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.”

Body of Evidence features a “brilliant, tenacious” medical examiner, whose background as a neurosurgeon gives her a “unique and refreshing” crime-solving perspective, but puts her at odds with most of her colleagues. The main role has not been cast yet, but talks with Dana Delany (China Beach, Desperate Housewives) are ongoing.

Ryan, who has a recurring role on TNT’s Leverage, will play the city’s chief medical examiner, who is the boss of the main character of the show.

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.

Star Trek: Voyager was important for one big reason according to Mulgrew. “Probably, without putting to fine a point on it, [the lasting legacy of Voyager is] the first female captain,” she said. “That was a bold and I think very wise decision, by the powers that be at Paramount and UPN. It will be remembered that way. It will be remembered as an intrepid ship, an interesting crew, a very innovative creation of The Doctor, and what that meant with technology and embracing humanity and vice-versa. Janeway’s grasp of loneliness and aloneness. The distinction between the two. Her love for her crew and the transcendent nature of that love, which I am not sure had been seen before.”

Because of this important first, more women and girls were attracted to Star Trek. “We are a society and a culture that lives by example and perseveres by example and so if they see a woman in the captain’s seat, they are drawn to follow that journey,” said Mulgrew. “I know that I affected a great many burgeoning young scientists, great girls from all walks of science were drawn to Janeway and her journey. That is perhaps the most gratifying aspect of that decade of my life, that I know that I influenced and impacted so many young lives. And endorsed so many middle-aged women that I think probably otherwise felt, not persona non grata, but society didn’t take them as seriously as their male counterparts. So it is just another leg up on the ladder.”

Mulgrew wouldn’t mind a part in the new Star Trek movies, if the call came. “I would be [interested],” she said. “I would hate to think I have said the final and definitive goodbye to Kathryn Janeway. That was almost a decade of my life. I raised my children during that. I lost a lot and gained a lot. I got married and divorced. It was huge in every single way and formed the rest of my life. You then don’t want to say goodbye to that character. You want to hold that character as long as possible, through everything.”

Years after Star Trek: Voyager finished airing, Ryan is still recognized for her role as the former Borg Seven of Nine and grateful for her continuing work after the end of the series. “I’m really lucky to have been given a role that was so beautifully written, that was so rich to play as an actor and which became an iconic character,” she said.

“You don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” she said. “I’m very grateful for that, that’s very rare. It’s nice that it made an impression on people and that they enjoyed it that much.”

But being cast on Star Trek came with a price. “It’s also scary to sign on to Star Trek because it’s notorious for pigeonholing actors,” said Ryan. “I feel incredibly lucky that I’ve been working pretty steadily ever since.”

Ryan is currently working on Leverage, joining the established show for a short run. Ryan had no problem with joining a show already in progress. “It was very appealing to me that it was only seven episodes,” said Ryan, “partly because it shoots in Portland and my family is [in Los Angeles]. But it’s also incredibly freeing. You don’t have to worry about a multiyear storyline. You don’t have to worry about how a scene affects the characters’ relationships in seasons three, four and five. It’s fun. It’s a quick in-and-out.”

This evening, the first of the last six episodes of the second season of Leverage began airing on TNT.

Ten live action short films were chosen from amongst seventy-one pictures that qualified, including: The Response, The Door, The Ground Beneath, Hotel, Instead of Abracadabra, Kavi, Miracle Fish, The New Tenants, Short Term 12 and Sidney Turtlebaum.

The Response is a recreation of the proceedings at the controversial Guantanamo U.S. military base in Cuba, where detainees suspected of ties to either al-Qaida or the Taliban are housed.

The suspects appear before tribunals which determine if they are being properly classified as enemy combatants.

In the thirty-minute courtroom drama, Mulgrew plays Colonel Sims, a conservative colonel who believes that the president should have the right to detain people considered a national security threat.

Mulgrew explained why she hadn’t yet seen the Star Trek reboot. “I haven’t, but not for any bad reason,” she said. “It’s a reason of comfort. I did Star Trek myself, and I want to enjoy it when I see it, I want to be comfortable when I see it, so I’m going to wait until I can see it in my living room. I understand that both of those young men [Pine and Quinto] are extraordinary. I’m sure it’s beautifully done. I just want to see it in the comfort of my home.

Would Mulgrew ever play Janeway again? “I would,” she said. “I’d love to return to Janeway! I’d love to do her in a movie, it would be great.”

If Abrams called her for a part in a Star Trek movie, Mulgrew wouldn’t hesitate. “I’d love to do it! I think he’d be wise to do it, don’t you? He should get Picard and myself in there. I think that’s a brilliant idea.”

Mulgrew also spoke of her days on Star Trek: Voyager, and had several favorite episodes. “I loved Death Wish, the discussion of suicide in the Continuum, because I thought that it was the first time that we really saw Janeway in a conundrum. And that’s the best of Star Trek, when the dilemma is philosophical. I also loved Counterpoint, where I could have a little love. I loved Endgame, where I had my hand in almost every aspect of that. I enjoyed a lot of them. A few of them left a little something to be desired, but most of them I thought were very well done.”

Her fondest memory from her Star Trek: Voyager days wasn’t a specific show or scene, however, but her friendships with her fellow actors. “…I can say that I made in Bob Picardo and Robbie McNeill and others, great friends, friends forever. Certain truths, and intimacies were shared over seven years and they were profoundly moving. So in as much as the job was everything for almost a decade of my life, these friendships allowed me to fully embrace it.”

Flemeth is a mysterious “witch of the wilds” who is the mother of the sorceress Morrigan.

Doing voice work for a game is different than acting in front of a camera, but Mulgrew enjoyed taking on the role of Flemeth. “Well, there’s nothing more liberating, in a way. This is every actor’s true dream. I’ve likened it to going into a dark room with a very smart child who demands an epic story on the spot, one that will change their life. And you have two flashlights, and you have that moment captured in time, and you get to just go, and the kid is going to go with you. So, it’s a beautiful little journey you get to take.”

Being able to act without cameras, makeup or costumes is also freeing. “You’ve got the script in front of you, and you’ve got the [audio] engineer. And for some reason, it takes me back to the absolute core of who I am, as an imaginative person, as an artist, and that is to tell the story, in the moment. And being one of eight children, I often did this in the closet in my room, and it was better than being on Broadway! It was great.”

Voicing Flemeth, according to Mulgrew, is “every actress’ dream because the vocal dexterity required is both challenging and very freeing…almost joyful to go that deep. She’s dark. The game itself is epic, dark, and brutal, but it’s very smart. So I’m always engaged. Everything that comes out my mouth is very important.”

“She’s a witch,” explained Mulgrew, “but she’s mysterious, and you have to stay with the game and stay with the character to discover just how mysterious she is. There are undercurrents and secrets to her, and when you understand that hers is a history rich in despair and loss, then you can grasp her fury and her power in a different way. And as an actor, being able to know that, and I know that people playing this game may not know that, and even our hero [of the game] doesn’t know that yet, there’s a sense of great adult play.”

Mulgrew encouraged her Star Trek: Voyager fans to try the game. “I found this to be a thoroughly compelling video game to perform in and that I hope that when [people] play it, they feel that from me. And just take the journey and understand that the excellence in this journey lies in the intelligence of this particular story.”