Lee Jamilkowski: Please say it ain't so! Please! Don't leave us. We love you. We need you to continue on. If you are serious about leaving, at least choose an appropriate replacement. There is so much to nitpick, but so little time. I hadn't thought that "Godzilla" was THAT bad of a movie, but apparently is... for different reasons than anyone ever could have thought. Maybe some Guild "leaders' can continue Guild books....who knows? Please don't leave us!

Commodore Josh K: About the humanistic philosophy that pervades the STAR TREK universe: If Gene Roddenberry himself decreed that no belief in God was necessary in the future, it implies that the United Federation of Planets also has a human(oid)istic philosophy. The deeply spiritual Bajorans need to consider this before they agree to join the Federation. Recall Vedek Winn's seemingly extreme religious views on DS9's first-season finale, which I believe was called "In the Hands of the Prophets." At one point, she tells Commander Sisko, "You and your Federation exist in a universe of darkness, and you would drag us in there with you, but we will not go." She was wrong to suggest that the Federation is evil, per se, but if she meant to suggest that it is a godless organization, she may have been right. Once the war is over, Bajor probably will join the Federation, but when they do, they may run the risk of seeing the religious foundation of their society weakened.

Faith McClenny: My own opinion is that Paramount should really wait and see how Voyager does on its own before even thinking of doing another Trek show.

Plus we've never really seen any place where it would be possible to separate because I don't see any impulse engines on (what could be considered) the "saucer section" for which it could move.

BTW, I have a comment of my own about Voyager: Why doesn't Captain Janeway refer to her ship as "The Voyager" as Jean-Luc Picard refers to his ship as "The Enterprise"?

Charles Cabe: About last weeks comments about the Bozeman, why can't they use it in a fight. The Soyuz-class is almost identicle to the Miranda-class (Reliant), and I recall seeing a Miranda in ST:8. But, the real question is: why was the Soyuz class scrapped and the Mirandas are used throughout TNG and DS9? Thus far, the Bozeman is the only Soyuz class ship to appear anywhere.

Patrick Sweeney: IN response to Richard Poythress's comments on the Bozeman, I haven't personally, but if you read, I think it is "Ship of the Line" or soemthing, they explain the Bozeman is suitable for modern day use. Even if you ignore the book, which of course is non-canon material, it makes since that the bozeman would remain in service. Physically, the ship is very new, newer then the E-D when it was released form the time loop. And, as LaForge points out in "Relics", most technology hasn't changed much in the past 75 years.

Jason Allan Haase: This week the Sci-Fi Channel showed the Classic Star Trek episode "The Menagerie" parts I and II. My question is this: Was the original pilot "The Cage" filmed in color or black and white? The clips used from it for the two part episode are in color, but for some reason I had it in my head that the original pilot was in black and white. If they were in B/W, what did they do, colorize them?

Patrick Sweeney I don't know if anyone else around here collects Star Trek CCG cards from Decipher, but in the alternate universe card set there is a card for Paul Rice, from the episode Arsenal of Freedom. On the side of the card, next to the copyright, it says "Paul is Dead". Personally, I agree, but does anyone else recall if they ever said that Riker's buddy was dead? I think they only said that the ship was missing.

Marco A. Riojas My friends and I were discussing the fact that the Defiant has a cloaking device. I know the Treaty of Algeron says the Federation is not supposed to have one. How was the treaty bypassed? Was it annulled, or conveniently ignored? Is there anywhere I can find the text of the Treaty of Algeron?

 Phil: Couldn't tell ya where to find the text of the treaty. It probably doesn't exist! As to how the Defiant can has a cloaking device. Well, this *is* Trek. The creators rewrite their own rules all the time!

Commodore Josh K: I noticed that in the Sept. 11 column, Jason Barnes said that Jonathan Frakes made some sort of comments about the Nitpicker's Guides during the filming of First Contact. Any idea what he might have said about them?

Tony Forbes: I just noticed something extremely odd in the Star Trek Chronology(revised edition). I was looking up a Voyager episode when I came across the entry in the index for Dr. Pulaski. Here's how it goes.Pulaski, Katherine( Enterprise-D medical officer) dicusses plasma plauge, 91, 132; cares for Riker, Kile, 111; joines Enterprise-D crew, 132; discusses Lantree crew health, 134; leaves Enterprise-D crew, 140; notes on, 276; falls down elevator shaft, 444 Everything looks fine... except for the last entry. There are, after all, only 342 pages in the Star Trek Chronology revised edition! Here's what I think happened: They never explained Pulaski's departure on the show. What happened was on a mission, Pulaski was somehow transported to a planet in the distant future, but with a technology level close to our own. While there, she fell down an elevator shaft. Meanwhile, Starfleet covered the whole deal up. I think the Chronology writers were trying to hint at this story line here! ;-)

Joshua Truax: Chief... With all the buzz on the Web about the next Star Trek movie, I'm amazed that it hasn't made its way to Nitpicker Central yet (at least, as far as I've seen)! So... I'll do the honors and cast the first stone. The premise of the movie is that a misguided Starfleet admiral has made a devil's pact with a race called the Son'a, in order to secretly move another race called the Bak'u off their homeworld to another planet, a la Nikolai Rozhenko and the Boralans in "Homeward" [TNG]. When Picard and company realize what the admiral and his friends are up to, they mutiny against the admiral and move to stop the Son'a from carrying out their plan. The reason the admiral and the Son'a are so interested in the Bak'u planet is because something about its ecosystem inhibits and can even reverse the aging process in its inhabitants. In other words, the planet's quite literally a fountain of youth.

A fountain of youth? So what? Maybe the Son'a have a good reason to be interested in such a planet, but as every nitpicker who's read the original TNG Guide knows, the Federation has been sitting on its own fountain of youth for years now -- in its own transporters! (See the reviews for "Unnatural Selection" and "Rascals".) You remember the drill: Take a DNA sample of yourself on your 18th birthday. Then, when you hit middle age, or whenever you feel like you're getting too old, just plug the DNA sample into the transporter pattern buffer, run yourself through the transporter, and -- ba-da-BING! -- you've got the body of an 18-year-old again! As far as anyone knows, you could do this ad infinitum, as long as you didn't get killed in the years between your rejuvenation cycles.

Picard: Speaks english with a British accent (likely because he would have learned english from the closest source to his come country, England).

Riker: Speaks english with a strong American accent (audible to my Canadian ears)

Troi: Speaks english with a thick Betaziod accent.

Worf: Speaks Klingon. Translator flattens out his accent just as it does to all Klingons. He would have learned Klingon as a child, and probably speaks it exclusivly, with a thick Russian accent. This makes him instantly recognizable to other Klingons. This is why his parents speak english with thick accents, but Worf does not.

Data: N/A. He speaks at least two languages fluently. English would be one of them. Probably switches languages to conform to whomever he's with. Or not. Universal translators and all.

The Crushers: American English.

Geordi: American english.

O'Brian: English with an Irish accent.

And so on. It covers how Kira could have learned perfect, unaccented english, while Bashir, who was born on earth still speaks with a pronounced accent. It takes care of Worf's lack of an accent. And Mrs.Troi's. With a universal translator, there may be no need to learn the language of your fellow crew members, or even your spouse. Deanna grew up speaking Betaziod at home, and learned english as a second language from her father. Betazed is a recent induction into the Federation, so I would imagine that Galactic Standard (english) hasn't had much of a chance to catch on.

 Can you think of any characters that would throw this theory out the window?

 Phil: Um, honestly . . . right at the moment . . . it's getting late and I need to go to bed! Anybody?

Chris David I'm not sure if you answered these before, if you have then apologies as I could not them. Anyway I have two questions/beefs...

1) How , 800 years ago, did the ancient Bajorans get their solar sail ships (as seen in The Explorers) into space in the first place? and  2) In epsiodes like the Die is Cast and Way of the Warrior, how does a fleet of cloaked ships keep from crashing into each other?

 Phil: 1.) Big giant slingshots 2.) Big giant airbags

Vicious I guess I haven't been paying much attention to the opening credits for DS9, but isn't Captain Sisko's father now being played by Brock Peters (Or is it Peter Brock?) who also played Admiral Cartright from Star Trek IV and VI? Just wondering.

 Phil: That's the guy!

Phil: Couldn't tell ya! Anyone?