News headlines from November 1999:

Mania Interviews Sirtis
Christian (7:46 pm CST)
These, too, just keep on coming. Michelle Erica Green at AnotherUniverse's Mania Magazine has uploaded a new interview with Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi), talking about her upcoming guest appearances on both 'Voyager' and 'Earth: Final Conflict'. An interesting part of the interview is where she talks about the two new Star Trek series after TNG:

Sirtis watches the sequel series sometimes because she's friendly with the crew and many of the actors. But "that's an interesting thing, because I remember when we first started and the original cast would say that they weren't really up on Next Gen, I couldn't believe that they weren't watching it, even out of curiosity. I find that I'm kind of in that same boat now. I watch occasionally, but on a certain level, it's too painful to see our successors. It just makes me wistful. I wish I was still doing it - I wish they'd put me back on!"

'One Small Step' Credits
Christian (7:45 pm CST)
David Henderson at Psi Phi has uploaded the credits listing for 'One Small Step', last week's new Voyager episode. In the listing, you'll be able to find detailed info on the regular & guest cast, as well as the creative and production teams which were responsible for bringing us the episode. To access the listing, click here.

Stewart On 'Christmas Carol'
Christian (7:45 pm CST)
Next week, TNT will be premiering their new original movie 'A Christmas Carol', based on Patrick Stewart's adaption of Charles Dickens' story. In the interview, he mentions what exactly drew him into 'A Christmas Carol':

Patrick Stewart (Captain Jean-Luc Picard on Star Trek: The Next Generation) is starring as Ebenezer Scrooge in the new movie, a role he's well versed in. For ten years, Stewart has been performing Dickens' classic in a solo show to packed theatres across the country, including Broadway.

Stewart was originally drawn to "A Christmas Carol" because it "Explores themes that lie at the heart of life itself:" he said, "Fear and forgiveness, hatred and humiliation, greed and generosity, love and longing. The task I set myself in both reading the book on stage and in making a film is to convey to audiences the emotion that lies at the story's heart."

Mania Reviews 'Voyager Conspiracy'
Christian (7:45 pm CST)
Michelle Erica Green at Mania has put up the first online review of 'The Voyager Conspiracy', Wednesday's new Voyager episode. As you can see from how she ended her review, she didn't particularly enjoy the episode:

Next week, we get a reminder of that classy former series, when Troi and Barclay search for Voyager. My only real worry about "Pathfinder" is that they might actually bring it back. The only part of the Voyager conspiracy I give credence to is the belief that they were stranded in the Delta Quadrant for a reason; please, let's leave them there before they muck up Picard and Sisko's quadrant. I'm sorry, but this episode was worthless - not clever, not witty, not directed well (I was cross-eyed from those fisheye lenses on the flashback sequences), wreaking havoc with canon, and not even fun.

New Continuum Fake Article
Christian (7:45 pm CST)
The people at the official Continuum have written a new fake news article, written as if part of the Trek universe. This particular article is probably their most successful one yet - take a look at how it starts:

After years of successfully eluding authorities and escaping the most sophisticated prisons, eccentric trickster Adam Bitterman seems to have met his match on a pre-agricultural planet. Hours away from ritual execution on Orgos V, his pleas to the Federation and Starfleet are falling on deaf ears.

"I'm willing to go back to prison, I just don't want to end up these people's dinner." Said Bitterman via communicator from his cell, linked through his unmanned orbiting ship. Until a week ago, the Orgonans had worshipped him as a powerful war god, but when he contracted a common cold they saw through his deception. "I started sneezing, runny nose, coughs..." said Bitterman, "Their gods don't get sick, so here I am."

Hello World!
Christian (7:45 pm CST)
Groan. Not only is this update incredibly late again, it's also incredibly late. Never before have I needed a weekend so much to catch up.

'Armada' Chat Transcript
Christian (7:23 pm CST)
Federation HQ has uploaded an edited transcript of Tuesday's chat with Trey Watkins, one of the people working on Activision's upcoming 'Armada' real-time strategy game. Here are a few highlights from the chat:

[JvG[Fed-HQ] What kind of structures will each race have?

[Trey Watkins] There are quite a few structures: the Starbase, the Mining Facility, The basic Shipyard, the Advanced Shipyard, the Research Station, The Science Station, Phaser Turrets, Photon Turrets, Sensor Arrays, and each side has a super weapon building. There will also be many mission specific buildings.

[JvG[Fed-HQ] Obvious question, will there be a demo anytime soon?

[Trey Watkins] Their may be a demo, no scheduled release.

[Sovereign[Fed-HQ] you still plan for a February 2000 release?

[Trey Watkins] We are still on target for our Spring release date :)

Voyager Demos Score Well
Christian (7:23 pm CST)
According to a new article by Variety's Tom Bierbaum, last week's 'One Small Step' performed quite well on the demographics front, as it apparently secured its highest ratings in the important 18-49 category since February. Bierbaum mentioned this fact in this article looking back at last week's television ratings.

Trek Purists Wait For Millennium
Christian (7:22 pm CST)
Don Babwin at Associated Press has written a new in-depth article about the new millennium, which contrary to popular opinion won't start until the 1st of January, 2001. According to the article, Star Trek fans should also wait celebrating the new millennium until 2001:

``The inexorable mathematical logic which cannot be refuted is that the year 2000 is the last year of this millennium and 2001 is the first of the next millennium,'' said Frank Morgan, a mathematics professor at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. The Royal Greenwich Observatory and the United States Naval Observatory have weighed in on the side of the 2001 people.

So have some Trekkies. Nobody takes their star dates more seriously. And while the nationwide network of Star Trek fan clubs hasn't taken an official position, it's no secret where Trekkie sentiments lie. ``Mr. Spock would say the year 2001,'' said Richard Benker, a 58-year-old fleet captain in Starfleet International and auto parts store employee in Las Vegas. ``If Vulcans celebrated the new year, that's when they would celebrate it.''

Krauss To Speak On Trek
Christian (7:22 pm CST)
According to the Salt Lake Tribune's Science Notebook, Lawrence M. Krauss, author of 'The Physics of Star Trek', will speak about how realistic Trek's science is on the 2nd of December at Weber State University, Ogden. The event will take place at 10:00am in the Shepherd Union Ballroom of the university. For more on this, please go here.

Ratings Conspire Against Voyager
Christian (7:22 pm CST)
Greg Fuller at the Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database just posted what can only be described as very bad ratings news about yesterday's 'The Voyager Conspiracy':

As is typical of the episode airing the night before Thanksgiving, "The Voyager Conspiracy" fell to a season-low 4.1 overnight rating, 7 share. That's down half a point from last week's 4.6/7 mark set by "One Small Step" and perhaps Voyager's lowest overnight for a first-run episode ever, excluding "Juggernaut."

Poll Results
Christian (7:22 pm CST)
Below you'll find the results of the most recent TrekToday poll, asking you how many DS9 episodes you have seen. The results aren't nearly as impressive as when we asked the same question about TOS and TNG, but of course that is easy to understand considering that outside of the US not all DS9 episodes have yet been aired:

How many 'Deep Space Nine' episodes have you seen? All of them! 47.8% - (212 Votes) 76-175 31.1% - (138 Votes) 26-75 11.5% - (51 Votes) 6-25 5.4% - (24 Votes) 1-5 2.7% - (12 Votes) None 1.3% - (6 Votes) Total Votes: 443

Happy Birthday!
Christian (7:21 pm CST)
Today is the 79th birthday of Ricardo Montalban, who starred in 'Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan' as Khan. It would also have been the 73rd birthday of Jeffrey Hunter, who starred in the original TOS pilot 'The Cage' as Captain Pike, had he not died far too young in 1969.

Today On TV
Christian (7:21 pm CST)
-On Friday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'The Way of the Warrior' at 17:00 and at 23:30 GMT.

-On Friday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Die Überwindung' at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (7:20 pm CST)
As was to be expected, most of the threads at the Trek BBS currently deal with 'The Voyager Conspiracy':

-Read the reviews of da Woim and Russell Christiansen.

-After that, give your own thoughts on the episode.

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (7:20 pm CST)
Happy Thanksgiving! I haven't got a clue what you people actually celebrate about, but enjoy the turkey :-).

'False Colors' Comic Released
Christian (8:12 pm CST)
As of today, WildStorm's first Trek comic 'Star Trek: Voyager - False Colors' is on sale in comic shops throughout the United States. The comic was written by Nathan Archer, pencilled by Jeffrey Moy, and inked by W.C. Carani. At our Trek Nation Comics Site, webmaster Jim Zimmerman has already uploaded his review of 'False Colors'. Here's a snippet:

False Colors is published in what DC Comics likes to refer to as its "prestige format." For those not "in the know," this is a thicker book (44 story pages in this instance), with glossy paper, a cardboard cover, square spine, and no ads. It's a very nice package, but the price tends to be a little steep: $5.95 U.S. (The regular format Trek comics will sell for $2.50. This book is about the length of two of them, so you're paying about a dollar extra for the frills.) In most readers' judgement, the price is worth it if the contents are of high enough quality. Was this book worth its price tag? In my estimation, yes, it was.

Second Jason Alexander Interview
Christian (8:12 pm CST)
The Continuum has put up part two of its interview with Jason Alexander, who will be hosting next week's 'Ultimate Trek' television special. In the interview, he talks about his love for both the Original Series and Voyager, his guest appearance on Voyager's 'Think Tank', and the diet he had to go through before hosting 'Ultimate Trek':

Unlike his alien costume he wore for Star Trek: Voyager, the UPN special puts Alexander in a Starfleet uniform, which sparked a crash diet. "My God," he joked, "First of all, I have such new respect for every cast member that's ever had to don one of those things, they hit you everywhere you don't want to be hit, the old ones in particular, just grisly, those outfits, very unflattering, and put on top of it that wonderful toupee I was wearing. I'm not only on a crash diet, I'm considering plastic surgery, liposuction, whatever it takes."

Good 'One Small Step' Ratings
Christian (8:12 pm CST)
For the first time in a few weeks, Greg Fuller at the Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database has posted a final ratings report which is actually quite positive:

With a 3.7 rating, 6 share, "One Small Step" surprisingly rose from last week, reaching Voyager's top mark since "Barge of the Dead" earned a 3.8/6 in September. The episode finished just below last year's comparable episode, "Once Upon a Time," which also nabbed a 3.8/6, but managed to rise over "Dragon's Teeth"'s 3.6/5 last week.

UPN News
Christian (8:11 pm CST)
Over the past few days, several interesting news stories have emerged dealing with the United Paramount Network, the network currently showing 'Star Trek: Voyager'. First of all, in a news article about Viacom wanting to spin off MTV.com, Viacom chairman Summer Redstone also talked about the government regulation limiting a TV network from reaching more than 35 percent of the nation's viewing audience, which might lead to Viacom having to sell its interest in UPN. However, according to Redstone they are trying to make the government not enforce this rule, and he mentioned that he found "he audience reception (at the Federal Communications Commission) was extremely warm."

After this, however, yesterday's Studio Briefing mentioned the following:

Viacom has asked the FCC to reconsider its rules barring a single company from owning more than one network. Under those rules, it will be required to divest itself of its 50-percent ownership of UPN when its merger with CBS is completed. In a filing on Monday, Viacom pointed out that UPN lost more than $177 million last year, bringing its total losses over five years to $750 million. It also pointed out that much of the network's programming is aimed at minorities and that forcing it to pull out of the network would be devastating to the network and its affiliates. In a separate filing, Viacom asked the FCC to allow it to have two years to shed its interest in UPN and to comply with rules barring any company from owning stations that reach more than 35 percent of U.S. households. (Currently the combined Viacom-CBS lineup covers about 41 percent of the country.)

'Andromeda' Secures 80% Of Country
Christian (8:11 pm CST)
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the upcoming syndicated Gene Roddenberry series 'Andromeda' has already been sold to 87 markets in the United States, representing 80% of the country, and including 48 of the top 50 markets. 'Andromeda' will star Kevin Sorbo as the captain of a long-lost starship. Sorbo will also be executive producer of the series, together with Majel Barrett Roddenberry, Eric Gold and former DS9 writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe. For more on the series, you might want to read our interview with Wolfe from a while ago.

Trek IV DVD In Top 10
Christian (8:11 pm CST)
According to a press release from the DVD Express, the DVD of 'Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home' has entered the US sales top 10 for the week ended the 19th of November. The ST:IV DVD entered at no.8 DVD, well below fellow newcomers 'Austin Powers 2' (at no.1) and 'The Matrix' (at no.4). Still, for a 13-year old movie it's certainly a respectable performance. You can find the full top 10 here.

Happy Birthday!
Christian (8:10 pm CST)
Today is the 42nd birthday of Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar), as well as the 52nd birthday of Dwight Schultz (Reginald Barclay).

Today On TV
Christian (8:10 pm CST)
-At 9:00pm, UPN will be showing the new Voyager episode 'The Voyager Conspiracy'. Here's how UPN describes the episode:

Voyager encounters an alien whose space "catapult" can speed them back home. While Seven of Nine processes accompanying informationa she becomes data-overloaded and causes chaos when she incites a civil war then divides the crew with secret allegations of treachery and insurrection.

-On Thursday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Kriegsgeschäfte' at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (8:10 pm CST)
In a few hours the BBS will of course be filled by discussions about 'The Voyager Conspiracy', but for now a few other interesting discussions are also going on:

-Do you also think the X-Files are getting boring?

-Do you think there was ever something more than mere friendship going on between Kirk and Spock?

Find more at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (8:10 pm CST)
Apologies for the extremely late update - for various reasons I couldn't start until well past midnight. Perhaps I should think about simply moving the TrekToday update to early morning, that way it might be somewhat easier to keep these updates on time.

DS9 Finale Split For Video
Christian (7:09 pm CST)
Nick Russell just sent in the following news report about the video release of DS9's 'What You Leave Behind':

In the UK, CIC video (who are the sole distributor of all the Trek series), are going to release DS9s final episode in two-parts. NOT in the original tele-movie format. Personally I find this rather annoying! Since both episodes are to be on one video, it would surely make sense to just show it unaltered - after all its not like we'll have to wait until next week or anything to see the next part, its on the same tape!

UPN 'Pathfinder' Description
Christian (7:08 pm CST)
NOTE: Below you'll find spoilers for Voyager's 'Pathfinder'. CLick here to avoid them.

Again, this is where you need to click to avoid being spoiled.

UPN just uploaded the following episode synopsis of 'Pathfinder':

Marina Sirtis and Dwight Schultz from Star Trek: The Next Generation guest star.

Assigned to the Pathfinder Project, former Enterprise engineer Reginald Barclay recruits Counselor Deanna Troi and secretly creates a simulated hologram of the Voyager and its lifelike crew which he believes will aid his quest to send a one-way message to the actual ship 60,000 light years away. However, his unorthodox manner and single-minded passion for the project angers his commanding officers, forcing Barclay to risk everything, disobey orders and generate his transmission through other means.

17 New 'Elite Force' Shots
Christian (7:08 pm CST)
The German GamesMania site has uploaded 17 new screenshots of Raven Software's upcoming 'Voyager: Elite Force' game, most of them showing the player walking through a Borg cube. You can find them all here. Thanks go out to Cyphre at Star Trek: Creative for this!

Marina Sirtis Interviewed
Christian (7:07 pm CST)
Melissa Perenson at the Science Fiction Weekly has put up a new interview with Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi), talking about her upcoming Voyager guest appearance, Star Trek Ten, and her guest role on 'Earth: Final Conflict'. In the interview, Sirtis talks about how familiar Trek still was to her:

SF Weekly: Did it feel a little strange doing a Voyager episode where you used to film Next Generation?

Sirtis: You know what? It was like wow, this is like stepping back in time. They're our old stages, so it was really like going home. It was a different experience than say, if I was working with the Voyager crew, where I would have been the guest star on their show. And I would have felt like that. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but I didn't have that experience at all, because they weren't there. And so it was me with my old [production] crew--I knew two-thirds of the people there. And Dwight. I was like Princess Marina again, you know, it was fabulous [laughs].

'Pathfinder' Promo
Christian (7:07 pm CST)
Mr. Video Productions has uploaded the trailer for 'Pathfinder', next week's Voyager episode guest starring Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi) and Dwight Schultz (Reginald Barclay). The extra-long promo of course provides us with an extensive look at the two TNG stars, and also includes a nicely suggestive mention of Captain Picard, who will not actually be appearing in the episode. You can download the video at Vidiot, while we've of course put up a local TrekToday mirror.

Vote For 'Ultimate Trek'
Christian (7:06 pm CST)
At the Continuum, you can now vote for your favourite Star Trek episode, to be announded in the upcoming 'Ultimate Trek' special:

UPN premieres an all-new one-hour special, "ULTIMATE TREK: Star Trek's Greatest Moments," on Wednesday, December 1, at 8pm/7pm Central. Starring celebrity TREK fan Jason Alexander, ULTIMATE TREK gives viewers a fun and engaging chance to relive some of the many memorable events brought to life on the four TREK series and the movies. And you'll help decide how the special ends, because we'll reveal the all-time favorite episode of STAR TREK, the ULTIMATE TREK, as selected by fans everywhere in this new online poll.

Trek Governments Article
Christian (7:06 pm CST)
Julia Houston at About.com's Star Trek Fans has uploaded her weekly feature article, this time dealing with alien governments and how they are depicted on Star Trek. Take a look:

With its panoply of alien worlds, Star Trek has offered us other systems of government other than the democracy-driven "United Earth" way, but usually these systems are overtly flawed. The shows exploit the possibilities of failure more than success, using "them" to make "us" look better.

While it's obvious why the show can't actually present us with the blueprints for paradise, it's dangerous to be confronted constantly with inferior systems of government. Prime Directive or not, it's too easy to believe we always know what's best.

Jason Alexander Interview
Christian (7:06 pm CST)
Over at the official Continuum, they've put up a short interview with ex-'Seinfield' star Jason Alexander, who will be hosting the 'Ultimate Trek' UPN special next week. In the article, Alexander talks about his love for Star Trek, which even influenced him in his own acting. Here's a rather amusing snippet from the interview:

Star Trek has influenced Alexander's life in more than his acting style. "I fell in love with my wife when, on an early date, we were talking and she said something about a code, and I said, "Oh, like Queen to Queen's Level Two," (Scotty's security query to Kirk from "Whom Gods Destroy") and she knew the response, and I said, "I think I'm in love."

Today On TV
Christian (7:05 pm CST)
-On Wednesday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the TOS episode 'The Deadly Years' at 5:00pm Eastern Time.

-On Wednesday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Facets' at 17:00 and at 23:30 GMT. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this!

-On Wednesday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Der Datenkristall' at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (7:05 pm CST)
Below you'll find some of the more interesting topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-When do you think Deep Space Nine will be released on DVD?

-What are your thoughts on the 'Pathfinder' trailer?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (7:05 pm CST)
Hmm. Apparently Paramount decided to increase the size of the Voyager promo for this week's 'Pathfinder' episode to 32 seconds. For you that's of course great, for me it is less so, as that also means a larger file size, in turn meaning more data transfer. Last week's 'The Voyager Conspiracy' promo already meant a bandwidth usage of 850 MB, but I'm afraid today we might actually cross the 1 GB barrier. As perhaps the only Trek fan on the planet, I am actually looking forward to rerun season a bit - at least then Paramount won't be creating any new promos :-).

'Voyager: Elite Force' Interview
Christian (6:11 pm CST)
Alex "Big Al" Behrens at AGN3D has put up a new interview with Brian Shubat, one of the people working on Raven Software's 'Voyager: Elite Force' game. Take a look at what is perhaps the most interesting question and answer found in the interview:

[AGN] When should we expect to see Star Trek Voyager on store shelves?

[BS] May 2000

New Shatner Biography
Christian (6:11 pm CST)
TV Guide has put up a short article looking at the documentary series 'Bravo Profiles', which tonight at 10:00pm Eastern Time will be broadcasting a new documentary about William Shatner (James T. Kirk). Here's how the report starts:

William Shatner is certainly riding a tsunami of emotion, having recently lost his beloved wife Nerine Kidd, but an intimate new documentary reveals that Shatner has always been on an emotional roller coaster -- especially during his impoverished childhood and when the industry seemed to have discarded him.

Star Trek CCG Announcement
Christian (6:11 pm CST)
Ho hum. Apologies for not announcing this much earlier, as I just noticed this news is over a week old. Decipher, the publisher of the official Star Trek Customizable Card Game, has announced it has signed a new long-term agreement with Viacom Consumer Products to expand its license for the CCG. Take a look at what this license includes:

Among other things, the new agreement grants Decipher rights to all the live-action Star Trek properties missing from its previous license. Such properties include the Original Series, the first seven Star Trek feature films. Decipher also gets rights to a host of ancillary and support products, including the long-awaited ability to launch a graphic "Palace" chat site in support of the games. All Decipher's existing rights, including those in The Next Generation™, Deep Space Nine™, Voyager™ etc. are extended through the new contract term.

The new deal includes the right for Decipher to develop on-line playable versions of its Star Trek Customizable Card Games. Decipher will host the playable site and expect the new product to be available within a year.

'Hidden Evil' Walkthrough
Christian (6:11 pm CST)
After putting up one of the first reviews of Activision's new 'Insurrection: Hidden Evil' adevnture game, they've now also put up the first full walkthrough of the game, offering help for those of you stuck in the game. The walkthrough is brief and to the point, and might well ruin some of your own enjoyment of the game. Still, if you're really stuck, you might want to check it out - click here to read it.

'The Voyager Crisis' Article
Christian (6:10 pm CST)
Michael Stevens at opinion site Witty Banter has put up a new article entitled 'The Voyager Crisis'. As you might expect from the title, Stevens isn't very positive about Voyager:

Star Trek, at it's best, has always been about change. At it's worst, it's been nothing more than meaningless treknobabble. Stories about war and technology were never the heart of Star Trek. They were always stories about people.

Now, five years since "TNG" left the air, Paramount's franchise is ailing. The lone Star Trek vehicle, "Star Trek : Voyager" is the worst-rated Star Trek ever. It doesn't help that the show is on the low-rated network UPN, whose most popular show involves Stone Cold Steve Austin getting run down by a car.

But there's also something fundamentally wrong with Star Trek. Being a long time devotee, it actually hurts me to say this. Star Trek is BORING!

Happy Birthday!
Christian (6:10 pm CST)
Unfortunately I completely forgot about this yesterday, but it was actually the 59th birthday of Laurence Luckinbill, who starred as Spock's half-brother Sybok in 'Star Trek V: The Final Frontier'.

Today On TV
Christian (6:10 pm CST)
-On Tuesday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the TOS episode 'Friday's Child' at 5:00pm Eastern Time.

-On Tuesday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Shakaar' at 17:00 and at 23:30 GMT.

-On Tuesday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Dr. Bashirs Geheimnis' (Dr. Bashir, I Presume?) at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (6:09 pm CST)
Here's a look at what's hot and happening at the Trek BBS:

-Do you watch Voyager? If not, what would make you watch?

-Now that the new DS9 videos have come out in Europe and Australia, what did you think about 'When It Rains...' and Tacking Into The Wind?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (6:09 pm CST)
The weather is definitely getting colder and colder today. This was especially noticable this morning, when I went by bike to a nearby supermarket to buy some groceries, and I noticed my bike's lock has started to rust. I can tell you that fiddling with a metal lock for ten minutes with your bare hands is really not a fun experience when it's freezing. Even now I'm still cold :-).

'Armada' Chat On Tuesday
Christian (6:16 pm CST)
This Tuesday, Federation HQ will be hosting a live chat with Trey Watkins, director of Activision's upcoming 'Star Trek: Armada' real-time strategy game. The chat will be held on Tuesday at 19:00 Eastern Time. To attend, you'll need to point your favourite IRC client to one of the GamesLink servers, where you'll need to join the channel #space-sim.

Cynics Corner 'One Small Step' Review
Christian (6:16 pm CST)
David E. Sluss at the Cynics Corner has uploaded his review of 'One Small Step', the recent Voyager Mars Mission episode. Here's a short snippet from the review, which I just had to include here:

M.S.T. MOMENT OF THE WEEK:

Paris: Chakotay's regaining consciousness.
The Cynic: How can you tell the difference?

'Klingon Academy' Preview
Christian (6:16 pm CST)
Over at the Daily Radar, Aaron John Loeb has put up a new edition of their weekly '3Dfx Game of the Week Preview', this time looking at Interplay's 'Klingon Academy'. Not surprising in a preview sponsored by a graphics card manufacturer, Loeb is especially positive about the game's visuals:

That'll be a good thing because judging by some of the shots here, taking your eyes of the screen will be a hard thing to do. Klingon Academy is going to take full advantage of your 3dfx chipset with some beautiful uses of colored and dynamic lighting. When ships get torn open, gamers will be able to see the electrical systems arcing, the plasma venting and the individual decks inside the ship. The fire and explosion effects already look awesome, and the colors are deep and gorgeous without being garish.

IGN Sci-Fi 'One Small Step' Review
Christian (6:16 pm CST)
Jason Bates at IGN Sci-Fi, still filling in for regular reviewer Blake Fischer, has written a review of 'One Small Step', last Wednesday's new Voyager episode. Bates seems very impressed by the message the show delivers:

It'd be a shame to see Star Trek go off the air because -- as this episode reminds us -- it's just about the only show left that still believes in the space program and the idea that what's out there matters. A lot.

'Christmas Carol' Site Opens
Christian (6:15 pm CST)
TNT has just opened the official web site of 'A Christmas Carol', the television adaptation of the one-man theatre adaptation by Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard) of the story by Charles Dickens. The movie is scheduled to premiere on TNT on Sunday the 5th of December, and the site already contains a short summary of the film, background info on the film's production, a picture gallery, and information on Charles Dickens. You can find the site by following this link. Thanks go out to Patrick Stewart - The Actor's Actor for this.

International 'Strange New Worlds'
Christian (6:15 pm CST)
Psi Phi is reporting the following:

John Ordover reports that some progress is being made for a Strange New Worlds contest in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. The British publisher of Star Trek books is "clearing out something called 'Earthlight' which I know nothing of, then getting to work on a UK/AUS/NZ Strange New Worlds", according to Mr. Ordover. More news as it is made available.

Daily Radar 'Hidden Evil' Review
Christian (6:15 pm CST)
Jim Preston at the Daily Radar has put up the first at least somewhat review of 'Star Trek: Hidden Evil', Activision's new adventure game based on the 'Insurrection' film. Here's how the review starts:

For the better part of this decade, adventure games have had an incurable case of cinematic pretensions. Sometimes this has led to innovation, but for the most part it has simply led to one art form parroting another. Star Trek: Hidden Evil has many cinematic qualities, from its opening exposition to some rather dramatic camera angles, but, to its credit, it never forgets that it's a game. It has some absolutely beautifully rendered backgrounds, an absorbing story and some devilish puzzles. Unfortunately, the combat system is stiff and awkward, and with only nine levels, the game is over far too quickly. But for fans of Star Trek who want to sign up with the Federation, Hidden Evil should satisfy.

Happy Birthday!
Christian (6:14 pm CST)
Today is the 34rd birthday of Alexander Siddig, who starred as Julian Bashir on 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'. Birthday wishes can be left on the Sid City Message Board, operated by his official fan club.

Poll Results
Christian (6:14 pm CST)
Below you'll find the results of the most recent TrekToday poll, asking what you thought about 'One Small Step', Voyager's most recent episode. Take a look:

How would you grade 'One Small Step'? 9-10 54% - (174 Votes) 7-8 24.8% - (80 Votes) Wasn't able to see it 13.3% - (43 Votes) 5-6 6.8% - (22 Votes) Didn't want to see it 0.6% - (2 Votes) 3-4 0.3% - (1 Votes) 1-2 0% - (0 Votes) Total Votes: 322

Today On TV
Christian (6:13 pm CST)
-On Monday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the Original Series episode 'Journey To Babel' at 5:00pm Eastern Time.

-On Monday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Family Business' at 17:00 and at 23:30 BST. At 20:00, they'll be showing the new DS9 episode 'It's Only A Paper Moon'.

-On Monday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Im Lichte des Infernos' (By Inferno's Light) at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (6:13 pm CST)
Here's a look at some of the interesting topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-Why doesn't the Federation have psychotricorders anymore?

-Should the producers avoid having the episode titles explicitly stated in the episode?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS.

Hello World!
Christian (6:13 pm CST)
Did you know that certain species of ducks actually exist which can swim underwater? I visited my parents today, and we went out to walk in 'Avifauna', a bird park near where they live. At the entrance, we bought some food to feed to the birds. When we threw the food (some kind of little bars I can't adequately describe in English) in the water, some of the ducks actually dove after them, and stayed down for as long as 20 seconds! I really had no idea they could do that - you'd think they'd immediately float up again. It was really fun to see, though, so we ended up giving them nearly all the food we'd bought, something which the other birds in the park doubtless didn't appreciate :-).

Fed HQ Reviews 'Hidden Evil'
Christian (5:21 pm CST)
Star Trek gaming site Federation HQ has just put up a review of 'Star Trek: Hidden Evil', which hasn't exactly been getting very positive reviews lately. The Federation HQ review is no exception:

It's unfortunate that Hidden Evil turns out to be a rather failed entry into the Trek gaming genre. Fortunately, Activision's future projects, Armada and Elite Force, look much more promising.

To sum it up, nicely rendered scenery, good sound, but shallow puzzles, an unbalanced amount of action sequences, clumsy controls, and the fact that this game can be easily completed in just a few hours make this game a big disappointment. If you're a casual gamer who likes Trek or just someone who enjoys a compelling adventure title you might want to leave this one alone and look elsewhere. Extreme hardcore Trekkies need apply only.

New Sev Trek Cartoon
Christian (5:21 pm CST)

Cult Times 'New Voyager' Feature
Christian (5:20 pm CST)
Issue 51 of 'Cult Times', Visual Imagination's monthly sci-fi television magazine, has a cover feature on Voyager's sixth season, consisting of interviews with both the series' stars and its producers. On their web site, they've posted a preview of their interview with Robert Beltran (Chakotay) and Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris), conducted on the set of 'Alice'. Here's a short snippet from the interview, in which Beltran provides his usual positive look at Voyager:

Keeping things light-hearted is Beltran's way of getting through the sometimes rote material. "It's really the only way to get through a show like this. You can look just as silly taking a show like this too seriously. I take the work seriously, but at the same time you try to have fun; otherwise, it makes for very long, long, boring tedious days. Johnny [Fleck] and I always have a lot of fun working together."

Jammer's 'Dragon's Teeth' Review
Christian (5:20 pm CST)
Jamahl Episcokhan at Star Trek: Hypertext has uploaded his review of 'Dragon's Teeth', the first Voyager episode in the November sweeps. Awarding the episode just 2 out of 4 stars, Jamahl wasn't exactly thrilled by it:

Perhaps the toughest question at the heart of "Dragon's Teeth" is where to draw the line between helpfulness and caution, between trust and skepticism, between exercising the Starfleet way of seeking out new civilizations and in fending for yourself because those you're seeking out might want to take you for a fool and hijack your ship. Actually, to say this question is at the "heart" of the show is probably wrong; this is an episode that can't maintain long enough focus on what's important. It ultimately can't really even seem to decide what's important. Or perhaps its most important goal is to supply a Trek show that has enough action and FX and bad guys to be worthy of November sweeps.

If I sound somewhat cynical about "Dragon's Teeth," it's because it's an hour with some ideas that hold promise and deserve better treatment than they get. A lot of that promise, though, seems to be playing second fiddle to improbable movements in the plot and action that exist to fulfill some need to create a new Delta Quadrant enemy rather than to tell the story at hand.

'Star Trek: Hidden Evil' Postmortem
Christian (5:20 pm CST)
Though it seems a bit premature to write a postmortem after the game has only been released for a few days, Gamasutra has just done that. In a new installment of Gamasutra's regular feature, 'Insurrection: Hidden Evil' programmer Michael Saladino analyses just what went right, and what went wrong in the development of Activision's new adventure game. In general, Saladino seems fairly positive:

The current state here at Presto Studios is one of excitement. No one is really too concerned over the amount that went right or even the amount that went wrong on Star Trek, the final result is that we finished a good product on time. However, I am thrilled over the amount that everyone here has learned. Our initial steps towards the "next big thing" have been quite promising. Our production team is now more focused and organized towards real-time engine development. Our coding staff is working intelligently towards next generation tools and engine technology. Those people that did not share in the vision have left for jobs that better suit them and we wish them luck. I have been through many projects in my career and many of them have never seen the light of day. But never in my experience have I ever seen a group of people learn so much so quickly from their mistakes.

Vardaman Leaves The Continuum
Christian (5:20 pm CST)
The people at the official Continuum just posted a rather unexpected announcement - Guy Vardaman has departed from the staff of the official Star Trek site, after having served as its Senior Producer for several years now. Take a look at how the Continuum describes Vardaman's 'Trek' career:

Guy began his Paramount career twelve years ago as an extra hired through Central Casting. Guy was then cast on Star Trek: The Next Generation on its twelfth episode in 1987 working as a background extra. He already had a serious knowledge of Star Trek and he soon went to work for Gene Roddenberry as a research assistant in the production office. [...] He became close friends of both Roddenberry and his wife Majel. Later he worked as a stand-in for Brent Spiner (Data). [...] He has worked in Viacom Consumer Products as a Product Manager working with licensees to develop Star Trek products. His encyclopedic knowledge of Star Trek and all its incarnations and his knowledge of computers made him perfectly suited to help build the official Web site for Paramount Digital Entertainment. He came to the newly formed company as a Producer of the Star Trek site and then was promoted to Senior Producer.

SF Site Reviews Voyager
Christian (5:19 pm CST)
I just noticed that Rick Norwood, in his latest television review column for the SF Site, included mini-reviews of two recent Voyager episodes, 'Riddles' and 'Dragon's Teeth'. Norwood awarded both episodes 3 out of a possible 4 stars, just like the 'X-Files' season premiere, also reviewed in Norwood's column. To read the actual reviews, click here.

Nergami Fashion Craze Explained
Christian (5:18 pm CST)
The Continuum has put up another of its highly enjoyable 'Trek Universe' news stories, this week dealing with a new fashion trend sweeping the Federation:

You may be seeing a lot of the "Long Scarf Look" this year, but don't assume it's because anyone designed it that way. The new Nergami fashion trend that has swept the outer systems of the Federation began as a fluke.

'Ultimate Trek' Box Clarification
Christian (5:18 pm CST)
Yesterday we ran a story about the 'Ultimate Trek' box set, which Paramount just released in both widescreen and pan-and-scan format. As the box set consists of all Star Trek movies, you'd expect it to consist of nine tapes, but Amazon's product page mentions that there are ten tapes included in the box set. After I expressed amazement over this yesterday, BORG just sent in a news report stating that he saw the box set at a local store, and the tenth tape in the box set is the TNG episode 'Tapestry'. Thanks go out to Borg for sending in this update!

Happy Birthday!
Christian (5:18 pm CST)
Today would have been the 68th or the 69th birthday (the IMDB isn't quite sure) of William Ware Theiss, costume designer for TOS and TNG, had he not sadly passed away in 1992.

Today On TV
Christian (5:18 pm CST)
-On Sunday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the Original Series episode 'Metamorphosis', introducing Zefram Cochrane, at 12:00pm Eastern Time.

-On Sunday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Explorers' at 16:00 GMT, followed by Voyager's 'Macrocosm' an hour later. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this.

-On Sunday here in The Netherlands, RTL 5 will be showing DS9's 'Homefront' at 18:05 CET.

-On Sunday in Belgium, Kanaal 2 will be showing DS9's 'The Begotten' at 18:10 CET. Thanks go out to the Benelux Star Trek TV Guide for these last two news items.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (5:17 pm CST)
Here's the usual look at some of the topics being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-Now that the Dominion War is over, do you think the Federation will still be able to use the Romulan cloaking device?

-How long do you think it will be until the Dominion breaks their treaty with the Federation?

More discussion topics can be found at the Trek BBS, where we'd of course more than welcome your participation.

Hello World!
Christian (5:17 pm CST)
Apologies if I missed something really important in today's update - for some reason I couldn't access about half of the sites on my news list, while Usenet was completely unreachable, and even now the news updater here at TrekToday seems very slow. I suppose my ISP must be having problems with their net connection or something like that. Hopefully everything will work fine again tomorrow.

First 'Arena' Videos & Photos
Christian (5:56 pm CST)
TheRock.com, the official web site of WWF wrestler Duane Johnson (The Rock) has put up a few photos and videos of 'Arena', the Voyager episode guest-starring Johnson. The pictures show Johnson while the alien make-up is applied to him, and also show a few scenes from the actual episode. To download the media files, please visit the Rock's press room. Thanks go out to John Taylor for pointing me to this.

[Update, Saturday, 11:30 CET:] Unfortunately I completely forgot about the episode's title change when I wrote this report yesterday - the new title of the episode is 'Tsunkatse', named after the alien sport featured in the episode. Thanks go out to Warp Eleven for reminding me of this!

10 New 'Klingon Academy' Shots
Christian (5:48 pm CST)
Beth Wasden at A Talent For War sends along word that they've put up ten new screenshots of 'Klingon Academy', Interplay's upcoming sequel to 'Starfleet Academy'. The screenshots include a few gorgeous pictures of Starfleet and Klingon vessels orbiting several colourful planets, and are definitely worth checking out. You can find the shots by following this link.

Paramount Releases Movie Box
Christian (5:47 pm CST)
According to Amazon.com, Paramount has just released a new Star Trek movie set, containing all nine Star Trek films. The box set is called the 'Ultimate Star Trek Movie Collection', and is available in both a widescreen ($134.55) and a pan-and-scan version ($104.55). Strangely enough, according to the Amazon listing the box set consists of 10 tapes, so I'm not quite certain what is on that tenth tape. A picture of the box can be found on Amazon's product page. Thanks go out to Gustavo Leao for this!

Mania Reviews 'One Small Step'
Christian (5:46 pm CST)
Mania's Michelle Erica Green has uploaded her review of 'One Small Step', the recent Mars Mission episode. In general, Green was rather positive about the episode:

Once again, an episode that reminded me of an original series concept. In this case it was the discovery that Voyager VI had gone off to become V'ger in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. "One Small Step" was very well done, if inconsistent with previous Trek histories of the space program. I resisted liking it because this Seven-grows-as-a-human storyline felt as contrived as the last Seven-grows-as-a-human storyline, but in the end it was impossible not to be moved by John Kelly's story. This episode captured what I think of as the spirit of Starfleet, which has been sorely lacking in Trek this generation. Kelly seems a lot closer to Kirk and his peers than does recent Janeway, with her fearful behavior around Omega particles and her panicked response when any of her crew come up with their own approaches to dealing with unknowns.

'Millennium III' Book Excerpt
Christian (5:46 pm CST)
David Henderson at Psi Phi sends along word that he's put up an excerpt of the upcoming novel 'Milennium III: Inferno'. The book, written by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens will be published next April, and is the conclusion to a novel trilogy fleshing out the backstory of the 'Deep Space Nine: The Fallen' computer game. You can find the excerpt by visiting this page.

In related news, we've updated the Strange New Worlds list of winners with one additional TNG story ('A Q To Swear By', by Shane Zeranski), which unfortunately got omitted yesterday.

Trek 12" Toy Review
Christian (5:45 pm CST)
Steve Johnson at AnotherUniverse's Mania Magazine has written a review of Playmate's final wave of 12-inch Trek figures, consisting of Christopher Pike, Uhura, Q, and Benjamin Sisko. Here's how he starts his review:

Playmates has abandoned its five-inch Star Trek line after doing a creditable job of minting just about every possible variation from the vast Star Trek cosmos. Now their 12-inch figures, which feature comparable facial sculpts, a bit more articulation, and real cloth costumes, are branching out to follow suit.

The fourth wave of Star Trek 12-inchers (Barbie-sized and garbed in Barbie-compatible clothing, but don't tell the boys that) consists of four toys from four eras of Trek.

Experience Trek 2000
Christian (5:44 pm CST)
The Continuum has just posted an article about an exclusive Year 2000 event being organised at the Star Trek Experience, the Trek mini-theme park at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel. Take a look at what the main part of the event consists of:

The next Millenium will ring in at warp speed for a fortunate few Star Trek fans at Star Trek: The Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton. Paramount Parks, in conjunction with the Las Vegas Hilton, has prepared an event so exclusive and a mission so important that only 100 people on Earth will be invited to participate. With the future of humanity at stake, can a group of 20th century humans, along with the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise save Earth?

[...]

Quark's staff of Dabo Girls and Ferengi Hosts will have prepared a night of food and drink worthy of such a momentous occasion. There will be an open bar featuring premium liquors, cocktails and champagne. After a special meal crafted by Chef Bill Rohm, guests will travel through time to the middle of the 24th Century, getting beamed aboard the Enterprise to receive final mission instructions.

Should the guests' mission be successful, a celebration in honor of the their achievements will commence on the Enterprise. They'll enjoy unrestricted access to the bridge and the Grand Corridor mingling with Starfleet Officers and alien ambassadors while sampling futuristic libations, music and dancing.

Alexander Talks 'Ultimate Trek'
Christian (5:43 pm CST)
Ultimate TV has put up a mini-interview with ex-'Seinfield' star Jason Alexander, who will soon be hosting the one-hour 'Ultimate Trek: Star Trek's Greatest Moments'. Calling the job 'a personal fantasy come true', in the interview Alexander talks about his love for Trek:

Alexander recalled that as a child, "I didn't even want to be an actor. I just wanted to captain the Enterprise." The ex-"Seinfeld" star admitted the original series' "Shooting from the hip attitude sucks me in a little more. But all of them have carried the torch very nicely."

Happy Birthday!
Christian (5:43 pm CST)
Today is the 36th birthday of Terry Farrell, who starred as Jadzia Dax on the first six seasons of 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'. It's also the 42nd birthday of Robert Beltran, who stars as Chakotay on 'Star Trek: Voyager'.

Today On TV
Christian (5:43 pm CST)
-On Saturday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Through the Lookin Glass' at 16:00 GMT, followed by Voyager's 'The Q and the Grey' an hour later. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this!

-On Saturday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing the new DS9 episode 'Die Tarnvorrichtung' (The Emperor's New Cloak) at 16:05 CET.

-And on Saturday here in The Netherlands, the AVRO on Nederland 1 will be showing Voyager's 'Think Tank' at 18:38 CET. Thanks go out to the Benelux Star Trek TV Guide for this.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (5:42 pm CST)
Here are a few topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-How would Voyager have turned out if Kes hadn't left?

-Which of the three TNG movies do you prefer?

Find more topics at the Trek BBS.

Hello World!
Christian (5:41 pm CST)
If you speak German, you might want to check out the new edition of the Corona Newsletter, a rather popular German Trek newsletter. Every issue, they publish an interview with a Star Trek webmaster, and after having already interviewed Vidiot and Warp Eleven's Leonard Schuurmans, for this issue they decided to interview me. Needless to say, I'm quite honoured by this, and major thanks go out to Corona co-editor Sebastian Lorenz for deeming me worthy of being interviewed!

'Equinox' Novel Review
Christian (7:16 pm CST)
Over at TV Zone, they've put up a preview of the merchandise reviews in their new issue, #121. One of the things they review in this is the novelization of 'Equinox', written by Diane Carey. TV Zone certainly don't seem very positive about the novel:

If Diane Carey's adaptation has anything going for it at all, it's in being based on an excellent character-driven story which would be hard to ruin. Though in fairness, she has a good try. For a writer with so many books to her name, you might expect a vague ability with the English language, rather than a speed-written heap of mixed metaphors and skewed descriptions for which the literary term 'utter gibberish' is often applied. Witness: "She had fought to her last straw, and even that had finally cracked" or "hoping to crinkle the ice a little more with Ransom". And always be wary of books where they spell the sound effects for you.

'Strange New Worlds III' Winners
Christian (7:11 pm CST)
Pocket Books editor John Ordover just sent in the official list of winners of the 'Strange New Worlds' competition, organised this year for the third time in a row. This year, 18 stories have been selected for the book, and for once DS9 isn't even under-represented, having no less than 5 stories in the anthology. You can find the list of winners by going here, while you'll be able to read the actual stories sometime in Summer 2000, when the new 'Strange New Worlds' volume is published.

'Voyager Conspiracy' Trailer Online
Christian (7:11 pm CST)
Mr. Video Productions has just put up the trailer for 'The Voyager Conspiracy', next week's Voyager episode. As usual, the 4-MB trailer runs for 22 seconds, and is almost guaranteed to make you want to see this episode - certainly the premise sounds very interesting. The trailer is of course available from Vidiot, but we've also just put up a local TrekToday mirror if you want a somewhat faster connection.

Cinescape 'One Small Step' Review
Christian (7:10 pm CST)
Regular Cinescape contributor Michael Marek has put up his review of 'One Small Step', yesterday's new Voyager episode. Here's how his review begins:

The Voyager episode "One Small Step" was created as a tribute to the thirtieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing. It succeeds nicely in celebrating the spirit of adventure and discovery that lead man into space and to the Moon.

Star Trek Short Story Index
Christian (7:10 pm CST)
David Henderson at Psi Phi has just added a new feature to his Star Trek Book Database - a Short Story Index. Take a look at what you'll be able to find here:

This is an index of the various short stories published by Pocket Books and in Amazing Stories magazine. While many stories may include elements from more than one series, they are listed only under the series they were originally listed as.

Picardo Sings 'Virtuoso' Song
Christian (7:10 pm CST)
Voyager's Delights, which recently already posted a report about a convention where Robert Picardo (the Holodoc) appeared, has now also put up video clips from that convention. Available are a 3.8 MB clip where Picardo talks about an episode he would like to see Voyager do, a 1 MB fragment where he provides spoilers for 'Virtuoso', and a 4.7 MB clip where Picardo sings the Italian song which is sung at the end of 'Virtuoso'. Also available are two audio files where Picardo sings about working on Voyager and pokes fun at why he still doesn't have a name. You can download the clips by following this link. Thanks go out to Warp Eleven for this!

Final Syndication Schedule
Christian (7:10 pm CST)
David Henderson at Psi Phi has just posted the schedule for the twelfth week of Voyager syndication, which is also the last week were the episode schedule is dictated by Paramount's 'theme weeks'. The final theme week is called 'My Favorite Aliens' according to Paramount itself, and 'Favorite Flashbacks' according to various print media. Some of the episodes airing during the week, which runs from the 29th of November to the 3rd of December, include 'Death Wish', 'False Profits' and 'The Q and the Grey'. For the full schedule, go here. After these theme weeks, most stations are expected to start showing the shows in chronological order, starting with 'Caretaker'.

Ratings Take One Small Step Back
Christian (7:09 pm CST)
Greg Fuller at the Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database has posted his overnight ratings report for 'One Small Step', a ratings report which can unfortunately only be described as disappointing:

"One Small Step" dragged in another sub-par overnight for Voyager, managing to tie "Riddles" for a season-low 4.6 rating, 7 share. That's down from last week's "Dragon's Teeth" (4.8/7) and off from the season average.

37 New 'DS9: The Fallen' Shots
Christian (7:09 pm CST)
Federation HQ has just posted a set of 37 new screenshots of 'Deep Space Nine: The Fallen', Simon & Schuster's upcoming third-persion action game. The screenshots show a variety of locations from the game, but unfortunately again only show Benjamin Sisko - we've yet to see a single shot featuring the other two main characters of the game, Kira or Worf. In any case, the full set of pictures can be found here.

Poll Results
Christian (7:08 pm CST)
Below you'll find the results of the most recent TrekToday poll, asking you how many episodes of the Next Generation you've seen. The results truly are impressive:

How many Next Generation episodes have you seen? All of them! 71.2% - (303 Votes) 76-177 21.8% - (93 Votes) 26-75 3.5% - (15 Votes) 6-25 1.6% - (7 Votes) 1-5 1.1% - (5 Votes) None 0.4% - (2 Votes) Total Votes: 425

Today On TV
Christian (7:08 pm CST)
-On Friday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the second-season TOS episode 'I, Mudd' at 5:00pm Eastern Time.

-On Friday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'The Die is Cast' at 17:00 and at 23:30 GMT. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this!

-The Sat.1 Sat.1 web site currently isn't responding, so I won't be able to tell you which DS9 episode they'll be airing in Germany today.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (7:08 pm CST)
Here's the usual look at some of the discussion topics at the Trek BBS, where 'One Small Step' is of course the most widely discussed subject:

-Here's the first 'One Small Step' review thread. Besides that, we of course also have reviews by da Woim and Russell Christiansen, while a general opinion thread also exists.

-What exactly is the United Earth Space Probe Agency, mentioned in the Original Series?

Find more topics at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (7:08 pm CST)
The weather really is horrible here in the Netherlands. Today temperatures were close to the freezing point, while it was also raining almost all day long. Take one guess who had planned to go to the library today. I did actually make it to the supermarket halfway to the library, but by then it was raining so hard I decided to simply take cover in the warm supermarket, and go to the library at some other day. As I've said before, things really would be a lot more comfortable if Holland would be located on the Equator...

More On 'Daoine Sidhe'
Christian (7:04 pm CST)
NOTE: Below you will find detailed spoilers for 'Daoine Sidhe', a Voyager episode which starts filming on the 30th of November. Click here to avoid being spoiled.

Again, this is where you need to click if you do not want to be spoiled.

The KJB at Backstage Pass just sent in the casting sheet for 'Daoine Sidhe', the recently announced sequel to 'Fair Haven'. Below you'll find a summary of what the sheet contains:

• The episode will start shooting on the 30th of November, under the direction of David Livingston.
  
• The story is set in the late nineteenth century Irish town of Fair Haven, as recreated on Voyager's holodeck. Therefore, all characters need to be Irish or need to be able to do Irish accents.
  
• One of the characters appearing in the episode is Milo Timmons, an eccentric older man 60 or 70 years old. Milo immediately believes his friend, Seamus (known from 'Fair Haven') when Seamus tells him about the strange happenings taking place in town. The two then set out to prove that there are otherworldy spirits in the town, inhabiting certain people in the town. This is billed as a 'Guest Star Role'.
  
• Another character is Doc Fitzgerald, about 50 to 60 years old. As the town's physician, he is a man of science, not believing the stories he's hearing about some of the townsfolk. This is also billed as a 'Guest Star Role'.
  
• The last character mentioned on the casting sheet is Edith Mulchaey, a 'character woman', aged between 35 and 55. Mulchaey is a very superstitious person, and has her own story to add to the strange events happening in town. This is billed as a one-day 'Co-Star Role'.

Very major thanks go out to the KJB for sending this in! Be sure to visit Backstage Pass, his entertainment news site. In related news, Tara O'Shea just sent in the following bit of information about the episode's title:

"Daoine Sidhe" is a collective noun--it's an Irish Gaelic name for the "fair folk" or "the gentry" AKA the Tuatha De Danaans, or "People of the Goddess Danu". Legend and mythology has it that the island of Ireland was populated by 4 races, each arriving race warring with the inhabitants in turn to take control of the land. When the humans, the Gael specifically, fought the Danaans, they drove them underground (underhill) where they became known as the Daoine Sidhe (sidhe is the Irish Gaelic name for faeries).

If the holographic inhabitants of Tom's programme think that the VOY crew are Sidhe, that means that they believe they are from the Otherworld. The Sidhe are characterised in legend and myth as either benevolent and wise or mischievous or malicious, both blessing harvests and aiding hereos, and stealing human children and leaving faery changelings in their place in mythology. Also, the sidhe aren't tiny sprites like Tinkerbell--the Danaans were described as beautiful giants (6 feet tall). They were not "Gods" in the classical sense, but they were very like the Greco-Roman Titians in abilities.

A Take On Historical Trek
Christian (7:03 pm CST)
Over the past few weeks, we've been running polls on TrekToday asking people how many episodes of the various Trek series they have seen. In his new column at the Trek Nation, Fred Shedian talks about the surprisingly low number of people who have seen all of the TOS or TNG episodes:

I was somewhat surprised that in the TrekToday poll regarding the Original Series, only fifty-six percent of those responding had actually seen all of the seventy-nine episodes. If this is reflective of the rest of society, only half of current Trek fans have ever seen all of the episodes that created the franchise we know today. What I find astounding is the fact nearly ten percent of people have seen less than five episodes! I couldn't believe that two percent of those responding had never seen the Original Series...at all. I simply cannot understand why a true fan of Star Trek would not attempt to watch these episodes. We are talking about the things that turned Star Trek into a permanent part of our culture. Are there some modern Trek fans who are only shallow, Jeri Ryan seeking, battle hungry folk?

'Dominion Wars' Preview
Christian (7:03 pm CST)
The official Continuum has put up a preview of 'Star Trek: Dominion Wars, an upcoming real-time strategy game currently being developed by Gizmo Games for Simon & Schuster, who have it scheduled for a Fall 2000 release. Here's what you will be able to expect from the game:

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Dominion Wars allows gamers simultaneous control of up to six different ships from either the Federation, Klingon, Cardassian and Jem 'Hadar in real time combat. Players are able to recruit a range of different ships and Captains through the use of a point system and engage in both single and multi-player battles. The game provides an unprecedented level of control over each ship for a space combat game. Each mission is designed with multiple objectives, thus challenging the player to come up with unique strategies for victory. Game interface and player controls are designed for flexibility, facilitating creative tactical thinking in an action setting.

Dominion Wars is being built using the QUANTUM engine, developed by Mass Media Inc. The QUANTUM engine represents the state of the art in real time graphics for PC gaming, incorporating sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) functionality.

DeCandido Announces Promotion Tour
Christian (7:02 pm CST)
Keith R.A. DeCandido, author of the upcoming TNG comics miniseries 'Perchance To Dream', has sent out a press release announcing a nationwide promotion tour he'll be embarking on next year:

Keith R.A. DeCandido, the best-selling author and editor of a variety of science fiction, fantasy, and horror publications, will be promoting the release of his two YOUNG HERCULES novels (CHEIRON'S WARRIORS and THE ARES ALLIANCE) and his STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION comic book miniseries (PERCHANCE TO DREAM) with the "Winter Wander Land" tour: several public appearances at bookstores, comic book stores, and conventions on both coasts in December 1999 and early 2000.

PERCHANCE TO DREAM is a four-issue miniseries, the second publication in the new STAR TREK comic book publishing program from DC Comics's WildStorm Productions imprint. The four issues will be released on the second Wednesday of each month from December 1999-March 2000. Art for PERCHANCE TO DREAM is by Peter Pachoumis and Lucian Rizzo, with covers by Tim Bradstreet.

CGO Reviews 'Starship Creator Deluxe'
Christian (7:02 pm CST)
Scott Udell at Computer Games Online has written the first online review of 'Starship Creator Deluxe', Simon & Schuster's update to the starship design game released earlier this year. Awarding it 3 out of 5 stars, CGO isn't exactly very positive about the game, though they also note that a sequel is already underway:

Despite the clunkiness of its software technology, Starship Creator is still a lot of fun, although probably only for those really into Treknology. There's not a lot here for general gamers, and probably won't be until Starship Creator 2 comes out sometime in 2000: Simon & Schuster Interactive says that you'll probably be able to use that package to design ships for their upcoming game, Dominion Wars.

New Trek Novel Excerpts
Christian (7:02 pm CST)
David Henderson at Psi Phi has uploaded three new excerpts of new Star Trek novels from Pocket Books, namely New Frontier #7: The Quiet Place, New Frontier #8: Dark Allies and Captain Proton: Defender of the Earth. Besides that, David has also put up guide pages for several upcoming CD-Roms - you can find those via the What's New page.

Mixed 'Dragon's Teeth' Ratings News
Christian (7:01 pm CST)
Greg Fuller at the Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database has written his nation ratings report for 'Dragon's Teeth', the first Voyager episode airing during the November sweeps. Though the episode did manage to achieve the best ratings of the past three weeks, it was down quite a bit compared to last year:

"Dragon's Teeth," as was anticipated, turned in the best ratings for Voyager since "Barge of the Dead;" however, the show was unable to top Voyager's performances from early in the season. "Dragon's Teeth" nabbed a 3.6 rating, 6 share, up from last week's "Riddles" (3.4/5), but quite a bit down from last year's comparable episode, "In the Flesh," which tallied a 4.2/7. Despite remaining down from the first three weeks of the season, "Dragon's Teeth" earned Voyager's highest sweeps ratings since "Dark Froniter."

Spock Vs. Q Live Webcast
Christian (7:01 pm CST)
This Friday, TV Guide, together with Simon & Schuster Audio and Alien Voices, will be presenting the official 'Spock Vs. Q' webcast:

On Friday, November 19, at 9 pm/ET, 6pm/PT join us here as we present a live webcast from the Star Trek Experience in Las Vegas. Reading a segment of the first-ever fully dramatized Star Trek audiobook, Spock vs. Q, An Intergalactic Debate, Leonard Nimoy (Spock) and John de Lancie (Q) will go head-to-head over whether the Earth and humanity are worth saving from impending doom.

Frakes Directs 'Roswell' Episode
Christian (7:01 pm CST)
According to the people at the Continuum, today's episode of the new WB series 'Roswell' was directed by none other than Jonathan Frakes (William T. Riker), also a successful director for the Star Trek franchise. The name of Frakes' episode is 'Stolen Symbols', and is the conclusion to a two-part episode. As we reported earlier, Frakes serves as Executive Producer on the series, which deals with a high school in Roswell, where aliens were rumoured to have crash-landed earlier this century. Surprisingly, no Ferengi have yet been witnessed on the show :-). Anyway, you can find the full article on this here.

New Sev Trek Competition
Christian (7:00 pm CST)
John Cook at SevTrek has uploaded a new edition of the 'Write Your Own Sev Trek' competition:

Voyager Veterans Also Honoured
Christian (6:59 pm CST)
Over at the official Continuum, a report has appeared of the recent Veterans Day event at a Healthcare Center in Los Angeles, which was also attended by five of Voyager's cast members. Being honoured at the event were American veterans from all major conflicts of this century, including several veterans who had served in World War One. Apparently, the Voyager cast members were also honoured during the event:

Master of Ceremonies Colonel Michael Teilman noted that the Star Trek: Voyager cast was being honored because their characters represented the ideals and aspirations that the modern United States serviceman strives for. Citing the many peace and relief missions the modern military is involved in today; Teilman drew the comparison with the goals and missions encountered by Starfleet and the American military.

Presenting the cast with recognition plaques was Phillip P. Thomas, CEO of the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System. He read from the plaque, "To the crew of the Star Trek Voyager for their demonstrated support of Veteran's activities at the greater Los Angeles Health Care system, for your support of Veterans Day activities for the past two years has been outstanding. Your involvement has served to focus attention on the importance of remembering Veterans, for the patients whose lives you have touched; you have fulfilled the obligation of all Americans and the value of recognizing that on a personal level, the Veterans' contribution to freedom in the United States of America. Presented the 11th day of November 1999."

New 'Armada' Screenshots
Christian (6:59 pm CST)
Gamespot has put up ten new screenshots of 'Star Trek: Armada', Activision's upcoming real-time strategy game scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2000. You can find the shots here. Thanks go out to Cyphre at the German Star Trek: Creative for this.

Cromwell Stars In 'RKO 281'
Christian (6:59 pm CST)
The official Continuum is reporting that James Cromwell (Zefram Cochrane) will be starring as publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst on the HBO docudrama 'RKO 281', telling the story of Orson Welles and his struggle to make the Oscar-winning 'Citizen Kane'. Take a look at some info about the new production:

Hearst, the real-life inspiration for the title character of Welles' masterpiece, tried to stop the release of "Citizen Kane" and smear anyone involved in its production. "RKO 281" also features Liev Schrieber as Welles, Brenda Blethyn as Louella Parsons and Melanie Griffith as Marion Davies.

Today On TV
Christian (6:58 pm CST)
-Today at 9:00pm, UPN will be showing the new Voyager episode 'One Small Step'. Take a look at how UPN describes the episode:

After Voyager is nearly consumed by a massive ball of energy, Janeway launches a probe of the phenomenon and a search for a missing 300-year-old U.S. spacecraft trapped inside the energy field - a vehicle used for the first manned mission to Mars in 2032 - a risky maneuver that may cost the lives of the shuttle crew.

-On Thursday in Australia, Foxtel's TV1 will be showing TNG's 'Too Short A Season' at 7:30pm, and again at 2:00am on Friday morning.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (6:58 pm CST)
Take a look at some of the topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-Do you think the Enterprise-E should have appeared in 'What You Leave Behind'?

-I know it's unbelievable, but a review thread for One Small Step has started now already.

Find more at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (6:58 pm CST)
Continuing our course in Standard Webmaster Sounds:

*zzzzz*

This, then, was the sound a TrekToday webmaster makes when is nearly falling asleep over the keyboard, wishing there sometimes was a bit less news.

In the alt.tv.star-trek.voyager newsgroup, insider 'IDontThinkSo' just posted the title of the recently announced 'Fair Haven' sequel, dealing with the residents of Voyager's new Irish holoprogram gaining a form of sentience. The title of the episode will apparently be 'Daoine Sidhe', perhaps beating wrestling episode 'Tsunkatse' for the Least Pronouncable Name award. According to Leonard Schuurmans at Warp Eleven, Daonie Sidhe is pronounced 'Dae Na Shee', and it's Celtic for "People of Peace" or fairy [faery] people. More on the title (plus a whole poem with that title) can be found in the Warp Eleven update on it.

Trek Crew To Launch Speech Phone
Christian (6:39 pm CST)
InfoWorld Electric is reporting that Samsung will soon be employing the services of several Trek stars to launch its new watch-size cellular phone that operates using voice commands. Take a look at some basic info about the event:

Crew members Geordi La Forge (LeVar Burton), Scotty (James Doohan), Chekov (Walter Koenig), and many more cast members from the TV series will be on hand on Thursday at the Las Vegas Hilton to demonstrate the phone, which comes with an embedded speech processor for voice access to a contact database.

The Samsung phone, which measures 2.7 inches by 2.3 inches by 0.8 inches and weighs 1.7 ounces, will accept user input, about fifty names and numbers, via a touchscreen or voice command. The phone is worn on the wrist and includes earphones for more private conversations.

Get A Comet Cursor On Your Site
Christian (6:39 pm CST)
Comet Systems have just sent out a press release about their special 'Comet Cursor' system, which is currently being used on the official Star Trek Continuum to provide the visitors with custom Trek cursors. Even better, though, is the fact that as of now, webmasters will also be able to offer Trek cursors on their web site:

Starting today, Star Trek cursors will be served from StarTrek.com, the official Star Trek Website. The same Star Trek cursors will be available at CometZone (www.cometzone.com), allowing any Website owner to serve Star Trek cursors from their own Web pages. CometZone is a free service that provides Website owners with the ability to transform the ``arrow'' cursor on their Website into any image found in the CometZone cursor library.

Available Star Trek cursors include Federation Starships such as the U.S.S. Voyager and U.S.S. Enterprise, alien ships such as a Klingon Bird of Prey, and various Starfleet and alien insignia. The first 2000 Websites to incorporate the technology from the new promotion will receive a free limited edition Star Trek desktop cursor set.

Denise Crosby Interview
Christian (6:38 pm CST)
My Video Store (no, not my site, it's just the name of the site) has put up an interview with Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar), about her recent 'Trekkies' documentary. In the interview, she talks about things such as how 'Trekkies' was conceived, the popularity of Star Trek and her own future projects, while she also answers a question about 'Yesterday's Enterprise':

Well I just think its ironic that "Yesterday's Enterprise" was to me my favorite episode that I did and was one of the fans favorites of the series and that I had to die to actually get that episode written. Leaving the show was a really difficult decision to make; it was purely an artistic one. I was very, very frustrated as an actor on the show and I felt straight jacketed. I always kind of use the comparison of being drafted by the major leagues and then being benched so I just felt like I needed to keep going you know, keep running, but I had no idea that I would still have this continuous involvement (with Star Trek) you know. Here I am making this documentary.

Fandom.com 'Alien Voices' Article
Christian (6:38 pm CST)
Anna Kaplan at Fandom (which was officially launched today) has written a new article about 'Alien Voices', the audio production company of Leonard Nimoy (Spock) and John deLancie (Q). In the article, Nimoy and DeLancie talk about their audio adaptations of classic SF novels, Star Trek, and their new 'Spock vs. Q' project:

The newest Alien Voices project is receiving a high-profile release this month. Said Nimoy, "It's called SPOCK VERSUS Q. It's a confrontation. The two characters meet. It's a very clever, very sharp, funny use of the two characters in an interesting way that's faithful to both the characters. Imagine: chaos meets logic. We have a good time doing it. We've performed it about four times in public, at various STAR TREK conventions. The last time we did it, we did a taping of it for Simon and Schuster."

Added de Lancie, "The premise of the show is that Spock has come back, somehow, to today, in such a way as to not go across the line, to alert Earth that something quite terrible is going to happen. This is in a lecture format. As he edges closer and closer to saying what it is, and is about to say what it is, I come in and go, 'Ah, ah, ah.' It goes on as a very witty, urbane dialogue between the two of us ending in the problem being solved, I guess, but also in a friendship starting. The shows ends with the two of us presumably going off to dinner, so there is a possibility if it works out well, we could do [another]. We have some ideas about that which I think would be very amusing."

Today On TV
Christian (6:38 pm CST)
-On Wednesday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the second-season TOS episode 'The Doomsday Machine'.

-On Wednesday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Distant Voices' at 17:00 and at 23:30 GMT, while BBC Two will be showing DS9's 'Favour the Bold' at 18:45. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this!

-On Wednesday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Das Baby' at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (6:30 pm CST)
Here's a look at some of the interesting discussions currently taking place at the Trek BBS:

-Do you think a good solution for the ever-decreasing length of Voyager episodes would be to cut the opening sequence?

-Is Naomi Wildman an orphan?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS, where you're of course more than welcome to participate yourself!

Hello World!
Christian (6:22 pm CST)
* *

(That was the sound a TrekToday webmaster makes when he is completely without inspiration for 'Hello World!')

Cynics Corner Reviews 'Dragon's Teeth'
Christian (7:31 pm CST)
Cynic David E. Sluss has put up his review of 'Dragon's Teeth', giving us his usual extensive listing of everything which went wrong with the episode. Here's how the review starts:

THE BOTTOM LINE: If you like your heroes stupid, this is the episode for you.
CYNICS CORNER RATING: 4.5
BLUNT INSTRUMENT OF THE WEEK: The jury's still out on the Voir Dire, but the foreshadowing of future conflicts with them was about as crude as it comes. "I doubt we've seen the last of them"; I'm surprised Mulgrew didn't look directly into the camera as she uttered that line. Fortunately the scene was filmed in color, so that viewers wouldn't mistake it for Chaotica holodeck schlock.

Julia Houston On Prequel Series
Christian (7:31 pm CST)
Over at About.com's Star Trek Fans, Julia Houston has put up a new article, reacting to the recent online discussions about the possibility of a Star Trek prequel series:

[It's] easy to see the many problems posed by doing any sort of "prequel" series. It would impose strict limitations on what could and couldn't happen on the show. In particular, since the audience already knows how "history" turns out, creating any suspense and/or surprises in terms of "historical events" will be near to impossible.

But these commonsense objections aren't keeping a lot of people from complaining that the current TNG/DS9/VOY timeline is "all used up" and "tired" and, rather than making the more obvious wish for a timeline further into the future, they're describing with some rapture how great it would be to go back to the days of Kirk and company or sooner.

The interesting question becomes, then, Why? Why do people want to go back to a history we already know?

New Sev Trek Comic
Christian (7:30 pm CST)

Delta Blues 'Dragon's Teeth' Review
Christian (7:30 pm CST)
Jim Wright at Delta Blues has uploaded his review of 'Dragon's Teeth', last Wednesday's new Voyager episode. Take a look at how he starts his analysis:

"Dragon's Teeth" is a decent example of a standard Trek tale. Many this week have mentioned the Original Series episode "Space Seed." The more recent "Equinox" also fits. It's a simple formula--find and save/revive a person or group, hear their story, later discover their dark secret, struggle for a bit, endure peril--and the good guys eventually win. That's the meat and potatoes; season with plot complications, identity crises, action sequences and/or humor to taste.

How does this episode stack up? It held my attention through the first several acts, but the ending had an auto-pilot feel to it. It could have used some more twists. I'd have liked to see the "dragon's teeth" put up a better fight--one with more drama than spectacle.

'Arena' Now 'Tsunkatse'
Christian (7:30 pm CST)
NOTE: Below you'll find a few minor spoilers for 'Tsunkatse', the episode previously still pronouncable as 'Arena'. Click here to avoid reading those spoilers.

"Tsoon-what?", I hear you thinking. Well, you aren't the only one to be surprised. WebTrek is reporting that 'Arena' has now been retitled to 'Tsunkatse', as an episode of the Original Series already existed with the same title. 'Tsunkatse' (pronounced 'soon-kot-see') is the name of the alien sport practiced in the episode, which guest stars WWF wrestler Duane Johnson (The Rock) as an alien wrestler. WebTrek is also reporting that the show has been pushed back a bit due to reshoots scheduled for the 6th of December.

'WWF Smackdown!' Beats 'Scorpion'
Christian (7:29 pm CST)
A new article at Yahoo! by Tom Bierbaum mentions that this Thursday, UPN achieved its highest nightlong ratings in over two years, following a guest appearance by Arnold Schwarzenegger on 'WWF Smackdown!'. 7.8 Million people watched the show, giving the network a 3.2 rating / 8 share for the important adults 18-49 demographic, and an astonishing 6.7/18 for teens, making them the leading Thursday night network for teens for the 12th week in a row. With these ratings, 'WWF Smackdown!' even managed to improve on the ratings of 'Scorpion', when it aired as a special presentation on the 3rd of September, 1997. The full report on this can be found by following this link.

'Hidden Evil' Nov. 22 Street Date
Christian (7:29 pm CST)
Activision has just announced the street date for 'Star Trek: Hidden EVil', their new adventure game based on the 'Insurrection' film. The game will become available in over 15,000 retail outlets in the week of the 22nd of November. Take a look at how the press release describes the game:

Set nine months after the full-length feature film Star Trek: Insurrection(TM), the game features story driven missions that draw casual and experienced players into a fasted-paced tale of combat, stealth and exploration. In Star Trek: Hidden Evil, players assume the role of Ensign Sovok, a young officer serving on board the U.S.S. Enterprise(TM). As Sovok, players will have to use their wits, as well as tried-and-true Starfleet equipment such as phasers, communicators and tricorders to foil a Romulan plot and protect the Ba'ku planet.

Unconfirmed Series V Rumours
Christian (7:29 pm CST)
This morning, I received the following news submission:

I bet you'd like to know what the subject of the next Trek series is, right? Well, I know it. I work for Paramount (I can't tell you where, obviously, because I'd like to keep my job! Bills to pay, afterall...) and I happened to walk into Brannon Braga's office as he and Rick Berman were discussing THE NEXT SERIES. They immediately stopped as I entered but I heard enough... I've tried to keep it to myself, but being a life-long fan of Trek, I can't keep it contained any longer. All you Trek fans out there deserve to know the basic premise --- the show revolves around a group of undercover operatives working for Starfleet intelligence! That's the most I'll reveal for now... in the meantime, I'll keep you posted as information becomes available!

Hello World!
Christian (7:29 pm CST)
No 'Trek BBS Today' or 'Today On TV' today - I just didn't have the time, unfortunately.

Considering the number of people who have apparently heard about this episode, I'd say these episode rumours are most likely true. However, they are still only rumours, so please don't treat them as fact until officially confirmed by Paramount. Major thanks go out to Jordon for sending in his report!

ODN Issue 95 Appears
Christian (5:32 pm CST)
Adam Bailey has just sent out Volume IV, Issue 19 of the Optical Data Network, the bi-weekly Trek newsletter. Here's what you'll be able to find in the new issue:

This issue contains, well, news. And lots of it. What else is new? We've got more rumors than usual, just because they're being so pervasive; and fewer game previews than usual, probably due to some kind of disturbance in the space-time continuum. Some interesting stuff elsewhere in the NewsBits, especially in some of the interviews. Rounding out this issue is David's UK airdates article. I've actually skipped the US article for space, since we have absolutely no new information.

I haven't given up on the convention goers, I just haven't had the space. There's still a chance I'll put out an issue in-between weeks just concentrating on that and a couple other things, but I can't promise anything.

Mark Altman Interview
Christian (5:32 pm CST)
Jason at the Bring Back Kirk UK web site sends along word of a new interview they've put up with Mark Altman, writer of the 'Free Enterprise' film and long-time Trek expert. In the interview, Altman talks about William Shatner, Kirk, Star Trek's 35th Anniversary, Rick Berman and Brannon Braga, Altman's movie idea, and 'Free Enterprise'. Take a look at Altman's views on the possibility of another Kirk film being made:

Obviously Paramount is going to try and inject some new life into Trek using the arbitary 35th anniversary as a milestone. They always do. That means looking back to Trek's past. I think there's a better chance of a TV movie or miniseries with the original cast than a movie right now which means fans of Kirk need to not only target Sherry Lansing and Jonathan Dolgen, but also Kerry McCluggage at Paramount Television and Dean Valentine at UPN. I think with the films they're really going to go in a new direction with new cast and maybe some reprises by popular TNG or DS9 cast members. It's an uphill battle, but it's not unwinnable and I would encourage fans to express their views. I remember back in the 70's how hopeless it seemed there would ever be more Trek. Certainly after ST: TMP, we all believed it was over. Now look at it, we're all sick of it. So is it possible? Yes. Is it likely? No. Could I be wrong? Absolutely.

Jeri Ryan TV Appearances
Christian (5:32 pm CST)
The official Jeri Lynn Ryan Homepage is reporting about a few past and upcoming television appearances by Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine). First of all, Ryan is apparently scheduled to (again) be a guest on 'The Late Late Show With Craig Kilborn' on the night of Friday the 26th of November.

Secondly, Ryan made a very brief appearance on Friday's TV Guide Canada Television edition, while she also had a surprise guest shot on 'Late Night with Conan O'Brien' on Thursday. Screencaps will be up soon at the JLR's news page.

Poll Results
Christian (5:31 pm CST)
Below you'll find the results of the previous TrekToday poll, asking you what you thought about the new Voyager episode 'Dragon's Teeth':

How would you grade 'Dragon's Teeth'? 9-10 32.5% - (95 Votes) 7-8 31.8% - (93 Votes) Wasn't able to see it 17.1% - (50 Votes) 5-6 13% - (38 Votes) 3-4 2.3% - (7 Votes) 1-2 1.7% - (5 Votes) Didn't want to see it 1.3% - (4 Votes) Total Votes: 292

Today On TV
Christian (5:31 pm CST)
-On Monday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the second-season TOS episode 'Mirror, Mirror' at 5:00pm Eastern Time.

-On Monday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Prophet Motive' at 17:00 and at 23:30 GMT. At 20:00, they'll be showing the new DS9 episode 'Covenant'. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this!

-On Monday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Heilige Visionen' at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (5:31 pm CST)
Here's the usual list of interesting discussion threads at the Trek BBS:

-If Gul Dukat were to be resurrected, how would you do that?

-Do the syndicated Voyager episodes really contain more scenes than when they were previously shown on UPN?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (5:30 pm CST)
If you're into music, be sure to check out the War Against Silence, which appears to be a weekly online music review magazine. I've only read a few issues so far, but the reviewer seems to share my obsessive worship of Roxette, so the rest of his musical tastes can't be all that bad either, can they? Seriously, the reviews are well-written, and already convinced me not to buy a CD I at first was planning to. TWAS is definitely a site I'd recommend adding to your listof regularly-visited net locations.

(Second) Link of the Day: Planet Found In Other Star System

UPN 'Voyager Conspiracy' Synopsis
Christian (5:22 pm CST)
NOTE: Below you will find spoilers for 'The Voyager Conspiracy', the Voyager episode airing two weeks from now. If you want to avoid reading those spoilers, click here.

Again, this is where you need to click to avoid being spoiled.

UPN has just put up the following synopsis of 'The Voyager Conspiracy', which airs on the 24th of November:

Voyager encounters an alien whose space "catapult" can speed them back home. While Seven of Nine processes accompanying informationa she becomes data-overloaded and causes chaos when she incites a civil war then divides the crew with secret allegations of treachery and insurrection.

First 'Insurrection: Hidden Evil' Review
Christian (5:19 pm CST)
Cyphre at Star Trek: Creative sends along word that the German gaming site GamesZone has put up the world's first review of 'Star Trek: Hidden Evil', Activision's new adventure game based on the 'Insurrection' film. Reviewer Andreas Ulrich wasn't very impressed by the game, calling the puzzles too easy and criticising the fact he managed to finish the game in four hours. You can find the full (German) review here. In it, the game is awarded a score of just 69%.

'Andromeda' Still Scheduled For Fall
Christian (5:18 pm CST)
Yesterday, Cinescape published a little interview with Kevin Sorbo, in which they mentioned that 'Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda' would premiere in May 2000. However, the show's creator, former DS9 writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe, just sent us a small update on this, mentioning that May 2000 is only when the series starts production. The series' premiere won't be until September or early October of next year.

Julia Houston Reviews 'Dragon's Teeth'
Christian (5:18 pm CST)
Julia Houston at About.com's Star Trek Fans seems to be getting more contrarian in her views on Voyager episodes - she liked the almost universally trashed 'Alice' and 'Riddles', while now the opposite thing seems to have happened with 'Dragon's Teeth', which most other reviewers liked:

If you look at it the right way, "Dragon's Teeth" shows us all the best of Voyager: it's all the stuff that's not in here.

What a pity that this episode gets the coveted "sweeps week" spot. This season has had so many great episodes, while "Dragon's Teeth" is a simple by-the-numbers Bad Alien of the Week showcase with a drearily predictable Prime Directive moral that's impossible to describe without an excess of capital letters.

Fandom.com 'Is Trek Dying?' Article
Christian (5:18 pm CST)
AntonyF at Fandom.com's Star Trek Central has put up a new article, attempting to answer that very popular question 'Is Star Trek Dying?':

There was a time when Star Trek was the head of the sci-fi world. Loved by fans and critics alike. But those days seem to have gone, with more and more publications either criticising Star Trek or asking - how long can it last?

IGN Sci-Fi 'Dragon's Teeth' Review
Christian (5:17 pm CST)
Over at IGN Sci-Fi, Jason Bates (filling in for Blake Fischer) has put up his review of 'Dragon's Teeth', last Wednesday's Voyager episode. Awarding the episode 4 out of 5 stars, Bates thought it was a pretty good episode:

f you missed this episode it won't matter for continuity's sake: no one died, the crew scarcely interacted, Voyager is nowhere closer to home. You did miss a dramatically correct, well-told tale, though, albeit one inevitably sunk by Star Trek's own tortured logic. Yup, it's another case of the 'Noble Humanitarianism of the Federation' getting bailed out by Rubber Science and blind luck.

Beltran & McNeill Interview
Christian (5:17 pm CST)
I can't believe I missed this yesterday, but the new edition of Eon Magazine contains an interview with Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris) and Robert Beltran (Chakotay), which was conducted at the recent Galaxy Ball. In the interview, Beltran and McNeill mostly talk about what they would like to accomplish in the remaining two Voyager years, though it also contains the below interesting quote from Beltran on UPN:

"I never felt like we were in any kind of competition with Deep Space Nine. [...] But, I don't think that the network is really taking advantage of the fact that we are the only STAR TREK show on right now. You'd think they'd want to, especially on our network that isn't doing particularly well. I guess they're more interested in wrestling than they are in us."

TrekWeb 'Dragon's Teeth' Review
Christian (5:17 pm CST)
Steve Perry at TrekWeb has uploaded his review of 'Dragon's Teeth', Wednesday's new Voyager episode. Apparently, Perry had mixed feelings about the episode:

At first I was quite excited after Dragon's Teeth. Then I realized how muddled a story it was. Dragon's Teeth has its moments. The problem is, only half of them were good.

It is an exciting story. Exciting enough to make you appreciate that Trek is about more than just explosions. Watch this, then watch Walker Texas Ranger. Issues of helping a civilization versus hurting another makes for interesting watching, never mind the explosions.

The problem is, that was coming through inconsistently. I would have liked the rationales for helping the Voodwaur made a little more pellucid.

Nichols At Gulf Coast Exploreum
Christian (5:14 pm CST)
Alabama Live is reporting that Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) will visit the Gulf Coast Exploreum, whatever it is, this weekend. Take a look at what she'll be doing there:

Ms. Nichols will share her experience on the show, discuss Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future and answer questions from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. A dinner at the museum on Saturday begins at 7:30 p.m., followed by a tour of the exhibit led by the actress and a commissioning ceremony for the U.S.S. Jubilee, the local "Star Trek" fan club. The Klingon War Band of Tampa will provide entertainment.

Sirtis Buys Mexican Restaurant
Christian (5:14 pm CST)
According to the official Star Trek Continuum is reporting that Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi) and her husband Michael Lamper have bought a Mexican restaurant in Lake Arrowhead Village, California. The name of the restaurant is 'Casa Coyotes', and according to the Continuum's report Lamper's band plays there frequently, which is presumably also the reason they bought it. The full report also contians a bit of info on Sirtis' upcoming guest appearance on 'Earth: Final Conflict'.

'Galaxy Quest' Trailer
Christian (5:14 pm CST)
DreamWorks has just released the trailer for 'Galaxy Quest', the parody on the whole Trek cultus arriving in cinemas on the 25th of December. Take a look at how the official web site describes the film:

For four years, the crew of the NSEA Protector donned their uniforms and set off on thrilling and often dangerous missions in space--then their series was canceled. Twenty years later, the five stars of the classic '70s TV series Galaxy Quest are still in costume, making appearances at science fiction conventions for their legions of die-hard fans. But some of those fans are a little more far out than the actors could ever have imagined.

A group of aliens who have mistaken intercepted television transmissions for "historical documents" arrive at a convention and whisk "Commander Peter Quincy Taggart" (Tim Allen) and his crew into space to help them in their all-too-real war against a deadly adversary. With no script, no director, and no clue about real interstellar travel, the make-believe crew of the Protector has to turn in the performances of their lives to become the heroes the aliens believe them to be.

Happy Birthday!
Christian (5:13 pm CST)
Today is the 44th birthday of Whoopi Goldberg, who had a recurring role on the Next Generation as Guinan.

Today On TV
Christian (5:13 pm CST)
-On Sunday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the second-season TOS episode 'The Changling' at 12:00pm Eastern Time.

-On Sunday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Dominion' at 16:00 GMT, followed an hour later by Voyager's 'Warlord'. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this.

-On Sunday here in the Netherlands, RTL 5 will be showing DS9's 'Our Man Bashir' at 18:05 CET.

-On Sunday in Belgium, Kanaal 2 will be showing DS9's 'The Darkness and the Light' at 18:10 CET. Thanks go out to the Benelux Star Trek TV Guide for this.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (5:13 pm CST)
If you're feeling bored this weekend, why not participate in one of the lively discussions at the Trek BBS? Below is a small sample of what you can talk about at our Star Trek discussion forums:

-Did anyone actually like the Julian/Ezri relationship?

-What's the difference between a parsec and a light year?

-This truly could only happen at the Trek BBS... the Christmas celebrations have started already!

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS.

Hello World!
Christian (5:13 pm CST)
Does anyone have any experience with hooking up mobile phones to laptops and then surfing the internet via a GSM connection? If so, I'd appreciate it if you'd drop me a note, as I'd really like to know how reliable such a connection is. I've been considering getting such a set-up for when I go on holiday, but unfortunately I have no idea at all how workable it actually is.

'One Small Step' Trailer
Christian (5:12 pm CST)
After the recent problems by a few other sites in getting the 'One Small Step' trailer up in a regularly sized format, Mr. Video Productions just uploaded the promo video for next week's Voyager episode. In 22 seconds and 3 MB, the trailer gives a nice look at the upcoming episode, including again some very nice visuals. The video is of course available via Vidiot, but we've also put up a local TrekToday mirror.

Nizek In 'Crimes Of The Heart'
Christian (5:12 pm CST)
The official Continuum is reporting that Stephanie Nizek is currently appearing in the play 'Crimes of the Heart', written by Beth Henley and directed by Garry Marshall. The play is running on Wednesday through Sunday at Burbank's Falcon Theatre, until the 28th of November. Nizek appeared in 'Star Trek: Insurrection' as the Trill bridge officer Kell Perim. A bit more on this can be found in the Continuum news item regarding this.

'Free Enterprise' DVD Review
Christian (5:11 pm CST)
Jeff Bond at Eon Magazine has written a review of the 'Free Enterprise' DVD, which was released last week. Just like when the independent film originally arrived in theatres, the review is very positive, awarding the film an A-. What it also contains is some info on the extras included on the DVD:

DVD seems the perfect venue for FREE ENTERPRISE's inevitable cult audience. If you thought the movie was loaded with pop culture ephemera, wait until you see the DVD. Altman's and Burnett's audio commentary just about quadruples the movie's quota of references to movies, TV and music, the documentary provides telling interview material with Shatner, the two film makers and the cast, and numerous pop-up and glossary features explain most of the movie's obscure references (now all we need is a pop-up feature for the commentary).

Sorbo On 'Andromeda'
Christian (5:11 pm CST)
Cinescape has put up a short news item on 'Andromeda', the new Gene Roddenberry series being developed by former DS9 writer Robert Hewitt Wolfe. In the article, series star Kevin Sorbo talks about being 'very excited' to work on the show, and also gives the following info on the current status of the series:

"We're trying to put together the behind-the-scenes camp, and we just hired our head show writer. He wrote an 80-page bible for the show already, and it's just incredible." When asked how the series will compare with the Star Trek series, Sorbo says Andromeda will "take us hundreds and hundreds of years beyond any of the Star Trek series. There will be no reference made to anyone on Star Trek, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine… Let's face it, it's a big universe out there."

GameProWorld 'Hidden Evil' Preview
Christian (5:11 pm CST)
Jason Samuel at GameProWorld has written a brief preview of 'Star Trek: Hidden Evil', the Insurrection-based adventure game set to hit stores in just a few weeks. In the preview, Samuels also talks about the game's graphics:

The graphics and sound add just that much more appeal to the game. The characters are 3D polygon-based. In some games, that can be a problem because the static backgrounds and moving 3D characters look wildly different from one another. Not so here. I always felt I was in a Star Trek episode. Sound enhances that feeling as well. Just as in any good Star Trek episode, music is cued to the action and it did a good job raising my blood pressure.

DecipherCon Reports
Christian (5:11 pm CST)
Yesterday was the first day of the first-ever DecipherCon, giving fans of Decipher's Star Trek Customizable Card Game a chance to get together and play the game. As could be expected from Decipher's usually excellent web department, they've put up extensive coverage of the event, including:

• A new edition of Radio Free Decipher.
  
• Photos from the event.
  
• Scores from the various tournaments.
  
• New Multiplayer Rules for the game.
  
• A chance to vote for your favourite finalists.

Lots more info on the DecipherCon can be found at the official web site.

Starship Creator Deluxe Ships
Christian (5:10 pm CST)
Following yesterday's announcement that the Encyclopedia Version 3.0 has shipped to stores, Simon & Schuster Interactive also just announce they've released the Starship Creator Deluxe Version. Take a look at what this new version contains:

It's time to take command. Simon & Schuster Interactive gives Star Trek fans the chance to do just that. The new and improved Star Trek: Starship Creator Deluxe CD-ROM allows fans the opportunity to design, build, staff and launch their own fleet of Starships. This sequel to the original Starship Creator contains three new ships, seven new adventures, the ability to assign your own registry number and, better AI and graphics.

'Dragon's Teeth' Tube Review
Christian (5:10 pm CST)
Jeff Bond at Eon's TubeReviews has uploaded his review of 'Dragon's Teeth', which aired last Wednesday. Though calling it an improvement over 'Riddles', Bond didn't exactly love the episode:

I'm sure "Dragon's Teeth" will be greeted with fan hosannas after "Riddles," and it's certainly a step in the right direction, but it's a hollow victory considering the episode highlights some of VOYAGER's fundamental problems. The show needs to be tougher and more serious, but it also needs stories and situations we can care about. In five years it's become abundantly clear that there's not much to care about in the Delta Quadrant.

Pointy Ears Auction
Christian (5:10 pm CST)
A new article by Variety's Nick Madigan talks about a set of Hollywood memorabilia which will soon be auctioned off at Christie's. Besides a 'Best Screenplay' Oscar which was originally awarded for 'Citizen Kane', the auction will also include number of set design sketches from the movies, as well as the last pair of ears worn by Mr. Spock, in 1992. The full article can be found here.

Dutch Trek Exhibition
Christian (5:10 pm CST)
StarTrek.nl is reporting that the Kunsthal Rotterdam (Art Hall Rotterdam) has managed to get the exhibition 'Star Trek: Federation Science' to the Netherlands. The exhibition, which is officially sanctioned by Paramount and has already been to many other parts of the world, consists of over 40 interactive modules dealing with all aspects of the Starship Enterprise. Visitors will be able to visit locations such as the Bridge, Engineering, Sick Bay and the Transporter Room, where they will be able to do things such as navigate through an asteroid field, program a voice computer, change into a Klingon and beam to another planet. The exhibition also gives information on astronomy and space exploration, and of course also features original props from the television series. More info on the exhibition, which will run from the 18th of December to the 2nd of April 2000, can be found in the full (Dutch) report. This is definitely something I'll be visiting, once it opens - I'll see if I'm able to write up a report about it for the site.

Happy Birthday!
Christian (5:10 pm CST)
Today is the birthday of Max Grodenchik, who starred on Deep Space Nine as Quark's brother Rom. He also appeared as other Ferengi several times on TNG. Today is also the 56th birthday of Wallace Shawn, who appeared as another Ferengi on DS9, namely as the Grand Nagus Zek.

Today On TV
Christian (5:09 pm CST)
-On Saturday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Tribunal' at 16:00 GMT, followed an hour later by Voyager's 'Future's End, Part Two'. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this.

-On Saturday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing the new DS9 episode 'Die verlorene Tochter' (Prodigal Daughter) at 16:10 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (5:09 pm CST)
Here's the usual look at some of the interesting topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-The Trek BBS goes retro, as there are new review threads up for both Juggernaut and Someone To Watch Over Me, both of which were recently released on video in Europe.

-Are you also looking forward to the new James Bond film?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS, where you're of course more than welcome to participate as well!

Hello World!
Christian (5:09 pm CST)
Does the universe have a particular reason for being cruel to me? This morning, on my free day, I was woken up at 8 o'clock in the morning by the sound of some huge machine drilling open the street right below my window. It kept doing that for about an hour long, after which I decided trying to get some more sleep was useless, so I went to get a shower. Needless to say, what did I hear as I entered my room again? Blissful quiet. When I looked out of the window, I noticed the construction workers being very busy drinking coffee and discussing the plans for the day, which took them about another hour, after which they simply packed up their stuff and left. I hear from my neighbours that this has been going on for the whole week now. Wouldn't it be a bit more time-efficient to, say, actually work eight hours on one day, instead of waking up the whole street a week long? I can only hope they don't work on Saturdays, but fortunately, having observed their work morals this morning, there probably isn't much chance of that.

Overnight 'Dragon's Teeth' Ratings
Christian (5:43 pm CST)
Greg Fuller at the Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database has put up his overnight ratings report for 'Dragon's Teeth', which aired yesterday. Here's how the report starts:

Dragon's Teeth" earned Voyager's highest overnight rating since "Survival Instinct," but still only turned in a mediocre performance, nabbing a 4.8 rating, 7 share. That's up 4% from last week's "Riddles," but still below the season average.

New Take On Trek Column Online
Christian (5:39 pm CST)
Actually it has been for a few days now, but unfortunately my announcement about this got lost together with the rest of Monday's update. In any case, Fred Shedian over at the Trek Nation has uploaded a new edition of his 'A Take On Trek' column, looking at whether or not Star Trek is still peace-centered:

In previous articles I have discussed a personal fear regarding the perception of younger viewers towards Star Trek. In general, the last year of Trek has provided for some of the most violent content I believe we have ever seen on the small screen from the franchise. The writing involving this content has been decent, and I am not attempting to say otherwise. However, I believe some people are questioning the motives. Is Star Trek still about peace? Have we seen the end of intellectually stimulating episodes that do not involve the firing of a phaser?

Picardo Talks Upcoming Episodes
Christian (5:35 pm CST)
NOTE: Below you will find spoilers for the upcoming Voyager episodes 'Virtuoso' and 'Collective'. Clicking here would probably be wise if you want to avoid those spoilers.

Again, you need to click here to avoid being spoiled.

Qie just sent in a report about a recent Trek convention in Springfield, MA, which was also attended by Robert Picardo. At the con, he provided info on several upcoming episodes:

• "In 'Virtuoso', which airs in early 2000, they poke fun of the media hype & franchise that surrounds celebrities & Star Trek. There is also a poke at Star Trek conventions", according to Picardo. At the con, Picardo also sang one of the songs from the episode, namely the episode which he sings at the end of the episode, when the Doctor is heart-broken. The song itself was in Italian, but Picardo translated it as follows:

  He goes away and returns a year later on the same day as when the almond tree is in bloom. But love once it has flown away despite all of our pleads will never return.

• One of the scenes in 'Collective' will apparently featurea mechanical (Borg) baby. The scene, which was shot on the 5th of November, involves Janeway, the Doctor, and the baby.

• Picardo is currently pitching an idea for a Voyager episode. His idea is that the doctor needs a assistant to help him with a surgery and that there is no one on board who is qualified to help. So they divert power from other systems and memory to install the doctor's program twice, so that there are two doctors. But, the new doctor acts like the other doctor did when he was first activated and the original doctor can believe how he behaved back then and he is ashamed. The new doctor can't believe that he would waste his time and ship's power learning the social graces and only cares about himself. The only way the crew can tell the doctors apart is by the way they act. It also explores the backround of the EMH & Dr. Zimmerman

Thanks go out to Qie for sending this in! Be sure to check out his site Voyager's Delight.

Cinescape 'Dragon's Teeth' Review
Christian (5:21 pm CST)
Michael Marek at Cinescape has put up his review of 'Dragon's Teeth', yesterday's new Voyager episode. In his review, Marek talks about the similarities between this episode and 'Space Seed', the original series episode which introduced us to Khan. In general, Marek thought the episode was a good retelling, though it suffered from the well-known Voyager flaw of a hurried ending. You can find Marek's review by going to Cinescape.

DVD File Reviews ST:IV DVD
Christian (5:21 pm CST)
Cliff Stephenson at the DVD File has written a review of the 'Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home' DVD, which was released on the 9th of November. In the review, he provides some info on the extras included on the DVD:

Originally released on Laserdisc and VHS as part of the instantly stillborn "Paramount Director's Series", Star Trek IV transfers over the original fifteen-minute featurette with Leonard Nimoy discussing his involvment with the films as director. Also contained in this snippet is footage of the mechanical whales used for filming. The most valuable section, though, is Nimoy's explanation of his framing of Star Trek IV in the Panavision 2.35 ratio, complete with side-by-side comparrisons of the widescreen framing vs. the pan & scan. Hold onto this one tight and have it handy for when someone asks you why the movie has black bars.

The film's original trailer is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with 2.0 stereo sound. In all, not really a special edition, but more than the other Trek discs had on them.

Jammer's 'Riddles' Review
Christian (5:20 pm CST)
Jamahl Epsicokhan at Star Trek: Hypertext has uploaded his review of 'Riddles', last week's Voyager episode. Awarding the episode 2.5 out of a possible 5 stars, Jamahl only finds the episode 'agreeable':

An episode like the amiable but frustrating "Riddles" reminds me how torn I am between trying to accept what Voyager is and scrutinizing it for what it could be. Where must I draw the line in accepting that nothing of significance on this series will ever be allowed to have an impact that isn't automatically reset to zero? Perhaps more urgent concerning the hour at hand: Are the events that stand alone here engaging enough to make me overlook the use of the Voyager Reset Button?

I guess the answer to that last question is, "Well, not quite." "Riddles" has its good moments, but the more I think about this show, the more I realize that all it really consists of is moments--moments that stand alone and don't add up to mean much of anything on a bigger scale.

New Sev Trek Competition
Christian (5:20 pm CST)
John Cook at Sev Trek has uploaded a new edition of the 'Write Your Own Sev Trek' Competition:

'One Small Step' Promo Problems
Christian (5:20 pm CST)
Both SCIFI Headquarters and Section 31 are reporting that in their local markets the trailer for 'One Small Step' was only shown on half of the screen, while on the other half the Voyager credits were shown. At the moment the only place on the net where you can get a regularly shaped version of the trailer is the official Continuum, who have uploaded a QuickTime Promo, but unfortunately the quality of that is markedly lower than the MPEG-trailers most fan sites use. However, unless Mr. Video Productions manages to find a full-screen version of the trailer, the Continuum promo is probably the only one we'll be able to see.

SSI Releases Trek Encylopedia 3.0
Christian (5:19 pm CST)
Simon & Schuster Interactive, the company also responsible for the Star Trek Companions and the DS9 computer games, has just released the 'Star Trek Encyclopedia Version 3.0'. Consisting of 2 CD-Roms, the Encyclopedia contains information on all the facets of Star Trek, from the Original Series all the way through DS9's seventh and Voyager's fifth season. Though based on the print version recently released by Pocket Books, this version also contains extra photos, video clips and multimedia presentations. Here's a short rundown of what you will be able to expect from the Encylopedia:

Like its previous incarnations, the Star Trek Encyclopedia contains thousands of text entries with carefully researched information from every episode and film, all accessible with a powerful search engine that allows users to search by keyword or entry name. All entries are cross-referenced with links that allow you to click on a word in one entry and jump immediately to another related entry. The text is supplemented with thousands of photographs and illustrations, hundreds of video clips and audio clips, plus multimedia presentations and animations.

The STAR TREK ENCYCLOPEDIA VERSION 3.0 immerses you in the Star Trek universe with a beautiful interface. The graphics look exactly like the computer terminal graphics used on the show's starships and space stations, and the audio features the voice of Majel Barrett, the voice of the Enterprise itself. With the Encyclopedia, not only can you search for specific topics with the ``Find'' feature by entry name or keyword, you can also simply browse through the ``Product'' feature -- a random-cycling display that continually flashes photos and illustrations.

Mania Reviews 'Dragon's Teeth'
Christian (5:19 pm CST)
Michelle Erica Green at AnotherUniverse's Mania Magazine has just uploaded her review of 'Dragon's Teeth', an episode which more than impressed her. Here's a small sample:

I wouldn't say this was a fantastic Janeway episode. She didn't fret nearly enough about Seven disregarding the chain of command, nor about the trashing (yet again) of the Prime Directive. Her primary concern at the end seemed to be that Voyager might have to deal with the alien menace, not that her crew had singlehandedly re-ignited a millennium-old war. But, she looked and sounded like a captain, and her actions weren't really any worse than Kirk's when he stranded Khan and company on Ceti Alpha V, a decision which later came back to haunt the galaxy. Derivative though it may be, "Dragon's Teeth" is easily my favorite episode of the sixth season.

TOS Narrator's Toolkit Plug
Christian (5:19 pm CST)
In the new edition of his 'Out of the Box' column at AnotherUniverse's Mania Magazine, Trek RPG designer has included an info paragraph about the 'Star Trek Role-playing Game Narrator's Toolkit' which was just released by Last Unicorn. The toolkit consists of a 62 page book, plus a three-panel screen for Game Narrators to hide their stuff behind, and will set you back $16. More details on the kit can be found in the actual column

Poll Results
Christian (5:19 pm CST)
Below you'll find the results of the most recent TrekToday poll, which asked how many episodes of the original series you've seen. The results are most impressive:

How many Original Series episodes have you seen? All of them! 56.4% - (285 Votes) 40-79 14.4% - (73 Votes) 16-40 12.2% - (62 Votes) 1-5 7.5% - (38 Votes) 6-15 6.9% - (35 Votes) None 2.3% - (12 Votes) Total Votes: 505

Please also participate in the new TrekToday poll, which asks you what you thought about yesterday's 'Dragon's Teeth'. As usual, you can find the poll in the top right-hand corner of the page.

Today On TV
Christian (5:18 pm CST)
-On Friday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the TOS episode 'Who Mourns For Adonais?' at 5:00pm Eastern Time.

-On Friday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Destiny' at 17:00 and at 23:30 BST. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this.

-On Friday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Der Aufstieg' at 15:00 CET.

-On Saturday in Australia, Channel Seven will be showing the Animated Series at 06:30am. Thanks go out to Jamie McGregor for this.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (5:18 pm CST)
Below you'll find some of the interesting threads currently active at the Trek BBS, most of course dealing with yesterday's 'Dragon's Teeth':

-Read da Woim's review of the episode. After that, give your opinion about the new aliens from the episode, or read a strong criticism of 'Dragon's Teeth'.

-What is that game Janeway and Seven of Nine sometimes play on the Holodeck?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (5:18 pm CST)
Looking through site statistics is always interesting. I was just looking through TrekToday's, and came across the following interesting list of the ten most recent search terms used by visitors arriving at TrekToday via one of the major search engines/web directories:

trektoday
trektoday
www.trektoday.com
incubus and science
trektoday
http://www.trektoday.com/
trektoday
jeri ryan nude
www.trektoday.com
www.trektoday.com

'False Colors' Comics Preview
Christian (7:25 pm CST)
Over at the official Continuum, they've put up a preview of 'Star Trek: Voyager - False Colors', the first Trek comic published by Wildstorm. Take a look at how the Continuum describes the comic:

"Star Trek: Voyager - False Colors" tells of an encounter between the U.S.S. Voyager and a mysterious craft. It looks like a Borg, sounds like a Borg and acts like a Borg, so it must be a Borg, right? The answer to that question is just one of the surprises in store in this special issue, written by Star Trek novelist Nathan Archer (co-author of the novel "Spider-Man: Goblin Moon") with art by Jeffrey Moy and W.C. Carani ("Legionnaires").

Two Trek DVD Reviews
Christian (7:20 pm CST)
The DVD Resource has put up two short reviews of new Trek DVDs, namely 'Trekkies' and 'Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home'. Calling both movies 'excellent', the reviewer is rather positive about the discs, though 'The Voyage Home' appears to be considered as slightly better than 'Trekkies'. A detailed look at the DVDs can be found in the full reviews for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and Trekkies. Thanks go out to Jeff 'Koganuts' Koga for this.

DataTango Trek WebRide
Christian (7:12 pm CST)
The News Center of the German Star Trek Index is reporting that next week, datatango will be uploading a special Star Trek-themed 'webride'. A webride is a whole new way of surfing the internet, a sort of moderated surfing. During a webride, you're directed on a tour along several web sites, while at the same time a moderator talks about the sites you're visiting. Next week, datatango will put up a webride based on Star Trek, moderated by the German voice actor of Jean-Luc Picard. Info on the datatango service can be found here.

Delta Blues 'Riddles' Review
Christian (7:11 pm CST)
Jim Wright over at Delta Blues has uploaded his review of 'Riddles', last week's new Voyager episode. In general, Jim thought the episode was okay:

All in all, I enjoyed this. I'm not THRILLED, but I enjoyed it. It was a pleasant, touching episode, with some good laughs, some thought-provoking issues, and so on. I didn't mind that we didn't see the "elusive aliens." They remained a bit of a mystery--as seems appropriate. If we get all the answers, what's left to "riddle me this"?

Call it ( * * * ) on a four star scale.

'One Small Step' Guest Star
Christian (7:10 pm CST)
NOTE: Below you will find spoilers for 'One Small Step', the Voyager episode airing next week. Click here to avoid reading those spoilers.

Again, click here to avoid being spoiled.

Leonard Schuurmans at Warp Eleven has put up a short news report about 'One Small Step', next week's 'Mars Mission' Voyager episode. Apparently, at the United Fan Con in Springfield, MA, which was held this past weekend, Robert Picardo (the Doctor) mentioned that actor Phil Morris appears in the episode as ill-fated Mars mission astronaut. Morris is no stranger to Trek, as he already appeared on the Trek series or films four times before, including once in the Original Series. A detailed listing of his former Trek roles can be found in Warp Eleven's full report.

Shatner To Attend Horse Show
Christian (7:10 pm CST)
The official William Shatner Connection is reporting that starting tomorrow, William Shatner (James T. Kirk) will be competing at the American Royal Horse Show. Held at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri. The show itself is held from the ninth of November to the fourteenth of November, but Shatner apparently will only be there until the 13th. The WSC's original report on this can be found here.

New Voyager Syndication Schedule
Christian (7:10 pm CST)
David Henderson at Psi Phi sends along word that he's updated the Voyager syndication schedule, providing the full schedule for the tenth week of syndication (called 'Destination Earth: Part Two') and part of the schedule for the eleventh week ('Aliens Run Amok'). You can find the schedule by following this link.

4 CGO Trek Game Previews
Christian (7:09 pm CST)
Computer Games Online has put up 4 previews of upcoming Star Trek games, providing lots of new information and screenshots. The first preview was written by Benjamin E. Sones, and looks at Raven's 'Voyager: Elite Force' shooter. This preview also contains what is probably the first frontal screenshot of Chakotay in the game. You can find that preview here.

Secondly, Benjamin Sones has also written a preview of 'Dominion Wars', Simon & Schuster's strategy game about which little was yet known. In the preview we get several new screenshots, info on the game's storyline, and the game's control system. Follow this link to read all about it.

Lastly, CGO has also put up a two-part preview by Tom Chick of 'Star Trek: Armada', Activision's real-time strategy game. In the first part, we learn about the game's standard real-time strategy control system, the game's resource model, and the differences between the various races. The second part mostly looks at the game's storyline and the ships players can control in it.

Thanks go out to Federation HQ for this.

Galaxy Ball Report
Christian (7:09 pm CST)
RanDoM Flight, the official fan club of Robert Duncan McNeill, has put up a new report about the Galaxy Ball, the recent event hosted by Robert Beltran (Chakotay) to benefit the Down Syndrome Association. Take a look at how the report begins:

The Galaxy Ball was one of the greatest experiences I have had the pleasure of attending. I know it sounds a little crazy hopping on a plane to fly across the country for just two and a half days, but they were filled with good friends, silly experiences and the opportunity to see the Voyager cast in an informal, social setting.

The event was divided into two parts. The first was a Q & A with Robert Beltran, Jason Carter of Babylon 5, and Robbie McNeill. The Downs Syndrome Association sold about 200 tickets for the first part but only about 50-75 people actually showed up, most of whom were from England, Sweden, Indonesia, Germany and Holland. It was the no-shows' loss, because they missed a very intimate conversation with the stars.

'Riddles' Ratings Disappointing
Christian (7:09 pm CST)
Greg Fuller at the Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database has put up the final ratings report for 'Riddles', last week's new Voyager episode. Though not extremely bad, the ratings were at least a bit disappointing:

"Riddles" set the new low mark for season six, only managing a 3.4 rating, 5 share. That's up from last week's rerun of "Dark Frontier," but off a tenth of a point from "Alice," two weeks ago. The episode also performed below every episode that aired before November last season

'Trekkies' On DVD And VHS
Christian (7:09 pm CST)
The official Continuum is reporting that, as of today. the Trek fan documentary 'Trekkies' is out on home video and DVD. 'Trekkies' is the documentary hosted and produced by Denise Crosby (Tasha Yar), mostly focusing on the more extreme Star Trek fans and some of the Trek actors. Full details on the film can be found here.

Burton To Attend ThinkQuest Awards
Christian (7:08 pm CST)
ThinkQuest, the organisation which has been organising an internet competition for students, has just announced that it will be holding its awards ceremony in Los Angeles, from the 19th to the 22nd of October. At the ceremony, celebrities will be presenting awards to the winners of the ThinkQuest Internet Challenge:

As part of the ThinkQuest Internet Challenge, teams of students world-wide, ages 12 to 19,work together to create interactive, compelling and well-researched Web sites on educational topics of interest to them. These collaborative efforts foster friendships and life-long skills. ThinkQuest Internet Challenge teams work for more than eight months to gather data, conduct research, and learn about the Internet as a collaborative medium as they build educationally rich sites. This year's more than 150 ThinkQuest Internet Challenge finalists have been selected from a pool of more than 10,000 applicants and are from cities as far away as Essex Junction, Vermont and Auckland, New Zealand. Upon completion, the entries become a permanent part of the ThinkQuest Library, available to teachers, students, and Internet users across the globe.

Today On TV
Christian (7:08 pm CST)
-Tonight in the United States, UPN will be showing the new Voyager episode 'Dragon's Teeth'. Take a look at the official UPN description:

Escaping from the superior force of the Turei, Janeway makes repairs while on a planet whose civilization lies in ruins save for a few hundred stasis chambers holding the slumbering remnants of an ancient culture thought to be extinct. While the captain seeks to form an alliance with them against the persistent Turei, she soon senses that her new allies might pose a greater threat than the enemy she knows circling above.

-On Thursday in Australia, Foxtel's TV1 will be showing TNG's '11001001' at 7:30pm. Thanks go out to Jamie McGregor for this.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (7:08 pm CST)
Below you'll find some of the most interesting discussions currently going on at the Trek BBS:

-Precisely how does the Universal Translator work?

-How much data does Voyager actually have stored in its computer core? And how come they never run out of storage space?

More discussion topics can be found at the Trek BBS, where you're of course more than welcome to take part in the discussions yourself.

Hello World!
Christian (7:08 pm CST)
Hmmm. Again, my internet connection isn't exactly spotless today... I hope I won't get kicked off the net halfway through the update again...

Jeff 'Koganuts' Koga sends along word that Paramount placed a Voyager syndication ad in the current issue of Entertainment Weekly (#512, November 12, 1999). The ad appears on page 67 of the magazine, appearing within the "What to Watch" weekly feature spotlighting notable TV programming. A full-size version of the ad can be found here. Thanks go out to Jeff for the scan!

In related news, an article by Variety's Michael Schneider talks about a new advertising campaign by UPN, called 'Erase the Hype'. Take a look:

The embattled network, buoyed by wrestling-infused primetime ratings increases, has orchestrated a renewed media assault on fellow fledgling network the WB. UPN purchased two-page ads in the Hollywood trades that will run every day this week touting its growth and pointing out the WB's declines since losing distribution on the WGN superstation.

Monday's ad, for example, taunted the WB by heralding UPN's 45% growth among adults 18-34 season to date vs. a 10% decline for the WB.

The full article includes a short quote from UPN's chief operating officer, plus some info on what the WB (won't) be doing - find it all here.

Cynics Corner 'Riddles' Review
Christian (7:32 pm CST)
David E. Sluss at the Cynics Corner has uploaded his review of 'Riddles', last week's new Voyager episode. Sluss wasn't that impressed by the episode, as you can see in the below sample:

THE BOTTOM LINE: There's a good episode screaming to get out, but in space, no one can hear you scream.
CYNICS CORNER RATING: 6.0
QUOTABLE OF THE WEEK: "Surely you could find something more productive to occupy your time." Many viewers undoubtedly told themselves the same thing...

Usenet Insider On Voyager
Christian (7:31 pm CST)
NOTE: Below you will find spoilers for several upcoming Voyager episodes. Click here to avoid them.

Again, this is where you need to click to avoid being spoiled.

In the alt.tv.star-trek.voyager newsgroup, regular spoiler provider 415Man recently posted the following tidbits on three upcoming Voyager episodes:

Blink of an Eye looks like its going to be a great ep. The ending seems abrupt, but the rest seems quite good. There were questions on whether the name was changing. Have seen no evidence of it yet.

Some re-writing was done on "Voyager Conspiracy", and now instead of 7 blowing the catapult up at the end of the ep, they actually use it to get closer to home (a better ending than what was first scripted IMHO). The ep is still pretty weak however. Jeri had a terrible time on it, as the pages of the script were being delivered even while she was shooting. Given the huge amount of dialog (often huge, rambling speeches) her character had to do, she did very well.

Virtuoso is the usual holodoctor affair. His incredible ego over inflates again and causes him to want to leave the ship. (yawn). LOTS of singing, and some possibly cool alien musical effects by the sound guys.

Julia Houston On Series V
Christian (7:30 pm CST)
Julia Houston at About.com's Star Trek Fans has put up a new article about Series V, in which she argues that Trek doesn't need an all-new concept, but should instead focus on what it's good at:

The big question here isn't how to top Star Trek's basic premise. It's why anyone should want to top it in the first place. Series V shouldn't be "Star Trek meets anything." It should just be a show about some ship with an interesting crew that roams around the Alpha Quadrant, exploring new worlds and making peace or war with the old ones. Sure, the Enterprise will be out there too, but isn't that an asset? We could get little bits of news about Picard and Sisko and Data and Kira and the rest, bit of news that would just make us like the new crew sooner and better.

I mean, what? Is there no room in the Alpha Quadrant for two ships?

Braga Speaks At UCSC
Christian (7:30 pm CST)
This past Thursday, Voyager's Executive Producer Brannon Braga presented a public lecture to film and digital media students of the University of California, Santa Cruz. During the event, which was open to the general public, Braga screened an episode of Voyager and talked about the making of the TV series. Over at TrekWeb, they've put up a report of the Q&A session which was part of his presentation:

An attendee reports that he confirmed that a fifth series is indeed "in the works," according to the student attendee, and Paramount has chosen a story premise presented by Rick Berman and himself. Braga also commented that the new show will be VERY different, with "close to zero technobabble" and would be very contemporary. Finally, he also confirmed that he will be staying with Voyager through its final seventh season.

Koenig To Play Ebenezer Scrooge
Christian (7:17 pm CST)
The official Continuum is announcing that in December, Walter Koenig (Pavel Chekov) will be playing the part of Ebenezer Scrooge in Dickens' 'A Christmas Carol', being shown at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza in Thousand Oaks, California. Koenig isn't the first Trek alumni to play in 'A Christmas Carol', as for years Patrick Stewart also played the role of Ebenezer Scrooge (and every other character) in his one-man version of the play. Information on the actual play, plus info on how to get tickets for it, can be found in the full news article.

Lawrence Kraus Speaks In Ireland
Christian (7:16 pm CST)
Kevin O'Sullivan at the Irish Times has written an article about a recent lecture by Prof Lawrence Kraus at UCC, presumably an Irish university. Kraus, a professor of physics and astronomy at Case Western Reserve University in the US, is also the author of 'The Physics of Star Trek', which is also what he talked about at UCC:

For trekkers, the opportunity to be guided on a warp-speed journey through the Star Trek universe was too good to be missed. For non-trekkers, also gathered in UCC, it was a wonderful chance to hear how pop culture is used to explore some "neat" aspects of modern physics with wit and elan.

[...]

[The mission of Kraus] is to consider the feasibility or otherwise of "the technologies and conundra thrown up in the various incarnations of Paramount's long-running science fiction series".

Sikking In 'Nowhere To Land'
Christian (7:16 pm CST)
The cable channel 'TBS Superstation' has just announced the cast for its latest original movie, 'Nowhere To Land', involving the passengers and crew of a 747 bound for Los Angeles from Sydney, who find themselves helpless at 35,000 feet when it's discovered that a deadly nerve gas device is set to explode before the jet can reach the nearest landing strip. The two main stars of the film are Jack Wagner and Christine Elise as pilot and co-pilot, but one of the other stars of the film is James B. Sikking, who appeared in 'Star Trek III: The Search for Spock' as the sickening Captain Styles. You can find the full 'Nowhere to Land' announcement here.

Nimoy Hosts 'Our 20th Century'
Christian (7:16 pm CST)
The Alternative Entertainment Network, one of the first online television broadcasters, has just launched a new web site - Our 20th Century. On the site, visitors are able to relive our planet's history from the 1930s and onward, in the form of old news footage and background info from a special host - Leonard Nimoy (Spock)!. In a new article by Erika Milvy on Yahoo!, Nimoy talks about why he was happy to be asked for the project:

Describing himself as being ``addicted to history,'' Nimoy, 68, said he was excited by this project as it gave him a chance to indulge his sense of nostalgia.

"What it does for me so far is trigger memories. I remember when Joe Lewis became heavyweight champion of the world, I remember when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor -- my brother and I were selling newspapers that day on the Boston Common. I remember D-Day, the invasion of Europe by the Allied Forces. I remember when the atomic bomb was dropped. I remember when the Beatles first arrived."

Commander Dawson Saves The Admiral
Christian (7:15 pm CST)
A press release from Paramount talks about an upcoming guest appearance by Roxann Dawson (B'Elanna Torres) on 'Seven Days', the science-fiction show airing right before Voyager on UPN. She'll be appearing in an episode entitled 'Saving the Admiral', scheduled to air on Wednesday the 12th of January. In the episode, Dawson will play the role of Commander Keagle, the captain of a state-of-the-art Navy ship:

On Seven Days Frank Parker (Jonathan LaPaglia) is reunited with his former love interest Commander Keagle (Roxann Dawson), when he is forced to backstep to undo the handiwork of a psychotic Joint Chief of Staff aboard Keagle's ship.

James Goldstone Dies At 68
Christian (7:15 pm CST)
The Associated Press is reporting some sad news today - this Friday, James Goldstone, longtime director of feature films and television shows. To Star Trek fans, he's probably best known for directing 'Where No Man Has Gone Before', the second Star Trek pilot. Besides the Trek pilot, Goldstone directed many other television series, including 'The Outer Limits' and 'Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea', while he also worked with Gene Roddenberry on the 'Highway Patrol' series. In 1981, he won an Emmy for the TV movie 'Kent State'. A full obituary can be found here.

Happy Birthday!
Christian (7:15 pm CST)
Today is the 35th birthday of Robert Duncan McNeill, who appears as Tom Paris on 'Star Trek: Voyager'.

Today On TV
Christian (7:14 pm CST)
-On Wednesday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the second season premiere of the Original Series, 'Amok Time'. The episode will air at 5:00pm Eastern Time.

-On Wednesday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Life Support' at 17:00 and at 23:30 BST. At 18:00, BBC Two will be showing TNG's 'Interface'. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this.

-The Sat.1 site appears to be down at the moment, so unfortunately there's no German TV data today.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (7:14 pm CST)
Here's the usual selection of interesting topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-How come there are so few aliens in Starfleet?

-Did some of the Voyager sets change after the pilot episode?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS, where you're of course more than welcome to participate!

Hello World!
Christian (7:14 pm CST)
Welcome back again, everyone! I can tell you there are few things more frustrating than sitting down to do a TrekToday update, writing up the first four items, and then having your internet connection go down. For the first thirty minutes, I just waited, rebooted my computer and repressed the urge to (repeatedly) kick it, after that I set my alarm clock so that I would wake up later in the night to do an update then. Sadly, the net connection only started working this morning again, meaning that I was hopelessly behind with all the news. Unfortunately that is still the case, as I haven't yet been able to catch up with all the news - hopefully I'll be completely up to date again tomorrow.

'Elite Force' Audio Manager Interview
Christian (5:05 pm CST)
Federation HQ has put up an interview with Kevin Schilder, audio manager at Raven Software. Currently, he's working on 'Voyager: Elite Force', the first-person shooter scheduled to be released sometime next year. Take a look at one of the questions asked in the interview:

Federation HQ: Did Paramount supply you with complete printed musical scores for the entire game, or was the music left entirely to your own imagination?

Kevin Schilder: Both. We purchased the rights to use the printed score of the Voyager theme. I used the score to recreate the theme using my own instruments. Having the written score was a huge help to me. I do not have any other music from the show to use. The rest of the music will be composed by me and modeled after the style of music on the show. My goal is to use music that, as much as possible, helps you feel that you are in the Star Trek world. Of course it needs to be appropriate to game play of this type as well.

Local Syndicated Voyager Promos
Christian (5:04 pm CST)
TrekWeb is reporting that in Orlando, the local classic rock radio station is running a contest tied in with the syndicated reruns of 'Star Trek: Voyager', which started about two months ago. Prizes include subscriptions to the official fan club's 'Star Trek Communicator' magazine, as well as a visit to the Voyager sets. In all likelihood, such promotions are also taking place in other parts of the country. You can find the original report on this by going here.

Fandom.com Launch Party Report
Christian (5:04 pm CST)
AntonyF at Fandom.com's Star Trek Central has put up a report of the recent Fandom.com launch party, which took place on the 29th of October in Santa Monica, California. The launch party featured an appearance by one of the Voyager cast members:

Neil Norman and his Cosmic Orchestra" - a band well known for playing sci-fi greats, kicked off the evening with a piece of music written by Fandom`s Steve Biodrowski. They continued to play sci-fi music through the night including some great Star Trek tunes, X-Files, James Bond and others. The evening got a whole lot better when Tim Russ, none other than Tuvok from Voyager (plus many other Trek roles) turned up. Tim has sung with the band many times before and was going to do so tonight.

Trek News From Italy
Christian (5:03 pm CST)
NOTE: Despite what the title would seem to suggest, there is also news about a few upcoming Voyager episodes in the below update. Click here to avoid those.

Again, this is where you need to click to avoid being spoiled.

Courtesy of this Italian Star Trek site and the Babelfish, below are a few assorted news bits about both Trek in Italy and some upcoming American Voyager episodes.

• Starting on Sunday the 14th of November, TNG will start being shown on the first Italian television channel (Rai Uno?). The episodes will be shown approximately at 18:40.
  
• The publishing company 'Fanucci' is currently translating the 'Star Trek Encylopedia' in Italian, and it is scheduled to be released in the end of 2000.
  
• At the recent STICCON convention, Voyager writer Joe Menosky was apparently interviewed via a telephone connection. In it he said it was still not known whether or not Voyager would return home at the end of the seventh and final season. He also mentioned that the Borg would be returning in an episode featuring a Borg cube populated by children (presumably referring to the previously announced episode 'Collective'). Related to this, an if 'Heading will return the Borg in a pair of' in the Babelfish translation means what I think it does, we will be seeing one more Borg episode this season. Lastly, Menosky said there will be two more 'light' episodes in the spirit of 'Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy'.
  

Note that I don't offer any guarantees about the reliability of this - feel free to check out the Babelfish translation of the site yourself to see what you make of it. Also, if you speak Italian, please visit the actual news site so you can check if my interpretation wasn't too horribly inaccurate :-).

New 'Insurrection: Hidden Evil' Pics
Christian (5:01 pm CST)
EuroGamer has put up five new screenshots of 'Star Trek: Hidden Evil', Activision's adventure game now scheduled for a November 26 release. This follows a short preview which they apparently put up a week ago. You can find the shots by going here - thanks go out to Cyphre at Star Trek: Creative for the link.

Limited Edition Bronze Enterprise Sculpture
Christian (5:01 pm CST)
The official Continuum has put up a short article about a new limited edition bronze sculpture the Franklin Mint has just released, showing the original Enterprise. Take a look at how the Continuum describes the sculpture:

The hot-cast multi-level sculpture, almost 20 inches tall, features red crystal cabachons accenting the warp engines in the nacelles and a custom marble base. This limited edition (only 1701 were created and each serial number is individually hand-numbered) is etched with a reproduction of Matt Jeffries' personal signature on the base. The Enterprise is selectively accented with 24 karat gold, topping the sculpture off with an adorning star dipped in 24 karat gold as well.

Poll Results
Christian (5:01 pm CST)
Below you'll find the results of the previous TrekToday poll, asking you what you thought of last week's Voyager episode 'Riddles':

How would you grade 'Riddles'? 7-8 29.1% - (77 Votes) 9-10 26.1% - (69 Votes) 5-6 18.9% - (50 Votes) Wasn't able to see it 17.8% - (47 Votes) 3-4 4.1% - (11 Votes) 1-2 3% - (8 Votes) Didn't want to see it 0.7% - (2 Votes) Total Votes: 264

Today On TV
Christian (5:00 pm CST)
-On Monday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the superb TOS episode 'The City On The Edge Of Forever'. Be sure to tune in - this really is a great episode.

-On Monday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Past Tense, Part One' at 17:00 and at 23:30 GMT. At 20:00, they'll be showing the new episode 'The Siege of AR-558'. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this!

-On Monday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Die Erpressung'.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (5:00 pm CST)
Take a look at some of the topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-Where are the Federation Council Chambers located? In San Francisco or in Paris?

-Do you think giving Data his emotion chip was a mistake?

-And related to this, what did you think about the TNG episode Brothers?

Lots more discussion topics can be found at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (4:59 pm CST)
If you're reading this on Monday, and didn't have a chance to visit TrekToday over the weekend, be sure to check out yesterday's news - we posted some major news items over the past few days. Fortunately, today is a bit quieter, as I doubt I'd be able to survive more days with such an incredible amount of updates - remind me to never again complain about a lack of news :-)

As usual, treat this as you would any other rumour - none of this has, of course, been officially confirmed. Having said that, what are your thoughts on all this? Let us know at feedback@treknation.com!

'Voyager Conspiracy' Synopsis
Christian (5:03 pm CST)
NOTE: Below you will find all-new spoilers for 'The Voyager Conspiracy', an upcoming Voyager episode. Click here to avoid being spoiled. Remember that, especially for this episode, the element of surprise and mystery will probably be especially important - these spoilers could really ruin your enjoyment of the episode.

Again, this is where you need to click to avoid being spoiled.

Following the news about the rejected Series V concept, our regular source Creep just sent in a short synopsis of 'The Voyager Conspiracy', the Voyager episode airing three weeks from now. Take a look:

In 'The Voyager Conspiracy', Seven of Nine uncovers evidence that suggests that Voyager was actually sent to the Delta Quadrant with the knowledge of Starfleet Command on a very specific mission. As the crew explores the evidence, they realize that what Seven has uncovered seems to patch some interesting inconsistencies related to what happened in the very first episode. Tensions between Starfleet and Maquis run high, but in the end it turns out to be much ado about nothing. Seems some wacky bad guy decided this would be a good way of making Voyager vulnerable to Yet Another Evil Plan. [RESET].

First Upcoming Episode Photos
Christian (5:01 pm CST)
Over at the official Star Trek Continuum, they always put up several photos of the first upcoming episode, together with their general episode preview. Apparently, they usually already upload those photos several weeks before their actual previews, without actually linking to them yet, as TrekToday reader Tara LJC O'Shea found the below rather large set of episode pictures. The photos show scenes from the three upcoming episodes 'One Small Step', 'The Voyager Conspiracy' and 'Pathfinder', all airing during the November sweeps. Below you'll find links to all the photos the Continuum has put up:

• 'One Small Step'
  Photo 1 | Photo 2 | Photo 3

• 'The Voyager Conspiracy'
  Photo 1 | Photo 2 | Photo 3 | Photo 4 | Photo 5 | Photo 6 | Photo 7 | Photo 8 | Photo 9

• 'Pathfinder'
  Photo 1 | Photo 2 | Photo 3 | Photo 4 | Photo 5

Especially the 'Pathfinder' photos are very interesting, as they show both Reginald Barclay and Deanna Troi. Thanks go out to Tara LJC O'Shea for finding these links!

'Hidden Evil' Goes Gold
Christian (5:01 pm CST)
The German Star Trek: Creative is reporting that Activision's new adventure game, 'Star Trek: Hidden Evil', has gone gold (approved for duplication). This was mentioned to 'Star Trek: Creative' by Eric Dallaire at Presto Studios, the company developing the game. Expect the game in stores soon.

Dreamcast 'New Worlds' Preview
Christian (5:01 pm CST)
Jeremy Dunham at IGN DC has put up a preview of 'Star Trek: New Worlds', the first Trek game coming out for Sega's new Dreamcast console. Most of the preview talks about things which were already known from the various PC previews, but it also contains a bit Dreamcast-specific info:

There will be, without a doubt, multi-player options, but the extent of which have yet to be divulged. Whether or not it will be hot seat or Internet play is also up in the air, but either way, being able to go head to head (or perhaps even team up) with a friend and kick some alien ass is always an advantage. According to plans layed out by Sega prior to this year's Autumn TGS, new Worlds will be one of the system's first multi-player online titles, and Interplay has hinted that they are quite interested in developing a format that will support PC to Dreamcast online play. Nothing is set in stone at present, but this is certainly one area we'll be keeping a close eye on in the future.

San Francisco 'Men Cry Bullets'
Christian (5:00 pm CST)
The official Jeri Lynn Ryan Homepage has put up some news about the San Francisco release of 'Men Cry Bullets', the new independent film starring Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine). The film will be showing every Friday and Saturday at midnight at the Roxie Cinema, located at 3117 16th Street in San Francisco.

UPN 'One Small Step' Synopsis
Christian (5:00 pm CST)
NOTE: Below you'll find some major spoilers for 'One Small Step', the Voyager episode airing on the 17th of November. Click here to avoid those.

Again, click here to avoid being spoiled.

UPN has put up the following synopsis for 'One Small Step':

After Voyager is nearly consumed by a massive ball of energy, Janeway launches a probe of the phenomenon and a search for a missing 300-year-old U.S. spacecraft trapped inside the energy field - a vehicle used for the first manned mission to Mars in 2032 - a risky maneuver that may cost the lives of the shuttle crew.

New Sev Trek Cartoon
Christian (4:59 pm CST)

New Decipher Features
Christian (4:59 pm CST)
Decipher, the publisher of the official Star Trek Customizable Card Game has put up several new features, most of them related to the upcoming DecipherCon, taking place next week in Virginia Beach. First of all, now that 30 of the 32 finalists for the CCG World Championships are known, have put up the list of the 10 highest-rated world finalists, presumably based on their tournament scores over the past year. You can find the list by going here.

Secondly, there's a new edition of Radio Free Decipher, in which hosts Carol Wisely and Marcus Certa talk to Decipher web writer Evan Lorentz and Dale Hanak, world championship finalist. You can download the new show here.

IGN Sci-Fi 'Riddles' Review
Christian (4:58 pm CST)
Blake Fischer at IGN Sci-Fi has uploaded his review of 'Riddles', last Wednesday's new Voyager episode. Unlike most other professional reviewers, Fischer was pretty impressed by the episode, awarding it no less than 4 out of 5 stars:

Overall, while this episode was a good solid viewing, the pacing was just a little off, and some of the situations seemed just a little forced. It's admittedly hard to delve into such a deep subject as this episode in an hour and still include some action, but it's managed with a great sense of style that makes this episode worth your time. It looks as if the decision to concentrate on the other characters instead of Seven is paying off, and we look forward to the next episode.

Trek Stars In 'Leprechauns'
Christian (4:58 pm CST)
Tonight at 9:00pm NBC will be airing the first installment of the miniseries 'The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns'. The series was produced by Robert Halmi Sr., famous from 'Noah's Ark' and 'Merlin', and stars two Trek alumni: Colm Meaney (Miles O'Brien) as the leprechaun king, and Whoopi Goldberg (Guinan) as the Grand Banshee. UltimateTV has put up quite an informative article on the miniseries, which also has a short paragraph in which Meaney talks about portraying a leprechaun - you can find it here.

Garrett Wang No-Show
Christian (4:58 pm CST)
You may have been wondering what happened to the live chat with Garrett Wang (Harry Kim), which the official Continuum was supposed to have held this past Thursday, after having already had to postpone it two times. Well, you weren't the only one wondering, as you can see from this hilarious mini-log of the chat:

MarcWade: Garrett has been scheduled to chat with us for the past two weeks. The first time we had to cancel due to Garrett's illness - he had a bad cold and couldn't speak. Very hard to type all that coughing. Last week the shooting schedule for "Star Trek: Voyager" got in the way. Garrett had to spend the entire evening (and into the night) shooting scenes on the bridge with the entire crew. No way to break free for our chat. Tonight we have high hopes for an exciting chat.

[Five minutes later...]

MarcWade: We expect Garrett to arrive here in our offices any minute now. We're all geared up for the chat tonight.

[Another twenty minutes later...]

GarrettW: Hi! Anyone seen Garrett?
MarcWade: Garrett - is that you?
GarrettW: Hello? [...] No Garrett here!
MarcWade: (that's Guy Vardaman typing now in Garrett's place)

[Another five minutes later...]

GarrettW: Garrett's schedule changed and freed him up for a few days, so we've guessed that he left for an impromptu vacation...
MarcWade: or just a long weekend.

[Yet another five minutes later...]

Guy: If you've just joined us, Garrett Wang has not shown up yet.
MarcWade: We think he may have taken a well-deserved long weekend. Guy: We hope nothing has happened to him! If you see him this weekend (anyone going to Vegas?) Please ask him if he's alright!
MarcWade: I'm sure he's fine (don't want to start any rumors). We all had high hopes for tonight. [...] Garrett really DOES want to chat with us. He said so. Things just haven't worked out. We're delighted that you all showed up for this event, though! Thanks everyone!

UPN Sweeps Smackdown
Christian (4:57 pm CST)
UltimateTV is reporting that on the first night of the November sweeps, UPN scored extremely well with its 'WWF Smackdown!' show. The network scored a 4.8 rating / 7 share, matching its best-ever Thursday ratings and also defeating the WB. More important, though, is that among Adults 18-34 UPN was the third place network, among Men 18-34 it was the second place network, and for Teens it even won the top spot! More detailed info on UPN's great 'Smackdown!' ratings can be found in the full report. In related news, TV Guide is reporting (by way of the official WWF site) that Arnold Schwarzenegger will be appearing on next week's edition of the UPN show.

More On 'Hidden Evil' Guide
Christian (4:57 pm CST)
The Daily Radar has put up a somewhat more detailed article on the recent 'Insurrection: Hidden Evil' strategy guide, to be published by BradyGames. One of the things the article contains is a short quote from Lynn Zingraf, BradyGames vice-president:

"Our strategy guide for Star Trek Hidden Evil is the latest of several Star Trek strategy guides from BradyGames. [...] Star Trek is definitely one of the biggest, if not the biggest, science fiction sagas ever created. We're delighted to provide gamers, whether they're old or new fans of Star Trek, with everything they need to get the most out this game in terms of their score and their enjoyment of the game."

Starfleet Academy Museum Aqua-Friendly
Christian (4:56 pm CST)
Great news! Starfleet Academy has announced that its Museum is now accessible to all water-breathing races, following a complaint by the Squog, a water-dwelling race recently allowed into the Federation. Yes, you guessed it, it's another of the official Continuum's rather amusing in-character weekend news updates - you can find the full article here.

Happy Birthday!
Christian (4:56 pm CST)
Completely forgot about this, but yesterday was the 62nd birthday of Harris Yulin, who played Marritza in the superb Deep Space Nine episode 'Duet'.

Today On TV
Christian (4:56 pm CST)
-On Sunday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the TOS episode 'By Any Other Name' at 12:00pm Eastern Time.

-On Sunday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'The Collaborator' at 16:00 GMT, followed an hour later by Voyager's 'Future's End, Part One'. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this.

-On Sunday here in The Netherlands, RTL 5 will be showing DS9's 'The Sword of Kahless' at 18:05 CET.

-On Sunday in Belgium, Kanaal 2 will be showing DS9's 'Rapture'. Thanks go out to the Benelux Star Trek TV Guide for the last two items!

Trek BBS Today
Christian (4:55 pm CST)
Take a look at a few of the threads currently active at the Trek BBS:

-What are your thoughts about the recent reports of Paramount shooting down a Series V concept, and Brannon Braga possibly standing in danger of losing his Voyager Executive Producer position to Ken Biller?

-Did you see the Jeopardy! edition where the ocntestants failed to answer any of the questions about Voyager?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (4:55 pm CST)
And to think that only a few days ago I was complaining about the lack of news - it's been a long time since we've had so much 'real' news to report...

[UPDATE, Saturday, 21:18 CET:] We just put up a letter from an insider, providing all-new info on this whole situation. One of the things he reveals is the content of the first Series V pitch, which, believe it or not, was a series with X-Files influences. Find it all here!

Julia Houston Reviews 'Riddles'
Christian (5:35 pm CST)
Julia Houston at About.com's Star Trek Fans has uploaded her review of 'Riddles', Wednesday's new Voyager episode. Contrary to presumably most other web reviewers, Julia actually liked the episode:

I do like it. I don't love it, and it certainly has its problems, but I felt for Neelix as the man he's liked without response for almost six years finally liked him back. I enjoy the sensitivity Janeway shows to Tuvok even though so very much is at stake. I like the idea that for once the new alien on the ship who is helping them is actually helping them and not using them for some evil end. I like the responses of all the crew to this delicate situation. I like that the reset button is actually part of the story.

Yes, I like it. So there! The rest of you can do your worst.

Trek Books 2001 Schedule
Christian (5:35 pm CST)
David Henderson at Psi Phi sends along word that he's put up Pocket Books' tentative release schedule for the year 2001. The list is quite comprehensive, consisting of nearly two dozen books, though only half of those also include an expected release date. In any case, click here to find the full schedule.

New Sev Trek Competition
Christian (5:34 pm CST)
John Cook at Sev Trek has put up a new edition of the 'Write Your Own Sev Trek' Competition:

Universe 'Pathfinder' Info
Christian (5:33 pm CST)
NOTE: Below you'll find some new info on Voyager's 'Pathfinder' episode, airing four weeks from now. Click here to avoid it.

Again, this is where you need to click to avoid being spoiled.

Michael Iversen at the Star Trek Universe has put up some new info about the Voyager episode 'Pathfinder', after having received info from a Paramount source. First of all, the source said that the Enterprise-E won't be appearing in the episode, despite what Trek archivist Richard Arnold is alleged to have said at the Berlin Galileo-7 convention. Furthermore, the Universe has put up some additional info on the episode:

Basically, Barclay comes up with a way to create a micro wormhole to talk to Voyager. The conversation is brief, but does happen. The story opens with Barclay well on his way to being a complete nutboy. He calls Troi to come counsel him because he's falling apart mentally (what a surprise). He has become obsessed with Voyager, and begins living on the Holodeck, spending time with Holo-recreations of the crew, etc. Admiral Paris makes and appearence and gets a message to Tom.

Final 12" Figure Review
Christian (5:32 pm CST)
The new edition of Eon Magazine contains a review of the fourth wave of 12" action figures from Playmates, one of the last Playmates series before the cancellation of the Trek line at the end of this year. Take a look at how the review begins:

STAR TREK action figure collectors, despair. The last regular wave of Playmates' superb 12" line has hit the shelves. This grouping was originally to include Ricardo Montalban's Khan character from the classic TREK episode "Space Seed" and one other unannounced figure, but late in the game Playmates dropped the Khan figure and replaced it and the unannounced character with Captain Pike from the original series pilot episode "The Cage" and Captain Sisko from DS9. Both of these figures were originally slated to be exclusive mail order releases from STAR TREK COMMUNICATOR, and their placement in the regular assortment is good news for collectors in at least one sense: since STC's Kirk-as-a-Romulan goes for around 70 bucks, collectors can now get Pike and Sisko for less than half what they would have paid for them originally.

Viacom Happy With UPN Ratings
Christian (5:31 pm CST)
It would seem that UPN may still remain part of Viacom after all, even after the recent merger with CBS. Take a look at the following news bit which appeared in today's Studio Briefing:

Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone is cheering the sudden rebound this year of the UPN television network, co-owned with Chris-Craft Industries. With viewership rising 40 percent, due primarily to the success of the wrestling show WWF Smackdown, Redstone sounded ebullient as he told today's Wall Street Journal: "For the first time, we are challenging the WB. ... I can't tell you how pleased we are."

New 'Starfleet Command' Patch
Christian (5:31 pm CST)
Interplay has just released the 1.01.09 Beta Patch for their real-time strategy game 'Starfleet Command', fixing numerous bugs and adding a few game enhancements. Info on the 3.6 MB patch, plus a chance to actually download it, can be found on this page at the Starfleet Universe.

Voyager Crew To Honour Veterans
Christian (5:30 pm CST)
The official Continuum is reporting that the male Voyager crew members (with the exception of Ethan Phillips) will be attending the Veterans Day Salute at the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center. Info on how to also attend the gathering, which will take place on November 11 at 11:00am, can be found in the full article.

'New Worlds, New Civilizations' Review
Christian (5:30 pm CST)
Jeff Bond has written a review of Pocket's coffee table book 'New Worlds, New Civilizations' for the new edition of Eon Magazine. Take a look at how Bond describes the book:

It was a pleasure to pick up NEW WORLDS, NEW CIVILIZATIONS and see an approach to the TREK universe I hadn't seen before. Michael Jan Friedman and Andre Bormanis posit a Federation-wide period of self-reflection following the devastating Dominion War, in which journalists and researchers spread throughout the Federation studying the worlds and cultures represented therein. The result is a kind of deluxe National Geographic issue about the worlds of the Federation, with individual (and unidentified) authors reporting on their own unique and highly personal experiences on planets like Vulcan, Bajor, the planets the Tribbles and the Horta originated from, the home planets of the Klingons, Romulans and Cardassians, and a number of other worlds.

'Riddles' Tube Review
Christian (5:29 pm CST)
Judging from his review at Tube Reviews, reviewer Jeff Bond didn't exactly seem to like 'Riddles'. Awarding the episode a D-, Bond also throws in an analysis of why he believes modern Trek has taken a turn for the worse:

Reading some of the newsgroup fan reaction to this episode (with several viewers actually liking it) makes me think that maybe VOYAGER is successfully playing to the demographic of remaining Trekkers who view the crews of their favorite TREK series as a cuddly surrogate family. Part of the fun of the original STAR TREK was learning, in quite subtle ways, about the affection that all the characters had for each other. But that was evidenced by good writing and some pretty subtle cues in the performances (you may think subtlety is the last thing the old series offered, but a closer look, particularly at the show's first season and a half, may change your mind). THE NEXT GENERATION and particularly VOYAGER serve their warm family feelings on a platter, and the result sometimes plays like TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL in space. It's extremely difficult to take anything about VOYAGER seriously after an episode like "Riddles."

GamesMania 'Hidden Evil' Preview
Christian (5:29 pm CST)
GamesMania has put up a new preview of 'Star Trek: Hidden Evil', Activision's Insurrection-based adventure game scheduled to be released very soon indeed. The preview provides some interesting info on the instruments you will be able to use:

Hidden Evil lets you use all sorts of nifty Star Trek gadgetry. You can keep in contact with Picard and Data by tapping your communicator, asking them for advice, receiving orders, or advising each other of your current situation. You've also got a tricorder, which works particularly well in this style of adventure game. In most adventure games, you'd have a "Look" option. You'd click it on a hotspot and your character would mumble aloud a brief description. In Hidden Evil, you scan areas of interest with your tricorder. It will then give you a basic description and analysis, and those are your clues for what to do at this location. It isn't just a matter of using the tricorder on a hotspot either. Sometimes having your tricorder out is necessary just to detect a hotspot to begin with, a nice variation on the ol' "find hotspot, use item" routine.

'Alien Combat' Trek Toys
Christian (5:29 pm CST)
The official Star Trek Continuum has put up a preview of two fun-looking Trek 9" action figures soon to be released by Playmates - the 'Alien Combat' versions of a Klingon warrior and a Borg drone. Take a look at how the Continuum describes the figures:

The Borg Drone and Klingon Warrior represent an extreme depiction of the characters with rippling muscles and articulated poses. The Klingon even comes with a bat'telh as an accessory.

Another Universe 'Riddles' Review
Christian (5:28 pm CST)
Michelle Erica Green at AnotherUniverse's Mania Magazine has written her review of 'Riddles', Wednesday's new Voyager episode. At the beginning, it almost seems as if Green is extremely impressed by the episode:

A great episode, Roxann Dawson can be justifiably proud of her directing debut and Tim Russ should be lauded for his moving performance. Ethan Phillips was superb as well, playing Neelix as an everyman among heroes. As such, he has become the major character most easy to identify with on the show despite having the least conventional appearance. I greatly enjoyed the depth of his emotional involvement in Tuvok's rehabilitation, and his sadness at the probable loss of the one real soulmate he has on the ship.

Trek Film Makeup Artist Article
Christian (5:28 pm CST)
Oregon Live, apparently an online version of 'The Oregonian', has put up an article about Jeff Dawn, Hollywood makeup artist. Over the past decades, he's worked on over 30 films, the majority of them Arnold Schwarzenegger films, though he also worked on installments three, four and five of the Star Trek films. For those movies, he primarily worked on Spock's ears, a task he said he performed at least 400 times:

A tidbit for Trekkies: The first step in making Mr. Spock is using a hair removal cream on Nimoy's ears to get the fuzz off so that the glue for Mr. Spock's famously pointy ears (a glue-on rubbery appliance) doesn't rip those hairs out upon removal.

"Once, on 'Star Trek IV,' Leonard got called away to the set while I was making him up," Dawn remembers.

"He had the depilatory on his ears when he left. Then I get this call on the radio, 'Jeff, we need you on the set. Leonard's ears are burning.' I burned Spock's ears. Imagine."

Roddenberry Jr. Article
Christian (5:28 pm CST)
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has put up a short interview with Eugene Roddenberry, the son of Star Trek's creator, who's currently one of the people involved in the creation of the upcoming 'Andromeda' television series. This weekend, Roddenberry will be speaking at the Praxis '99 science fiction convention, where he hopes to learn more about his father from talking to fans. In the article, he talks about 'Andromeda', his life as the Great Bird's son, and Gene Roddenberry's philosophies. You can find the article, which was written by John Hayes by going here.

First 'Pathfinder' Image
Christian (5:26 pm CST)
Visual Imaginations Publications has put up a preview of the December 1999 edition of Starburst magazine, their 'ultimate guide to Sci-Fi and Fantasy'. This month, one of the cover features deals with the upcoming Voyager episode 'Pathfinder', airing on the 1st of December. In the feature, they talk to Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi), who will of course be appearing on the episode, together with Dwight Schultz. In the interview, she mentions why she decided to appear as Troi again:

"After I finished on Next Gen, I was reluctant to continue with Troi," she explains. "I wanted to put some distance between myself and Star Trek because, to be honest, I felt that I risked being typecast. But I've seen since then that it really isn't the case. It doesn't typecast you. The fans of Star Trek are the fans of Star Trek, and that's it. It doesn't really bleed into the rest of the entertainment business.

"So when [Voyager's producers] called and asked if I would be interested in doing an episode, I said yes. They then gave me a story outline and I felt very excited about it, especially whey they said that Dwight was going to be in it."

Happy Birthday!
Christian (5:25 pm CST)
Today is the 50th birthday of Armin Shimerman, who starred as the Ferengi barkeep Quark on 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'.

Today On TV
Christian (5:25 pm CST)
-On Saturday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'The Wire' at 16:00 GMT followed an hour later by Voyager's 'Remember'. Thanks go out to Kathryn Hughes for this.

-On Saturday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing the DS9 episode 'Leben in der Holosuite' at 16:05 CET.

-On Saturday here in the Netherlands, the KRO on Nederland 1 will be showing Voyager's 'The Fight'. Thanks go out to the Dutch Star Trek Guide for this.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (5:25 pm CST)
Here are a few of the topics currently being discussed at the Trek BBS:

-Do you also want to see the Gorn return to Star Trek?

-How bad can it get? Take a look at this crossover between Kathryn Janeway and the Backstreet Boys.

Find more at the Trek BBS.

Hello World!
Christian (5:24 pm CST)
Hello Weekend! Hello Huge Pile of Unanswered Email! Hello Guilt Complex!

Overnight 'Riddles' Ratings
Christian (6:50 pm CST)
Greg Fuller at the Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database has put up the Overnight Ratings report for 'Riddles', yesterday's new Voyager episode. News isn't that great:

Voyager took another dip in the overnights this week, seeing "Riddles" fall to a 4.6 rating, 7 share. That's Voyager's lowest overnight in the 9pm timeslot this season, including last week's rerun of "Dark Frontier" and the rerun of "Equinox" before the season premiere.

A Take On The Original Trek
Christian (6:48 pm CST)
Help! Trek Nation columnist Fred Shedian has turned out to be a Bring-Back-Kirker :-)! In his new 'A Take On Trek' column, Fred argues that for the next Star Trek movie, we should once again see the Original Star Trek cast, as a way to give us a good farewell to them and to bring in a higher box office return. You can find the article here.

Trek On 'Jeopardy!'
Christian (6:45 pm CST)
The KJB, webmaster of entertainment news site Backstage Pass, just sent in a report about an upcoming edition of quiz show 'Jeopardy!', which will probably be airing on Friday. It was the Teen Championship, and it had one category devoted entirely to 'Star Trek: Voyager'. Take a look at the KJB's report:

It was the only category that all three contestants missed EVERY question. They only attempted to answer one (Bob Picardo asked what area of the ship he was stuck in before he got the mobile emitter and one of the kids guessed the Bridge). Questions they completely missed:

• Tim Russ asked what race his character was from (he even gave a clue by saying it was the first regular from this race since Spock - I think even Trebek was surprised nobody tried to answer it)
  
• Trapped in the Delta Quadrant, where is Voyager trying to get back to?
  
• Neelix asked what job he was given in order to relive the strain on the ships food replicators.

The kids looked like three deer in the lights of an oncoming semi truck.

More 'Insurrection' Info
Christian (6:44 pm CST)
Yesterday's 'Insurrection' tidbits seem to have triggered a whole batch of new info to appear on the film. First of all, the Flagship is reporting that the film will be shown on the Super Écran channel Québec, Canada this Saturday at 21:00. Also, the Flagship is reporting that the film has been released in at least the following countries: Australia, Finland, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States.

Secondly, Tatsumi Nabeta at the U.S.S. Kyushu (an English-language site about Trek in Japan) sent in some extra information to us about the film's Japanese release. The price of the videos, which will be released on the 27th of November, does indeed lie at 16,000 Japanese Yen (over $100) right now, as this is the rental version. The video is available in 3 versions: Bilingual, Caption, and Caption with widescreen, while a laserdisc version is also available. The low-price version will be released in May 2000.

'Dragon's Teeth' Press Release
Christian (6:44 pm CST)
NOTE: Below you will find spoilers for 'Dragon's Teeth', next week's Voyager episode. Click here to avoid them.

Again, click here to avoid being spoiled.

David Henderson at Psi Phi has put up the official Paramount press release for 'Dragon's Teeth'. As usual, this also includes a short synopsis of the episode:

The Voyager runs afoul of hostiles when the ship becomes enmeshed in a subspace corridor, leading to an encounter with the vengeful survivors of a devastated world who plot to hijack the ship in order to retaliate against their ancient enemies.

Cinescape Reviews 'Riddles'
Christian (6:44 pm CST)
Over at Cinescape Online, Michael Marek has put up his review of 'Riddles', yesterday's new Voyager episode. Take a look at what how he sums up his feelings about the episode:

In the final analysis, "Riddles" that has character interplay that is stronger and more memorable than the story line itself. The end of the episode contains the suggestion that some hint of the fun loving, emotional version of Tuvok may remain after the Vulcan returns to "normal." If the Voyager production team has the guts to allow a permanent change in one of its characters, it could result in some interesting character growth in the episodes ahead.

Canadian Emmy Awards
Christian (6:43 pm CST)
Fandom.com has put up a report about the 14th annual Gemini awards, often described as the 'Canadiam Emmy Awards'. One of the series nominated this year is Gene Roddenberry's 'Earth: Final Conflict', which was nominated for Best Photography in a Dramatic Program or Series and Best Sound Editing in a Dramatic Program or Series. You can find the full list of nominations here. Thanks go out to BW for this.

World Tour Reaches Singapore
Christian (6:43 pm CST)
According to a news story on the official Star Trek Continuum, the 'Star Trek World Tour' will be opening in Singapore on the 6th of December, after already having made stops in Düsseldorf (Germany) and Vienna (Austria). Take a look at how the official Continuum describes the World Tour:

The Star Trek World Tour is a travelling show like no other, featuring a Star Trek Museum and a retail area. There will be special guests and a tour of the U.S.S. Enterprise including a thrilling adventure aboard the storied craft.

'Hidden Evil' Guide Announced
Christian (6:43 pm CST)
GamesMania is reporting that BradyGames will be publishing the official strategy guide for 'Star Trek: Hidden Evil', Activision's upcoming adventure game based on the 'Insurrection' film. The guide will consist of 200 pages, and will sell for $19.95. The original article on this can be found here.

Today On TV
Christian (6:43 pm CST)
-On Friday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the TOS episode 'The Alternative Factor'.

-On Friday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Fascination' at 17:00 and at 23:30 GMT. Thanks go out to the Television Observation Unit of the Star Trek Collective for this.

-On Friday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Die Schlacht um Ajilon Prime' at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (6:42 pm CST)
As was to be expected, most new threads at the Trek BBS today deal with the new Voyager episode 'Riddles'. Here's a sample:

-Read da Woim's review of the movie. After that, give your own thoughts on the episode.

-Are the Vulcans admired in the Federation?

More topics can be found at the Trek BBS.

Hello World!
Christian (6:42 pm CST)
There really is nothing in this world which is more fun than accidentally saving a blank file over your collected news items, right after finishing them and preparing to post them to the site. Hello huge setback.

Robert Duncan McNeill News
Christian (6:56 pm CST)
The web site of RanDoM Flight, the official fan club of Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris), has been updated again, including some interesting news tidbits on the Voyager actor. Perhaps most interesting is the news that UPN will be showing McNeill's new film 'Monster!' on Friday the 12th of November. McNeill didn't star in the movie, which is described as 'an homage to the creature features of the 1950's', but instead produced it.

Secondly, McNeill will shortly begin production on his newest short feature, '9mm of Love'. In the film, which is described as a parody of the Tarantino-style gangland genre, "the hitman goes on a final job only to find out that he's actually ... Cupid!" Shooting begins on November 20 on Paramount's backlots.

Lastly, RanDoM Flight has also put up a set of photos which were taken at the recent Second Annual Galaxy Ball, hosted by Robert Beltran (Chakotay) and attended by nearly the full cast. Most of the pictures of course show Robert McNeill, but there are also several photos showing the rest of the cast - including a full cast photo also showing Jennifer Lien (Kes)! You can find the photos here.

'Dragon's Teeth' Promo
Christian (6:55 pm CST)
Mr. Video Productions has put up the trailer for next week's Voyager episode, 'Dragon's Teeth'. The trailer doesn't provide any major story points, but it does contain some of the most gorgeous special effects I've ever seen on Star Trek - hopefully the full episode will look just as good. You can download the clip at Vidiot, or via the somewhat faster TrekToday mirror.

International Insurrection Videos
Christian (6:55 pm CST)
Will news about this film never end? The Flagship has just updated with some new info on the British and Japanese releases of the 'Insurrection' home video. First of all, the site mentions that 'Insurrection' will be available in the UK starting the 1st of November, but then only as part of a box set featuring all Trek movies. The standalone version will be released on the 27th of December in both a pan-and-scan (£15.99) and a widescreen (£16.99) version.

Secondly, in Japan the video will apparently be released on the 26th of November. The Flagship lists a price of more than a hundred dollar, but somehow I doubt that is correct.

Lastly, Gustavo Leao wrote in with info on the Brazilian video, which was released in a pan-and-scan version last month, only for rental. The movie, which flopped during its theatrical release in Brazil, has been a top ten rental video for several weeks now.

'Dark Frontier' National Ratings
Christian (6:55 pm CST)
Greg Fuller at the Star Trek Nielsen Ratings Information Database has posted the final ratings report for last week's 'Dark Frontier'. For a rerun, the ratings were rather good:

As would be expected, "Dark Frontier" performed well for a rerun, earning a 2.8 rating, 5 share. That's Voyager's top rerun since this January's rerun of "Drone." The second half of the show performed better than the first half; however, the national numbers were not reported for the separate hours.

Plummer In 'The Insider'
Christian (6:55 pm CST)
The official Star Trek Continuum has just posted a news report about Christopher Plummer, who starred as General Chang in 'Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country'. Apparently Plummer will soon be seen on 'The Insider', a new movie opening on Friday the 5th of November. In the film, Plummer plays the role of '60 Minutes' anchorman Mike Wallace. Take a look at what the film deals with:

"The Insider" depicts the true story of tobacco executive-turned-whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand (played by Russell Crowe) and his relationship with "60 Minutes" producer Lowell Bergman (played by Al Pacino).

Today On TV
Christian (6:54 pm CST)
-Today at 9:00pm, UPN will be showing the new Voyager episode 'Riddles'. Take a look at how UPN describes the episode:

During negotiations with the Kesat government, Tuvok is zapped by a powerful energy force, suffers severe neurological trauma and emerges as a mere shell of his former self. Meanwhile Janeway searches for the mythical species responsible for the attack hopes of finding a cure.

-On Thursday in Australia, Foxtel's TV1 will be showing TNG's 'Angel One' at 7:30pm. They'll be repeating the episode at 2:00am on Friday morning. Thanks go out to Jamie McGregor for this.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (6:54 pm CST)
Within a few hours the Trek BBS will of course be filled with posts about 'Riddles', tonight's Voyager episode, but for now there are already a few interesting threads:

-Did you also hate Insurrection's 'Manual Steering Column'?

-What did you think about the trailer for next week's Dragon's Teeth episode?

Find more topics at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (6:54 pm CST)
Do you know what the most exasperating experience in the world is? Watching DS9's 'Sons and Daughters' (the third episode in the six-episode Dominion War arc) together with someone who's never seen Deep Space Nine before. The first question she asked - 'Where is Seven?' The second - 'What happened before this?' That was when I had to launch a ten-minute crash course to the entire DS9 backstory, which certainly isn't something I'd wish on my worst enemy. Why couldn't the creators have made DS9 just a little bit less comples and a little dumber? That way I'd actually be able to watch an episode instead of recite the plotline of all previous episodes :-).

Major thanks go out to Marcus for sending this in! If you speak German, be sure to check out Starbase 8 for the full report.

Galaxy Ball Photos
Christian (6:04 pm CST)
The official Robert Beltran Homepage has posted a set of six photos from the Galaxy Ball 1999, which took place this weekend in Los Angeles. All the photos show Robert Beltran (Chakotay), who hosted the event - unfortunately none of the other cast members seem to be present on the photos. Still, they're well worth a look - click here to see them.

Roxann Dawson Interview
Christian (6:04 pm CST)
The newly opened Fandom.com has posted an interview with Roxann Dawson, best known for her role as B'Elanna Torres on 'Star Trek: Voyager'. The article, which was written by Anna L. Kaplan, deals mostly with her directorial debut 'Riddles', airing tomorrow. Besides that, though, the article also contains info on a few of Dawson's other projects, including a guest spot on UPN's 'Seven Days' as captain of a naval vessel stationed near Taiwan, and her second career as a writer:

Dawson not only acts, directs, sings, and dances; she also writes. She and her writing partner Daniel Graham have been working on a trilogy of science fiction novels, the first called, ENTERING TENEBREA. Dawson noted, "We have completed the second novel of the trilogy, and we are being told the first two books of the trilogy will be released at the same time, by Simon and Schuster, in hardback, in May of 2000. Then we begin working on the third one, probably next month. We'll start outlining it over the phone."

New 'Episode Café' Edition
Christian (6:04 pm CST)
I noticed over at the German Star Trek Index that the folks over at Radio Trek have put up another edition of their 'Episoden Café' program, in which each month a specific Trek episode is discussed. This month, the theme is "'The Search' - The start of DS9's success?" Personally I'd say that was 'Emissary', but I suppose for some people Deep Space Nine didn't really become a success until the Dominion was introduced. In any case, you can find the actual show here.

'Virtuoso' Episode Details
Christian (6:04 pm CST)
NOTE: Below you will find spoilers for the upcoming Voyager episode 'Virtuoso'. Click here to avoid reading those spoilers.

Again, click here to avoid being spoiled.

According to Warp Eleven, at the recent Galaxy Ball Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris) provided some info on the upcoming Voyager episode 'Virtuoso', which was previously described as another humourous Doctor episode. Take a look:

Actor Paul Williams is in the show. He's part of an alien race of short people who have lots of technology, but no music. The Doc introduces them to music and becomes like a rock star.

Lansing's Power Drops To No. 15
Christian (6:03 pm CST)
The most recent edition of Fortune Magazine contained their listing of the 50 most powerful women in the United States. Also present on that list was Sherry Lansing, head of the Motion Picture Group at Paramount, and thereby also the executive in charge of Trek. On Fortune's list, Lansing dropped from no.5 to no.15, which was mostly due to the fact that last year was such an extraordinary succesful year for Paramount (with 'Titanic' and 'Saving Private Ryan'), that even this year's hits such as 'Runaway Bride' and 'The General's Daughter' couldn't even begin to hope to achive the same success for the studio.

Ryan On 'Dilbert' Tonight
Christian (6:02 pm CST)
Tonight at 8:30pm, UPN will be showing the second season premiere of 'Dilbert', the animated series based on the cartoon character. Besides the debut of Dildad, this episode will also feature Dilbert's Seven of Nine alarm clock, voiced by Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) herself.

Garrett Wang Chat On Thursday
Christian (6:02 pm CST)
This Thursday, the Continuum is planning to host a live chat with Garrett Wang (Harry Kim), after it was already postponed twice in the past few weeks. As usual, you can still submit advance questions or get info on how to participate.

Galaxy Ball Report
Christian (6:02 pm CST)
The official Continuum has put up a report about the second annual Galaxy Ball, which took place this weekend in Los Angeles. The event was hosted by Robert Beltran (Chakotay), and benefited the Down Syndrome Association of Los Angeles (DSALA). Apparently the event was quite enjoyable:

The benefit event [...] brought in Star Trek fans from around the world. "We had people come in from England, Germany, Holland, Spain, even Indonesia." said [DSALA Executive Director Nancy] Hall. The affair was an all day event, with guest speakers holding discussions during the afternoon and the star-studded Galaxy Ball in the evening. With an assortment of entertrainment including comedy from Ethan Phillips (Neelix), cabaret and songs from Beltran, Russ, Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris) and Robert Picardo (The Doctor) plus a live auction hosted by the Captain.

Poll Results
Christian (6:02 pm CST)
Below you'll find the results of the most recent TrekToday poll, asking you about your favourite episodes of the season so far:

What has been your favourite episode of the season so far? 'Tinker, Tenor, Doctor, Spy' 46.8% - (161 Votes) 'Equinox, Part Two' 15.9% - (55 Votes) 'Barge of the Dead' 15.1% - (52 Votes) Saw none of the episodes 9.5% - (33 Votes) 'Survival Instinct' 9% - (31 Votes) 'Alice' 3.4% - (12 Votes) Total Votes: 344

Please also participate in the new poll, which asks you how you feel about the idea of a possible Star Trek prequel series.

Today On TV
Christian (6:01 pm CST)
-On Wednesday in the United States, the Sci-Fi Channel will be showing the TOS episode 'Devil in the Dark' at 5:00pm Eastern Time.

-On Wednesday in the United Kingdom, Sky One will be showing DS9's 'Defiant' at 17:00 and at 23:30 GMT. Thanks go out to the Television Observation Unit of the Star Trek Collective for this.

-On Wednesday in Germany, Sat.1 will be showing DS9's 'Das Schiff' at 15:00 CET.

Trek BBS Today
Christian (6:01 pm CST)
Here's the usual look at some of the most interesting discussions currently going on at the Trek BBS:

-Have you read the 'Strange New Worlds' Trek short story anthologies?

-Take a look at few starship diagrams created by the moderator of our Trek Tech forum.

Find more at the Trek BBS!

Hello World!
Christian (6:01 pm CST)
It appears my prayers have been answered - following the stunning lack of news over the past few days, there's now a nice amount of good news again. Enjoy.