Apparently Wheaton did a lot of voice work for the Romulan crew, and it's all thanks to fellow voiceover-artist Greg Grunberg's Twitter outreach to Wheaton. The clip and casting extra is from the Star Trek DVD, which will be released November 17, 2009.

Casting Spock:

Wil Wheaton's Cameo:

From Wil's Blog on the whole voice dubbing experience:

I met JJ at an ADR stage a few days later, where he told me the entire plot of the movie (and, for the record, hearing JJ Freakin' Abrams tell you the plot of his Star Trek is even more awesome than you'd expect) and showed me some of the scenes that I'd be dubbing. I ended up providing voices for all the Romulans on Nero's ship, including the guy who tells him that "it's time" at the very beginning of the movie. (Yeah, how cool is that?)

[via Trek Movie and Wil Wheaton]

The "old soldier who gets dragged out of retirement" story is a great old chestnut. Last week, we were wondering what comes after the "young hero gets called to his/her destiny" story and the "hero tries to reject his/her heroic calling, with disastrous results" story — and the "older hero tries to retire, only to get drafted back into service" story is certainly one of the classics that comes afterwards. It's just that it comes long, long after the "young hero is called for the first time" story.

We won't touch on its close relative, the "getting the old starship crew back together" story, in this post — but we'll deal with it next week. For now, though, here are 20 great heroes who didn't quite manage to give up all the excitement for good:

Widowmaker by Mike Resnick
Who comes out of retirement? Jefferson Nighthawk, the awesome bounty hunter also known as — wait for it — the Widowmaker.
Why can't they let an old soldier rest? Nighthawk was frozen for a century to keep a deadly disease at bay. But now the costs of his care have risen, plus there's a dreaded assassin causing chaos on the frontier, so Nighthawk has to come back out of retirement one last time.

Heretics Of Dune by Frank Herbert
Who comes out of retirement? Miles Teg, military genius and former Supreme Bashar of the Bene Gesserit.
Why can't they let an old soldier rest? Bene Gesserit Mother Superior Taraza seeks out Teg at his family home on the planet Lernaeus, hoping he'll mentor the new Duncan Idaho. And then he gets drawn into a sinkhole of intrigue, torture and super-speed powers.

Doctor Who: Battlefield
Who comes out of retirement? Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, retd.
Why can't they let an old soldier rest? Strange, ominous goings on! Arthurian knights in power armor. England's greatest need! But mostly, the Doctor needs someone to give him his yellow roadster back.

Star Trek: The Next Generation, "All Good Things".
Who comes out of retirement? Jean-Luc Picard
Why can't they let an old soldier rest? He starts having weird timey wimey stuff, involving a crack in space. Everybody thinks it's just a crack in his brain, until they learn better. Sort of.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Who comes out of retirement? Spock
Why can't they let an old soldier rest? He's on the verge of embracing universal logic through the Kohlinar ritual, and becoming some kind of logial monk, when V'Ger calls to him. Also, Kirk sort of comes back from his semi-retirement behind a desk.

Metal Gear Solid: The novelization
Who comes out of retirement? Solid Snake, a former agent of FOXHOUND.
Why can't they let an old soldier rest? Worldwide crisis, man! Genetically engineered agents are stealing warheads, and only another genetically engineered ubermensch can stop them!

The Last Colony by John Scalzi
Who comes out of retirement? John Perry and Joan Sagan.
Why can't they let an old soldier rest? They're needed to lead a new "seed" colony of 2500 people, representing people from 10 existing colony worlds.

Use Of Weapons by Iain M. Banks
Who comes out of retirement? Culture agent Cheradenine Zakalwe.
Why can't they let an old soldier rest? He's had enough of doing the Culture's dirty work, but Diziet Sma needs him to do one last job — and Zakalwe will make them pay handsomely this time around.

Blade Runner
Who comes out of retirement? Former "Blade Runner" Rick Deckard
Why can't they let an old soldier rest? Fellow "Blade Runner" Holden got shot, administering a Voight-Kampff test to a Replicant, so Deckard has to step back in. If he doesn't agree to play along, he'll just be one of the "little people," and we all know what happens to them. And don't ask who the origami unicorn sings for — it probably sings for you.

X-Files: I Want To Believe
Who comes out of retirement? Fox Mulder
Why can't they let an old soldier rest? The FBI promises to call off the manhunt for the elusive Mulder in return for his help in the search of several missing women.

The Affinity Trap by Martin Sketchley
Who comes out of retirement? Alexander Delgado
Why can't they let an old soldier rest? Alexander is asked by Earth's military dictator to escort alien Seriatt named Lycern on a diplomatic mission.

Watchmen
Who comes out of retirement? Nite Owl II
Why can't they let an old soldier rest? After the murder of a former colleague Nite Owl can't help but return to old habits especially with Silk Spectre and Rorschach egging him on.

Chindi by Jack McDevitt
Who comes out of retirement? Hutch
Why can't they let an old soldier rest? In a desperate attempt to find Spacefaring alien life Priscilla "Hutch" Hutchkins accepts one final flight in search of an alien race.

Masters Of Science Fiction, "Awakening"
Who comes out of retirement? Major Albert Skinner (Terry O'Quinn)
Why can't they let an old soldier rest? The X-Files' cigarette smoking man seems to have trouble keeping his alien invasions under control, so he calls on the retired UFO professional to help him out, in this segment based on the story by Howard Fast.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold
Who comes out of retirement? Wildcat
Why can't they let an old soldier rest? Lonely and depressed and sparring with Batman in his boxing gm, he decides to venture out into crime fighting again to see if he's still got it.

Stargate: SG-1
Who comes out of retirement?Col. Jack O'Neill
Why can't they let an old soldier rest? After the Stargate is deciphered, he's recalled to duty because he's the only guy who can handle the situation.

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson
Who comes out of retirement? Constable Moore
Why can't they let an old soldier rest? Constable Moore gets back into his powered Hoplite armor for the war against the Fists of Righteous Harmony.

Star Wars
Who comes out of retirement? Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Why can't they let an old soldier rest? After Luke Skywalker's adoptive parents are killed Obi-Wan decides that it is finally time for Luke to assert his role as a Jedi.

The Fifth Element
Who comes out of retirement? Korben Dallas
Why can't they let an old soldier rest? As a former major in the Federated Army's Special Forces Korben finds himself accidentally entangled in an Apocalyptic race against time.

Escape from New York
Who comes out of retirement? Snake Plissken
Why can't they let an old soldier rest? After robbing the Ferderal Reserve Depositiory, Snake Plissken, a former soldier is one of the U.S.' most infamous criminals. He's called out to rescue the President after he's been taken hostage in the country's largest prison, New York.

This list is really only scratching the surface of a venerable cliche. What classics did we leave out?

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown, who heroically stepped into finish writing up this feature after Comic Con ate our brains. And thanks also to Ashley Edward Miller, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, Richard Hartzell, James Limbach, Chris Hsiang, Georgie Thomas and Drax Ireland, plus anyone else I missed.

Talking to SciFi Wire, Nimoy hinted that, depending on what the writers end up planning, we may see his Spock - sorry, I can't call him Spock Prime without thinking of this guy - again:

I have no illusions on whether or not they need me. They decided that they wanted to make this film using Spock as kind of an anchor for the story, which I think worked very, very well. They don't have to do that again. If they decide they have a role for me to play, I would be very interested in talking to them about it... My sense is that he has some work to do. He talked about establishing a new Vulcan colony, and I think he will be very involved in that. If we never see him again that is what I would imagine he is doing. He is busy rebuilding the Vulcan story.

While I would happily let OG Spock drift into continuity limbo after the last movie, I can't help but feel as if that last comment sounds like a William Shatner-esque series of spin-off novels should be created at the very least, surely...

What's next for Spock Prime? Trek's Nimoy speaks [SciFi Wire]

Herb Solow, the former head of Desilu Studios, was asked by the BBC about his thoughts on the movie, and he didn't disappoint:

I really enjoyed finally meeting the young Kirk, the young McCoy, the young Scotty and the young Uhura, though I found the young Chekov a bit more hyper than we envisioned him to be. He was originally to be a rather plodding Russian astronaut with no sense of humour. But this young Chekov was much more lively and a bit of a caricature.

The young Sulu was of particular interest. Sulu was my namesake. Gene Roddenberry wanted to call him Solo - long before Han Solo made an appearance on screen, but we later changed it (my request!) to Sulu. I was a little disappointed in this performance. The original actor, George Takei, played the character with more grace and charm infused into his austerity.

So Sulu and Chekhov disappoint, but what about Zachary Quinto's new Spock?

The young Mr Spock was certainly commendable. But I missed the depth of Leonard's Spock, and the centuries of knowledge that always lurked in his eyes.

Overall, though, Solow wants to see the new version succeed, and not just because of any potential financial benefit for himself:

The single most emblematic phrase of our original series is 'Live Long and Prosper'. I hope the new series of movies will have that long life, and that Star Trek will continue to prosper.

Star Trek's ex-chief movie praise [BBC News]

But first, let's lay down the ground rules as to what I would call the "destruction" of one's planet:

I. If the character's planet explodes, that definitely counts.
II. If the planet in question is rendered instantly uninhabitable (due to, say, nuclear war), that probably counts, assuming the character (and any other survivors) had to then find a new planet on which to live.
III. If the planet's destruction was more gradual (like due to environmental collapse) and there was time to evacuate most of the planet, I'm not going to count that, if only because there's nothing particularly special about the character's survivor status. However...
IV. If the character in question is the only survivor, then whatever the circumstances of the planet's demise, I'm counting that.

With all that in mind, here's the list...

1-11. Superman (and every other alien in DC Comics)

Obviously, Superman is pretty much the originator of this archetype in modern science fiction, what with him being the Last Son of Krypton. That said, the last few years in comics have seen the (re)introductions of a fully Kryptonian Supergirl, a "third Kryptonian" who survived Krypton's brief foray in interstellar warfare, General Zod, Ursa, Lon, a whole gaggle of Phantom Zone criminals, Christopher Kent, and most recently 100,000 Kryptonians released from Brainiac's imprisonment. So for someone who for so long was defined by his cosmic uniqueness, the Man of Steel is now part of a very, very big crowd.

Superman is far from alone in the DC Universe when it comes to surviving the death of his home planet. The Martian Manhunter is one of only a tiny handful of his people, the Green Martians, to survive the destruction of Mars (although there are significantly more of their brother species, the White Martians). Admittedly, J'onn J'onzz is somewhat dead at the moment, but after Superman he's the most iconic survivor of a dead world in all of comic books.

You might also want to count Superboy-Prime and Power Girl as separate cases from the other Kryptonians, as they were first the only survivors of Krypton in their respective universe before the Crisis on Infinite Earths (well, Power Girl also had the Superman of Earth-2, but work with me here) and are now the only survivors of their entire universes, not to mention two of the only people who trace their origins back to the original, infinite multiverse.

The Legion of Superheroes members Element Lad and Blok are the only living members of their respective races, while Kilowog, the lovable Green Lantern with a fondness for calling people "Poozers", is the only survivor of Bolovax Vik. There's also the planet another Green Lantern, John Stewart, accidentally blew up back in Cosmic Odyssey. The destruction of Xanshi turned one of its princesses, who was being educated off-world at the time, into the villain Fatality.

Teen Titans stalwart Starfire was next in line to rule the planet Tamaran before it imploded in a war with the Psions. Recent events also saw the destruction of Throneworld, the home of the other other other Starman, Prince Gavyn, at the hands of Lady Styx. Oh, and then there's always Lobo, last of the Czarnians, who exists pretty much to parody all the other examples on this list, as he blew up his own planet on a whim.

Clearly, the creative types at DC have a thing for blowing up planets, but there at least a few other examples of this in the rest of science fiction. Let's take a look at those now.

12-14. Arthur Dent and company from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Saved from the Vogon constructor fleet's demolition of Earth by the alien travel writer Ford Prefect, Arthur Dent lacks a lot of the internal angst and survivor guilt of most of the people on this list, probably because he's just so easily befuddled. Along with Trillian, a beautiful young woman Arthur was doing a halfway decent job of flirting with before Zaphod Beeblebrox, the only slightly insane President of the Galaxy, whisked her away, he is now one of the only two Earthlings left in the entire universe.

Well, at least until the Magaratheans finish building another one or before he spends a decade stuck in prehistoric Earth with a bunch of hairdressers or until the dolphins do whatever it is they did in So Long and Thanks for All the Fish to restore the planet. But then the Vogons finally finish the jobs through the multiverse (or the whole sort of general mishmash, as Douglas Adams preferred to call it) in Mostly Harmless, finally and completely destroying the Earth, taking Arthur and Trillian along with it. But Eoin Colfer's upcoming continuation of the saga, And Another Thing, will likely resurrect them in some capacity, as otherwise it would be a pretty uneventful book.

Though he never appears in the books themselves, one might also count Ford Prefect's father, who was the only person to survive the mysterious Great Collapsing Hrung Disaster of Gal./Sid./Year 03758, which probably destroyed the planet of Betelgeuse Seven, although Ford's father was always rather hazy on the details.

15-19. Spock (and at least a couple other aliens from Star Trek)

One of less than 10,000 survivors of Nero's destruction of the planet Vulcan in the new Star Trek movie (told you there was a massive spoiler in here), Spock might now be the most famous example of this particular trope. I'd also wager Spock is going to be pretty much the only Vulcan seen in future movies, what with the older, Leonard Nimoy version of Spock keeping all the other survivors busy rebuilding their civilization on New Vulcan.

You can't mention the new Spock without also acknowledging Nero and the crew of the Narada are the only survivors of Romulus. Well, then again, all their time traveling left them dead and the fate of Romulus in the new timeline is now uncertain, so maybe they only count in the original timeline.

There's also Guinan from The Next Generation, who had survived the destruction of her planet El-Auria at the hand of the Borg. There are also a lot of planets, particularly in The Original Series, that seemed to have a single inhabitant (mostly of the godly or energy being variety), but I won't count those as the planets themselves seemed mostly unaffected.

OK, I'll make an exception for Bele and Lokai from the legendary episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield", in which the consuming racial hatred of their two peoples (one's skin is black on the left and white on the right, while the other is black on the right and white on the left) has left those two the last survivors of a war that has destroyed their planet Cheron. Admittedly, they don't survive for very long, not when there's an opportunity to finally kill each other.

20-26. The Doctor from Doctor Who (and maybe a couple others)

Spock isn't the only famous alien to get the Superman treatment in recent years; Russell T. Davies and company blew up Gallifrey before the new Star Trek movie was still in the earliest planning stages. Actually, between the Doctor and Spock both losing their planets in recent revivals of their series, you'd maybe think there's some sort of trend in modern science fiction that finds lone aliens more interesting than entire alien cultures. And I'm not sure they're entirely wrong.

Anyway, The Doctor is one of the most angst-ridden survivors you could imagine, which I suppose is understandable considered he kind of was the one responsible for destroying Gallifrey. Of course, it also turned out The Master survived (at least for a little bit, pending an inevitable resurrection) by running away to the end of the universe, and there are ever so slightly more credible than usual rumors that the Rani will return in the next series played by Gillian Anderson. But either way, the Doctor is for now the Last of the Time Lords, and he'll be the first one to tell you that. (No, seriously - he really could tone down how much he mentions that, as it's kind of a downer.)

Still, the Doctor wasn't the first person to occupy the TARDIS who had survived the destruction of an entire people. That tragic distinction goes to Nyssa, who watched her planet Traken be destroyed by the bizarrely universe-spanning threat in Logopolis. To her credit, she's much more stoic about this than the Doctor, although that might have been because the show's writers never really bothered to come up with a cohesive character for her.

Gallifrey also isn't the only planet the Doctor blew up, as he quite decisively destroyed the Dalek homeworld of Skaro back in the unspeakably awesome seventh Doctor story Remembrance of the Daleks. Although new series Daleks like the one in Dalek or Dalek Sec might plausibly claim to be "the last of the Daleks", probably the best candidate to call a "survivor" of Skaro's destruction is the lone black Dalek at the end of Remembrance, left all alone in the entire universe after the destruction of all his comrades on Earth and the rest of his race back on Skaro. Of course, the Doctor then uses the overwhelming despair of fact to literally talk him to death, but for a good five minutes there he was indisputably the Last of the Daleks, at least until they came back. Again. And again. And again...

The classic City of Death, written by Douglas Adams, introduced Scaroth, last of the Jaggaroth. Four billion years ago, he and a few other last refugees of his warlike race fled the destruction of his planet and came to primordial Earth. He then proceeded to accidentally kill of the rest of his race when his spaceship exploded. The decidedly less class The Hand of Fear showed Eldrad, a genocidal outcast of his silicon-based race, who had survived the extinction of his species by being encased in rock for 150 million years (well, that is one way to do it). And let's not forget The Cybermen - the original versions, anyway - who survived the destruction of their planet Mondas in The Tenth Planet and became the marauding terrors of the galaxy (or, if not exactly terrors, then certainly minor annoyances, depending on how well the particular story was written).

27. Princess Leia

The full impact of this gets lost in the shuffle of all the action in the original Star Wars, but Princess Leia is forced to watch her entire planet be destroyed, leaving her quite possibly the only survivor of Alderaan in the entire universe. (Well, there are probably a few diplomats on Coruscant and elsewhere, but the movies don't give any evidence to support this. The Expanded Universe says there were about 60,000 Alderaanians off-world at the time of its destruction.) Admittedly, she's technically not from Alderaan at all, as she was born in space to a mother from Naboo and a father from Tatooine, but she spent all but the first twelve or so hours of her life as the daughter of the Organas, rulers of Alderaan, so there's no way she doesn't count.

Also, Princess Leia is probably the best example of the kind of cognitive dissonance Douglas Adams talked about when he described Arthur Dent's reaction to losing his planet - it's too big a tragedy to really comprehend, and thus impossible to properly grieve. Leia never really seems to deal with her Alderaan's destruction, although I suppose she could have worked through her emotions during the year or so between the events of Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. Honestly, it's sort of weird how Alderaan is just completely forgotten in the later movies. You might think "Remember Alderaan!" would be an effective battle cry for a rebellion trying to remind people of the Empire's monstrous crimes. Bit of a lost marketing opportunity there. But I digress.

28-29. The Survivors of the Twelve Colonies and the Final Five on Battlestar Galactica

OK, it might be a bit of a stretch to count the Galactica and the rest of the fleet as quite the same thing as the others on this list. After all, none of the Twelve Colonies were exactly destroyed, but the Cylon-launched nuclear bombardment did make then uninhabitable to humans in very short order (and thus my reasons for Rule II become obvious). Sure, Helo, Anders, and a bunch of other survivors managed to live on the charred remains of Caprica for a few months, but it was clear they had no long-term future on that world, even if they did manage to escape the Cylons indefinitely. Perhaps a stronger case can be made for The Final Five, who used an orbiting satellite outfitted with their recently rediscovered resurrection technology to survive the destruction of Cylon Earth some 2000 years before the events of the series.

30. Cale Tucker and the rest of humanity from Titan A.E.

And finally, we have this somewhat forgotten 2000 animated film (co-written by Joss Whedon!), which considers the fate of humanity in the year 3028. The race of energy beings known as the Drej have destroyed Earth in retaliation for whatever the humans discovered in the mysterious Project Titan. The survivors are now nomads who are generally ignored or looked down upon by the rest of the galaxy. Ultimately, Cale Tucker, the son of one of the scientists responsible for Project Titan, helps lead humanity back from the brink of extinction and comes up with a plan to create a new Earth. I mean, of course he does - after all, he's voiced by Matt Damon, and that guy can do anything.

In any event, that's more than enough to get this list started. Who else is out there in science fiction nursing the unimaginable pain and survivor's guilt of being the last of one's kind and without a planet to call one's own?

Star Trek hits theaters in the evening on Thursday, May 7.

At the Star Trek press conference this past weekend, a number of subjects came up, but everyone in the room truly hung on every word the original Vulcan had to say, especially when he talked about the original crew and the influence they had on him while working with this new team

Mr. Nimoy, you had a chance to be in Star Trek: Generations, but that didn't work out. Why was this the ideal chance to bridge the old Star Trek with the new Star Trek?

The makers of this film re-awakened the passion in me that I had when we made the original film and series. I was put back in touch with what I cared about and liked about Star Trek, and why I enjoyed being involved with Star Trek. So, it was an easy way to come on home.

Did other opportunities not spark that passion?

It went off in a direction that I didn't relate to very well. The simplest way to put it. [In this Star Trek] they said things and showed me things, and demonstrated the sensibility that I felt very comfortable with, and I think that shows in the movie. I like it.

Did you miss working with William Shatner? Did you want him to be in the film with you?

Bill and I are very, very close friends, and we have been for a very, very long time. Did I miss him? I can't honestly say that that's the right word to describe my feelings about this process and him not being in the movie. I was aware that he wanted to be in the movie. I was aware that J.J. Abrams and the writers spent time with him, to try to find a process where he could be involved, but it just didn't work out. I don't know exactly why. I wasn't involved in those discussions and meetings. I didn't see the material they presented to him, if they did. I pointed out to him that we're even now because he acted in one of the Star Trek movies that I was not in and he had to admit that that was true [laughs]. And we're over it. I think it's history. I think he genuinely wants the movie to be a success. I spent time, we all spent time, with him last night at his charity event. I admire him a lot. I think he's done a great job with his career. He was a handsome leading man, and became a very good, character actor and avery successful character actor. We have a great friendship, and it continues to be a great friendship.

How did you work with Zachary Quinto?

I thought that he [Zachary Quinto] made some choices that were wonderful surprises for me. We did not talk about specifics like, "do this or don't do that." We had conversations about the philosophy of the character, and the philosophy of Star Trek, and fan reactions to various aspects of Star Trek, but there were no specifics, it didn't call for that. But watching Zach on film, I'm very proud of what he did. I think we have book-ended the character. He has created a Spock that comes before the Spock that I have created in the series. I play a Spock that is much much more resolved. And I think that is who I am actually today. So I think it works extremely well and I admire his talent.

What did you discover about young Spock while making this movie?

Zachary's choices in his performance often surprised me, in a very positive way. "I would never have thought to do that, and I think that's a wonderful idea!"....

Let me take the opportunity to say this. Everybody at this table [the cast] are very, very talented and intelligent people. They found their own way to bring that talent and intelligence to this movie, and I think it shows. If Chris Pine could do anything other than go direct to Starfleet after Bruce Greenwood told him what his life should be about, I would be shocked. I just had to do what Bruce Greenwood told me to. When Karl Urban introduced himself as Leonard McCoy and shook hands with Chris Pine, I burst into tears. That performance of his is so moving, so touching and so powerful as Doctor McCoy, that I think D. Kelley [DeForest] would be smiling, and maybe in tears as well. And, these two [Zachary, Zoe] I think are wonderful together. It's such a passionate and compassionate performance by Zoe that I was just so pleased to be a part of this movie, with all of you good people.

Spock (Star Trek)
Let's start with the really obvious here. Spock's father is a Vulcan ambassador named Sarek and his mother a human named Amanda Grayson. Much of his character, therefore, is based in the contrast between his two halves, with Leonard Nimoy having said that Spock is ""struggling to maintain a Vulcan attitude, a Vulcan philosophical posture and a Vulcan logic, opposing what was fighting him internally, which was human emotion."

Jack of Hearts (Marvel Comics)
The Jack of Hearts was born Jack Hart, the son of Philip Hart, a human scientist, and Marie, a humanoid extraterrestrial of the Contraxian race. His powers, which include such things as flight and the ability to project heat and concussive force, don't come from his parents, but rather his exposure to "zero fluid," a discovery of his father's.

B'Elanna Torres (Star Trek: Voyager)
B'Elanna, chief engineer aboard the USS Voyager, had a human father and Klingon mother, but her father left for Earth when she was a child, leaving B'Elanna to be raised by her mother. Either due to her childhood or her parentage, B'Elanna was short-tempered and often aggressive, but Roxann Dawson (the actress who portrayed B'Elanna) has said that over the course of the series, the character grows from an "unruly teenager" into a woman.

Moonshadow (Moonshadow)
The titular character in this twelve-issue comic book series written by J. M. DeMatteis is an adolescent boy of human-alien parentage. His mother is a human woman from Brooklyn named Sheila Fay Bernbaum, who takes on the name "Sunflower" during her flower-child days. When she's transported to the alien "zoo," she marries one of her abductors, a member of a nigh omnipotent race called the G'l-Doses. They're essentially glowing orbs of indeterminate largeness who use their power to wreak havoc on the universe, causing war and peace, death and life, with no real modus operandi beyond the delight they derive from the randomness of their actions.

Rystáll Sant (Star Wars)
A dancer for the Max Rebo Band, Rystáll has a Theelin father and human mother from New Bornalex. (It's argued, actually, that due to their greatly varied physical characteristics, that most Theelin are hybrids of one kind or another.)

Deanna Troi (Star Trek: The Next Generation)
Troi is the counselor aboard the USS Enterprise, with a Betazoid mother and human father.

Jason (Superman Returns)
When Lois's son shows up, we're supposed to assume the father is Richard White, her fiancé (and Perry White's nephew). But then Jason starts showing signs of super-strength and Kyptonite sensitivity, thereby implying that (sorry, Richard) Jason is actually Superman's kid. (The current convention that Superman cannot conceive a child with Lois clearly does not apply here.) So, yes. Superman: deadbeat alien father.

Reverend Golightly and the kitten children of Thomas Kincade Brannigan and Valerie (Doctor Who, new series)
In "The Unicorn and the Wasp" (Episode 7, Series 4), the Reverend Golightly is revealed not only to be Lady Eddison's son, but also the product of an affair she had with a Vespiform, a giant wasplike alien. Awkward.

"Gridlock" (Episode 3, Series 3) sees the introduction of a delightful little nuclear family, made up of Thomas Kincade Brannigan, a cat man, his human wife, Valerie, and their children: a litter of kittens. (It's debatable whether Brannigan counts as an actual alien, as he probably counts more as just a highly evolved feline lifeform. It's also debatable whether Brannigan is named after Thomas Kinkade, the "painter of light." Let's hope not.)

Additionally, in the 1996 TV movie, the Doctor himself claims to be "half-human, on my mother's side." But generally speaking, nobody listens to anything the Doctor Who TV movie said.

Hera Agathon (Battlestar Galactica)
Hera is the first known half-Cylon, half-human child. Her father is Karl "Helo" Agathon and her mother Sharon "Athena" Agathon.

Countdown - plotted by the movie's Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, and scripted by Tim Jones and Mike Johnson from Orci and Kurtzman's production company - doesn't just set up next month's JJ Abrams-led reboot in style (complete with great art by David Messina); it also offers what may be the final canonical Next Generation story, as well, and it's one that satisfies even without knowing that a movie was coming out to follow it.

The series is really an introduction to Nero, the Romulan who'll rewrite history in the movie. What Countdown gives us is the reason why he does that, as well as make you feel some sympathy and empathy for how he ended up the way we'll see him in theaters a month from now. It's not a small-scale origin, however; it takes the destruction of the planet Romulus - and the death of his wife and unborn son - to turn the good-willed miner into the tattooed villain we've seen in trailers and posters, and it's a destruction that may have been averted had things not been the way they were... leading to his desire to change the universe in grander - and, in a way, much smaller - ways than saving his planet.

His ally in trying to save the planet is Spock, at this point the Federation's ambassador to Romulus and - in a nice allusion to Superman's origin - a scientist who warns of the planet's destruction ahead of time, only to be ignored by the powers that be. When Spock and Nero try to take matters into their own hands to save the planet, they run into the Enterprise (now being commanded by Captain Data), as well as Jean-Luc Picard and Geordi La Forge, both living surprising new lives outside of ongoing starship missions. When Romulus is destroyed, midway through the story, we get to see Nero's transformation into the movie's big bad, as well as the way that brings him into conflict with another familar face, Worf, now fully a Klingon warrior.

Ignoring the movie tie-in altogether, this would still be an enjoyable series; the story feels appropriately epic, with characterization that's spot-on to the Enterprise crew(s) that we know and love and shout-outs to Trek past that aren't self-important or pull you out of the plot (The Romulans have retro-fitted Borg technology to create their ultimate battleship, for example). Even the ending, which very clearly sets up the movie, could be taken at face value as a conclusion complete in and of itself (Spock and Nero's ship disappear into a singularity and are presumed dead by the Enterprise crew who watched it happen). The series doesn't just make you want to see the Star Trek movie, it also makes you want to read more Star Trek comics if they'll be as good as this one.

Star Trek: Countdown's collection edition is released this Wednesday, and the individual issues are available in comic stores and at iTunes right now.

Design by the amazing Stephanie Fox.

There's something to be said for the unusual mix of traditional - these are, surprisingly, hand-painted, wooden nutcrackers, and at the time of year where the world likes nutcrackers so much they perform ballets about them - and retro sci-fi cheese that these sadly decorative-only festive treats offer. And, at $34.95, they're a surprisingly affordable potential holiday treat. Buy both and create your very own seasonal version of "Amok Time."

Classic Star Trek Nutcrackers [What On Earth]

The screening to 400 select journalists was introduced by Abrams himself, and featured an appearance from Simon Pegg, who plays Scotty in the new movie. Abrams opened by describing the reasons he agreed to make the movie:

The thing about Star Trek is that I was never really a huge fan. When I was asked to do Star Trek, though, I found myself saying ‘yes’. I just thought it was the right thing. There have been 10 movies and about a million series but when the first series came out I always felt it was someone else’s show. I appreciated there was a promise of adventure but quite frankly that’s always what I felt it was: a promise of adventure. It might have been the resources they had doing a TV show – you know, a big adventure going to a cardboard planet, you know? So, the idea of doing this movie where it could feel legitimate and real despite all the stuff that non-fans might thing was silly, was really the challenge.

I’ve seen Galaxy Quest, I’ve seen all the parodies but the key to doing this and making it feel real was a great cast. The cast is amazing and I’m going to show you a scene now where we meet Kirk as a young man. This shows how Kirk ends up joining this group called Starfleet.

The four scenes shown were as follows (All descriptions from Den of Geek):

THE FIRST SCENE: Kirk's bar-fight
The first scene shows Kirk getting his arse totally kicked by some Starfleet squaddies who were letting off steam in a nightclub near the Enterprise site. The squaddies were in fact trying to defend Uhura from Kirk's persistent and relentless pestering, It's a far more intense chat-up than you would ever have guessed from the Shatner-Nichols dynamic, and at one point Kirk makes mention of Uhura's famous linguistic skills, descending to some sub-TOS innuendo with the line "It must mean you've got a magic tongue".

Anyway pretty soon the belligerent squaddies are telling Tiberius to back off. There being only four of them against one of him, Kirk tells them to come back with four more…to make it an even fight! After a bit of a scuffle - during which Kirk ends up inadvertently holding Uhura's breasts before she sends him back into the fray - the squaddies totally whip Kirk, and at the end he's pinned to a table having his face violently pummelled by the lead squaddie, before being rescued by Captain Christopher Pike (Bruce Greenwood), who's slated as the first captain of the Enterprise.

The following section zips to ten minutes later. Kirk is sitting opposite Pike with cotton wool stuffed up his nose to stop the bleeding, while Pike remonstrates with him for being constantly in trouble and failing to enlist in Starfleet in spite of his genius-level test scores. "You could have your own starship in eight years", he promises. The scene concludes with Pine reminding Kirk that his own father was captain of a starship for only 12 minutes and managed to save over 800 lives - including Kirk's mother - in that time…and he challenges Kirk to do better.

THE SECOND SCENE: An ill Kirk tries to warn Pike of danger
Abrams prefaced this scene by informing us that - after the preceding scene - Kirk continues to get into trouble after his enrolment in Starfleet, and that when all the other graduates have been assigned starships, he is assigned none. Kirk's friend Doctor McCoy (Karl Urban, who REALLY nails DeForest Kelley's voice and mannerisms) manages to get him on board Pike's first run with the Enterprise by invoking Federation Rule 691, which states that a doctor can bring on board any person who he deems to be in need of treatment. In order to qualify Kirk for this loophole, McCoy gives him a nasty but non-lethal virus.

As we join the scene, Kirk's looking pretty ill as McCoy drags him over to a bed in a very spacious and cool-looking sick-bay. McCoy gives Kirk something to allay the effects of the virus, but Kirk has an allergic reaction to it and his hands swell up like Mickey Mouse's.

Over on the bridge, Pavel Chekov (Anton Yelchin) tries to log on with voice-identification, but the Enterprise computer won't let him until he can pronounce his V's properly.

Chekov announces to the crew that there is a catastrophic electrical storm on Vulcan, and that the Enterprise is running to the rescue. But Kirk recognises the description of the storm as identical to a Romulan attack that took place at the time of his birth, and is determined to warn Captain Pike that he is warping into a terrible trap.

Kirk tracks down Uhura, not yet a fixture on the bridge, and tries to convince her to help him, but then the virus/palliative causes his tongue to stop working! McCoy eventually manages to stabilise him so that he can talk to Pike.

Confronting Pike with the information on the bridge, a very disapproving Spock tries to have the brash young graduate taken off by security, but Kirk is able to persuade both Spock and his captain of the danger they're in.

Dropping out of warp-speed, the Enterprise instantly finds itself navigating the hulks and wrecks of the aftermath of a huge space-battle. This is no natural phenomena…

THE THIRD SCENE: Meeting Nimoy's Spock and Pegg's Mr. Scott
Abrams prefaced this scene by explaining that Kirk's continuing impulsiveness has forced Spock - now in command of the Enterprise - to exile him temporarily on an unnamed location. Here Kirk is met by...Spock! This time it's Leonard Nimoy, who has been aged even beyond his 77 years to play a Spock that has travelled back in time to change the course of history.

As we join the scene, Nimoy's Spock is leading Pine's Kirk to meet Pegg's Mr. Scott, who has been similarly exiled, and is in belligerent mood. Scott has a big scene here, talking with some annoyance about his efforts to effect matter transference onto a ship that is travelling at warp-speed. This is something Kirk and Scotty need to know if they are going to use Spock's handy transporter terminal to get back into the action.

Nimoy informs Scott that his future self will solve the problem of 'beaming up' between speeding ships, and even shows him the formula he is destined to work out. The engineer declares (against the evidence). "Of course! I never would have thought of space as a moving force!".

Old Spock informs Kirk that he will need to get Young Spock's command revoked with the old 'unfit for command' ruse we have so often seen in Star Trek, and that he should do this by getting Young Spock emotionally off-balance. Old Spock declares that it will not be difficult, and that he himself is like that (suggesting that Spock has seen himself in this way his whole life).

As Kirk and Scotty get into the transporter, Kirk playfully accuses Old Spock of cheating by travelling back in time to change the course of events. "I learnt it from a master", Spock rejoins. Ouch.

THE FOURTH (FINAL SCENE): Stopping the Romulan drill on Vulcan
Here Kirk and Sulu are in a drop-ship (inside it's very similar to the drop-ship from Aliens) along with a security officer called Olson. Sulu and Kirk are wearing blue-ish space-suits, but Olson's of course, is red.

Olson will be dead in three minutes.

The mission for our heroes is to stop the chain-like drill that is hanging twenty miles down from an orbiting Romulan ship from completing its work and creating the singularity that will engulf Vulcan. Vulcan only has minutes left before the Big One, and Mr. Spock gives Chekov the helm and beams down to the surface to save the Vulcan senate - including his parents. Meantime he has given orders to have Vulcan evacuate as far as possible in the minutes remaining.

Back at the rescue mission, Kirk, Sulu and Olson are dropped off and free-fall down the endless miles of space-chain. It's undoubtedly the longest parachute jump ever committed to film, and it's totally spectacular.

The chain has a number of interstitial platforms, and poor Olson comes a cropper of one of these after deploying his parachute, and ends up a blot on the landscape. Meantime Kirk and Sulu fight Romulans on the rusting platform/link suspended 4 miles above the Vulcan surface. To make matters worse, there's a vent near them that blasts a decimating wave of energy out every few minutes, so they have to fight around it.

Kirk once again finds himself hanging above a huge drop by his fingernails, with his Romulan adversary trying to stamp on his feet and get him off the ledge. Luckily for Kirk, Sulu's amazing sword - which unfolds to full-length from the handle like a light-sabre, but is made of metal - downs the Romulan nasty, and Sulu pulls Kirk up. Sulu saves Kirk? Huh?

Fear not, it will be repaid with interest in moments. Nero reveals that the interference of Kirk and Sulu has come too late - the singularity is in place. The Romulan ship lets the chain go and Kirk and Sulu find themselves about 60 seconds from becoming part of the rocky Vulcan landscape.

On the Enterprise, they're having a bit of trouble beaming our heroes up. "Try and stay in one place", shouts the transporter officer. Not easy when you're plummeting at maximum velocity. It looks like the end, but not so, for young Mr. Chekov is sure that he knows the technique for beaming up moving objects, and fights his way through the confusion on the Enterprise to rescue Kirk and Sulu just as they are about to become bug-blatter.

If JJ wants to keep premiering footage to small groups of journalists, he can bring over a DVD to my place any time he wants. I'll supply the soda.

[Den of Geek, Empire Online]

Over at Ain't It Cool, a reader who attended the Paramount press junket in London reported back on his take on what he saw of Abrams channeling Rodenberry:

We saw the teaser trailer and then we saw what looked to be a very very early version of the full trailer – It showed more footage of Quito as Spock, much more Chris Pine and also some John Cho and Simon Pegg footage. The film looks like immense fun and there seems to be a lot of action in it. There look of the crew and the bridge is spot on and the costumes look like the original but with a more modern and practical twist. We got to see Spock talking to his parent as well and Kirk being told to take more responsibility. There were also a lot of montage scenes involves spaceship battles, gun fights and hand to hand combat. I especially like a short clip where we see the crew running through the corridors of the Enterprise – reminded me of next generation loads.

But if reading that the movie will be action-packed, faithful to the original but not beholden to it and, most importantly, feature hot Vulcan parental-child conversations, doesn't excite you, then maybe you'd be more interested in knowing that the movie's release will also include the first full trailer for Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen.

Between Star Trek, Transformers 2 and GI Joe, I think we can pretty much expect Paramount to own next summer's box office.

Icaddy reports on a Paramount preview [Ain't It Cool]

Admit it; you've wanted to see that last one for years now, haven't you? [YouTube]

Show creator Tim Kring is definitely hinting that Sylar's upcoming year will move in that direction:

Sylar will play a major role in the new volume, and the creator and star both spoke about what's to come. Quinto said that in a flashback episode, fans will see more of Gabriel Gray, the pre-Sylar watchmaker... Kring added that Sylar will evolve and his life will become complicated by his interactions with others. “He'll have a series of very human relationships in this season.”

It's almost as if they learned nothing from last year's aimless subplot of powerless Sylar's roadtrip with black tears woman. We don't want to see Sylar having "very human relationships," and we don't want him to evolve - We want the blackhearted bad guy who's only hanging around other people to work out how quickly he can manage to eat their brains. Zachary Quinto, please, tell us that we're not seeing some kind of weird rehabilitation of your character?

Quinto was asked about his upcoming role as Spock in J.J. Abrams' Star Trek, and the actor revealed that he sees several similar traits when playing the logical Vulcan and the sociopath villain. “There are elements of the characters that echo each other, but from opposite ends of the spectrum,” Quinto said. He added that they both have “a stillness and a rich internal point of view that informs the way they behave.”

A stillness and rich internal point of view...? Oh God.

I am now dreading Heroes Volume 5: Sylar Learns What It Is To Feel This Thing Humans Call Love.

Tim Kring and Zachary Quinto Discuss 'Heroes' Season 3 [BuddyTV]

Explaining just why the movie is worth the wait, Abrams said,

It’s blessed with a wonderful optimism and an incredibly alive and invested cast. While the visual effects are gonna be unbelievable, the movie is working right now with only 50 of our 1,000-plus visual effects finished. It’s funny, it’s scary, it’s dramatic, emotional and entertaining–all without having the stuff you’d think a movie called "Star Trek" would require.

So, unless he's been misquoted, is he actually saying that the movie is good even though it doesn't have any of the traditional Star Trek trappings, or that it's good even before you get to those trappings? Because, if it's not the latter, then all of a sudden I'm very curious to see what he's come up with. But more importantly, what are "the stuff you'd think a movie called 'Star Trek' would require?" We know that the movie features the classic Enterprise crew, and also aliens who may or may not be Romulans. Spoilers promise scenes on Vulcan and in Starfleet Academy (involving the Kobyashi Maru test, apparently), and I'd bet my bottom dilithium crystal that there's going to be a space battle or two in there at some point. What classic Star Trek checkboxes haven't been ticked yet? Here're our suggestions:

A Technical Disaster Aboard The Enterprise: You have to give Scotty something to do, after all. Our suggestion would either involve a faulty photon torpedo tube or else shields failing at a critical moment. For any other chief engineering officer, it would take days to fix... but our heroes don't have days.

A Sultry Alien Woman Who Wants To Learn About This Thing Humans Call Love: Kirk wouldn't be Kirk if he wasn't romancing the alien ladies, after all. Bonus points if said romancing will (a) involve a moment where Kirk grabs the alien by the arms before planting one on her extra-terrestrial lips, and (b) solve some diplomatic problem without the need for violence. Also, if said sultry alien happens to be bright green? All the better.

(Extra bonus points if Kirk is also seen propositioning Starfleet Academy students and/or Enterprise crew members at some point. Keeping sexual harrassment lawyers busy even in the 24th century; good work, James Tiberius.)

Klingons: Look, Romulans and Vulcans are all well and good, but if there's one alien race that's really been a must for Star Trek, it's the Klingons. I don't care if they're just in the background of a lot of scenes, or if they just pop up in the middle of an important scene and demand Kirk's head on a platter for crimes against the Empire, but it's Star Trek; there really has to be some ribbed-head action at some point.

Doctor McCoy Dispenses Some Non-Medical Advice: Perhaps more a movie-staple than original TV Trek, we're still going to feel ripped off if Bones doesn't get to offer some calm advice about the human cost of some particular dilemma somewhere during the movie. Along similar lines, Spock Experiences A Human Emotion That Probably Involves Him Smiling, To Show That Even Stuffy Aliens Are Just Like Us, Really: If that one doesn't appear at the end of the movie, we're going to be asking for our money back.

Abrams: Star Trek Is Worth The Wait [TrekMovie]

It all started last Sunday, talking to friends at Comic-Con when one of them told me that every woman in the world knew that Spock was the sexiest member of the Star Trek crew. Disbelieving, I turned to the other friend in the conversation who agreed that, yes, this was a well-known fact and the only reason that I was unaware of it was my lack of female genitalia. Although those weren't her exact words, to be fair. I've since checked with a lot of women, and it has to be said... there's a lot of support for this theory.

Quite clearly, this means that everything I know is a lie.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not surprised that some hardcore fans long for the Vulcan lovegrip. As the linked site tries to explain,

He's got a very distinctive, *sexy* voice. Doesn't he!? Doesn't he!? You know what I say is true. Nobody else sounds like Spock. You could pick him out even in pitch black darkness, Right? And some of you would like to try, right? He ain't bad lookin'! Some people really go for that exotic (and somewhat demonic) kind of a thing that he has going on. His strength and gentle grace are sexy. He's tall and fashionably slim, with devilish eyes and kissable lips. His hands are beautiful. And his hair is so soft and shiny that your palms just itch to pet him, don't they? Don't they? Well, anyway, mine do. You wanna pet his yummy dark, silky chest hair too... doncha? ohhhh YEAH! Admit it.

I'm also not surprised that message boards are alight with conversations over Spock's hotness:

OH MY GOD i love him i practically drewl everytime heshows upon my TV. Everyone i know thinks i am wierd for LOVING him so i am so relieved that i found evidence that i am not the only one who feels this way ..... Thank You!!!!!

But when NPR do stories about Spock embodying "the mystery of masculinity"? That's got to be the point where a sharp-eyebrowed fetish goes mainstream:

"It's a struggle we all face," says Henry Jenkins, humanities professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "Are we driven by our emotion or by our intellect? And how do we reconcile those two things?"

One of the things Jenkins studies is Star Trek fan culture. He says Spock's struggle makes him an unlikely sex symbol.

"Spock is sexy for a large number of people, male and female," Jenkins says. "Many of the female fans I studied really are attracted to the emotional depths of this character." Like many men, Spock "represses outward signs of emotion," Jenkins says. He's a character "who tries to hold it all in, but who seems to be sensitive, sensuous at certain times."

So, my question to all of you is this: WTF? Okay, that's not entirely fair, but where does this idea of the uber-sexy Spock come from? Is it the character himself? Is it the portrayal and good looks of Leonard Nimoy (and, soon, Zachary Quinto)? Just the very idea of makin' it with an alien in the first place? All of the above?

And more importantly, when the hell will Bones get his day in the sun? It's all about the bags under his eyes, I'm telling you.

Unusual evening entertainment aside - Seriously, a Star Trek hypnotist? I'm not the only one who thinks that that's got to be a really niche market, right? - the convention, running August 5th through 10th, offers fans the chance to meet a pretty impressive line-up of stars from each of the series in the long-running franchise, as well as Zachary Quinto from Abrams' upcoming movie. You'd have to have a heart of stone to not be even vaguely tempted by Sunday afternoon's Voyager cast reunion panel, if nothing else.

The full line-up of the convention is available at TrekWeb, including the arcane pricing system of having your photo taken with the actor of your choice (Scott Bakula - $109. Why not just $100? What does that extra nine dollars do, exactly?). Start saving up your dollars for Saturday's Deep Space Nine lunch with Dr. Bashir, Odo, Dax and Quark now.

Galaxy of Star Trek Actors To Appear At Las Vegas Convention [TrekWeb]

Don't think that it's any blogger-come-lately behind this comparison; it's actually the Director of Liberal Arts at The Juilliard School, Mitchell Aboulafia, (who was possibly the first person to draw the McCain/Saul Tigh comparison) who's putting forward the very logical argument for why we should all be looking for Barack's pointed ears:

Consider Spock and Obama: cool, logical, trustworthy, a great deal of presence of mind, etc. Further, Leonard Nimoy, the actor who plays Spock, is Jewish. Obama went to Harvard Law and taught at the University of Chicago Law School, which makes him an honorary Jew. (Being Jewish, I can say this.) And what have we heard about Obama’s blood pressure, 90/60; not that of an ordinary mortal, just like Spock.

Admit it: You're convinced already, aren't you? But wait - It gets better:

Star Trek was a collective experience mediated by a visual medium. It also expressed utopian ideals at a time when young people felt impotent about changing the course of a war and the world. (Star Trek began before the full impact of demonstrations against the war became apparent.) Obama and his people have harnessed the Internet to allow people to feel that they are not mere bystanders but full participants. They have a provided a sense of “ownership” (although I am not crazy about the term). Most importantly, and here the analogy begins to break down, Obama and his team are providing not only a fantasy utopian moment, but the possibility of actually changing things. Live Long and Prosper.

As if that's not enough, he invites you to look at their physical similarities:

Before you complain of political bias on this here blog, however, it's not all bad for Republicans looking for a reason to support their guy; Wanted creator and Marvel Comics' Civil War writer Mark Millar has come out for McCain:

I know, I know. I'm comics biggest liberal, but like Ultimate Cap I like integrity and McCain just has it in spades. I read a hatchet job in yesterday's Observer by Paul Harris and try as he might I still love the guy. for the first time in living memory, America has a choice between two excellent candidates. Whoever wins, America is going to be alright.

Such a decision from "comics' biggest liberal" seems... illogical. Perhaps Mr. Barock should pay Mark a visit soon.

[Obama, Spock and the New Star Trek Nation]