Do you know ...

these Star Trek f facts?

> STAR Trek Discovery, a new TV series premiering on Sept 25, co-stars Malaysia’s very own Tan Sri Michelle Yeoh. It’s the first new

Star Trek series in 12 years, since

Enterprise ended in 2005.

> A staggering 725 episodes of Star Trek hows have been pproduced across six series, not counting

Discovery. The franchise also spawned 13 feature films, the most recent being last year’s Star Trek Beyond.

> Hardcore fans have created their own professional-looking, crowdfunded episodes and films. Among them: Star Trek Continues, which focuses on the first “five-year mission” of Kirk, Spock & Co (www.startrekcontinues.com). > The prominent alien race in Discovery will be the Klingons. Do you know that the Klingon language (which is actually taught as a course) was co-created by actor James Doohan (Scotty) for Star Trek: The Motion Picture? > Mr Spock’s Vulcan nerve pinch was created by actor Leonard Nimoy. He wanted a more elegant way to subdue a rogue Captain Kirk in the episode The Enemy Within rather than hitting him on the head, which the script originally called for. > Nichelle Nichols, the original Lt Uhura, broke new ground for black actresses on TV but was dissatisfied with her role and her treatment by some people on the studio lot. She was about to quit after the first season but was persuaded to stay on by a fan she met during a civil rights gathering. He told her: “We never thought we’d see this (a black actress in a recurring role) on TV. This is why we are marching.” That fan’s name was Martin Luther King, Jr. > Stephen Hawking is the only person to play himself on Star Trek, in The Next Generation episode Descent Part 1. He was a holodeck simulation playing poker with Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton and the android Data.