__________________________________________________________________________

NOW VOYAGER		



THE OFFICIAL NEWSLETTER OF THE KATE MULGREW APPRECIATION SOCIETY * VOLUME I

NUMBER 4





THE BUZZ



	THE LAST TWO PARAGRAPHS OF THIS EDITORIAL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION

ABOUT DUES.  But first there are a couple of things I want to say about fan

clubs.

	I've been hearing a lot this month about Kate, cons, and the Internet.

Yes, I read the TV Guide article; yes, I know Kate said she's not doing any

more cons. (That's going to be news to her agent, who has her scheduled to

do a few, so it's a little early to assume she meant "none" literally.  But

that's also not the point.)

	Kate is trying to play Janeway more than eighty hours a week, make

appearances for Paramount, do publicity for the show, have time with her

family, and attend conventions.  If she can't get it all in and stay sane,

I'm with her 100%: the cons should be the first thing to go.  Acting's her

job, and doing promotional work is part of her contract.  As the captain,

she's the star, so not only is she required to be on the set more than

anyone else, she's also required to do more publicity than anyone else.

She doesn't get a break even when she's not on the set; the tabloids snap

her picture in restaurants and in parking lots, and you can bet people

shove requests for autographs at her wherever she goes.

	Plus she has two kids.  I have enough trouble keeping up with my

two-year-old, and I'm not a single parent, and I only work part-time.  So I

can't imagine how she deals with two children after an eighteen-hour day on

the lot.  If she'd rather spend her vacation time with her boys than

getting paid to be at a con, I'm certainly not going to criticize her

choice.

	If there's one thing that seemed very clear from the back-to-back TV Guide

issues interviewing the Voyager and Deep Space Nine casts, it's that these

people work their butts off.  They get up in the middle of the night, stay

up till four in the morning, go home with new lines to memorize, and then

get up and do it all again.  After five days a week of doing that, it's

really asking a lot to expect any performer to get up on a stage at a con,

talk animatedly for an hour, and then sign a few thousand autographs if

it's a big con or a few hundred with personalization if it's a small con,

often at quite a distance from the actors' homes.

	So let me say definitively: NO, I don't think Kate--or Robert Beltran,

who's also remained relatively con-shy--is disregarding the fans by not

attending a large number of conventions.  I'd think they were disregarding

the fans if they went to cons every weekend and made thousands of dollars

in appearance fees and then couldn't perform to the best of their abilities

on the show.

	Maybe I should say right now, before we arrive at the impending discussion

of dues, that if you joined this club in the hope that you'd get to meet

Kate or visit the Paramount lot or get free insider stuff, you're in the

wrong place.  Sure, we'd all like to get perks, and maybe we even feel like

we deserve them for being such devoted fans.  Everyone wants to feel

appreciated.  I'm sure Kate does, which probably explains why she thinks

the Internet is scary: take a look at rec.arts.startrek.current on any

given week, and you're likely to find three times as many nitpicks,

spoilers, and angry rants as intelligent discussions or gleeful

celebrations of the shows.  I have no doubt that we can enlighten Kate

about the wonders of the net.  But if anyone thinks that this can be

accomplished while pressuring her to give even more to the fans than she

already does, it just isn't fair to her.

	I know that there are people here who belong to other actors' fan clubs,

who feel like they can't express their disdain for certain episodes or

frustration with the performances within those clubs.  We're not like that.

We run negative reviews.  We debate politics.  But we never forget why

we're here.  Fandom isn't about complaining that the powers that be aren't

paying enough attention to us. It's about celebrating acommon source of

joy among ourselves, and occasionally working with the creators to make it

better.  Sometimes that means writing letters demanding that TPTB cast a

female captain when they're apparently going back on their word.  Sometimes

that means a lot of input on the net about the idea of having a TNG regular

on DS9.  Sometimes that means knowing when to lay off and let the people

involved in Trek do their jobs.  I think we'd all prefer that Kate give us

the best Janeway she can every week than shake our hands at cons.

	On a "getting what we deserve" note, we're expecting autographed photos

from Kate's publicist any day now.  The good news is that now we can get

them to everyone.  The bad news is that we have to mail them, so you know

what's coming:

	This is the fourth issue of Now Voyager, meaning that for almost everyone

in this club, your first six months of issues are up.  Anyone who joined

before June 1 should have received all issues to date.  Here's the new dues

schedule for people who get this newsletter in print (people who receive it

electronically-only may disregard this notice, as WE owe YOU your

pictures):



U.S.  $25/year

Canada  $30/year U.S. funds ONLY

Overseas  $40/year U.S. funds ONLY



	These rates are effective as of RIGHT NOW.  Meaning that unless this is

the first issue you're receiving, as of RIGHT NOW you need to renew your

membership.  (We are not going to waste additional paper and postage

mailing reminders to people, although we will reiterate via e-mail for

those we can reach that way.)  Our new address is:  8114 Inverness Ridge

Road, Potomac, MD 20854.

	All that said, we think this is a pretty terrific issue.  Enjoy it!





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, 8114 Inverness Ridge Road, Potomac, MD 20854.  You can reach us

online at tigger@cais.com or thepooh@aol.com.  Send SASE for information or

$5 for sample issue.  Dues are subject to change without notice as rising

printing and mailing costs affect our ability to produce this newsletter.



This is a not-for-profit, amateur publication and is not intended to

infringe upon the rights of Paramount Pictures or its licensees.  All

material herein is copyrighted by the authors, except for the copyrights,

trademarks, and patents of Paramount Pictures and its affiliates.  You may

not reproduce any part of this newsletter without written permission of the

editors and/or writers.  If you received this newsletter electronically,

you may not forward it, excerpt any part of it, post the illustrations, nor

disseminate it in any other manner without permission of the editors.



The opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of the editorial

staff, Kate Mulgrew, or Paramount Pictures.





REVIEWZZZZZZZZZZZZ



Since there have been no new episodes since the last issue, we thought it

might be nice to look at the first season as a whole.  This article first

ran in issue #45/46 of CCSTSG Enterprises, a monthly general-interest Star

Trek newsletter published and edited by Jeff Mills. For more information or

a sample issue ($1.50): CCSTSG, 7 Quarry Street, Ellington, CT 06029.



	After 15 episodes of Star Trek: Voyager, I am enjoying this new series a

great deal. The Trek producers keep perfecting their ability to come out of

the starting gate with a package ready to please. This new Star Trek packs

interesting (and largely yet-undeveloped) characters into a nifty new ship,

deposits them in unexplored space, and sends them on the archetypal quest

for Home. Sounds like what some fraternities do to haze their young

pledges.

	Seriously, I think there's a tremendous amount of potential here. The

quest for Federation space inherent in Voyager gives this series an epic

quality shared by Deep Space Nine (given the scope of the underlying

Bajoran/Cardassian story), and also by Babylon 5, but largely missing from

Classic Trek and The Next Generation (see sidebar on story arcs). While the

quest in those ship-based series was "to seek out new life forms and new

civilizations," there was never really a unifying thread. The Voyager's

trip home, however, gives a poignancy to everything the crew does and

encounters--and they can still seek out new life on their journey. Whether

this will still be interesting in four or five years, we'll have to see,

but, for now, the quest presents a wonderful vehicle for self-discovery

while knocking a few of those 70,000 light years off the Voyager's

odometer.

	Media reviews of Voyager (most of them published concurrent with

"Caretaker") have generally been glowing: The New York Times review of Jan.

16 was typical: "It's an ingenious concept, bringing the series back to its

early days of anything-can-happen suspense.  [The] pilot is certainly a

marvel of special effects. Comparing early Star Trek with this is like

comparing The Great Train Robbery with Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space

Odyssey...The messages in Voyager are sometimes underlined a bit too

heavily, but the Roddenberry legacy of futuristic optimism is given yet

another promising liftoff."

	Praise was not universal, however. Scott Williams, of the Associated

Press, for instance, wrote of the premiere: "The Voyager survivors

encounter a decadent techno-theocracy that lives underground on a desert

world, dependent on an off-world 'Caretaker' for food, energy and the like.

For pity's sake! We've only seen this gag four or seven times in classic

Star Trek and Next Generation episodes! How about something new?  The

characters are shallow as dew and atrociously cast from a pool of

second-tier TV actors." Ouch.

	The nitpicking YATI Police were out in full force on the internet in the

days (nay: hours, minutes) following "Caretaker" (and each succeeding

episode). Some fans were nearly in tears over having to negotiate the

occasional inconsistency, and were too easy to damn the entire show for

these gaps. (In fact, the fervent, early response to Voyager YATIs caused

me to create a new term - "netnits" - to describe those whose raison d'etre

is nitpicking on the internet; perhaps the word connotes nitwit, as well.

I'm all for examining inconsistencies in the Trek universe, but let's not

let them ruin our day, people! Nor should they lead you to eject the entire

warp core for the pin-hole breach!)

	Among the most egregious violations in "Caretaker" were the math

associated with the 70-year trip home, and the Kazons' inability to

synthesize water. Briefly, the math problem is as follows, according to one

fan: "Caretaker" states that Voyager is 70,000 light years from home, and

that the ship's maximum sustainable warp factor is 9.975; according to the

Technical Manual, that means Voyager can go 2136.5334 times the speed of

light, so it should only take them 32.763354 years to get home. (Ah, but of

course they haven't been sustaining 9.975...) Statements made in "Where No

One Has Gone Before" (with the Traveler) also confound the math presented

in "Caretaker." As for the Kazons, how could a spacefaring race not know

how to synthesize water? Jeri Taylor's response to this question at a

recent convention: "It's called: a mistake."

	Many fans also pointed out that the proper solution with the array would

have been to use its technology to get home, but first beam in some

time-delayed photon torpedoes, securing its destruction once the Voyager

was safely in Alpha Quadrant. (Ah, but then we wouldn't have a show!).

	There also was a fairly vocal contingent of Mulgrew larynx-bashers after

the premiere. Many fans said they find the captain's husky voice irritating

(probably the same people who commented on Stewart's baldness eight years

prior--both are rude, obnoxious and beside the point).  Well, here's

betting this complaint has worn off after 15 episodes in 95% of the fans

who felt that way. Personally, the voice (and some of the rest of the

package) reminds me of Katherine Hepburn, an actress I admire immensely.



[Photo--"She's the captain..."]



	The main lingering criticism of Voyager is that it is too derivative of

earlier Star Treks. "Phage" could just as easily have been called "Neelix's

Lungs" for instance, mimicking the story line of "Spock's Brain," some say.

"The Cloud" was reminiscent of Classic's "The Immunity Syndrome," and

"Faces" recalled the old "Enemy Within" and certain Next Gen stories.

	True, true, but for me it's still interesting to see new characters in old

situations. I know a lot of people who have lost their jobs, come down with

a major illness, or gone through divorce - it's how each person (and their

support network) reacts to these common events that helps define and depict

their character. I guess I also have more sympathy for the writers than

most fans do, and am willing to accept the occasional derivation (I'm one

of those who really liked the Classic Trek TNG tie-in in "Naked Now," by

the way).  Just as long as they don't begin boilerplating old episodes -

which, clearly, they are not - I'll be satisfied. I'm much more concerned

about bad writing (which they've experimented with--"Ex Post Facto,"

"Cathexis" dialogue, the escape tunnel scene in "Caretaker") than

derivative writing.

	My hopes and concerns include the following, for now:

	*Maquis/Starfleet tension: I hope the writers continue to poke these

cinders, because some interesting sparks fly as a result. Though the two

camps will homogenize with time (and because of their common goal), the

tension between them allows for character depth and dramatic conflict. As

the Cardassian border skirmishes fade from memory, I hope we will continue

to see glances into the worldview and mindset that is the "Maquis way," and

contrast it with the "Starfleet way."

	*The Voyager itself: What a sleek little vessel she is! And what fabulous

visuals during the opening credits! (This show so far has been very easy on

the eyes. On the ears, too: I really dig Mr. Goldsmith's theme!) But what

brilliant engineer decided it needed folding nacelles? Like retractable

headlights, it seems just another moving part to break down. And except for

"Learning Curve," they've really dropped the ball on the bio-neural

circuitry mentioned in the premiere. I figured the ship itself would become

a minor character, with artificial intelligence popping up in interesting

places to solve problems (as of yet, that role has been relegated to the

ship's medical program). I hope they explore this ship's technological

capabilities in greater detail, even at the risk of creating S1-based

YATIs.

	*The 70-year journey: It's possible this crew will be on this ship for a

lot of years together. The quest is only a few months old yet, and there is

still a great deal of hope instilled in the crew; they much more believe

they will find a shortcut home than they despair of growing old and dying

on Voyager. Ultimately, however, like young people finally realizing they

should buy life insurance, the discussion will have to turn to making the

starship a home to the generations. We're talking coupling, we're talking

creating more of a family/community, we're talking building some of the

artistic, religious, social and political institutions that the crew didn't

pack when they left Federation space. These are things you can't get in a

holodeck. How many years will it take for crew members to get tired of

taking orders? And what will the policy be when individual crew members

want to bow out and take up residence on a passing planet (which, though

not home, they view as preferable to dying in space)? The little subplots

associated with being "lost in space" (reserving power supplies, Kes

training in the med-lab, etc.) all remind us this ship is decades from

home; eventually, this mindset must incorporate the notion that it might be

the crew's offspring who pull Voyager into port.



[Photo--"You never bother me...except the way I love to be bothered..."]



	*Starfleet or hybrid? Also, it will be interesting to see how the crew's

sense of the Starfleet mission interrupts or influences the quest to get

home. Will the greater goal be to take diversions in the name of discovery

and first contact, or beeline it for home? And how will Starfleet policy

(the Prime Directive, for instance) evolve under Janeway's command in this

"marooned" scenario? Thus far, she has been rather steadfast in doing the

right thing - infused as she is with a well-developed Starfleet ethic and

strong moral presence (indeed, it's these qualities that have them stranded

in the first place). How Janeway reconciles her two missions (get the ship

home/be a Starfleet ambassador) will continue to make for interesting Star

Trek.

	As for characterization, there's a lot of room to work with. Here are a

few reactions to the Voyager players so far:

	*Captain Janeway: A commanding, charismatic presence, Kate Mulgrew will do

very well in the big chair. Her Janeway is a strong, capable captain, with

scientific expertise to boot. (I look forward to many panel discussions

contrasting her leadership style with her male predecessors in Star Trek.)

I would like to see the captain continue to build friendships with the crew

(something Picard was largely reluctant to do).

	*Chakotay: I've enjoyed watching Chakotay react to the adversity of being

a leader of, really, two different crews. For Chakotay, the Maquis mission

was all about protecting his people; divorced from that scenario, he's

easily able to adjust to his role as first officer of a Starfleet vessel.

He must grapple with his rebellious ex-shipmates, however, and that makes

for interesting exchanges. I also look forward to exploring more of the

spiritual/ritualistic side of Chakotay's Amerind heritage, and want to see

more of his old friendship with Torres, and his new one with Captain

Janeway.

	*Tuvok: I have no idea how the rest of fandom feels, but so far, for me,

Tim Russ isn't getting it done as a Vulcan. He's stiff the way I thought

Riker was stiff in his first few seasons. There's no nuance there: it's

simply dialogue (I felt the same way about Robin Curtis). Perhaps what's

missing is a sense of the inner struggle to suppress emotions (which we

know from "Sarek," among others, is something all Vulcans face--not just

human-Vulcan hybrids.) But Tim and the writers will come around.

Regardless, I am pleased there's a Vulcan aboard--especially one who has a

history with the captain.

	*Kes: Kes is character potential waiting to happen. They've done virtually

nothing with the fact that the Ocampa live to be only nine Earth years old,

and the perspectives she should have on the meaning of each day compared

with those around her. (Imagine being singled out and plunked in the middle

of a community in which everybody but you lives to be 750 years old--that's

how it is with Kes.) She's proven herself a capable aid to the doctor--it

makes sense that the Ocampa are very fast learners - and their interaction

has been fun to watch. Kes's Guinan-like insights also provide interesting

story potential (though talk about derivative!). As for her relationship

with Neelix, it still seems an unlikely pairing to me, but we'll see where

it goes.

	*Neelix: His skills as an everyman/handyman were a bit oversold in the

premiere, but in his quirky way, Neelix will give us the occasional

fascinating Talaxian insight into humanity. He also offers a bit of the

"civilian viewpoint" (I think Kes feels much more a part of the crew than

he does) that carrying hundreds of family members on the Enterprise-D never

really accomplished. I am confident that in a future episode we'll discover

that Neelix and Quark use the same tailor.

	*Doctor ???: He's yet to be named, but he's captured the imagination of

Voyager fans, being called the "breakaway character" thus far. I was a big

fan of Robert Picardo's doctor in China Beach. His character in Voyager is

not altogether different: they're both snitty, witty, and accomplished

physicians. The better episodes featuring the doctor will use the character

as a foil --a funny one, at that!--to explore the question, "What rights do

(seemingly sentient) holograms have?"--just as we explored a similar

question with Data. Or, just how much humanity can you get out of a

non-human yet human-like, human-created machine?

	*Harry Kim: "Harry, Harry, Harry, Harry..." Harry Kim is a bit of a

stereotype - the mean green rookie machine - waiting for more substance.

The kid's got spunk and integrity and talent. At this juncture, all I can

say is: more, please.

	*Tom Paris: The pilot's pilot, Tom Paris gets my vote for "Star Trek

character you'd most like to knock back a few cold ones and watch the

Rangers game with." Something of a ladies man--okay, he's a playboy --Paris

seems to have lost the rough, bad boy edge he had in the series premiere.

And why not? He's a free man now, flying a nifty ship and living in a

community of peers who depend on his expertise. Paris (and some others from

the Maquis side) brings a street-smart, almost (dare I say it?) "hip"

quality to the mix. Nice.



[Photo--"You were going to deliver us into their waiting hands?"]



	*B'Elanna Torres: Torres' internal struggle reminds one of Spock's. While

she tends to suppress her Klingonness, I'm hoping we'll be able to see how

Torres reconciles her warrior instincts with the Klingon issues of honor

and duty, from the perspective of a Klingon female. The excellent scene in

"Prime Factors," in which Torres rebukes Seska for wanting to cover up

their theft of the alien technology shows us her other conflict, between

her loyalties to her Maquis shipmates and her new Starfleet officers. Now

if we could just temper the techno-babble...

And so, onward and upward with this new Trek. As with previous series, this

one asks the Big Questions and gives us little pieces of the Big Puzzle to

fit together in our own way. What more could you want out of Star Trek?

	Much is made of Babylon 5's story arc (essentially, the main story and

character developments are mapped out in advance, so that J. Michael

Straczynski knows what his landing points will be; the individual episodes

fill in the details). A story arc allows the producers to have individual

stories with an ongoing cast, but gives those stories unifying threads.

Think of them as a child's building blocks: each is distinct, but when

they're piled atop each other, you get something bigger.  When an architect

gets to work the blocks, you get something not only bigger, but

artistically pleasing.

	The Next Generation was more like several dozen blocks strewn on the

floor, with four or five piled here and there (Klingon homeworld

developments and the Borg storyline being the biggest piles). Not that

there's anything wrong with self-standing episodes --lord knows there were

many, many good ones--but if you can tell those stories in the context of a

larger story, well, it's all the more interesting. And having a story arc

gives you the forethought to avoid the likes of "Conspiracy" and such

inconsistencies as who/what the Trill or Ferengi are all about, for

example.

	An arc also allows you to have growth. One of the stifling things about

The Next Generation was that, for many seasons, most of the characters

weren't allowed to go anywhere - like their ship, they were returned to

stasis at episode's end. In fact, you could argue that a few of the

characters are the same people in "All Good Things..." that they were in

"Encounter at Farpoint" - which may be realistic, but makes for somewhat

boring drama. In contrast, there's a definite story arc going on over at

DS9, involving Bajoran politics, Cardassian influence, Maquis resistence,

the Dominion, and DS9 in the middle of it all - though sometimes you have

to wonder whether it's truly an arc (which implies planning), or whether

different toddlers are coming in the room and putting the next block on.

	The Voyager producers seem to be experimenting with character growth much

more zealously than in previous series: the doctor (who's trying to figure

out - as we are - where he stands as a sentient hologram), Torres (becoming

"more Starfleet"), Kes (in her new role as "medical student"). This is not

status quo Star Trek. The defection of Seska mid-season suggests there's a

plan, an arc. (Either that, or there's some problem with Martha Hackett

continuing in the role - ugh!).  To Mssrs. Berman, Piller and Ms. Taylor:

Do you know where you're going with this crew (if not back to Alpha

Quadrant)? I urge you to think it through, because it probably makes better

Star Trek.



-- Jeff Mills





THE FUNNY PAGES



NEELIX'S ONLINE ADVICE COLUMN!



Brought to you by your very own Morale Officer, courtesy L.R. Bowen who was

kind enough to forward it to us!   This column appears as part of the

weekly Ship Newsletter and Recipe Exchange. Contributions welcome.  Send to

thebigcheese@ galxyclass.voy.stf.



Dear Neelix:



I am a high-ranking officer on the Voyager and have a problem so sensitive

I cannot share it with anyone, except anonymously. My superior has the

habit of touching me, sometimes for a reason, but mostly because she just

likes to get her paws on me, I think. This wouldn't bother me so much, as

my people are stoic and wise as a general rule, but I would like to get my

paws on her as well, and her constant clapping on the shoulder, grabbing my

arm, etc., is eroding my self-control. I constantly imagine her hair coming

down when we get into those nebulas and things that toss us around the

bridge, or flinging myself at her in a turbolift, except that they rarely,

if ever, get stuck between decks. I actually considered asking an old

friend of mine who works in Engineering to sabotage the system, but went

and talked to an animal to calm myself down. Canines are not much help with

a problem like this. What should I do?



Noble Savage



Dear Savage:



Oh, come on! How bad could it be? What's she going to do, get you thrown in

the brig? Get a grip and tell her how you feel. The hell with flowers and

candy! If she's going to play rough, so should you--grab her right back in

some unmistakable portion of the anatomy. I find that a good session

between the sheets can smooth out the most turbulent of relationships. Heh,

heh. If I do say so myself. Just walk right up to her and say, "Your sweet

little tushie makes my heart sing." Or something like that.



Dear Neelix:



I am suffering from deep guilt over a love affair that must inevitably come

to an end, and soon. The person involved is very sweet, and has done a lot

for me, including risking his life by lying to Captain Janeway to get me

out of a pinch. He means well, but he doesn't realize I only slept with him

in the first place to try to escape a bad situation, and that I really

don't like smelly concoctions in our quarters and bristles in the sink. The

best years of my life are passing me by, and I don't know how to tell him

that it was all a mistake and that I'm in love with a computer animation

with much less hair. Can you help?



Gelfling



Dear Gelfling:



How sad. But he can't be left in the dark much longer. It must really be

obvious to him by now, anyway. No one can miss the signs of love gone sour.

You won't be handing him a surprise, trust me. Both of you will feel better

once everything is out in the open. I know that my partner and I are

completely honest with each other, and that's the best policy. Do it

tonight, as soon as possible. Golly--if he leaves bristles in the sink, no

great loss.

Dear Neelix:



I'm burning up with a secret that no one on the ship knows about, and I'm

not sure I can stand it anymore. I'm not what I appear to be, and my real

self would disgust everyone if they found out. Plus the man I want has a

thing about killing people like me. But I'm afraid I'll just blurt it out

someday over mushroom soup, and ruin everything. What's your advice?



Two Faced



Dear Two:



You'd be surprised how accepting people can be of secrets we think are

unspeakable. You should get all your friends together, and make an

announcement. In fact, the captain would probably be willing to let you use

the shipwide intercom if you explained the situation to her. I've seen the

outpouring of love that can happen when someone has shared a real

confidence. It shows trust in your fellows, and helps bind us all together

as a group. After all, it's not like you were a surgically altered alien

infiltrator.



Dear Neelix:



I am an officer who was recently passed over for promotion when an opening

occurred. Instead of advancement from within the ranks, my superior chose

to bring in outside talent. I suppose the decision was a logical one under

the circumstances, but I cannnot help but feel overlooked. I have nearly

six more decades of experience than the person who was chosen for the post,

and he seems to be trying to rub it in; he needles me, drops inappropriate

witticisms, makes slurs against my species, and gives me unsolicited

lectures. I do not believe I can take this up with my superior, as I sense

that her mind is closed on the subject, and I made a serious error some

time ago that has caused a slight estrangement. What do you suggest?  (P.S.

I think she likes to get her paws on him, too.)



I Am Not Spock



Dear Spock:



Wow, I'm hearing a lot of anger there. You must be absolutely boiling with

rage, humiliation and disappointment. Those emotions are going to eat you

up if you don't let them out. Perhaps you can't go to your superior, but

give yourself permission to express your feelings! Get mad! Chew the fellow

out, if he says things that irritate you. You'd be amazed how that can

clear the air between people. Then you can go have a drink and get silly

together, and maybe shoot a little pool.



Dear Neelix:



I don't feel like I'm really a member of this crew. The captain assures me

I am, and so does my assistant, but most people just turn me off at will

and ignore me. I'm very well trained in my field and confident of my

abilities, but I can't help but feel there is something about me that

alienates people. They only come to me when they have a problem or a

complaint, and then give me a hard time about my attitude. How can I change

their perception of me?



The Real McCoy



Dear Real:



You are going to have to come to THEM. Don't just sit in your office all

day--get out and mingle! Come to the dining room and stay awhile as you

eat. I'm doing shplicht dumplings in leola root broth tonight. Now that's a

dish to linger over! Despite your abilities, you may have a self-esteem

problem. Turn yourself on to yourself! You are a unique individual that

cannot be duplicated. Take comfort in the fact that we are all living,

breathing organisms with a natural bond of flesh and blood. No one's

perfect; we all have to put our pants on in the morning one leg at a time.



Dear Neelix:



I'm confused by the behavior of a subordinate, but I really don't know how

to question him about it, or even if I should. He's in a position of great

responsibility and ought to have a lot of input, but he can really be a

clam. I don't know if it's something I said, or if he's thinking, or if

he's just shy. Then again I'll have the oddest feeling that he wants to say

something, like in meetings, but there is some--I don't know, some higher

power holding him back. (Maybe that's why he never reacts when I get my

paws on him.) He sits there with a look of expectation, like he's waiting

for--a cue, or something, and nothing happens. As a result, I feel like I

have to go along with any suggestions he does manage to make, no matter how

unscientific they are--I mean, really, what are a bunch of decomposed

corpses going to care if he turns his tricorder on in the same room? Don't

get me started. At any rate, I have the strange notion that someone is

pulling his strings--perhaps all our strings, and not letting us do

everything the way we would if we had true free will. Frankly, I'm still

not sure why I thought that skanky guy on--well, never mind about that. Is

this a good time to mention that I've been having bad dreams about living

on ancient Earth and being married to a short police detective who is never

home?  And I had the DAMNDEST fantasy the other day about Commander

Sisko...



Mystery Woman



Dear Mystery:



Certainly we all have free will! We are real people in the real universe--I

mean, how many other universes could there be? Ha ha. The thought of

someone pulling our strings is absurd! When have we on the Voyager ever

done anything that didn't make sense in the context? Having the command

crew stand around while aliens infected with a hideous disease told them

all about it in gruesome detail made a great scene! And if Chakotay had

thought to have Lt. Paris type,"Tuvok's Been Possessed by Aliens" on a padd

and hand it to the captain, that would have been an awfully short episode!

What could be more indicative of free will than that? We do what we have to

to survive, and if the show gets canceled, we get stuck in an endless time

loop of repeats. I mean, look what happened to the Enterprise-A.



Dear Neelix:



I have the feeling that I'm living a double life. People keep referring to

me as "Nicholas", even though that's not my name, and looking at me funny

and saying, "Haven't I seen you someplace before? I'm positive I know your

face." And at Starfleet Academy, I kept getting some other guy's

transcripts and room assignments. Whoever this person is who is walking

around with my identity, it seems he was a real scumball and covered up

someone's death in a piloting accident by lying about his involvement. Wait

a minute, that applies to me too. Now I'm really confused.



Hot Shot



Dear Hot:



Sounds like a classic case of displacement. You feel guilt about what

you've done, so you attribute those actions to another person entirely!

Maybe there's someone out there who looks something like you, but exact

duplicates? Never! Humanoid genes are too complex and the combinations too

myriad for that to ever happen. What a strange world it would be if that

were possible. Though it seems to me Dr. Jetrel had a heckuva lot in common

with a Romulan, a Klingon, and some other people I read about in the

library banks.



Dear Neelix:



I am troubled by bad dreams and portents that I cannot explain. I keep

seeing my face on someone else's head. What could the symbolism be? Is it a

metaphor for loss of identity? Please respond soon.



Expendable



Dear Expendable:



Oh, I don't believe all that crap about dreams. It's just a nightmare. Been

eating too much replicated food, probably. In a month, you'll be looking at

this from the other side and having a good laugh at yourself.



'Bye till next time! I'm still waiting for responses to my latest weekly

poll: "What's Your Favorite Talaxian Speciality?" Remember, the winner of

the random drawing gets a big hunk of my homemade cheese! We'll be having

tryouts for the musical revue early next month, I promise. As soon as I get

another batch of flyers made--the ones I posted were all accidentally

recycled! Ha ha, what a slip!



[Photo--J/C]



SOMETIMES WHEN WE TOUCH



Here's the DEFINITIVE first-season senior-officer Touchy-Feely-Captain

Count, courtesy our overseas Voyager Voyeurs:



Chakotay:  10

Paris:  8

Kim:  6

Torres:  4

Kes:  3

Tuvok:  2

Neelix:  2

Doc:  1



BLOWING OFF STEAM



Jennifer Pelland (Siubhan) has been spying on the captain again.  As usual,

Paramount owns the characters, but Siubhan owns what she did to them.

Thanks to  her co-worker Erin for pointing out that Kes really does look

like a Keebler Elf.



	Janeway stood in front of the holodeck doors, brow furrowed in thought.

She had pondered running her Victorian holonovel, but somehow the idea of

tutoring obnoxious blonde English brats didn't sound relaxing. She'd had a

tough day, and she wanted to cut loose and unwind.  A flush crept her face

as she realized which programs she could run. No...not one of those. That

wasn't what she needed right now.

	She strode through the doors of the holodeck and stood silently in the

center of the yellow grid, weighing her options. Suddenly, she realized

what she needed to do.

	"Computer, run a program of my ready room." It winked to life around her,

and she smiled and sat down behind her desk. This would be fun.  "Time to

blow off a little steam. Computer, I'd like a series of interactive

holograms based on the members of the crew. Start with Lieutenant Tom

Paris."

	A hologramatic Tom winked into existence in front of her desk and looked

at her in that way that only Tom could. She fixed him with a serious gaze

and said, "Sit down, lieutenant. I suppose you're wondering why I asked you

here."

	"Well, yeah, actually."

	She stood up and hollered, "Because I'm sick to death of your cocky, hot

shot attitude!"  The hologram's eyes widened as a pink flush crept into his

cheeks, but he said nothing.  "You heard me, mister!," she continued with

gusto. "You're not half the man your father was, and yet you parade your

attitude all over the ship, picking up women like flies to roadkill, and

you expect me to just sit there and take it?!? Grow up!!!" She sat back

down and calmly said, "Dismissed."

	The holographic Tom slunk out of her ready room like a dog with its tail

between its legs. "I've always wanted to say that," she said as she leaned

back in her chair. "Computer, new hologram... Commander Chakotay."

Chakotay promptly appeared before her. "Sit down, Commander." With a

half-smile, he complied.

	Janeway leaned forward and asked, "I was wondering if you had a pulse?"

	"Excuse me?" Chakotay asked, obviously perplexed.

	"You heard me. Every day you sit next to me on the bridge playing 'More

Placid than Thou,' and I can't help but wonder if you're even awake. I

mean, look at that half-smile you're so fond of flashing. Are you afraid

you'll break out into a sweat if you really smile? What does it take to get

you riled up anyway? Your ex-lover turns out to be a Cardassian spy, and

you just keep chugging along with no discernable change in your heart rate.

It's unreal! You're just too damn calm! You're not a man, you're a tree

sloth! Get out of here!"

	A cowed yet placid Chakotay left her ready room, and Janeway's grin grew

even wider. Who next? Ah. "Computer, I'm ready for Ensign Harry Kim."

	His hologram appeared, and she said, "At ease, before you sprain

something. I love that line. You know, I think I'm going to put it in your

permanent record. You're just too damn perky, too eager. At first I found

it endearing, but now it's just getting to be annoying. You make me feel

old, Mr. Kim. I should put you on a hamster wheel and connect you to the

warp drive. We'd get home in no time. No, scratch that. I think I'll have

you give Chakotay an adrenaline donation. Maybe that will wake him up. All

right, I'm done with you. Dismissed." She hadn't even let him get a word in

edgewise, but she didn't care.

	"Computer, give me Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres." After she had fully

materialized, Janeway simply said, "I want you to march straight to sickbay

and get the doctor to put you on Valium. No arguments, just do it.

Dismissed."

	Tuvok was next on her hit list. She stood up gravely and walked around to

stand face to face with her old friend. "Mr. Tuvok," she said, "my friend,

my confidante. Where would I be without your logic, without your

dispassionate sensibilities? I have come to rely on your presence,

especially out here in the Delta Quadrant." Moving slowly closer, she said,

"I've always wanted to do this."

	Tuvok looked at her with a puzzled expression which rather abruptly

changed as her fingers flew out and started tickling him across his sides.

His image broke out into very uncharacteristic giggles, and Janeway smiled

happily to herself. She'd always wanted to see her somber companion cut

loose . "Dismissed."

	Neelix...ah Neelix. The little Talaxian materialized and she gestured

toward a chair and said, "Please, sit down."

	"What can I do for you, Captain?" he asked helpfully. Sitting on the

corner of her desk, Janeway leaned forward and said, "Neelix, we really do

appreciate all the work you've been doing for this ship, but there's just

one problem."

	"Problem?"

	"Yes, problem. You're a rotten cook. The food you produce is downright

frightening! Why, I've had nightmares that left me feeling happier than

your cuisine. Do you really like the slop you cook? Because if you do, then

we've got a little problem here. I don't think I can put up with another 75

years of gastric distress."

	"What do you suggest I do?" he squealed.

	"Stop 'spicing up' the recipes in the database and just cook things right!

Dismissed."

	The Doctor was next on her list...but she realized that she really didn't

have anything to say to him. He'd been improving admirably, and besides,

she secretly thought that he had a hysterically dry sense of humor. Never

mind him, then. Kes would have to finish out her session.

	After the pert little hologram appeared, Janeway motioned for her to sit

down. With a sweet smile, she did. "Hello, Kes."

	"Hello, Captain. Why did you want to see me?"

	"Kes, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but you resemble a figure

from old Earth mythology called a 'Keebler Elf'."

	"Oh dear," she replied. "That doesn't sound good."

	Janeway shook her head seriously. "No, it's not. After the start of the

twenty-first century we had something called 'The Keebler Riots' where

people burned Keebler Elves in effigy all across the Western Hemisphere.

It's an ugly period in our history, and unfortunately, you're a daily

reminder of it."

	"Oh no! I had no idea! What can I do?" Kes replied, obviously distressed

by this revelation.

	"Well, you could get some more hair for a start, and maybe you could wear

slightly more somber attire. Have you ever considered an ear bob?"

	"No..."

	"Well start thinking about it. Dismissed." Kes winked out of existence,

and Janeway leaned back with a smile. That had been very satisfying.  Very,

very satisfying. She'd sleep well tonight. With a bounce to her step, she

shut off the program and exited.

	Tom Paris was heading toward the holodeck as she left, and was surprised

to see her looking so cheery. She tilted her head toward him, saying,

"Hiya, Tom!" as she sauntered by.

	Tom's eyes nearly fell out of his head. Janeway saying "Hiya"? No way.

	With a shrug, he entered the holodeck and pondered his options.

Sandrine's? No, not tonight. Swimming? Nah. Suddenly a grin crept across

his face. He knew what he wanted.

	"Computer, create holographic image of Commander Chakotay." Chakotay

winked to life, and before he could react, Tom slugged him. The hologram

crumpled to the floor, and Tom smiled broadly.

	"Okay, computer, delete Chakotay and replace him with Tuvok..."





THE KATE MULGREW FILM FESTIVAL COLUMN



Despite popular rumor, as far as we can tell there was never a show called

Mrs. Columbo.  These are the two shows for which Kate Mulgrew was most

famous before Voyager:



RYAN'S HOPE

by Janet Borikowski



	Back in 1974, ABC introduced a new soap opera. Ryan's Hope was intended to

be a realistic daytime drama centering on the lives of Johnny and Maeve

Ryan (the late Bernard Barrow and Helen Gallager), whose bar was the main

setting for the story.  But as any fan of the show can tell you, Mary

Ryan--Kate Mulgrew's character--soon became a major focus of the show.

	The numerous Ryan children included (in order by age) Kathleen, the

rarely-seen oldest, married and living in Philadelphia; Frank, an ex-cop

who at the opening of the series was running for city council; Patrick, an

intern at the nearby hospital; Mary, a cub reporter; and Siobhan

(pronounced  Shivon', it's Gaelic), the youngest, who eventually became a

cop.  Other important characters were the Coleridges: Edward, a doctor,

father to Roger, another doctor, bon vivant and arrogant jerk; Jillian,

lawyer and adopted daughter, true love to Frank Ryan; and Faith, another

doctor and Pat Ryan's sometime girlfriend. And there were the Reids: Bob,

Frank's best friend and ex-partner, and Delia, Bob's sister and Frank's

ex-wife, a major flake. Delia despised by Mary Ryan, had a fixation on

being a Ryan somehow, and married creatively to attain this status to the

point where her name eventaully read something like Delia Reid Ryan Ryan

Coleridge.

	I watched Ryan's Hope faithfully for all but the last few years, when

owing to a change in the writing staff, around the time Kate Mulgrew left

the series, the show declined into your average soap with bad scripts. When

Mulgrew left, the title Ryan of the show seemed to be missing.

	The series started out with Mary Ryan, the adored, rebellious daughter,

living with her parents, who resided upstairs from the bar, where most of

the action took place. She got along well with her family--perhaps better

with her father than her mother--but despised fellow reporter Jack Finelli

(played by Michael Levin). Thislasted for about a week before she fell

into bed with him, an absolutely scandalous event for the times. Even so,

they continued to have spectacular Irish vs. Italian fights all the way

through their relationship. Mary and Jack's place became the other main

location for the show (the hospital and the Coleridges' house were strictly

secondary locales) where they progressed through living together, marriage,

daughter (Ryan Finelli), break-up, divorce (or near divorce, it's hard to

remember), until Kate Mulgrew left the show. The replacement was a woman

not nearly so well liked who lasted only a couple of months before the Mary

Ryan character was rubbed out by the mob, who were supposedly gunning for

Jack. In an interesting epitaph, when Mary's ghost visited the widower

Jack, she was again played by Mulgrew.

	In the many years since its demise, I have been amazed at how many actors

from "Ryan's Hope" have gone on to bigger and better things--including Star

Trek.  Among the Trek actors have been Andrew Robinson [Garak, DS9] as one

of the many Franks--there were at least 5 of them and maybe 2 or 3 more

that I missed; James Sloyan [Romulan, future Alexander, TNG, Dr. Mora, DS9,

Jetrel, VOY] as Siobhan's detective partner; Catherine Hicks [Gillian,

ST:TVH] as Dr. Faith Coleridge for a couple of years; and my personal

favorite, Nana Visitor [Kira, DS9], as Sarah Feldman, a nice Jewish lawyer

who ran off to Arizona with Pat Ryan. Oddly enough, when the couple

subsequently broke up and Pat came back to New York, he was played by the

actor who was Cavit, Captain Janeway's first officer on the pilot episode

of Voyager.

	I'm sure I've left people out. It has, after all, been a long since it was

on. But the one conclusion I've come to is that at one time or another,

everyone was on Ryan's Hope and that Frank Ryan must have been a changeling

since his face was always changing!



KATE LOVES A MYSTERY

By DeAnn G. Rossetti



	You will have to forgive the vague nature of this review, as it has been

about 13 years since I have seen this show, though I do remember certain

things about it quite clearly.  I remember thinking, first of all, that

Kate Mulgrew appeared to be such a tall woman, and with all that chestnut

hair flowing behind her as she gave chase to the criminal, she made quite a

lovely sight on the 'small screen'. Another thing I remember is that she

had a bassett hound whom she occaisionally talked to, and the the chief of

police seemed to be an outrageous flirt, always saying suggestive things to

a woman who, by the title of the program, was supposedly married to a guy

who could tell at a glance if there were any hanky-panky going on! One

episode that is clearer than the others in my memory banks involved a

theater troupe and a 'woman scorned' who was assumed to have killed off her

lying husband. Enter Kate, who of course tracked down the killer and proved

that it was actually the play's producer, who was being blackmailed, who

did the grisly deed.

	Which brings me to one of the things I enjoyed most about Kate Columbo,

and the later re-packaged show Kate Loves a Mystery; women often got as

much screen time as men, and a majority of them were not 'bimbos' but

intelligent, professional women who knew what they were about.  No mean

feat in the 70's!

Chief among these was the ever-competent Kate, who always had a wise-crack

on her lips and no fear in her heart. She always trapped the killer

herself, usually moments after he confessed to being a raging psycho from

hell, or Cleveland as the case may be. There she'd be, cornered with the

creep, glaring at him with that unmistakable, unblinking gaze, anger and

fear lurking just beneath the surface of her outwardly calm expression. She

wore those vile 70's knit pantsuits, and for some odd reason the powers

that be always had her wearing a brightly-colored scarf around her neck

which made her look a bit like a librarian. She also had reading glasses,

and those preposterous platform shoes. Perhaps that's why she appeared so

tall to me. When I finally met her a year later, I was amazed at how petite

she was, and how television cameras distorted that small frame and slight

build into Amazonian proportions.

	The show aired in my hometown right after Barnaby Jones and just before

The Rockford Files and Barney Miller, so I tend to think of them all in one

lump, as the "70's Cops 'N' Robbers in Tasteless Clothing" era. Of all the

others, though, Mrs. Columbo was similar in style to The Rockford Files and

like Barnaby Jones in that the mystery-solving was left to one main

character, in this case, Kate. She often talked on the phone with Mr.

Columbo, but we never actually heard his voice, and I never recall seeing

him on the show. I gather, from Kate's comments a year later, that she got

tired of that particular charade, and that's one reason the show became

Kate Loves A Mystery which excluded reference to you-know-who and put the

burden of carrying the show directly on Kate's able shoulders. I recall

that in Kate Loves A Mystery, she worked at a newspaper as a reporter, and

that same flirtatious police chief had to ask her to refrain form

publishing details of a crime, to which she responded (and I am

paraphrasing here) "No way, bucko! I can give you 24 hours, but then it's

going out in the morning edition!" I admired the way her character managed

to be assertive without being offensive or aggressive; it's one of the

things I still like about her as Janeway. I am just glad she doesn't have

to wear platform shoes and a neck scarf with her uniform!





VOYAGER PEOPLE



Our intrepid reporter , who works in a special effects shop in Tinseltown,

finds out all about one of Voyager's visual effects supervisors...and tells

uswhy she enjoys her job!



DAVID STIPES

by Julie Aiken



	I love my job. I work in a place where crates are delivered labeled "KAZON

FIGHTER." And I get paid for it!  To be perfectly honest, the special

effects shop where I work--Chiodo Bros. Productions-- doesn't really have

anything to do with Star Trek: Voyager. But one of our effects supervisors,

Anthony Doublin, does freelance work for Voyager (and used to for Next

Generation), so I have grown accustomed to seeing asteroids and oozing

lifeforms and Kazon ships lying around. Except I never really get used to

it. Every time a fax comes through for Tony from Paramount, I still find

myself grinning. Like I said, I love my job.

	It was through Tony that I got a chance to meet David Stipes, one of

Voyager's two visual effects supervisors. I got to wondering exactly what

that title meant, and what it was like to actually work on the set of our

favorite sci-fi show. What kind of person ends up working on Star Trek

anyway? When I sat down and interviewed David, I got the answer I

expected--someone who is smart, creative, thoughtful, talented... and

really into the show!



NOW VOYAGER: So, I wanted to get some background first...



DAVID STIPES: Sure.



NV: Find out where you're from and what your story is. [laughter]



DS: Where I'm from...



NV: Long time ago, huh?



DS: Well, yeah. I've been involved in the film industry for 26 years now.

My first real professional paying work was 1969, although I actually did

work on a feature film even a little earlier than that. '67, '66?



NV: What did you work on then?



DS: That was Equinox. Dennis Mirren's first film.



NV: So are you from out here [California]?



DS: I was born in Texas, but I've lived out here most of my life.



NV: Whatever possessed you to get into this business?



DS: Oh. Well... Even when I was very young, like third, fourth grade, I

happened to see King Kong and then Son of Kong, and I knew something

special was going on. I didn't know what it was, but I knew that it was

particularly fascinating. There was something special about what was

happening there. I was deeply impressed. When I got to about sixth grade,

going into junior high school, it was just about the time they were having

monster magazines. Famous Monsters of Film Land, Mad Monsters, Screen

Thrills Illustrated--all these different things that Troy Ackerman and a

lot of the other guys were doing. I just got every one of them I could. And

was absolutely fascinated. I discovered Willis O'Brian, who did King Kong,

and I discovered Ray Harryhausen, who did Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. And I

was seeing a lot of these different films. The stop-motion animation stuff

really appealed to me.

	Through Famous Monsters I got a chance to meet David Allen, who was living

in Orange County at the time I was living there. And through David I got a

chance to meet Dennis Mirren and Jim Danforth. And through them I met

Brooke Elison at Cascade Pictures. Jim was working at Cascade. David

eventually started working at Cascade. I'd go down there and visit them,

and finally got a chance to do a little animation test.

	And then they called me in to help out on "Kellogg's Cocoa Crispies" in

1969. I got a chance to come in and help out a little bit. Do a little stop

motion. I was animating rocks in the background. [laughter] But it was fun.

It was a great experience.



NV: How old were you in 1969?



DS: Oh, wow...



NV: Or do you not want to tell me?



DS: That would be 21.



NV: Just a baby.



DS: Yeah, 1969 I was 21.



NV: Now, 1969... Were you at all into the original Star Trek?



DS: Yeah! I actually went and applied to work on the original Star Trek

during the very last season. But I was pretty green. So my work wasn't

anywhere up to snuff for what they needed. So getting a chance to work on

Star Trek now has been a 25 year dream. I did have a chance to work with

Dan Curry a little bit on Star Trek: The Next Generation the first and

second seasons. I did like three different stop-motion creatures for

"Conspiracy," I believe the episode was called. It was the wrap-up episode

with the little creatures that crawled out of the woman's mouth. I did

that.

	So a few little shots here and there. But I didn't get a chance to do too

much. And then three years ago, that would have been '92? I heard that they

were going to be starting a new series called Deep Space Nine. And so I

called up to see if a position was open. I had been running my own business

since 1981, so I had been going full time working on all kinds of different

things. But I must admit I was getting pretty tired of it. I was tired of

the financial responsibility and the employee problems, etc. I'm an

excellent visual effects designer and supervisor, and wanted to be doing

that. I wanted to be doing the photography and design, as opposed to being

an administrator.

	So... I talked to them. They said, "We'd love to have you, David, but we

need somebody full time who doesn't have split responsibilities." So I

closed my business and started there full time. As it turned out, they'd

already hired some people to work on Deep Space Nine, but that had created

a vacancy on Star Trek: The Next Generation. So I got a chance to go work

on that. And I got a chance to work on some really nifty episodes. The

second episode I worked on was "Relics" which had James Doohan as Scotty.

It was absolutely delightful to meet him. We had a chance to work on some

neat ones.



NV: Did you get an Emmy for Next Generation?



DS: Yes, we sure did. It was for the very last episode, called All Good

Things. I was one of the visual effects supervisors, working with Dan

Curry. Dan Curry was the visual effects producer. Dan Curry, Michael

McCraxis who is one of the coordinators, Adam Howard who's the

animator/artist, and Scott Rader who is the editor. All of us got Emmys for

that.



NV: That's great.



DS: That was the final episode, and that was a big two hour special. We had

lots and lots of shots. It was really pretty spectacular.



NV: Now, what is your title on Voyager? Visual effects supervisor?



DS: Visual effects supervisor. There are two teams. One team--we're doing

the odd numbered shows this year--is composed of Joe Bauer, who's my

effects coordinator, and myself. The other team is Ron Moore and I think

it's going to be Art Cutrone this year. And then Dan Curry is the visual

effects producer. And the man who's in charge of all the post production

work is Peter Lauritsen. So all of us work together as a pretty good team.



NV: What goes into visual effects? That's not makeup effects, right?   Everything else?



DS: No makeup effects. We're talking visual effects as opposed to special

effects. Probably the easiest way to say it is that special effects are the

things that include explosions, on-set when you fly somebody or you make

something fly up out of the ground. That kind of thing. We are involved

with the visual effects. The classic thing would be optical printing work,

or stop-motion, or motion control. Now we're doing a lot of our compositing

with digital. So we get to design those things that are not involved with

on-set work. Although there are times we will go on the set to supervise

things that we will have to add later. Such as a phaser. Or we have to make

sure that a blue screen is going to work where we will add visual effects

later. That kind of thing.



NV: Is there an effect you created in the first season of Voyager that's

particularly memorable? Either because it was hellaciously difficult or it

was hard to meet a deadline, or because it looked really cool, or for

whatever reason?



DS: Well, in the first season, my very favorite episode, I think, was

"Emanations."  That involved a considerable challenge. It had a really

great script, great concept. It was the one where Harry Kim is switched

into another dimension. The "emanation" is the afterlife for the race of

aliens in this dimension. And at the point where this woman's body is being

deposited on this asteroid, Harry Kim is there and all of a sudden he gets

switched over to the other side. And he wakes up in the other dimension,

and they think that he's come back from death. The afterlife, or the

"emanation" as they call it. So he is totally freaking out this other alien

culture, and they're getting challenged in their belief systems. The woman

who thinks she has died is being challenged in her belief system, since

they revive her.



NV: On Voyager.



DS: Right. On Voyager. In the story what's happening is there's a great

ring of asteroids around this planet, and the bodies are being deposited

into the asteroids. And there are so many bodies that they've deposited

there for so many eons that the asteroids are actually filled with millions

of bodies. And so we have this great number of asteroid shots. The budget

was very tight. They were basically going to show the asteroid ring as a

graphic in cut number two, and we were going to see a ringed planet in cut

number one, and sort of talk about it from then on and never see it.

	I kept talking with the producers and the writers, and Jeri Taylor, who is

one of the producers and also writing supervisor, was very gracious and

said that if we could keep to the budget, she would let us go ahead and try

to do some other shots. David Livingston, who was the director, who was

also one of the producers at the time, agreed and thought it was very

exciting to try to do some more shots. We wound up doing these shots at

Amblin Imaging, which is a computer-generated imagery facility. Amblin

Imaging does the computer-generated imagery for SeaQuest. And we had hired

them to create a Voyager for us early on in the season for the pilot

episode. So we had this Voyager model.

	And then we went in and designed shots and the guys did a great job

creating thousands and thousands of asteroids for me, which I would not

have been able to do with the budget we had in conventional photography.

The shots were very exciting, and it was a great learning experience for

me. And we got very neat shots that were able to strengthen the concept of

the script without going over budget. Everyone was very excited about it,

and I think everyone was pretty happy with it. I know I was. Grant Bouchet

and John Gross and John Forenzo and Bruce Hall were some of the people over

there at Amblin Imaging. They did a great job for us.



NV: You don't work with the actors very much, do you?



DS: For the most part I do not. We will go on set from time to time.



NV: Do you have any impressions, or any encounters or anecdotes about

anyone?  Kate, of course, is who my readers know and love the best, but

your impressions of anyone that you've worked with would be great.



DS: I have found the people in this cast to be exceptionally gracious and

kind and patient. And I'm not saying that just to blow smoke. I mean, it's

true. I've not had a chance to work with Kate as much as I would like. But

we wound up working with her on the pilot episode, the "Caretaker" episode.

The blue screen shot where they're in the barn and then this wall

disappears and she gets to walk into the chamber. That's a huge blue screen

shot there with a matte painting that was added. That big chamber with all

the bodies didn't even exist in that set-up. So we had to do them on a blue

screen so that they could go into the background. Working with her has been

fun.

	Probably the more interesting thing we had to do with Kate was a show

that's not aired yet called "Twisted."  [I hate to do this to you, but

David went on to describe some really wild effects which I can't tell you

about, because the show hasn't aired yet, and Paramount would not be happy

with me--or him, or this newsletter--if I printed more. However, look for

"Twisted"--it promises to be very visually stimulating!]  So we had a

chance to do some interesting work with her on that.

	Every time we've worked with Kate, though, she's been very, very gracious

and very kind. And she's gone out of her way to be cooperative. We've been

very grateful for that. Because I'll tell you, if an actor or an actress is

real cantankerous, they can make our work very hard.

	And of course, luckily, actors and actresses, by the very nature of what

they're doing they have to use their imaginations. And that certainly helps

us a great deal. Because so often we're saying, "Okay, now look up at that

big blue thing there. What you're really seeing is a gigantic planet. Okay

here comes an asteroid. Oh, the planet's blowing up. Now react to it." And

they have to react to all this stuff in their minds. And luckily these

people can do that. That really makes our job a lot easier.



NV: Are you working at all on Deep Space Nine at this point?



DS: No. Deep Space Nine has two separate crews of their own over there,

too.  And they're doing a great season opener. A lot of changes. Very

exciting. I think you're going to be very excited about it.



NV: I can't wait.



DS: I wish I had more to offer you regarding Kate. I have found that she

certainly has a good sense of humor. That's come through a number of times.

Joking with the crew, for instance. You know, what I'm so grateful for,

at least from my perspective, is that no one on this cast has got an

attitude.  That can ruin an experience. They've all been very gracious.

	And also, the thing is--as you probably already know--Kate stepped into

sort of a volatile situation. Genvieve Bujold left after two days. And Kate

Mulgrew had to come in on very short notice, I believe. That's my

understanding of things. And she just stepped right in there and

immediately had a lot of nice presence and power.

	I tell you one thing, talking to different women in my life and my circle

of friends, people are absolutely delighted--and myself, too--I'm delighted

that the producers chose to go with a woman captain. It's really time that

Star Trek reflect more diversity. Reflect more of a woman's perspective.

Because in Captain Picard you had this wonderful intellectual masculine

image. Now it's time to be reflecting an intellectual feminine image. And I

think Kate Mulgrew certainly projects that so wonderfully. There's a lot of

femininity yet strength. There's poise, and wisdom. You know, she's really

great.



NV: That's what I like so much about her. It would be so easy to go, "Okay

now we have the female character and here are the stereotypical feminine

characteristics." And across the board on Voyager I feel like they've done

a great job, that all the characters are very three-dimensional. They're

not caricatures of "the female captain," and "the Native American rebel

commander." You know what I mean? They're very three-dimensional, very well

developed.



DS: Yes! That was also very impressive to me and to a number of the rest of

the guys [on the effects crew]. Just how quickly the actors and actresses

came together and developed their characters. I mean, there's a richness to

the characters that I think has happened very, very quickly. And I thought

that was really neat. There's certainly a warmth there.



NV: I would tend to agree with you. Switching gears, do you have any tips

for people out there who are going, "I want to get into this business!"?



DS: Yes! Learn as much as you can. You need to have a variety of

experience. If you want to get into visual effects you certainly need to be

developing your artistic skills, your ability to imagine. That's extremely

important. Your ability to stay in touch with your inner child I think is

real important. And I'll talk about that in a second.

	You need to start understanding computers. Because, boy, that's where it's

all going and it's happening a lot faster than I ever imagined it would.

Computer-generated imagery--CGI--is going to be real important.

	Getting a well-rounded education is real important. I am always amazed at

the variety of things I have to draw upon. I have to draw upon artistic

ability, drawing. I have to draw upon my ability to draw and conceive a

picture. I have to draw on architecture. I have to draw on chemistry

sometimes. We have to draw on costumes sometimes. We have to draw on

science: astronomy, biology. Over the last three years we've had to

research jellyfish, insects, black holes, binary stars. [laughter] There's

just a variety of experiences. Know how to research things. Know how to use

resources that are available to you.

	Definitely you need to be willing to work hard. You need to be willing to

get in and make the effort. If a person wants to get into this industry, in

visual effects, you need to be looking at what's happened in the history of

the industry. Get magazines like American Cinematographer. Get some of the

books that American Cinematographer has put out: The Golden Treasury of

Visual Effects, a book by L.B. Abbot on more mechanical effects. Get a

subscription and back issues to Cinefex [an effects magazine]. Get

Cinefantastique magazine and read some of those articles, like the Star

Trek issues from the last two years, which had a tremendous amount of

information in them. We spilled our guts how we do this stuff. Come out and

visit. Be willing to work for free, to get in and apprentice. If you want

to do it you've got to really believe in yourself. You've got to go out and

try. You've got to work hard.

	And don't give up. If you give up then you're not meant for it. And then

in terms of what I mentioned a minute ago about the inner child, I think

it's real important. The people who come in and do the really fun shots,

the really nifty shots, are the ones who can get a hold of what I call the

inner child. They're willing to come in like I do. I will look at a script

and I'll think to myself, "Now, if I was 10 years old again, or 12 years

old, what would I think was really cool?" And that's how I do a lot of my

shots. "If I was seeing this show on television how would I approach this

thing? What would be a really cool way to design this thing?"

	And so often I'll do a fantastic move, a big sweeping move or something

like that because if I was 10 years old I'd think that was really cool. Or

I think about "What will my son think is really neat?" So that's what I

mean by being in touch with the inner child. You've got to have a bit of

what I call the "Gee whiz!" in there. The fantastic. If a person's real

stuffy, uptight, and can't get in touch with their imagination or

pre-visualize things, they're not going to go very far in this work, I

don't think. They're not going to be able to really capture the real magic

and have fun with it.

	And that's an important part of it. Really having fun with it. I mean, I

think I'm very blessed. All of us on the show are very blessed. To

paraphrase what I think Orson Welles said, "Moviemaking is the greatest

train set any boy could have." I'm poorly paraphrasing him, I'm sorry.

[laughter] But, ultimately, it's great. Here I am, as an adult, getting to

play with spaceships and guns and toys. Albeit they're very expensive ones.

But nevertheless they're just great big toys and we're having a great good

time with it. I'm very fortunate.



NV: I have one more question. How did you shrink the Doctor?



DS: Well, that was Ron Moore's show. I believe that was a blue screen shot,

and we just matted him in there. Actually, I think there was also a little

bit of sideways distortion, too. He's stretched out to the side.



NV: The actor was fun. He was acting like a guy who's been shrunken down.



DS: [laughter] Oh, yeah, Robert Picardo is wonderful. I think he is really,

really neat. He's a very great guy. He's come over, he's gone over to

Digital Magic and seen how we do stuff. He shows up at production meetings.

He is really, really wonderful. We have a good time with him. There's a

great episode coming up that will have him in it called, I think it's

called "Projections." It features him a great deal, and it's a lot of fun.

I think you'll like that.



NV: Thank you so much.



DS: You're welcome... Hopefully I was some help to you.



NV: Oh, it'll be great! Thanks.



And did I mention I love my job?





KATEWATCH



Rumor has it that Kate will not be at StarCon in Denver in September as

previously reported, although she and Robert Beltran both are supposedly

going to appear at Con-Rad to benefit pediatric AIDS, October 23 in

Universal City, CA--but we take NO responsibility if that information turns

out to be incorrect!  We have no new reports on Kate's public appearances,

since she hasn't made any since last issue.  However, we do have a

transcript of the Janeway panel at Vulkon in Orlando, courtesy Becky Olsen,

our Membership Secretary, who was out recruiting at cons several weekends

this month!  Becky says that she removed lengthy non-essential discussions

and adds that at points the tape simply didn't pick up what was said.

Apologies!



PANEL DISCUSSION: CAPTAIN KATHRYN JANEWAY, VULKON CONVENTION, ORLANDO,

FLORIDA, 8 JULY 1995



Panel Moderators: Chris(tine) Ceraolo (C) and Sean ??? (S).  G=group,

B=Becky, M=male participant, F=female participant



C:	What we're gonna talk about for the next few minutes...hours...is



G: 	JANEWAY!

C:	I like talking about this panel, it's my favorite one to do.When I first

heard about them doing Janeway, I went, "Oh yeah, female

captain--yaaayyyy!"  Then they said,  "Genvieve

Bujold..." 

C:	And I went, ok--another Frenchman...then I heard that Genvieve didn't

make it, and they said "We've announced a new captain, Kate Mulgrew," and I

went yay! I know this actress, I've watched "Manions of America" four times

in a row. I know who this lady is. It works out perfectly. And got very,

very excited, because it's the one actress I know that could just take a

crew and have a good time with it. So I said, let's throw a panel together

and talk about Janeway, and every convention I've done it, it's always been

a growing group. I find her to be one of the more challenging female roles

on television today.

M1: By challenging, do you mean to the actress?

C:	To the actors and also to female roles in general, because a lot of

female roles still are the blonde bimbette types that don't have a brain.

 But I must admit, Janeway has had a lot of growth. First episode:

"Here I am, I've got a boyfriend, he's got dogs--I have a spaceship, we're

going on a mission--"

G: It's her dog--

C:	"I've got boyfriend, I've got dog--" 

M1: That's actually important, because just looking at it from the

viewpoint of women's roles is one thing. Another thing is looking at it

from the point of view of Star Trek. In a certain sense of the word, we

finally have a lead Star Trek character who is not hopelessly caught up in

some conflict. I mean, you know, and the fact that she has a boyfriend and

a dog suggests that unlike Captain Jean-Luc Picard, you know, who is so

self-contained there was nothing but Starfleet, you know, he didn't have a

personal life,  or, or, Commander Sisko, who was still in

clinical depression from his loss, couldn't get out of it, and then there

was the famous James T. Kirk, who if the phrase 'raging hormonal

imbalance"... 

Finally we have a captain who has external problems rather than internal

problems. She's got problems, all right-- she's got her crew trapped in the

Delta Quadrant by her decision, too, which is interesting. But at least we

finally have somebody who can deal with external problems. I was thinking

of her not as "female roles"  but just comparing her with the other Star

Trek captains. You know, we finally have a Star Trek captain who's got it

together, and is believable. Somebody that you'd actually want to follow.

Somebody who can give orders, not in a commanding voice, you know, but

just--

S: 	In an irritating voice. 

M1: I don't think so. Admittedly, all of us would love to have voices like

William Conrad or James Earl Jones, but we don't want her to talk like she

did to the boyfriend. We don't want that in a captain, but we also don't

want her being so assertive that we think she's being macho. I mean, she

just gives instructions like she's totally confident of her role 

C:	Thank you, because I think a lot of people agree with it.    "Better Captain" is the topic. Number 1: Captain Kirk.

Better captain, yes or no?    Ok. Jean-Luc

Picard?  

M1:  Better than number one, but still...

F1:   Can you really say it's better? I think that they have a different

style. I don't think one way is better. IDIC, IDIC, IDIC.

M1:  Sisko's the first one that's even remotely a military man.

S: 	I like Sisko.

M1:  Yeah, I like Sisko, but I still think Janeway's even better. The first

two had so many problems that they were not realistic as military

commanders.  [more group discussion of Picard] But in Janeway, we finally

have a captain who is capable of feeling and thinking.

S: 	All right, we've got this guy who is "like, like, like."  What does

anyone dislike about Janeway?  

C:	I like  her voice for one important reason:  they're all gonna listen to

her. No matter what.



[Illustration with jokes about Janeway and Picard's hair]



S: They're gonna hurry up and do what she wants so she'll shut up!

F1:   She's like a "mom in space". Mothers can get a million things done in

a day.

C:	Very true.  One of my commonly asked questions about Voyager,

which I always try to ponder is, most stories are written from somebody's

point of view. Is it Janeway's point of view?

M1:  Not necessarily.

F1:   The screenwriter's point of view.

C:	Or a character-driven point of view? Whose eyes are we seeing the show

through? We were talking about Harry Kim, because he idolizes her.

S: 	He's young, it's his first time out---he can't even handle the Delaney

sisters.

F1:  Do you think the show has one consistent point of view? I think it varies.

C:	I agree.

S: 	That's all fixin' to change.

C:	It varies from episode to episode. What I love about it, is

that you get those different feelings from each character. You get to see

into their lives a little more.  They did this some in TNG, but not a

lot. I would have liked to have known more about Troi. Troi and Riker's

relationship should have been developed and it wasn't.

M1:   At least they did a show explaining it.

F1:   Nahhh...read the book.

C:	Does Janeway have a life?

G: 	Yeah...

C:	Does she get out of the Captain's chair and get out--like "you're

working too hard, do you have a life"? You know, one of those kinds of

things.

F1:   I think we've seen that in the holonovel that they did.

F2:   And she has her own animal guide, too. 

C:	Anybody want to see more of the holonovel?

G: 	Yes!!!

C:	  She's at

Collingswood, yes!   How much power does Janeway have?

G: 	A lot. But not absolute.

M2:  Otherwise, they would have had a mutiny. 

F1:   She is struggling to keep the balance of power 

F2:   But that brings up the question of how much power does Chakotay have

over the Maquis.

M1:  Janeway probably has more power in that position. You talk about the

mutinous crew, given the things she's done, when you cut off the way home,

you could almost get the Starfleet crew to go into mutiny at that point.

And I'm saying, ask yourself, not how much power does Janeway have, I think

Janeway has more power by her persuasiveness than Kirk, Sisco or Picard

would have had in the same position.

F1:  I think she has an added advantage, though, that since they're

isolated from the Federation, facing anything that's never been known to

them, she's God Incarnate as far as Starfleet authority goes. Where they

go, how they do it, *when* they do it, what kind of *schedule* they keep.

S: 	She has no backup.  

C:	When she turned around and looked at Tuvok and said, "YOU"...

G: 	Whooooaaaaa...

S: 	Great character development.

C:	That was iceberg time, because at that point I realized she has power,

but the problem is she has to delegate power to all these different people,

so that she can keep the ship running, keep everybody together, keep

everything organized, and keep them on that same goal--to go home. To make

it there. Gotta keep people from killing each other for 70 years. And in

doing that, she's stuck. Because she knows these people, she's friendly

with these people, she has to be because they're all stuck in the same

boat, essentially.

F1:   I think the problem arises that it's no longer going to be a military

regime. They're going to have to set up some sort of civil government as

well, because they're going to have kids. 

M1:   Tuvok said in effect, Ok--*I* will be the one who break the rules and

possibly go to jail, but I won't tell her, because that way I can protect

her...

C:	You have eight people from this militant group of the Federation who

wind up on board the biggest, best, of the fleet. Which is now stranded...

G: 	Not the biggest...

C:	The newest! The thing is, you've got these eight members of the Maquis

and everyone is going, "Do I like them?  Do I *not* like them?  Can I

handle being with them?" You've got that indecision now roaming through the

crew. You have a lot of charismatic people that can now get people to join

the Maquis.

S: 	Boy, that red-headed engineer-guy--he's ready to join.

F1:   If they're really stranded 70 years, Tuvok's going to live the longest.

C:	I think he's a Maquis spy, I can feel it.

F1:   Noo...

C:	Getting into this, really brings up another point I had written down

here. What are Janeway's relationships to the crew?  We haven't seen

Janeway with anybody but the bridge crew, have we? When it comes to crew

people.

M2:  That's due to the writing.

M3:  Money.

F1:   That's because they want to get the main crew established.

F4:   They were trying to get it so that everybody has their moment. That

one where...about the unit that could get them home faster? Originally that

was supposed to be a Chakotay episode. Chakotay was supposed to be the one

that falls in love with the person, but what happened was, the powers that

be at Paramount said no, change it to Janeway.

M1:   Actually, I'm glad they didn't make that a Chakotay episode, it

wouldn't have been what I wanted. I mean yes, we may want more screen time

for Chakotay, but not that.

C:	I'm really waiting for the dream sequences, because there has to be a

dream episode coming up where they all dream they're home.  How about

Janeway's relationships to other beings? Just, "I'm on a planet. Hi--- I'm

the Captain, how are ya?"

S: 	Would she have slept with that guy to get that technology?

G: 	No!!!! 

C:	It's vote time! 

M1:  Tuvok wanted to not put her in that position. 

C:	OKAY! Another point to bring up. Captain Kirk. What's the first thing

you think of when you say the name "Captain Kirk"?

G: 	Penis! Sex! Womanizer. Ego. Space Cowboy.

C:	Let's go to the next Captain. Jean-Luc Picard.

G: 	Oh, baby!

C:	Pontiac.

G: 	Voice. Bald.

C:	Personally, Pontiac, but that's another story. 

F1:   He does build excitement, doesn't he?! 

C:	Sisko?

F3:   Hawk.

S: 	Yeah, he's got the goatee now.

C:	What would you say are the main characteristics that come to mind

immediately when you say "Janeway"?

S: 	Buns of steel.  

F6:  

C:	I'll make a statement about that nightgown, because, it's just--the

whole look they went for, in my opinion, was that 40's femme fatale look

which I thought was done beautifully. Not Hepburn, more Veronica Lake.

G: 	Her hair was down!

C:	Now if something totally horrible, just nasty happened, and it was

Janeway versus crew, who would win?

G: 	Crew.

S: 	Just because there's more of them.

F1:   She wouldn't stoop to the level that some of them would.

S: 	She's got to have some pull to get the Voyager, the newest ship, all

new technology.     She  says,  "Our technology is far

superior to yours..." These people can rip your lungs out, Janeway!





[Tiny Trek cartoon]



M1:  Some of the people were arguing that she should have used her weapons

on that one ship [in "State of Flux"], to somehow destroy it-- a.) for

vengeance and b.) that the Cardassians somehow represented a serious threat

to the Federation's interest. I find that argument hard to fathom, but the

obvious point was there were two more ships that were going to be there in

eight minutes, and it's not clear that even if she had superior technology

that she could have done the job in less than eight minutes and gotten

away. I think the sensible thing to do when it's three to one is to

retreat.  Kirk was trigger happy. Janeway makes credible threats, but

at the same time she's not trigger-happy, either.

S: 	They need to find some friends to help them out.

F1:  There's how many Kazon and one of them? Can we say "Custer's Last Stand"?

C: 	I'm just waiting for "Captain, we've just picked up a very large,

cube-like device."  

M2:  What about the last episode of Deep Space Nine, with the Dominion

taking control and coming into the Federation? I wonder to myself, if

they're everywhere, maybe they're on Voyager as well.

S: 	Maybe they're Janeway. 

F3:   Janeway's a Changeling!

S: 	The gel packs. What a great place to hide. 

C: 	Who would be most likely to be a shape-changer on Voyager?

G: 	Tuvok.

F1:   The reason being that he's so reserved and so logical and the

Changelings have not shown emotions. Torres is too emotional.

F2:   Plus, they've actually cut into her body and they know that she's Klingon.

C: 	Who's the other non-emotional character?

B: 	Chakotay. 

F3:   Changelings are pretty heavy into mythology...

F2:   But wouldn't the Doctor have found out when Chakotay was almost blown

up...

S: 	Unless it's his tattoo...

F3:   His tattoo's a changeling! 

C: 	Sean looked at my list and says he wants to ask this question.   I

don't want tooffend anybody...

S: 	We've already hit on it...Janeway and sex. 

C: 	OK, this is screaming "audience participation"...It's vote time.

Chakotay?   Paris?    OK, my buddy, Harry Kim?

F1:   If he can't make it with the Delaney sisters, he can't make it

with the Captain!

M1:  She is not going to do it with anyone in the crew. 

B: 	Seventy YEARS??

F3:   What, is she going to do it in the holodeck?

M1:  She will never compromise her position...

B: 	Seventy years on a starship? Get Real!

S: 	I'm ready for my boo's. Are you all ready to boo and hiss me? B'Elanna

Torres.  

B: 	It's been done on the net already.

C: 	I have to stop reading fanfic.

B: 	I'll send you more!

C: 	Oh my God...  I think that she wouldn't have

sex with anybody on the crew because, quite frankly, how do we jeopardize

our position? We get intimate with crew members. Wrong!

M1:  Remember what happened to Picard and that gal, that led to problems,

and since there's no way to transfer anybody out of the crew on Voyager...

S: 	

C: 	Although if you were in a dark bar on a starbase somewhere and Jean-Luc

Picard is sitting there having his Earl Grey tea, hot...

S: 	And you're hot...

C: 	...and in walks Kathryn Janeway...   OK...if you

could imagine Captain Kirk and Janeway meeting...  How about Janeway and Q?

G: 	OOH...

S: 	She could have sex with the Doctor...

M3:  The reason you don't see her with anyone is because Captain Kirk's

ghost is haunting Voyager...

F1:   And she meets him on the holodeck!

F4:   She has a little candle in her room that she lights at night...

F5:   Is THAT what that candle is for????! 

C: 	I'm gettin' REAL scared...NEXT QUESTION!   Janeway versus Voyager.

S: 	Well, number one, Janeway's not as BIG as Voyager... 

C: 	Now the reason I brought this up is...When you think of "Voyager,"

somebody says "Voyager's on...", what's your first thought?

G: 	Gotta find a TV!

S: 	Why do the warp engines  fold up like that? 

M1:  The show is wonderful because of the wonderful people.  What's

important about this show, what makes it work, is the people, and THEIR

relationships and the whole business about "Lost In Space in the Delta

Quadrant," that's not the real driving force...

S: 	So you're saying they could've made a show without even GOING to the

Delta Quadrant...

M1:  I'm saying. with this crew, you can put them anywhere and it's going

to work.  

S: 	Voyager has a purpose, whereas Next Generation did not.  "We have to

get home". And that's something you didn't have to pay attention to in Next

Generation. We know that each week we tune into Voyager, God--these people

are trying to get home.

M1:   Actually, when they're 75 years from home, it's not like we tune in

each week to see if they actually GOT there...

F1:   Are we there yet mom?????? 

C: 	I want to do something to kind of wrap things up...

No, we're not singing "Kum Ba Yah"...Do we agree: Janeway is a very good

captain, the best is yet to come?  Along those lines, for those

of you who are really big fans of Janeway, this nice lady, Becky ,

who is sitting in front of me, is with Now Voyager, the Kate Mulgrew

appreciation group. Feel free to talk to her, ask her questions. Everybody

say "Hi Becky!" 

B: 	I am membership secretary for Now Voyager, which is the officially

sanctioned Kate Mulgrew Appreciation Society. It's run by a good friend of

mine, Michelle Green, up in North Potomac, Maryland. I have business cards

with me. You can reach us through mail or on a couple of different online

services. If you're interested, there is a newsletter that comes out every

other month, and it's just a fun time, and it has fan fiction, G-rated--you

gotta get the other stuff online!--never mind.  No, you

don't read that stuff, DO you?

F4:   No, I just write it!  

B:	Anyway, I have business cards. Drop us a line if you're interested, we'd

be glad to have you!  

C:    YAY!!!!!  Coming up next in this room is "Klingon Cuisine."   Stick

around and find out what gakh is all about.



[Illustration of Janeway in PJs]





KATHRYN JANEWAY, FEMINIST HEROINE



You know, I think we're winning the battle:  I haven't read a stupid

gender-based anti-Voyager comment in over a week.



THE ROLE OF ROLE MODELS

by Julianna Medina



	All the discussion on the need for positive female roles models has had me

thinking about my own role models and how important they were/are in

helping me shape my life. Before Janeway, was there a lack of positive

female role models?  Looking at it logically that would seem to be the

case, but I'm constantly at odds with my logical self, so I'm going to

disagree. I've never noticed a lack of female role models for myself.

Instead, the appropriate role model always appeared in my life at the time

when a certain aspect of my character needed development.

	Were they "ideal" role models? For me, they were. Ideals are so subjective

and they're different for everyone. And it wasn't the whole person I was

after anyway; it was some aspect in them that I wanted to emulate within

myself. Now I don't use the term "role model" loosely here. Not as a

smattering of fashion models or rock stars, but as a person whom you've

looked to and who had a large impact in the shaping of your personality and

life.

	I remember my first role model--my stepmother. Her name was Jean and she

was studying to be a doctor. Every so often she had to go away to some

specialized school for weeks, sometimes months at a time. I remember

vividly how much it hurt her to leave my father and me behind. But she

still did it. I couldn't name it then and I'm hard pressed to name it now,

but as we cried and hugged and said our goodbyes, and as she walked through

the tunnel to the plane, it happened. Oh, did I want to be like her. I even

thought I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to go to different schools and

learn something really BIG.

	I grew out of wanting to be a doctor, and grew into wanting to be Jamie

Somers, the bionic woman. It's been said that Jamie Somers may not have

been a good role model for young girls, but I don't remember any adverse

qualities in the character. To be honest, I don't remember a single

episode. What I do remember is wanting to be able to run fast and help

others. I wanted to be strong like Jamie. Even if my legs short-circuited

and racked me with pain, I wanted to keep going, like Jamie would have

done.

	It was quite by accident that I saw Lindsay Wagner in a movie-of-the-week

role in which she was a doctor bringing her advanced medicine into a very

traditional and rural society that was somewhat less than receptive. It was

here that I saw Lindsay as an actor, not as Jamie Somers, and I realized

she was acting out of a passion, a need of and for the art, like my

stepmother had needed to learn medicine. And here, I recognized a need

within myself; the need to work toward a goal, toward a passion. I've had

several more role models since

Lindsay Wagner, including Tracy Chapman, Connie Willis, and probably most

importantly the writer Kate Wilhelm, whose work made me realize that

writing was what I wanted to do; that was how I wanted to reach people.

But they've all taught me something uniquely their own, from their own

lives and struggles and successes, all reflected through their work. I owe

a lot to all my role models; they're a very big part of who I am.

	We have all probably heard or read Joseph Campbell telling us to follow

our bliss. I had not heard that until several years ago, but throughout my

life I had seen it in action through my rolemodels, and I'll bet it had a

much larger impact in seeing it happen rather than just hearing it. When

your dreams and goals seem impossibly far away, role models help you to

stay focused and to keep the dreams alive. When you wonder what the hell

you're getting yourself into, all you have to do is look to your role

models to be reminded that as long as you, too, maintain your courage,

strength, integrity, and passion, you can make a dream a reality.

	Do role models have a responsibility to those who look up to them? Oh,

yes. They have a tremendous responsibility, and it is to stay true to

themselves and their own passions.  Our responsibility to our role models:

don't make them into immortal, incorruptible beings. Remember that they're

human, too, with the same loves, pain, desires and fears. Look to them for

what they can teach you, and for what you admire in them and their work.

	Look to Kate Mulgrew for the passion and dedication she has for her craft,

and her talent, strength and intelligence that has brought her success.

(And she seems to be a pretty cool person as well.)  And look to Captain

Janeway for what it takes to command a starship, because we're all in

command of our own starships here. Look to the stars, but remember, how far

you take that starship is up to you.



DON'T BLAME GENDER

by Heidi Johnson



	I think it's important not to try to make too much of the "differences"

between a female Captain and a male Captain. When all is said and done,

it's an individual competence issue.  Our society does have trouble dealing

with female authority leaders at the top of the scale, but not much trouble

with the in-between levels--there are lots and lots of women in middle

management who are authoritative, efficient, capable, and even respected.

	So she gets closer physically to the crew. The interpretation is concern

and attention, not aggression as it might be for a man. Again I think this

is an artifact of our culture, nothing innate. Didn't Kirk used to put his

hand on the helmsman's shoulder now and then? Picard was kind of a cold

fish, or at least tightly restrained.

	And they all express self-doubt and emotions. It's part of the

lonely-at-the-top schtick (and a good one, IMHO). Watch any scene with (a)

Kirk worrying to McCoy; (b) Picard worrying to Beverly; (c) Sisko worrying

to Kira or Dax. We have had women on Trek doing serious fighting: Kira,

Dax, Yar... Even Uhura, a little, in the bad old sixties. Note that Picard

seldom resorted to fisticuffs.  Janeway'll let loose and kick butt one of

these days.

	As to being more sensitive to the emotions of the crew...IMHO, women may

currently appear to be more sensitive to people's emotions, but it's

strictly cultural. This is a "typical stereotype" and not, I think, valid

here. Picard especially was pretty gol-darned sensitive: remember all the

defenses of Data, and telling people to stop calling Barkley "Broccoli,"

etc.

	When Janeway and B'Elanna are talking about how to solve a technical

problem in the episode about choosing a chief engineer, they talk over each

other's words.  Finishing each other's sentences in a give-and-take rather

than shouting each other down. I think that what was great was it showed

the underlying similarities of the two individuals when the plot was all

about how B'Elanna was unsuitable for the job of a Starfleet Chief

Engineer. Janeway showed a very human side there, very excitable.  Men do

this also: Kirk was a regular exitable-boy. Just think of all those scenes

on the bridge trying to figure out a way to psych out the aliens.  They

meet the giant amoeba that ate the Intrepid, and Kirk says "Antibodies,

an-ti-bo-dies..." and pats McCoy on the cheek. More crew-touching!

	Janeway is a Captain--she didn't get there by being shy or lazy or dumb.

She is confident, dynamic and very smart. She's also a bold adventurer:

curious, fearless, quick-thinking, ready to try things out and then take

responsibility for whatever happens. I think the most interesting things

about her are her individual characteristics, not the fact that she's a woma

n. I don't think you'll find any big differences in 'style' based on sex.



O SISTERS WE



by L.R. Bowen



O sisters we, my ship and I,

We plow the untracked distances,

We count the stars within the sky

We grasp eternal instances.



We shall not bow unto the foe,

We shall not let the helpless fall,

We shall let every comrade know

To us our duty is our all.



O let her wander through the stars,

In homeward quest still journeying,

Let not soft pleasures or brute wars

E'er tempt us into lingering.



O keep her every action clean!

Let her defense not damage her,

O she my realm, and I her queen,

The noble starship Voyager.





BOOKS, COMICS, CARDS, AND AUDIO



	I don't have a clue how to sum up Ragnarok--the reviews below directly

contradict one another as to who was in character and who wasn't, which

parts of the novel were the most readable, whether the plot made sense, and

what sort of audience the author seemed to be aiming to please.  The only

thing that seems clear is that this book's a J/C lover's dream even if they

were both out of character, and the technobabble actually works.  Sounds

promising to me...

	Still no word on the future of the long-delayed Voyager comic series from

Malibu/Marvel,  although it is our duty to report that the alternate

universe Tuvok will make an appearance in an upcoming Deep Space Nine

comic, issues #29-30, which will also feature Thomas Riker.

	Should we hold a contest to see who can design the most intriguing

alternate universe Janeway?  ;-D



RAGNAROK by Nathan Archer; Pocket Books 1995.



	"In an emergency she would have headed straight for the bridge in her

nightgown..." With these words I was hooked. Here, my friends, is G-rated

fan fiction at its best. Nathan Archer has taken a story idea one step

further than most, by offering up tantalizing tidbits of characterization

that fans hope to see on-screen, but know we probably never will. Those of

us on the 'net who write fanfic do this all the time, but it was a pleasant

surprise to find it echoed in a published work.

	Just like the long-running debate over the Picard/Crusher relationship, we

take great delight in watching the sparks fly when Captain Janeway and

Commander Chakotay match wits. Ragnarok takes J/C interaction to the limit.

Consider, if you will, the following passage. Chakotay has volunteered to

act as ambassador between the Hachai and P'Nir, ultimately to reach a peace

agreement. "Janeway clearly believed in Starfleet dedication to that ideal,

even if Chakotay didn't, and Chakotay believed in Janeway." Is this great

stuff, or what?!

	There are battles aplenty for those who like action, and some deeper

insights into the other crew members as well. I admit, I am the resident

mush of this group. My sappy little mind tends to seek out hidden bits of

innuendo, but in this case it's all in plain view. To quote once more:

"Janeway's heart leapt. Chakotay was still alive and well!" My heart leapt,

too!  Ragnarok is escapist reading at its best.



--Becky Olsen



	This is the second of the original Voyager novels and represents an

improvement over the first - after the first 40 pages or so.

	This book starts s l o w l y, v e r y  s l o w l y, with long descriptions

of what the characters look like, a re-hash of how Voyager wound up in the

Delta Quadrant, and pages and pages of similar filler. Janeway introspects

the same points repeatedly, and what goes on in the first four chapters

could easily have been covered in four pages.

	But once the story starts, it turns out to be a pretty fast-paced and not

at all bad action-adventure story involving two races of alien baddies who

have been at war with each other for centuries. Voyager, naturally, winds

up in the middle and there are plenty of space battles; members of the crew

trying to achieve a diplomatic solution are taken prisoner on an alien

ship; the technobabble is kept to a reasonable amount; and the characters

get a chance to be inventive and resourceful.

	While Tuvok does wield the phasers with a pretty heavy hand, it's made

plausible and unavoidable, although the body count is pretty high.  It's

not exactly a victory for the Prime Directive and the ending seems designed

for a sequel - Voyager has made some new enemies.

	Other than Tuvok, who is apparently not bothered by the carnage for which

he's directly responsible--most unVulcan, and Surak would disapprove

mightily--the characters are well drawn. Kim is quite convincing as he

prowls the corridors of the alien ship under circumstances that weren't

covered in his classes as Starfleet Academy, and Janeway comes across

clearly as dealing with an escalating conflict as well as it can be

handled, fully understanding the complexities of the situation. There is

also a rather neat (although not too plausible) tie-in to a race last met

in Classic Trek.

	While this book is clearly aimed at those who like space battles rather

than Trekkers of a more philosophical bent, the battle scenes are well done

and the story, once the incredibly slow start is over, moves well and keeps

the reader involved.

	This is not a great Trek novel, or even an excellent one. But it is quite

readable and, the author shows signs of having actually seen the show!

Hopefully, future Voyager novels will contiune to improve as writers grow

comfortable with the characters and the Voyager world.



--Gini Boehm Worthen



	In general, I was underwhelmed. The writing is verbose and redundant in

the extreme; it's my opinion that this story could have been told in half

the space, and the pacing, particularly in the first half of the book, is

glacial. Don't look for an intriguing plot device or intermittant snappy

dialogue as in The Escape. You'll not find it. Also, I'm a big Janeway fan,

and this book does not make the captain look good. Quite the contrary: she

is not just part of the problem, she's the cause of the problem, and backs

into the solution without even intending to. The latter is done

characteristically (Sometimes You Just Have To Punch Your Way Through) but

without flair or finesse. That aspect left a real bad taste.

	The saving feature of this book for me was that it includes a great deal

of exposition about how the characters, particularly Janeway and Chakotay,

see one another at this early stage. By me, Chakotay is far and away the

best thing that's happened to Star Trek since Spock, and I have followed

with avid interest the threads in various online discussions that have to

do with the (current and, especially, potential) relationship between him

and Janeway. I only hope the show's writers don't screw this up the way

they did with Picard and Crusher. (They're attracted, they're just friends,

they're attracted, they're just friends--oops--they got married and

divorced while we weren't looking.... I mean, come ON.) There is so much

potential down the road once the dog-sitter is no longer a viable option,

and IMHO Mulgrew and Beltran are doing a fantastic job with it in the

snitches and snatches the writers are allowing them. But I digress.

	Nathan Archer, the author of Ragnarok, is very big on character exposition

and largely pretty shy on character Show Don't Tell. At this moment, I can

remember only one significant interaction in the book between Janeway and

Chakotay, and that one didn't really accomplish a whole lot dramatically.

(Next to the "10" J/C scene in this week's repeat of "Ex Post Facto," the

one in the book is barely a "1.") But Archer tells us a lot about how they

see each other (and other characters), and that's kinda neat. Granted that

the novels aren't supposed to be canon, what the author tells us is by no

means in conflict with what we've seen on the screen, but rather tends to

augment and deepen it.

	And Chakotay's characterization is not bad. He has a much larger part to

play than he has had in most of the TV episodes except "Caretaker," and by

and large it plays pretty well. Just one example: in a couple places the

author suggests the understated arrogance that we've mostly just seen

flashes of, notably in "Learning Curve" (the deft, wordless unseating of

the blue alien and the protracted "business" with the drinking cup).

Example: when a crewmember asks rhetorically who is a better pilot than

Paris is, Chakotay responds "I am" without missing a beat. YES!

	So Ragnarok is very much a mixed bag. There's plenty of action, but the

majority of it is redundant to the point of dull pain. I don't think

Janeway fans will be pleased, but Chakotay fans and Kim fans will probably

love it; if there is a hero of the piece, it's Harry. And there's even a

halfway interesting tie-in with "The Corbomite Maneuver" for unregenerated

TOS fans like me. ;-)



--Claire Gabriel



	I can sum this book up in two words: "Why bother?" This book takes an

idea, beats it to death for 200 pages or so, and then finally tries to give

those 200 pages meaning on the final page. It would have made an

interesting short story, but it was really tedious as a novel.

	The basic plot is this: there are two races that have been at war for

centuries. Janeway wants to fly straight through their star system, totally

ingoring Neelix's warnings, in an effort to chase down the source of a

tachyon pulse which may be similar to the one the Caretaker used. They get

caught in the battle, they try to make peace between the races, they stay

caught for a long time, and then there's the last page resolution.

	The writing style only adds to the tedium. There are many looooong

passages describing Paris flying around trying to maneuver Voyager out of

the battle. There is a strangely conceived, entirely pointless peacemaking

attempt. There's more flying around. Lots more. Phasers are fired. This

happens a lot. Yawn. I got the point 100 pages ago.

	But even more annoying than the utter banality and repetitiveness of the

text was the way the author wrote the characters. Someone must have

released something into the ventilation system to make the characters into

two dimensional parodies of themselves. Paris was a non-stop wise-ass,

Chakotay was serene to the point of unconsciousness, Kim was pathetically

naive, Kes was just plain weird, Torres was a total hothead, and to top it

off, Janeway was just plain stupid. Yes, she can be stubborn, but she's not

stupid. Yes, she's violated the Prime Directive in the past, but not for

such idiotic reasons as in this book. Only Tuvok and Neelix rang true, and

frankly, they're really easy characters to nail down. No biscuit for you,

Nathan.

	So I want everybody reading this to go home and wish upon the first star

you see tonight. I want you to say, "I wish Paramount may, I wish Paramount

might, find a new author, who knows how to write." Here's hoping book four

in the Voyager series is light years better than this one.

	Okay, so I'm a mean person. :)



--Jennifer Pelland (Siubhan)



	I was very disappointed by Ragnarok. As a story it is okay, but as a

Voyager story it falls short.  The problem with this novel is that the crew

is horribly out of character and some of their actions are just plain

inconsistent with the episodes. I do realize that we gentle readers have an

advantage: we have been able to view ALL of this seasons episodes (well,

those that Paramount decided to air as season one, that is).  Nathan Archer

did not have that opportunity--though, for a change, there is a reference

to coffee in the text that indicates that the writer might have seen one

episode. A few scenes were very well written and in character; the author

managed to grasp the personality of the Doctor, and his scenes hit one

target.

	But those "real" moments are few and far between. Harry Kim is portrayed

as inept. Chakotay comes across as a pompous know-it-all. Torres is written

way too agressively--yes, she did strike Lt. Carey in "Parallax" and break

his nose, but she has been remarkably well-behaved since that episode. In

this novel, she picks up and throws a crewman across Engineering because he

referred to her Klingon ancestry. Even sensitive Kes comes across as a

happy-go-lucky pixie. The scene where she insists that a battle between two

huge forces is beautiful seems highly inconsistent with the empathetic

feelings she evinced in "Time and Again," where she was distraught by the

destruction of the planet. Lastly, Neelix is just plain annoying.

	The worst miss on characterization is that of the Captain. Our beloved

Janeway is normally calm and controlled under dire circumstances; not in

this novel, though. Here the Captain is so short-tempered and snippy that I

would not want to be a crewman having to give her bad news. But worse is

the inconsistency of her commands. This same Captain who let Seska go

rather than endanger the ship and the rest of the crew against the Kazon in

"State of Flux" takes her ship right into the middle of an age-old war zone

where there are so many combatants that they cannot even count the total

number of ships fighting.

	If you like space battles and bad-tempered characters, this novel is for

you. If you are looking for a story that could count as an episode that

Paramount just didn't happen to film, skip this novel.



--Risa Phillips-Kovac





SKYBOX VOYAGER TRADING CARDS



	They're here, they're overpriced...but there are photos on both sides of

the cards, and compared to the DS9 trading cards the art on these is larger

and clearer; in fact, of the Skybox sets, these are visually superior in

many ways, which gives me hope that they actually READ the comments on

those little survey cards they include with some packs for people to

respond!  Moreover, I got a Janeway foil card in my very first pack and a

SkyMotion exchange card in the second, so who am I to complain?  (If anyone

has a Chakotay foil they'd be willing to trade for just about anything, let

me know!)

	Great Janeway shots on #12, #19, #23, #35, #38, #47, #53, and the backs of

#55 & #71. Chakotay's expression on #60 is priceless.  Dozens of these

scenes could serve as photo caption contest inspiration.  You can buy a

complete set of the numbered cards from the Official Star Trek Fan Club

merchandising department, as well as at cons, although these don't include

the foils (going anywhere from $8-$15 at Shore Leave, depending on who was

depicted), the holographic doctor card, or the SkyMotion cards ($40-80!).

There are also bonus cards depicting the entire crew, survey cards, and

preview cards for the next series, due out in November.  There's lots of

trading going on in the Trek and non-sport collector card newsgroups on the

net, so before you spend your life savings trying to get the one card

you're missing, you might want to check out the Usenet!  That's where I

found #87, thus completing my own story card set for less than the cost of

a complete set.  I have five #42s, so if anyone needs one...



--Michelle Erica Green





COPYRIGHT VIOLATION CORNER



Paramount owns the franchise,  but fan writers breathe life into it.



IN STORAGE

by Anne Davenport



 	"Hello?"

	Captain Janeway stood just inside the wide door of the cargo bay. No one

answered. She didn't see anyone amidst the bulk containers and large

shelving of the main cargo area. She looked up to the control room but

didn't see any movement there.

	Someone was assigned to the cargo areas, but the absence didn't either

surprise or disturb her. The post was a floating one, so whoever was on

duty could have been in any of the other holds, or engineering if they'd

needed any extra help. Janeway turned to the control panel next to the

door.

	"Computer, display map of cargo area." The computer chirped its reply, the

black screen cleared and a lattice of yellow lines appeared. "Display crew

private storage." A far corner of the map changed to blue. Janeway turned

back to the cavernous hold and then back to the map. "Display location,

private storage for Janeway." The screen changed to a side view of a row of

shelves. A flashing blue arrow and label marked the spot on the top shelf.

Janeway sighed, cleared the screen and went into the hold.

	Her boots echoing loudly on the deck, the captain crossed the open area,

passed the stacks of cargo containers, down between the high rows to the

shelves at the far wall. All the cargo holds had been reorganized, to make

room for Kes's hydroponics bay and extra space for material fabrication,

for food storage--Janeway paused at a jumbled shelf--and junk.

	Janeway picked at a carton full of used and burned out circuit boards.

Some of them had no obvious damage, others were blackened and cracked and

even smelled faintly of charred plastic. Most of the boxes on these shelves

were labeled, "recycle" with a Starfleet hieroglyph, but a few of them, and

all of the bags were marked with some distinctly non-regulation Bajoran

script. One of the Maquis was obviously in charge of this project. The

things in the boxes seemed to be sorted by size and shape, not function.

One box contained cabling, all types of long, coiled things from optical

fibers to pieces of knotted rope. Another one held square things, and yet

another, rounds and semi-rounds. And none of the boxes were covered.

Someone would have to spend hours picking up and re-sorting all the pieces

after the next turbulent red alert Voyager encountered.

	One shelf was marked with a replicator symbol. Presumably these things

could be rematerialized into new with a replicator, which only took half

the energy needed to create them whole. When they had the energy to

spare... Janeway frowned.

	"We're turning into pack rats," Janeway grumbled to herself and moved on.

	She reached the shelf she wanted and looked up at her goal, far above her

head. She went looking for a ladder.

	After climbing up to the top shelf, the captain didn't see her box. All of

crew's private storage seemed to have been moved to the top two shelves,

boxes on top of boxes, except for one bare space that was marked with more

Bajoran script, "Maquis Storage". Janeway glowered at it. She realized that

the Maquis had arrived as refugees with nothing save the clothes they wore

after their ship had been destroyed, but at the moment she just didn't

appreciate the joke. It wasn't just momentary inconvenience either; it

hurt. A reminder that the Maquis had nothing, it reinforced their

separateness..

	She touched the control on the ladder and gripped the rail as it moved

down the row. The author of the Bajoran notes was probably familiar enough

with the arrangement to use the cargo transporter to liberate her box

without dislodging everything else, but she wasn't. She saw a familiar blue

corner peeking out from behind other cartons and stopped the ladder. She

sized up the stack; she would either need an antigrav or the transporter if

she wanted to get to her box without the danger of pushing six others off

to a five meter drop. She noticed a label on one of the boxes in front of

hers.

	Stadi.

	She looked for more. Fitzgerald. T'Prena. Cavit. Janeway looked away and

down at the floor far below.

	Brrr-eet! "Chakotay to Janeway."

	Janeway's head snapped up and she tapped her communicator.  "Janeway here."

	"Captain," the voice of her current first officer answered over the comm.

"I'm in Engineering. Lieutenant Torres has been tracking down a fluctuation

in the matter-antimatter flow all afternoon and we think it's a

misalignment in the dilithium chamber, but we need to shut down the engines

to check it out."

	"How long will we be shut down?" Janeway asked.

	"Only four hours, Captain," Torres answered. Only four hours, sitting in

space...

	"All right, you have my authorization. But only four hours, Lieutenant,"

she reminded.

	"Right, Captain."

	"And Commander, I'm down in Cargo Bay Three. Could you please join me?"

	"Of course, right away. Chakotay out."

	She slowly climbed down the ladder, her boots clinking on the metal

rungs.   She wove  her  way  through the aisles of storage to the cargo

transporter platform.



[Illustration]



 Having actually seen what was on the shelves, she could make a better

judgement on transporting her own box down without having to move the whole

shelf.

	Six crates sparkled and formed on the platform. The two on the bottom were

hers and her security chief's, Lieutenant Tuvok. The four smaller ones on

top of them had belonged to members of her crew who'd been killed when

Voyager had been forced into the Delta Quadrant.  Janeway picked up an

antigrav to move the boxes that were too heavy for her to lift.

	She palmed the lock plate and the light blue container clicked open.
She lifted  the  lid  to  rummage  inside.   A  bolt  of  cloth,  a

hideous formal robe that she knew she'd have to wear again if the Galtaran

Assembly ever demander her as a mediator again--whenever they returned to

Federation space--a box of photos and holograms, three paintings, a Toshas

horn that could also be used to shoot poison darts, a bag of de-toxified

darts, and more clutter. Janeway pulled her prize up from the bottom and

placed it atop Tuvok's crate.

	She opened the smaller box and took out one of the jars, its contents

clinked within the glass. But she'd lost her interest in the homemade

peanut brittle. Her eyes returned to Lieutenant Commander Cavit's plain,

gray box.

	She and Tuvok had packed that box, emptying her first officer's quarters

less than a week after they'd been stranded in the Delta Quadrant. They

were still empty. Commander Chakotay had preferred another cabin. She

replaced the jar with the others and decided that she would have to take

out most of the other things in her box if she was going to fit this one

back in.

	"Captain?"

	She turned. Commander Chakotay had entered without her noticing. He peered

curiously down into her box.



[Illustration]



	"Packing?" he asked.

	"Unpacking, actually." She patted her peanut brittle. Chakotay looked

about at the other containers around them on the transported pad and then

he noticed the names on them.

	"They were stacked together," Janeway told him, gesturing toward Cavit's

name, her hand then rubbing the back of her neck as if she were looking

away because she was tired.

	"I see." He bit his lip and exhaled. "I'll see to it, Captain." It wasn't

much for him to offer after this insult, but he would make sure it wouldn't

happen again. "Will that be all?"

	"No." She dropped her hand and led him off the transporter. He looked over

the brown bun of her hair at the cluttered shelves she pointed at.

"Commander, do we really need all of that?"

	She saw his amused, disarming smile as he rubbed his chin. She immediately

felt like a micro-managing busybody; Chakotay had presented very good

arguments for the materials recycling project. Seventy years out from the

nearest starbase, they could not afford to let anything go to waste, so

she'd approved it. But the shelves of semi-usable discards were giving her

second thoughts.

	The commander wondered if should mention the half room full of stuff that

Lieutenant Torres was saving up in Engineering and just hadn't transferred

to the cargo bay yet. Or how much Neelix had dipped into the recycle bins

to build his galley. No probably not.

	"I'll talk to Jackson and the others about storing it properly, Captain."

The haphazard storage at least was not acceptable, even if the recycling

was necessary. "But to be honest. If we hope to make it back to Federation

space, we're going to have to make use of everything." He reached around

her to pick out a damaged module, its micro filament connections a hopeless

mass of shimmering fuzz sticking out of one side. "No matter how useless it

looks. There aren't any starbases out here in the Delta Quadrant."

	"A Maquis tactic, Commander?" she referred to his former outlaw status. He

smiled back and dropped the module back with the others it had been stashed

with.

	"You learn to live with what you've got, when you're on your own."

	He was right. She leaned on one of the shelf supports and shook her head.

They were standing together next to the collected debris. She and Chakotay

had agreed that Starfleet discipline would bind the two crews together to

get them home. But she hadn't realized that this would mean relying on

Maquis frugality to supply them for the journey.

	But how bad would it get? How many of these little bits of junk would she

see turning up as they were reused? She gazed down at boxes and their

contents. How long before they started looking like a patched-together,

worn out old cargo ship, one ragged crew sharing each other's eating

utensils and toothbrushes?

	Chakotay looked down at the top of her brown hair, bound and styled in

regulation fashion. When he'd first joined the Maquis, it had been a

drastic adjustment, going from Starfleet officer to renegade

freedom-fighter. Every detail from minor supplies to getting parts for the

transporter had plagued him in his new command; ridiculous, tiny details

that he'd never given a thought to before consumed his time and threatened

his cause almost as much as the Cardassians he'd sworn to fight.

	Now the Cardassians were far away, home where they were headed, but the

cause of survival still remained and those tiny, ridiculous details had

landed on the woman in command of this ship. At the moment, she did not

look happy about it. He smiled to himself. She would adjust; it just would

take a little time.

	"Well," she finally said, her introspection disappearing. "I want this

mess cleaned up by 0800 tomorrow." She looked up at him again. "And I

believe you were working up a plan for how we're going to deal with all

this, Commander?"

	"I can have it for you at the staff meeting tomorrow."

	"Do that."

	"Will that be all, Captain?"

	"No." She touched his arm and led him back to transporter pad where she

sealed her own storage crate. She took a jar from the smaller box he'd seen

her removing from it and put it aside. "Have these things put back." She

indicated the crates and boxes on the pad. Then she picked up the smaller

box and he took it when she handed it to him. "And give this to Mister

Neelix." The box contained eight more jars filled with lumpy, light brown

slabs.

	She shrugged and raised an eyebrow. "Dessert. And tell Mister Neelix to

save the jars. We might need them."



END





We hear from reliable sources--namely Garrett Wang and Roxann Biggs-Dawson

at vaerious conventions--that the cast of Voyager is, well, goofy.

Apparently one of their favorite pastimes is singing ridiculous songs.  To

the tune of "Mr. Sandman," here are some lyrics, courtesy Wang and Robert

Beltran:



"Captain Janeway, bring home your ship,

You have more hairstyles than you have rank pips..."



Apparently after enough verses of this song, with Beltran singing falsetto,

Tim Russ told them to shut up...





WE ARE FAMILY



Other Star Trek fan clubs you might want to know about!  Send SASE for

information:



INSIDERS

Official Tim Russ/Tuvok and Garrett Wang/Harry Kim Fan Clubs

P.O. Box 8248

Long Beach, CA 90808



RANDOM FLIGHT

Robert Duncan McNeill/Tom Paris Fan Club

c/o Barbara Nash

P.O. Box 3583

Abilene, TX 79604

random_staff@mystery.lib.calpoly.edu



THE DOCTOR'S EXCHANGE

Official Siddig El Fadil/Dr. Bashir Fan Club

c/o Stephanie Armato

P.O. Box 12254

La Crescenta, CA 91224-0954

docslady@aol.com



ENVY

Nana Visitor/Major Kira Fan Club

c/o Kimberley Junius

P.O. Box 1926

Upland, CA 91785-1926

bajorfemme@aol.com



OASIS

Official Armin Shimerman/Quark Fan Club

c/o Kathy Bayne

26 Dogwood Street

Jersey City, NJ 07305

kathybayne@aol.com



THE LAST OUTPOST

Star Trek Club of Hawaii

c/o Mark Wilson

P.O. Box 31261

Honolulu, HI 96820

73502.226@compuserve.com





KIDS' KORNER



My name is Sarah Van Winkle I am 6.  I like star trek Voyager becas they

are good  actors.  I like Bellana becas she said take the chees to sickbay.

I like Chakotay becas hes cute.  I like Captain Janeway becas shes a good

actress.



[Illustration]

[Illustration]



[8X10 photo of Kate]





PHOTO CREDITS



1--Masthead © Janet Coleman, cleaned up by Anne Davenport.

2--Photos by Maureen McGowan.

3-5--© Paramount Pictures 1995.

7--© Paramount Pictures 1995.

13--Illustration by Anne Davenport.

15--Illustration by Jennifer Pelland (Siubhan).

16--Illustration by Anne Davenport.

20--Illustration by Anne Davenport.

21--Illustration by Maryann Jorgensen.

22--Illustrations by Sarah Van Winkle and Carman Wise.

23--Photo by Jonathan Exley.

24--Graphic © 1995 Joy Locke.



It is illegal to reproduce or scan any art from this newsletter.



[Photo--con]



[Photo--Kate]



CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE DEPARTMENT



Gentle readers:  Moving is our only excuse for the large number of typos

and layout glitches herein.  The people responsible for sacking the people

responsible have been sacked...



Heather, Michele, and Larry of BG&H:  Thanks yet again!



Cheryl Waldie and Sue Harke:  I owe you both SEVERAL videotapes and as much

breaking news as I can get ahold of!  Thanks for everything!



Jeff: Cultural relevance of this stuff? Naah! Thanks for the article!



Julie:  MUCH gratitude for getting the article in, under deadline, while we

were moving and being lousy correspondents!  It's terrific, and you're

terrific!  Now, what IS that pesky Q up to???  :D



Anne and Laura B:  Endless appreciation for the fiction, the art, the

scans, the humor,  the disks, and the rest.  XOXO



Sue Henley:  Just wanted to tell you that we've got several marriage

proposals to be forwarded to you...



Becky, Diane, Laura B&W:  And then they got married and lived happily ever

after, although there seems to be some dispute as to the number of children

they had.   TFW to all of you!



Claire:  I'm so glad you found me again.  Just proves my theory that Trek

fandom is as real a community as the neighborhood where I grew up.  Thanks

for everything!  TFW to you too!



Siubhan:  You never told the RBLS the end of the story about Kathryn and

the wonder iguana!   Did she free it from its bonds?  Thanks for the cards

and the art and the laughs!



Kate:  We love you!   And the internet's not really THAT scary.



UPN:  Congrats on the Emmy nominations.  Now GET THE NEW EPISODES ON THE

AIR ALREADY!!!



WWW users:  Look for Now Voyager on the web at:

http://umbc8.umbc.edu/~mpanti1/kate/kate.html .





[Comic Strip]



Now Voyager

c/o Michelle Green and Paul Anderson					FIRST CLASS

8114 Inverness Ridge Road

Potomac, MD 20854

    Source: geocities.com/televisioncity/Station/1965/archive