We all know Penny Johnson as Kasidy Yates, Captain of the cargo vessel SS Xhosa and Captain Sisko’s love interest on DS9. Her portrayal of Kasidy as the fearless Captain brought to life this character’s strength and dogged determination to do what she believed was right. Now, Penny is in a new play written by Regina Taylor and directed by Ethan McSweeny. The play called “The Trinity River Plays” is actually three plays in one.

Jar Fly, Rain and Ghoststory create this intimate and compelling performance of three timeless works—a moving exploration of family loyalty and betrayal.

We reported earlier this week that Nichelle Nichols would be interviewed on the Tavis Smiley program and now it's available online for streaming. Nichelle was on the show to promote the upcoming PBS "Pioneers of Television" episode, airing January 18th. This new episode focuses on pioneering science fiction, not only featuring Nichelle, but The Shat & Leonard Nimoy to boot.

Four measly years before she took on the role as Chief Medical Officer Beverly Crusher, Gates McFadden had the "leading role" in a National Enquirer commercial. Any child of the 80s will remember these ads, with their iconic "I wanna know" catch phrase.

Apparently Gates wants to know about "Johnny Cash's recent brush with death" and how she can "cheer up her wardrobe for under $10 this Christmas", in 1983. Check out the retro commercial flashback below.

Hat tip to The Korkster for recommending the video.

Hey kids, we found Vulcan! …or is that Vulcan 2, since the first one was destroyed? …uurrr, well, technically when they mention Vulcan while talking about this new planet, they are referencing the god of fire from Roman mythology. However, maybe we can start a write in campaign to have the new planet’s name changed permanently to Vulcan for our own selfish purposes. In any case, we find it exciting that scientists are still looking to the skies, trying to push the limits of our Earthly boundaries. With all the new discoveries it’s just a matter of time before we take to the stars ourselves.

NASA’s Kepler mission (named for the space telescope) has discovered Kepler-10b, its first rocky planet outside our solar system. Its surface is thought to be more than 2500 degrees Fahrenheit (hotter than lava flows on Earth), so I doubt we’ll be moving there anytime soon, but hey, at least they’re looking.

Nichelle Nichols did us all a favor on her Facebook Fan page (Nichelle Nichols Communications Page) today! She announced her upcoming appearance on PBS’s Tavis Smiley show. It looks like she’s recording the program tomorrow with scheduled runs this Wednesday the 12th and this Thursday the 13th.

Our local PBS station lists the first airing of Nichelle’s episode as Thursday, the 13th 12am, with several replays throughout Thursday afternoon and evening. Check your local listings to find out when it will air in your area. Here’s a link to the upcoming episode at the Tavis Smiley website.

I can’t imagine if we had missed the show. I think we would have cried. Thanks Nichelle for letting us all know!

In this month's "Ask Cryptic", Star Trek Online Executive Producer Dan Stahl gives a few hints to new species' ships including Andorian & Vulcan, plus improved crafting and much more. It seems that open PVP areas may be in STO's future and, for you Voyager fans, a player controllable Delta Flier may be here "sooner than you think." Those of you still waiting for the poker mini-game though, sadly, will be waiting a while. It appears that dev resources have been shifted away from the mini-games and put towards duty rosters / fleet action system. Also be sure to log on Feb 2nd for the 1 year anniversary of STO. Apparently Cryptic is planning something special at either Earth Space Dock or Qo'nos. No word on which yet, but be sure to check the STO forums for more info. Check out an excerpt from this month's question & answer series.

Q:deeboboy: In the up coming weekly series are you going to continue stories from the earlier missions in the game or are you going to continue down the same lines as the current episdes by adding new stories?

If you haven't visited My Star Trek Scrapbook, drop what you're doing and go there now! Oh wait, maybe you should finish this article first. Yeah, stay here, read this and then go to My Star Trek Scrapbook.... And by THIS I mean the entire article, not the sentence. Okay, now I'M confused. Anyway it's one of our favorite Trek sites we and visit it on a daily basis. They recently posted a 1991 USA Today review of "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country", featuring a glowing reception of the film plus some funny quips by the cast. Apparently, George Takei was convinced that there would be another original cast movie. He was close.

It's extremely interesting to read the cast's take on if there will be Star Trek VII, "Nobody is playing coy or cute here," Leonard Nimoy Says. "nobody has any deals, discussions or options for anything in the future." Adds Shatner. "We've accepted it as the last one." But would he come back for Part VII? "In a second."

We’d like to wish Aron Eisenberg a very Happy Birthday today, as he turns 42. All of you reading this remember him as Nog, everyone’s favorite teenage Ferengi on Deep Space Nine. Without Aron, one of our favorite DS9 episodes, It’s Only a Paper Moon, wouldn’t exist. Anytime we’re feeling down (and even sometimes when we’re not) we watch that episode and it cheers us right up. So we here at Subspace Communique are especially grateful that Aron shared his talent with all of us while on DS9.

Currently he’s the owner of Reel Life Pictures a photography and videography company in Southern California that specializes in weddings and events productions. If you’re able, take a moment and visit his site. The images are beautiful.

Happy Birthday Aron! Thanks so much for entertaining us and lifting our spirits on Deep Space Nine.

Cryptic Studios Star Trek Online was the proud recipient of 5 "Best of 2010" awards from Joystiq's Massively MMO blog. Not only did it dominate the category, but STO beat other popular newcomers like Lego Universe & Final Fantasy XIV. 2010 has been a wild ride for Cryptic and STO, starting with the launch in January, an executive producer change, and multiple massive update releases including Season 1 through 3.

According to Massively, Star Trek Online walked away with 47.6% of the vote on this one, while nothing else really came close. In fact, the next-highest vote count belongs to None of the Above (shown as All Other Responses in the graph), meaning the 11,820 people who voted in this one weren't really impressed with anything else in 2010.

In all, Star Trek Online won Best Launch of 2010, Best PvP in a 2010 MMO, Best Capacity for Roleplaying in a 2010 MMO, Biggest Surprise Hit of 2010, and Overall Best New MMO of 2010. Congratulations to the Guys & Gals at Cryptic. We're looking forward to what 2011 has to offer us in the Star Trek Online Universe.