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When The Wife and I were on our honeymoon, one of the stops was the Boston Museum of Science. I’m always a fan of science museums. During our visit, we saw a movie in their OmniMax theater. I don’t remember what the movie was, to be honest, but I do recall a bit at the beginning of the show, when the lights dimmed and a voice sounded over the speakers, which said something like this: Good afternoon! The movie will begin shortly, but before it does, we need to properly calibrate our theater’s sound systems for use. To do this,Down the rabbit hole….

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Over at Tor.com, Emily Asher-Perrin suggests a way to make Khan’s presence in Star Trek Into Darkness make more sense. There are 72 other super humans who Khan calls “family.” They were of all backgrounds and talents, an entire pantheon of super peoples. If one of them was woken up, not knowing when it was or what he would be asked to do, isn’t it possible that he might lie? That he might tell a powerful military leader in Starfleet that he was Khan Noonien Singh? We know that Khan’s exploits were legendary—of all these genetically engineered people, he wasDown the rabbit hole….

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Playing with the new app and filters III, originally uploaded by Jaquandor. On Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the Ferengi are established as having a culture so built around business and the pursuit of wealth that they are governed by a series of aphorisms called the “Rules of Acquisition”. I always like #109: Dignity and an empty sack is worth the sack. I agree. The hell with dignity. I’ll take the pie in the face every time. Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….

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Well, despite my initial intentions to not see the new Star Trek movie until the DVD came out, a number of factors intervened: the fact that we went on vacation (and seeing a movie on vacation is always fun), and The Daughter’s crush on Benedict Cumberbatch. So, off we went to see the movie. I expected that my reaction would be similar to that I had for the first one, and sure enough, it was. I loved watching it. It’s a tremendously entertaining movie, expertly paced, wonderfully shot, beautifully acted. It scratched my ever-present itch for Explodey Spaceshippy Goodness, justDown the rabbit hole….

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The new Star Trek movie has a title: Star Trek Into Darkness. OK. The new Star Trek movie also has a teasing synopsis: After the crew of the Enterprise find an unstoppable force of terror from within their own organization, Captain Kirk leads a manhunt to a war-zone world to capture a one man weapon of mass destruction. And, the new Star Trek movie has a poster: OK. Now, I haven’t seen the movie yet, obviously. And I liked the last one, despite its nonsensical plot and complete mishandling of any characters not named Kirk, because it was a veryDown the rabbit hole….

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“Darmok” is one of the most memorable episodes, and for me a high point, of Star Trek: The Next Generation. The Enterprise makes contact with a people, the Tamarians, whose language has resisted all efforts at translation, to the point where not even the Universal Translator can make head nor tail of what they are saying. Their language appears to be based on random citations of stories, an extreme way of talking in metaphor and citing examples from a rich storytelling heritage to make one’s point. As someone who often thinks in terms of stories I’ve read or seen andDown the rabbit hole….

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The obvious choice here is to talk about Q, but I couldn’t decide which one. This Q? Or this one? Luckily, this is my personal blog, where the only rules that apply are the ones that I choose for myself, and which I can summarily set aside any time I want, so…let’s talk about both Q’s! Our first Q is less well-known as Major Geoffrey Boothroyd. (The only time we ever hear his name in the James Bond movies is in The Spy Who Loved Me, when he holds a door open for Agent Anya Amasova, and she thanks himDown the rabbit hole….

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So, let’s talk for a few minutes about Klingons. If one of the questions on Family Feud was ever “Name a fictional alien species”, I have to think that Klingons have a pretty solid shot to be the number one answer. (“Let me see…Gungans!” BZZZZZZZT “And the Laramie family with a chance to steal!”) But why is this? Why are the Klingons so memorable? The obvious first answer is in Star Trek‘s longevity. A thing doesn’t remain a pop-culture concern for as long as Trek has without having some of its terminology enter the pop-cultural lexicon, and the Klingons wereDown the rabbit hole….