Star Trek: New Voyages has announced several new additions, including original series writer David Gerrold and original series actor George Takei (Sulu).

"New Voyages is produced by fans for fans, and they are great!" said Gerrold in his announcement at the Star Trek New Voyages web site. He will be writing two stories for the series. One will be a sequel to "The Trouble With Tribbles" that he says is based on an idea he had for many years. "There is a twist," Gerrold explained. "What starts out funny won't be. It will become a horror story."

Gerrold's other story will be a reworked version of "Blood and Fire", an episode he originally pitched when he was a staff member at Star Trek: The Next Generation which was ultimately rejected for its controversial content, dealing with an AIDS-like virus and the theme of homosexuality. "This gives us the opportunity to deal with real socially relevant topics like the original series did," noted executive producer James Cawley. "This is a real coup for all of us here at New Voyages."

As previously reported, the New Voyages team had been in talks with Takei, who has now agreed to reprise his role as Sulu on the fan-produced series. "Walter Koenig [Chekov] has told me about his experiences with his New Voyages participation and how personally fulfilling it was for him," Takei wrote to Cawley. "Thank you for creating this totally unanticipated opportunity for us as artists and for the fans...together, we will 'boldly go' where we have never taken 'Star Trek' before."

The episode in which Takei will appear, "World Enough And Time", will be co-written by Marc Scott Zicree and Michael Reaves. Zicree penned the Deep Space Nine episode "Far Beyond the Stars", in which Captain Sisko lives the life of an oppressed 20th century writer, while Reaves pitched a Sulu story for the never-produced Star Trek: Phase II that Paramount cancelled to make Star Trek feature films.

Zicree wrote to New Voyages that he had wanted to make the episode and would be directing it for New Voyages. "Michael and I are about to begin writing what I feel confident will be one of the landmark episodes of Trek," he said.

Star Trek: New Voyages also announced the casting of actor Christian Malmin as Sarek in the upcoming episode "What Lies Beneath", written by Jack Trevino and Ethan Calk. Malmin has appeared in recurring roles on Days Of Our Lives and other series. "I am extremely thrilled to be asked to appear as Spock's father on New Voyages," Malmin said, promising to "do my homework" and recreate the role of Sarek.

All New Voyages news is now posted on the web site's news page.

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