A friend stopped me in the hall the other day and asked me if I'd seen the latest Star Trek movie. Dave knows I was a Trek fan, I had organized a few group movie outings back when Star Trek was still popular. I even wore a Trek jersey, mine was engineering: red. (I didn't die. Go figure.)

Anyway, Dave wanted to know what I thought of the new Trek flick seeing as how the new movie is a re-envisioning of the original Star Trek universe.

I won't spoil it for those of you who haven't seen the movie yet, but I will say that I told Dave that I really liked it. The new Trek is fresh where it needed to be, nostalgic where it should be, and just as bold and original as the first series was back in the 60's.

Dave agreed and went on to tell me of some friends of his who refuse to see the new Trek movie because it diverges too much from the original.

That is one of the silliest things I've heard in quite a while. That's like refusing to look at or sit in a new hybrid car because you still like your old 66 Volkswagen Beetle.

I like Star Trek reruns as much as the next guy, but you can only watch The Trouble With Tribbles so many times before you start to seriously wonder how many tribbles it would take to make a nice coat.

Still, I have to give it to the fans, they have continued to move the Star Trek universe, if not forward then certainly in other directions. Fiction written by both professionals and amateurs abound in book stores and on the web, some even get the support of real Trek actors like George Takei.

Those of you who just can't give up the old Trek shows need not worry, there's plenty of new material based on the old Trek universe available, some of it is not bad.

For instance, there's a series of podcasts that focuses on some the other Federation ships mentioned in the Original Series.

There are 2 video podcasts built around Starship Exeter; one is called The Savage Empire, the other is The Tressaurian Intersection. Both are fairly well polished thought the dialogue and acting is amateurish.

The podcasts pull liberally from scenes in the Original series and the stages are detailed and animated. And there's Trek-like special effects.

Both are broken into three to four acts and include the main title and a teaser.

These podcasts have been around for a while, but they are watchable, especially if you are old school and need a mini-skirt fix.

If you are a bit more open-minded about your Trek then you may get a kick out of Commander Rob, another Trek related video podcast found at the iTunes Store.

Commander Rob is a Trek spoof patterned after the ST:The Next Generation. In fact, the characters ARE ST: The Next Generation, the action figures that is.

It looks kinda lame, like a bad attempt at campiness, but I think that's the point. The action is sparse, but the dialog is funny. There are only four episodes and all are worth downloading.

So watch Commander Rob do his thing.

Finally, for those of you wishing you could use your iPhone or iPod Touch as a stand-in for a weapon will be thrilled to know that there is an app that will let you do just that; Star Trek Phaser.

This is a free app folks so don't expect much from it. It's a game where you shot to get a high score. There's a two player mode and some movie clips.

Ok, it really isn't much of an app.

In fact, I included it just so I could have a third Trek related thing to talk about. Still, it's free. Kinda like those free cheap plastic promotional giveaways people force on you're at events that either wind up collecting dust in your closet or jockeying for position at your local landfill.

Download Star Trek Phaser, play with it for a few minutes to validate its uselessness, then nuke it from your apps list. Or don't bother.

That's a wrap for this week. More free stuff totally unrelated to anything Star Trek can be found below, with direct links. Until next week, Quo'Pla!

Vern Seward is a writer who currently lives in Orlando, FL. He’s been a Mac fan since Atari Computers folded, but has worked with computers of nearly every type for 20 years.