Star Trek Animated Adventures Beam to DVD -- Finally! You Say Your Star Trek DVD Collection Is November 21

U.S.S. CHESAPEAKE 15 Fifteenth Anniversary

Publication of the U.S.S. Chesapeake Star Trek and Science-Fiction Club June, 2006 Star Trek animated adventures beam to DVD -- finally! You say your Star Trek DVD collection is November 21. There is no word yet on nearly complete? All you need is the animated whether the set will include any extras, but it episodes? Well, your time is at hand! will feature all 22 episodes of the series. After years of speculation, it finally looks A production of animation house Filma- like the animated adventures featuring Kirk, tion, Star Trek: The Animated Series aired Spock, McCoy and the rest of the original cast between 1973 and 1974. Most of the original Star Trek: The may soon be released. cast and characters were featured in the series, Animated Series is “As silly as the uniforms may seem on which was overseen by Gene Roddenberry. expected to be avail- able in DVD stores that art, it's all been used before,” noted Dorothy Fontana was an associate producer on November 21. David Lambert, who posted artwork of the and story editor, and script writers included VHS and LaserDisc editions of the animated Larry Niven and Walter Koenig. Star Trek show for comparison with the new Box art for the release can be found on the cover art. TVShowsOnDVD website. “As to the design of the ship, it’s a new While visiting Jerusalem, William graphic inserted into this composition.” Shatner (who played Captain Kirk in Classic Lambert felt it would have been a better idea Trek) reiterated his hope that helping Israeli to use the image of the ship from the Laser- and Palestinian children with therapeutic Disc cover art, but added: “It really doesn’t horse riding will lead to dialogue toward matter WHAT the box art looks like. Trek- peace, reported TrekToday.com. kies everywhere (myself included) should be “We know that the use of a horse in their dancing around the room because the series therapy takes them beyond their handicapped is FINALLY coming to DVD!” body, their injured body, and into another According to the website TVShowsOn area of health,” Shatner told the CanadaEast. DVD.com, Star Trek: The Animated Series com website. could be released in November. He hopes to raise $10 million along with Although no public announcement has the Jewish National Fund for riding programs been made yet by Paramount Home Enter- in Israel, and said that Jordanians and Egyp- tainment, TVShowsOnDVD’s David Lambert tians as well as Palestinians and Israelis will be IN THIS ISSUE: said the site has heard from industry sources invited to participate in sending disabled Art Credits 3 Club Members that DVD retailers have heard a street date of children to ride. Insert front Coming Events 6 Captain’s Log 2 Talk about Shore Leave 28 at the next meeting! Directions to Meeting The June meeting of the U.S.S. Chesa- fellow club members are up to and the latest Insert front Holodictation 6 peake Star Trek and Science-Fiction Club will news regarding Star Trek and other science- Meeting Minutes be held on Saturday, June 17, at the Hard fiction television shows and movies. Insert back Times Cafe located in College Park, Maryland. Do you need to get directions to be able to Rantings 5 Reflections 4 We’ll gather at 5:00 p.m. for dinner, fol- travel to the June meeting? Then you should Science Trek 3 lowed by our club meeting, which will begin be sure to check out the insert that you can no later than 7:00 p.m. We’ll talk about the download to your computer from our online upcoming Shore Leave 28 convention, what Yahoo! Group. Volume 15, Issue 6 CAPTAIN’S LOG: Wine, women and Scotty Getting back to my 40th anniversary look the Greek god Apollo during “Who Mourns at the original crew of the starship Enterprise, for Adonais?” I’m reminded yet again of something that has The chief engineer took a season to heal helped make Star Trek into an international up, and he finally tried to get lucky in love phenomenon. with Lieutenant Mira Romaine. Just his luck, When I started watching Trek back in the she got taken over by noncorporal aliens 1970s, I noticed that the show’s characters called “The Lights of Zetar.” were a diverse group, but they had at least one Is it any wonder Scotty stuck to his tech- thing in common: a passion for their roles in nical journals during the movies? boldly going where no man had gone before. Of course, mentioning Mister Scott’s It’s easy to see that drive in each of the Big technical journals brings me to a defining Three, but I was interested to see it extend to moment for the character, which for me took many other crew members, particularly the place during “The Trouble With Tribbles.” vessel’s chief engineer. I have to give writer David Gerrold credit. Certainly, Montgomery Scott’s primary In that episode, he took the main characters of passion was for his ship, and make no mistake Star Trek, boiled them down to their essences about it: He definitely considered the Enter- and made them hilarious! That wasn’t an easy prise HIS ship. task, especially for a drama series in the 1960s. That guy in the captain’s chair? He was Add Scotty’s love for his ship to his affec- just the driver. It was Scotty who knew every tion for alcohol, mix in a few surly Klingons, bolt and circuit in the starship, and he also and you have the bar fight from “Tribbles,” knew just what the vessel was capable of. when the chief engineer was dispatched to Copyright 2006 U.S.S. Chesapeake But a strength of the character was that he Deep Space Station K-7 to keep the peace NCC-9102, a was much more than a brilliant engineer and between the crews of the Enterprise and a not-for-profit organization. even a great commander, aspects I’ve dis- Klingon battle cruiser. We all know how well All rights reserved, cussed at length in previous columns. that turned out! including Scotty was very much like the actor who The scene in which the Klingons hurl reproducing parts of this document. brought him to life – Jimmy Doohan – in that insults at the crew was a howl from start to he played many roles aboard the NCC 1701. finish. “We’re big enough to take a few Check out our club For example: insults,” Mister Scott told Chekov when the website: www. usschesapeake.org Hard-drinking barfly: Forget that synthetic ensign wanted to respond to comparisons of stuff in The Next Generation. Mister Scott was his captain with a Denebian slime devil. The opinions fond of the real thing, and I’m not talking But then, the ridicule turned to the Enter- expressed in this publication do not about Coca-Cola. prise, which was deemed worthy of hauling necessarily represent That aspect of his personality got him in garbage. those of the trouble during “Wolf in the Fold,” when Jack “Don’t ya think ya should … rephrase entire club. the Ripper set up the chief engineer to take the that?” Scotty asked, visibly angry. “Star Trek,” fall for his actions during one of the scariest “Yer right. I should,” the Klingon replied. “Star Trek: The Next Trek episodes ever. “The Enterprise should be hauled away AS Generation,” “Star Trek: Deep Space On the other hand, the drive to imbibe garbage!” Nine,” “Star Trek: came in handy when the Kelvans hijacked the Engulfed with rage, Mister Scott slowly Voyager,” and “Star Trek: Enterprise,” Enterprise in “By Any Other Name.” While stood up and knocked his tormentor into next as well as the terms Kirk was duking it out with one of the invad- week. The comedy of that scene was only “starship” and ers and McCoy was “stimulating” another, matched by the conversation in which the “starship Enterprise,” are registered Scotty did what no one on the E-D could: He sheepish engineer later explained the punch to trademarks of drank his opponent under the table! his befuddled captain. Paramount Pictures Head-over-heels romantic: While the ship Rare is the show that can handle comedy Corporation. All rights reserved. was always Mister Scott’s first love, his eye as well as space battles, but Star Trek and its Absolutely no occasionally wandered to crew members of beloved chief engineer did both deftly, one of infringement on the fairer sex. The results were always explosive. the things the Enterprise’s “miracle worker” these rights is intended. Scotty got a crush on Lieutenant Carolyn did so well that we’re still talking about it 40 Palamas and what happened? He wound up years later! COMSTAR, page 2 on the receiving end of a lightning bolt from Captain Randy Hall SCIENCE TREK: Nanometers, miles and parsecs -- oh, my!

Perhaps you recall the Rams-Titan Super Earth (1799) to 1,650,763.73 times the wave- Bowl XXXIV. Mike Dyson tackles an out- length of light from Krypton-86 (1960) to the stretched Kevin Dyson one yard shy of the end distance light travels in 1/299,792,458 seconds zone as the game ends. Rams win, 23-16. One (1983). The actual length changed little, just yard, 36 inches, 0.0000000000000000967 light the definition for precision and repeatability of years. the measure. It’s been a long time since we’ve talked Inches, yards and meters are fine for distances. Humans have been concerned measures of nominal size, but what about the with measuring distance and size from the very tiny and extraordinarily large … say days of cubits and ells through our current atoms and galaxies and all sorts of sizes in yards and meters and into future light years between? The meter, as we have seen, has and parsecs. Yet, how do we determine the become a precisely determined standard, and distance in Maxwell Smart’s “that much?” it’s easily divisible by intent. (Yes, David, with a ruler, but that’s not what One-tenth of a meter is a centimeter, and I meant.) one-hundredth is a millimeter. A thousand In other words, how do we determine meters equals one kilometer. Other standard that an inch is an inch? In the old, old days, prefixes stretch from the yocto (10-24) to the measures were just as their name indicated: yotta (1024), including among others the digit (about 3/4 of an inch), palm (~3 femto(10-15), pico(10-12), nano(10-9), micro(10- inches), span (~9 inches) and so on. 6), mega (106) giga (109), tera (1012) and peta Longer measures included the cubit (~18 (1015) in between. A typical atom is about 0.2 inches), ell (~45 inches) and the league (~3 nanometers across, while a galaxy spans about miles or the distance a person could walk in 945,425 petameters. an hour … leading to the further question, Human beings tend to understand better how do you measure an hour? We’ll save when infinitesimal or infinite distances are that for a future column.). Measures were described in everyday models — you know, an not standard across cultures: An Egyptian atom is a grain of sand in the Sahara, or the cubit was different than a Roman cubit was Earth is a golf ball three football fields away different than Babylonian cubit, etc. from the hot-air balloon-size sun. (Budding How do we determine that an inch is an Into the Middle Ages, many measures scientists remember: Distance analogies inch? were still based on the human body — the should be accurate, appropriate and inter- ell, for instance, was the length of the out- esting.) stretched arm from wrist to shoulder, very One scientifically common measure of helpful for simple tailors. However, by the astronomical distance is the astronomical unit 12th century, though likely earlier, some (AU), which is equal to the average distance measures became fixed by standards. between the Earth and the sun, or about 93 In the 1190s, the yard in England became million miles (149,598,073 kilometers). Pluto defined by a set of iron bars. The standards averages about 39 AU. varied across time and cultures, although That’s appropriate for solar system-scale some standards created a century or two ago measuring, but how about for star-to-star only differ by the slightest of fractions from measurements? The common folk like light our current definitions. In the mid-19th years (distance light travels in a year), but the century, the United States defined the yard in scientific types prefer parsec (parallax of one terms of the international meter: 1 yard = arc-second, about 3.26 light years). For com- ART CREDITS: 0.91440183 meters. parison, the distance from our sun to Alpha tvshowsondvd.com 1 startrek.com 2, Those definitions today, whether for Centauri is about 4.36 light years = 1.34 par- Insert front yards (and hence feet and inches) or meters secs = 275,542 AU. images.google.com 3, 4, 5, Insert back (and all the related micros and kilos), come When determining the appropriate yard- Patrick McBee 6 from scientific determinations. The defini- stick for your measure, just remember accu- tion of the meter evolved over two centuries rate, appropriate and interesting. Unless from one-ten-millionth of a quarter of the Continued on page 6 COMSTAR, page 3 REFLECTIONS: Chasing space Autumn 1993. FOX was desperate to Super Bowl. It was the first Super Bowl I had establish itself as the fourth major network in ever missed!” America. At the time, FOX was also the only Though the four stories they came up with network that was not afraid to cast genre — “Awakening Dragons,” “Instinct for Survi- shows, which had long since been abandoned val,” “The Light of Truth” and “Into the Lion’s by the “Big Three.” Den”— didn’t end up on screen, elements Henson and O’Bannon took their presen- from these stories would. Items such as the tation to FOX, knowing the network was the “Aurora Chair” and Scorpius appeared in ONLY one looking for shows that were Farscape’s first season. “The Light of Truth” outside television’s mainstream. FOX was would be rewritten and air during the show’s interested enough to ask for a pilot to see if second season. what looked great on paper would actually With these four scripts now ready, O’Ban- work on screen. But Space Chase was going to non and Henson returned to FOX in June of be an expensive show to produce. ’94. Their hopes were high. They had five While the Henson Company would have good scripts (including the pilot), a very good loved the opportunity to shoot an hour of TV premise and a network that dared to be to prove the show’s viability, they would need different. Everything seemed to fall in place. funding to do so. FOX wanted to order six The show was on track for production. episodes, but Henson would need money for WRONG. Unfortunately, it took some 11 episodes to cover their production cost. time to write these four scripts, rewrite the FOX wasn’t prepared to go that far, but they four scripts and do a final polish. In the time did offer development money to produce four that had elapsed, FOX had undergone major more scripts, which would demonstrate other revisions in their executive ranks. This is aspects of the show’s potential. much more common in Hollywood than During this period, O’Bannon was you’d probably think. sharing his office with writer David Kemper, Gone were the executives who champi- who had been the CBS Network executive oned Space Chase, and none of the new peo- assigned to O’Bannon’s first professional ple seemed to understand the show and its television writing job, the 1985 Twilight Zone. premise. Also, as a rule, new executives (This was also where the seeds of Babylon 5 RARELY maintain the pet projects of their were planted, where J. Michael Straczynski predecessors as a matter of principle. FOX’s met Harlan Ellison. They all worked on the interest in Space Chase was dead. show.) Undeterred, they took their scripts to Bob Kemper had worked with O’Bannon on Iger, then head of programming for the ABC SeaQuest and was in the middle of writing an Network. episode of the up-and-coming Star Trek “Everybody liked what they saw.” O’Ban- series, Voyager (The science-fiction commu- non said. “But they were all terribly afraid. nity in television is indeed a small one.), ‘Can this show really be made?’ Because what which would debut January of ’94. O’Bannon we were presenting was really daunting. To be enlisted Kemper’s aid in writing the scripts for candid, science-fiction television has never FOX. really found success on regular television “We met on networks. The appeal isn’t general enough.” Super Bowl Sun- ABC turned them down. By this time, day,” Kemper re- most people would have cut their losses and called. “I had the moved on. Brian Henson was not one of those flu, and Rockne people. had this office with He had a dream, and now he had a a gas heater on the concept and five scripts. He was determined floor. We ended up to see his dream come into fruition. He had a doing five hours, good product, and he wasn’t going to let it die. coming up with a Next month: Perseverance yields results, bunch of stories – but not as soon as you think. Rockne O’Bannon and I missed the Conn Officer Lorenzo Heard COMSTAR, page 4 RANTINGS: Beating Batman’s head against a tree While the Superman film franchise con- Keaton would play Batman, the fans were less tinued to fly throughout the 1980s, Batman than enthusiastic, to say the least. Fearing a had trouble getting launched. No one was in- rehash of the old TV show, they were ready to terested in doing a “serious, dark, Batman film.” burn down Warner Bros. Michael Uslan kept going to studios. He Tim Burton said to Uslan: “What I do told BatmanOnFilm.com: “The Hollywood know, having worked with Michael Keaton on community … wouldn’t understand what I Beetlejuice, is that with Keaton on board, we was saying about a dark, serious Batman film. can create a portrait of Bruce Wayne that is so ‘Batman is a pot-bellied funny guy with driven, so obsessed, so consumed to the point POWs, ZAPs, and WHAMs. It’s silliness.’ I’d of being psychotic, I KNOW I can get an tell them, ‘No, it’s not.’ They couldn’t get it.” audience to suspend its belief. They’ll believe He persisted and kept getting turned down. that he can dress up as a bat and go out and The ghost of Adam West lingered. fight crime.” Uslan said: “My two favorite rejections He turned out to be right, and the film came from Columbia and my alma mater, grossed over $250 million domestically when United Artists. At Columbia, the head of it opened in June 1989. It was the biggest production said to me — shaking his head blockbuster of the year, spawning a virtual after I pitched my heart out – ‘Come on. “Batmania II.” The box office performance Batman will never be a success as a film guaranteed a sequel. Batman won an Oscar because our movie Annie didn’t do well.’ for art direction-set decoration at the 63rd Michael Keaton as “I looked at this guy dumbfounded. I Academy Awards. Batman asked him: What did the little redheaded girl During all this time, the powers behind who sang ‘Tomorrow’ have to do with Bat- the comics had been changing the landscape man? He said, ‘Michael, they are both out of and making Batman serious again. In 1983, the funny pages.’ Jason Todd became the new Robin in Batman “Now, that stupidity was topped only by #366. Batman quit the JLA and led a new UA. An exec said to me that a film with Bat- group of superheroes into combat in Batman man and Robin would never work because and the Outsiders #1. In 1984, in Tales of the Robin and Marian was not successful. Now, Teen Titans, Dick Grayson quit being Robin that was about an aging Robin Hood and and became Nightwing. Maid Marian with Sean Connery! I just Batman: The Dark Knight Returns hit the picked up all my materials, did not say a word shelves in 1986, featuring an aged Batman. It and walked out of the room.” revolutionized the character and sold so well In 1979, Uslan and Benjamin Melniker that Warner Bros. started looking at the film formed Bat-Films Productions to produce the project differently. film the way he wanted to. First, they had to In 1987, Miller’s “Batman: Year One” prove they could produce a comic-book film. began in Batman #404, telling the story of the They produced The Swamp Thing in 1982. The Dark Detective’s first year. The following film did well enough to launch a sequel, Return year, The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and of the Swamp Thing, and a half-hour television Brian Bolland came out. The Joker crippled series from 1990 to 1993. Nevertheless, the Barbara Gordon. The story also told Batman’s studios still were not convinced about Batman. modern-age origin. In the late ’80s, Uslan and Melniker The comics series “A Death in the Family” lucked into a meeting with Peter Guber, who ran from Batman #426-429. The Joker killed was a lot younger than other studio heads and Jason Todd, the second Robin. DC had the grasped the concept. He brought in Tim Bur- fans vote on whether Todd should live or die. ton to direct the film. Jack Nicholson came They overwhelmingly voted that he should onboard to play the Joker. die. The fans hated the snotty little bastard. The problem was: Who should play Bat- As they say in Texas, “He needed killin’.” man? Uslan wanted to get an unknown. Tim Thou know’st we work by wit, and not by Burton had another idea. He wanted Michael witchcraft; wit depends on dilatory time.— Keaton, previously known for Beetlejuice and Desdemona COMSTAR, page 5 Mr. Mom. When it was announced that Procurement Officer Peter Chewning COMING EVENTS JUNE June 17 ...... Happy Summer! We’ll get together for our June meeting as we prepare for the upcoming Shore Leave convention. We’ll journey back to the Hard Times Cafe in College Park, Maryland! Let’s gather at 5:00 p.m. for our dinner, then hold our meeting no later than 7:00 p.m. Be sure to get directions from the Insert in our Yahoo! Group. SCIENCE TREK: Nanometers, miles concluded continued from page 3 Papa Smurf?); you’re selling iron, don’t even think about • http://www.onlineconversion.com/ (No, not building that light year-long iron standard. the religious kind.); Hopefully, the next time your favorite sci-fi • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubit (Every- character spouts some line about nanometers, thing you didn’t know you wanted to miles or parsecs, you’ll have a better idea if know.); they know if they’re spouting science or • http://www.mel.nist.gov/div821/museum/ fiction. timeline.htm (History of the meter.); and • http://www.knowledgedoor.com/1/Unit_ Web Notes: Conversion/Power_Prefixes.htm (All metric • http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/ units great and small.). distances/distscales.html (Is it much further, Second Officer Phil Margolies HOLODICTATION: The needs of the many The past few months have been a roller the parameters of the situation, meaning that coaster of emotions for me and my family. he wouldn’t allow himself to get caught up in I started a new job, Susan is finishing school his emotions. This is something I learned and (both going to and teaching), Harrison is have used in my years as a volunteer firefighter finally a McBee, and Dad’s health went down- and EMT. Mom once said to me: “Whenever hill to the point that on Friday June 2, Dad you arrive at an emergency, you instill a sense passed away. of calm in those around you.” I’m sad because I’ll miss him, but he was But the most important thing Dad taught in pain and was suffering. Each of us had the me is that how we deal with death shows us chance to see him on his last days, and we how to deal with life. could tell him that we loved him. Dad was 77 on May 18th. He was a woods- Dad had a lot of the qualities Captain man who lived in the city and a waterman who Kirk had in Star was born on dry land. Dad loved to sit in the Trek II: The woods and experience nature or sit on the Wrath of Khan. back of his boat and watch the tide come in Dad always put and go out. Dad told me he’d have loved to the needs of the live near the water and would have jumped at many before the the chance. It’s our pleasure to fulfill Dad’s needs of the few, one true wish. or mainly him- Carroll Dwan McBee was my father, my Mr. Carroll Dwan and self. He showed advisor, my counselor and, most of all, my Mrs. Marge McBee us the strength friend. I’ll miss talking with him, and I’ll miss that a leader seeing him, but I’ll never forget him or the needs to guide his lessons he tried to teach me and my brothers family through and sister. adversity. Dad had a saying hanging in his office, Also, if Dad something he tried to live by each and every didn’t like the day: “This, too, shall pass.” COMSTAR, page 6 Carroll Dwan McBee rules, he changed Weapons Officer Patrick McBee