Star Trek
A unique 1966-69 NBC science fiction series created by Gene Roddenberry, which chronicled “the voyages of the starship Enterprise.” As well as entertaining an audience which would span generations around the world, Star Trek cleverly touched on many political/social issues of the troubled late 1960s, such as racism, hippies, and the Vietnam conflict. The original television program, which spawned many other TV and online series, as well as several major motion picture series, starred William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley.
Star Trek Continues
An homage to the original 1966-69 Star Trek series, this fan-created non-profit web series, which featured 1960s-era-looking lighting, costumes, props and sets, debuted in May 2013 and produced 11 episodes through November 2017. Though not affiliated with or sanctioned by Trek owners CBS/Paramount, the passion project series did feature some interesting guest stars. Michael Forest, who first portrayed the Greek god Apollo in the 1967 original episode “Who Mourns For Adonais?” revisited the role in the episode “Pilgrim of Eternity.” This series premiere episode also featured another notable guest star in Battlestar Galactica revival series veteran Jamie Bamber, who appears briefly as an ill-fated redshirt. Amy Rydell, who appears as the Romulan Commander in the two-part final episode “To Boldly Go,” is the lookalike daughter of actress Joann Linville, who portrayed the same character in the original 1968 episode “The Enterprise Incident.” While several episode plotlines continued those from the original series, they were also written to be relevant to modern audiences. For example, the episode “Lolani” involves the modern issues of sexual abuse and human trafficking.
The crowdsourced series featured producer/writer Vic Mignogna as Capt. James T. Kirk, Todd Haberkorn as Mr. Spock, Chuck Huber as Dr. McCoy, and Christopher Doohan (son of James Doohan, the original Enterprise chief engineer Mr. Scott) in his father’s beloved role.
Star Trek: Enterprise
The 2001-05 prequel series in Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek franchise focused on the 22nd Century adventures of Captain Jonathan Archer aboard the experimental prototype Enterprise NX-01, Earth’s first vessel designed for long-range exploration of the galaxy, during the early days of interstellar travel. Prior to the development of warp engines that could reach a velocity of warp 5, missions of this nature were impossible. At warp 2, only a handful of inhabited planets were within a year’s travel from Earth. At warp 5, however, that number increased to roughly 10,000, and it was Archer’s ship and crew’s job to visit as many of those worlds as they could. At 190 meters long (a bit smaller than Captain James T. Kirk’s Enterprisefrom the original show), the NX-01 carries a crew complement of just 83 men and women. The crew on this early mission was all human, with the exception of the Vulcan science officer and the Denobulan doctor. Unlike the starships of the four other Star Trek series, this Enterprise doesn’t have deflector shields or phasers, but it does come equipped with a phase cannon and a rudimentary transporter that functions efficiently … most of the time. The series (also known simply as Enterprise) starred Scott Bakula (of Quantum Leap fame), Connor Trinneer, Jolene Blalock and John Billingsley.
Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope
“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away …” These now-legendary words filled the screen at the beginning of a film that led to a new era of science fiction adventure when it was released on May 25, 1977. In 1973, George Lucas directed a low-budget film called American Graffiti, which cost less than $1 million to produce and earned $50 million and five Oscar nods including Best Director. Emboldened by his early success with Graffiti, Lucas was determined to follow through on a dream project that he and his writing partner Gary Kurtz had been working on since 1971: a science fiction film written for a target audience of teenagers. Directed by Lucas, Star Wars told the story of Luke Skywalker, a young man stuck on his desert planet of Tatooine, but who dreams of joining the Rebellion against the Galactic Empire. After purchasing two androids (or “droids”), Luke finds a recorded message, which contains the plans for the Empire’s new space station. Luke and the wise hermit Obi-Wan Kenobi travel with smuggler Han Solo to Princess Leia Organa’s home planet Alderaan. On the way, Obi-Wan tells Luke of an old order called Jedi knights, who keep and utilize a power called “the Force.” After Luke is given a lightsaber and begins preliminary Jedi training, the team eventually frees Leia from the Death Star, and brings about the destruction of the space station.
Originally a stand-alone film starring Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher, the wildly popular Star Wars was re-released with the new prologue heading “Episode IV,” and eventually, all six original adventures in Lucas’ storyline were filmed and released.
Starfleet Command
In the Star Trek universe, the scientific, research and diplomatic arm of the United Federation of Planets, founded in the Earth year 2161 and assigned to the exploration of space and its resulting scientific, diplomatic and defensive duties. Similar to a modern-day navy, Starfleet began as an Earth agency dedicated to space exploration. To this end, Starfleet utilized interstellar starships and eventually built and maintained a network of starbases.
Stark, Tony
The millionaire playboy and electrical engineering genius, who debuted in Marvel Comics’ Tales of Suspense #39 in March 1963 along with his alter ego Iron Man, is responsible for numerous major discoveries, inventions and achievements in various areas of technology. As a boy, the heir to Stark Industries was fascinated with building machinery. At the age of 15, Tony entered the undergraduate electrical engineering program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and graduated with two Master’s degrees by age 19. Tony began working for Stark Industries, but showed more interest in living the life of a reckless playboy. At the age of 21, Tony inherited his father’s corporation (which would later be known as Stark Enterprises, and eventually Stark International) when his parents were killed in a car accident.
While attending a field test of his military hardware at one of his international plants, Stark’s party was attacked by terrorists. During the skirmish, a land mine went off and lodged a piece of shrapnel near Tony’s heart. Taken back to Wong-Chu’s camp, Tony shared a cell with Professor Ho Yinsen, a world-famous physicist. Wong-Chu demanded that the two scientists develop advanced weaponry for his forces. Knowing that he could not live long with the shrapnel so close to his heart, Tony proposed that he and Yinsen devote their gifts to creating one of the battlesuits he had been developing, equipped with a magnetic field generator to prevent the shrapnel from reaching his heart. The armor they created became the first true Iron Man armor.
At first, Tony found his new life a torment; his armor’s chest plate had to be worn constantly and required frequent recharging. An example of Marvel’s humanly flawed heroes, the pressures of his dual life drove Tony to drink heavily, and eventually he would become an alcoholic. Naturally, this has caused many problems in his personal and professional lives, as well as his life as a public superhero. He has at times lost and regained his fortune.
Keeping the armor a secret from everyone, he turned suicidal and drank heavily. After sharing his secret identity with his fiancée Joanna, she encouraged him to use his armor to help people, but ultimately called off the engagement knowing Tony would not be the family man she desired. Tony worked to improve the Iron Man armor, and went on to play a dual role in the formation of the Avengers, as both a public sponsor and the secret identity of founding member Iron Man.
Stark’s life has been riddled with great triumph and great tragedy. Witnessing firsthand the impact that his company’s weaponry had on innocent lives, Stark resolved to abandon munitions production in favor of electronics and computer engineering. However, after being shot by a former lover, Stark was told that his injuries would cripple him for the rest of his life. He found that he could still function normally within his Iron Man armor, and later, a microchip device was implanted into Stark’s spine that would enable him to walk and move normally once again. Furthermore, his armor magnified Stark strength to superhuman levels, enabling him to lift or press roughly 85 times his normal strength.
In both the Iron Man and Avengers Hollywood franchises, Tony Stark has been portrayed by Robert Downey Jr.
Starship
An as-yet theoretical vessel designed for interplanetary and intergalactic travel.
Steampunk
Inspired by a few literary works, the term “steampunk” can now refer to several elements. Foremost, it is a literary genre, or least a subgenre of science fiction and fantasy that includes social or technological aspects of the 19th century (the steam), usually combined with some deconstruction of, reimagining of, or rebellion against parts of it (the punk). Steampunk stories may:
- take place in the Victorian era, but include advanced machines based on 19th century technology;
- include the supernatural;
- include the supernatural and forgo the technology;
- include the advanced machines, but take place later than the Victorian period, thereby assuming that the predomination by electricity and petroleum never happened; or
- take place in another world altogether, but featuring Victorian-like technology.
Steampunk has also cross-pollinated its way into other genres, such as steampunk romance, steampunk erotica, and steampunk young adult fiction. There are also steampunk games (e.g. Bioshock II), graphic novels (e.g. League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (graphic novel series)), movies (e.g. Sherlock Holmes) and TV shows (e.g. Warehouse 13), as well as steampunk music and performance art. Sparking other real-world applications, steampunk now appears as an element of personal style and a design aesthetic in both clothing and jewelry. It can also be argued that it is a kind of rough philosophy, combining the maker ideals of creativity and self-reliance with the Victorian optimistic view of the future.
Sternum
- A bone, or in some species a series of bones, extending along the middle line of the ventral (underside) portion of the body of most vertebrates. in humans, the sternum (commonly called the “breastbone”) is a narrow flat bone, approximately six inches in length, an inch wide, and a fraction of an inch thick. The sternum connects the ribs or the shoulder girdle or both; in humans, the sternum is connected to the clavicles and ribs known as the “true ribs.” It develops as three distinct parts (the manubrium, gladiolus [body of the sternum], and xiphoid process) and protects several vital organs of the chest, including the heart, aorta, vena cava, and thymus gland. Several muscles that move the arms, head, and neck originate from the sternum, which is shaped somewhat like a downward-pointing sword. In fact, “manubrium” means “handle,” gladiolus means “sword,” and xiphoid means “sword-shaped.”
- The ventral (underside) surface of a body segment of an arthropod.
Stranger Things
After young Will Byers disappears in November 1983, the citizens of Hawkins, Indiana begin to uncover top-secret government lab experiments, portals to another world, sinister monsters, and a young girl with unique powers. The Netflix series, created by Duffer Brothers, debuted on July 15, 2016, and features a cast including Winona Ryder, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Gaten Matarazzo, Millie Bobby Brown and David Harbour.
Stylus
A stylus has been made in many styles with different materials over the centuries, but in the field of computers, a stylus is a pen-shaped device used to input commands or to draw or handwrite on a specially designed computer surface, such as a touch-sensitive screen.
Sub-Mariner, The
See Namor.
Succubus
An evil spirit, believed to sit or lie on sleeping humans. Also believed to have sexual intercourse with sleeping men, the succubus is the female counterpart to the Incubus.
Superego
One of Sigmund Freud’s three aspects (or divisions) of human psyche, along with the id and the ego. Freud, the father of modern psychoanalysis, named the conceptual parts of the “tripartite” (three-part) system of personality, each of which develop at different stages in a person’s life. The superego, which operates as a moral conscience or “parent,” develops to control the id’s impulses, and to reward and punish thoughts and actions through a system of moral attitudes, conscience, and guilt. The superego develops around ages 3 – 5, during the phallic stage of psychosexual development, and according to Freud, it is the only one of the three divisions of the psyche that is only partly conscious. It incorporates the values and morals of society, which are learned from one’s parents and other authority figures.
The superego is said to have two parts: the ego ideal (which houses the rules and standards for good behavior) and the conscience (which determines bad behavior). The ego ideal can be seen as a person’s ideal self-image, or who a person wants to become, and guides career aspirations, how to treat other people, and how to behave as a member of society. The superego can punish the ego by causing feelings of guilt or reward the ego when we behave “properly” by causing feelings of pride.
Superman
Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster and first appearing in Action Comics #1 in June 1938, the character “Superman” (later featured in DC Comics) began life as Kal-El, son of Jor-El and Lara of the planet Krypton in a faraway galaxy. A scientist, Jor-El discovered that his planet was doomed, and built a spaceship for his son to travel in to the planet Earth. Crash-landing in Smallville, Kansas on Jonathan and Martha Kent’s farm, the infant alien was taken in by the childless couple and raised as their own son, whom they named Clark Kent. Following an upbringing that consisted of concealing his unique abilities (outside of the “Superboy” comic book series), Clark/Kal-El decided to use his skills to aid others in need. Earth’s much lighter gravity gave the Kryptonian native the ability to “leap tall buildings in a single bound” according to early radio serials, but eventually the character was seen as one who could actually fly. Earth’s yellow sun gave the alien being amazing strength, speed, flight, endurance, and enhanced senses, but he was weakened by kryptonite, an ore native to his planet. Incredibly popular throughout the decades, Superman has been depicted on several television series, many films, in cartoons, graphic novels, and countless clothing and accessory items.
Superman vs. The Flash
A fan-favorite volume, DC Comics’ Limited Collectors’ Edition # 48, published in July 1976, included both (as of the publication date) stories involving contests of speed between the supersonic superheroes: “The Race Between Superman & Flash” (from Superman #199, originally published August 1967) and “The Race to the End of the Universe” (from The Flash #175, originally published December 1967). In addition to the two popular tales, the supersized (10″ x 14″) publication featured a 6-page tour through Superman’s Fortress of Solitude and a page of “Flash Facts.”
Suspended animation
1. In nature, a state in which an animal is unconscious, with its body functioning very slowly, so that the animal can, for example, survive the winter, i.e., hibernation.
2. A temporary cessation of the vital functions, possibly resembling death, as by freezing an organism. In science fiction, suspended animation can be used to assist humans and other characters to travel long distances through space, or to survive treacherous or risky events, such as time travel.
Although it is a term most often heard or read in science fiction, several medical teams throughout the United States have begun human trials for practical applications of suspended animation, the preferred scientific term of which is “emergency preservation and resuscitation,” or EPR. Inspired by anecdotal reports of people surviving without damage even after spending an hour or more submerged in frigid water without breathing, this surgical technique replaces a patient’s blood with a cold saline solution that quickly and dramatically cools the body down and buy time for doctors to fix injuries without losing patients to blood loss. Surgeons are already using the principle to operate on babies born with congenital heart defects.
Symbiont
1) As defined in 1887 by German biologist and mycologist Heinrich Anton de Bary, a biological organism living in symbiosis, which is a close and prolonged interaction between organisms of different species, both of which benefit from the interaction. The term is especially used in reference tothe smaller member of a symbiotic pair. Other types of symbiotic relationship are parasitism and commensalism. In parasitism, the symbiont benefits at the expense of the host, while in commensalism, the symbiont benefits from the host but does not cause benefit or harm to it.
2) In the series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, a sentient life form from the planet Trill. Primarily living symbiotically inside hosts of the humanoid Trill species, symbionts can have rather long lifespans compared to most humanoid species, and could easily live beyond 550 Earth years. The Trill symbionts’ natural state is teardrop-shaped asexual beings that communicate with each other via electrical impulses transmitted through the milky water they inhabit. A symbiont is joined with a new host through a surgical procedure in which it is placed in the abdomen, where it developed a connection through the narrow part of its body to the host’s body. Once a symbiont was joined for over 93 hours, the symbiont became dependent on its Trill host and vice versa. After and during joining, a symbiont takes on all the memories of their new host, and thus gains the collected memories of all its hosts over time.
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