NOW VOYAGER
THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE KATE MULGREW APPRECIATION SOCIETY
VOLUME II NUMBER 6


*THE BUZZ*

	Last issue, I wrote a column about what it means to be a fan club. This
time I find that I'm having an identity crisis. Let me first explain that
I'm still postpartum; I have a two-month-old,
not-sleeping-through-the-night excuse for the rotten editing and typos in
this newsletter as well as for this column. Even so, here's where I am:
	When Now Voyager started, there were only about fifty people involved. We
knew right from the beginning that we had more readers than actual members;
I don't know specifically how many people visit our web site, but the
number is apparently substantial, and I'm very aware that everything we
print gets circulated beyond the membership--which I'm not always happy
about, but more on that later. Since we had relatively few subscribers and
no official sanctioning, we could print pretty much whatever we
wanted...and did. We ran scathing reviews when we thought the episodes were
lousy, we ran lots of risque jokes, we ran an essay in our very first issue
which used the "f" word repeatedly; the writer was quoting the movie Alien,
but I still wonder if we should run some sort of warning for young people
when we circulate that first issue.
	It never occurred to me to worry about our public image because back then
we didn't have one. Kate Mulgrew read that first issue and didn't object to
anything; since she sanctioned the club, we took that as license to
continue using our own judgment on such matters. Jeri Taylor read that
"profane" essay on women in Alien and Voyager and wrote a thank you note to
the writer. I'm occasionally surprised to discover just who reads this
newsletter--people at UPN know who we are, people on the Trek lot know who
we are--but I've always operated as though our first obligation is to the
members themselves, and to Kate. Unfortunately I'm not always sure what
that means anymore.
	By the time you read this, there will be more than 400 people in this fan
club. Some of them will have joined because they're fans of Voyager, some
because they're fans of Kate's from decades back. Some will simply have
stumbled across our back issues, enjoyed reading them, and decided to come
aboard. Our renewal rate is over 90 percent, and there's not a day when
something doesn't come in through our P.O. box--usually a number of
requests for information or new subscriptions. And we are developing a bit
of a split personality.
	Before I describe it, I want to tell you about a couple of phone calls I
had this month, in my official capacity as the person who runs this club.
One was from Paramount's parent company, Viacom, which wanted to make sure
that Now Voyager wasn't a front for an illegal videotaping ring which was
making money off bootleg copies of Kate's movies and TV shows, several of
which are Paramount properties. I am now making an Official Announcement,
as I promised I would remind everyone: It is illegal to copy tapes
containing property belonging to Paramount or any studio. Now Voyager does
not condone such activities, and you will be dismissed from the club if you
engage in such activities and we find out about it.
	The other call was fromParade Magazine--which has thousands of readers
nationwide. They were receiving requests for information about Kate
following James Brady's interview with her, and wanted to know if they
could put the questioners in touch with us. I was intimidated. I had
visions of hundreds of letters pouring in, which I would feel guilty if I
ignored; neither Kate nor her publicist has time to answer all the mail,
and some of the people who write beautiful, passionate fan letters deserve
some sort of response. But I've never pretended to know or represent Kate's
views. I'm not a publicist.
	I thought about trying to act like one, and immediately dismissed that
option. I don't want to commit Now Voyager to becoming the sort of fan club
where all we do is heap praises on a celebrity and rationalize bad episodes
away just because they're Star Trek. There are some positions I doubt I
could take even if someone were paying me; for instance, I tried to write a
rave review of "Threshold" just to see if I could, and had no success. I
wouldn't enjoy Now Voyager if we couldn't engage in intelligent, critical
commentary, so we're going to continue to do so. Yet I wonder sometimes if
in our passion, we're so critical that it's hard to distinguish us from the
nitpickers of the net.
	After every issue I get one or two letters from people who think we're too
negative. I usually dismiss them, since it's such a small number, but there
is something to the notion that fandom is supposed to be an outpouring of
love, not criticism. On the other hand, there are a lot of people who
joined Now Voyager not for cheerleading but for irreverence. People who
come in off the Web tend to cite The Funny Pages and the fan fiction as
reasons for joining...and the editorials, which sometimes don't represent
my views and certainly don't represent Paramount's. (More than once we've
been called "J/C Central," which is fine with me, but probably less so with
Kate!)
	So I don't know what to do, say, when we receive a number of negative
reviews of the life story of Captain Kathryn Janeway, written by the show's
executive producer and read on audio by the actress whose fan club this is.
Part of me is very happy that people care about Janeway enough to have such
strong opinions about how her character should be portrayed, and part of me
is nervous: if we, Janeway's biggest fans, rip apart her official
"biography," how can we explain to the naysayers of the world why they
should watch the show and care about the character? There's enough
negativity about Voyager in the media already; fans should have a place
where they won't have to listen to complaining. Yet how can we improve the
show, tell the actors and producers what we want to see and what we can't
stand, if we don't commit it to print?
	I don't have a solution to any of this. I became a fan in an era when
these issues didn't arise because Trek wasn't on the air. It didn't belong
to Paramount then; it belonged to the fans, and we didn't have to worry
about networks, angry producers, or what William Shatner thought of our
Kirk jokes. We didn't have the net to connect us, so critical zines were
our only means of communication. Now it's more complicated, and I don't
know what's the best way to please Kate, the producers, the network, and
the fans. I guess we just carry on, keep watching, keep screaming when we
have to, and keep smiling.


*ALL ABOUT NOW VOYAGER*

	Welcome to the officially sanctioned Kate Mulgrew Appreciation Society.
This newsletter is published bimonthly by Michelle Erica Green and Paul
Anderson, P.O. Box 34745, Bethesda, MD 20827-4745. You can reach us online
at tigger@cais.cais.com or thepooh@aol.com. Send SASE for information or $5
for sample issue, or e-mail us for the electronic edition. Current yearly
dues, $25/U.S., $32/Canada-Mexico, $40/Overseas (U.S. funds only), are
subject to change without notice as rising printing and mailing costs
affect our ability to produce this newsletter. Now Voyager is on the World
Wide Web at http://gl.umbc.edu/~mpanti1/kate/kate.html.
	This is a not-for-profit, amateur publication and is not intended to
infringe upon the rights of Paramount Pictures or any other broadcasting or
motion picture corporation. All material herein is copyrighted by the
authors, except for the copyrights, trademarks, and patents of Paramount
Pictures and its licensees. You may not reproduce any part of this
newsletter without written permission of the editors and writers. If you
received this newsletter electronically, you may not forward it, excerpt
from it, post the illustrations, nor disseminate it in any other manner
without permission of the editors.
	The opinions expressed in Now Voyager are not necessarily those of the
editorial staff, Kate Mulgrew, or Paramount Pictures. If you are interested
in contributing, please write for guidelines.


*THE MASTHEAD*

Kate Mulgrew is Captain Kathryn Janeway. But so is Jeri Taylor.
Michelle Erica Green has one fan club and two kids and no sanity.
Paul Anderson baked and babysat during long IRC sessions.
Jennifer Pelland stopped a crisis in cyberspace with offers of digest.
Michael Pantiuk & Cheryl Zenor are the spiders in our WWWeb.
Anne Davenport reprints back issues for those who can't get enough.
Cheryl Waldie was our personal slave at conventions this season.
Joan Testin is Neelix.Well, she has better hair, but the same job.
Lauren Baum, Peter Castillo, and Jeanne Donnelly are our counsel.
Anna Shuford & Becky Olsen know who's who around here.
John Ordover of Pocket Books is our favorite Trained Minion (TM).
L.R. Bowen is Locutus of J/C. You will be assimilated.
Maureen McGowan is exceedingly generous with her equipment.
Beth Schuman and Jennifer Martin served on the line this month.


*REVIEWZZZZZZZZ*

BASICS PART II

	My favorite show is back on the air for its third season! Time out for
fireworks! Janeway was in full command mode and sexily disheveled to boot,
Chakotay and Paris got to leap through a few heroic hoops, and even Ayala
finally had a line. The doctor and Suder were the real stars, however. I
loved every minute of Picardo and Dourif, though most of the actors had
their moments. Good stuff, if limited by the Trek reset button.
	Well, we knew that Janeway & Co. were going to survive the hostile Kazon
takeover and come back swinging. No surprises there. The season premiere
and cliffhanger resolution unfolded in smooth lockstep. We got the big
carnivorous monster, the volcanic eruption, the hostile natives, the sick
baby, the tense standoff, the mildly reluctant allies and the triumphant
re-entry to the bridge. Although fairly entertaining (especially when
Chakotay admitted to some deficiencies in traditional skills), the
planet-bound scenes of "Basics, Part II" had an obligatory feeling. Not
much jeopardy, despite the high body count. Hogan's precipitate death was a
waste. It didn't give me any real sense of fear for the rest of the crew. A
sense of arbitrary violence, perhaps, which is fear of what the writers
will do next, not of the situation itself. The wilderness location might
have made a good arc over several episodes; as half of one installment, it
felt sketchy and rushed. Naturally, it would be expensive to film out of
the studio too much, but to see Janeway function without her ship for a
while would be welcome variety and rich story fodder.
	The shipboard scenes with the doctor and Suder, while still locked into
the "solve it in half of one episode" format, felt much more concentrated
and powerful. Two mismatched characters, each with his peculiar
limitations. "Well, one hologram and one sociopath may not be ideal for the
task, but that's all we have," says the doctor, setting the tone with his
delicious and deadly-serious sense of the ironic. Brad Dourif's final
appearance as Suder was marvelous, and Bob Picardo matched him in every
scene. When the man crumpled to the floor after dragging in the body of his
first victim, his pain reverberated through the room. The hologram's
attempt at comfort, healer supporting killer, was the most striking scene
in the hour.
	Did I mention body count? The producers have said that things will be
changing this season, and apparently that means lining all the loose ends
up against the wall and blowing them away. The baby isn't Chakotay's, Seska
got anticlimactically aced by the classic exploding console, and the few
surviving Kazon beat it out of there without a fight or even any booty.
Clean slate? Close enough. Let's hope that not everything from the first
two seasons will be forgotten. I'd like to see some continuing tension
between Chakotay and Paris, some sense of the Maquis as distinct from the
rest of the crew (before all of them get devoured by monsters!), and a
general return to what made  "Caretaker"  such  a  good  pilot  show.
Back  to  the  roots,  as opposed to starting over. The strongest root of
all, of course, is that alliance between Starfleet and Maquis personified
in the heads of each crew. Janeway and Chakotay know and like each other
very well by now, but they still don't see eye to eye on everything. Secure
enough with each other to really push the limits of their professional and
personal relationship? I'm looking forward to fireworks.

--L.R. Bowen

	Well, we waited all summer--again. And the one thing I took away from
Basics, Part Deux is: *snuffle*. I'm not being sarcastic or smarmy, nor did
I put my hiatus-is-over-rose-colored glasses when I viewed this show. The
fact is that every evil, corrupt character killed or otherwise obliterated
on this show was given a golden effulgence, and not just from the
over-bright sun in the Hanan system.
	Witness Seska, the Cardie spy hailed by Martha Hackett's fans as "The
villain we love to hate." Her delicious remorselessness went down the tubes
from the moment she realized her precious link to Chakotay tied her instead
to the putrid Culluh. She lost her edge, the omnipotent ability to predict
her adversaries's manuevers (allusion intended). Her death was
anticlimactic, reduced to a corpse for the men in her life, who despised
her for her actions or saw her as inferior, to philosophize over her
remains. However noble the warrior, these actions seem almost insulting to
the brilliant woman she was. To a lesser extent, Culluh was also
"humanized." The stupid Neanderthal (no insult to the inhabitants of the
Hanan system) was revealed to be merely a gruff man of small stature in the
mind who genuinely loved Seska, who (I think) would have killed him
eventually.
	But back to the actual plot--which shouldn't take long, as it was rather
sparse. We knew that Voyager would be back in the end. We even knew who
would bite the big one--there were more red, yellow, and blueshirts in this
episode than in the last two seasons! But the rather clichéd means were why
we tuned in. The two plots of saving the ship and surviving on the planet
(New Hell, as I like to call it--my vegan friend said she would've liked to
see Tuvok or Chakotay protest the worm-eating bit) were rather squashed for
time. I don't think a three-parter would've quite worked though, so I can't
complain--much.
	We didn't get much of last season's fairly decent character growth--I
suppose now that Jeri is writing about all the rest of the crew's history
in her new novel, they can't write in a lot of details other than B'Elanna
The Track Star, Chakotay The Hair-Fire Indian (I knew all that staring at
Janeway's hair would inspire him someday!), and Tuvok The Twenty-Fourth
Century Boy Scout. But just because this season premire was rather nitty is
not to say it did not have its highlights, and from the most unexpected
source. Suder's internal conflict was more prominent than in "Meld," and
the prominience was, in a maccabe fashion that only a sociopath could
achieve, appropriate. The darkness was peppered with several well-timed
witticisms from the Doctor. Pairing a killer with a healer may not have
been concious, but the contrast was a touch on the side of dramatic irony.
And in the end, Tuvok's Vulcan prayer was one of the most touching moments
in Voyager's short life. Somehow, I think Suder found that peace, wherever
good and righteous Betazoids go when they pass on.

--Emily Friedman

	"Basics II" brought us fun and the thrill of the unexpected in what was
otherwise a predictable storyline. We knew the Doc and Suder would work
together, that Tom Paris would meet up with the Talaxians, that the crew
would have some trouble on the planet. But the way the story was executed
made all the difference in the world. Who would have thought when we first
met them that a cocky ex-convict, a cynical hologram, and a sullen
sociopath would end up saving the day? That a baby would begin to break the
barriers to communication between two species? That an Indian wouldn't know
how to start a fire or use a bow and arrow? Come to think of it, who ever
expected to feel a pang of sympathy for Cullah at the end when he reached
out so tenderly for Seska and his son? Turns out maybe he wasn't so
heartless after all. And Seska. Such a quiet death for the woman who
wreaked such havoc. Quite a contrast to the rapid, violent end Hogan
suffered, poor man. Then Suder, the most tragic of them all. Cold-blooded
killer turned reluctant hero, making the ultimate sacrifice "for the ship"
with his last breath.
	Was it worth it? Did they really have any choice? As usual, Trek makes us
think beyond ourselves, and raises some interesting questions. Like, what
about Seska? She gets off the hook that easily? I always thought her death
would be more...lingering. She was such a serious threat for so long and
now she's gone, no accounting for the harm she caused, no closure with the
people who used to be her friends. Death can be like that but this one
doesn't feel done yet. Maybe it's because many who die on Trek don't stay
dead. Maybe it's because we didn't expect to feel a little sorry for her
when Cullah revealed his affection. Or maybe it was Chakotay's achingly
stoic farewell. I think, in a way, Chakotay hoped that somehow he could
save her from herself. But it was not to be--Seska had it coming. We could
almost see the noose she'd set in "Basics I" tightening around her own neck
as the Doc told her the baby wasn't Chakotay's. Finally, Seska was the one
who underestimated.
	If anyone still doubted it, this episode should prove once and for all
that the Doc is much more than just a hologram. He must have taken some
lessons in deviousness from Kes -- the way he dodged Seska's questions
about his loyalty was priceless. He has come a long way since he was first
activated and it was nice to see him encouraging Suder the way he did,
handling that fragile ego like he'd been counseling for years, and plotting
against the terrorists on board like a true commando. We knew what was
going to happen after he muttered, "I'm a doctor, not a counterinsurgent,"
but it's always fun to see him surprise himself. Speaking of surprises, I
really thought Suder was going to break down and go into a frenzy once the
violence started again. Obviously, he's come a long way in his quest for
control, so while it didn't seem odd that he struggled with his conscience,
I didn't expect him to be so successful in keeping the urge at bay. I wish
he hadn't died right away--he was a fascinating character and he and the
Doc made a great team.
	The whole part about Tom Paris going for help was forced, especially his
frustration at the Kazon firing on him and Paxim's sudden change of heart.
The Talaxians had already offered to help, so why should they turn around
and refuse when the going got a little tough? They looked more fickle than
usual when they changed their minds again so readily. It was way too pat.
Having said all that though, I loved seeing Tom Paris play the hero,
outsmarting the villains, and coming in with guns blazing. I'd missed Doc's
line to Suder about "you know what to do and when to do it" the first time
around so I didn't realize they'd managed to sabotage the weapons system
after all until everyone on the bridge went down. Go Tom!
	I think they could have made an entire episode based on the shipboard and
space-based attempts to regain control of Voyager, and another episode
focusing on what was happening on the planet. Where "Basics I" took its
time getting to its ending, this half of the story felt rushed. Maybe I'm
just a closet character development nut, but it seemed like there was too
much of one crisis after another on the planet, starting with Hogan's
too-abrupt death and not letting up until the very end. I wanted more of
everyone, especially Janeway. It would have been nice to spend more time
showing the crew's reaction to their predicament, a few moments of silence
interspersed with the action, to see Chakotay struggling with the
consequences of his decision, and Janeway coming to terms with it all,
going off by herself to think. But there really wasn't time.
	Janeway had a good scene when she responded to Hogan's now-empty uniform
and the knowledge that there were predators at large. I did not envy her in
those few moments when the gravity of their situation suddenly became too
realtoo quickly, but I loved that she just grit her teeth and set about
making the best of the situation. And I'm glad she didn't eat the worms. It
seemed strange at first that Chakotay wouldn't have the skills one usually
associates with a Native American upbringing steeped in traditions as his
seemed to be, but it makes a lot of sense when you remember that he shunned
all that as a boy. It doesn't make him any less of a courageous leader,
however. I loved the way he casually walked into the alien's camp to
collect Kes and Neelix, and the way he battled that lizard creature. And
even though it was hokey and contrived, I loved that he leapt in to rescue
the alien woman. While I'm complimenting him, let me also say that I loved
the way he checked out Janeway's hair in the scene where he was trying to
start the fire. That man may not be able to do much by rubbing sticks
together, but he sure knows how to ignite a few sparks with a mere glance.
And the expression on her face when she realized he was eyeing her so
intently...
	It was nice to get a few background tidbits on some of the other
characters, too--B'Elanna was a decathelete and Tuvok taught archery. Cool.
It looked like Janeway knew what she was doing with a bow and arrow too,
for a moment. But what about the reason they got into this whole mess? The
baby wasn't Chakotay's after all, and we never see him find that out. He's
had a long time to think about being a father and I can't believe he'd be
able to drop the subject so suddenly. It would be nice to know what's going
on in his head now.
	So many sad endings to mark the beginning of a new season that we've been
told will focus on the joy of discovery. There's a lot to think about after
this episode. A lot of soul-searching and consequences to face for our
favorite captain and crew--all it took to catapult them from the luxury of
technology to the absolute basics was a few major errors in judgement. They
almost wound up colonizing a planet with little more than their bare hands.
That's not something I'd be able to forget between one week and another. I
hope they don't forget either.

--Meredith Antonelli

	"Basics II" promos have been bombarding the airwaves for weeks now. I
don't know about you, but 9-4-96 has been burned into my retinas. Prepare
to surrender--the new season is upon us. "Basics II" is both a beginning
and an ending. It is obviously the start of season three, but it also
signifies a change in the show's direction. Most significantly, red-shirt
syndrome has reared its ugly head and claimed the lives of three major
characters. TV Guide's blurb about someone dying caused a lot of
speculation, and it makes me wonder if it's better to be left in the dark
about some of these rumors.
	The change in the show's direction seems pretty clear to me. We have
little character work and a lot of action. On first glance, I enjoyed this
tremendously, but after further examination, I found my pleasure to be
ephemeral. We have heroes coming out of the woodwork, and all of them are
male. Who wields the weapons here? Chakotay and Tuvok. Who saves the day on
Voyager? Paris, Suder and Holodoc. Who saves the native woman from the
advancing lava flow? Chakotay. Who stops the giant worm from following the
crew? Once again, Chakotay and Tuvok. I could continue in this vein, but I
think you see my point. Janeway and Torres were not painted as weak, but
their characters had more of an emotional impact. As for Kes, her
attachment to Neelix is touching, but following him out into a dark,
unfamiliar place shows she's not the brightest light in the forest. Later
on, she did little to help herself when she was held captive.
	Holodoc and Suder were the shining stars in this episode compared to the
rest of our beloved crew. I enjoyed the taut interchanges between the two
as well as Doc's prevarication when he was questioned by Seska. Brad Dourif
was mesmerizing as he struggled mightily to contain his violent impulses.
He lost that particular battle when he mowed down the Kazon with his
phaser, but his tenacity allowed him to fulfillhis mission. Michael Piller
created a wonderful character in Suder, and his death is a great loss to
the show. As for Doc, I think Robert Picardo got most of the good lines
here. It was also fun to see him play dumb when Seska started grilling him
about the thoron emissions.
	Seska was the saddest red shirt. Martha Hackett's brilliant portrayal of
this multifaceted individual has been a lot of fun. The Kazon bogged down
the show last season and The Powers That Be decided to clean house, but I
wish they could have found a way to save Seska. Of course, in Trek heaven,
no one really dies, so I'm sure we can look forward to seeing Martha pop in
now and again. Some people think Seska was totally evil, but she never came
across that way to me. Sure, she got high on power, but she did seem to
care for her old comrades in some fashion. Seska, like Suder, was a
character who wasn't black or white, and that fact alone made her
interesting.
	Our final red shirt is Crewman Hogan who gets eaten by the worm during the
teaser. Hogan emerged as a likable, helpful fellow with an unfortunate
choice of friends. I've enjoyed seeing some of the lesser characters like
Hogan and Wildman show up in different episodes, and wish they would
continue this practice. Wildman, who wasn't around in "Basics I," suddenly
appears in this installment. I'm not sure they'll be keeping her around,
but I wish they would. There were supposed to be 140 crew members on the
planet, but they sure weren't around. The most amazing thing in this entire
episode: Ayala talked! I know it was only one word, but he is no longer the
Morn of Voyager.
	There are also signs that TPTB plan on turning Paris and Neelix into
heroes. I liked seeing a rumpled Tom Paris effect a daring rescue, but I
also enjoy some of his unsavory attributes. If they turn him into yet
another shining light, things could become rather bland in the Paris camp.
As for Neelix, he's shown on more than one occasion that he is brave, but
he's usually drawn as an annoying buffoon.
	Finally, we have the stranded crew. Their story didn't do much to capture
my interest, with the possible exception of Chakotay's campfire technique.
Robert Beltran had some funny lines here, and we saw that his survival
skills aren't that swift. The stereotypical Indian is supposed to be great
at all this, so imagine the fun when we find one that can't light a fire.
Kate Mulgrew was also very good, giving a tense, tight-lipped performance.
Visibly upset at losing Hogan, she starts barking orders in the finest
Starfleet tradition. I would have enjoyed seeing her chug down a few worms,
but hey, Scully she's not. I also think she should keep the ponytail. She
manages to maintain her professional air, but it's a little less rigid than
the bun of steel.
	Cullah, whose character been annoying and insulting, was out of character
as he moaned over Seska's body. He's never shown any other sign that he
cared for her, and all of a sudden, boom, he's groaning about her death. I
also wonder what kind of life his child is going to have on a warship with
no women. Seska, whose death by overload was a rather convenient way of
dumping her character, played her last moments by showing a bit of
compassion for her frightened baby. In one of the final scenes, we see
Chakotay lay his hand on Seska gently before pulling the sheet over her
head. This was his way of saying a final good-bye and moving forward with
his life--something Janeway needs to do with Mark.
	I have a few other nitpicks: why didn't the computer identify Seska and
her child when the Doc was asking about the crew? Why didn't Chakotay have
some sort of escape route when he tried rescuing Neelix and Kes? Why didn't
they use torches to light their way in the caves as they ran from the
primitives? There were other obvious problems, but some of these should
have been covered. Michael Piller's swan song is a decent piece of work,
but that's about it. "Best of Both Worlds" remains his finest, and this one
didn't come close.

--Elizabeth Klisiewicz

	Brad Dourif and Robert Picardo saved this episode, and I'm only sorry
Michael Piller simply didn't let them run with the entire thing. It's
pretty obvious that the script had been rewritten a number of
times--especially the planet scenes. I felt like I was seeing bits and
pieces from a variety of draft versions. For the most part, the entire
planet-side scenario seemed ill-planned and badly edited. Hogan bought it
way too early, and deserved a better death than he got. And honestly, no
one on the planet seemed to have much purpose at all--just killing time
until they got picked up again. I was happy that Wildman and Spike finally
showed up, but became quickly disappointed to see that they were just there
to give Captain Kate a chance to show off her maternal skills. (I know she
has them--I don't need such a stereotypical ploy to convince me.)
	What I really liked, however, was how Chakotay was portrayed as rather
incompetent in trying to pull off the traditional skills of his NA
'people.' That makes perfect canon sense as we already know a young
Chakotay never bothered to pay much attention or learn or adapt to his
tribe's ways while he was young ("Tattoo"), and it was only after his
father died that he learned to appreciate who and what he was. Frankly, if
he were the perfect little NA, he'd be too politically correct, not to
mention annoying. Also, the scene gave Chak and Kath a nice moment. I liked
the grub worm pronouncement from Janeway--I only wish she'd popped a few in
her mouth to show that she meant business. If Gillian Anderson can do it,
so can Kate!
	As for Paris and the Talaxians, while also a pretty pat and predictable
story, I was glad that Paris was not part of the planet-side stuff, after
being disappointed at the end of "Basics I" that he was split off from
them. Paris got a little more to do and was involved at least with the
interesting part of the story line taking place on the ship. And he got the
right to sit in the captain's chair, at least briefly! I only wished he'd
gotten a little more of a thank-you at the end there for saving their
butts, but then it's typical for our Starfleet officers to take all this
stuff fairly stoically. And he did look delicious all dirty and messy like
that. I almost laughed out loud at the 'throw on the brakes and let the bad
guys over-run you' tactic in space. I never quite thought about using it in
a space-battle, but how many times have you wanted to yell at the screen
when the good guys are in one lane being chased down the highway by the bad
guys who are in another, and you're saying, 'If that were me, I'd just slam
on the brakes!'
	The Holodoctor and Suder were brilliant--'nuff said. I only wish we'd had
a lot more of them! The repartee was snappy and witty, and the characters
complimented each other very naturally. The Holodoc is well on his way to
becoming the best-defined character on Voyager, not to mention certainly
the most well-rounded, interesting, and likable medical personage on a Star
Trek series since Leonard McCoy. Picardo brings an enthusiasm and a
dimension to his character which has fast made him a fascinating and
welcome relief from the more generic, underdeveloped, and ill-used
presentations of TNG's Crusher and DS9's Bashir. Brad Dourif did wonders
with what he had--intense, angstful--but he didn't have enough of it,
sadly. I wish he didn't have to die, but that was a loose end they
obviously intended to tie up.
	Much as with the Kazon--no loss there, though Anthony Delongis (Culluh)
doesn't get enough credit for the part he played to this point. I disliked
the Kazon, but only because they were too much of a carbon copy of the
Klingons, who are overdone and dull. Once Culluh got hooked up with Seska,
however, he really began to shine, and Martha and Anthony displayed a lot
of chemistry together. So if we're never to see Culluh again, I'm actually
glad they made him a sympathetic character at the end--and I don't see this
as being out of character for him at all. Just the fact that he accepted
Seska's baby as his own even though he fully believed it wasn't his tells
me that the Kazon weren't as completely mysoginistic as we thought they
were. And I don't have a hard time believing he came to care for Seska
because for all his posturing and boasting about women and their place, he
took everything Seska threw at him and then some without batting an
eyelash, or raising a fist. I think he was in awe of her despite himself,
and I think he must have fallen in love with her to buy her story about the
baby and adopt him as his own. So I'm glad that the baby ends up being his
because he did care for him, so he deserved to be his father.
	I really wish Seska didn't have to die. In fact, it wouldn't have been so
hard for them to have let her get away in a life pod by herself, for future
use. Unlike Culluh, she did not care for him as he did for her, and though
I do believe she loved her baby, I don't think she would have been
completely heartbroken to have gotten away with her life by leaving him
behind for Culluh. After all, she was clearly disappointed to find out that
he wasn't Chakotay's. Again, it's obvious that she was just another loose
end. I hope they find a way to let Martha play another part later in the
series.
	So all in all, I thought "Basics II" was a little more boring than "Basics
I," but mostly because of the planet stuff--which is a shame because they
had a perfect opportunity to do a decent story about a
technologically-biased people being stranded in a wasteland. Ironically, if
they'd just stuck to basics, they would have had a better story and would
have saved a fortune by not paying for extras and SFX that they didn't
need! The ship scenes were very entertaining, and Piller should have stuck
to that. I think he was already long gone before he even finished this
script. "Basics II" had some very good stuff and some very weak stuff,
which left it with a very average or below-average after-taste in the final
analysis.

--Pam Buickel

	It's a sad day when the MTV Music Video Awards are less predictable and
more entertaining than the season premiere of Voyager. It was so obvious
how Part II would play itself out that I decided to watch MTV live and tape
Voyager to watch later. Normally, my friends hold Star Trek premiere
parties, but none of us could muster up any enthusiasm for this premiere
because there was absolutely no suspense.
	I can sum this episode up in two words: formulaic and convenient.
Formulaic: everything that happened on the planet, from losing two
redshirts (was it really necessary to off Hogan?), to the rescue of the
native woman bringing the Voyagers and the natives together (if she were
really and truly stuck, shouldn't the rescue have been a lot more
difficult?). Convenient: Seska dying, Suder dying, the baby being Cullah's.
Isn't that nice? Everything's all neatly tied up so they don't have to
worry about plot continuity.
	I'm not sure if I should be angry or disappointed. I keep wavering between
the two. If this episode had happened in season one back when the scripts
were fresh and much less predictable, I might have been solidly angry, but
season two beat a lot of my expectations out of me. I am angry that Seska
and Suder were so neatly dispatched. Suder didn't need to die, but by
killing him off, they conveniently assured that they never have to write
him another episode. And Seska? How is it that what looked to be a
ship-wide energy discharge killed a grown Cardassian woman but left her
infant unscathed? Are the Kazon somehow resistant to that kind of attack?
Every other Kazon appears to have walked off the ship relatively unharmed,
but Seska died oh so conveniently. At least in her death we had proof of
her love for her child and Cullah's love for her. Finally, in having
Seska's baby really be Cullah's, the final plot thread is carefully
snipped, leaving the Voyager crew able to merrily sprint away from the
situation without looking back--which they never do anyway.
	While I enjoyed the scenes on Voyager proper (with Seska, Suder, and the
Doctor all together, who wouldn't?), the rest of the episode bored me. The
planetary survival plot was dull. While the scenes among the crew were fine
(but boring), the cave monster and the native population scenes were
terribly formulaic: monster eats crew, natives distrust crew. Yawn. I've
seen it all before. And as I mentioned earlier, the final scene where
Chakotay rescues the native woman was the most formulaic of all.
	Right, there were also scenes with Paris getting help from the Talaxians.
Yawn. Well-acted, as usual, but nothing interesting happened. Who else
predicted that he really didn't have a plan after telling the Talaxian
commander that he did? Never mind that the choreography of the space battle
was far too dull. I must be getting spoiled by Babylon 5.
	I'm really getting sick of being disappointed by Voyager. Not only did
this episode lack suspense, but it killed off two of the most interesting
characters on the show (Seska and Suder). Their deaths weren't shocking;
they were disappointing and gratuitous. Yes, I can understand why they
might want to kill off Seska, but she's a popular enough character that
Martha Hackett has her own fan club. Killing her alienates a large fan
base. There was still so much they could have done with her character
besides having her fall into cardboard villain-hood, but that would have
involved a long-term plot line. And Suder? Why did they have to kill him?
In this episode he went from interesting to extremely interesting, and I
would have loved to see them explore his character's development further.
Oh right, I forgot, this is Trek. We don't do character development here.
	Safe to say, despite my enjoyment of the scenes on the ship, this episode
disappointed more than it delighted. After watching this, I literally asked
myself why I still watch the show. The answer is fairly simple: I like the
characters, I like the fans, and I like the Star Trek universe in general.
Here's hoping that this is just an extension of the second season doldrums
and the episodes written and filmed in the third season regain a sense of
originality and creativity, and stop flinching from long-term plot lines
and character development. We're smart enough to follow along without
getting lost.

--Jennifer Pelland (Siubhan)

TOP 10 REASONS I LIKED "BASICS II":
10)  It got rid of Seska.   I never liked her.
9)  It got rid of the Kazon.  I never liked them. (God forbid anyone should
start a 'Bring back the Kazon' letter writing campaign.)
8)  It cleared up the Seskotay thing.  What is it with these writers and
babies anyway? Now if they would just go back and tell us those baby
salamanders were really dogs that were sent up into space during early
exploration experiments that went awry and were already on the planet when
Janeway and Paris got there...
7)  It kicked off season three. I do like Voyager, and am looking forward
to new episodes.
6)  I really would have loved "Basics II" if the Sandrine's crew had helped
the Doc get the ship back. Now that would have surprised me. For a few
moments, I was hopeful. I guess my biggest problem with "Basics II" was
that while it cleared up a few little matters, it really offered very
little suspense--oh!  wait! I'm supposed to be saying why I liked "Basics
II"...
5)  That big old snake thing was cool--kind of a combination between a
lizard  and a fish hook.
4)  I spent all summer long wondering, worrying and waiting to find out
which side the Kazon would wear the communicators on. Of course now I have
to spend the rest of my life wondering if they were wearing them when they
abandoned the ship...
3) I didn't have to watch Janeway--or anyone else--eat worms. Watching Kes
eat  beetles was bad enough. I do want to point out, however, that I was
hoping to see them crack one of those eggs. Something unusual must have
been growing in them, and I was kind of curious to see whatever it was pop
out.
2) Chakotay used a dead man's uniform to get water.  I didn't understand
that--but I'm not going to question it. I'm just going to be thankful he
didn't do a rain dance.
1)  Picard couldn't have helped Riker start a fire that way.

--Kim Carnes

FLASHBACK

	Celebrating the 30th anniversary of a phenomenon as wide-reaching and
diverse as Star Trek in one brief hour was simply an impossible task. Four
separate series and seven movies, soon to be eight, have provided Trekkers
and the world at large, with an entire galaxy of characters, alien species
and technology, and a framework of history and tradition which has enriched
countless lives. Commemorating that vision could easily have been the
project of an entire season of episodes. However, Voyager writer Brannon
Braga, writing as he did about memory and nostalgia, chose a metaphor for
the basis of this story which worked effectively to pay tribute to 30 years
of Star Trek. "Flashback" provided a way for 24th century Trek to connect
directly to events from the past--back to Star Trek VI, and through the
presence of Sulu and Rand, back to the glory days of the original series.
We see these events through the eyes of Captain Janeway, who takes Tuvok's
Vulcan memory and stamps it with her own humanity. Memory, through her
intercession, becomes nostalgia, a warm appreciation for times gone by, a
recognition of the ways in which the past changes and coalesces into the
present. That metaphor works beautifully to illustrate the effect that a
relatively unsuccessful television show from the late sixties has had us.
Janeway's sense of nostalgia at the end of this episode is certainly shared
by all those who have been watching and loving Star Trek for the past
thirty years.
	Beyond the inclusion of the wonderfully eloquent Captain Sulu and the
still-fussy Commander Rand, the episode offered much to remind us of the
early days. There was Kang, dropping by to remind us that Klingons were not
always good guys. There was wonderful footage from the movie itself, a
painstaking recreation  of the Excelsior's bridge, and those marvelously
tacky uniforms which make me think that probably it was colder on starships
way back when. There was the ever-present gaseous anomaly, the clever use
of nebulas as hiding places--and offensive weapons!--and even the nasty
virus that causes havoc before being defeated by the courageous doctor and
his lovely blonde sidekick. Most interestingly, there was the moment of
connection between the first generation of Trek and the newest one, in
Captain Sulu's thunderstruck "Who the hell are you?" as he stared in
disbelief at Captain Janeway. That the event didn't really happen did not
lessen its impact in any way. It was a recognition of sorts, that Trek has
grown and changed, that new characters and species and technologies have
taken precedence, but that there is a very definite connection between the
old and the new.
	On its own, too, the episode succeeded beautifully, answering questions
about Tuvok's past which had been troubling me since the show began. We now
know why he's still a lieutenant after all these years, and the explanation
is poignant and believable. We have seen the depth of his relationship with
Captain Janeway illustrated in the very understated but touching way in
which he reaches out to her for help, and in which he confides the details
of his life to her. For a Vulcan to share so intimately with another, with
a human, has been a rarity on Trek; surely we are meant to think of Kirk
and Spock. Beyond that, it was satisfying to me to see Voyager's characters
telling their own stories, sharing moments like the one between Kim and
Janeway in her ready room, advancing their own mythology. Setting nostalgia
aside, Voyager is the future of Star Trek, and "Flashback" showed me that
Voyager, recognizing its debt to the past, offers its own interesting and
creative path to the future.

--Diane Nichols

	What an interesting way to revisit an old plot device. I always thought
flashback episodes were the rather boring result of script disasters or
other misfortunes, but I really enjoyed "Flashback." Yes, it took us to
places we'd been before, but this time we saw them differently. Janeway and
Tuvok interacted with the memories, rather than passively re-living the
past, and we learned something about them in the process. We still don't
know exactly what occurred to cement their friendship and trust but now
it's evident just how deep that trust goes.
	We see it, the way Tuvok reaches out to Janeway for help in dealing with
his problem, sharing with her the public humiliation of being teased and
then reprimanded in front of the Excelsior's bridge crew. We hear it, when
he says he trusts Janeway more than anyone else, even more than the other
Vulcans on board, when he expresses his discomfort with Starfleet, the way
he refers to pon farr so casually in front of her--not that we expect him
to be anything other than factual in recounting a story, but ponn farr is
brought up so seldom on Trek that I thought it was one of those things
better left unmentioned. Speaking of things Vulcans would prefer to keep
quiet, aren't mind melds supposed to be dangerous? Given Tuvok's history
with melds, it seemed a little reckless for Janeway to agree to the meld so
readily. As the captain, she shouldn't be risking herself that way, but
it's also her responsibility to keep her crew safe, and if mind melding
with Tuvok was the only way to save him, then she did the right thing. She
must have taken time to think about it, though. More time than it took for
that look of concern to flicker on her face. How much of her decision was
based on her relationship with Tuvok versus the need to help a crew member?
The doctor warned her, but who warned the guy who would be captain if
anything happened to her? It would have been nice to see that discussion,
giving Janeway and Chakotay the chance to express the doubts they must have
felt.
	Instead, they plunged right into the action, literally. What a thrill to
see Sulu step through the haze on the bridge. It was almost like old Trek
times, and overall, a lot of fun. I didn't realize until my second viewing
that each time the scene switched to the bridge, it was at the point of
Valtane's death, and it wasn't until the third viewing that I realized
Valtane didn't repeat Tuvok's name just before he died the last time--it
was another name I couldn't quite understand. The rest of the flashback
scenes were great, showing us Sulu and Rand in action again. I loved the
way Janeway reacted to what was going on, turning when someone said,
"Captain," looking as though she wanted to get physically involved, walking
right up to Kang's image on the viewscreen, then leaning over the railing
toward the bridge, she seemed so fascinated that I even thought at one
point she might give the order to fire.
	I also liked the ready room scene with Harry Kim--nice to see Janeway
loosening up and really smiling, even if Kim was a little disconcerted by
it. The way they talked about that period in their history felt so real.
It's not like they were discussing some event we'd never heard about
before. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and "The Undiscovered Country," are part of our
history too, and we look back on them with the same wonder and awed smile
that Janeway does.
	One thing I would have liked to see was the opposite side of the meld.
Even though they focused on Tuvok's memories, wouldn't there have been some
effect on Janeway like there was with Suder? And once the virus was killed,
would Tuvok really recover that quickly? I'd think this whole situation
would leave him at least needing to do lots of meditatation before he felt
really "in control" again. I also wonder just how the meld and his
interaction with Janeway and his memories changed him. Of course, we don't
really know what happened with that sirillium either. That's okay, I
enjoyed the show anyway, but Tuvok really should bring Janeway a cup of tea
one of these mornings.

--Meredith Antonelli

	George Takei was splendid in this reunion episode--I loved hearing that
voice of his. Grace Lee Whitney was less than satisfactory, but at least
she didn't have many lines. The first time I watched this, the technobabble
soared straight over my head and it took a second outing to appreciate the
episode. Lots of subtle humor, updated Excelsior sets, numerous references
to TOS storylines--this really did feel like the old Trek. One of the few
scenes I remember from STVI:The Undiscovered Country was with Sulu and his
teacup, and here it was again. The line about Tuvok having to learn to
appreciate a joke was priceless.
	"Flashback" had many fine character moments: Tuvok recounting his past to
Janeway, Neelix trying to please Tuvok with yet another of his culinary
concoctions, Janeway and Harry in her ready room, Tuvok and Kes in Tuvok's
quarters, and others. I especially liked the scene between Chakotay and
Tuvok. Something I didn't note in my last review--in "Basics II," Tuvok
calls Chakotay by his name instead of his title. This is the first time I
can remember him doing this. In "Flashback," Chakotay expresses concern for
Tuvok's well being and Tuvok immediately thinks he is talking about
possible dereliction of duty. When Chakotay insists he means it on a
personal level, Tuvok is genuinely surprised. Obviously, the characters are
trying to let bygones be bygones. I hope in the process of whitewashing the
show, TPTB don't forget about every conflict that ever existed between the
two crews. This tension is one of the more interesting things about
Voyager, and it has great potential for character development in the
future. In other words, I don't want Chakotay to just forget he ever held a
grudge against Paris or Tuvok--I want to see him work through this.
	Tuvok's flashback involved his failure to save a crewmember on the
Excelsior. Each time he relived the actual event and we arrived at the
moment in question, his vision switched to himself as a child dropping a
little girl over a cliff. The parallel between the vision and actual memory
was obvious, and considering how bright Janeway and Tuvok are supposed to
be, I'm surprised they missed the connection the first time. I realize this
is the hook for the entire episode and if they guessed the solution right
away, the episode would be over. However, it certainly made two supposedly
intelligent people look mighty clueless.
	In addition, Janeway sure accepted Tuvok's mindmeld invitation without a
thought. After the "Meld" episode, you would think she'd be a little
cautious before jumping right in and sharing brainwaves. However, her
concern for Tuvok might well have overridden her common sense. So, why
didn't the doctor express his doubts about their joining? I just thought
this was a bit of an oversight. Another problem I had was the way Janeway
became invisible when she doffed the old 'Fleet uniform. There weren't a
whole lot of women on the ship, and Rand's uniform shouldn't have fit
Janeway so snugly. The two women are...rather different in stature, to say
the least. Is Sulu so blind that he doesn't notice the new communications
officer who looks disturbingly like the intruder of a few minutes before?
And he seemed so blasé about calling Security when Janeway appeared out of
nowhere; I guess he had other things on his mind at the time.
	Minor nits: I didn't like the camera work much. The closeups of Kate were
unflattering, to say the least. I know people are tired of hearing the
complaints about her hair, but I think she would be better served with a
softer style. I also found Tuvok's story a bit twisted, but at least his 50
year absence from Starfleet explains his low rank.
	Let's have a round of applause for Brannon Braga and Juliann Medina (where
was her story credit?). This is a fine piece of work, and far better than
"Basics" I and II. I think it's also one of the best pieces of work Braga
has penned for Voyager--let's hope it keeps up.

--Elizabeth Klisiewicz

	Was it just me, or did this episode make everyone wax nostalgic?  I really
miss that "different breed of Starfleet officers."
	A friend of mine was concerned about Janeway going into Tuvok's memories
and somehow having something changed. That was my one worry I carried
throughout the episode, having experienced some of Paramount's decisions in
past series and episodes. I am so glad that I worried for nothing. Tuvok
got a little brain-damaged, Sulu saw Janeway, Janeway and Tuvok stole
Rand's clothes, no biggie. Question: Why did they have to steal clothes to
conceal Janeway's presence, when they could have done it mentally, like
taking them from there to here in the blink of a synapse? I am going to
assume that he was too weakened at that point to be able to do it. That,
and the way Sulu's teacup bounced very artistically across the table to the
floor, should make me feel better.
	I was sorry to see Dimitri Valtane die. We did not get to spend much time
with him in STVI, but I really liked what I did see.  Having met him, I
hope this will be a bridge for an Excelsior Adventures-type episodie or
made-for-television series.
	Tuvok is my absolute least favorite character, so seeing the young ensign
brown-nose up to his captain by not only noticing Sulu's habits, but then
offering him a Vulcan tea blend, was absolutely fabulous--and Janeway
looked so hurt. He won points with me. And then he had to dash them on the
rocks with his snotty attitude to Dimitri about humans (even though he may
have been unequivocally correct).
	I would like to go on the record as saying that I do like Brannon Braga
episodes. I get excited when I see his name at the bottom of the screen,
because then I know that I will enjoy what the next hour has to offer.  A
virus that hides in humanoids by masquerading as a repressed memory! I love
it! Because his stories are so mentally involving, I can forgive that he
may not be great at ending them. But his "mental-mind-****s" are nice.
	"Flashback" stands as a good start for the season. We were given a little
more insight into the characters' interaction: Tuvok joking (sort of) with
Chakotay, Kes' sensitivity to Tuvok's situation in his quarters, and
Janeway being more of a meld partner than any of the Vulcans on board. And
we were given a storyline that did not involve the Kazon, the Vidiians, the
Talaxians, or anyone associated with them. I felt that "Basics, Part II"
turned out the way in which fans speculated that it would all summer. Now,
with something new and fresh and unexplored in the Delta Quadrant, I truly
hope that Voyager can start a momentum and then use it.

--Rhonda E. Green

	Ho hum. Maybe if I'd been drunk it would have been more fun. As it was,
the Erythromycin haze I had been in earlier had subsided, leaving me
disturbingly clear-headed as I watched this really dull episode.
	Yes, I liked seeing Sulu again, but the storyline completely failed to
grip me. I thought I'd be excited to see Rand, but Grace Lee Whitney put
absolutely no life into the character. And knowing that they'd tried to get
Nichelle Nichols to sign on to play Uhura and failed only added to my
disappointment. At least we had George Takei in all his glory (even though
the announcer kept screwing up his name in the promos).
	I wish that seeing Sulu had been enough. I really do. In bringing him
back, I'm really glad they took the time to compare the old style of the
Federation and the new style, because frankly, they seem like wildly
different beasts. I'm also glad that they finally explained why Tuvok is
only a full lieutenant despite his centegenarian status. But there was
something so overwhelmingly dull about the story. I found myself not really
caring what was happening to Tuvok, and cared even less when they pulled
out a Treknobabble explanation instead of having him have to deal with a
real and strange trauma. At least now we know that Janeway was a pudgy kid.
It's nice to see that pudge still exists in the twenty-fourth century.
	George Takei's return to Trek should have been better scripted than this.
His scenes were wonderfully done--more so because he is such a fan of Trek
and such a friend to fans, so we look at him through rose colored
glasses--but I really wish they'd put him in a story where I could care
about what was going to happen next.
	Next week--the ultimate hurt/comfort fest. This one I definitely have to
see drunk so that my hormones can short out my rational mind.

--Jennifer Pelland (Siubhan)

	When I first sat down to watch "Flashback" on Wednesday night, I was
already suffering from media over-exposure. I mean, how long have we been
hearing about this episode--six months, more or less? I was ansty,
over-anxious for certain parts of the story to play out, and frankly not in
the mood by this time. So at the end of the hour I was bored and
underwhelmed. Three days later it's Saturday, I've been out most of the
afternoon and now it's early evening, I don't feel like doing anything, so
I flop down on the bed to veg and rewatch Voyager. It was like I'd never
really seen the episode before--I very much enjoyed it the second go 'round
because I had absolutely no expectations. This is the same way I went into
Generations two years ago, and perhaps that is why I'm in the minority who
actually liked that movie. With no expectations, there's a lot less chance
of being disappointed.
	Anyway, there actually was quite a bit in this episode that I missed the
first time out. In the final anaylsis, I found the story to be interesting
and that it moved fluidly--almost "logically"--I also felt that it had a
nice mix of nostalgia and new character development, and it left me with a
warm fuzzy feeling inside. So you can just imagine what the 'revenge of the
tribbles' episode will do in November.
	I don't think there can be any real argument that the episode was a Tuvok
tour de force. I've always been a Spock fan and felt that we've never seen
as well-defined or interesting a Vulcan character since his
inception--until we got Tuvok on Voyager. Tim Russ' performance is
reminiscent of Nimoy's, yet also different enough to make the character his
own. We certainly got our quota of background with Tuvok. I thought it was
"fascinating" that it was his parents' decision for him to attend the
Academy, and because it was not his own, Tuvok's own egocentricity put him
at odds with his human counterparts and severely limited his successful
assimilation into this multi-cultural society. And those of us with
children of our own can well relate to Tuvok's later experiences as a
father which led him to appreciate his parents' decisions and expectations,
which would take him back to Starfleet for a second try.
	If nothing else, this episode solidified my belief that no matter what
happens between Janeway and Chakotay--even if they attain a sexual
relationship later on--they will never experience the level of intimacy and
implicit trust that is the foundation of the Janeway-Tuvok friendship. I
doubt if it's just the writing for these characters; it's obvious that Kate
and Tim love to work together, and work together well. In this episode, I
truly believed that Tuvok cares for Kathryn as much as he possibly could
for any non-Vulcan; and it reminded me of the moment in "Twisted" when he
tries to reach out to touch her when they're not sure whether or not
they're about to die.
	Now to the heart of the story--the flashback to the Excelsior. On first
viewing I didn't think there was enough of it--I was over-anxious to see
it, and so felt the episode moved too slowly. On second viewing, it seems
to come at just the right time and blends in well. The one thing I missed
the first time around ends up being the most significant factor, and that
was that each time Tuvok went back to this event, they always ended up at
the moment Dimitri just died. In noting that, I also then realized that the
"viral" solution was not a "wrap-it-up in the last five minutes" ending as
I originally thought, because we'd been given hints about it all along.
Also, the holodoc actually discovers the problem 15-20 minutes before the
end of the episode, and so the rest of the time is spent implementing the
cure. I thought the editors did a good job mixing in ST:VI stock footage
with newly shot scenes, and I did get a feel for being back during the
Praxis incident. I also enjoyed the way Tuvok could segue smoothly from
explaining to Janeway and the audience what was happening and what he was
thinking at the time to become a part of the scenario without skipping a
beat. A similar method was used by Levar Burton in DS9's "Rules of
Engagement," and I found it distracting and choppy.
	Little things I liked--Janeway was a pudgy child; reminiscing about the
"good ol' days"; and the fact that Grace Lee Whitney still can't act. Now
that's a real blast from the past! Let's face it folks, back in the glory
days of TOS, the only regulars who really turned in decent performances on
a weekly basis were Shatner and Nimoy. That's part of its cheesy charm.
	The one thing I really didn't like is also reminiscent of the 'glory
days', and that's the fact that the episode really only involved two of the
Voyager regulars--Janeway and Tuvok (with the holodoc and Kes playing
supporting roles). The 30th anniversary only comes around once. They should
have found a way to involve everyone.

--Pam Buickel

THE CHUTE

	Be still my throbbing hormones. Voyager has gone and filmed the most
homoerotic episode of Trek's career. At first I wasn't sure just how close
Tom and Harry were going to get, as Voyager has consistently hammered home
the heterosexuality of its characters, but when Harry held Tom's hand and
curled up next to him, my housemate and I just looked at each other and
raised our eyebrows in amazement. Never mind the whole, "He's mine,"
exchange at the beginning. He's mine for what...shoe shines? Back rubs?
General garden work?
	The irony of this is that this episode was clearly aimed at the young male
demographic--chronic consumers of violence and action- oriented
entertainment. While it succeeded in catering to that market, "The Chute"
also showed us the most tender display we've ever seen between two men in
the post-TOS universe. Tom and Harry did everything but kiss, and even had
me wondering if they would a few times as they stared intensely into each
other's eyes, faces mere inches apart. The only thing that probably stopped
them was the fact that DS9 had already done same-sex kissing last season in
"Rejoined" (excuse me while I think back on that episode and drool a
little...ahhhhhhh...). Well, that, and the fact that they've done their
damndest to show off just how heterosexual each of the characters are. They
could be bisexual, but if Trek can't handle homosexuality, I can't see how
they could handle bisexuality.
	Another wonderful irony is that in the end, the leader of the rescue
mission was Janeway with her big honking gun. Men bonding tenderly, women
with big guns--this whole episode was an example of contradictions within
clichés. It had violence and grit and despair, which I like; it had
homoeroticism, which I like; and it had women acting with conviction and
serious bad-ass backbone, which I also like. In fact, I liked those
elements so much, that I'm willing to overlook the small pile of nits I was
able to compile while watching it. Oh, all but one: I really wish that at
the end, Tom had still been flat on his back in sickbay, recovering from a
wicked infection, while Harry stood guiltily by his bed confessing his
feelings of guilt (and holding his hand again). But other than that, this
one was a winner. I'm sure The Powers That Be did not intend this to be so
homoerotic, but it was, and for that I thank them. Maybe there are people
like me in the future after all.

--Jennifer Pelland (Siubhan)

	When this episode started rolling, I just knew that Ken Biller was the
author of the teleplay. Biller has been responsible for some of the more
controversial scripts ("Tuvix") of last season, but "The Chute" isn't one
of them. As in "Resistance," we are treated to a prison scenario, only this
time it's much more brutal and gritty. Paramount is making much of the fact
that Voyager has changed, and it has, but I'm not sure the changes are to
my liking. Violence is one thing, but gratuitous violence for the sake of
gaining more viewers is sick. I disliked the scene where Mr. Manifesto slit
someone's throat to get some bread. I think there are better ways to imply
an action, and what used to be suitable viewing for children no longer
holds true.
	Although Biller did a good job with Kim and Paris, he doesn't know squat
about Janeway. Both in "Tuvix" and here, Janeway is drawn as sharp and
tough, without a lot of sympathy. Kate is always great, especially when she
is given good material, but there's not much she can do when the writer
paints her out of character. It was interesting to see her reaction to the
Open Sky rebels, because they really weren't all that different from the
Maquis, and it makes me wonder how she would have treated them if
circumstances were different. Despite their insolence, I would have
expected her to have more sympathy for the rebels. I also didn't understand
her comment to Tuvok about a bath and a hot meal. It sounded strange and
out of context. Perhaps she was being snide about the figurative stench in
there caused by their presence, or maybe she was showing that she could be
decent even under these circumstances.
	I can't comment on the Prime Directive, because there seem to be so many
gray areas where that's concerned. It's my understanding that the
Federation is not supposed to interfere with pre-warp societies, but what
about societies that are their technological equal? Is effecting a rescue
considered a violation, or is interfering with the judicial process the
real violation? Perhaps their actions towards the rebels were the actual
violation. These are just my guesses, and it may not matter for much
longer, because I hear TPTB want to ignore the Prime Directive in the
future. This may have more to do with the situation Voyager is in than
anything else, but I'm not sure it's right to flout Trek conventions like
this. Violations aside, Voyager could not have rescued Tom and Harry
without the information they got from the rebels, so the story would have
fallen apart without it. Another mistake I saw was letting Janeway proceed
down the chute before her security team. If it is so crucial that the
senior officers make every effort to protect themselves, why did Tuvok let
Janeway go first? Also, since when did Ms. Hold Your Fire start shooting
first and asking questions later? This is what I mean when I say that Ken
Biller is clueless when it comes to Janeway.
	Anyway, this was a Tom and Harry episode, and both actors were superb.
Garrett Wang showed a whole range of emotions we have rarely seen from him,
and I hope this is only the beginning for the young actor. I always mention
his cardboard counterpart,  but that old stand-in would have flopped on its
face in this role. We are drawn right into the adventure without any
introduction, much as we saw in "Resolutions" when Janeway and Chakotay
were already on the planet. I think this is a cost-cutting measure, and I
wish they'd flesh things out more. "The Chute" was a typical buddy episode,
and I liked seeing the two of them stick by each other. We also got to hear
the name of the other Delaney sister, but this is getting to be real stale
and I hope they move past it in the future. I loved seeing the sweaty
closeups of our two guys, and those hurt/comfort scenes should inspire a
lot of fan fiction writers out there. I liked the humorous lines Biller
threw in here, especially the one about leola root.
	The actor who played "The Unabomber" was also quite good, but I don't know
what to call him. I think Harry muttered his name in sickbay, but it was
difficult to hear. This guy was the so-called leader of the prison gang,
and everyone was afraid of him. Harry kept saying he was insane, but I
wondered about that statement. The Unabomber sounded more sane than all the
rest of them put together, and Harry should have read his manifesto. Of
course, Harry was being eternally optimistic and hoped they'd escape before
things got out of hand, so that may explain why he ignored the information
being handed to him. The best scene in the entire episode was when Harry
climbed to the top of the chute and realized it led to space. I was not
expecting that, and I'm glad this show can still surprise me.
	It's also clear that they are determined to make Neelix a hero, but at
what cost? He still pulls his idiot routine and falls into that rut far too
easily. I think they're going to have a struggle on their hands when it
comes to our intrepid Talaxian guide.
	"The Chute" was an exciting episode if you only look at the adventure
factor, and it did contain some good character moments for Tom and Harry.
However, I hope that Ken Biller improves his characterization of Janeway
before they turn her into a shrew, or worse.

--Elizabeth Klisiewicz

	A lot of Voyager fans, mostly male, looked forward to "The Chute," as it
was hyped as the beginning of Voyager's new, edgier style a la The
Sentinel. This, loosely interpreted, means: more gore and violence. I hope
The Demographic is happy--I'M not. However much I loathed the frequent
throat-slitting, I enjoyed the overall show somewhat. The psychological
aspect of this episode was intriguing, if not pretty.
	That guy in the prison at first reminded me eeriely of the man who played
Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ Superstar--especially when he looked up and
had that light shining down on him--then the Unabomber, especially with his
manifesto and his encouraging Harry to kill poor little Tommy. I thought he
was an interesting character, more interesting than some of the regular
crewmembers on board. However, after this episode, I did like Harry and Tom
a lot more. With "Flashback" and this episode, it seems like we're having
character development in large, sudden surges. There were times when Tom
looked almost "Threshold"-like again, but the revulsion passed.
	Most of all in this episode, I was struck by the possibilities that a
fourteen-year-old patriot with asylum on board could have brought to
Voyager--similarities to the Maquis's cause, insight into a new species,
some youth on board--but of course she had to go call Janeway a coward and
ruin the possibility of her staying on board. Pout. The use of Neelix's
ship was cute, and so was the BS Neelix dished up, both to the Evil Aliens
Of The Week and back in Sickbay. Neelix at Conn--hee hee! And the fact that
the Unabomber--umm, the Alien Dude--was right in the end was predictable
but effective. However, Tom and Harry's last conversation was interesting.
Maybe Tom'll settle down now that he's sure of a friend...Nah.
	Despite the all-too-gratutious violence, the triumph over the blood lust
in the end was encouraging. However, if this is to be the standard of this
season rather than "Flashback," I don't think I'm looking forward to next
week.

--Emily Friedman

	In tonight's episode, it was nice to see that not only could Janeway do
what needed to be done, but she could do it with her own hands. That has
been proven before, with "Tuvix." However, in this episode, Janeway tells a
14-year-old off, and for the first time that I can remember, doesn't make
nice with the natives--the terrorists. Janeway was ready and willing to
sacrifice a couple of people she knew made the bomb, but knew nothing
about. I really don't miss all the explaination and clairifying of
everyone's political position, and who is good and who is bad, in fact, in
is nice that they didn't explain it. It wasn't relevant to the story line.
I appreciated not being blatantly conscended to with simple explanations.
Politics are never simple--and to try to simplify them in three sentences
makes me, the viewer, feel like someone is talking down to me.
	I found it interesting that during the entire episode, not one mention was
made of why everyone was fighting, or what the problem was. In my
experience in Trek, when terrorists come on, usually someone starts
explaining, so that the viewer will know who the bad guy is. Here, no
questions asked. Just get the people out and run. Turn anyone in if it will
help. I was disturbed by that willingness. And Janeway seemed so utterly
surprised that even though she had captured the real culprits, the
government wasn't willing to help or negotiate with her! She should have
been expecting that from a hostile government! That, after all, is
knee-jerk reaction! So what if you have the real culprits? We have already
done our job (correctly) so why should we listen you you? And who do you
think you are anyway, you irritating Federation?
	So what happened to Janeway being ready and willing to help those who
cross her path? She stranded her crew in the Deltra Quadrant, saving an
entire species, and yet she won't help a couple prisoners break out of
jail, or offer to help two terrorists? I'm actually sort of surprised that
Janeway used threats right off the bat with the terrorists--her usual MO is
to talk, see what the problem is, and then try to help everyone. I thought
the look on Janeway's face when Piri called her a coward was magnificent.
It really brought home, for me, the fact that Janeway was going to go to
the prison and try a break out even, though she just got through telling
Piri that "that is not the way we do things." Well, why not? She's done it
before. Actually, it was a very confusing moment, made worse by Janeway's
open distress when the planetary government refused to help her. She was
doing the powerful, decisive leader, then good little girl asking for a
favor. Didn't make sense.
	The upshot of it all is that I did like the episode! I had a few
questions/musings about it, but I like shows like that--they make me think
and wonder, rather than give a pat answer with a wrap up or
characterization. I guess I am questioning Janeway's characterization on
this episode, now that I have finished writing all my thoughts down. Parts
of it were consistent, and parts of it really made me wonder what the heck
was going on...

--Rachael Quereau

	It was a dark and stormy night.  Shadowy figures lurked in, well, the
shadows.  The stench of decay hung in the air like a Kazon's B.O. Suddenly,
a fight broke out!  Fists flew!  Throats were slit!  Blood flowed like Earl
Grey! Is this an episode of Hercules:  The Legendary Journeys?  Au
contraire...it's Voyager!
	Voyager?  Yup.  The Uber-Producers' Master Plan to make the show more
viable to the God Demographic has produced this different yet surprisingly
enjoyable episode, which features mainly Paris and Kim in a Delta Quadrant
gulag that would make Colonel Klink nervous. In a nutshell:  The two
erstwhile pretty boys are framed for a terrorist bombing and sent down The
Chute (hey, what a great title for an episode!) where they land in the
middle of a community theater's production of The Great Escape.  The
standard prison movie archetypes are there:  the prophet (complete with
Manifesto, kung fu grip optional), the rabble-rouser, even the queen.  Not
to mention the standard nameless riffraff, all sporting the Forehead Du
Jour.  Janeway must rescue her crewmembers before they're driven insane by
a diabolical device called The Clamp (also a good title for an episode, but
apparently The Chute won the toss) and kill each other.
	But there are a few twists.  Tom, usually more of a leader, is stabbed
halfway through the episode and becomes little more than a millstone around
Harry's neck.  Poor Harry.  He hasn't been under this much pressure since
the Academy Sadie Hawkins dance.  He's expected to engineer an escape
route, convince the other prisoners that "we've got to get organized!",
obtain shelter and bandages for Tom, placate the Unabomber, and fend off
the prisoners who are suffering from intense boot envy, all while
marshaling his mental forces to resist the effects of The Clamp and stop
himself from killing Tom with a nail file. Garrett Wang pulls this off
surprisingly well, if you mute your TV during the Shatneresque "we've got
to work together" speech, so Harry winds up looking pretty darn heroic,
especially after he discovers the truth about the prison...that there's no
escape after all.
	Meanwhile, Janeway discovers that the planetary authorities are far from
cooperative (like they ever aren't), but manages to catch the real bombers.
First she offers to trade them for Harry and Tom.  Why the planetary leader
refuses is a little puzzling...wouldn't he want the real bombers? But in
the end she decides to blackmail the bombers to help her bust Tom and Harry
out of prison, which she does personally in true Horatio Hornblower fashion
in the last five minutes.
	Perhaps I've made it sound like I liked this episode less than I did. I
give it a thumbs-up, because it boasted some pretty good performances,
Janeway being her best decisive self, and an intriguing interpretation on
some standard prison/buddy plot formulas.  The denouement was too quick, as
was the emotional resolution, but you can't have everything. It was also
refreshing to me that no one seemed to care about the nature of the
conflict on this planet, the government vs. the terrorists.  Too often Trek
gets mired down in moral hand-waving, which definitely has its place but
can act as a paralyzer.  Janeway just gets her people out and leaves them
to their little conflict, which is her only real choice.  Harry and Tom
have not broken any laws, they have not interefered with the planet's
social structure, they were just trapped.  They required rescue. Janeway
delivered.  End of story.

--Lori Summers

	I enjoyed watching this episode, even more on the second viewing than the
first. It offers a change from the old save-a-planet-a-week Trek routine,
gives Garrett Wang an opportunity to demonstrate that he can, in fact, act,
and is generally fairly exciting. I also liked the parallels between the
two stories--both Kim and Janeway find themselves dealing with situations
largely beyond their control, forced to choose from a list of options which
doesn't include what they would personally prefer.
	I have some reservations, though. We see Paris and Kim in extreme
situations, but how much do we really learn about them? Paris has
experience in prison, has a short fuse, is protective of Kim. Kim is loyal
and naive. We knew that. Assuming that the insinuations that the affection
the two feel for each other goes beyond brotherly love will not be followed
up on in future episodes (and if you don't assume that, I've got some
beachfront property in Arizona which might interest you), the main new
information revealed in the episode is the name of the second Delany
sister.
	I'm concerned about the portrayal of Janeway, too. Yes, she's
decisive--but she seems so comfortable with the decisions she has to make
that it makes me uncomfortable. The descent down the chute with the phaser
rifle does look cool, but it's comic book stuff, and too reminiscent of
Sisko's macho makeover last season. I hope Janeway won't have to shave her
head (or Chakotay wear heels...). I'm a member of the Captains Shouldn't
Lead Away Teams faction--it's just not a sensible way to run a starship. Of
course Janeway should be tough, but she shouldn't be Rambo.

--Jennifer Loehlin

	Whew! When they hinted that Voyager would be a little more rough and ready
this season they weren't kidding. The violence was startling at first--I
almost forgot that I was watching Trek and not an action movie. The fight
scenes were well-choreographed and the props, costuming, and camera-work
really added to the atmosphere of the prison story. It was exciting, but
strange to see such darkness in a series that's always been about hope.
That Akritirian prison made the Mokran prison in "Resistance" look like a
four-star hotel. I had no trouble believing in the desperation Tom and
Harry felt. No guards, little food and water, nothing to suggest that
prisoners were held for anything other than suffering for their crimes. No
way out until Harry disabled the force-field, and even then no one wanted
to listen or cooperate. Nothing but dirt and other prisoners who'd be happy
to see them die. Harry was very lucky Tom got there first, although he
managed well once Tom "claimed" him. This was a crash course in "the way of
the universe" for Harry and I think he surprised himself, especially when
he realized that Tom was depending on him for survival and not the other
way around.
	Garrett Wang did a great job showing Harry's struggle to remain calm and
in control, especially when he almost killed Tom. Of course, that marvelous
scene backed right up to the gratuitous "pep talk" scene, but just the
thought of that clamp thing makes my head tingle so I can understand the
irrational urge that sent Harry over the edge. And I loved the scene in
which Harry lies down next to Tom--very touching. Robert Duncan McNeil gave
a fine performance too.Usually it's easy to forget that Tom is a prison
veteran, but here we saw some of the attitude, the disdain that Tom adopts
so readily when he finds himself in uncomfortable situations. We caught a
rare glimpse of the toughness behind those clean-cut good looks and the
heart of gold underneath it all.
	Kate Mulgrew is absolutely amazing (as if we didn't know that already).
That script made Janeway sound cruel and heartless, but the skillful way
Kate handled it gave us intense Janeway at her decisive best. She
communicates entire paragraphs with the most minute facial expressions--I
was riveted throughout Janeway's confrontation with her captives. I never
doubted for a moment that she knew she'd get the information she wanted,
and I really don't think she'd have turned them in, especially after the
ambassador made it so clear that it wouldn't make a difference in getting
Tom and Harry back. She did a great job bluffing and I could almost feel
her anger and sympathy for Piri and her brother at the end. I also loved
seeing her go after Tom and Harry herself. Moral dilemmas and diplomatic
negotiations always make interesting stories, but it's so much fun to see
the captain in action that I'm looking forward to more of this as long as
it's done well.
	What about the Prime Directive? She interfered with the politics of an
alien culture to get to Tom and Harry. Yes, they were tried and convicted
according to the local laws as far as she knew. But she must also have
known the trial wasn't fair by Federation standards, and when the
Akritirian government turned from merely uncooperative to antagonistic, she
decided to look for the truth herself. If the purpose of the Prime
Directive is to protect the current balance of power, then technically she
could look all she wanted. She was walking the line when she captured and
questioned the people responsible for the bombing, and the Prime Directive
definitely became an issue when she threatened to turn them over to the
Akritirian government. We never got to see how she operated in the Alpha
Quadrant, but it seemed in this episode that she's learning to adapt her
approach. Maybe she's realizing that Chakotay did have a valid point when
he suggested that going strictly by the Starfleet book wasn't going to work
all the time out where no one had ever heard of the Federation's brand of
moral conduct. If that is indeed the case, it would have been nice to hear
her acknowledge that at some point--but without the usual Trek
pontificating. She could have tried the diplomatic approach with the
bombers but in this case I'm glad she didn't. She would never have gotten
the information she needed to find Tom and Harry and the two young people
probably wouldn't have cared even if they did understand.
	So, we shared in Tom's and Harry's growing friendship, we played hardball
with the Captain, we got to fire a few guns, and J/C'ers got a few moments
of physical proximity. Pretty good deal.

--Meredith Antonelli


*KATEWATCH*

CREATION
4 AUGUST 1996, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA

	Having seen Kate earlier this year in Denver, I knew she would be
magnificent at this convention, and I was not disappointed. She came on
stage in a small black sleeveless dress, to a rousing round of applause,
and proceeded to tell everyone how happy she was to be "back home" in the
Midwest. Kate briefly attended the University of Minneapolis, and it was
there that she picked up two bad habits: men and cigarettes. Both have
caused her much trouble ever since!
	Kate loves playing Captain Janeway. She said that she fell in love with
Janeway in her bedroom. Then there was an uncomfortable pause and she said,
"Did I just say that? I thought so...ah well, wouldn't be the first time."
Lots of laughs at this.  Kate said she fell in love when she read her on
the page.  She feels that Janeway is a role model, and at no time was this
made more evident to her than when she was invited to the White House. Mrs.
Clinton told Kate that Voyager is the only show that she and Chelsea watch
together, and that they both feel that Janeway is a wonderful role model.
	Kate briefly repeated the story of her auditions for the role of Janeway.
She said that during her final audition at network, she had to do the
"Somewhere along this journey..." soliloquy from the end of "The
Caretaker." She knew she was Janeway; the other women auditioning were not.
She was completely present and played the part from beginning to end. As
she delivered her final lines to the panel, she stepped right in front of
Rick Berman, leaned in close, delivered the final phrase, and winked. Then
she walked out. Two days later (after Yom Kippur), she got the phone call
to welcome her aboard! This is a great story, and one that the crowd seems
to enjoy every time she recalls it.
	Kate loves working with her co-stars, each and every one. Ethan Phillips
was referred to as "my sweet little Neelix." While shooting one scene with
him, Phillips stopped just before the camera rolled and just stared at her
with a faraway look in his eyes. She asked him what was the matter, and he
said, "I just love my captain!" She admires Jennifer Lien and Roxann
Biggs-Dawson as well, and told us that Roxann may direct an episode this
year. Kate loves Picardo's portrayal of the Doctor and told us that he will
be emancipated from sick bay this season. When asked if Beltran was good
looking in person, she responded that he's quite handsome. "Robert Beltran
is a very kind, gentle, and soulful man who constantly asks me how I'm
doing, and he really means it," she added.
	She again expressed her concerns regarding a Janeway/Chakotay romance. The
audience voted on whether the characters should become lovers (maybe 1/3 of
the room raised their hands), or whether they should become such close
friends that they develop almost an unspoken bond and deep devotion to each
other, but not become lovers (at least not on screen). The remaining 2/3 of
the audience went with this scenario. I will leave interpretation of this
remark and the subsequent audience reaction to the J/C debate team.
	Kate was asked about unusual fan mail. She said she received a notice that
she had been left something in someone's will. She had no idea who it was
from or what it was. It turned out to be a clock from a little old lady who
loved Kate. She wasn't a Trek fan, just a Kate fan. She would watch
everything that Kate appeared in and would always set her grandfather clock
so that she wouldn't miss anything. This little old lady wanted Kate to
have the grandfather clock. Kate said she was so touched that she literally
sat on the floor and cried.
	We were able to present Kate with a gift from Now Voyager. Cheryl Waldie
and I got in the question line and when it was our turn, Kate immediately
recognized our T-shirts! As we approached the edge of the stage to give her
the present, she spoke to the audience, "Have you people seen these
T-shirts?" Kate then proceeded to read my shirt (much to my delight) to the
entire crowd. The "Janeway and Chakotay in '96--No Platform, Just a Bridge"
line went over very well. I truly felt on display, and will be forever
thankful to Kate for this special thrill as hundreds of people craned their
necks to see my shirt. Kate then shook our hands and we stumbled back to
our seats in a joyful stupor.
	Two young girls approached Kate dressed up in holonovel costume. Kate
loved the costumes and told us that the holonovel for Captain Janeway has
been given the boot. She also said that Voyager will bid adieu to the Kazon
this season, and new aliens will be revealed in an episode called "The
Swarm." Kate's favorite villains are the Vidiians.
	Kate commented again on the continued good-natured joshing going on with
Tim Russ. He apparently shoots spitballs at her. "Not the regular old
spitballs, mind you. I mean, I have two boys. I know what spitballs are!"
Tim's spitballs pack quite a wallop and his aim is impeccable--right on her
forehead during her closeups. "He is a dead man," she told us. She ordered
someone to remove all his clothes from his trailer, except for one shoe and
one sock. Tim was not at all bothered by this and had some Polaroids taken
so that Kate could see the, ahem, fruits of her labor. The next day when
she walked into her trailer, there were Polaroids plastered everywhere of
Tim in the buff. Each photo had a comment written under it as well, like,
"You'll be seeing lots of this next season" on a butt shot.
	Side note regarding Tim Russ: He appeared at this con the day prior to
Kate. He admitted to shooting spitballs at her, but was quite anxious to
tell us that she likes to make goofy faces while he's doing his closeups.
It would seem that there's a fair amount of tomfoolery on the set as well.
Tim said that it is a bad idea to get more than a few cast members in the
turbolift at once. They like to goose each other in there! I know I will
never again be able to objectively watch a scene in which 4 or 5
crewmembers emerge from a turbolift all serious and ready for action. Tim
scored big points with this fan for his answer to the question: What was
the best thing about shooting "Flashback," the special 30th anniversary
episode featuring Tuvok and Janeway? He said the thing he liked best was
that he got to be in every scene with Kate. (He scored more points later
when he recognized our Now Voyager T-shirts while we waited in his
autograph line. He took one look at us and said, "Hi! Kate will be here
tomorrow!")
	Kate fielded an early question from a young boy who told her that Voyager
is the best Trek yet and that she is the best captain yet. When the
applause died down, he added that "Picard would suck in a dress." Then he
asked for a kiss on the cheek. Kate jumped down off the stage to oblige,
and at this point a man appeared on stage. When Kate returned to her spot,
he was standing waiting to hand her the microphone. She took it from him
and remarked, "Thank you, sir. My, aren't you a handsome gentleman!" He
sheepishly tried to slip back behind the curtain, only to have Kate bring
him out with the introduction of "Rick Kolbe, the Voyager director."
	Rick came out on stage periodically to answer questions-- typically of a
technical nature. For instance, someone commented that if there are
supposedly 100 crewmembers on board Voyager, how come in "Basics Part I"
there are only 29 people on the planet? Rick said that if it looked that
way, he must have done something wrong, but that a director must pick and
choose his moments. He did say that sometimes things don't work out as
planned and cuts must be made, and they end up with a small number of
extras changing their wigs every 10 minutes. Another question that Rick
fielded was: "Originally Voyager was only supposed to be gone for a few
weeks, and now they're gone for much longer. Who is handling Intelligence
on board?" Rick deadpanned, "I didn't know there was any intelligence on
Voyager." Kate then stepped back and pretended to shoot him as the crowd
laughed and booed and Rick threw his hands up to cover his face as if he
were being bombarded with flying objects. He was quite candid and displayed
a great sense of humor as well. Regrettably, he said he won't be directing
any more than one Voyager episode a season and no DS9. He's afraid of
growing stagnant. He said he will be going to Canada to direct Millenium,
the new Chris Carter show.
	Kate had spent the morning prior to her appearance at a children's
hospital visiting children with leukemia. She said that speaking to the
kids made her realize that in her position, she has the ability to impact
people in a tremendously positive way. People simply want to meet and be
with her, and she is genuinely touched by this. It is an extremely
fortunate position to be in. She says that she is inspired by the love from
people and only wishes to return those feelings to us. Kate most definitely
returned those good vibes to all the people in Minneapolis that day. Her
stay was short, but she made quite an impression. She is witty, gracious,
and very funny. At events like these, questions often get repeated. The
manner in which Kate handles these repeats is something else that sets her
apart. There are no "stock" answers from her. Somehow she is able to
present a subtle new twist, observation, or anecdote to what would
otherwise be a mere repetition of a previous answer. It is this kind of
respect and attention that further endears her to me, and to all of us!

--Beth Schuman

CREATION
17-18 AUGUST 1996, NOVI, MICHIGAN

	Two weeks after Kate's wonderful Minneapolis appearance, she attended the
two-day Creation con in Novi, Michigan. Lucky me, I got to see her both
times! To say that she was fantastic is an understatement. Now Voyager was
well represented and we managed to recruit quite a few new members as well!

	Kate shared the stage with Robert Picardo for a good portion of her time
both days. Bob introduced Kate to the crowd. He spoke very highly of her,
saying how she is not only the captain of the ship, but the captain of the
show as well. He told us that everyone on the set has a lot of respect for
Kate, and he feels very privileged to work with such a professional and
talented actress.
	Among the highlights: During the original first take of the "Resolutions"
angry warrior scene, Kate cried profusely because Chakotay's speech to
Janeway was so beautiful. The director had her tone it down for the final
take. Kate feels that the commitment Chakotay declared for Janeway is such
a beautiful sentiment that it would make anyone cry. She called her co-star
"my divine Robert Beltran" and said that one night after shooting very
late, she found him standing outside staring out at the stars. He told her
he was thinking of trying prayer on a mystic level. At this, she looked at
him dreamily and said, "Will you marry me?" With respect to Janeway's
relationship with Chakotay, she said that she is opposed to them ever
making love (at least in front of the camera). She generalized that women
don't have the need for sex like men do; men have a drive that is much more
powerful and present in their lives. Basically I got the impression that
Kate thinks that a woman captain should not be fooling around--period. She
feels that the captain's role is to lead the crew and not jeopardize their
safety in any way. It would be rather selfish for her to be worried about
her personal needs when she should be worried about her crew. With regard
to J/C, essentially she seems to feel that imagination is enough to keep
their relationship alive. She said, "It's fun to keep your sexual
encounters in your imagination!" (Alrighty, how about some dream
sequences?)
	In "Basics I," Kate felt that an additional scene should have been
inserted at the point where Cullah had just taken over the ship and is
seated in Janeway's chair. She felt she should have walked up to him and,
using her best captain's voice, tell him that he will regret what he has
done. Kate didn't necessarily feel that Janeway gave up too easily, rather
that the audience didn't get a scene that showed her confronting Cullah
again.
	Kate is partial to stage-trained actors, those who know their craft. She
loved working with Joel Grey in "Resistance" so much that she threw two
dinner parties for him. Even though they worked together in Remo Williams,
they never really got to know each other until the Voyager shoot. Working
with someone of such high caliber, she said that it becomes easier to take
risks that one wouldn't normally take. Two partners with such a connection
can really take chances in scenes together.
	A young man told Kate that a friend of his saw her naked in a movie. Kate
took this with great humor and said, "I have never been naked!" Another fan
asked her about the movie in which she portrayed an orphan who went crazy.
After some bantering, we finally realized he was referring to Alien Lover.
We all started yelling out the name of the movie, and Kate laughed and
covered her face as if to say, "I can't believe you guys found that movie!"
She did say that even back then she was destined for science fiction.
	Kate related a story dating back to when her children were very young. Her
mother told her not to discipline them in a shrill voice. She said, "You're
a trained actress, use your voice." Then Kate demonstratedhow she takes
her voice low and admitted that the proper inflection can make her quite
intimidating. There were two girls sitting next to us when Kate did this
demonstration, and they both said that she scared them. She expressed
concern over her two sons. They're happy when she's happy, but she feels
she must reassure them that in the process of all this celebrity, they
aren't going to lose their mother. It was touching to hear her reflect on
this dilemma. She somehow manages to balance her needs with the needs of
her boys in a manner that is acceptable to them. She spends all the time
she possibly can with her sons, who are not Star Trek fans.
	The autograph sessions both days were highly successful. We were told that
she was contracted for one hour only. I found out later that she stayed on
Saturday at least twice that long, until everyone who wanted an autograph
got one. Just prior to the session on Sunday, she told us that she would
stay until everyone got an autograph because "Isn't that what most of you
came here for?" During the sessions themselves Kate moved at a breakneck
speed, but still took time to comment to people, answer questions, etc.
	On a personal note, Saturday when it was my turn in the autograph line,
Kate's pen slightly malfunctioned and burped a blob of silver ink onto the
photo she was signing for me. Kate was quite bothered by this. As she
changed pens and started again on my photo, she commented to a convention
representative that she needed some better pens because she was ruining the
photos! It's nice to know that she pays attention and cares about such
things. Now I can say that I have a Kate Mulgrew autograph that she herself
fretted over! Speaking as someone who has never stood in line for a
celebrity autograph before, I can honestly say that I was very impressed
with how she handled the endless questions, comments, and requests for
photos. The Novi con was a huge success--great guests, great merchandise in
the dealer's room, and great friends (NowVoys) to share it all with!

--Beth Schuman

	These are comments from Kate Mulgrew from the Creation convention in
Detroit the weekend of Aug. 17-18. The report generally goes in the order
the questions were received from the fans. I missed part of Saturday, but
included quotes from Robert Picardo when he was onstage with Kate.
	Saturday:
	Kate wore a long white skirt, white top, and tan jacket. The top was cut
at the midriff and sometimes her belly was exposed [yes, we're trying to
find out if anyone got pictures]. A 10-year-old asked Kate about her hair.
Kate said that weirdly, her hair must convince people of her competence. "I
think the best way to approach that is not to be worried about my damned
hair," she said. The child also asked her whether she'd made any bloopers.
"That's not often, sweetie. I study often when I go home. I have a little
bit of a fixation about this."
	Kate was asked whether she'd be in any movies soon. "That's far in the
future," she said. "I really can't conceive of that...I have a little dream
for myself. I'd like to finish this series as beautifully as possible. And
then I'd like to go back to New York and get back on the stage where I used
to be." A kid, age 5, asked Kate: "What do you like best about being
Captain Janeway?" Kate smiled and said: "Talking to people like you.
Because when you see Captain Janeway on TV, you think, 'I'd like to be
Captain Janeway.' (The child nodded.) Well, that makes me feel pretty good.
I think it's been a long time in Star Trek history when a little girl could
approach the podium with this kind of aspirations."
	On coming to Detroit for this convention: "The doctor told me it would be
good for me. I'm glad I came." A little girl asked, "How do you feel about
the costume?" Kate replied, "I love my spacesuit." She said she likes the
utility of it. "I came from an Irish Catholic family...your mother and
father don't tell you that you're pretty. They tell you to get a job, they
tell you to develop character, they tell you to have passion...I love this
costume. I love that you can just zip into it. This spacesuit suits me
fine."
	She was asked about the episode "Tuvix." Was she happy about the way it
ended? "Well, it was a late Friday night. I'd say I was thrilled," she
joked. The audience laughed. Seriously, she added, "It was a tough call. I
was glad that the writers made me do this (turn Tuvix back into Neelix and
Tuvok). (Janeway) would have to do that. This is her beloved crew. I think
she would have to do that."
	One woman said to Kate: "I don't mean to age you, but I used to watch you
on 'Ryan's Hope' when this child"--she pointed to her teen-age son--"was
till a baby I was rocking." "You haven't aged me," Kate said. "I just feel
clinically depressed." The audience laughed. "That's a very large person
behind you," Kate said of the woman's son. The woman's son then stepped up
to the microphone and asked about Q. "He seemed to have some attraction to
Janeway." Kate said, "He's coming back. Very soon." (The audience
applauded.) "I think that's two episodes down the road," she continued.
"I'm going to put this bug in your ear. They'd kill me if they heard me say
it though...I think Q has an urge to procreate. And he has targeted young
and beautiful Captain Janeway. I think he likes Janeway for this purpose. I
think that we will see him...if not frequently, regularly."
	A child asked, "Are you a Trekkie?" Kate smiled and said, "Are you? It's
Trekk-ER, you know. It's a fascinating world. My children are not Trekkers
and I don't push it...It's like a love of piano or a love to cook. Many of
you like science, don't you?" The audience applauded. Another child asked
whether the Enterprise, in the next movie First Contact, is going to have
an Emergency Medical Hologram on it. Kate brought out Robert Picardo to
answer this question. He had already spoken that day and was backstage.
Picardo said, "OK, let's be logical. Voyager had an emergency medical
hologram, and it's state-of-the-art technology. Why wouldn't the crew. I'm
not recognized (in public)." Kate was asked whether there were aspects of
being a Trek star that overwhelmed her. "This is one of them," she said,
apparently referring to the convention. "The workload is another. How to
raise my kids is another. How to get any sleep is another." (laughter)
"(But) when you feel this happy and you feel this privileged...."
	Picardo spoke of his first day on the set. "I walked onstage and there was
a crowd this size, maybe a little larger," he joked. "And I looked at them
and they all stood up and clapped. And I looked at them like this--" (here
he let his mouth hang open) "--and I thought they had all gotten together
and said, 'Hey, let's make an ass out of him.'" (laughter) "...I guess it's
a lot like being a music star. Now, if people don't stand up, it's like,
'What's the matter? Aren't the lights on?'" (roars of laughter) Picardo
added that meeting the fans is "very gratifying." Someone asked about the
rumor that Seska gets killed next season. Kate said, "Martha Hackett is a
brilliant actress playing Seska. It would be a great sorrow if we lose
Seska. But I think the Kazon weren't as effective a species as we had
hoped." Kate said she thinks the Kazon will not be around much longer. "I
wish there was a way to recover Seska. I'm sorry."
	A boy, age 12, said, "I think it's about itme they put a woman in the
captain's chair....It's a change." Kate said affectionately, "Well, aren't
you wonderful." (applause) "Am I running it to your satisfaction?" The boy
said, "I think you're running it better." Kate looked flattered and there
was more applause. Kate continued, "You are an important audience to me.
That's the age where boys go through puberty. They begin to separate
themselves from their mother and (identify) with the independence of their
father. I think that's why boys generally like to see men steering things."
Inexplicably, the boy mentioned that his parents were having problems. Kate
said she was sorry to hear that. The boy and Kate chatted a little more,
and before the boy stepped down, Kate said, "And don't worry about your
parents. Remember, you just have to live your own life. I want to wish you
the best of luck, young man."
	Kate was asked about the Borg. "I think the Borg probably will be
encountered this season," she said. She was asked about remembering her
lines. "Retention is not a big problem," she said. "There aren't any
bloopers if you do your homework...Robert's much the same way," she said,
gesturing to Picardo, who was still onstage. Picardo said, "You don't mean
water retention..." The audience and Kate laughed. He continued, "My entire
experience thus far, I've seen her bobble a word twice. The actor we tease
about (this) is Robert Beltran." Kate: "Robert has an interesting
reaction...It begins with an 'F' and it goes on for a long, long time."
(laughter) In the meantime, Picardo was mimicking Beltran in a moment like
this, kicking the ground, cursing, making throwing motions at the ground.
	Sunday:
	Kate wore a white pantsuit with a tan jacket, and the ever-present pearls.
She looked incredibly classy and her hair was to die for. She started by
saying that Robert Picardo had left her a voice mail at the hotel that he
was going to attend Mass that morning. "There are a lot of Catholics in
this cast," she said. Of Picardo, she continued, "We had a lovely meal last
night and Mr. Picardo treated me. I took my bath, I fluffed up my pillow, I
got my script...and I started to hear the noise coming from both the left
room and the right room. "In Room Number One we had the world's most
disgusting high school reunion. They were throwing down drinks and throwing
up and screaming and pounding. But Room Number Two had the more disturbing
sound," Kate said--a baby crying. "And a mother who wants to die," she
added. (Kate remarked that this was the one chance she'd had all month to
get any sleep. She called the room with the high school reunion, and they
said they'd be quieter, but the noise rose again very quickly.
	Changing the subject, she commented on Tim Russ: "Something happens to men
after, say, midnight. It's called regressive beahvior. Now, I'm accustomed
to it, because there were eight children in my family and I have a lot of
brothers." On the set, she continued, "Usually they have each other to
bounce off of. But when they're alone with me..." Kate shook her head. She
spoke of filming "Flashback" with Tim Russ. Nobody else was there. "So it's
about one or two in the morning, and I can tell it's beginning to happen to
him. Nobody to share the bathroom humor with. The sex jokes are going right
over my head. So what does any grown man do to get the woman's attention?
The old fashioned way." Russ threw a spitball at her in the middle of a
scene. "Right on my forehead," she said. "...This is a ball created from
all the dirt and bacteria on the floor." Kate told him, "You do that one
more time, and you are dead." Russ replied, "Oh, I'm shakin' in my boots,
Captain. Oh my God."
	In the middle of the next scene, he threw a spitball at her again. "This
is the thing I love about men," Kate said. "They think, 'She's going to
forget about it. She's a woman.'" Kate smiled evilly, and the audience
laughed. After the scene was filmed, Kate told Russ, "So long. Good luck."
And he left. Then Kate called the wardrobe master over to her. "I said, 'To
whom do you own the greatest allegiance?" The man responded, "Now, now,
Kate..." "Who is the captain of this ship?" Kate replied. The man admitted
she was. So Kate told him to take everything from Russ's trailer, and just
leave a sock. The man did. The next day, Kate was walking to work. It was
very quiet on the lot. She arrived at her trailer and found much of her
stuff gone. "Oh my God," she thought. And plastered all over her trailer
walls were pictures of "a part of Mr. Russ's anatomy," she said, that
doesn't look good even under the best of circumstances. Each picture
carried a message, such as, "You will kiss this for the next five years."
Kate knew the wardrobe master had done this. "That is what we call a split
allegiance," she said. Kate saw Tim at work that day. He said, "Hey, hey,
Captain, howare you doing?" Kate cooly replied, "I'm fine, sweetheart. How
are you?" Tim said suspiciously, "I'm fine...." and Kate walked away. But
she said at the con that Russ is a dead man. "And it never ends," she
added. Laughing, she added, "Tim and I, unfortunately, are a lot alike."
Picardo, who was onstage, added, "I'm happy to add that there are pictures
of Tim Russ's naked butt on the dealer table." The audience roared.
	Kate added that the cast was a "great bunch." She said Picardo is
"extraordinary." "Every day is a challenge," she said. "Many days are very
frustrating to me...Sometimes it's a 15, 16, occasionally an 18-hour day.
And one continually feels the pressure of it. I always feel that something
suffers in the final hour," she added. Kate said she always wants another
take of the final scene because she believes there are always improvements
to be made. "I don't know how many of you have found your bliss in life;
but you're looking at a woman who has found hers. I hope I can give you a
Janeway you really like."
	A questioner asked where in Ireland her family is from. Kate said County
Mayo. Regarding changes in this year's Voyager, Kate said, "I'm gonna be
using that phaser a lot this year. I think...that we don't show enough
inherent joy and curiosity and action being lost in this part of the
galaxy. There will be aliens introduced of diabolical proportions."
	Kate also said she thinks B'Elanna Torres will be involved with Tom Paris
this year. But she said a romance is not, and should not, be in the works
for Janeway. "Picard and Kirk can go off to other planets and have
fun...(But) if I do that, I would be reduced as Janeway. And it would
trivialize (Janeway's sexuality). This is Kate Mulgrew speaking," she
added.
	Someone asked her about the possibility of romance between Janeway and
Chakotay. "If I had to really throw the gauntlet down, I would say...for my
taste, I would prefer Janeway to develop a relationship with Chakotay that
was so splendid and so fine and so true that it didn't need sex to convince
you it was this (way)."
	Someone asked her about being a single mother and doing this job. "It's
very hard," she said. "I won't delude you. There are irreconcilable
differences here. I love and adore my sons. And I would do anything for
them, including throwing this job away if I thought it was harming them in
any way. But I need the work to make me happy.... They've known their
mother to be an actress but...they just have never known me to be a
celebrity. I think what boggles them is the celebrity status that makes
them feel they could be losing thier mother to this actress. At home,
Voyager is understated. They don't watch it; I don't push it."
	Kate said her own mother used to tell her that life is hard. "What I say
to myself and to (my sons) is that yes, (life) is hard. But life is also
glorious, boys. You've got a mother who goes to work on wings. "If you just
can get from me this legacy of passion, I haven't done poorly." Kate said
she can never be what her boys want--a full-time mother. "So we stagger
through," she said. "They are fabulous boys... We are in the vanguard,
women like me. You don't really believe that you are. I don't really
believe that I work 16-hour days, and raise (children) and have a life"
such as hobbies and friends, she said.
	Somebody asked her about what doing voice-overs for "Gargoyles" is like.
"I've always used my voice," she said--ever since she was a young girl.
"It's wonderful. You're in a sound booth, no camera." Kate added her boys
like "Gargoyles." Someone asked her about seeing herself on action figures,
and whether that raises identity issues. "Yes it does!" she said, laughing.
"I don't take it all to terribly seriously (though). I'm driving home from
work one night, and I'm way on the other side of town...and there's a guy
next to me in a beautiful Mercedes. And I notice something swinging on his
rearview mirror. It's Captain Janeway. And the guy is good looking, he's
(about) 45 years old, successful...so I thought I would just give him a
treat. I lightly honked the horn and said, 'Hey! That action figure!' "He
said, 'Yeah, lady? You got a problem with that?' "I said, 'That action
figure!' (pointing to herself). "He said, 'I am so sick of all the lunatics
in this town.'" The man took off. Kate laughed as she told the story.
	A questioner asked how Kate and Janeway compare as people. Kate said, "Her
anger is more contained than mine. I've always been slightly terrifying. I
can terrify my sons." Kate said when she was a young mother, she used to
frantically try to stop her boys from misbehaving by saying, "Boys! Boys! I
want you to behave." Her mother told her, "Why are you doing this? Just
stand up. You're a trained actress." So Kate learned how to stand tall and
say in a threatening way, "Knock, it, OFF." "It works," she said.
	Next, a little kid asked, "What is it like being a captain?" Kate replied,
"It's wonderful. It's my ship! ...It's a privilege. She is the first female
captain of a starship. And I'd better honor that."
	Someone asked about the holonovel being discontinued. The thinking, Kate
said, is, "Why is Janeway making love to a fantasy? They want to get her
out of her head." She was asked again about a romance with Chakotay. "We
are stuck together on the same ship," she said. "It's too difficult. What
are we going to do, go into my ready room when we want to have a domestic
quarrel?" She added Janeway would never jeopardize her crew just to gratify
herself. She also thinks Janeway would not crave a love affair as much as a
man would. "I think one of the (beautiful) differences between the genders
is that men have this desire that we don't. We (women) need to have our
hearts satisfied. We need to have our mother (needs) satisfied. "I'm sure
some of you just said, 'Who is she kidding?'" Kate joked.
	Someone questioned Kate about "Basics I," saying Janeway gave up the ship
too easily. Kate laughed and so did the audience. "I agree with you," she
said. Kate went to the directors and said, "Do you think she's going to
walk off the bridge that easily? Just give me one minute with Cullah and
with Seska." Kate said she would have done the episode this way: Just as
Cullah and Seska sat down in the command seats on the bridge, "I would go
back and say, 'You will pay for this.' And I would make him look at me."
	After another question, Kate said her favorite film actor of all time is
Marlon Brando. She said she also admires Meryl Streep. "I like
theater-trained actors, who can (switch) from the theater, to film, to
television, to radio, to audio books with ease," she said. "Marilyn
Monroe--she was a great star. I would much rather be an actor."
	Remarking on the episode "Resolutions," Kate said, "This is what I mean
about deepening it (the relationship between Janeway and Chakotay). It's
not, in fact, far from what I feel from Robert Beltran in real life. He's
gentle, quiet; his depth thrills me."
	Someone remarked about Kate's autograph-signing. On Saturday, she was
contracted to sign for one hour only, but she went well over that time to
make sure everyone who wanted an autograph got one. "You've come all this
way," Kate said. "Youv'e made all this effort. I'm going to sign the
autographs." She got applause. A man asked her who she would prefer in a
romance: Paris, Chakotay, Q or Mr. Columbo? Kate laughed. She said, "I'm
going to play devil's advocate and say Q. Why not?"
	She was asked whether she feels Janeway's hands-on-hips position is
feminine. She thought a moment. "Yeah," she said. "When  I  see  a  man
standing  like  that, I get a little concerned about
 why he's a Star Fleet officer." Kate was told about Picardo's remarks that
the uniforms have no pockets; hence the actors don't know what to do with
their hands. She said, "A Star Fleet officer of the 24th century would not
know what a pocket is. They would have the poise to stand (easily)."

--Jennifer Martin


STAR TREK 30: ONE WEEKEND ON EARTH
7-8 SEPTEMBER 1996, HUNTSVILLE, ALABAMA

"Q'S CRUSH," WITH KATE MULGREW AND JOHN DE LANCIE
	The con organizers had a great music video to introduce the Mulgrew-de
Lancie segment, set to the tune of "The Sloop John B." "I want to go
hooooome. I want to go hoooooome. This is the worst trip I've ever been
on." (Janeway with head in hands.) A later music video of Q was done to the
tune of "B-b-bad to the Bone."
	John introduced Kate as Katharine Hepburn, to great amusement. Kate was in
a gray suit, white blouse, and had her hair in a, um, I think it's called a
French twist, a variation on the bun. Looked really good, and might be a
possibility for Janeway. Kate said something about Janeway letting her hair
down this season. John joked that a line was cut from his bedroom scene
with Janeway in "Death Wish": "I think you should do exactly what I say,
and you should do something about that hair."
	Most comments about the upcoming Q episode were joking. The fans hooted in
delight at the idea of the episode, and the ending wasn't revealed. John
was waving the script around on stage. Kate quipped that Q was finally
getting his way--or maybe it was John finally getting his way--as the
script involved Q's attempt to procreate with Janeway. "John's been trying
to procreate with me for years," she joked. She said she looked forward to
the episode "with great anticipation and trepidation." In discussing how
they first met, John thought it was at a time when his wife was pregnant.
"She's always pregnant," Kate rejoined, then made a comment that "now
apparently I'm going to get pregnant." Apparently, though, the offspring
will not be hanging around Voyager. In response to a fan question about
Janeway having an affair, Kate discounted the idea, asking if they could
imagine a very pregnant Janeway (arms extended for emphasis) commanding the
ship.
	During the first two seasons, Kate said she hardly had a chance to catch
her  breath.     The  enormity  of  the  Star  Trek  phenomenon  is finally
dawning on her. John said he told her when she got the job, "You have no
idea what you're getting yourself into." Kate talked about the previous day
in New York with Rosie O'Donnell, whom she described as a closet Trekker,
and sharing a drink with Whoopi at Planet Hollywood.
	Kate quickly threw aside restrictions placed upon the actors by the con.
"They told us we couldn't take questions, but I'm going to take questions."
"You're handing her the mike?" John asked in astonishment as Kate handed it
to one soft-voiced fan.
	Another fan asked if Janeway would ever have a love life. "I've got to run
the ship," Kate responded. "I think it's a great idea," John rejoindered.
"You would," Kate retorted. While acknowledging the Janeway/Chakotay
chemistry and the speculation it has given rise to, she said, "Janeway's
first responsibility is to the crew. I've got to get those guys home! Where
is it written that a man and a woman can't have an incredibly complex
relationship without sex?"
	One fan brought up the issue of Janeway as a feminist, and how the term
sometimes has connotations of not liking men. Kate strode across the stage,
looked the fan in the eye, and intoned in a low voice, "I live to serve all
mankind." The audience cracked up.
	John said he and Leonard Nimoy had set up a company to do audiocassettes.
With Armin Shimerman and Roxann Dawson, they plan to do Journey to the
Center of the Earth.
	He also told a story about his eldest son's potty training. One day, after
the boy finished a successful trip to the bathroom, he pulled on his
Spiderman underwear. Then he pulled on Batman underwear over that. Then a
pair of Superman underwear. Why was he doing that? "Because it gives me
power," the boy replied.
	Kate was very gracious with the children who asked questions. She was a
bit disconcerted, though, by rumors that she was leaving the show or that
someone else was leaving. "Where did you hear such appalling rumors?" She
seemed interested in one person's invitation for a chat session on the
Internet to clear up rumors.
	Kate told one child that she had wanted to be an actress since she was 12
years old. She spoke of growing up in an Irish-Catholic family in Dubuque,
Iowa, with a mother who was a painter and a father who was a businessman.
She spoke of going to parochial school, and the serene, detached quality of
the nuns who presided over it. When she did a reading in school, and looked
out to see all those nuns in tears as a result. "That was it." She decided
she would be an actress.
	One fan didn't understand what her holonovel character had to do with
Janeway. "Neither did anyone else. That's why you won't be seeing her
anymore," Kate said.
	Kate received several presents, including a lilac scarf she immediately
put around her neck and a T-shirt nightgown that said "Morning coffee--the
most important meal of the day" [from Now Voyager member Nancy Molik!].
"Have you received any presents, John?" she asked archly. One fan took pity
and gave John a Pop Tart in a package.
	Kate said Voyager would meet the Borg this season. As for the "most fun
episode," she enjoyed doing "Death Wish" with John, "Resistance" with Joel
Grey, and "Resolutions"--"Who wouldn't mind being stuck on a planet with
Robert Beltran?"
	"She's signing autographs?" John noted as he finished answering a
question. (Kate was at the side of the stage.) "We've got to get her off
the stage!"

"WRITING STAR TREK" WITH JERI TAYLOR AND JOHN ORDOVER
	Jeri Taylor says, "This season I'm putting a moratorium on moral dilemmas
for Janeway." Briefing room sessions made her look indecisive. "I want to
make her more like Kirk," decisive, someone who knows her own mind. "If I
never see another Prime Directive story..."
	Also, Jeri said that for this season, "we don't plan a lot of shows with
children. We've done a lot of shows with children." The idea being that
children have received a lot of air time, even if they weren’t the main
focus. They've not gotten deeply enough into the human condition, into the
characters. We don't know who the Odd Couple is, for example. Jeri said she
"looks to engage the intellect, to touch the heart. If you feel something,
then I feel I’ve accomplished my goal." She said that script submission
work best "if you can stretch your minds to find the unexpected," where the
road suddenly drops off and the reader has to catch a limb.
	With regard to correct technobabble, she said that's not a necessary
requirement of scripts. If the show’s writers were graded on it, they'd
flunk. "Sometimes our scripts are peppered with, `I'll tech the tech, and
you tech the tech, and then we'll tech the tech.'" They have advisers to
help.
	With regard to Janeway's backstory in Mosaic, John said normally the books
must follow TV, which is considered canon. He asked Jeri if Mosaic should
be considered canon. "I think so," she said.  The holodoc's name is NOT Dr.
Zimmerman. One fan said that's what everyone says it is. "I decide that,"
Jeri said.
	If Voyager seems dark, she said that's because they're often on alert,
where they go to emergency lighting, and the director of photography likes
to paint visual pictures with moody lighting. She doesn't see Voyager
necessarily ending just because the ship makes it home. "They could have
other missions, they could return to the Delta Quadrant."  One fan
commented that Voyager was too pretty-looking, considering all it had gone
through. The question took her aback for a moment, but Jeri responded that
it was supposed to be a noble vehicle. "I don't think people would tune in
each week to see a wreck in space." She also attributed the ship’s good
looks to use of the replicators to create parts.
	On the Kazon, Jeri said she fought a battle all last season, because the
fact that Voyager kept running into the Kazon made it seem as if the ship
was standing still. No more Kazons.
	"We're going to make B'Elanna more Klingon-like. She won't get soft," Jeri
assured one fan.
	She predicted November would be a great month (it's sweeps month). There's
the two-parter where the crew is in 1996 Los Angeles, an episode where Kes
is possessed by the spirit of a 200-year-old warrior, and lastly the Q
episode.
	Voyager will keep the same uniforms, in spite of First Contact. "They
don't have access to the Starfleet quartermaster."
	New holodeck set! Jeri said the crew will have a resort as a hangout,
instead of Sandrine's. (Hmm, I wonder, doesn't a resort seem like a natural
for romantic settings?)
	In a second session on Sunday morning with the writers of the novels, Jeri
was quite relaxed, wearing an IU shirt and jeans. She admitted using her
Hoosier background for Mosaic. She said it's difficult to switch back and
forth between scripts and novels, because one is very compressed and the
actors take care of the emotions. The other is very detailed and the
thoughts of the characters must be portrayed. John Ordover complimented
Jeri for her ability to do interior monologues with characters. Jeri did
enjoy doing the novels. No notes from the network, studio or colleagues.
"You're more solitary and one with the material."
	Jeri said she has to be the bad guy on maintaining fiscal responsibility
for Voyager. For example, if they go to a planet and meet aliens, each
alien has to have one hair and one makeup person. So 20 aliens equals 20
hair people plus 20 makeup. Add stunt doubles, and double the hair and
makeup people.

FROM THE OTHER SESSIONS
	Fan joke: "How does Neelix cook enchiladas? With photon tortillas."
	Robbie McNeill described Kate as "just one of the boys" on the bridge.
Ethan Phillips added that he had five sisters, so had no problem taking
orders from a woman. He also said Kate never flubs a line, while Robert
Beltran is just the opposite.
	Remember the scene in "Tattoo," where Chakotay doffs his clothes? McNeill
revealed that there was no "line" in the shot where the powers that be felt
there should be one. "That was a special effects butt crack," McNeill said.
"They spent thousands of dollars to digitalize a butt crack."
	How has ST changed their lives? "I've got a little plastic toy now,"
McNeill said. "Do you play with yourself now?" Phillips asked. McNeill
looked at him. Phillips looked at McNeill. The crowd roared. "I bought 400
Neelix dolls and roll around the bed on them," Phillips explained. As for
working on the bridge, McNeill said he has his own system for which
"blinkies" to push to be consistent, developed during times when he had few
lines. "You really do spend a lot of time alone, don't you?" commented
Armin Shimerman.
	This season Paris will let go of some of his rebelliousness and guilt.
There will be more emphasis on a heroic side and showing him as
intelligent. "B'Elanna and Tom will become friendlier and friendlier."
What will happen when Tuvok experiences Pon Farr? "I'm going to be on a
shuttle," McNeill said. Phillips predicted that this season Voyager will
face a terrible new villain. "They will come in this year and tear down
everything the Federation has built up in three days. They're called the
Republicans."
	Robert Picardo said he got the job on Voyager because they had lots of
Patrick Stewart dolls left over, and they just painted the hair. He told
DeForest Kelley that he had this dream of the doctor doing a scene with
Harry where someone dies, and the doctor turns to Harry and says, "He's
dead, Kim." He also mentioned that one of the procedures the holodoc had
used was developed by Dr. Leonard McCoy. "And now he's going to explain it
to you." Kelley looked at him, grinned, and said, "You're full of it,
aren't you?"
	The music video introducing Kelley was "Doctor, doctor, give me the
news--I've got a bad case of loooving you," showing McCoy with a bevy of
beauties up close and personal, so Picardo sought his advice. "I notice
when you speak of such matters, a look of anxiety comes over your face,"
Kelley said. "That has to be done away with." As Picardo mentioned other
actresses he'd worked with, Kelley kept noting, "There's that expression
again," until Picardo cracked up. "You're right, I DO have sex anxiety," he
said. They discussed the possibility of McCoy coming aboard Voyager as a
holographic counselor.
	Kelley came on first during the session with the Classic Trek stars,
reading a poem he'd written, "Big Bird's Dream," about what the three main
stars were doing around the time of the first movie before they received
the call. He said 30 years ago, he was celebrating his 21st wedding
anniversary. He then introduced the star of Star Trek, a writer, director
and proud grandfather who also did some record albums, and "my best
personal friend." Shatner and Nimoy entered from opposite sides of the
stage, to great laughter. Both tried to stake their claim to Kelley's
intro, though both eventually decided not to battle for the record album
title.
	At the Roddenberry tribute, Nichelle Nichols talked about the impact Uhura
has had on the lives of real women. Whoopi Goldberg told her that at age
12, she ran to get her family when she saw Uhura on screen: "Come quick,
there's a black lady on TV and she ain't no maid!" Astronaut Mae Jemison at
age 8 saw Uhura on television and knew that what she wanted was possible.
"Gene, you were right," Nichols said. "You said if you gave it to them and
showed them the way, they would come. And they're here."

--Donna Christenberry


KATE'S CONS AND APPEARANCES

Remember: ALL DATES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE. Please contact the event
organizers before purchasing tickets to see a guest.

Creation in San Diego, California, October 27 (818) 409-0960.
TrekProductions in Chicago, Illinois, December 7 (203) 735-7633.


*THE FUNNY PAGES*


THIS IS NO TIME TO BE SHY

Season Three Touchy Feely Captain Count with totals in parentheses:

Chakotay: 2 (38)
Kes:  2 (18)
Paris: 1 (16)
Tuvok: 7 (15)
Kim:  1 (9)
Neelix:  0 (8)
Torres: 0 (7)
Doc:  0 (3)
Wildman: 2 (5)


TOP 10 THINGS JANEWAY AND CHAKOTAY DID DURING THOSE BORING NIGHTS ON NEW
EARTH--FOR ALL THOSE WHO THINK THEY DIDN'T DO IT
By Susan Johnson

10.	Played three-dimensonal chess
9.  	Designed a water wheel to power the replicator
8.	Private meditation with animal guides
7. 	Exchanged hilarious stories about admirals they both knew
6.	Speculated about who on Voyager would end up marrying whom
5.	Janeway told Chakotay all of Starfleet's strategies for infiltrating the
Maquis; Chakotay told Janeway all of the Maquis strategies for infiltrating
Starfleet
4.	Table tennis
3.	Disciplinary review meetings
2.	Listened to very old songs on Janeway's gramophone	
1.	Star Trek:Klingon CD-ROM


TOP 10 SYMBOLIC REASONS FOR HAVING A MONKEY IN "RESOLUTIONS"
By Susan Johnson

10.	Suggestive of Ebola virus--scary enough to make it plausible that the
crew would abandon J&C
9.  	Obscure reference to Curious George
8.  	Represents evolutionary idea that people developed from primates, to
counteract obvious Creationist plug of Janeway and Chakotay playing Adam
and Eve
7. 	"Then I saw her face, now I'm a believer"--The Monkees
6.  	Monkey Business
5.  	In the original version of the script, Janeway performed scientific
experiments on monkey in effort to cure disease
4.  	Cheetah for Tarzan and Janeway
3.	Drew out obvious similarities between Chakotay and Ronald Reagan
character in Bedtime for Bonzo
2.  	No symbolic purpose; plot device so Chakotay had an excuse to come out
and see Kathryn in her towel
1. 	Bad monkey.  Spank, spank, spank.


TOP 10 USES FOR NEELIX'S LEOLA ROOT CUISINE
by Carol Lynn McKinney

10. B'Elanna: Combs leola root mousse into her hair to get that "immobile
wooden wig" effect.
9. 	Doc: Uses it as a threat--"Do your physical therapy, or I'll make you
eat Neelix's leftover leola root pot pie."
8. 	Harry: Freezes leola root herb tea in an ice cube tray covered with
	plastic that has toothpicks stuck in it, because he wants 'stacks of snacks.'
7. 	Janeway: Uses leola root quiche to temporarily seal microfractures in
the ship's hull.
6. 	Kes: Chows it down by the plateful and clamors for more.
5. 	Chakotay: Leola root contains high concentrations of saltpeter-- 'nuff said.
4. 	Tuvok: Eats large quantities of leola root pickes as a penance for his
'emotional' decision to contact the Vidiians.
3. 	Paris: Eats it raw by the truckoad because Neelix swore it would help
him get lots of girls.
2. 	Suder: uses leola root shish kababs as a deadly weapon.
1.	Whole crew: FOOD FIGHT!!!


TOP 10 JANEWAY ACTION FIGURES WE'D LIKE, NOW THAT WE HAVE MAQUIS CHAKOTAY
By Susan Johnson

10.	Janeway in Pink Negligee (with hairbrush and removable robe)
9.  	Janeway in Tight Green Body Suit from "Resolutions" (with removable
ugly yellow vest, broken beakers, and tree limbs)
8.	Janeway in Hooker Dress from "Resistance" (with concealed weapon and
mother's necklace)
7.  	Janeway in Tight Stripes from "Time and Again" (with bruise on
forehead, The Bag, plus small child)
6. 	Holodeck Janeway (with teacup, cucumber sandwiches, and knife to ward
off Lord Burleigh)
5.  	Salamander Janeway (with shuttlecraft, baby salamanders, and pull-out
tongue)
4.  	Janeway in See No Evil Pyjamas from "Resolutions" (with
transparent-walled bed and picture of Back Rub Chakotay)
3.  	Janeway in Science Officer TNG Uniform (so we can put her in our TNG
action figure dioramas in a Tom & Will Riker sandwich)
2.  	Janeway in Captain Kirk's shirt from "Amok Time" (with lirpa and ahn woon)
1.  	Bathing Beauty Janeway from "Resolutions" (with tub, monkey, and
removable towel!)


YOUR TREK NEIGHBORS
by Laura A. Williams

	James T. Kirk is like your dad.
	When you were both younger and more impressionable, you thought he was
great. He was the most important man in your life -- you looked up to him
as an ideal, a goal. He was your hero.
	Now... Well, you're both older now, and at least you're wiser. He's just
fatter. You find him a little embarrassing. You're afraid he'll show up at
your beach party wearing Bermuda shorts and black socks and sandals. Or he
might ask someone to pull his finger. You never know what he might say or
do -- not because he's unpredictable, but because he's a little nuts,
because he always has to be the center of attention. But you've got to love
him, because he's your Dad. Spock is your much cooler uncle -- the one you
wish were really your father. In moments of rage and spite, you think he
might actually be your father, but everyone's been trying to keep it from
you your whole life. McCoy is your other uncle, the one who was always more
interested in your love life than your schoolwork, and Scotty is your
parents' handy friend who gets drunk at their parties.
	Jean-Luc is your second cousin, twice removed. He was always the one with
the talent -- at family gatherings, your aunt and uncle raved incessantly
about his latest essay, or the steeplechase he won last month, or the play
he just directed. Sometimes you wish he were more closely related to you.
Sometimes you wish he'd run into a gravitational anomaly and fall off the
planet.
	Will and Geordi and Bev and Deanna are the kids you went to camp with. You
only saw them for a couple of weeks every year, so you always tried to make
the best of those days -- water gun fights, canoe races, midnight missions
to the mess hall. You grew up together, and later, you all became camp
counselors together. You miss them sometimes. Because Will finally asked
Deanna out and they settled down somewhere, and that big guy everyone
always called Worf found a new set of friends, and Geordi -- well, Geordi
was always too smart for his own good. Not too lucky with women. And he
started spending way too much time with that Soong guy, with the bad hair
and the sallow complexion, the one who went by "Data." Always claimed he
was from France, but you never quite believed him.
	Now you're all grown up, got a family of your own, husband, kids. Got a
nice house out in the 'burbs. Interesting neighbors. Like the folks across
the street. There's Ben, who coaches your kid's baseball team. He seems
like a nice enough guy, a widower with a son of his own. He's always polite
to you, he's good with the kids, he even came over to mow your lawn that
weekend when your husband threw his back out bowling. But you just can't
get a handle on him. He seems to have a whole slew of people living in his
house -- couple of gorgeous foreign women named Kira and Jadzia, for one
thing, and you're not quite sure how all the relationships work out.
There's this guy Julian, though now he wants to be called "Alexander." He
doesn't look like an Alexander at all, but he's insisting on it.He and
Kira have been hanging out together a lot lately. She's very definitely
pregnant, and you wonder if maybe... But she's saying the baby isn't hers,
she's actually carrying it as a surrogate for Miles and Keiko, the couple
who run the garage down the block. You thought they already had a daughter,
a little angel with big brown eyes. You try not to pry, try not to gossip
about them behind their backs. But you wonder.
	There are a few shops in your neighborhood, but the one you really worry
about belongs to Quark. You find Quark a little, well, annoying. His
establishment isn't exactly family friendly; you're pretty sure there's
gambling going on there, maybe even some procurement of flesh. And the
owner -- quite a businessman. He's the kind of guy who would get into a
price war with the kid running the corner lemonade stand. Might put him out
of business, too -- even when the kid is his own nephew. He's corrupt,
that's certain, but you feel all right about it because that nice
policeman, Officer Odo, is keeping an eye on him.
	Then there's Kathryn. She and her family moved in next door a couple of
years ago. The two of you used to have coffee together afternoons after the
kids were off to school and she was home from work, but you've been meeting
less and less often. You feel a kind of insane competition with her; her
house is immaculate, her yard is gorgeous, her nails are always freshly
painted and her hair is always perfect. Her husband, Tuvok, is the
three-piece-suit type. Exotically foreign, very grim, drives an Acura
Legend, never smiles. Their kids are just too much. Harry plays first chair
clarinet in the youth symphony, B'elle has won the science fair two years
in a row, and Tommy is the captain of the soccer team. Might be Homecoming
King, too, if that black eye of his clears up.
	Kathryn's a scientific genius of some sort, did field research for years
before she settled in your quadrant of the neighborhood, and now she's got
a whole staff of people who work for her. There's Neelix, the funny little
French cook. Sometimes you can smell his noxious concoctions through the
open window, and you begin to understand how Kathryn stays so trim. The
housekeeper/nanny, Kes, is his wife. You thought at first she was his
daughter -- she's less than half his age, for pete's sake -- but you
recently witnessed an event on the pool deck that convinced you to the
contrary. Kathryn's doctor even makes house calls, though whether it's to
see Kathryn or Kes, you're not completely sure. It makes you a little sick.
	Then there's the groundskeeper. Big guy, graying hair, incredible smile.
He's good-looking in a silly, playful kind of way. Tuvok doesn't like him
much; the two rarely speak, and when they do, they argue. "Yes, ma'am," is
about all you ever hear come out of his mouth. Kathryn spends a lot of time
with him, and he follows her around. She was out sunbathing once... You
didn't mean to watch, but the curtains were open and there they were. It
was a hot day, mercilessly humid, and she had him out digging up weeds
while she read in the sun, her hair drawn up in a neat bun, a colorful
cloth wrapped around her waist. He was covered with dirt and sweat, the sun
beating down on his bare skin. You were watching Kathryn watch beads of
sweat trickle down his back when she got up, put her hand on his shoulder,
and handed him a glass of lemonade. He looked up at her with those adoring
brown eyes. Squinted a little until she moved to block the sun for him. He
sat there at her feet in the dirt, drinking down the lemonade and basking
in her shade, unabashedly devouring her with his eyes. She leaned down and
whispered something in his ear, her clean white hand still resting on his
brown shoulder, manicured nails pressing into his flesh. "Yes, ma'am," you
heard him say with a grin, and he followed her around the back of the
garden shed where you couldn't see them anymore. Couldn't hear them,
either, because of the birds and the bees and the lawn sprinklers.
	A while later, there were a pair of loud splashes from the pool. You
looked,but they were out of sight in the deep end. But you could see a
pile of clothes on the deck -- his work boots and trousers, her sun hat and
skirt. A trickle of sweat ran down your throat while you waited for them to
swim into sight. You licked your lips and tasted salt, thought about
sneaking into the yard and stealing the pitcher of lemonade from her deck.
You'd be able to see them, they'd never notice you behind that shrubbery,
the lemonade would taste so cool and you were so hot, and it was hours
before Tuvok would get home...
	But the dog barked and the oven timer shrieked and the kids came tearing
through the back door as he swam into sight with long, lazy strokes,
reaching for her when she bobbed after him, her long hair floating on the
surface of the water, spread out like a fan. You sighed and turned away
from the window, wiping sweat from your forehead, tucking damp hair behind
your ears, still thinking of cool water and sweet lemonade.
	The kids want snacks. You hustle them into the kitchen with one last,
longing look out the window. You dig out plates and cups, milk and cookies,
and remind the kids that Grandpa will be coming over for dinner. Their
faces fall, they whine and complain. The little one looks up at you with
fear in his eyes. "He's not gonna make me pull his finger, is he?"


VOYAGER CLASSIFIEDS
bu Ruth and Emily Gifford

HOT LOVE GOD ISO --- YOU!
	Handsome pilot blnd/blue seeks babes for double wing action! UB
uninhibited, chesty, into Aerosmith and weedy guys! Bring a friend for my
SAM pal! See ya in the funny pages...
STRONG WOMEN BOTHER YA?
	Then read the next ad! Brown-eyed brunette beauty seeks tall, strong man,
age/species unimportant for Chinese food, bat'leth practice, martial arts,
and art house movies. Must not mind occasional broken nose.
COME JOURNEY WITH ME...
	Lost spirit seeks journey companion/spirit teacher. I'm just one more soul
lost in the cosmos...won't you help me find my way back? Me: Prof. Native
American. You: Busty blonde up for camping and shamanic rituals.
SAME TIME, NEXT SEVEN YEARS?
	MBVM, prof, seeks logical lady for occasional fling. Separated from wife
of 67 years due to circumstances, not choice. Chess partners first,
then....?
IT'S LONELY AT THE TOP
	SWF brwn/blu seeks companionship for long voyage. I'm in charge on the job
and I like it that way in my private life as well. You be willing to do
things my way and not mind my schedule. Hairdressing abilities a plus. No
sissy maids please.
POWER IS THE ULTIMATE APHRODIASIC
	SC mom (can pass as Bajoran) seeks M/F/whatever to establish power base in
Delta Quadrant. I may be a political traitor, but I'm always true to my
heart. No losers.
I HAVE A SHORT LIFE--HELP ME LIVE IT TO THE FULLEST
	Bi-curious SOF blnd/blue seeks Bi/GF for experimentation. If fun-loving
elfin beauties are your idea of a good time, check me out. I'm young but
willing to let you boldly go where no one has gone before. No Talaxians
need apply.
JUST PLAIN CURIOUS
	SH(holographic)M seeks friend who will to teach a lonely Doctor a new
"bedside manner." If you've ever wondered about holo-sex but were too
afraid, give me a call. You'll find that I'm just as interested in live
person sex. I have a great sense of humor, and I make house calls. You must
have a holo-projector, but I'll supply the rest of the RX.
WHAT'S COOKING BABY??
	STM brwn/brwn/spots seeks curvy, plump brunette dish to spice up my life.
I like cooking, singing, and canapes. You like eating, being an audience,
and canapes. Long term commitment a possibility, so please no Ocampa.
LOOKING FOR A REAL LADY
	Young SAM seeks cultured intellectual lady for friendship/possible
romance. If an evening spent on the holodeck listening to Mozart, followed
by a stroll through an arboretum, and whatever else springs to mind sounds
like your idea of a good time, look me up. I enjoy spending quality time
alone with that one special someone, no double dating please.
SURROGATE MOM NEEDED
	Omnipotent entity seeks energetic starship captain for procreation. I'm a
fun-loving being who enjoys makingfun of inferior species, creating new
star systems, and long romantic walks on the beach. I need a woman who can
deal with sexist remarks and is willing to play the part of a suitable
female companion at social gatherings. Ideal woman would be in a bind only
I could help her with. Must be non-smoker.


*KATHRYN JANEWAY, FEMINIST HEROINE*

	Irresistible Kate Mulgrew quote from the Huntsville con courtesy The
Houston Chronicle, on her happiness at being an idol for girls:
	"They are so desperate for a role model of any kind who is not victimized
by her job, by a man, by society.'"


IN THE NAVY
By Anonymous (but not the one who wrote Primary Colors)

	These are comments by a retired lieutenant commander who, as she says, "is
working hard at shaking off any vestiges of a military mindset," in
response to the question of whether it would be appropriate for Janeway to
have a relationship with an officer under her command, and to other
military opinions that it would not be:

	If they were in the Alpha Quadrant, I might agree with the people who say
no. But Janeway is really between a rock and a hard place--everyone she
knows is in her direct chain of command. In the Alpha Quadrant, there would
be Significant Others, or even the Guy in Every Port, but as things stand,
her crew is all there is. That makes Chakotay, if not appropriate, the
least inappropriate.
	The way I look at it is this: Voyager is no longer just a Starfleet ship,
it's also a nomadic tribe. There are going to be family units being formed.
Janeway might try to stay above all this, a sort of Mother Superior, but I
don't think that role works outside a convent!  It may work in the eyes of
the crew, but whether or not it will work for her is another matter, and as
C.O. it's her responsibility to look after her own mental health. Some
C.O.s could probably maintain that level of distance--Picard seemed to want
to distance himself from his crew--but from what we've seen of Janeway, she
seems to be the type that wants a family. I think she owes it to her crew
to get herself one!
	There's nothing like a half-cracked captain for absolutely destroying a
crew. For evidence, I would point you not to the fictional Caine Mutiny,
though I thought that was amazingly true to life, but to the non-fiction
Arnheiter Affair; the C.O. of the USS Vance made Queeg look like a model of
stability. Arnheiter was relieved after all of 90 days in command, but in a
short three-month period, the number of lives and careers he destroyed must
have set some kind of record.  Janeway should balance a rule meant for one
ship and crew among a lot of other ships and crews with the realities of
her own situation.
	And by the way, I also think that by the 24th century, some of the rules
will be relaxed--in fact, they are relaxing even now. I know a lieutenant
commander who was married to a CPO--an officer/enlisted marriage--and they
asked for and received spouse-collocation orders. I'd add that you would
probably get a different answer from each military person you asked! There
is so much shading in the fraternization area that anyone can be offended
by pretty much anything.
	Plus the fact that it's only been in the past few decades that the term
"fraternization" took on sexual connotations--it used to mean an officer
getting too pally with his troops, hangin' out with the guys and so on.
When I was stationed in Hawaii, I was taking some grad school classes, and
went out to the club with a classmate, a female lieutenant junior
grade--hangin' around, ogling men, etc.  An army major told me that if I
were in the army, that would be considered fraternization, since I was a
lieutenant commander, which in the army would be a field grade officer, and
I was hanging around with a junior officer. The Navy just distinguishes
junior--ensign to lieutenant commander, and senior--commander up to
admiral, while the Army calls the lieutenant commander and commander
equivalent field grade--that's major and lieutenant colonel. So I asked
another Army major what he thought about that, and he just rolled his eyes
at the idea.
	So things are really totally up in the air, and the interpretation is
really up to the commanding officer; what is perfectly acceptable at one
command may be an absolute no-no at the next. And heck--who knows what the
rules will be in four hundred years?


CAN A STARSHIP CAPTAIN ALSO HAVE A FAMILY?
by Dottie Ronhovde

	Dottie served for 25 years in the Air Force. When she retired, she was an
E-9 (which is the highest enlisted rank). She worked directly for group and
wing commanders for the last few years and interacted with commanders all
the way up to command level.

	Can a starship captain have a family? This is a question that has been
bantered about among fans for as long as Star Trek has existed. I decided
to try to answer this question for myself, and hopefully for other fans as
well. Using my own 25 years of military experience, and what I know of
Starfleet, I made comparisons and conclusions.
	First, is Starfleet patterned after today's American military? The answer
is absolutely. What else do 20th century writers have to draw upon for
their model? The rank structure and basic organization is more closely
patterned after today's U.S. Navy, but you can use the Air Force for
structure and organization as well. This being the case, I then looked at
today's military commanders and compared them against the demands on a
starship captain.
	Top commanders, whether in today's military or Starfleet, are a unique
breed of people. They have been educated, groomed and directed toward
command for most, if not all, of their lives. The selection process as they
progress up through the ranks weeds out those people who are not prepared
to dedicate themselves to that one goal. The ones who demonstrate the most
drive, the most single-minded dedication to the organization's mission, are
the individuals who are noticed, promoted and assigned to the right
positions to further their career.
	Early in a person's career, there is still time to pursue other interests
and a social life. The demands of a young officer's time, while stressful,
do not require that they forgo all other aspects of their life. They can
date, socialize, and even marry, without making a severe impact on their
job. Many officers do marry and settle down into a family life at some
point in their career.
	The change comes when these individuals must make a choice between family
obligations and their jobs. If they make the job the most important thing
in their lives, dedicating as much time as they need to do it extremely
well, they will be rewarded with promotions and increased responsibility.
If, on the other hand, they make family the most important thing, they will
probably do their jobs only adequately. In this case, they will not have
demonstrated to their superiors that they are ready for increased
responsibilities. They will only be allowed to remain at that level, doing
the job they are doing.
	What impact does this on an individual's personal and family life? As you
can imagine, the more responsibility a person is given in a job, the more
time is required to accomplish it. Top military commanders spend anywhere
from 60 to 80 hours a week, during normal operations, on their job. When it
requires them to leave home and family for extended periods, they may spend
all of their waking hours working. Yes, many of these commanders do have
families, but they do not have the time to participate in the day to day
activities and lives of their spouses and children. Those who do not have
the demands of family are able to dedicate themselves solely to work, and
will therefore be recognized as the best people for many jobs.
	In Starfleet, unless starship captains have family on the ship with them,
they would have an even harder time remaining involved with the family.
Long missions in space, with only recorded messages or brief interactive
conversations over subspace to maintain involvement, tend to separate the
individuals from their families. If they choose to keep family on ship with
them, they are accepting the responsibility of placing them indanger, or
limiting the education and experiences of their children. So, can captains
have families? It can be done, yes, but in doing so, they accept that they
will sacrifice quality involvement with their families. Many of the best
commanders will not have to make that sacrifice because they won't put
themselves in the position in the first place.
	Ah, you say, but what if the spouse was also an officer, and was assigned
to the same ship? This too has been bantered about, as a solution to the
problem of high ranking commanders being able to have a marriage. Consider
this: how will the individual who is junior to his or her spouse receive
orders? In the best marriages, the two people are partners, debating and
agreeing on decisions together. In a command situation, debate is not an
option. A commander's orders are not open to discussion. It is difficult,
if not impossible, for most people to separate command from personal.
	In today's military, officers do occasionally marry other officers. When
the situation arises in which one would be under the direct command of the
other, one of the two is reassigned to prevent command/personal conflicts.
Military commanders always face the possibility of ordering their
subordinates into dangerous situations. If they were required to order
persons they love into danger, the objectivity they need to have would be
compromised. Yes, there are people who can and would do it if they had to,
but their mental and emotional health would probably be severely impacted
if the other people were to die as a result of their orders.
	So, can two officers in a chain of command be married? Yes, but with great
difficulty. It is a rare person who can subordinate love for a spouse in
favor of mission requirements. Under any but the most extreme
circumstances, it is not an option that should be considered.


*BOOKS AND COLLECTIBLES*

MOSAIC
by Jeri Taylor

 	Jeri Taylor's Janeway is not my Janeway. My Janeway is the strong and
confident Captain who is able to lead her diverse crew with insight,
intelligence, and a splash of Irish common sense. My Janeway did not have a
troubled adolescence, did not spend her life trying to please "daddy", did
not treat her friends with contempt, and never daydreams or, god forbid,
dozes off on the bridge. My Janeway is better than I ever will be, and
commands my respect and affection.
	I've read Mosaic several times--first because I couldn't wait to get my
hands on it, then in preparation for a meeting with John Ordover, and
finally to write this review. I've read the criticism that the story never
touches on Janeway's relationships with women, and that it ends too
quickly. Both of those are valid criticisms. But in the final analysis, I
think that I had a hard time with the book because it showed me the faults,
fears, and motivations of my hero, and they are not the stuff of which
legends are made. They are the same faults, fears, and motivations that
plague me--and many of the people who surround me. I would have created a
four-year-old Janeway who loved mathematics for herself alone; and not to
please her distant father. I would have created an adolescent Janeway who
reached out to "vulky" Hobbes--rather than ignoring him until she needed
him to quarry dive. I would have created a young adult Janeway who realized
that she was suited for command, and would have gone into it because she
was driven to lead others, not because Admiral Paris (another "daddy") told
her to consider it. I would have created a myth, a superwoman who was only
lacking the "S" on her chest and an allergy to kryptonite. That Janeway
would be someone to look up to, to worship, but never to emulate, because
how could I hope to come close to her perfection?
	The Janeway of Taylor's book is a woman who creates power from weakness.
She has grown into command, yet once looked to others to be her strength.
How and when this happened is grist for future books or episodes, but in
the final analysis, this Janeway presents the greatest challenge for me.
The woman who couldn't choose whether to save her father or her fiancé
chose to save the Ocampa and lose her home. The woman who hid in her bed
unable to face the reality of her decisions looked Tuvix in the eye in
sickbay. And the woman who once looked to others for her validation now
stands on the bridge of a starship lost in a distant quadrant and proclaims
to all, "This is Kathryn Janeway, Captain of the Federation ship Voyager."
If I proclaim that Janeway comes close to my ideal of what women should be,
and if Mosaic is a true picture of Kathryn Janeway, then I no longer have
any excuse not to work towards becoming my own ideal woman. After all, if
Kathryn Janeway is able to silence that "small wounded voice" inside her to
become a hero, then so can I. So can we all.

--Joan Testin

	I'll say this for Mosaic: it left me wanting more. The writing's quite
good for a Trek novel: lush, vivid descriptive moments, lively shipboard
scenes. My problem with Mosaic is that it didn't bring me closer to Kathryn
Janeway. It's impossible for me to associate the listless character in the
novel with the vivacious, resourceful woman we see on Voyager, the one who
doesn't let the Vidiians or Kazon get away with bullying her. Even in the
audiobook, in Kate Mulgrew's voice, Mosaic's Janeway sounds like an
impostor.
	The main story, reminiscent of Christie Golden's excellent Murdered Sun,
starts promisingly in series-time near a strange alien base. And the
initial flashbacks to Janeway's childhood are illuminating. Kathryn's
mother Gretchen sounds like a really interesting woman--in an era of
replicators, she chooses to cook. This is fascinating--a woman who's
apparently a housewife by design, not social expectation or necessity!  But
we don't find out how or when she made these choices, or if they were her
own; she's mostly a passive appendage of her family for the rest of the
novel, a maternal stereotype instead of the mathematician suggested in
early Voyager character sketches. Kathryn has mostly contempt for her
mother's anachronistic ways. Yet she fawns over her father, the stalwart
Starfleet Admiral who forgets to acknowledge her existence.
	This might not be so disturbing were it not for Kathryn's aversion to
other women. During the course of Mosaic, she does not have one girlfriend
or female mentor. Kathryn's childhood peers grow from nasty schoolgirls to
timid, whiny adolescents, yet she views them as worthy competitors for her
first lover, a self-absorbed risk-taker. Kathryn's artistic younger sister
is portrayed as flighty, and her college roommate doesn't try to understand
her workaholic tendencies. I could buy that young Kathryn developed a
self-esteem problem because her father ignored her, but it's disturbing
that her need for male approval leads to disdain for female companionship.
Mosaic isn't contemptuous of women's interests--indeed, it's very much a
"women's novel," with less action than emotional content--but there's no
indication that women can relate to one another in ways which have nothing
to do with male priorities. I missed the Janeway of "Elogium" and "The
37s," who likes and trusts other women rather than regarding them as
competitors for male attention.
	Nor does this novel acknowledge that women and men can be friends outside
father-daughter or boyfriend-girlfriend situations, which are too similar
for comfort. There's a shameful blind date between Kathryn and Will Riker,
who's characterized here as bright and affable; Kathryn is so panicked at
her attraction to him that she can't even talk about science, and flees the
scene. When she chooses a role model at the Academy, she gravitates toward
ascetic Admiral Paris, whom most of us know as the guy who screwed Tom up.
Paris is a domineering perfectionist who orders her never to cry, but shows
affection toward his own absent family--a fantasy version of Admiral Edward
Janeway. Kathryn later falls for Paris' protegé Justin, a hard-nosed
Starfleet operative who rescues her from a terrible situation, just like
her father did years earlier. Even Mark, whom it turns out Kathryn's's
known since youth,grows up from awkward boy in need of her protection to a
sturdy confessor figure. Her emotional bond to Chakotay is most disturbing;
when he saves her life, Janeway actually mistakes her first officer for
Daddy. This infantilization of a starship captain is a very good reason for
quashing J/C on the show.
	Janeway in Mosaic is both stubborn and passive, a daredevil who's riddled
with insecurities and prejudices. Despite the attention to her love life,
we learn little about Janeway's loves beyond their appearances. There's no
incident with her fiancé like the ones with her first boyfriend which show
us what he's like as a person, even if they don't expain what attracted her
to him beyond his looks. Kathryn informs her father that he'll love Justin
once he gets to know him, but the reader never does get to know the man she
almost married--so it's hard to like him, or to learn anything about her
from her choosing him. And I wish we'd gotten one scene with Mark which
showed her falling in love with him, so he didn't sound like just a safe
haven in her memories. Too much telling, not enough showing; there's little
character growth until the end of the novel, when Kathryn uncovers the
repressed memory of her failure to save her father and fiancé from death
during a military mission. This section could have been deeply moving,
demonstrating that Janeway really has grown up to be strong and
independent. But it's written like a Trek episode, rushing to resolve its
crisis in the seconds before the close. In the course of a few pages,
Janeway uncovers a devastating secret, confronts it, gets over it, draws
strength from it, changes her life, saves her crew, and gets the ship back
on course for home. I'm sure it was a structural decision to save all the
revelations for the climax as a means of building suspense, but the
sequence is preposterous from a psychological point of view, so it's hard
to accept Janeway as the complete person she's described as being on the
final page.
	Much of what I want to know about Kathryn Janeway--how she got interested
in science, how she advanced through the ranks, what her ten-year
relationship with Mark was like--is not here. The people she's going to be
compared to (Kirk, Spock, etc.) are unquestionably heroes, known for
strength and bravery even during their troubled youths. Janeway's fairly
strong in the face of actual torture, yet up against what Kira underwent in
the Resistance or what Picard went through at the hands of the Cardassians,
she's barely even challenged. There just aren't character-building moments;
lovely descriptions of Indiana can't replace dramatic details about what
shaped Janeway into the woman she is now. While I understand the desire to
avoid technobabble, a single instance of Janeway acting as science officer
would have added greatly to our understanding of what science means to her
and how it dovetailed with her Starfleet command career.
	I did like Janeway's solution to the problems with the Kazon and the
aliens on the planet where much of her crew is stranded--the reason for her
flashback. She finally showed some of the mettle we've come to expect from
her, and from all Starfleet captains. It's interesting that both she and
Chakotay experienced torture and lost their fathers to the Cardassians;
this could make for a great scene between the two of them on the show. I
wish Taylor had filled in some blanks for us, told us how Janeway felt
about making Chakotay her first officer, or how she reacted to Tom's
implacable hatred of his father. I'm particularly interested in what
Janeway thought of the Maquis, given her own experiences with the
Cardassians.
	But none of that is in this novel. Considering that more of Mosaic is
devoted to her love affairs than to her scientific career, I hoped at least
that we'd see the positive aspects of her femininity, her nurturing
side--this is after all a woman who enjoys playing a Victorian governess in
a holonovel. Yet Janeway holds true to negative stereotypes of women in
power--privately insecure, vulnerable to repressed passion. She's a girl in
an old boys' network. How long must women endure a Trek and a captain
focused on male standards, male expectations? After reading Mosaic, I sure
don't want to be Kathryn Janeway. She may be a woman in charge, but she's
all alone up there, and she's not even getting much credit for it.

--Michelle Erica Green

	It's a pleasure to report that Mosaic is a great book. When I first heard
about Jeri Taylor writing it, I was curious to see how a novel written by a
screenwriter would turn out, but hey--it turned out like a novel, and a
very good one at that! The book flows very smoothly; after the first few
pages I wasn't noticing the words, the images were simply forming
themselves in my mind. I'd look up from the book and another couple of
hours would have passed.
	The locations were flawless. There was a variety of realistic
down-to-earth locations as well as imagined alien settings--Janeway's
childhood home, underwater caves on Mars, Utopia Planetia, a haunted house,
subterranean tunnels on an alien planet--all were lushly described, yet
unobtrusive, fitting seamlessly into the action. The characterization was
flawless too; for me the character descriptions didn't hit one wrong note.
Since the portraits of the regulars come here from the pen of the "Master"
(actually "Mistress"), I appreciated the fact that the characters were true
to those we see every week on Voyager--something that doesn't always happen
in the Trek novels. And the supporting characters are very well delineated
too; I particularly liked the description of Cheb, Janeway's boyfriend who
had "that maddening ability to twist anything she said, drawing on just
enough truth to make her begin doubting herself." Zinger! Keep me out from
under Taylor's laser eye--she has acuity when it comes to interpersonal
interaction, particularly within families.
	The overall accomplishment in this novel is the description of Janeway's
feelings from those of a small child to those of an adult--her thinking at
each age level is right on target, and it's fascinating to see Janeway
emerge from a child, perhaps overly anxious to please her father, into an
adult, self-directed person, and yet be able to see that the adult is the
product of all the stages that have gone before, and that each stage was
necessary. The love and identification she felt for her father, as well as
her subsequent estrangement from him (although he was always present in her
mind) and her final reconciliation are all well described and
believable--at least to me. I think this is a real family depicted by
Taylor, not an idealized one that would produce an idealized Janeway.
Caring fathers can be separated from families by work, children do become
estranged from parents--and even if those two things don't occur, there is
a necessary reintegration process that usually occurs in the late teens or
early twenties when a child finally puts his parents in perspective, and
moves on with life as an adult. In this novel Taylor shows how one
particular person, Janeway, given the nature and gifts she was born with,
adored her father, "lost" him for a time during her teens, made initial
romantic choices perhaps based on her relationship with her father (and
believe me, this is a classic), and finally integrated herself into the
adult, strong, self-assured woman we see each week on Voyager. I find this
believable. I would have liked to have had a little more development of
Janeway's mother -- as written, she's mostly a generic "Mom" and I would
have liked to have known more about her background, other than that it was
Germanic. I thought she was supposed to be a mathematician. I liked the
fact that she apparently chose homemaking, but I am sure there is more to
her than that.
	People are not born like Janeway--they become like Janeway through a
process of experience and struggle. What I like about this book is that
it's not PC--despite the 24th century advances, we don't have the "perfect"
family or "perfect" life circumstances, or the "perfect" young person--we
have the portrait of a person with many advantages who still struggles with
the limitations imposed by her circumstances and lack of understanding, and
who manages to become a strong, unique person largely through her own
efforts.
	A great deal of 24th century society is spelled out in the novel, and some
can be inferred. What I found particularly interesting were the
descriptions of family life and child rearing and what struck me most was
the feeling of security, in the physical sense (lack of crime, to the point
where a 14-year-old Janeway has no hesitation about having to spend a night
alone in a rainy field); in the stability sense (Janeway's family lives in
the same house in a close-knit community her whole life -- 24th century
transportation makes this possible): and in the values sense (there appears
to be an implicit agreement on what society thinks is important, and the
children don't appear to receive mixed messages). The tolerance and
richness of the culture appears to be based on a technology that (unlike
our own, which seems to constantly create more and faster work for us),
actually liberates people to pursue their gifts and ensures an economic
security that makes it possible to do so.  Adolescence is depicted in a
constructive way--yes, the children do still rebel, but it takes the form
of acting adventurously with the elan of youth, rather than in the overtly
self-destructive adolescent behavior depicted today.
	There were three stories here: Janeway's growth into the person she is;
the mystery of her recurrent dream; and the adventure of the crew on the
planet and the crew in space trying to rescue them. All the plot details
came together at the end in a very satisfying finish.
	
--Catherine Clark

	I've been waiting for this book for a long time. When an executive
producer who created the character writes an entire novel around her
creation, it is an event. I only wish this particular event merited
equivalent praise. Unfortunately, after finishing Mosaic, my feeling is one
of extreme disappointment. Jeri Taylor has invested a lot of herself in
Janeway's character, and that is obvious in reading this book. But the
Janeway I have come to know and love is not the one whose life I followed
in Mosaic. Their personalities could not be more diametrically opposed, and
not even the struggles that Mosaic's Kathryn went through can account for
the strength and compassion Kate Mulgrew brings to this character. I have
to give all that credit to Kate's ability as an actress as well as a fine
understanding of Janeway.
	Jeri Taylor has stated that some of this novel has come out in her
scripts, and I can see that in "Resolutions" when Janeway states that she
is a 'child of the 24th century.' She makes disparaging remarks about
camping and farming, and that fits in with her traditionalist upbringing in
Indiana. However, I think Taylor could have done better than presenting us
with a stereotyped, 20th century model filled by such cultural icons as
Ozzie and Harriet or Ward and June Cleaver. I would hope that by the 24th
century, this world we live in will move beyond that era. I would have
liked to see an egalitarian society where people can choose how they want
to live.
	Janeway's entire being from the time she was four until she enters the
Academy seems to be about pleasing her father. We learn that her father is
a Vice Admiral who is away a great deal of the time. Kathryn is frequently
frustrated and sad about his absence, and she turns from a frightened child
into a sniveling and unlikable teenager. There are the usual insecurities
about appearance, and constant complaints about her hairstyle. Is Taylor
trying to tell us something here--like stop complaining about Janeway's bun
of steel?
	No character in this book is really developed--and that includes Janeway.
I feel like I have only a tenuous hold on who she is supposed to be. What
does Janeway want besides pleasing the men in her life? We see her learning
the math tables to please her father, but is this what she wants? Her
dogged determination to learn math and science seems motivated more by
rebelling against her upbringing than by any real desire on her part.
Although it isn't directly discussed, she seems contemptuous of both her
mother and sister. Her mother Gretchen is of German lineage, and I would
have liked to see more of her than the fact that she sings lullabyes and
cooks caramel brownies. Sister Phoebe is another unlikable character who
only comes through for Kathryn in the end, as she molders in bed pining for
her father and fiancé. Phoebe appears to be Daddy's favorite, and Kathryn
resents her sister for that. In addition, she becomes an artist, which is
quite in keeping with acceptable careers for women today.
	The only time Taylor presents us with even slightly positive female role
models are when she discusses some of the Starfleet officers, but even then
these descriptions are fleeting. I would have loved to see Janeway bond
with a high ranking female officer instead of someone like Admiral Paris.
Everywhere we look we see men--especially men with dark hair and blue eyes.
Janeway has a weakness for them, one which bothers her so much that she
acts like a fool and runs out on a date with Will Riker. Her first
boyfriend was a deadbeat, so this scared her off from seeing Riker. Later,
she ends up engaged to another man who looks like this too. Justin, the
fiancé in question, had some potential to be interesting, but he died along
with her father before we got to know him. This, in fact, is the basic
problem I have with this entire novel. I know it's supposed to be a collage
of memories from Janeway's past, but there isn't anything substantial that
the reader can grab hold of. We aren't allowed to spend much time in any
one section of her life, and what little is revealed doesn't do much to
engage this reader's interest.
	For example, Janeway goes from an Ensign to a Captain in a very short
time. She starts off as a science officer and changes to the command track
after Admiral Paris convinces her she'd make a good leader. Once again, her
decision is based on something someone else wants, making her a reflection
of everyone else's desires instead of an individual in her own right. We
learn that she has a doctorate in quantum cosmology (I knew she was
brilliant), but what exactly is that supposed to be? Does this make her an
astrophysicist? Does it explain the fact that she seems to be an expert in
every scientific discipline? There was very little discussion about her
time at the Academy, and I would have loved to read about her struggles
there instead of hearing about it after the fact. How did she get so hooked
on coffee? All of a sudden, we are presented with a coffee addict in the
making but are given no explanation for this. This might seem silly to
some, but I think coffee is very central to Janeway's character. There is
also the unfortunate adventure with her soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend Cheb where
he calls her uncaring because she seems more interested in the fossil than
him. The message seems to be that if a woman chooses a career over a
relationship, this makes her cold. Cheb was being a real jerk here, and
this is where I started to see a glimmer of the future Janeway.
	And then there is Mark "Hobbes" Johnson, the philosopher. I have to admit
that Jeri surprised me here--I didn't see this coming. I suppose it was
obvious that she would turn to him after being so unlucky in love, and we
have a few nice moments where they grow more comfortable with each other,
but that's about it. I guess as readers we have to assume that Janeway came
to her senses and realized what a treasure Mark really was. I still don't
know if they were engaged, but I doubt it, especially after losing her last
fiancé. She seems to feel safe with Mark, as she later does with Chakotay.
There is also a good scene where Chakotay rescues Janeway and she is
hallucinating. She thinks her father is carrying her, and it is clear that
she associates the two of them. For Janeway, whose own life has revolved so
much around her father, this can only be the highest compliment. I guess
this is Jeri's way of showing that we might get to see a nice J/C
relationship after all. Mark, and Chakotay, are not threatening to Janeway.
They are strong in their own way without being domineering, and both of
them seem to fall into traditional female roles at times. This type of man
fits Janeway like a glove, and besides, they both have brown eyes! Maybe
her luck is changing after all. There is also the matter of Tuvok. As a
child, Janeway seems to hate Vulcans, even going so far as to call Mark
"vulky." Just why she dislikes them is never explored, and neither is her
subsequent relationship with Tuvok. She doesn't like him at first, but
later he becomes her best friend. This, like her sudden ascension to
captain, is a little hard for me to buy.
	I found the segment about the Cardassians quite interesting, and it raises
a number of questions about Janeway's future loyalty to the Federation. It
also aligns her solidly with her sexy first officer. I would like to see
Jeri bring this element out in the show--it certainly could present Janeway
with a conflict of interest when they return. But I understand that moral
dilemmas and the Prime Directive are a thing of the past. Jim Kirk, here we
come!
	The entire reason we get these repressed memories is because Janeway is
trying to rescue her crew from the Kazon. I liked this part of the story
quite a bit, although I wish we could have visited with someone other than
the Kazon. They are boring to watch on TV, and they were even more so here.
Why? Because Jeri spends a lot more time discussing them instead of giving
us Janeway's background. The exploration of the caves (boy, we could get
real Freudian here) was predictable, although the outcome was kind of neat.
The way Janeway dumped their Tokath hitchhikers was also fun.
	In summary, despite everything I've said here, I admire Jeri for writing
Mosaic. While I might not agree with how Janeway is portrayed, it takes a
lot of guts to pour your heart and soul into a project like this, and it is
real easy for a critic like me to find fault with different items. When all
is said and done, this is Jeri's character and she is free to do with her
what she will. As a producer and writer, Jeri walks a fine line with
Janeway. If she pushes her too much one way, Janeway will look weak and the
women in the audience will complain. If she makes her too strong, that
might threaten that all important 19-34 demographic. I think Jeri will
always be walking a tightrope with Janeway. I hope her balancing act gets a
little easier as Janeway gets developed.

--Elizabeth Klisiewicz

	Mosaic consists of the usual sort of Voyager-in-trouble thread
interspersed with Janeway having flashbacks starting with early childhood.
The Voyager thread is basically good, and while it does include Kazon, it
also introduces some interesting and dangerous new aliens. A basically
inferior enemy led by one brilliant character simply does not provide a
good ongoing, action/adventure foil for our TV heroes. Overwhelmingly
powerful enemies, on the other hand, force our heroes to perform
brilliantly in order to survive.
	In Mosaic's flashbacks, Janeway's parents are presented as old-fashioned,
and she resents it. Her mother appears to be a full-time mother/homemaker,
yet her cooking seems to be her only real impact on her children. Janeway's
father is a Starfleet admiral. Since the male captains we know have been
given far more heroic careers than Janeway is given in Mosaic, we are left
room to wonder if her rise to Captain is due as much to family connections
as to personal merit.
	This Janeway is often further out of character than in any of the other
Voyager novels. The young Janeway is enough of a daredevil to be expected
to grow into a courageous officer, but she is abrasive, overbearing,
self-centered, and develops no close friendships. She is generally out of
touch with her emotions, except for her resentment of her father's work
keeping him away from her. Since this is a major theme, it seems very odd
that her only long-range goal is to follow him into Starfleet. She seems
driven to be a career woman without finding any meaning in that career. We
actually see very little of her career development, except that she makes
decisions affecting her long-term direction based on immediate convenience.
Her one heroic episode as a young ensign is well-written but hardly seems
sufficient to propel her to the captaincy of a Starship designed for
combat.
	While Mosaic spends far more time on Janeway's personal relationships with
her family and the men in her life than on the details of her career, these
relationships are emotionally superficial and unsatisfying. These people
are neither emotionally-compelling characters nor healthy, well-rounded
role models. As a young Starfleet officer who has bravely survived a very
harrowing experience, Janeway returns home and throws a temper-tantrum
demanding that her father punish her sister for an incident that was her
own fault. May none of us ever have to suffer such a boss or coworker. This
Janeway is not even likable. She almost never displays the love of life and
sense of purpose that we feel in Mulgrew's portrayal. She's a victim,
crippled by tragedy rather than working through her pain.
	Then, in spite of her personal suffering due to the threat of war, Janeway
repeats Picard's appalling line that Starfleet is not the military. While
Starfleet is much more than our (USA) military, it is still obviously also
the military, albeit an idealized, defensive one. We need the military for
defense, and we shouldn't blame the military for our politicians' misuse of
the military. Admitting that seems far less dangerous than pretending, by
analogy, that our military isn't really quite a military and a "police
action" isn't really a war.
	Finally, when she should be totally attentive to the heat of battle, she's
having flashbacks to work out her old personal tragedies. I'm usually quite
good about ignoring stupid decisions that are obviously plot devices, but
when someone's trying to kill you, you focus on the problem at hand. This
Janeway drags herself meaninglessly through life with a stiff upper lip. I
am usually quick to defend an artist's right to produce art rather than
someone else's idea of a politically correct role model. If this novel was
about anyone other than a Starfleet captain, I would find it acceptable,
but reading Mosaic left me struggling with feeling victimized. In stark
contrast, theVoyager TV staff and Kate Mulgrew usually give us a powerful,
heroic woman leader who loves life, is in touch with her emotions, and,
like James Kirk, knows that she is a military officer even though she would
rather never fight. Please, may they keep up the good work.

--Kathy Altom


MOSAIC BY JERI TAYLOR
An Audio Book Read By Kate Mulgrew

	Mosaic was a must-read for me because this book had to do with Captain
Janeway and was written by the character's creator, Jeri Taylor. The
audiobook for me was also a must because it was read by Kate Mulgrew. I
wanted to hear how Kate did in delivering the life of her favorite
character. In talking to others, I come across many complaints about the
Mosaic novel--everything from it being sexist to robbing Janeway of courage
and honor. There were several things I did not like about the novel
myself--I think Jeri Taylor tried to do too much in a book that, frankly,
should have been a little longer, and ended it like a Voyager episode with
everything resolved in the last 5 minutes and you feel cut off at the
knees.
	For anyone who read the novel and was unhappy--do not let that prevent you
from buying the audio version! Kate Mulgrew gives such a stunning audio
delivery you really feel you are there. She puts the various facets of her
voice to full use...you can see Chakotay's expression and hear Tuvok's
voice in her delivery. It's also interesting to hear how she thinks Harry
Kim would say things. Kate's unique voice works to her advantage instead of
against it. Her inflections, tonal quality and control really keep you
interested in the subject matter.
	There were differences between the novel and the audio version that were
quite striking. When Janeway begins to flashback in the novel, it is as a
young girl hiding in her father's office, a very engaging scene where the
relationship between father and daughter is established. In the audio
version, Janeway's flashbacks begin with her playing in an Academy tennis
match. I honestly felt robbed. I think an editor could have decided to
start somewhere earlier in Janeway's life. Later, when Janeway is captured
by Cardassians, she winds up saving both herself and her rescuer during a
fierce battle with the Cardassian soldier. It's a great scene, showing her
strength and ability to fight odds in moments of great adversity. This
fight scene is eliminated from the audio version. I was appalled. What
seemed to be a major point of showing what Janeway was capable of was
removed from the audio version--a major mistake. I am aware that it is not
possible to convert an entire novel into two 90 minute cassettes. But these
missing scenes detracted from the audio novel as well as the Janeway
character.
	But in compensation, Janeway's dream/psychological moment toward the end
of the tape is handled much better than in the book. I was very confused by
Janeway's flashback in the novel, when she goes back to the deaths of her
father & Justin Tighe and finally remembers what it was that really
happened. The audio version was much clearer, and I was able to better
understand what it was she was thinking and going through.
	The sound effects and music fit in very well. You really get a good
picture of Tuvok opening a tricorder, or Harry Kim hitting his combadge.
They weren't intruding and were done tastefully. The 'action music' toward
the last 45 minutes (Cassette 2, Side B) was some of the best music
accompanying dialogue. It worked very well.
	Kate, as she has demonstrated in her various convention appearances, is
quite professional and seems to know exactly what she's doing--a far cry
from some of the members of the different Trek casts who've recorded
audiobooks. Kate really seems to work the material quite well. Perhaps she
had a better director, or perhaps it's because she has had more experience
in this area, having recorded novels to tape before she came to Star Trek.
	There are a lot of things to like and dislike about Mosaic, but isn't that
the case with most Star Trek novels the last 10 years? Kate Mulgrew's
reading really made the book come alive for me, and helped me get over the
parts I didn't like. Kate brings a lot as Janeway to the audio version. For
those of you choosing between the $23 novels and $18 audio version, I would
go with the audio version.

--Sashi Alexandra German


FLASHBACK
by Diane Carey

	I'm glad I read this book after "Flashback" aired, because otherwise I
would have been supremely disappointed in the episode. Things I criticized
in the episode were explained in the book. For example, in the episode,
Janeway appeared to blindly accept Tuvok's melding invitation without
blinking an eye. There were no discussions about the repercussions if
something went wrong, and we see in the book that there are quite a few
problems. I would give my eyeteeth to see the Janeway/Chakotay scene that
was cut out. Here at last we get to see some real drama and some great
explanations for this dynamic command relationship. Diane Carey has done a
better job than any other author in exploring this tenuous and growing
friendship between them, and for that matter, I think she has done a great
job with all the other characters as well. I've re-read this scene numerous
times, and I appreciate the fact that it ends on a humorous note.
	We also have an entire Paris/Torres story that was not present in the
episode, and again, I have to shake my head. Why did they blow this
opportunity to show Chakotay in command? On the very few occasions when
he's taken over for the captain, he hasn't exactly been the most competent
individual. Here we are treated to some wonderful dialogue between Chakotay
and Torres as well as Chakotay and Paris as they communicate from their
shuttle. Chakotay's affection for Torres is obvious, and I appreciated the
gallows humor in the face of death. This seems exactly like something they
would say. Paris also got his two cents in, and his comment about Janeway's
bun of steel was priceless. There are also the meaty scenes between Paris
and Torres--this novel clearly seems to be setting the stage for their
relationship. While there is acrimony in the air (along with some lethal
gas), they also respect each other and work well with one another under
fire.
	Another regrettable exclusion from television was the effect of the meld
on Kes. This set the entire scene for Torres and Paris, and it also gave us
a peek at Kes's relationship with Neelix. We as viewers are supposed to
accept their love for one another, but we rarely get to see any interaction
between them.
	I enjoyed the expanded scenes on the Excelsior, and liked how Janeway
tried to second-guess Sulu's command decisions. The descriptions were so
vivid that Janeway's excitement was palpable. Exploration of the
Tuvok/Janeway friendship was also greatly appreciated, and explained a lot
about the trust between them. This book did Tuvok a great favor--it made
him likable, believable and caused me to feel sympathy for him. Because
Diane Carey did such a good job digging into his psyche, we now know that
he isn't as cold-hearted as he'd like everyone to believe, and it will make
me appreciate him more in the future. Janeway's portrayal was also right on
the mark, and I liked the flashes of humor running through her mind. I
thought the scene which brought Amelia Earhart back from "The 37's" was
interesting, although it seemed out of place, and the novel seamlessly
weaves in far more Trek history than the episode had time for.
	Overall, this is the best book in the Voyager series, and I look forward
to seeing more from Diane Carey.

--Elizabeth Klisiewicz


OTHER COLLECTIBLES

	There's LOTS of Trek 30th anniversary stuff to spend money on:
	Five Trek calendars (TOS, TNG, DS9, and VOY wall calendars, plus a daily
desk calendar with better Kate pictures than the wall calendar even if
they're B&W)...
	Paramount's official Trek 30th Anniversary magazine (Kate's in there in a
couple of places)...
	Starlog's 30th anniversary of Trek issue, including episode summaries,
photos, and more advertising than you can believe...
	A Star Trek crossword puzzle book (!)...
	Several new books (in addition to Mosaic and Flashback, the new
blueprints, TOS Academy series, a Federation passport, the City on the Edge
of Forever script and controversy, etc. etc. etc.)...
	And the new comic book series are supposed to be out this month--well,
except the Trek/X Men crossover, which has been delayed until November--but
Voyager should debut momentarily!


*COPYRIGHT VIOLATION CORNER*

Two of our favorite captains in earlier days. We expect to receive
disapproving mail from both the J/C and P/C crowds about this! Kathryn
Janeway and Jean-Luc Picard belong to Paramount, but apparently they go on
unauthorized leave together...

IN THE EYES OF A STRANGER
by Alan Butler

	Kathryn Janeway stopped to regard the face staring back from the looking
glass. It surprised her for a moment; this woman seemed so unlike herself.
After a minute, though, a smile crossed her face.
	"Not bad," she thought to herself, pushing a few stray hairs into place
with her fingertips. "Of course, it's easier to find a good hairdresser in
San Francisco than out in the great beyond."
	The Al-Batani had recently returned to Earth after a six-month mapping
expedition, and Kathryn was still adjusting to the joys of home comforts.
Tonight's formal ceremony at Starfleet Headquarters seemed, at present, to
be a waste of a perfectly good shore leave, but attendance was mandatory.
	She wondered momentarily if she'd feel more comfortable going as half of a
couple. "Maybe a little," she admitted to herself, but there was never time
to become suitably enthusiastic about anything outside her work. She was
quite certain she could manage tonight without being on anyone's arm, and
there would be plenty of time later for relationships. "Maybe I should get
a dog?" shepondered, smiling as the apartment door closed behind her.
	The reception turned out to be standard fare. Held once a year to mark the
signing of the Klingon Peace Treaty, it had become Starfleet's version of
Thanksgiving, as the whole Federation "family" were forced to try to get
along for one night. Upon entering, Kathryn paused for a moment to get her
bearings, but before she had the chance to pick a direction, an arm
encircled her right elbow.
	"Janeway, how would you like to make an old man very happy?"
	A wicked smile crossed her lips. "Depends on how old...and how happy!"
	Not to be put off, Admiral Paris changed direction. "Lieutenant, I was
simply referring to a dance with your commanding officer, bearing in mind
that a refusal might be considered an offense punishable by court-martial."
The query was so out of character for Paris that his science officer
laughed.
	"When you put it that way, I accept."
	As he led her to the dance floor, Kathryn wondered just how much wine it
had taken to put the admiral in such high spirits. Still, after six months
of mapping, who wouldn't feel the need to cut loose a little? The dance
went very smoothly considering her partner's dubious sobriety, but while
the Deltan performer sang of passion, she and Paris talked about impulse
engines. "Why do these social events have a knack for finding the weakness
in your life?" she asked herself. "You think you've got it all together,
and then you find yourself feeling alone in a crowd, talking business!"
	The dance ended and Kathryn headed for the bar. A few mouthfuls of white
wine and her mood began to improve. As she sat on a stool, with her back
towards the dance floor, she began humming a few bars from an old song that
she didn't actually remember hearing before. Then she became aware of a
figure standing next to her.
	"Is this seat taken?" asked a distinguished looking man. Four pips.
Kathryn looked briefly up and down the bar. Yes, all the other stools were
occupied, so there was a good chance that this wasn't just an attempt to
hit on her.
	"Please feel free," she smiled graciously and waved toward the seat. As
the captain sat down, she looked closely at his face and decided that maybe
she wouldn't be altogether upset if it was an attempt at seduction,
although his whole manner gave her the impression that he wouldn't sink to
such levels.
	"Kathryn Janeway," she smiled, holding out her hand.
	He accepted the handshake and returned her smile. "Jean-Luc Picard.
Pleased to meet you."
	Pleasantries over, the conversation died and Kathryn found herself
analyzing the bottom of her empty glass. She had just caught the
bartender's eye when Picard sighed to himself.
	"Something you'd like to talk about?"
	He looked a little taken aback. "No," he replied just a bit too quickly,
then flashed that dazzling smile. "Not at the moment, anyway, but thank
you." The silence resumed, and Kathryn was halfway to the bottom of her
next glass when he suddenly spoke into the bottom of his.
	"I don't suppose you'd like to dance with me?"
	"I'd love to," she replied, dropping lightly off the stool, anxious to end
the long pauses. He turned to face her, looking a little surprised and more
than a little lost. She had seen that look on men's faces before, and it
usually meant danger, but there was something about him...she decided to
see this through.
	As they reached the floor, the lights began to dim and the music slowed.
He turned toward her; his expression was one of barely disguised horror.
She suppressed a smile and rested her arms on his shoulders. For a moment
she thought he was going to make a break for it, and despite herself she
began to snicker. Instead, she watched as the crease on his brow unfolded
and he began to chuckle. Within seconds, both of them were howling with
laughter and drawing stares from across the room. Without thinking about
it, Kathryn buried her head in his shoulder to muffle her laughter, and
they began to sway around the room.
	After a few minutes, he lowered his head and whispered, "You must be
thinking I'm some kind of madman!"
	"The thought had crossed my mind," she whispered back. "But I'm hardly
acting like a responsible science officer."
	"Wonderful, isn't it?" he replied, looking as contented as she'd seen
him--of course, she reminded herself, she'd met him barely fifty-eight
minutes before. The song came to an end and Kathryn released her grip on
him, surprising herself at how reluctant she was to do so. They headed back
to their seats at the bar, but Picard was waylaid by an admiral whose face
she knew but whose name she couldn't recall. There was a brief exchange of
words which she couldn't hear, then Jean-Luc turned and walked away with a
face like thunder.
	For a moment she thought he was going to storm past her, and she forgot
protocol long enough to grab his arm. "Hey, where are you going?"
	He turned and looked at her and at first didn't seem to see her. After a
moment, however, recognition crossed his face.
	"Do you want to get out of here?"
	They were halfway out the door before she was conscious of making the decision.
	They walked for a long time without speaking, until Kathryn couldn't stand
it any longer. "What in God's name did he say to you?"
	Silence.
	"If you're not going to speak to me, then I might as well go back now,"
she sighed and began to turn back towards the party.
	As she walked away, she heard a whisper from his direction. "No, don't go.
Please."
	She bit her lip for a moment and then turned, forcing a frown. "Then be
straight with me, Jean-Luc. What's going on with you?"
	Her companion sighed and sat down on the grass, patting the ground next to
him. She sat without a word and waited as he collected his thoughts.
Finally he spoke to her:
	"Have you heard of the Stargazer?"
	"Stargazer...Stargazer...oh, of course. That's your ship, isn't it?"
	"Was. She was mine."
	"What happened?"
	"Attacked. Lost the entire ship."
	"Casualties?"
	"Light...very light, considering."
	His voice had taken on a dreamlike quality that made Kathryn
uncomfortable. She could sense how inappropriate this conversation was for
this man. She smiled a grim little smile to herself and wondered how far
she could push him--how hard she would have to push him.
	"So...you were to blame? You let it happen?"
	A blue fire flashed through his eyes. "No, of course not! I did everything
I could, but it was a no-win situation."
	"Kobayashi Maru?"
	"I'm sorry?"
	"Kobayashi Maru, it was an old Starfleet Academy test. I took it once,
when I was preparing for my finals. It was supposed to teach the students
that they might find themselves in no-win situations."
	Picard managed an ironic laugh. "Why did they remove it?"	
	"Apparently a hotshot named James T. Kirk beat it by altering the program.
They managed to keep that fact under wraps for a number of years, but after
the story was finally leaked, the test became moot."
	He chuckled. "Kirk. I almost wish they'd left the test in."
	"I'm glad they didn't. It's one thing to face a no-win in reality, but to
be taught how to lose? That seems a little self-defeating to me."
	"Normally I'd agree with you, but these days I'm not so sure. In fact, I'm
thinking it may be time to call it a night."
	Kathryn stood up, dusted off her party dress which she realized had not
been designed for sitting on grass, and pointed her right elbow at
Jean-Luc. He stood and slipped his left arm into it.
	"Back to the party?" he asked.
	"If you'd like. But I think I have a better idea. Do you trust me?" she
whispered with a smile.
	"Implicitly!" he replied.
	Moments later, she was dragging him onto a transport headed uptown.
	They arrived outside a rather garish building covered in bright lights and
holographic images of semi-nude humanoids. In the center was spelled out
the word "HOLODROME," and the legend below read, "All your fantasies made
reality."
	Kathryn caught Jean-Luc's expression of utter astonishment as they went
through the entrance, and allowed herself a wicked chuckle. He bent the
elegant dome of his head toward her ear and whispered, "This is positively
Babylonian."
	"That it is," she murmured back.
	"Forgive the cliché, but do you come here often?!"
	"Only when I'm in need of something a little special." The strange choking
noise from the back of her companion's throat gave her an indication that
perhaps she should go easy on him--before he suffered a stroke.
	She whispered to the receptionist and was rewarded with a suite key. A
turbolift ride followed, until they stood outside Room 319. Without looking
at Jean-Luc, Kathryn turned the key and entered the dark room. Jean-Luc
hesitated on the threshold for a moment before steeling himself and
following her inside.
	As the door clicked shut behind him, their eyes were overtaken by
darkness. "Kathryn?" he called, but there was no answer. After a few
moments she knew his eyes would begin to grow accustomed to the lack of
light, and he could make out the yellow lines forming squares across the
floor, walls, and ceiling of the room.
	"Computer," Kathryn whispered. "Run program 'Starblessed.'"
	A chirping sound responded, and again the room was plunged into complete
darkness. This lasted for only a moment, and slowly they became aware of
pinpricks of light all around. The mechanisms of the room were beginning to
whir, creating a sense of weightlessness. They rose into the air as the
lights around them became clearer and larger, and as Picard looked into one
he saw Kathryn floating towards him.
	"Isn't it beautiful?" she asked, though the question was rhetorical.
"We're currently on the border of the Alpha Quadrant, but this program can
simulate just about any area of known space."
	"It is beautiful," he agreed, accepting her outstretched hand. "But I
don't see the significance..."
	"You sounded like you were thinking of quitting. I wanted you to see what
you'd be giving up."
	Both were silent as the room's mechanisms allowed them to fly, hand in
hand, through a nebula.
	"I feel like an overgrown Peter Pan," he said finally.
	"Perhaps that's why I can see the child in your eyes," she teased,
squeezing his hand. A few more minutes passed before she spoke again. "We
have to be out here. You know that, don't you?"
	"I'm not sure I understand."
	"Look at it, Jean-Luc, and look at us. I'm a scientist, while you may have
the soul of a poet. We're poles apart--coming at life from different
directions but in our own ways, we're both at peace out here in the great
beyond. I may be considering the chemical breakdown of a star while you're
marveling at its power, but we both appreciate its nature. We pay a price
to be out here, boldly going where none have gone before--home and hearth
may never be truly ours, and certain events may leave us scarred, like you
and the Stargazer, but the rewards more than outweigh the price."
	As she finished speaking, she turned towards him and found her face close
enough to his to see the tears in his eyes as the star behind them went
nova.
	
	An hour later the two of them stood on Golden Gate Bridge, looking out
across at San Francisco. The night air had turned chilly and she had his
jacket wrapped around her shoulders.
	It was Jean-Luc who finally broke the silence. "Thank you," he said
simply, his eyes not moving from the water below.
	"You're welcome," she replied. "How do you feel now?"
	He paused for a moment to consider. "Better," he concluded finally. "I
feel...better."
	"I'm glad. So will you go back?"
	"I think I have to. I think I always did, but I needed someone to make me
see that."
	"Things are often clearer in the eyes of a stranger."
	"Would you consider serving under a slightly battle-worn captain?"
	"Oh, yes. Starfleet would just love that. I was rather thinking we could
wait until you're able to serve in my crew."
	He roared with laughter. "I'd give it a week," he said. "A week before one
of us phasered the other in the back--be it my ship or yours!"
	"True," she smiled. "That's very true. But oh, what a week it would be!"
	Still laughing, he offered her his arm, and the two walked away in the
darkness.

THE END


*WE ARE FAMILY*

THE COMMANDER
Official Robert Beltran/Chakotay Fan Club
c/o B.J. O'Leary
P.O. Box 183
Reading, PA 19603

B3 PRIME
Official Roxann Biggs-Dawson/B'Elanna Torres Fan Club
c/o M. Russell
1630 Ft. Campbell Blvd., Suite 143
Clarksville, TN 37042
blilsism@aol.com

RANDOM FLIGHT
Official Robert Duncan McNeill/Tom Paris Fan Club
c/o Pam Buickel
850 Mellowood Avenue
Orlando, FL 32825-8085
ricknpam@iag.net

EPIC (Ethan Phillips International Club)
Official Ethan Phillips/Neelix Fan Club
c/o Joe Christiano and Rande Goodwin
P.O. Box 4818
Waterbury, CT 06704
randeg@aol.com

CARPE (Central Alliance of Robert Picardo Enthusiasts)
Official Robert Picardo/The Doctor Fan Club
c/o Tracey Ledel, RNC
Box 373, 1277 Linda Mar Shopping Center
Pacifica, CA 94044
traceldel1@aol.com

CERES 1
Official Garrett Wang/Harry Kim Fan Club
P.O. Box 13767
Sacramento, CA 95853-3767

VULCAN INSIDERS
Official Tim Russ/Tuvok Fan Club
P.O. Box 8248
Long Beach, CA 90808

SESKA'S SCANDAL SHEET
Official Martha Hackett/Seska Fan Club
c/o Donna J. Abate
3699 Barnard Drive #517
Oceanside, CA 92056
southpawdj@aol.com

EMISSARY
Avery Brooks/Benjamin Sisko Fan Club
c/o Bartricia Williams
P.O. Box 621719
Oviedo, FL 32762-1719
emisary1@aol.com

THE DOCTOR'S EXCHANGE
Official Alexander Siddig/Bashir Fan Club
c/o Joan Marie Verba
P. O. Box 1363
Minnetonka, MN 55345-0363
verba001@maroon.tc.umn.edu

NANITES
Official Nana Visitor/Kira Nerys Fan Club
c/o M. McGowan
8824 Cross Country Place
Gaithersburg, MD 20879
nananut@aol.com

FEDERATION ARCHIVES
RD 5 Box 5440
Moscow, PA 18444
lordfed@aol.com


*PHOTO AND ART CREDITS*

3, 6, 13, 23--Illustrations © Jennifer Pelland 1996.
4, 5, 7, 10, 12, 13, 22, 25--Photos © Paramount Pictures 1996.
8, 32--Illustrations © Yul Tolbert, Timeliketoons 1996.
14--Illustration © Joy Locke 1996.
15--Photo © Beth Schuman 1996.
17, 18--Photos © Cheryl Waldie 1996.
19--Photo © Randi Dackerman 1996.
20--Photo © Donna Christenberry 1996.
30--Illustration © L.R. Bowen 1996.


FIRST CLASS

Now Voyager
P.O. Box 34745
Bethesda, Maryland 20827-4745

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