When Viacom recently announced Series V is headed for a fall debut, it already became clear that development on the series is well underway. However, now it seems the show might even be further along than originally thought, as according to Armin Shimerman (Quark), the sets may have been constructed already.

The former DS9 actor appeared at a Slanted Fedora convention in Champaign, IL, this weekend, substituting for Alexander Siddig (Julian Bashir). According to the person who sent in the con report, Shimerman "said that the sets for Trek Series V have supposedly already been built."

Previously Star Trek executive producer Rick Berman already said that he thought production on the pilot would begin in March or April, so with that in mind it would make sense that construction work on the sets would have started. In addition, this news also fits in with the SFX report from a few weeks ago that Paramount was actively looking for space for the show at the studio. However, it seems a bit unlikely that news of the sets being constructed wouldn't have leaked out earlier, even if with the undoubtedly high level of Paramount secrecy for this project it would certainly be possible.

In addition to his comment on the sets, Shimerman also spoke about the possibility of writers' and actors' strikes. Shimerman will be one of the actors representing the Screen Actors Guild in its upcoming negotiations with producers, and he said he did expect those strikes to occur, probably lasting at least through July. If these strikes would occur, it would of course make it very difficult for Viacom to achieve its stated goal of launching the next series in Fall.

As usual, please do keep in mind that, with the exception of the intended release date, none of the above has been officially confirmed by Paramount yet. Until an official announcement does come out, please treat all Series V news as you would any other rumour.

Thanks go out to Michelle Erica Green for forwarding this news!

[Update, 0:03 CET:] Dark Horizons posted some rumours on Paramount's publicity plans for the series. Their source apparently heard from "somebody-who-knows-somebody" that plans for Series V are going to be firmed up by the time the finale airs. At time the first tidbits of information would be "sneaked" or "leaked" out, though the difference between those two terms isn't immediately clear to us. There might also be announcements about 'Star Trek: X' at the same time.

Even more so than the Shimerman report, this should definitely fall under the heading of unconfirmed rumours, even if it doesn't really contain any shocking new info - with you reading this, this publicity plan rumour is already at least fifth-hand information, so it is bound to be less reliable, but I thought I'd pass it on anyway.

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