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I can't stop staring at this gorgeous image of a Klingon battlecruiser coming down on the USS Sagittarius (NCC-1894) in a low-atmosphere battle. This is the cover of this year's Star Trek: Ships of the Line calendar, and it's really splendid — even though I can't tell where that yellow burst of energy hitting the Sagittarius' left nacelle is coming from. (Update: As various people have pointed out, this is actually the cover art to a David Mack novel from 2007, and in the full vertical art, it's more obvious the yellow streak is energy leaking from the engines.) [8 of 5's Guide to the Trek Collective, via Trekweb] More »
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Space: 1999 occupies a special place in many of our memories — so when we heard that a reboot called Space: 2099 was in development, many people had mixed feelings. How would this show handle the original show's mixture of horror and kitschiness, not to mention the somewhat nonsensical premise? More »
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It's Friday, which means it's time to embark on the greatest adventure of them all — the weekend. But before you leave for your vessel of exploration, let's celebrate by putting some inspiring scenes of space adventure on your computer desktop. More »
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George Lucas has already sworn to stop making big-budget movies in response to fans' criticisms, but he still has an axe to grind. In particular, about the common complaints about his endless revisions of the original trilogy. In a new interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Lucas addresses those longstanding complaints, saying that Blade Runner has gotten recut three ways from Sunday, and nobody seems to mind. But also, he claims that the intention was always that Greedo shot first, and that the original sequence just had an editing problem. Says Lucas: More »
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We've seen hundreds of lightsaber duels at this point, but two new fan videos are probably among the quirkiest — and cutest — we've ever seen. (No, there aren't any dueling Jedi squirrels here.) First up, there's a lightsaber cello duel/duet that has to be seen to be believed, by The Piano Guys. More »
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Check out the first trailer for Lock-Out, the action movie which Luc Besson co-wrote and produced. Guy Pearce is a convict who has to go inside a maximum security prison — in space! — to rescue the president's daughter (the perrenially captured Maggie Grace). If he succeeds, he gets his freedom. I just love Pearce's surly attitude, mixed with the shots of space combat and space punching. The whole thing has a Battlestar Galactica feel, only with more money and a faster pace. And Peter Stormare! More »
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The cast of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back did a series of interviews promoting the film, and the video is pretty revealing. The best part: Mark Hamill discusses speculation that his son Nathan could play a young Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars prequels. According to Hamill, the prequels would take place 20 years before the original Star Wars, and the third movie would feature "an eight-year-old Luke playing in the background." Also: Harrison Ford discusses whether Han Solo would appear in episodes seven, eight and nine. [Vimeo, via The Official Star Wars Blog] More »
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Science fiction critic Peter Nicholls, speaking in 1997, explained the enduring love for novels about a "Big Dumb Object" in space, how this helps us to achieve a Sense of Wonder, and why we would want to. Novelist Gregory Benford just posted the text of Nicholls' speech on his own blog, and economist Robin Hanson pulls out the best quotes: More »
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With Stargate gone and Battlestar Galactica long dead, there's been a dreadful absence of space opera on our screens lately. Thank goodness Syfy is stepping into the gap, launching a whole new spacefaring series. Even better news? The series is being crafted by Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Andromeda producer Robert Hewitt Wolfe. Here's everything we know. More »
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The tenth anniversary of Halo is upon us. As part of the celebrations, we're getting a better look inside the evolution of the Master Chief's world. And it's totally breath-taking. More »
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Just imagine a world where live-action episodes of Star Wars and Star Trek are both appearing on television every week. More »
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We loved the horror-comedy Tucker and Dale Vs. Evil, and we were sad it didn't really have a supernatural or science-fiction theme. So we're pretty excited about Hyperdrive, a new science fiction movie from Tucker and Dale co-writer Morgan Jurgenson. More »
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Alan Tudyk is obviously deeply attached to the character of Firefly's late, great Hoban "Wash" Washburne. He spent a lot of time coming up with his own Wash story ideas — including the big reveal that Wash has tons of tattoos from the Alliance's toughest prisons. In a terrific new interview with SFX, Tudyk talks about how much of himself Joss Whedon put into Wash, and how much Tudyk wanted to tell the stories of what Wash did in the war, and other stuff. More »
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Everybody knows that remakes are a plague and an abomination. Why are they remaking Total Recall? Or Escape from New York? Why is the guy who did 28 Weeks Later allegedly remaking both Highlander and The Crow? Are remakes good for anything at all? More »
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Chances are, you spent the weekend rediscovering the magic of Star Wars (with a few unwelcome tweaks.) The original Star Wars was a miracle of seat-of-the-pants film-making that captured the world's imagination and boosted science fiction to new popularity. More »
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What's going to happen to Ahsoka Tano, the cute, plucky Padawan in Star Wars: The Clone Wars? As the show launches its fourth season tonight, the questions are only getting more pressing. More »
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Today is the 45th anniversary of the greatest space opera TV show of all time, and Space.com is celebrating with a cool infographic showing key moments in the first 45 years of Starfleet — as well as space travel in general. More »
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This is apparently India's first science fiction film: Trip to Moon, in which a crew of super-tough spacemen in wide belts fight robots, cyclops and supervillains. The excitement really starts around two hours, 15 minutes in, when the awesome fight scene begins. And then they blast off from Earth and nuke the surface on their way out. More »
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Two depressing facts became apparent the other day: 1) NASA is so desperate to get people excited about space travel, they were willing to consider collaborating on the horror mockumentary Apollo 18. 2) The fall 2011 season is the first time there's been no TV show, on any network, featuring people on spaceships, since probably the mid-1980s. More »
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Now that NASA's space shuttle program is over, and the agency is trying to hold onto its funding, NASA is eager to work with Hollywood any way it can, to keep itself in the public view. NASA worked with Michael Bay on Transformers 3, and a NASA scientist does a voice-over in Another Earth. More »
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We expect a lot from Syfy, because it's the only cable channel devoted to science fiction. So it's inevitable that the network formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel will disappoint us occasionally. And sometimes people blame Syfy unfairly — like when Syfy pulls the plug on a low-rated show. More »
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It's the showdown that you've been waiting for your whole life: Darth Vader vs. Superman. Except that this isn't a test of strength, dexterity or willpower — it's who had a worse week. More »
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George Lucas is not satisfied with turning the puppet Yoda in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace into a CG creation. Or just fixing some of the wonky lightsabre effects in the original trilogy. He's going a bit further. More »
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The greatest tacticians in space don't just use high-energy beams and force shields, they use psychology. And the best interstellar smack-downs start with the trash talking before a single shot is fired. More »
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You always hear writers and other creative people talking about "selling" something to the reader, or the audience. And it sounds terribly crass. What if you're a great artist, and you don't want to try and sell anything? This all sounds like... commerce. Or something equally distasteful. More »
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If you were a kid in 1996 and a fan of science fiction, chances are that you watched Space Cases at some point. Space Cases was the Nickelodeon network's mid-‘90s attempt to break into the science fiction market. Do you remember it? More »
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No new Battlestar Galactica on your television screens? That's a possibility, according to AOL TV's Maureen Ryan. Syfy is considering turning its latest Battlestar Galactica prequel, Blood and Chrome, back into a webseries. More »
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It's a tough galaxy out there, so you need a ship that can dish out some pain when needed. That's why Gameforge's free-to-play browser game Star Trek — Infinite Space is preparing to roll out the mighty Intrepid-class starship. More »
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You can't stop the Imperial Stormtroopers. George Lucas sued the original designer of the stormtrooper costumes in Star Wars, seeking to stop him selling replicas. But even though Lucas prevailed in a U.S. court, he lost in the U.K. More »
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Joss Whedon's Firefly only spawned a dozen or so episodes plus a movie, but it's populated our imaginations ever since. Mal Reynolds and his valiant crew have taken on titanic proportions in the minds of countless fans. More »
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Everybody who went to the Star Wars Fan Movie Awards last night got a special surprise: a short "sizzle reel" showcasing the deleted scenes from the original trilogy that'll be on this fall's Blu-ray release. And here it is! More »
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Back when George Lucas and company made the original Star Wars trilogy, they had to build everything from scratch — all the sets, all the models. And a new book, Star Wars: The Blueprints, gives you all the schematics. More »
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Who says giant, thrilling space opera is dead? British author John Love just sold his debut novel, Faith, to Nightshade Books, and it has a huge widescreen premise that sounds like the perfect mix of space battles and politics. More »
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The great thing about Star Wars, especially the original trilogy, was how gritty and lived-in everything looked. Everything felt solid. Now, at last you can see the actual blueprints that made that galaxy look like a place you could visit. More »
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This glorious 3D rendering of the Klingon K't'inga-class warship will be this week's "starship of the week" over at the site for the upcoming free-to-play browser game Star Trek: Infinite Space, and we've got the exclusive first glimpse. More »
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We're huge fans of Star Trek: The Animated Series, which brought back the Original Series cast and writers and included some surprisingly great stories. So it's good news that Roberto Orci tweeted that a new animated Trek could be materializing. More »
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It's almost the weekend! So what better time to celebrate the great space battles: The Battle of Yavin. The Sacrifice of Angels. That time Adama said "Launch the alert Vipers." We've gathered some stunning space battle desktop wallpapers for you. More »
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When graffiti meets Star Wars, the whole street is turned into a massive showroom of crazy fandom and impressive artistry. In honor of May the Fourth, check out 32 photos of Star Wars graffiti from every corner of the world. More »
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Our total destruction at the hands (or tentacles) of alien visitors has been gloriously featured on book covers since the dawn of science fiction. Writing in Granta Magazine, Jeremy Sheldon explores why so many book covers feature horrifying extraterrestrials. More »
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Star Trek hasn't been on television since Enterprise went away in 2005, but that's not for lack of trying. Not only did Bryan Fuller (Pushing Daisies) pitch a show, but so did past stars William Shatner and Jonathan Frakes. More »
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