"Hi. My name is Gene and this is my journal." Young Gene Roddenberry meets two Garfield-eyed aliens who proceed to take him everywhere in their exploration of this strange planet Earth. In the process, we see where Gene came up with the idea of a unified borderless, moneyless world that would allow dashing starship captains to seek out new life and new civilizations, boldly going where no one has gone before. We see where Gene first met tribbles, Orion slave girls, Organians, and the Guardian of Forever, and how Gene came up with phasers, tricorders, the Prime Directive, food replicators (from which he orders gagh), Questor androids, and the Enterprise design. [more inside]
posted by WCityMike on Sep 2, 2009 - 28 comments

Data's mad at you, and he's still carrying a grudge. Four years after the movie tanked, Brent Spiner, who portrayed the character of Data, still thinks it's your fault that Star Trek: Nemesis performed poorly compared to its predecessor. "'Let's make a movie for the fans, because that's the people who actually go to see the films.' And what happened?," Spiner rhetorically asks. "They didn't go!" (Other films that opened around the same time included a small arthouse production from An Nua-Shealainn.) It might have instead been that the movie resembled "a 65th class reunion mixer where only eight surviving members show up — and there's nothing to drink." Of course, one can take pity on Spiner; one look at his filmography and realize he's only a few cancellations away from having to sing for his supper. But at least he didn't end up (unjustly) on the cutting room floor (In the meantime, Shatner has his own problems.)
posted by WCityMike on Feb 4, 2007 - 89 comments