I actually read (and enjoyed) the novelization by David Gerrold first. Boy, was I disappointed when I saw the actual movie.

Then you owe it to yourself to familiarize yourself with the classic originals. (But don't give up after BENEATH, okay? Trust me, ESCAPE and CONQUEST are much better.)

Well, it wasn't really a "clip show" in the traditional sense since the footage from "The Cage" had NEVER been seen by the general public when "The Menagerie" first aired. It wasn't like they were showing clips from old episodes that everybody had seen already.

"Tell me about the moons on your planet, Mr. Spock . . . "

Exactly. I've never been able to listen to more than five minutes of my own books on audiotape. I display the audiobooks proudly on my brag shelf, but I've given up trying to listen to them. It just feels weird . . . .

Oh yeah, Uhura is flirting shamelessly with Spock in "The Man Trap" and "Charlie X," but they seemed to drop this later on . . . until the new movie.

The unseen bowling alley is actually mentioned in "The Naked Time."

Is anyone else amused that, if you look closely, the reader in the illustration is actually browsing the "Crime & Mystery" shelves?

Brilliant!

Guy Pearce?

That's not a bad idea.

A correction: The first paragraph refers to the new movie as "Conquest of", when it clearly means "Rise of . . . . " Conquest was the fourth movie in the original cycle of APES movies.

I was just about to ask about "Sirius" myself. It's to this whole genre as "Dracula" is to vampire fiction. It should be #1 on the list.

It's a reboot, apparently.

I would love, love a good DR. STRANGE movie. Heck, I'm sure it hasn't aged well, but I have fond memories of the old seventies tv version . . . which was a lot more fantastic and comic-booky than those other CBS adaptations. "I am Ishtar . . . bloody Ishtar!"

Outside the rarefied world of comics fan, IRON MAN was by no means a household name.

The guy who played Sayid on LOST (whose name escapes me) would make a great Khan. And, yeah, it's funny how people keep suggesting Banderas, even though Khan was a Sikh ("from northern India," according to Marla).

But do geeks actually have a problem with this? I think most of us like the show for what is. And would a rigorous adherence to your rules actually make the show funnier or the characters more appealing? I suspect you may be projecting too many of your own hobby horses onto "the core sci-fi audience." Heck, I'm a…

Ah, but did Stan Lee ever appear on TNG? I think not!

Er, are we forgetting this is a comedy? Next we'll be arguing about whether the technology in GHOSTBUSTERS is logical enough!