Nov 23 | Chuckreturns to NBC with a special two-hour show on Sunday, Jan 10, 2010, before returning to its regular time slot, Mondays at 8pm on the following night. It's return to prime time television can be attributed to a successful fan renewnal campaign last year. CHUCK is a one-hour, action-comedy series that follows Chuck Bartowski (Zachary Levi, "Less Than Perfect") -- a computer geek who is catapulted into a new career as the government's most vital secret agent. This upcoming season will include some special guest stars, including Brandon Routh of "Superman Returns" who will play CIA agent Daniel Shaw in an episode, and the addition of SUBWAY restaurant as a major advertiser to the show. Chuck averaged a 4.0/6 rating last season, about eight percent better than the recently cancelled "Trauma". Ratings-challenged Heroes moves back an hour when Chuck returns on Monday nights. STAR TREK VOYAGER's Robert Duncan McNeill serves Chuckas a supervising producer and director.
Nov 17 | Originally hired as co-executive producer to help with the second half of the show's first season, Kevin Murphy has now taken the reins of Caprica, the Battlestar Galactica prequel on Syfy, according to The Hollywood Reporter. He now serves as an executive producer along with Ronald D. Moore, David Eick and Jane Espenson and oversees the day-to-day functions of the show.
Nov 12 | Star Trek star Zachary Quinto is loosely attached to star in the romantic dramedy Whirligig, reports Risky Business.Quinto would play the lead role in the independent Canadian film, which is aiming to shoot early next year. The movie centers on a man who, in a misguided attempt to woo an older woman, befriends the woman's adopted son.Chaz Thorne is directing the pic, based on a screenplay by Michael Amo, creator of the Canadian supernatural series "The Listener."
Nov 11 | The CNS Foundation, is hosting an on-line charity auction at www.charitybuzz.com. One of the items they are auctioning is a signed movie poster of the new Star Trek movie which has all the cast members and writers. The president of our organization is Carol Abrams, JJ's mother, and she arranged for the donation from Bad Robot Production Company. J.J. Abrams is also a major donor to their organization. The funds raised will go to help find a cure to neurological disorders in children. The auction link is here.
Nov 10 | Candice Bergen, Charles Lisanby, Don Pardo, Gene Roddenberry, Tom and Dick Smothers and Bob Stewart have been selected as the next inductees into the Television Academy's Hall of Fame. They will be honored at a Jan. 20 ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hotel. "This year's inductees have challenged and shaped popular culture, changed television for the better and entertained us royally while doing so," TV Academy Chairman-CEO John Shaffner said. More info at the Hollywood Reporter
At the end of the second season of DEEP SPACE NINE, fans were treated to the first glimpse of one of the deadliest forces in the STAR TREK universe: the Dominion. Over the course of the series that threat grew exponentially, escalating into one of the most exciting adventures in the entire STAR TREK saga: the Dominion War. Up to this point we’ve seen how it affected the crew of space station Deep Space Nine. We’ve even seen three original NEXT GENERATION novels set during the war. But what happened across the galaxy with other captains, other crews? How were other worlds affected?
Editor Keith R.A. DeCandido and some of Pocket Books’ top novelists have taken it upon themselves to tell more of those stories, in the anthology collection TALES OF THE DOMINION WAR. Each writer has analyzed various aspects of the war, as well as many of the different faces associated with STAR TREK, and brought it to life in each one of these short stories:
“What Dreams May Come” by Michael Jan Friedman -- In the early days of the war, an alien species informs the Vorta of a devastating attack upon Dominion forces.
“Night of the Vulture” by Greg Cox -- Cardassian and Jem’Hadar forces attempt to sneak through Federation space to the mine grid protecting the Bajoran wormhole, but an unexpected entity has other plans for both species.
“The Ceremony of Innocence is Drowned” by Keith R.A. DeCandido -- Lwaxana Troi returns in this harrowing tale of the attack on Betazed, set during the events of “In the Pale Moonlight”.
“Blood Sacrifice” by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz -- The Romulan senate argues in favor of joining the Dominion, but when the Romulan chancellor is murdered, Vulcan Ambassador Spock attempts to uncover the who and the why, also set during the events of “In the Pale Moonlight”.
“Mirror Eyes” by Heather Jarman and Jeffrey Lang -- Told entirely in the viewpoint of journal entries, a Romulan Tal Shiar agent goes undercover on Deep Space Nine to assist Starfleet medical forces in eradicating a Vulcan plague… or perhaps she will use it to the Romulans’ advantage.
“Twilight’s Wrath” by David Mack -- The Reman soldier Shinzon (from STAR TREK: NEMESIS) is spotlighted in this tale of the Remans’ attack on a Dominion research laboratory.
“Eleven Hours Out” by David Galanter -- Captain Picard and Deanna Troi have returned to Earth to attend the latest Starfleet Academy graduation exercises, but the Breen’s attack on San Francisco (as chronicled in “The Changing Face of Evil”) leaves both the Enterprise and another Starfleet vessel trapped with no way to assist, and only a handful of raw graduates left to rebuild Starfleet Command.
“Safe Harbors” by Howard Weinstein -- When word reaches Admiral Leonard McCoy and Captain Montgomery Scott of the Breen attack on Earth, they must join with a battle-scarred Federation starship and a group of young officers to ward off Breen forces in the area.
“Field Expediency” by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore -- In this tale spotlighting the crew from S.C.E., the da Vinci’s officers come under heavy fire from Breen forces looking to pick them off one by one.
“A Song Well Sung” by Robert Greenberger -- On one side: Captain Klag of the IKS Gorkon, with only one arm, a bat’leth, and a Klingon disruptor. On the other side: seven Jem’Hadar soldiers. The place: a hot desert planet in the middle of Marcan V. Place your bets, because the Jem’Hadar are seriously outnumbered.
“Stone Cold Truths” by Peter David -- Following the events of the graphic novel DOUBLE TIME, the crew of the U.S.S. Excalibur must contend with the effects of the Dominion War upon their return.
“Requital” by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels -- Those who stand in the way of peace are always the ones who conspire to keep the war continuing. Simultaneous with the events of the DS9 finale “What You Leave Behind”, a young Starfleet officer receives the training of a lifetime.
War stories are always interesting, especially when there are so many different tales to tell. It’s because the war is not just about one particular aspect or crew, it’s about everyone’s involvement. Just as the television series M*A*S*H covered the U.S. military’s involvement in the Korean conflict through the eyes of an Army hospital on the front lines, there were times they showed the conflict from both sides. DEEP SPACE NINE did the same thing in the two-year (or more, if you consider the build-up) storyline of the Dominion War. But there’s more to the story than meets the eye.
TALES OF THE DOMINION WAR is filled with many interesting aspects of the war, as seen from many different viewpoints. “Twilight’s Wrath” has a BAND OF BROTHERS feel to it, as David Mack reveals Shinzon and the Reman troops to be nothing more than dispensable grunts in the service of the Romulan Empire. But it’s that BAND OF BROTHERS mentality that brings Shinzon closer to the kind of character you want to admire and respect, yet ultimately in the back of your mind you know what he’s destined to become. “Stone Cold Truths” is another winner from the pen of Peter David, as he mixes fact and fiction together in the eyes of Zak Kebron, painting a fanciful yet hardened look at what war really is.
Heather Jarman presents a unique twist to the war in her tale “Mirror Eyes”, telling it entirely in first person aspect from journal entries. In her tale, nothing is as it seems. This is also likewise for the anthology’s opening entry, “What Dreams May Come”. In the hands of Michael Jan Friedman, dreams prove to be just as destructive as reality, though he saves the twist to the tale until the very end. This is the kind of plot device that makes any interesting story even better.
The theme of survival is a recurring theme in many of these short stories. In Robert Greenberger’s “A Song Well Sung,” the Klingon captain Klag proves his mettle and more against a group of Jem’Hadar shock troops, proving that even with one arm he’s got what it takes to survive. This is also true in the case of Lwaxana Troi in “Ceremony of Innocence”, the S.C.E. crew in “Field Expediency”, and the NEXT GENERATION crew in “Eleven Hours Out”. Also important are the themes of inspiration and dedication, as highly evidenced in David Galanter’s “Eleven Hours Out”. A touching tip of the hat to the crew of the space shuttle Columbia is among the highlights of this short tale.
Old friends return as well during the war, as Howard Weinstein returns to the STAR TREK fold with “Safe Harbors”. Even in the midst of war, McCoy and Scotty still manage to show the kids what it’s like for the veterans to be affected. Their comrade Ambassador Spock also returns in “Blood Sacrifice”, an intriguing mystery that puts Spock in a Sherlock Holmes-like role of uncovering the motives behind the assassination of the Romulan chancellor. Even an older villain returns in “Night of the Vulture”; one that viewers of the Original Series episode “Day of the Dove” will remember.
It’s the final tale, Michael Martin and Andy Mangels’ “Requital” that spins the saddest web of them all: cultures that have lived their entire lives caught up in war without ever experiencing peace are doomed to be the ones who will pass their legacy down to future generations… unless someone steps in to stop them. Like our own world’s agony in the Middle East, some people are meant to live only for war because of the ignorance of their life-long precepts.
Keith DeCandido also provides not only the insightful introduction to the anthology but also a handy 10-page Dominion War timeline, extrapolating the events chronicled on DEEP SPACE NINE, the original TNG, NEW FRONTIER, and S.C.E. novels, and the TALES OF THE DOMINION WAR anthology. Everything seamlessly ties together, creating a larger yet intricate tapestry.
It’s hard for me to pick a single winner here among the twelve tales in this anthology; every tale is that good. Like all wars, TALES OF THE DOMINION WAR reveals what happens when war brings out the worst -- and the best -- in all of us, from the highest-ranking admirals to the lowly grunts and ensigns in their battle for survival.
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