Star Trek's 'First Lady' Dies

Live long and prosper, Leonard Nimoy

(NEWSER) - Spock may live long and prosper, but he's had it with Star Trek conventions. Leonard Nimoy is ditching the Vulcan mind meld with devoted fans at the Trekkie fests now that he's 80 (in human years). The cosmic get-together over the weekend in suburban Chicago celebrating the 45th anniversary of the popular TV science fiction show is his last. Nimoy gave an impassioned farewell to aliens everywhere, who responded with a rousing send off. Nimoy has been committed to the series' fans and conventions for years, while Captain Kirk (aka William Shatner) has ridiculed them, notes Entertainmentgather.com . But we all knew Kirk wasn't nearly as evolved. More»

At 79, he's leaving the stage for good

(NEWSER) - Don't expect to see Leonard Nimoy in the Star Trek sequel now in the works for 2012. The 79-year-old tells the Toronto Sun he's retiring from all acting gigs—including Spock—for good. "I've been doing this professionally for 60 years,” he says. “I want to get off the stage." After a few more sci-fi conventions he's got booked, he'll be done with those, too. More»

Apple gave early model to Star Trek creator as a gift in 1986

(NEWSER) - Deep-pocketed Star Trek and Apple fanatics will battle it out next month in an auction for the first Macintosh Plus—a computer that happened to be owned by Gene Roddenberry. The Mac Plus was the third Mac model, released 2 years after the original, and the first to offer a whole megabyte of RAM. Apple gave the machine to Roddenberry as a gift, Wired reports. It’s expected to fetch $800 to $1,200, less than its original sticker price of $2,600. More»

(NEWSER) - Often compared to Spock, President Obama recently took time out to see the new Star Trek blockbuster—and liked it. “Star Trek was ahead of its time,” he said in a wide-ranging interview with Newsweek. Turning to Dick Cheney, Obama said the VP's arguments for torture and unilateral action eventually lost ground inside the GOP. "So it's interesting" to see Cheney "trying to vindicate himself and relitigate the last eight years." More»

(NEWSER) - It’s been a long time since James Kirk set out on his 5-year mission, and those early voyages may look cheesy, low-budget, or even sexist now. But “the original Star Trek still has a passion and vitality,” writes Andrew O’Hehir of Salon. “It stands out, even after all this time, as something unique in television history.” With the Cold War raging, creator Gene “Roddenberry imagined a radical-progressive, Enlightenment-fueled vision of the human future.” More»