NOW VOYAGER THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE KATE MULGREW APPRECIATION SOCIETY * VOLUME I NUMBER 4 THE BUZZ THE LAST TWO PARAGRAPHS OF THIS EDITORIAL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT DUES. But first there are a couple of things I want to say about fan clubs. I've been hearing a lot this month about Kate, cons, and the Internet. Yes, I read the TV Guide article; yes, I know Kate said she's not doing any more cons. (That's going to be news to her agent, who has her scheduled to do a few, so it's a little early to assume she meant "none" literally. But that's also not the point.) Kate is trying to play Janeway more than eighty hours a week, make appearances for Paramount, do publicity for the show, have time with her family, and attend conventions. If she can't get it all in and stay sane, I'm with her 100%: the cons should be the first thing to go. Acting's her job, and doing promotional work is part of her contract. As the captain, she's the star, so not only is she required to be on the set more than anyone else, she's also required to do more publicity than anyone else. She doesn't get a break even when she's not on the set; the tabloids snap her picture in restaurants and in parking lots, and you can bet people shove requests for autographs at her wherever she goes. Plus she has two kids. I have enough trouble keeping up with my two-year-old, and I'm not a single parent, and I only work part-time. So I can't imagine how she deals with two children after an eighteen-hour day on the lot. If she'd rather spend her vacation time with her boys than getting paid to be at a con, I'm certainly not going to criticize her choice. If there's one thing that seemed very clear from the back-to-back TV Guide issues interviewing the Voyager and Deep Space Nine casts, it's that these people work their butts off. They get up in the middle of the night, stay up till four in the morning, go home with new lines to memorize, and then get up and do it all again. After five days a week of doing that, it's really asking a lot to expect any performer to get up on a stage at a con, talk animatedly for an hour, and then sign a few thousand autographs if it's a big con or a few hundred with personalization if it's a small con, often at quite a distance from the actors' homes. So let me say definitively: NO, I don't think Kate--or Robert Beltran, who's also remained relatively con-shy--is disregarding the fans by not attending a large number of conventions. I'd think they were disregarding the fans if they went to cons every weekend and made thousands of dollars in appearance fees and then couldn't perform to the best of their abilities on the show. Maybe I should say right now, before we arrive at the impending discussion of dues, that if you joined this club in the hope that you'd get to meet Kate or visit the Paramount lot or get free insider stuff, you're in the wrong place. Sure, we'd all like to get perks, and maybe we even feel like we deserve them for being such devoted fans. Everyone wants to feel appreciated. I'm sure Kate does, which probably explains why she thinks the Internet is scary: take a look at rec.arts.startrek.current on any given week, and you're likely to find three times as many nitpicks, spoilers, and angry rants as intelligent discussions or gleeful celebrations of the shows. I have no doubt that we can enlighten Kate about the wonders of the net. But if anyone thinks that this can be accomplished while pressuring her to give even more to the fans than she already does, it just isn't fair to her. I know that there are people here who belong to other actors' fan clubs, who feel like they can't express their disdain for certain episodes or frustration with the performances within those clubs. We're not like that. We run negative reviews. We debate politics. But we never forget why we're here. Fandom isn't about complaining that the powers that be aren't paying enough attention to us. It's about celebrating acommon source of joy among ourselves, and occasionally working with the creators to make it better. Sometimes that means writing letters demanding that TPTB cast a female captain when they're apparently going back on their word. Sometimes that means a lot of input on the net about the idea of having a TNG regular on DS9. Sometimes that means knowing when to lay off and let the people involved in Trek do their jobs. I think we'd all prefer that Kate give us the best Janeway she can every week than shake our hands at cons. On a "getting what we deserve" note, we're expecting autographed photos from Kate's publicist any day now. The good news is that now we can get them to everyone. The bad news is that we have to mail them, so you know what's coming: This is the fourth issue of Now Voyager, meaning that for almost everyone in this club, your first six months of issues are up. Anyone who joined before June 1 should have received all issues to date. Here's the new dues schedule for people who get this newsletter in print (people who receive it electronically-only may disregard this notice, as WE owe YOU your pictures): U.S. $25/year Canada $30/year U.S. funds ONLY Overseas $40/year U.S. funds ONLY These rates are effective as of RIGHT NOW. Meaning that unless this is the first issue you're receiving, as of RIGHT NOW you need to renew your membership. (We are not going to waste additional paper and postage mailing reminders to people, although we will reiterate via e-mail for those we can reach that way.) Our new address is: 8114 Inverness Ridge Road, Potomac, MD 20854. All that said, we think this is a pretty terrific issue. Enjoy it! ALL ABOUT NOW VOYAGER Welcome to the officially sanctioned Kate Mulgrew Appreciation Society. This newsletter is published bimonthly by Michelle Erica Green and Paul Anderson. You can reach us online at tigger@cais.com. Send SASE for information or $5 for sample issue. Dues are subject to change without notice as rising printing and mailing costs affect our ability to produce this newsletter. This is a not-for-profit, amateur publication and is not intended to infringe upon the rights of Paramount Pictures or its licensees. All material herein is copyrighted by the authors, except for the copyrights, trademarks, and patents of Paramount Pictures and its affiliates. You may not reproduce any part of this newsletter without written permission of the editors and/or writers. If you received this newsletter electronically, you may not forward it, excerpt any part of it, post the illustrations, nor disseminate it in any other manner without permission of the editors. The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the editorial staff, Kate Mulgrew, or Paramount Pictures. REVIEWZZZZZZZZZZZZ Since there have been no new episodes since the last issue, we thought it might be nice to look at the first season as a whole. This article first ran in issue #45/46 of CCSTSG Enterprises, a monthly general-interest Star Trek newsletter published and edited by Jeff Mills. For more information or a sample issue ($1.50): CCSTSG, 7 Quarry Street, Ellington, CT 06029. After 15 episodes of Star Trek: Voyager, I am enjoying this new series a great deal. The Trek producers keep perfecting their ability to come out of the starting gate with a package ready to please. This new Star Trek packs interesting (and largely yet-undeveloped) characters into a nifty new ship, deposits them in unexplored space, and sends them on the archetypal quest for Home. Sounds like what some fraternities do to haze their young pledges. Seriously, I think there's a tremendous amount of potential here. The quest for Federation space inherent in Voyager gives this series an epic quality shared by Deep Space Nine (given the scope of the underlying Bajoran/Cardassian story), and also by Babylon 5, but largely missing from Classic Trek and The Next Generation (see sidebar on story arcs). While the quest in those ship-based series was "to seek out new life forms and new civilizations," there was never really a unifying thread. The Voyager's trip home, however, gives a poignancy to everything the crew does and encounters--and they can still seek out new life on their journey. Whether this will still be interesting in four or five years, we'll have to see, but, for now, the quest presents a wonderful vehicle for self-discovery while knocking a few of those 70,000 light years off the Voyager's odometer. Media reviews of Voyager (most of them published concurrent with "Caretaker") have generally been glowing: The New York Times review of Jan. 16 was typical: "It's an ingenious concept, bringing the series back to its early days of anything-can-happen suspense. [The] pilot is certainly a marvel of special effects. Comparing early Star Trek with this is like comparing The Great Train Robbery with Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey...The messages in Voyager are sometimes underlined a bit too heavily, but the Roddenberry legacy of futuristic optimism is given yet another promising liftoff." Praise was not universal, however. Scott Williams, of the Associated Press, for instance, wrote of the premiere: "The Voyager survivors encounter a decadent techno-theocracy that lives underground on a desert world, dependent on an off-world 'Caretaker' for food, energy and the like. For pity's sake! We've only seen this gag four or seven times in classic Star Trek and Next Generation episodes! How about something new? The characters are shallow as dew and atrociously cast from a pool of second-tier TV actors." Ouch. The nitpicking YATI Police were out in full force on the internet in the days (nay: hours, minutes) following "Caretaker" (and each succeeding episode). Some fans were nearly in tears over having to negotiate the occasional inconsistency, and were too easy to damn the entire show for these gaps. (In fact, the fervent, early response to Voyager YATIs caused me to create a new term - "netnits" - to describe those whose raison d'etre is nitpicking on the internet; perhaps the word connotes nitwit, as well. I'm all for examining inconsistencies in the Trek universe, but let's not let them ruin our day, people! Nor should they lead you to eject the entire warp core for the pin-hole breach!) Among the most egregious violations in "Caretaker" were the math associated with the 70-year trip home, and the Kazons' inability to synthesize water. Briefly, the math problem is as follows, according to one fan: "Caretaker" states that Voyager is 70,000 light years from home, and that the ship's maximum sustainable warp factor is 9.975; according to the Technical Manual, that means Voyager can go 2136.5334 times the speed of light, so it should only take them 32.763354 years to get home. (Ah, but of course they haven't been sustaining 9.975...) Statements made in "Where No One Has Gone Before" (with the Traveler) also confound the math presented in "Caretaker." As for the Kazons, how could a spacefaring race not know how to synthesize water? Jeri Taylor's response to this question at a recent convention: "It's called: a mistake." Many fans also pointed out that the proper solution with the array would have been to use its technology to get home, but first beam in some time-delayed photon torpedoes, securing its destruction once the Voyager was safely in Alpha Quadrant. (Ah, but then we wouldn't have a show!). There also was a fairly vocal contingent of Mulgrew larynx-bashers after the premiere. Many fans said they find the captain's husky voice irritating (probably the same people who commented on Stewart's baldness eight years prior--both are rude, obnoxious and beside the point). Well, here's betting this complaint has worn off after 15 episodes in 95% of the fans who felt that way. Personally, the voice (and some of the rest of the package) reminds me of Katherine Hepburn, an actress I admire immensely. [Photo--"She's the captain..."] The main lingering criticism of Voyager is that it is too derivative of earlier Star Treks. "Phage" could just as easily have been called "Neelix's Lungs" for instance, mimicking the story line of "Spock's Brain," some say. "The Cloud" was reminiscent of Classic's "The Immunity Syndrome," and "Faces" recalled the old "Enemy Within" and certain Next Gen stories. True, true, but for me it's still interesting to see new characters in old situations. I know a lot of people who have lost their jobs, come down with a major illness, or gone through divorce - it's how each person (and their support network) reacts to these common events that helps define and depict their character. I guess I also have more sympathy for the writers than most fans do, and am willing to accept the occasional derivation (I'm one of those who really liked the Classic Trek TNG tie-in in "Naked Now," by the way). Just as long as they don't begin boilerplating old episodes - which, clearly, they are not - I'll be satisfied. I'm much more concerned about bad writing (which they've experimented with--"Ex Post Facto," "Cathexis" dialogue, the escape tunnel scene in "Caretaker") than derivative writing. My hopes and concerns include the following, for now: *Maquis/Starfleet tension: I hope the writers continue to poke these cinders, because some interesting sparks fly as a result. Though the two camps will homogenize with time (and because of their common goal), the tension between them allows for character depth and dramatic conflict. As the Cardassian border skirmishes fade from memory, I hope we will continue to see glances into the worldview and mindset that is the "Maquis way," and contrast it with the "Starfleet way." *The Voyager itself: What a sleek little vessel she is! And what fabulous visuals during the opening credits! (This show so far has been very easy on the eyes. On the ears, too: I really dig Mr. Goldsmith's theme!) But what brilliant engineer decided it needed folding nacelles? Like retractable headlights, it seems just another moving part to break down. And except for "Learning Curve," they've really dropped the ball on the bio-neural circuitry mentioned in the premiere. I figured the ship itself would become a minor character, with artificial intelligence popping up in interesting places to solve problems (as of yet, that role has been relegated to the ship's medical program). I hope they explore this ship's technological capabilities in greater detail, even at the risk of creating S1-based YATIs. *The 70-year journey: It's possible this crew will be on this ship for a lot of years together. The quest is only a few months old yet, and there is still a great deal of hope instilled in the crew; they much more believe they will find a shortcut home than they despair of growing old and dying on Voyager. Ultimately, however, like young people finally realizing they should buy life insurance, the discussion will have to turn to making the starship a home to the generations. We're talking coupling, we're talking creating more of a family/community, we're talking building some of the artistic, religious, social and political institutions that the crew didn't pack when they left Federation space. These are things you can't get in a holodeck. How many years will it take for crew members to get tired of taking orders? And what will the policy be when individual crew members want to bow out and take up residence on a passing planet (which, though not home, they view as preferable to dying in space)? The little subplots associated with being "lost in space" (reserving power supplies, Kes training in the med-lab, etc.) all remind us this ship is decades from home; eventually, this mindset must incorporate the notion that it might be the crew's offspring who pull Voyager into port. [Photo--"You never bother me...except the way I love to be bothered..."] *Starfleet or hybrid? Also, it will be interesting to see how the crew's sense of the Starfleet mission interrupts or influences the quest to get home. Will the greater goal be to take diversions in the name of discovery and first contact, or beeline it for home? And how will Starfleet policy (the Prime Directive, for instance) evolve under Janeway's command in this "marooned" scenario? Thus far, she has been rather steadfast in doing the right thing - infused as she is with a well-developed Starfleet ethic and strong moral presence (indeed, it's these qualities that have them stranded in the first place). How Janeway reconciles her two missions (get the ship home/be a Starfleet ambassador) will continue to make for interesting Star Trek. As for characterization, there's a lot of room to work with. Here are a few reactions to the Voyager players so far: *Captain Janeway: A commanding, charismatic presence, Kate Mulgrew will do very well in the big chair. Her Janeway is a strong, capable captain, with scientific expertise to boot. (I look forward to many panel discussions contrasting her leadership style with her male predecessors in Star Trek.) I would like to see the captain continue to build friendships with the crew (something Picard was largely reluctant to do). *Chakotay: I've enjoyed watching Chakotay react to the adversity of being a leader of, really, two different crews. For Chakotay, the Maquis mission was all about protecting his people; divorced from that scenario, he's easily able to adjust to his role as first officer of a Starfleet vessel. He must grapple with his rebellious ex-shipmates, however, and that makes for interesting exchanges. I also look forward to exploring more of the spiritual/ritualistic side of Chakotay's Amerind heritage, and want to see more of his old friendship with Torres, and his new one with Captain Janeway. *Tuvok: I have no idea how the rest of fandom feels, but so far, for me, Tim Russ isn't getting it done as a Vulcan. He's stiff the way I thought Riker was stiff in his first few seasons. There's no nuance there: it's simply dialogue (I felt the same way about Robin Curtis). Perhaps what's missing is a sense of the inner struggle to suppress emotions (which we know from "Sarek," among others, is something all Vulcans face--not just human-Vulcan hybrids.) But Tim and the writers will come around. Regardless, I am pleased there's a Vulcan aboard--especially one who has a history with the captain. *Kes: Kes is character potential waiting to happen. They've done virtually nothing with the fact that the Ocampa live to be only nine Earth years old, and the perspectives she should have on the meaning of each day compared with those around her. (Imagine being singled out and plunked in the middle of a community in which everybody but you lives to be 750 years old--that's how it is with Kes.) She's proven herself a capable aid to the doctor--it makes sense that the Ocampa are very fast learners - and their interaction has been fun to watch. Kes's Guinan-like insights also provide interesting story potential (though talk about derivative!). As for her relationship with Neelix, it still seems an unlikely pairing to me, but we'll see where it goes. *Neelix: His skills as an everyman/handyman were a bit oversold in the premiere, but in his quirky way, Neelix will give us the occasional fascinating Talaxian insight into humanity. He also offers a bit of the "civilian viewpoint" (I think Kes feels much more a part of the crew than he does) that carrying hundreds of family members on the Enterprise-D never really accomplished. I am confident that in a future episode we'll discover that Neelix and Quark use the same tailor. *Doctor ???: He's yet to be named, but he's captured the imagination of Voyager fans, being called the "breakaway character" thus far. I was a big fan of Robert Picardo's doctor in China Beach. His character in Voyager is not altogether different: they're both snitty, witty, and accomplished physicians. The better episodes featuring the doctor will use the character as a foil --a funny one, at that!--to explore the question, "What rights do (seemingly sentient) holograms have?"--just as we explored a similar question with Data. Or, just how much humanity can you get out of a non-human yet human-like, human-created machine? *Harry Kim: "Harry, Harry, Harry, Harry..." Harry Kim is a bit of a stereotype - the mean green rookie machine - waiting for more substance. The kid's got spunk and integrity and talent. At this juncture, all I can say is: more, please. *Tom Paris: The pilot's pilot, Tom Paris gets my vote for "Star Trek character you'd most like to knock back a few cold ones and watch the Rangers game with." Something of a ladies man--okay, he's a playboy --Paris seems to have lost the rough, bad boy edge he had in the series premiere. And why not? He's a free man now, flying a nifty ship and living in a community of peers who depend on his expertise. Paris (and some others from the Maquis side) brings a street-smart, almost (dare I say it?) "hip" quality to the mix. Nice. [Photo--"You were going to deliver us into their waiting hands?"] *B'Elanna Torres: Torres' internal struggle reminds one of Spock's. While she tends to suppress her Klingonness, I'm hoping we'll be able to see how Torres reconciles her warrior instincts with the Klingon issues of honor and duty, from the perspective of a Klingon female. The excellent scene in "Prime Factors," in which Torres rebukes Seska for wanting to cover up their theft of the alien technology shows us her other conflict, between her loyalties to her Maquis shipmates and her new Starfleet officers. Now if we could just temper the techno-babble... And so, onward and upward with this new Trek. As with previous series, this one asks the Big Questions and gives us little pieces of the Big Puzzle to fit together in our own way. What more could you want out of Star Trek? Much is made of Babylon 5's story arc (essentially, the main story and character developments are mapped out in advance, so that J. Michael Straczynski knows what his landing points will be; the individual episodes fill in the details). A story arc allows the producers to have individual stories with an ongoing cast, but gives those stories unifying threads. Think of them as a child's building blocks: each is distinct, but when they're piled atop each other, you get something bigger. When an architect gets to work the blocks, you get something not only bigger, but artistically pleasing. The Next Generation was more like several dozen blocks strewn on the floor, with four or five piled here and there (Klingon homeworld developments and the Borg storyline being the biggest piles). Not that there's anything wrong with self-standing episodes --lord knows there were many, many good ones--but if you can tell those stories in the context of a larger story, well, it's all the more interesting. And having a story arc gives you the forethought to avoid the likes of "Conspiracy" and such inconsistencies as who/what the Trill or Ferengi are all about, for example. An arc also allows you to have growth. One of the stifling things about The Next Generation was that, for many seasons, most of the characters weren't allowed to go anywhere - like their ship, they were returned to stasis at episode's end. In fact, you could argue that a few of the characters are the same people in "All Good Things..." that they were in "Encounter at Farpoint" - which may be realistic, but makes for somewhat boring drama. In contrast, there's a definite story arc going on over at DS9, involving Bajoran politics, Cardassian influence, Maquis resistence, the Dominion, and DS9 in the middle of it all - though sometimes you have to wonder whether it's truly an arc (which implies planning), or whether different toddlers are coming in the room and putting the next block on. The Voyager producers seem to be experimenting with character growth much more zealously than in previous series: the doctor (who's trying to figure out - as we are - where he stands as a sentient hologram), Torres (becoming "more Starfleet"), Kes (in her new role as "medical student"). This is not status quo Star Trek. The defection of Seska mid-season suggests there's a plan, an arc. (Either that, or there's some problem with Martha Hackett continuing in the role - ugh!). To Mssrs. Berman, Piller and Ms. Taylor: Do you know where you're going with this crew (if not back to Alpha Quadrant)? I urge you to think it through, because it probably makes better Star Trek. -- Jeff Mills THE FUNNY PAGES NEELIX'S ONLINE ADVICE COLUMN! Brought to you by your very own Morale Officer, courtesy L.R. Bowen who was kind enough to forward it to us! This column appears as part of the weekly Ship Newsletter and Recipe Exchange. Contributions welcome. Send to thebigcheese@ galxyclass.voy.stf. Dear Neelix: I am a high-ranking officer on the Voyager and have a problem so sensitive I cannot share it with anyone, except anonymously. My superior has the habit of touching me, sometimes for a reason, but mostly because she just likes to get her paws on me, I think. This wouldn't bother me so much, as my people are stoic and wise as a general rule, but I would like to get my paws on her as well, and her constant clapping on the shoulder, grabbing my arm, etc., is eroding my self-control. I constantly imagine her hair coming down when we get into those nebulas and things that toss us around the bridge, or flinging myself at her in a turbolift, except that they rarely, if ever, get stuck between decks. I actually considered asking an old friend of mine who works in Engineering to sabotage the system, but went and talked to an animal to calm myself down. Canines are not much help with a problem like this. What should I do? Noble Savage Dear Savage: Oh, come on! How bad could it be? What's she going to do, get you thrown in the brig? Get a grip and tell her how you feel. The hell with flowers and candy! If she's going to play rough, so should you--grab her right back in some unmistakable portion of the anatomy. I find that a good session between the sheets can smooth out the most turbulent of relationships. Heh, heh. If I do say so myself. Just walk right up to her and say, "Your sweet little tushie makes my heart sing." Or something like that. Dear Neelix: I am suffering from deep guilt over a love affair that must inevitably come to an end, and soon. The person involved is very sweet, and has done a lot for me, including risking his life by lying to Captain Janeway to get me out of a pinch. He means well, but he doesn't realize I only slept with him in the first place to try to escape a bad situation, and that I really don't like smelly concoctions in our quarters and bristles in the sink. The best years of my life are passing me by, and I don't know how to tell him that it was all a mistake and that I'm in love with a computer animation with much less hair. Can you help? Gelfling Dear Gelfling: How sad. But he can't be left in the dark much longer. It must really be obvious to him by now, anyway. No one can miss the signs of love gone sour. You won't be handing him a surprise, trust me. Both of you will feel better once everything is out in the open. I know that my partner and I are completely honest with each other, and that's the best policy. Do it tonight, as soon as possible. Golly--if he leaves bristles in the sink, no great loss. Dear Neelix: I'm burning up with a secret that no one on the ship knows about, and I'm not sure I can stand it anymore. I'm not what I appear to be, and my real self would disgust everyone if they found out. Plus the man I want has a thing about killing people like me. But I'm afraid I'll just blurt it out someday over mushroom soup, and ruin everything. What's your advice? Two Faced Dear Two: You'd be surprised how accepting people can be of secrets we think are unspeakable. You should get all your friends together, and make an announcement. In fact, the captain would probably be willing to let you use the shipwide intercom if you explained the situation to her. I've seen the outpouring of love that can happen when someone has shared a real confidence. It shows trust in your fellows, and helps bind us all together as a group. After all, it's not like you were a surgically altered alien infiltrator. Dear Neelix: I am an officer who was recently passed over for promotion when an opening occurred. Instead of advancement from within the ranks, my superior chose to bring in outside talent. I suppose the decision was a logical one under the circumstances, but I cannnot help but feel overlooked. I have nearly six more decades of experience than the person who was chosen for the post, and he seems to be trying to rub it in; he needles me, drops inappropriate witticisms, makes slurs against my species, and gives me unsolicited lectures. I do not believe I can take this up with my superior, as I sense that her mind is closed on the subject, and I made a serious error some time ago that has caused a slight estrangement. What do you suggest? (P.S. I think she likes to get her paws on him, too.) I Am Not Spock Dear Spock: Wow, I'm hearing a lot of anger there. You must be absolutely boiling with rage, humiliation and disappointment. Those emotions are going to eat you up if you don't let them out. Perhaps you can't go to your superior, but give yourself permission to express your feelings! Get mad! Chew the fellow out, if he says things that irritate you. You'd be amazed how that can clear the air between people. Then you can go have a drink and get silly together, and maybe shoot a little pool. Dear Neelix: I don't feel like I'm really a member of this crew. The captain assures me I am, and so does my assistant, but most people just turn me off at will and ignore me. I'm very well trained in my field and confident of my abilities, but I can't help but feel there is something about me that alienates people. They only come to me when they have a problem or a complaint, and then give me a hard time about my attitude. How can I change their perception of me? The Real McCoy Dear Real: You are going to have to come to THEM. Don't just sit in your office all day--get out and mingle! Come to the dining room and stay awhile as you eat. I'm doing shplicht dumplings in leola root broth tonight. Now that's a dish to linger over! Despite your abilities, you may have a self-esteem problem. Turn yourself on to yourself! You are a unique individual that cannot be duplicated. Take comfort in the fact that we are all living, breathing organisms with a natural bond of flesh and blood. No one's perfect; we all have to put our pants on in the morning one leg at a time. Dear Neelix: I'm confused by the behavior of a subordinate, but I really don't know how to question him about it, or even if I should. He's in a position of great responsibility and ought to have a lot of input, but he can really be a clam. I don't know if it's something I said, or if he's thinking, or if he's just shy. Then again I'll have the oddest feeling that he wants to say something, like in meetings, but there is some--I don't know, some higher power holding him back. (Maybe that's why he never reacts when I get my paws on him.) He sits there with a look of expectation, like he's waiting for--a cue, or something, and nothing happens. As a result, I feel like I have to go along with any suggestions he does manage to make, no matter how unscientific they are--I mean, really, what are a bunch of decomposed corpses going to care if he turns his tricorder on in the same room? Don't get me started. At any rate, I have the strange notion that someone is pulling his strings--perhaps all our strings, and not letting us do everything the way we would if we had true free will. Frankly, I'm still not sure why I thought that skanky guy on--well, never mind about that. Is this a good time to mention that I've been having bad dreams about living on ancient Earth and being married to a short police detective who is never home? And I had the DAMNDEST fantasy the other day about Commander Sisko... Mystery Woman Dear Mystery: Certainly we all have free will! We are real people in the real universe--I mean, how many other universes could there be? Ha ha. The thought of someone pulling our strings is absurd! When have we on the Voyager ever done anything that didn't make sense in the context? Having the command crew stand around while aliens infected with a hideous disease told them all about it in gruesome detail made a great scene! And if Chakotay had thought to have Lt. Paris type,"Tuvok's Been Possessed by Aliens" on a padd and hand it to the captain, that would have been an awfully short episode! What could be more indicative of free will than that? We do what we have to to survive, and if the show gets canceled, we get stuck in an endless time loop of repeats. I mean, look what happened to the Enterprise-A. Dear Neelix: I have the feeling that I'm living a double life. People keep referring to me as "Nicholas", even though that's not my name, and looking at me funny and saying, "Haven't I seen you someplace before? I'm positive I know your face." And at Starfleet Academy, I kept getting some other guy's transcripts and room assignments. Whoever this person is who is walking around with my identity, it seems he was a real scumball and covered up someone's death in a piloting accident by lying about his involvement. Wait a minute, that applies to me too. Now I'm really confused. Hot Shot Dear Hot: Sounds like a classic case of displacement. You feel guilt about what you've done, so you attribute those actions to another person entirely! Maybe there's someone out there who looks something like you, but exact duplicates? Never! Humanoid genes are too complex and the combinations too myriad for that to ever happen. What a strange world it would be if that were possible. Though it seems to me Dr. Jetrel had a heckuva lot in common with a Romulan, a Klingon, and some other people I read about in the library banks. Dear Neelix: I am troubled by bad dreams and portents that I cannot explain. I keep seeing my face on someone else's head. What could the symbolism be? Is it a metaphor for loss of identity? Please respond soon. Expendable Dear Expendable: Oh, I don't believe all that crap about dreams. It's just a nightmare. Been eating too much replicated food, probably. In a month, you'll be looking at this from the other side and having a good laugh at yourself. 'Bye till next time! I'm still waiting for responses to my latest weekly poll: "What's Your Favorite Talaxian Speciality?" Remember, the winner of the random drawing gets a big hunk of my homemade cheese! We'll be having tryouts for the musical revue early next month, I promise. As soon as I get another batch of flyers made--the ones I posted were all accidentally recycled! Ha ha, what a slip! [Photo--J/C] SOMETIMES WHEN WE TOUCH Here's the DEFINITIVE first-season senior-officer Touchy-Feely-Captain Count, courtesy our overseas Voyager Voyeurs: Chakotay: 10 Paris: 8 Kim: 6 Torres: 4 Kes: 3 Tuvok: 2 Neelix: 2 Doc: 1 BLOWING OFF STEAM Jennifer Pelland (Siubhan) has been spying on the captain again. As usual, Paramount owns the characters, but Siubhan owns what she did to them. Thanks to her co-worker Erin for pointing out that Kes really does look like a Keebler Elf. Janeway stood in front of the holodeck doors, brow furrowed in thought. She had pondered running her Victorian holonovel, but somehow the idea of tutoring obnoxious blonde English brats didn't sound relaxing. She'd had a tough day, and she wanted to cut loose and unwind. A flush crept her face as she realized which programs she could run. No...not one of those. That wasn't what she needed right now. She strode through the doors of the holodeck and stood silently in the center of the yellow grid, weighing her options. Suddenly, she realized what she needed to do. "Computer, run a program of my ready room." It winked to life around her, and she smiled and sat down behind her desk. This would be fun. "Time to blow off a little steam. Computer, I'd like a series of interactive holograms based on the members of the crew. Start with Lieutenant Tom Paris." A hologramatic Tom winked into existence in front of her desk and looked at her in that way that only Tom could. She fixed him with a serious gaze and said, "Sit down, lieutenant. I suppose you're wondering why I asked you here." "Well, yeah, actually." She stood up and hollered, "Because I'm sick to death of your cocky, hot shot attitude!" The hologram's eyes widened as a pink flush crept into his cheeks, but he said nothing. "You heard me, mister!," she continued with gusto. "You're not half the man your father was, and yet you parade your attitude all over the ship, picking up women like flies to roadkill, and you expect me to just sit there and take it?!? Grow up!!!" She sat back down and calmly said, "Dismissed." The holographic Tom slunk out of her ready room like a dog with its tail between its legs. "I've always wanted to say that," she said as she leaned back in her chair. "Computer, new hologram... Commander Chakotay." Chakotay promptly appeared before her. "Sit down, Commander." With a half-smile, he complied. Janeway leaned forward and asked, "I was wondering if you had a pulse?" "Excuse me?" Chakotay asked, obviously perplexed. "You heard me. Every day you sit next to me on the bridge playing 'More Placid than Thou,' and I can't help but wonder if you're even awake. I mean, look at that half-smile you're so fond of flashing. Are you afraid you'll break out into a sweat if you really smile? What does it take to get you riled up anyway? Your ex-lover turns out to be a Cardassian spy, and you just keep chugging along with no discernable change in your heart rate. It's unreal! You're just too damn calm! You're not a man, you're a tree sloth! Get out of here!" A cowed yet placid Chakotay left her ready room, and Janeway's grin grew even wider. Who next? Ah. "Computer, I'm ready for Ensign Harry Kim." His hologram appeared, and she said, "At ease, before you sprain something. I love that line. You know, I think I'm going to put it in your permanent record. You're just too damn perky, too eager. At first I found it endearing, but now it's just getting to be annoying. You make me feel old, Mr. Kim. I should put you on a hamster wheel and connect you to the warp drive. We'd get home in no time. No, scratch that. I think I'll have you give Chakotay an adrenaline donation. Maybe that will wake him up. All right, I'm done with you. Dismissed." She hadn't even let him get a word in edgewise, but she didn't care. "Computer, give me Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres." After she had fully materialized, Janeway simply said, "I want you to march straight to sickbay and get the doctor to put you on Valium. No arguments, just do it. Dismissed." Tuvok was next on her hit list. She stood up gravely and walked around to stand face to face with her old friend. "Mr. Tuvok," she said, "my friend, my confidante. Where would I be without your logic, without your dispassionate sensibilities? I have come to rely on your presence, especially out here in the Delta Quadrant." Moving slowly closer, she said, "I've always wanted to do this." Tuvok looked at her with a puzzled expression which rather abruptly changed as her fingers flew out and started tickling him across his sides. His image broke out into very uncharacteristic giggles, and Janeway smiled happily to herself. She'd always wanted to see her somber companion cut loose . "Dismissed." Neelix...ah Neelix. The little Talaxian materialized and she gestured toward a chair and said, "Please, sit down." "What can I do for you, Captain?" he asked helpfully. Sitting on the corner of her desk, Janeway leaned forward and said, "Neelix, we really do appreciate all the work you've been doing for this ship, but there's just one problem." "Problem?" "Yes, problem. You're a rotten cook. The food you produce is downright frightening! Why, I've had nightmares that left me feeling happier than your cuisine. Do you really like the slop you cook? Because if you do, then we've got a little problem here. I don't think I can put up with another 75 years of gastric distress." "What do you suggest I do?" he squealed. "Stop 'spicing up' the recipes in the database and just cook things right! Dismissed." The Doctor was next on her list...but she realized that she really didn't have anything to say to him. He'd been improving admirably, and besides, she secretly thought that he had a hysterically dry sense of humor. Never mind him, then. Kes would have to finish out her session. After the pert little hologram appeared, Janeway motioned for her to sit down. With a sweet smile, she did. "Hello, Kes." "Hello, Captain. Why did you want to see me?" "Kes, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you resemble a figure from old Earth mythology called a 'Keebler Elf'." "Oh dear," she replied. "That doesn't sound good." Janeway shook her head seriously. "No, it's not. After the start of the twenty-first century we had something called 'The Keebler Riots' where people burned Keebler Elves in effigy all across the Western Hemisphere. It's an ugly period in our history, and unfortunately, you're a daily reminder of it." "Oh no! I had no idea! What can I do?" Kes replied, obviously distressed by this revelation. "Well, you could get some more hair for a start, and maybe you could wear slightly more somber attire. Have you ever considered an ear bob?" "No..." "Well start thinking about it. Dismissed." Kes winked out of existence, and Janeway leaned back with a smile. That had been very satisfying. Very, very satisfying. She'd sleep well tonight. With a bounce to her step, she shut off the program and exited. Tom Paris was heading toward the holodeck as she left, and was surprised to see her looking so cheery. She tilted her head toward him, saying, "Hiya, Tom!" as she sauntered by. Tom's eyes nearly fell out of his head. Janeway saying "Hiya"? No way. With a shrug, he entered the holodeck and pondered his options. Sandrine's? No, not tonight. Swimming? Nah. Suddenly a grin crept across his face. He knew what he wanted. "Computer, create holographic image of Commander Chakotay." Chakotay winked to life, and before he could react, Tom slugged him. The hologram crumpled to the floor, and Tom smiled broadly. "Okay, computer, delete Chakotay and replace him with Tuvok..." THE KATE MULGREW FILM FESTIVAL COLUMN Despite popular rumor, as far as we can tell there was never a show called Mrs. Columbo. These are the two shows for which Kate Mulgrew was most famous before Voyager: RYAN'S HOPE by Janet Borikowski Back in 1974, ABC introduced a new soap opera. Ryan's Hope was intended to be a realistic daytime drama centering on the lives of Johnny and Maeve Ryan (the late Bernard Barrow and Helen Gallager), whose bar was the main setting for the story. But as any fan of the show can tell you, Mary Ryan--Kate Mulgrew's character--soon became a major focus of the show. The numerous Ryan children included (in order by age) Kathleen, the rarely-seen oldest, married and living in Philadelphia; Frank, an ex-cop who at the opening of the series was running for city council; Patrick, an intern at the nearby hospital; Mary, a cub reporter; and Siobhan (pronounced Shivon', it's Gaelic), the youngest, who eventually became a cop. Other important characters were the Coleridges: Edward, a doctor, father to Roger, another doctor, bon vivant and arrogant jerk; Jillian, lawyer and adopted daughter, true love to Frank Ryan; and Faith, another doctor and Pat Ryan's sometime girlfriend. And there were the Reids: Bob, Frank's best friend and ex-partner, and Delia, Bob's sister and Frank's ex-wife, a major flake. Delia despised by Mary Ryan, had a fixation on being a Ryan somehow, and married creatively to attain this status to the point where her name eventaully read something like Delia Reid Ryan Ryan Coleridge. I watched Ryan's Hope faithfully for all but the last few years, when owing to a change in the writing staff, around the time Kate Mulgrew left the series, the show declined into your average soap with bad scripts. When Mulgrew left, the title Ryan of the show seemed to be missing. The series started out with Mary Ryan, the adored, rebellious daughter, living with her parents, who resided upstairs from the bar, where most of the action took place. She got along well with her family--perhaps better with her father than her mother--but despised fellow reporter Jack Finelli (played by Michael Levin). Thislasted for about a week before she fell into bed with him, an absolutely scandalous event for the times. Even so, they continued to have spectacular Irish vs. Italian fights all the way through their relationship. Mary and Jack's place became the other main location for the show (the hospital and the Coleridges' house were strictly secondary locales) where they progressed through living together, marriage, daughter (Ryan Finelli), break-up, divorce (or near divorce, it's hard to remember), until Kate Mulgrew left the show. The replacement was a woman not nearly so well liked who lasted only a couple of months before the Mary Ryan character was rubbed out by the mob, who were supposedly gunning for Jack. In an interesting epitaph, when Mary's ghost visited the widower Jack, she was again played by Mulgrew. In the many years since its demise, I have been amazed at how many actors from "Ryan's Hope" have gone on to bigger and better things--including Star Trek. Among the Trek actors have been Andrew Robinson [Garak, DS9] as one of the many Franks--there were at least 5 of them and maybe 2 or 3 more that I missed; James Sloyan [Romulan, future Alexander, TNG, Dr. Mora, DS9, Jetrel, VOY] as Siobhan's detective partner; Catherine Hicks [Gillian, ST:TVH] as Dr. Faith Coleridge for a couple of years; and my personal favorite, Nana Visitor [Kira, DS9], as Sarah Feldman, a nice Jewish lawyer who ran off to Arizona with Pat Ryan. Oddly enough, when the couple subsequently broke up and Pat came back to New York, he was played by the actor who was Cavit, Captain Janeway's first officer on the pilot episode of Voyager. I'm sure I've left people out. It has, after all, been a long since it was on. But the one conclusion I've come to is that at one time or another, everyone was on Ryan's Hope and that Frank Ryan must have been a changeling since his face was always changing! KATE LOVES A MYSTERY By DeAnn G. Rossetti You will have to forgive the vague nature of this review, as it has been about 13 years since I have seen this show, though I do remember certain things about it quite clearly. I remember thinking, first of all, that Kate Mulgrew appeared to be such a tall woman, and with all that chestnut hair flowing behind her as she gave chase to the criminal, she made quite a lovely sight on the 'small screen'. Another thing I remember is that she had a bassett hound whom she occaisionally talked to, and the the chief of police seemed to be an outrageous flirt, always saying suggestive things to a woman who, by the title of the program, was supposedly married to a guy who could tell at a glance if there were any hanky-panky going on! One episode that is clearer than the others in my memory banks involved a theater troupe and a 'woman scorned' who was assumed to have killed off her lying husband. Enter Kate, who of course tracked down the killer and proved that it was actually the play's producer, who was being blackmailed, who did the grisly deed. Which brings me to one of the things I enjoyed most about Kate Columbo, and the later re-packaged show Kate Loves a Mystery; women often got as much screen time as men, and a majority of them were not 'bimbos' but intelligent, professional women who knew what they were about. No mean feat in the 70's! Chief among these was the ever-competent Kate, who always had a wise-crack on her lips and no fear in her heart. She always trapped the killer herself, usually moments after he confessed to being a raging psycho from hell, or Cleveland as the case may be. There she'd be, cornered with the creep, glaring at him with that unmistakable, unblinking gaze, anger and fear lurking just beneath the surface of her outwardly calm expression. She wore those vile 70's knit pantsuits, and for some odd reason the powers that be always had her wearing a brightly-colored scarf around her neck which made her look a bit like a librarian. She also had reading glasses, and those preposterous platform shoes. Perhaps that's why she appeared so tall to me. When I finally met her a year later, I was amazed at how petite she was, and how television cameras distorted that small frame and slight build into Amazonian proportions. The show aired in my hometown right after Barnaby Jones and just before The Rockford Files and Barney Miller, so I tend to think of them all in one lump, as the "70's Cops 'N' Robbers in Tasteless Clothing" era. Of all the others, though, Mrs. Columbo was similar in style to The Rockford Files and like Barnaby Jones in that the mystery-solving was left to one main character, in this case, Kate. She often talked on the phone with Mr. Columbo, but we never actually heard his voice, and I never recall seeing him on the show. I gather, from Kate's comments a year later, that she got tired of that particular charade, and that's one reason the show became Kate Loves A Mystery which excluded reference to you-know-who and put the burden of carrying the show directly on Kate's able shoulders. I recall that in Kate Loves A Mystery, she worked at a newspaper as a reporter, and that same flirtatious police chief had to ask her to refrain form publishing details of a crime, to which she responded (and I am paraphrasing here) "No way, bucko! I can give you 24 hours, but then it's going out in the morning edition!" I admired the way her character managed to be assertive without being offensive or aggressive; it's one of the things I still like about her as Janeway. I am just glad she doesn't have to wear platform shoes and a neck scarf with her uniform! VOYAGER PEOPLE Our intrepid reporter , who works in a special effects shop in Tinseltown, finds out all about one of Voyager's visual effects supervisors...and tells uswhy she enjoys her job! DAVID STIPES by Julie Aiken I love my job. I work in a place where crates are delivered labeled "KAZON FIGHTER." And I get paid for it! To be perfectly honest, the special effects shop where I work--Chiodo Bros. Productions-- doesn't really have anything to do with Star Trek: Voyager. But one of our effects supervisors, Anthony Doublin, does freelance work for Voyager (and used to for Next Generation), so I have grown accustomed to seeing asteroids and oozing lifeforms and Kazon ships lying around. Except I never really get used to it. Every time a fax comes through for Tony from Paramount, I still find myself grinning. Like I said, I love my job. It was through Tony that I got a chance to meet David Stipes, one of Voyager's two visual effects supervisors. I got to wondering exactly what that title meant, and what it was like to actually work on the set of our favorite sci-fi show. What kind of person ends up working on Star Trek anyway? When I sat down and interviewed David, I got the answer I expected--someone who is smart, creative, thoughtful, talented... and really into the show! NOW VOYAGER: So, I wanted to get some background first... DAVID STIPES: Sure. NV: Find out where you're from and what your story is. [laughter] DS: Where I'm from... NV: Long time ago, huh? DS: Well, yeah. I've been involved in the film industry for 26 years now. My first real professional paying work was 1969, although I actually did work on a feature film even a little earlier than that. '67, '66? NV: What did you work on then? DS: That was Equinox. Dennis Mirren's first film. NV: So are you from out here [California]? DS: I was born in Texas, but I've lived out here most of my life. NV: Whatever possessed you to get into this business? DS: Oh. Well... Even when I was very young, like third, fourth grade, I happened to see King Kong and then Son of Kong, and I knew something special was going on. I didn't know what it was, but I knew that it was particularly fascinating. There was something special about what was happening there. I was deeply impressed. When I got to about sixth grade, going into junior high school, it was just about the time they were having monster magazines. Famous Monsters of Film Land, Mad Monsters, Screen Thrills Illustrated--all these different things that Troy Ackerman and a lot of the other guys were doing. I just got every one of them I could. And was absolutely fascinated. I discovered Willis O'Brian, who did King Kong, and I discovered Ray Harryhausen, who did Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. And I was seeing a lot of these different films. The stop-motion animation stuff really appealed to me. Through Famous Monsters I got a chance to meet David Allen, who was living in Orange County at the time I was living there. And through David I got a chance to meet Dennis Mirren and Jim Danforth. And through them I met Brooke Elison at Cascade Pictures. Jim was working at Cascade. David eventually started working at Cascade. I'd go down there and visit them, and finally got a chance to do a little animation test. And then they called me in to help out on "Kellogg's Cocoa Crispies" in 1969. I got a chance to come in and help out a little bit. Do a little stop motion. I was animating rocks in the background. [laughter] But it was fun. It was a great experience. NV: How old were you in 1969? DS: Oh, wow... NV: Or do you not want to tell me? DS: That would be 21. NV: Just a baby. DS: Yeah, 1969 I was 21. NV: Now, 1969... Were you at all into the original Star Trek? DS: Yeah! I actually went and applied to work on the original Star Trek during the very last season. But I was pretty green. So my work wasn't anywhere up to snuff for what they needed. So getting a chance to work on Star Trek now has been a 25 year dream. I did have a chance to work with Dan Curry a little bit on Star Trek: The Next Generation the first and second seasons. I did like three different stop-motion creatures for "Conspiracy," I believe the episode was called. It was the wrap-up episode with the little creatures that crawled out of the woman's mouth. I did that. So a few little shots here and there. But I didn't get a chance to do too much. And then three years ago, that would have been '92? I heard that they were going to be starting a new series called Deep Space Nine. And so I called up to see if a position was open. I had been running my own business since 1981, so I had been going full time working on all kinds of different things. But I must admit I was getting pretty tired of it. I was tired of the financial responsibility and the employee problems, etc. I'm an excellent visual effects designer and supervisor, and wanted to be doing that. I wanted to be doing the photography and design, as opposed to being an administrator. So... I talked to them. They said, "We'd love to have you, David, but we need somebody full time who doesn't have split responsibilities." So I closed my business and started there full time. As it turned out, they'd already hired some people to work on Deep Space Nine, but that had created a vacancy on Star Trek: The Next Generation. So I got a chance to go work on that. And I got a chance to work on some really nifty episodes. The second episode I worked on was "Relics" which had James Doohan as Scotty. It was absolutely delightful to meet him. We had a chance to work on some neat ones. NV: Did you get an Emmy for Next Generation? DS: Yes, we sure did. It was for the very last episode, called All Good Things. I was one of the visual effects supervisors, working with Dan Curry. Dan Curry was the visual effects producer. Dan Curry, Michael McCraxis who is one of the coordinators, Adam Howard who's the animator/artist, and Scott Rader who is the editor. All of us got Emmys for that. NV: That's great. DS: That was the final episode, and that was a big two hour special. We had lots and lots of shots. It was really pretty spectacular. NV: Now, what is your title on Voyager? Visual effects supervisor? DS: Visual effects supervisor. There are two teams. One team--we're doing the odd numbered shows this year--is composed of Joe Bauer, who's my effects coordinator, and myself. The other team is Ron Moore and I think it's going to be Art Cutrone this year. And then Dan Curry is the visual effects producer. And the man who's in charge of all the post production work is Peter Lauritsen. So all of us work together as a pretty good team. NV: What goes into visual effects? That's not makeup effects, right? Everything else? DS: No makeup effects. We're talking visual effects as opposed to special effects. Probably the easiest way to say it is that special effects are the things that include explosions, on-set when you fly somebody or you make something fly up out of the ground. That kind of thing. We are involved with the visual effects. The classic thing would be optical printing work, or stop-motion, or motion control. Now we're doing a lot of our compositing with digital. So we get to design those things that are not involved with on-set work. Although there are times we will go on the set to supervise things that we will have to add later. Such as a phaser. Or we have to make sure that a blue screen is going to work where we will add visual effects later. That kind of thing. NV: Is there an effect you created in the first season of Voyager that's particularly memorable? Either because it was hellaciously difficult or it was hard to meet a deadline, or because it looked really cool, or for whatever reason? DS: Well, in the first season, my very favorite episode, I think, was "Emanations." That involved a considerable challenge. It had a really great script, great concept. It was the one where Harry Kim is switched into another dimension. The "emanation" is the afterlife for the race of aliens in this dimension. And at the point where this woman's body is being deposited on this asteroid, Harry Kim is there and all of a sudden he gets switched over to the other side. And he wakes up in the other dimension, and they think that he's come back from death. The afterlife, or the "emanation" as they call it. So he is totally freaking out this other alien culture, and they're getting challenged in their belief systems. The woman who thinks she has died is being challenged in her belief system, since they revive her. NV: On Voyager. DS: Right. On Voyager. In the story what's happening is there's a great ring of asteroids around this planet, and the bodies are being deposited into the asteroids. And there are so many bodies that they've deposited there for so many eons that the asteroids are actually filled with millions of bodies. And so we have this great number of asteroid shots. The budget was very tight. They were basically going to show the asteroid ring as a graphic in cut number two, and we were going to see a ringed planet in cut number one, and sort of talk about it from then on and never see it. I kept talking with the producers and the writers, and Jeri Taylor, who is one of the producers and also writing supervisor, was very gracious and said that if we could keep to the budget, she would let us go ahead and try to do some other shots. David Livingston, who was the director, who was also one of the producers at the time, agreed and thought it was very exciting to try to do some more shots. We wound up doing these shots at Amblin Imaging, which is a computer-generated imagery facility. Amblin Imaging does the computer-generated imagery for SeaQuest. And we had hired them to create a Voyager for us early on in the season for the pilot episode. So we had this Voyager model. And then we went in and designed shots and the guys did a great job creating thousands and thousands of asteroids for me, which I would not have been able to do with the budget we had in conventional photography. The shots were very exciting, and it was a great learning experience for me. And we got very neat shots that were able to strengthen the concept of the script without going over budget. Everyone was very excited about it, and I think everyone was pretty happy with it. I know I was. Grant Bouchet and John Gross and John Forenzo and Bruce Hall were some of the people over there at Amblin Imaging. They did a great job for us. NV: You don't work with the actors very much, do you? DS: For the most part I do not. We will go on set from time to time. NV: Do you have any impressions, or any encounters or anecdotes about anyone? Kate, of course, is who my readers know and love the best, but your impressions of anyone that you've worked with would be great. DS: I have found the people in this cast to be exceptionally gracious and kind and patient. And I'm not saying that just to blow smoke. I mean, it's true. I've not had a chance to work with Kate as much as I would like. But we wound up working with her on the pilot episode, the "Caretaker" episode. The blue screen shot where they're in the barn and then this wall disappears and she gets to walk into the chamber. That's a huge blue screen shot there with a matte painting that was added. That big chamber with all the bodies didn't even exist in that set-up. So we had to do them on a blue screen so that they could go into the background. Working with her has been fun. Probably the more interesting thing we had to do with Kate was a show that's not aired yet called "Twisted." [I hate to do this to you, but David went on to describe some really wild effects which I can't tell you about, because the show hasn't aired yet, and Paramount would not be happy with me--or him, or this newsletter--if I printed more. However, look for "Twisted"--it promises to be very visually stimulating!] So we had a chance to do some interesting work with her on that. Every time we've worked with Kate, though, she's been very, very gracious and very kind. And she's gone out of her way to be cooperative. We've been very grateful for that. Because I'll tell you, if an actor or an actress is real cantankerous, they can make our work very hard. And of course, luckily, actors and actresses, by the very nature of what they're doing they have to use their imaginations. And that certainly helps us a great deal. Because so often we're saying, "Okay, now look up at that big blue thing there. What you're really seeing is a gigantic planet. Okay here comes an asteroid. Oh, the planet's blowing up. Now react to it." And they have to react to all this stuff in their minds. And luckily these people can do that. That really makes our job a lot easier. NV: Are you working at all on Deep Space Nine at this point? DS: No. Deep Space Nine has two separate crews of their own over there, too. And they're doing a great season opener. A lot of changes. Very exciting. I think you're going to be very excited about it. NV: I can't wait. DS: I wish I had more to offer you regarding Kate. I have found that she certainly has a good sense of humor. That's come through a number of times. Joking with the crew, for instance. You know, what I'm so grateful for, at least from my perspective, is that no one on this cast has got an attitude. That can ruin an experience. They've all been very gracious. And also, the thing is--as you probably already know--Kate stepped into sort of a volatile situation. Genvieve Bujold left after two days. And Kate Mulgrew had to come in on very short notice, I believe. That's my understanding of things. And she just stepped right in there and immediately had a lot of nice presence and power. I tell you one thing, talking to different women in my life and my circle of friends, people are absolutely delighted--and myself, too--I'm delighted that the producers chose to go with a woman captain. It's really time that Star Trek reflect more diversity. Reflect more of a woman's perspective. Because in Captain Picard you had this wonderful intellectual masculine image. Now it's time to be reflecting an intellectual feminine image. And I think Kate Mulgrew certainly projects that so wonderfully. There's a lot of femininity yet strength. There's poise, and wisdom. You know, she's really great. NV: That's what I like so much about her. It would be so easy to go, "Okay now we have the female character and here are the stereotypical feminine characteristics." And across the board on Voyager I feel like they've done a great job, that all the characters are very three-dimensional. They're not caricatures of "the female captain," and "the Native American rebel commander." You know what I mean? They're very three-dimensional, very well developed. DS: Yes! That was also very impressive to me and to a number of the rest of the guys [on the effects crew]. Just how quickly the actors and actresses came together and developed their characters. I mean, there's a richness to the characters that I think has happened very, very quickly. And I thought that was really neat. There's certainly a warmth there. NV: I would tend to agree with you. Switching gears, do you have any tips for people out there who are going, "I want to get into this business!"? DS: Yes! Learn as much as you can. You need to have a variety of experience. If you want to get into visual effects you certainly need to be developing your artistic skills, your ability to imagine. That's extremely important. Your ability to stay in touch with your inner child I think is real important. And I'll talk about that in a second. You need to start understanding computers. Because, boy, that's where it's all going and it's happening a lot faster than I ever imagined it would. Computer-generated imagery--CGI--is going to be real important. Getting a well-rounded education is real important. I am always amazed at the variety of things I have to draw upon. I have to draw upon artistic ability, drawing. I have to draw upon my ability to draw and conceive a picture. I have to draw on architecture. I have to draw on chemistry sometimes. We have to draw on costumes sometimes. We have to draw on science: astronomy, biology. Over the last three years we've had to research jellyfish, insects, black holes, binary stars. [laughter] There's just a variety of experiences. Know how to research things. Know how to use resources that are available to you. Definitely you need to be willing to work hard. You need to be willing to get in and make the effort. If a person wants to get into this industry, in visual effects, you need to be looking at what's happened in the history of the industry. Get magazines like American Cinematographer. Get some of the books that American Cinematographer has put out: The Golden Treasury of Visual Effects, a book by L.B. Abbot on more mechanical effects. Get a subscription and back issues to Cinefex [an effects magazine]. Get Cinefantastique magazine and read some of those articles, like the Star Trek issues from the last two years, which had a tremendous amount of information in them. We spilled our guts how we do this stuff. Come out and visit. Be willing to work for free, to get in and apprentice. If you want to do it you've got to really believe in yourself. You've got to go out and try. You've got to work hard. And don't give up. If you give up then you're not meant for it. And then in terms of what I mentioned a minute ago about the inner child, I think it's real important. The people who come in and do the really fun shots, the really nifty shots, are the ones who can get a hold of what I call the inner child. They're willing to come in like I do. I will look at a script and I'll think to myself, "Now, if I was 10 years old again, or 12 years old, what would I think was really cool?" And that's how I do a lot of my shots. "If I was seeing this show on television how would I approach this thing? What would be a really cool way to design this thing?" And so often I'll do a fantastic move, a big sweeping move or something like that because if I was 10 years old I'd think that was really cool. Or I think about "What will my son think is really neat?" So that's what I mean by being in touch with the inner child. You've got to have a bit of what I call the "Gee whiz!" in there. The fantastic. If a person's real stuffy, uptight, and can't get in touch with their imagination or pre-visualize things, they're not going to go very far in this work, I don't think. They're not going to be able to really capture the real magic and have fun with it. And that's an important part of it. Really having fun with it. I mean, I think I'm very blessed. All of us on the show are very blessed. To paraphrase what I think Orson Welles said, "Moviemaking is the greatest train set any boy could have." I'm poorly paraphrasing him, I'm sorry. [laughter] But, ultimately, it's great. Here I am, as an adult, getting to play with spaceships and guns and toys. Albeit they're very expensive ones. But nevertheless they're just great big toys and we're having a great good time with it. I'm very fortunate. NV: I have one more question. How did you shrink the Doctor? DS: Well, that was Ron Moore's show. I believe that was a blue screen shot, and we just matted him in there. Actually, I think there was also a little bit of sideways distortion, too. He's stretched out to the side. NV: The actor was fun. He was acting like a guy who's been shrunken down. DS: [laughter] Oh, yeah, Robert Picardo is wonderful. I think he is really, really neat. He's a very great guy. He's come over, he's gone over to Digital Magic and seen how we do stuff. He shows up at production meetings. He is really, really wonderful. We have a good time with him. There's a great episode coming up that will have him in it called, I think it's called "Projections." It features him a great deal, and it's a lot of fun. I think you'll like that. NV: Thank you so much. DS: You're welcome... Hopefully I was some help to you. NV: Oh, it'll be great! Thanks. And did I mention I love my job? KATEWATCH Rumor has it that Kate will not be at StarCon in Denver in September as previously reported, although she and Robert Beltran both are supposedly going to appear at Con-Rad to benefit pediatric AIDS, October 23 in Universal City, CA--but we take NO responsibility if that information turns out to be incorrect! We have no new reports on Kate's public appearances, since she hasn't made any since last issue. However, we do have a transcript of the Janeway panel at Vulkon in Orlando, courtesy Becky Olsen, our Membership Secretary, who was out recruiting at cons several weekends this month! Becky says that she removed lengthy non-essential discussions and adds that at points the tape simply didn't pick up what was said. Apologies! PANEL DISCUSSION: CAPTAIN KATHRYN JANEWAY, VULKON CONVENTION, ORLANDO, FLORIDA, 8 JULY 1995 Panel Moderators: Chris(tine) Ceraolo (C) and Sean ??? (S). G=group, B=Becky, M=male participant, F=female participant C: What we're gonna talk about for the next few minutes...hours...is G: JANEWAY! C: I like talking about this panel, it's my favorite one to do.When I first heard about them doing Janeway, I went, "Oh yeah, female captain--yaaayyyy!" Then they said, "Genvieve Bujold..." C: And I went, ok--another Frenchman...then I heard that Genvieve didn't make it, and they said "We've announced a new captain, Kate Mulgrew," and I went yay! I know this actress, I've watched "Manions of America" four times in a row. I know who this lady is. It works out perfectly. And got very, very excited, because it's the one actress I know that could just take a crew and have a good time with it. So I said, let's throw a panel together and talk about Janeway, and every convention I've done it, it's always been a growing group. I find her to be one of the more challenging female roles on television today. M1: By challenging, do you mean to the actress? C: To the actors and also to female roles in general, because a lot of female roles still are the blonde bimbette types that don't have a brain. But I must admit, Janeway has had a lot of growth. First episode: "Here I am, I've got a boyfriend, he's got dogs--I have a spaceship, we're going on a mission--" G: It's her dog-- C: "I've got boyfriend, I've got dog--" M1: That's actually important, because just looking at it from the viewpoint of women's roles is one thing. Another thing is looking at it from the point of view of Star Trek. In a certain sense of the word, we finally have a lead Star Trek character who is not hopelessly caught up in some conflict. I mean, you know, and the fact that she has a boyfriend and a dog suggests that unlike Captain Jean-Luc Picard, you know, who is so self-contained there was nothing but Starfleet, you know, he didn't have a personal life, or, or, Commander Sisko, who was still in clinical depression from his loss, couldn't get out of it, and then there was the famous James T. Kirk, who if the phrase 'raging hormonal imbalance"... Finally we have a captain who has external problems rather than internal problems. She's got problems, all right-- she's got her crew trapped in the Delta Quadrant by her decision, too, which is interesting. But at least we finally have somebody who can deal with external problems. I was thinking of her not as "female roles" but just comparing her with the other Star Trek captains. You know, we finally have a Star Trek captain who's got it together, and is believable. Somebody that you'd actually want to follow. Somebody who can give orders, not in a commanding voice, you know, but just-- S: In an irritating voice. M1: I don't think so. Admittedly, all of us would love to have voices like William Conrad or James Earl Jones, but we don't want her to talk like she did to the boyfriend. We don't want that in a captain, but we also don't want her being so assertive that we think she's being macho. I mean, she just gives instructions like she's totally confident of her role C: Thank you, because I think a lot of people agree with it. "Better Captain" is the topic. Number 1: Captain Kirk. Better captain, yes or no? Ok. Jean-Luc Picard? M1: Better than number one, but still... F1: Can you really say it's better? I think that they have a different style. I don't think one way is better. IDIC, IDIC, IDIC. M1: Sisko's the first one that's even remotely a military man. S: I like Sisko. M1: Yeah, I like Sisko, but I still think Janeway's even better. The first two had so many problems that they were not realistic as military commanders. [more group discussion of Picard] But in Janeway, we finally have a captain who is capable of feeling and thinking. S: All right, we've got this guy who is "like, like, like." What does anyone dislike about Janeway? C: I like her voice for one important reason: they're all gonna listen to her. No matter what. [Illustration with jokes about Janeway and Picard's hair] S: They're gonna hurry up and do what she wants so she'll shut up! F1: She's like a "mom in space". Mothers can get a million things done in a day. C: Very true. One of my commonly asked questions about Voyager, which I always try to ponder is, most stories are written from somebody's point of view. Is it Janeway's point of view? M1: Not necessarily. F1: The screenwriter's point of view. C: Or a character-driven point of view? Whose eyes are we seeing the show through? We were talking about Harry Kim, because he idolizes her. S: He's young, it's his first time out---he can't even handle the Delaney sisters. F1: Do you think the show has one consistent point of view? I think it varies. C: I agree. S: That's all fixin' to change. C: It varies from episode to episode. What I love about it, is that you get those different feelings from each character. You get to see into their lives a little more. They did this some in TNG, but not a lot. I would have liked to have known more about Troi. Troi and Riker's relationship should have been developed and it wasn't. M1: At least they did a show explaining it. F1: Nahhh...read the book. C: Does Janeway have a life? G: Yeah... C: Does she get out of the Captain's chair and get out--like "you're working too hard, do you have a life"? You know, one of those kinds of things. F1: I think we've seen that in the holonovel that they did. F2: And she has her own animal guide, too. C: Anybody want to see more of the holonovel? G: Yes!!! C: She's at Collingswood, yes! How much power does Janeway have? G: A lot. But not absolute. M2: Otherwise, they would have had a mutiny. F1: She is struggling to keep the balance of power F2: But that brings up the question of how much power does Chakotay have over the Maquis. M1: Janeway probably has more power in that position. You talk about the mutinous crew, given the things she's done, when you cut off the way home, you could almost get the Starfleet crew to go into mutiny at that point. And I'm saying, ask yourself, not how much power does Janeway have, I think Janeway has more power by her persuasiveness than Kirk, Sisco or Picard would have had in the same position. F1: I think she has an added advantage, though, that since they're isolated from the Federation, facing anything that's never been known to them, she's God Incarnate as far as Starfleet authority goes. Where they go, how they do it, *when* they do it, what kind of *schedule* they keep. S: She has no backup. C: When she turned around and looked at Tuvok and said, "YOU"... G: Whooooaaaaa... S: Great character development. C: That was iceberg time, because at that point I realized she has power, but the problem is she has to delegate power to all these different people, so that she can keep the ship running, keep everybody together, keep everything organized, and keep them on that same goal--to go home. To make it there. Gotta keep people from killing each other for 70 years. And in doing that, she's stuck. Because she knows these people, she's friendly with these people, she has to be because they're all stuck in the same boat, essentially. F1: I think the problem arises that it's no longer going to be a military regime. They're going to have to set up some sort of civil government as well, because they're going to have kids. M1: Tuvok said in effect, Ok--*I* will be the one who break the rules and possibly go to jail, but I won't tell her, because that way I can protect her... C: You have eight people from this militant group of the Federation who wind up on board the biggest, best, of the fleet. Which is now stranded... G: Not the biggest... C: The newest! The thing is, you've got these eight members of the Maquis and everyone is going, "Do I like them? Do I *not* like them? Can I handle being with them?" You've got that indecision now roaming through the crew. You have a lot of charismatic people that can now get people to join the Maquis. S: Boy, that red-headed engineer-guy--he's ready to join. F1: If they're really stranded 70 years, Tuvok's going to live the longest. C: I think he's a Maquis spy, I can feel it. F1: Noo... C: Getting into this, really brings up another point I had written down here. What are Janeway's relationships to the crew? We haven't seen Janeway with anybody but the bridge crew, have we? When it comes to crew people. M2: That's due to the writing. M3: Money. F1: That's because they want to get the main crew established. F4: They were trying to get it so that everybody has their moment. That one where...about the unit that could get them home faster? Originally that was supposed to be a Chakotay episode. Chakotay was supposed to be the one that falls in love with the person, but what happened was, the powers that be at Paramount said no, change it to Janeway. M1: Actually, I'm glad they didn't make that a Chakotay episode, it wouldn't have been what I wanted. I mean yes, we may want more screen time for Chakotay, but not that. C: I'm really waiting for the dream sequences, because there has to be a dream episode coming up where they all dream they're home. How about Janeway's relationships to other beings? Just, "I'm on a planet. Hi--- I'm the Captain, how are ya?" S: Would she have slept with that guy to get that technology? G: No!!!! C: It's vote time! M1: Tuvok wanted to not put her in that position. C: OKAY! Another point to bring up. Captain Kirk. What's the first thing you think of when you say the name "Captain Kirk"? G: Penis! Sex! Womanizer. Ego. Space Cowboy. C: Let's go to the next Captain. Jean-Luc Picard. G: Oh, baby! C: Pontiac. G: Voice. Bald. C: Personally, Pontiac, but that's another story. F1: He does build excitement, doesn't he?! C: Sisko? F3: Hawk. S: Yeah, he's got the goatee now. C: What would you say are the main characteristics that come to mind immediately when you say "Janeway"? S: Buns of steel. F6: C: I'll make a statement about that nightgown, because, it's just--the whole look they went for, in my opinion, was that 40's femme fatale look which I thought was done beautifully. Not Hepburn, more Veronica Lake. G: Her hair was down! C: Now if something totally horrible, just nasty happened, and it was Janeway versus crew, who would win? G: Crew. S: Just because there's more of them. F1: She wouldn't stoop to the level that some of them would. S: She's got to have some pull to get the Voyager, the newest ship, all new technology. She says, "Our technology is far superior to yours..." These people can rip your lungs out, Janeway! [Tiny Trek cartoon] M1: Some of the people were arguing that she should have used her weapons on that one ship [in "State of Flux"], to somehow destroy it-- a.) for vengeance and b.) that the Cardassians somehow represented a serious threat to the Federation's interest. I find that argument hard to fathom, but the obvious point was there were two more ships that were going to be there in eight minutes, and it's not clear that even if she had superior technology that she could have done the job in less than eight minutes and gotten away. I think the sensible thing to do when it's three to one is to retreat. Kirk was trigger happy. Janeway makes credible threats, but at the same time she's not trigger-happy, either. S: They need to find some friends to help them out. F1: There's how many Kazon and one of them? Can we say "Custer's Last Stand"? C: I'm just waiting for "Captain, we've just picked up a very large, cube-like device." M2: What about the last episode of Deep Space Nine, with the Dominion taking control and coming into the Federation? I wonder to myself, if they're everywhere, maybe they're on Voyager as well. S: Maybe they're Janeway. F3: Janeway's a Changeling! S: The gel packs. What a great place to hide. C: Who would be most likely to be a shape-changer on Voyager? G: Tuvok. F1: The reason being that he's so reserved and so logical and the Changelings have not shown emotions. Torres is too emotional. F2: Plus, they've actually cut into her body and they know that she's Klingon. C: Who's the other non-emotional character? B: Chakotay. F3: Changelings are pretty heavy into mythology... F2: But wouldn't the Doctor have found out when Chakotay was almost blown up... S: Unless it's his tattoo... F3: His tattoo's a changeling! C: Sean looked at my list and says he wants to ask this question. I don't want tooffend anybody... S: We've already hit on it...Janeway and sex. C: OK, this is screaming "audience participation"...It's vote time. Chakotay? Paris? OK, my buddy, Harry Kim? F1: If he can't make it with the Delaney sisters, he can't make it with the Captain! M1: She is not going to do it with anyone in the crew. B: Seventy YEARS?? F3: What, is she going to do it in the holodeck? M1: She will never compromise her position... B: Seventy years on a starship? Get Real! S: I'm ready for my boo's. Are you all ready to boo and hiss me? B'Elanna Torres. B: It's been done on the net already. C: I have to stop reading fanfic. B: I'll send you more! C: Oh my God... I think that she wouldn't have sex with anybody on the crew because, quite frankly, how do we jeopardize our position? We get intimate with crew members. Wrong! M1: Remember what happened to Picard and that gal, that led to problems, and since there's no way to transfer anybody out of the crew on Voyager... S: C: Although if you were in a dark bar on a starbase somewhere and Jean-Luc Picard is sitting there having his Earl Grey tea, hot... S: And you're hot... C: ...and in walks Kathryn Janeway... OK...if you could imagine Captain Kirk and Janeway meeting... How about Janeway and Q? G: OOH... S: She could have sex with the Doctor... M3: The reason you don't see her with anyone is because Captain Kirk's ghost is haunting Voyager... F1: And she meets him on the holodeck! F4: She has a little candle in her room that she lights at night... F5: Is THAT what that candle is for????! C: I'm gettin' REAL scared...NEXT QUESTION! Janeway versus Voyager. S: Well, number one, Janeway's not as BIG as Voyager... C: Now the reason I brought this up is...When you think of "Voyager," somebody says "Voyager's on...", what's your first thought? G: Gotta find a TV! S: Why do the warp engines fold up like that? M1: The show is wonderful because of the wonderful people. What's important about this show, what makes it work, is the people, and THEIR relationships and the whole business about "Lost In Space in the Delta Quadrant," that's not the real driving force... S: So you're saying they could've made a show without even GOING to the Delta Quadrant... M1: I'm saying. with this crew, you can put them anywhere and it's going to work. S: Voyager has a purpose, whereas Next Generation did not. "We have to get home". And that's something you didn't have to pay attention to in Next Generation. We know that each week we tune into Voyager, God--these people are trying to get home. M1: Actually, when they're 75 years from home, it's not like we tune in each week to see if they actually GOT there... F1: Are we there yet mom?????? C: I want to do something to kind of wrap things up... No, we're not singing "Kum Ba Yah"...Do we agree: Janeway is a very good captain, the best is yet to come? Along those lines, for those of you who are really big fans of Janeway, this nice lady, Becky , who is sitting in front of me, is with Now Voyager, the Kate Mulgrew appreciation group. Feel free to talk to her, ask her questions. Everybody say "Hi Becky!" B: I am membership secretary for Now Voyager, which is the officially sanctioned Kate Mulgrew Appreciation Society. It's run by a good friend of mine, Michelle Green, up in North Potomac, Maryland. I have business cards with me. You can reach us through mail or on a couple of different online services. If you're interested, there is a newsletter that comes out every other month, and it's just a fun time, and it has fan fiction, G-rated--you gotta get the other stuff online!--never mind. No, you don't read that stuff, DO you? F4: No, I just write it! B: Anyway, I have business cards. Drop us a line if you're interested, we'd be glad to have you! C: YAY!!!!! Coming up next in this room is "Klingon Cuisine." Stick around and find out what gakh is all about. [Illustration of Janeway in PJs] KATHRYN JANEWAY, FEMINIST HEROINE You know, I think we're winning the battle: I haven't read a stupid gender-based anti-Voyager comment in over a week. THE ROLE OF ROLE MODELS by Julianna Medina All the discussion on the need for positive female roles models has had me thinking about my own role models and how important they were/are in helping me shape my life. Before Janeway, was there a lack of positive female role models? Looking at it logically that would seem to be the case, but I'm constantly at odds with my logical self, so I'm going to disagree. I've never noticed a lack of female role models for myself. Instead, the appropriate role model always appeared in my life at the time when a certain aspect of my character needed development. Were they "ideal" role models? For me, they were. Ideals are so subjective and they're different for everyone. And it wasn't the whole person I was after anyway; it was some aspect in them that I wanted to emulate within myself. Now I don't use the term "role model" loosely here. Not as a smattering of fashion models or rock stars, but as a person whom you've looked to and who had a large impact in the shaping of your personality and life. I remember my first role model--my stepmother. Her name was Jean and she was studying to be a doctor. Every so often she had to go away to some specialized school for weeks, sometimes months at a time. I remember vividly how much it hurt her to leave my father and me behind. But she still did it. I couldn't name it then and I'm hard pressed to name it now, but as we cried and hugged and said our goodbyes, and as she walked through the tunnel to the plane, it happened. Oh, did I want to be like her. I even thought I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to go to different schools and learn something really BIG. I grew out of wanting to be a doctor, and grew into wanting to be Jamie Somers, the bionic woman. It's been said that Jamie Somers may not have been a good role model for young girls, but I don't remember any adverse qualities in the character. To be honest, I don't remember a single episode. What I do remember is wanting to be able to run fast and help others. I wanted to be strong like Jamie. Even if my legs short-circuited and racked me with pain, I wanted to keep going, like Jamie would have done. It was quite by accident that I saw Lindsay Wagner in a movie-of-the-week role in which she was a doctor bringing her advanced medicine into a very traditional and rural society that was somewhat less than receptive. It was here that I saw Lindsay as an actor, not as Jamie Somers, and I realized she was acting out of a passion, a need of and for the art, like my stepmother had needed to learn medicine. And here, I recognized a need within myself; the need to work toward a goal, toward a passion. I've had several more role models since Lindsay Wagner, including Tracy Chapman, Connie Willis, and probably most importantly the writer Kate Wilhelm, whose work made me realize that writing was what I wanted to do; that was how I wanted to reach people. But they've all taught me something uniquely their own, from their own lives and struggles and successes, all reflected through their work. I owe a lot to all my role models; they're a very big part of who I am. We have all probably heard or read Joseph Campbell telling us to follow our bliss. I had not heard that until several years ago, but throughout my life I had seen it in action through my rolemodels, and I'll bet it had a much larger impact in seeing it happen rather than just hearing it. When your dreams and goals seem impossibly far away, role models help you to stay focused and to keep the dreams alive. When you wonder what the hell you're getting yourself into, all you have to do is look to your role models to be reminded that as long as you, too, maintain your courage, strength, integrity, and passion, you can make a dream a reality. Do role models have a responsibility to those who look up to them? Oh, yes. They have a tremendous responsibility, and it is to stay true to themselves and their own passions. Our responsibility to our role models: don't make them into immortal, incorruptible beings. Remember that they're human, too, with the same loves, pain, desires and fears. Look to them for what they can teach you, and for what you admire in them and their work. Look to Kate Mulgrew for the passion and dedication she has for her craft, and her talent, strength and intelligence that has brought her success. (And she seems to be a pretty cool person as well.) And look to Captain Janeway for what it takes to command a starship, because we're all in command of our own starships here. Look to the stars, but remember, how far you take that starship is up to you. DON'T BLAME GENDER by Heidi Johnson I think it's important not to try to make too much of the "differences" between a female Captain and a male Captain. When all is said and done, it's an individual competence issue. Our society does have trouble dealing with female authority leaders at the top of the scale, but not much trouble with the in-between levels--there are lots and lots of women in middle management who are authoritative, efficient, capable, and even respected. So she gets closer physically to the crew. The interpretation is concern and attention, not aggression as it might be for a man. Again I think this is an artifact of our culture, nothing innate. Didn't Kirk used to put his hand on the helmsman's shoulder now and then? Picard was kind of a cold fish, or at least tightly restrained. And they all express self-doubt and emotions. It's part of the lonely-at-the-top schtick (and a good one, IMHO). Watch any scene with (a) Kirk worrying to McCoy; (b) Picard worrying to Beverly; (c) Sisko worrying to Kira or Dax. We have had women on Trek doing serious fighting: Kira, Dax, Yar... Even Uhura, a little, in the bad old sixties. Note that Picard seldom resorted to fisticuffs. Janeway'll let loose and kick butt one of these days. As to being more sensitive to the emotions of the crew...IMHO, women may currently appear to be more sensitive to people's emotions, but it's strictly cultural. This is a "typical stereotype" and not, I think, valid here. Picard especially was pretty gol-darned sensitive: remember all the defenses of Data, and telling people to stop calling Barkley "Broccoli," etc. When Janeway and B'Elanna are talking about how to solve a technical problem in the episode about choosing a chief engineer, they talk over each other's words. Finishing each other's sentences in a give-and-take rather than shouting each other down. I think that what was great was it showed the underlying similarities of the two individuals when the plot was all about how B'Elanna was unsuitable for the job of a Starfleet Chief Engineer. Janeway showed a very human side there, very excitable. Men do this also: Kirk was a regular exitable-boy. Just think of all those scenes on the bridge trying to figure out a way to psych out the aliens. They meet the giant amoeba that ate the Intrepid, and Kirk says "Antibodies, an-ti-bo-dies..." and pats McCoy on the cheek. More crew-touching! Janeway is a Captain--she didn't get there by being shy or lazy or dumb. She is confident, dynamic and very smart. She's also a bold adventurer: curious, fearless, quick-thinking, ready to try things out and then take responsibility for whatever happens. I think the most interesting things about her are her individual characteristics, not the fact that she's a woma n. I don't think you'll find any big differences in 'style' based on sex. O SISTERS WE by L.R. Bowen O sisters we, my ship and I, We plow the untracked distances, We count the stars within the sky We grasp eternal instances. We shall not bow unto the foe, We shall not let the helpless fall, We shall let every comrade know To us our duty is our all. O let her wander through the stars, In homeward quest still journeying, Let not soft pleasures or brute wars E'er tempt us into lingering. O keep her every action clean! Let her defense not damage her, O she my realm, and I her queen, The noble starship Voyager. BOOKS, COMICS, CARDS, AND AUDIO I don't have a clue how to sum up Ragnarok--the reviews below directly contradict one another as to who was in character and who wasn't, which parts of the novel were the most readable, whether the plot made sense, and what sort of audience the author seemed to be aiming to please. The only thing that seems clear is that this book's a J/C lover's dream even if they were both out of character, and the technobabble actually works. Sounds promising to me... Still no word on the future of the long-delayed Voyager comic series from Malibu/Marvel, although it is our duty to report that the alternate universe Tuvok will make an appearance in an upcoming Deep Space Nine comic, issues #29-30, which will also feature Thomas Riker. Should we hold a contest to see who can design the most intriguing alternate universe Janeway? ;-D RAGNAROK by Nathan Archer; Pocket Books 1995. "In an emergency she would have headed straight for the bridge in her nightgown..." With these words I was hooked. Here, my friends, is G-rated fan fiction at its best. Nathan Archer has taken a story idea one step further than most, by offering up tantalizing tidbits of characterization that fans hope to see on-screen, but know we probably never will. Those of us on the 'net who write fanfic do this all the time, but it was a pleasant surprise to find it echoed in a published work. Just like the long-running debate over the Picard/Crusher relationship, we take great delight in watching the sparks fly when Captain Janeway and Commander Chakotay match wits. Ragnarok takes J/C interaction to the limit. Consider, if you will, the following passage. Chakotay has volunteered to act as ambassador between the Hachai and P'Nir, ultimately to reach a peace agreement. "Janeway clearly believed in Starfleet dedication to that ideal, even if Chakotay didn't, and Chakotay believed in Janeway." Is this great stuff, or what?! There are battles aplenty for those who like action, and some deeper insights into the other crew members as well. I admit, I am the resident mush of this group. My sappy little mind tends to seek out hidden bits of innuendo, but in this case it's all in plain view. To quote once more: "Janeway's heart leapt. Chakotay was still alive and well!" My heart leapt, too! Ragnarok is escapist reading at its best. --Becky Olsen This is the second of the original Voyager novels and represents an improvement over the first - after the first 40 pages or so. This book starts s l o w l y, v e r y s l o w l y, with long descriptions of what the characters look like, a re-hash of how Voyager wound up in the Delta Quadrant, and pages and pages of similar filler. Janeway introspects the same points repeatedly, and what goes on in the first four chapters could easily have been covered in four pages. But once the story starts, it turns out to be a pretty fast-paced and not at all bad action-adventure story involving two races of alien baddies who have been at war with each other for centuries. Voyager, naturally, winds up in the middle and there are plenty of space battles; members of the crew trying to achieve a diplomatic solution are taken prisoner on an alien ship; the technobabble is kept to a reasonable amount; and the characters get a chance to be inventive and resourceful. While Tuvok does wield the phasers with a pretty heavy hand, it's made plausible and unavoidable, although the body count is pretty high. It's not exactly a victory for the Prime Directive and the ending seems designed for a sequel - Voyager has made some new enemies. Other than Tuvok, who is apparently not bothered by the carnage for which he's directly responsible--most unVulcan, and Surak would disapprove mightily--the characters are well drawn. Kim is quite convincing as he prowls the corridors of the alien ship under circumstances that weren't covered in his classes as Starfleet Academy, and Janeway comes across clearly as dealing with an escalating conflict as well as it can be handled, fully understanding the complexities of the situation. There is also a rather neat (although not too plausible) tie-in to a race last met in Classic Trek. While this book is clearly aimed at those who like space battles rather than Trekkers of a more philosophical bent, the battle scenes are well done and the story, once the incredibly slow start is over, moves well and keeps the reader involved. This is not a great Trek novel, or even an excellent one. But it is quite readable and, the author shows signs of having actually seen the show! Hopefully, future Voyager novels will contiune to improve as writers grow comfortable with the characters and the Voyager world. --Gini Boehm Worthen In general, I was underwhelmed. The writing is verbose and redundant in the extreme; it's my opinion that this story could have been told in half the space, and the pacing, particularly in the first half of the book, is glacial. Don't look for an intriguing plot device or intermittant snappy dialogue as in The Escape. You'll not find it. Also, I'm a big Janeway fan, and this book does not make the captain look good. Quite the contrary: she is not just part of the problem, she's the cause of the problem, and backs into the solution without even intending to. The latter is done characteristically (Sometimes You Just Have To Punch Your Way Through) but without flair or finesse. That aspect left a real bad taste. The saving feature of this book for me was that it includes a great deal of exposition about how the characters, particularly Janeway and Chakotay, see one another at this early stage. By me, Chakotay is far and away the best thing that's happened to Star Trek since Spock, and I have followed with avid interest the threads in various online discussions that have to do with the (current and, especially, potential) relationship between him and Janeway. I only hope the show's writers don't screw this up the way they did with Picard and Crusher. (They're attracted, they're just friends, they're attracted, they're just friends--oops--they got married and divorced while we weren't looking.... I mean, come ON.) There is so much potential down the road once the dog-sitter is no longer a viable option, and IMHO Mulgrew and Beltran are doing a fantastic job with it in the snitches and snatches the writers are allowing them. But I digress. Nathan Archer, the author of Ragnarok, is very big on character exposition and largely pretty shy on character Show Don't Tell. At this moment, I can remember only one significant interaction in the book between Janeway and Chakotay, and that one didn't really accomplish a whole lot dramatically. (Next to the "10" J/C scene in this week's repeat of "Ex Post Facto," the one in the book is barely a "1.") But Archer tells us a lot about how they see each other (and other characters), and that's kinda neat. Granted that the novels aren't supposed to be canon, what the author tells us is by no means in conflict with what we've seen on the screen, but rather tends to augment and deepen it. And Chakotay's characterization is not bad. He has a much larger part to play than he has had in most of the TV episodes except "Caretaker," and by and large it plays pretty well. Just one example: in a couple places the author suggests the understated arrogance that we've mostly just seen flashes of, notably in "Learning Curve" (the deft, wordless unseating of the blue alien and the protracted "business" with the drinking cup). Example: when a crewmember asks rhetorically who is a better pilot than Paris is, Chakotay responds "I am" without missing a beat. YES! So Ragnarok is very much a mixed bag. There's plenty of action, but the majority of it is redundant to the point of dull pain. I don't think Janeway fans will be pleased, but Chakotay fans and Kim fans will probably love it; if there is a hero of the piece, it's Harry. And there's even a halfway interesting tie-in with "The Corbomite Maneuver" for unregenerated TOS fans like me. ;-) --Claire Gabriel I can sum this book up in two words: "Why bother?" This book takes an idea, beats it to death for 200 pages or so, and then finally tries to give those 200 pages meaning on the final page. It would have made an interesting short story, but it was really tedious as a novel. The basic plot is this: there are two races that have been at war for centuries. Janeway wants to fly straight through their star system, totally ingoring Neelix's warnings, in an effort to chase down the source of a tachyon pulse which may be similar to the one the Caretaker used. They get caught in the battle, they try to make peace between the races, they stay caught for a long time, and then there's the last page resolution. The writing style only adds to the tedium. There are many looooong passages describing Paris flying around trying to maneuver Voyager out of the battle. There is a strangely conceived, entirely pointless peacemaking attempt. There's more flying around. Lots more. Phasers are fired. This happens a lot. Yawn. I got the point 100 pages ago. But even more annoying than the utter banality and repetitiveness of the text was the way the author wrote the characters. Someone must have released something into the ventilation system to make the characters into two dimensional parodies of themselves. Paris was a non-stop wise-ass, Chakotay was serene to the point of unconsciousness, Kim was pathetically naive, Kes was just plain weird, Torres was a total hothead, and to top it off, Janeway was just plain stupid. Yes, she can be stubborn, but she's not stupid. Yes, she's violated the Prime Directive in the past, but not for such idiotic reasons as in this book. Only Tuvok and Neelix rang true, and frankly, they're really easy characters to nail down. No biscuit for you, Nathan. So I want everybody reading this to go home and wish upon the first star you see tonight. I want you to say, "I wish Paramount may, I wish Paramount might, find a new author, who knows how to write." Here's hoping book four in the Voyager series is light years better than this one. Okay, so I'm a mean person. :) --Jennifer Pelland (Siubhan) I was very disappointed by Ragnarok. As a story it is okay, but as a Voyager story it falls short. The problem with this novel is that the crew is horribly out of character and some of their actions are just plain inconsistent with the episodes. I do realize that we gentle readers have an advantage: we have been able to view ALL of this seasons episodes (well, those that Paramount decided to air as season one, that is). Nathan Archer did not have that opportunity--though, for a change, there is a reference to coffee in the text that indicates that the writer might have seen one episode. A few scenes were very well written and in character; the author managed to grasp the personality of the Doctor, and his scenes hit one target. But those "real" moments are few and far between. Harry Kim is portrayed as inept. Chakotay comes across as a pompous know-it-all. Torres is written way too agressively--yes, she did strike Lt. Carey in "Parallax" and break his nose, but she has been remarkably well-behaved since that episode. In this novel, she picks up and throws a crewman across Engineering because he referred to her Klingon ancestry. Even sensitive Kes comes across as a happy-go-lucky pixie. The scene where she insists that a battle between two huge forces is beautiful seems highly inconsistent with the empathetic feelings she evinced in "Time and Again," where she was distraught by the destruction of the planet. Lastly, Neelix is just plain annoying. The worst miss on characterization is that of the Captain. Our beloved Janeway is normally calm and controlled under dire circumstances; not in this novel, though. Here the Captain is so short-tempered and snippy that I would not want to be a crewman having to give her bad news. But worse is the inconsistency of her commands. This same Captain who let Seska go rather than endanger the ship and the rest of the crew against the Kazon in "State of Flux" takes her ship right into the middle of an age-old war zone where there are so many combatants that they cannot even count the total number of ships fighting. If you like space battles and bad-tempered characters, this novel is for you. If you are looking for a story that could count as an episode that Paramount just didn't happen to film, skip this novel. --Risa Phillips-Kovac SKYBOX VOYAGER TRADING CARDS They're here, they're overpriced...but there are photos on both sides of the cards, and compared to the DS9 trading cards the art on these is larger and clearer; in fact, of the Skybox sets, these are visually superior in many ways, which gives me hope that they actually READ the comments on those little survey cards they include with some packs for people to respond! Moreover, I got a Janeway foil card in my very first pack and a SkyMotion exchange card in the second, so who am I to complain? (If anyone has a Chakotay foil they'd be willing to trade for just about anything, let me know!) Great Janeway shots on #12, #19, #23, #35, #38, #47, #53, and the backs of #55 & #71. Chakotay's expression on #60 is priceless. Dozens of these scenes could serve as photo caption contest inspiration. You can buy a complete set of the numbered cards from the Official Star Trek Fan Club merchandising department, as well as at cons, although these don't include the foils (going anywhere from $8-$15 at Shore Leave, depending on who was depicted), the holographic doctor card, or the SkyMotion cards ($40-80!). There are also bonus cards depicting the entire crew, survey cards, and preview cards for the next series, due out in November. There's lots of trading going on in the Trek and non-sport collector card newsgroups on the net, so before you spend your life savings trying to get the one card you're missing, you might want to check out the Usenet! That's where I found #87, thus completing my own story card set for less than the cost of a complete set. I have five #42s, so if anyone needs one... --Michelle Erica Green COPYRIGHT VIOLATION CORNER Paramount owns the franchise, but fan writers breathe life into it. IN STORAGE by Anne Davenport "Hello?" Captain Janeway stood just inside the wide door of the cargo bay. No one answered. She didn't see anyone amidst the bulk containers and large shelving of the main cargo area. She looked up to the control room but didn't see any movement there. Someone was assigned to the cargo areas, but the absence didn't either surprise or disturb her. The post was a floating one, so whoever was on duty could have been in any of the other holds, or engineering if they'd needed any extra help. Janeway turned to the control panel next to the door. "Computer, display map of cargo area." The computer chirped its reply, the black screen cleared and a lattice of yellow lines appeared. "Display crew private storage." A far corner of the map changed to blue. Janeway turned back to the cavernous hold and then back to the map. "Display location, private storage for Janeway." The screen changed to a side view of a row of shelves. A flashing blue arrow and label marked the spot on the top shelf. Janeway sighed, cleared the screen and went into the hold. Her boots echoing loudly on the deck, the captain crossed the open area, passed the stacks of cargo containers, down between the high rows to the shelves at the far wall. All the cargo holds had been reorganized, to make room for Kes's hydroponics bay and extra space for material fabrication, for food storage--Janeway paused at a jumbled shelf--and junk. Janeway picked at a carton full of used and burned out circuit boards. Some of them had no obvious damage, others were blackened and cracked and even smelled faintly of charred plastic. Most of the boxes on these shelves were labeled, "recycle" with a Starfleet hieroglyph, but a few of them, and all of the bags were marked with some distinctly non-regulation Bajoran script. One of the Maquis was obviously in charge of this project. The things in the boxes seemed to be sorted by size and shape, not function. One box contained cabling, all types of long, coiled things from optical fibers to pieces of knotted rope. Another one held square things, and yet another, rounds and semi-rounds. And none of the boxes were covered. Someone would have to spend hours picking up and re-sorting all the pieces after the next turbulent red alert Voyager encountered. One shelf was marked with a replicator symbol. Presumably these things could be rematerialized into new with a replicator, which only took half the energy needed to create them whole. When they had the energy to spare... Janeway frowned. "We're turning into pack rats," Janeway grumbled to herself and moved on. She reached the shelf she wanted and looked up at her goal, far above her head. She went looking for a ladder. After climbing up to the top shelf, the captain didn't see her box. All of crew's private storage seemed to have been moved to the top two shelves, boxes on top of boxes, except for one bare space that was marked with more Bajoran script, "Maquis Storage". Janeway glowered at it. She realized that the Maquis had arrived as refugees with nothing save the clothes they wore after their ship had been destroyed, but at the moment she just didn't appreciate the joke. It wasn't just momentary inconvenience either; it hurt. A reminder that the Maquis had nothing, it reinforced their separateness.. She touched the control on the ladder and gripped the rail as it moved down the row. The author of the Bajoran notes was probably familiar enough with the arrangement to use the cargo transporter to liberate her box without dislodging everything else, but she wasn't. She saw a familiar blue corner peeking out from behind other cartons and stopped the ladder. She sized up the stack; she would either need an antigrav or the transporter if she wanted to get to her box without the danger of pushing six others off to a five meter drop. She noticed a label on one of the boxes in front of hers. Stadi. She looked for more. Fitzgerald. T'Prena. Cavit. Janeway looked away and down at the floor far below. Brrr-eet! "Chakotay to Janeway." Janeway's head snapped up and she tapped her communicator. "Janeway here." "Captain," the voice of her current first officer answered over the comm. "I'm in Engineering. Lieutenant Torres has been tracking down a fluctuation in the matter-antimatter flow all afternoon and we think it's a misalignment in the dilithium chamber, but we need to shut down the engines to check it out." "How long will we be shut down?" Janeway asked. "Only four hours, Captain," Torres answered. Only four hours, sitting in space... "All right, you have my authorization. But only four hours, Lieutenant," she reminded. "Right, Captain." "And Commander, I'm down in Cargo Bay Three. Could you please join me?" "Of course, right away. Chakotay out." She slowly climbed down the ladder, her boots clinking on the metal rungs. She wove her way through the aisles of storage to the cargo transporter platform. [Illustration] Having actually seen what was on the shelves, she could make a better judgement on transporting her own box down without having to move the whole shelf. Six crates sparkled and formed on the platform. The two on the bottom were hers and her security chief's, Lieutenant Tuvok. The four smaller ones on top of them had belonged to members of her crew who'd been killed when Voyager had been forced into the Delta Quadrant. Janeway picked up an antigrav to move the boxes that were too heavy for her to lift. She palmed the lock plate and the light blue container clicked open. She lifted the lid to rummage inside. A bolt of cloth, a hideous formal robe that she knew she'd have to wear again if the Galtaran Assembly ever demander her as a mediator again--whenever they returned to Federation space--a box of photos and holograms, three paintings, a Toshas horn that could also be used to shoot poison darts, a bag of de-toxified darts, and more clutter. Janeway pulled her prize up from the bottom and placed it atop Tuvok's crate. She opened the smaller box and took out one of the jars, its contents clinked within the glass. But she'd lost her interest in the homemade peanut brittle. Her eyes returned to Lieutenant Commander Cavit's plain, gray box. She and Tuvok had packed that box, emptying her first officer's quarters less than a week after they'd been stranded in the Delta Quadrant. They were still empty. Commander Chakotay had preferred another cabin. She replaced the jar with the others and decided that she would have to take out most of the other things in her box if she was going to fit this one back in. "Captain?" She turned. Commander Chakotay had entered without her noticing. He peered curiously down into her box. [Illustration] "Packing?" he asked. "Unpacking, actually." She patted her peanut brittle. Chakotay looked about at the other containers around them on the transported pad and then he noticed the names on them. "They were stacked together," Janeway told him, gesturing toward Cavit's name, her hand then rubbing the back of her neck as if she were looking away because she was tired. "I see." He bit his lip and exhaled. "I'll see to it, Captain." It wasn't much for him to offer after this insult, but he would make sure it wouldn't happen again. "Will that be all?" "No." She dropped her hand and led him off the transporter. He looked over the brown bun of her hair at the cluttered shelves she pointed at. "Commander, do we really need all of that?" She saw his amused, disarming smile as he rubbed his chin. She immediately felt like a micro-managing busybody; Chakotay had presented very good arguments for the materials recycling project. Seventy years out from the nearest starbase, they could not afford to let anything go to waste, so she'd approved it. But the shelves of semi-usable discards were giving her second thoughts. The commander wondered if should mention the half room full of stuff that Lieutenant Torres was saving up in Engineering and just hadn't transferred to the cargo bay yet. Or how much Neelix had dipped into the recycle bins to build his galley. No probably not. "I'll talk to Jackson and the others about storing it properly, Captain." The haphazard storage at least was not acceptable, even if the recycling was necessary. "But to be honest. If we hope to make it back to Federation space, we're going to have to make use of everything." He reached around her to pick out a damaged module, its micro filament connections a hopeless mass of shimmering fuzz sticking out of one side. "No matter how useless it looks. There aren't any starbases out here in the Delta Quadrant." "A Maquis tactic, Commander?" she referred to his former outlaw status. He smiled back and dropped the module back with the others it had been stashed with. "You learn to live with what you've got, when you're on your own." He was right. She leaned on one of the shelf supports and shook her head. They were standing together next to the collected debris. She and Chakotay had agreed that Starfleet discipline would bind the two crews together to get them home. But she hadn't realized that this would mean relying on Maquis frugality to supply them for the journey. But how bad would it get? How many of these little bits of junk would she see turning up as they were reused? She gazed down at boxes and their contents. How long before they started looking like a patched-together, worn out old cargo ship, one ragged crew sharing each other's eating utensils and toothbrushes? Chakotay looked down at the top of her brown hair, bound and styled in regulation fashion. When he'd first joined the Maquis, it had been a drastic adjustment, going from Starfleet officer to renegade freedom-fighter. Every detail from minor supplies to getting parts for the transporter had plagued him in his new command; ridiculous, tiny details that he'd never given a thought to before consumed his time and threatened his cause almost as much as the Cardassians he'd sworn to fight. Now the Cardassians were far away, home where they were headed, but the cause of survival still remained and those tiny, ridiculous details had landed on the woman in command of this ship. At the moment, she did not look happy about it. He smiled to himself. She would adjust; it just would take a little time. "Well," she finally said, her introspection disappearing. "I want this mess cleaned up by 0800 tomorrow." She looked up at him again. "And I believe you were working up a plan for how we're going to deal with all this, Commander?" "I can have it for you at the staff meeting tomorrow." "Do that." "Will that be all, Captain?" "No." She touched his arm and led him back to transporter pad where she sealed her own storage crate. She took a jar from the smaller box he'd seen her removing from it and put it aside. "Have these things put back." She indicated the crates and boxes on the pad. Then she picked up the smaller box and he took it when she handed it to him. "And give this to Mister Neelix." The box contained eight more jars filled with lumpy, light brown slabs. She shrugged and raised an eyebrow. "Dessert. And tell Mister Neelix to save the jars. We might need them." END We hear from reliable sources--namely Garrett Wang and Roxann Biggs-Dawson at vaerious conventions--that the cast of Voyager is, well, goofy. Apparently one of their favorite pastimes is singing ridiculous songs. To the tune of "Mr. Sandman," here are some lyrics, courtesy Wang and Robert Beltran: "Captain Janeway, bring home your ship, You have more hairstyles than you have rank pips..." Apparently after enough verses of this song, with Beltran singing falsetto, Tim Russ told them to shut up... WE ARE FAMILY Other Star Trek fan clubs you might want to know about! Send SASE for information: INSIDERS Official Tim Russ/Tuvok and Garrett Wang/Harry Kim Fan Clubs P.O. Box 8248 Long Beach, CA 90808 RANDOM FLIGHT Robert Duncan McNeill/Tom Paris Fan Club c/o Barbara Nash P.O. Box 3583 Abilene, TX 79604 random_staff@mystery.lib.calpoly.edu THE DOCTOR'S EXCHANGE Official Siddig El Fadil/Dr. Bashir Fan Club c/o Stephanie Armato P.O. Box 12254 La Crescenta, CA 91224-0954 docslady@aol.com ENVY Nana Visitor/Major Kira Fan Club c/o Kimberley Junius P.O. Box 1926 Upland, CA 91785-1926 bajorfemme@aol.com OASIS Official Armin Shimerman/Quark Fan Club c/o Kathy Bayne 26 Dogwood Street Jersey City, NJ 07305 kathybayne@aol.com THE LAST OUTPOST Star Trek Club of Hawaii c/o Mark Wilson P.O. Box 31261 Honolulu, HI 96820 73502.226@compuserve.com KIDS' KORNER My name is Sarah Van Winkle I am 6. I like star trek Voyager becas they are good actors. I like Bellana becas she said take the chees to sickbay. I like Chakotay becas hes cute. I like Captain Janeway becas shes a good actress. [Illustration] [Illustration] [8X10 photo of Kate] PHOTO CREDITS 1--Masthead © Janet Coleman, cleaned up by Anne Davenport. 2--Photos by Maureen McGowan. 3-5--© Paramount Pictures 1995. 7--© Paramount Pictures 1995. 13--Illustration by Anne Davenport. 15--Illustration by Jennifer Pelland (Siubhan). 16--Illustration by Anne Davenport. 20--Illustration by Anne Davenport. 21--Illustration by Maryann Jorgensen. 22--Illustrations by Sarah Van Winkle and Carman Wise. 23--Photo by Jonathan Exley. 24--Graphic © 1995 Joy Locke. It is illegal to reproduce or scan any art from this newsletter. [Photo--con] [Photo--Kate] CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE DEPARTMENT Gentle readers: Moving is our only excuse for the large number of typos and layout glitches herein. The people responsible for sacking the people responsible have been sacked... Heather, Michele, and Larry of BG&H: Thanks yet again! Cheryl Waldie and Sue Harke: I owe you both SEVERAL videotapes and as much breaking news as I can get ahold of! Thanks for everything! Jeff: Cultural relevance of this stuff? Naah! Thanks for the article! Julie: MUCH gratitude for getting the article in, under deadline, while we were moving and being lousy correspondents! It's terrific, and you're terrific! Now, what IS that pesky Q up to??? :D Anne and Laura B: Endless appreciation for the fiction, the art, the scans, the humor, the disks, and the rest. XOXO Sue Henley: Just wanted to tell you that we've got several marriage proposals to be forwarded to you... Becky, Diane, Laura B&W: And then they got married and lived happily ever after, although there seems to be some dispute as to the number of children they had. TFW to all of you! Claire: I'm so glad you found me again. Just proves my theory that Trek fandom is as real a community as the neighborhood where I grew up. Thanks for everything! TFW to you too! Siubhan: You never told the RBLS the end of the story about Kathryn and the wonder iguana! Did she free it from its bonds? Thanks for the cards and the art and the laughs! Kate: We love you! And the internet's not really THAT scary. UPN: Congrats on the Emmy nominations. Now GET THE NEW EPISODES ON THE AIR ALREADY!!! WWW users: Look for Now Voyager on the web at: http://umbc8.umbc.edu/~mpanti1/kate/kate.html . [Comic Strip]