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Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1 HD DVD review roundup
Paramount's Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1 HD DVD boxed set has finally hit shelves, and we've just got to know if it's worth the price. That price is a heft $194.99 MSRP for the ten disc DVD / HD DVD combo set -- currently selling for around $135 at various online retailers -- and judging by the reviews, that may be its only notable flaw. Every review we've seen gave consistent praise to the audio and video quality of the remastered and retouched high definition transfers. The special features are also praiseworthy with some HD DVD exclusives, although digitallyObsessed notes a few are only available on the SD side. We have to wonder if Paramount might follow 300's lead and release a DVD-less set, but any Trekkies that pick this up can expect the best looking and sounding Star Trek: TOS ever. Read - digitallyObsessed Read - IGN Read - The ManRoom Read - PS3 Center Read - High Def Disc News
Make your own Blu-ray phaser
For the cost of one replica Star Trek phaser and one PlayStation 3, you can have your own blue-beamed version of Captain Kirk's weapon of choice. It's a steep price, to be sure, but think of how impressed the ladies at the Sci-Fi Expo would be with this sexy piece of machinery in hand. What would Shatner do?Instructables has the full rundown on how to turn your gaming monolith into futuristic weaponry. Now we just have to wait for someone to create an HD-DVD phaser, and watch as millions of fanboys argue about which one is better.[Via GameSpot]
The Blu-ray Phaser defends dorks from the HD DVD borg
If the intersection of 1st and 1st in the East Village is the nexus of the universe, then this Blu-ray Laser Phaser is easily the nerdom equivalent. Kipkay -- already Internet-famous for his phone line and remote control hacks -- crosses a toy Star Trek phaser with the PlayStation 3's laser assembly for a weapon of retina sizzling proportions. Check the video after the break for all the hot dremeling action. [Via Blogmond]
Theaters to offer sneak peak of Star Trek HD DVD
All right, trekkies, time to bust your best Star Trek costume out of the mothballs! Not for Halloween, you Talosian smacktard, but for the big screen showing of the two-part classic Star Trek episode, "The Menagerie." On November 20th 13th, a week before the release of the DVD/HD DVD combo boxed set of "Star Trek: The Original Series Season 1", the episode will be shown in all its HD glory at 300 theaters nationwide. True fans demand more, though, so the theaters will also be showing a new introduction by Eugene Roddenberry and a "behind the scenes" feature. Follow the link for details on where you can catch 40-foot Kirk and how many bones it'll cost you.
Adgadget: Fantasy fembots market male products
Ariel Waldman contributes Adgadget, a column about the intersection of advertising and technology.Technologically better equipped than booth babes, fantasy fembots seem to be popping up everywhere in ad campaigns these days. Alcohol seems to be popular with the fembots -- they're employed in ads from both Heineken and Svedka -- but Philips is utilizing them in a campaign for an electric razor as well. It's pretty easy to be creeped out by the influx of ready-to-serve robots -- and not just because these fembots could be the beginnings of the Singularity in disguise. (C'mon, what more suitable "smarter-than-human brain-computer-interface" would be better to take over the human race than one that offered kegs and clean shaves as a "gift from the Greeks"? And who better to be behind the downfall of society than advertisers?) Misogynist undertones run rampant throughout all the ads, so it's no shock that feminine cyborgs are used exclusively in advertising targeting young males -- they tap right into stock fantasies of complete feminine subservience.
Buy Star Trek: TOS HD DVD and a Toshiba HD DVD player, get an uber-rare Phaser remote
If you somehow managed to hold off on picking up a Toshiba HD DVD player along with eight free titles, and you eat, sleep, and breathe Star Trek, we've got a feeling your resistance is futile. In an admittedly interesting promotional move, Toshiba has teamed with CBS to offer those who purchase Star Trek: The Original Series HD DVD box set and any Toshiba HD DVD player a "limited edition Star Trek Phaser remote" that will operate Tosh's HD DVD players. Regrettably, there's no mention as to how many of these things will actually be handed out, but if you're even remotely (ahem) interested, we'd be on the ball as soon as the set lands.
Widget Watch: Warp Speed Calculator
The Warp Speed Calculator widget isn't useful at all, unless you happen to be a captain of a Starfleet vessel, but I'm OK with that. As you might expect this simple widget calculates how fast, in km/s, a particular Warp Factor is (from Star Trek: The Next Generation). I can also calculate how long it'll take you to travel distances based on your Warp Factor.Who doesn't need to know this stuff from time to time?
Beam down for fun this holiday with Star Trek: Conquest
Although GameFly listed the game a few days back, the lack of Star Trek: Conquest on Bethesda's special section of their website reserved for such things had us thinking such a title was some sick kind of joke and the Wii would be left without Star Trek goodness. Turns out, all we needed was a bit of patience, as Bethesda has announced the game for the Wii (and PS2). Set to release this holiday season, the game is to feature "a blend of strategy and intense action set in 'The Next Generation' era."Considering the game is only $30, we're pretty sure we'll give this a look-see later this year.
Star Trek: Conquest beaming onto Wii and PS2 this holiday
Listen up, Trekkies. Ever since its first public unveiling, we know you've been dreaming of using the Wiimote as a phaser (set to stun, we hope) in a Star Trek video game. We know, some of those other nerds keep going on and on about lightsabers this and Dark Sith Lord that ... but we both know where the real action is. Phasers. In a nod to our Vulcan compatriots, we've suppressed all emotion to bring you news that Bethesda has announced Star Trek: Conquest for the Wii and PS2 platforms, scheduled for this holiday (just in time for Earth's largest buying season). The game is "a blend of strategy and intense action set in 'The Next Generation' era." And, what's this? You'll use your Wiimote and Nunchuck to pilot the USS Enterprise for some real-time spaceship combat? It's not phaser control, but it just may be worth the extra $10 they're asking for the Wii version. Make it so this holiday at $30 for the Wii offering and just $20 for you PS2 owners.
Star Trek: The Original Series S1 HD DVD boxed set hits November 20
CBS and Paramount have lived up to their promise of more details on the Star Trek:The Original Series Season 1 HD DVD/DVD combo boxed set at Comic-Con, announcing the 10 disc set will debut November 20th. As seen in the HD broadcasts, the visuals have been updated, along with remastered audio with a Dolby TrueHD soundtrack. HD DVD exclusive special features include picture-in-picture video commentaries, an interactive tour of Enterprise, a documentary on the remastering process, rare home videos and additional information on seven of the episodes. All that Star Trek goodness that comes packaged in a "futuristic, clear case" with an SRP of $217.99, and still no word of a Blu-ray release.[Thanks, Cameron]
Wii: the final frontier
Something is strange about the Gamefly listing for the possibly-upcoming Star Trek Conquest. There's no mention of a Conquest on (apparent) publisher Bethesda's home page, nor on their Star Trek page. But Gamefly already has a pretty official-looking boxart there. How do they get these things so early? We have no reason to doubt Gamefly in this case, but we wonder why we haven't heard anything else about the game, which shares its name with a weird online collectible card game thing.But don't set your Wiimote phaser to stun just yet, Kirk. And put down your imaginary disruptor, bat'leth, mek'leth, d'k tahg, Ferengi energy whip, and that weird Vulcan psychic weapon from that one episode. The Bethesda Star Trek games are all about space combat, so it's unlikely you'll be doing any hand-to-hand zapping. [Via Siliconera]
New details emerge on Star Trek: TOS HD DVD
We know, the wait is most definitely not enjoyable, but here's a few more details to hopefully tide you over until Star Trek: The Original Series is finally launched on HD DVD. Reportedly, the disc will feature "never-before-seen footage exclusive to the next-gen edition," including behind the scenes 8-millimeter footage taken during the original production of the show. Additionally, it's being hinted that the studio is planning to give Comic-Con attendees a "first peek" at the long-awaited release on July 26 at a special event, and while there's still no word on this title making its way to Blu-ray, we'd be fairly surprised if it didn't make the jump in due time.
Australian physicists develop teleportation scheme for atoms
Although the idea of teleporting individuals from one place to another in order to sidestep the headache of rush hour traffic has been around for quite some time, a team of Australian physicists are busy making it work (on a smaller scale, of course). Granted, they don't fully expect their teleportation scheme to be used on humans in the near future, but there's always hope, right? Anyway, the team has developed a so-called "simple way to transport atoms," which involves bringing the atoms to almost absolute zero, beaming them with two lasers, and using fiber optics to transport them to any other place at the speed of light where they "enter a second condensate" and reconstruct. We'll keep you posted on when human trialing (hopefully) begins.
Mii Spotlight: Beam Mii Up edition
Mii Spotlight -- the final column (of the week.) These are the Web voyages of the blog Wii Fanboy. Its continuing mission: to explore strange new fansites. To seek out new Miis and new Mii collections. To boldly post no Mii that has been posted before.
Star Trek Voyager back in iTunes
What is it with Star Trek and iTunes? Last week, Voyager was unceremoniously beamed out of the US store. Today, it's back with a revised price of $28.99US for the 15-episodes of Season one [iTunes link].This isn't the first time we've seen Trek disappear from the ITS, only to reappear a short time later. There's only one explanation, of course: a temporal anomaly. They're always experiencing temporal anomalies.Thanks, Nate!
Voyager: Now you see it, now you don't
What is it with the iTunes Store and Star Trek? I blogged a few days ago that the first season of Star Trek Voyager was available for purchase via the iTunes Store. We then got a report that the episodes were 'abridged,' though I can't verify that for myself. Now, Voyager is no where to be seen on the iTunes Store. Keep in mind this isn't the first time Star Trek has disappeared from iTunes, only to warp back onto it at a later date.Here's hoping Capt. Janeway can get her crew and ship out of whatever calamity has made them go missing.
Make it so: virtual reality Enterprise hits Canada
The 1,500 Trek-obssesed citizens of Vulcan, Alberta are spicing up their annual Galaxyfest this year with the launch of the "Vulcan Space Adventure," an immersive VR game that takes place inside a recreation of the Enterprise. The CA$250,000 game, built by VR firm GestureTek, allows up to three players cast as Starfleet trainees to simulataneously interact with a virtual environment created by multple cameras and holographic screens. After being led into the simulation chamber -- built to look like the bridge of the Enterprise -- by "Captain Krok," visitors take orders from Starfleet Command and then use GestureTek's "point-and-click" VR system to complete their mission. The system, which doesn't require the player to wear any cumbersome VR gear, is one of only two GestureTek installations in Canada. We just hope the game doesn't get too real: what happened to that poor redshirt in these photos? A couple more after the jump...
Star Trek-style deflector shield to fend off harmful radiation
When you've got folks dreaming up such things as a $2.5 trillion "space sunshade," we reckon a Star Trek-style deflector shield isn't too far-fetched. Apparently, a team of British scientists are looking into the possibility of crafting such a device in order to " protect astronauts from radiation" when they venture beyond the Earth's protective magnetic envelope, or "magnetosphere." Reportedly, the team is hoping to "to mimic the magnetic field which protects the Earth" and deploy the shields "around spacecraft and on the surfaces of planets to deflect harmful energetic particles." As nation's begin to revive plans of space exploration, the homegrown shield should look mighty attractive at the Royal Astronomical Society's National Astronomy Meeting, but details concerning a proposed launch date, and moreover, the presumably lofty pricetag, have yet to emerge.[Via Slashdot]
iTunes Store gains Star Trek podcasts, music and books, American Dad debuts
First, the original Star Trek debuted in the iTunes Store, then the TV series (not movies) was pulled for some odd reason. Then the shows returned, but now we have a dedicated Star Trek section that's been beefed up with podcasts, music (soundtracks, really), audiobooks and more. Now all we need TNG and Farscape, and the iTS's Sci-Fi section will be complete.In the TV Show comedy aisle, however, another classic has been added: American Dad, beginning with a season pass for Season 2 (1, strangely, is nowhere to be found) at $37.99. Now all we need is Family Guy and I might very well be able to cancel my Comcast cable service.
Star Trek in iTunes (again)
Back in January, episodes of the original Star Trek TV series were added to the US iTunes store. Then they disappeared, and now they're back again - two times over.Specifically, the original first season [iTunes link], is listed separately from the digitally enhanced episodes from the same season [iTunes link]. We'd like to say that the former is for purists, and the latter for the more adventurous among us, but iTunes customers have left comments stating that both collections feature enhanced episodes.It's more confusing than The Menagerie.Anyway, if you're a fan of TOS (and who isn't, really?), go and pick this up.
