Today has very special meaning for us Trek fans, in 1979 the Robert Wise directed "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" hit the big screen.  This also has special meaning for me, ST:TMP is one of the first movies I actually remember seeing in the theater.  In fact, I can recall being with my family on a small vacation in Galveston, Texas and seeing the now famous rainbow styled poster at the movie theater.  It was tiny, single or double screened theater there in Galveston, but I remember being fascinated by the movie.  First thing I asked for that Christmas, Star Trek: The Motion Picture on LP.

By David Kleparek

As I don’t live in LA or Vegas, I don’t have the opportunity of getting into the Star Trek scene.  The number of times I’ve met respectable Star Trek personalities can be counted on one finger. Now I’m not a believer in destiny or fate, but sometimes coincidence is a little too much to ignore.  Such was the case on Friday, December 4th, 2009.

In an interesting article written for the NY Times, columnist Ben Zimmer dives deep into SciFi constructed Languages and discusses the upcoming  film "Avatar".

The new James Cameron flick features a fully constructed language for the  blue skinned, feline like creatures featured in the film.  Jimmy Cameron and his normal out-spoken ways even went so far as to say that the Na'vi language will out-klingon Klingon.

Cameron clearly had Klingon in mind when he began envisioning the linguistic landscape of “Avatar.” About three years ago, he hyped Frommer’s development of the Na’vi language by boasting to Entertainment Weekly that it would “out-Klingon Klingon.” Frommer now dismisses this as a bit of Cameronian hyperbole, assuring me that he has nothing but respect for Okrand’s masterwork. In fact, Frommer got the “Avatar” assignment in part on the strength of his work on “Looking at Languages,” an elementary linguistics workbook that includes a student exercise in deciphering Klingon word order. (Klingon follows the unusual object-verb-subject ordering.)

Also featured in the article is the father of the modern Klingon language Marc Orkrand.

In closed beta now and slowly approaching open beta, Star Trek Online is closer than we think.  From a fans perspective, the bridge has been one of the most talked about features of ST:O.  So much so, that the fan outcry made Cryptic Studios re-think the improtance of bridge access on game launch.  Now Executive Producer Craig Zinkievich talk with MMORPG.com about bridges and exactly how they're going to work in-game on release day.

In a recent interview with the Yorkshire Evening Post, Patrick Stewart revealed a deep feeling of homesickness even at the heights of international success.

"My marriage was unravelling," he said. "I had been filled for several years with a homesickness that kept me awake at night."

"FOR a long time my way of getting to sleep was to have a virtual walk through my virtual home in England."

Our lovable Captain went on to explain the turning point at which he returned to his roots in Yorkshire, England.

Harlan Ellison and his dispute over "The City on the Edge of Forever" episode of TOS is a story of Star Trek lore.  In fact, Harlan recently settled with CBS / Paramount over the issue of unpaid royalties for an undisclosed sum.  Now, the famous Scifi author has made it clear on his web bbs. (yup, we said bbs)

As reported by ComicBookMovie.com, Ellison wrote...

New Hey Star Trek!, gotchoo ALTERED STATES!?  Jerad wonders why the new movie meets with so many angry Trekkies when it's actually the latest in a long line of alternate timelines.  That was Jerad's own synopsis from digg, we think this may be his best work yet!  You be the Judge.

JJ Abrams’ Star Trek is now on DVD. We’re sure most of you have watched it or re-watched it. We especially hope that some of you holdouts saw for the first time. No matter your thoughts on the film and its ramifications, we hope you had fun.

Paramount Digital Entertainment, Bad Robot Interactive, CBS Consumer Products and Naked Sky Entertainment today announced that new content for the Star Trek®: D-A-C video game is now available for download via Xbox LIVE® Arcade. For players that previously purchased the game on Xbox LIVE Arcade, the new content for Star Trek: D-A-C is available as a free download. New players can purchase the updated game on Xbox LIVE Arcade for 800 Microsoft points.

Earlier this week we posted a few Star Trek Online videos in our Star Trek Online Videos and Updates A'Plenty article. Cryptic has released the second half of their Star Ship Tactics video and we've embedded it below for your viewing pleasure.

Michael Farley of Kotaku posted an interesting comment about the vid and it's mention of boarding parties.