If you don't get enough Shatner in your life — and who does, really? — be sure to catch a new documentary he's hosting on The History Channel in a few days. "How William Shatner Changed the World" is based on Shatner's book "I'm Working on That," and explores how scientists inspired by the Original Series have revolutionized medicine and other technologies, "surpassing the far-out vision of the future foreshadowed in Star Trek in 1960s," according to the show synopsis.

The two-hour special premieres on Sunday, March 12, at 8:00 p.m. ET on the History Channel, and will repeat several times as part of "Out of This World Week." Check your local listings for airtimes. (By the way, this show originally ran in Shatner's native Canada last November on the Discovery Channel.)

The History Channel is running a sweepstakes in conjunction with this special, through March 17. The Grand Prize is a five-day/four-night trip for two to Las Vegas in August to attend Creation Entertainment's 40th Anniversary convention at the Hilton there, along with a "private meet and greet" with Shatner. Visit this historychannel.com page for details and entry form.

Enterprise DVDs Nominated for Saturn Award

The DVD collection of Star Trek: Enterprise has received a nomination in the 32nd Annual Saturn Awards. The latest Star Trek incarnation will compete in the category "Best Television Release on DVD" against Battlestar Galactica, Smallville, Lost and other shows.

Held by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror to honor and recognize genre filmmaking, this year's Saturn Awards will be handed out on May 2 in Universal City.

Enterprise has been nominated 14 times for a Saturn during its four-year run, and has received three statues. After its first season Jolene Blalock won two of those (related story), and last year the show shared a Special Recognition Award with all the latter-day Trek series (related story).

In other categories, several Star Trek alumni have garnered nominations this year. Terry O'Quinn ("Admiral Pressman" in "The Pegasus") is up for Best Supporting Actor on Television for his role as "John Locke" in Lost. Ronald D. Moore's Galactica and René Echevarria's The 4400 are competing for Best Syndicated/Cable Television Series.

In the Special Effects category, numerous individuals who have worked on Star Trek films are nominated. They include John Knoll, Rob Coleman and Brian Gernand (for "Star Wars: Episode III"); Joe Letteri ("King Kong"); Tim Alexander ("Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"); and Scott Farrar ("The Chronicles of Narnia").

Dykstra Makes Directorial Debut

Oscar-winning visual effects artist John Dykstra — who produced many of the stunning images in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (as well as "Star Wars," "Spider-Man" and many others) — is finally getting an opportunity to direct his own major movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film is called "Tortoise and Hippo," and it's based on a widely circulated photo taken in 2004 in the aftermath of the Asian tsunami. The photo showed a baby hippo and 100-year-old tortoise comforting each other at a wildlife sanctuary after being rescued from the Indian Ocean.

"It's a dream come true," Dykstra said about his first directing gig. "I'm really looking forward to telling this tale." One of Dykstra's main challenges in the film, the Reporter states, will be depicting the tsunami onscreen. "It's a sensitive storytelling issue," Dykstra said.

Similar to "The Chronicles of Narnia," Dykstra's film will present stylized animals existing in a human world. Producers are aiming for a 2007 release.

Silverman Hosting Independent Spirit Awards

Sarah Silverman, who played "Rain Robinson" in Voyager's "Future's End," will be the host of the Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday, March 4. The Spirit Awards — which always takes place the day before the Oscars — recognizes films produced outside the Hollywood mainstream, and is held inside a tent erected in a parking lot in Santa Monica.

The ceremony will be broadcast live on the Independent Film Channel (IFC) at 5:00 p.m. ET (2:00 PT), and will be edited for rebroadcast at 10 p.m. ET/PT on AMC. According to The Hollywood Reporter, "Adult viewers might want to catch the live show because things could get a little blue." That's because Silverman, whose concert film "Jesus is Magic" made waves in art houses last year, is a brash, controversial comedian. The producer of the Spirit Awards said, "We were looking for someone young and hip and funny, and they don't get any better than Sarah... We want to let her be whomever she wants to be."

French Daredevil Attempts "Orbital Skydiving"

In the opening of "Extreme Risk," we see B'Elanna Torres take part in a holodeck simulation of a sport called "orbital skydiving," leaping out of a shuttle at exospheric altitudes. The idea didn't actually originate there — Captain Kirk engaged in such a feat in scenes deleted from "Star Trek Generations" (but viewable on the Special Collector's DVD). Well, truth be told, "orbital skydiving" is not confined to science fiction, even if it's not called that in the real world.

Earlier this week the Wall Street Journal ran a profile of a French paratrooper determined to break the record for the greatest distance a human being has ever fallen. That record was set in 1960 by a U.S. Air Force test pilot, who floated in a helium balloon to the edge of space, more than 19 miles up, and — clad in a spacesuit — made a jump that had him falling as fast as 714 miles an hour.

In 1988 a Frenchman named Michel Fournier was selected by Europe's space program to leap from 25 miles up, to see if pilots can survive an ejection from that high up. When Europe abandoned its ambitions for manned spaceflight, the jump was scrubbed. Since then, Fournier has raised funds to buy the mothballed European jump equipment, along with a massive balloon capable of rising higher than planes can fly.

The jump equipment is no ordinary skydiver's outfit — it's a pressure suit and life-support system that took nearly three years to develop. The 130-pound three-layer suit consists of a thermal skin that can protect the wearer from minus-150-degree temperatures, a pressure suit and a pliable windproof shell. Fournier, who is now 61, has also been training extensively, which includes activities such as spending time in a pressure chamber and breathing pure oxygen.

Fournier hopes to make his 25-mile jump as early as May, and he will do it in Saskatchewan, Canada.

The full Wall Street Journal article is reprinted on this page (the paper's own Web site requires a paid subscription).