News headlines from April 1999:

In any case, the report goes on to mention a few news items on Brent Spiner. Apparently he said he's currently being considered for another Broadway role, following his success with '1776.' Also, he'll apparently have a small speaking role for South Park - The Movie! Find more in the full report.

New Voyager Spoilers
Christian (1:38 pm CST)
NOTE: This post contains huge spoilers for the last few Voyager episodes of this season. To avoid reading these spoilers, click here.

Again, major spoilers are contained below. Click here to be transported to the next article.

What are all these sites trying to do? Kill me? Both WebTrek and the Universe put up new info on the last Voyager episodes of this season. First of all, the Universe received the following info from insider 007:

It deals with Janeway having this facination about an ancestor of hers that inspired her to join starfleet. Janeway has always been told great tales about this woman (Shannon O'Donnel) and how she worked on all of the Mars projects, and in particular one project called the millineum gate that was very controversial, and had an entire town pitted against her. At one point early in the show, Paris informs her that he knows all there is to know about Mars history, and her ancestor had nothing to do with it. This causes Janeway to research this ancestor more thoroughly. We see things in a kind of "flashback" mode, where we are there, and actually see what really happened. Mulgrew plays the part of her ancestor.

In the end, we find out that it was passed down in her family over the generations, and that her ancestor was nobody who didnt do much of anything except consult on the millineum gate, and the whole town actually WANTED the gate built.

Voyager's Leading Ladies Interviewed
Christian (1:20 pm CST)
The most recent issue of British magazine Cult Times contains interviews with the two leading ladies of Voyager, Kate Mulgrew (Kathryn Janeway) and Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine.) Take a look at a part of their interview with Jeri Ryan, in which she talks about the difficulties she faced during her first season on the show:

"Last year was a very physically and emotionally gruelling year," she reveals. "I had a lot of huge storylines. She was a new character and I had to quickly tie her in with everyone else's storylines, [introduce] her backstory and figure out her place in the crew. I was commuting to Chicago every weekend, so I didn't have my weekends to recuperate, so I was literally sick all season last year.

"By the time the end of the season rolled around, it was all I could do for the first month of hiatus to get out of bed. I was exhausted - I physically hit the wall. I'm not doing the commute any more, I'm in one place, I'm having some free time, I don't have all of the huge emotional turmoil and stresses that I had last year. It's infinitely more enjoyable this year."

James Darren Interview
Christian (1:12 pm CST)
Holly Kim Wilson, Charity Coordinator of the Official Marc Alaimo Fan Club and organizer of the Weekend with Marc Alaimo, just sent along a very interesting article that appeared in the Atlantic City Press for April the 17th. In the article, James Darren (DS9, Vic Fontaine) is interviewed, who appeared at Planet Hollywood that day to donate a shirt and tie he wore as Vic Fontaine to the restaurant's collection. Take a look at a short quote from the interview:

When the Trek people first came to him to do the show, Darren said no, he felt "it was too dead on to the real me. They approached me about four times, but finally my agent said, 'Could you at least do them the courtesty of reading the script?'"

"I read it and I knew I had to do it," Darren said.

The web site of the Atlantic City Press can be found here, but unfortunately their archive doesn't go back more than a week. Major thanks go out to Holly Kim Wilson for reporting this!

Starfleet Command Chat Tonight
Christian (1:01 pm CST)
I just noticed on Computer Games Online that Interplay will be organising a chat with the Starfleet Command developers tonight at 6:00pm PST:

Members of the Starfleet Command development team will be on hand to talk about the game and answer questions. Developers on hand for the chat will include Erik Bethke - Project Leader/Lead Designer, Chris Taylor - Senior Game Designer and other undisclosed developers from the team.

First Ever Jeri Ryan Motion Picture
Christian (12:59 pm CST)
According to the Official Jeri Lynn Ryan Homepage, Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) will soon see her first ever motion picture released:

Entertainment Weekly is reporting in its April 30, 1999 issue that the movie Men Cry Bullets, co-starring Jeri Ryan, will be released this August. The film is one of two independent features Jeri made before joining the cast of Star Trek: Voyager and will be her first motion picture release. Men Cry Bullets stars Steven Nelson, Honey Lauren and Jeri Lynn Ryan and was written and directed by Tamara Hernandez. The film was named best narrative feature at the 1998 South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, TX.

Even More Interplay Videos
Christian (12:52 pm CST)
Soon we'll have more hours of gameplay footage than we'll actually spend playing, as Interplay just released three more movies showing off their upcoming Trek games 'Starfleet Command,' 'New Worlds' and 'Klingon Academy.' Together, they're about 60 MB, but they should certainly prove to be interesting for Trke game fans. You can download them here, thanks go out to Star Trek Gaming Central for pointing me to this.

Unreliable Rumours Department
Christian (12:42 pm CST)
Thanks to the TrekZone Network's own Saleel Majeed, here is this week's Channel 5/Sky News 'Star Trek Teletext' screenshot:

Remember that these headlines are either made up or wildly exaggerated, and their only reason for existence is to make people call an expensive pay phone number.

Dan Curry Chat On Thursday
Christian (12:34 pm CST)
The Star Trek Continuum will be hosting a live chat with Dan Curry, Visual Effects Producer for all three modern Star Trek series, this Thursday at 06:30pm Pacific Time. Advance questions can already be submitted here, while info on how to particate can be found here.

'Juggernaut' Ratings Disastrous
Christian (12:33 pm CST)
Ugh. The Universe just put up the Overnight Ratings for yesterday's 'Juggernaut,' and 'Very Bad' doesn't even begin to do them justice:

The overnight ratings for yesterdays airing of "Juggernaut" is in, and Voyager did BAD. Voyager only got a 3.2/4 yesterday, and was ofcourse 6th for the hour, it is almost 100% sure that it will be the lowest rated first run episode ever. The show that have that record now, is The Fight that aired late March.

At 8 Dilbert got a 3.4/5, and at 8:30 the new UPN show "Home Movies" got a 2.4/4. Expect a final rating around 2.4 - 2.8.

TrekNews Convention Listing Updated
Christian (12:21 pm CST)
TrekNews' Jason Ellis just sent along word that his site's convention listings have just been updated 'with the latest information about Trek conventions across the U.S.' Currently the convention list contains more than 30 conventions taking place between now and November, so if there's a convention near you, this is where you'll probably find it! You can find the updated listing by going here.

Mania Reviews 'Juggernaut'
Christian (12:21 pm CST)
Mania's Michelle Erica Green apparently didn't miss yesterday's special Voyager showing, as she just put up her review of Voyager's 'Juggernaut:'

Finally we get a Torres episode to follow up on her depression in "Extreme Risk," and it leaves me with one burning question: How come when Worf gets mad, it's excused as typical Klingon behavior, but when Torres behaves the same way, it's treated as a pathology which must be cured by alien meditation? First they won't let her grieve, then they won't let her refuse medical care by a mass murderer, now they won't even let her express a little frustration on the job. Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations, in Tuvok's book - and Chakotay's, and Janeway's - seems to be limited to races whose behaviors fit their own personal codes of proper comportment.

Yes, Torres was very naughty to break Doc's camera, but considering that she has a job to do in engineering making sure the ship runs properly and doesn't blow up, it's understandable that the oft-meddlesome Doctor might drive her up the wall - at least she didn't break his nose. She's obviously a vastly better engineer than anyone else on board (well, except Seven, and Tom, and Neelix, but let's just block all those past episodes out for now), so like the exceptions Picard made for Worf to do things his way, Janeway should be doing the same for her Klingon Terrible.

Creating The Holodeck
Christian (12:20 pm CST)
A story from PRNewswire talks about the upcoming 'Carnegie Mellon Building Virtual Worlds Demonstration,' at which university students will be talking about the 'holodecks' they've created:

``Ghostbusters,'' a virtual fortune teller, ``Jurassic Park'' and a mine cart ride featuring ``Indiana Jones'' are just a few of the computer-generated universes you'll experience as teams of Carnegie Mellon University students demonstrate what they've created for their class in Building Virtual Worlds. Those in the audience also will have an opportunity to experience telepresence as they control a virtual world shared by a student at the University of Virginia and another from Carnegie Mellon.

``If you like Star Trek's holodeck, this is the closest thing to it in the world,'' says Randy Pausch, associate professor of human-computer interaction, computer science and design, who developed and teaches this unusual course.

Voyager Game Creators Interviewed
Christian (12:20 pm CST)
Geoff Keighley at GamePen just put up an interview with Kenn Hoekstra, Brian Raffel and Brian Pelletier, top dogs at Raven Software. In the interview, they mostly talk about their upcoming 'Soldier of Fortune' game, though some info on 'Star Trek: Voyager' is also presented:

Geoff: Let's talk about the Voyager game for a minute. Historically, Star Trek games have never really been successful. The last Star Trek action game, Klingon Honor Guard, was a complete disgrace to the franchise. So, what is Raven going to do to patch up Star Trek's reputation in the gaming arena? Are you looking at another 3D shooter in the Star Trek universe, or something more?

Brian Pelletier: There are a lot of Star Trek fans at Raven and all of them are putting their input into the Voyager project. We know that Honor Guard missed the mark and we are working very closely with Paramount to ensure that the game is authentic and fun with an intriguing story. Raven is taking this very seriously and we are confident that we can make a compelling game that is true both to Star Trek and to action gaming. You can be assured that the Voyager game won't be "just another 3D shooter in the Star Trek universe." It will be much more.

Cinescape Spoils 'The Changing Face...'
Christian (12:19 pm CST)
As every week, Cinescape's Michael Marek has put up his spoiler-packed report of this week's new Deep Space Nine episode, 'The Changing Face Of Evil.' Some pretty major things happen in this episode (including several things that were floating around on the net as Very Major Spoilers), so if you still want to be surprised by the episode you would be advises not to read the Cinescape report. If you do want to read it, you can do so by going here.

Janeway & Seven To Leave Voyager?
Christian (12:19 pm CST)
Backstage Pass finally fixed the link to its Voyager report, so I was able to see what news they posted a few days ago. First of all, they're confirming the reshoots for 'Equinox,' which has apparently been dubbed 'The Episode That Wouldn't Die' by Voyager's cast and crew :-). More interesting is the following tidbit:

Other scuttlebut coming out of the Voyager camp has Kate Mulgrew grumbling about leaving the series (again). The interesting twist this time is that Jeri Ryan appears to be interested in leaving the series as well (which would probably hurt the show more than Mulgrew's departure).

'It's Green'
Christian (12:18 pm CST)
Gail Appleson, one of the writers at Yahoo's Daily News, had a lot of fun describing 'Blavod,' a new *black* variety of Vodka. In his article, he makes no less than three Star Trek references, concluding even with a recipe for creating a Star Trek drink:

To make a drink that looks like it came right out of Star Trek, try pouring cranberry juice into a glass and topping it with a layer of Blavod. The effect is even more spectacular when the two are mixed, resulting in a royal purple liquid. One bartender came up with the name 'Forbidden Love' for that combination.

Today on TV
Christian (12:17 pm CST)
-The Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the third-season TOS episode 'All Our Yesterdays' at 7:00pm and at 11:00pm.

-In the UK, Sky One will be showing the not-so-good first-season DS9 episode 'Vortext' at 17:00 BST and at 23:30 BST.

-Tomorrow at 02:00 CET, German station Sat.1 will be repeating TNG's 'In der Hand von Terroristen' (Starship Mine). Tomorrow at 15:00 CET they'll be showing 'Der Feuersturm' (Lessons), which is worth watching for the 'Inner Light' music alone.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (12:17 pm CST)
The Trek BBS now has more than 90 registered members, almost guaranteeing a constant stream of interesting threads. Take a look at three of the discussions that are currently going on:

-Continuing the 'The Best ...' threads, this thread deals with the best character in all of Star Trek.

-Is DS9 the best Star Trek series? And, related to that, is Voyager really the 'lesser Trek?'

Many more current discussions can be found at the Trek BBS and, of course, you're welcome to add your own voice to the discussions - remember, you don't even need to register to post!

New at TrekSeek.com
Christian (12:17 pm CST)
Yesterday TrekSeek received 5 site submissions. Unfortunately, one of those didn't include a valid URl, another one wasn't a Star Trek site, and yet another site was already listed in our database, so we actually just had two new sites yesterday. One of those is the following:

-Klingon Outpost Brak'lul is a Klingon trading post on the Klingon/Romulan border.

Some of the other sites that were added over the past week to our database of 1025 Star Trek sites can be found by going here.

Hello World!
Christian (12:16 pm CST)
For close to a decade now, I've been a huge fan of Roxette, the Swedish pop group. I own all their records, have spent thousands of guilders on completing my collection, and usually have one of their latest CDs on while updating TrekToday.

As you can imagine, I was rather happy when I heard on the Roxette mailing list that MTV Europe would be having a special 'Roxette Weekend' next weekend. However, I was absolutely amazed when I saw on MTV itself that the preview for that weekend was based on Star Trek! In the preview, you see a transporter room, on the walls of which several Roxette clips are shown. Then, Roxette appear via transporter beam, and a voice-over says that, this weekend, 'MTV will be beaming the best Roxette videos to your home.'

Is that a coincidence or what? I'd almost think something more is at work here than mere human powers.... ;-)

FocalPoint Issue 4 Appears
Christian (1:28 pm CST)
Finally, after more than two months, a new edition of FocalPoint has been sent out. FocalPoint is the newsletter published by Star Trek Central, and provides subscribers with a round-up of all the latest Star Trek news:

In this issue:

-FOND NEXT GENERATION MEMORIES
-STC - WHAT HAVE WE BEEN DOING?
-WIN AN INSURRECTION SOUNDTRACK
-GOODBYE DEEP SPACE NINE (UPDATE AND RUMORS)
-KATE MULGREW (JANEWAY) NEWS
-SESKA FORGES AN ALLIANCE WITH EUROPE
-MILENNIAL TREK AWARDS
-VOYAGER IN ADVERTISING CONTROVERSY
-NEXT FILM/NEW SERIES
-UK STAR TREK UPDATE
-YOUR FEEDBACK

Tim Lynch Reviews 'Strange Bedfellows'
Christian (1:22 pm CST)
And he's not altogether positive about the episode:

This "beginning of the end" four-parter of DS9 is starting to take a somewhat strange shape. While the powers that be are clearly aiming for a lot of twists and turns before we reach the series' end, the twists themselves seem to alternate between the interesting, well-placed varieties and the out-of-character, subtle-as-a-brick ones. Of the two major stories in "Strange Bedfellows", one had a twist of the first variety, and one of the second. I'm still engaged enough to be quite curious about what lies ahead, but some of the fervor from "'Til Death Do Us Part" has faded.

New Sev Trek Cartoon
Christian (1:13 pm CST)

Ezri In Bikini
Christian (1:12 pm CST)
As you may already know, the May 1999 issue of Bikini Magazine contains an interview with Nicole DeBoer (Ezri Dax). For those of you who haven't been able to find the actual magazine, wonderful Nicole DeBoer site Obsessive Attitudes put up a transcript of the article on the web. Take a look at a small quote from the article:

They say animals know when a disaster is coming. So if you live near Toronto and notice the cows getting nervous, it might be because Nicole deBoer's coming back to town. While she claims her only attempt at cow tipping was ill-fated, she recalls the incident with a longing in her voice. Thought the Canadian-born actress has started eating meat again ("I didn't for like 10 years"), she insists her days of bullying bovines is long behind her. Apparently there's little time for livestock wrestling when you're playing space shrink Ezri Dax on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

"Yesterday we had to do a scene where we were hanging upside down," she says. "Sometimes we do the weirdest things. I'm hanging upside down while they're fixing a light, and I'm thinking, 'This is what I do for a living.'"

Equinox Reshoot Info
Christian (1:12 pm CST)
Contrary to what the Universe recently reported, Voyager's final episode, 'Equinox,' did indeed undergo some reshoots. Take a look at what the Vulcan Cafe just reported:

What are the extra sceens in Equinox?
Some walk 'n talk in a corridor and Astrometrics

Who is in these scenes?
Jeri [Ryan], Robert [Picardo] and some Equinox folks

TrekWeb Giveaway Expands
Christian (1:11 pm CST)
For about a month now, TrekWeb has been running a special Autograph GiveAway, in which you could win autographed photos of James Doohan (Scotty), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Roxann Dawson (B'Elanna Torres) and Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris). The Doohan autograph has since been given away, but fortunately TrekWeb just added two additional items to the giveaway list:

An autographed photo of Alice Krige as the "Borg Queen" (Star Trek: First Contact), and to celebrate the end of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine this summer, one of the original 10,000 show bibles, written by creators Rick Berman and Michael Piller prior to the show's premiere and completed on June 29th, 1992! The bible includes a certificate of authenticity.

Brannon Braga Praises Naomi Wildman
Christian (1:10 pm CST)
The Official Scarlett Pomers Homepage just updated to include two recent interviews dealing with Scarlett Pomers (Naomi Wildman). In the first article, which originally appeared in Star Trek: The Magazine, Voyager's executive producer Brannon Braga talks a little about the character of Naomi Wildman:

"We wanted to introduce Naomi in 'Once Upon a Time.' We've got a great actress in Scarlett Pomers, and it just turned out that of all the character interactions in that particular episode the most fun was with Seven of Nine, so we began to play with that relationship. Then [in 'Bliss] it is visited again, where the Voyager crew is incapacitated and it's up to Seven, the Doctor, and Naomi to save the day, which is a great trio. They're a lot of fun together."

Did he have Wesley Crusher in mind when delineating Naomi's character? "Not at all. No, we wanted to portray Naomi as a realistic 24th-century child. She's advanced far beyond a normal six-year-old from today, but is still deeply neurotic, and although she's an enlightened little girl she has irrational fears as well, so she's hopefully a textured little child. We just wanted to show an interesting child character."

New DS9 Trailers
Christian (1:08 pm CST)
Mr. Video Productions just put up the trailers for the upcoming fifth episode of DS9's Final Chapter, 'When It Rains...' As every week, the trailer is available as a 32-second MPEG video, but also as an MP3 audio file and a zipped archive of images. You can find the preview by going here, though at the moment Vidiot's site is down, as usual. If you're really anxious to see the trailers, they've also been put up at Star Trek Interactive!, though the image quality of those trailers is slightly lower than Vidiot's.

Besides the 'When It Rains...' trailer, Vidiot also put up a special two-minute 'May Sweeps Program Filler,' with which Paramount hopes to make lots of people watch the Final Chapter. At 21 MB, it's a hefty download, but it does provide some very interesting teasers for the upcoming Final Chapter episodes. You can find the preview by going here, though of course that'll be a bit difficult if Vidiot's site is still down. Star Trek Interactive! should have the trailer up in a few hours as well, though, so you will probably be able to download it there.

Enterprise Free
Christian (1:08 pm CST)
Absolutely great news, as the Sci-Fi Wire is reporting that the worldwide rights of 'Free Enterprise,' the Star Trek spoof starring William Shatner, have finally been bought by a distributor:

Regent Entertainment bought the worldwide rights to Free Enterprise, an independent film starring William Shatner. The movie is a spoof that follows two would-be filmmakers and science fiction fans who get to meet Shatner, their TV idol, only to learn that he's a hard-drinking woman chaser.

Free Enterprise earned awards for best picture and best screenplay at the 1998 AFI Los Angeles International Film Festival. It is scheduled to play at the Cannes Film Festival on May 15 before opening in Los Angeles on June 4.

Captain Janeway Marries
Christian (1:07 pm CST)
Poor Chakotay, now his chances are forever gone. AnotherUniverse's Daily Buzz (and a couple of thousand other sources) are reporting that Kate Mulgrew (Kathryn Janeway) married on Monday:

Kate Mulgrew, who plays Captain Kathryn Janeway on Star Trek Voyager, married Ohio politician Tim Hagan on Monday in Florida. The ceremony reportedly included only the couple and a friend of Mulgrew's.

Mulgrew - who is expected to return next season to the series - has two sons from a previous marriage. Hagan - who did not seek reelection as Cuyahoga County Commissioner, and is currently on staff at Cleveland State University - has two daughters.

Today On TV
Christian (1:06 pm CST)
-Tonight at 9:00pm, UPN will be airing a new Star Trek Voyager episode in a special Monday night showing. Tonight's episode is called 'Juggernaut,' and this is what the Continuum has to say about the episode:

The U.S.S. Voyager rescues two crewmen from an abandoned, out of control Malon freighter that's about to unleash a theta radiation blast into the sector. Soon, Lieutenant Torres leads an away team to board the freighter and contain the poison - despite warnings from its crewman, Fesek and Pelk, about the Angel of Decay that wreaks havoc aboard the cargo ship.

-In Germany, Sat.1 will be repeating TNG's 'Der Moment der Erkenntnis, Teil 2' (Birthright, Part Two) tomorrow morning at 00:05 CET. Tomorrow afternoon, at 15:00 CET, they'll be showing 'In der Hand von Terroristen' (Starship Mine)

Trek BBS Today
Christian (1:06 pm CST)
The difficulty with doing this 'Trek BBS Today' is that, as I write this, the American day isn't even halfway through, so the listing of Today's Active Topics also just lists a few current discussions. Still, even though most people still need to visit the site today, lots of interesting discussions have already been going on over the past few hours, including:

-After the 'Favourite Episode' thread, board regular Spaceburger started a new thread, asking you what your favourite DS9 character is - make your choices known here.

-A very interesting new thread in the Voyager forum deals with the question of Star Trek and Homosexuality. In this thread, you can voice your support for a possible gay character on Trek, and hopefully someday the producers will actually include such a character in the show. (BTW, related to this, does anyone know what happened to the Voyager Visibility Project, which also campaigned for this? You heard a lot from them a few years ago, but now it seems they've completely disappeared)

-Does anyone actually like Neelix? Do you?

And, as usual, many more discussions are taking place at the Trek BBS, and we'd all absolutely love to hear from you! Please feel free to add your thoughts to the current discussions, or perhaps even start a new thread altogether! Remember, registration isn't even required - just go ahead and open a channel!

New at TrekSeek.com
Christian (1:05 pm CST)
After 7 site submissions yesterday, TrekSeek has reached a total of 1023 Star Trek links. Take a look at some of the highlights:

-The The Win95 to LCARS transformation page has a listing of available freeware/shareware programs to give your win9x computer that LCARS look.

-The Bad Guys of Star Trek has information on Star Trek bad guys, TOS charactors, outcasts, rules to Fizzbin, chat room, message board and much more.

-TheTrek.Net is currently in beta, but when it opens it'll provide you with up to the minute Trek news, database, episode libraries, and more.

For a look at all the other new Star Trek sites that were added to TrekSeek yesterday, take a look here.

Hello World!
Christian (1:05 pm CST)
Inspired by a recent discussion topic at the Trek BBS, today I watched DS9's 'The Visitor' again. Just like the first time I saw it, I was deeply moved by the episode, and it made me see again precisely why I love Star Trek so much. 'The Visitor' had everything a good show should have, and it told its tale in an even more compelling way than TNG's 'The Inner Light.' 'The Visitor' is also one of those rare shows you can show non-Trek fans, and be absolutely certain they're going to like it. But, most importantly, it showed that Trek can do great stories just by focusing on its one major strength - characters, instead of action. Really, 'The Visitor' was the perfect example of how I think Star Trek should be.

Boy, am I going to miss Deep Space Nine.

Lastly, a new edition of Radio Trek's TREKminds show is available. The current edition of this (German) internet radio show mostly deals with the aforementioned Sat.1 troubles, including editorial commentaries and a reader phone-in. You can find the current edition of the program by going here.

Warp Eleven 'Strange Bedfellows' Review
Christian (12:47 pm CST)
A few minutes ago, Warp Eleven put up Curt Holman's 'Strange Bedfellows' review, in which he analyzes the third episode of DS9's Final Chapter. He certainly isn't as impressed with the episode as a lot of other reviewers were:

Most Trek fans on-line know that Strange Bedfellows was originally titled Eclipse, and 'Til Death Do Us Part was to have been Umbra. With Penumbra, the three titles would have gone through the stages of an eclipse, and I'm disappointed they were changed. The Eclipse sequence of titles would have had a much higher C.Q. (Coolness Quotient) than the ones they replaced them with. In general, memorable or evocative titles have never been this series' strong suit: my favorite DS9 episode titles probably Rocks and Shoals, and that one by default.

The Secured Channel Issue 18 Appears
Christian (12:47 pm CST)
Daryus Aden has sent out issue 18 of the Secured Channel, the official newsletter of the TrekZone Network. This issue marks the first anniversary of the newsletter:

It's nearly been one year to the day since this newsletter started publishing. In that time we've seen the Behaviour Group come and go, lost members and recieved new ones, and we've made many new friends. Through all of this TSCN has kept growing. So, a happy Birthday to TSCN, may your second year be as eventful as your first. A big thanks to all the readers of the newsletter, after all you are the reason we are still here!

Robert Beltran Road Tour Interviews
Christian (12:46 pm CST)
The Official Robert Beltran site just published a new interview with Robert Beltran, which was conducted by MOOD, a group of six Robert Beltran fans who followed him to the various conventions he attended. Take a look at two of the most interesting questions:

Will Voyager last the full seven years, and will there be a movie?"
On the Nielson ratings (the top 120 shows on American television) we are consistently at the 80 - 90 level, so there are a lot of shows doing better than us, but most of them are on a network that is not just starting to get off the ground... The Next Generation and DS9 were syndicated, which means they were seen by every market in the country. We're only seen on UPN, which only covers 80% of the market. So it's hard to get a sense of how many people are really watching. But we've lasted five years and we've beaten everybody who was supposed to knock us off the air. I still get wonderful support from German fans, English - all the British fans are wonderful - so it has a world-wide following, unlike many shows on American TV who get better ratings than us. So it's still a lucrative franchise. I think we'll make the seven years but I don't know about getting to make a film."

How long does it take you to learn your lines?
"Why, what have you heard?" (shouts of "Cosmo" earn the response "I hate the internet" from Robert). Then he said "I must admit, I put it on very, very short term memory - as soon as I say the line, it's over with, and most of the time we need another take, so I'm in trouble most of the time."

Cynics Corner Reviews 'Strange Bedfellows'
Christian (12:46 pm CST)
Cynic David E. Sluss just updated the Cynics Corner with a review of 'Strange Bedfellows,' last week's new Deep Space Nine episode. Take a look at one of his comments on the episode:

RESET BUTTON OF THE WEEK:
The sudden death of Dolly the Vorta VII was certainly a shocker (especially since Worf, who talks the talk but rarely walks the walk when it comes to killing, did the deed), but his resurrection, not five air-minutes later, as Dolly the Vorta VIII was good for a laugh. Even by Trek standards, that's got to be a record of some kind.

Good News For DS9's Future
Christian (12:45 pm CST)
NOTE: Very minor DS9 finale spoilers are contained below. You probably will want to read the below update anyway, but if you really do not want to hear anything at all about the DS9 finale, just click here to move on to the next update. Backstage Pass, which is rapidly turning out to be a superb Star Trek news source, just posted another update to its DS9 news page, talking about the series wrap parties:

Well, it's all over but for the shouting. There was a small wrap party on Friday for just the cast and crew (there was a larger wrap party on Thursday night with the press in attendance) and a lunch last Thursday where ball caps were given out to the cast and crew. Michael Dorn, when asked if he was ready for a long vacation, gave an enthusiastic, "Oh God YES!"

Remember, though, this certainly hasn't been confirmed anywhere yet - perhaps there won't be a future for DS9 at all, but I certainly hope there will be one!

Ordover Updates
Christian (12:44 pm CST)
Pocket Books editor John Ordover just updated his Q&A board again, providing us with some interesting info about the Trek novels:

Query from: Jamie
Is Christie Golden joining Michael Jan Friedman in the writing of "First Virtue"? If so, why?

Response from: John Ordover
Yes, and because Mike's schedule was so filled up that he just wasn't going to have the time to write the book all on his own. Rather than miss a deadline, he asked if he could bring in a collaborator, and of course we said yes.:)

Hallmark 1999 Christmas Ornaments
Christian (12:44 pm CST)
The people at Hallmark just put up the first pictures of their 1999 Star Trek Christmas ornaments, plus one other souvenir which doesn't really look like it was made for Christmas. The four new items include a 1960's Star Trek lunch box (or at least that's what it looks like), a Classic Trek U.S.S. Enterprise ornament, and the previously announced Rio Grande model. I'd give you a direct link to the Star Trek page, but unfortunately Hallmark's web server doesn't allow that. If you really want to take a look, I suggest you search around at the Hallmark site for the page. Thanks go out to Ziroc for posting about this to Usenet.

Today on TV
Christian (12:43 pm CST)
-In the UK, Sky One will probably be showing DS9's 'The Storyteller' at 16:00 BST, and Voyager's 'Parturition' at 17:00 BST. The BBC will be showing Voyager's 'Mortal Coil' at 18:45 BST. Thanks go out to the Television Observation Unit of the Star Trek Collective for this.

-In Germany, Sat.1 will be showing TNG's 'Der Moment der Erkenntnis, Teil 2' (Birthright, Part Two) tomorrow at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (12:43 pm CST)
More and more interesting discussions are taking place at the Trek BBS each and every day, and below you'll find some of those great discussions:

-Personally I've always thought Jay Chattaway's 'Inner Light Suite' was one of the best pieces of Star Trek music ever created. What do you think is the best music in Trek? Talk about it here.

-What's your favourite DS9 season? Let us know here.

-This is a rather new thread, but still interesting. What do you think about Seven of Nine? Is she a great character who should be used more, or should it be 'Seven's turn to ride in the back seat?' You can talk about this here.

And, as usual, you can also start your own discussion topics at the Trek BBS - you don't even need to register!

New at Trekseek.com
Christian (12:43 pm CST)
Well, we had no more than one site submission yesterday, still bringing us to a total of 1018 Star Trek sites. This is that new site:

-The Omega Fleet Star Trek sim. PBeM and real time options available. Growing fast!

Last week's new sites can still be found by going here.

Hello World!
Christian (12:43 pm CST)
Late again. Sorry!

More Trek Auctions
Christian (4:18 pm CST)
Several new Trek items just went up for auction at Scifispace.com's charity page, most of them donated by Mark Shepherd (Morn):

A Surprise Item autographed by Quark (Armin Shimerman)

The original large velvet painting prop from "Who Mourns for Morn" that was smashed over Quark's head in the episode.

A shooting schedule signed by: Avery Brooks (Sisko), Michael Dorn (Worf), J.G. Hertzler (Martok), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Nicole deBoer (Ezri) and, of course, Mark Shepherd (Morn).

Sid City Moves To Domain Name
Christian (4:13 pm CST)
Sid City, the excellent Alexander Siddig/ Siddig El Fadel web site, just obtained its own domain name fo http://www.sidcity.com. Together with the new domain name, the site also got a new lay-out, and an entirely new section dedicated to the recent 'Weekend at the Promenade' convention. Currently, the page contains just one report, but more should be added in a few days, including several images. The convention is also getting extensive coverage at the Sid City Message Board. Everyone go check out the site - it's really great!

'11:59' Official Info
Christian (4:06 pm CST)
NOTE: This update contains spoilers for the upcoming Voyager episode '11:59.' Click here to avoid reading these spoilers and move on to the next update.

Again, click here to be transported to the next article and remain spoiler-free.

The Star Trek Universe just posted a short official synopsis for the upcoming Voyager episode '11:59.' Take a look:

Janeway looks back on the life of her ancestor, Shannon O'Donnell, a twentieth century woman who was committed to constructing a structure called 'Millennium Gate', the model for the first Martian colony.

Birth Of The Federation Chat
Christian (4:05 pm CST)
Tonight, the Trek Gaming Alliance will be hosting another BotF chat:

Today TGA will be holding it's second BotF Chat. I know I haven't been advertising it a lot lately, but it is still on. This chat will be held at IRC server irc.webmaster.com on channel #trekgaming. You can also join the chat via a java applet here. This chat will be held at 11:30pm GMT (6:30pm EST, 3:30pm PST).

Alien Voices L.A. Book Signing
Christian (4:05 pm CST)
According to the Continuum, Leonard Nimoy (Spock) and John DeLancie (Q) will be attending a book signing today:

As part of the Los Angeles Book Fair, Leonard Nimoy ("Spock" on Star Trek) and John de Lancie ("Q" on ST:TNG, ST:DS9, ST:VOY) will be signing copies of their Alien Voices productions on video and audio tape from 3-5 p.m. this Saturday, April 24. Look for Nimoy and deLancie, whose radio-style stagings of classic sci-fi have been seen live on the Sci-Fi Channel, at the Border Books booth.

IGN PC Has Trek Games Movies
Christian (4:05 pm CST)
IGN PC just put up new gameplay movies of two upcoming Interplay titles, namely of 'Klingon Academy' and of 'New Worlds:'

We just returned from Interplay's Star Trek headquarters in lovely Orange County California and we managed to snag a couple of flicks on our way out the door. The first short gives you a quick peek at the company's upcoming Klingon Academy (read our preview here), a space fighter with some unbelievable graphics. Better still, you'll finally get a chance to show those smug Federation bastards that sitting in easy chairs talking diplomacy all day isn't the best way to get ready for a fight.

Once you've finished basking in the glow of burning Federation starships you'll be ready to tackle our next feature, a lovely piece of cinema we call Star Trek: New Worlds. In this film you'll get a good look at how the newest title in the Star Trek line-up actually moves. As always, if you want a big dose of IGNPC's patented hinkfo, you can check out our preview as well.

New Radio Free Decipher Broadcast
Christian (4:04 pm CST)
The latest edition of Decipher's 'Radio Free Trek' show focuses exclusively on 'Blaze of Glory,' the new Star Trek Customizable Card Game expansion pack. During the show, host Carol Wisely chats with Sandy Wible and Tim Ellington about the new expansio pack, which should appear in about 8 weeks. You can listen to the show by going here. Major thanks go out to Mark P for reporting this!

DS9 Wrap Party Chat Transcript
Christian (4:04 pm CST)
The transcript of Thursday's live DS9 wrap party chat has just gone up at the Continuum. Take a look at some of the highlights from the transcript:

Suren Seron:
Welcome everyone to tonight's chat! Guests are starting to arrive right now at the ST:DS9 series final wrap party. As we have a chance to interview them, questions and answers will be posted as soon as they arrive.

Alexander Siddig, Nana Visitor, Peter Lauritson, Tiny Ron, Rene Auberjonois, Ira Steven Behr, Dan Curry, David Stipes, and Karen Westerfields have all arrived. We had some rain earlier, but it seems to have gone away as the stars are arriving.

[...]

Ben:
Marc.....can you tell where you are at in Hollywood? and can I join you there?

Marc Wade:
I don't think that would be a good idea, Ben. Too many fans here in L.A. might figure out where we are. Let me just say that we are at an elegant hotel with a beautiful bar and patio It is just getting dark here now. Actually quite dark. In spite of the mild weather, there are space heaters set up outside to keep the guests warm. There is plenty of elegant food and drink available. THe arrivals are right outside our window, Terry Farrell is here.

Question:
What will you miss the most about working on this show?

Terry Farrell:
Well, I've already missed my worm for a year... I'm a rather selfish person... and I don't like sharing my worm with just anyone. But I would have to say I will miss sounding so intelligent on a daily basis. And being a great pilot.

[...]

Question:
Do you feel that DS9 followed the direction that Gene set for Star Trek?

Majel Barrett Roddenberry:
I think they're entirely different and come out of the minds of two different people. I feel it was done to its capacity very well. Very exciting, and probably not the way Gene would have done it at all. But Viva le difference. I think Rick Berman did a fantastic job.

You can find the full transcript here, which is also where you'll be able to find a few pictures of the event (including the one I put up above, which is, of course, copyrighted by Paramount).

Garrett Wang Places Items On Auction
Christian (4:03 pm CST)
The Star Trek Continuum (which recently redesigned its news service, is reporting that Garrett Wang has placed several items signed by the Voyager cast on auction at eBay. Take a look at the two items you can currently bid on:

VOYAGER photo with 9 autographs
8x10 b/w cast photo for Star Trek VOYAGER from 1997 features the autographs of all 9 actors in the photo: Jeri Ryan, Robert Beltran, Kate Mulgrew, Robert Duncann McNeill, Roxann Dawson, Garrett Wang, Robert Picardo, Tim Russ and Ethan Phillips.

Cast Signed VOYAGER crew hat
Very Rare!! Garrett Wong's 100th Episode Crew hat for Star Trek VOYAGER which he personally had autographed by 9 actors: himself, Jeri Ryan, Robert Beltran, Kate Mulgrew, Robert Duncann McNeill, Roxann Dawson, Robert Picardo, Tim Russ and Ethan Phillips.

GamePen Previews Starfleet Command
Christian (4:03 pm CST)
Gregg Charlton at GamePen put up a new preview of Interplay's upcoming strategy game, Starfleet Command. The preview starts with the obligatory paragraph about how all other Star Trek games failed, but then they actually go on to provide some interesting info on the game's graphics:

Graphically, Starfleet Command is just about the best strategy game I've laid eyes on. The only other game that's in the same ball park would be Myth. The ships are accurate representations of those that appeared in the TV series while the special effects are even better. Think of Next Generation special effects with Captain Kirk era ships. Particle and lighting effects verge on spectacular – especially when a shielded ship is hit with a simultaneous barrage of phasers and photon torpedoes. Similarly, background items like space stations, asteroids and planets are also beautifully rendered. Sound effect are equally outstanding as I found myself believing I was watching the show itself. Clearly, Interplay and Quick Silver have spent a great deal of time on the presentation end of the game.

This is not to say that the basic game engine has been ignored. Turn radii, relative vessel speeds, firepower, shield strength etc. all feel "right". By that I mean that the game plays like the epic space battles seen in the series. Frustrated Trekkies who couldn't stand controlling a starship with a joystick in Starfleet Academy will find that the combat in Starfleet Command is fought as though space-age battleships are pounding away at one another. Now the Enterprise behaves like the heavy cruiser it is rather than as an X-Wing on growth hormones!

Today on TV
Christian (4:02 pm CST)
-Tomorrow at 09:45 CET, German television station Sat.1 will be repeating Voyager's 'Dämon' (Demon)

Trek BBS Today
Christian (4:02 pm CST)
Though I haven't actually been able to post at the site myself today, the list of active topics tells me it's getting more and more popular every day. Take a look at what some of the most interesting discussions are currently dealing with:

-This thread was first dealing with a question dealing with Voyager's return to the Alpha Quadrant, but now mainly deals with Star Trek books. Check it out here.

-What would you prefer - a Robert April show or a show set in the 29th century? Give us your opinion here.

-Who'd win in a fight between the Borg and the Dominion? Click here to discuss this topic!

Of course, many other topics are currently available at the Trek BBS, and if none of the 20 current discussions interest you, you can always start a thread of your own! Remember, registration isn't even required - just go ahead and post!

New at TrekSeek.com
Christian (4:01 pm CST)
Yesterday, 7 new sites were submitted to TrekSeek, bringing us up to a total of 1015 Star Trek links. Check out some of those new sites:

-The LCARS Central WebRing is a Star Trek related webring devoted to LCARS formatted websites only. The webring has its own web-based email service and more.

-BW's Star Trek Site is all about Star Trek, with pictures, links, discussion lists, and much more. The site also includes the BW Midis Gallery and the BW's Star Trek Picture Gallery.

-109th Fleet is a Klingon/Federation secret. The location of the fleet is classified and the objective of the fleet is to be the last deadly defense if ever needed to save the Alpha Quadrant, but until then, to help in the war effort. Join Today! (PBeM RPG).

Check out all the new sites by going here.

Hello World!
Christian (4:01 pm CST)
Phew, I'm finally back, after a very nice family reunion. I really love those happenings, but they sure make one very tired. I'm afraid that may have had some impact on the quality *and* on the quantity of today's update, but I do think that I've covered the most important things. If not, I'm sure I'll be able to make up for it tomorrow again :-).

DreamWatch Interviews Trek Stars
Christian (2:03 pm CST)
Issue 57 of British magazine DreamWatch contains interviews with Roxann Dawson (B'Elanna Torres) and Chase Masterson (Leeta). Take a look at what you will be able to find in the interviews:

Roxann Dawson
As the latest incarnation of Gene Roddenberry's vision reaches the end of its fifth season, Roxann Dawson, alias ship's chief engineer B'Elanna Torres, discusses her character's evolving relationships on board the isolated Federation starship…

Chase Masterson
As the science fiction saga draws to a conclusion, Chase Masterson looks back on her happy years with the Star Trek series as Dabo girl Leeta, considers the character's rapid development into a key figure on the show, and reveals her own ambitious future projects…

Trek Toy News
Christian (1:38 pm CST)
The Raving Toy Maniac just updated again, providing us with lots of new action figure info. First of all, the Toy Maniac is reporting there probably won't be a 6" Seven of Nine figure:

The 6" Ultra Trek Seven of Nine, previously scheduled as a Diamond Comics Exclusive for March, has been put on hold, with no forseeable release date at this time.

PC Gamer Previews Trek Games
Christian (1:28 pm CST)
The US PC Gamer just put up previews of two upcoming Star Trek games, namely Microprose's 'Birth of the Federation' and Interplay's 'Starfleet Command.' In the BotF preview, producer Jeff Holzhauer provides us with some very interesting info on how the various races will play:

The race you choose to lead affects how you should act when you encounter other races, and the computer AI will play the other races appropriately. "If you're not playing the Klingons," said Holzhauer, "you know that there's gonna be a day when they will declare war on you at the drop of a hat.

"As for you playing the races," he continues, "you'll see big differences (between them). "When you play the Federation, for example, people will be very, very unhappy when you go about invading minor races. We don't stop you from doing it, so you can invade Vulcan and set up a military government there, but you'll take a morale hit on all your worlds because the Federation doesn't like to act that way."

TrekWeb Announces Voyager Writer Chat
Christian (1:20 pm CST)
Steve Krutzler at TrekWeb just announced a new upcoming chat with Voyager writers Bryan Fuller and Michael Taylor. The chat will take place on the 4th of May at 6:00pm PDT, and hopefully they'll be able to provide us with some extra info on the reported Voyager writer shake-up. If you wish to ask them about that, you can already do so now, as advance questions are currently being accepted. More info on this can be found by going here.

Meanwhile, some more info on the possible writer transfer has appeared on WebTrek and at Warp Eleven (which is where I got it from for this update):

Not true about Ron Moore at least - he's said it isn't. Have to ask about the others. About Kenneth Biller's departure he said, Dunno about that - I've been away on vacation for a couple of weeks, remember. But since he has previously been retired from producer to story editor, it perhaps wouldn't be surprising.

Voyager Season Finale Spoilers
Christian (1:13 pm CST)
NOTE: This post, as you might have deduced from the title, contains major spoilers for the Voyager season finale. Click here to move on to the next post.

Again, 'Equinox,' the last Voyager episode of this season, is heavily spoiled in this update. Click here to avoid these spoilers.

The Star Trek Universe just received some interesting information from a new source on the Voyager finale:

The evil doctor IS in the show, contrary to what was said to be..... The evil doc knocks off the good doc, takes the mobile emitter, and uses it to spring the crew of the Equinox from Voyagers brig. At the end of the ep, the Equinox steals a security grid generator from Voyager (leaving them defenseless from the alien fissures) and takes off. Seven is unconscious on the Equinox and there is a possibility that the evil doc has remained on Voyager...

The original rumor said that they would make another B plot, because the old one looked to much like the previous episode. My source has seen the episode with [the old] B plot in it.

Thanks go out to Michael at the Star Trek Universe for this, but do please remember that this info, too, should be seen as a rumour, and hasn't been officially confirmed yet. If, however, you want to hear more about this you should probably also check out this thread at the Trek BBS, which deals with precisely this.

Daily Sci-Fi Reviews 'Strange Bedfellows'
Christian (12:57 pm CST)
Just a few days after putting up her 'Til Death Do Us Part' review, Sarah Kuhn at the Den's Daily Sci-Fi has already finished her review of 'Strange Bedfellows.' Just like most other reviewers, she absolutely *loved* the episode:

This episode rocked, and I'll tell you why. It's all about Kai Winn. In the span of an hour, she goes from being an easily manipulated pawn to a sobbing lost soul begging for salvation to flat out pissed. Louise Fletcher makes these transitions completely believable, and the levels of complexity and ambiguity that she and the writers have brought to this role are really quite amazing. She even gets a total "Melrose" moment when she slaps Dukat. Go girl.

A Blaze Of Glory
Christian (12:57 pm CST)
Decipher, the company producing the Star Trek Customizable Card Game, just put up a Q&A with Bill Martinson, Sandy Wible and Tim Ellington, the creators of the upcoming CCG 'Blaze Of Glory' expansion pack. Although they aren't able to provide us with a release date, they do give us the lowdown on what the pack will contain:

Q: Can you summarize the facts of the expansion?
Tim: We're planning on the usual configuration of 130 cards, broken down into 50 rares, 40 uncommons and 40 commons. You can probably expect 9-card expansion packs with 1 rare, 3 uncommons and 5 commons, packaged in 30-pack displays.

Q: What are the gameplay innovations Star Trek CCG players should be on the lookout for?
Sandy: A new battle-related side deck, enhanced capturing rules and cards, theme cards for the Jem'Hadar and infiltrators, and plenty of battle-related cards.

Very Sad Deep Space Nine News
Christian (12:57 pm CST)
This really is very sad news - Backstage Pass is reporting about the tearing down of the Deep Space Nine sets, which is unfortunately proceeding at a steady rate:

Most of the sets are still intact.. but the Defiant is slowly starting to get taken down. There was the Klingon Warbird set there also.. but's it also been taken down. Stage 18 was extremely cramped.

In any case, if you really, really want to read more about this, click here. Also, if you want to talk about this, a thread has been created at the Trek BBS dealing with this - you can find it by going here.

CGO Previews 'DS9 - The Fallen'
Christian (12:56 pm CST)
The absolutely wonderful Computer Games Online just put up the very first preview ever of 'Deep Space Nine - The Fallen,' the game previously known as 'Millennium.' The preview is certainly interesting, as it mentions, together with a few other things, that a sequel has already been decided upon and will arrive next year. Of course, lots of info on *this* game is also available:

In the game, you'll play one of three Deep Space 9 characters: Sisko, Worf, or Kira. Hare and Gordon both make pains to point out that these aren't just different skins used to play through the same exact mission, but are fully realized characters which will offer a different version of the story and gameplay when you play them through. The game is played out across 12 missions, although perhaps "chapters" is a better term, as Hare says these are really, really large gameplay areas, with muliple objectives per area.

You'll move from mission area to mission area in a linear fashion (Hare says, "As much as it's an attractive idea sometimes to think of nonlinearity, it really is kind of a bitch when it comes to story telling"), but activities within each mission area aren't necessarily linear. Many of the missions will be duplicative in the sense that each of the three characters will play a role in them, but the actual paths followed and actions done will be different for each character. At times all three might meet during a mission and a non-interactive sequence will ensue, but beyond that characters' actions (and your gameplay) will be different. Additionally, each character will have three of his or her own mini-missions he or she might go on.

Insurrection Nominated For Hugo Award
Christian (12:56 pm CST)
A new report at Sci-Fi Wire lists the nominees for this year's Hugo awards, which will be voted upon by the members of the World Science Fiction Society. 'Star Trek: Insurrection' is listed as one of the nominees for Best Dramatic Presentation:

Dramatic Presentation
"Sleeping in Light" (Babylon 5)
Dark City
Pleasantville
Star Trek: Insurrection
The Truman Show

Insurrection On US Airways' Flights
Christian (12:55 pm CST)
A press release from airline company 'US Airways' is saying that, as of now, passengers on their transatlantic flights will be able to see 'Insurrection,' the ninth Star Trek feature, starring 'Patrick Stewart and LeVar Burton.' I wonder who thought of that cast list :-)? The full press release can be found here.

Eon Reviews 'Spectre'
Christian (12:54 pm CST)
The latest edition of Eon Magazine contains a review of the pocket book edition of 'Spectre,' last year's William Shatner novel. Precisely why they didn't choose to review his new 'Dark Victory' instead is beyond me - I guess they must have some financial difficulties and couldn't affor the hardcover, or something like that ;-). In any case, the reviewer rather liked the novel:

big draw is the mystery of Kirk's double, "Tiberius," emperor of the mirror universe. Tiberius doesn't make an appearance until the final pages of SPECTRE, leaving a sizzling cliff-hanger lead-in to the next novel, DARK VICTORY. SPECTRE is a fast read, perhaps less satisfying than the earlier THE RETURN, but benefiting greatly from Shatner's intimate knowledge of his hero. While the past decade's STAR TREK novels have largely been antiseptic and lacking in depth of character, Shatner and the Reeves-Stevens duo have seemingly been given the freedom to write in a more adult style by Pocket Books' editors. More power to them.

Today On TV
Christian (12:54 pm CST)
-In the UK, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Move Along Home' at 17:00 and at 23:30 GMT.

-In Germany, Sat.1 will be showing the fourth-season Voyager episode 'Dämon' (Demon) at 19:15 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (12:53 pm CST)
The Trek BBS now has more than 70 registered members, and many more unregistered members, making it one of the most popular Trek forums on the net! Of course, that also means lots of interesting discussions are developing at the BBS. Take a look at a few of the topics that are currently being discussed:

-Currently, TV Land is airing the Animated Series again. In this thread, the merits of the series are being discussed.

-The original spoilers for the Voyager season finale mentioned that the episode would feature Species 8472. Now, it seems they have been left out of the episode. What do you think about this?

-Most reviewers seem to think that 'Strange Bedfellows' is one of the greatest DS9 episodes ever produced. Do you also think so? Here's your chance to let the world know what you think!

Ten more topics are currently being talked about, but, of course, you're more than welcome to add your topics to that! Head on over to the Trek BBS to meet your fellow fans - remember, you don't even need to register to post! We're looking forward to hearing from you!

New at TrekSeek.com
Christian (12:52 pm CST)
Well, it was a very quiet day at TrekSeek yesterday, with just two site submissions. Still, we're up to 1009 sites, so I guess I shouldn't complain. Take a look at one of those two sites:

-The Borg Collective is the online source for all that is Borg, plus extensive information, multimedia and more for all the Star Trek series and feature films.

A listing of last week's new sites can be found here.

Hello World!
Christian (12:52 pm CST)
As I'll be away for most of the day tomorrow, and probably won't be returning until late in the evening, tomorrow's TrekToday update will also arrive somewhat later than usual. Tomorrow's update will probably be appearing about 4 hours later than usual, at 22:00 CET / 3:00pm CST. Sorry!

'Strange Bedfellows' Fan Favourite
Christian (1:30 pm CST)
Psi Phi's David Henderson sends along word that 'Strange Bedfellows,' this week's new DS9 episode, is considered to be one of the best episodes ever by most of the people who've seen it:

The early S.O.S. (Spoiler-free Opinion Summary) rating for "Strange Bedfellows" is currently 9.4, the highest rating for the season, and third highest for DS9 overall behind "In the Pale Moonlight" and "Duet"). The rating usually decreases a little as more people vote throughout the week and over the weekend, but this is still a very strong position so far.

Is Sky Dumping Star Trek?
Christian (1:20 pm CST)
A few days ago we reported that British television station Sky One may be dumping Star Trek in summer, in order to give the franchise a one-year break. Yesterday, Paul Weaver forwarded me a mail he received a few days ago, which dealt with exactly this:

What you may not yet be aware of is that Viacom, the Jekyll and Hyde of US TV, has decided to launch an SF channel of its own, in competition with Sci-Fi, so they have started pulling all the licenses for their shows, including Trek.

It may well be the case that Sky has just lost some of its rerun rights to TNG, as have many US TV stations. Indeed, many stations here have even had DS9 SEASON 7 itself pulled out from under them, and a lot of US fans are disenfranchised because of it. Those of us who still have it are copying episodes as fast as they can be run off and bouncing them around all over the US.

Hear Quirk Speak!
Christian (1:10 pm CST)
John Cook at Sev Trek just uploaded a new edition of the 'Write Your Own Sev Trek Competition,' in a rather unusual format:

Take a look at John Cook's explanation of this new experiment:

The first AUDIO Sev Trek!!!
This week, we're experimenting with a different format. The voices of Quirk and Spook have been supplied by the very talented Wally Fields. You write Quirk's response and Wally will add the winning punchline to the audio file at the end of the week.

[...]

I'm not sure where we're going with this - we might combine the audio with an animated version of the cartoon but I have no idea how to go about doing that. If anyone with the software/skills to do web animations wants to volunteer their help, please email me!

DS9 and Voyager Ratings Reports
Christian (12:35 pm CST)
The Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database just put up ratings reports for two Trek reruns, namely last week's repeat of Voyager's 'Counterpoint,' and last month's rerun of DS9's 'Once More Unto The Breach.' As we already reported yesterday, 'Counterpoint' did rather well:

For its overnight rating, "Counterpoint" did surprisingly well, staying flat from last week's 2.6 rating, ranking 101st. That's right about on the season average for reruns and well below last year's firstrun episode that aired this week, "Unforgettable."

[...]

All in all, Voyager has survived its weakest stint of reruns this year fairly unscathed. Both only dipped slightly below the previous season average of 2.7 despite scoring well below the season average in their firstrun attempts. Next week should come back up with a stronger rerun.

Mania Reviews 'Strange Bedfellows'
Christian (12:35 pm CST)
Michelle Erica Green at Mania just finished her review of DS9's 'Strange Bedfellows,' offering lots of praise for the third Final Chapter episode:

This was a transition episode and felt like one, though it had some truly classic moments - Demar howling in amusement when Worf killed Weyoun, Julian realizing he's in love with Ezri as opposed to Dax, Winn pulling a Trek V Kirk and discovering her own ego is too big to share the universe with any gods. The Worf/Dax storyline dragged somewhat but I liked its resolution these two were NOT meant to be together, but it was much more satisfying to have them find that out through trial and error than it have been had they never made the effort.

I have gotten a real kick out of Ezri's confirmation of Jadzia's promiscuity, hinted at but never made explicit during the previous six years; it's nice to know that, Voyager's female crew notwithstanding, there are some nice girls who do it and enjoy it and don't have any problem fulfilling their professional duties. I was not a big fan of either Ezri or Worf prior to this mini-arc, but they've both done a superb job owning up to their shortcomings and attempting to move past them. I'm just sorry they didn't do it when there was more time left in the series for us to enjoy them.

Juggernaut Press Release
Christian (12:34 pm CST)
NOTE: This update contains major spoilers for this Monday's new Voyager episode, 'Juggernaut.' In case you want to avoid being spoiled, click here to move on to the next post.

AGAIN, below you can find a synopsis of the upcoming 'Juggernaut' episode. Click here to avoid them.

David Henderson at Psi Phi just put up the official press release for Voyager's 'Juggernaut.' As usual, the press release also contains a small synopsis of the episode:

The U.S.S. Voyager rescues two crewmen from an abandoned, out-of-control Malon freighter that's about to unleash a theta radiation blast into the sector. Soon, Lieutenant Torres leads an away team to board the freighter and contain the poison--despite warnings from its crewman, Fesek and Pelk, about the Angel of Decay that wreaks havoc aboard the cargo ship.

QuakeCity Interviews Rob Gee
Christian (12:33 pm CST)
The absolutely wonderful people at QuakeCity just put up an interview with Rob Gee, one of the artists currently working on the Voyager game at Raven. In the interview, we get to hear more about the game than ever before, including some new information on the atmosphere of the game:

Since I can't discuss game play issues at this time (again, wait till E3) I'll focus on what I can talk about that will separate our game from the rest of the pack: authenticity, accuracy, and attention to detail - they will all contribute to this game's signature. It will be our first Star Trek title out of the gates so you know we're going to make it shine. Our designers are working hard on creating the most exact virtual duplicate of Voyager's layout possible. We're using photos, illustrations and blueprints for the many different locales seen in the Voyager episodes. Many of our current screenshots have been mistaken for scanned reference photos by other Ravenites.

I'm sure Star Trek fans will be very satisfied with the amount of quality art and detailed design they'll find aboard our Voyager. Rest assured, there will be many various locales other than the Voyager to explore – the majority of which will be extremely dangerous and challenging. I'm sure gamers, hardcore and casual alike, will find this game extremely enjoyable to play and find appreciation for the finer points of game design we're achieving on this title.

Ted Witt Reviews 'Strange Bedfellows'
Christian (12:04 pm CST)
I just noticed on Psi Phi that Ted Witt posted his review of DS9's 'Strange Bedfellows' to the DS9 Discussion Board, as one of the first reviewers on the Net. He's probably also one of the more positive reviewers, as you can see in the below excerpt:

In short, this episode is a great continuation and growth on the last two. We now know (sort of) what Dukat/Anjohl had scheming, we see the Dominion Breen plan brought to fruition, we get (finally) some resolution to the Ezri/Worf angle, and we get what will surely be Damar's redemtion arc begin. It did NOT feel forced or unnatural...the story developed with emotion and power. But it doesn't end here...the momentum is clearly driving the story on...I want to see just what the specifics of Dukat and Winn's unholy alliance, these strange bedfellows, will bring about--who and how those that stand in their way will fall brushed away like dry leaves in a powerful Winn (wind!). I want to see just what this newly reinvigorated Dominion/Breen alliance will have--"you must understand, of course, that we all serve the founders: Vorta, Jem'Hadar, Cardassians, and Breen." I want to see Damar lead his people away from doom. The prophets vs. the Pagh wraiths. Sisko's sorrows. In short, I want to see more--and I think that is what a sign of a great episode should do.

DS9 Wrap Party Chat Today
Christian (12:04 pm CST)
As a reminder, the Star Trek Continuum will be hosting a live chat at the DS9 wrap party. Most cast members will be attending, plus several of the show's creators. Advance questions can currently be submitted here, while instructions on how to participate can be found here.

Kenn Hoekstra Q&A
Christian (12:04 pm CST)
Computer Gaming Review just put up a small interview with Kenn Hoekstra, Project Administrator at Raven Software, the developers behind the upcoming Star Trek Voyager game. In it, he talks a little about the Voyager game:

Well, we're going to be showing Soldier of Fortune and Star Trek: Voyager at the Activision booth this year and we're really excited about it. I think a lot of people are going to be shocked by what they see from both games. Unveiling them for the world to see is going to be a blast.

New Jonathan Frakes Film Disappoints
Christian (12:03 pm CST)
And that is just mildly putting it... according to a review by David Kronke, 'Dying To Live,' today's UPN Thursday night movie starring Jonathan Frakes, the movie is absolutely horrendous:

Instead of investing time and money in ``Dying to Live,'' couldn't UPN executives have simply licensed an airing of ``Ghost,'' the movie it most obviously rips off? It may have cost a little more, but at least it would've guaranteed an audience. The latest in the network's lamentable Thursday-night film series is a tedious, unfocused, secular version of those old religious movies which provided unconvincing re-enactments of teen life while attempting to warn young viewers of the dire consequences of their benignly evil ways.

Jonathan Frakes of ``Star Trek: The Next Generation'' does some serious slumming here, playing a guardian angel who basically pops up at the oddest times to gaze upon the antics of a group of teenagers with a kind of beatific dismay. His role here isn't even explained until about 45 minutes into the film, when freshly scrubbed aspiring marine biologist Rachel (Hayley DuMond) dies.

Today on TV
Christian (12:03 pm CST)
-In the US, UPN will be showing the new television film 'Dying To Live' at 8:00pm. The movie stars Jonathan Frakes as a 'guardian angel,' and was also co-produced by him.

-According to TV Quest, Marc Alaimo (Gul Dukat) will be guest-starring on tonight's episode of "Diagnosis: Murder" on CBS in the US. The episode also airs at 8:00pm, so you're going to have to choose between Riker and Dukat. Thanks go out to Psi Phi's David Henderson for this.

-Today at 7:00pm and at 11:00pm the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the third-season episode 'The Cloud Minders,' again not one of those episodes you'd really want to watch.

-In the UK, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'The Passenger' at 17:00 and at 23:30 GMT. At 18:00 GMT, the BBC will be showing DS9's 'Battle Lines.'

-Tomorrow morning at 01:40 CET, Sat.1 will be repeating TNG's 'Willkommen im Leben nach dem Tode' (Tapestry). At 15:00 tomorrow, they'll be showing 'Der Moment der Erkenntnis, Teil 1' (Birthright, Part One).

Trek BBS Today
Christian (12:02 pm CST)
Now with more than 65 registered members, the Trek BBS is still going strong. Take a look at some of the discussions that are currently taking place:

-Do you live in Australia? Are you a Star Trek fan? Well, strange as it may sound, you're not alone! Take a look at this thread to talk to some fellow Australians!

-With some very interesting posts today, the New Series thread is still going strong. Check it out!

Of course, many other topics are currently being discussed at the Trek BBS, and we'd absolutely love to hear from you as well. If you're not interested in any of the current threads, why not start one of your own? Remember, you don't even need to register to post - just go ahead and open a hailing frequency to the rest of the universe!

New at TrekSeek.com
Christian (12:02 pm CST)
Yesterday we added another four sites to TrekSeek, bringing us to a total of 1007 Star Trek links! Take a look at some of those new sites:

-Warbird Empire's Guide to Hostile Aliens lists the main villianous aliens from all four Star Trek series - Klingons, Romulans, Borg, Cardassian, Breen, Dominion, Species 8472, Tholians, and more. Also included is a brief description of wars fought by the Federation and major events and battles in the ongoing Dominion War.
-The Federation Klingon Alliance is an AOL & IRC based sim group for Federation, Klingon, and Romulian simmers.

The other new sites from yesterday can be found by going here.

Hello World!
Christian (12:01 pm CST)
[NEWSUPDATER.CGI error 293 - Warning! News Reporter Not Inspired Error! 'Hello World!' Message Text Not Submitted.]

New '11:59' Spoilers
Christian (1:09 pm CST)
NOTE: This post contains spoilers for the upcoming Voyager episode '11:59.' In case you want to avoid reading these spoilers, click here.

Really, some pretty detailed spoilers about '11:59' can be found in this update. Click here to move on to the next update and avoid these spoilers.

Yesterday, we reprinted the following information from this report at the Daily Buzz:

[In] "11:59," Kate Mulgrew plays an ancestor of Captain Kathryn Janeway who helped build the Millennium Gate on Earth. The episode is set on New Year's Eve 1999 as another of Janeway's ancestors resists the creation of a massive Millennium Gate, a model for the first colony on Mars.

Jeff Holzhauer Interview Online
Christian (12:59 pm CST)
The Trek Gaming Alliance just put up an interview with Jeff Holzhauer, the man behind Microprose's upcoming turn-based strategy game 'Birth of the Federation.' As the interview took place over the phone, they were not able to give exact quotes, but there still are a few interesting tidbits to be found in the interview:

TDawg: How open is the programming of the game?? (i.e. did you leave it open so that people could hack into the game?)
Jeff: Hacking the game files is not going to be easy. But it is possible with some time and effort.

TDawg: In your opinion, what makes BotF so great?
Jeff: Well, the thing that makes it so great in my mind is the whole Star Trek thing. And also the Minor Races. The minor races throw in so many variables into it, it makes it interesting. Also I like the look and feel of it, as well as the balance.

TDawg: Exactly, what does "Ruthlessly Efficient" mean?
Jeff: Well, it means that Cardiassian's get a few more structures. Like for Sub-Races, you can build a War Camp on their planets to give you extra industry. Basically like Bajor, and yes, you can get kicked off the planet by a revolt.

Optical Data Network Issue 84 Appears
Christian (12:52 pm CST)
I just noticed Adam Bailey sent out a new edition of the Optical Data Network, the bi-weekly newsletter. Take a look at what the new issue has in store for you:

This issue has a heavy dose of NewsBits: with an inordinate number of independent films and game previews. The US air schedules have been updated with the last bits of unknown information, which should remain pretty static throughout May. The UK airdates article was not ready by press time, and will go out later in the week just to ODNUK subscribers. If you're not getting ODNUK and want to be, see , or just send us a note. With the way your schedules are constantly getting shifted, it's a wonder those of you in the UK can find *anything*. Luckily, David stays on top of things, so we've got that covered, at least on the Trek front.

We've also got a larger-than-usual set of letters, with both information and opinion (including the one I referred to last issue, but neglected to include). Filling out this issue is a review of the latest album from S.P.O.C.K. from their number one fan: Anders Krampell. (Previous S.P.O.C.K. articles can be found in ODNs 2-15 & 3-17). And finally the Online Spotlight is back with a couple sites: one previously-mentioned and one new.

'Counterpoint' Rerun Final Ratings
Christian (12:45 pm CST)
The Star Trek Universe just put up the final ratings for last week's rerun of Voyager's 'Counterpoint:'

The final rating for the rerun of "Counterpoint" is in, and Voyager did well, it got a 2.6 and was nr. 101. For the first week in month, Voyager wasent UPNs higest rated show. The UPN special "Scared Straight: 20 years later" was UPNs higest rated show with a 3.5 and was nr. 90 Voyager was 6th for the hour behind WBs Charmed that got a 2.9.

More 'Til Death Do Us Part' Videos
Christian (12:41 pm CST)
SCIFI Headquarters has just uploaded three extra videos from 'Til Death Do Us Part,' last week's new DS9 episode. The three Real G2 videos ('Feeding Time,' 'Evil Moves On' and 'The Breen Come) offer you the chance to see some of the greatest scenes from the actual episode, and can be found by going here.

'Someone To Watch Over Me' Trailers
Christian (12:36 pm CST)
Mr. Video Productions just put up the trailers for next Wednesday's Voyager episode, 'Someone To Watch Over Me.' The preview, which is actually pretty funny, is available by going here, and is available as a video clip, an audio clip, and a zipped image archive.

As usual, Vidiot's site is down at the moment, but I'm sure Star Trek Interactive! will have the trailers later this evening.

Jeri Ryan On Entertainment Tonight
Christian (12:18 pm CST)
The official Jeri Lynn Ryan Homepage is reporting that Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) will be appearing on this weekend's edition of Entertainment Tonight. You might actually be able to see her on the show before that, though:

Since the weekend editions of ET frequently repeat segments from the weekday editions, it is possible that Jeri may be on ET between now and this weekend. We will post more information if this turns out to be the case.

Star Trek CCG Forums Relaunch
Christian (11:47 am CST)
Today, the people at Decipher will be launching their new registration/ password system for the Customizable Card Game forums. The reason for this new system is that, previously, the boards were hindered by 'hit-and-run posts and trash talk,' which will now be over. In order to prepare you for this new system, Decipher staff writer Rich Loftus has put up a lengthy article describing the whole process. If you think you already know everything, you can find the updated Star Trek CCG Message Boards here.

Ordover Q&A Working Again
Christian (11:41 am CST)
The Q&A board of John Ordover, editor at Pocket Books, is apparently working again, as he just posted a new batch of answers on the site. Take a look at some of the more interesting questions and answers:

Query from: Andrew
John:How well did the Deep Space Nine Rebels trilogy sell in stores? Did it do as good as 'The 34th Rule?' Thanks.

Response from: John Ordover
It did slightly better.

Query from: Andrew
John:Do you have the DS9 Millennium trilogy locked in for the year 2000?if yes when is it comming out? Like you have the Voyager trilogy set to come out in the summer of 2000.

Response from: John Ordover
It's in the first couple of months of the year.

DS9 Final Chapter Spoilers
Christian (11:18 am CST)
NOTE: This update contains massive spoilers for 'What You Leave Behind,' the DS9 finale. In case you want to avoid reading these spoilers, click here to move on to the next article.

Again, all-new spoilers for the DS9 finale can be found below. Click here to move on to the next article.

I just noticed Backstage Pass (who also recently reported on the Voyager hacking) just put up new info on DS9's Final Chapter. First up is a confirmation of what was already suspected for a long time - the Klingon Empire will soon need to start looking for a new Chancellor:

Forget the rumors - Gowron definitely buys the farm. In a press release sent out to the stations running the series, Paramount confirms his death after he double crosses Martok. Look for Worf to do the deed (I don't count that as a spoiler because anyone who's been watching the series knows that Worf has been spoiling for this fight for a few years).

Juggernaut Trailers Available
Christian (11:17 am CST)
Mr. Video Productions just put up the trailers for the upcoming Voyager episode 'Juggernaut.' As usual, the trailer is available in MPEG video format, MP3 audio format, and a zip archive showing more than two dozen screenshots from the trailer. You can find the preview by going here.

Unfortunately, as I write this Vidiot's site is down, so if you really want to see the trailer I suggest you check out Star Trek Interactive!, where the trailer can also be found. It's a very interesting one, so I do recommend actually downloading it.

Daily Sci-Fi Reviews 'Til Death Do Us Part'
Christian (11:17 am CST)
Sarah Kuhn at the Den's Daily Sci-Fi has put up her review of last week's new DS9 episode, 'Til Death Do Us Part.' She rather likes most parts of the the episode, especially the return of two of the most complicated villains in Trek:

There's Kai Winn, slithering about as usual, all nicey-nice platitudes and sicky-sweet , condescending inflections. Perhaps you thought I would be unavailable," she notes, upon learning that Sisko has asked someone else to perform his wedding ceremony. "But since I'm here, I think you'll agree it would be more appropriate for me to do it." Uh, no.

I know Winn's become a bit more sympathetic over the years, and that makes her all the more interesting. I, however, have a hard time feeling at all bad for her -- even as she is duped by an ever-wiley Dukat -- since she was partially responsible for the death of one of my favorite characters ever, Vedek Bareil. But that's another rant.

Cinescape Spoils 'Strange Bedfellows'
Christian (11:16 am CST)
The people at Cinescape Online have put up their weekly spoiler-packed preview of DS9's 'Strange Bedfellows,' the third Final Chapter episode:

Cinescape Online contributor Michael Marek recently had the opportunity to catch the next episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, "Strange Bedfellows". This show is the third part of the series finale story arc. As always, Michael doesn't hold back with the info.

DS9 Wrap Party Tomorrow
Christian (11:16 am CST)
Tomorrow, the official DS9 Wrap Party will be held in the Mondrian Hotel in Hollywood, according to a press release from PR Newswire:

WHAT:
"Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" celebrates the conclusion of seven successful seasons on television at Skybar.

WHEN:
Thursday, April 22 at 7:00 PM (Press arrival at 6:45 PM)

WHERE:
Skybar Mondrian Hotel

Replicate A Star Trek CD
Christian (11:15 am CST)
A company press release from MusicMaker.com, Inc. mentions that they just closed a deal with GNP Crescendo, which allows Trekkers from all over the world to create their own custom Star Trek CD or download specific Trek songs:

Music lovers accessing www.musicmaker.com to create their own, personalized CDs use the site's powerful search engines to select music by genre or catalog as well as artist, composer, instrument or label. Up to 70 minutes of music can be selected, arranged in order by the customer, and each CD comes with song or track listings on both the CD label and the jewel case. Customers are prompted to create their own label for each CD ordered, including personalized messages to those who will receive CDs ordered as gifts. CDs range in price from $9.95 to $19.95 depending on the number of tracks ordered. Transactions are completed through a secure credit card link and orders are shipped the same business day.

Musicmaker.com also offers music lovers who digitally download all of the most popular technologies for bring licensed music directly into their computers, including the company's proprietary Secure MP3, Liquid Audio, and, as was announced April 13, Microsoft Windows Media. Not all songs are available on each system. Direct downloads are available for $1.00 per song.

Today on TV
Christian (11:13 am CST)
-Tonight at 9:00pm Eastern/Pacific Time, UPN will be repeating Voyager's 'Timeless.' Take a look at what the episode has in store for you, courtesy of the official Star Trek Continuum:

Fifteen years after the Starship U.S.S. Voyager crashes into a desolate ice planet, Commander Chakotay and former Ensign Harry Kim, sole survivors of the tragedy, steal the Delta Flyer from a Federation shipyard and return to the U.S.S. Voyager's frozen hull. Aided by Chakotay's striking love interest, Lieutenant Tessa Omond, Chakotay and Kim are hotly pursued fugitives with hope that somewhere embedded beneath the ice, they'll retrieve the only tools they believe can change the fate of their long-dead fellow crew members.

-In Germany, Sat.1 will be repeating TNG's 'Das Gesicht des Feindes' (Face of the Enemy) tomorrow morning at 02:00 CET. Tomorrow at 15:00 CET they'll be showing the excellent 'Willkommen im Leben nach dem Tode' (Tapestry).

Trek BBS Today
Christian (11:12 am CST)
Things are going increasingly well at the Trek BBS. There are now 58 registered members, many more unregistered posters, and no less than 18 very active discussions going on. Take a look at some of the more interesting active topics of today:

-Who are the Breen? Amphibians? Robots? The followers of Khan? Two threads are currently dealing with this - this one looks at where the Breen came from, while this one looks at the function of their helmets.

-Do you like the Star Trek Customizable Card Game? If so, this thread might be the one for you!

-What should a possible new Star Trek series bring us? A few ideas are suggested in this thread, including a Starfleet Academy series or a Klingon Homeworld series. What do you think? Give your opinions here!

Of course, it could very well be that these topics don't interest you very much. But, don't despair, as there are many other topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS, and you can join in as well! Remember, you don't even need to register at the forums to post - just go ahead and open a channel!

New At Trekseek.com
Christian (11:11 am CST)
Finally, as the very first Star Trek search engine ever, TrekSeek crossed the magic 1000-links barrier! Currently, you can find 1003 Star Trek links in more than 100 categories, truly re-affirming TrekSeek's position as the largest, most accessible Star Trek search engine on the net! If your site's not listed yet, submit it now - nothing even comes close to TrekSeek if you want to get lots of hits to your site.

Of course, the only reason TrekSeek has become so popular is because of all of you so strongly supported it! Thanks for visiting, thanks for linking to us, and, of course, thanks for submitting your site to us! Yesterday, that last thing was done 5 times, giving us, among others, the following sites:

-U.S.S. Angeles is a Star Trek Club in Los Angeles, CA. They produce fan-made movies and have extensive info on Trek ships. Star Trek art and 3-d graphics for free download! Check out their movie - it's pretty cool.
-The House SaqIm is a Klingon oriented web page, information on language, Klingon Uniform and costume, Klingon Shareware, and other information. In case you're interested, House SaqIm was exactly the thousandth site in our database!
-Welcome To My World is prominently linking to TrekZone, so the site immediately scores brownie points. The site has Star Trek NG and Voyager pictures and comments and viewpoints on these to series, specifically the actors and characters.

As usual, you can find all the other new sites by clicking here.

Hello World!
Christian (11:10 am CST)
I'm about three weeks late in reporting this, but still, take a look at this review. It's absolutely hilarious - it had me rolling on the floor when I first found it!

[Update:] Timothy Verheecke, webmaster of WebTrek, just sent me a mail informing that the title change was first reported at Psi Phi. After taking a look, I noticed it was already reported there on the 15th of April - 5 days ago! I bow my head in shame.

Robert Duncan McNeill News
Christian (1:17 pm CST)
Thanks to Becky, about a week ago, we were already able to report that Robert Duncan McNeill would soon be guest starring on an episode of 'Early Edition.' Now, the official Robert Duncan McNeill fan club has some extra information availabe about this:

On Saturday, May 1st, Robbie will make a rare appearance as the guest star of CBS' Early Edition. Robbie recently spent two weeks in Chicago filming the episode, which reunited him with his Homefront co-star Kyle Chandler. For updated broadcast information, visit CBS' Early Edition page.

Even more McNeill news, including upcoming convention dates and some info on the episode 'Someone To Watch Over Me,' which he directed, can be found by going here.

Nose News
Christian (1:03 pm CST)
NOTE: (I was nearly going to say 'NOSE' but I decided against it ;-) - This update contains spoilers for the DS9 finale, 'What You Leave Behind.' Click here to move on to the next post.

Again, some new 'What You Leave Behind' info is contained in the below post.

Holly Kim Wilson, Charity Coordinator of the Official Marc Alaimo Fan Club, sent me another mail about the Marc Alaimo nose issue. As you may recall, a few days ago he was accidentally punched in the nose by Avery Brooks, and had to be taken to ER:

Apparently Marc was in full Cardassian make-up when he got hit! Dukat goes away for awhile sometime during the episode and comes back as himself and fights Sisko. They rushed him to the ER in full make-up, too!

One of the OMAFC members, Janet Ervin, somehow managaed to be at the DS9 wrap party and spoke with Andy Robinson. Andy saw the hit and said that Marc really bled. There "was blood everywhere!" (Which is not surprising. Some areas of the head and face bleed like a facet when cut. Simply because the veins are so close the surface of the skin.)

Yesterday's Trek BBS topic dealing with exactly this is still available, in case you want to let the world know what you think about this.

Rock & Roll Aboard Voyager
Christian (12:47 pm CST)
GNP Crescendo, the publisher of the Star Trek soundtracks, is reporting about a 'Sounds from Sci-Fi' concert that will soon be taking place, starring most of the Voyager stars:

Just back from their triumphant Brazilian tour, Neil Norman and His Cosmic Orchestra will bring their unique Sci-Fi sound to the Creation Annual Grand Slam Convention in Pasadena, California on April 23 - 25. Along with their daytime performances, Neil and the band will be hosting a fantastic "Sounds of Sci-Fi" concert Saturday night at 8pm. Joining Neil in concert, from Star Trek: Voyager, will be Tim (Tuvok) Russ, Robert(Tom Paris) Duncan McNeill, Robert (the Doctor) Picardo, Roxann (B'Elanna)Dawson, Garrett Wang (Harry Kim), from Star Trek: The Next Generation Jeff Rector (guest star), and the Swedish rock band "S.P.O.C.K."!

Official 'Juggernaut' Synopsis
Christian (12:20 pm CST)
NOTE: This update contains spoilers for this Monday's new Voyager episode, 'Juggernaut.' Click here to avoid reading these spoilers.

Again, click here to move on to the next post and avoid these spoilers.

The Star Trek Universe has posted a one-line official synopsis of the upcoming Voyager episode 'Juggernaut:'

Voyager rescues two crew members of an abandoned, out-of-control Malon freighter that is about to unleash radiation into the sector.

René Auberjonois To Star On 'Cyber 9'
Christian (11:26 am CST)
AnotherUniverse's Daily Buzz is reporting that René Auberjonois (Odo) has been cast to play the title character in a new futuristic cartoon titled 'Cyber 9.' I haven't got a clue what this 'Cyber 9' thing is, unfortunately - if anyone knows, please let me know about it.

Birth of the Federation Not Gold
Christian (11:26 am CST)
The Trek Gaming Alliance is reporting that Microprose's upcoming Trek game 'Birth of the Federation' did not actually go gold on the 15th of April, as Microprose originally assured everyone it would. Take a look at what project leader Jeff Holzhauer had to say:

We are still doing the localizations and fixing some multiplayer problems and Paramount issues.

Shatner Taping CNBC Interview
Christian (11:25 am CST)
The William Shatner Connection is reporting that William Shatner (James T. Kirk) will be taping an interview for CNBC's 'In Profile' series. The show he's taping for will focus especially on Star Trek, so presumably some other actors are being interviewed as well for this. Info on when the show actually airs will be posted here as soon as I hear about it.

Jammer Reviews 'Til Death Do Us Part'
Christian (11:25 am CST)
Jamahl Epsicokhan at Star Trek Hypertext just put up his review of 'Til Death Do Us Part,' last week's new DS9 episode. Just like last week, he finds it rather hard to correctly review this episode:

The key word, I think, in these early "Final Chapter" episodes is "suspense"--a suspense whose momentum builds slowly and steadily, like an accelerating freight train. The payoff is being deferred, but we sense that payoff is most definitely arriving in the near future. "'Til Death Do Us Part" is a lot like its predecessor, "Penumbra," in that it establishes the groundwork for a lot of what's yet to come. It leaves us dangling on the edge, thirsting for more.

On that level, for that purpose, this episode is effective. But, again, it's somewhat difficult to analyze a story that's based almost completely on setup--especially considering there's at least four plot lines running concurrently through the episode. I'll say this: We're definitely getting somewhere. Or everywhere. I'd probably also say "'Til Death" had me more wrapped up in the overall story than "Penumbra" did--now that I know what to expect in terms of plotting structure. They both have their shining moments as well as weaknesses, but overall I got a sense that "'Til Death" was a little more cohesive.

Trek CGG Rules Revised
Christian (11:24 am CST)
Decipher, the creators of the Star Trek Customizable Card Game, have announced an update to the official Trek CCG rules. These rules especially have a huge impact on how 'stopped' cards work, and therefore Decipher put up an article written by Kathy McCracken looking at precisely this:

Since the beginning, Star Trek CCG has included the basic concept of cards becoming "stopped" by participating in battle or failing to overcome dilemmas. Stopped cards were prohibited from performing any further actions, such as moving, attempting missions or initiating battle, for the remainder of the turn. More recently, this was clarified to state that stopped cards could not contribute any skills or traits for any purpose.

This rule has raised concerns over a number of cards with important end-of-turn effects that may be enabled or modified by a personnel's skills or traits. For example, stopping a ship's crew with a well-timed Rogue Borg battle prevents them from "using" their Navigation skills to escape damage or destruction from an unlucky Navigate Plasma Storms probe. A Countermeasure Drone who is stopped by a dilemma can't download, at the end of your turn, the Adapt: Negate Obstruction needed to pass the dilemma next turn. And of course, a stopped Vorta could not (until last month's interim ruling) ration Ketracel-White, forcing the premature countdown of all your Ketracel-White cards.

Picardo Goes To Mars - '11:59' Spoilers
Christian (11:20 am CST)
NOTE: This update contains spoilers for Voyager's '11:59' - click here to move on to the next post.

AGAIN - click here to be transported to the next article.

AnotherUniverse's Daily Buzz is reporting that Robert Picardo (the Holodoc) will promote the 'Mars Milennium Project' in a public service announcement airing on Wednesday, May 5, which is also when Voyager's '11:59' will air.

"I had the idea to do the PSA because of the striking connection between this important educational challenge for kids and one of our upcoming Voyager episodes," said Picardo. "The Planetary Society is helping to promote the project and I'm on their advisory council."

CGO Previews 'Birth of the Federation'
Christian (11:20 am CST)
Brett Berger at Computer Games Online put up a preview of the upcoming turn-based strategy game 'Birth of the Federation.' Berger actually played the game, so he's able to give us a pretty accurate description of its gameplay:

Birth of the Federation has a large number of play options. Besides picking the starting technology levels of the five possible races (Human, Klingon, Ferengi, Cardassian, and Romulan), you pick the size and shape of the galaxy, the number of minor races, difficulty level, and victory conditions. For this game I started at the lowest technology for all races, chose normal difficulty and a small elliptical galaxy, and set domination as the victory condition (in domination you must attempt to control most of the galaxy).

The Klingons are poor diplomats and spies but they are great at combat. Their motto is: "If we do not have enemies to fight then we will fight our friends!" Not as friendly as tribbles but at least you know where you stand with the Klingons. Since the Klingon advantage is in war I will emphasize a large fleet and high technology in weapons, propulsion, energy and construction. I'll have to minimize biotech and make computer research somewhere in the middle. I'll attempt to expand rapidly until I contact the other races, consolidate my power, and then eliminate the others one by one.

Voyager Effects Commotion
Christian (11:19 am CST)
A company press release from 'Puffin Designs' mentions that they'll soon be releasing their visual effects program 'Commotion' for Windows NT. Once the program has shipped, it will also be used on 'Star Trek: Voyager,' according to this quote:

``Ever since I first heard about Commotion, I've been waiting for it to come out for NT. There are so many NT-based post houses with the rising popularity of NT as a predominant 3D platform, and there is a great need for a complimentary paint & effects application like Commotion. We work on demanding visual effects shots for shows like 'Star Trek Voyager' and Commotion on NT will be an integral part of our production pipeline,'' commented Sherry Hitch, Visual Effects Compositing Supervisor, Foundation Imaging.

Happy Birthday George Takei!
Christian (11:19 am CST)
Today is the 62nd birthday of George Takei, the actor best known for his role of Hikaru Sulu on the Original Series. Takei is still one of the most active Original Series stars - he's constantly taking on new roles, and he's a very frequent convention guest. Over the past few years, he's also been actively lobbying for a special 'Captain Sulu' series which would be set on the U.S.S. Excelsior, but it doesn't look as if that will ever actually happen. A full filmography of Takei can be found here.

Today on TV
Christian (11:12 am CST)
-The Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the third-season TOS episode 'Requiem for Methusela' today at 7:00pm and at 11:00pm Eastern Time.

-In the UK, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Q-Less' at 17:00 GMT, which is the only DS9 episode ever featuring Q. The episode also repeats at 23:30 GMT.

-In Germany, Sat.1 will be repeating TNG's 'Aquiel' (Aquiel) at 02:00 CET. Tomorrow at 15:00 they'll be showing 'Das Gesicht des Feindes' (Face of the Enemy)

Trek BBS Today
Christian (11:12 am CST)
Starting today, this is where I'll be telling you about some of the discussions currently going on at the Trek BBS, the new online meeting place for Trek fans. Please feel free to join in some of these discussions - we're all really looking forward to hearing from you!

-In 'The Changing Face Of Evil' we're talking about the recent trailer for one of DS9's upcoming episodes, which gave away rather a lot about the episode. Do you think this is a good thing? And, what do you think the rest of the Final Chapter will bring us?

-Voyager popularity over the Atlantic. What is the reason British people (and Europeans in general) prefer Voyager over DS9, while the opposite is generally true in the US?

-What is your favourite Next Generation episode? Why?

Of course, many other topics are currently also being discussed at the Trek BBS, and I'm sure you will want to discuss them as well! You don't even need to register at the forums to post - just go ahead and let the world know what you think!

New at TrekSeek.com
Christian (11:11 am CST)
If you want your site to have the honour of being the 1000th site in the TrekSeek database, I suggest you submit your site now, as we currently have 999 sites in our database. Take a look at some of the 5 sites that were added yesterday:

-The Star Trek: TNG Federation Sound Archive has hundreds of Next Generation sound files in MPEG Layer 3 Wav Format, and dozens of images, including crew pictures, ships, and schematics. Sound Archive e-mail accounts are also available!
- The Mist Hunter has a Star Wars and Star Trek mix, with recent DS9 and Voyager reviews, SW articles and fan fiction, and Sev Trek and Sev Wars comic strips.
-Find all Videos, Soundtracks, DVD, and books at the Country Store with great ease, and relaxation!

All the other sites that were added yesterday can be found by going here.

Hello World!
Christian (11:11 am CST)
As you may know, I consider Mondays to be inventions of the devil - I absolutely hate them and would prefer just to remain in bed for the entire day. Strangely enough, though, Mondays are also the most popular days of the week for TrekToday, and I wonder - why would that be? Do you all also hate Mondays and visit the site from work, not wanting to begin the working day either? It's one of the great mysteries of the world for me.... :-)

Trek BBS Opens
Christian (1:01 pm CST)
Yesterday, we launched our exciting new project - the Trek BBS. Over the past 24 hours, lots of interesting discussions have already been taking place, dealing with everything from 'Will Voyager be going home again?' to 'What is it that makes TNG stand out from the rest' to, erm, me messing up in the Announcements forum.

As I said yesterday, we'd really love to hear from you all! At the moment, 34 people have already registered, but certainly you wouldn't want to miss out either? And, if you don't really like to register, you don't have to, as the Trek BBS also allows you just to go ahead and post without registering! So, please head over to the Trek BBS and let yourself be heard - we're looking forward to hearing from you!

Sci-Fi Entertainment Mag Features Trek
Christian (12:53 pm CST)
The June 1999 issue of Sci-Fi Entertainment, one of the print magazines of the Sci-Fi Channel, has a cover story on Patrick Stewart and 'Star Trek: Insurrection:'

O Captain, My Captain
Patrick Stewart makes his first contact with his alter ego that propelled him into stardom.

New British Trek Ratings Available
Christian (12:40 pm CST)
Dave Arquati at the Star Trek Collective just posted the British Star Trek ratings for the week beginning the 4th of April. News wasn't good, unfortunately:

This week, Star Trek had an extremely bad time... on BBC2, TNG reruns have been losing momentum over the past few weeks, and the week's run of "Time's Arrow, Part 1" gave the lowest ranking so far this year for TNG (19), and the lowest viewing figures, at 2.32 million. Meanwhile, DS9 fared even worse, with their rerun offering ("The Nagus") not even making it into the top 30 on BBC2 (and so no actual ratings figures were available). This also was DS9's worst rating of the season. One of the main reasons may have been the high ratings for the Davis Cup tennis competition, which gained the #1 ranking on Sunday, with the tennis cancelling other programs by several hours. Voyager, however, was not on that Sunday (not a great shock).

Official 'Someone To Watch...' Info
Christian (12:31 pm CST)
NOTE: This post contains spoilers for the upcoming Voyager episode 'Someone To Watch Over Me.' In case you want to avoid reading these spoilers, click here to move on to the next post.

Again, below you'll find a small synopsis of the episode. Click here to move on to the next episode.

The Star Trek Universe has posted an official synopsis of the upcoming Voyager episode 'Someone To Watch Over Me:'

While tutoring Seven in social graces, The Doctor finds himself falling for her; and Neelix commits a serious diplomatic error while working out a trade agreement with a cloistered alien race. Scott Thompson guest stars.

Chasing Chase
Christian (12:21 pm CST)
The Official Site of Chase Masterson (Leeta) has finally updated, providing us with some information on what Masterson is currently up to. At her news page, we learn that:

One of her new films is called 'Frozen,' and she co-stars in it together with Faith Ford. The film was shown recently at the Newport Beach Film Festival.

The '60 Minutes' Show is currently taping a segment on her other new film, Sammyville. The segment should air sometime in May, more info on that can be found at their web site.

Lastly, she'll be appearing at several conventions together with her DS9 co-stars. More info on that can be found here.

'Til Death Do Us Part' Video Clips
Christian (11:46 am CST)
SCIFI Headquarters has posted two video clips from DS9's 'Til Death Do Us Part,' giving you the chance to relive some of the best moments of the episode, including 'The Prophet's Business' and 'Kai's Vision.' More video clips will be coming soon, but for now you can find these two by going here.

More on Brooks/Alaimo 'Fight'
Christian (11:40 am CST)
Holly Kim Wilson, the charity coordinator for the Official Marc Alaimo Fan Club, just sent me a mail about the nose injury that Marc Alaimo suffered from due to an accident that occurred while they were filming a scene for DS9's final episode. Yesterday, Fan Club president Jeanne Fudala spoke to Marc Alaimo about the accident, and this is what she learned:

Yes, Avery DID ACCIDENTALLY knock Marc in the nose while filming a fight scene! Marc said that Avery felt really bad about it! They did take Marc to the ER, but he's mostly fine. No "nose cast" as Jeanne put it. And he's in no real pain.

Also they are NOT shutting down filming so Marc can recover! They resume tomorrow and Marc will be back on the set Wednesday the 21st!

'Strange Bedfellows' Trailer Transcription
Christian (11:39 am CST)
David Henderson at Psi Phi has just put up a transcription of the recent video preview of DS9's 'Strange Bedfellows,' the episode that will be airing sometime this week. The transcript is probably the most bandwidth-economical, as it lists everything there is to see and hear in the trailer. You can find the full transcript by going here, while the actual video trailers can still be found here at Vidiot's site.

Cynics Corner Reviews 'Til Death Do Us Part'
Christian (11:39 am CST)
David E. Sluss at the Cynics Corner has put up his review of DS9's 'Till Death Do Us Part' in his unique cynical style:

PLOT TWIST OF THE WEEK: I guess we are supposed to be impressed, alarmed -- something -- over the Breen joining the Dominion. I wasn't particularly impressed, and I can't imagine that anyone would be. They've basically been a throwaway race, with only a couple of fairly trivial appearances that I can recall ("By Inferno's Light" and ... rats, the episode in which Ziyal (R.I.P.) first appeared), and some namedropping here and there. There's certainly never been any indication before now that they are heavy hitters, but this week Worf tells us they are Very Dangerous, and that means that we the viewers should be Changing Our Shorts when we learn they've sided with the Dominion.

It would have been a lot more interesting if the Tholians had turned up as Dominion allies. Sure, they were a one-shot race, but they were shown to be genuinely dangerous in TOS's "The Tholian Web," and they have an air of mystery about them that the Breen, who are just schmucks wearing helmets, can't touch. In addition, New Trek has been dropping the Tholian name on a regular basis for ten years or more, and it would be nice to have it finally pay off.

New Sev Trek Cartoon
Christian (11:38 am CST)

Tim Lynch Reviews 'Til Death Do Us Part'
Christian (11:14 am CST)
Psi Phi has put up Tim Lynch's review of DS9's 'Til Death Do Us Part,' the second Final Chapter episode. He awards the episode with a 9, and has a very positive opinion of the episode:

All too often, and especially in the past year and a half, DS9 has had a maddeningly erratic track record when it came to combining multiple stories in one episode. In some cases, such as last year's "Rocks and Shoals", it's worked beautifully; in others, such as last year's finale "Tears of the Prophets", it's wound up feeling needlessly cluttered and scattershot rather than integrated and interesting. Given some of what I saw as filler last week (particularly the Worf/Ezri stuff), then, I had a few qualms about its sequel going in.

Fortunately, I needn't have worried. "'Til Death Do Us Part" isn't quite perfect, but it hits the mark in so many places that I'd be quite happy if the rest of the year runs on this level. "'Til Death Do Us Part" covers a huge amount of ground, involving characters as disparate as Admiral Ross, Kai Winn, and the female Founder, and actually makes sense out of, if not all of it, then certainly very close.

Shatner's 'Beautiful Dream' Over
Christian (11:13 am CST)
The William Shatner Connection is reporting that William Shatner (James T. Kirk) has put up his riding-school 'Belle Reve' up for sale:

William Shatner is selling Belle Reve. He is downsizing his holdings but will retain some of his best Saddlebreds. He will, of course, continue to ride in competitions. BELLE REVE means "beautiful dream" in French. Located in Woodford County, Kentucky, near the small town of Versailles, in the heart of Blue Grass horse country famous throughout the world of horses.

Mania Gossips About Trek
Christian (11:13 am CST)
Michelle Erica Green apparently also visits Trek spoiler sites, as she just put up a summary of the latest Trek gossip at AnotherUniverse's Daily Buzz. In the update, she talks about the Avery Brooks - Marc Alaimo 'fight,' the rumoured Voyager writer shake-up, and the Voyager season finale reshoot which is currently taking place, even when she mistakenly believes 'Relativity' is the season finale instead of 'Equinox.' Find it all here.

Mania Reviews 12-Inch Models
Christian (11:13 am CST)
Michelle Erica Green at AnotherUniverse's Mania Magazine just put up a new edition of Mania's weekly 'Toy Time' column, this time featuring a review of the latest 12-inch Trek action figures from Playmates:

With the recent announcement that Playmates intends to phase out its smaller Star Trek action figures and concentrate on the more detailed 9-inch and 12-inch models, the expense of collecting every variation on each character has risen significantly. It was easy to justify owning several Rikers - original ripped uniform, first-season uniform, altered to look like an alien, as his clone Tom, etc. - when each one cost a mere $5, but how many of the $25-$35 variety does one really need?

Well, in the case of the Star Trek: Insurrection action figures, the answer is: both. The 9-inch Insurrection figure is the first plastic Riker to appear without a beard, while the 12" variety is wearing the Love Boat-style dress uniform seen in the early scenes of the film. I had hoped to find the 9-inch model compelling because I love the way Jonathan Frakes looks without a beard, but this boy wonder doesn't look a thing like him - in fact, stick a Classic Trek uniform on the figure and you'd think it was Dr. McCoy when he was young.

On the other hand, the 12-inch model is the best likeness of Riker we've yet seen. When I heard Playmates was planning an ongoing 12-inch figure line, I expected them to be oversized, overpriced versions of the 9-inch models, but I have to admit that they're extremely impressive-looking. If you're only going to collect one size, I'm sorry to tell your checkbook that it's worth paying for the big ones.

Today on TV
Christian (11:12 am CST)
-Tonight at 7:00pm and at 11:00pm Eastern Time, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the third-season TOS episode 'The Lights Of Zetar.'

-Today at 17:00 GMT, British station Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Captive Pursuit,' which is also repeated at 23:30 GMT. At 20:00 GMT, they'll be showing a completely new episode, namely DS9's sixth-season finale 'Tears of the Prophets.' People who'd like to know more about UK Trek episodes should probably visit the Television Observation Unit of the Star Trek Collective, now available at a new URL and with a new design.

-Tomorrow morning at 00:05 CET, German television station Sat.1 will be repeating TNG's 'Das Schiff in der Flasche' (Ship in a Bottle). At 15:00 CET tomorrow, they're showing 'Aquiel.'

New at TrekSeek.com
Christian (11:12 am CST)
After receiving 7 new site submissions yesterday, TrekSeek is now up to 994 Star Trek sites - just six more to go before the magic 1000! Take a look at some of those new sites:

-The Bravo Fleet HQ. Featuring Bravo Fleet's 100 ships and starbases, academy, messages boards, and general information. Stop by and join their 1500 world-wide players in the fun and adventure!
-The The UK Unofficial ST:Voyager Home Page contains concise news, pictures, episode listings and comprehensive main cast and guest star listings, complete with selected film credits.

A look at all the other new sites can be found by going here.

Hello World!
Christian (11:12 am CST)
Well, the Trek BBS has become a lot more popular than I expected yesterday - we've already got more than 30 registered users. Unfortunately, not all of them have posted yet, but it is a start, I suppose. Again, we'd also really love to see you at the Trek BBS - registration isn't even necessary, you can just visit the forums and start posting!

Hope to see you all at the Trek BBS!

Extra DS9 Finale Info
Christian (1:04 pm CST)
NOTE: As most other updates today, this post contains spoilers for the DS9 finale, 'What You Leave Behind.' As usual, click here to move on to the next update.

AGAIN - Click here to be transported on to the next article.

Alex Peckover at Sci-Fi World just posted an interesting tidbit about the DS9 finale, which is in direct contrast with some of the rumours that have been floating around earlier:

Some news from the National Enquirer has been floating around the various spoiler sites on the net. These sites state that Sisko will die in the finale, only to join the Prophets in the wormhole. Is this true ? No. Sisko does not die in the finale.

No DS9 Movie Anytime Soon
Christian (12:56 pm CST)
Yesterday, we reported about a convention report in which René Auberjonois was quoted as saying it was 'absolutely sure' there would be DS9 movies being made. Unfortunately, now it seems this might not actually be the case, as TrekWeb just posted the following:

Rumors [that] circulated yesterday of Rene Auberjonois stating while at a convention that a DS9 movie is "absolutely certain" and that ways to preserve the set(s) were being looked into for this purpose, are unreliable. TrekWeb's sources say that the Promenade set has already been torn down. Sources say that although rebuilding the set(s) is possible yet expensive, the destruction of the set decreases the likelihood of a DS9 movie anytime soon.

'Tacking Into The Wind' Press Release
Christian (12:49 pm CST)
NOTE: This update contains rather major spoilers for the upcoming DS9 episode 'Tacking Into The Wind,' the 6th Final Chapter episode. In case you want to avoid reading these spoilers, click here to move on to the next article.

A small synopsis of the episode can actually be found below, so you might want to avoid reading it - click here to move on to the next article.

Mr. Video Productions just posted the official press release for DS9's 'Tacking Into The Wind.' As usual, the press release also contains a small synopsis of the episode:

While Kira reviews tactical plans with the Cardassian Resistance leaders, Odo returns from a mission, weakened by the disease that's ravaging his race. At the station, Bashir works through the night, trying to find a cure for Odo, while Sisko reproves Chancellor Gowron for reckless attacks which left General Martok injured. Back at the revel headquarters, Kira, eager to discover why the Federation's Klingon ships aren't damaged by Breen-Dominion technology, proposes stealing the enemy's weaponry so that the Federation can engineer a countermeasure.

Sisko Punches Dukat!
Christian (12:41 pm CST)
NOTE: The below post contains minor spoilers for the DS9 finale - click here to be transported to the next article.

Steve Krutzler at TrekWeb is reporting that the shooting of the DS9 finale has been delayed for a few days because of one of the most silly reasons imaginable:

TrekWeb.COM has learned that production has been extended for a few days on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine because of injuries to Marc Alaimo during a stunt fight scene. Avery Brooks threw a punch a little too deep and Marc's timing was off; Marc was hit in the nose by Avery. Marc's appearance is vital to the scenes in question, so those scenes will be filmed after he's had a few days to recover from his injuries. The final day of shooting now looks like April 27th, 1999.

Warp 11 Reviews 'Til Death Do Us Part'
Christian (12:27 pm CST)
Warp Eleven just put up Curt Holman's review of DS9's 'Til Death Do Us Part,' the second episode of the Final Chapter. The review mostly focuses on Gul Dukat, who Holman thinks is one of the most interesting characters of the entire series:

I find Dukat fascinating -- he might be the most complicated character in the entire Star Trek franchise, and Marc Alaimo's always been bold and witty in playing him. Sisko's description of him as "pure evil" at the end of Waltz always struck me as an oversimplification, since Dukat proved himself to be capable of doing good deeds (albeit for selfish motives) and for genuinely loving his daughter Ziyal. On "Do Us Part," he even gives Damar a pep-talk without ulterior motive (although I've always marveled at Dukat's ability to forgive the man who gunned down his daughter.) Dukat's character has gone through so many permutations over Deep Space Nine's run that he's hard to sum up quickly, but my take on him is this: he doesn't just want to be feared as a powerful man, but be loved as a great one. But he knows he can't be a great man without being a good one -- and he isn't.

'The Changing Face Of Evil' Trailers
Christian (12:21 pm CST)
Mr. Video Productions just posted the trailers for the upcoming DS9 episode 'The Changing Face Of Evil.' As usual, the trailers are available as MPEG-video clips, but also as MP3 Audio files and a collection of screenshots from the trailers. You can find the trailers by going here, though you should know that the preview contains some pretty major spoilers for the actual episode.

In case you're not able to connect to Vidiot's site, something which unfortunately happens far too often, the trailers are now also available at Star Trek Interactive! As Vidiot's trailers are of a slightly higher image quality, I'd suggest you check his site out first, but if you can't get a connection, you can also find the trailers here.

Naomi Wildman Appearing In Voyager Finale
Christian (11:16 am CST)
The Official Scarlett Pomers Homepage is reporting that young Scarlett Pomers will be appearing in Voyager's season finale ('Equinox') in her role of Naomi Wildman again. More information isn't available yet, but I'm guessing that it might be connected to the 'Equinox' reshoots that are currently taking place - with most of the regular actors gone, Pomers might have been one of the few people left they could contact. I'll be reporting more on this as I get to hear about it.

Today on TV
Christian (11:15 am CST)
-Today, British television channel Sky One will be showing DS9's 'The Quickening' at 16:00 GMT, followed an hour later by Voyager's 'Initiations.'

-Tomorrow at 15:00 CET, German television station Sat.1 will be showing TNG's 'Das Schiff in der Flasche' (Ship in a Bottle).

New at Trekseek.com
Christian (11:15 am CST)
Site submissions are slowly picking up again - yesterday 4 sites were added to TrekSeek, bringing us to a new total of 989 Star Trek links. Take a look at some of the best sites from those 4:

-Of course, our own Trek BBS, which promises to be the premier meeting place for Star Trek fans on the Internet. Here you'll be able to talk about anything you want related to Star Trek, from your thoughts on the latest DS9 and Voyager episodes, to what you think about a possible new Trek series, to your opinion on the hottest new Trek games around! If you want to talk Trek, the Trek BBS is where you need to be!
-Starbase Galorra is a free Star Trek RPG group. They play by e-mail and even have an academy for those of you who don't know how to sim. Join SB Galorra today, they're waiting for you!

All the other new sites that were added yesterday can be found by going here.

Hello World!
Christian (11:15 am CST)
Saleel and I are very excited about this - as you may have read above, we just opened the Trek BBS, a new system of discussion forums for online Trek fans. Here you'll be able to chat with your fellow fans about anything at all related to Star Trek, in a way that was never possible before. I personally am really looking forward to hearing from you - over the past few months TrekToday has mostly just been me engaging in one-way communications. I've received mails from several people about the site, but now there's actually a unique oppportunity for me to talk to all of you frequent TrekToday visitors - I'd absolutely love to hear from you soon at the Trek BBS.

Voyager Production Start Date
Christian (2:11 pm CST)
As a small tidbit which might interest you, some news about the beginning of filming for Voyager's season six recently made its way to the alt.tv.star-trek.voyager newsgroup. Insider '415Man' mentioned the following on the newsgroup:

Voyager production starts on June 8th. Post starts a month later, in Mid July.

Love Trek '99 Convention - Major DS9 News
Christian (1:59 pm CST)
Francis Deblauwe, Belgian Star Trek fan, just put up a report of the Love Trek '99 convention in Champaign, Illinois, which he attended in February. The report is very thorough, filled with lots of pictures, and even has some wonderful news on the chances for DS9 movies:

Great news: yes, there is a future in the Star Trek movies for Deep Space Nine. René had never believed in it but a big shot from Paramount told him recently that it is absolutely sure. It seems there are also discussions going on how to preserve the DS9 station set for future use.

Please do keep in mind that, even though René Auberjonois obviously is connected to the show, these news bits should be considered as rumours, and haven't been confirmed anywhere else yet.

Former Husband Of Joan Collins Dies
Christian (1:46 pm CST)
Last Wednesday, British entertainer Anthony Newley died after a lengthy bout with cancer, according to this article at CNN. Over the course of his 67 year-long life, Newley performed in many top productions, including the 1967 film version of 'Doctor Doolittle.' In his personal life, was married three times, including once to Joan Collins, the actress who guest-starred on the memorable TOS episode 'The City On The Edge Of Forever' as Edith Keeler.

More information on Newley's life (which in itself didn't have anything to do with Trek) can be found by going here. Thanks go out to Treknews.com's Jason Ellis for this.

TrekGaming Hosting BotF Chat
Christian (11:30 am CST)
TDawg just sent along word that the Trek Gaming Alliance will be hosting a 'Birth of the Federation' chat tonight at 11:30pm GMT / 6:30pm EST. The chat will be held on the IRC server at irc.webmaster.com, and will take place in the channel #trekgaming. People without IRC can also chat using the lovely Java applet the TrekGaming people have set up at http://chat.trekgaming.com/temp.shtml, so you should be able to attend it.

As an extra little surprise, TDawg also invited the 'Birth of the Federation' producer, Jeff Holzhauer, and several other of the team members, to attend the chat. More info on all of this can be found at the TrekGaming main page.

UK Star Trek Worries
Christian (11:22 am CST)
Things are not looking good for Trekkers in the United Kingdom. For months now, the BBC Voyager schedule has been extremely erratic, and at the rate they're currently progressing they won't even be able to finish season four before the millennium is over. In order to do something against this, Dave Arquati at the Star Trek Collective has launced the 'Treat Trek Fairly' campaign in the form of a petition you can sign online:

A letter will be sent to the BBC, by email and by post. Hopefully, we'll send it to Viewer and Listener Comments, and Points of View. Who knows, we could even get a newspaper to say something about the petition! But whatever happens, we'd like your name and email address on the letter as support for the cause. I've made it especially easy to send in your name and email address for inclusion - there's a form below. That's all we require - any additional information to send in is optional.

Shatner's 'Dark Victory' A Bestseller
Christian (11:22 am CST)
A news article from Reuters just appeared at Yahoo!, listing the current top 15 hardcover fiction bestsellers, according to the April 19 edition of 'Publishers Weekly.' The top spots are reserved for public favourites such as Steven King, Danielle Steel and John Grisham, but I was happy to notice that William Shatner's new novel 'Dark Victory' also made it to the top 15, albeit just at place 15. The full top 15 can be found by going here.

Starfleet Command Progress Report & Preview
Christian (11:22 am CST)
At Interplay's Starfleet Command forum, designer Erik Bethke just posted the following status update:

We are working very very hard on getting the first beta (lets call it alpha) in shape. So many things are getting in, finalized, looking cool - it is really a big morale push. The whole team is working on Sunday to help get this alpha out as soon as possible. We are still actively creating features and will continue through to about 5/15/99. Thus the alpha and early beta may have not include some features. For example, the Gorn interface is only about 15% complete, and fighters as a complete feature is about 30% complete.

Jonathan Frakes Chat Transcript
Christian (11:21 am CST)
The people at the Continuum have just put up the transcript of Thursday's chat with Jonathan Frakes (William T. Riker). Take a look at some of the most interesting parts of the chat:

Derek asks:
So did Insurrection do well at the box office?

Jonathan Frakes:
It's still doing well. I just returned from opening it in Spain and Brussels, where everyone had gone to Germany to see it. Months before.

Jordan G asks:
What is this DS9 Final Chapter thing? Is the show going off air?

Jonathan Frakes:
They've already ripped the sets down on Stage 17.

Katja asks:
We all know that the whole TNG cast really likes each other. Can you describe the very first day where you met your "crewmembers"at the set?

Jonathan Frakes:
I remember meeting Patrick Stewart outside the make up trailer for our first day of make-up tests. I almost said make-up and hair tests... but only some of us went to the hair trailer. He and I discussed the relative merits of cricket vs. baseball.

Today on TV
Christian (11:21 am CST)
-In the UK, Sky One is showing DS9's 'For The Cause' today at 16:00 GMT, followed an hour later by Voyager's 'Worst Case Scenario.'

-Tomorrow morning at 09:55 CET, German television station Sat.1 will be repeating Voyager's 'Der Zeitzeuge' (Living Witness).

-Here in the Netherlands, the AVRO will be showing Voyager's 'Retrospect' today at 18:36 CET on Channel One.

New at Trekseek.com
Christian (11:20 am CST)
2 new sites were submitted at TrekSeek yesterday, which certainly isn't bad when you consider that the site was down for most of the day. Take a look at one of those new sites:

-Trek Wars : The Science Fiction Webpage has images, stories, links, and humor on different scifi programmes.

More new sites can be found in our listing of last week's new sites.

Hello World!
Christian (11:20 am CST)
I just noticed on my 'Stardate Calendar' that tomorrow is listed as Avery Brooks' 'un-birthday.' Looks like the people at Pocket Books also liked 'Alice in Wonderland.' ;-)

Voyager Episode Spoilers
Christian (2:24 pm CST)
NOTE: This update contains major spoilers for several upcoming episodes from Voyager's fifth season. If you want to avoid reading these spoilers, click here to move on to the next article.

Warning - Most of the remaining fifth season episodes are thoroughly spoiled in this update - click here to avoid these spoilers.

WebTrek has posted lots of new info on several upcoming Voyager episodes. I've listed the most important info here below:

In 'Juggernaut,' which airs on the 26th of March, we'll see for the first time ever a sonic shower in action. Some lovely pictures that show *why* the characters actually need a shower can be found here.

A large portion of '11:59,' which airs on the 5th of May, actually takes place on Earth, even if it is the Earth of several centuries before Voyager. Also, [Janeway's ancestor] has a love interest played by Kevin Tighe (DeSoto from "Emergency").

It is now confirmed that 'Warhead,' the episode airing on the 19th of May, doesn't have anything to do with the season finale. In the episode, 'Voyager responds to an automated distress signal, and it turns out to be the bomb, which is "sentient" and feels it can only be satisfied if it blows up. Through some discovery, Voyager learns they can implant the personality of the bomb into the Doctor: they try to give the intelligence a body. It takes over the Doctor, holds Torres and Kim hostage, and threatens to destroy the ship if Janeway doesn't help him complete his mission to blow up some alien thing. Kim finds out that the launch was a mistake, but the bomb doesn't want to hear about it. He just wants to blow up his target.

Lastly, the season finale ('Equinox') is currently undergoing some reshoots. 'The B plot -- involving the Doctor being replaced by the Equinox' EMH who's ethical sub-routines have been removed to figure out a way to suck the energy out of the aliens -- is being dumped since it was believed to be too similar to "Warhead." The new scenes will, for the most part, center around Tom Paris.' Equinox is scheduled to air on the 26th of May.

Trek CCG Creators Interview
Christian (2:04 pm CST)
The Decipher web site is reporting that this week's edition of Radio Free Decipher contains an exclusive interview with Tom Braunlich and Rollie Tesh, game creators for Decipher. Fortunately, the people at Decipher also put up a transcript online, which includes the following quote of them talking about their early Decipher days:

Q: What Decipher products have you contributed to?
TOM: Decipher has done a lot of our games. Besides Pente, (which Decipher now sells), they did No Dice (a nice strategy game), Scratchees (scratch-off games), How To Host A Scavenger Hunt, plus the Star Trek and Star Wars CCGs. This past year we have done some more projects with them, including Girl Power, Animorphs, and some other stuff I guess we can't discuss yet.
ROLLIE: We also co-designed the Star Trek VCR game, which opened the door with Paramount for our future CCG relationship.

TrekWeb Reviews 'Penumbra'
Christian (1:56 pm CST)
TrekWeb just put up Steve Perry's review of DS9's 'Penumbra,' the first Final Chapter episode:

It's official - we're knee deep in arc. I wish we had more of it this season, because Penumbra was surprisingly involving. This is good stuff. Babylon 5 for awhile did this well, too... I'd argue that DS9 has the potential to do more, because it has so many things that need to be done that it's bound to make involving TV.

'Relativity' Synopsis Updated
Christian (1:16 pm CST)
You may recall that several days ago TrekToday (and several other Trek news sites) posted a synopsis of the upcoming Voyager episode 'Relativity,' which was sent to us by an anonymous source. Today, Timothy Verheecke, webmaster of Web Trek, posted some extra info on the episode he received from '415Man', who is apparently an insider at Paramount.

'415Man' makes some corrections to the already-known Relativity Synopsis, provides some extra information, and denies a few of the things happening in the old synopsis. You can read it all by going here and viewing the Web Trek synopsis, though a local copy is also available here at TrekToday.

New Sev Trek Competition Online
Christian (1:16 pm CST)
A new edition of the 'Write Your Own Sev Trek' Competition just went up at the Sev Wide Web:

This week, the competition deals with the mysterious disappearance of Lieutenant Joe Carey:

The disappearing Lieutenant Carey!
Voyager watches have surely noticed the mysterious disappearance of Lieutenant Carey after a recurring role in Season 1. He wasn't killed on an away mission or destroyed in a transporter accident. He just plain disappeared! Also, if you have a suggestion for a sevname for Lieutenant Joseph Carey, suggest it on the Ideas Board.

Scarlett Pomers Guest Starring On '7 Days'
Christian (1:15 pm CST)
The Official Scarlett Pomers Homepage just announced that Scarlett Pomers (Voyager, Naomi Wildman) will be making a guest appearance on Seven Days, the UPN science-fiction show that airs right before Voyager. The episode airs on Wednesday the 28th of April at 8:00pm, just an hour before Voyager's 'Someone To Watch Over Me' will be shown. More info on this can be found at the Official Scarlett Pomers Homepage .

'Counterpoint' Overnight Ratings 'Pretty Bad'
Christian (1:15 pm CST)
According to the Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database, Wednesday's 'Counterpoint' repeat was yet another Voyager episode that did pretty bad on the ratings front:

"Counterpoint" proved to be less than stellar in its second airing, falling to a 2.8 rating, 4 share. That should place the episode right at, or possibly below the lowest rating of the year to date, "Unforgettable"'s rerun, which earned a 2.2. That 2.8 overnight is down half a point from last week's "Infinite Regress" (3.3).

[...]

Again, this is a pretty bad rating, but it doesn't mean a whole lot. This episode, like "Infinite Regress" last week performed poorly in its first airing, and it looks to do so again. Next week, the ratings and the signifigance factor come back up with the rerun of "Timeless." National numbers will be posted when I recieve them.

In DS9 ratings news, the Nielsen Ratings Info Database is mentioning that the repeat of DS9's 'Once More Unto the Breach' finished out of the top 25, so ratings data for that episode won't come out until next Wednesday.

'Lives of Dax' Anthology Info
Christian (1:14 pm CST)
At the Star Trek Books bulletin board on the Pocket Books site, editor Marco Palmieri just gave some extra info on the upcoming 'Lives of Dax' anthology. 'Lives of Dax' will be a book with short stories dealing with each of Dax' nine hosts, and this is what Palmieri just announced:

The following is the author lineup for THE LIVES OF DAX anthology, by order of host:

Lela / Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Tobin / Jeffrey Lang
Emony / Michael Jan Friedman
Audrid / S.D. Perry
Torias / Susan Wright
Joran / Robert Simpson
Curzon / Steven Barnes
Jadzia / L.A. Graf
Ezri / Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens

GameSpot Previews Starfleet Command
Christian (1:14 pm CST)
Denny Atkin at GameSpot has just put up a new preview of the upcoming Interplay game Starfleet Command. The preview is pretty in-depth, and even provides us with some information on the game's storyline:

The overlying storyline focuses on the disappearance of the Organians, the all-powerful race that forced a treaty on the Klingons and Federation in the original Trek series. Not only does the Organians' disappearance open the door to lots of aggressive behavior throughout the galaxy, but it also causes some very weird occurrences, including rifts opening into other universes and the appearance of some big, mean space monsters.

The campaign is broken into six segments, one for each race. While each plays out individually, by the time you've finished, they'll form a coherent story that ties into the Organian disappearance. The version we played included only a few sample missions, but the story outlines we've seen are promising. Trek fans, for instance, will appreciate the Federation sequence, which combines elements of two of the best episodes of the original series: Mirror, Mirror and The Doomsday Machine. It seems that, in the mirror universe, Commodore Decker survived his run-in with the Planet Killer. Escaping from that universe's Spock, he travels to our universe, where he hopes to take control of the Planet Killers and conquer the Federation.

Today on TV
Christian (1:14 pm CST)
-In the UK, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Babel' at 17:00 GMT and at 23:30 GMT.

-In Germany, Sat.1 will be showing Voyager's 'Der Zeitzeuge' (Living Witness) tonight at 19:15 CET. At 03:20 CET tomorrow morning, they'll be repeating TNG's 'Geheime Mission auf Celtris Drei, Teil 1' (Chain of Command, Part One).

New at Trekseek.com
Christian (1:12 pm CST)
Even with the site being down for most of the day, we still had one site submission at TrekSeek yesterday, namely: -The Borg Collective, which is a site pertaining to all things Borg. Contains pics, lists, an extensive history of the Borg, and more.

If you want to see more new sites, I suggest you check out the listing of last week's new sites.

Hello World!
Christian (1:10 pm CST)
Phew. It's certainly been a busy few hours for us. This afternoon, I logged on to the net and wanted to visit our Trek search engine TrekSeek. I was greeted by the lovely sight of... complete nothingness! Naturally, I nearly fainted, thinking about all the other people who had visited the site for nothing.

After doing some investigating, it turned out TrekSeek had been temporarily taken down because of the last problems I had ever expected - the site was too popular! Apparently, our 'jump.cgi' script, which actually sends you on to the sites you want to visit from TrekSeek, was being used so many times it used up nearly all the CPU resources of the server TrekSeek resides on, so the site had to be taken down.

Naturally, we weren't too thrilled with this, so we quickly put up a temporary fix and were able to get the site re-opened. Our sincere apologies for all of you who tried to visit the site over the past 12 hours or so - hopefully it won't be happening again. An extra apology should also go out to Jamahl Epsicokhan, whose Star Trek Hypertext is hosted at TrekSeek, and therefore was also down today.

Again, we're really sorry this happened. Fortunately, we're almost completely certain it won't be happening again, so go pay the site a visit!

TV Zone Features Trek Counselors
Christian (1:42 pm CST)
The May issue of cult television magazine TV Zone features interviews with the actresses playing the two counselors in Star Trek - Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi) and Nicole deBoer (Ezri Dax). Unfortunately, only a short description is available of what the deBoer interview has to offer you:

New girl Nicole de Boer chats about joining the show for its seventh and final season, and why she was so amazed at the fan reaction to her getting the job.

Ted Witt Reviews 'Till Death Do Us Part'
Christian (1:21 pm CST)
Ted Witt just posted his review of DS9's 'Till Death Do Us Part' to Psi Phi's DS9 Discussion Area. He certainly didn't like the episode as much as 'Penumbra:'

Although I liked this episode, I don't feel that it was as good or as interesting as Penumbra. Its main flaw is that it seemed much more choppy with too many short scenes and too many secondary characters getting the focus. The result is the episode lacks a lot of the suspense, build up, and emotional wallop that last week began. That's not to say it wasn't interesting and didn't have its moments--but, in a single word, the episode was "fragmented." I fear that the writers of DS9 have done such a marvellous job of adding layer upon layer to an epic story, allowing them to build, change, develop, and surprise successfully over the last seven years, that now, as everything is coming to an end, they have too many layers to deal with.

SCIFI HQ Penumbra Clips Available
Christian (11:04 am CST)
SCIFI Headquarters has just put up six new clips from DS9's 'Penumbra,' the first episode of the Final Chapter. I'm not sure about the legality of this, but they offer you the chance to relive some of the best moments from the episode, including Sisko choosing Jake as best man and Ezri leaving to search for Worf. You can find the videos here.

DS9 Finale Script Info
Christian (11:01 am CST)
NOTE: Major spoilers for 'What You Leave Behind,' the DS9 finale, are contained in this update. In case you want to avoid reading these spoilers, click here to move on to the next article and still be able to enjoy the episode without knowing anything about it.

Again, click here to be transported to the next update - there really are some major spoilers to be found below.

Glen at Ain't It Cool News has posted some extra info on the DS9 finale. First of all, he mentions the TrekWeb reprint of the National Enquirer's finale preview, and Glen adds to this that the finale probably won't appeal to everyone:

I believe many Babylon 5 fans will draw strong parallels to that series' closing episode ("Sleeping in Light"). Also, there is clearly a strong contingent of fans who are expecting to see an apocalyptic attack on DS9. There is a gigantic, balls-to-the-wall space battle in the finale, but it takes place no where close to DS9.

Does "What You Leave Behind" anihilate the possibility of following-up the series with TV movies or a feature film? No. It's a solid script with some magnificent moments, but this last show might be characterized as a bit too "safe" when all is said and done - by viewers expecting a little more "oomph". And - to dispel another rumor which has been hanging out there lately - no, Worf does not go back to the Enterprise E in the series' finale. He & O'Brien get new (unrelated) jobs though, but neither is on Enterprise. They are jobs which could...reasonably...re-insert them into the Next Generation or Deep Space Nine mythos if needed at a later Date.

Thanks go out to Gustavo Leao for pointing me to the Ain't It Cool News-report.

Voyager Special FX Firm Is Hiring
Christian (11:00 am CST)
According to a report at the Den's Daily Sci-Fi, Foundation Imaging is currently looking for talented people to help them with their 'Starship Troopers' series:

If you've got major talent in the realm of computer art and animation, here's a chance of a lifetime for you. Foundation Imaging, a computer graphics/effects company, which has done work for shows like Voyager and Babylon 5, is looking for people to model and animate the new Starship Troopers TV series.

Mania Reviews 'Till Death Do Us Part'
Christian (11:00 am CST)
Michelle Erica Green at AnotherUniverse's Mania Magazine has put up her review of DS9's 'Till Death Do Us Part,' the second episode of the Final Chapter. At first, she doesn't seem very impressed with the episode:

So the mysterious Breen drop in for a guest appearance in the Deep Space Nine final arc. I admit I don't find this as satisfying as I might have found a more regular enemy - the Borg spring to mind, since I wonder whether they couldn't have assimilated the Great Link and might therefore pose no threat to them - but I guess there needed to be some new infusion of blood to keep the Dominion as a viable threat to the Federation, and here it is.

Jonathan Frakes Chat
Christian (10:59 am CST)
This evening at 06:30pm Pacific Time, the Continuum will be hosting a chat with Jonathan Frakes (William T. Riker):

Chat with Jonathan Frakes ("Riker" on ST:TNG) about his Star Trek experiences and his upcoming UPN project Dying to Live.

George Takei Stars In Interactive TV Series
Christian (10:59 am CST)
George Takei (Sulu) will soon be starring in an interactive television series made available exclusively over the Internet, according to a new press release from Electrifier, Inc. The company, which is a 'provider of rich media solutions for the Internet,' has developed a program that will be used to create full-screen interactive video sequences, to be used for interactive television via the Internet.

One of the first companies that will be using this new technology is Star Network, who will be launcing their first series 'Star Festival' in May:

StarNetwork will premiere in May on MediaOne RoadRunner, one of the leading Broadband ISP's in the country. The series follows the journey of a high tech PDA, dropped in Japan by a Japanese-American Professor -- played by Star Trek's George Takei -- and retrieved over the Internet by Megan, a high school student who shares her discovery via her website.

CNN Previews 'Birth of the Federation'
Christian (10:58 am CST)
The people at CNN have just posted a preview of the upcoming turn-based strategy game 'Birth of the Federation,' which is scheduled to 'go gold' today. The preview is basically a 'first look' at the game, and doesn't seem to be held back by any actual knowledge of the game itself:

In BOF, players can choose to play one of five major powers: the Federation, Romulans, Klingons, Ferengi, or Cardassians. And you'll be able to take full advantage of each race's specific attributes as you build your empire. Build up a totalitarian Klingon empire devoid of any diplomacy, if you wish. Or establish a Ferengi trading coalition, with the hopes of one day buying off your enemies.

The possibilities are endless; you may even feel some strange desire to play as the Romulans, building a cowardly armada of cloaked starships. Who knows? In your hands, the Romulans might actually be trustworthy.

Today on TV
Christian (10:58 am CST)
-At 7:00pm and at 11:00pm Eastern Time, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the third-season TOS episode 'That Wich Survives.'

-At 17:00 GMT, British station Sky One will be showing DS9's 'A Man Alone,' which is also being repeated at 23:30. At 18:00 GMT, the BBC will be showing DS9's 'Vortex,' also from the first season. Thanks go out to the Television Observation Unit of the Star Trek Collective for this last bit of info.

-Tomorrow morning at 01:40 CET, German station Sat.1 will be repeating TNG's 'Geheime Mission auf Celtris Drei, Teil 1' (Chain of Command, Part One). At 15:00 tomorrow, they're showing the conclusion.

New at Trekseek.com
Christian (10:57 am CST)
Yesterday TrekSeek received 5 new site submissions, bringing us up to 981 Star Trek Links. Take a look at some of those new sites:

-The Star Fleet Command Network brings you info on the upcoming Interplay game 'Starfleet Command,' apparently not realizing that Star and Fleet shouldn't be two separate words. This site keeps up with the news, information and pictures.
-The The Unofficial Star Trek: Voyager Home Page contains concise news, pictures, episode listings and comprehensive main cast and guest star listings, complete with selected film credits.

All the other new sites can be found by going here.

Hello World!
Christian (10:57 am CST)
Just so that you all know, after posting the first batch of news items I'll be going away for a few hours, so expect the second batch at around 19:30 CET / 12:30 CST.

Win The Insurrection Soundtrack
Christian (11:43 am CST)
Star Trek Central has just launched a new competition where you can win a free copy of the Star Trek Insurrection soundtrack - all you have to do is enter your name and e-mail address, and you're set and ready to go. The competition will end somewhere in May, so go to the competition page now and maybe you'll win a copy of Jerry Goldsmith's fantastic soundtrack!

Starfleet Command Chat Announced
Christian (11:31 am CST)
The people at Interplay have just announced a new Starfleet Command-themed live chat, to be held on Tuesday, the 27th of April:

The latest in our series of monthly chats for Star Trek: Starfleet Command. These are usually a lot of fun :) If you're at all a Trekkie, a strategy gamer, or an old-time Starfleet Battles player, you should check this out too.

Star Trek RPG Sourcebook Appears
Christian (11:24 am CST)
The latest edition of Kenneth Hite's 'Out of the Box' column has just gone up at AnotherUniverse's Mania Magazine. In the column, he takes a look at some of the latest RPG releases, including a new sourcebook for his own 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' RPG:

Hardbacked and a hard time coming, The Price of Freedom: the United Federation of Planets Sourcebook (157 page, full color hardback, $25) for the Star Trek: The Next Generation Roleplaying Game has some nice stuff in it, if I say so myself. And if I say so myself, it's because I developed the first four and a half or so chapters, and wrote many bits and pieces therein. There's a bunch of new overlays, background histories (a whole section on the UFP Merchant Marine), 15 new ships, tech, stuff on the Son'a, etc. from Star Trek IX and all manner of Trekly fun.

Jeff Mariotte Interview Updated
Christian (11:14 am CST)
Because we liked it so much, we've given Monday's interview with Jeff Mariotte a permanent place in the Longer Articles section. Even if you've already read it, it's still worth checking out again, as I've added a few extra comments from Jeff to the interview, including this 'current progress report:'

I'm already soliciting stories from a variety of writers, and reading unsolicited stories from others. These will go through our approval process (assuming I approve them, of course). Once approved, I'll be lining up art teams to draw them, arranging for productions and shepherding them through to the printing process.

Robert Picardo Joins Planetary Society
Christian (11:08 am CST)
Although this news is already over a month old, I don't think I've seen it mentioned yet. According to CARPE, the Central Alliance of Robert Picardo Enthusiasts, Robert Picardo (The Doctor) recently joined the Advisiory Council of the Planetary Society:

Robert Picardo recently received (and accepted!) an invitation to become a member of the Advisory Council of the Planetary Society. The Society was founded in 1980 by Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman to encourage the exploration of our solar system and the search for extraterrestrial life. It's a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization, funded by dues and donations from individuals around the world. The Society encourages all spacefaring nations to explore other worlds, supports educational activities about the exploration of the solar system and the search for extraterrestrial life, and supports and funds innovative and novel research and development projects that can seed future projects of planetary exploration.

Kristine Kathryn Rusch Chat
Christian (11:08 am CST)
The Sci-Fi Channel will soon be organising a panel discussion with some of the nominees for the prestigious Nebula awards. One of the participants will be Kristine Kathryn Rusch, who was nominated for her novelette 'Echea.' For us Trek fans, she might perhaps be more familiar as the co-author of more than a dozen Trek novels, together with her husband Dean Wesley Smith. For more on what the chat will bring you, take a look here.

Also, yesterday they had a live chat with, among others, Vonda N. McIntyre, who has also published several Trek novels. Sorry for not reporting this in time, but fortunately a transcript will be up in a few days here.

Bikini Magazine Interviews Nicole deBoer
Christian (11:07 am CST)
According to 'Beer Hound' in the rec.arts.startrek.fandom newsgroup, the May issue fo Bikini Magazine features an exclusive interview and photo shoot with Nicole deBoer (Ezri Dax). More info on the magazine itself (including a cover picture of the current magazine, so you know what to look for), can be found at the Bikini web site.

The Cynic Reviews 'Penumbra'
Christian (11:07 am CST)
David E. Sluss at the Cynics Corner has just put up his review of DS9's 'Penumbra.' Unlike most other reviewers, he doesn't believe the Sisko-Yates relationship worked well:

CHEMISTRY OF THE WEEK: None that I can find, either in the Ezri/Worf tryst, or the Sisko/Yates engagement. The latter relationship has never really worked, in my opinion, largely due to acting on the part of both Brooks and Johnson, and although this episode was better than many in this regard, it still doesn't play. Just look at that kiss; they act like they can't stand each other!

Infinite Regress Ratings 'Decent'
Christian (11:07 am CST)
The Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database has just put up the final ratings report for last week's rerun of Voyager's 'Infinite Regress.' The episode did a lot better than expected:

"Infinite Regress" did not perform as poorly as I suspected it would from the overnight ratings, earning a 2.6 rating, 5 share. That places it just below the average rerun rating this year of about a 2.7, but doesn't place it below the lowest-rated rerun this year, "Unforgettable," which only mustered up a 2.2. This 2.6 rating is down from last year's first-run "Vis a Vis," which managed a 3.1, and also down from the last stint of reruns in which both episodes turned in a 2.7.

[...]

As indicated in the overnight ratings post for this episode, these ratings don't mean a whole lot for the rest of the season. Next week is slightly more important and "Timeless"'s rerun will be quite signifigant. If anything, this rerun of "Infinite Regress" shows that the audience as far as reruns goes hasn't fallen off much, if at all, this season. Considering the fact that "Infinite Regress" was one of this years' worst performances in its first airing, this rating is decent.

Jeri Ryan 'Late Show With Craig Kilborn' Video
Christian (11:06 am CST)
Sisko at the SCIFI Headquarters has just put up a 4.5 MB video of Jeri Ryan's appearance on the 'Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn:'

It is Real Video G2 and since it was a long interview (8 minutes) I made it at 80KBPS, 160x120 and it is 4.5 MB. If I did the video at my regular quality the file size would have been about 12 MB or more.

Alternatively, if you just want to see pictures of Jeri Ryan, the Official Jeri Lynn Ryan Homepage has just put up twenty-three images of her appearance at the show. According to the site, she talked about 'her recent TV Guide cover, Duran Duran and the very early days of [the official Jeri Lynn Ryan homepage.]' You can find the images by going here.

Ordover Posts Q&A At Trek Forums
Christian (11:05 am CST)
Because of technical difficulties, John Ordover's Q&A page is currently not functioning. Fortunately, the Star Trek novel editor at Pocket Books just posted a whole series of responses at Pocket's Star Trek Books forum, answering all the questions that were asked over the past week or so. Take a look at some of the highlights:

Question:
The producers of DS9 have stated that the series finale will have a finality to it that TNG did not. (Nothing really "ended" for TNG). Two questions: 1) Do you already have access to the series finale story? 2) Will you be allowed to continue the story of the DS9 characters and situations no matter what the ending brings us?

Answer:
I can answer two but not one: We will be allowed to continue the story of DS9 after the finale, just like we were for TNG. But how we will deal with the situation we're left with at the end remains to be decided.

Question:
I've noticed there's seems to be a pool of writers that you seem to draw from. Is this because these are proven writers with good track records or are there very few good product as far as writing goes ?

Answer:
It takes a special talent to write well within a shared universe. We're always looking for new voices, but we'll keep going back to those who can handle it well.

Today on TV
Christian (11:05 am CST)
-In the US, UPN will be repeating Voyager's 'Counterpoint' tonight at 9:00pm Eastern / Pacific Time. Take a look at what the episode has in store for you, courtesy of the official Star Trek Continuum:

As the U.S.S. Voyager rescues two families of telepathic alien refugees from the Devore Imperium, they are intercepted by a Devore squadron and boarded by inspectors searching for the defectors. Soon Kashyk, the lead Devore officer pleads with Janeway to grant him asylum.

-In Germany, Sat.1 will be repeating TNG's 'Datas Hypothese' (The Quality Of Life) tomorrow morning at 02:20 CET. At 15:00 tomorrow, they're showing 'Geheime Mission auf Celtris Drei, Teil 1' (Chain of Command, Part One)

New at Trekseek.com
Christian (11:04 am CST)
Unfortunately, no more than 3 sites were added to TrekSeek yesterday, still bringing us to a total of 979 Star Trek links. Take a look at what two of those new sites promise to bring you:

-The Tom Paris Adjective Page is made by some seriously obsessive people - here you'll find descriptions of all of Tom Paris' bodyparts, as well as lots of Tom Paris pictures.
-Fondazione Vulcaniana tells you all you will ever need to know about Vulcan and the Vulcans. The site is in Italian, though, so most of us probably won't find it very useful.

For a look at 'all' the other new sites in our database, click here.

Hello World!
Christian (11:03 am CST)
I just noticed this story at the Sci-Fi Channel's news service which made me very excited - apparently Ridley Scott will be directing the movie version of Isaac Asimov's novel 'The End of Eternity.' I *so* desperately want to see that movie - 'Blade Runner' is still my all-time favourite movie, and 'The End of Eternity' was one of the best books Asimov ever wrote. Let's hope the movie will be finished soon - I can't wait to see it!

Robert Picardo Convention Report
Christian (1:26 pm CST)
soundcage just posted a small convention report to the rec.arts.startrek.current newsgroup in which she/he talks about last weekend's I-CON 18 convention, where Robert Picardo also appeared.

According to soundcage, Picardo made two very interesting comments at the convention. First of all, he said he 'had a feeling' Voyager would be returning to the Alpha Quadrant 'sometime next season.' Secondly, he said that since DS9 will be ending soon, Paramount will 'probably' launch a new Trek series in 2000. Even though Picardo obviously hasn't been told everything, as an actor he has probably picked up a few hints from the writers, so this is still rather interesting.

Tim Lynch Reviews 'Penumbra'
Christian (12:49 pm CST)
Tim Lynch's review of DS9's 'Penumbra,' the first Final Chapter episode, has just gone up at Psi Phi:

A more appropriate title for "Penumbra" might be "A Tale of Two Romances"; the three successors to "Penumbra" were supposed to be titled "Umbra", "Eclipse", and "Emergence", but since those three have changed "Penumbra" itself is a somewhat meaningless title. "A Tale of Two Romances" neatly sums up most of the episode, dealing as it does with the continuance of the Sisko/Kasidy romance and the probable beginnings of a Worf/Ezri one. Both have their charms, but only one really came off as real to me when all was said and done.

Hollywood Museum Honours Star Trek
Christian (12:39 pm CST)
This comes from the last source I would ever have expected to get Star Trek news from, but the 'General Daily,' my local Dutch newspaper, is reporting that the new 'Hollywood Entertainment Museum' currently has a special Star Trek attraction. Take a look at a translation of part of the article:

Star Trek's special effects aren't just explained in a very clear way, they are also made visible in a very imaginative way. If you wish, you can be 'beamed' to the cockpit of the U.S.S. Enterprise, where you can then set a course for the ship. It is surprising to experience how something that looks cheap in the studio, can be made to look completely natural using the camera and the right lighting.

New Playmates Schedule Available
Christian (12:26 pm CST)
The Raving Toy Maniac has just received an updated toy release schedule from the people at Playmates, who actually produce the toys. For the most, the release dates for the 9" and 12" figures remain pretty much the same, though some of them have been delayed by a few weeks. There is a piece of sad news included in it, though:

The 12" Electronic Profiles figures have been put on "hold." Presumably, Playmates is seeking out additional retailer support for this line before going forward with it.

Jammer Reviews 'Penumbra'
Christian (12:17 pm CST)
Jamahl Epsicokhan at Star Trek: Hypertext has just finished his latest 'Jammer's Review,' this time looking at DS9's 'Penumbra:'

As we head into the final stretch of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the commonly adopted name for this major story arc, "Deep Space Nine: The Final Chapter," looks to be an appropriate one. With "Penumbra," we can see the latest of the groundwork being paved.

And if "Penumbra" is any indication, it's going to be tough to judge these early episodes as individuals until we know more--maybe a lot more. I liked "Penumbra." I wasn't riveted by a lot of it, but I'm more than intrigued about where these elements will take us.

Unreliable Rumours Department
Christian (12:09 pm CST)
Thanks to the Trekzone Network's own Saleel Majeed, we bring you this week's Sky & Channel 5 Star Trek Teletext headlines:

It's interesting to see how all the wild rumours that appeared on the net over the past few weeks all appear in these headlines - they are also all unconfirmed or even blatantly untrue, a fact the people organising this obviously chose to ignore. As usual, don't believe any of these headlines until they are confirmed elsewhere - the only reason the page exists is to let people call an expensive phone number.

New 'Rules of Netquisition' Contest Announced
Christian (12:08 pm CST)
Psi Phi's David Henderson sends along word of the new 'Rules of Netquisition' Contest:

Psi Phi is pleased to announce the 1999 Rules of Netquisition Contest. Starting April 13, 1999, the fifth and probably final annual Netquisition contest will be accepting entries. Prizes, including copies of the "DS9 Technical Manual", "Legends of the Ferengi", and "The 34th Rule" will be awarded to the top three winners.

Rules will be accepted through May 1, 1999, and voting by visitors to Psi Phi will take place between May 3 and May 30, 1999.

Digital Streams Creates New Trek CGI
Christian (12:07 pm CST)
The people at Digital Streams have just put up a new, completely re-worked version of the Original Series' famous opening sequence. The opening sequence is part of their re-worked version of 'The Doomsday Machine,' in its original version one of Classic Trek's most famous episodes:

"The Doomsday Machine" is one of the classic episodes of the original Star Trek series. As part of our 1994 demo presentation to Paramount, we enhanced that treasured episode with state-of-the art special effects.

According to The Lensman at the TrekWeb message board (which is where I learned about this), this opening clip was actually created last year, when Digital Streams re-did the full episode. You can download the picture at the Digital Streams download area, which is where you'll also find some other clips from 'The Doomsday Machine' which were already put up earlier.

After downloading the video, I have to say it is indeed looking impressive, though not as good as it could have been - what happened, for instance, to the bright colours of the planets? Why did Digital Streams have to use boring grey? In any case, you can see for yourself how the new opening sequence turned out by going here.

Jonathan Frakes Chat On Thursday
Christian (12:06 pm CST)
This Thursday, the Continuum will be hosting a live chat with Jonathan Frakes (William T. Riker), director of the latest two Star Trek movies. In the chat, he'll be talking about 'his Star Trek experiences and his upcoming UPN project Dying to Live,' according to the promotional info. The chat begins at 06:30pm Pacific Time, but advance questions can already be submitted here. Meanwhile, the Continuum has also announced a new chat with Dan Curry:

Dan Curry
Thursday , April 29th, 1999 06:30 PM (PT)

Chat with Dan Curry (Visual Effects Producer on ST:TNG, ST:DS9, ST:VOY).

James Darren Goes To Hollywood
Christian (12:06 pm CST)
Or Planet Hollywood, at least. According to the Continuum, actor James Darren (DS9, Vic Fontaine) will be attending a press event at the Planet Hollywood restaurant in Atlantic City. The event will take place this Thursday, April 15, at 1:00pm Eastern Time. I haven't got a clue why exactly he'll be there, but as soon as I hear more I'll be reporting about it here.

Today on TV
Christian (12:05 pm CST)
-At 7:00pm and at 11:00pm Eastern Time, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the third-season TOS episode 'Let That Be Your Last Battlefield.'

-Following yesterday's showing of 'Emissary, Part One,' today Sky One is showing 'Emissary, Part Two' (surprise, surprise!). The episode airs at 17:00 GMT, and is repeated at 23:30 GMT.

-Tomorrow morning at 2:20 CET, Sat.1 is repeating TNG's 'Eine Handvoll Datas' (A Fistful of Datas). Tomorrow at 15:00 CET, they're showing TNG's 'Datas Hypothese' (The Quality Of Life)

New at Trekseek.com
Christian (12:05 pm CST)
Incredibly, we're now up to 974 Star Trek links at TrekSeek - we might still reach the magic 1000 before the weekend! Take a look at some of the 10 (!) sites that were added yesterday:

-The The Starship Builder's Guide offers a behind-the-scenes look at the design and construction of Hollywood science-fiction studio miniatures as well as how-to information on designing and building your own replicas of these fantastic models. SBG offers the most in-depth reference on the TOS Enterprise on the Internet, plus the Movie Enterprise and Excelsior!
-The SolarFlare Forums form one of the older Star Trek communities on the Internet. [Note - you can still read our article looking at the recent troubles regarding the SF forums by going here.
-The Sci-Fi Café is a site I actually should have mentioned yesterday already, but due to a database error I was unable to. Apparently, the original cast of Star Trek are opening a theme restaurant "Sci-Fi Cafe". Their website has informtion on this, but also sells 8000 hard to find sci-fi products.

A listing of all the other new sites can be found by going here.

Hello World!
Christian (12:05 pm CST)
Rain is a very bad thing. Lots of rain is even worse. Lots of rain combined with a newly discovered hole in the sole of your left shoe is the worst thing imaginable in this world. Ugh.

Wildstorm Comics Editor Speaks Out
Christian (12:53 pm CST)
As you may know, a few months ago WildStorm obtained the Trek comics license via its parent company DC Comics. Recently, WildStorm's Trek editor Jeff Mariotte was kind enough to answer a few questions about WildStorm's plans with its Trek line.

First of all, I asked him about the frequency at which WildStorm will be publishing their Trek comics:

The plan is to have something out every month -- either a Prestige Format one-shot or an issue of a miniseries. Also, the minis will be collected into Trade paperbacks after a while. Some months there will be more than one Trek book, but there shouldn't be any month after November in which there are none.

German Trek Index Opens Trek Shop
Christian (12:26 pm CST)
The German Star Trek Index (DSi) has just opened the DSi Shop, its new online Trek store. As of today, you can buy no less than 500 articles in 36 different categories directly from the Index itself, with more to come as they have time to develop it further. If you live in Germany or somewhere close to that, this is probably the best choice currently available for you - click here to start spending some latinum :-).

Cinescape Spoils 'Til Death Do Us Part'
Christian (12:16 pm CST)
Michael Marek at Cinescape Online has put up his new spoiler-packed preview of DS9's 'Til Death Do Us Part:'

The second episode of the Deep Space Nine series finale story arc came off the satellite this weekend. Here is a brief look at the story action:

Jeri Ryan Magazine Scans Available
Christian (12:10 pm CST)
The Official Jeri Lynn Ryan Homepage has posted several new photos of Jeri Ryan which they scanned in from the latest editions of the British 'Star Trek Monthly Magazine' and the new American 'Star Trek: The Magazine.' Although there are a few new images, most of them are either old publicity shots or stills from 'Dark Frontier.' Still, they're well worth a look - find the pictures from 'ST Monthly' here, and the 'ST Magazine' pics here. Thanks go out to Gustavo Leao for reporting this.

As a reminder, don't forget that Jeri Ryan will be appearing tonight on the Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn.

Vidiot 'Strange Bedfellows' Trailers
Christian (11:51 am CST)
Mr. Video Productions has put up his version of the trailers for DS9's 'Strange Bedfellows,' the third Final Chapter episode. As usual, the trailer is available both as regular MPEG-video files and as MP3-audio files, while a collection of high-quality still images is also available. The trailer can be found by going here, but be warned, it does contain several major spoilers for the episode itself.

Robert Duncan McNeill In 'Early Edition'
Christian (11:16 am CST)
Becky just sent me a mail informing me that Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris) will soon be guest starring in an episode of the CBS drama series 'Early Edition:'

At a Trek convention on March 28, Robert Duncan McNeill said that he would be guest starring in an episode the CBS television series "Early Edition". He said that they would be shooting the episode that week (of March 29), but that he didn't know when exactly the episode would air.

'When It Rains' Press Release
Christian (11:15 am CST)
NOTE: This update contains major spoilers for DS9's 'When It Rains.' If you want to avoid reading these spoilers, click here to move on to the next post.

Again, click here to be transported to the next post and still be able to enjoy the episode... don't say I didn't warn you! Mr. Video Productions has posted the official press release for the upcoming DS9 episode 'When It Rains,' the 5th episode of DS9's Final Chapter. As usual, it also contains a short synopsis of the episode:

Eager to aid Damar's rebel movement on his homeworld against the Dominion, Sisko orders Kira toput her antipathy for the Cardassian aside and train his staff in resistance tactics. Bashir asks Odo to assist in his medical project by donating the Changeling-equivalent of a skin sample. On Bajor, Kai Winn studies the forbidden text of the Kosst Amojan to learn how to release the evil Pah-wraiths. Hoping to ease Cardassian sentiment against the Bajoran Kira, Sisko givers her a Starfleet commission and uniform.

Shatner Attends French Film Festival
Christian (11:15 am CST)
According to the William Shatner Connection, famed Trek actor William Shatner (James T. Kirk) is currently attending a film festival in Biarritz, France. Although not much more information is available at the moment, the site is able to report he's there as 'Honorary Jury Chairman.' The event lasts from today until Saturday, the 12th of April.

Klingon Academy Movie
Christian (11:14 am CST)
The people at GameFan Online have posted an exclusive Klingon Academy movie, which shows some actual gameplay from Interplay's upcoming Klingon Academy game, currently scheduled for a Fall 1999 release:

Because they love you, Interplay has fixed GameFan up with an exclusive, early MPG movie file of their upcoming PC shooter, Star Trek: Klingon Academy. The video does not contain audio, though it does give you a little taste of just how good the game will be, graphically.

Voyager Guest Appearances
Christian (11:14 am CST)
Michelle Erica Green at AnotherUniverse's Daily Buzz is reporting about two actors which will soon be making an appearance on Star Trek: Voyager, namely Scott Thompson of the The Larry Sanders Show and John Savage of the The Deer Hunter:

Thompson guest stars on April 28th ['Someone To Watch Over Me' - TT] in an episode directed by series regular Robert Duncan McNeill, playing the ambassador of a monastic company. Savage appears in the season finale May 26th [Equinox] as a fellow Federation officer stranded in the Delta Quadrant.

Today on TV
Christian (11:14 am CST)
-Tonight, the Sci-Fi Channel is showing the third-season TOS episode 'Whom Gods Destroy' at 7:00pm and at 11:00pm.

-In the UK, Sky One apparently decided to start showing DS9's first season yet another time, as today at 17:00 GMT they're broadcasting 'Emissary, Part One.' The episode also repeats at 23:30 GMT.

-Tomorrow morning at 00:05 CET, German television station Sat.1 is repeating TNG's 'Erwachsene Kinder' (Rascals). At 15:00 tomorrow, they're showing 'Eine Handvoll Datas' (A Fistful of Datas)

New at Trekseek.com
Christian (11:14 am CST)
Another six sites were added to TrekSeek yesterday, bringing us to a total 965 Star Trek links. As usual, here's a look at some of yesterday's new sites:

-The Core is the ultimate resource for Star Trek webmasters. Everything from free e-mail and software, images and sound files to tutorials and tips and the Top 50 Trek sites. Th site incorporates The Star Trek Animated GIF Archive. If you're a Trek webmaster you should certainly take a look at the site - I found it very interesting.
-I'd say the Star Trek Banner Exchange is probably a little bit less useful, but still worth checking out if you run a Trek site.

More new sites can be found by going here.

Hello World!
Christian (11:13 am CST)
Ironically, we actually managed to get more visitors than usual yesterday, despite the IP address change. The reason for this is probably that I posted about the problems at a few Trek forums, which in turn inspired many people to visit the site for the first time ever. Maybe we should be switching IP addresses every week or so... I wonder how popular we'd get then ;-).

David Reineke at Star Trek Interactive! has put up the new trailers of the upcoming DS9 episode 'Strange Bedfellows,' the third Final Chapter episode. The video trailers are available in both MPEG and ASF format, while, as of this week, there are even MP3-trailers available! This is combined with a list of 30 stills from the trailers, and extra info on the episode. Most definitely worth a look. Star Trek Interactive! has also just opened a Final Chapter Discussion Forum, you might want to check that out as well.

New Sev Trek Cartoon Online
Christian (12:32 pm CST)

Psi Phi Publishes New Promo Transcript
Christian (12:32 pm CST)
David Henderson at Psi Phi has posted a transcription of the trailer of DS9's 'Till Death Do Us Part.' As usual, the transcription tells us what can be seen and heard in the trailer, and (nearly) eliminates the need to download the actual trailer. Find the transcript here, while, if you still want to waste bandwidth, you can find the original trailer here at Vidiot.

Ted Witt Reviews 'Penumbra'
Christian (12:32 pm CST)
I probably should have posted this before, but it was only today that I read about it at Psi Phi. At the Psi Phi DS9 Discussion Area Ted Witt posted a review of DS9's 'Penumbra, which he thought was absolutely wonderful:'

In short, excellent. I'm VERY excited for the final chapter. A little fearful, but very excited none the less. Seven years of watching what is definately my favorite version of Star Trek and Sci fi in general, with all the twists, turns, arcs, and developments--coupled with the characters that are definately interesting, Roddenbery's heart still present, and the exploration of the darker side of human nature looks to pay off BIG. There is a LOT of anticipation for this final chapter, perhaps rivaled ONLY by the Phantom Menace. But I am definately excited for the next installment of the final chapter.

11:59 Spoilers Available
Christian (12:31 pm CST)
NOTE: This update contains spoilers for the upcoming Voyager episode '11:59.' In case you want to avoid reading these spoilers, click here to move over to the next article.

The Great Link has posted some new information on Voyager's '11:59,' which will air on the 24th of March. Apparently, Brannon Braga, Executive Producer for Voyager, recently said the following in the first issue of Star Trek: The Magazine:

We're also going to be doing a millenium episode that takes place completely in the year 2000 on Earth, where we get to follow Janeway's distant, distant ancestor, great-great-great-great-great-grandmother. She will be played by Kate Mulgrew, and it will be a quintessential Star Trek story told in contemporary times.

Sev Trek Picard Cartoon Online
Christian (12:31 pm CST)
Due to a problem with his scanner, Sev Trek's John Cook wasn't able to post new cartoons for a while. To make up for that, today he posted two new cartoons, this one, and the 'Star Trek: The Motionless Picture' one, which I'll be putting up later today.

More On Insurrection DVD Extras
Christian (12:30 pm CST)
The Flagship has posted a follow-up to yesterday's story about the Insurrection DVD, which will probably feature extra bits not included on the VHS version:

Just a quick note before I pass out from exhaustion (I can't keep these late hours anymore; getting too old at twenty-two): According to the Insurrection page at DVDfile.com, the Star Trek: Insurrection DVD will not feature deleted scenes. It will, however, have a "brief featurette" on the making of the film, trailer(s), and web links that can be used by DVD-ROM owners like myself. The disc will be THX-certified, 16x9 enhanced, and have English soundtracks in Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0. There will also be Spanish subtitles and English closed-captioning. I don't know if this is the final info on the subject--I'll keep checking.

Warp Eleven Has 'Penumbra' Review
Christian (12:30 pm CST)
Starting with this episode, Leonard Schuurman's Warp 11 news site will be providing you with exclusive reviews of the episodes of DS9's Final Chapter:

This is the first in a serie of nine reviews of the last nine episodes of Deep Space 9's Final Chapter, exclusively written by Curt Holman for Warp Eleven. Curt Holman is a freelance writer in Atlanta, Georgia, who reviews television, theater, film and books for Creative Loafing and restaurants for CitySearch Atlanta. Mr. Holman has limited the amount of spoilers to a minimum. Enjoy!

Today on TV
Christian (12:30 pm CST)
-In the UK, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'The Muse' at 16:00 GMT, followed an hour later by Voyager's 'Displaced.' At 18:25 GMT, the BBC will be showing Voyager's 'Concerning Flight.' Thanks go out to the Television Observation Unit of the Star Trek Collective for that last bit of info.

-In Germany, there won't be any Star Trek on TV until tomorrow at 15:00 CET, which is when Sat.1 will be showing TNG's 'Erwachsene Kinder' (Rascals).

New at Trekseek.com
Christian (12:29 pm CST)
7 new sites were added to TrekSeek yesterday, bringing us to a total of 960 Star Trek sites. Take a look at some of the highlights:

-Delta Blues has Jim Wright's acclaimed, humor-packed "full summary" Voyager episode reviews. "The next best thing to seeing the episode - sometimes even better!" Also contains original fiction and links.
- Star Trek provided the very helpful description 'This site is only about Star Trek.' - Not exactly the best description to provide when submitting to a Star Trek search engine...
-Philip Anglim ~ Acting Naturally has information on Vedek Bareil and Deep Space Nine.

All the other new sites that were submitted yesterday can be found by going here. However, that is not the only new thing we have to offer, as we finally put up Steven Hartzog's new Site of the Month review:

The LCARS: Federation Databank will simply dazzle you with style... and take you back to STFC with RealAudio. Wait, another database? What about the SF Collective Database reviewed in January 1999? Isn't this just another database site? ... Uhhh, yes... and no.

Sure, it's a database - but it is so much more. I am not just talking about the great prizes BobaTrek gives away in his 'Monthly LCARS Contest' either. Although, come to think of it... I want the latest prize myself. (It's only an autographed photo of Chase Masterson of DS9!)

Hello World!
Christian (12:29 pm CST)
Sorry for the extremely late update today, but for once I actually have a good explanation. Today our web host assigned our sites new IP addresses, which meant that most people who visit the site frequently would not be able to visit the site for a while. In order to try to solve this, I posted messages to the Trekweb and Psi Phi message boards, but then I noticed that most graphics wouldn't work with just the IP numbers. I spent a lot of time fixing that, so now, whenever the site crashes again, at least the graphics will still work ;-).

Seriously, this should be the last time this happened... my apologies if this gave you any trouble. In case this led you to miss yesterday's news update (which also includes the big news article from the National Enquirer about DS9's final episode), click here to read yesterday's update.

Stewart Returns To Centre Of The Earth
Christian (2:15 pm CST)
The people at the Science Fiction Weekly have just posted a review of Rick Wakeman's new CD 'Return to the Centre of the Earth.' The CD is a follow-up to his 1974 album 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth,' which in turn was based on the Jules Verne novel on the same name. The new CD contains 22 new tunes that reflect Verne's tale, while it also contains certain narrative pieces provided by Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), which is the reason I'm posting this here. More information on this CD can be found by going here and reading the review.

'What You Leave Behind' Spoilers
Christian (2:05 pm CST)
NOTE: This update contains spoilers for the final episode of DS9. These spoilers are really of the mega-huge variety. In the very likely event you want to avoid reading any of these spoilers, click here to be immediately transported to the spoiler-free safety of the next post.

Again: Do NOT proceed reading this post if you do NOT want to be spoiled - just click here to move on to the next article and still be able to enjoy the final DS9 episode.

Leonard Schuurmans at Warp 11 has received an article which will supposedly appear in the April 20 edition of the National Enquirer. The article, which was written by Darryl Wrobel, reveals a lot of interesting information about 'What You Leave Behind,' DS9's final episode:

Married, with his wife Kasidy expecting a baby, Sisko leads the Federation to a great victory against the Dominion. As Sisko achieves victory, he has another vision from the Prophets and viewers will realize that Sisko's work is not done. Even after the war victory, he will win one final battle with his archenemy Dukat, who is trying to unleash the supernatural forces of the evil to take over the galaxy.

The next thing viewers know they will see Sisko being congratulated by the Prophets, who tell him he has saved the galaxy. Sisko talks about going home to his pregnant wife but is informed he can't -- because he's dead! The shocking turn is not all sadness for fans. It is explained that Sisko is now one of the Prophets, thriving in an afterlife that enables him to return to his wife in one last vision and tell her what has happened.

Spiner Finishes Filming 'Dorothy Dandridge'
Christian (1:31 pm CST)
BrentFemme's Brent Spiner Page is reporting that Brent Spiner (Data) has finished filming the HBO movie 'Dorothy Dandrige.' The film, which is currently on the Home Box Office schedule for August, is based on Earl Mills' biography 'Dorothy Dandridge.' Brent Spiner was actually cast as this Earl Mill, who was the manager of Dorothy Dandridge. Take a look at what the film is about, according to the official press release:

DOROTHY DANDRIDGE traces the true story of the legendary black actress (Berry) from her youth to her tragic early death. Dandridge achieved success in the title role of the 1954 film "Carmen Jones," making history by becoming the first black woman ever nominated for a Best Actress Academy Award.® Along with her accomplishments came heartache and despair over two high-profile failed marriages, a love affair with Otto Preminger (Brandauer), the institutionalization of her only daughter, and drug dependency.

First 'Trekminds' Broadcast Available
Christian (1:09 pm CST)
The German Star Trek Index is reporting that the very first edition of Radio Trek's 'Trekminds' program is now available for your listening pleasure. Trekminds is a bi-weekly radio show in which certain themes will be discussed with listeners via telephone, fax or e-mail. Take a look at what the current edition has to offer you:

'Best Of Both Worlds,' which looks at how users from the German Star Trek and Babylon 5 newsgroups organised a meeting for fans of both series.

'Q Vadis?' A commentary about the development of the most famous Star Trek 'enemy.'

The question of the week, in which the question 'What do you imagine about the DS9 final' will be discussed.

Trekminds is available for people with 28k8 modems and for people with 56k and ISDN modems. Do keep in mind, though, the program is in German, and you won't understand a word of it if you don't speak the language. More info can be found on the official Trekminds site, which is also only available in German.

New Trek Toys Announced
Christian (12:57 pm CST)
The Raving Toy Maniac has just posted some new info on several upcoming toy figures. First up is the news that Toy's 'R' Us are now selling the 'Star Trek Champions:'

The entire series of Star Trek Champions is now available at TRU for $6 each. The pewter statues that have been released in this series to date are Spock in Vulcan Robes from TMP, the movie U.S.S. Enterprise, Captain Kirk from TMP, Khan Noonien Singh from Star Trek II, and the previously unannounced Klingon Bird of Prey.

'Someone To Watch Over Me' Pictures
Christian (12:40 pm CST)
NOTE: This update contains spoilers for Voyager's upcoming episode 'Someone To Watch Over Me.' Click here to be transported to the next update.

Warning - a major plot point of the upcoming episode 'Someone To Watch Over Me' will be given away in this update. Click here to move on to the next update.

The Great Link has posted what are probably the first ever images from the Voyager episode 'Someone To Watch Over Me,' which will air on the 28th of April. As you can probably see from the picture this is the episode where the Doctor falls in love with Seven of Nine and takes Seven on her first date. More info on the episode itself and another picture can be found by going here.

Insurrection DVD To Contain Extras?
Christian (11:46 am CST)
The Flagship has a short report up on the 'Star Trek: Insurrection' DVD, which will apparently contain some extra bits:

For a while now, we've heard rumors that the Insurrection DVD will contain extras other than the trailers, but no one could say for sure. Well, I just checked Chris's DVD Release List on SurroundFreak's Home-theater Site and discovered that the disc will have both trailers and extras, but not commentary (no surprise there). I've been checking Chris's list for a year now, and haven't been led wrong yet. There's no word, though, on what those extras will be . . . but a good guess is that they'll be the scenes cut from the film.

Star Trek Monthly Interviews John Eaves
Christian (11:41 am CST)
The May 1999 issue of the British 'Star Trek Monthly Magazine' contains an interview with TNG and DS9 Illustrator / Designer John Eaves, and the Great Link was kind enough to post the interview to the net. In it, he speaks about the Insurrection ships (which he helped design), his work as a designer on DS9, and the coming end of the series:

We keep hoping for a new Star Trek series, but we're pretty much realising day by day that it's just not going to happen right now, at least not while we're all still here. So, everybody is a little melancholy about what to do next. I mean, do you go on to something else? Do we starve? Nobody knows for sure. So, we're all kind of biting our nails. It's kind of sad. I've been here for four years and the family aspect of it is what I've enjoyed the most. The show itself has been fun, too, but I've rarely seen Deep Space Nine on the screen. We see episodes or parts of episodes eight or nine times in rough cut before you see them on television, and they always look pretty good. But, really, I'll miss the guys the most. It's kind of like the breaking up of a family.

Nana Visitor Interview At Great Link
Christian (11:35 am CST)
The Great Link has published an interview with Nana Visitor (Kira Nerys) that previously appeared in the May issue of the British 'Star Trek Monthly' Magazine. In it, she admits she doesn't really like the way the Odo/Kira relationship is developing:

Well, frankly, I don't love the whole storyline. I kind of like the idea of a strong friendship remaining a friendship. Having us get together just reinforces the old idea that men and women can't be friends without something else happening. Kira and Odo were really deep friends. I think they probably could have remained just friends. Maybe deep friends can't just be friends, and maybe that's the point the writers are trying to make and I'm mistaken. After all, I married Sid, and he was my best friend. So, there you go!

More On Voyager Writer Shake-Up
Christian (11:19 am CST)
Steve Krutzler at TrekWeb has posted an update to his story from yesterday in which he reported that there'd be some major changes in the Voyager writing staff:

I had the opportunity to speak with Brannon Braga (executive producer, Star Trek: Voyager) about the rumored changes in the writing staff today. Although he did not want to make any comment on the record, I can say that he conceded that some changes are in store for Voyager's writing staff. What exactly the nature of those changes are at this point, he is not able to make any comment.

Daily Sci-Fi Previews Weekly Sci-Fi
Christian (11:15 am CST)
The Den's Daily Sci-Fi has put up its weekly look at next week's science-fiction television shows, including the new Voyager and Deep Space Nine offerings, 'Counterpoint' and 'Til Death Do Us Part' respectively. Teasers for these episodes, plus info on all the other major SF shows are also included in the preview, which can be found here.

Tim Russ Chat Transcript Up
Christian (11:14 am CST)
The Continuum has posted an extremely long transcript of Thursday's live chat with Tim Russ (Tuvok). A small selection from some of the best moments from the chat:

T'Pel asks:
I heard on the internet that recently Robbie McNeill had a little accident on the set where he almost set himself on fire with a prop? Did that really happen?

Tim Russ:
Yes, it did. It was a jet pack strapped to his back during the "Chaotica" episode. The special effects coordinator has often singed us in striving to create excitement in the scenes. Robbie is fine, but he will be, I'm sure, a little more wary about doing that bit again. I think his words were "Never Again"

3 of 5 asks:
How do you feel about the cancelation of DS9? Do you think it will affect Voyager in any way?

Tim Russ:
I think a lot of the focus from the studios, networks and fans will be on our show as a result of DS9's cancellation. Each one of these shows is planned to go a certain number of years and ours will probably run about the same time. I think it's probably a good idea for the shows to end their run when they are the strongest.

Ruzena, Czech Republic asks:
In the Czech dubbing, Tuvok's voice was changed and it does not fit to your "vulcanese" face any longer. Why there does not exist a rule not to change dubbing, or does it?

Tim Russ:
Once the show has been completed, here at the studio and is sold... overseas, it is completely out of out hands. That is the responsibility of the distributors in each country. I have seen only one other version of my character... dubbed, and that was in Germany... and it was very strange to see me with someone else's voice coming out of my mouth. But these actors are hired to replace the dialogue very quickly and inexpensively... they do no spend a great deal of time on the artistic aspect of portraying these characters.

Gary Hutzel Chat Transcript Finally Up
Christian (11:14 am CST)
NOTE: This post contains minor spoilers for some of the DS9 episodes in the Final Chapter. If you want to avoid these spoilers, click here to move on to the next article. Nearly a month after the actual chat took place, the Continuum has finally put up the transcript of the chat with DS9 Visual Effects Producer Gary Hutzel. Looking at the transcript, it is fairly obvious why it was held back so long, as Hutzel provides us with some spoilers of Final Chapter plot elements. All of these have now already been officially confirmed by Paramount, so I guess they decided they could post this transcript as well. Take a look at some of the highlights from the chat:

Jonny asks:
How do you create the calendar pictures in each year's Star Trek offerings?

Gary Hutzel:
The calendar photos are photographed as four by five inch original transparencies elements and composited electronically in Photoshop. The high resolution output is used for the calendars and in the past, have even appeared 80 feet tall on the side of buildings in Hollywood. No one was more surprised than me when it showed up on the side of a building. No one had said a word about it to me. When I photograph the miniature ships they must be shot as separate elements in order to appear as they do in the television series. A single photograph might have as many as seven separate elements. For instance, the so-called beauty pass is actually only the key light and fill light on the ship. With no additional lights. I will then photograph separately the engines, windows, nacelles, etc. This is so that each element will be correctly exposed and color-corrected for printing in the final composite.

Crom asks:
Do you still film models or use al CGI?

Gary Hutzel:
Until the end of last season, I had exclusively photographed models for the show. At that time I began to develop an infrastructure for doing photographic quality computer generated ships. We are at this time just reaching the fruition of that process and I hope to use those techniques for the final battle sequences which will most certainly appear in our final episodes.

chris asks:
are there plans for another st:tng movie

Gary Hutzel:
To my knowledge that is being discussed right now.

Birth Of The Federation Release Date
Christian (11:13 am CST)
Paul Weaver at FedCom posted some extra info on the release date of Microprose's upcoming turn-based strategy game, 'Birth of the Federation:'

Just been confirming some things with Jeff Holzhauer. The game is still going gold on April 15th, and final work will be finished by 6PM on Wednesday. The master will then be made and sent to be duplicated on the 15th onwards. Everything's going on scedule. The new official release date is the 25th of May, for the USA. Originally the UK and USA releases were meant to be simultaneous, but the US release date for the USA has been put back a week, so it may be out in the UK slightly earlier than the USA.

Shatner Stars As 'Big Giant Head'
Christian (11:13 am CST)
AnotherUniverse's Daily Buzz is reporting that William Shatner (James T. Kirk) will be guest starring in the season finale of NBC's '3rd Rock From The Sun' comedy series:

The show's season finale on May 25 will reveal the former Captain Kirk actor to be the leader that has spoken through Harry for three and a half seasons.

In the hour-long episode, Shatner visits Earth to check on the progress of the aliens' mission, only to wind up drinking to excess, trying to pick up chicks (including Jane Curtin's Mary), and demoting High Commander Dick Solomon (John Lithgow).

Wildstorm's Trek Comics Plans
Christian (11:12 am CST)
Michael Doran at AnotherUniverse's Mania Magazine has put up an article looking at the plans of Wildstorm for the Star Trek comics line. Wildstorm recently obtained the Trek comic license through its parent company DC Comics, and currently plans to publish its first Trek comic in November. Readers may expect a slightly different format than before, according to the Mania article:

As to their early plans for the vast Trek universe, Mariotte explained their take might slightly differ than other comics incarnations that have come before. "First off, we're not planning to do any ongoing series," explained the editor. "Star Trek episodes on TV have always been fairly well self-contained, although individual episodes reflect events from other episodes. So instead of having a long-running ongoing, we're going to do a series of minis and prestige format one-shots, so no individual storyline will run more than 4 issues."

Today on TV
Christian (11:11 am CST)
-In the US, TV Land will be showing an episode of Star Trek - The Animated Series today at 12:30pm Eastern Time. Thanks go out to Captain Jim at the Trekweb Bulletin Board for reminding me of this.

-In the UK, Sky One will be showing DS9's great episode 'Hard Time' at 16:00 GMT. An hour later, they're showing Voyager's 'Real Life.'

-Here in the Netherlands, the AVRO will be showing Voyager's 'Prey' tonight at 18:37 CET on Channel One.

New at Trekseek.com
Christian (11:11 am CST)
7 new sites were submitted to TrekSeek yesterday, bringing us to a total of 954 Star Trek links. As usual, a selection of those new sites:

-Beta's Voyager Database is your on-line guide to Star Trek: Voyager. Beta's Voyager Database includes episode news, guides, exchanges, reviews, voting arenas, penpals, trivia quizzes, and much more!
-Lisa's Sci-Fi Conventions Home Page has information on Star Trek and science fiction conventions, including pictures and links.

Take a look at the other new sites by going here.

Hello World!
Christian (11:10 am CST)
Within a few days we'll be putting in another re-design of the TrekToday main page. This time around, we'll be removing some of the graphics at the top of the page to make room for more news, so that the page will load faster and you'll be able to see the news a few seconds sooner. We don't know how the site is going to look in the end, but I can guarantee you one thing - it's going to look absolutely fantastic :-)!

'Trekkies' Head To Head With Star Wars?
Christian (2:21 pm CST)
Mr. Showbiz is reporting that Paramount may be looking to attract some Star Wars fans by putting 'Trekkies,' in theaters around America around the same time as the new Star Wars movie will be opening:

I'm told that Paramount is considering a "wide" opening — hundreds of theaters, as opposed to the usual dozen or so in major cities that would be appropriate for a documentary. Paramount publicity is telling me that nothing has been decided.

[...]

The doc has played the festival circuit and was well-reviewed by Variety and The Hollywood Reporter. I don't know how many disappointed Star Wars fans who can't get into showings of The Phantom Menace will be that anxious to see Trekkies, but Paramount's (alleged) plan to open it in this fashion seems reasonably canny.

Voyager Writing Staff Shake-Ups?
Christian (2:10 pm CST)
TrekWeb has just posted a very interesting report about the Voyager writing staff, which could be undergoing some major changes next year:

Reports are surfacing which say that after this season Ken Biller is "gone" to work on other things and Ron Moore was asked to transfer to Voyager - a move which Ron has denied online for months. But rumors place a Ron Moore/Voyager deal already in motion. Status of others (Bryan Fuller, Joe Menosky, Rene Echevarria (DS9)) is still to be determined (except Brannon Braga and Michael Taylor who will remain for sure).

McNeill Film To Be Shown At Film Festival
Christian (2:04 pm CST)
RanDoM Flight, the official fan club of Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris) has some news up on McNeill's short film 'The Battery:'

Robbie's short film, "The Battery," was shown during the recent 1999 Newport Beach Film Festival and has been accepted at the Canyonlands Film Festival, which will be held in Moab, Utah, on the weekend of April 15 - April 19, 1999. While Robbie won't be able to attend the Canyonlands festival due to his previous commitment to appear at the Starland convention in Denver that weekend, "The Battery" will be shown during the festival and will compete for the festival prizes. For more information and ticketing, visit the festival website.

Sci-Fi Talk Interviews Brent Spiner
Christian (1:52 pm CST)
The Sci-Fi Talk online magazine has just up a new interview with Brent Spiner (Data), which was conducted near the end of 1998. In it, Brent Spiner gives a long answer on the question 'Will there be another movie:'

I don't know. Hollywood USA is a business. Star Trek is very big business for Paramount Pictures. So if the film is successful, then there will be another one. It is approaching that we're all getting a bit long in the tooth to keep doing these. I wish we were all 15 years younger and could keep doing a whole slew of them. But we did do a whole slew of them on television.

I don't think we have much time left. I don't. I think I'm good for one more and after that the suitability quotient is out the window. I don't think I would be believable in the character. for very much longer.

I actually called Rick Berman before they wrote the script and asked him, Why don't we kill Data off in this one ? He said why? I said well one, it's bound to make an interesting scene in the movie. It will have value on that level. Two, Paramount doesn't have to negotiate with me anymore. Which I'm sure would make them happy. Because it does get increasingly difficult. It 's always about establishing what you think you're value is as opposed to what they think your value is. You push it as far as you can and their idea of what your value is changes. But it's a necessary evil of this kind of deal. It's not fun for anyone. So I said they won't have to go through that again. Thirdly, you won't get into a situation where you write a script with me in it and I say I don't want to do it then your stuck having to rewrite.

Well he said that he was going into a meeting with the executives from Paramount and the writer. I 'll let you know. A few weeks later, I get a script in the mail. On the script there is a card with Rick Berman on it and it said, "Sorry, Kill you next time."

Minor Nog Spoilers
Christian (1:33 pm CST)
NOTE: This update contains very minor spoilers about the character of Nog on Deep Space Nine. Personally I'd say you can probably read these spoilers, but if you really want to avoid it click here to be transported to the next article.

Section 31 received some interesting news from Jason Chappel about a possible promotion for Nog:

I received word from my cousin who is working on a new paramount movie, that Nog will be made a Lieutenant. My uncle was walking around the Paramount lot on his lunch break, when he saw Aron Eisenberg standing outside Stage 18, wearing his "ears" and wearing a new set of pips.

Jammer Reviews 'Think Tank'
Christian (1:08 pm CST)
Jamahl Epsicokhan has just put up his latest 'Jammer's Review' at Star Trek Hypertext. In it, he analyzes last week's Voyager episode 'Think Tank:'

"Think Tank" is a fairly enjoyable hour that's halfway effective, but shows Voyager making compromises with itself. It reveals a surprising amount about what works about this series and what doesn't.

This episode works as a reasonable TOS-like entertainment that pushes the buttons on the control panel labeled "ESTABLISHED PLOTTING LORE," and comes off as something watchable. Where the episode suffers is in its use of so many plot elements that aren't developed to their full potential; the episode refuses to dig deeper for something more challenging, which is ironic considering one of the episode's main themes is about seeking out challenges.

New Sev Trek Competition
Christian (12:52 pm CST)

A new edition of the weekly Sev Trek competition has just gone up at the Sev Wide Web:

The Fungi Rules of Acquisition
This week is a little different - there will be multiple winners as YOU write the Fungi Rules of Acquisition! At the April 17 judging session, we will RANK the top punchlines and the highest ranking punchlines will go into the comic strip (as many as can fit).

'Relativity' Synopsis Available
Christian (12:43 pm CST)
NOTE: This update contains spoilers for the upcoming Voyager episode 'Relativity.' If you want to avoid reading these spoilers, click here to move on to the next article.

This morning, someone sent me a detailed synopsis of the script of the upcoming Voyager episode 'Relativity,' which will probably air on the 12th of May:

I have in hand the original script of a Voyager episode "Relativity" The title refers to the 29th Century Federation Timeship "Relativity" whose mission is to protect the time line. The story is by Nick Sagan and the teleplay is by Bryan Fuller, Nick Sagan, and Michael Taylor. It is directed by Allan Eastman. Below is a synopsis of the script by act, please feel free to post it to your web site and distribute it to others.

Daily Sci-Fi Reviews 'Penumbra'
Christian (12:00 pm CST)
The people at the Den's Daily Sci-Fi have just put up Sarah Kuhn's review of the first DS9 Final Chapter episode, 'Penumbra.' Even though she finds some parts of the episode rather hard to believe, in general she really likes the episode:

So, right off: about Worf and Ezri. I don't buy it. Not in this galaxy or any other one, not for a second. I want to. But I don't.

That said, let's rewind. Here we have the beginning of what is to be "DS9's" last arc, and it drops plenty of excellent hints (well, maybe not "hints" if you've read the spoilers) as to what's going to happen. I appreciate that they're allowing the story to unfold slowly, in the grandiose style of one of my favorite arcs of all time, the Bajoran trilogy from Season #2.

Robert Picardo Real Video
Christian (11:25 am CST)
The Star Trek Universe is reporting that the 'Air and Space Channel' have a video interview with Robert Picardo (Holodoc) online. The Real Video interview (which is only available live, and not for download) is split into two parts - in one he's talking to the audience, and in the other he's being interviewed. In the videos, Picardo talks about his role on Voyager and about some of the technology Star Trek is using. More on this, including links to the 56k6 versions of the videos, can be found by going here and scrolling down somewhat.

Viacom Launching Science-Fiction Channel
Christian (11:25 am CST)
A Reuters/Variety report written by Richard Katz and Laura Freeman mentions that Viacom, parent company of Paramount, will soon be launching its own science-fiction television channel:

Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone, whose company owns the ''Star Trek'' franchise, Thursday mentioned plans to launch a cable network to compete against the Sci-Fi Channel. ``Our sci-fi channel will consist of real, true sci-fi, not horror,'' Redstone said, a jab at Sci-Fi, which also airs fantasy and horror fare.

Viacom's Paramount division certainly has produced plenty of attractive sci-fi programming. However, its original ``Star Trek'' as well as ``The Twilight Zone'' have been sold to Sci-Fi Channel until at least 2004. Viacom, however, has not sold the rerun rights to its three newer ``Star Trek'' spinoffs, ``The Next Generation,'' ``Deep Space Nine'' and ``Voyager.''

More on this can be found in the full article, including some comments from a Viacom spokesperson who denies that the company has any definite plans yet, and some statements from the Sci-Fi Channel's management.

DS9 Rerun Ratings Available
Christian (11:25 am CST)
Ratings reports for two DS9 episodes, 'Chrysalis' and 'Treachery, Faith and the Great River,' are now also available at the Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database. These episodes were both repeats, and aired a few weeks ago. 'Chrysalis' didn't do that well, though that was already expected:

"Chrysalis" started this run of reruns in less than convincing fashion, earning a 3.5 rating, tying with "Image In the Sand" as the lowest rerun rating of the year. That's also down quite a bit from last year's 4.6 rerun rating for "Favor the Bold." Xena and Hercules, also in reruns, both defeated DS9 on the week. Xena was the top syndie drama with a 3.9, Hercules trailed with a 3.7.

'Infinite Regress' Overnight Ratings
Christian (11:24 am CST)
The Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database has posted its overnight ratings report for the repeat of Voyager's 'Infinite Regress,' which aired on Wednesday. The news is not good:

"Infinite Regress" started this next burst of reruns with a whimper, earning a 3.3 rating, 5 share. That's one of the lowest overnight ratings this season and a bit lower than the last couple reruns.

As would be expected, Voyager finished 6th in its timeslot, behind the other networks' mostly firstrun episodes. The WB's "Charmed" was the closest at a 6.4/10. It is possible that Fox's special on sexy commercials (9.1/14) drained some of Voyager's audience -- they do target the same demographic.

Today on TV
Christian (11:24 am CST)
-At 17:00 GMT, British television station Sky One will be showing Voyager's 'Before & After.' The episode also repeats at 23:30 GMT.

-In Germany, Sat.1 will be showing Voyager's 'Unvergessen' (Unforgettable) tonight at 19:15 CET. They're also repeating TNG's 'Eine echte Q' (True Q) tomorrow morning at 02:55 CET.

New at Trekseek.com
Christian (11:24 am CST)
Just a week ago we were celebrating reaching 900 links, and now TrekSeek is already halfway through to the magic 1000! No less than 8 new sites were submitted yesterday, including the following three sites:

-The Julian/Ezri Relationshippers is the first site dedicated to the relationship of Dr. Julian Bashir and Lt. Ezri Dax of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
-The Starship Design Bureau is a web site with information on how to edit Birth of the Federation, Microprose's upcoming turn-based strategy game.
-Pete's Star Trek for Dummies is a Trek site containing the history of each series and movie. With pics, sounds, and a starship registry.

Take a look at the five other new sites by going here.

Hello World!
Christian (11:23 am CST)
Well, I indeed wasn't able to complete yesterday's news update, but the reason for that is *not* that I had no time - no, my ISP simply decided to break down in the middle of my update. As promised, today I'll be posting all the news I wasn't able to post yesterday, so you won't be missing out on anything :-).

Delta Blues Not Shutting Down
Christian (1:36 pm CST)
A few days ago, the April issue of the Starfleet Journal newsletter was published. The newsletter also contained a new edition of 'Notes from Sandrine's Bar,' the column of Jim Wright. In the column, he mentioned he'd been approached by a Paramount representative (April Poole), who had ordered him to remove his reviews from his Delta Blues web site.

If you didn't get that this was an April Fools joke (perhaps because the column didn't go online until a few days after the 1st of April), a few days ago Jim put up the following notice at the Delta Blues site:

Yes, it is an April Fools column. Do not send outraged letters to Paramount, UPN, Viacom, or anyone associated with the letters TPTB. I am NOT being shut down. Direct all flames my way. Chalk it up to my 35th birthday, a nasty flu and a 24-hour case of terminal adolescence. All the same, I'm pretty darn pleased with how it turned out. (Reaction has ranged from "Not Funny" to "one of the best pranks I've ever seen." Take a look and decide for yourself.)

UPN Hacks On
Christian (1:00 pm CST)
Apparently UPN doesn't seem to mind all the publicity, as the station is still continuing their Voyager hack job - yesterday's repeat of 'Infinite Regress' had another few minutes removed, according to Vidiot's report: