Star Trek

Captain Wesley Crusher, Starfleet Investigative Services

The Star Trek franchise has always been about “big picture” stories, but the next Trek series should take the opposite approach, narrow the scope and focus on a few well-developed characters – primarily Wesley Crusher. Yes, the much maligned ensign should be brought back as the captain of a Starfleet science vessel that warps around…

Television Ed Grabianowski

Trek Music Reinterpreted By New Power Generation

When music nerds and SF nerds collide, the result may be a little something like this. Yes, that’s really various Star Trek theme music – Apparently the themes from The Wrath of Khan, The Undiscovered Country and the Kirk/Spock fight music from “Amok Time” — played by a band that really goes by the name…

io9 Graeme McMillan

Galaxy Quest Returns, Goes Global

For fans of both Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver’s cleavage, there’s only one movie that manages to hit all particular pleasure buttons: 1999 Star Trek parody Galaxy Quest. And now, as if to prove that there’s no audience too niche for indie comic publisher IDW, comes the news that a brand new Galaxy Quest sequel…

io9 Graeme McMillan

On the International Space Station, You Can Watch Star Wars But Not Star Trek

In a stroke of weird genius, the people at GovernmentAttic.org issued a FOIA (freedom of information act) request to the US government to reveal the contents of the multimedia library on the International Space Station. Probably happy that they weren’t being asked about the Patriot Act, the government happily complied, supplying us with a 13-page…

io9 Annalee Newitz

“Real” Star Trek Tricorder Invented

If you ever watched an episode of Star Trek and wondered when we were going to finally get our hands on some cool medical gadgets like the tricorder, you will be happy to know that a primitive version already exists. Researchers knew that current medical scanners were too bulky and expensive to reach their full…

Health Sean Fallon

Surprising Twists On BSG, Smallville And Doctor Who

This morning’s spoiler roundup lets you know how the new Star Trek movie ends, just in case you were wondering. Our spoiler-bash also includes even more hints about the inevitable Iron Man sequel, plus some clues about the slightly less inevitable Superman Returns sequel and the Wolverine prequel. And there are new clues for Battlestar…

Television Charlie Jane Anders

Crack Open a Synthehol With Classic Star Trek Bottle Opener

We can’t imagine this bottle opener would have any use in the Star Trek universe (rudimentary hyper spanner, perhaps?), but here at home in 2008 anything that reeks of Trek and assists with inebriation is an indispensable tool. As you can see, the metal opener is all sorts of shiny, and is styled after the…

Tech News Jack Loftus

See The Nation As James T. Kirk Would Want You To

It’s getting near summer, and while that means travel and exploring new places, think of all the shows you’ll miss on TV! And the comics/DVDs/books/whateverelse you won’t be able to buy because you won’t be at home! How will you stay as in touch with pop culture while on the road? Thankfully, your best friend…

io9 Graeme McMillan

A Weirdly Mesmerizing Gallery of Bad Spock Drawings

A person known as Caveman Robot is the curator of a blog called “Bad Spock Drawings,” which boasts the fittingly ungrammatical subtitle “Artist Are Asked to Make a Bad Spock Drawing!” And yes, the drawings submitted by “artist” are quite bad. For some reason, Spock seems to be at his worst when strumming an instrument,…

io9 Annalee Newitz

The Slowest, Stretchiest Countdowns In Science Fiction History

When life and death for everyone hangs on a ten-second countdown, those ten seconds can feel endless because of your adrenaline rush and your super-focused attention. Or maybe those seconds actually are endless. (Like this awesome moment from Time Chasers via MST3K — thanks t3knomanser!) Science fiction TV shows (and some movies) have a long…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Star Trek Medical Tricorder Goes Beep, Won’t Diagnose Alien Disease

This replica medical tricorder from Star Trek TOS is hugely detailed and looks pretty much like the “real” thing. It even comes with the removable scanner thingy. Plus it’s got light and sound effects built-in, so you won’t have to hold it over alien flu victims and whisper “widdlyweep… widdlyweep…” Mind you, I’m pretty sure…

Gadgets Kit Eaton

Forget Warp Speed, Try One Of These Alternative FTL Ideas

In Star Wars and Star Trek, the main way to get around the galaxy is to use warp speed or flip on your hyperdrive, which is a bit like hitting the gas pedal as hard as you can so you’ll get there a bit quicker. There’s more science to it than that, involving subspace fields…

io9 Kevin Kelly

Did Star Trek or Doctor Who Mold Your Brain?

I am a devoted Doctor Who fan in a family of Trekkies — and I’m also the only creative writer in a family of electrical engineers. Are those two facts related? What kinds of minds do science fiction shows attract — and, more importantly, what kinds of minds do they create? My first independent research…

io9 Nivair H. Gabriel

The 5 Types Of Scifi Deus Ex Machinas

The awesome thing about science fiction is that anything can happen — including the occasional incredibly convenient miracle. Sometimes circumstances become so desperate and dire in a science fiction tale that even the “reset button” can’t fix them — and that’s when the “deus ex machina” shows up. The term, meaning “God from a machine,”…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

The Most Badass Robot Army Dream Team

We’ve talked about the toughest scifi soldiers, but those were made out of blood, muscle and bone. What about their robotic counterparts? It’s goes without saying that if the Bot Army met the Meat Popsicle Army, the robots would clean house. If you had access to unlimited funds and a lot of time-traveling doohickeys, then…

io9 Kevin Kelly

Where Is My Medical Tricorder?

Reader Juan asks: If not the medical tricorder from Star Trek, when could we possibly see diagnostic equipment capable of scanning for infections, viruses or impending heart attacks, attached to wrist watches or other portable devices? Nothing against the phaser, but for many of us the most coveted piece of away team equipment is the…

io9 Terry Johnson

Are You Ready For War With High-Tech Undersea Aliens?

Writers Alan Kurtzman and Roberto Orci managed to transform the old Transformers franchise into a hit movie, and everyone’s hoping they’ll do the same for Star Trek. But will they be able to work similar magic with a graphic novel that almost nobody has read, that hasn’t even finished publishing in comic-book form? They just…

io9 Charlie Jane Anders

Upcoming Events In Lost And Battlestar Are Guaranteed To Piss You Off

Sigourney Weaver’s character in James Cameron’s new movie Avatar is based on the most unlikely source possible. And that’s not the only movie that has some surprises in store: the Greatest American Hero remake will take some weird liberties with the source material. And Dragonball may commit the ultimate sacrilege. Meanwhile, there are rumors of…

Television Charlie Jane Anders

Ron Moore Drags Us Back To The Holodeck

Battlestar Galactica producer Ron Moore is going back to his Star Trek roots for his next project, a “backdoor pilot” for Fox called Virtuality. Moore got his start writing for Star Trek: The Next Generation, which became notorious for its frequent episodes featuring the crew trapped inside a holographic simulation that got out of control.…

Television Charlie Jane Anders

The Scifi Sound Effects That Take Over Your Brain

Even if you just hear a science fiction movie or TV show playing in another room, you’ll instantly recognize it thanks to the weird sounds of alien spaceships and laser weapons. No genre of entertainment has ever challenged sound-effects designers as much as SF. We’ve gone through some of scifi’s most identifiable and iconic sounds…

io9 Kevin Kelly

Captain Wesley Crusher, Starfleet Investigative Services

Trek Music Reinterpreted By New Power Generation

Galaxy Quest Returns, Goes Global

On the International Space Station, You Can Watch Star Wars But Not Star Trek

“Real” Star Trek Tricorder Invented

Surprising Twists On BSG, Smallville And Doctor Who

Crack Open a Synthehol With Classic Star Trek Bottle Opener

See The Nation As James T. Kirk Would Want You To

A Weirdly Mesmerizing Gallery of Bad Spock Drawings

The Slowest, Stretchiest Countdowns In Science Fiction History

Star Trek Medical Tricorder Goes Beep, Won’t Diagnose Alien Disease

Forget Warp Speed, Try One Of These Alternative FTL Ideas

Did Star Trek or Doctor Who Mold Your Brain?

The 5 Types Of Scifi Deus Ex Machinas

The Most Badass Robot Army Dream Team

Where Is My Medical Tricorder?

Are You Ready For War With High-Tech Undersea Aliens?

Upcoming Events In Lost And Battlestar Are Guaranteed To Piss You Off

Ron Moore Drags Us Back To The Holodeck

The Scifi Sound Effects That Take Over Your Brain

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