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To me, it was a toss up between Jadzia and Troi. Brunettes are the best. Jadzia has the legs and Troi has the eyes. Two attributes that are irresistable to me. But I chose Troi because of her underlying sexuality. (Be still my heart.)

Yes Takara, I understand that to many actors it is just a job. But haven't you noticed there are certain actors that always seem to be called back to do another Trek episode or to take the character on again and evolve with it? Armin Shimmerman comes to mind. He was one of the first to actually don the Ferrengi ears in a TNG episode from the first or second year. Later he went on to personify the Ferrengi as Quark, your friendly, neighborhood barkeep. Plus Robert Duncan McNeil came back to take on a different character but a more prominent role. That was the point I was trying to make. That outside of the big names (e.g. Ashley Judd and Kirstan Dunst), there are a number of character actors that seem to show a preponderence for being called back time and time again. Jeffrey Coombs, Vaughn Armstrong just to name a few. There are many character actors in Hollywood, more so than big name screen actors, so why do a select few keep coming back? It can't be just about the money.

I was watching some re-runs and old tapes of mine when i suddenly began to notice that some guest stars and cameos by not well known actors were people who eventually made it to the big time (so to speak) in either later episodes or new series. it started when I was watching "Times Arrow" and noticed for the first time that one of the poker players who thought Data was an easy mark, was actually Mark Alaimo, a.k.a. Gul Dukat of DS9. There are more that I could list here but the point I want to make is, what type of actor does Berman and Braga look for when casting a new series or character? We all know not just any actor can wear the uniform and Genevieve Bujold was the most famous who couldn't take the pressure of Starfleet. But I wonder if anyone trying out for a part on Start Trek all have a common thread somewhere? Is it a science fiction background? Good characters actors with an immense open mind? A willingness to accept a menial role with the hope of being tossed a bigger bone? Whatever it is, I'm beginning to notice more and more on old episodes and even movies, people who have done and have a Trek background being used in other ways. Any thoughts on this and can anyone name other characters that had parts that were out of the familiar? Just curious if anyone else has ever caught this.

By far, DS9. It was the most intelligent of the Star Trek series and the continuing storyline, something never attempted by a Star Trek series before, kept you coming back. It was also the most character driven and even had soap opera touches. None have been able to top it, in my humble opinion.

Interesting topic for a Star Trek board. I'm a former competitive swimmer as well. I've been swimming now for well over 30 years and even though I don't belong to any masters swim clubs I still manage to average 3 to 4 days a week doing anywhere from 1500 to 2000 meters per workout. All freestyle now since I hated doing the butterfly. But I do throw in about 250 meters of breaststroke for a cool down after the main workout. The only thing I can suggest to you if you're looking to getting back into a regular routine, is to just set a distance goal and work on style and strength rather then speed. Once your stroke comes back you'll find that the speed will come naturally and the stamina increase will humble all the teens and young 20somethings. There's a good feeling to be had when some young jock challenges and their jaw drops when you set the distance to maybe 500 meters. Strength and style will beat speed anytime in the pool unless you're in the olympics.

I too thought very highly of the Garak character. He had just the right amount of underhandedness to make his tinker, tailor, soldier, spy scheme work. Kudos to Andrew Robinson for making him so believable. I hope you had the opportunity to read his book as well, "A Stitch In Time". A very good look at life on Cardassia before and after the Dominion occupation. A book that was actually started by Andrew, as an on set diary.

As perhaps Data, would say, we have a lack of information to form a complete analysis. Even speculation on this topic is still just the beginning of forming a working hypothesis. Will Big Rip happen? Possibly. Will humankind be around to witness it? Not likely. Something like this is still trillions of years away and by that time our star may well be past the white dwarf stageand burned out and earth nothing more than a forgotten rock of space. Yet, it is theories like these that drive the human mind and could very well drive it insane. Our thinking is still very much three dimensional and much of this requires thought processes that work outside of that. Thoughts such as this. If space is expanding and accelerating because of dark matter, to our pattern of thought, shouldn't there already be existing space for the universe to expand into? If not, what exactly is expanding? I know this is very simplified but this is kind of what it comes down to for the lay person.

This one is a fifty/fifty type of response. Yes, we have seen a number of objects that were first shown in Star Trek now become everyday objects. e.g. cell phones (communicators), computer interfaces and other such items. There is also the fact that some everyday appliances and the electronics for them were already in use during the 60's space program. Microwave technology and processors come to mind and it was just a matter of time before they filtered down to the consumer level. But as for the more esoteric aspects of Star Trek, like warp drive, graviton plating, inertia dampers and such, they may not become a reality in our lifetime or in the near future. There are too many real barriers that still exist that we have to overcome first and the present day rate of space science hasn't matched up to the dream of Roddenberry. The matter/anti-matter power source, being the most daunting. Quantum physics has just begun to scratch the surface of some of these problems but the funding just isn't there. Yes, it is wonderful to dream and dreams have and do come true. At one point in our recent history, it was believed that man was never meant to fly but we seem to do that quite well now. And thanks to modern avionics, we don't have to flap our arms to achieve this. But crossing the great chasm of space and breaking the time barrier as well as achieving light speed, let along break it, might be another thousand years in the making yet. I'm not trying to be negative but reality is reality and as much as I would love to see any of that happen, I'm afraid we are all going to have to live that aspect through our devotion to Star Trek. All of this doesn't mean that we can't pass the dream down to our offspring and such. Look how much of Star Trek has become part of the common lexicon in our every day life and even people who are not followers are caught using Star Trek terminology. It's things like these that will keep the dream and the possibility alive.

I might as well add my two cents here. The best Voyager episode for my money was "Someone to Watch Over Me." Being in the Audio/Video production business, I found that not only was the storyline one of the most compelling but the camera shots and angles were some of the best that I have even seen on that series. Most touching, in fact was the very last scene where the doctor is sitting at the piano. As we leave him to his innermost thoughts the camera does a full 360 around him and then slowly backs away out through the window as Voyager continues on her way. This was by far one of the most character driven episodes of the entire series. That episode, by the way, was directed by none other than Voyager's own helmsman. I still have that episode on my tape of the Voyager finale. This is well worth catching on any station showing the re-runs and, I believe, will go down as one of the classic Voyager episodes.

Welcome fellow Klingon warrior. (head butt) A mug of bloodwine and a plate of gagh for you for finding your way here. May Kahless smile upon you. You will this site much more rewarding.

My favorites so far have been the New Frontier series by Peter David. I've read all twelve installments and am eagerly awaiting the thirteenth that should be due out by November of this year. Also recently finished "A Stitch in Time", a semi-autobiographical novel of Garak by Andrew Robinson, that gives us a clearer picture of life on Cardasia before and after the Dominion occupation. Sort of like reading a persons account of the rebuilding of Europe after WW II. Though it's hard to find much compassion for Cardassians I still have a soft spot for the Garak Character himself and was actually quite good reading. I also just finished a new two book series, "The Brave and the Bold", that combines aspects of all the Star Trek series from the present Enterprise right on up through the Next generation and re-introduces characters that we have seen on all the series into one storyline. I highly recommend this two book series since it's actually quick reading and the story of a 90,000 year old empire attempting to re-insert itself into what is now Federation space is a fascinating premise. But as mentioned, the favorites, so far, have been the New Frontier series.

And consider this. Since we are talking abouyt the mirror universe Borg, who said that they would be assimilating anything other than their own? They could be completely unlike this universes. They could be more of a cyborg race that still re-produces the old fashioned way and their assimilation process could be done only on their own kind. Remember, in the mirror universe all things that we are familiar with are never what they seem. Who could have believed that when the story was first established that our venerable Captain Kirk would be the bloodthirsty, power hungry assassin he is there? Or that the Klingons would be a liberating force? Again this is all and nothing more than speculation and will probably never see the light of day but it's interesting to think about.

I've always been intrigued by the Mirror universe storyline, even more so after their re-introduction on DS9. In that universe, the Federation, or Terran Empire, were the bad guys ala Romulan and Klingon, until they united to defeat them. In some books that i have read, the Terran empire rose from the ashes of the first Romulan war which earth lost. After ten years of occupation, earth rose up against their Romulan oppressors and, to prevent being conquered again, became the scourge of the galaxy by becoming even more ruthless than the Romulans. At least until they again were overthrown by the aforementioned alliance. But what would the mirror universe Borg be like? Instead of having another movie with the usual cast of villians why not have this universe invaded by the counterparts? Think of the intrigue when you don't know if the person across from you could be from the Mirror side? And if the Borg are the evil guys of this universe, would they be the saviors on the other side? DS9 has already showed that a transporter can be altered to achieve the crossing of dimensions so a story line could be had. Can you imagine having to contact the Mirror universe Borg to come save this universe? This is all speculation and farfetched at that but it's fun to think about. Let's keep that mirror universe crossing open.

I personally thought that the seven of nine character was brilliant, and not just because of her looks. Having a former borg on board allowed the writers more latitude when writing scripts that concerned Voyagers encounters with them. An insider to the problem. Otherwise, I'm afraid, that every time Voyager met the borg it would be nothing more than another shoot first and ask questions later type of episode. I was very happy when Kes left the show. Why did they ever include a character that only had a nine year life span to be on a 70,000 light year voyage that, when you think about it, was going to take possibly more than nine years? Because of her l;ife span I almost considered Kes to be the equivilent of having a dog on board. (Apologies to Porthos).

First of all I want to say that I'm glad that this site was established for the true fans of Star trek. Perhaps loyal would be a better choice of words. I have already seen and recognized many names that used to post on the message boards of Startrek.com and the reason why so many of us are here seem to be all the same. I don't believe that I have to mention them. I do wish to put up one defense of Startrek.com though. It wasn't the total site that was the problem. I still go there to get info and news that won't appear anywhere else and for the most part it is well maintained. I even suggest to any reading this that you change your internet access to Startrek.net which is powered by Earthlink. Through this server you have access to exclusives that doesn't appear on the general Star Trek site. Streaming interviews with the cast and production crews for one and highlights about the development of the concepts that we've now become accustomed to, such as how the DS9 station was first conceived and how it took its final form. Hearing from the people who actually do the work behind the scenes is worth every cent. It really was the message boards that was the problem. Those who don't understand Star Trek seemed to take great pleasure in de-riding those who do. Paramount took great pains, I'm sure, to insure the constitutional rights of all who wanted to post but did nothing to protect the integrity of those who wanted nothing more than a forum to exchange insightful, thoughtful prose about our favorite fantasy. (That doesn't include females in short skirts which is another fantasy altogether). Startrek.com is still a viable site for us fans to gather info and news to talk about here and, every now and then, there as well. I hope the site will continue but as for the message board there, if they were to disappear tomorrow, I would not miss them any more than a bad cold. Let's not fall into the trap of dissing Startrek.com and becoming the trolls we came here to avoid. It's still not a bad place, you just have to know where to look. I'll get off my soapbox now. Thanks for you attention. Qapla.

Just thought I would expand a bit. I'm in my forties and have been a star trek fan and technology buff since TOS premier in 1966. Because of Star Trek, my career path has always centered around technology and has taken me from Wisconsin to Georgia and places inbetween. I'm presently now living in Virginia continuing my career as an audio producer and driving my fellow engineers crazy with all the trek techno-babble I inject into my everyday life. I'm not a nerd but being an audio engineer has allowed my to create quite a few custom sfx and computer responses to my personal life just to make things more interesting. My friends and family have put up with it since I'm relatively harmless and it allows me to stand out among my childrens friends, not that I have enough problems with half of their high school friends wanting me to record and produce their garage band music. I'm a big fan of the Klingon culture and have begun to attempt to learn the language and make-up techniques to become one during halloween. On the human side, I play banjo, swim a mile a day, (okay, every other day or so now) can still play a mean game of basketball and because of my Wisconsin roots, am a rabid Green Bay Packer fan during football season, or any season for that matter. As mentioned, I look forward to more rational postings here but will still always check all boards for some sign of intelligent life. Qapla

Greetings to all. I, too, have moved here from the star trek.com boards. I hoping to find more rational, intelligent topics and conversation of all things trek without the juvenile snipping and insults that have seemed to have infiltrated over there. I look forward to seeing what develops here. Qapla to all.