The new deal, worth seven figures to Braga, will see Braga developing projects for the studio, as well as working on either a new or an existing twentieth show next season.

Braga has spent the last two seasons with the studio, working as executive producer on 24. “Brannon quickly became integral to the success of the last couple seasons of 24,” said 20th Century Fox TV chairman Gary Newman. “We thought it was a great idea to have someone as talented as he is here to develop.

“He’s known for his ability to write genre programming, and as a studio, we love that programming,” Newman said. “It takes advantage of all the new opportunities the digital world gives you to connect with your rabid fanbase.”

Braga’s experience with 20th Century Fox execs Newman, Dana Walden and Jennifer Nicholson Salke were factors in his decision to make the commitment. “Creatively, Fox and I are very much aligned,” he said. “The kind of shows they do and the way they develop, it’s an innovative group. We get along very well.”

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.

Even though his time on Star Trek: Enterprise is in the past, Bakula still feels that he is part of the ongoing Star Trek story. “You’re part of the lore and history of this forty-five year or so legacy. I don’t think there’ll ever be anything like it again and I have to say I’m honored to have been a part of it.’

Like many other Star Trek actors, Bakula took time to see the latest Star Trek movie, and he gave his opinion on it as well as the performance of Chris Pine, the newest Star Trek captain. “I saw the movie last summer and thought he [Pine] was fantastic,” said Bakula. “I though the movie was fantastic; I thought they did an incredible job of creating a new franchise for the studio. I thought it was great.”

Bakula also spoke about another popular series on which he worked,  Quantum Leap. It didn’t take long into the Quantum Leap series until Bakula realized how passionate the fan base for the show was. “I think we knew by the end of the first nine episodes, the first half season that aired, that we had a passionate fan base because the fans basically kept us on the air,” Bakula explained. “When they switched us to Wednesday nights they made a big announcement and rallied the troops, back in the old days before there were emails and Twitters to use; the news went out the old fashioned way, in newspapers.”

“We knew we had a strong fan base but I kind of marvel that we’re almost twenty-one years since we went on the air and as I go around the world, the amount of people that are still coming up and acknowledging the show is kind of amazing,” said Bakula. “I don’t think any of us anticipated that.”

Nowadays, fans have new technologies to keep up with their favorite actors and shows and the days of letters have given way to Twitter and Facebook. “It’s just so different now,” said Bakula. “When Chuck was making a big appeal to their fans they have access to this new way to reaching people that we never used to have. I remember NBC made a commercial with Warren Littlefield where they dumped letters on top of him throughout the commercial and he was like, ‘Alright, alright, we’re bringing Quantum Leap back.’ The idea of using that image of dumping letters on the head of a network in this day and age is just antiquity.”

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

Blalock will be playing Sister Nicci, a Sister of the Dark. So far, Blalock is scheduled to be seen in Dark, which airs January 23, and Perdition, which airs a week later.

Legend of the Seeker is loosely based on The Sword of Truth Novels by Terry Goodkind and can be seen in U.S. syndication, where the second season is currently airing, as well as in other international markets.

TNT has ordered ten new episodes of the critically acclaimed drama which “explores the unique bonds of male friendship among three men approaching mid-life.”

“Men of a Certain Age has been embraced by viewers and critics alike, making our decision to renew an easy one,” said Michael Wright, executive vice president, head of programming for TNT, TBS and Turner Classic Movies (TCM). “Men of a Certain Age blends insightful storylines, highly relatable characters and top-notch performances from Ray Romano, Andre Braugher and Scott Bakula. We look forward to continuing our wonderful relationship with everyone involved.”

Men of a Certain Age currently airs Mondays on TNT at 10 P.M. The website for the show is located here.

“This is going to freak me out,” said Billingsley, when the man assigned to translate began his task. “Start drinking,” he said to the translator, to whom he had given a bottle of booze.

“I cannot,” said the man.

“I need another translator!” said Billingsley, to laughter and applause from the audience. The next translator took a hearty drink from the bottle. “Now THAT’s a translator!” shouted Billingsley.

Not to be outdone, Billingsley’s wife Bonnie, when called out by Billingsley, ran out with a roll of toilet paper in one hand and a long strip of toilet paper in the other hand. “I’m sorry I was in the bathroom,” she explained.

When her husband gave away ham sandwiches provided for them to the audience, Bonnie said, “This is what John does with everything we own!”

“Who wants my pants?” said Billingsley.

“Nein. Nein on the pant-ze” joked Bonnie. “How do you say pants?”

Billingsley opened up the floor to questions from the audience. “What’s your favorite episode from Star Trek: Enterprise and why?” was the first question.

“Anything where he had a lot of lines, or was naked,” said Bonnie.

“I quite liked the episode Dear Doctor, which was on in the first season,” said Billingsley. “I thought that episode was the first episode that began to treat the doctor as if he were a three-dimensional person. I also liked the episode where my wife appeared, the fictional wife. And then she wanted to sleep with Trip. That seemed a little unfair to me, but I liked it anyway.”

Blalock begins filming this week in New Zealand. She will portray a mysterious Sister of the Dark, who possesses very powerful magic, and will threaten both Richard’s (Craig Horner) quest to defeat evil forces, and Kahlan (Bridget Regan.)

The second season of Legend of the Seeker will premiere on the weekend of November 7. Legend of the Seeker combines elements of fantasy, magic, adventure, mystery and romance. The series is an adaptation of Terry Goldkind’s Sword of Truth book series.

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.”

“I look back now, it’s like, ‘How did I end up in all these science fiction things?,’” Bakula explained during an interview at the Toronto Film Festival. “And then I look back at the stuff that I loved when I was a kid, and the TV shows that I liked, and the books that I liked and Ray Bradbury, and all the things that I loved reading.”

“And then I say, ‘Well, you know, it’s kind of…’ when I open up a script that says, ‘The guy, he wakes up and he’s in a bed, and nobody knows, he looks in a mirror and he’s somebody else, and they can’t figure it out, and this hologram appears,’ I’m just sucked right in. I’m not going, ‘This is stupid.’ I love it. So, it’s, I’m drawn to it. It’s hard for me to say no to science fiction stuff.”

Bakula has to decline science fiction roles sometimes, as difficult as it is for him. “I just can’t keep doing [science fiction] over and over and over again,” he said.

Part of working on a science fiction show or movie is dealing with science fiction fandom. “Well you know,” said Bakula, “science fiction fans. If they love you, they’ve, you’ve got them…If you’re in, you know, then you’re in forever. And they’re demanding fans. They expect that you be honest in your science fiction, and correct in your science fiction. And they expect you to be available, and a part of the world of science fiction. And they claim you. So, there’s kind of a responsibility about that.”

Going into Star Trek: Enterprise, Bakula was prepared for the demands of its fandom. “I knew when I took Enterprise that I was perpetuating that,” he said. “But they’re loyal, and they ask you to be really good. And they really watch. And, you know, for a performer, that’s, you can’t really ask for more than that. They’re not casual. They’re intent. And you better have, you better not screw up your facts, your logic, they’ll ring you up on that one. And so, you know, that’s who you work for. We work for our fans, and for an audience. And so I love them. They’ve been great to me.”

When asked about the rumor that Quantum Leap, another series on which he worked, might be rebooted, Bakula laughed. “That rumor’s always out there,” he said, admitting that he would like to see it happen. “It would be fun. I would always, you know, you talk about this stuff, and you’d have to see how it would manifest, you know? In terms of a script. And, I always have joked that they’ll do it, but it won’t be with me and Dean, you know? Because that’s just the way that Hollywood is. If they did a feature, they would recast it. And make it better.”

Bakula also gave a video interview to Collider.com where he spoke about his role in the Steven Soderbergh movie The Informant, Quantum Leap, Chuck, Men of a Certain Age and a bit about Star Trek XI.