The German Corona WebBEAT has started its coverage of the 8th edition of the Federation Convention, currently taking place in Bonn. Present at the convention was Trek archivisit Richard Arnold, who gave some info on several aspects of modern Trek. Keep in mind that in the past he hasn't been 100% reliable, but here's a summary of his comments, as reported by Corona:

• What many people were already afraid of, will now apparently indeed be happening: Paramount will be releasing 'special edition' versions of all the Star Trek films on DVD, after previously releasing film-only versions. According to Trek archivist Richard Arnold, the nine Trek films will be newly edited for DVD release, adding previously cut scenes to the movies. A start will be made with 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture', which is being recut by the director, Robert Wise.

• According to Arnold, the first talks are being held about the tenth Star Trek film, which he believes will be released in 2002. Arnold said that secret negotiations had already been held with Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard), Brent Spiner (Data) and Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi). Previously, Rick Berman has stated the film's script is already being worked on, and the film is headed for a Winter 2001 release.

• Arnold repeated his statements from a few months ago, that Series V won't be Captain Sulu, 'Birth of the Federation', 'Starfleet Academy' or Klingon-based.

• Arnold also showed some official Paramount promo dias for 'Unimatrix Zero', the Voyager season finale, but unfortunately these haven't been reproduced on the web yet.

• And the German SF-Radio has posted its first FedCon-special, including exclusive interviews with Richard Arnold and René Auberjonois (Odo), as well as a panel report from Trek script coordinator Lolita Fatjo and Arnold. There will be two more specials today and tomorrow.

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