Star Trek: The Motion Picture, an American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures, is the first film based on Star Trek, a television series created by Gene Roddenberry (left, pictured with the show's cast). The original television series was cancelled in 1969. The success of Close Encounters of the Third Kind convinced Paramount that science fiction films other than Star Wars could do well at the box office, so the studio canceled production of the planned television series Star Trek: Phase II and turned Phase II's pilot episode into a film script. In the film, a mysterious and immensely powerful alien cloud called V'Ger approaches Earth, destroying everything in its path, and Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) assumes command of his old starship—the USS Enterprise—to save the planet and determine V'Ger's origins. Delays on set and in developing the film's optical effects caused the production cost to soar. Released in North America on December 7, 1979, Star Trek: The Motion Picture received mixed reviews from critics, many of whom criticized the film for its lack of action and over-reliance on special effects. The film earned $139 million worldwide, falling short of studio expectations but convincing Paramount to back a less expensive sequel.

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_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1912:

Arizona became the 48th and last of the contiguous United States to be admitted into the Union. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona

1919:

The first serious armed conflict of the Polish–Soviet War took place near present-day Biaroza, Belarus. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polish%E2%80%93Soviet_War

1949:

The Knesset, the legislature of Israel, convened for the first time, succeeding the Assembly of Representatives that had functioned as the Jewish community's parliament during the British Mandate Era. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knesset

1989:

A fatwa was issued for the execution of Salman Rushdie for authoring The Satanic Verses, a novel Islamic fundamentalists considered blasphemous. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Satanic_Verses_controversy

2007:

The first of several bombings in Zahedan, Iran, claimed the lives of 18 members of the Revolutionary Guards. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Zahedan_bombings

2008:

Steven Kazmierczak opened fire into a crowded lecture hall on the campus of Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, US, killing five and injuring 24. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Illinois_University_shooting

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

dearheart (n): {{non-gloss definition http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dearheart

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove: O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,

That looks on tempests and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark,

Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out even to the edge of doom. --William Shakespeare http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Shakespeare