Entertainment
Star Trek’s Biggest Actor Hates The Episode That Made Him Famous
By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
What was the first episode of Star Trek? That’s actually something of a trick question: not only did The Original Series have an early pilot with (except for Leonard Nimoy) completely different actors, but producers shot episodes in a different order than they were originally shown on television. That first pilot (“The Cage”) would later have some of its footage reused in “The Menagerie” before being released as a separate episode. Meanwhile, “The Man Trap” became the first Star Trek episode that fans saw on television.
It’s a very solid sci-fi adventure featuring one of the ugliest (not to mention creepiest) monsters in genre history. The network carefully selected “The Man Trap” as the first episode to show, and their gambit worked. The new show instantly drew a legion of hardcore fans, and it would eventually become an even bigger cultural phenomenon once it was rediscovered by college students in the ‘70s. Ironically, though, nobody hates the first episode of Star Trek more than its biggest star: William Shatner!
Captain On The Bridge!
In “The Man Trap,” the Enterprise swings by an outpost to administer medical exams to all of the local residents. This is meant to be a routine mission, but things go sideways once Captain Kirk and his crew are assaulted by a shapeshifting monster. It’s hard for them to confirm who the alien is, especially when it can take the form of people like Dr. McCoy’s old flame. Eventually, the monster is revealed in all its horror as a salt vampire, constantly on the hunt for its next meal.
These days, “The Man Trap” is considered a very solid episode of Star Trek. Over on IMDB, it has a rating of 7.2, which is perfectly fair: while this is a decent sci-fi adventure, it’s nowhere near the heights of Original Series bangers like “Balance of Terror” and “City on the Edge of Forever.” However, Star Trek icon William Shatner really hated the episode. In his memoir Star Trek Memories, he noted how he and his fellow stars had already shot several episodes (including “Mudd’s Women” and “Charlie X”) but that the network “chose our absolute worst.” He went on to call it “a dreadful show” and reiterated “one of our worst ever.”
Still Salty About His Star Trek Premiere
It may sound shocking that Star Trek’s biggest star hates the episode that made him famous. However, Shatner may have been persuaded by some of the negative reviews this episode got back when it first premiered. A Variety reviewer dubbed “The Man Trap” a “dreary and confusing” episode, one that proved that this new sci-fi series “won’t work.” TV Guide was similarly negative and included in their mean review that “the sky’s not the limit for this Trek.” Leonard Nimoy agreed with Shatner, admitting in a documentary (which, confusingly, is also named Star Trek Memories) that this was the cast and crew’s least favorite episode compared to others that were already completed.
Fortunately, all’s well that ends well for the intrepid cast: Star Trek: The Original Series helped capture the public imagination in a big way. The show’s loyal audience basically invented the modern fan convention, and they also spearheaded multiple write-in campaigns to keep the show on the air.
Heck, Star Trek even inspired the first fanzines and modern fanfiction tropes, including slash fiction (Kirk/Spock) and the first Mary Sue. As for William Shatner, he became arguably the most famous sci-fi actor in the entire world, so there’s no need for him to be so weirdly salty about “The Man Trap.”
Obviously, being salty is downright dangerous. Do you want alien salt vampires, man? Because this is how you get alien salt vampires!
Entertainment
The Roborock RockNeo Q110H robot lawn mower just landed at Amazon, and its on sale for just 1 week
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Roborock makes some of Mashable’s favorite robot vacuums that efficiently keep our floors clean indoors. But the brand knew some robots prefer a life spent outdoors. As of June 10, the Roborock lineup of robot lawn mowers has a new model, and it’s one of the most affordable options available.
$1,169
at Amazon
$1,299
Save $130
The Roborock RockNeo Q110H just landed in the U.S., and it’s exclusively sold at Amazon. The normal list price is set at $1,299, but it’s on sale from June 10 through June 16 for $1,169, which takes 10% off. Even at full price, the Roborock sits as one of the more budget-friendly models.
The new Roborock RockNeo Q110H is designed for yards with about 0.25 acres of grass.
Credit: Roborock
Standout features of the Roborock RockNeo Q110H
The Roborock RockNeo is designed to mow lawns that measure about 0.25 acres, and it can handle slopes of up to 45 percent. Roborock also mentions this model excels at keeping the mow even when dealing with odd terrain, thanks to the floating cutting deck that adjusts automatically. Plus, Roborock found it’s capable of climbing over obstacles like tree roots or paving stones that measure up to 1.57 inches tall. The large diameter wheels also help with its ability to handle any terrain.
Toys, sticks, and tree roots should be no issue for the RockNeo.
Credit: Roborock
It also comes with real-time obstacle avoidance. If the kids leave toys in the yard or the dog prefers to take all tennis balls to a weird spot, the RockNeo Q110H will avoid mowing over any items left behind. You can also choose specific areas of your yard to create multi-zone management. Keep the front lawn cut short for looks while letting the back get a bit longer for a bit more cushion underfoot this summer. You can also select your desired cutting height.
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The Roborock RockNeo Q110H comes with an IPX6 waterproof rating, so a bit of rain won’t do damage. When the robot detects rain, it’ll automatically return to the charging station, ready to resume mowing when the weather improves.
A worthy app companion
The Roborock app for robot vacuums is excellent, and the robot lawn mower follows suit. From the app, you can set a desired mowing schedule, set zones within your yard, and select cutting height. You can also take a glance at real-time mowing progress to see which areas have been completed and what the mower is currently cutting. This screen also shows remaining battery life.
Use the Roborock app to set mowing schedules and view real-time progress.
Credit: Roborock
When it comes to mapping, the Roborock uses full‐band RTK and VSLAM. Together, the robot should be able to keep its navigation wits steady without getting lost while mowing under trees.
If you’re considering making the upgrade to a robot lawn mower this summer, the new Roborock RockNeo Q110H could be an excellent pick. Grab it while it’s on sale for its introductory launch in the U.S. through June 16. No need to wait for Prime Day on June 23 to get this one on sale.
Entertainment
New safety rules for under-16 Snapchat users
Snapchat is rolling out new content-sharing protections for 13- to 15-year-old users.
The platform announced Wednesday that younger teens will get a “friends-only” experience for their Spotlight posts. That public feed consists of vertical videos short-form similar to Instagram Reels or TikTok.
The new rules make Spotlight content posted by 13- to 15-year-olds visible only to the user’s mutually accepted friends. Previously, under-16 users could post to Spotlight, without attribution to their profile.
“This allowed teens to participate, while helping to protect them from potentially unwanted contact that can come with public posting,” the Snap Company said in its announcement.
Under-16 Snapchat users will have a dedicated profile space for certain content.
Credit: Courtesy Snapchat
Now younger Snapchatters will get a space on their profile for creating, saving, and sharing Stories and Spotlight Videos with only their mutually accepted friends. Teens ages 16 and 17 can share content publicly with some safeguards.
“This new experience is designed to encourage creativity and self-expression within a trusted audience,” the company said.
Age checking on Snapchat
Currently, Snapchat relies on self-attested age and age inference, but safety advocates generally say social media platforms need high-quality age assurance to ensure their safety measures are effective.
When Mashable tested Snapchat’s age attestation prior to the announcement, we found that Snapchat defaulted user age to 18 years old.
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With the new policy, if Snapchat determines a user is under 16, despite their stated age, that minor will be shifted into the friends-only sharing setting. That change will appear in the Snapchat app if they choose to post a Spotlight video.
Snapchat safety concerns
Last week, the advocacy groups Heat Initiative, Anxious Generation, ParentsTogether Action, and Design It 4 Us published the results of a survey of teen Snapchat users, alleging that the platform’s safety measures aren’t effective enough.
A third of the poll’s 1,016 respondents said they’d seen or received unsafe content or messages in the past week. More than half said they’d had at least one such experience in the past year.
The top three types of dangerous experiences reported by up to a third of teens were unwanted contact, bullying, and sexually suggestive content and messages. More than 40 percent of respondents who’d received unwanted messages believed the sender was an adult.
A Snap Company spokesperson told Mashable that the report “does not fully reflect the significant investments Snap has made to help protect young people.”
In the blog post Snap published Wednesday, the company noted that it works to prevent the delivery of friend requests from potential strangers, and that the platform doesn’t allow teens to be messaged by anyone they haven’t added as a friend or who’s not in their phone contacts. Additionally, when teens accept a stranger as a friend, Snapchat is designed to send warnings when minors begin chatting with that user.
“After years of advocacy by parents, kids, and experts, it’s encouraging that Snap is finally making some changes to try to prevent young children from posting in adult spaces, which has put kids in danger on the platform for years,” Brooke Istook, president and chief strategy officer at Heat Initiative, said in a statement to Mashable.
Istook added, however, that “fundamental dangers for kids that are baked into Snapchat’s design” remain unaddressed, including the facilitation of unsafe connections between teens and adults and the algorithmic recommendation of unsafe content.
Snapchat has been the target of youth safety activism and the target of legal action, like many major social media platforms. In January, Snap settled a lawsuit brought by a teenager who claimed that Snapchat’s design features, like algorithmic recommendations, led to addictive use and mental health harms. Soon after, Snap introduced new parental controls for teens.
UPDATE: Jun. 10, 2026, 8:27 a.m. PDT This story has been updated to include a statement from Heat Initiative.
Entertainment
Using Claude Fable 5 means your data will be collected. It’s not optional.
Anthropic just released its most powerful public model yet — Claude Fable 5. However, along with the model’s release, the AI giant also made a significant update to its data retention policies.
Fable 5 was released to the public on Tuesday. Fable 5 is a “safe for general use” version of Anthropic’s most powerful model, Mythos, which has been restricted from public use due to its potentially dangerous cybersecurity capabilities. Anthropic created a set of safety guardrails for Fable 5, and its benchmarks blow away much of the competition, per Anthropic.
But it looks like Anthropic has also blown away its data retention policies for Fable 5.
“To ensure we’re responsibly deploying Mythos-class models, we are requiring limited data retention and review as part of our safety work,” reads an update on Anthropic’s official Claude support page. “Prompts submitted to, and outputs generated by, Mythos-class models are retained for 30 days for trust and safety purposes, on every platform where these models are offered.”
The update was first noticed by Jun Park, the CEO of AI training company hillclimb.
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“New policy from Anthropic: if you use Fable/Mythos, they collect your data. No exceptions. Not even for enterprise partners,” Park posted on X.
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This change is significant for Anthropic’s enterprise and API customers, says Jessica Eaves Mathews, a lawyer who specializes in copyright, trademark, and AI law.
In a post on Mathews’ Substack (as highlighted by CyberNews), the lawyer explains how Anthropic already retains user data for 30 days under its free and paid consumer plans. However, Matthews says this change nullifies part of any agreement Anthropic has with its enterprise and API partners.
“Every other Claude model available through the API, including Opus 4.8, Sonnet 4.6, and Haiku 4.5, can operate under Zero Data Retention (ZDR) agreements,” Mathews writes. “Fable 5 cannot. If your organization previously had a ZDR agreement with Anthropic, that agreement does not apply to Fable 5 traffic. This is a policy change that overrides existing enterprise commitments for this specific model class.”
Mathews says that any organization that believed that their data would not be stored by Anthropic should know that there is now a “mandatory exception” for Fable 5 and all future Mythos models.
While Mythos-class models seem to be quite powerful, companies should know about the change in Anthropic’s data retention policies and make adjustments where necessary.
The Roborock RockNeo Q110H robot lawn mower just landed at Amazon, and its on sale for just 1 week
Yankees, Guardians bring worn-down bullpens into series finale
