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I just finished watching the royal wedding of our crown prince on TV here. It was really special - over the past few years we already had a few test runs when a few cousins and a brother of the crown prince got married, but of course that wasn't comparable at all to the wedding of Willem Alexander and his Argentian bride Maxima.

For starters, this probably was the largest royal event we've had since the coronation of Queen Beatrix 20 years ago. Guests included the monarchs of Belgium and the Scandinavian countries, the UK's Prince Charles, but also people like Nelson Mandela and Kofi Annan. And it was nice to see a whole host of well-known Dutch people again, from former prime minister Ruud Lubbers to all the more distant members of the Royal House.

But most special of course were Maxima and Willem Alexander themselves. Her wedding dress was probably the best-kept Dutch secret of the year, and turned out to be a five-meter long creation that looked quite impressive whenever she strode in. And it was beautiful to see how happy they both looked, particular at the end of the public events when they appeared on the balcony of the palace in Amsterdam. They even kissed - six times - even though at first they'd said they wanted to keep that private.

Events like this make me feel immsensely Dutch - it's wonderful to see everyone happy for Willem Alexander and Maxima, and you can't go anywhere without seeing orange decorations or Dutch flags. It's a great contrast to the coronation of our queen in 1980, or even her wedding in 1966, when there were massive protests and the police had problems keeping order. This time there was only a small group of people protesting, and the only smoke bomb that was set off emitted orange smoke and was government-sponsored.

The couple are off on their honeymoon trip now, the destination of which is kept secret, though they're expect to show up at least at the Winter Olympics - the crown prince is a member of the IOC. I do wish them all the happiness in the world - today was a beautiful wedding, and I hope it'll continue to be a beautiful marriage too.

Trek BBS Today

Below are some of the topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-Do you think a 'Vendetta II' would be a good idea?

-Should Q appear on Enterprise?

-And in Miscellaneous: Are you watching the Dutch royal wedding?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS!

Trek Two Years Ago

Below are some of the most important headlines that appeared on TrekToday on Wednesday the 2nd of February, 2002:

• Trek Development Not Approved?
  Series V confusion continued as a Paramount spokeswoman said she could not confirm a report that Paramount had given the green light to both Trek X and Series V. The spokeswoman was asked this after Brannon Braga said that both projects had in fact received the go-ahead.

• UPN 'Tsunkatse' Promo
  UPN released its trailer for 'Tsunkatse,' the episode that featured a guest appearance by The Rock and was advertised using the tagline ""'America's Smackdown Hero' meets 'Voyager Battlestar Babe'."

• E:FC Writer Joins 'Andromeda'
  The first staff writer for the then-upcoming show Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda was announced, in addition to series creator and DS9 writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe, namely Earth: Final Conflict writer Ethlie Ann Vare. Two years down the road, both writers have since left the show, as can be read in the archives from our sister site SlipstreamNews.

More news from this day can be found in our February 2000 archives.

Today's Television Listings

• TNN will be showing 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan' at 2:00pm Eastern Time and 'Star Trek III: The Search for Spock' at 4:30pm.

• We are unable to provide you with the Canadian TV listings due to an error with the Space! web site.

• In the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing TNG's 'Skin of Evil' at 14:00 GMT, 'We'll Always Have Paris' at 15:00, 'Conspiracy' at 16:00 and Voyager's 'Warlord' at 17:00. Thanks go out to the Great Link for this!

Tomorrow's Television Listings

• TNN will be showing 'Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home' at 2:00pm Eastern Time and 'Star Trek V: The Final Frontier' at 5:00pm.

• In Canada, Space! will be showing Enterprise's 'Sleeping Dogs' at 8:00pm Eastern Time.

• In the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing TNG's 'We'll Always Have Paris' at 3:05 GMT, 'Conspiracy' at 3:55, DS9's 'Past Tense, Part Two' at 14:00, 'Life Support' at 15:00, 'Heart of Stone' at 16:00, and Enterprise's 'Unexpected' at 17:00. Thanks go out to the Great Link for this!

• In Germany, Sat.1 will be showing Voyager's 'Das Rennen' ('Drive') at 16:00 CET.

• In Australia, TV1 will be showing the Original Series's 'Elaan of Troyius' at 1:30, and TNG's 'Remember Me' at 2:30. Thanks go out to Sci-Fi TV Schedules International!

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