I came across this largely by accident: Star Trek Celebrities - Photoshop Pictures Contest. Most are quite amusing.

Here are three of my favs (although the Cheney-on-Scotty isn’t that good). There are more at the link above:

Funny:

h/t: Spocko’ s Brain: Go for Papa Palpetine

TrekMovie.com reports the following news/rumors:

• A first draft of the script is done.
• Pike and Scotty are in the draft.
• The movie is non-linear and jumps across time–which if done right could be a fantastic way to approach the story.

When geeky analogies go awry courtesy of David Wu (D-OR):

Just more evidence of Trek’s penetration of the culture, I suppose.

At least he thinks so, anyway. Via the SCI FI Wire

“I met with J.J., and they told me they would like me to be part of their film, but they have to write the role,” Shatner said in an interview promoting his new SCI FI Channel film, Alien Fire.

As for the many rumors concerning the sequel’s story, Shatner said that Abrams will explore Kirk and Spock during their Starfleet Academy years. “Yes, we know the story is based on young Kirk,” Shatner said. Up until now, everyone connected with the film has maintained strict silence about the storyline, though rumors have run rampant that they concern Kirk and Spock’s first missions.

As for Shatner’s place in that storyline? “They need to figure out how to put the dead captain in with the young captain,” he said. “It’s a very complex, technical problem of how to write the character in, and I’m not sure how they will solve it.” It sounds like Shatner may play an older version of Kirk.

We shall see. On balance I am for the idea of returning to the series’ roots and recasting the old crew. I am not too sold on the Academy idea, however. I would prefer to see Kirk’s early days as Captain of the Enterprise.

It’s here: Fantastic Four Rise of the Silver Surfer.

It looks, well, fantastic. The Surfer is most impressive.

SyFy Portal reports that a fourth season of BSG would appear to be coming our way.

Let’s hope that their sources are correct.

Via the Sci Fi Wire we get good news on Sci Fi’s fourth quarter’s ratings: SCI FI Ratings Rosy In Q4.

This including good news for BSG’s numbers and for the Sci Fi original series Eureka:

Battlestar Galactica, which began its third season Oct. 6, showed growth among younger and female audiences, and outpaced the hit show’s second half of season two by about 8 percent among adults 18 to 34. The series was up 15 percent among teens, 20 percent among women 18 to 34, 17 percent among women 18 to 49 and 14 percent among women 25 to 54. The average age of viewers was younger by more than a year compared to the previous season.

Channel highlights for the year include the series premiere of Eureka July 18, which was the highest-rated and most-watched series to air on SCI FI in the network’s history, with a 3.3 household rating and more than 4 million viewers. Ghost Hunters also outdelivered its second-season ratings, which were up by 15 percent in all households, and 28 percent in adults 25 to 54.

Star Trek New Voyages has announced that they will be producing an episode of the fan-produced series that will feature the return of Harcourt Fenton Mudd. The script will be written by Howard Weinstein, a Trek novelist and author of an episode of the Animated Series.

If you haven’t seen The New Voyages I would suggest you check them out. They are supposed to represent a fourth season of TOS and while the acting is, well, uneven the stories are better than many of the real third season of TOS. The sets are impressive in their reproduction of the originals and the visual f/x are quite good.

The most recent episode featured Walter Koenig reprising his role as Chekov in a script written by DC Fontana. The next episode features George Takei in a script written by a contributor to DS9. The next episode (now in pre-production) is based on a scrip t that David “Trouble with Tribbles” Gerrold originally wrote for TNG (but that was never filmed).

Via the AP: Rose Parade Features ‘Star Wars’ Tribute.

It was pretty cool, I must say.

Indeed, I think that the plot was better than episodes I-III combined.