Hello World!

My hopes were low, my expectations lower...and yet I really liked Threshold. In some unnerving ways it reminded me of the early days of Voyager: woman who is seemingly closer to her dog than any human friends is called upon to lead a group of potentially hostile people in a major crisis situation, must prove her fighting mettle right away, has gratuitous scene in her nightgown...oh, and the guy on the team who's in potentially the most adversarial position seems to have a crush on her.

But the storyline, despite some scientific silliness, is engaging and the cast is phenomenal - Carla Gugino and Brent Spiner in particular. One of my complaints about a number of recent shows is that I've felt like I was watching not characters but caricatures packed with quirks. I keep trying to watch Firefly in anticipation of Serenity but I keep not believing in a single one of the people, particularly the space hooker, the girly-girl engineer and the wise Morgan Freeman figure. With Threshold, though all the characters are decidedly a little weird, the actors really sold them.

And there were many references to other science fiction shows - not just Star Trek, as Spiner's character got in a Klingon joke, but X-Files, Doctor Who, even the aforementioned Firefly (though admittedly I wouldn't have noticed that last had a friend not pointed it out). The scary parts were genuinely creepy even as the logical part of my mind was going, "the procedural and scientific details here are not making sense." And the funny parts were genuinely funny.

I'm definitely watching again tonight.

Trek BBS Today

Below are some of the topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-Is Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan overrated?

-Is BSG season two better than season one?

-What do you think is the best game soundtrack?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS!

Trek Two Years Ago

These were some of the major news items from September 2003:

• Key Affiliates Stay In UPN Fold
  UPN secured its long-term future in several crucial U.S. markets, signing a new affiliate agreement with the Fox Television Station group, which had previously filed a breach of contract suit against the network over declining ratings. The new pact ensured that the nine affiliates would continue to carry UPN programming, whereas if they had decamped, it would have reduced the struggling network's national coverage by 24%.

• 'Extinction' Brings Ratings Back To Life
  Enterprise's ratings held steady on the first real night of prime-time competition, equalling the overnight numbers for the third season premiere as the show turned in a 4.4 rating/7 share in the overnights. The show faced off against season premieres on most of the major networks, including NBC's Ed and ABC's My Wife and Kids.

• Stewart To Come Out On 'Frasier' Next Week
  Patrick Stewart (Picard) returned a favour from Kelsey Grammer (Morgan Bateson) ten years earlier, filming an appearance on Grammer's series Frasier. Stewart played the head of the Seattle Opera Guild, who erroneously believed that Frasier was gay and courted him.

More news can be found in the archives.

Poll Results

Below are the results of the most recent TrekToday poll:

Are you most likely to read Trek novels about... Just stick with the main crews 45.4% - (489 Votes) Borg 14.6% - (157 Votes) Q 11.4% - (123 Votes) Romulans 10.5% - (113 Votes) Klingons 9.1% - (98 Votes) Cardassians 6.3% - (68 Votes) Suliban 2.5% - (27 Votes) Total Votes: 1075

Please vote in our new poll on Trek's 40th anniversary celebrations!

Happy Birthday!

Today is the birthday of Rosalind Chao, who plays Keiko O'Brien on Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.

Discuss this news item at Trek BBS!
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