Star Trek: Stardate 2002 Calendar
You know how by the time you remember to go get a desk calendar for next year, they're already sold out of the one you wanted and you have to settle for one of the half-price leftovers with pictures of the Backstreet Boys or poodles? Make sure to pick up your Star Trek Stardate calendar over the summer before they're gone. The wall calendars for 2002 are pretty good as always, but the page-a-day calendars get better every year, which is quite surprising considering that the publishers have to come up with over 300 pictures each year that we haven't already seen a hundred times. While other page-a-day calendars start recycling material and using cheaper paper, however, the Trek version has gotten glossier, with better layout and more detail in the captions.
The photos are slightly smaller this year than last to make room for the communicator logo on each page. But the colors are brighter, while the photos look clearer and have better contrast than ever before. And what photos! Some of my (totally subjective) favorite dates include July 20, when Riker eats "Conspiracy" worms; August 22, depicting a very drunken Scotty from "By Any Other Name"; September 4, featuring Jake confessing his love to Kira in "Fascination"; and October 15, a tribute to Mark Lenard as Sarek. Kirk fans ought to be very pleased at the variety of wonderful shots: on March 8 we're graced with a shirtless Kirk from "The Deadly Years," on April 5 we get Kirk and Uhura in skimpy "Mirror, Mirror" outfits, while on August 5 it's Kirk with that cute little curl on forehead from "Return of the Archons."
Female crewmembers are well-represented, with lots of photos of Kes -- as many as of Seven -- and a good balance of Jadzia and Ezri, including the sexy bad-girl mirror versions. Troi eats an ice cream sundae at the end of August and appears twice with her mother in January and July. May 10 shows Kira and Odo together from "Shadows and Symbols," June 27 has a gorgeous photo of Uhura from "Plato's Stepchildren," July 15 features the Delaney Sisters, and my personal favorite woman from the Trek universe, Kai Winn, glowers on May 20.
Slash fans will appreciate the end of June, since on the 28th the photo's of Chakotay and Paris looking hot together in "False Profits," followed the next day by Garak and Bashir sharing one of their breakfast tete-a-tetes. May 14 shows a smiling Torres and Seska conspiring against the captain in "Prime Factors"; September 16 has a nice photo of Nick Locarno and Wesley Crusher on trial. Each actor's photo marks his or her birthday, while July 4th is celebrated with Kirk reading the E Plebnista! Everyone will find something to like in this little calendar -- still one of the best buys in Trek collectibles. Buy It!
Star Trek: Stardate 2001 Calendar
Calendars always make useful and popular presents, so Pocket Books has been printing them in increasing numbers every year. During the 2001 holiday season you can choose among six. My favorite by far is the Stardate 2001 Desk Calendar, which has different color photos for each day of the year. The 365 pages cover all four shows and the movies, with some rare images from original series episodes and lots of never-before-published DS9 stills. You can see through Janeway's blouse on March 23 and enjoy Dax's tissue-paper dress on Rosh Hashanah. At $12, this collection of postcard-quality images can't be beat.
Many people like the larger photos on wall calendars, so Pocket Books also publishes one for each series, plus, this year, a special Ships of the Line edition honoring the vessels of Starfleet. The Voyager wall calendar takes the unprecedented step of including a publicity shot of Kate Mulgrew, Roxann Dawson and Jeri Ryan, out of makeup and wearing black dresses, which may delight fans of the actresses, yet annoy fans of Janeway, Torres and Seven. There's a lovely shot of the Borg Queen, but no Kes. If you want your women of Voyager without any of the male cast-members interspersed, Pocket publishes a postcard book, The Women of Star Trek: Voyager, which features several lovely photos of Kes as well as Janeway in her tuxedo from "The Killing Game," and Seven of Nine in several different catsuits.
Star Trek: Stardate 2000 Calendar
I already have three of the six Pocket Books calendars. The Trek-a-Day calendar, which improves each year, is a fabulous item since the photos are now in color. Get a different photo each day of the week, with a good mix of all four series and the films, plus a few production shots. Not so tantalizing is the outrageously overpriced Women of Star Trek calendar, which is about half the size of a regular wall calendar and doesn't include a single photo of Kai Winn.
And who's the genius that chose Seven of Nine rather than Janeway to represent Voyager on the cover? I'll excuse the presence of Dax instead of Kira because they get similar screen time, but sticking Trek's first woman captain on the back so Seven's breasts can protrude on the front is inexcusable. At least Majel Roddenberry gets the respect she's due. The top-heavy Seven of Nine-worshipping Voyager calendar isn't an improvement, since we get a few photos of the scruffy-looking minor males on the crew and lots of Barbie of Borg. This is a good year to stick to Deep Space Nine nostalgia -- they even included Cardassians!
Star Trek: Stardate 1999 Calendar
As usual, there are six Official Pocket Books calendars to consider. Four are glossy monthlies for $12 apiece featuring shots from the various series. My favorite this year is Classic Trek, which uses gorgeous, loud neon colors on the costumes, the sets, even some of the alien skin tones. The Voyager calendar looks downright drab in comparison, especially considering the creators stuck in a boring photo of Kate Mulgrew on the bridge when they could have put in one of her in that dyke's dream white tux from "The Killing Game."
The page-a-day Trek calendar this year is a revelation. Instead of icky black and white photos, your desk can now be enlivened daily with full-color shots from the four series and the films, featuring the actors and producers on their birthdays. Shot for shot, there's too much Jeri Ryan for my taste, but this photo collection is a real treasure; buy one to rip up and another to save. It's worth the money ($12) far more than the weekly appointment book.
Star Trek: Stardate 1998 Calendar
You can't go wrong with the Pocket Books Star Trek Stardate 1988 Desk Calendar. It has small black and white photos for every day of the year, so everyone's favorite characters show up at least once, and at $10, it's cheaper than the big glossy calendars which contain some really awful 8x10" photos. Plus, the desk calendar announces the birthdays of all the actors on all the series, so you won't have to stare sadly at your TNG wall calendar wishing it would tell you what sign Terry Farrell is (Scorpio, like Robert Beltran, who has the same birthday). I wish the animated series were better represented in the pan-Trekoramic compilations like this, but you can't have everything.
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