News headlines from December 1999:

More 'Strange New Worlds' Hints
Christian (6:30 pm CST)
David Henderson at Psi Phi sends along word he's posted a new set of hints for participants in the 'Strange New Worlds' short story contested, given by the actual editor of the contest:

Editor Dean Wesley Smith is the judge of the annual Star Trek amateur fiction contest, "Strange New Worlds" (SNW). With three years of Strange New Worlds entries under his belt, Dean offers some suggestions for those writers wanting to make their first short story sale. Some are specific to the SNW contest, and others apply to all short story sales.

New Sev Trek Comic
Christian (6:30 pm CST)

Trek Portal 'Hidden Evil' Review
Christian (6:30 pm CST)
The Star Trek Portal has put up a new review of 'Star Trek: Hidden Evil', Activision's new adventure game based on the 'Insurrection' film. Unlike most other reviewers, Trek Portal reviewer Andrew Christian was very impressed with the game, awarding it 5 out of 5 stars. Take a look at his conclusion:

The graphics in this game are phenominal, and the plot is one of the best I've ever seen. This is the first Star Trek game I have seen that actually relates to events that happened in the real Trek Universe. While the game is big (250 mb with a minimal installation, 560 at maximum), the experience is worth the hard drive space.

Happy Birthday!
Christian (6:30 pm CST)
Today is the 66th birthday of Nichelle Nichols, who starred as Nyota Uhura in the Original Series.

Today On TV
Christian (6:29 pm CST)
-On Wednesday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Let He Who Is Without Sin...' at 17:00 and at Midnight GMT.

-The Sat.1 web site is currently down, so there won't be any German TV data today.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (6:29 pm CST)
Below you'll find some of the topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-Was Freud's personality theory used while creating the Original Series' cast of characters?

-What did you think about the Voyager second-season episode 'Resistance'?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (6:29 pm CST)
I know you must all be really sick of my whining about the lack of news these days, but the utter silence on most of the sites I use as news sources really is amazing. Let's hope there'll be some more news in the New Year.

New Sev Trek Competition
Christian (7:26 pm CST)
John Cook at Sev Trek has uploaded a new edition of the 'Write Your Own Sev Trek Competition':

'Galaxy Quest' Does Poorly
Christian (7:25 pm CST)
According to Cinescape, 'Galaxy Quest' (Tim Allen's new Star Trek parody) took in only $8.1 million during its first weekend in cinemas, giving it no more than an eighth place.

Transporters Ready For Holidays
Christian (7:25 pm CST)
The people at the Continuum have put up another of their in-character news stories, this time dealing with the 'upcoming' holiday season:

EARTH- Today begins what is traditionally the busiest week of the transporter year. With Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwaanza, Ramadan and other Terran holidays also comes the increase in cargo transported globally, primarily gifts.

Although solar flares caused a substantial delay one year ago, solar forecasters predict smooth sailing for the planet's global network of transportation satellites.

Today On TV
Christian (7:25 pm CST)
-On Tuesday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'The Assignment' at 17:00 and at Midnight GMT. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this.

-On Tuesday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Statistische Wahrscheinlichkeit' (Statistical Probabilities) at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (7:25 pm CST)
Here are some of the topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-'What You Leave Behind' has just been released on video in the UK - what did you think about it, if you just saw it for the first time?

-Were TNG's first two seasons really that bad?

Find more topics at the Trek BBS.

Hello World!
Christian (7:25 pm CST)
A world on which I'm not alone anymore, it seems. Welcome back to all news sources :-). Now if only they'd start again reporting some news on Star Trek I'd be really happy.

'Gepetto' To Air May 7
Christian (6:08 pm CST)
Welcome, Brent Spiner Fans! is reporting that 'Gepetto', the new Disney musical featuring appearances by Brent Spiner (Data), René Auberjonois (Odo) and Scarlett Pomers (Naomi Wildman), among others, will be shown on the Sunday the 7th of May as a 'Wonderful World of Disney' presentation.

'DS9: The Fallen' Interview
Christian (6:08 pm CST)
Federation HQ has just put up an interview with several members of The Collective, the software company currently developing 'Deep Space Nine: The Fallen'. One of the things mentioned in the interview is some new info about the Grigari, the alien race especially created for the game:

Federation HQ: Can you tell us more about the Grigari and their agenda? Are they linked to the Bajorans and their religion somehow?

Richard: The Grigari are from the near fringes of the Delta Quadrant, a region largely unexplored during Star Trek's "present day". Technically, the Grigari are bio-analogues built by nano-assemblers. Though their bodies contain organic materials, they are not alive in a biological sense. Perhaps the most remarkable quality of the Grigari's anatomy is that all of their individual body parts possess sentience and are capable of reconfiguring their physical makeup in order to survive in isolation. In other words, if a Grigari has an arm removed, the arm will mutate in order to function independently.

As a race, Grigari are scavengers and pirates, obtaining items and knowledge from one culture to trade with another. Unlike the Ferengi, they are not even bound by their own alien rules or ethics, but are completely sociopathic, doing whatever needs to be done to close a deal, from trading fairly to mass murder. You'll have to wait and see how they have been integrated into the story of The Fallen!

ORF To Show Trek Again
Christian (6:07 pm CST)
Our German partner site TrekZone.de is reporting that ORF (presumably an Austrian television station) is considering showing Star Trek again. In response to a question from reader Markus Stöllinger, ORF's Viewer Service Department said that after the current 'Stargate SG-1' season that show's timespot will most likely be filled by 'Star Trek: Voyager'.

Today On TV
Christian (6:07 pm CST)
-On Monday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Nor The Battle To The Strong' at 17:00 and at Midnight GMT, while their 'Seven Heaven' continues at 20:00 and at 21:00 with Voyager's 'Prey' and 'One', respectively. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this.

-On Monday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Erkenntnis' at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (6:07 pm CST)
Take a look at some of the discussions taking place at the (still Christmas-themed) Trek BBS:

-Did you also think the handling of the Borg in 'First Contact' was pretty silly?

-Why did Picard discard Professor Galen's gift in 'Generations'?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (6:07 pm CST)
Four news items. Amazing.

'Hidden Evil' Review
Christian (4:32 pm CST)
Computer Games Onlne writer Rick Broida has put up a review of 'Star Trek: Hidden Evil', Activision's new 'Insurrection'-based adventure game. Awarding the game just 2.5 out of 5 stars, Broida calls this a game 'Where No Gamer Will Want To Go'. Take a look at how he ends his article:

Given how beautiful Hidden Evil looks, how terrific it sounds, and how much potential exists in a Star Trek adventure like this, it's hard not to be disappointed by the game's most significant flaws. For one thing, it's too short—even novice gamers should have no trouble finishing it inside of 10 hours. It's also too easy—there are perhaps three or four puzzles that represent anything of a challenge, and it's just plain hard to lose a phaser fight. Finally, Hidden Evil has what must be the most abrupt, pointless and disappointing ending of any adventure game ever.

Despite these shortcomings, it still manages to be fun. Sometimes it's nice to play through an adventure that doesn't stick you with some ridiculously hard puzzle every five minutes. Plus, the Star Trek universe has never looked or sounded better. Hidden Evil is a long way from perfect, but it does have its moments.

More 'Galaxy Quest' Reviews
Christian (4:31 pm CST)
A few more reviews have appeared of 'Galaxy Quest', Tim Allen's new comedy dealing with a group of out-of-work actors from a canceled sci-fi series who are beamed up to an alien vessel and are forced to act out their roles for real. Again, as most of these reviews also mention Star Trek, here's a list of the new ones:

• Mick LaSalle in his San Francisco Chronicle review pays special attention to all the similarities and contrasts between 'Quest' and 'Trek'.
  
• Jason Bates in his IGN Sci-Fi review awards the film 4 out of 5 stars, praising its 'smart script, dazzling (though deadpan) performances, lush effects, self-referential genre [gags.]'
• Jeff Vice at the Deseret News posted an interview with scriptwriter David Howard, in which he talks about how the film originally came into being.
  
• Vice also posted his review of the film, in which he even calls the film 'a "Trek" movie that's better than most."
• Fandom.com has just so many 'Galaxy Quets' reviews, interviews and articles I'm not going to list them all - you can find them via the site's main page.
• In an interview in AnotherUniverse's Mania Magazine the film's stars talk about how they didn't set out to make fun of Star Trek fans.
  
• Lastly, Steve Fritz in his Mania review thinks the film is somewhat painful for sci-fi fans, but still very much likes the film.

'Hidden Evil' Walkthrough
Christian (4:31 pm CST)
In the unlikely event you're still stuck in Activision's new adventure game, the Daily Radar has put up a new walkthrough of the game, helping you past all its puzzles. The review can be found here, thanks to Federation HQ for the link.

Happy Birthday!
Christian (4:31 pm CST)
Today is the 54th birthday of Rick Berman, Executive Producer for the latest three Star Trek series, and creator of 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine' and 'Star Trek: Voyager', and hopefully soon also the fifth Star Trek series. Berman has been leading the Star Trek franchise ever since Gene Roddenberry personally selected him as his successor during the early years of TNG.

Today On TV
Christian (4:31 pm CST)
-On Sunday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the third-season TOS episode 'Plato's Stepchildren', featuring the first interracial kiss ever seen on American television.

-On Sunday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing a special 'When Good Captains Go Bad' Star Trek special, hosted by Greg Proops. The special starts at 14:00 GMT with the DS9 episode 'For The Uniform', and is then followed every hour by Voyager's 'Macrocosm', 'Vis a Vis' and 'Living Witness'. Thanks go out, as always, to Kathryn Hughes for this.

-On Sunday here in The Netherlands, RTL 5 will be showing DS9's 'The Bar Association' at 18:05 CET.

-On Sunday in Belgium, Kanaal 2 will be showing DS9's 'A Simple Investigation' at 18:05 CET. Thanks go out to the Benelux Star Trek TV Guide for this.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (4:30 pm CST)
Even on Christmas, many people are still posting at the Trek BBS. Here are some of the things they're talking about:

-What did you think about the new Badlands novel series, by Susan Wright?

-Which action figure for Trek would you like to see produced?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS, complete with a new Christmas style!

Hello World!
Christian (4:30 pm CST)
Updating the site has never felt more weird. Not only am I sitting right next to the Christmas tree, still wearing my suit and tie, destroying my back as no good computer table is available in this house, there also doesn't seem to be any news at all to report on. Then again, there also don't seem to be any visitors to the site during Christmas, according to the statistics program, so I suppose that's only fitting.

Burton To Narrate Christmas Story
Christian (6:26 pm CST)
On the 29th and 30th of December, LeVar Burton will be the Candlelight Processional Celebrity retelling the Christmas story at Epcot, one of the four major theme parks at Disney World. Take a look at what this Candelight Processional actually is:

One of the most beloved Epcot® traditions is the Candlelight Processional. This joyous retelling of the Christmas story by a celebrity guest features a glorious mass choir and a 50-piece orchestra in a breathtaking musical performance. And it's all included with admission.

Overnight '11:59' Ratings
Christian (6:19 pm CST)
Greg Fuller at the Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database has uploaded the overnight ratings report for '11:59', the Voyager episode which was repeated on Wednesday. The ratings, as expected, weren't that great:

"11:59," weakened by two previous weeks of reruns and the approaching Christmas holiday, only managed a 3.4 rating, 5 share. That's the lowest overnight of the season.

[...]

This week is typically one of Voyager's weakest nights of the season, coming just before Christmas. However, the episode's national rating looks to be about average, perhaps a little below. Voyager has been pre-empted next week for a UPN special.

'Galaxy Quest' Reviews
Christian (6:19 pm CST)
Several reviews have popped up of 'Galaxy Quest', the new comedy film starring Tim Allen as a William Shatner-like actor from the sci-fi television series 'Galaxy Quest' who suddenly finds himself up to an alien vessel where the aliens believe he actually is a heroic space captain. As most of the reviews also mention the film's connection to Star Trek, here's a short list of reviews:

• Gary Thompson calls the film an 'affectionate homage [to] Star Trek nerd-dom' in his Philadelphia Daily News Review.
  
• Jeff Bond in his Eon Magazine review goes as far as calling it 'the best Star Trek [he's] seen this year'.
  
• Michael O'Sullivan notes in his Washington Post review that you have to love 'Trek' to really get 'Quest'.
  
• Luke Y. Thompson thinks the film does a better job of 'maintaining Roddenberry's original concept of a future in which mankind works together for the betterment of all' than Trek itself, in his Dallas Observer review.
  
• Jay Carr in his Boston Globe review describes the film as a 'clever, affectionate, and entertaining holiday snack for sci-fi fans'.
  
• Bruce Kirkland notes in his Toronto Sun review that 'anyone who grew up with the original Star Trek [...] will see the humour instantly.'
• Lastly, Ron Weiskind wrote a review for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, also commenting on the similarities between 'Galaxy Quest' and the Trek franchise.

ODN Issue 97 Appears
Christian (6:18 pm CST)
Editor Adam Bailey has sent out Volume IV, Issue 21 of the Optical Data Network, his bi-weekly Trek newsletter. This edition is somewhat different from usual:

Deadlines are a funny thing. Anyone for whom I've ever worked can testify to how bad I am about deadlines. Always pushing things off, always juggling a thousand different projects; knowing none of them will ever be done on time. My life is all about triage, figuring out what can be finished when. With ODN, being late has only been a disappointment to myself. I hate letting you down, I hate letting myself down. But at least a paycheck or someone /else's/ deadline isn't being impacted when I'm late. However, in this case, I'm leaving town on Thursday morning. That means that if I didn't finish the issue Wednesday night, it would have to wait another week. And I just didn't want to do that. It's the holiday season, and a well-crafted informative issue is the only present I can give all of you. As this deadline approached, I made a hard decision: one that I've only made once before. I'd put the issue out, whether I was done or not.

What does this mean? Well, the issue needs about another two or three hours of work, but I have to wake up at 6:30 AM for a seven hour drive to Missouri. That means I can't stay up another 2-3 hours. So I'm giving you an issue that's almost done. About 30 NewsBits still remain unwritten and unresearched, and a few other sections that could have gone in here won't. However, to make up for giving you an unfinished issue, I'm going to try to do another issue next Sunday. Which won't actually *be* next Sunday, because I'll be on the road again. So maybe Monday or Tuesday, I'll be able to get the final issue of the year out to you. I'm kind of hoping it will be a slow news week (or make that half-week, since I'm already late), which will make it easier to throw together the last thirty NewsBits, plus any *new* news that comes up while I'm out of town, in a short period of time.

ODN NewsBits
Christian (6:18 pm CST)
Below you'll find a list of news items from the new edition of the Optical Data Network which didn't yet appear on TrekToday:

• Michael Dorn (Worf) will be appearing as Bob Bowman in the serial killer thriller The Prophet's Game, a new film starring Dennis Hopper and Stephanie Zimbalist.
  
• Michelle Forbes (Ro Laren) will be appearing in quite a few upcoming projects - the docu-drama 'Wonderland' (dealing with doctors working in the psychiatric and emergency wards of New York's Rivervue Hospital), as Mary in the comedy film 'Bullfighter' and finally she will have a starring role in the upcoming television series 'Belleveu'.
  
• The Sci-Fi Channel will be running its Star Trek Chain Reaction marathon on December 30, during which ten TOS episodes will be shown from 9:00am to 7:00pm Eastern Time.
  

'Insurrection' UK News
Christian (6:18 pm CST)
Patrick Stewart - The Actor's Actor is reporting that 'Insurrection', the latest TNG feature film, will be available on home video in the UK on the 27th of December. It'll also be shown on the special pay channel Sky TV Box Office 3 at various times starting on the 19th of January.

Two New 'Hidden Evil' Reviews
Christian (6:17 pm CST)
GamePower and GameCenter have both put up reviews of 'Star Trek: Hidden Evil', Activision's new game based on the 'Insurrection' film. Neither review is very positive - Jeff Sengstack in his GamePower review calls it 'way too short and unchallenging', while Martin E. Cirulis awards the game no more than a 5 in his GameCenter review. Thanks go out to Blue's News for this.

'Alien Voices' Uses Macs
Christian (6:17 pm CST)
Another day, another John DeLancie (Q) article on MacCentral. This time, Dennis Sellers talks to the actor about his production company 'Alien Voices', in which he and Leonard Nimoy (Spock) create audio adaptations of classic SF works. Apparently, Macs are used a lot during that process, as you can read in the interview with DeLancie about this. Thanks go out to Jeff 'Koganuts' Koga for this.

Happy Birthday!
Christian (6:17 pm CST)
Today is the 54th birthday of Nicholas Meyer, who directed and co-wrote both 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan' and 'Star Trek IV: The Undiscovered Country', as well as co-writing 'Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home'. Perhaps not entirely coincidentally, these three films are believed by many to be the best Trek movies ever produced.

Today On TV
Christian (6:17 pm CST)
This may be the first time in TrekToday history, but there's absolutely no TV data to report for tomorrow. I suppose all television stations considered Christmas specials to be more important than Star Trek.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (6:17 pm CST)
The Trek BBS has received a new Christmas-style! Go take a look, and then join in one of the following discussions:

-How come there were so many unhealthy social relationships on TNG and Voyager?

-To which TNG episode would you like to see sequels?

Find more topics at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (6:16 pm CST)
Happy Christmas Eve to all of you! I hope you'll forgive me if I don't answer email and spend a little bit less time on the site over the coming days - celebrating Christmas itself will of course take up quite a bit of time, and the poor little 28k8 connection here at my parents' house (where I'm staying for Christmas) doesn't really help either.

Continuum To Compete
Christian (4:28 pm CST)
With us, that is :-). Over at the Continuum, Paramount Digital Entertainment just posted an open letter about 'a bold new course of action' for the official Star Trek site. Take a look at what they plan to add to their site in the coming months:

There will be changes throughout STAR TREK: CONTINUUM in the coming months. At first these changes will be implemented in steps. These changes will enhance our gaming, our community relationships, and the very look of the site, making way for new and exciting possibilities.

One such step is the launch of the new Star Trek News page that is coming. This new commitment to all news related to Star Trek is but the first in a host of vital and exciting changes for STAR TREK: CONTINUUM.

TrekWeb 'Pathfinder' Review
Christian (4:27 pm CST)
Steve Perry at TrekWeb has uploaded his review of 'Pathfinder', the Voyager episode featuring appearances by Dwight Schultz (Reginald Barclay) and Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi). Awarding the episode just a B-, Perry didn't seem to like the episode that much:

Pathfinder for all its hype and cameos is an unremarkable episode. It has one major repercussion for Voyager (or does it? Will the talk to Starfleet amount to much at all? And don't get me started on how they figured out where Voyager might be, given how many times the ship has made multi-light year jumps…), and one major repercussion for one of its characters, but it is mainly a story not involving the ship. This is compounded by the fact that what it does involve is a mostly warmed-over retelling of TNG's "Hollow Pursuits," the episode where Barclay dreamed of Troi as the goddess of empathy and such. Voyager's fondness for TNG plots has been well-noted; this may be its worst example, for it both co-opts a storyline and two characters at the expense of telling a story about the actual crew.

Tim Allen On Shatner
Christian (4:27 pm CST)
TV Guide has put up a new interview with Tim Allen, in which the star of 'Galaxy Quest' (the new parody movie on the whole Star Trek phenomenon) talks about how William Shatner inspired him for his role as cheesy space captain. Here's a short snippet from the article:

How much of his character in Galaxy Quest was based on Shatner? "There were moments," Allen confesses to TV Guide Online. "And I hate to admit it because he'll probably sue me or something. Like when I walk around the chair. He always did that. He never even looks at the chair. I hit my a-- on this corner [of my chair] more times.... And he just sat right in his. It was super-fun because they made the set like the Cadillac of space ships."

Allen has never met Shatner but would like to so long as he doesn't get beat up. He jokes that revenge-minded fans will trick him, using Shatner as the bait. Allen says he envisions, "in trench coats, eight Trekkies would jump out," and beat him senseless, yelling, "Way to sit in that chair! Klingon this!"

ET Time Capsule Success
Christian (4:27 pm CST)
It appears yesterday's link to the 'Entertainment Tonight Time Capsule Poll had some pretty major effects, as the first Star Trek episode has now moved up to third place in the poll, just below a 'Star Wars' video and a Greatest Hits CD from the Beatles. As you may recall, in the poll Entertainment Tonight is asking you to choose from twenty items from entertainment history, and the ten most popular items will be preserved for all eternity. Thanks go out to Holly Kim Wilson and Mattrek for this!

Today On TV
Christian (4:26 pm CST)
-On Friday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Looking for Par'Mach in all the Wrong Places' at 17:00 and at Midnight GMT. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this!

Trek BBS Today
Christian (4:26 pm CST)
Take a look at some of the topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-Is Buffy, The Vampire Slayer worth watching?

-Whatever happened to the Defiant's holo-communicator?

Find more topics at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (4:26 pm CST)
Sometimes I'm happy I live in the Netherlands. After my rant yesterday about the incredibly irritating plastic wrappings Amazon.com uses to package CDs, some readers wrote in to tell me that this is actually done everywhere in the United States! I really don't know how you people manage to live with it.

(By the way, if it seems like there is a severe shortage of news on TrekToday - there is! Everyone must have packed up for Christmas already.)

Winning Ferengi Desk Design
Christian (6:02 pm CST)
The people at Decipher, creators of the official Star Trek Customizable Card Game, have put up the winning Ferengi deck design from their recent contest. The deck was designed by Chris Heard, who introduces his design as follows:

Nerves were taut aboard space station Deep Space Nine. For months now, the crew had been hearing whispers and rumors of a heretofore unknown enemy lurking in the Gamma Quadrant. Major Kira's voice suddenly cut through the low hum of the inertial dampers and Ops personnel at their tasks. "There's something coming through the wormhole!" At her words, Benjamin Sisko stiffened. "This is it, people!" he snapped. "Battle stations!" On the Ops monitors, the starfield near Bajor suddenly erupted in a paroxysm of color and light, and as the Deep Space Nine crew watched, stunned, the wormhole disgorged ... Ferengi?

'Warhead' Final Ratings
Christian (6:00 pm CST)
Voyager's ratings appear to be holding strong even during rerun season. Over at the Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database, Greg Fuller has just uploaded the final ratings report for last week's repeat of 'Warhead'. Take a look at how he starts his report:

"Warhead," in an encouraging sign for Voyager's long-term health this season, earned a second consecutive 2.9 rating, 4 share. That's level with last week's "Think Tank" rerun, up from October's "Dark Frontier" rerun, and up from last season's rerun average. "Drone" was the only show last year that managed a 2.9 in its second airing.

More MacWorld DeLancie
Christian (5:59 pm CST)
They're not milking this story, oh no, of course not. MacCentral has put up yet another story dealing with the upcoming appearance by John DeLancie (Q) at the upcoming MacWorld San Francisco Expo, together with a promise of more DeLancie stories in the near future. Today they posted an interview with the actor, in which he talks about Macs, his current work, and even Trek:

MacCentral: Any chance of Q making another appearance on "Voyager," the next Star Trek series, or perhaps the next feature film?

de Lancie: I don't know because I'm not the one who makes those decisions. It's not my dinner party, so to speak, so it's up to the powers that be as to whom they invite.

Happy Birthday!
Christian (5:59 pm CST)
Today is the birthday of Franc Luz, who appeared in TNG's 'The Host' as the first Trill seen on Star Trek ever, Ambassador Odan.

Today On TV
Christian (5:59 pm CST)
-At 9:00pm, UPN will be repeating Voyager's '11:59'. Take a look at how the network describes the episode:

Captain Janeway reminisces about her ancestor Shannon O'Donnel, the first of her family's long line of explorers and one who helped build the Millennium Gate on earth. As Janeway relates the story, the episode revisits the town of Portage Creek on New Year's Eve 1999, as O'Donnel nears the deadline to convince the town's last holdout, local bookstore owner Henry Janeway, to approve the building of the massive, half a mile high Millennium Gate, a model for the first colony on Mars.

-On Thursday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Klingonische Tradition' (You Are Cordially Invited) at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (5:59 pm CST)
Here are some of the topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-Was First Contact's Zefram Cochrane intended as a tribute to Gene Roddenberry?

-Take part in the Trek BBS Voyager Drinking Game.

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (5:59 pm CST)
Is there anyone else out there who would love to slowly and passionately torture the person at Amazon.com who invented their see-through plastic CD wrappers? This morning I received a new CD from them ('This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours' from the Manic Street Preachers), and I spent exactly 7 minutes just getting inside the thing. And after that another five minutes getting little pieces of plastic and tape from my hands. It's especially strange as I can't figure out the reason for this type of wrapping - it's not necessary to keep the case from breaking, as the big cardboard box already does that, and if they need it so people who want to return the CD can prove they never listened to it they could also accomplish that by just putting a small seal on it. In this way some people might actually be tempted to return their purchase just because they couldn't get to it, now that I think about it. Maybe next time I'll just go to a record shop in town again... I'm sure that'd cost me less time.

GA-Source 'Hidden Evil' Review
Christian (7:01 pm CST)
Over at GA-Source, they've put up a new review of 'Insurrection: Hidden Evil', the adventure game recently published by Activision. The review is divided into several parts dealing with things such as gameplay, visuals and the fun factor, but also contains the below summary in Q&A format:

Does it advance the genre? Nope, it's standard fare.

Does it offer anything new? No

Does it offer a decent amount of gameplay? No, it's quite short

Is the product relatively bug-free? Yes

Does the documentation thoroughly explain the game? Yes

Does this game have any features to keep it from getting outdated? No

Is the game worth the retail price? No

Is the game FUN? Yes

Trek Christmas Carols
Christian (7:01 pm CST)
Julia Houston at About.com's Star Trek Fans has started with a new holiday feature - Star Trek Carols. Yesterday she already put up new texts for three Christmas Carols ('Frosty, The Snowman' now 'Doctor, The Hologram', 'I'll Be Home For Christmas' as 'Give Me Quark's For Christmas' and 'Jingle Bells' replaced by 'Voyager! Voyager!), while over the coming days even more alternate texts will be added. To read the new song texts, please follow this link.

'Lives Of Dax' Review
Christian (7:01 pm CST)
Over at Psi Phi's DS9 Discussion Board, DS9er just posted a review of 'The Lives Of Dax', the new Pocket Books anthology edited by Marco Palmieri. Here's how DS9er starts his review:

It's a beautiful image, I can see the full moon over the sandy hills of the Las Vegas desert. Vic wrapping his coat around Ezri, and neon, blinking signs, circa Las Vegas of 1962. The quiet pauses, when two people speak in the night...

So begins the Lives of Dax. Each important story unfolds as very young hosts of the Dax symbiont influence not only Dax's history, but that of Trill itself. We meet a very young Lela and her decisive action which forever ended the isolation of Trill, and in doing so, a young T'Pau also becomes her friend of strength and courage. There is Tobin, his brilliant mind augmented with a humorous sleight of hand and the famous words "Pick a card, any card!" But in his story, a tense confrontation with Romulans and prototype transporter are Trek at its best, giving us a good storyline filled with action, discovery, and survival.

Raven Chat Log
Christian (7:01 pm CST)
VoodooExtreme have posted the edited log of yesterday's chat with Jake Simpson, John Scott and Mike Schulenberg, all working at Raven Software. In the chat, they talked about their two upcoming games 'Soldier of Fortune' and 'Voyager: Elite Force', about which they of course provided lots of new info. One of the most interesting parts of the chat came at the end, where the developers said the following:

DOACleric:in Voyager... what are you doing to prevent from creating another Klingon Honor Guard? : )
Raven_Jake:We've done everything we can, and then added some more. Check out the screen shots..
Raven_Oz:well the ICARUS scripting system allows us to set up all sorts of cool events that the player can participate in
Raven_Oz:we have some great an interesting enemies to face....the Borg...Klingons and such
Raven_Jake:One of the bad guys even has my face, so it's definitely going to be good:)
Raven_Oz:and the Q3 engine, with it's curved surfaces, allows us to create an accurate representation of voyager itself
Raven_Pagan:Thats right...Jake makes an extremely ugly Klingon
Raven_Oz:yeah one of the bad guys has my face too

Harve Bennett On 'Academy'
Christian (7:00 pm CST)
Kevin Dilmore at the official Star Trek Continuum has put up an extremely interesting article, looking at the 'Star Trek: The Academy Years' idea Harve Bennett proposed for the sixth Star Trek film. In the article, Bennett himself is interviewed about the way this script was handled, and he also gives out a lot of info on what his movie was supposed to deal with:

In his script, Kirk and Spock were fresh-faced cadets at Starfleet Academy, joined by McCoy, older than the typical cadet and already a physician, having joined Starfleet to put behind him some of his life's tragedies including the death of his father as mentioned in ST V. Among the cadets' favorite instructors in the script was one Montgomery Scott, a teacher of mechanical sciences.

While Bennett still holds some of the script's plot points close to the vest, he mentioned that at the time of the story, warp speed had not been reached by Federation scientists - but would be by the end of the picture.

"I had a romance between Kirk and a cadet named Cassie, who dies bravely in his arms," he says, "which explains how he never came to love that way again." And the producer had specific ideas for the film, having selected Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Va., as the location for Starfleet Academy, and sending feelers on the project to young actors including John Cusack to play Spock and Ethan Hawke to play Kirk.

Deep Space Nine RPG Article
Christian (7:00 pm CST)
Chris Aylott, web writer at space.com has put up a review of the 'Deep Space Nine' role-playing game recently published by Last Unicorn Games, also responsible for the TOS and TNG RPGs. Take a look at how Aylott starts his review:

Deep Space Nine enjoyed something unique in the three-decade history of Star Trek on television: a definite ending. As the credits rolled for the last time, Cardassia was in ruins, Captain Ben Sisko had transcended our reality and most of DS9's crew had left for new assignments.

It was a good place to stop, but the ending made it hard to resist asking, "What happened next?" Did Garak remake Cardassia into a better world? What was DS9 like with Colonel Kira in charge? Won't somebody please delete Vic Fontaine?

Paramount isn't likely to answer these questions anytime soon, but if you want to explore "what happened next?" on the space station once known as Terok Nor, the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Roleplaying Game is a good place to start.

'Klingon Academy' Interview
Christian (7:00 pm CST)
Fan site KlingonAcademy.com (I'm sure you'll be able to figure out what game the site covers) has put up an interview with Interplay designer Ron Hodges, mostly talking abou his personal life, in an effort to get to know the development team a little better. You can find the interview by going to the site's main page and scrolling down. Thanks go out to Federation HQ for pointing me to this!

Poll Results
Christian (6:54 pm CST)
Below you will find the results of the most recent TrekToday poll, asking you how many episodes of the Animated Series you had seen. As was to be expected, not that many of you ever actually saw the series:

Total Votes: 549 How many episodes of the Animated Series have you seen? None 38.9% - (214 Votes) All of them! 21.3% - (117 Votes) 2-5 14% - (77 Votes) 1 10.3% - (57 Votes) 11-22 8.5% - (47 Votes) 6-10 6.7% - (37 Votes)

Please also participate in our new poll, asking you which recent Voyager episode was your favourite.

Today On TV
Christian (6:54 pm CST)
-On Wednesday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the third-season TOS episode 'For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky' at 5:00pm Eastern Time.

-On Wednesday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Apocalypse Rising' at 17:00 and at 0:00 GMT, while BBC Two will be showing DS9's 'Statistical Probabilities' at 18:45. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this.

-On Wednesday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Sieg oder Niederlage' (Sacrifice of Angels) at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (6:53 pm CST)
Take a look at some of the topics being discussed at the Trek BBS at the moment:

-Do you still remember the classic TOS novels 'Dreadnought' and 'Battlestations!'?

-How large do you think a Borg Cube's firepower is?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS.

Hello World!
Christian (6:53 pm CST)
I've come up with what may be the ultimate remedy for my eternal email backlog - a page answering frequently asked questions. I started typing today, and hope to finish tomorrow with about 20 questions answered... hopefully that will mean a drastic cut in the amount of mail I still need to answer.

Link of the Day: 'Down To Earth' Cartoon References Star Trek

John Cook at Sev Trek has put up another edition of the weekly 'Write Your Own Sev Trek' competition:

Take a look at what this week's competition deals with:

Dr Pavlovaski's sacking.
She had barely had a chance to unpack before Dr Pavlovaski was sent packing from the Enterforaprize, to be replaced by the woman she had replaced, Dr Cruncher. Why this revolving door policy on Enterforaprize D doctors? By the way, this comic strip makes a very nice bookend to my first Dr Pavlovaski comic strip and it's also interesting to compare today's cartoons with stuff I drew several years ago.

As usual, submit your punchlines here.

'Insurrection: Hidden Evil' Review
Christian (7:21 pm CST)
Joshua Mintzer at the Adventure Collective has written a new review of Activision's 'Hidden Evil' adventure game. Awarding the game 2 out of 5 stars, Mintzer doesn't really appear enthusiastic:

Star Trek games, like Star Trek movies, have a 1:1 trash to treasure ratio. But it's the adventure segment of the franchise that has produced the lion's share of the "treasure." With such august predecessors like Judgment Rites and A Final Unity (epic adventures that provide hours upon hours of engaging play, creative storylines, and challenging puzzles), Hidden Evil seems like a cruel and twisted mockery. It is a sad testament to the state of the genre that Activision considers it so dead that this is the only sort of adventure game it feels comfortable publishing anymore. It makes a good, cheap and amusing gift for a youngster who would probably never play adventure games anyhow, but I'm afraid that it has trouble standing tall as a full, card-carrying member of the adventure game community!

Mania Interviews Nana Visitor
Christian (7:21 pm CST)
Michelle Erica Green at AnotherUniverse's Mania Magazine has put up a new interview with Nana Visitor, who starred on 'Deep Space Nine' as Kira Nerys. The interview starts by giving us some details on what Visitor is doing now:

Even though she hails from New York, lives in California, and has spent a lot of time on Bajor, Nana Visitor is enjoying a homecoming of sorts in Chicago. The actress who played Kira Nerys on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is currently appearing at the National Theatre in Washington, DC in the John Kander-Fred Ebb-Bob Fosse musical. Visitor's father, choreographer Robert Tucker, worked with Fosse for many years, while her mother, dancer Nanette Charisse, taught Ann Reinking, who choreographed the new production of Chicago.

For Visitor, performing in a musical "feels fantastic" after nearly fifteen years away while her career flourished in other areas. "I feel like a leopard who has been let out of the zoo and is back on the . . . jungle, savanna, whatever, I'm not sure where leopards live!" the actress laughed in a recent interview from her dressing room. "The lions may be chasing me, but at least I'm in my element. I really feel that way."

Trek Cruise Anounced
Christian (7:21 pm CST)
TV Guide has a short report up about 'Cruise Trek 2000', a cruise in the Mediterranean lasting from the 21st until the 28th of May. The cruise will be attended by Roxann Dawson (B'Elanna Torres), Ethan Phillips (Neelix) Robert Picardo (the Holodoc) and Armin Shimerman (Quark), while some Trek-related things will presumably also be happening during the cruise. More information about this cruise may be obtained by sending an email to cruisetrek@aol.com.

Dorn Voices Garden Special
Christian (7:21 pm CST)
A press release from Home & Garden Television is announcing that Michael Dorn (Worf) will soon be narrating a television special for them:

To celebrate the year 2000, Home & Garden Television (HGTV) will offer viewers a look into the next century of design and technology with THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME, which will premiere on January 2 at 9:00 p.m. ET. The special will re-air on January 5 at 10:00 p.m. ET and January 8 at 5:00 p.m. ET. THE SHAPE OF THINGS TO COME will be narrated by Michael Dorn, best known for his role as Lieutenant Commander Worf of the U.S.S. Enterprise on ``Star Trek: The Next Generation.''

Cyber Sci-Fi Launch Trailer
Christian (7:21 pm CST)
TrekWeb is reporting about the Cyber Sci-Fi Network, the online television station created by former TNG writer Herbert Wright. Their first project will be 'Mars and Beyond', a made-for-the-Net sci-fi series starring Majel Barrett Roddenberry (Nurse Chapel, Lwaxana Troi). On their web site, they've put up a short teaser, a longer trailer and a sneak preview scene of the series. Take a look at how TrekWeb describes the preview:

This preview scene stars Mars cyberseries regulars Majel Barrett Roddenberry, Douglas Coler, and Elaine Giftos. Coler stars as the beleaguered commander of the nuclear-powered Mars Mission interplanetary spacecraft, the "Kitty Hawk", while Giftos plays the duplicitous NASA second-in-command to Roddenberry.

[...]

Mars and Beyond is scheduled to debut with weekly episodes in late January, 2000, with an enticing series of Sneak Preview scenes appearing on the CSFN website every few days from December 19th on, taken from the cyberseries' gripping saga of interplanetary exploration and Man's fascination with the dangerous Red Planet.

UPN Planning Monster Truck Show
Christian (7:20 pm CST)
Ultimate TV is reporting about a one-hour television special UPN is currently preparing for the February sweeps, and which will also double as a pilot for a possible weekly series in Fall 2000. Take a look at some of the details about the show:

UPN has signed a deal with Transworld International to produce "The Great Monster Truck Race," for February sweeps. The one-hour special pits drivers of a dozen gargantuan trucks against one another in a series of competitions, reports Variety.

[...]

UPN producers plan to establish rivalries and backstories for the truck drivers, much as the WWF does for its wrestlers. "We're looking for any sort of soap operatic emotion we can build," said UPN Entertainment president Tom Nunan. "We want to bring to life elements of the sport no one has ever explored before."

Happy Birthday!
Christian (7:20 pm CST)
Today is the 29th birthday of Nicole De Boer, who starred in Deep Space Nine's seventh and final season as Ezri Dax.

Today On TV
Christian (7:20 pm CST)
-On Tuesday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the third-season TOS episode 'Day Of The Dove'.

-On Tuesday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Broken Link' at 17:00 and at 0:00 GMT. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this.

-On Tuesday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Ein kühner Plan' (Favor The Bold) at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (7:20 pm CST)
Below you will find the usual selection of active threads at the Trek BBS, our Star Trek discussion forums:

-Now that 'Quake III: Arena' is available in shops, how do you think Raven Software's 'Voyager: Elite Force' game (based on the same engine) will turn out?

-Is Reginald Barclay the reason for the Holodoc's sentience?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (7:19 pm CST)
Hello Monday. I can't wait for it to be weekend again, even if Christmas will probably again mean a lack of real rest.

Brazilian Trek Marathon
Christian (7:22 pm CST)
Ricardo Dellin Martins sends along word that on the 1st of January, 2000, the USA Network in Brazil will present a 12-hour Star Trek marathon. The marathon will show episodes from the first three seasons of both Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation. This isn't the only Trek marathon held around that time - on the 30th of December the American Sci-Fi Channel will be running a 'Star Trek Chain Reaction'.

TV Zone Dawson Interview
Christian (7:20 pm CST)
Issue 122 of the British TV Zone includes an interview with Roxann Dawson (B'Elanna Torres). As the interview is part of a special 'Seven Days'-centered issue, Dawson mostly talks about her guest role on 'Seven Days' in the interview:

Back in October, the actress had the chance to sit in the captain's chair when guest-starring as United States Navy officer Commander Keagle on UPN's popular Time travel series Seven Days. According to her, cruising the waters off the coast of Vancouver, British Columbia was a bumpy but welcome respite from warping through the Delta Quadrant.

"I'm used to working on a soundstage where everything is calm – there is no weather in Space – and suddenly I was out on a naval vessel in the middle of a storm," says Dawson. "So that took some getting used to, but I still enjoyed myself. It was nice not having to wear the Klingon make-up that I do on Voyager. That allowed me a great deal of creative freedom that I haven't felt in a while as an actress.

Trek Wins Bemmies
Christian (7:16 pm CST)
The people at IGN Sci-Fi have just posted a new feature article dealing with the 'Bemmies', the SF awards they hand out each year. This year, Star Trek won in several of their TV categories, namely:

• Best Episode - 'What You Leave Behind', DS9
  
• Best Actor - Robert Picardo (EMH), Voyager
  
• Best Visual Effects - Voyager, together with Farscape.
  
• Best Technobabble - Voyager

A Take On Voyager Season 6
Christian (7:16 pm CST)
After a rather long hiatus, Trek Nation columnist Fred Shedian has returned again for his usual 'Take On Trek':

For those who believed I had fallen off the face of this planet we call Earth or built a time machine and moved to the future I am pleased to say none of those happened. However, during the last month my schedule has been filled with an automobile crash, the visiting of relatives, a busy work schedule and the observance of several interesting developments with Voyager. Therefor, in an effort to get back on track, I present this week's column.

Weeks ago, I talked about my hopes for this upcoming season of Voyager. In this column I stated that I believed without returning to the core values of Star Trek, the show would be doomed to have another poor year. Surprisingly, the excellent story telling we saw in the beginning of the season has more or less been maintained thus far. For those who are now fainting saying "Fred Shedian is actually saying something good about Voyager...twice in six months?" let me say this...you are right...I am.

Paramount Denies Trek X Reports
Christian (7:15 pm CST)
It appears Paramount is doing some spin control - the Sci-Fi Wire just published the following report:

There's no truth to rumors that Star Trek: The Next Generation stars Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner are trying to oust producer Rick Berman from the proposed tenth Trek film, a Paramount spokesman told SCI FI Wire. "These rumors are absolutely incorrect and erroneous and couldn't be further from the truth," said Blaise Noto, a spokesman for Paramount, which owns the rights to the Trek franchise.

Noto denied rumors that Stewart and Spiner have held meetings with Paramount executives, that they have contacted writers or that they have expressed their own ideas for the tenth movie. But Noto said a new Trek film is definitely in the works. "There will be one, but we have no information at this point," he said.

German 'Dark Frontier' Ratings
Christian (7:15 pm CST)
The German Star Trek Index is reporting that 2 million German viewers saw Sat.1's special presentation of 'Das ungewisse Dunkel' (Dark Frontier) on Saturday the 11th of December. This gave the station a market share of 7%, about normal for a Voyager episode, though this time around it was an extra good achievement due to strong timeslot competition.

German 'Hidden Evil' Review
Christian (7:15 pm CST)
German fan site Star Trek: Creative has put up a review of 'Star Trek: Hidden Evil', the new Activision adventure game based on the 'Insurrection' film. The review is quite a bit more positive than most others, awarding the game a score of 80%, despite also noting the short (5-6 hours) gameplay time. For the actual review (which is in German), go here.

Trek Book News
Christian (7:15 pm CST)
David Henderson has made several updates to the Psi Phi Book Database, providing new info on upcoming Star Trek books. First up is the news, directly from Pocket Books editor John Ordover, that Anthony Stewart Head (Rupert Giles on 'Buffy', and apparently also 'that coffee guy' from the 'Taster's Choice' commercials, whatever they are) will be voicing the audiobook for 'Valiant', a TNG hardcover by Michael Jan Friedman being published next year.

In other book news, Psi Phi now includes a guide page to the upcoming unofficial Voyager episode guide 'Delta Quadrant: The Unofficial Guide to Voyager' by David McIntee, scheduled to be published in March. Another guide page which has been updated is the one for Diplomatic Implausibility, a TNG novel by Keith R.A. DeCandido.

Lastly, Psi Phi is reporting that Peter David, author and co-creator of the 'New Frontier' novel series, said yesterday there will be "at least six more" NF books. This includes a New Frontier trilogy called 'Excalibur', as well as three more books in January 2001. For more book news, keep visiting Psi Phi's Book Database.

New Sev Trek Comic
Christian (7:14 pm CST)

'Hidden Evil' Chat Tomorrow
Christian (7:14 pm CST)
Gaming news site VoodooExtreme has just announced it will be hosting a live chat with the developers of 'Voyager: Elite Force' tomorrow at 9:00pm Eastern Time. Take a look at all the important details:

Who: Raven Software -- Dan Kramer, Jake Simpson, John Scott, Mike Schulenberg
When: Monday, December 20, 1999 at 9:00 PM ET, 8:00 PM CT, 7:00 PM MT, 6:00 PM PT
Where: http://community.gamefan-network.com:88/eshare/server?action=4 in room Raven Chat Event
Topic: Raven Software, Soldier of Fortune, and Elite Force

10 Rejected CCG Ideas
Christian (7:14 pm CST)
Evan Lorentz, web writer at Star Trek Customizable Card Game publisher Decipher, has written a rather funny new article about the top-10 rejected CCG ideas from Decipher:

Fans of the Star Trek CCG, their interest piqued by Decipher's new contract with Paramount, are eager for word of the next expansion or product. Curious about what was holding up new product information, I investigated and found some of the rejected ideas in Decipher's Product Development trash can. Hold your noses!

Krige Starz In 'Molokai'
Christian (7:14 pm CST)
STARZ!, a US cable channel, has just announced its lineup of original movies for winter and early spring 2000. One of these films is 'Molokai: Father Damien', which will premiere on Sunday the 12th of March. The film tells "the true story of the famous priest who devoted himself to the desperate leper colony on the Hawaiian island of Molokai during the 1870's." One of the stars of the film is Alice Krige, who previously appeared in 'Star Trek: First Contact' as the Borg Queen.

Today On TV
Christian (7:14 pm CST)
-On Monday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the third=season TOS episode 'Spectre of the Gun' at 5:00pm Eastern Time.

-On Monday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Body Parts' at 17:00 and at 0:00 GMT. Instead of the usual DS9 season 7 episode which is shown on Monday, Sky One will kick of a 'Seven Heaven' mini-season for Voyager consisting of six episodes focusing on Voyager's ex-Borg. On Monday they'll be showing 'Scorpion, Part Two' at 20:00 and 'The Raven' at 21:00.

-On Monday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Hinter Der Linie' (Behind The Lines) at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (7:13 pm CST)
Take a look at some of the topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-Should Series V have a smaller main cast?

-What do you think should be the next major Star Trek aliens?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS, where you're of course more than welcome to join in the discussions!

Hello World!
Christian (7:13 pm CST)
Note To Self: Try not to be in a city with a football stadium during next year's European Championships

As it was snowing today, two friends and I decided to go outside for a walk so we could enjoy the weather. We walked through a nearby park, nearly slipped in the mud twice, and before we knew it ended up at the local football stadium, where they had just finished the match FC Utrecht - Feyenoord. There we were stopped by a cop and asked to wait before 'the convoy' had passed. When we looked a bit more carefully, we saw that the entire square in front of the stadium was filled with a police force large enough to invade Belgium and stage a permanent takeover - there were police dogs, agents on horses, at least three dozen cars and vans, plus several other pieces of hardware one usually only sees on wartime newscasts. After a minute, the gates opened, and out came 20 buses filled with supporters of the visiting club (Feyenoord), busy making victory (and other) signs to everyone standing on the road and being a general nuisance to the four agents per bus who were traveling with them. Later on I read this particular match had to be stopped for ten minutes halfway through the game because of riots among the supporters, the third time this season this happened to Feyenoord. I think I'll just emigrate to the North Pole for the duration of the European Championships.

James Doohan Interview
Christian (6:53 pm CST)
The new edition of Eon Magazine contains an interview with James Doohan, best known for his role as Montgomery Scott in the Original Series. Besides talking about his new book 'Flight Engineer Vol.2, The Privateer' and the passing of DeForest Kelley (Leonard 'Bones' McCoy), Doohan also has the following to say about Paramount:

Discussing the studio that made TREK famous, on the other hand, was not quite as heart-warming. Apparently, there is bad blood between Doohan and Paramount, stemming from the maintenance of Scotty's integrity. It's the actor's opinion that the studio does not want him to take on newer roles for fear that it will taint the image of the famous TREK character.

"Paramount wants to stop me from working, and they do," says Doohan. "I'm not too happy with them right now because next March I'll be 80 years of age and I should be allowed to work if work comes along. They didn't stop Leonard Nimoy from doing a two-hour movie just because he looked like Spock and that wouldn't damage the character."

Shatner Publishes New Book
Christian (6:53 pm CST)
The official William Shatner Connection is reporting that a new book by William Shatner (James T. Kirk) will be published as a hardcover in January by HarperPrism. The book is called 'Beyond the Stars', and is the fourth in his 'Quest for Tomorrow' series. Here's how his official site describes the book:

In Step Into Chaos, Jim Endicott became one with the Omega Point, and used its awesome intelligence to alter his own past. Now, in that alternate universe, he finds a way to spare the father figure his extra-human DNA had programmed him to kill. But does the "new" Jim remember the "old" Jim? Only dimly aware of his vast Omega powers, Endicott must seek his new destiny aboard a world-sized star colony which an alien race has sabotaged with a seductive drug known as Heat. And lead a rag-tag crew of Plebs known as the Cowboys on their journey from outlaw gang to starship crew!

Eon Reviews Trek Comics
Christian (6:51 pm CST)
Eon's Arnold T. Blumberg has put up reviews of the first two Star Trek comics from Wildstorm, Voyager's 'False Colors' and TNG's 'Perchance to Dream'. Judging from the introduction to his 'False Colors' review, Blumberg certainly doesn't seem very impressed with the quality of the comics:

Here we go again...

After the fiasco that was Paramount Comics, a mercifully short-lived attempt by Marvel to take on the vast universe of STAR TREK in comic book form a couple of years ago, it falls to DC and their latest acquisition, WildStorm, to pick up the phasers and tricorders and try it yet again.

I've read every permutation of STAR TREK in comics, from the whimsically stupid Gold Key issues to the Marvel/ST:TMP run to the superlative DC line (which set the tone for all others to fail to capture). Marvel and Paramount made a sorry showing with their line of lousy titles, and there was some hope that TREK might be better served with WildStorm leading the way. Proudly announcing that they have no plans for ongoing monthlies, but will instead focus on publishing one-shots and short mini-series (ostensibly to increase the story quality, but really intended to milk fans with as many #1s as they can get on the shelves), WildStorm serves up their first offering with FALSE COLORS. It's a Prestige Format one-shot featuring Seven of Nine and the whole wacky Voyager clan. That should give you some idea of the new comic book TREK's auspicious debut.

Shatner Continues With Priceline
Christian (6:51 pm CST)
According to the official Continuum, William Shatner (James T. Kirk) has just renewed his endorsement contract with PriceLine.com for two more years. Since Shatner started appearing in commercials for the company, its ticket sales have exploded from 1,500 to 50,000 airline tickets per week. In the article, Shatner has the following to say about the company:

"I wasn't quite sure which was ultimately going to be big? really big - priceline.com's consumer idea or the risk these entrepeneurs were taking in breaking the old advertising mold," said Shatner. "As soon as I started to see the connection priceline.com was making with its customers, I knew priceline.com's management was on to something that would fundamentally change the way people buy things for the better."

Eon Trek IV DVD Review
Christian (6:51 pm CST)
Scott Collura at Eon Magazine has written a new review of the 'Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home' DVD, which was recently released by Paramount Home Video. Collura awards the DVD a B+, noting that the film hasn't aged as well as it might have:

Unfortunately, in some ways the film has not aged as well as it might have. Some of the production elements seem a bit below par by today's standards, particularly the finale to the film where the actors are clearly being photographed in a huge water tank meant to simulate San Francisco Bay while the scene cuts to stock footage of whales frolicking in a real body of water that is obviously nowhere nearby. Still, after his directorial debut with the previous TREK film, SEARCH FOR SPOCK, Leonard Nimoy really did cement his status with this film as a talent capable of transcending the sci-fi trappings of the TREK universe.

Additionally, the general warmth and good feeling of seeing the CLASSIC TREK crew interact with one another is very strong here. This is before the many tell-all books that would pop up from cast members angry with William Shatner, but I'm not talking about that anyway. I'm talking about the interaction between the actual characters, which is what has always been at the heart of STAR TREK. VOYAGE HOME scores high on this level, in no small part thanks to the performances of the regular cast members.

Continuum Launches 'Dear Pelgar'
Christian (6:50 pm CST)
Over at the official Continuum, they've launched another in-character feature, one which is sure to become rather popular - 'Dear Pelgar: Ask the Ferengi'. As the Continuum informs us, Pelgar is an 'independent writer working to fullfil a plea bargain arrangement.' Take a look at how he introduces himself:

Greetings, Foul Humans.

I am Pelgar of Ferenginar and though your species offends my eyes, ears and especially my sense of smell, I am being forced, under duress, to answer your questions and interact with your rancid kind.

It seems that perfectly normal, innocent Ferengi business practices are viewed by your blubberingly spineless courts as "criminal activity." My attempts at offering your senior citizens lucrative investment opportunities were perfectly innocent. In order to avoid prison, I have chosen the lesser of two evils and have reluctantly accepted the court's ruling.

I will now answer your tiresome and annoying questions.

Today On TV
Christian (6:50 pm CST)
-On Sunday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'The Quickening' at 16:00 GMT, followed an hour later by Voyager's 'Before and After'.

-On Sunday in Belgium, Kanaal 2 will be showing DS9's 'Doctor Bashir, I Presume' at 18:05 CET.

-On Sunday here in The Netherlands, RTL 5 will be showing DS9's 'The Sons Of Mogh' at 18:05 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (6:50 pm CST)
Take a look at some of the topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-What are your favourite New Frontier novels?

-Does anyone know something more about the occupation of Betazed by the Dominion?

More topics for discussion can be found at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (6:50 pm CST)
As I mentioned yesterday, this morning I (along with a few other people) accompanied a friend to the airport, where she had to catch a plane back to the USA. Unfortunately, this didn't turn out to go quite as expected - in the train to the airport, someone stole her laptop, meaning a loss of close to $3000 and half a year of personal diary entries. She immediately reported the theft to the police, but obviously the chances of her ever getting it back are of course almost non-existent. There goes another bit of faith in humanity...

Another Gowron Millennium Article
Christian (6:27 pm CST)
The people at the Continuum have put up what is probably their third article about 'Millennium Trek', the New Year's celebration in Florida hosted by Robert O'Reilly (Gowron). Take a look at how the celebration will be structured:

The event, sponsored local UPN station WTOG, will feature a Gala dinner, gift packs for attendees, special party favors and a balloon drop with Star Trek prizes. There will also be a charity auction with a number of items auctioned off to benefit the Epilepsy Foundation of America; some of the items provided by O'Reilly himself. "I'm bringing some special pictures of myself in working situations," he said, "I think we are all doing our best to raise money for the Epilepsy Foundation. It's a way to ring in the New Year and a way to raise money for this good cause."

TrekWeb Reviews 'Lives of Dax'
Christian (6:27 pm CST)
Steve Krutzler at TrekWeb has written a review of 'The Lives Of Dax', the new Pocket Books anthology edited by Marco Palmieri. Take a look at how Krutzler begins his review of this new Dax-centered book:

The first professional Star Trek anthology published by Pocket Books, The Lives of Dax provides just the right dosage of the twenty-fourth century for the casual or infrequent reader of Trek novels. Capitalizing on the accessibility of the Strange New Worlds short story anthology series, Dax manages to weave nine interesting short stories far enough away from the mainstream of any of the Trek series and yet close enough to keep your interest all the way through.

Trek News Dispatches
Christian (6:25 pm CST)
The official Continuum has put up a new edition of its Star Trek 'News Dispatches' column, providing news on Christopher Plummer (General Chang), Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard) and Jonathan Frakes (William T. Riker). Firstly, they're reporting that Plummer won the Los Angeles Film Critics' Best Supporting Actor prize for his role in 'The Insider' as '60 minutes' anchor Mike Wallace. Secondly, they have some news on a few new jobs for Stewart and Frakes:

Variety's Army Archerd reports that Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard) plans to work with his Christmas Carol partner, Robert Halmi on two upcoming projects, "Faust" and "Boss Lear," hopefully with Gregory Peck. Stewart will return to live theatre, taking to the stage next year in Arthur Miller's "Ride Down Mount Morgan."

Jonathan Frakes (Wil Ryker) will be taking a trip to the past, instead of the future. American Movie Classics has ordered 13 new episodes of the Frakes-starring series "The Lot," about the goings-on behind the scenes at a fictitious Hollywood film studio in the 1930's.

Doohan Is Your PayPal
Christian (6:25 pm CST)
PayPal.com, a new company specialising in allowing users to instantly and securely send cash payments to anyone with an email address, just announced that it has released a Palm Organizer version of its software. In addition to this, they also presented James Doohan (Montgomery Scott) as the official spokesman for the company:

In conjunction with the unveiling of its Palm software, PayPal.com also introduced James Doohan -- widely known for his role as ``Scotty'' on Star Trek(TM) -- as the company's official spokesman. ``I've been beaming people up my whole career,'' Doohan quipped, ``but this is the first time I've ever been able to beam money!'' While remarking on PayPal.com's cutting-edge technology, Doohan also stressed how easy it is to use. Unlike other current online payment systems that require users to know the bank account numbers of their would-be recipients, PayPal.com users only need to supply an email address.

To commemorate the historic launch of PayPal.com's Palm Pilot application, Doohan beamed an early Christmas present to thousands of lucky Web users. With the touch of a button on his Palm Pilot, Doohan used PayPal.com to beam a total of one million dollars to countless individuals across the country. While his ``Scotty'' character may have explored the frontier of space, James Doohan and PayPal.com are heralding a new frontier of wireless, person-to-person payments.

Today On TV
Christian (6:25 pm CST)
-On Saturday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'To The Death' at 16:00 GMT, followed an hour later by Voyager's 'Favourite Son'. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this.

-On Saturday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang' at 16:05 CET.

-On Saturday here in The Netherlands, the AVRO on Nederland 1 will be showing Voyager's 'Relativity'.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (6:24 pm CST)
Here are a few of the topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-What does Star Wars mean to you?

-If you had the chance, what new Trek novel series would you create, following 'New Frontier'?

Find more topics at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (6:24 pm CST)
Great fun, this. Remember yesterday, when I told you I would be making up for the lack of news today? Well, that was before I remembered I had promised to go with a friend to the airport tomorrow morning, in time for her to catch a plane to the USA at 10am. What this unfortunately also means is that my alarm clock will start buzzing at half past six, not exactly something I'm really looking forward to. I'll... erm... try to make up for today's smaller update tomorrow, barring any other appointments I may have forgotten about :-).

Updated Voyager Schedule
Christian (7:07 pm CST)
David Henderson at Psi Phi has updated both the regular and the syndicated Voyager episode schedule. In the syndicated schedule, he provides the episode listing for week 15 and 16 of syndication. Regarding the regular schedule, he's reporting the following:

The UPN schedule has also been updated; on December 29th, "Seven Days" and "Voyager" will be pre-empted for the TV movie "Roswell: The Aliens Attack". This movie appears to bear no specific relation to the UPN special, "Roswell", which pre-empted Voyager on October 16, 1995, although some conspiracy theorists believe there may be a hidden connection. :-)

Witty Trek Rumour Banter
Christian (7:06 pm CST)
Michael Stevens at Witty Banter (the same site that published that The Voyager Crisis article a while ago) has put up an article commenting on the latest reports regarding Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard) and Brent Spiner (Data) wanting to take over the movie franchise. Here's how the article starts:

Last time we met, we discussed the downhill nature of the low-rated television show, Star Trek : Voyager. And a discussion ensued about the failing movie franchise as well. As much as I love Star Trek, and as much as I enjoy seeing the Trek movies, financially they haven't been anything to write home about. Sadly, Star Trek : Insurrection only brought in $70.12 million.

The boys at Paramount have been blaming the aging cast of The Next Generation for the financial woes of Trek. Apparently they're just not cut out for the movies. And Rick Berman and the powers that be have been looking into a new movie franchise, dumping TNG altogether and starting out with a new crew.

As you might guess, the TNG gang isn't too happy about this, chief among them being the shows two most popular actors, Patrick Stewart and Brent Spiner.

Sev Trek Movie Announced
Christian (7:06 pm CST)
John Cook at Sev Trek has posted some pretty great news - apparently, soon his Star Trek parody cartoon will be transformed into an actual movie! Take a look:

A Sev Trek movie is due to be released on video in May 2000. It will feature the many voices of Wally Fields, 3d animation by Andrew Simpson and will be written and directed by John Cook. All we need now is a musician. If you're interested in being involved in creating the music for the movie, please email me for more details!

The movie will be a short animation based on Sev Trek: The X Generation. We will be releasing a 60 sec trailer in February and a slightly longer trailer in April. The final video will be launched at the Friends of Science Fiction convention on 5 May and available for purchase online shortly afterwards. More details will be released over the next few months, including a "behind the scenes" section showing how we created the movie.

'Hidden Evil' Designer Interview
Christian (7:06 pm CST)
Cyphre at Star Trek: Creative sends along word of a new interview on his site with Eric Dallaire, writer and game designer of Activision's 'Star Trek: Hidden Evil' game. In the interview, he addresses the criticisms many people had about the shortness of the game:

Question: There have been some reviews - good ones and bad ones - the most critics are regarding the length of the game - some people finished it within 5-6 hours - was the game planned to be short or was it rushed at the end ?

Answer: Well, the game was not rushed out of the door. However, the game did have a finite development cycle of a one year production schedule. It was agreed by Presto Studios and Activision that Hidden Evil would be a shorter adventure game with a smaller budget. This would allow us to sell the game at a lower price point and sell it to a wide range of Trek fans. Some reviewers are also neglecting to factor in the price point when they do their reviews of the game. Activision saw an opportunity to offer different types of games to different types of Trek fans. Hidden Evil is geared toward the widest segment of Trek fans and people who don't necessarily buy many games per year. For hard core Trek fans and gamers, Activision is producing Voyager: Elite Forces and Armada. We feel that the Trek market is large enough and strong enough to support different gaming models. We did plan for the game to be shorter than most adventure games, but we weren't planning for some people to finish it so fast. In hindsight, we could have had difficulty switches so that hard core gamers could have selected for a harder gameplay experience.That way, a new user or a casual gamer could select for an easy mode where the harder puzzles are partially or completely solved and the combats are easier. We may do something like that for the next game.

'Warhead' Overnight Ratings
Christian (7:06 pm CST)
Greg Fuller at the Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database has put up the overnight ratings report for yesterday's 'Warhead' rerun. The episode perfomed just about average:

"Warhead" remained fairly flat from last week's rerun, tallying a 3.7 rating, 6 share. That's slightly down from last week's 3.8/6 earned by "Think Tank."

For the first time since "Roswell"'s premiere, Voyager finished 6th in the timeslot, falling to the WB's sci-fi/teen angst drama, which earned a 3.9/6. "Get Real" returned to its 9 p.m. timeslot with a 4th place finish, grabbing a 4.1/6. "Seven Days" improved to a 3.5/6 for UPN at 8 p.m.

Hello World!
Christian (7:05 pm CST)
Very short update today - I just came back from a classical concert where a friend of mine performed as a singer in a choir, and now I'm more tired than I've been in a long while. I'll try to make up for it tomorrow.

GamesMania Reviews 'Hidden Evil'
Christian (6:45 pm CST)
Jason MacIsaac at GamesMania has written a review of 'Star Trek: Hidden Evil', Activision's new adventure game based on the 'Insurrection' film. As usual, the reviewer thinks the game is only so-so:

This game was developed by Presto Studios, who also developed the Journeyman Project games. They've proven themselves adept at virtually any style of adventure. What they've given us here shows that the can do nice 3D models wandering around beautiful environments. I'd love to see them take this talent and develop something a little longer, with a bit more depth.

Perhaps the release of Hidden Evil is ill-timed. I'm sure a lot of hardcore adventure gamers have their hands full with Omikron and Gabriel Knight 3. Compared to those two meaty games, Hidden Evil is a light snack. It's a decent, middle of the road game. If that's what you're in the mood for, go for it. Don't expect to be blown away though.

Good 'Think Tank' Ratings
Christian (6:45 pm CST)
Greg Fuller at the Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database has posted some rather interesting news in his final ratings report for 'Think Tank' - apparently, last week's Voyager rerun managed to score higher ratings than the 'Dark Frontier' rerun in October!

"Think Tank," perhaps riding on the guest appearance of Jason Alexander, brought in a very strong rerun rating for Voyager, earning a 2.9 rating, 4 share. That's Voyager's top rerun since January and a slight increase over this season's "Dark Frontier"'s rerun, which earned 2.8/4 in October.

Even in a rerun, Voyager still finished 5th in its timeslot, ahead of the WB's special "Dawson's Creek" rerun, which earned a 2.1. "Seven Days" pulled a 2.1 and "WWF Smackdown!" remained on top of UPN with a 4.3.

Moments That Shouldn't Have Been
Christian (6:44 pm CST)
In the new edition of her 'Hailing Frequencies' column for AnotherUniverse's Mania Magazine, Michelle Erica Green has put up a listing of the ten worst moments of Trek, following her listing a while ago of the greatest moments. Here's how she introduces her article:

Difficult as it was to limit myself to ten items when I wrote my version of Trek's greatest moments a few weeks ago, I found it impossible to limit myself similarly in listing Trek moments I wish had never happened. Not because any of them ruined the shows; it takes a lot to spoil an entire Trek series for me, like the perpetual presence of Barbie of Borg alongside a captain who's having a nervous breakdown. There have been other distressing elements introduced into Trek - a full season of wussy Kira in the middle of DS9's run, and the whole storyline with Sela - but it's hard to single out particularly heinous moments in either.

[...]

The following are moments which epitomize bad decision-making on the part of the Trek writers, rather than any great flaws in the concept of Star Trek. Some of them had unintentionally good consequences in the long run; others were mercifully ignored and forgotten by Trek canon. Please feel free to disagree!

25% Of Kids Believe In Beaming
Christian (6:44 pm CST)
A press release from Junior Achievement has posted the results of a survey held under kids, asking them about their thoughts on the future. In one paragraph, a Trek technology is mentioned:

In the realm of science, 73% believe videophones will replace telephones, while 60% believe we will travel in flying cars, humans will be cloned and robots will be a part of daily life. Star Trek fans will be happy to know that 25% of kids think ``beaming'' will be a standard mode of transportation. If the 31% of kids who believe time travel will be possible by the year 3000 are correct, then people in 2999 will be able to return to our time to find out how we dealt with the passing of one millennium into another.

New 'Armada' Screenshots
Christian (6:44 pm CST)
The German Star Trek: Creative site has put up a set of new screenshots from Activision's upcoming 'Armada' real-time strategy game. The nine shots are available on this page, which I was pointed to by Federation HQ.

UPN Beats WB
Christian (6:44 pm CST)
The Canadian Jam! Showbiz has put up a report looking back at the Nielsen ratings achieved by the big six networks last week. The report contains this little snippet with very positive news for UPN:

For the second straight week, UPN topped the rival WB network, and did so handily. UPN had 3.9 million viewers (2.7 rating, 4 share), while the WB had 3.1 million viewers (2.3, 4).

Happy Birthday!
Christian (6:44 pm CST)
Today is the 31st birthday of Garrett Wang, who stars as Harry Kim on 'Star Trek: Voyager'.

Today On TV
Christian (6:43 pm CST)
-Tonight at 9:00pm, UPN will be showing Voyager's 'Warhead'. Take a look at how the channel describes the episode:

After Voyager receives a distress signal from an alien missile, Ensign Kim, Torres and The Doctor determine that it's a complex, damaged weapon with artificial intelligence and sentient consciousness. But when they beam this mysterious device aboard, it interlinks with The Doctor's program and through him, insists Voyager enable it to fulfill its mission of mass destruction.

-On Thursday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Entscheidungen' (Rocks and Shoals) at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (6:43 pm CST)
Here's the usual selection of interesting Trek BBS topics:

-Have you ever seen the SF show La Femme Nikita?

-What are your thoughts on the Stewart & Spiner rumours?

Find more topics at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (6:43 pm CST)
I just can't win. Today I spent several hours working through my backlog of mail, even answering a few mails which dated back as far as August. Unfortunately, it appears that not everyone is as behind on answering email as I am - well over half of the people I mailed today again sent in responses to my new mails, meaning I have a gigantic amount of unanswered mail again. Maybe I should hire a secretary. Or two.

The report itself is rather interesting, but it may also be considered rather offensive to some of you, as it is written in a 'gangsta'-style way. I myself actually received the same rpeort yesterday, and if you visited TrekToday during the first thirty minutes after yesterday's update you may have already read it, before I decided to pull the article and just post a synopsis. The reason for the... erm... somewhat unique writing style in the article is apparently that this particular source wanted to mask his true identity, something in which he obviously succeeded in this way. It does have the rather negative side effect of making the story seem less serious, though, but you can be assured that everything said in it is actually true, as far as we know. If after these warnings you still want to read the report, head on over to this AICN page. Remember, as usual, to still treat this as a rumour - certainly none of this has been confirmed by Paramount yet.

Warp Eleven Closes
Christian (5:59 pm CST)
This is definitely one of the saddest news updates in the past few months - my good friend Leonard Schuurmans has announced he is closing down his superb news site Warp Eleven. Take a look at part of the farewell message he posted on his site:

After almost three years of delivering Star Trek news, episode updates and rumors, Warp¹¹ is shutting down.

Ever since last summer I've been wondering wether or not I should continue this site. I can hardly find the time and energy anymore to keep it updated regularely. And to be honest I do not mind. There are so many other interesting things to do out there.

It has been fun, believe me, but it's time for me to go where no one has gone before...[I've got big plans :)]

SciFi Headquarters To Stay
Christian (5:59 pm CST)
Finally some good news after all those recent site closures - Matthew Klaehn at SciFi Headquarters has just posted a message on his site stating he won't be closing it after all. Take a look at part of that message:

As of Saturday, December 11th, I had decided to make the decision to close down my website. BUT as of December 13th, after reading all of the emails I got about what my site has met to all of you and how it has touched all of your lives, I cried. Not to sound like a baby, but when you read what people write about how you have effected their lives in such a positive way, and that you gave them a positive part of their day, that means allot to a human being, especially me.

Here is the deal: I will try my hardest for all of you to maintain this site. But for those of you that email me complaining and "commanding" me, I will not reply to you. Also, most of you people overseas will not like this next part; I will no longer be making episode clips from every episode. I will only make clips from very special trek episodes (NOTE: I will decide what is a special). What I will do, is have SCIFI Headquarters as a more "news" media site where I will over time archive EVERY Trek promo known to man and I will cover Star Trek with clips like the ones in my "Star Trek In The Media" section. Other sections that will remain will be "Special FX," "Humor," "The Experience," "Vic's," and "Feature Films." So, basically everything but episode clips. Which was the thing that took up my time on this site.

Late Trek Fan Follows Roddenberry
Christian (5:58 pm CST)
CNN is reporting about a spaceflight memorial which will be carried out on Sunday, in which the ashes of 35 deceased people will be shot off into space. One of the people who chose to have such a post-cremation spaceflight memorial was Carol Berman (no relationship with the producer, presumably), a long-time Star Trek fan, and this is what the article mainly deals with:

"She didn't want to be in the cold ground," said Eugene B. Berman, Carol's husband. "And she wanted to explore. She was also a devotee of 'Star Trek.' So, you start thinking about things celestial."

Celestis pioneered post-cremation spaceflight memorials in 1997 when it sent the ashes of LSD prophet Timothy Leary and "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry aloft. "There's something poetic about ashes to ashes, dust to dust, as it were," Berman said Monday. "She will become celestial dust, from which we may have all originated."

DeLancie To Host Mac Awards
Christian (5:58 pm CST)
MacWorld has just put up an article about the 15th Annual Eddy Awards, which will be held next month in San Francisco. According to the article, the event will be hosted by none other than John DeLancie (Q):

For the first time, Mac Publishing is offering three VIP passes to 15th Annual Eddy Awards, the Academy Awards™ of the Mac community. The awards show will be held at the prestigious San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on Tuesday, January 4th 2000, in San Francisco. The awards ceremony draws the elite of the industry celebrating the year's most innovative products and will be hosted by another Mac enthusiast, John de Lancie, best known in the role as "Q" from "Star Trek: The Next Generation." The winners will receive VIP passes to the Eddy Awards show, meet and greet with the Macworld editors, and VIP seating during the show. A photo opportunity with John de Lancie will complete the evening.

UK Nicole deBoer Interview
Christian (5:58 pm CST)
Spellbound Nicole DeBoer has put up a transcript of an interview with Nicole deBoer (Ezri Dax), which first appeared in the December issue of the British Star Trek Monthly Magazine. In the interview, deBoer talks to Ian Spelling about her year on DS9, and about her current projects:

"After the show wrapped I wanted to come home [to Toronto] and see my family and friends again," she responds. "So, I spent some time with them. Then I had a lot of meetings about new projections. I did Rated X [in Toronto], and I can see from my fan sites that everybody is freaking out because they think it's some sort of porno movie! It's not, but it is about the Mitchell brothers, who sort of got the porno industry going in California. I am not playing someone who takes her clothes off or any kind of porno person." deBoer in fact plays the wife of one of the Mitchell brothers, who are played by Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen, the former of whom also directed Rated X.

So, life is pretty good for Nicole deBoer. An actress with a science fiction-packed resume that ranges from the film Cube to a series regular role on Deepwater Black to guest spots on Psi Factor, The Outer Limits, TekWar and Forever Knight, she hit the genre jackpot with ST:DS9. Now, though, deBoer still plans to attend the occasional science fiction convention, recently turned up at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles to help promote Simon & Schuster's new CD-ROM game, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - the Fallen, and joined her ST:DS9 co-stars at a Museum of Television and Radio tribute to the series. The actress is seeking to broaden her horizons, and it seems as if she's succeeding, which is a very good thing given her passion for her craft.

New Voyager Episode Revealed
Christian (5:57 pm CST)
NOTE: Below you will find spoilers for 'Collective' and 'Ashes To Ashes', two Voyager episodes which will be shown during the second half of the season. To avoid reading these spoilers, click here.

Again, this is where you need to click to avoid being spoiled.

Jason Davidson at Star Trek News has put up a report about two Voyager episodes which will be shown later this year, both dealing with a group of Borg children. Apparently both episodes are part of a three-episode arc, the last episode of which is not yet known. Take a look at the descriptions of the two episodes about which something is already known:

The Collective
The crew discovers a group of assimilated children who have been disconnected from the Collective. While they crave rejoining the hive, the Borg wish nothing to do with them because of their "imperfection".

Ashes to Ashes
Deals with the return of the Borg children discovered in "Collective". Scarlett Pomers guest stars [as Naomi Wildman].

Julia Houston 'One Small Step' Review
Christian (5:57 pm CST)
Only slightly delayed, Julia Houston at About.com's Star Trek Fans has reviewed Voyager's 'One Small Step', the Mars mission episode which aired a couple of weeks ago. Take a look at how she starts her review:

Star Trek and the space program have had a long, sometimes amusing, sometimes inspiring friendship. NASA types talk about being inspired by Kirk and Uhura. A recent female shuttle commander earned the nickname "Janeway" from her crew after keeping her cool during a tense patch. And from time to time, Star Trek shows work in references to old-fashioned astronauts and their 0-gee, space-suited advancements in exploration.

"One Small Step," however, is far more than a friendly nod to "distant" ancestors. Although Seven once again achieves far too much centrality in the episode, she and Paris and Chakotay construct the best that Star Trek's managed yet in showing just what those early explorers mean to their inheritors.

New Sev Trek Competition
Christian (5:56 pm CST)
John Cook at Sev Trek has uploaded a new edition of the 'Write Your Own Sev Trek' Competition:

James Monroe Interview
Christian (5:56 pm CST)
Lady Pain at TeleFragged has put up an interview with James Monroe, the lead programmer of Raven's upcoming 'Voyager: Elite Force' game. In the interview, Monroe talks about how they adapted the 'Quake III: Arena' engine for use in the game:

Lady Pain: What have you done to change/enhance/customize the engine for Elite Force? I heard Gill Gribb (Creator of GHOUL) was working with you on the skeletal system

James Monroe: The greatest changes we have made are due to our immersive single- player story line. Q3A didn't come with any support for the kinds of things we needed so we added a scripting system (ICARUS), a new navigation system for our NPCs, an effects system (for maps and weapons), voice-overs with lip-synching animations, an ambient sound system, a whole camera system for cinematic quality scenarios, and level save and restore. And yes, Gil and I are starting work on a skeletal replacement for the md3 models.

Lady Pain: How did you take a multiplayer engine and add single player elements?

James Monroe: By basically ripping out the parts that don't fit the single player games and by-passing the networking parts. If we kept the multiplayer restraints, the single player game would be compromised and would not look as good.

Ferengi CCG Contest
Christian (5:56 pm CST)
Decipher, publisher of the official Star Trek Customizable Card Game, is calling out to all you CCG tournament players with a new contest where you can submit your own decks based on the Ferengi affiliation. Take a look at the basic info about the contest:

If you submit a worthy deck design and are chosen a winner, you'll receive a Star Trek CCG Second Anthology set. The contest is only open to those who have placed first or second, using their own Ferengi deck design, in a sanctionable Star Trek CCG Constructed format event. One deck design per entry. If you have won or placed 2nd in more than one sanctionable tournament using more than one Ferengi deck design, you may submit each deck design as a separate entry.

Today On TV
Christian (5:56 pm CST)
-On Wednesday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the second-season TOS episode 'The Enterprise Incident' at 5:00pm Eastern Time.

-On Wednesday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Shattered Mirror' at 17:00 and at 23:30 GMT, while BBC Two will be showing DS9's 'Resurrection' at 18:45. Thanks go out, as usual, to Kathryn Hughes for this.

-On Wednesday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Zeit des Widerstands' (A Time To Stand) at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (5:55 pm CST)
Below you'll find the usual selection of interesting topics being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-Which episodes would you choose if you wanted to initiate someone as a Star Trek fan?

-We've got a new moderator at the Voyager forum!

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS, where you're of course more than welcome to participate!

Hello World!
Christian (5:55 pm CST)
Useless Trivia, #192: Today is exactly three months after my birthday.

(Can you tell I'm not inspired today :-)?)

As usual, treat this as you would any other rumour - certainly none of this has been officially confirmed by Paramount yet.

Jimmy Flowers Interview
Christian (8:46 pm CST)
Inside Voyager has put up a new interview with Jimmy Flowers, author of the 'Incredible Internet Guide for Trekkers', which was published about a month ago. Here's one of the questions answered in the interview:

Why did you decide to write your book?

As a Star Trek fan, I became frustrated trying to find quality Trek sites online. I found that search engines were filled with dead links and irrelevant hits. Plus, when I would locate a site using a search engine, all I knew about it was its name. I couldn't tell if it offered anything worthwhile or what its focus was until I visited it. I thought, "Somebody ought to clean up this mess." Thus, a book was born.

Trek Experience Hits New Zealand
Christian (8:45 pm CST)
Daniel Nicholls sends along word about 'Star Trek: The Experience', a new exhibition which has just opened in the Aotea Centre in Auckland, New Zealand. Take a look at how the AucklandLive Event Diary describes the event:

Space... the final frontier. If you're a trekkie from way back then you're going to love this exhibit direct from the studios of Paramount Pictures in Hollywood, which includes props, costumes and full-scale set pieces. It's an intergalactic experience not to be missed. ASB Theatre, Aotea Centre, December 3 - January 26, 10am to 9pm daily. Adults $10, Children $7, Family $28 (2 adults, 2 children).

Viacom Allowed To Keep UPN
Christian (8:45 pm CST)
Today's edition of Studio Briefing is reporting some news which is certainly very good for Viacom, UPN and 'Voyager':

The FCC will allow Viacom, which is merging with CBS, to retain its 50-percent stake in UPN, the online edition of Broadcasting & Cable reported on Friday, citing unnamed industry sources. The trade publication also said that the commission is likely to propose amending a rule barring any of the top four TV networks from owning another network. It was not clear, however, whether the proposed new rule applied only to acquiring UPN and The WB or whether the networks would be allowed to buy each other, B&C observed.

Roxann Dawson Club Closes
Christian (8:45 pm CST)
Sad news for fans of Roxann Dawson (B'Elanna Torres) - her official fan club, B3 (which stood for Beauty, Brains and something else starting with a B) has closed down. Here's what I've been told about this:

Unfortunately, yes, the entire B3 club has folded operations. The president of the club mysteriously vanished off the face of the earth for some reason some time ago and the vice-president was doing her best to keep the club afloat.

It wasn't working out though (not through any fault of her own) and Roxann received some complaints about the club. So she decided not to endorse the B3 club anymore and it was decided to end operations of the club effective immediately. I don't believe there will be a reincarnation of the club in any form but stranger things have happened before!

Fifth Voyager Season In Germany
Christian (8:45 pm CST)
The German Star Trek Index is reporting that on the 29th of January, 2000, Sat.1 will start showing Voyager's fifth season, the first time that season will be shown on publicly viewable German TV. On that day they'll be airing first 'Nacht' (Night) and then 'Die Drohne' (Drone) at 20:15 CET, after which every week a new episode will be shown.

'Voyager Conspiracy' Article
Christian (8:45 pm CST)
Julia Houston at About.com's Star Trek Fans has put up a new feature entitled 'The Voyager Conspiracy', which was originally supposed to be a review of the episode which aired a few weeks ago:

Taken by itself, "The Voyager Conspiracy" is a normal enough episode. Seven makes some changes to her alcove so she can download information in her sleep, but too much information leads to paranoid "conspiracy theories" about Janeway and Chakotay that first threaten to have the command crew jumping at shadows, and then impel Seven to try to destroy an alien-made "catapult" that could knock a few years off Voyager's trip.

The problem with the episode -- and the reason why this review grew into a feature -- is that we can't take the episode by itself, not if we're regular viewers. We have to take it as the third in back-to-back series of Seven-centered episodes in a show that was originally structured as an ensemble show. Ensemble shows are tricky things. It's never been true of Voyager, or of any Star Trek show, that all the characters get anything like equal time. Certain characters, such as Data, the Doctor, Seven, and Quark, become more popular and thus receive more scripts that feature them. However, a balance is still crucial.

Novel Cover Images
Christian (8:44 pm CST)
David Henderson at Psi Phi has uploaded the cover images of three upcoming Trek books, namely of the Strange New Worlds III anthology, the A Stitch in Time novel and the Vulcan's Heart reprint.

Roddenberry Jr. Talks New Series
Christian (8:44 pm CST)
Entertainment site The 11th Hour has put up a new interview with Eugene W. Roddenberry, Jr., son of Star Trek's creator. He is currently serving as technical advisor on 'Earth: Final Conflict', one of the series based on his father's works, and this is what he talks about in a large part of the interview. However, besides that he also talks about modern Trek (which he still enjoys), and the new 'Starship' and 'Andromeda' shows currently being developed by Tribune Entertainment, also based on Gene Roddenberry's work. In the interview, Roddenberry reveals that the 'Starship' is currently on the backburner, and also has the following to say about 'Andromeda':

"Andromeda's coming up. I've read the bible for that show, and it has potential. I don't want to lie and say it's going to be great. What I've read so far is pretty good scifi, but we still have to see what happens. I know that Kevin [Sorbo]'s excited because he's breaking out of his Hercules role. I really want to know where it's going before I hop aboard."

Extreme 'Hidden Evil' Review
Christian (8:43 pm CST)
Len at GamesXTREME has put up a review of 'Star Trek: Hidden Evil', Activision's new adventure game based on the 'Insurrection' film. Awarding the game a score of 76%, this review is more positive than most others, though the actual review doesn't really seem to give any reasons for this. To read the review, follow this link. Thanks go out to Blue for this!

Happy Birthday!
Christian (8:43 pm CST)
Today is the 70th birthday of Christopher Plummer, who starred in 'Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country' as General Chang, a role he recently revisited for the Interplay game 'Klingon Academy'.

Today On TV
Christian (8:43 pm CST)
-On Tuesday in the United States, the Sci-Fi channel will be showing the infamous TOS episode 'Spock's Brain'.

-On Tuesday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Hard Time' at 17:00 and at 23:30 GMT. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this!

-On Tuesday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Zu den Waffen!' (Call To Arms) at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (8:42 pm CST)
Here are some of the interesting topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-How long has the Federation known about the Trills?

-Did anyone already get the new DS9 Companion CD?

-Do you know how to get video tapes of the Animated Series?

Find more topics at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (8:42 pm CST)
Today I was bored. How do I know this? I spent three hours creating synthesised versions of every nick name on my ICQ contact list, so that now a computer voice informs me whenever someone comes online. I did this using the Bell Labs Text-To-Speech Synthesis, which works surprisingly well. The only problem with the program is that it doesn't seem to function very well with Dutch names, sometimes leading to pretty hilarious results - for some reason the computer insists on pronouncing one of my friend's names as 'Heineken', for example :-).

'New Worlds' Site Updated
Christian (5:35 pm CST)
The folks at Interplay have updated the official 'New Worlds' site, dedicated to their upcoming real-time strategy game. In the update, they provide us with news on some staff additions, and also tell us what exactly they're currently working on:

What are we doing right now? We're examining the methods for translating 3D objects to be integrated from the artist's hands directly into the game. We are understanding what makes the best computer AI for this genre in conjunction with our specific game in mind; e.g. True 3D EVERYTHING (nothing is not 3D), Star Trek races, vehicles, buildings, technology, etc. Evaluating the user interface over and over again to provide every aspect of power to control the game under a microscope while allowing players to play from a First Person perspective to multiple Bird's Eye views, one overhead, and others different angles; all the viewing modes must support True 3D all the way, zooming, rotating, panning, etc. Multiplayer over LAN and the Internet is another important consideration for us, so we are looking into what will make that the best and most pleasing experience. Rest assured, we will not ship this game until these and more critical aspects of the game are outstanding and something YOU and WE want to play a lot!

'Ultimate Trek' Credits
Christian (5:30 pm CST)
David Henderson at Psi Phi has put up the credits for 'Ultimate Trek', the less-than-successful Star Trek special which aired on the 1st of December. In the credits listing you'll be able to find exactly who was responsible for bringing you the show, and who portrayed the characters seen in it. You can find the credit listing by going here.

'Daoine Sidhe' Retitled
Christian (5:27 pm CST)
NOTE: Below you'll find a few spoilers for an upcoming Voyager episode. Click here to avoid being spoiled.

Again, this is where you need to click to avoid spoilers.

Christopher Howell at the Great Link, fortunately finally updating again after nearly a month of silence, has just posted the following news item on the Voyager episode which used to be titled 'Daoine Sidhe':

My source says this episode is called "Fairy Tales". Other sources suggest that the actual title is "Daoine Sidhe". What is certain is that this episode is a sequel of sorts to "Fair Haven" which has the members of the holographic community suspecting the Voyager crew "are not who they seem to be." Suggesting the residents are gaining sentience, reminescent of Doctor Moriarty on TNG.

Jammer's 'Pathfinder' Review
Christian (5:22 pm CST)
Jamahl Epsicokhan over at Star Trek: Hypertext has uploaded his review of 'Pathfinder', the Voyager episode featuring appearances by Deanna Troi and Reginald Barclay. Jamahl rather liked the episode, as you can see by looking at the beginning of his review:

Nutshell: A terrific character study and a big moment for the Voyager crew. Very well executed, and well played for its emotional content.

It's nice to break format every once in a while. "Pathfinder" breaks the usual format, places much of the emphasis on guest characters, takes place almost entirely in a setting away from Voyager, features two guest stars from the TNG days ... and does it all without any of it seeming like a calculated ratings stunt. There's real substance here.

SciFi Headquarters Closes Down
Christian (5:18 pm CST)
Matthew Klaehn, webmaster of Trek media site SciFi Headquarters, yesterday annonced some very sad news - he is closing down his site. Take a look at the first paragraph of the explanation he posted to his site:

As of Saturday, December 11th, I have decided to make the decision to close down my website. On Wednesday, December 15th, all text, graphics and media (all files) of the existence of SCIFI Headquarters will be GONE!! So if you want something, download it NOW!! With everything else in my life that I am doing or what I plan on doing, I can not manage the site. Yes, www.mediatrek.com will remain. Just SCFI Headquarters will be gone. I will be working on MK Productions and Baker Media Club sites of mediatrek.com. As you should of all seen, over the past few months, I have been super slow in getting the new stuff online and after a while I just get sick of everyone writing me bitc*&^# emails to me "commanding" me to get the clips or whatever online. I have more important things going on in my life to do then to manage a Star Trek media site. Not to say that Trek is not an important part of my life, hell, it inspired me to goto college for film making.

'Armada' Designer Chat Transcript
Christian (5:15 pm CST)
Starbase Armada has put up a transcript of its live chat Marc Turndorf, the producer of Activision's upcoming real-time strategy game 'Armada'. In the chat, the producer answers all sorts of questions about the game, talking about the appearance of the Dominion, the mission editor, cloaking, and more. You can find it all in the actual transcript.

Hello World!
Christian (5:05 pm CST)
I'm afraid I'll only be able to do a more or less improvised update today. Five minutes ago the fan on my laptop suddenly decided to stop functioning, which didn't exactly cause me to be overwhelmed with joy. I'm typing this from a public terminal near where I live, but unfortunately I'll be kicked out of here an hour from now, so I'll have to worry. On top of that comes the fact that I miss my regular news sources list here, so I'll have to type in all the site adresses manually - and I don't remember them all. Please forgive me if you're still waiting for an email from you or if I forgot to mention your news today - I'll use your news as soon as my notebook isn't in danger of melting down anymore.

On 'Klingon Academy' QA
Christian (5:14 pm CST)
Erik Guenther, a Senior Tester currently testing 'Klingon Academy' for Interplay's Quality Assurance (QA) department, has posted an update to the Klingon Academy development board, giving us a look at precisely how the game is actually tested. Apparently, the testers rather like the game:

We are steaming ahead though and checking out the terrains even as I write this. I'm in awe of what the artists have come up with. Truly beautiful terrains from a far and within. I haven't seen a game this year that looks as impressive as KA does. From the ship models to these terrains. The effects when your within a terrain such as a Ringed planet, Gas Giant or Black Hole are astounding. Be assured the battles will get even more interesting when fighting and only able to move 1/8 impulse because of the turbulence from a Gas Giant. Every ship has a cloaking device in theory, due to all sensors being handicapped when your in a Nebula. It gets seriously intense when we are fighting in these. Alot of Strategy, Macro management, and trash talk! It doesn't feel like work at times. I can't wait to see the finished result. I gotta get back to the fight now, my ship is being plummeted.

Book Back Cover Texts
Christian (5:13 pm CST)
David Henderson at Psi Phi has put up the back cover texts of three upcoming books from Pocket Books, the publisher of the Trek tie-in novels. The texts added are for the Strange New Worlds III anthology, the paperback reprint of Vulcan's Heart and 'A Stitch In Time', the DS9 novel written by Andrew Robinson (Garak).

Mutiny On The 'Marie Curie'
Christian (5:11 pm CST)
The people at the Continuum have put up a new article in their series of fictional Trek news items, this time reporting about a mutiny on a Starfleet vessel. Here's how the article starts:

Starfleet's Deep Space Scientific Survey crews can contend with subspace anomalies, months of isolation and all kinds of hazardous situations, but don't change the menu. The Captain of the U.S.S. Marie Curie found this out the hard way.

Deep space research can be long, difficult and trying work, even under the best of circumstances. The crews on most deep space survey missions are required to spend months away from their families, face unknown dangers and are often packed in close quarters with the rest of the crew.

These stresses may have been too much for the U.S.S. Marie Curie crew. When Captain M'Rek Roddy decided to reprogram the replicators for what he considered a "healthier diet" for his crew, they responded violently.

Dreamcast 'New Worlds' Preview
Christian (5:04 pm CST)
Jeff Ko at Sega X has written a new preview of 'Star Trek: New Worlds', the real-time strategy game currently being developed for both the PC and the Dreamcast by Interplay. Even though Ko isn't really happy with the idea of a ground-based RTS game based on the Trek license, in the preview he still appears to be looking forward to the game:

With all the game's features, who can resist such a game? Even a skeptic like me who believes all Star Trek games should be ship-to-ship affairs or adventure games can't but help be lured by the promise of this game. Let's just hope that Binary Asylum can pull it off. Sega X will be sure to continue to follow this game and report back with any new screens or movies which are released by Interplay. In the margin is a nice roster of screenshots, from a early beta, which give an idea of what we can expect the Dreamcast version of this very promising, latest installment to the Star Trek franchise.

New UPN Stunt Series
Christian (5:03 pm CST)
UltimateTV is reporting about a new series UPN will be debuting on the 18th of January, called 'I Dare You'. Judging by the description, the series is targeting the same audience as their 'WWF Smackdown!' hit show:

Platforming some rather spectacular, highly crafted stunts by professional daredevils, the hour-long "I Dare You" will be filmed entirely on location in Las Vegas. Specifics about the first stunt on the program will be announced shortly.

Poll Results
Christian (5:03 pm CST)
Below you'll find the results of the most recent TrekToday poll, asking what you though about the 'Ultimate Trek' TV special. Apparently, you weren't impressed:

Total Votes: 441 How would you grade the 'Ultimate Trek' special? 1-2 34.6% - (153 Votes) 3-4 18.5% - (82 Votes) Wasn't able to see it 15.1% - (67 Votes) 5-6 10.6% - (47 Votes) 7-8 10.2% - (45 Votes) Didn't want to see it 6.1% - (27 Votes) 9-10 4.5% - (20 Votes)

Today On TV
Christian (5:02 pm CST)
-On Sunday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the second-season TOS episode 'Bread and Circuses' at 12:00pm Eastern Time.

-On Sunday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Accession' at 16:00 GMT, followed an hour later by Voyager's 'Rise'.

-I completely forgot to mention that today at 20:00, Sat.1 in Germany showed Voyager's 'Dark Frontier' telefilm.

-On Sunday here in The Netherlands, RTL 5 will be showing DS9's 'Return To Grace' at 18:05 CET.

-On Sunday in Belgium, Kanaal 2 will be showing DS9's 'By Inferno's Light' at 18:05 CET. Thanks go out to the Benelux Star Trek TV Guide for this!

Trek BBS Today
Christian (5:01 pm CST)
Below are some of the interesting topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-What did you think about DS9's 'Sacrifice of Angels' episode?

-How come Voyager so often has unauthorised shuttle launches?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (5:01 pm CST)
And it's a miracle! I'm actually updating at least somewhat on time! Here's hoping I'll be able to keep this up...

Pillers Land Development Deal
Christian (7:08 pm CST)
Josef Adalian at the Daily Variety is reporting some very interesting news about a development deal with the WB which Michael Piller and his son Shawn Piller just signed. Michael Piller was of course executive producer on all three modern Trek series for a while, and also co-created Deep Space Nine and Voyager. Furthermore, he wrote 'Insurrection'. Shawn Piller has also written several episodes of TNG and Voyager.

The development deal includes at least one guaranteed series production commitment and three pilot script orders. The WB will be able to choose from several concepts for this, as the Variety article mentions the following four concepts as already being under development:

• A two-hour pilot being produced with Paramount that the elder Piller calls "a contemporary spiritual fantasy with heavy special effects" that's based on an original concept of sci-fi scribe Orson Scott Card;
  
• A Hitchcockian thriller skein in the tradition of "North by Northwest." Pilot is a collaboration with Alan Spencer ("Sledge Hammer!");
  
• a futuristic adventure skein that, while not set in space, is on a "Star Trek"-size scale, with Granada Television is attached as a co-producer;
  
• The elder Piller and scribe Brie Shaffer are working on a contemporary character-driven fantasy.

More on this deal can be found in the full article.

'Armada' Chat Tonight
Christian (7:08 pm CST)
Tonight at 7:00pm Eastern Time, Starbase Armada will be hosting a live chat with Marc Tundorf and Eric Gerwitz, producer and lead designer of Activision's 'Armada' game, respectively. To participate in the chat, please go here.

New Sev Trek Comic
Christian (7:08 pm CST)

Trek Characters In Philly News List
Christian (7:08 pm CST)
The Philadelphia Daily News has put up a list of the 50 most memorable characters from the world of TV. The list features three characters from Star Trek, including a surprise appearance by Benjamin Sisko:

7. Capt. James T. Kirk ("Star Trek")
8. Mr. Spock ("Star Trek")
39. Benjamin Sisko ("Star Trek: Deep Space 9")

ISS Module Named 'Enterprise'
Christian (7:08 pm CST)
Great news - in a few years, news programs all over the world will actually be able to refer to astronauts as living on the Enterprise, as Spacehab, Inc. has just announced a few new details on the astronaut quarters currently being constructed for the Internation Space Station. The habitat module is being built by the Russian company RSC Energia, who were also already involved with projects such as the Sputniks and the Mir, and the company has apparently decided to call the astronaut module 'Enterprise', after the Star Trek ship! Take a look at what the module will contain:

Energia's module, designed to accommodate up to seven astronauts and named ``Enterprise'' after the ``Star Trek'' spacecraft, will be launched by the Russian Space Agency. It will be attached to the Russian side of the ISS and initially be manned by two Russians and one American.

[...]

The Enterprise will offer laboratory conditions in space for both short and long-term experiments, unlike the Shuttle which is only in space for days at a time.

Happy Birthday!
Christian (7:07 pm CST)
Today is the 71st birthday of John Colicos, most famous for appearing both on TOS and DS9 as Kor, the first Klingon ever to appear on Star Trek. It's also the 80th birthday of Alexander Courage, who created the original Star Trek theme.

Today On TV
Christian (7:07 pm CST)
-On Saturday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'The Bar Association' at 16:00 GMT, followed an hour later by Voyager's 'Darkling'. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this!

-On Saturday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Hirngespinst'.

-On Saturday in Australia, Foxtel's TV1 will be showing the 1st-season TNG episode 'Where Silence Has Lease' at 8:30pm. They'll also be repeating it on Sunday at 10:30am. Thanks go out to Jamie McGregor for this!

-On Saturday in The Netherlands, the AVRO on Nederland 1 will be showing Voyager's '11:59' at 18:37 CET. Thanks go out to the Benelux Star Trek TV Guide for this!

Trek BBS Today
Christian (7:07 pm CST)
Here are a few of the interesting topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-What's better - Best of Both Worlds part one or two?

-Why do Voyager's nacelles fold when going to Warp?

Find more topics at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (7:07 pm CST)
Phew. Weekend.

'A Final Unity' Developer Shuts Down
Christian (6:53 pm CST)
A few days ago, toy company Hasbro announced that they are shutting down the MicroProse game development studio in Alameda, California. In the late 80's and early 90's this same development studio was known as Spectrum Holobyte, responsible for bringing us games such as the flight sim Falcon, or the very first US version of Tetris. In 1995, they also released 'Star Trek: The Next Generation - A Final Unity', one of the best Trek games ever created. Now, the studio has been shut down following the purchase of MicroProse by Hasbro Interactive. For more on this, please read this article by Anthony Chiang, a game developer working at Nihilistic Software.

'Pathfinder' Tube Review
Christian (6:53 pm CST)
This has probably been up for a while, but Jeff Bond at Eon's Tube Reviews has written a review of 'Pathfinder', the Voyager episode which aired last week. Though awarding it a somewhat higher grade than usual (a B-), Bond still wasn't exactly enthusiastic about the episode:

Although the Enterprise is mentioned and there's plenty of name-dropping of characters like Data and Picard whom we never see, the core of Barclay's sense of loss over his friends (a neat analog to many Trekker's feelings of abandonment by TOS, TNG and DS9 now that VOYAGER is the only TREK game in town) is only addressed momentarily, and to be frank Schultz's overblown performance fails to make the issue resonate. Ditto Marina Sirtis as Troi, whose paper-thin characterization is flagged in the episode's pandering opening scene as Barclay excitedly offers her some chocolate ice cream (Troi's lone character trait was seemingly her love of chocolate). It all points to the juvenile patina that Barclay's essentially child-like character always added to the proceedings, even though TNG was able to establish an adult tone far more often than VOYAGER does.

The Rebirth Of Trek
Christian (6:53 pm CST)
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture', Edward Gross at Fandom has started a multi-part feature looking at the path from the Original Series to the big-screen revival. Currently, three of the feature's parts have already been posted, with the other parts scheduled for next week. In the first part, Gross talks about conventions and the Animated Series, and how they helped keep Trek alive. In the second part, we look at the several pilots Gene Roddenberry created after the Original Series, while the third-part examines one of these pilots ('The Questor Tapes') in more detail.

DS9 Novel Feature
Christian (6:52 pm CST)
David Henderson at Psi Phi has put up a new feature about the Pocket Books DS9 line, which will continue the DS9 story after 'What You Leave Behind'. The article contains lots of quotes from editor Marco Palmieri, as well as the following info on the new characters we'll be seeing in the books:

The first new books, "The Avatar", will introduce four new major characters. Some will be "replacements" for the departed characters of Sisko, Worf, Odo, and O'Brien; others will fill new roles.

So far, the only new character described in any detail is the new first officer of DS9. He is an older male human, perhaps in his eighties or nineties, but still on top of his game due to all of the advances in science and medicine in the 24th century. He will report to Colonel Kira on the station, and will be in command of the Defiant when it goes on away missions.

Trek In Australia?
Christian (6:52 pm CST)
The rumours just keep on getting weirder and weirder. Take a look at what the British SFX just posted:

Chuck Wagner, our intrepid LA Editor has passed on an eyebrow-archingly interesting scrap of gossip that's currently making the rounds over at Paramount - apparently the next Trek series may be filmed in Australia, which certainly makes a kind of sense. Although, as Chuck pointed out, it does make you wonder what will be left for Paramount to do....

Burton Honorary Mayor
Christian (6:51 pm CST)
According to AnotherUniverse's Daily Buzz, LeVar Burton (Geordi LaForge) was sworn in as honorary mayor of the town of Sherman Oaks, California, yesterday. Burton received this title to honour "15 years of dedicated service to the community."

UPN To Air 15-Minute Shows
Christian (6:51 pm CST)
UltimateTV is reporting some rather interesting news - in an effort to better grab the attention of young males, UPN is currently considering creating a series of 15-minute sitcoms. Take a look at UPN's reasons for this:

"When you're dealing with 15-minute episodes, it's obvious that we're not creating dense character relationships. We're saying, 'This is just going to be pure entertainment,'" UPN Entertainment president Tom Nunan tells the Los Angeles Times. "The audience we're going after--young people, and young guys in particular--wants to see something else in their comedy."

UPN may air the three shows together or toss a sitcom between them, running 15-minute shows at, say, 8:00 p.m. and 8:45 p.m., with a 30 minute comedy filling in the blanks.

Nielsen System To Change
Christian (6:51 pm CST)
TV Guide is reporting that Nielsen Media Research, the company responsible for measuring US television viewership figures, will soon start an experiment which could have major repercussions for the American televiision system:

Nielsen Media Research announced that, for the first time, it will collect detailed demographic information on who's watching TV in a local market year-round. Usually, such data is collected only four times per year during the so-called "sweeps" periods. The Boston experiment will use electronic People Meters to record who's watching what.

Mary Kay Adams Interview
Christian (6:51 pm CST)
Michelle Erica Green at AnotherUniverse's Mania Magazine has uploaded a new interview with Mary Kay Adams, who appeared on DS9 several times as Grilka, Quark's Klingon wife. In the interview, Adams of course talks about her role on Trek, but she also has a few things to say about her guest appearance on Babylon 5 as Na'Toth, and some of the other roles she's played over the course of her career. Of all those roles, though, she seemed to enjoy the Trek one rather a lot:

Surprisingly, the long-time star of Guiding Light felt very comfortable in Grilka's Klingon skin. "So many times in Hollywood, or in show business in general, women are not really allowed to be strong," she observed in a recent interview from New York, where the daytime drama films. "We are tempered. Our power is taken away. Playing the Klingon woman was such a joy because throughout my entire career I have had directors say to me, 'OK, Mary Kay, just pull back a little bit.' This was the first time I was ever told, 'OK, we need you to be stronger!' It was Christmas!"

Overnight 'Think Tank' Ratings
Christian (6:50 pm CST)
Greg Fuller at the Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database has posted the overnight ratings report for yesterday's rerun of Voyager's 'Think Tank'. The rerun did about average:

"Think Tank" kicked off Voyager's first stint of reruns this season with a decent 3.8 rating, 6 share. That's off from "Dark Frontier"'s rerun earlier this season which earned a 4.7/7. The show should earn an average national rating.

Voyager and a "Seven Days" repeat led UPN to a victory over the WB, which aired back-to-back reruns of "Dawson't Creek." "Think Tank" finished 5th in the timeslot, defeating the second hour of "Dawson's Creek," which finished 6th with a 3.0/4. "Seven Days" earned a 3.2/5. ABC was 4th in the 9 p.m. hour.

Game Advertising During 'Voyager'
Christian (6:50 pm CST)
Acclaim Entertainment has just announced it will be running advertisements for its new game 'Armorines: Project S.W.A.R.M' during several nationwide television shows, including UPN's 'Star Trek: Voyager'. Details on the game can be found in their press release.

Happy Birthday!
Christian (6:50 pm CST)
Today is the 47th birthday of Michael Dorn, who starred on the Next Generation as Worf Rozhenko.

Today On TV
Christian (6:50 pm CST)
-On Friday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the second-season TOS episode 'The Ultimate Computer' at 5:00pm Eastern Time.

-On Friday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'The Sons of Mogh' at 17:00 and at 23:30 GMT.

-On Friday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Empok Nor' at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (6:50 pm CST)
Below are a few of the interesting topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-Does Benjamin Sisko count as Star Trek's first alien captain, considering he's now part wormhole alien?

-Is modern science now at a level that people such as Geordi LaForge could become reality, and be given their eyesight back?

Find more topics at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (6:49 pm CST)
Thanks for your feedback about the review copies issue - I received a staggering 36 emails about it, of which only 2 were against me accepting free review copies of Trek merchandise. I've now decided to indeed start accepting review copies, which I will certainly try not to et in any way affect my objectivity, but which will hopefully enhance the site with some interesting product reviews. Thanks again to everyone who wrote in!

No UPN In Albuquerque
Christian (7:00 pm CST)
Barbara Chavez, Staff Writer at the ABQ Journal, just wrote a report which won't make UPN or Albuquerque 'Voyager' fans very happy. Take a look:

KASY-TV Channel 50 viewers who are hooked on Wednesday night's "Star Trek Voyager" or the professional wrestling show "WWF Smackdown!" will be disappointed this week. Those shows and, in fact, all United Paramount Network (UPN) programs have been dropped.

On Friday, UPN ended its affiliation with KASY-TV, which has been a UPN affiliate since 1995. KASY was purchased for nearly $27 million earlier this year by the Warner Bros. Network, which operates KWBQ-TV, Channel 19, in Albuquerque.

'Klingon Academy' Development News
Christian (7:00 pm CST)
Over at Interplay's official Klingon Academy site, two of the game's developers have posted updates about the game's current development status, talking about the in-game art and the game's shop design. To read the updates, please go here. Thanks go out to Federation HQ for this!

'Generations' Compositor Joins Anderson
Christian (7:00 pm CST)
The Howard Anderson Company, one of Hollywood's leading traditional film and digital imaging houses, has announced that Peter Koczera as a Director of Digital Production. According to their press release, Koczera worked on four Star Trek movies, including at least 'Generations', which the IMDB says he worked on as digital compositor.

Two New Trek Reviews
Christian (6:59 pm CST)
Julia Houston at About.com's Star Trek Fans has put up new reviews of 'Ultimate Trek' and 'Pathfinder', the two Trek shows which aired last week. As practically everyone else, Julia didn't see impressed with 'Ultimate Trek':

I'm not sure why Star Trek specials are always so bad. The clips are fun, the subject matter is certainly inspirational, and the possibility for humor is endless. This most recent special at least partially lives up to its name, being the "ultimate" and then some in terms of lame "comedy," missed opportunities, and pointless bad taste.

Great 'Pathfinder' Ratings
Christian (6:59 pm CST)
Greg Fuller at the Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database has updated his site with the national ratings for Voyager's 'Pathfinder', which, as expected, were really good:

"Pathfinder" provided the brightest spot of this season to-date, earning a 4.0 rating, 6 share. That's Voyager's highest showing and first time at the 4.0 mark since "Dark Frontier" last February. "Pathfinder" performed far better than "Infinite Regress" last year but slightly worse than "Timeless," which collected a 4.3/7.

Braga Talks Series V Rumours
Christian (6:59 pm CST)
The Sci-Fi Wire has put up a short interview with Voyager executive producer Brannon Braga. In it, he reacts to yesterday's news report from both TrekWeb and one of TrekToday's own regular sources, stating that the relationship between Paramount Pictures and Berman & Braga was degrading somewhat, following a series of unsuccessful Series V pitches. Here's what Braga had to say about this:

Braga also denied reports that the producers were at loggerheads with the studio over the new series. "I wouldn't describe our relationship with the studio as rocky, not at all. I would describe it as very creative and cooperative. We are all very conscientious about the state of the franchise. There's no disagreement on that."

New Activision Trek Survey
Christian (6:59 pm CST)
The official Continuum has put up a new online survey from Activision, the company responsible for creating computer games based on the Star Trek license. In the survey, several questions are asked about your personal computer, your gaming habits, and your interests in online playing. Five participants in the survey will be chosen to receive the new 'Star Trek: Hidden Evil' game, so filling it in will actually be worth your while. You can find the survey here.

Betazed Ambassador Recovers
Christian (6:59 pm CST)
The folks at the Continuum have put up another of their great in-character news items, this time talking about a recovered Betazed ambassador. Here's how the article starts:

After spending the last ten years in an institution, former Betazed diplomat Gedd Terum has retired to Vulcan. He had been committed after his tenure as Betazed Ambassador to the Klingon Empire was cut short by his sudden violent outbursts.

"Vulcan is the best place for me right now," said Terum, "Being surrounded by Klingons all the time, eventually I couldn't screen out their intense emotions, and I snapped. It's been a long, hard process, getting back to normal." His release after a decade of therapy marks a victory of sorts for the decorated former ambassador, and a return to respectability.

Today On TV
Christian (6:58 pm CST)
-Tonight at 9:00pm, UPN will be repeating Voyager's 'Think Tank'. Take a look at how UPN describes the episode:

In the midst of a clash with Hazari bounty hunters, Janeway is offered assistance from a "think tank," a small yet exotic alien ship containing disparate life forms, each able to communicate telepathically. Their spokesperson, Kurros, offers to help solve the dilemma with the Hazari, only in exchange for Seven of Nine as payment. When Seven declines their offer, the think tank focuses on taking her by force.

-On Thursday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Glanz des Ruhms' (For the Uniform) at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (6:58 pm CST)
Here is the usual look at some of the interesting topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-There have been lots of discussions about the new Star Trek series already, but what do you think is going to happen with Series VI?

-If the Voyager crew were animals, what would they be?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (6:58 pm CST)
I need your help with a small ethical dilemma. Over the past few weeks, I've been contacted twice by producers of Trek merchandise, offering to send me a free copy of their product to review for the site. In general, I personally wouldn't really be against this - in the first place it would help to enhance the content of the site, and in the second place I of course don't really have a problem with accepting freebies :-).

However, accepting review copies might also seriously alter the nature of the site. For instance, would you, as readers, still trust my objectivity in reporting news if at the same time I would have a tie with the companies producing those products? Would TrekToday's status as a fan site change if I started accepting review copies?

As I said, personally I'm not against receiving review copies, and I think I will be able to remain unbiased in my news reporting, but I felt it only fair to inform you about this first, and ask you for your opinion on this. If any of you feel that it would be wrong for me to start accepting review copies of Trek products, please do write in and let me know - I really don't want to start doing this if there are some serious objections from you, the readers.

The Trek Conspiracy
Christian (6:20 pm CST)
Over at the Trek Nation, we've put up a new featured article by regular contributor Michael Hinman, in which he looks at the rift which exists between fans of the Original Series and fans of the Next Generation. In specific, he examines the deep hatred which many fans seem to have for Trek Executive Producer Rick Berman, and which Hinman does not quite understand. Read about all this and more in the actual article, which is more than interesting to read, and almost perfectly mirrors my own views.

Six New 'Elite Force' Shots
Christian (6:20 pm CST)
Federation HQ has uploaded six new screenshots of 'Voyager: Elite Force', the first-person shooter currently being developed by Raven Software. The screenshots all show you and several of your fellow team members walking around in what looks to be a Borg cube, showing off several of the game's weapons. You can find those shots here. Fed HQ has also put up a set of four cheats for the new adventure game 'Insurrection: Hidden Evil', which you can find on the main site, assuming you want to make your 'Hidden Evil' experience even shorter than it will probably already be.

Duke Designs Ryan's Dress
Christian (6:20 pm CST)
A short press release on Yahoo! informs us of the following:

Leading designer Randolph Duke dressed and accompanied actresses Illeana Douglas (``To Die For,'' ``Cape Fear'' and ``Grace of My Heart'') and Jeri Ryan [Seven of Nine on 'Voyager' - TT] to Sunday night's Vogue -- VH-1 Fashion Awards. Illeana Douglas looked exotic and elegant in a distressed denim linen Toreador suit with a simple white tank underneath, while Jeri Ryan blossomed in a cashmere bateau crop top in dusty lilac and multicolored, beaded Carnivale pant.

Decipher Not Buying FASA
Christian (6:20 pm CST)
Over at Decipher, the developer of the official Star Trek Customizable Card Game, they've posted a rather surprising announcement - they won't be buying FASA after all:

Decipher Inc. and FASA Corporation jointly announced today that they have ended their negotiations for Decipher's planned acquisition of FASA. The parties acknowledged that there were several significant business issues upon which they were unable to reach agreement.

Warren Holland, Decipher's Chairman & CEO stated, "We value the positive relationship we developed with FASA and Ral Partha, but Decipher is now pursuing a myriad of other opportunities as the company continues its meteoric growth."

Morton Weisman, FASA's Chairman & CEO stated, "While I greatly admire Decipher, the decision to end our discussions was mutual and with respect. I'm sure that FASA and Decipher will remain friends, and I hope that we will have the opportunity to work with their very talented staff in the future. FASA will continue to develop its game lines and miniature products and we plan to expand our marketing and distribution programs."

Cromwell In 'The Green Mile'
Christian (6:19 pm CST)
The official Star Trek Continuum has put up a short article on 'The Green Mile', the adaptation of the Stephen King serial novel set to open on the 10th of December. One of the stars of the film is James Cromwell, who appeared in 'First Contact' as Zefram Cochrane, and had three more guest appearances on the television series in other roles. In the film, he'll be playing prison warden Hal Moores, head of a Southern prison in 1935. Here's some more info on the film:

"The Green Mile" is based upon a serial novel written by Stephen King. Released in a series of segments as opposed to a whole novel at once, "The Green Mile" stars Tom Hanks, Michael Jeter and Doug Hutchison and is directed by Frank Darabont, who last visited the world of Stephen King with "The Shawshank Redemption."

More Trek Alumni Go Online
Christian (6:19 pm CST)
The Cyber Sci-Fi Network, yet another new online webcaster, has announced its first cyberseries, 'Mars and Beyond'. The network was officially launched on the 3rd of December to coincide with the recent PlanetFest convnetion, where the network was heavily promoted. Take a look at how their press release, put up at TrekWeb, describes their new series:

You will find a 1 1/2 min. Teaser and a 6 1/2 min. Trailer of CSFN's first cyberseries, MARS AND BEYOND... in which Majel plays the head of NASA. Within a few days, we will also upload a sneak preview scene with Majel as she meets with the Commander of the first manned expedition to Mars in 2014, prior to launch - it is one of her best performances ever!

[...]

As a former producer-writer of ST:TNG, Herbert Wright ("The Last Outpost," "The Battle," "Heart of Glory"), who heads up the project, plans to bring Trek-level quality sci-fi programming direct to the Web... with the help of such Trek vets, as Majel, Rick Sternbach, Mike Okuda, Patrick Barry, and others. First, we're going to Mars...

Nichols Works On E-Book
Christian (6:19 pm CST)
GalaxyOnline, the online science-fiction network scheduled to launch on the 1st of January, today announced plans for a series of online children's books titled 'Eureka Road'. The books will be targeted at 7- to 11-year olds, and will utilize original music while teaching elements of reading, logic, mathematics and more. According to GalaxyOnlne, this is 'a revolutionary new concept that [they] believe will change the future of education, as the online books incorporate the new trend of edutainment'.

The books were developed by GalaxyOnline, in conjunction with Jim Meechan, former vice president of research for Rockwell International and Nichelle Nichols, best known for her role as Uhura on the Original Series. Here's what Nichols had to say about the book series:

According to Nichols, she and Meechan have been developing ``Eureka Road'' for more than six years. ``In tandem with my career, I have been working with young people through producing musicals, lectures and other educational projects for many years. 'Eureka Road' is the most ambitious project to date for what I believe will benefit children the most in terms of liking the subjects they are learning about.''

Nichols, who is also an accomplished musician, co-wrote 18 songs with Meechan for the ``Eureka Road'' series.

Internet Trek Fans Show
Christian (6:18 pm CST)
The internet will soon be graced with the appearance of a new weekly television webcast, dealing with the 'ravings of two seriously demented Star Trek fans'. This was just announced by the Play Streaming Media Group, who will soon be launching the new Internet TV network PlayTV. Take a look at what you'll be able to find at the network:

In broadcast trials for the past eight months, today PlayTV streams more live, original content than any other Internet TV network -- 12 hours a day, five days a week -- reaching a diverse fan-base around the globe. From first-time broadcasters to Hollywood celebrities, PlayTV brings content creators from around the world together to produce hundreds of original programs that serve as an alternative to broadcast television. On a given day, viewers may be treated to notorious radio personality Alex Bennett's news commentary and celebrity interviews from his home studio in the heart of San Francisco; That same evening they can catch PlayTV's own Revelstoke Jim dishing up small-town stories from deep in the woods of British Columbia, Canada.

Today On TV
Christian (6:18 pm CST)
-On Wednesday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the second-season Original Series episode 'By Any Other Name' at 5:00pm Eastern Time.

-On Wednesday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Crossfire' at 17:00 and at 23:30 GMT. At 18:45, BBC Two will be showing DS9's 'You Are Cordially Invited...'

-On Wednesday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Kinder der Zeit' at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (6:18 pm CST)
Below you'll find a few of the interesting topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-Is DS9 still being repeated in syndication?

-Why does every Borg pronounce 'futile' differently?

Lots more topics can of course be found at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (6:18 pm CST)
Hmmm. I must say I wouldn't have minded a somewhat more nicer way for the Netherlands to reach the news than this particular news item. I just hope this won't be used as an excuse by the gun lobby to protest even stronger against gun control laws.

CNN Reviews 'Hidden Evil'
Christian (7:19 pm CST)
D. Ian Hopper, Technology Editor for CNN Interactive, has written a new review of 'Insurrection: Hidden Evil', Activision's adventure game which almost everyone seems to dislike. Here's how the review ends:

The entire game is extremely easy, provided you can get past the action scenes -- which aren't all that difficult either with the medical aids you find scattered around. It's hard to get lost wandering around the corridors, and while on the Enterprise the tricorder works as a map. Even in the final mission, the use of a certain tool make destroying the "Hidden Evil" itself a breeze.

Given that there are no difficulty levels, there's no replayability after you finish the game -- which can easily be done in less than 5 hours. It will just take up shelf space after that. It's almost fitting that the game takes place after the "Insurrection" movie, and uses the same world. That movie was criticized as seeming too much like just a two-hour TV episode. Unfortunately, you won't spend much more time with this game.

Experience Goes Online
Christian (7:19 pm CST)
Steve Krutzler at TrekWeb has posted a new press release from the Star Trek Experience, the Trek mini-theme park located in the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel. Now it appears the Experience is expanding to also include an internet branch:

At www.ds9promenade.com, finding that perfect gift for yourself or loved ones will be very streamlined and effortless. In fact, the "shops" on the Internet are based on the actual Promenade shops at Star Trek: The Experience. Zek's Grand Emporium features Star Trek office adornments, custom glassware, toys and plush Starfleet crewmembers. Also, be sure to visit the Admiral's Collection, home to signed artwork, limited-edition Star Trek collectibles, and one-of-a-kind model ships.

Delta Blues 'Pathfinder' Review
Christian (7:18 pm CST)
Over at Delta Blues, Jim Wright has uploaded his review of 'Pathfinder', the special Voyager episode featuring appearances by Reginald Barclay and Marina Sirtis. It seems Wright absolutely loved the episode:

In a nutshell, I live for episodes like this. Kudos all around. Terrific performances, particularly from the guest cast. I hope we see them again. I gave "One Small Step" five stars. I can do no less here.

Fandom 'Christmas Carol' Review
Christian (7:18 pm CST)
Over at Fandom, Frederick C. Szebin has uploaded a new review of 'A Christmas Carol', starring Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard). As most other reviewers, Szebin was pretty impressed by Stewart in his role as Scrooge:

Stewart is, of course, wonderful in the role, offering his own nuances to the meanest man in town, making him a rather sad character right off rather than the ball of pure hate we expect. This is a man who has shut himself off from life, and Stewart obviously relishes the opportunity to put his stamp on this well-known character. Knowing various other performances, such as Sims, Finney and Scott, it is interesting to see how each actor plays the role. Stewart brings a style none of those other excellent actors had, but they each made him his own in one form or another.

Syndicated Schedule Updated
Christian (7:18 pm CST)
David Henderson at Psi Phi has updated the syndicated TV schedule for Voyager again, containing the first confirmed info on the order in which the episodes will be airing now that the twelve syndication theme weeks have ended:

It seems that Paramount has decided to give to the stations a schedule with the previously unaired repeats, now scheduled in production order. It is unknown whether they will be required to show the episodes in this order, or whether they will be allowed to choose their own schedule, but a quick check of schedules in various cities suggests that most stations will be using this schedule.

Paris/Tuvok Holonovels
Christian (7:17 pm CST)
Over at About.com's Star Trek Fans, Julia Houston has put up no less than 32 (!) holonovel fanfic stories, dealing with holodeck programs designed by Tom Paris and Tuvok. Here's what the concept behind these novels is:

A couple years ago, after watching "Worst Case Scenario," in which Paris and Tuvok attempt to write a holonovel together, I was hopeful that we would see the results of their efforts in future episodes. When that didn't happen, I took matters into my own hands, and began writing these holonovels. Now I've decided to make these holonovels part of my site, mostly to encourage myself to start writing them again.

Now, the basic premise is simple. The idea is to imagine that we're seeing Paris and Tuvok at work, figuring out the final bugs in the stories right before they turn it over for public consumption. Some of the "novels" are short, some are lengthy, and all are very, very silly indeed.

New Sev Trek Competition
Christian (7:17 pm CST)
John Cook at SevTrek has uploaded a new edition of the 'Write Your Own Sev Trek' Competition:

Stewart 'Christmas Carol' Interview
Christian (7:17 pm CST)
Rob Owen, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette TV Editor known to Trek fans for his Braga interview about a week ago, has now also posted an interview with Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard). In it, Stewart of course talks about 'A Christmas Carol', his TV film which premiered on TNT this Sunday. In the interview, Stewart talks about the differences between his one-man rendition of the play and the film version:

"I learned that it was a much more restful time playing Scrooge than playing everybody," Stewart said in a press conference with TV critics this summer. "The interaction with the other actors, instead of having them exist inside my head as they have for almost 10 years, was bound to change everything. I was everyday being forced to reassess everything that I had done before, which is exactly what I had hoped for."

Stewart said the opportunity to play opposite actors who may interpret their characters different than Stewart did when he played every role offered its own surprises. "There were times when tones of voice, pacing, even inflection seemed to match what had been in my head for all those years," he said. "And there were other times when that was entirely blown up and something unexpected and fresh and original occurred in a way that I could never have conceived of."

'Free Enterprise' Director Interview
Christian (7:16 pm CST)
The Bring Back Kirk UK web site has posted an interview with Robert Meyer Burnett, the director and co-writer of the recent indie film 'Free Enterprise'. In the interview, Burnett mostly talks about the myths surrounding William Shatner (James T. Kirk), the return of Kirk, and what he considers to be a general lack of quality in all four modern Trek series. To read the interview, please go here.

Poll Results
Christian (7:16 pm CST)
Below you'll find the results of our most recent TrekToday poll, asking what you thought about last week's 'Pathfinder' episode:

How would you grade 'Pathfinder'? 9-10 61.2% - (278 Votes) 7-8 18% - (82 Votes) Wasn't able to see it 12.5% - (57 Votes) 5-6 4.1% - (19 Votes) 3-4 1.7% - (8 Votes) 1-2 1.7% - (8 Votes) Didn't want to see it 0.4% - (2 Votes) Total Votes: 454

Please also participate in the new poll, asking you what you thought about the 'Ultimate Trek' TV special.

Today On TV
Christian (7:16 pm CST)
-On Tuesday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the TOS episode 'Patterns of Force' at 5:00pm Eastern Time.

-On Tuesday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Paradise Lost' at 17:00 and at 23:30 GMT.

-The German Sat.1 site appears down again, so unfortunately there won't be any TV info for Germany today.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (7:15 pm CST)
Here is the usual look at some of the interesting topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-Does flying at warp speed really damage the universe, or has the TNG episode 'Force of Nature' already been forgotten?

-What is your favourite Star Trek game?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (7:15 pm CST)
Well, the results of yesterday's mini-contest about the Dutch holiday of Sinterklaas really were quite interesting - it appears Dutch culture isn't as unknown in the US as I thought it was. Congratulations go out to DangerMom, who was the first person to write in about Sinterklaas, winning the $10 Amazon Toys gift certificate, though Holly Kim Wilson and Tony Guzman also figured it out. If any of you are still interested about this really great custom, I suggest you check out this page created by our Ministry of Foreign Affairs - it truly is quite interesting.

'False Colors' Mini-Review
Christian (7:23 pm CST)
Mike O'Connell at AnotherUniverse's Mania Magazine has uploaded a short review of 'False Colors', the debut comic of Wildstorm's new Star Trek line. Besides a synopsis of the comic, it also contains the following rather positive comments:

This fast-paced, thought provoking story is something that all Voyager fans will want to check out. Writer Nathan Archer and artist Jeffery Moy team-up to construct a tale that has all of the best elements of the exciting science fiction television series.

UPN 9 'Ultimate Trek' Transcript
Christian (7:23 pm CST)
This Voyager site has uploaded a transcript of a recent news broadcast by UPN 9, in which the station asked several Trek cast members for their favourite aspects of Trek:

[Reporter Pat] Collins: We've got the viewers' favorites. But first, like they do on all the award shows, we will hear from Patrick Stewart, Jeri Ryan, and some other cast members. They have favorites, too, you know, as we look at the longest running prime-time drama in television history. [...] A five-year mission became a 30-year odyssey. With it came a cast of memorable characters. From all those characters, we asked the Star Trek stars to name their favorite.

Pomers Voyager Appearances
Christian (7:23 pm CST)
The official Scarlett Pomers Homepage has posted a set of new news items related to Scarlett Pomers, who has a recurring role on 'Star Trek: Voyager' as young Naomi Wildman. Apparently, we'll be seeing Naomi at least four more times this season:

Scarlett has been back to work on two more Voyager episodes!!! The first one is called Memorial. In the episode, she worked with Ethan Phillips, Robert Beltran, and Tim Russ. She said her scene was "very intense" and she had fun working on it. She was also called in to film a scene for the episode Blink of an Eye, which came up short on time after it had been completed. She worked with Jeri Ryan on this episode. Air dates will be posted when they become available. She has also been asked back to do two additional episodes! She will be working on one next week, and the other in January after the Christmas hiatus. More information on these episodes when it becomes available.

Trek Central Pulaski Week
Christian (7:22 pm CST)
AntonyF at Fandom's Star Trek Central sends along word that they've just started a Katherine Pulaski theme week, consisting of a special set of articles dealing with the TNG doctor. Here's how the week is introduced on the site:

After Gates McFadden was sacked from her role of Doctor Crusher at the end of season one TNG, Doctor Katherine 'Kate' Pulaski joined the crew played by Diana Muldaur. Declining to be listed on the main credits, Diana was listed as giving a "special appearance" in the episodes she featured in. However her introduction to the series didn't go well, and McFadden returned one year later. That was back in 1988, eleven years ago. This week we have a range of features focusing on Pulaski, the actress who plays - and opposing articles on if she was good for Star Trek.

Read the articles, vote in the poll, check out the top ten list and chat on the message boards. This is Pulaski week - be sure to give your input and relive a character who was with Star Trek for a season, whether you liked her or not.

Cynical 'Pathfinder' Review
Christian (7:22 pm CST)
David E. Sluss at the Cynics Corner has uploaded his review of 'Pathfinder', the last Voyager episode shown during the November Sweeps. Though awarding the episode a solid 8.0, Sluss of course still had quite a few criticisms of it, including this one:

NAME-DROPPING OF THE WEEK:
Did any Next Generation characters not get a plug (even Spot, for God's sake)? And kudos to Voyager's promo crew for the hatchet job they did, taking Troi's line "I'm going to ask Captain Picard for a leave of absence," and folding, spindling and mutilating it into "I'm going to ask Captain Picard for help" in last week's promo for this show.

Unofficial 'Elite Force' FAQ
Christian (7:22 pm CST)
Over at the Raven Software web site, 'Voyager: Elite Force' developer Mike Gummelt has uploaded an unofficial list of Frequently Asked Questions about their upcoming first-person shooter. Here are a few highlights from the FAQ:

Q - What's this I heard about a "Virtual Tour" the Voyager level for Voyager? Will I be able to go anywhere on Voyager? Will I be able to go into every room, use turbolifts, use Jeffries tubes?

A - No, we will not model every single room on Voyager, just the main areas like the Bridge, Conference Room, Captain's Ready Room, Mess Hall and kitchen, Sickbay, Hazard Area, Brig, Armoury, Transporter Room, Astrometrics, Cargo Bays, Engineering, some Jeffries tubes, your quarters, the Shuttle Bay, etc. You will not be able to walk into just anyone's quarters- there are limitations to how much we can make and fit on a map.

Q - Can we shoot our own crew (Neelix, Janeway, etc.), shoot the warp core, will they know it was me, can I lead a mutiny, fight the security officers who try to arrest me, escape the brig, raise force fields, contact an enemy alien race and make a deal with them to take over Voyager, etc, etc.

A - We're trying to tell a story and you play a competant Starfleet officer. If you, by your actions, prove yourself incompetant, you will be relieved of duty or thrown in their brig in a short cinematic and you will be prompted to load a saved game. There are also other ways to lose. And you will be graded on your performance and given a performance rating at the end of the game. If you want to be able to lead a mutiny, get the editor and make your own version of our maps with that scenario built in.

Stewart 'Rosie' Clip
Christian (7:21 pm CST)
SciFi Headquarters has put up a digitized video clip of the recent appearance by Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard) on the 'Rosie O'Donnell Show'. Stewart appeared on the show on the 2nd of December to promote his new telefilm 'A Christmas Carol'. You can download the clip by going here.

Today On TV
Christian (7:21 pm CST)
-On Monday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the TOS episode 'Return To Tomorrow' at 5:00pm Eastern Time.

-On Monday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Home Front' at 17:00 and at 23:30 GMT, and the new episode 'The Emperor's New Cloak' at 20:00 GMT. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this!

-On Monday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Liebe und Profit' (Profit and Lace) at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (7:21 pm CST)
Here is the usual selection of topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-Do you know of a way to contact Joe Menosky, or any of the other Trek writers?

-Now that we're almost halfway through Voyager's sixth season, how would you rate all the episodes?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS.

Hello World!
Christian (7:20 pm CST)
It appears Amazon.com's computer system isn't nearly as advanced as I thought it was. A few days ago, I received a promotional gift certificate from them, together with my Christmas shoppings. The gift certificate would give me $10 off of any purchase at Amazon.com Toys. There was just one little problem. Apparently Amazon isn't able to ship toys to locations outside the US! Aaargh!

Anyway, considering I myself don't have much use for it, I figured I'd give the certificate away to someone who would actually be able to do something with it. As luck would have it, today is actually the Dutch holiday of Sinterklaas, which seemed like the perfect occassion to give the certificate away. Therefore, the first American who is able to send me a short mail on what Sinterklaas actually is will receive my gift certificate... I'll be interested to see how many of you actually figure it out :-).

IGN Reviews 'Hidden Evil'
Christian (6:11 pm CST)
Over at IGN PC, reviewer Jef Shoults has written a new review of 'Insurrection: Hidden Evil', Activision's new adventure game. As practically every other reviewer out there, Jef wasn't too impressed with the game, but in his review he also provides a few very interesting background bits on the reason for this:

Before I get to the bashing, I think there are some things you need to know. First of all Activision (who recently acquired the entire Star Trek license) hired Presto Studios to make this game with a few major goals in mind. One goal was time dependent. They had to have this game shipped for the holiday season of '99, and that gave Presto precisely one year to complete this game. As far as development time goes, that's not much. They also wanted a "mission based game with step-by-step hand holding instructions to appeal to casual gamers." Apparently Activision did some research and found that out of all the fans who owned a PC capable of running games, only a very small fraction had ever bought a Star Trek game. They found that the number one reason for this was that the games "look too difficult." So Presto had to make a game for the non-gamer, and also make it fun. I don't envy them one bit. So Presto, (after tackling some major development issues) delivered exactly what they promised ... a game for my dad.

Ferengi CCG Expansion In Stores
Christian (6:10 pm CST)
Decipher, the publisher of the official Star Trek Customizable Card Game, has announced that their new expansion set 'Rules of Acquisition' is in stores now. Take a look at what the expansion includes:

Rules of Acquisition, the new expansion for Star Trek CCG, will revolutionize the game with 130 new cards, including the long-awaited addition of a fully playable Ferengi affiliation.

'Voyager Conspiracy' Tube Review
Christian (6:10 pm CST)
Tube Reviews, the Eon spin-off which appears to be having trouble providing its reviews on time, has put up a new review of 'The Voyager Conspiracy'. As usual, Jeff Bond didn't really like the episode:

This may be the episode in which Seven finally starts becoming tiresome. Having her lecture everyone aboard in a flinty monotone for forty-five minutes really does become annoying, and VOYAGER consistently forgets the Classic TREK technique of providing the Captain with a terrible, dramatic decision to make. All Janeway has to do is drop in on Seven and engage in some touchy-feely banter with her in order to make Seven change her mind. On the old show, Kirk would be faced with a choice, something like "I can save Spock's life, but it might involve killing millions of innocent people." Sure, it's melodramatic, but at least it holds your interest. Unfortunately, the VOYAGER creative team has proven time and again that drama and conflict is something that just doesn't interest them.

Pocket Books Structure
Christian (6:10 pm CST)
Over at the recently designed Pocket Books web site, a few new fan questions have been answered by Trek book editors John Ordover and Marco Palmieri. Particularly interesting is one answer from Palmieri, in which he gives us some info on how the Trek books department is actually organised:

How are we organized? Okay: Scott Shannon's the director of our department. You never hear about him, but he's the one who goes to mat for us with other departments like the publisher's office, marketing, sales, publicity, etc. [Non-fiction editor Margaret Clark is] an executive editor, reporting to Scott. [Fiction editor John Ordover is] an executive editor, also reporting to Scott. I'm a plain old editor, and I report to Margaret. We have a wonderful and overworked assistant editor named Jessica, who also reports to Margaret, and we have an editorial assistant, also named John, and a great guy, who also reports to Margaret. Dean is a freelance writer/editor. He's not on staff (but he's a great guy too).

Continuum 'Ultimate Trek' Round-up
Christian (6:10 pm CST)
The official Continuum has put up a look back at 'Ultimate Trek', the television special aired by UPN on Wednesday. For the benefit of internet readers who weren't able to see the special, the article once again announces which episode was chosen as the fans' favourite ('Best Of Both Worlds'), and also again mentions that the special is available on video now via the Continuum. Read it all here.

UPN WWF Article
Christian (6:09 pm CST)
David Bauder, writer for AP, has written a new article dealing with 'Voyager' network UPN and its most successful show, 'WWF Smackdown!' The article mostly deals with the recent decision by the WWF to use less explicit language and sexually charged themes in its shows, following complaints by advertisers such as Coca-Cola. Though this may have a few negative effects for UPN, the article also notes that the network has seen a phenomenal upswing this year:

UPN's average audience has increased 42 percent over last year, when it was bleeding viewers at nearly the same rate. The number of men aged 12-34 watching on Thursdays - wrestling night - is five times what it was a year ago. ``They thought we were dead,'' [UPN Chief Operating Officer] Ware said. ``Everyone thought it was over. UPN has turned it around and showed not only was it not over, but it has found a demographic that was underserved.''

[...]

``They have a strategy now, which they had not had in the past,'' said Robert Igiel, president of the broadcast division of the advertising firm Media Edge. The network is competitive again with the WB, which at some points last year doubled UPN's audience. So far this season, UPN has an average audience of 3.8 million viewers in prime-time, while the WB has slipped to 4.2 million, according to Nielsen Media Research.

TOS Alumni To Advise Site
Christian (6:09 pm CST)
After Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard) and Leonard Nimoy (Spock), several other Trek stars will now also be involved with upstart web sites. According to a press release from GalaxyOnline, an upcoming science-fiction webcaster, it will be assisted by several people well-known to Star Trek fans:

The advisers include authors Walter Koenig, ``Mr. Chekov,'' and Nichelle Nichols, ``Lt. Uhura,'' both of the ``Star Trek'' television series and feature films; and Tony Dow, a prominent television director for such projects as ``Star Trek,'' ``Babylon 5'' and ``Harry and the Hendersons.'' Dow is also known for his starring role as ``Wally'' on ``Leave It to Beaver.''

Other advisers include David Gerrold, whose writing credits include the most popular episode of ``Star Trek,'' titled ``The Trouble With Tribbles,'' as well as ``The Twilight Zone,'' ``Star Trek: The Next Generation'' and ``Babylon 5''; Bill Mumy, star of ``Babylon 5,'' ``Lost in Space'' and ``Twilight Zone''; and Jim Meechan, renowned physicist and former vice president of research for Rockwell International.

Today On TV
Christian (6:09 pm CST)
-On Sunday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the second-season TOS episode 'A Private Little War'.

-On Sunday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Our Man Bashir' at 16:00, followed by Voyager's 'Unity' an hour later. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this!

-On Sunday here in The Netherlands, RTL 5 will be showing DS9's 'Crossfire' at 18:05 CET.

-On Sunday in Belgium, Kanaal 2 will be showing DS9's 'In Purgatory's Shadow' at 18:10 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (6:09 pm CST)
Here are some of the topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-What do you think about the apparent failure of NASA's Mars Polar Lander?

-Who are stronger - the Klingons or the Vulcans?

Find more topics at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (6:08 pm CST)
Seldom before have I had the extremely strong temptation to frequently hit someone on the head - in this case my internet service provider, who apparently decided to have a major black-out yesterday. Unfortunately, this caused the second day in just a week's time without a TrekToday update, a very sad thing after nine months of missing just one single day while moving. I've now taken precautions to keep this sort of thing from happening again - please accept my humblest apologies.

(Oh, and thanks go out to the many people who wrote in, concerned to see if something was wrong with me personally. I did very much appreciate that.)

New Sev Trek Competition
Christian (7:06 pm CST)
John Cook at Sev Trek has uploaded a new edition of the 'Write Your Own Sev Trek' competition:

Variety Reviews 'A Christmas Carol'
Christian (7:02 pm CST)
Variety's Michael Speier has written a review of 'A Christmas Carol', the new TNT TV film starring Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard). Speier was more than impressed by the film, calling it 'TV at its classiest', and having a particularly large amount of praise for Stewart:

Stewart as Scrooge is such a perfect piece of casting that it will be hard to imagine anyone else as the sour ol' tightwad in years to come. For a decade, the thesp has toured with ``Carol'' across the country, and the experience shows; his initial inflections are full of genuine antipathy, and his transformation to a goodhearted citizen is entirely believable. With a robust eloquence, he speaks Barnes' words with so much polish that even his bitterness is delightful.

Jammer 'Voyager Conspiracy' Review
Christian (6:58 pm CST)
Jamahl Epsicokhan at Star Trek: Hypertext has uploaded his review of 'The Voyager Conspiracy', last week's new Voyager episode. Here's how he starts his review:

"The Voyager Conspiracy" owes much to the Chris Carter school of storytelling. The main idea is that if you take enough facts and somehow jam them together, you get a big, messy, far-fetched conspiracy theory that has just enough plausibility (maybe) to arouse suspicions but not enough to provide anything resembling a convincing argument. This is Voyager jumping aboard the X-Files conspiracy bandwagon.

In the actual review, the episode is awarded 2.5 stars.

'Ultimate Trek' Review
Christian (6:54 pm CST)
Over at the Trek Nation, we've put up a special review of 'Ultimate Trek', the Trek homage which aired yesterday. The review was written by Jeff Godemann, who didn't really seem impressed by the show:

"Spock. My. Old. Vulcanfriend. What. Didyouthink. Of. 'Ultimate Trek?"

"To put it in the vernacular of the late twentieth century, Captain, it not only sucked, but it blew as well."

"I. See. Bones?"

"Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor, not a television producer."

"So. What. Went wrong?"

Herman Zimmerman On Series V?
Christian (6:54 pm CST)
The British SF news magazine SFX just posted the following news bit:

Our source at Star Trek has revealed to us that the fifth (sixth if you count the animated series) TV incarnation of Trek, should it happen, will have Herman Zimmerman (who designed the sets for the first four seasons of The Next Generation, and Deep Space Nine) will again take on the set design duties. So expect lots of dull, drab colours (especially brown) and soft furnishings.

'Klingon Academy' Shots & Info
Christian (6:54 pm CST)
Federation HQ has posted a set of new screenshots of Interplay's upcoming 'Klingon Academy' space simulator, accompanied by detailed descriptions of each of the episodes. There are about fifteen shots, showing things such as asteroid belts, various alien weapons, and even a Tholian Web. To see the shots, follow this link.

Trek Stars At Teaching Con
Christian (6:54 pm CST)
The Space Foundation has just announced the updated guest list of the Teaching With Space Conference, which they will be organising in late January in Colorado. The main speaker at the conference will be Eileen Collins, the first woman Space Shuttle commander, who was inspired to join the space program by Star Trek. Two other speakers on the list are even more involved with Trek - Tim Russ, currently starring as Tuvok on Voyager, and André Bormanis, Star Trek's science advisor.

Good Ratings News
Christian (6:53 pm CST)
Not surprisingly, Star Trek did pretty well yesterday, ratings-wise. Take a look at how Greg Fuller at the Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database starts his overnight ratings report:

"Pathfinder," as was expected, provided Voyager's biggest ratings spark since "Survival Instinct," earning a 5.3 rating, 8 share in the overnights. That's up quite a bit from last week and the season average. UPN's "Ultimate Trek" special managed a 4.3/7, up from last week's "Seven Days" and the overnight rating for "The Voyager Conspiracy."

'Insurrection' Best-Selling DVD
Christian (6:53 pm CST)
According to a press release from the DVD Express, 'Star Trek: Insurrection' made the top-25 DVD bestseller list for 1999. The film entered the list at no.11, below top sellers 'The Matrix' and 'Titanic', but well above other genre films such as 'The Blair Witch Project' and 'The X-Files'. For the full list, please go here.

Poll Results
Christian (6:51 pm CST)
Below you'll find the results of the most recent TrekToday poll, the last in our set of polls asking you how many Trek episodes you've seen. In this poll, we asked you how many Voyager episodes you've seen:

How many 'Voyager' episodes have you seen? All of them! 46.4% - (210 Votes) 51-127 40% - (181 Votes) 21-50 8.4% - (38 Votes) 6-20 2.6% - (12 Votes) 1-5 2.2% - (10 Votes) None 0.2% - (1 Votes) Total Votes: 452

For good measure, here are also once again the results of last week's TrekToday poll, the results of which didn't get posted correctly on Monday:

How would you grade 'The Voyager Conspiracy'? 7-8 26.6% - (91 Votes) 9-10 24.6% - (84 Votes) Wasn't able to see it 17.3% - (59 Votes) 5-6 15.5% - (53 Votes) 1-2 7% - (24 Votes) 3-4 5.5% - (19 Votes) Didn't want to see it 3.2% - (11 Votes) Total Votes: 343

Thanks for participating in those two polls, and please also participate in the new one, asking you what you thought about 'Pathfinder'.

Happy Birthday!
Christian (6:51 pm CST)
Today is the 18th birthday of Brian Bonsall, who appeared in several TNG episodes as Worf's son, Alexander Rozhenko. Looking at his IMDB listing, it appears Bonsall has already retired from acting.

Today On TV
Christian (6:51 pm CST)
-On Friday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the second-season TOS episode 'The Immunity Syndrome' at 5:00pm Eastern Time.

-On Friday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Starship Down' at 17:00 and at 23:30 GMT. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this!

Trek BBS Today
Christian (6:50 pm CST)
As was to be expected, most of the new discussions at the Trek BBS are currently dealing with the two new Trek programs which aired this week (sigh... how short ago it seems that we could still say this every week...) Here are some of those discussions:

-What did you think about 'Best Of Both Worlds' being chosen as the best Star Trek episode in the 'Ultimate Trek' show? And what did you think about the special itself?

-And what did you think about 'Pathfinder'?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS!

Good 'Voyager Conspiracy' Ratings
Christian (7:10 pm CST)
Well, this certainly was unexpected after the dismal overnight ratings. Greg Fuller at the Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database just posted the following:

Although down from last week, "The Voyager Conspiracy" performed remarkably well for the evening before Thanksgiving, earning a 3.6 rating, 6 share. Though that is down from "Timeless," which was the third episode to air last November with a 4.3/7, it is up from "Infinite Regress"'s 3.3/5 mark, earned the night before Thanksgiving last year.

Good UPN Sweeps
Christian (7:10 pm CST)
Variety's Josef Adalian and Tom Bierbaum have written a new article about the November Sweeps, which are now nearing their end. Though most of the article centers on ABC's hit show 'Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?', it also contains the following quote about UPN:

UPN's huge gains are mostly attributable to Thursday wrestling, but even with wrestling factored out of its results, the network would be up an estimated 18% in adults 18-49 (1.3/3 vs. 1.1/3) and by a tenth in homes (2.1/3 vs. 2. 0/3).

Toyfare 5" Seven Figure
Christian (7:10 pm CST)
The official Continuum has put up a short article about a new 5" action figure which will be available through mail order via the February 2000 issue of Toyfare Magazine, which for some inexplicable reason will already be released on the 8th of December. The action figure shows Seven of Nine in her purple costume, and only 8,000 figured have been made. To read more about this, please go here.

Sacbeat Reviews 'Ultimate Trek'
Christian (7:09 pm CST)
Rick Kushman, TV Columnist for the Sacbeat, has written the first review of today's 'Ultimate Trek' special which might actually be called somewhat positive. Take a look at how he starts his review:

You'd think it would be hard to mess up a "Star Trek" clip show starring exuberant Trekker Jason Alexander, but UPN gets close.

It turns out, however, that despite a lame parody, a cheap look and a terrible Spock imitation, the special tonight still ends up in the plus column -- barely -- mostly because it's a "Star Trek" clip show starring exuberant Trekker Jason Alexander.

Starfleet Command Supplemental Manual
Christian (7:09 pm CST)
The Starfleet Universe is reporting that Interplay has released a Supplemental v1.02 Manual for Starfleet Command that details the new features and changes the 1.02 patch will bring to the game. The file is in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format so you'll need Acrobat Reader installed to view the file. You can download it by visiting the Starfleet Universe.

'Ultimate Trek' Home Video
Christian (7:09 pm CST)
Over at the official Continuum, they're announcing they'll stoon start selling an exclusive home video version of 'Ultimate Trek', the TV special airing this evening:

After the show, be sure to come back to the STAR TREK CONTINUUM and visit the Star Trek Store to pre-order your advance copy of the show on VHS. This special home video edition of "Ultimate Trek: Star Trek's Greatest Moments" is available only at the Official on-line store, and only in limited quantities.

Comet System Tracks User Data
Christian (7:08 pm CST)
Some alarming news here. As you may recall, since a few months the official Continuum offers you the ability to surf their site using Star Trek cursors, powered by a new system developed by Comet Sytems. Comet are also offering fan sites the possibility to run Trek cursors on their sites. Unfortunately, now it appears that people may have to pay a price for using these cursors:

The free cursor software offered by New York-based Comet Systems assigns each user a unique identifying serial number that is then used to track how many people are using the software and which sites those users visit. The company said that more than 60,000 Web sites support Comet's cursor software, adding that some of those sites pay Comet for that right.

Comet said the serial numbers do not connect users to personal information, especially since no personally identifiable information like email addresses or names are necessary to download the software. The company said that about 16 million people use its cursor software. [...] Comet Systems said it collects standard Web log information, including cookies, referer IDs, IP addresses and system information. Still, the company insisted that none of this information is personally identifiable.

AP Also Trashes 'Ultimate Trek'
Christian (7:08 pm CST)
There are two things which have been constants over the past few days - interviews with Jason Alexander in which he talked about his love for Star Trek, and reviews of 'Ultimate Trek', which were all invariably negative. A new article by Ted Anthony of the Associated Press is no different:

``Star Trek'' made a franchise out of going where no man - no one - has gone before. But there are some places no one should go - period. Sadly, UPN went there anyway. It's hard to summon the words to convey dismay over ``Ultimate Trek,'' UPN's latest in a series of increasingly desperate attempts to drum up interest in its floundering network. This one enlists ``Seinfeld'' star Jason Alexander to sustain an hour of bad one-liners and the thinnest of plots.

Is it a parody? Is it a clip reel? It's almost impossible to tell. ``Ultimate Trek'' (airing tonight at 8 p.m. EST) doesn't know what it is. It bills itself as a funny, sentimental ``tribute'' to all things ``Star Trek,'' yet it ends up being an unfunny, occasionally offensive hodgepodge that does nothing even to explain the attraction of ``Star Trek,'' much less examine its optimism and thoughtfulness.

Stewart Joins UBUBU
Christian (7:08 pm CST)
According to a press release from UBUBU (YouBeYouBeYou), Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard) has joined the internet startup as both spokesperson and member of the creative team when the company launches its first internet site next year:

UBUBU and Patrick Stewart struck an unusual deal, in which the actor will be a creative partner in addition to being the company spokesperson. Stewart will be the guide and voice for the product, which will have an audio component. He will also provide a Patrick Stewart version of UBUBU that will be featured as a part of the company's website. In addition, Stewart will represent UBUBU in print and radio advertisements.

[...]

The company is developing a Web experience for Internet users that is visual, fun and intuitive, and that provides a creative way for individuals to express themselves and connect to their friends. UBUBU offers sponsors and advertisers an innovative permission marketing opportunity that seamlessly integrates brands into a user's personalized Web experience. UBUBU is partnering with leading entertainment and Internet companies.

Happy Birthday!
Christian (7:07 pm CST)
Today is the 20th anniversary of the release of 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture', which opened in theaters throughout the United States on the 2nd of December, 1979. It's also the 85th birthday of Ray Walston, Boothby on 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' and 'Star Trek: Voyager'.

Today On TV
Christian (7:07 pm CST)
-At 8:00pm, UPN will be showing 'Ultimate Trek: Star Trek's Greatest Moments', hosted by Jason Alexander.

-At 9:00pm, UPN will be showing the new Voyager episode 'Pathfinder'. Here's how UPN describes the episode:

Assigned to the Pathfinder Project, former Enterprise engineer Reginald Barclay recruits Counselor Deanna Troi and secretly creates a simulated hologram of the Voyager and its lifelike crew which he believes will aid his quest to send a one-way message to the actual ship 60,000 light years away. However, his unorthodox manner and single-minded passion for the project angers his commanding officers, forcing Barclay to risk everything, disobey orders and generate his transmission through other means.

-On Thursday in Germany, Sat.1 will still not be showing a DS9 episode. The reason for this is that Sat.1 is currently running a Millenniumweek wherein they repeat the most memorable shows from their archives. DS9 will return again on Monday with 'Ferengi Love Songs'. Thanks go out to the many of you who wrote in to mention this!

Trek BBS Today
Christian (7:06 pm CST)
In a few hours we'll of course see lots of 'Pathfinder' discussions at the Trek BBS again, but for now there are already a few other interesting threads at the BBS:

-Was the Original Series a parody on other sci-fi series?

-According to Star Trek, how will the 21st Century look?

Find more at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (7:06 pm CST)
Monday and Tuesday were probably the worst days in TrekToday history. Let me give you a short chronology of how disasters come to happen:

• First, on Monday I started work on the site early. I figured for once I might actually be finished before midnight. As a matter of fact, I was well on the way to an 11 o'clock update. Unfortunately, at about ten I was greeted by a major surprise as suddenly the lights went out and there appeared to be a massive power failure. Fortunately my laptop was still operating on battery power, so I was hoping to quickly finish collecting the news and posting the update, but then it turned out the battery life of my laptop is only about five minutes :-(. Later on that night, when power came back on, it decided to go out again after just fifteen minutes, so that's when I decided to just go to bed and miss an update.

• Then, yesterday things were actually going pretty well, and I was just about to start transferring the news to the site, when my net connection started being slower than ever before. The newsupdater didn't react anymore, and when I tried to modify the news file via an FTP client it stopped halfway through, destroying half of the news. Fortunately, Jeff Koga was online at the same moment, so he kindly agreed to transfer the news to the site for me, which seemed to at least solve the problems. Until, of course, my FTP client suddenly decided to come to life again, yet another time wiping out part of the news. The end result, as you probably noticed, was that 'Trek BBS Today' and 'Today On TV' completely disappeared, while 'Poll Results' was severely mutilated.

Jeff Mariotte Answers
Christian (7:08 pm CST)
Over at the Star Trek Comics Site, we've put up a new set of answers to fans by Jeff Mariotte, editor of the Star Trek comics line at Wildstorm. Here's one of the questions answered at the Q&A board:

Query From: Brad
Now that the first new comics are almost here, could you give a rundown of what's scheduled for what months (or weeks)?
Thanks,
Brad

Response From: Jeff Mariotte
Dec. 8 will bring the first issue of the ST:TNG--PERCHANCE TO DREAM miniseries by Keith R. A. DeCandido, Peter Pachoumis, and Lucian Rizzo. Amazing painted covers by Tim Bradstreet. That'll run for four months, Dec.-March. In Feb., there's another Prestige one-shot, ST: ALL OF ME, by Tony Isabella, Bob Ingersoll, Aaron Lopresti, and Randy Emberlin, cover by Lopresti. In April, we'll have a one shot called ST:TNG-- EMBRACE THE WOLF, by Christopher Golden, Tom Sniegoski, David Hoover, and Troy Hubbs, with a cover by Travis Charest.

Okuda Q&A Transcript
Christian (7:06 pm CST)
During the month November, the LCARS: Federation Databank hosted a special Q&A feature where questions could be asked to Michael and Denise Okuda, both working as scenic artists on 'Star Trek: Voyager'. LCARSCom.Net webmaster Sean Stephenson was kind enough to send us the transcript of the Q&A, which we've now put up over at the Trek Nation. Take a look at a short sample from the transcript:

Question: Denise, Seeing as how one or your hobbies is tropical fish. I was wondering, did you pick out the fish in picards ready room? The Reef tigerfish? (I think) I know, I shouldn't push it. However if I do get a reply, could you answer this question as well? (if you have enough time in your already busy schedual) What software program do you use to create the computer graphic displays? THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ THIS! GREAT WORK! KEEP IT UP!!!

The Okudas: No, the Australian Lionfish was originally selected by John Dwyer, TNG's set decorator during the first season. After Dwyer left for movie assignments, Livingston became the responsibility of Jimmy Mees, who, like Dwyer, hired Mark's Fish of Studio City to take care of his tank. We use Macromedia Director for most of our comptuer displays.

Question: Thanks for all the work you have put in over the years to make Star Trek the pre-eminent sci-fi series of our times, and one of the finest dramas too. Can you answer a question that has been batted backwards and forwards on alt.tv.start-trek.ds9 for months now? What has happened to the DS9 sets? Have they been destroyed, as some seem to think, or are they stored away neatly (hopefully to be re-used...)?

The Okudas: The DS9 sets were demolished immediately after the end of filming for the last episode. We've saved a few pieces for possible use on Voyager.

TV Guide Trek Features
Christian (7:05 pm CST)
Over the past few days, TV Guide has put up two new features dealing with Star Trek. In the first one, they interview Jason Alexander, ex-'Seinfield' star and host of tomorrow's 'Ultimate Trek' special, while in the second one they talk to Kevin Sorbo about Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, the new series developed by ex-DS9 writer Robert Wolfe Sorbo will be starring in. (How's that for a run-on sentence?)

Pittsburgh Paper Interviews Braga
Christian (7:04 pm CST)
Rob Owen, TV editor for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has written an article looking at the current state of the Star Trek franchise, and then in particular 'Star Trek: Voyager'. There are quite a few things to be found in the article - another negative review of the 'Ultimate Trek' TV special, the first-ever review of tomorrow's 'Pathfinder' episode, and even a short interview with Voyager Executive Producer Brannon Braga. Of course, Braga also talked about Series V:

" 'Star Trek' needs a rest; a lot of people believe that, and personally I think that," Braga said. "But at the same time, if you have the right concept there can be no doubt that a new series will do well. There will always be an appetite for 'Star Trek,' knock on wood." So far there's no timetable for when the next series might hit the air, although Braga thinks it will happen in the next couple of years, probably after "Voyager" ends its prime-time journey.

Several concepts have been rumored, including a series set at Starfleet Academy and another on a starship near an outpost in the far-flung reaches of the galaxy. But Braga said none of the scenarios floating around the Internet reflect what he and Berman have in mind. "We have been discussing a new series for many months, but the concept we have in development is so premature I don't feel comfortable talking about it," Braga said. "It's very different, but it captures the essence of 'Star Trek.' We both feel we have to recapture the excitement of the original series, and at the same time push 'Star Trek' forward a little bit in terms of tone and storytelling so that its not just another 'Star Trek.' "

Trek 3rd In AOL Poll
Christian (7:04 pm CST)
According to a press release put out by AOL, Star Trek has been chosen as the third best TV Show of the Century in their 'Best of the Century' polls. In the TV Show poll, Star Trek received 11.5% of the 268,597 votes, placing it just behind 'The Simpsons' and 'M*A*S*H'. The polls were organised in conjunction with AOL's 'Countdown to the Millennium'. For more on this, please follow this link.

Starfleet Command Tactics Section
Christian (6:59 pm CST)
Over at the Starfleet Universe, they've launched a new section dedicated to bringing you new tactics and strategies for Starfleet Command, Interplay's new real-time strategy game. The section is maintained by none other than YnrohKeeg, who used to run the excellent Star Trek Gaming Central. Take a look at what you'll be able to find in his new section:

For this time forward, we will strive to offer you the latest and greatest tactical wisdom. Cutting edge methods of kicking the tar out of your opponents. Stuff like that. Starfleet Command is an extremely complex game, full of rules and limitations. Within these limitations, you, as the captain, have a given set of options in any situation. Hopefully, this section will help you recognize important opportunities when they arise, and teach you how to exploit circumstances to your advantage. With each installment, I'll post a little essay on a certain system, a certain ship, a racial overview, or whatever my sick mind comes up with.

Poll Results
Christian (6:49 pm CST)
As usual, below you will find the results of the most recent TrekToday poll, asking for your thoughts about 'The Voyager Conspiracy'. Take a look:

SRC="http://www.trektoday.com/poll/image.gif" Height="10" Width="14"> 7% - (24 Votes) 3-4 5.5% - (19 Votes) Didn't want to see it 3.2% - (11 Votes) Total Votes: 341

Please also participate in our new poll, asking you again how many episodes of a certain Trek series you've seen - this time of Voyager.

Hello World!
Christian (6:46 pm CST)
Aargh! Disasters never seem to come alone :-(.

Stewart On Talk Shows
Christian (7:10 pm CST)
Patrick Stewart - The Actor's Actor is reporting that, as part of his 'A Christmas Carol' promotion campaign, Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard) will be appearing on the Rosie O'Donnell Show on the 2nd of December. There's also a chance he might be appearing on 'Late Night With David Letterman' sometime soon.

Voyager September-October Ratings
Christian (7:10 pm CST)
Greg Fuller at the Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database has uploaded his September-October ratings reports, summarising the performance of Voyager's first several episodes. Take a look at how he starts:

The first three episodes this season outperformed the first three from last season, but the second three episodes fell below last October's three shows. In general, the second half of the September-October period performed far below the first half, probably due to some of the other networks starting their shows later in the season. The dip can also be partially attributed to the fact that "Alice" and "Riddles" were not shows targetted at Voyager's crucial demographic -- Men 18-49. November should certainly see an improvement over October's last three shows.

Overall, the sixth season has performed at a level virtually equal to that of season six. The averages through October, for all practical applications, are identical.

Delta Blues 'Voyager Conspiracy' Review
Christian (7:10 pm CST)
Jim Wright at Delta Blues has uploaded his review of 'The Voyager Conspiracy', which aired last Wednesday. Compared to most other reviewers, Wright is rather positive about the episode:

It's no "Alice," but I can't say it thrilled me. It's a definite drop from "One Small Step"--but any episode that aired after that couldn't help but suffer in comparison.

What the hey. It's Thanksgiving, and I'm feeling generous, and I didn't dislike it. Let's call it (* * *).

New William Shatner Book
Christian (7:09 pm CST)
Roy Gales just sent in the following news submission:

William Shatner appeared at Creation's Thanksgiving Convention yesterday and spoke about a new book he is working on which is to be titled "I'm Working On That" which is derived from a quote from Stephen Hawking. The book is going to be about how technology is taking over our lives. He also stated that he will be doing a voice on a new animated film titled "Osmosis Jones" and will be a political person who will do an impersonation on Nixon. And he also said he will be singing on a new series of Priceline.com commercials, which everyone there thought was quite humorous.

Today On TV
Christian (7:09 pm CST)
-On Monday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the TOS episode 'Wolf in the Fold'.

-On Monday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Hippocratic Oath' at 17:00 and at 23:30 BST, followed by the new 'Prodigal Daughter' at 20:00. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this!

-On Monday in Germany, Sat.1 will apparently not be showing DS9 at the usual 15:00 time, for unknown reasons.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (7:09 pm CST)
Here are a few interesting topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-If you could choose, under which Starfleet Captain would you like to serve?

-Why do the Founders send their offspring across the galaxy?

Find more topics at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (7:09 pm CST)
Well, it's a traditional Sunday again - just four news items, I'm afraid.

EW On 'Ultimate Trek'
Christian (5:13 pm CST)
Jeff 'Koganuts' Koga sends along word that issue #515 of Entertainment Weekly contains a very negative mini-review of 'Ultimate Trek', the Jason Alexander-hosted special airing next week. The show was reviewed by Mark Bernardin, who awarded it a D:

This totally inane clip show has to be the single worst idea in the 30- some-odd-year history of 'Star Trek' -- and that's taking 'Star Trek V' into account. Host Jason Alexander (above) squeezes himself into a 'Trek' uniform and hatches an incredibly unconvincing Captain Kirk impersonation to introduce lame segments like "Ultimate One-Liners." The special brings to light an interesting paradox: This sort of thing is only of interest to die-hard fans, yet those fans would be insulted to be told, so crassly, what 'Star Trek''s greatest moments are.

New 'Pathfinder' Spoilers
Christian (5:08 pm CST)
NOTE: Below you'll be able to find some major spoilers for 'Pathfinder', next week's new Voyager episode. Click here to avoid these spoilers.

Again, next week's Voyager episode is severely spoiled below. This is where you need to click if you do not want to be spoiled.

Over in the alt.tv.star-trek.voyager newsgroup, Trek insider 415Man posted some new information on 'Pathfinder', the Voyager episode guest-starring Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi) and Dwight Schultz (Reginald Barclay). 415Man confirmed that the white-haired admiral seen in the episode trailer is actually the father of Tom Paris, who manages to send Tom a message in the episode:

Speaks to him personally actually, although Tom is too dumbfounded at suddenly hearing his fathers voice after 6 years to actually say anything.

[On the contents of that message:] Admiral Paris is speaking with Janeway and asks "How are your people holding up?" Janeway tells him fine, and comments that they are an great crew "your son included". Admiral Paris says "Tell him.............tell him I miss him.......and I'm proud of him". Tom sits dumbfounded, and Janeway says - "He heard you".

Later Tom toasts his dad, and of course Barclay. Wee.

Cynical 'Voyager Conspiracy' Review
Christian (5:08 pm CST)
Over at the Cynics Corner, David E. Sluss has uploaded his review of 'The Voyager Conspiracy', the new Voyager episode which aired on Wednesday. Here's a summary of the Cynic's opinion of the episode: