STSF Laura

He did? I always assumed it was based on the character in Diane Duane's TNG novel Dark Mirror. There's a dolphin-species scientist in it. Well, this is what you get for making assumptions. Hmm.... ::trots off to read bio::

::an eerie light comes on in Laura's eyes:: Ooooohhhhh.... The possibilities!! Where did I put that notebook....?

::nods:: Likely until we reach a point of truly immersive VR, which enables a user to interact naturally with the entire environment, and to add items into the world in realistic (or not-so-realistic) ways... ...at which point, is there going to be any point in simming, since I think I just described a holodeck?

It was a letter-writing campaign that kept TOS running long enough for it to go into syndication. You like Trek now, thank a popular campaign. :P

But there's a standing history of popular campaigns saving Star Trek, you pessimist! :P ::pours more water into your glass::

Actually <useless information> a trade paperback is anything that's bound in a heavier, more durable paper than the mass-market paperbacks are done in. They're sort of in between normal paperbacks and hardcover books. Graphic novels often wind up as trade paperbacks, but they don't have to be. And comics are sometimes made into TPBs as well, usually by story arc. And of course, regular prose novels can be TPBs. </useless information> Graphic novels can be quite awesome. A friend of mine actually did one for her senior art project in college. A lot of work goes into those things!

None of which I would watch. ::sighs:: There go my sci-fi Fridays. Seriously, though, Sci-Fi picking up ENT would probably be a good thing for it. But only if they contract for new episodes, and Berman is not at the helm. Just rerunning the currently produced episodes isn't going to help anyone, I think. Saying Nemesis was a good movie should be sufficient grounds to prove that Berman's insane. I rented and watched it just to finally see my 2nd favorite ST couple finally tie the knot. The rest I could easily have done without.

::confused:: What was the other? Blame it on my other hobby.

Huzzah! Now maybe we can start working to get some real Trek on the air! ENT was an interesting concept doomed to failure from the start by horrific planning and poor execution. The concept might be revived somewhere down the road, but I hope someone else plans it.

::Laura's long-dormant acrophobia suddenly returns full-force:: Ulp. 'Scuse me... (awesome picture, though)

Only five or ten minutes? Bah, you had it easy! I remember punts that took people out of comission for an entire sim!

I eventually cast my vote for Riker, but I went back and forth for a while between Riker, Picard, and Janeway. Sisko and LaForge also kept sneaking back into contemplation, even after I thought I'd ruled them out.

1. You meant Starbuck, unless I've really missed something. 2. I've got no objections whatsoever to there being some female Viper pilots in the main cast, which is probably why I'm not having so much trouble with Boomer's gender change. I really liked Sheba in the original series. 3. The new dynamic... yeah, well. As long as it stays non-sexual, I suppose it'll be all right. I have a nightmare about sexual tension between Apollo and female-Starbuck... that's just wrong. I would like to see it play out that a man and a woman can be friends and comrades without being at all sexually attracted to one another. On the other hand, I'm not really seeing any male-male friendships of the depth that the original Apollo and Starbuck had developing, and that's sad.

They bumped the 'gates an hour earlier, I think.

I'm still having trouble getting over some of the casting decisions, which is interfering with getting any sort of real 'read' on the show. Making Starbuck female bothers me, although I'm having less trouble with Boomer's gender change. And Olmos, whom I thought would be a good choice for Adama, seems to have been directed to play it very low-key; he lacks the sheer presence that Greene brought to the role.

Ooooh.... Chocolate. I'm there!

Voyager was actually my favorite of the Trek series. I enjoyed TNG, especially during the later seasons, and I was/am a big fan of the kind of long-term arc that DS9 used, but I felt that DS9 dropped in and out quality-wise, and its final season I really couldn't have cared less about. I cannot stand ENT on the whole, although I've caught a few bits and pieces that I enjoyed. TOS I feel rather neutral about; on the one hand, if it were new today, I would hate it; on the other hand, I can appreciate it for what it was in its day. I divide Voyager into two parts: pre-season 4 and post-season 4. And I ignore the existance of season 4 whenever possible. It really does seem like two different shows, and I agree that the post-season 4 Voyager is much better. As several others have pointed out, Trek series need a couple seasons to find their feet. I thought the cast had an excellent dynamic, and I'm going to completely disagree with Grom on the character ratings. I'm also going to disagree with whomever said Seven and Tuvok shouldn't have scenes together -- one of the best things about those scenes was that the actors did manage to imbue an emotional underpinning in them, despite the control of the characters. I mourn the fact that the writers didn't seem to know what to do with Chakotay's character, because there was a great deal of potential there, but that's my only major character complaint. The Borg issue and the Gamma Quadrant wormhole were the major stumbling blocks for me in terms of the series' credibility; I didn't find the long-term encounters with aliens all that odd. The had far-flung areas of influence; so does the Federation. Realistically (if we can apply the term to a sci-fi show), it takes about a year to cross the Federation at warp 9.99. (ST Encyclopedia) That has a tendency to get ignored rather frequently, of course, like when a fleet gets sent to DS9 from Earth. Did Voyager have bad episodes? I refer you to the package of trite cliches and character assassination that called itself season 4. But, oh, man, when they got it right... Wow. As for the books... Peter David has personal issues with the series; he refers to it rather bitterly if he speaks about it at conventions and the like. He swore once he would never write for it. So you won't find any Voyager books by him.... under that name, anyway. ::coughs:: The team of Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch have done some nice work with VOY books. But, if you want my opinion on the best writer doing Voyager work, check out Christie Golden's stuff. It's better than the series, whether you consider that saying a lot or very little. ^_^ She's been rather prolific with Voyager books, but I don't know if she's written for any other series; she's rather new as recurring Trek novel writers go. She's written a post-finale wrap-up pair of books: Homecoming and The Farther Shore, which I recommend to anyone who felt the finale ended about an act too soon.

So, I puzzle. I realize that the US, in general, is pretty wasteful, but why does changing ONLY that factor (from US to Europe) change the result from 5 to 3.7? That's a dramatic difference.

On behalf of GromVik and myself, I'd like to congratulate Jay_Paris on his graduation from the Tuesday 11pm Academy. We look forward to seeing continued excellence from you in future, and wish you the best of luck. :o Sincerely, STSF Laura STSF GromVik

May I have: I'm the NICE one! please? Thanks!

I can remember, off the top of my head, two people I played with who chose to kill off their characters. One did so because he was quitting, and he wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. He did manage to work his death realistically into the frame of the sim, but on the whole most people found it a bit irritating. Then again, most people found that player a bit irritating, so it might have just been carry-over. The second player worked out her death scene with several people in advance, including the command team, the SGV, and the player of her character's husband. It was an incredibly emotional scene that people remembered years later --- and when she returned to the ship about 18 months later, as a new character (and yes, an Ensign), it was nearly a year before all of the 'old timers' had connected the two characters, in part because there had been such finality to the death scene.

Congratulations!!! And, uhm, ME! Any time. Really. :-)

Featured sims are Advanced sims, which means you must first graduate from the Academy. They are just regular Advanced sims which have been selected to be spotlighted and publicized for a time period. It's a way of telling people more about the options STSF offers. Graduation is not a race. Whether you sim every week or once a week does not matter. You should come to whichever Academy(ies) you are able to attend, and not worry about whether you're spending as much time simming as someone else. You will graduate in your own time regardless. Actually, this idea about simming every night is a little puzzling to me. When I started simming, the conventional wisdom was to pick one sim and stick with it, so that the GMs would get to know you and your style and could help you get better and see you improve. I don't see anything wrong with simming frequently, just because it's fun to sim, but I still think it's better to be a regular in one or two sims than to jump around a lot.

I wasn't there either. But the author in me can't help pointing out that the scenario for the character is flawed. A Security officer, Ferengi or otherwise, serving on a Federation ship, would have taken an oath to serve the Federation and Starfleet, which would include following the orders of his superiors. In this case, whatever the Ferengi would like to do with the ship, the fact remains that he's on-duty and therefore obligated to follow orders, whether he likes them or not. If he couldn't follow orders, he wouldn't have made it through the Academy, and if he couldn't sublimate his desire for profit to the needs of Starfleet, why did he join in the first place? Unless of course this was a Ferengi sim, in which case one figures a DaiMon has ways of keeping his crew in line...

Happy birthday!!