Majel Barrett Roddenberry
Actress, Paramount / Freelance
Working on: TNG episode "Dark Page"
Barrett Roddenberry confirms DS9's strong syndication ratings, TNG's final season ambitious scripts, and hints at a TNG film beginning production the following spring. She dismisses rumors about the original cast starring prominently in the film and speaks critically of unauthorized Star Trek novels that stray from Gene Roddenberry's vision.
Dan Madsen
President, Official Star Trek Fan Club, Star Trek Fan Club
Working on: Fan club magazine and catalogue
Madsen, who founded the Official Star Trek Fan Club out of high school in 1979 and now runs a 105,000-subscriber organization, discusses the rumored crossover film uniting original and Next Generation crews, the future of DS9, and Gene Roddenberry's philosophy as the core of the franchise's enduring appeal.
Michael Dorn
Actor, Paramount / Freelance
Working on: Star Trek: The Next Generation (Worf)
Dorn traces his acting career from CHiPs through his Worf casting, discusses favorite TNG episodes and co-stars, and advises aspiring actors to get broad theatrical education rather than focusing narrowly on science fiction.
George Takei
Actor, Freelance
Working on: Star Trek conventions and future film involvement
Takei recounts the original Trek series' cancellation and fan-driven revival, traces the arc of the film series (peaking with Star Trek IV), and reflects on his status as a "tiny gear" in the Trek machinery compared to the encyclopedic knowledge of fans.
Tony Meininger
Model Maker / Designer, Brazil Fabrication and Design
Working on: DS9 station and TNG spacecraft models
Meininger explains the end-to-end process of designing and fabricating motion-control spaceship models for TNG and DS9, from concept drawings to internal lighting rigs and structural engineering, including the challenges of building the six-foot DS9 station with its complex neon and fiber optics.
Dennis Hoerter
Special Effects Engineer, Image G Iconographics
Working on: Motion control photography for TNG and DS9
Emmy Award-winning special effects engineer Hoerter details the multi-pass motion control photography process used to composite Star Trek's spaceship shots and reflects on his accidental entry into the industry — originally a dinner-theater actor turned carpenter — and the strange duality of working on effects that may be studied for a century alongside ephemeral commercials.
DAK's editorial riffs on Robert Heinlein's concept of the "competent man" as embodied in Ayn Rand's fiction, heroic adventure narratives, superhero comics, and Star Trek, arguing that fictional heroes serve as inspirational symbols of human potential.
A multi-page gallery of pencil art by Gordon Purcell from DC's Star Trek and TNG comic series, including a previously unpublished story rejected by Paramount for being "too humorous."
Mark Ellis (former editor-in-chief of Millennium Publications) delivers a lengthy critique of Jeph Loeb's Challengers of the Unknown revival, contrasting it with his own successful Doc Savage revival strategy. ---