“Doctor Who has been the most brilliant experience for me as an actor and a bloke, and that largely is down to the cast, crew and fans of the show,” said Smith. “I’m incredibly grateful to all the cast and crew who work tirelessly every day, to realise all the elements of the show and deliver Doctor Who to the audience. Many of them have become good friends and I’m incredibly proud of what we have achieved over the last four years.

“The fans of Doctor Who around the world are unlike any other; they dress up, shout louder, know more about the history of the show (and speculate more about the future of the show) in a way that I’ve never seen before, your dedication is truly remarkable. Thank you so very much for supporting my incarnation of the Time Lord, number Eleven, who I might add is not done yet, I’m back for the 50th anniversary and the Christmas special!

“It’s been an honour to play this part, to follow the legacy of brilliant actors, and helm the TARDIS for a spell with ‘the ginger, the nose and the impossible one’. But when ya gotta go, ya gotta go and Trenzalore calls. Thank you guys.”

Smith’s Bow tie-wearing Doctor debuted in 2010, taking over for popular actor David Tennant. Smith’s time on the show has been marked by the continued growth of the show’s popularity. He received a BAFTA Award nomination for his work as the Doctor in 2011.

“Every day, on every episode, in every set of rushes, Matt Smith surprised me: the way he’d turn a line, or spin on his heels, or make something funny, or out of nowhere make me cry, I just never knew what was coming next,” said Steven Moffat, lead writer on Doctor Who. “The Doctor can be clown and hero, often at the same time, and Matt rose to both challenges magnificently.

“And even better than that, given the pressures of this extraordinary show, he is one of the nicest and hardest-working people I have ever had the privilege of knowing. Whatever we threw at him – sometimes literally – his behaviour was always worthy of the Doctor.”

“The goal for this movie was definitely to up the ante as much as we could,” Abrams says in the trailer. “The action in this movie, the scale of the movie is light-years beyond what we did in the first movie.”

Zoe Saldana, who plays Uhura in the new Star Trek movies, backs up Abrams by saying, “This is the kind of film that 3D was made for.”

Though these types of statements may be exactly what Star Trek fans don’t want to hear, a movie of that sort will be well-positioned for summer blockbuster hit status. If Star Trek fans ever want to see a continuation of Gene Roddenberry’s universe in TV series form again, a successful movie franchise could go a long way to making that happen.

A new look at the game released today shows that the game won’t be completely a cover-based shooter (though it still appears much of it will be). Brian Miller, SVP at Paramount Pictures narrates the video and talks a bit about the co-op aspect of the game that allows players to take on the role of both Kirk and Spock.

It turns out that the co-op characters will have different play styles and abilities. While Kirk focuses on honing his phaser skills and appears to play very similarly to a Mass Effect 3 Commander Shepherd, Spock is able to use stealth and perform Vulcan nerve pinch takedowns to defuse situations.

Since the game is scheduled to come out on April 23 – one month before the release of Star Trek Into Darkness – Star Trek fans shouldn’t expect it to have any spoilers about the upcoming movie. There will be plenty of Gorn blasting, though. Also, if the the developers have any sense they will have included a crafting system that allows players to create their own Gorn cannon.

It’s still unknown whether the Star Trek video game will be fun or a classic thrown-together movie tie-in. The animations and graphics don’t seem spectacular, but the ability to stealthily perform a Vulcan nerve pinch is at least evidence that there will be one good thing in the game.

Pondsmith is collaborating with CD Projekt RED on Cyberpunk 2077, and his vision seems to be taking priority at the developer. Everyone knows that cyberpunk entertainment deals with advanced technology in the semi-near future, but in the new video Pondsmith describes the cyberpunk genre more as an atmosphere. The imagery he invokes certainly seems reminiscent of Blade Runner, Ghost in the Shell, or any number of William Gibson or Neal Stephenson novels.

“Cyberpunk is about that interface between people and technology, but not in that transhumanist way where it’s all about the technology changing or improving them, it’s about how people use things,” said Pondsmith. “There’s a great Gibson saying: ‘The street finds its uses for things,’ and that’s what cyberpunk is about. Cyberpunk isn’t about saving humanity, it’s about saving yourself.”

Pondsmith also reveals that CD Project RED was chosen to develop the game because it was clear the developers there were fans of the original RPG. He describes 2077 as a mature form of the RPG, and fans of the original will be able to see the outcomes of events seen in Cyberpunk 2020.

The Arthur C. Clarke eBook collection includes 35 of the author’s works, including Childhood’s End, the 2001: A Space Odyssey series, the Rendezvous with Rama series, and Prelude to Space. All 11 of Clarke’s short story collections are also included in the eBook collection.

“Arthur C. Clarke’s work is as fresh and engaging today as when originally published decades ago. Clarke’s novels and short stories are uniquely suited to eBook formats. It is an honor for RosettaBooks to publish the Arthur C. Clarke Collection,” said Arthur Klebanoff, CEO of RosettaBooks.

Clarke, who died in 2008, was the author of numerous novels and short stories. His writings won many Hugo and Nebula awards, and for decades he was known as one of the “big three” of sci-fi authors, along with Robert Heinlein and Isaac Asimov. He also hosted the Arthur C. Clarke’s Mysterious World U.K. television series and its successors. In 1994, Clarke was nominated for a Noble Peace Prize.

Clarke is also famous for popularizing the idea of geostationary satellites, and the geostationary orbits satellites today use are often referred to as the “Clarke Orbit.”

This means the speculation that Cumberbatch could be playing Khan Noonien Singh, Gary Mitchell, or Garth of Izar were all incorrect. Other than that, not much is known about the new antagonist, who’s name doesn’t match any established Star Trek Villains. Of course, this could all be a ploy by Abrams and the production to throw off fans hungry for any small scrap of a spoiler.

Trekmovie, however, reports that Abrams has confirmed Harrison is the character’s name. In addition, Abrams revealed to reporters who visited his production studio this week that the Klingon empire will factor into the movie’s story. Klingons themselves will be seen and the Klingon home planet of Qu’noS will also be revealed.

Another big reveal for Star Trek fans is that Alice Eve (who was rumored to be playing Elizabeth Dehner to Cumberbatch’s Gary Mitchell) will be playing Carol Marcus. In the original series’ timeline, Marcus was an old flame of James Kirk, and the mother of his son. The character featured heavily in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, where she and her (and Kirk’s) son, David, were brilliant scientists working on the Genesis device that proved crucial in both that movie an Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

William Shatner, Wil Wheaton, and June Lockhart have each starred in a new public service announcement touting a few of NASA’s accomplishments that have changed life on Earth for the better.

Shatner, best-known as Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise on the TV show Star Trek, discusses the medical advances that have come from NASA research, including remote ultrasounds, robot-assisted surgery, and thermometer pills.

Wheaton is well-known as Wesley Crusher (the boy) on the TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation. His PSA focuses on life-saving technologies developed by NASA that have improved safety in a variety of industries. Examples include rocket-powered parachutes, life rafts, and personal locator GPS beacons.

Lockhart, known for, among other things, her role as Maureen Robinson on the TV show Lost in Space, chimes in with her PSA on the NASA-developed clean water technology that is used around the world.

Today, a much longer 9-minute preview for the movie was released for the movie. It shows Vega and his men going up against a squad of Krogans. While the Krogans are tough, it should come as no surprise that some biotics and a bit of strategy throws their formation into disarray.

The movie was created as a collaboration between Bioware and Production I.G., the Japanese anime studio famous for TV and movies such as Patlabor, Blood+, The End of Evangelion, and Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex.

Paragon Lost will be released on December 28, so it might be something to look for when shopping with store credit from gift returns. From the preview below it seems the movie is pretty cheesy, but fans of the Mass Effect universe are sure to want more from the setting, especially when considering the debacle over Mass Effect 3‘s ending.

The trailer, titled Scanned, was produced by David Fincher and directed by Tim Miller, who has worked on the visual effects for projects such as X-Men, X-2, and Where the Wild Things Are. It’s nearly two and a half minutes long, and cuts back-and-forth between previews of the events in Halo 4 and short vignettes from Master Chief’s past, back when he was just John.

The flashbacks are live-action, which has become a staple of Halo trailers. Through the eyes of the Chief we see an idyllic childhood cut short and the brutal creation of the first spartans.

The November 6 release of Halo 4 is now less than 3 weeks away. In the meantime, be sure to watch the live-action Halo web series Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn, which tells a story of UNSC academy cadets just before the war with the Covenant, and leads into the beginning of Halo 4.

It appears that not only filmmakers were obsessed with the flying saucer as recently declassified documents show the Air Force was working on their own UFOs. The National Archives has the scoop on Project 1794. The project was spearheaded by the US Air Force to create a flying saucer that could reach speeds of mach 4. Here’s some concept images of the machine:

The work on the Air Force’s UFO line was outsourced to a Canadian firm called Avro Aircraft Limited. The fruits of their labor would neve be seen outside the military as the Air Force pulled the plug on the project in 1960. Wired found what appears to be the only video footage available of the flying saucer that the Air Force was working on. Once you watch the video, it becomes immediately apparent as to why the Air Force canceled the project.

For many years, UFO sightings were attributed to secret aircraft testing by the Air Force. The above video shows that the Air Force and Avro were not able to lift their vehicle more than a few feet off the ground. If anything, these new documents are going to rekindle the debate on flying saucers and the authenticity of various sightings.