Trek's Hottest Women

Before engaging in a Top (insert number) list of hottest (insert gender), one must address this question: What is Hot?

Well, I had always been under the impression that like many modern usages, the conflation of "hot" with sexual attraction came from Shakespeare. The Online Etymology Dictionary states that it "dates back to 1500." For my intents and purposes, this is what I mean by it: "Hotness" is that state of being in which the sight or thought of an individual inspires sexual thoughts.

So by that rubric, although I find Captain Janeway and B'Elanna Torres to be lovely women with many admirable qualities, they don't make this list. I have to have experienced the emotional/intellectual state mentioned above in order to put them on a list like this.

And of course, any list like this is quite subjective. You can amend the criterion above, for the purposes of my list, to: "Hotness" is that state of being in which the sight or thought of an individual inspires Matthew's sexual thoughts. And given that this is the criterion for such a list, please excuse me if I dip into some saucier linguistic expression, here.

All right then. Without further ado...

Honorable mentions:

Here are characters who may have reached the threshold of inclusion if it were not for some mitigating circumstance.

Hoshi Sato

Enterprise

played by Linda Park

Why I Love Star Trek, Essay #6: Glenn-Paul Nehlsen

Hi, everyone.  Kevin here.  This next essay in the "Why I Love Star Trek" series is from one of my best friends, Glenn-Paul.  This is another friendship for me created by Star Trek.  When we first met, we happened to get on the topic of Star Trek, and it formed an immediate and long lasting bond.  So without further ado, enjoy the essay.

Why I Love Star Trek
by Glenn-Paul Nehlsen

I am reminded of words spoken at the beginning of another science fiction show that was popular at the time: "We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter."

Has Star Trek's "Padd" finally arrived?

This post on gaming site Kotaku is a fun look at "six padds" the author would actually buy, as opposed to Apple's iPad. Hint: all six are from Star Trek.

In answer to the above post, no, the Padd has not arrived just yet.

For one thing, the main function we see for the PADD of the 24th century is voice recognition with fuzzy logic, as well as predictive text interface buttons similar to court reporting tools (no more crappy touchscreen keyboard!) They seem to have universal compatibility interfaces without physical contact (which would totally make up for the iPad's lack of USB support). They also have a display that seems much closer to the e-ink of current readers, except in color - so they wouldn't be hard on the eyes after long periods of reading.

But mainly, they don't have the stupid "i" prefix appended to them. Ugh, I'm sick of that. So yet again, Star Trek has created a vision of the future which is much better than the present...

The Original Series, Season 1: The Corbomite Maneuver

The Original Series, Season One
"The Corbomite Maneuver"
Airdate: November 10, 1966
3 of 80 produced
10 of 80 aired
Click here to watch on CBS.com

Introduction

The Enterprise is stopped by a mysterious buoy in space. Who has left it there, and why can’t the Enterprise get away from it? When our heroes finally meet the buoy’s creators, they are placed in a precarious situation with an apparently superior foe. How will Kirk navigate this treacherous conundrum – with rationality, or with violence?

And will Balok eat our heroes? Raaahr...

My Favorite Character, Essay #1: Matthew Weflen

Star Trek is a rich repository of characters. For some, they're the main reason for watching the show. While I'm not in this camp, there are many, many characters I feel a great affinity for. So, here is my essay indicating which characters are my favorites. I'll go by series, then pick an overall favorite for the whole franchise.

The Original Series

Well, there are three obvious choices for "strongest" or most developed. It's hard to pick any of the supporting players, simply due to how screen time was divvied up.

The Original Series, Season 1: Dagger of the Mind

The Original Series, Season One
"Dagger of the Mind"
Airdate: November 3, 1966
11 of 80 produced
9 of 80 aired
Click here to watch on CBS.com

Introduction

The Enterprise is making a supply run to the penal colony on Tantalus V. An apparently dangerous, violent prisoner manages to stowaway onboard. However, when he is captured, he claims to be one of the colonies administrators and that the chief administrator is performing horrible experiments on the minds of his prisoners.

Suddenly, the office Christmas party doesn't sound so bad...

Fun Links from Wil Wheaton

As I mentioned in my Why I Love Star Trek essay, I am fascinated that Trek actors are so accessible. Perhaps the most accessible of the bunch is Wil Wheaton, who's made a good living from Trek (and from being quite a good writer). Following Wil's twitter feed always makes me feel like I actually know him. Yes, I realize that the 1,636,866 other people (and counting) who follow him probably feel the same way, but it's still fun. Today he managed to make me smile twice by linking to fun photos.

The first is on his blog and proves that he does not take himself too seriously, which I appreciate.

The other picture made me smile and shudder at the same time. You must go look. Matthew and I have talked a lot about raising our future kids with Star Trek, and I would guess that at some point, when the kids are young enough to go along with what we want to do without complaining about it being uncool, we'll probably go to a convention as a family. And we may even go in costume. And someone may take a picture. But I can't imagine that even we will be able to raise teenage children who will want to pose for a studio photograph with their parents in costume. And I'm fairly certain I wouldn't want to do it even if they did!

Speaking of raising kids, we'd love to hear from anyone who has experience raising kids with Trek. Let us know if you'd be interested in writing a guest essay. How do you introduce kids to Trek? What lessons can kids learn from Trek? Are there themes/idea in Trek too dark for young kids?

The Kindness of Strangers

Last Friday, I was grabbing dinner after work. I was at restaurant in the Loop, and as I often do when dining alone, I was reading a book. A Star Trek book. Specifically, I was reading "The Never Ending Sacrifice," one of the latest books in the DS9 relaunch. I highly recommend it, and you don't really have to be familiar with any of the other relaunch books to get into it.

Anyway, a lady at the next table, looked over and asked what I was reading. I showed her it was a Star Trek book, and she lit up. She told me that all three of her now grown sons liked Star Trek growing up. I replied that that was evidence she did a good job. She told me how each year for Hanukkah, the present for the eighth night was one of the Hallmark Star Trek ornaments which they would put on their Christmas tree. Having several TOS shuttles and the Captain Janeway ornament, I was delighted at this idea. We chatted for a little while longer while our bills arrived, and I wrote the address for this blog on a napkin for her after explaining what we we're doing here. I sincerely hope she reads this blog and this post. I had a really long day at work and bonding with a total stranger over Star Trek was a wonderful surprise.

Why I Love Star Trek, Essay #5: Kelly Pollock

Why I Love Star Trek
By Kelly Therese Pollock

As has been discussed already, I was tricked into liking Star Trek by my now-husband at an earlier time in our relationship when I still felt the need to make him like me. Yes, that's right, I was tricked into watching every live-action episode (most more than once) and movie (all more than once), spending countless hours discussing Trek minutiae, reading Trek novels, following Trek actors on Twitter, and going to a convention. (It should be said that Matthew also tried to introduce me to plenty of pop culture that I didn't adopt, like Star Wars.)

The perspective I bring to this is that of someone who came to Star Trek as an adult. Unlike most of the people here (and most Trekkies in general), I have no childhood memories of watching Trek; it evokes no feelings of nostalgia in me; and I can't say that a particular series or episode got me through a difficult time in my life. I know I was aware of Star Trek as a kid, that I could recognize the phrases "Beam me up, Scotty" and "Live long and prosper," but they were detached from any real meaning.

The Horrendously bad science of Star Trek(2009)

Speaking of Star Trek(2009), it was just cited as a "good science" example on Discover Magazine's list of good and bad science in movies. And to think I used to respect Discover Magazine.

Discover's list had five good and bad mentions apiece from all sorts of films. In my opinion, the "science" in Star Trek (2009) was so bad, I could create a list of 5 (if not more) just to encompass it all.

And here it is!