Same difference… Either way, Dorn and Pine worked TOGETHER on CHiPs.

a 6 degrees of Trek seperation :)

Also I loved his work in TNG. He always gave his best performance! It was not his fault that the writers did not write teenagers well or realistically or that they made him the genius that saves the ship every week. He was often used as the deux ex machina —-

I wonder what Wil has to say about The experience closing??

Just to clarify (though I’m sure you all know this), the reason Robert Pine is mentioned in the birthdays is because he worked on Trek (specifically VOY’s “The Chute” and ENT’s “Fusion”) *AND* because he’s Chris’ father. If he hadn’t worked on Trek, he wouldn’t be mentioned. ;)

It’s the other way around. Dorn worked Pine. Pine was in all 139 episodes of CHiPs. Dorn was in 27.

And Wil Wheaton is not cool, let alone uber-cool. No offense, just my opinion.

They played Elton John’s recording of “Rocketman” at our local fireworks show. The first thing I said was, “WHY NOT SHATNER’S VERSION?!?” ;-)

I totally agree that Star Trek is very light hearted compared to a lot of other shows these days. I don’t watch 24, but I do watch Heroes & Battlestar Galactica. I truly thought DS9 was the best out of the Trek series because it went to darker places than the others, & had a real sense of continuity. I like it when shows I watch explore the darker aspects of what they depict, but at the same time, I do deplore the emergence of “realism” as the dominant theme for everything on TV at the moment. For example, “reality TV” is a concept I despise. Big Brother, X-Factor.. I hate all shows like that with a passion. What is the point of them? If you really want reality in your life that bad, turn the TV off & go live your life! The only TV shows in that category I do watch & enjoy are Penn & Teller: Bulls**t! & 30 Days. Those are shows that attempt to educate as well as entertain (OK, maybe not P & T so much). But to directly answer your question, yes, I do think too much realism ruins TV shows. Genres like sci-fi are popular because they take us *away* from everyday mediocrity.

I love the Borg too! I just love the idea of an enemy who is immensely powerful & advanced, can’t be reasoned with, & who absorbs your own people into itself… Provided you don’t give away too much info about them, show them too often or make them too easy to defeat, they add a nice horror element to the show. That was VOY’s mistake, they showed the Borg too much, told us too much about them, & made them too weak to be an effective villain anymore. That’s why I *loved* the episode ‘Regeneration’ on ENT – It brought back some of the mystery about the collective, some of the menace of the Hive… ^_^