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TREKTODAY.COM - View Archives: February 1999
News headlines from February 1999:
Starfleet CommRelay Split-Up!
Christian (2:09 pm CST)
If you enjoy getting in touch with other Star Trek fans, chances are you know about the Starfleet Communications Relay (SFCR). This is probably the oldest set of Star Trek web forums on the net, having been around in one form or the other since 1995. The forums were founded by The Queen's Pawn Productions (their most recent known website can be found here.) Unfortunately, the forums also ran into their fair share of troubles, and even had to be shut down temporarily in early 1998 after server problems. However, in the in the summer of 1998 the forums came back online, after Charles Capps agreed to take over the forums. Charles Capps had previously been doing exactly the same for the Behaviour Group forums, which had to be closed down after the Behaviour Group's server had been hacked. With the combined efforts of Charles Capps as administrator, and the Queen's Pawn as space provider, the Starfleet Communications Relay opened at its new location, http://commrelay.trekhosting.com/.
So far, so good, you may be thinking. Unfortunately, problems soon started appearing once again. A few months ago, the forums were taken down again, apparently due to some kind of Y2K-like bug. We all anxiously awaited its re-opening, and finally, a few weeks ago, the forums re-opened. Trek fans all over the world rejoiced, and the posters busily started posting again. Once again, everything seemed fine, until saturday, when the CommRelay visitors were greeted by the following shock announcement posted by Charles Capps:
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE FULL ARTICLE
Jeri Ryan Starburst Pictures Available
Christian (12:52 pm CST)
As you may know, the March issue of Starburst Magazine carries an interview with Jeri Ryan, in which she talks about her experiences on Voyager, and gives some info on 'Dark Frontier.' Also included in the magazine are some 'mouth-watering photos' of both Jeri and the Borg Queen, and the Official Jeri Lynn Ryan Homepage was kind enough to scan them in for us. By going here, you will be able to look at nine scans from Starburst, showing Jeri Ryan together with various co-actors. If you'd also like to read about her, instead of just looking at her, a short preview of the article can be found here at Starburst.
The Trek Portal Lives On
Christian (12:41 pm CST)
Following friday's announcement that the Trek Portal, the Star Trek gateway site was shutting down, Leonard Schuurmans has announced that a new webmaster will take over the site:
The files have been send to a new webmaster. As soon as The Trek Portal is back online at the new adress, I'll post a message. My sincere thanks to all who were willing to take over this site!
The new address will be posted at Warp 11 once it's available, and I'll also keep you informed on it.
New Design At ST Central For Movies Month
Christian (12:37 pm CST)
Star Trek Central has just been re-designed in honour of the upcoming 'Movies Month' (starting tomorrow at the site). New today are a poll where you can choose your favourite Trek movie, and direct links to exclusive articles taking a look at some aspects of Trek history. A short snippet from 'TOS - The Observation' by Julian Machin:
Thirty years have passed. We have four series, more ears and strange shaped foreheads than you shake a stick at. Computers phasers, tricorders, cortical stimulators, tractor beams, warp drive, impulse drive, transporter, anti grav, shuttles, runabouts and Defiance (or is that Defiant.) Life was straight forward in the sixties and the original Star Trek. The only regular alien had bad hair and pointed ears, to whom all was fascinating. A ship that could go really fast and a Scottish engineer who worked in what looked like a DIY warehouse/tool rack. Sickbay was a botempi organ and a couple a mattresses. The bridge was a cross between the parallel bars and a Christmas tree on acid. Tricorders were good for ham radio and ' definitely not human sir' only. The special effects team just had polystyrene paint and hoped the audience had imagination. Planet beam down scenery consisted of either blue green and purple with rocks. Or green purple rocks with a bit of blue left over from last week.
Even more observations can be found in the full article, while newer articles will probably appear in a few days as the 'Movie Month' really starts. Also, if you haven't already done so, don't forget to check out STCentral's unique Goodbye Deep Space Nine feature, where you can send a personal message to DS9's cast and crew.
New DS9 Clips Online
Christian (12:25 pm CST)
The Star Trek Universe has just put up its latest set of video clips of 'Chimera' and 'Field of Fire.' The clips, which are in Real Video format, offer you a chance to re-live some of the highlights of the latest Trek episodes, thanks to the creators at the Sci-Fi Headquarters. Go take a look!
Toy Maniac Raves On
Christian (12:18 pm CST)
The Raving Toy Maniac has posted new info on some upcoming Star Trek action figures. First of all, some bad news for TOS fans:
Two of the 9" Kay-Bee Exclusive assortments have been postponed by a month. Sulu and Marlena from "Mirror, Mirror" are now expected in April, while Trelane and Edith Keeler are currently scheduled to show up around June.
Fortunately, there's also some good news regarding the arrival of the 'Target Exclusives' (don't ask me what it means, I know nothing at all about action figures):
The 5" Target Exclusive Picard and Worf have begun arriving in stores as we speak. They are $9.99 each and come in 8-piece cases. The SKU number for these figures is 087061278.
Even more news on other 'Target Exclusives' can be found at the Raving Toy Maniac, especially in their advanced look at the first 9" Target Exclusive assortment of the year!
New Sev Trek Cartoon Online
Christian (12:08 pm CST)
A slight change in procedure regarding Sev Trek cartoons: from now on we'll be publishing them on Sunday, instead of Monday, if possible. The reason for this is that in Australia (where Sev Trek is located), it *is* already Monday now, and since there seems to be very little news I thought it'd be best to publish the cartoon today:
Dark Victory Still Out In April
Christian (11:34 am CST)
John Ordover Senior Editor at Pocket Books, has just announced that William Shatner's new novel 'Dark Victory' will still appear in April. Several sources, including the Official William Shatner Connection had previously announced that the novel might be pushed back to as far as September, but in his most recent Q&A Update Ordover denies this:
Dark Victory will be out in April, right on time. Don't know how that rumor got started.
John Vornholt Chat Tonight
Christian (11:13 am CST)
Tonight, Starbase Prometheus, the Starship Creator fan site, is organising a chat with Trek novelist John Vornholt. Vornholt's most recent publications include the TNG Dominion War books, but he also wrote books such as 'Mind Meld' and 'Rogue Saucer.' The chat will be taking place at 1:00pm Pacific Time / 9:00 PM GMT. For more information, read the instructions here.
Today on TV
Christian (11:05 am CST)
-In the UK, Sky One is broadcasting the 4th-season DS9 episode 'Paradise Lost' at 4:00pm GMT, in other words, erm, one hours ago. Sorry! However, two minutes ago they started on Voyager's 'Tatto', if you run you can still see it! Thanks go out to the Television Observation Unit of the Star Trek Collective for this.
-In Germany, Sat.1 is broadcasting TNG's 'Katastrophe auf der Enterprise' (Disaster) tomorrow at 15:00 CET.
New at Trekseek.com
Christian (11:00 am CST)
Several interesting sites were added to TREKSEEK.COM yesterday, bringing us to a total of 785 sites. Some of those sites are actually very interesting, including:
-Warp Drive When? This site is actually located on the NASA server, and is maintained by Marc Millis, the head of NASA's 'Breakthrough Propulsion Physics Program'. On the site, he offers his assessment of the prospects for achieving the propulsion breakthroughs that would enable such far-future visions of interstellar travel. Very interesting, go take a look!
-The Star Trek Voyage is located at a very interesting domain name, namely http://www.star-trek.nu/. On the site, you'll find 'pictures, sounds, movies, Plus themes, screensavers, links and news'.
-Lastly, Trek Quotes offers just that, a collection of quotes from all four series and the movies.
Note that these weren't the only new sites that were added to Trekseek yesterday. A full listing can be found here.
Hello World!
Christian (10:50 am CST)
Yesterday, 'Insurrection' was still great! I still loved the story, still laughed laughed at all the jokes, and I still was amazed by the special effects. I'm probably the only one, but I actually like 'Insurrection' a lot better than 'First Contact.' That's not to say 'First Contact' was bad, but I personally am not a huge fan of such dark movies.
Later today, I've got a special something coming up here at TrekToday - an original article, written especially for the site. I'd very much appreciate it if you'd all tell me what you think of it - it's really a sort of experiment for us. A few things I'd like your input on:
1) I'll be posting the article on a separate page. Do you like that, or should it go on the main page?
2) The article deals with something that has happened here in the Internet fan community itself - not with the actual Trek television series. Is there any interest in such 'community news,' or should TrekToday just focus on 'real' Trek news.
Once again, please let me know - this site is your site, and I'd love to know how you think it should look!
| Saturday February 27, 1999 |
Sat.1 Picks Up Voyager Again
Christian (10:10 am CST)
German Trek fans, rejoice! After yesterday's report that Sat.1 would be cancelling Voyager, the German Star Trek Index is now reporting that the television station will pick up the series again in the early summer. Further details are not yet available, but I'll report them as soon as I get them.
Shatner Rides Again
Christian (9:59 am CST)
Or, at least, he will present other riders at the 'Hollywood Charity Horse Show', according to this report from the William Shatner Connection:
The Hollywood Charity Horse Show ("Star Trek Goes Country"), hosted by William Shatner, will take place at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, 480 Riverside Drive, Burbank, California on April 29 to May 2, 1999.
For the past nine years, William Shatner has spearheaded the HCHS which features some of the best western reining riders in the country while simultaneously raising money for charity. For more information, visit the Hollywood Charity Horse Show Official Website at http://www.HorseShow.org/.
Daily Sci-Fi Looks At Weekly Sci-Fi
Christian (9:54 am CST)
The people at The Den's Daily Sci-Fi have posted their preview of next week's new television sci-fi. Of course, they're also looking at next week's Trek episodes. First up is their (short) preview of Voyager's 'Course: Oblivion' (and not 'Voyager: Oblivion,' as they say):
Harry must've picked up something itchy from his little tryst last episode because the Voyager's struck by a hideous disease that disfigures the entire crew and threatens to kill them. How many important people are going to die? Answer: zero.
After that comes their preview of DS9's 'Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges':
Bashir goes undercover for the mysterious Section 31, that evil X-Files branch of the Federation. Bashir's been assigned to go undercover and spy on the Romulans. Sisko wants Bashir to spy on Section 31. What's a genetically engineered doctor to do?
The full preview takes a look at some other sci-fi shows, including Gene Roddenberry's 'Earth: Final Conflict,' and also provides us with two short teaser movies of the new Trek episodes.
Eon Reviews 'Dark Frontier'
Christian (9:43 am CST)
The latest issue of Eon Magazine (issue 13.3, to be precise) has a review of the Voyager episode no self-respecting reviewer can do without - last week's telefilm 'Dark Frontier.' Unfortunately, reviewer Jeff Bond was not as positive as a lot of the other reviewers, only awarding a 'B-' to the episode:
Most of the script's budget seems to have been expended on the Borg sets, which are obviously redresses of the VOYAGER's twisty corridors. Foundation Imaging creates an impressive Borg shipyard with thousands of miles of zero-gravity elements, although even the tremendous scale created here never quite creates the sense of awe you'd expect to get out of what is apparently the Borg "homeworld." That may be because Foundation has created such a high standard of detail and scope for its VOYAGER shots that we're all becoming a little bit jaded. At any rate, the human focus of DARK FRONTIER never catches hold because this story has already been told in earlier episodes that did a much better job of illustrating the horror of Borg assimilation and Seven's feelings about it. Oddly, Jeri Ryan gives one of her flattest, least-nuanced performances here, and the direction of the movie by Cliff Bole and Terry Windell hardly approaches cinematic quality (the second hour is particularly lifeless). There's trouble afoot when VOYAGER can't even get a rise out of a Seven of Nine Borg movie.
More on this can be found in the full review.
Shimerman Speaks Out
Christian (9:37 am CST)
3 Questions with Armin Shimerman is the title of a new feature at Cinescape Online by Steve Hockensmith. Take a look at a small part of the feature:
Cinescape: I'm sure the writers will be trying to tie up a lot of loose ends by the end of the season. Will there be any big revelations or changes for Quark?
Shimerman: One of the disappointments for me on the show is there's never been a really great character arc for Quark. He's had lots of moments of fun and conniving and joy, but if you look at it there's really nothing that needs to be tied up for him. Whether his business will continue or not [after the last episode] is something that I don't think the show will tie up one way or another. We want to know what happens to the Emissary [Sisko]. We want to know what happens to the relationship between Kira and Odo. We want to know what happens to Odo as far as the Founders are concerned. We want to know whether Dukat gets what he deserves, and the same thing can be said for Kai Winn. We want to know if Garak will ever be welcomed back to Cardassia. Many of our recurring characters have big arcs. But Quark, like an Everyman, has just passed through their lives and added a little spice every now and then.
Two more questions (and their answers) can be found in the full feature, though even that is just a preview of an article that is going to appear in a 'Cinescape Insider Special' focusing on the last days of Deep Space Nine, on sale in April. Thanks go out to Warp 11 for pointing me to this.
New Birth Of The Federation Info
Christian (9:28 am CST)
Paul Weaver at FedCom has just posted a huge amount of new info on Microprose's upcoming turn-based strategy game 'Birth of the Federation.' Yesterday, project leader Jeff Holzhauer mailed Paul with some new info on the game, including the full, unabridged list of all the ships in the game. Unfortunately, Paul has decided to give out this information in daily doses, so today there's only the news of a Klingon Heavy Cruiser:
The Negh'Var class Vessel is designated a 'Heavy Cruiser', this is an understatement. Watch out though, a few small but manuverable ships could destroy one of these if youre not careful. Due to their immense size these will be very expensive, and require a high technology.
At FedCom you'll also be able to find a picture of this ship. In the rest of his mail, Jeff gave an explanation for the recent delay and lack of info on the game:
I know the marketing behind BotF has been a little lacking. I'm sure you've heard this before, but its true nonetheless:
BotF was caught in the Hasbro transition. The UK marketing department underwent turnover and the people who stayed had to move from Chipping Sodbury to London. The US marketing department suffered even higher turnover, and the people who stayed had to move from San Francisco to Boston.
This caused a great deal of chaos and confusion in the marketing plan for all of our games, but BotF was particularly hard hit. Things are stabilizing now, and I expect to see better marketing moving forward.
Perhaps in order to reward us for the long wait, Jeff also sent along an exclusive screenshot of the game, taken while he was playing the Romulans:
This screenshot is from a game I was playing as the Romulans.
As you can see I've explored substantially, ecountered the Klingons and several minors.
The view on the left and right show that I am currently building an outpost to secure my end of the wormhole.
Even more news on this can be found at FedCom, including an analysis of the screenshot and news of a new advert for the game. Go check it out!
Sci-Fi Channel To Cancel Trek?
Christian (9:07 am CST)
Major thanks go out to 'Captain Jim' at the Trekweb Message Board for this one. As you probably know, the SciFi Channel is currently running the 'Star Trek - Special Edition' series for the second time. This Special Edition basically means that viewers get to see the full, uncut episodes in a digitally remastered version. Also, each episode is currently accompanied by comments from Leonard Nimoy.
Unfortunately, all that seems about to change. At the moment, each episode takes about 90 minutes to run, including Nimoy's presentation and commercials. But, if you take a look at the Sci-Fi Channel's Schedule Bot and take a look at Monday the 29th of March, you'll see that only one hour is reserved for the episode of that day, 'Spectre of the Gun.' All further episodes are limited to one hour as well, meaning that a lot of the episodes has been cut. In all probability, Leonard Nimoy's commentary will be gone altogether, while about five minutes will be cut from each episode.
If you investigate further, you'll come across the Star Trek Bulletin Board at the SciFi Channel, and some alarming posts were made there over the past few days. Take a look at a part of one of these messages, posted by 'WLM', a former employee of the SciFi Channel:
I too have heard from a friend at SFC that indeed, they are pulling the Special Edition.
This is due to low ratings.
[...]
Unfortunately, the Special Edition is a project that got caught up in the cogs of the machine when SFC and its parent company, USA Networks were bought by Barry Diller. A number of new people were brought in and a number of people left in the upper management of SFC and unfortunately, the new folks haven't shared the enthusiasm that we of the old guard had for the project. I guess you can chalk it up to different tastes.
[...]
As for the recent postings about the Special Edition on DVD appearing on DVD, I wouldn't count on it. Paramount owns the rights to all of the newly transfered masters of TOS. SFC owns the rights to all of the Special Edition material created for broadcast. Unless Paramount negotiated a deal with SFC and Shatner and Nimoy (and paid them a whole heck of a lot of money) it's doubtful that the supplemental material will appear on the TOS DVDs. I could be wrong though, and I'll do a little digging to see if it is true.
More info can be found in the full posting, but one day later WLM posted again, this time confirming his DVD news:
I have confirmed this, at least in terms of the Nimoy stuff. At present, there are no plans to include any of the Nimoy material on the TOS DVDs. This info is from a source who would know.
I have sent a mail to the Sci-Fi Channel's US Programming Department, but so far I haven't yet received a response (they're probably not there during the weekend). In any case, this is very bad news for us Trek fans - once again the Original Series is cancelled due to low ratings. If you want to do something about it, there are a few options open to you. First of all, there's the aforementioned Bulletin Board, where you might find more news on this. Secondly, you could also send them a mail, asking them to re-consider their decision. Let's hope they do.
Today on TV
Christian (8:49 am CST)
-In the UK, Sky One is showing the fourth-season DS9 episode 'Homefront' at 4:00pm GMT, followed an hour later by the 1st-season Voyager episode 'Persistence of Vision.' As usual, thanks go out to the Television Observation Unit of the Star Trek Collective.
-After yesterday's shock announcement that German television station Sat.1 will stop broadcasting Voyager, they're still showing a rerun of yesterday's 'Jäger' tonight at 23:45 CET.
-Lastly, here in the Netherlands the AVRO is showing Voyager's 'Random Thoughts' tonight at 18:30 CET on Channel One.
New at Trekseek.com
Christian (8:41 am CST)
I'm afraid we only had 1 site submission yesterday, still leaving us a lot of sites away from the 800 sites we wanted to have by the end of this weekend (we've got 781 sites now). The one new site to be added to TREKSEEK.COM yesterday was:
-The Federation - A Star Trek Fan Association. As the name implies, this is an International Trek Fan Association where the focus is on fun!
If, after this tiny little update, you still feel the need to read about more new sites at Trekseek, I direct you to the listing of new sites that were added over the past week.
Hello World!
Christian (8:36 am CST)
You may be surprised at the early start today, but this evening I'm going to see 'Insurrection' for the second time, so I probably won't have time to update then. If I don't manage to report all the news today, I'll put in an extra update tomorrow morning to make sure I get in all the news.
New York Convention Tickets On Sale
Christian (12:54 pm CST)
Creation Entertainment has just announced that tickets for the Star Trek convention at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York are now on sale. The convention will be held on Saturday the 27th and Sunday the 28th of March and features appearances by Garrett Wang (Harry Kim), Grace Lee Whitney (Janice Rand), Roxann Dawson (B'Elanna Torres) and Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris). General admission tickets cost $17.00 per person, but you'll have to pay more for some of the special happenings. More information can be obtained by looking at Creation's Convention Calendar.
Sat.1 Cancels Voyager
Christian (12:29 pm CST)
Very bad news for German Star Trek fans , as Sat.1 will stop broadcasting Voyager episodes somewhere in early March, according to the German Star Trek Index. Currently, the station is showing the fourth season of Voyager for the very first time, but after the episode 'Beute' (Prey) they won't be showing any new episodes anymore, stopping right in the middle of the season.
According to Sat.1's official reaction, the 'general public did not accept this sci-fi series. [...] We are currently looking for an acceptable time slot. However, we can not yet name a new time slot.' According to the article, it is not even clear yet if a new time slot will be found at all. Of course, this makes Sat.1's recent promise that they'd start showing season 5 in October even less likely.
My apologies in advance for any errors I made in my interpretation of the article - German isn't my native language. The full article (in German) can be found by clicking here.
The Trek Portal Shuts Down
Christian (12:11 pm CST)
Unfortunately, after having been in operation for only two months, The Trek Portal has shut down. The Trek Portal was one of the few Star Trek portal sites, offering links to the most important Trek resources online. The Trek Portal was also one of the first sites ever linking to TREKSEEK.COM, something we liked rather a lot. Take a look at (part of) the announcement posted by Leonard Schuurmans:
It was nearly impossible for me to keep this site up-to-date, while at the same time running Warp Eleven.
As you perhaps can understand my priority, my heart and my soul lies with Warp Eleven, a site that has over 300 regular visitors every day and more then 50,000 hits since it's birth. That site needs an almost daily update, to keep up with the flow Star Trek generates world-wide. And besides that, I like to have and keep a social life as well!
The announcement goes on to mention that anyone wanting to take over the site should mail Leonard Schuurmans, so if you've always dreamt of running a portal site, here's your chance! People in need of Trek news, meanwhile, should visit Warp 11 itself (after first exploring TrekToday, of course :-) )
Star Trek X In Early Development
Christian (12:01 pm CST)
TrekWeb's Star Trek X site has a short report about Star Trek X being in very, very early development, after Rick Berman made a few comments about the movie in the latest issue of the Star Trek Communicator:
"I have just begun the very preliminary discussions with the studio about content and characters and schedule and when and how and where for another feature film. We are in such an infant stage that it isn't appropriate for me to say anything now. But suffice it to say that discussions have begun."
This apparently confirms Trekweb's report from about a month ago, which read as follows:
Shortly before the release of Star Trek: Insurrection, Rick Berman and a top-level Paramount executive met with Brannon Braga (Generations, First Contact, ST:Voyager) to discuss the next movie. This was nothing more than a preliminary discussion, and quite possibly a digression during a meeting called for some other purpose. This does however confirm that Paramount is aware of Braga's availability and that they are conscious of the need to begin working on the film as early as possible. I have also heard (from the same source) that they are aiming (however desultorily at this point) for a 2001 release, probably Thanksgiving. Keep in mind that Braga is probably first in line for the project, but even he admits that it's way too far off at this point.
More news on this can be found at the ST X site.
New Trek Ratings Available
Christian (11:53 am CST)
The Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database has some new info available on Trek's latest ratings. Fortunately, the Overnight Ratings Report for Voyager's disease also has an explanation of what 'overnight ratings' actually are, something a poor uninformed Dutchman like myself appreciates a lot. Anyways, the bad results (a 4.9 rating) don't seem to be as bad as they appeared yesterday:
The ratings for "The Disease" would most certainly be average or above average if it weren't for the enormous amount of timeslot competition. The Grammys on CBS earned an 18.0 overnight rating, Fox's presentation of "The Nutty Professor" earned a 9.6, and NBC continued its strong sweeps presentations of "Law & Order," which earned a 9.2 overnight. Despite the losses at the hands of the high-powered specials, Voyager was able to finish 5th in its timeslot, defeating "Charmed," which was also heavily hit by the Grammys competition, falling to a 4.8/7.
Quite why anyone would actually want to watch 'The Nutty Professor' is beyond me, but apparently a lot of people didn't share my opinion of the movie. Read the full report for more. Also new is the ratings report for DS9's 'The Emperor's New Cloak', the first show during sweeps month, with some great news:
Deep Space Nine kicked its final February sweeps off with a roar, storming out of reruns to claim a 4.6 rating, ranking 13th, the highest rating since "Treachery, Faith, and the Great River"'s 4.8 earlier this year. That 4.6 was up 22% over last week's rerun and 6% from the last first-run episode, "Prodigal Daughter" (4.3). Despite the strong performance, the show was still down from last year's "Who Mourns for Morn," which earned a 5.3.
The news on the competitive front was even better, seeing DS9 destroy both Xena and Hercules, and again winning the #1 syndicated drama position. Hercules was second with a 4.3, down an unbelievable 44% from last year. Xena limped in to third with a 4.1, down 30% from last year. With Xena on the downward slope and Hercules staying steady, DS9 is now in excellent position to finish as the #1 firstrun syndicated drama on the season -- a postion it hasn't been in in over two years.
Once again, read the full report for more news on this.
Scarlett Pomers Convention Appearance
Christian (11:43 am CST)
Courtesy of the Official Scarlett Pomers Homepage comes the news that Scarlett Pomers, the actress playing young Naomi Wildman on Voyager, will soon be appearing at her first ever Star Trek convention. StellarCon '99 has booked Scarlett as a guest for their upcoming convention in Fairfield, California, taking place next sunday (March 7). There will be 8 other guests coming up, including Scarlett's colleague Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine). The convention will be held in the Fairfield Community Center, and tickets will be sold at the door.
Daily Sci-Fi Reviews Trek
Christian (11:05 am CST)
Not wanting to be outdone by Mania Magazine, the Den's Daily Sci-Fi has also posted reviews of DS9's 'Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang' and Voyager's 'Disease.' Funnily enough, their opinion of the episodes matches Mania's - they liked 'Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang' and they hated 'Disease.' They award the DS9 episode four stars out of five, praising the good use of DS9's characters:
And even in an episode as light-hearted as this, it's apparent that "DS9" has developed a complex, enjoyable set of characters these past years. Even the non-regulars, the secondary characters -- Penny Johnson as Kasidy Yates, Aron Eisenberg as Nog, James Darren as Vic -- have evolved into interesting, dimensional folks who could easily be primary characters on any other show.
Check out the full review for more. Unfortunately, 'Disease' receives only two stars out of five, giving reviewer Sarah Kuhn a good chance to express her dislike:
OK, "Voyager" people, we're going to play a guessing game. The point of this week's episode is:
a) to illuminate the touching mother-son bond between Janeway and Ensign Kim.
b) to make an important, metaphorical point about love (as in: it hurts, man).
c) to give guest star Musetta Vander a special award for the most incomprehensible accent since Deanna Troi.
d) to share with us some really crappy dialogue.
More praise of the episode can be found here.
Mania Reviews 'Disease'
Christian (10:50 am CST)
After yesterday's review of 'Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang', AnotherUniverse.com's Mania Magazine has now also published a review of Voyager's 'Disease.' This time around, reviewer Michelle Erica Green isn't *that* fond of the episode, to say the least:
First draft of this review: Voyager is docked to a really long, phallic ship, where Harry Kim meets an alien who gives him an STD before Janeway can remind him that Star Trek characters are not allowed to have sex without asking their captains first...Whoops. Sorry. I mean, Voyager is docked to the Jupiter-bound ship from 2001, where Harry Kim plays the plant guy from Quark the intergalactic garbage scow show, until the Rebel Alliance challenges the Imperial Senate...
OK, sorry, but I just can't stop howling. What's the point of pretending that this show has anything to do with real Star Trek, and reviewing it as such? "Kirk to McCoy. Sorry to bother you, Bones, but I'd like to get it on with that hot green-skinned alien chick on this planet. Please do old Jimbo a favor and write me a medical permission slip...oh, and contact Commodore Decker to clear it with him."
Obviously, the full review provides us with more 'howling,' but you'll also be able to find a detailed synopsis of the episode.
New Paramount Video Releases
Christian (10:45 am CST)
Cinescape Online is reporting in this article about some new video releases that are coming up in May from Paramount:
Coming on May 25, Star Trek: 30 Years and Beyond and Inside Star Trek: The Real Story will hit home video. The two tapes will also be available together in a Star Trek: Vegas Experience Gift box set which will also isnclude two tickets for admission into the Star Trek The Experince attraction at the Las Vegas Hilton.
Paramount will also finally release the last 12 previously unavailable episodes of the Star Trek: The Next Generation TV series on home video over two months. Those episodes hitting the shelves on April 6 will be: "Homeward", "Sub Rosa", "Lower Decks", "Thine Own Self", "Masks", "Eye Of The Beholder". May 25th will see the release of the following eps: "Genesis", "Journey's End", "Firstborn", "Bloodlines", "Emergence", "Preemptive Strike". In addition the popular two-part conclusion "All Good Things..., Part I and II" will be repromoted on that date.
Incidentally, how does Paramount expect us to pay for all this? In April and May, they're also going to be releasing 'Insurrection', several TOS episodes and a few other Trek movies on DVD - the average fan will never be able to buy all that.
Starfleet Command Chat Log
Christian (10:35 am CST)
Following yesterday's chat about Interplay's upcoming strategy game Starfleet Command, a slightly edited chat log has already been put online. In the chat, people got the chance to ask some questions to lead designer Chris Taylor, project leader Erik Bethke and lead programmer Marc Hertog. You can find the chat log here, and thanks go out to Evil Avatar for pointing me to it.
Happy Birthday Chase Masterson!
Christian (10:27 am CST)
Today's the birthday of Chase Masterson, who is best known as Dabo Girl Leeta on Deep Space Nine, although she has also presented her own show on the SciFi channel. She is loved by many fans around the world, who can be found online at the Chase Masterson Official Fan Club Page, where you can sign Chase's own guestbook. If, instead, you'd like to send her a personal e-mail, you can do so via her own site at ChaseMasterson.com. We here at the Trekzone Network wish her a happy birthday as well!
Today on TV
Christian (10:27 am CST)
-Tonight, the SciFi Channel will be broadcasting the 2nd-season TOS episode 'Wolf in the Fold,' focusing on Mr. Scott. The episode airs at 7:30pm Eastern Time, and is repeated at 11:30.
-In the UK, Sky One is showing the first-season Voyager episode 'Parturition' at 5:00pm GMT, with a rerun at 11:30pm. Thanks go out to the Television Observation Unit of the Star Trek Collective.
-In Germany, Sat.1 is showing Voyager's 'Jäger' (Hunters) tonight at 20:15 CET. Furthermore, tomorrow morning, they're repeating TNG's 'Das Recht auf Leben' (Silicon Avatar) at 02:50.
New at Trekseek.com
Christian (10:26 am CST)
Apparently a lot of people decided to hop over to TREKSEEK.COM yesterday, after visiting TrekToday, as we got a rather large amount of new site submissions. Take a look at some of the new sites in our database:
-Section 31 is one of the Trek news sites out there I visit daily, and I was surprised to see we hadn't added it to Trekseek yet. It is in now, though, so go take a look!
-Next time you're waiting for a new Trek episode to air, go visit Star Trek: The Cantabrian Expeditions, where you can experience the adventures of Captain Turner and his crew aboard the Starship Cantabrian!
-The United Fan Con is New England's Premier (Fan-Run) Media Science Fiction Convention, held each fall in SPringfield, MA. The convention benefits the American Cancer Society.
As usual, these weren't the only sites that were added to Trekseek yesterday. To take a look at all the other new sites that were added to our database of 782 Star Trek sites, you can see them here.
Hello World!
Christian (10:24 am CST)
'Wow!' That's about how I reacted when I looked at our stats program today, and noticed the hit count. Thanks to all of you who visited, and a special thanks to those of you who sent me some feedback on the site - I really appreciate it. Although I loved all of the mails, there was one which particularly excited me, namely the one from Lauren Grubb, who informed me that TrekToday has won the 'Reel Site of Gold.' It's the first award TrekToday has won, and I'm very proud of it. My thanks go out to Lauren, and also to Saleel Majeed, my co-webmaster, who designed most of the page.
In other news today, you may have noticed a few minor changes in the area of the site just below 'Hello World!' First of all, we moved up the advert a bit, in order to wickedly trick you all in clicking on it :-). I hasten to point out, though, that the ad is only there to help us minimize our losses - we certainly arent't making a profit out of these pages (I wish!) Secondly, I put up links to the news of the two previous days. Yesterday, just after finishing my last update, I noticed that the page took an awful long time to load, so I removed the news from the previous two days from the main page. However, I didn't have the time to put that news somewhere else, so I did that today.
After this exceptionally long 'Hello World!', let me once again thank you all for coming here. I hope I'll see you again tomorrow!
| Thursday February 25, 1999 |
Overnight Ratings 'Disease'
Christian (12:41 pm CST)
The Star Trek Universe has just posted the overnight ratings for Voyager's 'Disease.' As the American ratings system continues to baffle me, I'll just gratefully hand over to the Universe's report:
"The 41st Annual Grammy Awards" aired yesterday on CBS, and made Voyagers overnight rating pretty low. Voyager got a 4.9/7, that is down 2.1 from last week.
What is pretty good is that Voyager beat WBs Charmed", that got a 4.8/7.
A final rating would be around 3.4 - 3.9.
That is not very good for the February sweeps, which is 4.43 after last weeks two parter. (Bliss 3.9, Dark Frontier, part 1 4.7, Dark Frontier, part 2 4.7)
But the average will stay above 4, and WILL beat last year.
'Trekkies' To Be Released Soon
Christian (12:32 pm CST)
The makers of 'Trekkies,' the documentary starring Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar), have just announced that the film will premiere on the 12th of March. The film will initially just open in Portland and Indianapolis, but Paramount will release the film nation-wide on May 21. The film, which has been in production for what seems like ages now, is 87 minutes long and has been created by Neo Motion Pictures. In the documentary, Denise Crosby follows several Star Trek fans, and also interviews many Trek celebrities. More info can be found at the Official Web Site.
'Take Me Out To The Holosuite' Ratings
Christian (12:23 pm CST)
The Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database has just published the ratings report for last month's rerun of 'Take Me Out To The Holosuite.' The episode had a rating of 3.9, which was down 10 % from last year. The competition didn't do too well either, though:
Xena and Hercules both aired first-run episodes, tying for first among the first-run syndicated dramas at a 4.3 each. That's still below the season average for Xena and on par for Hercules.
This episode shouldn't hurt "The Emperor's New Cloak," but it won't help it either. "Image in the Sand"'s rerun is the only show which performed below "Holosuite"'s mark (earning a 3.5), but it led into the good 4.3 performance of "It's Only a Paper Moon." Next week, sweeps begins with comedy episodes from every series -- a move that can pay off or backfire.
DS9: Final Chapter Preview
Christian (12:13 pm CST)
The Den's Daily Sci-Fi has posted a preview of the last several episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. The preview looks back a bit at the past seven years, and naturally also provides info on the final story arc:
In season seven, however, things have seemed a bit slack. Everybody knows that this is Deep Space Nine's last season on TV, and for the first half of the season, the cast's been slacking. Ezri's been playing cute, Quark's been off to the alternate universe, but it seems that the episodes have been special-effects light and placed in basic sets. That's called saving the budget for the big finale. Babylon 5 did the same thing a while ago when it went off the air in the fourth season (moving to TNT for its fifth and last), and the last episode or two had massive amounts of computer-generated eye candy. DS9 promises the same.
UPN's begun broadcasting Deep Space Nine: The Final Chapter teasers, promising an end to the Dominion War, a wrap-up for all the storylines, and a couple key deaths. Above all, it looks like we're going to see massive fleet space battles and lots and lots of phasers.
After that, the full article speculates a bit about Trek's future, and also provides us with this teaser movie of the final episodes.
Richard James Live Chat
Christian (12:06 pm CST)
Just as a reminder, tonight the The Continuum is hosting a live chat with Richard James, Production Designer on Voyager. The chat starts at 06:30pm Pacific Time in the Auditorium.
Federation Outpost Closing
Christian (12:03 pm CST)
Unfortunately, after being in operation for a long time, Dark Commander of the Federation Outpost has just announced he is closing down his site. Together with FedCom, the Federation Outpost was one of the two major Birth of the Federation web sites, often offering exclusive news on the game. Over the last few months, Dark Commander updated less and less, and now it seems he has nearly made his last update ever:
After much thought on the subject I have come to a decision. I will be closing The Federation Outpost. This does not necessarily mean I will be leaving the Birth of The Federation Community. I want to thank everyone who visit The Federation Outpost over the past year. My last update at The Federation Outpost will be on Sunday, February 28th.
Thank you
Dark Commander
Trek Writers Nominated For Nebula Award
Christian (11:57 am CST)
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Inc. have just announced the final nominees for the 1998 Nebula Awards, the yearly awards chosen by SF writers. The actual winners will be announced later this year, during the Nebula Awards Weekend in Pittsburg, Pensylvania, April 30 - May 2, 1999. Included among the nominees are at least two Trek writers, namely:
Novellas:
Gerrold, David: Jumping Off the Planet (SF Age, Jan98)
Novelettes:
Rusch, Kristine Kathryn: Echea (Asimov's, Jul98)
David Gerrold is of course well-known for his 'The Trouble With Tribbles' script, while Kristine Kathryn Rusch has published at least a dozen Trek novels together with her husband, Dean Wesley Smith. The full list of nominees can be found here, and thanks go out to the Locus Online for bringing this to my attention.
Mania Reviews 'Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang'
Christian (11:46 am CST)
AnotherUniverse.Com's Mania Magazine has just published Michelle Erica Green's review of DS9's 'Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang.' Her synopsis and analysis of the episode are somewhat shorter than usual, but she was rather positive about the episode:
This was fun in the way that Specter of the Gun was fun, and it was considerably better-written than the Classic Trek episode. I liked the casual affection among the characters, the steadiness of the relationships between Sisko and Kasidy and Kira and Odo - there was little overt intimacy but lots of subtle contact and chemistry - and it's always a treat to see this crew out of uniform, especially in funny shots like the slo-mo parade down the Promenade. And we got to hear Avery Brooks sing! OK, so it was out of character; no more than when Vic's holographic Kira sang for Odo.
Michelle Green also notes how much she is going to miss DS9 when it has ended, and this episode marked a small farewell already, as it was probably the last light-hearted episode of the season. The full review has, of course, a synopsis of the episode and two extra paragraphs of analysis.
Vidiot Images Online
Christian (11:10 am CST)
Mr. Video Productions has just added the images to his previews of the Deep Space Nine episode 'Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges' and the Voyager episode 'Course:Oblivion'. Go check them out!
Starfleet Command News
Christian (11:08 am CST)
For some reason there's a huge amount of news today related to Interplay's upcoming strategy game, Starfleet Command. First of all, there's a new preview up at Computer Games Online, entitled 'Star Fleet Battles meets the Genesis Device.' A short quote from the beginning of the preview:
Something often happens when a board game gets translated to a computer; in many instances you'll see it go through some kind of transformation, something that changes it into a new thing that may, at one level, really resemble the original but, at another, is something new. This transformation is rather like that of a planet in Star Trek that gets hit by the Genesis Device—it gets made anew, but it's still a planet of the same size and base properties. Similarly, the hardcore Star Trek board game/miniatures system Star Fleet Battles has been hit by a Genesis device as it's moved to the computer, and the result is the similar—yet different—Star Trek: Starfleet Command, coming your way this Summer care of Interplay.
The full (and rather lengthy) preview can be found by clicking here, and offers a bunch of screenshots and some words from the creators of the game.
Speaking of these creators, they haven't been sitting around doing nothing, either, as they just opened the official Starfleet Command site. At the moment there isn't much to see yet (the page didn't even load up correctly for me), but it does offer some info on the game, a FAQ, and related links. Also, they opened a Starfleet Command forum where people can ask questions to the designers - certainly head designer Chris Taylor was very active on the forum when I just visited.
Lastly, there's a chat coming up tonight with three members of the Starfleet Command team - the aforementioned Chris Taylor, project leader Erik Bethke and lead programmer Marc Hertog. The chat takes place at 6:00pm Pacific Time, and you can either go to http://chat.annex.com/interplay on the internet, or use an IRC client to log into chat.annex.com (port 6667) and join #interplay.
Thanks go out to Evil Avatar for the first news item, and YnrohKeeg at Star Trek Gaming Central for the last two.
New York Observer Trek Article
Christian (10:41 am CST)
The New York Observer has just put an article on its site about the conflict between Paramount and Samuel Ramer, author of 'The Joy of Trek: How to Enhance Your Relationship With a Star Trek Fan.' The article, which will apparently appear in the New York Observer of next monday, talks about the law suit Paramount initiated when they learned about the book:
Mr. Ramer wrote the 217-page guide, published in 1997 by Carol Publishing Group Inc., without permission of Paramount Pictures Corporation, a fact he points out in a cover disclaimer: "This book has not been authorized by any entity involved with the creation or production of Star Trek." Paramount soon sued, asking for $23 million in damages, $100,000 for each of 230 episode citations. In June 1998, Star Trek's copyright holders convinced a Federal judge in Manhattan that Mr. Ramer had lovingly included too many details from the franchise's television episodes, movies and spinoff books in chapters like "How Did Scotty Get So Old and Fat?" The judge ordered the book's distribution stopped. As they say in Klingon, net'oy!–that hurts! Mr. Ramer and his publisher appealed.
The appellate argument, scheduled for April, will focus on how much "fair use" a fan can make of his favorite show when writing about it for money. Beyond that, in an age of multilayered media empires, the case could fire up a feud between the executives at the top of synergy and the writers down below. "It cuts both ways," said Steven Schragis, the lawyer-owner of Carol. "The concept of what is and isn't fair use, in a world where there's so much branding and so much controlled by media outlets, would be welcome."
The full article goes on to talk a bit about the background of the case, the publisher's less than sterling motivations for publishing the book, and a touching paragraph about the author's motivations:
Now 35, Mr. Ramer views his Star Trek devotion as the bootstrap that lifted him from a single-parent household in the South Bronx to the top-rank Bronx High School of Science and to the District Attorney's office. "There were a lot of bright kids stuck in bad situations," he said. "We saw that one day our way of thinking would triumph–that smart people would be respected, and that technology would invent new ways for people to express themselves and surpass the limitations that they had."
Thanks go out to Mr. Video Productions for pointing to this. As an interesting sidenote, people interested in reading this book should maybe go to the UK, where the book is not banned from the stores. In the UK, it's called 'Coping with your Trekkie' and, after having read it, I must say it's really not very special.
Today on TV
Christian (10:27 am CST)
-Today, the SciFi Channel is broadcasting the 2nd-season TOS episode 'Obsession.' The episode airs at 7:30pm Eastern Time, and repeats at 11:30pm.
-Today in the UK, Sky One is broadcasting the 1st-season Voyager episode 'Non Sequitur' at 5:00pm GMT, with a rerun at 11:30PM. Meanwhile, the BBC is broadcasting the 1st-season DS9 episode 'Babel,' one of my personal favourites. 'Babel' airs at 6:00pm.
-In Germany, Sat.1 is repeating 'Fähnrich Ro' (Ensign Ro) tomorrow morning at 01:45 CET. Later on, at 15:00, they're airing 'Das Recht auf Leben' (Silicon Avatar).
New at Trekseek.com
Christian (10:20 am CST)
Yesterday, we added 3 links to the database of TREKSEEK.COM, bringing us to a total of 776 sites. We intend to have 800 sites next weekend, so we'll probably start manually adding sites over the next few days again. Anyways, let's look at some of the new sites:
-The Randy Glass/Studio is one of the new sites in our Trek Art category, offering you the chance to buy high-quality, hand-drwan sketches of the actors comprising the entire original cast of Star Trek Voyager.
-A site which I personally recommend to everyone is Star Trek Episodes You'll Never See, the personal homepage of Ethan H. Calk. He is the man who wrote the stories for the DS9 episodes 'Visionary' and 'Children of Time,' and on this site he tells about his experiences writing the shows, his visit to the sets, and his rejected story ideas.
If you'd like to see the other sites that were included in Trekseek yesterday, you can do so by going here.
Hello World!
Christian (10:09 am CST)
Well, just a few minutes ago I posted the announcement about TrekToday to all the major newsgroups, so hopefully the number of hits should explode. If you're currently reading this, chances are this is your first visit to the site, so I'll repeat some of the things I said on monday, when the site opened.
Here at Trektoday, we'll be offering you a daily guide to literally everything that's happening in the world of Trek. We'll be covering things such as Trek games, novels, toys and, of course, the latest episode news, but we'll also bring you up to date on major things happening with all the other Trek sites out there. From now on, we'll be updating the site everyday at approximately 10:00 AM CST/17:00 CET, and I hope you'll be there with us!
Of course, updating the site takes time, so if you drop in and only see 'Hello World!', or just a few news items, it might be a good idea to check out a few hours later. It takes me approximately 90 minutes to do an update, so if you check back at 19:00 CET/12:00pm CST you should see the full update. I hope you enjoy the site, and I'd really appreciate it if you let me know what you think about it. I hope I'll see you again tomorrow!
| Wednesday February 24, 1999 |
Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges Trailer
Christian (11:41 am CST)
Thanks to Mr. Video Productions, the trailer for the upcoming DS9 episode 'Inter Arma Enim Silent Leges' is now on-line. Some info on what the episode itself will bring:
On the eve of Dr. Bashir's departure for a conference on the Romulan homeworld, he's visited by Sloan, the director of Section Thirty-one, a secret and unsanctioned extremist entity within Starfleet Intelligence. Sloan asks a reluctant Bashir to gather information on the Romulan leadership. Bashir reports the request to Sisko, who worries that although Starfleet Command has officially condemned Section Thirty-one, someone in its membership may actually be protecting the group. After consulting with Admiral Ross, Sisko advises Bashir to play along with SLoan in order to determine Sloan's motivations.
Thanks go out to Warp 11, where I found this short blurb describing the episode.
Unreliable Rumours Department
Christian (11:37 am CST)
AL2000, the 'Paramount insider' of Section 31, has given another update on the supposed status of Trek Series V and Voyager's future:
"The execs are rumored to start discussing another telemovie next season. I do know that they are trying to keep voyager stable enough to stay on the air for a season or two. My guess is that they would probably release the new series when the Star Wars hype goes down. A large ad campaign is a "logical" prediction. This is the the new beginning or the end of trek as we know it...help save trek by at least turning on the TV when Voyager is on. If you can't bear to watch, just put it on mute and go about your business until it is over. This is the only chance you have to get through to the execs. More Later..."
Remember, I'm not sure how reliable all of this is - nor is any of it very ground-breaking. I'd keep an open mind, but I wouldn't believe any of it until it is confirmed by another source.
Jeri Ryan Chat Transcript Available
Christian (11:32 am CST)
The people at TV Guide have just posted the transcript of Jeri Ryan's recent chat. In the chat, which took place just before 'Dark Frontier' aired, Jeri Ryan answered some questions asked by the fans. A few snippets:
Question: Do you have a favorite Voyager episode?
Ryan: Boy...This in not an intentional plug for the show, but Dark Frontier is my favorite. There are so many that I've loved...Drone is another great one from this season. The Killing Game 2-parter from last year. The Gift...I can just go on. I think most of those are Brannon Braga scripts. I think he's done an enormous amount for the show.
Dauphin_Kel: The padded Borg suit: Insult to women or sexy addition? Your feelings? *grin*
Ryan: I'm a little curious as to what the padding is referring to...I assume you mean my cat suit. I think it's fine. I have no problem with the physical presence of this character being overtly sexy because of the way she's written. She's too intelligent and too strong and too beautifully developed to be anything but a very positive example of a woman.
In the rest of the transcript Jeri Ryan answers some questions about her birthday, the future of Voyager, and about her personal life. Thanks go out to the Official Jeri Lynn Ryan Fan Club for reporting this.
Star Trek Bloopers Uncovered
Christian (11:21 am CST)
You can only love the people at The Den's Daily Sci-Fi". For years now, I have been looking for the infamous Star Trek blooper tape, but I never found it. The Daily Sci-Fi was apparently luckier:
Take what we're about to show you, for example. One of our ad execs was looking through a clearance bin of old videos, and found a tape that had original series Star Trek bloopers and outtakes on them. After viewing them a couple times, we decided we had to put these up. Not only are they funny, some of the stuff has Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Bones, Nurse Chapel, Uhura, and everybody else doing things that they'd rather forget. Check 'em out!
By going here, you'll be able to find 18 videoclips showing all the worst bloopers that you simply *have* to see. But be warned - don't attempt to download them all if you've got just a 14k4 modem, as they're all rather huge.
Cinescape Spoils DS9 episode
Christian (11:14 am CST)
As usual before a DS9 episode airs, Cinescape has published a spoiler preview of this week's new DS9 episode, 'Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang.' The episode features the return of 'everybody's favorite holodeck performer, Vic Fontaine', and is completely spoiled in the preview by Michael Marek. Only read if you don't want to enjoy the episode :-).
'Dark Frontier' Rates At Nr. 86
Christian (11:08 am CST)
Thanks to Reuters, this Yahoo! News article lists the top 20 Prime Time TV programs from the past week. As usual, Voyager wasn't in the top-20, but it did perform relatively well as the top-rated UPN show at No. 86. In UPN terms this was amazing - 'Dark Frontier' was the best-rated UPN show in over a year.
Viacom To Shut Down Sites Again?
Christian (11:05 am CST)
Well, I certainly hope not - it'd be a real shame to have to close down TrekToday three days after its grand opening :-). Anyways, this article by Eric R. Quinones talks about Viacom's far-reaching plans with the Internet.
As part of the plan, Viacom announced Tuesday it will create a new division to run its online businesses and may eventually spin it off into a separate company, hoping to cash in on the Internet's growing popularity among consumers and investors.
[...]
Viacom would not say how much it is spending overall to expand its online business, but said it will pour $250 million over the next five years into promoting the sites on the cable networks. Viacom has already used similar cross-promotion strategies to create successful movies and books from the TV shows ``Star Trek'' and ``Rugrats.''
I don't actually believe Viacom will actually start shutting down sites again, but I just thought it was interesting to note - their last campaign started when they needed to attract a lot of people to The Continuum.
Interplay Reports Fourth Quarter Results
Christian (10:58 am CST)
Interplay Entertainment Corporation (NASDAQ: IPLY), the gaming company behind titles such as '25th Anniversary' and 'Starfleet Academy', and the upcoming 'New Worlds,' has just reported its results for the last quarter of 1998. Unfortunately, Interplay didn't do all that well:
For the fourth quarter, Interplay reported net revenues of $20.6 million, compared with $53.3 million in the same period a year earlier. Net loss for the fourth quarter was $16.6 million, or $0.91 per share, compared with a net profit of $6.5 million, or $0.54 per share (diluted), for the fourth quarter of 1997. Included in the fourth quarter loss was a provision to increase the valuation allowance related to the company's net deferred tax asset.
Over the entire year, Interplay reported a net loss of $28.2 million, which is nearly twice as much as the year before. As a reaction to the news, Interplay shares dropped to $2, from $2 1/4. However, according to Brian Fargo, chairman and CEO for Interplay, things are going to get better:
``The fourth quarter loss, which was anticipated, was due to several factors. As previously noted, we were unable to ship two important titles, Messiah and EWJ 3D, during the quarter. In addition, Baldur's Gate, the #1 selling PC game in January according to PC Data, did not ship until the last days of 1998, which reduced shipments in the quarter to about half the projected volume. Finally, we experienced higher returns than usual in the fourth quarter.''
The full press release goes on to provide full financial details from the past year, and also talks a bit about the future of the company. Unfortunately, the press release doesn't talk at all about 'The Secret of Vulcan Fury,' the adventure game starring the original crew that was recently put 'on hold.' However, Brian Fargo does mention that they will concentrate on 'role playing games [and] on sequel or branded titles with proven talent,' which could indirectly refer to 'Vulcan Fury.' Once again, Interplay's web site can be found here, and the full press release here on Yahoo. People interested in saving 'Secret of Vulcan Fury,' meanwhile, should probably visit Star Trek Gaming Central for the 'help save SoVF' campaign.
Today on TV
Christian (10:32 am CST)
-Tonight at 9.00 PM Eastern Time, UPN will be broadcasting a new Voyager episode, 'Disease,' in which Harry Kim falls in love with an alien woman, much to the dismay of captain Janeway. A short quote from the press release:
Without Starfleet medical clearance and in violation of interspecies protocol, Ensign Harry Kim has a passionate love affair with an exotic alien explorer, Derran Tal of the Varro species. But the escapade puts both the Voyager crew and the Varro species in Jeopardy when Kim and Tal become biochemically interdependent.
Thanks to Mr. Video Productions for this screen capture of the preview, which is, of course, copyrighted by Paramount.
-Also in the US, the SciFi Channel is broadcasting the 2nd-season episode 'The Deadly Years,' which is the one where everyone ages. The episode airs at 7:30 PM Eastern Time, and repeats at 11:30 PM.
-In the UK, the BBC is broadcasting the fifth-season TNG episode 'Cost of Living' at 6:00 PM GMT, while Sky One is airing the first-season Voyager episode 'Initiations' at 5 PM, with a rerun at 11:30 PM. Thanks go out to the Television Observation Unit of the Star Trek Collective for this.
-In Germany, Sat.1 is repeating 'Darmok' tomorrow morning at 02:00 CET. Tomorrow afternoon, to be precise at 15:00 CET, they're showing 'Fähnrich Ro' (Ensign Ro).
New at Trekseek.com!
Christian (10:09 am CST)
Trekseek.com, the largest, most accessible Star Trek search engine, welcomed another few sites to its database of 774 Star Trek sites yesterday. Some of these new sites include:
-The D.S.S. Pegasus, a brand new site that is trying to bring you everything Star Trek at one site. I was the 6th visitor when I arrived at the site, so there's still plenty of room in their counter for more hits!
-TREKTODAY.COM, which is the first and only daily updated guide to all things.... what's that? You've already heard of the site? Oh, well, never mind then :-).
Naturally these aren't the only new sites that were added to Trekseek today - if you want to see the full listing, go here.
Hello World!
Christian (9:59 am CST)
Today I started submitting the site to some of the major search engines out there - of course TrekToday can already be found at our own Trekseek.com search engine, but over the next few days the site should appear in Treknews.com's Treksearch.com and the Star Trek Central search engine. Of course, I didn't forget Yahoo and Excite either, we should appear there as well within a few days/weeks, and I hope they will attract many visitors to the site.
But, of course, the search engines are not the most important way to get hits - links from other sites are. If you've got a Star Trek site, and you enjoy Trektoday, why not put up a link to us? In a few days we'll also be offering some lovely banners for your linking pleasure, and I'd really appreciate it if you linked to TrekToday.
| Tuesday February 23, 1999 |
Christie Golden Convention Appearance
Christian (12:45 pm CST)
Starland, the organizer of the Starfest '99 convention, has announced that Trek novelist Christie Golden will be making an appearance at their convention. Starfest, which will be a three-day convention starting on April the 16th, has already secured Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris) and Max Grodenchik (Rom) for their appearance list, while a lot of other SF celebrities will also be making an appearance.
Worf Joins the Cult
Christian (12:04 pm CST)
The March Issue (#42) of the Cult Times has as its main story, as you can see from the cover, a five-page interview with Michael Dorn (Worf). As usual, they have provided us with a short extract from the full interview, in which Dorn talks about the two most recent Trek movies:
Looking back, can Dorn pick a single favourite Trek experience? Yes, he can, actually. "I think Star Trek: First Contact was the culmination of Next Gen. That's been my favourite," he explains. "I'd totally enjoyed being on Next Gen for the seven years we did the show, and First Contact was truly the culmination because that was the first true TNG movie, where there was no inference to the past, there was no Kirk, no Scotty, and no Chekov. It was just us and we did incredibly well on our own."
As for more recent experiences, that brings us to Star Trek: Insurrection and the imminent end of Deep Space Nine. First, Dorn looks back on Insurrection, the latest Next Gen film adventure, which performed so-so at the box office following so-so reviews and so-so Trekker response... "When I saw the movie I thought it was OK. People seemed to like that it was romantic, light and funny. That's not my taste. I like the dark, edgy stuff. I can watch that all day."
In the rest of the extract, Dorn goes on to talk about his disappointment over the last few years of Deep Space Nine, and there are some interesting tidbits about Dorn's career. The full article, which was written by Ian 'Inside Trek' Spelling, can unfortunately only be read by buying the magazine. Thanks go out to The Flagship for pointing me to this.
Vidiot Previews 'Course: Oblivion
Christian (11:25 am CST)
Mr. Video Productions has added the MPEG-1 video preview of the upcoming Voyager episode 'Course: Oblivion,' which is sort of a follow-up to last year's 'Demon' episode.
One by one, members of the Voyager crew begin to deteriorate until they realize they are actually clones of themselves and must make a time capsule to re-find and save themselves.
You can find the Vidiot preview of the episode, which also includes an MP3 audio file, here, but you can also download the video clip directly by clicking here. Thanks go out to Warp 11, where I found the short blurb describing the episode.
Braga Responds to Dark Frontier Criticisms
Christian (11:14 am CST)
Courtesy of Star Trek News comes the news that Voyager Executive Producer Brannon Braga has made a post on AOL responding to criticisms of the recent telefilm 'Dark Frontier:'
Hello all. Brannon Braga posting. I've read the postings on our two-hour with great interest, and I wanted to respond to the issue of "nitpicking." First of all, we enjoy the way viewers analyze and dissect the episodes. It keeps us on our toes and shows a great deal of intelligence and attention to detail on the part of our audience. What more could we ask for? Secondly, it's important for you to know that we spend a great deal of time tracking continuity and figuring out the potential plot holes. Needless to say, when one of you points out a mistake, it drives us crazy. If only we could go back and fix them! But we NEVER ignore continuity, as it has been suggested by some of the more cynical people on this site. We take tremendous care in crafting these episodes. It is absurd to think that we are lazy or simply disregard the Trek time-line, as it were. "Dark Frontier" was a project of passion for us -- we tried to create the most exciting, detailed, emotional two hours that we could, considering the time contraints of television. We hope you enjoyed it. As for the "mistakes" -- what would you discuss here if there were none?
Production Designer Chat on Thursday
Christian (11:05 am CST)
This thursday, there's a chat coming up at The Continuum with Richard James, who is currently serving as production designer on Voyager, after also working in this capacity on The Next Generation. The chat begins at 06:30 PM PT, and instructions on how to participate can be found here. If you want to have your question answered, it might be a good idea to submit them now, which is the reason I'm posting this update.
New Trek Reviews
Christian (12:33 pm CST)
This is also going to be a regular feature at TrekToday, at least during the months that Trek is not on hiatus. In this section, I'll be informing you of the latest reviews to be written by the regular Trek reviewers (Tim Lynch, Jammer, Delta Blues, Cynic's Corner), including some highlights from their reviews and direct links to them.
On sunday, Jamahl Epsicokhan (Jammer) uploaded his long overdue Insurrection review, which isn't exactly filled with praise of the latest Trek movie:
The movie is entertaining in a superficial way. I sort of liked Insurrection. But I also felt kind of disappointed afterward. Considering TNG movies only happen once every two (or more, in the future) years, it seems to me that more should be done with a film than to make it a glorified episode where the ship glides in, solves the problem, and glides out--end of story. What's lacking are the lingering questions. A fountain of youth is something that would change the perception of the entire Federation. Isn't that worth examining? Having one admiral (who dies) as the sole Federation representative for eternal youth is simply not enough, and watching the Enterprise fly away from what could be the Greatest Discovery Ever seems a little simplistic.
In DS9 news, Tim Lynch has just posted his 'Chimera' review to the rec.arts.startrek.reviews newsgroup, one of his most positive reviews to appear in a long time:
Last week, I expressed a hope that the second half of DS9's final
season would prove stronger than its first. If "Chimera" is any
indication, that hope may well be borne out; this episode managed to
get across Odo's true "alien-ness" better than just about anything
which has come before, and told a compelling story in the bargain.
Please note that I'm still experimenting with this section of TrekToday - tomorrow it'll probably look a lot different. Maybe I'll just include links to the reviews, and not give any highlights at all - I'll see how this works, and you'll be able to see how I changed it...
Happy Birthday Majel Barrett
Christian (10:43 am CST)
Today's the 60th birthday of Majel Barret-Roddenberry, the wife of the late Gene Roddenberry. She also holds the honour of being the only actor that has worked on all incarnations of Trek, from her role as Number One in 'The Cage,' via Christine Chapel in TOS to her roles of Lwaxana Troi and the Computer voice in the TNG-era series. Currently she is also working as producer on the other Gene Roddenberry series currently in production, Earth: Final Conflict. We wish her a happy birthday!
Today on TV
Christian (10:37 am CST)
-Viewers of the SciFi Channel will be able to enjoy the TOS second-season episode 'Friday's Child' tonight at 7.30 PM Eastern Time. The episode repeats at 11.30 PM.
-In the UK, Sky One is broadcasting the first-season Voyager episode 'The 37s' at 5.00 PM GMT with a rerun at 11.30 PM. (Actually, the episode was shown as the second season opener in the US, but it was originally filmed for the 1st season) Thanks go out to the Television Observation Unit of the Star Trek Collective for this.
-As usual, Sat.1 is repeating the TNG episode they aired this afternoon tomorrow morning, at 02.05 CET. If you missed 'Der Kampf um das klingonische Reich, Teil 2' (Redemption, Part 2) this might be your chance to see it. Later tomorrow, at 15:00 CET, they're broadcasting the superb 'Darmok.'
New at Trekseek.com
Christian (10:27 am CST)
As usual, there wasn't much happening on monday for Trekseek, and we only had one new site added to our database. Today we also removed one site from our database - Starbase 99, the Starship Creator site that has been reigning at the top spot of the Trekseek Fan Favourites for the past month now. However, since the owner of Starbase 99, Captain Dan, has joined the people at Starabse Prometheus and closed down his site, we had no choice but to remove his site's listing as well. Thanks to everyone who voted for the site.
Anyways, the one site that was added to Trekseek yesterday was also a Starship Creator-related site, namely:
- Deep Space Alpha, which is a Starship Creator fan site where you'll be able to find extra ships for the game.
If you'd like to check out the other 18 sites that were added to our 772 sites large database over the past week, you can do so by going here.
Hello World!
Christian (10:17 am CST)
In the unlikely event that you visited here yesterday, you may have noticed that some of the items of yesterday's update didn't actually exist yet until today. The reason for this is that today I was tweaking the site a little and decided to also implement some graphics in the actual news updates - hence the Sev Trek cartoon and the Sky teletext capture. I'll probably do some more experimenting over the past few days (which is why we haven't announced TrekToday to any newsgroups or search engines yet), so stay tuned for some pleasant surprises!
Trek DVD News
Christian (1:12 pm CST)
Here is some wonderful Trek DVD news from The Digital Bits:
Some terrific news for you Star Trek fans came my way yesterday. Paramount is preparing a real Trek DVD blowout for late May or early June. That's when the studio plans to release it's recent feature film Star Trek: Insurrection to DVD. But even more exciting, the studio will also release two DVDs of episodes of the original Star Trek TV series at the same time! The discs will include two episodes each, in the order that they were originally broadcast. And here's some even better news - the episodes will be the new Star Trek: Sci-Fi Channel Special Edition versions, and will include all the special introductions and cast interviews. If these two discs sell well, look for Paramount to begin releasing the entire series, a few episodes at a time.
The full report, which can be found here, goes on to talk about the release of DVDs such as 'ST5:The Final Frontier' and 'ST:The MOtion Picture.' Lastly, today the page updated again with the following news:
From a very reliable source, comes word that that Star Trek: Insurrection DVD we've mentioned will be in full anamorphic widescreen (16x9 enhanced). That's more good news for you Trek fans out there.
Thanks to Warp 11 for first reporting this,
Jeri Ryan Talks At Convention
Christian (1:04 pm CST)
Section 31 has posted a small convention report by Zaltek, talking about a convention appearance by Jeri Ryan, where she talked a bit about upcoming episodes:
Today I went to the star trek convention today in New Orleans, with guest Jeri Ryan, and she slipped some information to us. She said that in the upcoming voyager episode where she goes back in time, with the help of the future time traveling starfleet, to get rid of a bomb that is planted on voyager while the ship is in drydock,(showing the ship just before the series premiere) The 29 century starfleet hide her Borg technology so she looks fully human!! She then gets to dress up like an ensign in a starfleet uniform!!
In the upcoming episode where her and the doctor go on a date it is actually that the doctor is preparing seven for a future date in that episode where she will go out with some guest star. The doctor does "develop" feelings for seven. He is showing her how to make conversation that is interesting and that sort of stuff.
Unreliable Rumours Department
Christian (12:59 pm CST)
As you may know, the British television station Sky One also offers a teletext service. Page 192 is dedicated exclusively to Star Trek, showing several headlines each monday. The catch is that viewers can then call a special phone number at 50p per minute and hear the actual stories behind those headlines. Thanks to the Trekzone Network's own Saleel Majeed we'll be bringing you the latest headlines each and every week, but please do keep in mind that their news is not very reliable to say the least. This week's headlines include:
Once again, I wouldn't believe any of these headlines until they are confirmed elsewhere, but we decided to include them here for amusement value anyways.
Trekweb Chat Bonanza
Christian (12:48 pm CST)
TrekWeb.com, 'THE Source for Everything Trek', has got several cool chats with Trek celebrities coming up in March. Take a look at their schedule:
Armin Shimerman (Quark), David R. George III & Eric A. Stillwell - authors - Pocket Books' Star Trek: Deep Space Nine #23 "The 34th Rule"
- Scheduled for Tuesday, March 2nd, 5 PM PST (8 PM EST)
Jay Chattaway - composer - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine & Voyager
- Scheduled for Tuesday, March 9th, time TBA
Bradley Thompson - writer - Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
- Scheduled for Thursday, March 18th, 7 PM PST (10 PM EST)
The page also mentions some other cool chats coming up, including chats with Voyager writers Bryan Fuller, Nick Sagan and Michael Taylor. You can find more info on the chats, including details on how to participate, by clicking here.
Scarlett Pomers News
Christian (12:39 pm CST)
The Official Scarlett Pomers Homepage, dedicated to the actress playing young Naomi Wildman, has updated following last week's showing of 'Dark
