'Enterprise' and Star Trek Cognoscenti, Welcome!

I recall seeing DeForrest Kelly (sp?) in an episode of Perry Mason. I'm wondering: Which other Star Trek cast members appeared on television programs before Star Trek was launched?



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I haven't searched the fimography yet, tho' I will, because I'm curious now.

But William Shatner was on The Twilight Zone, twice I think.

And DeForrest Kelly used to make westerns. Old black-and-white spaghetti westerns kind of thing. He was pretty good looking back then too, though he never quite became a leading man.

Shatner was also in some show called "The Lieutenant", I think. That was where he hooked up with Roddenberry.

Joe, go rent some of these original episodes. If you want some recommendations, ask.

Deb, I'd appreciate some recommendations! (Anything but that episode about the overgrown dust-bunnies, as it's been hyped beyond all merit in the years since it aired.)



I personally like episodes with strange yet visible aliens, as opposed to off-camera booming voices or actors wearing togas, but I've no idea regarding titles of episodes et cetera. Thank you!

:martian:

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Among my favorites are: "The City on the Edge of Forever" (no aliens, per se, but a young Joan Collins), probably the best episode.

Also, "Journey to Babel", featuring Spock's parents.

I also like "The Doomsday Machine", a good story about obsession.

Those are a few favorites.

Thanx for the titles! I'll go where no Mr. Cat has gone before (at least not in a very long time): the video store. Mind, I've one of their "membership" cards (Blockbuster); but I go to the (free) library for videos. However, in order to comply with the Prime Directive (or something), I'll hit the video store and see what's what.



Now, here's something completely different: Yahoo! Clubs felinetrekphase2. They've combined cats and Star Trek! Okay, so here's what I learned:

"I was informed recently that Lt. Barkley (Dwight Shultz [sp?]) had a cat named Neelix in Star Trek: Voyager. I don't know the details because I didn't care for Star Trek: Voyager at all. And I don't know how/why Barkley ended up on the Voyager — don't care, either.

"I've always wondered about the cat Miles O'Brian adopted (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine). There was this great episode where Miles was sent in to spy on some ring and he ended up really liking and caring for the guy he was supposed to be spying on. The guy had a cat and Miles ended up taking the cat back to the station with him. It kind of looked like a big fluffy Maine coon.

"On the original Star Trek there was Isis, Gary 7's partner; the alien Sylvia who changed herself into a big black cat and in her true alien form was a very bad-looking chicken string-puppet."

So, anybody have anything to add to this Star-Trek/Felis-catus information?



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Okay, my favorite "space" character of all time isn't even an official Star Trek dramatis persona. She's Delenn, ambassador from Minbar on Babylon 5.



I really miss her and Babylon 5. I hope the low-life scum who moved that program to cable all burn in hell. And that's the nicest thing I can think of to say about them. (Obviously, I've not entirely integrated Delenn's compassionate personality into my own.)

Mira Furlan, who played Delenn, lived in her native Yugoslavia until 1991. Furlan — famous in her country as an actor in cinema, television and theater — refused to join in the official ethnic-hatred campaign; and that decision lead to her persecution by local and national authorities. She thus came to the U.S.A. with her husband, a film director.



I always liked Delenn's courteous and highly-principled efforts to mitigate for peace and understanding; and her personal and professional difficulties which ensued due to her relationship with a Terran (Sheridan) were fascinatingly complex.



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Anyone see Entertainment Tonight last night? Their cover story was on Nimoy & Shatner. The have put out a video called "Mind Meld: Secrets behind the Voyage of a lifetime". The following is an exerpt from Bill Shatner's web site about the video available Nov 6 on http://www.williamshatner.com/


"These two stars have arguably embodied the brightest icons in the sci-fi universe; Shatner as
passionate Captain James T. Kirk, and Nimoy as logical minded, half Vulcan Mr. Spock. Now, in
an unprecedented candid conversation at Nimoy's Beverly Hills home, these two icons of popular
culture share with each other, and the viewers, the behind-the-scenes adventures of one of the
greatest franchises in entertainment history. They discuss:
The Phenomenon - How Star Trek meaningfully changed their careers, their very lives.
The Creative Battles - The pressures of making a landmark weekly series. The challenges of bringing back Star Trek as a movie franchise.
The Original Crew - Rivalries, jealousies and conflicts between the original cast and creators.
The Personal Impact - Pressures on their families and friends. Struggles with personal demons and addictions.
The Final Frontiers - Lives reviewed. Facing death. Remembering their Star Trek co-star
DeForest Kelley (Dr. McCoy) and the legacies both men hope to leave behind."
It looks interesting - I hope I can get it at the video store.

Thank you for the excellent information!

:martian:

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MEDES - The French Institute for Space Medicine and Physiology





Space flight duration will increase with the use of the International Space Station and possible future missions to Mars. Therefore, there is a need to anticipate the medical problems which could happen during the flight and to prepare the return to Earth of astronauts. Experiments are organised on ground to simulate the effects of weightlessness to study the adaptation to Space environment and implement efficient preventive tools (counter measures).

Space flight duration will increase with the use of the International Space Station and possible future missions to Mars.

Therefore, there is a need to anticipate the medical problems which could happen during the flight and to prepare the return to Earth of astronauts. Experiments are organised on ground to simulate the effects of weightlessness to study the adaptation to Space environment and implement efficient preventive tools (counter-measures).

The most often used model is the head-down bed rest (-6 degrees below the supine horizontal position, see the picture). This position induces physiological changes similar to those encountered by astronauts during or after space flight as for example :

cardio-vascular deconditioning characterised by a drop in blood pressure when standing and reduced capacity to physical exercise,

atrophy of number of back and lower limbs,

bone changes characterised by a decrease of the bone density of the spine column and of the lower limbs bones; these changes are observed when the space flight or the bed rest experiment last several weeks,

gait and balance changes when recovering.



For ten years, MEDES has been organising bed rest experiments of different durations from several hours to several weeks according to the scientific objectives of the experiment. After a medical check-up, a determined number of volunteers, corresponding to specific criteria, is selected to participate in the study. The study will start only after the approval of an Ethics Committee.

The volunteers will stay in head-down tilted (-6° position) during the whole experiment, without standing (even for meals and get washed); the position upholding is checked by video-monitoring. A specialised medical and paramedical team takes care of the volunteers: physicians, nurses, physiotherapists, psychologists and dieticians.

In order to prepare space flights on board the International Space Station (see below, photo NASA), the French (CNES), European (ESA) and Japanese (NASDA) Agencies decided to join their efforts to organise, 3 months head-down bed-rest experiments on male volunteers (starting in 2001).



The purpose of these experiments is to evaluate the consequences on man of long duration space flights and the efficiency of the countermeasures (pharmaceutical and/or muscular exercise). The resulting data will be crosschecked with the data coming from astronauts during actual space flights.

The first experiment will take place in the Space Clinic (MEDES) located into Toulouse Rangueil Hospital. The objectives of these studies are to assess the consequences of a long duration flight and the pharmacological and physical (muscular exercise) efficiency of preventive tools.

During these experiments, several international scientific teams will realise numerous scientific protocols concerning:

muscular evaluation,

bones changes,

physical fitness,

cardio-vascular systems,

sleep,

blood and urine assays,

nutritional behavior,

. . . .

The whole experiment is handled under the Fench law for biomedical research.

If you wish to participate to the next Bed Rest experiment phase, which will take place from March to July 2002, please check that you fulfill the following criteria:

You have to be :

- male

- citizen in a European Union member country or of a European Space Agency member state

- between 25 and 45 years of age

- between 165 and 185 cm tall

- a non-smoker

- in the normal weight range for your height

- in good health and on no chronic medical treatment

- highly motivated

If you meet these criteria, you are kindly invited to send a short letter with your name, address, date and place of birth, your body height, body weight, and a short description why you would like to participate.

The address is:

MEDES
BP 4200
31031 TOULOUSE CEDEX 4
FRANCE

We will send you a candidature file as soon as we receive your letter.

You can also directly apply through our web site.

On-line demands will be more rapidly consulted.

Long Term Bed Rest - MEDES - 200
Questions? Comments? Please contact our Webmaster.

:martian:

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I would volunteer - my husband already thinks I am a space cadet sometimes. They won't take me though - females would be good for this. I could spend quality in bed napping

Check out the cheekbones on Mira Furlan! I don't notice it so much when she's in costume.

Are Vulcans allowed to lie? For some reason I found the sight of Vulcan "monks" being deceitful distrubing.

I was unable to view last night's episode of Enterprise due to, um, something. *is sad* Oh, well.



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I missed it too....there were too many trick or treaters ringing the door bell to sit in front of the tube. Luckily I tape Enterprise for a friend who doesn't get it (lives in the woods with no cable or satelite), so I get to watch tonight.

But I have a wonderful husband! He found a site where someone had uploaded all the episodes of Enterprise, and he downloaded them for me and is burning them to cd. I have this week's episode but I haven't had a chance to watch yet.

I suppose this is illegal, though we didn't pay for these so maybe not. Having it on cd should be no more illegal than making a videotape, just don't know if our source is strictly on the up-and-up . . .

Where are you, oh Star Trek person?



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Boy, am I a little late chiming in on this week's episode. Those twitchy Andorian anntennae were convincing. I watched amidst paying bills and fending off trick-or-treaters.

During the last 10 minutes, I lost my cable signal for a minute or so, but got it back in time to see the ending.

I'm right there with you, adymarie, Vulcans being anything other than on the up-and-up? Hmm.

Regardless, another good episode.

Hey, sunlion, I'd like to know more about this uploading of the episodes. I was just commenting to a friend yesterday that I'm not so willing to retire my VCR for DVD because of the loss of recording capabilities. I do own a burner, however. I'm sure the download time would be phenomenal, especially with my dial-up connection , but I would be interested in giving it a shot.

As it stands, I have all original Trek and The Next Generation on video. I anticipate that these tapes won't last forever, though. But I can't see the VCR going the way of the dinosaur just yet. How else are you to record a show that you can't be home to watch? I'd like to see a VCR/DVD combo. That would solve all my problems.

We used to have a Tivo, which is kind of like that. It's another pay service like cable, and cash is tight right now so we gave it up, but we're getting it again as soon as we can. It has a menu with your local programs and different recording options, and at the low level ours saved about 30 hours of programming. Worked well for me because I could record stuff late at night and watch it at a reasonable time. Plus kids shows, so I could show them in the evening to my daughter - while recording Law & Order or something else she shouldn't watch for us.

I'll check with hubby about the site for past episodes. They seem to be about a week behind. That is, Wed. was the Andorean episode but the one that was available on Thurs. was the Terra Nova episode from the week before. At least I get it twice a week - once on UPN and once on WGN - so if I miss it I stand a chance of still seeing it.

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Oh, those antennae creeped me out. I suppose snails move theirs around like that and all, but to see it happen right above a face! Eeeuw!

Vulcans do not in general lie because it is not logical. It creates situations that are difficult to maintain and often ultimately causes more problems than it solves. Logic is their highest good, and most of their spiritual practices are about purging emotion so that they can focus on logic. Separation of religion from government is a particularly western idea, so not all people on earth consider it a necessity, why would all aliens? It certainly seems feasible that the Vulcan gov't persuaded those monks to build on that planet because with the tension with the Andoreans, it was logical to have a secret base there. When it was built, I'm sure the Andoreans couldn't detect it. Or perhaps those monks weren't really monks at all, but a very good cover story. Over time (it seems to be quite an old temple) a true practice might well have arisen, with most members unaware of the underground facility. Maybe only that one monk knew.

I was thinking about that smell issue, because it came up with the Vulcans again. Part of it (useless trivia here) is probably related to diet - vegetarians in general have less offensive body secretions than carnivores and Vulcans are vegetarians. Plus their home world is much hotter than Earth, so they probably don't sweat as much in an environment that is comfortable for humans. Spock never commented on it, but he was half human (Sarek married an earth woman named Amanda) so perhaps he wasn't as sensitive to it.

But of course it's all speculation. It's only a story and while it helps to make sense within that reality, it isn't required. We've all seen shows where continuity or common sense were abandonned in favor of telling a good story. We just don't notice it because we get so wrapped up in the events.

Hey, Sunlion, thanks! I'll be interested in checking out that site.

Fortunately, my UPN station runs the same episode twice a week. But I always tape it on Wednesday night to be sure.