate names — in Istanbul’s case, it used to be called Constantinople, while in Deep Space Nine’s case, it originally happened to be called Terok Nor — and 2) they both have songs about these name changes,…

io9 Rob Bricken

The Most Baffling Pop Culture Moments of 2012

Whether you feel 2012 has been a good year or a bad year, we can all probably agree that it’s been a confusing year. A lot of weird things happened over the last 12 months — things we still can’t quite believe occurred (and/or got approved by actual human beings). Here’s eight things that happened…

io9 Rob Bricken

Picard vamps, Worf sings, and Riker makes out with the camera in this Next Generation blooper reel

Everyone gets goofy in this gag reel from the Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 2 Bluray. Watch Brent Spiner fail to tell a dirty joke, plenty of Michael Dorn giggles, and the way Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes comfort one another when they stumble over their technobabble. Also, redditor evanvolm made this amazing gif…

Television Lauren Davis

J.J. Abrams grants a dying Star Trek fan’s final wish

A few days ago, this message about a dying man’s last request to see Star Trek Into Darkness — or at least the nine-minute prologue — was posted on a Star Trek subreddit. Here’s the full request: Hello Reddit. I’ve seen some amazingly kind and generous stuff happen on here. I’m hoping there’s room for…

io9 Meredith Woerner

Engineer petitions White House to conduct a feasibility study on building the Starship Enterprise

Earlier this year, an engineer who goes by the name of BTE Dan, proposed building a full-sized, ion-powered version of a Constitution-Class Enterprise — from Star Trek — saying it could be built with current technology and could be completed within 20 years. Now, BTE Dan has started a White House petition — not to…

io9 Nancy Atkinson - Universe Today

What’s worse: an all-powerful hero, or an all-powerful villain?

Sometimes, a hero becomes so powerful, nothing can touch him or her. Take pre-Crisis Superman, who juggled planets and laughed off nukes. And sometimes, a villain is so unstoppable, your best defense is as much use as a cardboard box. Like the Borg. Or the Observers, who are an army of teleporting super-intelligent telepaths who…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

The 12 Most Epic Action Heroes of Science Fiction and Fantasy

It’s Boxing Day, which means it’s the perfect day to celebrate action. We love a cerebral hero, who thinks five thousand steps ahead and sets careful traps — but there’s something to be said for an action hero, who goes on huge car chases, gets into massive fight scenes, and survives by the skin of…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

J.J. Abrams turned down directing the new Star Wars movie

When Disney bought Lucasfilm, there were tons of rumors about who might be directing a new Star Wars film — and one name that was brought up a lot was Star Trek director J.J. Abrams. And now, it turns out there was some truth to the rumors. Top image: FooDogTenchi/Deviant Art. Talking to Empire Magazine,…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders

Did John Milton invent science fiction?

He’s Khan Noonien Singh’s favorite poet — but is Milton also the creator of science fiction? Milton met Gallileo, and worked lots of sciencey details into his work, and Paradise Lost hints at life on other planets. There’s also Milton’s “obsession with secret, all-powerful technologies.” Check out Slate for all the details.

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Weirdest and Sexiest Costumes from the Original Star Trek

Star Trek has broadened our visions of the future in so many ways — but most of all, the original Star Trek took us to the final frontier of fashion. And beyond. Some of the costumes that people sported in William Shatner’s day remain classics today — and some of them are just… I don’t…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Brand new Star Trek Into Darkness photos include Cumberbatch in bondage!

We’ve pored over the Star Trek Into Darkness trailer screencaps — but there hasn’t been a lot of official photos just yet. Until now. Empire Magazine has a special Trek issue coming out, and they released a dozen official pics, including these two collector’s covers showing a resolute Kirk and John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch) in…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

As Commander Riker ponders, the Enterprise loses another member of her crew

As if traveling into deadly anomalies and encountering hostile aliens wasn’t bad enough, occasionally the Enterprise loses a (figurative) redshirt just because Riker is lost in thought. Inspired by scifi pulp covers, artist Melanie Schultz created this squidy portrait of our beard-stroking Number One. William T. Riker [Melanie Schultz via Ian Brooks]

io9 Lauren Davis

On Fringe, we’re laughing at the superior intellect

When Fringe first showed us the Observer-dominated future, in “Letters of Transit,” there was a lot of emphasis on fighting to survive against an unstoppable, implacable foe. It’s the kind of situation that brings out the best and worst in people, and I was excited to see more of Walter blowing up shit and facing…

Television Charlie Jane Anders

Star Trek portrait pancakes will go where many pancakes have gone before

Pancake artist Nathan Shield of Saipancakes has already delighted us with his mathematic and scientific pancake shapes. More recently, he tried his batter-pouring hand at portraiture, rendering characters from the original Star Trek series in dough. Of course, their mission to explore the human digestive system is already familiar to the pancakes that came before…

io9 Lauren Davis

Amazing Last-Minute Gifts That You Can Buy Or Make Right Now

Still haven’t finished your Holiday shopping list? Here is a list of items you can purchase online right here, in the stores of make in your home right now. Don’t get deflated by “sold out” signs, this is a list of goodies we promise will please your geekiest loved ones. Museum Membership This is the…

io9 Meredith Woerner

Will the Star Wars comics start blowing chunks soon?

One of the major bright spots of Star Wars in the past decade has been the consistently excellent comics published by Dark Horse. From the Old Republic era to the far-future Legacy storylines, Dark Horse has consistently made the Star Wars comics better than they had any right to be. (With maybe the exception of…

Movies Charlie Jane Anders

How Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Helped to Invent Everything You Love

William Shatner is sending messages to outer space — and getting a response!

BS Your Way Through Starfleet Paperwork With Riker Ipsum

Why do so many villains get caught on purpose?

What do Istanbul and Deep Space Nine have in common?

The Most Baffling Pop Culture Moments of 2012

Picard vamps, Worf sings, and Riker makes out with the camera in this Next Generation blooper reel

J.J. Abrams grants a dying Star Trek fan’s final wish

Engineer petitions White House to conduct a feasibility study on building the Starship Enterprise

What’s worse: an all-powerful hero, or an all-powerful villain?

The 12 Most Epic Action Heroes of Science Fiction and Fantasy

J.J. Abrams turned down directing the new Star Wars movie

Did John Milton invent science fiction?

Weirdest and Sexiest Costumes from the Original Star Trek

Brand new Star Trek Into Darkness photos include Cumberbatch in bondage!

As Commander Riker ponders, the Enterprise loses another member of her crew

On Fringe, we’re laughing at the superior intellect

Star Trek portrait pancakes will go where many pancakes have gone before

Amazing Last-Minute Gifts That You Can Buy Or Make Right Now

Will the Star Wars comics start blowing chunks soon?

Michael B. Jordan’s First Post-Oscars Film Looks Way Cuter Than ‘Sinners’

LLMs Will Protect Each Other if Threatened, Study Finds

The Octopus Penis Arm Doesn’t Just Deliver Sperm—It Sniffs Out the Sweet Spot

Revisiting the Ending of ‘Chainsaw Man’ Through the Lens of Japanese Folklore

U.S. Considers Ban on Chinese Air Bags Blamed for Deaths of 10 People in Survivable Crashes

Samsung’s New Frame TVs Look Even More Like Actual Paintings

You Can Now Watch Rocky From ‘Project Hail Mary’ Sleep With the Perfect Accompaniment

5 Things You May Have Missed During NASA’s Historic Launch of Artemis 2

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

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