Hello everyone,

What follows are the EchoNewsNetwork updates that I have been holding
back on for the last two months and a bit.  I think once you see
what's there you'll agree that I couldn't just post them without doing
my best to insure that they were fairly accurate.

On the topic of accuracy - as far as I can confirm, the sources in
question are very dependable.  They haven't led me wrong before.  And
since I received the information there has been a lot of confirmation.
Some of it has leaked out in rumours here on the Echo, more of it was
confirmed by Marina Sirtis during her appearence here in Ottawa last
month.  Some of it is completely unconfirmable except by people
located in the Paramount head offices.  The last is what causes me the
most concern since, if it is true, it means that some of the cast
members have been misleading the public in their statements at cons
and to the press.  More worrying is that the ones who are apparently
misleading the public remain constant - in other words, the same cast
members are shown repeatedly to have more information then they state
to the press, or that they are actually leading the press on when they
are fully aware that what they are saying is innacurate.  About
two-and-a-half months ago I posted a news analysis in which I
questioned what it was that we were hearing at the cons and cautioned
everyone to take what was being said with a grain of salt.  Well, I'll
just repeat that warning and add for the casts' benefit that
sometimes the posters reporting on these cons may well be
misinterpreting what they hear.  I'm not going to name the cast
members I think are not being truthful on matters or why, but you can
tell who they are by simply reading all the news and comparing the
stories.  The contradictions are there for anyone to see if they just
look.

These past few months have been very confusing times for Star Trek,
and there is a very good reason why that is so.  Roughly put, the
power struggle in Paramount is over.  P'mount has a new head, Star
Trek has a new Great Bird, and together they have plotted out the
course of the "Empire" for the next two years. During that time a lot
of people have tried to exert some influence over events or to grab a
chance at getting involved in the new Star Trek power structure.

With that said and a final warning to mind the accuracy of these
reports (I think they are dead on and wouldn't be posting them
otherwise.  However, nothing in life is certain and I'd like to add
that for the sake of those whose actions and motives we can't be
certain about), I'll get off the soapbox and post the news.

Iain...
Editor for the ENN Updates

Please send all complaints and information regarding any ENN posts to
            Iain Twolan netmail at 1:163/215.14










                 P A R A M O U N T   D E C I D E S :

              NO STAR TREK VII MOVIE WITH ORIGINAL CAST

                 ST:TNG CANCELLED IN SEVENTH SEASON


DECISIONS taken during Febuary have apparently sealed the fate of both
another original cast movie and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

The future of a STAR TREK VII with the original cast had been in doubt
since the sudden departure of Brandon Tartikoff as head of Paramount.
Tartikoff partly left due to conflicts with Stanley Jaffe, who had
placed himself in a position between Tartikoff and Paramount CEO,
Martin Davis.  Jaffe, describe as "difficult to work with",
subsequently took control for film and tv production at Paramount with
his former partner, Sherry Lansing.

The change in authority left the fate of Star Trek VII in limbo for
several weeks.  Brandon Tartikoff was known to favour a combined
TOS-TNG movie and allowed James Doohan to appear on TNG as his TOS
character Scotty in order to proived a possible bridge between the two
series which would have been expanded in a motion picture. Meanwhile,
Majel Barrett Roddenberry continued to campaign at Star Trek
conventions for an original cast picture slated for a Christmas, 1993
release.  Most of the original cast, Leonard Nimoy among them, felt
that this was an unrealistic target, but Barrett Roddenberry continues
to insist it is possible.  Unfortunately for Barrett Roddenberry,
Jaffe favoured a completely TNG cast movie, a decision he reached
after learning that Brandon Tartikoff had relatively "little in the
pipeline" for the Christmas, 1993 season. Jaffe apparently felt that a
TNG cast movie could be produced more quickly (and cheaply) than a TOS
movie by fast-tracking the series into movies for the 1994 season.

On Febuary 8th, Paramount revealed in a statement that it had scrapped
plans for Star Trek VII and was pressing ahead with a TNG film for
Christmas of 1994.  Rick Berman, TNG/DS9 producer, has struck a deal
to act as executive producer and co-writer on two TNG films.
Production of the first of these would begin after the seventh season
of TNG.  Options for appearences in the TNG film were to be included
as part of the TNG contract negotiations with the cast which took
place over March and April.  According to one report, options for an
eighth season followed by a motion picture run were to be on the
table. As of mid-March all the cast members had signed their
contracts, except for Patrick Stewart who had complained about a lack
of free time to dedicate to various other projects, including the
Royal Shakespeare Company.  However, Stewart has agreed
'un-officially' to sign on for a seventh season and hopes to work with
the TNG cast again "in the coming fifteen months".

Stewart's hesitency, combined with the Paramount's inability to
replace him or explain his abscence from the bridge for much of the
coming season, has helped the studio in deciding to cut short the
seventh season, though it's not known how short.  As well, the reduced
season will allow the other actors a break between finishing the
series and filming the movie.  It also provided added incentive to
return to the series during contract negotiations.  However, there is
no technical reason why a full 26 episodes could not be produced in
the 7th season along with a movie.  TNG continues to be more popular
than DS9 in the ratings and shows no sign of flagging. With Paramount
losing CHEERS this year, Paramount bosses were paying close attention
to DS9's success.  With that success assured and an inability to sign
on Stewart for a full seventh season of appearences, the studio
apparently feels that DS9's success won't require any further help
from TNG, thus allowing the older series to move over to the big
screen with a relatively intact cast.  For their part, several TNG
cast members have begun to campaign for fan letters.  During her
recent appearence in Ottawa, Canada, Marina Sirtis confirmed that the
studio was "thinking of cancelling us" and expressed the hope that
fans would write in to the studio since every letter written was
viewed by studio heads as representing the opinions of 10,000 viewers.

As for finding a replacement for Picard, Ronny Cox, who played
Captain Jellicoe in the TNG episode CHAIN OF COMMAND, has confirmed
that he was contacted by Berman and Mike Piller to see if he was
interested in taking permanent command of the Enterprise, but Cox was
uninterested in doing a full series.  He was willing to do six
episodes, and with two completed there is another script in the works
for his character to appear next season.

There are three scripts currently being looked at for the first TNG
movie.  One of the three includes a TNG-TOS crossover, while the other
two are TNG only.  The only problem with a TNG-TOS crossover is the
fact that William Shatner is keen to direct again, another reason why
Paramount has considered carefully whether to shelve the original
cast or to feature them only in a cameo role.  If they do appear, a
cameo role seems most likely now.  Possible plots included the return
of the Borg or a Cardassian war, though rumours suggested that one of
these would form the background to a season-ender cliffhanger.  That
would allow Berman to advance Picard to the Admiralty as an excuse for
his scarcity next season. Recent episode listings coming from
Paramount seem to confirm that the production team have decided to go
with the Borg return scenario as a season-ender.  Whether or not this
means that Picard will advance to the admiralty remains to be seen.
If it comes about, it would explain the large number of Picard episode
that TNG has featured this season - a final attempt by the TNG staff
to get Patrick Stewart the Emmy nomination which has evaded him for
the last five years.





        TROUBLES IN THE DS9 CAST MAY LEAD TO SHAKE-UP.



ALTHOUGH Paramount is satisfied with the success of Deep Space 9,
troubles within the cast and the format of the program are forcing the
shows producers to look carefully at plans for next season.

Terry Farrell is believed to be so disappointed with the development
of her character that she is considering leaving the series at the end
of this season.  Her character Jadzia Dax, though universally looked
forward to, has witnessed next to no character development and has
been featured in progressively smaller roles as compared to the rest
of the cast. She is apparently planning a "Denise Crosby" if her
character continues to be underused.

Farrell is not the only actor on Deep Space 9 disappointed with the
development of their character.  Avery Brooks is reportedly
unhappy with Rick Berman over the direction (or lack of it) of his
character and is engaged in discussions with the executive producers.
As of the moment there are no reports that Brooks is planning on not
being aboard the station come next September, but he does admit that
attempts to turn Benjamine Sisko into the "comtemporary mythological
brown hero" that his previous character Hawk was on SPENSER FOR HIRE,
have not met with success on DS9.  As one critic put it, the cool
understatement that served Hawk so well in establishing a mythic
quality "doesn't have quite the same effect without dark glasses and a
Colt Python."  The result has been that Sisko has been written to such
a low point of understatement that he is overshadowed by most of the
rest of the cast.  Brooks is hoping to find a solution to this problem
by working with Berman and Mike Piller.  ENN suspects that Brooks will
return next season irregardless of the writing that remains to this
season or the beginning of next season due to his dedication to
bringing heros of colour to American television.

Unfortunately, any attempts to alter characters and find new solutions
to old problems must be worked out in the face of and at the cost of
DS9's most surprisingly successful character, Quark.  To the
producers' surprise, both Odo and Quark have become the most popular
characters on DS9, and to a large degree it is recognized that Quark's
character carries Odo, whose perpetually cynical and depressing
outlook threatens to turn viewers off were it not for Quark's
animation and delivery of what are the series best lines to date.
Already aware of the weakness of the other characters in relation to
Quark, the DS9 production team have concentrated on them in order to
try and add depth.  First among these is Nana Visitor's character,
Major Kira Nerys.  However, Siddig El Faddil has found his place in
playing Dr. Julian Bashir for the humour and innocence content, making
Bashir the DS9 version of the TNG character Data.  The writers have
also recently concentrated on building the friendship between Nog and
Jake Sisko.  Even so, the writing staff has still been unable to avoid
having at least one scene per episode in which Quark is featured,
often bickering with Odo, and have apparently been completely
unsuccessful in writing Dax, Benjamin Sisko, and relatively less
successful in writing for the O'Briens.

Any character changes also have to take into account the change in
emphasis at DS9.  Originally touted as a "darker and grittier" version
of TNG, the producers were soon forced to change their direction when
it's perspective audience began sending in letters, worried that they
would dump what made Star Trek Star Trek, the moral and optimistic
view of the future and of inter-race relations which Gene Roddenberry
gave it.  Faced with this disquiet, the producers quickly let it be
known that there would be no move away from the "Star Trek message"
and that they were, afterall, the men who had helmed TNG from its
second season onward as Roddenberry had relenquished more and more
control.  What this means in terms of DS9's first full season is not
clear.  There continue to be complaints about the seeming small size
and dark lighting of the sets, or the somberness of its colours and
the overall feeling of gloomy claustrophobia that is the DS9 station.
This is something all the more apparent when the dark sets of DS9 are
compared with the lightfilled sets of TNG.  So it may be possible that
set changes are planned should enough money be forthcoming from
Paramount.  Further changes are no doubt under consideration.






      S T A R   T R E K ' S   P O W E R   S T R U G G L E :

                     BERMAN BESTS BARRETT


WITH the success of Deep Space 9, Rick Berman seems to have achieved
near complete control over Star Trek and its future direction, even
to the point of edging out Majel Barrett Roddenberry.

While Barrett Roddenberry continues to own rights to the Star Trek
title though her late husband, Gene Roddenberry's company Norway
Productions, evidence is increasing that her role in the day to day
running of Star Trek is minimal.  Furthermore, it appears that
Paramount is distancing her from the franchise.  She continues to
provide the voice of the Enterprise computer in almost every episode,
however, Paramount has reportedly ceased providing her merchandising
company, Lincoln Enterprises with new scripts, while she herself has
had her planned appearance as Lwaxanna Troi on TNG this season
cancelled (originally her appearance on DS9 was also cancelled, but
was subsequently reinstated.)  Moreover, her push to have a Star Trek
VII movie staring the original cast and filmed for Christmas, 1993,
has not been favoured by Paramount, another sign that Paramount seems
to consider Rick Berman to be the new manager of the franchise.

Some of her former cast members also seem to view Berman as the new
Great Bird.  Leonard Nimoy has been moving ever closer to Rick Berman
over the last several months.  Nimoy has indicated an interest in
appearing in more TNG episodes and perhaps even setting foot on DS9.
Nimoy's family are also getting involved in Star Trek.  His son Adam
directed the TNG episode RASCALS and is set to direct an episode from
the seventh season as well, while his wife Susan Bay may make further
cameo appearences as the Starfleet Admiral responsible for the sector
that DS9 is located in.  When asked recently whether he would like to
assume Gene Roddenberry's role as protector of the Star Trek mythos,
Nimoy implicitly praised Berman by pointing out that Roddenberry had
no involvement in the last five films, and that his ill-health had
allowed him little control over TNG after its first season, so he felt
that the series was safe in the hands of those who had pilotted it for
the last five years.

As can be guessed, such comments have not endeared him to Barrett
Roddenberry.  In addition, Barrett Roddenberry had been claiming that
a Star Trek VII would be made on the basis of a script written by
Nimoy.  Nimoy subsequently went public insisting that he had written
no such script.  The possibility of Paramount changing its mind at
this late date and going with an original cast movie are slight, due
in no small part to William Shatner's desire to direct another film.
This was apparently a stumbling block Paramount could not see its way
around, and as more of the original cast wake up to the fact that
there will not be another original cast movie, several of them have
let Paramount and Berman know that they are interested in appearing in
a TNG or DS9 episode or film.

Nimoy is apparently eager for a box office success which will win him
financing for a pet project of his own; a motion picture about the
original siamese twins.  He has produced a promo film for the project
which received a lukewarm reception, and could choose to direct the
first TNG film in the hopes that a success will lead to financing for
his film.  Should the movie pick-up on the plot threads left after the
TNG episode UNIFICATION, Nimoy may well appear as Spock again.
TNG's television audience was reminded recently of Spock's work on
Romulus in FACE OF THE ENEMY, where it was also hinted that his
efforts may well be bearing fruit.  For his part, Paramount has
appointed Berman as executive producer of any TNG film that comes down
the pipeline for Christmas, 1994, which guarantees that the
experienced producer will have a say in all future aspects of Star
Trek production.




     S H A T N E R   P L A N S   T E L L - A L L   B O O K

WILLIAM Shatner's career continues to blossom.  The
actor/writer/director is now become a producer of his own television
program.

Shatner is to be involved in the filming of a television series
based on his TEK novels (written, it is widely believed, with
considerable aid from Ron Goulert).  The series is to be shot in
Toronto, Canada.  Shatner acts as Executive producer and plans on
stepping into the director's shoes for several episodes.  The TV
series will be a syndicated first run series in the same catagory as
Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine. As well, Shatner's
TEK novels have been adapted into a comic book series which has
already appeared on comic shelves.

However, the most noteworthy news about Shatner concerns his plans to
write his memoirs.  Shatner has received a $750,000 advance on his
memoirs from a publisher, and claims that the memoirs will force him
to examine his relationship with Star Trek in a way he has always
avoided doing.  His revelations are unlikely to please friends and
fans of Gene Roddenberry, with whom Shatner often had a chilly
relationship.  There has been no comment yet from Majel Barrett
Roddenberry about her reaction to the news.  She has apparently
avoided mentioning it during convention appearances.

The only down-side for Shatner in all of this is the failure of McGill
University in Montreal to honour the actor by naming a building after
him. Even though Shatner graduated from McGill in 1952 with a business
degree, and a student referendum at McGill favoured naming a building
in his honour, the Senate of McGill University declined to take
action.  The problem lies in the fact that McGill University
traditionally only names buildings as a postumous honour, meaning that
Shatner must die before McGill can name a building for him.








[Here is an article that came out over the Canadian Press (CP) about
two weeks ago which makes it fairly recent. From what I can tell, it's
the most up-to-date word on the status of a Star Trek movie and if
what is detailed here is true, then a weird twist in Paramount's
policy has been taken.  Possibly the reporter misinterpreted what
Shatner said or, just as likely, Shatner was exaggerating... in fact,
the author of the piece seems to have doubts about what was being said
too, as you can tell from the article. Anyway, here it is for what
it's worth.  The editorial comments in the square brackets are all
mine :) ]

           CAPTAIN KIRK WON'T LEAVE THE BRIDGE
[FROM CANADIAN PRESS, APRIL 27, 1993]

TORONTO (CP) - Star Trek VII is gearing up to beam into theatres
across the galaxy - at least that's what Captain Kirk says.

Montreal native William Shatner played Kirk in the original series,
which ran for 79 episodes.  He has reprised the role in a series of
Star Trek films.

Shatner, 62, took credit for the planned Star Trek VII stpryline at a
recent Trekkie [sic] convention here.

"I picked the idea out of the air (but) I'm not going to tell you what
it is," said Shatner, prowling the stage of a hotel ballroom with a
microphone in hand as a burly bodyguard watched the frenzied crowd.
[great discriptions of the crowd and Shatner, huh?  Guess you can tell
the reporter was thrilled to be there.  Oh well, on with the show...]

"Maybe it's a good idea; maybe it's a good script; maybe it will
work," said Shatner.  [Gee, he told the crowd a lot, didn't he?  No
wonder the reporter was so thrilled.]

Star Trek VII will combine characters from the original 1960s  TV
series with those from Star Trek: The Next Generation, Shatner told
about 2,000 fans.

Shatner also revealed that he'll join forces with the latest commander
of the Enterprise, Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, played by actor Patrick
Stewart.

Star Trek VII qould follow the 1991 hit Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered
Country, billed as the last film in the series featuring a cast that
included Leonard Nimoy and Deforest Kelly - who played Mr.Spock and
Dr.Leonard McCoy on the original show.

The original Star Trek... [blah, blah, blah.  More stuff about how the
series was in reruns and ressurected as TNG and DS9]

Shatner has reportedly been pitching his ideas for the seventh film,
but Trek's owners, Paramount Pictures [who technically aren't Trek's
owners but it's close enough] are interested in launching a series of
movies featuring the cast of the Next Generation, which is ending
production in 1994 [Hmmm... the writer of this story seems to know
more about what Shatner and Paramount are doing that he is saying
straight out.  No wonder he was skeptical of Shatner at the
beginning.]

Shatner didn't say how Star Trek VII would deal with the fact that the
shows are set some 70 years apart [he knows his facts..]  Various plot
devices have been used to bring Nimoy and Kelly into the new TV show,
a hit in syndication now in its sixth season.

Picard, the hero of the Next Generation, is played by Patrick Stewart
[he's repeating himself], a 20-year veteran of Britain's Royal
Shakespeare Theatre [Company, actually] who was cast after producers
saw him give a rousing lecture on the Bard.

Shatner was cast as Kirk in 1966, a then lucrative turn in a career
that began with child parts on CBC [Canadian Broadcasting Company]
radio and included appearances at the Stratford Festival, on Broadway
and in the 1961 film JUDGEMENT AT NUREMBURG.

Shatner who has since starred in the BARBARY COAST, T.J. HOOKER and
RESCUE 911 television series, does have a problem with being typecast.
"Those movies have kept us in view as Star Trek people, but it's been
many years since that series was made," he said.

Shatner is planning to direct a sci-fi [sic] TV series in Toronto
called TekWar, based on his series of novels about a private eye in
the distant future. "A lot of time and life has passed by."

[That's all s/he wrote.  As you can see, the reporter was pretty
skeptical about eh whole story Shatner was telling, and the complete
lack of any details on what the script idea was, who would appear,
when filming would start and most importantly, what Shatner's role in
an upcoming film would be (actor? Director? Producer? Writer?).  There
you are, for what it's worth...]



