#one

Birds are the most advanced dinosaurs

and they aren't too bright. Dinosaurs

were also declining in diversity and in

actual numbers LONG before their extinction.

BUT ... dinosaurs ruled the earth for 250

million years - that's a significant slice

of the history of life. While Water Worlds

like our own may be common in the universe,

I would not be surprised if the great majority

of it, perhaps even all, frankly, is animal.

Human Beings were lucky to have made it on the

scene at all and were the only one of millions

of species to become self-aware and develop

technology. Technology it's happy to use against

itself and the rest of life, as we know it. I do not

supsect there's much intelligence in the universe.

They would simply reboot TOS for Television,

if STAR TREK even returns to the small screen,

at all. I do not see a STAR TREK in any other

century, with any other crew. It's going to

be Captain Kirk and Company, from now on.

Now, how the T.V. TOS reboot would play out,

I wouldn't hazzard a guess ...

Voyager needed to be a hell of a lot sexier,

with the gorgeous cast of babes the show had!

Having 7of9 handle the Lion's Share of sex-

appeal was a mistake. Also, the ship needed

to become increasingly worn and battered looking,

as there was no proper way to maintain it, so far

from STARFLEET. And there were lost opportunities,

too, when it came to the way the shows were written.

So much potential was there, with the Marquis involved,

for tension, for drama ... all of that went bye-bye,

after the first couple of episodes. Even then, it was

just barely given a nod and everybody's settled in.

In keeping with the holidays, I offer Spock, Messiah!, authored by Theodore R. Cogswell and Charles A. Spano, Jr. In one sentence: As a result of a cruel experiment, Spock renounced the Enterprise and became the most dangerous man on planet Kyros - the Messiah!

Aside from his stint in Generations, Malcolm McDowell starred in Calligula as a Roman Emporer - and they were pretty freaky, apparently!