Can Star Trek inspire the next wave of space tourism? Is watching Trek a defense for attempted murder? Is Megan Fox A Trekkie? Are there Trekkies left in Australia? Is a British glamor model taking beauty tips from Spock? And what exactly is a Kardashian? The Great Link answers these questions and more below.
Utopia Planitia formed?
A new group calling itself ‘The Utopia Planitia Group’ (borrowing the name from Star Trek’s Utopia Planitia Ship Yards) is hoping to band together space tourism companies in order to achieve the goals of the Star Trek universe. Their press release states, in part:
Space Tourism is the next logical step in this progression, and still very much in its infancy stages and will need to still take several more steps before becoming fully mature and helping mankind achieve its greatest walk, yet to come. If it will take any one company decades to go through these steps, wouldn’t it make better sense for a consortium of companies to take the same steps together and accomplish the same steps, but take less then one decade to make the same accomplishments? Gene Roddenberry was a good man and a wise futurist, and he knew that for mankind to survive and have a future free of disease, poverty and war, it meant working together to accomplish that common goal, and that very theme is written all the way through the many stories of Star Trek.
Currently they provide no details and have no website, but they are "actively seeking individuals and/or companies" in space tourism to join them. If you want to help, contact Randy Brimer or John Mow directly at UPlanitia@aol.com.
OK guys, can you get this done by next year or so?
Star Trek defense fails
On July 16th, Leo Gene Bloomfield, 44, was convicted of attempted second-degree murder for trying to kill his roommate Gary Coca last Christmas. The men gave differing accounts. Coco said Bloomfield attacked him while he was sleeping, but Bloomfield put forward a defense saying that he was watching Star Trek when Coca "ripped the television remote out of his hand" and attacked him and so he was just defending himself. Clearly the jury didn’t buy that anyone would attack someone watching Trek. More at Gillete News Record.
Jury not buying this guy as a Trek fan…we agree
Trek watch
The Trek sounding name and look of the AK Geneve HMS Automatic Warp Watch is no accident. According to WritstDreams the strange timepiece was designed by Arny Kapshitzer who is "a huge Star Trek fan." The official press release notes:
It looks like something straight out of the Star Trek series, uncannily reminiscent of the starship Enterprise. Located eccentrically towards the right of the dial, a cut-away metal piece reveals the jumping hours and minutes on two superimposed discs. The seconds are displayed at 3 o’clock on a cylinder linked directly to the crown. 9 o’clock forms the tail of the “spaceship”. Made of the same metal, it bears the name of the watch and is punctuated by a totally off-centre dot, where the brand logo is engraved.
Pretty cool…
…but not as cool as this!
Quote of the week
I’m a Star Wars fan. I’m a Star Trek fan. I’m a big nerd. I’m a big, giant comic book nerd.
– Transformers hottie Megan Fox [IGN]
Yeah…total nerd!
Video of the week: Star Trek A Comedy?
Not really sure what to make of this, but clearly Trek fan kayAbee had a lot of fun and a lot of time on his hands playing with some video software.
Star Trek Movie Buzz Watch
News of the new Star Trek cast photos whipped around the web and there are too many places to count or mention, but the movie continues to rank high in the buzz-o-meter at some key places, however some in the geekosphere are still not convinced.
- Variety notes that Star Trek will benefit from a Summer with few comic book films in 2009
- MTV has Star Trek on their list of 10 Most Anticipated Summer 2009 movies.
- But Sci-Fi site Chud’s blogger ‘just can’t get excited‘ about Star Trek.
- And CNET Australia wonders "Where have all the Trekkies gone"…with man on the street interviews.
CNET.au goes out to the street to find some Trekkies
QuickLinks
- The Spoof ‘reports‘ that 19% of Americans think a ‘Kardashian‘ is a Star Trek alien.
- TV Squad has put together a list of Five memorable — but less celebrated — Star Trek guest stars, but is Harry Mudd really ‘less celebrated’?
- TVNZ.co.nz readers voted for Star Trek as the best in of list of Top TV-to-movie adaptations.
- The UK’s Sun Tabloid speculates that glamour model Jordan (aka Katie Price) maybe taking fashion tips from Mr. Spock for her new pointy eyebrow look (and those ears are looking a bit pointy too).
They might be on to something, but they are thinking of the wrong Vulcan
That watch is pretty cool.
So is Megan.
I wouldn’t mind seeing a photoshop of Kim “Cardassian…”
#3-Megan is HOT to me! The video was so goofy, it was actually kinda fun. I still liked the ones that Spockboy and Kelvington used to do. I wish they hadn’t quit, but it has to be tough to come up with a weekly comedy routine!
Et tu, Australia? Et tu?
Pshaw. These man-on-the-street things usually are of dubious reliability.
Of course, for some reason the network execs could never figure out, the hit reality show “Keeping Up With The Cardassians” always got terrible ratings on Bajor…
I suspect journey tampering. Or faulty speech-to-text software.
I never got the appeal of Jordan. Yeah yeah, Page 3 girl, big fake boobs, yadda yadda. But any time I’ve seen her up close I just think ‘meh’. Why do people go crazy for her? I don’t get it.
OK, I have no idea who Katie Price is, but I’d like to.
I’d also like to (insert lascivious comment here) Megan Fox.
“cut-away metal piece reveals the jumping hours and minutes on two superimposed discs” — Yes but, um, does it tell the time?
Thanks, Anthony.
Oh Megan, Megan, Megan…Maybe just once every seven years? Is that too much to ask?
Anthony?
Clearly the journey didn’t buy that anyone would attack someone watching Trek.
journey = jury?
Not to nit pick.
Having a hot chick like Megan Fox as a Trekkie is definitely pretty cool!!
As for where all the Star Trek fans have gone in Australia when we are alive and well i can assure you! :)
Did AP write this one himself? Sometimes I forget what a talented writer that he is. And what a sense of humor, too. It’s nice to see something other than the serious “hitch, you’re flaming / banned for a week” side of AP. I guess that I usually think of him more as a webmaster; when really he’s probably more a writer slash reporter with a website. I would bet that in real life AP and I would get along famously while maintaining a healthy competitive jealousy.
Anyway, nice article, AP.
BEST!!
=h=
Is Utopia P kidding with that press release? It reads like a speech from that other guy—not the tall dark one who looks Vulcan.
“If it will take any one company decades to go through these steps, wouldn’t it make better sense for a consortium of companies to take the same steps together and accomplish the same steps, but take less then one decade to make the same accomplishments? ”
Huh?
OTOH, if I had the money, I’d be the first tourist in line.
I have to be honest with you guys:
I CANNOT get Megan Fox to stop calling me. Constantly, day and night, her pleading calls for my attention have become something of a hindrance to my daily routine. My wife is forgiving and understanding of miss Fox’s adoration, but I am a married man. Please Megan, I can’t be with you.
Well, maybe just this once.
#14
LOL!!! I mean, I feel your pain.
#15 It’s not her pain I want to be feeling! ;)
OK, Kim Cattrall looks like a Vulcan mime in that picture.
Utopia Planetia be onto somethin’…. only by workin’ together can we forget aboot Megan Fox as she is such a distractive force that I run me dingy aground o’er her… well, at least she be in that portait… funny how such a pose could run a man so hardily flushed…
Good God, man… break out tha’ saltpeter….
Arrrrrrrrrr….
Anthony, have you ever fantasized about being a pink faux mink comforter?
LOVED kayabee video – all it lacked was Helter Skelter written on the outside saucer section of the Enterprise.
Denise
Is it possible that you could bring along a pink faux mink comforter to Vegas? I seem to recall it getting a bit chilly at night there and I just happen to be fresh out of them.
Dear Lord Christ, isn’t Jordan overexposed as it is? She maintains her profile as a ‘celebrity’ simply be completely open to tell her story to any tabloid supermarket magazine that’ll have her. She’s renewed her vows to her husband twice in the past three years (and IIRC they only got married four years ago) and every other week some magazine at some checkout spins the wheel to see if it will “I’m Battling Anorexia”, “I’m Not Battling Anorexia Anymore”, “I hate my Husband”, “I love my Husband”, “My ‘Feud’ with Random Other Z-List Celeb X” or “Taking Care of My Mentally Disabled Son is Like Soooo Hard and I’m Totally a Saint To Put Up with Him”.
Gaack, and now: TrekMovie. Her conquest of the universe is truly complete.
Leo Bloomfield kinda looks like Lazarus.
I am a Trekkie in Australia!
We aren’t as crazy as our overseas Trekkie brothers & sisters though. For instance, we have lives, sexual partners, etc. We don’t publically acknowledge our Trekkiedom for fear of being ridiculed. We rarely get conventions down here but probably wouldn’t attend them anyway.
Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi!!!!!!!!!!!
Megan Fox has got it goin’ *on*!
But a Star Trek fan? I dunno about that one, kids.
You see? Even Trekkies can’t believe a hot girl can be a Star Trek fan!! :D
#23 and 25
I can’t attest to the veracity of your claims, but I will acknowledge that there is a difference between Australian and American Trek fans:
Americans schedule their showers daily. Australians use a calendar.
Le Bloomfield’ s guilt or innocence is not rocket science. All they had to do was ask him what episode he was watching and check with TV station that aired it. Any REAL trek fan would have no problem answering that question.
THX#20- Pink faux mink comforter… check. Already packed right beside my mirror universe thighhigh boots and Klingon aphrodisiacs.
I love that video…it’s hilarious as hell.
kayAbee well done. It got a little predictable towards the end but quite a laugh.
Don’t worry abate Australia cobbers… we are legion.
#25
My comment wasn’t a generalization. Just an opinion of one particular case.
To quote a famous Vulcan Ambassor:
“It is difficult to answer when one does not understand the question.”
What exactly is the set of criteria that defines a “Trekkie”?
For some people I know, if you can actually name some other characters besides Kirk and Spock, you are automatically a Trekkie, because you know far too much about a silly TV show.
For others, in order to be a “Trekkie” you must have a “reality/fantasy disassociative disorder” in which you believe that the Enterprise is a real spacecraft and Star Trek is a documentary of it’s missions. And William Shatner is lying when he says he has no clue about how to reroute the secondary couplings to the deflector dish.
Regarding that comedy Video of the week–
Mr. Pascale owes me 5 minutes and 30 seconds of my life back.
When I say lame, I don’t mean like when a horse’s leg hurts. I mean like how the cool kids call the uncool kids in school.
I wonder if I could buy that pink blanket on ebay. Please don’t wash it.
hello!
trek greets you from australia!
at last we are finally recognised!!
dif tor heh smusma.
Bobfred
#32… wait a minute… are you saying it’s NOT real…?
For the record Warp Watches cooler than TMP communicators.
-cs™
This place is becoming the place for pics of hot babes!
First Jolene…now Megan….
SCORCHIN!!! ;-)
Tomorrow is Yesterday doctored episode was fun!
Great, another pothead says she likes TREK.
Sleazy.
There really is no law saying that sluts can’t be Star Trek fans. I am not sure where the surprise may be hiding there.
I’ve known several myself.
.