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I can't believe I'm the only one to see the irony of this bill being proposed by somebody named Landrieu! And you call yourself geeks!

Wrong, correct, no, yes.

Journey's End

And in Star Trek, anyone can time travel...

One of them Horta creatures from Star Trek Original Series.

When NASA could be bringing one of these to life!

Saw this on Star Trek once.... http://www.startrek.com/library/tng_episodes/episo des_tng_detail_68518.asp

This book from David Gerrold, entitled "Jumping Into Space" has a real good explanation of the logistics, economics, and politics of beanstalks.
I would highly recommend it to anyone who has questions about the safety precautions (wrapping around the planet!), communities (cities halfway up, agriculture all over it), and consequences (he who controls the stalk, controls the universe!).

Mr. Gerrold is an excellent writer, cutting his teeth on Star Trek, and then writing the excellent Ch'tor books.

Actually, the video quality of TiVo in it's "normal" quality is pretty bad. Very visible compression artifacts. My cheap VCR kicks its ass. To get decent quality, you have to crank TiVo up to a setting that eats up disk space quickly.

It's a good thing that upgrading the disk space is so cheap. I started with 14 GB, but added another 30 within a month or two. On the 20" TV I was using before, most programs recorded fine at high quality. (Best quality gets used for stuff like Enterprise that I save to SVCD, while medium quality is sufficient for talking-head programs such as Fox News Sunday.)

The artifacts are a bit more obvious on the 27" TV I just bought, though...maybe it's the result of now being able to use S-video out on the TiVo instead of composite out. Time to grab a bigger drive to make recording everything at best quality feasible...it should be possible to replace the two drives with a single 120-GB drive and end up with more recording time at best quality than I currently have at high quality.

Basic quality, BTW, sucks eggs...is that what you meant by "normal quality?" It's barely usable for talking-head news shows, and you can forget about using it for anything with even a little action.

I think this is how the borg was created...

I thought you just had a measuring device for Odo.

...we lose the motivation to end it.

There is an original Star Trek episode that discusses this very topic -- A Taste of Armageddon.

send out satellites to the furthest reaches of the galaxy proclaiming the gift to all Life, everywhere

No mam, Sci-Fi doesn't rot your brains out, it's educational!

Well, the Federation won't be exposed to true-to-life holodeck technology until 2151 when the Enterprise meets up with the Xyrillians. It's a while to wait, but worth it I bet. :)

Doesn't sound like anything I've ever seen on tv before . I'm amazed by this guy's ingenuity.

The Game

It's the only one I ever watched.

It seems to me that we strive to create things that, if sucessful, become addictive. I think it's the nature of humans, to seek pleasure. That we can't control it is one of our great, tragic, and sometimes fatal weaknesses.

Somebody better tell the Kazon. Not to mention the Visitors!

Patrick Stewart will be reprising his one man "A Christmas Carol" in LA and NYC for two weeks in December. All proceeds from the 12/28 performance will be going to a September 11th charity.

Star Trek Captains in Solo Shows

Ticketmaster link for NYC shows

I missed this the last time he did it, so I'm glad to get another opportunity to see him perform.

Well he (Spiner) wanted them to kill Data during Insurrection. But consider ... even if they do kill him, he could just reappear because of some time travel plot. So it doesn't matter either way.

Think about it...Kirk did it in Generations. How many times has he died anyway? Spock did it in Star Trek III (but that was not time travel,) Scotty did it in Relics and Data did it too in Time's Arrow.

Does anyone actually believe Kirk is dead? Does anyone actually believe that Data can stay dead, even if Spiner doesn't want to play him?

Well he (Spiner) wanted them to kill Data during Insurrection. But consider ... even if they do kill him, he could just reappear because of some time travel plot. So it doesn't matter either way.

Think about it...Kirk did it in Generations. How many times has he died anyway? Spock did it in Star Trek III (but that was not time travel,) Scotty did it in Relics and Data did it too in Time's Arrow.

Does anyone actually believe Kirk is dead? Does anyone actually believe that Data can stay dead, even if Spiner doesn't want to play him?

Star Trek X is the tenth Star Trek movie (X is 10 in roman numerals).

Oh yeah, and this one...

http://www.startrek.com/production/startrekx/defau lt.asp

Eric

Here you go...

http://www.startrek.com/production/startrekx/artic les/092401.html

Eric

Depending on how successful Spiner is in his negotiations, maybe the the movie will open with Data's severed head on a table.

They tried that.

It didn't work.

:-P

Depending on how successful Spiner is in his negotiations, maybe the the movie will open with Data's severed head on a table.

They tried that.

It didn't work.

:-P

Is it just me, or are these newer gen handhelds looking more and more like Star Trek Communicators? This one looks a lot like the Mularian communicators from the Enterprise: Civilization episode last night. I guess it's fitting that it runs Linux.

Trip and Archer with equipment

Regards,
Reid

He saved the Enterprise from the nanites, if we can just get him to talk to these nanobots before they hurt us, I'm sure everything will be alright....

Or gay. I think Wil is a hottie, but Connor Trinneer or Dominic Keating would have a better chance with me. No offence, Wil. ::GRIN::

Or gay. I think Wil is a hottie, but Connor Trinneer or Dominic Keating would have a better chance with me. No offence, Wil. ::GRIN::

Would Microsoft's Luna look like it does without Apple's Aqua?

Yes. I mean, just put them side by side for crying out loud! How can you think Luna was derived from Aqua?

If you squint at Luna, it looks more like LCARS than Aqua. Maybe Paramount should sue MS instead of Apple.

steveha

Of course, that was 100 years before Muldair joined Enterprise-D. ;-)

Of course, that was 100 years before Muldair joined Enterprise-D. ;-)

Great! So now the government AND RIAA (is there any difference anymore?) want to hack my computer. What kind of country is this? Apparently freedom is only granted to those with the money. Matthew Lesko should put that in his book.

We really need to start writing our congressmen and explaining the truth to them about technology. Has everyone written their congressmen yet? With so much bad legislation being proposed, one or two are bound to get passed.

There is another solution, though: transphasic torpedoes. They took out the bork with one shot in the last episode of Star Trek Voyager; perhaps they can take out Uncle Bill's cube before he assimilates the entire government and media!

I would have like to have had the chance to participate in this discussion, but I was asleep :(

If there is anyone still reading, let me ask you this. Do you watch TV? If so, is there anything that you like to watch religiously? Enterprise? Coronation Street? Friends back before it Jumped the Shark? And did you ever go out and forget to tape it, then ring your mom or your mate, ask them to tape it? Well unless they can break into your house, say goodbye to that.

Because DRM will also apply to TV. Programs will be copy protected. So you will be able to tape a first-run episode of The Sopranos, but only if you don't watch it at the same time, and you will only be able to watch it once. Or that old Friends episode, that's been on loads of times, so you will be able to tape it and watch it however many times you want, but don't expect to be able to lend it to your girlfriend's dad so he can watch it too.

This is not stuff that will affect geeks only. We need to be telling people about this, people outside of the napsterriffic MP3 downloaders.

Here's an idea. Find out your TD/MP/Congressman/Tribal leader's favourite programme. I'm sure that this sort of person regularly has to get someone to tape the News to see if theyre on it, or Bull Island to see if they're on that. Then tell them that they will not be able to do that within 3 years.

Then see how long this shit lasts...

I think that the new interfaces will be voice recognition and voice generation. Like in StarTrek, Commander, I need warp speed now. Its alot faster to talk to the computer than write, also to listen to a computer could be better in some situations. For example if you should read a loooong report or so, just hit the text-to-voice-generation (tm) button, tune in a soft voice and lean back in the couch. But there are several problems, how should the computer get the voice right, depending on situation. for example irony/sarcasm. Or how should it interpret spoken sentences, there are a varity of meanings of the same sentence. Perhaps if it is composed with direct manipulation so gestures can be interpreted to. It could work with a scanning of the face to get facial expressions that can signal emotion, add emphasis to the speech and support the interaction in a dialogue situation.

But inventing that kind of "wheel" is really hard, at least with the technology we have today. But were on the way of getting there, in the mean time check out this link about Talking Heads, and no it's not about that music group.

And antimatter power is always 150 years away!

As to the timeline, check it out here.

Frankly you come off as a know-it-all kid loudly boasting he can do something better - what have you done?

The true story is that The Original Series' effects budget couldn't possibly cope with landing the Enterprise or even a shuttle in every episode.

Not to mention how long these sequences would take. They landed Voyager a couple of times and each time there was a big hubbub, and I think it took about 2-3 minutes to land the ship. When a program only has 46 minutes per episode, 2 minutes is a hell of a lot to waste. Granted, they could cut it down if it was every episode, or just say "land the ship" and cut to a pic of the ship on the planet, but transporters opened up a whole other avenue from which to draw stories. Among all the ST series there have probably be at least 20 episodes that revolved around "transporter mishaps". Like when Geordi and Ro got transported into another phase of existence and everybody thought they were dead. They could walk through walls, but how come they didn't fall through the floor off the ship? How did they get in a shuttle and fly to the Romulan ship? Or how about when Dr Pulaski got that old-age virus thing and they used the transporter to re-sequence/filter her DNA with a hair follicle from a brush of hers? If they can do that, why don't they do that every time somebody has screwy DNA problems?

These are just a couple of the little mistakes that I love to find and laugh at, but don't really subtract from my enjoyment of the show.

The true story is that The Original Series' effects budget couldn't possibly cope with landing the Enterprise or even a shuttle in every episode.

Not to mention how long these sequences would take. They landed Voyager a couple of times and each time there was a big hubbub, and I think it took about 2-3 minutes to land the ship. When a program only has 46 minutes per episode, 2 minutes is a hell of a lot to waste. Granted, they could cut it down if it was every episode, or just say "land the ship" and cut to a pic of the ship on the planet, but transporters opened up a whole other avenue from which to draw stories. Among all the ST series there have probably be at least 20 episodes that revolved around "transporter mishaps". Like when Geordi and Ro got transported into another phase of existence and everybody thought they were dead. They could walk through walls, but how come they didn't fall through the floor off the ship? How did they get in a shuttle and fly to the Romulan ship? Or how about when Dr Pulaski got that old-age virus thing and they used the transporter to re-sequence/filter her DNA with a hair follicle from a brush of hers? If they can do that, why don't they do that every time somebody has screwy DNA problems?

These are just a couple of the little mistakes that I love to find and laugh at, but don't really subtract from my enjoyment of the show.

Be mindful that Rick Berman himself said that he would much rather take an artistic license with regards to the series versus attempting to antiquate the technology. The original pilot had TV screens attached to lamp-like posts you'd find on a desk - this was the "best" of the 60's.

A good interview article explains some of their intepretations of the beginning era of Starfleet and why things look the way they do (i.e. Klingons in the new style versus the old).

http://www.startrek.com/production/seriesv/article s/071901.html

The guys who are producing this, Rick Berman & Brannon Braga, are the same pair who ruined Voyager. (Jeri Lynn Zimmermann Ryan, aka 7 of 9, ditched her husband, Jack Ryan, for Brannon Braga).

Maybe s/p 9-11-2001, the scripts will get a little more edge to them, but I imagine that the first half season's worth of episodes are already in the can.

Minor details:

1) The Vulcan Science Officer has lousy diction. Diction, or enunciation, is the lifeblood of acting (or singing, for that matter), and is especially important for an actor or actress playing a Vulcan.

2) There was a lot of foul language; I seem to recall both "bitch" and "hell" being uttered in the family hour.

Ok Michael I get the False Cynicism :P

Before people go and assume things about the show lets see what we got stacked up so far.
Production Quality
From the moment that klingon fired his phaser at the corn silo, you could see effects qualities on par with not so recent films such as twister. The letterbox Format was sweet on my non HDTV tv, I know UPN does broadcast digital so it was probably on par with a full theater production for those with the proper setup. The explosion was very nicely done with many particles flying everywhere. Question is, how did they do that? Set's actually pulled you into the storyline. You could tell attention to detail was the primary goal of the directors. Makeup was great as was the props. It was a completely new look that had no resemblance to ST STNG STDSN, well none of em.. Awesome!
Storyline
The story at this point seems to revolve around scott bakula's character, with his flashbacks to his childhood where his father is the inventor of the warp 4.5 engine. He holds a very visible (and at one point very vocal!) attitudes towards Vulcan's for not giving his father the equivalent of killing the goose. First episode, he got into fist fights, used the first phaser, got acid trails, got some nookie, AND on top of all this had badass space battle scenes. It was all glued together very well, the plot was not as predictable as I thought it was going to be.
My Thoughts
I'm amazed to see Scott Bakula playing such a physically demanding role. I hope the writers understand that this is his ticket, ACTION AND FIGHTING W00T. Kirk and Spock were best buddies, Vulcan's and humans had hung out for 200 years by then. Captain archers distain and Commander archer's relationship blended together well, but lacked the friendship aspect that Kirk and Spock had. You could tell that Sneaky Vulcan is going to have more secrets throughout the show. I predict he basic elements of the show (weekly focus change to different characters, new species, new planets) will remain the same. Star trek is about a voyage of discovery.
And a question to paramount webserver admins.
I went to the website and found myself asking. What was the server load?

--Toq

~~~Moderators take note, I posted this with my real account. Unlike the karma whoring anonymous cowards I stand behind my opinions.

http://startrek.com/launch/default.asp
go figure....

on startrek.com It looks like this episode will be the first contact of the humans and the Klingon Empire. There is great tension in the video clip between Archer and the human commanders and the Vulcans who believe the humans aren't ready for interstellar diplomacy yet. They will obviously be proven right and the war with the Klingons will ensue as a result of Archer's actions.

I'm looking forward to watching the episode which relates what Jean-Luc Picard later referred to as "A poorly handled first contact [which] led to decades of war with the Klingon Empire."(said in a episode where Riker and a couple of other under-cover agents investigating a planet that is a candidate for contact were discovered, don't remember the episode name, but it was a decent one)

Steven

Q: Have you heard from Dean [Stockwell] since you got the role?

SB: No. He called me on Father's Day,but we missed. I have not talked to him. But wouldn't that be great if we could get him on [as a guest on Enterprise]? It has to be; we've got to do it. But put him in a big mask so he can be miserable for once! [Laughs]

Q: Are they telling you to avoid anything? Like, don't say, "Oh boy."

SB: They haven't written it on the page, and I won't be ad-libbing it! [Laughs] No, I'm not avoiding anything. Certainly, if we got to a place where Dean was a part of a show, that would be walking a very thin line if he was a guest. But no, there's no directive about, "Scott don't do this" and I'm not really watching myself. Look, a lot of Sam Beckett was a part of me, and a lot of this captain is a part of me -- I haven't split off personalities between then and now. There will be similarities. I'm just older.

Pretty interesting stuff.

Is it just me, or does the newly rendered Planet Vulcan look like something out of a level from Quake?

How about Seven of Nine on Boston Public ?

Lets hope the knowledge and technology gained from this doesn't fall into the wrong hands. We all know what happened last time that happened.

1. divx
2. porn
3. star trek voyager

This invalidates yet another Voyager plot . . .

First Contact

Endgame

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