Growing up on "Quantum Leap", we were super excited to hear the news that Scott Bakula would be playing the next captain in Star Trek: Enterprise, back in 2001. The show was slightly different from past Star Trek series, but Scott and the rest of the cast surely didn't disappoint. Enterprise can often be a dividing line among Trek fans. Wait, I take that back, other than TNG and The Original Series, just about everything in Trek can be a dividing line among fans. Anyway, we loved Enterprise and were surely sad to see it go in 2005. Apparently Scott was sad to see it go as well. According to a StarTrek.com interview Scott thinks that Archer could have grown up and lightened up a bit in the fifth season and that the series finale was a bit "odd". We completely agree with you Scott. Although, Archer was still The Man, even if he could have smiled a little more. Check out an excerpt from the interview below.

Five years on, how do you look back on Enterprise?

Growing up in the 80's, my first introduction to Star Trek was the Original Series movies, starting with "Star Trek: The Motion Picture". I guess that really could be considered the late, late 70's, but I digress. One of my fondest memories, from that time, was seeing Nichelle Nichols for the first time as Lt. Uhura. She was one of the very first women I'd seen in any kind of authoritative role other than my mother. From then on out, Nichelle & Uhura have been an influence on my life and how I see and perceive women & the world. Interestingly enough, Nichelle saw Star Trek as a way to further her career on Broadway. She had no idea of the ride she was in for, or how she would help shape the 20th century and beyond.

In an interview with Desertnews.com, Nichelle recalls her early days in Trek and how she thought the show would be a "nice adjunct to my résumé."

William Shatner apparently has another show in the works that's premiering this fall?! Called William Shatner's "Weird or What?" the show will look at extraordinary events and try to explain them scientifically or logical. What we would like someone to explain is, when does William Shatner sleep? This is the third television show he's premiering this fall! Along with "Aftermath", "Bleep My Dad Says", and now "Weird or What?", The Shat is also still working on "Raw Nerve" while filming a documentary about all of the Star Trek captains called simply "The Captains". One thing that did just cross our minds, maybe The Shat is one of those new-fangled day walking vampires. When we saw him up-close at Vegas Khhaaan, he was awfully sparkly.

Star Trek Online's Season 2: Ancient Enemies update is about a month into it's launch and Cryptic Studios continues to add content to their flagship MMO. Just released is a brand new iconic Trek ship made famous by one Captain Hikaru Sulu. That's right Trek fans, the Excelsior Class is back! I guess the Excelsior was made famous in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, then throughout Next Gen, and again as the Enterprise-B in "Star Trek: Generations", but I digress. We prefer to think of it as Sulu's ship... *Fly her apart then!*

The Excelsior Class Retrofit is available now in the C-store for 1200 Cryptic Points. Check out a description below.

Bouncing around the web today, we ran across a facebook post by one of our Trek friends, many of you may know her as @starfleetmom on twitter.  We had the awesome opportunity to hang with starfleetmom at Vegas Khhaaan! and had a blast with her and all of the gang.  Anyway, back to the point of this article, starfleetmom posted a link to a Trek item she's selling on a site called Yardsellr.com.  It's a really cool poster featuring Data & The Doctor from Voyager complete with signatures of Robert Picardo & Brent Spiner.  Yardsellr.com is something we'd never heard of and the idea of finding hidden Trek treasure was more than we could pass up.

Over the years, we've all heard stories about certain actors who were up for roles on "Star Trek: The Next Generation", but for one reason or other didn't want or get the part.  Now, thanks to Sliceofscifi.com (via Lettersofnote.com), we have an April 1987 dated Paramount studio memo that sheds light on the actually prospects for the TNG crew.  

Among the many names listed, Yaphet Kotto was up for the role of Captain Picard, Ben Murphy (Alias Smith & Jones) was a candidate for Riker (spelled Ryker in the memo), Denise Crosby was considered to play Troi, & kid's game show host J.D. Roth was the only actor listed for Wesley.  Here's something that we learned at Vegas Khhaaan (that the memo confirms, Eric Menyuk (aka The Traveler from TNG) was a possibility for our lovable android, Data.

As we draw closer to the end of the shuttle program, we are really closing a chapter on American space flight. From the first missions of the Mercury program and it's seven brave astronauts, through Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, & the Shuttle missions that have spanned the last 29 years, NASA has been making headlong strides toward a better future. Not only for Americans, but the world as a whole. Star Trek & Gene Roddenberry have played a very important role in the modern day space program.. Most notably, being the inspiration for generations of Astronauts to boldly go where no one has gone before.  In fact, Deforest Kelley & Nichelle Nichols took on roles as astronaut recruiters for NASA in the mid-70s and the very first Space Shuttle Orbiter was named "Enterprise" thanks to a Trek fan write-in campaign.

Star Trek XII co-writer and XI / XII producer Damon Lindelof is no stranger to high budget productions. He's been working with J.J. Abrams for years on "Lost", as well as on the upcoming "Cowboys & Aliens", co-penned with Orci & Kurtzman. E! Online recently caught up with Damon at the pre-Emmy's party and asked him a few questions about the sequel to J.J's "Star Trek". Damon gives hints to a much darker movie than Star Trek XI, going so far as to compare it to "The Dark Kinight", the sequel to "Batman Begins".

Catchy title, eh? We spent a good deal of our evening coming up with that little gem. We'll maybe not the whole evening... Anyway, since we've started re-watching "Enterprise" from the very beginning, we've fallen in love with Dr. Phlox, all over again. At the moment, and this could change at anytime, Phlox has become our favorite Trek doc. Not that we don't love Bones, The EMH, Dr. Bashir, & Dr. Crusher (well maybe not Crusher).