Eulogy for Star Trek

[Originally published on N:Zone in May 2005]"All good things..."May 13, 2005. The finale of Star Trek: Enterprise has just aired. I feel awful.A cultural phenomenon like Star Trek deserved so much better than this furtive, hastily constructed holodeck coda to usher it into history. Did they actually plan to pull the plug on Friday the 13th? Probably not, but that doesn't surprise me. In my

A failing Enterprise: is there hope for Star Trek, or is the franchise dead?

[Originally published on N:Zone in 2004]Once upon a time in the early 1970s, Star Trek was an underground hit. Original 1966-1969 series reruns were being stripped every weeknight at six. New fans were watching the episodes over the dinner table, and catching on in droves. Star Trek conventions sprang up spontaneously all over the place, and fan fiction was born. Star Wars swept the country,

Angel gets shaken up, Enterprise gets sexy, and the Dead Zone returns

April 20, 2003[Originally a Billie's Bytes column]The Dead Zone aired their so-called second season finale a couple of weeks ago. The second season was supposed to consist of thirteen episodes, just like the first season, but if you were counting, they only aired twelve. I hear that one of the episodes, called "The Hunt for Osama," was pulled because of the war. I don't know about you, but I'm

Angel has Faith, and those anti-Spike hackers are at it again

March 9, 2003[Originally a Billie's Bytes column]We all knew it was coming, but did we know it would be this good? Eliza Dushku's character Faith returned for a three-episode run on Angel, starting this past week with an outstanding episode in which Wesley (Alexis Denisof) broke Faith out of jail so that she could save Angel. Well, actually, Faith broke herself out, in about fifteen seconds.

Is there life after Buffy? And can Star Trek be saved?

March 2, 2003[Originally a Billie's Bytes column]It's official; Sarah Michelle Gellar has quit her slay job to do movies. Movies like the Scooby-Doo sequel, I suppose. I wish her the best of luck; thank you for seven great years, Sarah.The big question for me is: can there be a viable spinoff, now that the proposed Faith-based spinoff has gone down the tubes?Right now, I'm hoping that the

May finales hit the reset button

May, 2003[Originally a Billie's Bytes column]May is finally coming to an end with the Memorial Day weekend, and I've been writing my fingerprints off. My friend Tara DiLullo and I have been working on a series of articles to salute the end of our favorite series, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I got to hear the divine David Boreanaz burp at the Los Angeles Comic Book and Sci-Fi Convention (see my