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'Star Trek' redshirt barely survives Google's anniversary doodle

Heads up nerds, you need to click around Google's very special 46th anniversary of "Star Trek: The Original Series" if you desire the full interactive experience.Spelling out the search giant's name on Friday are science officer/first officer Spock (as "G"), communications officer Lt. Nyota Uhura (as o-1), Captain James Tiberius Kirk (as ungirdled second "o" — you know Bill Shatner would've
Google / Today

Heads up nerds, you need to click around Google's very special 46th anniversary of "Star Trek: The Original Series" if you desire the full interactive experience.

Spelling out the search giant's name on Friday are science officer/first officer Spock (as "G"), communications officer Lt. Nyota Uhura (as o-1), Captain James Tiberius Kirk (as ungirdled second "o" — you know Bill Shatner would've strapped down that roundness back in the day), Dr. "Dammit, Jim I'm a doctor, not a lowercase g" Leonard H. McCoy (aka "Bones" as "lowercase g"), Lt. Hikaru Sulu (as "lowercase l," a role that is sure to hilariously enrage the delightful and frequent Star-Trek-bellyacher George Takei) and the usually expendable "redshirt" as "lowercase e."

And yet, whither engineer Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, or Yeoman Janice Rand, she of the basket-weave bouffant, known for such memorable scenes as "needing help," "in distress" and "standing in the background, eyeballing Capt. Kirk like he's a freshly replicated ham sandwich?"

Also, Chekov?

Surely Google had it within its bottomless budget (unlike ST:TOS) to "break the laws of physics" — and give the search engine a few more "o's" so that everyone's adequately honored.

But don't let the ginormous oversight — or the fact that the klaxons sound when the turbolift doors open — keep you from clicking around the bridge of the starship Enterprise. For what is anything Star Trek-related but a reason to pick apart something mercilessly?

Poke around, and you'll be amply rewarded with, among other surprises — SPOILER ALERT — the famous, completely plausible giant diamond bazooka scene from "Arena," in which Capt. Kirk totally nails an l-shaped, armless Gorn, which resembles a Pez dispenser, but in all fairness, still looks more realistic than the original lizardly nemesis.

Update: We could only make this interactive doodle work in Chrome when Google posted it Friday, but since then, we've found it works in other browsers. And keep an eye out for tribbles!

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Ree Hines goes blah blah blah about TV and other pop culture stuff on TODAY Entertainment. Follow her on Twitter for your daily overdose of esoteric pop culture referencesHelen A.S. Popkin goes blah blah blah about the Internet on NBCNews, too. Join her, won't you on Twitter and/or Facebook. Also, Google+.  (Both of them are complete Sci-Fi losers like you wouldn't believe.)