On Thursday, November 29, at 7pm local time, Trekkers across the U.S. will have another chance to see Captain Jean-Luc Picard and his crew on the big screen with Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Celebration of Season 2, a one-night theatrical event showcasing the beloved series' ongoing restoration.

What's Star Trek: The Next Generation Like on the Big Screen? (Hint: Awesome.)

Presented by NCM Fathom Events, CBS Home Entertainment and IGN, this special event with feature two of the most popular episodes from TNG's second season: "Q Who?" and "Measure of a Man." As an added bonus, this version of "Measure of a Man" will be the first-ever extended cut of a Star Trek episode, and will boast an additional 12 minutes of never-before-seen footage. The event follows the great Fathom screening series that was held last summer to celebrate the release of TNG's first season on Blu-ray.

Not only that, but attendees will also be treated to a sneak preview of behind-the-scenes special features including a very special cast reunion, a documentary and an outtakes/bloopers reel.

Tickets are now available at FathomEvents.com, which also has a complete list of participating theaters. Additionally, the Star Trek: The Next Generation - Season Two Blu-ray hits shelves on December 4.

(And make sure you also listen to IGN's Scott Collura on the Transporter Room 3 podcast!)

Max Nicholson is a writer for IGN, and he desperately seeks your approval. Show him some love by following @Max_Nicholson on Twitter, or MaxNicholson on IGN.

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If you never bothered with BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO because you didn’t feel like paying a subscription fee, starting Thursday November 15 you can play for free. Without signing up for a subscription you’ll be able to play as any class and experience all the base game’s level 1 through 50 story content.

Naturally there are plenty of restrictions if you’re a free user. You can only join a few Warzones per week, for example, which are The Old Republic’s player versus player arenas. If, while leveling from 1 to 50, you feel like participating in more Warzones, you don’t need to subscribe. Passes to access content like this more frequently can be purchased individually. These passes can be gifted or sold to other players for in-game currency, so directly purchasing from BioWare isn’t the only method of acquisition.

Microtransactions like this can be made for a number of things, including mini pets, cosmetic items, bags of special items and Legacy system bonuses. Free players will also have their number of available character slots, item storage space, and ability to equip rarer gear restricted, and BioWare will implement ways to bypass those restrictions with paid purchases.

You’ll make these purchases with a virtual currency called Cartel Coins. These can be purchased with real money in packs from $4.99 for 450 Coins to $39.99 for 5500 Coins. If you already have an account, you can see if you’ve accumulated any free Coins so far by logging in on the official SWTOR site, clicking over to ‘My Account’ and then clicking ‘Cartel Coins’.

If you’re still paying a subscription fee for The Old Republic, BioWare says you shouldn’t expect much of a change on November 15 aside from a likely increase in the number of players running around on your server. If at some point you decide to stop paying a subscription fee, you’ll still retain ‘Preferred Status’, which means you’ll keep some of your subscription perks, including cargo hold storage access, access to chat, the ability to sprint and more ways to trade.

Also on November 15 BioWare will launch additional content in update 1.5, which among other features includes a new level 50 quest area called Sector X on Belsavis with a storyline that involves the Dread Masters. You’ll also be able to complete a series of quests that begins in Sector X to acquire the snarky assassin droid HK-51. While this content will be available to subscribers, free-to-play players will need to pay to see it.

Overall it seems free-to-play players will get access to a lot of content without paying anything, though the restrictions on equippable items and storage space seem pretty severe. We’ll have to wait until the full free system goes live next week to determine if free-to-play in SWTOR is actually fun or just an irritating series of reminders that you should pay real money to keep playing.

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