‘Star Trek’ Fans Put Kirk’s Command Chair in Their Homes

THERE is nothing particularly unusual about the living room of the two-story town house that Scott Veazie shares with his wife in Washougal, Wash., except for one piece of furniture in a corner: a full-size replica of the captain’s chair from the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise, as seen in the original “Star Trek” television series. […] “It’s not the most comfortable of chairs,” Mr. Veazie said. “The arms are too low and they’re too far apart. Now I know why William Shatner was always leaning forward in it.” There is another possible explanation, suggested Eddie Paskey, who as Mr. Shatner’s stand-in on “Star…

Ricardo Montalban will always be Khan to me

Ricardo Montalban (1920-2009). My kids know him as the grandfather in Spy Kids 2 and 3. Let’s hope they lay him to rest dressed in a spotless white suit, in a casket lined in soft, Corinthian leather. He will always be Captain Kirk’s finest foe, the would-be conqueror who first tried to steal the Enterprise in the classic Star Trek episode “Space Seed” and then finally robbed Kirk of his best friend in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Montalban’s magnetic, robust presence; that voice that sounded like a ride over rolling hills — he made Khan Noonien Singh…

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Analytics According to Captain Kirk

Besides not beaming down, another factor that showed to increase the survival rate of the red-shirts was the nature of the relationship between the alien life and captain Kirk. When Captain Kirk meets an alien woman and “makes contact” the survival rate of the red-shirted crewmen increases by 84%. In fact, out of Captain Kirks’ 24 “relationships” there were only three instances of red-shirt vaporization. The caveat to this is when Captain Kirk not only meets the local alien women, but also starts a fight among alien locals. The combination of these events has led to the elimination of 4…

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Shakespare and Star Trek

With all the gratuitous use of Shakespeare language and imagery in the series (including its four spin-offs, a successful franchise of feature films and a short-lived animated series), is there an underlying reason to the use of the Bard’s works? Does the combination of classic literature and pop-culture sci-fi result in something greater than the sum of its parts? According to Stephen M. Buhler, the use of Shakespeare in the Star Trek universe, specifically the film Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, serves to define which characters are the villains. (Buhler 18) In general, he says the contemporary popular film…

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Damn Vulcans, ruining this federation…

Consider their treatment of Mr. Spock. Almost every episode, Dr. McCoy heckles him over his logic and even uses “green-blooded” as part of his threats. Captain Kirk, ostensibly Spock’s greatest friend, takes any opportunity he can to point out problems logic causes, and on more than one occasion makes Spock the butt of race-based jokes in front of the entire bridge crew. Several members of the crew question his authority on the basis of race in many different episodes, and no one thinks to reprimand or stop them until the situation becomes serious for other reasons. Finally, let’s not forget…

Captain Kirk reveals he won't go boldly into space

The 75-year-old actor said: “I’m interested in man’s march into the unknown but to vomit in space is not my idea of a good time. Neither is a fiery crash with the vomit hovering over me.” Onboard the Starship Enterprise, sci-fi fans saw Shatner freely ‘explore the final frontier, seeking out new life and strange new worlds’ in 79 episodes of the 40-year-old TV series . —Captain Kirk reveals he won’t go boldly into space (Daily Mail) Sounds like a great PR idea that backfired — though the article also says that Sigourney Weaver (of the Alien movies) has signed up.…

My Love Affair With Star Trek

There was no separating the two Treks, the vacuous and the visionary. It’s no coincidence that one of the most legendary episodes — “The Trouble with Tribbles” — was essentially a comic take on the show’s established themes. Given some distance from the moment, I realize this is actually an entirely healthy attitude. It’s the attitude we should take about everything in life, and ourselves in particular. Aristotle once said, “Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor: For a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination…

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Up With Grups — The Ascendant Breed of Grown-Ups Who are Redefining Adulthood

Also known as yupster (yuppie + hipster), yindie (yuppie + indie), and alterna-yuppie. Our preferred term, grup, is taken from an episode of Star Trek (keep reading) in which Captain Kirk et al. land on a planet of children who rule the world, with no adults in sight. The kids call Kirk and the crew “grups,” which they eventually figure out is a contraction of “grown-ups.” It turns out that all the grown-ups had died from a virus that greatly slows the aging process and kills anybody who grows up. […] “You have to have a little bit of Dora…

Shatner, Nimoy team up on sci-fi project

William Shatner, who played the commander of the starship USS Enterprise in the ’60s Star Trek series, arrived in Riverside [Iowa] Tuesday to hold auditions for four small parts in a low-budget, sci-fi movie he wrote with Star Trek co-star, Leonard Nimoy…..Although Kirk’s hometown was never mentioned in the TV series, Gene Roddenberry, the show’s creator and executive producer, wrote in The Making of Star Trek that Kirk was “born in a small town in the state of Iowa.” —Shatner, Nimoy team up on sci-fi project (Toronto Star) In Star Trek IV, Kirk mentions he is from Iowa. “I only work…

How Capt. Kirk would out-invest Mr. Spock

“As an investor, are you Mr. Spock, a rational, unemotional decision-maker who weighs all the options, or Captain Kirk, who is likely to respond with his feelings in making a decision?|At first glance, Mr. Spock would seem to have the advantage and make the best judgments about which stocks to buy.|Not necessarily, say a trio of visiting scholars at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta.” Tom Walker —How Capt. Kirk would out-invest Mr. Spock (AJC) My bank account… it’s dead, Jim. I’m a doctor [of philosophy], not an investor!

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The Captain Kirk Principle

“This psychological battle between intellect and intuition was played out in almost every episode of Star Trek in the characters of the ultrarational Mr. Spock and the hyperemotional Dr. McCoy, with Captain Kirk as the near perfect synthesis of both. Thus, I call this balance the Captain Kirk Principle: intellect is driven by intuition, intuition is directed by intellect.” Michael Schermer —The Captain Kirk Principle (Scientific American) Star Trek meets Aristotle’s rhetorical strategies: Kirk = ethos (character); Spock = logos (logic); McCoy = pathos (emotion). I think of Kirk as a man of action, who pays attention to his gut (among other…