The Paradox of Free Will

"In both Christain and Jewish theology, God is supposed to be omnipotent. Now, when He made humans, He either did or did not give them free will. If He did, then it follows that He cannot control the acts of humans, which mens He's not omnipotent. And if He did not give humans free will, then the only way God can escape being responsible for the evil humans do is to suppose the He didn't create humans with free will because He coudn't. Again, then, God ends up being denied omnipotense. Thus we have the so-called Paradox of Omnipotence. No matter what God did concerning free will, He cannot be omnipotent, but that is in conflict with an all-powerful God."

Excerted from Time Travel Paradoxes

DS9 Season 5 on DVD

The Klingon conflict continues as season five begins. But after spending a fourth year doing that, the writers and producers began to return to the Dominion story line. While some saw this tonal shift proof the series was in trouble, for the writers and producers, it was what they needed to bring the Dominion arc back to center stage.

"Apocalypse Rising" brought about an end to the Klingon "problem" and opened the door for the return of the Changelings.

Season five also had other things going for it. Star Trek was celebrating its 30 anniversary that year, and both DS9 and Voyager were going to do special episodes to commemorate that fact. Voyager brought back George Takei and Grace Lee Whitney as Sulu and Rand in a so-so tale adventure that brought Janeway to the bridge of the Excelsior during the events of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. DS9 would go the distance and bring everyone back from TOS. Of sorts, anyway. Thanks to the breakthrough technology used in the Oscar winning film Forest Gump, the crew of DS9 travels back into the events of TOS episode "The Trouble with Tribbles." In the humorous and slightly goofy "Trials and Tribble-ations", Sisko and his crew have to stop a plot to kill Kirk before all of time is destroyed. The writers worked a miracle, by placing the crew into a 30 year-old episode.

The 100th episode, "The Ship" also aired, along with "Looking for Par'Mach in all the Wrong Places", "Nor Battle to the Strong" (a special episode for Cirroc Lofton, a birthday present for the actor from the producers, as he was now 18 and no longer had to have a teacher on the set), "Things Past", "The Ascent", "Rapture", "The Darkness and the Light", "The Begotten" (where Odo gets his shapeshifting abilities returned),"For the Uniform", the two-part "In Purgatory's Shadow/By Inferno's Light", "Doctor Bashir, I Persume?"(which featured a performance from Voyager's Robert Picardo as the real Dr. Zimmerman), Business as Usual", "Ties of Blood and Water" (a sequel of sorts to season three's "Second Skin"), "Ferengi Love Songs", the brilliant "Children of Time", the darkly humorous "In the Cards" and the shattering finale "A Call to Arms".

As I've mentioned before, there are always stinkers (the less said about "A Simple Investigation" the better), but overall, the series was in its stride. The fifth season would also see a magnificent visual effect of all of Starfleet heading towards DS9 -now overtaken by the Dominion and the Cardassians. It was an awe inspiring, jaw dropping effect.

And as the ships head towards DS9, Gul Dukat -now back in his office -discovers a message that Sisko left him.

His baseball. Dukat, as he holds the ball, tells a puzzled Weyoun that Sisko intends to return.

And the war begins...

Season 4 DS9 on DVD

It's all about ratings. And Paramount wanted them higher. So what do you do? Why, you bring one of the most popular characters ever in the Trek canon to help boost those sagging ratings. Will it work, or will it fail?

That was up to the fans...

While season three ended with idea that the Changelings were already in the Alpha Quadrant and possibly on Earth, it would nearly half way through the fourth year before these story threads would be picked up again.

It appeared, as the third season was coming to a close, Paramount was already thinking toward the fourth year and was in active -if secret - negotiations with Michael Dorn to bring one of the most popular characters on The Next Generation to Deep Space Nine. Once it was decided, the plot lines from "The Adversary" would be pushed aside and a new direction would have to take center stage.

With Worf now coming to DS9, the writers had to figure out how too not only get him on the station, but also keep him there. The writers hatched onto the idea that Klingons, long now the friends of the Federation, were growing restless due to pending invasion of the Dominion and Federations lack of action. Discourse was brewing and as Ben quoted his old friend Curzon Dax, the best people to deal with the Klingons, was a Klingon.

The two-hour opener, "The Way of the Warrior", reintroduced the Klingons as bad guys and series was off in a new direction. And that was a good thing.

Over all, the fourth season would see the series really grow stronger, building on what was delivered during the previous season. There was "Hippocratic Oath", the brilliant acted and directed episode "The Visitor", "Indiscretion", the controversial, same-sex kissing of "Rejoined", the cat mouse and mouse game of "Starship Down", the comedic "Little Green Men", the James Bond take off "Our Man Bashir", the paranoia two-parter "Homefront" and "Paradise Lost", the silly "Bar Association", the next chapter in the Mirror Universe saga, "Shattered Mirror" and another brilliant, if quiet season finale, "Broken Link".

Yes, there were a few stinkers, but overall, it was a strong season that would lead into an ever-stronger fifth, sixth and seventh year.

And once again, we are left with disturbing news. As Odo was being judged by his people for the actions in last season's "The Adversary", he believes that one of his own people -a Changeling -may be in command of the entire Klingon Empire; an Empire on the brink of war with the Federation...

The Man who can Save Star Trek -Part 1

If Paramount is serious about bringing Star Trek back, it needs to look at why it failed.

A new movie is logical -because in the end, it will be cheaper to produce a theatrical film versus a new weekly series. And if they’re going to do a movie, it seems obvious to many -including the fans who supported the anemic Voyager and Enterprise - that Rick Berman and Brannon Braga should keep their hands off it.

Their failure to understand what Star Trek is, coupled with Paramount and UPN’s stance to produce a show as cheaply as possible, with a high content of sex and violence and little story, doomed the franchise. While Berman will argue that he kept up the principles of Roddenberry’s visionary themes, I would say he stuck to them so closely that it lost even the most hardcore fans. Sure Roddenberry’s utopian imagination was welcomed during the turbulent 1960's, but even by 1987 when The Next Generation premiered, those same values seemed archaic at best. TNG’s erratic first two seasons pointed out all the behind the scenes drama that was going on. Writers and producers came and went like waiters in a restaurant, as some tried to write stories that maybe conflicted with Roddenberry’s ideal that the Federation was all cookies and cream.

As Berman ascended to the throne as Roddenbery grew ill, he seemed to take the creator’s "bible" of Trek as gospel. That Gene was God of Star Trek and you could not change anything, even when things conflicted with each other (sounds like many religions). When Michael Piller was hired for the third season, TNG really began to settle in. As a producer and writer, he was known to tell people that "...the whole idea of exploring space is a metaphor for exploring ourselves." That the shows that gave the audience insight into humanity and the meaning of humanity were far better than "exploding space ships and space-monsters." He always encouraged the writers on all the shows he written for, like TNG, DS9 and Voyager and now The Dead Zone, to try and find the moral and ethical dilemmas; the human element of the story.

For most fans, him included, once he left Voyager to work on other things, there seemed to be a less of appetite for that kind of story telling. And while he might disagree with the why that happened, it is easily explained that Star Trek: Voyager and then Star Trek: Enterprise’s main goals was two-fold: reach a broader-based audience and achieve higher ratings. So his style of storytelling -but one that led to TNG’s additional 5 years of better and balanced stories after it’s wobbly first two seasons - was deemed too lofty.

Perhaps moving Trek from syndication back to a network show doomed it. In syndication, while ratings were important, the expectations of those ratings were scaled back. While TNG maintained an audience of 10 million or more in syndication, by network standards, it would’ve never survived. And while DS9 never achieved the high ratings of TNG, it nevertheless was still the number 2 drama in syndication after TNG (when both series overlapped each other) and became the number 1 drama when TNG ended in 1994 -and by then more and more shows were popping up in syndication.

So, with Voyager and soon-to-be Enterprise coming to network TV, Berman and Braga made a Star Trek series that was bland and no worse or better than any other run-of-the-mill science fiction show. Which was, in hindsight, the beginning of the end.

The Man who can save Star Trek -Part 2

So who could perhaps, return Star Trek to some of the glory days, the halcyon years of TNG and DS9? With Piller off doing The Dead Zone on USA Network along with Wildfire on ABC Family, he seems the least available. Plus, while Star Trek: Insurrection had some good ideas, the story never gelled into what one would expect a big screen adventure to be. Like Generations, Insurrection was a great two-part TV episode, but not an appropriate follow up to the action based, character growing Nemesis.

Ron Moore, who is credited for making the Klingons one of the most interesting races Star Trek has ever produced, is a great choice. He understands Michael Piller’s thought process on what makes a good story. But he too, is unavailable, as he has a huge success with the Sci Fi Channels reimaging of the 1970's series Battlestar Glactica. As a matter of fact, executives at Paramount should be watching this new BG to get ideas on how to revive Star Trek.

Perhaps, though, the best person for the job, one who’s ideals go with Piller and Moore is Ira Steven Behr. For if it was not with his leadership, DS9 never would’ve maintained its status as a worthy follow-up to TOS and TNG.

And like its sister show, DS9 had a wobbly first two seasons, but by the end of its first year -especially the final three shows - the series began see its darker, more bleaker version of the Federation come forward. Religion and politics would become its bread and butter, even while maintaining a quota of action shows. Also, Behr, like what Moore did with the Klingons, was able to take the Ferengi -who was touted in the early days of TNG as the new Big Bad - from silly, money loving, misogynous aliens to well-rounded, albeit still having cavemen mentality about women, species who could comment on the human condition (with one the best made by Quark in The Jem’Hadar).

But by far, what made DS9 the best -even surpassing TNG at times, was Behr’s ideals that they could bend some of Roddenberry’s ideals with out ever chucking them out completely. DS9's uniqueness -as ambassadors of Federation dogma on an alien built station, and out numbered by many non-humans - created the drama that sometimes escaped TNG. Then, with the introduction of the Dominion -an abrasive race who controlled the Gamma Quadrant where the Bajoran wornhole ended at - the series would loose much of its episodic roots and take up a story line that would thread its way through to the end.

Behr fought for most of this time with Berman, like never telling Rick fully that it would take 6 episodes of season six for Sisko and his crew to retake DS9 after the Dominion siege at the end of season five. DS9 took risks and enhanced the characters, giving them flaws and doubts. And ultimately, you would learn more about the recurring characters (which the series excelled at) and the villains (like Dukat and Weyoun) than even Captain Sisko.

If Paramount wants to revive the franchise, whether it be next year or 5, it seriously needs to look at Ira Steven Behr, Michael Piller and Ronald D. Moore. These three writers along with René Echevarria, Robert Hewitt Wolfe, Bryan Fuller and Hans Beimler were best Trek has ever seen. Give them the scope and the freedom to work a script worthy of the big screen, something that gives in both action and character development, and Trek could be reborn yet again.

Hail, Ira Steven Behr.

Reading Rainbow

Sometimes I feel like Jaye Tyler on Wonderfalls. While not a graduate of Brown University, I do think I’m fairly intellectual. And like Jaye, I’m stuck in a retail job that is going no where. And while I like customer service, I feel as American’s, we are getting stupider. We make have this large information highway known as the internet, but we are still surrounded by people who don’t listen, who don’t pay attention. Their theory being that someone else will have the information for them.

I cannot count how many times over the last 17 years that I’ve worked in the book business where people come in and ask for a book.

What’s the title,?" I would ask.

I’m not sure, I think it had "The" in title.

Author?

I’m not sure, but they were on Good Morning America today. It was about oh, so big and had a blue cover.

Well, that clears it up. The blue section is over to your left.

Anyways, I try to ask probing questions, like what the book was about, if they can remember any part of the title. But the point is, most people will assume that the bookseller will know exactly what they are talking about. After all, if it’s being talked about on TV then naturally the book should be front and center. WGN radio here in Chicago has become my nemesis, if only because its listeners don’t write the title or the author down. They expect the seller to know what they want when they say the author was on WGN. The problem that lies here is that most bookseller’s are usually under the age of WGN’s demographic. I joke that it’s required by law that once you reach 50, you must listen to the station.

Which, at times, in no longer a joke. So, most workers would not listen to WGN if their life depended upon it. Same thing goes with WBEZ, the PBS station here in Chicago. But usually, these radio listeners know more than the WGN ones do. So is it an intellectual thing? The mass audience may listen to WGN but it might also might show the education level of its demographic base.

Intellectuals are feared by mass, as some are accused of being Anti-American, Anti-Christian and are after destroying the basic foundations on which America is based. While I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer (and my typing skills suck) I do feel that I am smart and know a lot of information.

Those ideas have helped me in my job. By spending hours reading, surfing the net and occasionally watching Oprah, I have been able to help customer who’ve come in with the littlest of information. But it also sometimes mystifies me these people’s brains can generate the electricity needed to move their legs.

Teenage girls are the worse at this, coming to the information desk in skanky outfits, twirling their hair and asking where the fiction section is and who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. When you point it out (and tell them I'm a homo so their girlie crap won't work on me), say literature is over there, they say, no I’m looking for the fiction section. Sometimes I want to scream at them,. Because these are the ones (like my niece) who think reading is boring and unnecessary because they’ll be marrying a guy who will be making lots of money.

But as much as I like my job, as much as I get great satisfaction out of helping a customer, I cannot help but feel disdain for them as well. I always associated readers as intellectuals. Now I’ve realized that most only read to keep up the Jones (such as the success of the Da Vinci Code proves). While I feel terrible that I’ve never read Twain, or Hemingway, Faulkner, Baldwin or even The Confederacy of Dunces, I know who and what they are and what they represent in book culture.

So, like Jaye Tyler, I help customers, but try to avoid their eyes. Most are mindless people driven into the bookstore not because they want to read, but because the need to know what everyone else is reading,

And wondering if Nora Roberts has written another book this week.

Sometimes I feel like Jaye Tyler on Wonderfalls. While not a graduate of Brown University, I do think I’m fairly intellectual. And like Jaye, I’m stuck in a retail job that is going no where. And while I like customer service, I feel as American’s, we are getting stupider. We make have this large information highway known as the internet, but we are still surrounded by people who don’t listen, who don’t pay attention. Their theory being that someone else will have the information for them.

I cannot count how many times over the last 17 years that I’ve worked in the book business where people come in and ask for a book.

What’s the title,?" I would ask.

I’m not sure, I think it had "The" in title.

Author?

I’m not sure, but they were on Good Morning America today. It was about oh, so big and had a blue cover.

Well, that clears it up. The blue section is over to your left.

Anyways, I try to ask probing questions, like what the book was about, if they can remember any part of the title. But the point is, most people will assume that the bookseller will know exactly what they are talking about. After all, if it’s being talked about on TV then naturally the book should be front and center. WGN radio here in Chicago has become my nemesis, if only because its listeners don’t write the title or the author down. They expect the seller to know what they want when they say the author was on WGN. The problem that lies here is that most bookseller’s are usually under the age of WGN’s demographic. I joke that it’s required by law that once you reach 50, you must listen to the station.

Which, at times, in no longer a joke. So, most workers would not listen to WGN if their life depended upon it. Same thing goes with WBEZ, the PBS station here in Chicago. But usually, these radio listeners know more than the WGN ones do. So is it an intellectual thing? The mass audience may listen to WGN but it might also might show the education level of its demographic base.

Intellectuals are feared by mass, as some are accused of being Anti-American, Anti-Christian and are after destroying the basic foundations on which America is based. While I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer (and my typing skills suck) I do feel that I am smart and know a lot of information.

Those ideas have helped me in my job. By spending hours reading, surfing the net and occasionally watching Oprah, I have been able to help customer who’ve come in with the littlest of information. But it also sometimes mystifies me these people’s brains can generate the electricity needed to move their legs.

Teenage girls are the worse at this, coming to the information desk in skanky outfits, twirling their hair and asking where the fiction section is and who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. When you point it out (and tell them I'm a homo so their girlie crap won't work on me), say literature is over there, they say, no I’m looking for the fiction section. Sometimes I want to scream at them,. Because these are the ones (like my niece) who think reading is boring and unnecessary because they’ll be marrying a guy who will be making lots of money.

But as much as I like my job, as much as I get great satisfaction out of helping a customer, I cannot help but feel disdain for them as well. I always associated readers as intellectuals. Now I’ve realized that most only read to keep up the Jones (such as the success of the Da Vinci Code proves). While I feel terrible that I’ve never read Twain, or Hemingway, Faulkner, Baldwin or even The Confederacy of Dunces, I know who and what they are and what they represent in book culture.

So, like Jaye Tyler, I help customers, but try to avoid their eyes. Most are mindless people driven into the bookstore not because they want to read, but because the need to know what everyone else is reading,

And wondering if Nora Roberts has written another book this week.

Lightening Crashes

Sometimes, as the day slips quietly into night, I wonder what I’ve done with this life. Since being fired this past January, I’ve led a more reclusive life than I normally do. Money is in short supply, so I end up doing very little, spending money on bills and food. I pace through my apartment like a caged animal, and ponder if I should flight or fight.

My depression grows like a black cloud and wonder if I have the courage to shuttle off this mortal coil. But then that would be taking responsibility; a courage I don’t think I have. I grasp at straws, wondering when things will get back to some semblance of normal.

I want so much to move to California, but have reservations of pulling up roots here. However, I am playing this close. I need to talk to my boss at my store about her talking to the store in Montclair. I need a guarantee of 40 hours and a set schedule. Seems simple, but have yet to hear anything. That, of course, fills me with for dark fear. Unemployment will be running out soon, and I need to know what is happening. This unknowing, this mess that is my life, fills me with so much despair. As is, I sleep very little, my mind a beehive of thoughts. I feel trapped and the sands of time is filling up the hourglass so quickly.

And if I go, I will still need to find a part-time job. But, the one pro I have in all of this, is a change of scenery. Perhaps, if I do this, things will slip into place. I just wish things were different, I wish that someone could actually help.I cannot turn to family, for I cannot let them know how I’ve failed. How I’ve fucked up my life. There is so much to say, yet to reveal any more seems pointless.

If wishes were horses, the old saying goes. I watched Oprah this morning, and she featured this real cute guy named Paolo who wanted to be an actor, but was feeling the pull of family responsibilities. But he persisted and eventually the Queen of Talk got him a walk-on role on Will & Grace that led to a recurring role on General Hospital. But looking at him, you knew he was destined for more beyond the family business. He had the great cheekbones, the skinny, tight body and charisma. And so obviously gay.

I have none of that, and lets be honest, that is what you need to be a success. Looks are so important, and I fail because I’m too tall, not thin enough, no chin or neckline, no cheekbones, no flat ABS, and a funnel chest. Failure might as well be stamped on my forehead.

I know this self-hatred for myself is unattractive. But, when nobody notices you every damn time I did go out, you begin to wonder why I can’t find Mr. Right.

Tonight, as I cry myself to sleep, I wish the hands of fate to take me from here. I’ve outlived my usefulness. Sad, but true.

DS9 -Season 3

For the first two season, one of the critical barbs thrown at the show was this series was not living up to Roddenberry's idyllic setting of no conflict with the peoples of the Federation. And that because DS9 was set in one location and the stories had to come to them instead of the crew going out "where no one has gone before", that the late creator would be saying all of it was wrong. So of that was true, as most of the key demographics -young males -felt DS9 did not measure up to TNG -especially in the action and excitement department. And while Odo and Quark where by far the most popular characters, most felt Sisko was too low-key and by being that way, viewers were not embracing the political and religion stories on the whole.

And because of the events in the season two finale, "Jem'Hadar", the crew were going to need more than three runabouts to stop a possible invasion from the Gamma Quadrant. The arrival of the Defiant solved two problems off the bat. The ship would be give the crew the chance to travel beyond the space station, and with the ever-increasing threat from the Dominion, it would ramp up the action quotient.

"The Search" introduced us to the Defiant and the Founders, the rulers of The Dominion. And, surprise, they turn out to be Odo's people. The two-part episode revealed much of Odo's past and it began to set up the conflict that would become so much part of the series in later years.

Highlights of the season included the opener, "The Search" to be followed by "The House of Quark", "Second Skin", "The Abandoned", "Defiant", "Past Tense, parts 1 & 2", "Improbable Cause", "The Die is Cast", another journey to the mirror universe in "Through the looking Glass" and "The Adversary".

Along the way, even the episodic shows began to take on the running story of the Dominion. Quark and his Ferengi family, while used as comedic results, grew deeper, becoming something TNG never could do, make them: interesting.

And unlike its sister series, DS9 never really ended on a big cliffhanger. As a matter of fact, it liked to leave you on a more threatening note. The final lines delivered by Odo -the last words from a dying changeling Odo killed in self-defense -left you feeling that a large conflict with the Dominion was coming.

"He said 'you're too late, we're everywhere'"

DS9 -Season 2

Building on the success of season ones finale, the producers and writers seemed to understand that this show was going to be much different than what came before. And despite some fan irritation that this was bad Trek because everyone came to them instead of the crew going "where no one has gone before", they seemed to generally ignore them. So much for the good.

Season two launches with an ambitious 3-part story ("The Homecoming", "The Circle" and "The Siege"), as Sisko and his team reluctantly become more involved with the politics of Bajor. It was also the season that the series would begin to lose some of its episodic roots, as the show slowly began to add continuing story lines and recurring characters. It would also introduce us -through a comedic Ferengi episode "Rules of Acquisition" - to the concept of The Dominion, a great power in the Gamma Quadrant. They would be mentioned again in "Sanctuary" and "Shadowplay".

Season two -while still having problems -did shine on several occasions, with episodes like "Cardassians", "Necessary Evil", "Armageddon Game", "Whispers", "Paradise", "Blood Oath", "The Maquis, parts 1 and 2", "Crossover" (a sequel of sorts the TOS episode "Mirror, Mirror") and the "Jem'Hadar", which fully introduced the Dominion and there genetically engineered stormtroopers, the Jem'Hadar.The introduction of Dominion was done subtly, and that's what made their rise to be so much better than the in your face Borg. And while season two struggles to balance the stories so they appealed to everyone, you felt and saw that below the surface, there were stories that were not going to resolved in one hour.

And as the season concluded, we were left with a portentous warning, as Eris warns the crew..."you have no idea what has begun here."

The Best Star Trek show. A DVD review

The first spin-off of TNG launched in a spectacular way. Opening with the Borg battle at Wolf 359 (from TNG's classic two-part episode "The Best of Both Worlds"), we are introduced to Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Sisko. He is the Executive Officer on the Saratoga when the attack begins, with Jean-Luc Picard -former captain of the Enterprise and now Locutus of Borg - leading the assault. And quickly, Starfleet discovers they are no match for the Borg. Forced to abandon his damaged ship, Sisko is able to save his 9 year-old son; his wife is tragically killed.

Three years later, we meet Sisko as a Commander about to assume the position of command of a former Cardassian space station Terok Nor -now renamed Deep Space Nine. Starfleet needs Sisko there to help prepare the Bajoran's for entry into the Federation. And a bitter single father soon discovers, his newest mission to aid the Bajor may have been written in the stars centuries before he was born.

DS9's first season, like TNG before it, had many high and low points. The 2-hour opener was a better pilot than TNG, and featured a better theme music. Almost from the start, this spin-off was going to way different from TNG. Where everyone on Enterprise were a happy family and conflict free, DS9 introduced conflict galore. Sisko and his first officer, Bajoran Major, Kira, butted heads from day one. And instead of solving that right away, it would take years for them both to come to an understanding.

Political intrigue and religion would be the series bread and butter over seven years and while it would take most of the first season to introduce these concepts, it still had a handful of stories that introduced you to the characters that populate this show. The first season would also feature a few familiar characters that were first introduced on TNG. The biggest, of course, was Colm Meany's Chief Miles O'Brien. Meany, a part of the Trek franchise since TNG opener, brought Miles over to become Chief of Operations. The Klingon sisters of Lursa and B'Etor -who were involved in several plots to take over their homeworld - visited DS9 in "Past Prologue" and popular character of Q would visit with Vash (TNG's Captain's Holiday" and "Q-Pid") in "Q-Less". "Battle Lines" would kill off the spiritual leader of the Bajoran's, and the late Brian Keith shines in the allegory episode "Progress". Even Majel Barrett's mostly annoying character of Lwaxana Troi would show up in "The Forsaken".

But perhaps, the highlight of season one is "Duet", a tightly plotted tale of culpability. Guest star Harris Yulin shines as a coward who personalized the guilt of an entire race. It was, perhaps, Nana Visitor finest hour as Kira, who realizes for the first time in her life that not all Cardassians need to be punished for their 60 year enslavement of the Bajoran's.

With the season finale, "In the Hands of the Prophets", the series long-overdue conflict between the tolerant Federation and the deeply spiritual Bajorans comes forward in a tale of intrigue, murder and philosophy. With this episode Oscar wining actress Louise Fletcher begins her recurring role of Vedek Winn, and chews the scenery and steals every scene she's in.

Over all, the first season was uneven, much like TNG. Still, with a last two episodes, the series proved it could be different and still be entertaining and keep with in Roddenberry's vision of a peaceful Federation.

But season two would begin to blur the lines...

To be continued.

Wonderfalls

From Bryan Fuller (Star Trek) and Todd Holland (Malcolm in the Middle) came this gem of a series. I knew the show was doomed early on, if only because it was smarter than the average bear. But, I watched because I liked the concept of the show, plus I try to support the gay community as much as possible. From start to finish, this show rocked and FOX completely bungled it. But that says more about FOX than the auidence. Friday's has been a problem with them for years, and Thursday, well, the least said about that the better. But the way I see it, Gail Berman's -who ran FOX until she jumped to Paramount this spring - only goal was to have a hit show right out of the gate. And if they didn't know what to do with you, like Firefly before it, you were shoved into Fridays because you were not called 24, American Idol or Paris Hilton. Wonderfalls died because it was brilliant, well crafted, wonderfully acted (Caroline Dhavernas is so dead on perfect) that Berman and her yes men did not know what to do with the show. It deserved a better timeslot (Sundays in the old The X Files timeslot seemed logical) and better promotion. I will treasure this show (along with ABC's short lived Miracles) because as much as American Idol and CSI bring in high ratings, at the end of the day you are left empty because they are equivalent to Easter peeps. All air. Wonderfalls left you filled with giggles and a feeling that you were part of something special.

Enterprise comes home to DVD

As with Voyager before, Enterprise repeated the same errors. At its core, the show had promise. With very little of early Federation days nailed down, it seemed like a good idea to go back and tell the story. But instead of sticking with some of the canon that did exist, Brannon Braga and Rick Berman rebooted the entire Star Trek franchise, which angered about 10 million viewers. Season one continued the ever increasing schism between the fans. And while I liked Bakula on Quantum Leap, he -like Kate Mulgrew before him - was woefully miscast. The supporting cast, with the exception of Jolene Blalock, showed their limitations as actors (when they got lines). The stories were mostly retreds of previous Trek episodes and while both Berman and Braga were aware of the issues of continuity, they felt that if the adhered to it too much, then the show could not work. They continued to believe that Trek viewers -at least the newer, younger ones (and, admittedly, the group advertisers like) - were only concerned about the how weird the story was and if it had half naked females parading around. This misstep by them, by fulling ignoring the fans who had watched TOS, TNG and DS9, was increasing ENT's end week by week. Paramount can be blamed also, for not stepping in sooner. Berman and Braga's now almost incestuous relationship with Trek caused then not to see the forest for the tree's. Had they realized that fan base was deeply divided, and had they analyzed who was not watching Trek anymore instead of small band who were, maybe something could've been done. Then again, maybe its doom was already sealed by the time Insurrection came out in 1998. And then there is the fan base. They too can be blamed for this, as this schism did not begin with ENT. It really started with VOY. As a network show, VOY had different standards to live up too than it's syndicated brothers, TNG and DS9. Racier plots and emphasis on action and violence became the criterion, while a device called the Temporal Reset Button was used week after week. And while TRB is a useful tool, but to rely on it for every episode got you caught in a never ending loop of Easter Peep type stories; all full of air with no substance. Plus, people who were in there teens or early 20's when TNG premiered were not 15 years older, wiser and now considered less desirable by the advertisers. ENT was, I guess, designed for the guys and girls who were the same age as the ones who saw the first season of TNG. But these new groups of kids, now brought up on a diet of science fiction being everywhere, felt Trek was a dinosaur. So all that remained, in the end, was a few really dedicated fans who felt that, yes the show was not as good as it could be, but it still needed to stay on because it was Star Trek. I will concur to a point, but that's mostly because I hate reality shows and procedural dramas that have overtaken the air waves. Give me a good science fiction story that challenges the mind, then I'll watch. I once read that science fiction is a dangerous genre, for it can be seem as anti-Christian and anti-establishment. It brings up thought provoking ideas and presents a possible world were there is no hatred, no poverty, and no religion. It's the possibilities that scare people. But even as Star Trek has framed a lot of peoples lives, such as wonderful idea of a utopian world and taught us some good values, it has entertained us for nearly 40 years. Both VOY and ENT might be considered entertaining shows, but they are NOT the next step in Star Trek's evolutionary life that TNG and DS9 were.