Looking to laugh? Well, I hope you’re a fan of Star Trek or like to pick on the franchise mercilessly. Gathered here for your amusement are three videos, all hilarious for their own reasons. First, it’s Spock, Leonard Nimoy, versus Spock, Zachary Quinto in this funny sketch about a bet that’s somehow supposed to be selling Audi’s.
Too funny. My first thought, though? Holy shit, is Nimoy’s hair long! And, I about died when he started singing that Bilbo Baggins song.
Hit the jump for more!
This day in 1966 Star Trek first beamed its way on to American airwaves and however unlikely it seemed, began leaving its mark on pop culture. The voyages of the Enterprise crew – Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov (and occasionally Nurse Chapel or Yeoman Rand) – were only transmitted for three years but thanks to years of syndication Star Trek eventually involved into a phenomenon of six movies, later birthing six more movies and five other television series. The most fervent fans – Trekkies, or Trekkers as some preferred to be called – spearheaded the convention-going culture we today enjoy across many fandoms. Basically, much of what comprises our “geek” culture owes a large debt to Star Trek. It’s been a tent pole among nerdy interests for over four decades!
But even with all that rich history, it’s the original crew that has become the most iconic. Those actors – William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, and Walter Koenig - were forever typecast and depending on when you asked them it was either for better or worse. It was their Enterprise crew J.J. Abrams sought to re-imagine in his 2009 reboot of the series, a film almost universally loved by fans old and new. And today, fans internet-wide are still putting their own stamp on Gene Roddenberry‘s original “Wagon Train to the stars,” with fan fiction, fan art, cosplay, and even fan produced movies and web series.
Star Trek is more alive now than it ever was, and it seems the days of being ashamed by your intense love for phasers, red shirts, and Romulans – not to mention their ale – are far behind us. If you’ve never given Star Trek‘s original series a shot because you thought it looked campy – it is – then you’re missing out on what is genuinely a fantastic show with wonderful writing, heartfelt performances, and excellent explorations of the relationships between its characters. You’re allowed to laugh when the set looks a little shaky, or an alien monster’s zipper is clearly apparent, or when Shatner performs a little too enthusiastically. That’s part of the charm. And sure, there will be truly awful, almost unwatchable episodes, too. But for every “Spock’s Brain” there’s plenty of “Balance of Terror,” “Amok Time,” or “The City on the Edge of Forever.”
Today every episode of Star Trek can be streamed online, for free, from a variety of sources. The most free, meaning you don’t have to already have a subscription to Netflix or Amazon Prime, is on CBS’ own TV.com. You could even renact history by tonight at 8:30 pm ET watching “The Map Trap,” the first aired episode of Star Trek. I like it because it heavily features Dr. McCoy, my favorite character, but I’m not kidding you when I say the villain is salt-sucking vampire creature. Seriously.
To sign off, I’ll leave with the immortal words of Phillip J. Fry from Futurama‘s “Where No Fan Has Gone Before,”
‘Cause it-it taught me so much. Like how you should accept people. Whether they be black, white, Klingon, or even female. But most importantly, when I didn’t have any friends, it-it made me feel like maybe I did.
An inspiration to his fans, many of which became engineers because of him, James Doohan famously played Scottish Chief Engineer Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in the television and film series Star Trek. Since his untimely passing due to pneumonia, James’ ashes have been resting comfortably at their final rest place except for the one-quarter ounce now floating in high above the planet.
Shortly before his death in 2005, James requested that the portion of his ashes be saved, continuing the tradition of sci-fi heroes launching themselves into the great beyond. According to TrekMovie.com, after a failed attempt in 2008 and a launch delay this past Saturday, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket was successfully launched yesterday, holding a payload of canisters - one of which held the ashes of the former TV and movie star.
Check out the launch below:
Several members of the Hollywood community including long time friends Leonard Nimoy and Nichelle Nichols, as well as current Scotty, Simon Pegg, paid their final respects to the sci-fi icon via Twitter. The capsule containing James’ ashes will continue to float aimlessly in Earth’s atmosphere, until harmlessly burning up upon reentry next year.
Source: Geekologie
Technically these still classify as rumors. In my opinion, rumors don’t become facts until they’ve been proven by either the movie itself or those involved in making the movie, and even then studios have been be prone to misdirection before. But Trek Movie, the ever reputable Star Trek movie website, has been able to confirm these spoilers through “multiple sources”, giving them a bit more credence than your usual rumor.
What are they? They’re BIG spoilers, I can tell you that! Hit the jump to learn three very interesting “facts” about Star Trek 2.
Obvious spoiler warning is obvious.
Every day the internet produces an astounding amount of goodies and gems. Most hilarious, some amusing, but all worth at least a few seconds of your time. We here at Nerd Bastards try to bring you the best bits of news and nerdery the webz has to offer, with a bit of snark thrown in. But sometimes not everything makes the cut. Monday through Friday we’ll be bringing you our inbox leftovers, our forgotten bookmarks, the nerdy bits that simply slipped through the cracks. You can submit items to Nerdy Bits by emailing us at nerdybits@nerdbastards.com.
ABOVE: For when having the internet at your fingertips isn’t literal enough. Add a meme. (Fashionably Geek)
Leonard Nimoy will be heard and not seen when he guest stars on this weeks episode of CBS’ The Big Bang Theory. CBS just released a pair of photos and a episode teaser of Nimoy’s time on the set.
“I thoroughly enjoyed myself, they’re a talented company and a smart show; they made me welcome.”
Nimoy has been at the top of the shows producers’ wish list for guest stars, as Sheldon’s obsession with Star Trek has been well documented on the series, with the Nimoy-signed napkin Penny (Kaley Cuoco) gave Sheldon framed on the set. When Nimoy saw the piece he said:
“Amazing!”
Executive producer Steve Molaro told The Hollywood Reporter at the time of the casting:
“For years, we thought it would be fantastic to have Leonard Nimoy appear on the show and we think we’ve found a really different and fun way to make that happen, as thrilled as we are he’s doing it, we’re even more thrilled just to get our pictures taken with him.”
Check out the cast’s photo with the icon and a teaser for this week’s episode, below.
Doctor Sheldon Cooper for the win!
The esteemed theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking has been confirmed as a guest star on the April 4th episode of The Big Bang Theory according to EW. Big claps and Arsenio-era Dog Pound “Woof Woofs” to EW, but I’m pretty sure Leonard Nimoy scooped them via the twitter, when he wrote “Spock on Big Bang Theory on 3/29. Stephen Hawking the following week. Logical. LLAP” yesterday afternoon. LLAP, of course stands for Live Long and Prosper, and if you didn’t know that you sicken me to the core of my being.
As for the episode, no details are being released so the forces of nature demand that we speculate, so with that said — who else thinks Dr. Cooper will take umbrage with something in The Grand Design and storm off thanks to his indefatigable sense of superiority? Who else hopes Dr. Hawking puts him in his place? I see a lot of hands raised, and that should trouble you since I am in your computer.
Source: EW
EDITORS NOTE: Article written by Nerd Bastards contributor Jason Tabrys
Get ready Nimoy fans, he’s about to make a guest appearance on The Big Bang Theory, but forget about your camera’s and just bring your tape recorders. Nimoy is only making a guest VOICE appearance in a dream sequence.
Although this NerdBastard is sure the episode will be funny, I’m kinda disappointed that it will only be his voice in Sheldon’s dream and maybe a large cutout or the autographed napkin that Penny gave Sheldon.
The show has a great history of guest shots of SciFi greats:
Katiee Shackoff
Wil Wheaton
Lavar Burton
Brint Spiner
George Takei
Two years ago, Nimoy announced he was retiring and done with acting.
“I have announced my retirement,”
“I will not be doing any more television or movie acting or directing.”
It sounded like he really meant it, but the folks behind The Big Bang Theory must have found some pretty good dirt on Nimoy or finally found his magic number.
Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons), has a serious obsession with Nimoy’s famous alter ego Spock. Therefore, it’s fitting that the actor will appear in an upcoming dream sequence. According to TV Line, for Nimoy’s guest spot he’ll be heard, but not seen. He’ll speak to Sheldon not as himself, but as Spock.
Nimoy’s episode is scheduled to air March 29.
Are you excited for Nimoy’s partial appearance?
Back in the day all you had to know about Spock was:
Beard = Evil Spock
No Beard = Good Spock
Recently Nichelle Nichols dropped a casting photon torpedo while being interviewed on the Science Channel’s special documentary Trek Nation. Nichols let loose with the story that when she first auditioned for Star Trek, she was asked to read the script for the part of Spock, Kirk’s beloved Vulcan bromance. Nichelle said:
“They gave me a three-page script to read from that had three characters named Bones, Kirk and somebody called Spock, and they asked me if I would read for the role of Spock. When I looked at this great text, I said to myself, ‘I’ll take any one of these roles,’ but I found the Spock character to be very interesting, and I asked them to tell me what she [Spock] was like.”
Think about that. Not only would Spock have been female, but African American as well. Could 60′s television America handle that one? Paramount executives and Star Trek producers obviously couldn’t. Of course many changes are made in the production process of putting a show on television or making a movie. There must have been rewrites galore. Not that I am complaining, without Nimoy as Spock, SciFi fandom would has lost one of the greatest Bromances ever known.
What I’m interested about is that this story has never come up in the last 20 years of conventions, interviews, and apperances. This story would be convention panel gold.
This past weekend Leonard Nimoy attended his final Star Trek convention. The show was Creation Entertainment’s Official 45th Anniversary Star Trek Convention in Rosemont, Illinois and for those lucky fans in attendance it must have been a night to remember.
Trek Movie reports Nimoy,
…shared his life story through words, poetry, and pictures. Especially moving were photos of his days as a young man growing up in Boston. He shared many great experiences, discussing how various people, including Senator John F. Kennedy who was a passenger in his cab, had inspired him with their words and deeds.
But even before Nimoy took the stage Creation Entertainment surprised the night’s star as well as the audience with a video presentation from the seven main stars of the 2009′s Star Trek and director J.J. Abrams sending their best wishes to their costar. The best part apparently being, “Karl Urban doing his best Dr. McCoy during his tribute.” We can only hope this video makes its way online soon.
Fittingly, Nimoy ended the panel with his traditional farewell greeting, “Live Long and Prosper.” And we only hope the 80-year old actor goes on doing just that.
![Firsts Pic of Paul Giamatti From ‘Amazing Spider-Man 2’ Set [UPDATED: New Pics Featuring Spidey Added]](http://nerdbastards.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/rhino1-150x150.jpg)
nerdbastards.com © 2009-2013 All Rights Reserved.
Advertisement
Like Us
Follow Us