I know why you’re here — it happened to me, too. Sometime earlier today the collected pointy ears of Star Trek die-hards everywhere began to burn. We all knew what the Hollywood Reporter was later to speculate.

A new Kirk has been cast.

That’s right, boys and girls. James Tiberius “I’ve never met a woman I wouldn’t beam up” Kirk is going to return to the silver screen a year from this Christmas, and it looks like his new visage will be that of … Chris Pine!

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If you’re like me, NBC’s decision to pull its programs from iTunes is going to seriously impact your Sci-Fi viewing habits this year. Everything from “Battlestar Galactica” to “Heroes,” including cool new shows from “Chuck” to “Journeyman” just became that much harder for us to get our grubby little paws on. (Sure, there’s broadcast television, but who uses that anymore?)

As we reported earlier, NBC released its pilots as free downloads through Amazon Unbox. Well, NBC has just announced a new service called “NBC Direct,” through which you and I will be able to download their programs directly from them. Just what that experience will be like is hinted to by the press release:

The first version of this new feature, which will begin beta testing in October, will allow users to download full length episodes for viewing on Windows based PCs. Each original episode will be licensed to users for viewing through “NBC Direct” for one week following broadcast and will then expire.

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Jeremy from Shanghai picked up a copy of “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith” at his local Chinese DVD outlet recently. When he turned on the English subtitles, he got a hilarious surprise: the subtitles had been translated to English after they had been translated to Chinese first. That leaves Anakin uttering such lines as, “Space General, you and not equal to I think severe,” and “I was just made by the Presbyterian Church.” And my personal favorite? A double Fark cliche: When Vader screams “No!” at the end of the film, it’s translated as “Do not want.” Classic!

So make yourself “strong and big” and head over to Jeremy’s blog to see all the glorious screen caps. A word of warning, though: one or two of the subtitles contains the F-word. (No, not Force.) So for some, this site is not safe for work (NSFW).

Oh, and ratio tile, the wish power are together with you. (May the Force be with you.)

All right, sci-fi fans. It’s September, which means our favorite shows are about to start up again. In just a couple weeks, the new season will begin and our nights of compulsively watching “Heroes” reruns to get our sci-fi fix will be at an end. Just two more weeks. Two more weeks. Two more … weeks….

Oh, I give up. I can’t wait that long!

The good news is that, thanks to a little row between NBC and Apple, you can get the pilot episodes to “Bionic Woman,” “Chuck,” “Journeyman” — indeed, all of NBC’s pilot episodes — today! for free! Details after the jump.

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The Times is reporting that Ridley Scott, director of “Alien” and director of the venerable “Blade Runner,” has declared that science fiction is dead. In the article, Scott says that the genre has lost its originality and it’s all been written before.

I can see where he’s coming from. Yes, it’s pretty hard to think of a completely original science fiction story anymore. Want to write a story about an idealistic scientist’s struggle to save an aging observatory, only to make a world-changing discovery? Well, it was done in “Contact.” Or maybe a menacing alien robot bent on destruction? You’re bound to come face-to-face with the gleaming red eye of the “Terminator” sooner or later. How about a film that shows the consequences of altering the past? There’s the “Back to the Future” trilogy.

The truth is, no story is original—that’s what makes them accessible. All stories, be they historical fiction like “Gladiator,” Fantasy, like “Legend,” or Science Fiction, like “Alien,” explore themes that get at the heart of what it means to be human. Those themes are what give a story its draw and its power. It doesn’t matter if the story follows aliens, alimony, or aloe plants. If it gets an audience to think about a theme without being dull, it’s going to be a success.

I’m a huge fan of the style in “Alien”, so I’m sorry to see Ridley Scott leave us. I guess one positive thing we can draw from this is that “Alien” has already had an irrevocable influence on the genre. He may not be writing new science fiction, but the best elements of his style, like our most cherished themes, are unlikely to disappear.

You did good work, Sir Ridley. We’ll take it from here.