How “Smallville” stayed on the air for a decade is pretty much completely beyond us. Sure, the show wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t good, either: generally ten-year runs are reserved for beloved shows and ridiculously cheap ones. That this was the network that cancelled “Angel” just adds salt to the wound.

Well, like all middling CW shows that vaguely appeal to nerds, apparently “Smallville” isn’t dead yet, and is getting a new “season” in the form of a digital comic.

Something tells us this is a favor to Pere Perez and Bryan Q. Miller, creative team on the Stephanie Brown “Batgirl”. Miller actually worked his way up the ranks in Smallville from intern to staff writer to executive story editor in five years. It also lets DC test out digital exclusive comics with Superman without having to risk ticking off any comic shops or Diamond.

So, this might actually be interesting, at least in how the implications shake out.

[ via the Midwestern types at Comics Alliance ]

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m more into Star Trek than Star Wars. Why? Well, for one, the Trek fanbase just seems a little more rational — a little less, I dunno, constantly enraged about nothing.

Case in point, every time Lucas goes back and replaces some musty old puppet or terrible stop-action animation with CGI, Star Wars fans howl and rend their clothing like somebody has just thrown turpentine on the Mona Lisa. Star Trek fans on the other hand don’t really get that fussed about that kinda stuff. Every time an old Star Trek series is released in a new format they re-do the effects, and Trekkies just sort of shrug and go “hey yeah, that does look better. Cool.”

Also Star Wars guys all fly their spaceships all uptight like “traveling through hyperspace ain’t like dusting crops!” while Star Trek guys are all leeeaning back in their easy chairs and being all “Warp 5 Number One”.

Anyways, enough “Star Wars and Star Trek people” from my stand-up routine. Hit the jump to check out a video of what The Next Generation will look like on Blu-ray…

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He could have been more than the sidekick, but then he took an arrow to the knee.

We could have sworn the voice talent for Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim included three Oscar nominees and a slew of recognizable names like Lynda Carter, Max Von Sydow, Christopher Plummer, Joan Allen, Claudia Christian, and Michael Hogan. We’ve even heard there were over 70 voice actors delivering over 60,000 lines of dialogue (only half of those lines being knee-related).

However, Conan O’Brien revealed this week that all of the characters were actually voiced by one man: Andy Richter. The evidence, in the form of this video, speaks for itself:

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Remember a couple years ago when that story about a guy turning his apartment into a Star Trek set made the rounds? His name was Tony Alleyne…you know, this guy…

Yeah, we all had a good chuckle. Trekkies secretly envied him. A lot of “man, wonder what his WIFE thinks of THIS, ho ho!” jokes were made. Wellll…turns out she, shockingly, doesn’t think much of it.

Tony’s wife is divorcing him, and she owns the apartment and wants to sell it, so sadly Tony is going to have to put his toys back in the box and go play with them someplace else. Tony says it would take nearly 150 thousand dollars remake his Trek apartment, but I have faith he can do it all again. You’d be surprised how much money you can save when you cut things like “women”, “sex”, and “leaving your Star Trek apartment” out of your life.

Honestly, I always knew nothing good would come of Tony’s Trek apartment. I mean, he based his designs on Star Trek Voyager. Voyager. That’s like building yourself a Star Wars house and basing it on Holiday Special. Voyager is good for one thing though — giving me an excuse to post Seven of Nine’s boobs. You’re welcome.

Not even these could make Voyager watchable.

via The Daily What

So, it looks like somebody out there can read my dreams. How else to explain the fact that they’re making a Star Trek Settlers of Catan game? They’ve pretty much nailed the center of my personal nerd Venn diagram with this one.

Anywho, the game takes your typical themed board game approach — all the regular pieces have somewhat awkwardly been replaced with Star Trek themed ones. Not the most creative approach, but still — now you can trade Dilithium instead of gold! A Klingon Bird of Prey replaces the thief! Those of you who aren’t Trekkies or into German board games may not know what I’m talking about, but trust me, this is all very exciting.

Now all they have to do is make a Jurassic Park version of Carcassonne and I can die happy knowing all my favorite nerd obsessions and German strategy games have found happiness with one another.

via Geekosystem

Rube Goldberg contraptions — like the one in OK Go’s “This Too Shall Pass” video and Purdue University’s world record holding one — are undeniably awesome. Don’t even try to deny it; we’ve heard trying it will cause diseases normally found only in walruses. Speaking of walruses, Discovery channel has greenlighted a new series from walrus-impersonator Jamie Hyneman and Gollum-impersonator Adam Savage of Mythbusters.

Unchained Reaction will challenge two teams to compete to build an “elaborate chain reaction contraption on a massive scale” over the course of five days, starting with the same tools and materials and sticking with a specific theme. The teams will be from many backgrounds (“artists, rocket scientists, animatronic specialists, engineers and even your average Joes”), and their final “chain reaction contraption” will be judged by Savage and Hyneman along with a different guest judge each week. The Discovery Channel commented, “refined mechanical movements, pyrotechnics and large-scale destruction are encouraged.” Hell yeah they are. Oh, they meant the show.

The six-part series will premiere on Discovery Channel this March. As for why it’s called Unchained Reaction instead of something invoking Rube Goldberg, some people might think that the term “Rube Goldberg machine” is already in the public domain, but that is, in fact, a myth:

[Image credits: Geekfeed, QuickLOL]