Jeri Ryan's Seven of Nine was at the same time one of the most popular 'Star Trek' characters and one of the most polarizing among hardcore fans. Plus, as is evident by anyone who saw her on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' (Weeknights, 12AM ET on ABC), Ryan is a beautiful woman. This is a dangerous combination, as she learned when she picked up a couple of stalkers along the way.

It got so bad that she had to stop going to conventions for awhile, but the actress admits that she's back to going to them, with one minor change. "Now they've beefed up the security so I can go again," she said.

Zachary Quinto hit the headlines after coming out publicly as a gay man in an interview with 'New York' magazine, and the actor says he was motivated to do so by the recent suicide of bullied gay teen Jamey Rodemeyer.

Writing on his blog, Quinto says that "in light of jamey's death -- it became clear to me in an instant that living a gay life without publicly acknowledging it -- is simply not enough to make any significant contribution to the immense work that lies ahead on the road to complete equality."

He adds: "gay kids need to stop killing themselves because they are made to feel worthless by cruel and relentless bullying. parents need to teach their children principles of respect and acceptance."

The 'Heroes' and 'Star Trek' actor has played gay characters several times on TV but has not previously discussed his sexuality publicly.

Take a deep breath and pull up a chair, Trekkies: Spock has beamed off the ship.

While his evergreen erstwhile 'Star Trek' co-star William Shatner keeps on working like he's still in his 60s, Leonard Nimoy has decided it's time to hang up the pointy ears for good.

Last month he announced that he'd be attending his last 'Star Trek' convention in Chicago this week, and now it's happened. The AP reports that Nimoy parted from fans with the traditional four-fingered Vulcan salute and salutation: "Live Long and Prosper."

If you think about it, there's really no one more appropriate to host a show of this nature than sci-fi legend William Shatner. Each episode of 'Weird or What?' contains several stories of bizarre or otherwise unexplained events or phenomena -- such as a man surviving a several-storey fall, or killer ice balls from the sky -- and each is narrated by the former 'Star Trek' star in his own distinct Shatner-esque manner.



This isn't just moonlighting for him, either; Shatner has always been borderline-obsessed with the unexplainable, even when he was a little boy. AOL TV caught up with him to talk about 'Weird or What,' the cosmos and how everything in our world is extraordinary.

Hardcore 'Star Trek' fans had to be salivating at the collection that walked into the shop on 'Pawn Stars' (Mon., 10PM ET on History). The owner had a massive collection of figures of varying sizes, and many of them were signed by the stars of the various shows and movies.

Corey brought in an expert to appraise it after hearing the $14,000 opening offer from the seller. After the appraisal came in at $8-9,000, the negotiations began.

The owner tried playing on Corey's sympathy by telling him he has a wedding to pay for, but Corey wasn't playing that game. "It's not my issue, man," he said. "You can get married for 99 cents in the Prius right down the street."

Now here's some news to make the inner Trekkie in all of us feel all tingly and excited.

The space shuttle Discovery embarked on its final flight yesterday after 27 years in service. And what better way for the crew to start the day than by being woken up by a message from Captain Kirk?

A specially recorded message from James T. Kirk himself, William Shatner, replaced the music traditionally played to wake up the shuttle's crew on their last day at the International Space Station.

To the backing of that theme tune (all together now), the message began: "Space ... the final frontier ..."

It's Valentine's Day, so we thought it best to celebrate the occasion by getting everyone in the mood for love!

And what better way to do that than to watch a montage of some of the greatest kisses in television history? These kisses broke the "will they, or won't they?" tension between some of our favorite on-screen couples, challenged the censorship of the time, and quite simply, are just plain hot!

Warning: This montage may cause an uncontrollable urge to make out, so be sure to snuggle up and watch with your special someone (if you have one!) And if not, just close your eyes and fantasize about kissing Mulder yourself!

We're about to boldly go ... where no talk show host and guest have gone before. It's dance ... the final frontier. William Shatner showed up on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live' (weeknights, 12AM ET on ABC). During the interview, Kimmel suggested that Shatner would make a ideal contestant on 'Dancing With the Stars.'

But Shatner poo-pooed the idea. He pointed out that the show lasts forever, and he's not the youngest guy anymore. "They want four months of your time!" he said.

William is no coward -- after all, he's the original James T. Kirk, heroic captain of the USS Enterprise. Shatner just is too busy to take part in 'DWTS.' Still, in order to prove his dancing bravery, the actor decided to teach Jimmy how to do the waltz. But first, there was a tiny matter to clear up. Which of them would "lead' in the dance? That is, who would be "the man"?

When I called George Takei for our scheduled interview on Monday, he was about to leave for the airport to go to New York. But he wasn't coming to do a week's stint as the "announcer" on Howard Stern's satellite radio show, a place where he's been revealing intimate secrets about himself and his husband Brad Altman for the last four years.

No, he was in New York to stage a reading of 'Allegiance - A New Musical,' a musical he developed about the plight of a group of Japanese-Americans that were held in internment camps during World War II. Much of the musical is based on personal experience, as Takei and his family were interned during this time."It was really one of the most scary days that' I've experienced in my life," he told me. "People say, you know, you were 5 years old. But you know, when soldiers with bayonets on their rifles order you out of your home, and my mother was crying, you know, a child doesn't forget that."

He is trying to get enough funding to mount the production on Broadway. In the meantime, though, Takei is continuing to pop up on our TVs. The main reason why I called Takei was to discuss his guest appearance on 'The Big Bang Theory' tomorrow night (8PM ET on CBS), which seems like it would be a match made in television heaven.

Happy Techie Day!

In celebration of the day (sadly, it's not a national holiday), we drew up a list of some of our favorite hackers, forensics specialists, mad scientists, and gadget-wielding experts. They have all, in their own heroically geeky way, saved the day from serial killers, demons, vampires, global conspiracies, rogue spies or just boring old computer meltdowns.

Read on for our list of the smartest, savviest (and occasionally ass-kicking) techies to ever grace the airwaves. Don't see your favorite techie listed? Tell us your own!

Michelle Forbes is a rare breed of actor; ever the chameleon, she nomadically jumps from show to show, giving us just a taste of her ability. She then moves on to her next role to stun us once again. Most recently, Forbes played a maenad on vampire hit 'True Blood' and the icy Admiral Cain on 'Battlestar Galactica.'

One role that Forbes treasures is one you probably don't know her for, which is as demented psychologist Dr. Penelope Verrity in the second season of Canadian-made-and-produced 'Durham County.' It's a dark, dark role in an avant-garde show, and it mostly went under the radar.

TV Squad sat down with Forbes to discuss why she's done talking about 'Star Trek,' how she stays a TV nomad and why she wishes everyone knew about 'Durham County.'

Leonard Nimoy has had one of the more distinguished and iconic television careers. He'll always be known first and foremost as 'Star Trek's' Mr. Spock, but in a six-decade long run that began with movies like 'Them' and 'Kid Monk Baroni,' Nimoy has proved that he's much more than just Spock. He's a man who's made his mark as an actor, writer, director, musician and artist. And he has decided now, at the age of 79, to call it day.

In an interview with the Toronto Sun, Nimoy responded specifically to the question of whether he would play Spock again in the next J.J. Abrams' 'Star Trek' movie. He said, "I want to get off the stage. Also, I don't think it would be fair to Zachary Quinto. He's a terrific actor, he looks the part, and it's time to give him some space. And I'm very flattered the character will continue."

Most people know the recently-knighted Patrick Stewart from his movie and TV roles, many of which are of the sci fi / fantasy variety. Of course, there's Jean-Luc Picard of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation,' but there's also Charles Xavier in the 'X-Men' series and the voice of Avery Bullock on 'American Dad.'

But back in his native England, Sir Patrick is just as well known for his Shakespearean work, both on-stage and on the screen. Some of that work will be on display on April 28, when he reprises the role of Claudius (he first played the role on TV 30 years ago) in PBS's production of 'Hamlet' on 'Great Performances.' As Nick mentioned yesterday, the production, with David Tennant in the title role, mixes the classic dialogue with modern dress and settings to give the play a more contemporary feel.

Stewart will also perform in the title role of 'Macbeth' for a similarly-staged production airing on PBS later this year. I sat down with Sir Patrick in January, when he presented at the TCAs; we spoke about the two productions, what his classic training brought to his 'Star Trek' role, his guest turn on 'Extras' and how his first ever IT guy was none other than Wil Wheaton.

All amateur 'Star Trek' videos and movies possess a certain visceral tone that can make even the most nerve damaged human being cringe in pain. This one, however, might just kill them.

The not-at-all terrible people from the "Everything is Terrible" blog uncovered a video from some unidentified church group (can't say I blame them) who produced an absolutely awful Christian-themed 'Star Trek' parody that attempts to teach their flock the morals dangers of producing their own badly acted 'Star Trek' tribute.

It's so bad that it's either making Jesus laugh or God cry in that order. Jesus just always struck me as a bigger Trekkie than God.

No, you aren't looking at the world's most accurate model of the U.S.S. Enterprise done in dust bunnies. It's actually much smaller than that.

You are looking at a one-billionth scale model of the Enterprise (the one from 'Star Trek: The Next Generation,' not the original 'Star Trek') made from "30 kV Ga+ focused-ion- beam CVD using phenanthrene gas."

The model won the 2003 "Best Ion Micrograph" award at The 47th International Conference on Electron, Ion and Photon Beam Technology and Nanofabrication. And if you think that's enthralling, you should see the models they put together for their 'after dark' show. Let's just say you should bring your wide angle lens for your electron microscope.

[via Discover Magazine]