Great Links: USS Prius, Kirk’s the man, Trek Con Artist, US Navy: The Motion Picture + more

Star Trek is everywhere. This week in The Great Links we got a Trekified car, Kirk getting on the available list, Trek con men not getting respect, a Trek MacGyver, Worf helping out Readers Digest with some history, Star Trek The Motion Picture helping out the US Navy, Trekkie politicans. Check it all out below.

A Federation Prius?
A California man has converted his Toyota Prius into a Federation shuttlecraft, as reported by Edmunds. Sporting an NCC-1701A/4 decal and a Trek-themed screen display and sound effects setup, the shuttlecraft “Zhang Heng” isn’t ready for space travel, but for a Trekkie, it’s the next best thing.


is Dilithium green?

Kirk’s Still Swingin’
When he wasn’t exploring strange, new worlds (and sometimes even when he was), James T. Kirk was seeking out new lifeforms of the opposite sex. Kirk’s frequent romantic escapades have landed him in eighth place on MSN TV’s list of 10 Most Swingin’ Bachelors.


He did it all for the nookie.

Trek Grifters and MacGyvers
Our friends at io9 are just not buyin it from Trek’s favorite rogues. Three characters from the Star Trek universe (Harry Mudd from TOS, Quark from DS9, and Ardra from TNG’s “Devil’s Due”) have made io9’s list of the Weakest Con Artists of the Distant Future.  However, io9 did give Trek its props in its list of Greatest MacGyver’s of Science Fiction which included Scotty, the resourceful engineer of the original Enterprise (we’re sure Geordi, Trip, B’Elanna and Chief O’Brien were honorable mentions).


io9 ain’t buying it Harry

Pledge allegiance to Worf
This month’s Reader’s Digest features a "Test Your America IQ" quizand for the "Who Said It?" question, famous quotes are run through online translation websites to make the questions more challenging with one quote translated to Klingon.

 
Worf teaches you history
(click to enlarge)


US Navy goes to final frontier
The back cover of this months The Naval Reservist Magazine has a very familiar looking ad from the USN Reserve, with the tagline "Your Navy Adventure Is Just Beginning"…I wonder if Paramount is going to sue? Maybe not…would hate to see the studio get strafed by some F/A-18s.

 
Maybe you can serve on the Enterprise
(click to enlarge)

QuickLinks

  • Someone over at OSNews wants to know what Star Trek race you would want to be. Don’t ask us why.
  • Science fiction works like Star Trek will be the subject of Cal State Fullerton’s upcoming philosophy symposium, according to the Daily Titan.
  • Newsday reports on a group of Connecticut politicians have their own "Trekkie Caucus’
  • In an interview with MSNBC’s CosmicLog, TNG & VOY writer Nick Sagan (son of Carl Sagan) discusses how close we are to developing technologies created in science fiction shows like Star Trek

 

Answers to the Readers Digest Quiz: a) Benjamin Franklin, b) Abraham Lincoln, c) FDR, d) Patrick Henry

 

Thanks to Mary Jo Tenuto and LCDR Chandler Archibald, US Navy for the magazine scans (we will let you guess which one sent in which scan)

 

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F22s are USAF?

without commenting on the car itself
any one have pics of the ol chevy minivan panted up trek or what was that one with the bubble top?

Just a small note – The Prius is made by Toyota, not Ford :-)

That is an EXCELLENT poster for Navy recruitement! If anything, if I worked for Paramount (and/or their legal department), I would be FLATTERED BEYOND REASON that the U.S. Navy chose to HONOR “Star Trek–The Motion Picture” with such a great image! I can only hope that anyone at Paramount feels that way as well.

#1
yeah the navy has f-22’s???
maybe navy will send in a superhornet.

now why am i reeminded of ‘final countdown’ when looking at that pic :)

Great nod to the all-time greatest TREK movie poster (it was always simple, beautiful and direct). Nice to know TREK fans exist in the armed services!

THe U.S. Gay Navy? Sorry those colors have a different meaning in 2008

Now that is funny with the Navy Reserve ad… they used the EXACT wording of the TV commercial on it as well… “It will startle your senses… Challenge your intellect.. and alter your perception of the future. By Taking you there.” haha… I can almost hear Orson Welles saying it.

The car in the picture is a toyota Prius not a Ford Prius.Other then awsome job to the person who did the job on that car.I love it.

#7-
Yes the gay nation(?) has co-opted the rainbow colors as a symbol but rainbow colors cannot and should not be equated to gayness or a homosexual agenda.

#7-
Ok, those colors do mean something different now, but that is what was used back then on the theatre poster. I didn’t even think about the colors equaling gay when I saw the above poster.

The rainbow has a long history meaning racial diversity, not gay.

The Navy Reserve poster is fabulous– but, be warned, those year long callups can be a #$##.

Are you guys kidding??? That poster looks like it was put together by Helen Keller!

#4 I wouldn’t be flattered at all.

Rainbows are not political. People are political. Mostly, I’m glad to see the Navy showing a sense of humor, Trek humor at that. I totally respect the military, no matter who is Comm— (wait, I’ll just stop here.)

It’s kind of hard to tell, but I think that that’s the Navy’s USS Enterprise on that poster. That’s a nice touch. Nimitz-class vessels have a slightly different superstructure.

The USS Enterprise remains the longest aircraft carrier ever built, at 1,123 ft. Current U.S. supercarriers are 1,092 ft in length, although slightly heavier than the Enterprise.

The Enterprise is slated to be retired, to be replaced by the USS Gerald R. Ford some time before the end of 2015.

Wow didn’t know that the Navy loves trek but this can only be good for them.

#16- The Navy is also going to make a new supercarrier and name it Enterprise…I know this from someone who is working with the navy.

I could imagine Kirk’s disappointment if he got stuck with the USS Gerald R Ford.

It is kind of odd to have an in-joke poster that 90% of navy recruits wouldn’t even recognize the source. Sort of like all the gags in South Park and Family Guy that you have to explain to your teenage kids.

7. TrekOfficial – April 12, 2008
“THe U.S. Gay Navy? Sorry those colors have a different meaning in 2008”

You know what was implied… and so what. It’s a Trek site. At least this time you didn’t proclaim it to be “non-canon”

i work for toyota and in 2010 the new prius will get 65 miles per gallon. now thats getting into star trek technology. well kinda sorta. i was also in the navy for 8 years and we all love sta trek. though that poster for the navy is kinda gay. but the meaning is great.kirk. is the man with all the ladys. forign and domestic.

Is that Gerald T or Gerald R, some one call CBS and see if they can sort it

17, the Gerald R. Ford will be the first in a new class of supercarriers, about the size of current upgraded Nimitz class, but with improved technology, such as electromagnetic rail systems for its catapults. It might also have advanced technology such as directed beam weapons (powerful lasers) for defense against incoming missiles.

I think that your friend might be referring to a post-GRF carrier, and if so, it would mean that the new Enterprise would also have high tech additions.

The current Enterprise, CVN-65, is the first aircraft carrier to be powered by nuclear reactors. It has eight of them, manufactured by Westinghouse. (The first U.S. Navy ship to be powered by nuclear reactors was the USS Long Beach, a guided missile cruiser that has since been scrapped.)

The U.S. Navy has had a long history of association with Star Trek productions, including the use of the USS Forrestal as a stand-in for the USS Enterprise (both of them aircraft carriers) in STIV:TVH, and, more recently, the inclusion of actual Navy crew persons on Star Trek: Enterprise, playing the role of Earth Starfleet ensigns.

Oops, I meant USS Ranger, not USS Forrestal.

^24 Hat Rick

Westinghouse Electric, one time home of Nicola Tesla was recently sold to Toshiba so T could sell nuclear reactors to Red China, without worrying about US export restrictions on Defense tech. This was possible because WEC was formerly sold to the UK government, who was not deemed a security risk.

Along with the deal, they get some of IBM and Cray’s best supercomputer technology necessary for the current generation of reactors.

One day, the Big E may see action against one of it’s subcontractors, in a way.

How’s that for Science “Truth is Stranger than” Fiction story???

16:

Please say it’s not the “Gerald R. Ford.”

And the Russians have unveiled the aircraft carrier “Konstantin Chernenko!”

Name the damned ships after people that did something!

That navy poster is a mess… The original poster was designed so you could actually see the faces of the people on it. This is just a mess… Is it fake? The navy would never release something that bad as a recruitment poster.

http://navyreserve.com/media/print.jsp

That is the list of current print ads, and this isn’t one of them. It looks like they took the Samuel picture and put it on the top left, but this is really not a professional design job. Your leg is being pulled.

re#2: Yes, there was a mid 70’s van, don’t know the make, that was painted to look like the Galileo shuttlecraft. It appeared in the Bob Wilkins special on Star Trek called The Star Trek Dream, about 1976. The side panels had the NCC-1701/7.

And IIRC, the person who changed his name to James T. Kirk owned it.

#28 see
http://navyreserve.navy.mil/Public/Staff/WelcomeAboard/default.htm

It looks much better on the real magizine. Open the adobe on right.

Its not a recruitment poster. Just a cool back cover to a monthly magazine.

I think its great, I just wish they had used my face in Kirk’s spot…..

26, interesting information — thank you.

27, apparently that’s the truth. I would rather see it named the Enterprise, frankly.

#10 Gay agenda? What’s that?

8:00 am – get up
8:15 am – shower
8:30 am – Breakfast
9:00 am – 5:00 pm – work
5:30pm – gym
6:00pm – dinner
7:30pm – Will & Grace re-run on Lifetime
9:00pm – bed

#24, Yea it is the Carrier that is going to be named after the USS GRF is named but built in about the same years as the GRF.

I don’t think that those Colors would be assocated with the gay community enought people have seen the poster from Star Trek:TMP on the DVD’s and such that most people will accept it for what it is….

Rum, sodomy, and the lash.

#22–is that a real 65 mpg or estimated? I hope it’s actual

#32–Will and Grace?? that show sucked. I watch some sort of Trek.
My agenda is up at 4:30 am, shower, drive my little gay car to school, prepare daily lessons for my students, deal with one crack or two about my sexuality at some point during the day, at 5:00 drive the little gay car to the gym and realize that everyone and their mothers are there
at 5:00 as well, head back home, eat dinner, crash on the couch and watch the news and fret over what is going to happen to our world.
Then of course, bedtime in my overstuffed mattress decorated with the latest bedding from the latest designer.
It’s good to be a stereotype.

After reading this thread and the one the other day about gay characters in Star Trek, I understand what the Chancellor Gorkon character was supposed to be feeling when he said “I can see we have a long way to go …”

If there is to be a brave new world, our generation is going to have the hardest time living in it.

#36. yes thats a real number. i have not seen it but the execs at toyota say it has the epa of 67 mpg with a 12 gallon tank. not quite antmatter but well gotta start somewhere right scotty. also a history note. the uss forestal is the aircraft carrier that john mccain was on when the missle was fired on deck due to a falty wiring malfuction and several other missles and bombs exploded resulting in a massive fire on board ship during the vietnam war. john mccain was in his aircraft ready to take off and he was almost killed. several sailers were killed that day and a lot of heroes were made. i think you can see the video on youtube of that very bad day.

Love those nods to ST.
Kudos to Willie Yee for his imagination and creativity.
Kirk’s the man!

That Shuttle car thing is nothing new- there was a Citroen GSA Estate done up in the same way some 20 years ago in my home town here in the UK.

Ha ha. Can’t wait to show that Navy thingto one of my friends. She’s in NJROTC and is completely Navy-obsessed, and we have frequent battles over whether the Navy or Starfleet is better. Looks like the Navy had to copy Trek for good ideas. Owned.

thats it the Lumina APV I was rtight. any one got a pick of that as a shuttle?

#29 and #40
got any pics?

also good thing this old pic is still active.
http://wirelessdigest.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/star_trek_shuttlecraft.JPG

No way around it: Back in ’79 rainbow did NOT equal gay.
Today, rainbow equals gay.
So don’t ask, don’t tell… and why does that Village People song keep coming to mind?

That gizoogle.com site is the shizzle, man… check out this little excerpt from this story header:

Great Links: USS Prius, Kirk’s tha miznan, Trek Con Artist, US Navy cuz I’m fresh out the pen: The Motion Picture + mizzy
by Charles Trotta , Filed unda�: Great Links ,43 comments

Star Tizzle is everywhere. This week in The Great Links we gots a Trekified car, Kizzirk weed-smokin’ on tha available list, Tizzle con men not gett’n respect, a Tizzy Cracka Wizzy mobbin’ out Hustla Digest wit some history, S-T-to-tha-izzar Tizzle The Motion Picture sippin’ out tha US Navy, Trekkie politizzles. Chizzeck it all out below.
(more…)

Cool Navy Reserve poster, huh? The gentleman who designed it, at my suggestion, is Bryan Borderlon, an excellent graphic artist residing near New Orleans, a TREK fan (naturally), and a good friend!

Way to go Bryan! The poster looks awesome!

(greetings from Camp Eggers, Afghanistan)

Nice about the ‘Prius shuttle’…except…the gentleman who owns it is from New Paltz, NY – you can actually SEE the NY license plate in the pics….

Doug!!!!

Glad to hear from you and you’re okay! Give our best to the rest of the men!

CYA and go get ’em!!

Peace. Live long and prosper.
The Vulcanista }:-|

An official from the US Navy Press Corp was contacted concerning the meaning of the colors on the above recruiting poster. His reply: Don’t Ask; Don’t Tell.