Syfy is in talks with former Star Trek Writer/Producer Moore for another Battlestar series, which will reportedly return to Battlestar Galactica’s roots.

With Caprica doing reasonably well, Syfy is looking to continue the popular Battlestar franchise. “We’re looking for other ways to spin off Battlestar beyond Caprica,” said Syfy Executive VP of Development Mark Stern. “That world is so rich. Were sitting down with Ron Moore and his team.”

According to Stern, although the new show would return to Battlestar’s “space-opera” roots, the show would “not necessarily be a traditional series.”

It is also expected that Caprica, the Battlestar Galactica prequel, will be picked up for a second season.

Items of interest to Star Trek fans include a found shuttlepod, a Ships of the Line flashback, original series set studies and the NCC-1701-D.

“Making for Deep Water” features a beautiful image of the USS Enterprise 1701-D and another ship above a planet, with a moon behind them and a spacedock slightly below the two ships.

Next up is a photo of Drexler and Hollywood makeup artist John Caglione, shortly after winning the Academy Award for the makeup in Dick Tracy. The two were in attendance at Dick Tracy Days in Woodstock, Illinois.

Drexler posted the results of his experimentation with Adobe Dimension. “This was one of my earliest experiments in 3D,” he said. “It was a real thrill!”

Trek fans will enjoy the Ships of the Line 2008 flashback, featuring the Enterprise D and the USS Stargazer.

Other entries of note concern one of the two shuttlepods made for Star Trek: Enterprise, one of which went to a collector in Germany, the other to the Hollywood Studio Collection which hopes to restore it, and an alien transport ship from Star Trek: Enterprise: The Breach.

Star Trek designers Mike and Denise Okuda disagree with the new direction in the space program and have sent a letter to fans, encouraging them to write to President Obama and to their elected representatives in hopes of getting Project Constellation restored.

The letter is as follows:

Dear Friends,

As long-time supporters of real-life space exploration, Denise and I were disappointed to learn that the proposed NASA budget for 2011 would cancel Project Constellation and the planned return to the Moon. Constellation, as you may know, began in 2004, after the tragic loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia and its crew. NASA was determined to make spaceflight safer for its astronauts, and it knew that it had to give those astronauts a worthwhile mission: Exploring the final frontier.

Constellation is tasked with developing boosters, spacecraft, and other systems to provide a safer replacement for the Space Shuttle, one that would enable a return to the Moon for the specific purpose of developing the ability for humans to live on another world. Unlike Apollo, Constellation is designed to run on a comparatively constrained budget. Constellation’s Ares boosters are based on Space Shuttle technology, reducing their development costs and improving safety and reliability.

Since 2004, NASA has made a lot of progress with Constellation. New rocket engines have been designed and tested. A new launch pad has been built at the Kennedy Space Center, and a massive new launch tower has just been completed. Prototype Orion capsules are being tested, even as prototype moon rovers are trekking through the desert. Design work on Altair lunar landers and next-generation space suits is well underway. And last October, NASA conducted the successful first launch of Project Constellation, the Ares I-X Development Test Flight. We’re finally on our way back to the Moon, and heading out to Mars.

Now, the administration has proposed to cancel Constellation in favor of a “flexible path” of technology development and the use of commercial launch services for astronauts to get into orbit. While technology development is a very good idea, it’s not a substitute for an actual mission with a real goal. Without a goal and a specific plan, we believe that NASA, however well-intentioned, will simply end up spending a lot of money without actually going anywhere. It’s happened before. We don’t want it to happen again. And while we believe that commercial spaceflight will be a reality in the relatively near future, the fact is that no such capability exists yet. Spaceflight is a difficult, dangerous enterprise, and it would be foolish to gamble the future of our nation’s space program by abandoning systems that are already well into development. With so much progress already made, we believe that canceling Constellation would be a serious mistake.

The good news is that the proposed budget is just that: A proposal. Over the next few weeks the Congress will review the proposal and will make whatever changes it deems necessary. Constellation can be saved if members of Congress, and the President, see that their constituents want it. That’s why we’re asking you to support Constellation by writing to the President and to your elected representatives.

Here’s a website that we’ve put together with more information on Constellation, plus resources on how to reach your elected officials.

Support Constellation

Space exploration is vital source of technology and innovation for our society. The space program is one of the most effective means to stimulate economic growth, both in the short term and the long run. And exploration inspires our young people, even as it helps us comprehend the wonders of the final frontier, now and in the future. Please join us in making that future a reality by writing letters and by spreading the word to your friends. We very much need your help, and we need it today.

Sincerely,

Mike and Denise Okuda

Pushing Daisies centered on pie-maker Ned, who had the magical ability to bring back to life anyone or anything that was dead with a single touch. There were two “catches” though; if he touched the revived person/plant/animal again, it died forever, and if something remained alive for more than a minute, something or someone else in close proximity had to die to equal out things. Ned used his unique talent to help solve unexplained murders.

Fuller is working on the WildStorm comic, which, according to Pushing Daisies star Chi McBride (Detective Emerson Cod) is “about a whole bunch of corpses coming to life. That’s all I know so far, but Bryan was kind enough to share the first few pages. It looks read good.”

“It seems a little darker,” said McBride, “which is a lot of things that Bryan couldn’t do. There’s one particular story that I hope he does called The Head. I wished he could’ve done it during the series. It was awesome.”

There is no word yet on the release date, but TrekToday will let readers know when it is announced.

Dorn joins Martin Sheen (The West Wing), Shohreh Aghdashloo (House of Saddam), Seth Green (Austin Powers), Yvonne Starhovski and Adam Baldwin from Chuck, Keith David (Crash), Tricia Helfer and Michael Hogan from Battlestar Galactica, and Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix).

Sheen stars as the mysterious Illusive Man who commands Cerberus, a secretive paramilitary organization dedicated to protecting human interests in the galaxy. Dorn will be voicing Gatatog Uvenk.

The Mass Effect trilogy is an emotionally charged science fiction adventure set in a vast universe filled with dangerous alien life and mysterious, uncharted planets. In Mass Effect 2, players will once again step into the role of the heroic Commander Shepard, commanding their crew of some of the most dangerous operatives from across the galaxy on a mission so challenging that it’s potentially suicidal. Featuring intense shooter action, a rich futuristic storyline, space exploration and emotionally engaging character interaction, the game delivers an unparalleled cinematic experience.

Mass Effect 2 will be available on the Xbox 360® videogame and entertainment system and PC on January 26, 2010 in North America and January 29, 2010 in Europe.

Directed by Jeremy B. Cohen, Let There Be Love is the story of an embittered old West Indian immigrant threatened by new waves of migration.

Old Alfred, himself an immigrant to Britain, feels that his country is being taken from him. His life is one long battle; fighting against his proudly feminist daughter, raging against social change, combating his own failing health.

The arrival of a young Polish woman at his London flat challenges his old beliefs as well as fresh resentments.

Donetta Lavinia Grays and Gretchen Hall will star with Brooks in the play, which will run from February 10-March 7 at Centerstage, at 700 North Calvert Street in Baltimore.

“I was just blown away by it,” explained Shimerman. “It’s wonderfully humorous, with hints of the supernatural and a theme of redemption. I told my agent that I wanted to do this show and asked him to find me a production. I’d never done that before. But I knew this was something that I had to do. This show is just so superbly written.”

But when Shimerman did find a production by the san Diego Repertory Theater, he discovered that the role he wanted in The Seafarer was already filled. “Originally, I wanted to play the devil,” he said. “What actor wouldn’t want to play the devil? But Sam (Woodhouse, the Rep’s artistic director) is playing that role, so I’m playing Richard.”

The Seafarer is the story of four friends who get together in a coastal suburb north of Dublin on Christmas Eve to play poker. A guest of one of the friends turns out to be the devil in disguise.

Shimerman is playing Richard, the aging and blind brother of the alcoholic James “Sharkey” Harkin. Richard likes to drink and to aggravate his brother. “I have a brother,” said Shimerman. “Our relationship is not similar to this one, but the show is about our relationships with our families, something McPherson explores with pathos and humor.”

The Seafarer opens November 20 and runs through December 13 at the San Diego Repertory Theater in San Diego. Further information can be found here.

Deep Space Nine Executive Producer Ira Steven Behr had seen Darren perform and wanted him for the 1960s Vegas holographic performer. “That was a real fluke,” said Darren. “I didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to play the singer.”

But he met with Behr several days later, memorizing his lines in advance. Behar was impressed. “You’re a clever guy,” he told Darren. Darren decided to accept the role and Vic Fontaine became popular with the Deep Space Nine cast. “[The cast] loved the character,” explained Darren. “It gave the other people in the cast a chance to sing. It was fun. I was sad when it ended.”

Darren started singing at a young age, performing for his grandmother’s friends when he was seven years old. Later, his father took him to local clubs. “I was always hamming around in school,” he said. “I liked acting, but I never did a school play. I was too shy.”

His first acting role was in Rumble on the Docks, but a chance meeting of a producer’s niece led to him getting a role in Gidget (as Moondoggie) and its various sequels. Darren went on to roles in other movies with actors such as Burl Ives, Shelly Winters and Ricardo Montalban (Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.) “Deep down inside, you’re in awe of [the actors,] said Darren. “But you’re so busy working, you don’t [find them] intimidating. Some of the fellow actors are helping you.”

Darren worked on another science fiction show in the 1960s, The Time Tunnel, and he appeared in T.J. Hooker several times in 1986, where another Star Trek actor, William Shatner, had the title role.

Since his work on Deep Space Nine, Darren has recorded albums and performed across the country, occasionally accompanied by local symphony orchestras.

Although he didn’t work on the original series, Zimmerman was a fan of the show when they were first airing. “I was working as an art director on the soap opera The Days of our Lives back in 1966,” he said, “and watched all the old Star Trek shows when they were running and thought they were the best thing on television, never thinking I would work on it.”

When Zimmerman worked on The Next Generation, getting the look of Star Trek correct included realizing the role of the ship itself. “Well the first thing you need to know is that the Enterprise itself is one of the characters,” said Zimmerman. “And everything you invent on the Enterprise, whatever new room or engineering facility, or any part of the ship that hasn’t been shown before, is a new opportunity to re-introduce the character and to bring audience awareness of the advances in technology onto the screen. That is part of the fun of doing a new series.”

Zimmerman enjoyed working on Star Trek: Enterprise because it was closer to modern day. “Enterprise was also more fun for me because it was more present day,” he said. “It was only ninety years in the future, so we can more readily see HD video screens on the bridge. On Next Generation everything was on black plastic, very slick, everything touch screen. On Enterprise we were able to give the actors knobs and levers and things they can actually deal with. I was able to do a couple of fun things, like putting chairs on the bridge that were on glides. so the operator could turn around and slide, and then slide back. I liked that bridge almost more than the Enterprise E bridge, which was considerably more elaborate.”

Part of Zimmerman’s job was trying to re-use scenery and items that were already available. “Even with the films, we were always trying to make a silk purse out of something other,” he said. “I inherited a lot of stuff from Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek II, and III and IV, which had been saved -  most of it in really bad shape. Where possible, I recycled things and I certainly owe a lot of the ideas of the Next Generation ship interior to Hal Michaelson from the Robert Wise movie [Motion Picture], because those things were still physically standing on the stages when I started Next Generation. Every movie that I did owed a lot to the scenery that was left in the warehouses, that I was able to mix and match and re-invent. And then as things went on, things from the movies would wind there way back to the TV series. It is kind of like you are doing crisis management all the time, when you are doing Star Trek.”

And which show and bridge did Zimmerman like best? “It is really hard to pin down what was a favorite, because it was the experience of all of us being creative,” he said. “Taking the sometimes hair-brained ideas of a script and finding a way to make it happen in a very compressed time period. I can say Enterprise was my favorite because it was closer to our own reality, but I could also say the Enterprise E is my favorite bridge, because Patrick Stewart liked it best.”

Combs is starring in the ninety-minute one-man play Nevermore which is now appearing at the Steve Allen Theater on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles.

“Poe is this interesting, charismatic and demonized soul who I wanted to hold this light up to,” said Combs. “He’s like the American Van Gogh.”

The play is set in 1848, the year after the death of Poe’s wife, and a year before his own death. In Nevermore, Combs’ Poe starts off the evening as a gracious host, expressing his love for poetry. But by evening’s end, as Poe continues to drink whiskey, he begins to rant and the alcohol takes its toll, exposing his broken heart. “Much like Poe did a lot in his life,” explains Combs, “he destroys his whole evening.”

Combs went through over two thousand pages of Poe’s works. “The depth of [Poe's] ability is just staggering,” said Combs. “He was a very imaginative and phenomenally brilliant man. But he didn’t have a lot of luck.”

Nevermore runs through the end of September and is likely to be extended into October.