Proving once again there is life after Star Trek, John Billingsley, Linda Park and Jeri Ryan are among the many Trek stars on new television shows during the 2006-07 season. This week in New York, the networks are presenting their new fall schedules to advertisers in the annual ritual known as the "Upfronts." NBC and ABC have already made their presentations; CBS is up tomorrow (Wednesday), while Fox and The CW (the new hybrid of UPN and The WB) round things out on Thursday.

Billingsley ("Dr. Phlox") will be one of the stars of The Nine, a new ABC drama about nine strangers who form a unique bond after being held hostage for 52 hours during a botched bank robbery. The show is currently scheduled to follow J.J. Abrams' Lost on Wednesday nights, a coveted slot. To see more about this show, you can visit this Zap2it.com link.

Park ("Hoshi Sato") is one of the stars of Raines, which has been tapped by NBC as a midseason replacement, so it is not yet on the Fall schedule. In the drama, Jeff Goldblum plays an eccentric detective who solves crimes by communicating with the dead. For more about this show, visit this Zap2it.com link.

UPDATE: CBS' new fall schedule slates Shark starring Jeri Ryan ("Seven of Nine") for Thursday at 10 p.m. after CSI. In this drama directed by Spike Lee, Ryan plays a district attorney who becomes the new boss of a celebrity attorney-turned-prosecutor played by James Woods.

And as already mentioned here, Six Degrees — from Abrams and fellow "Star Trek XI" producer Bryan Burk — has been greenlit by ABC for a Thursday 10 p.m. slot in the Fall ... unfortunately, right up against Shark.

Other shows announced by ABC in the Upfronts include Betty the Ugly starring Vanessa Williams ("Arandis") and Alan Dale ("Praetor Hiren" in "Star Trek Nemesis") for Friday night. And as midseason replacements, ABC has also tapped Traveler starring Steven Culp ("Major Hayes") and William Sadler ("Luther Sloan"); and Day Break, produced by Star Trek: The Next Generation director Rob Bowman.

NBC's new lineup includes Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip with Steven Weber ("Colonel Day") on Thursday nights. UDPATE: CBS has also picked up Smith with Virginia Madsen ("Kellin") for Tuesday. Orpheus, a CBS pilot written by Nicholas Meyer ("Star Trek II," etc.), apparently didn't make the cut this time around.

UPDATE: Fox has picked up The Winner, written and produced by Seth MacFarlane ("Ensign Rivers"), for midseason. But Drive with Alan Ruck ("Captain Harriman") and The Worst Week of My Life with David Ogden Stiers ("Dr. Timicin") were not winners this week.

UDPATE (2): The CW will include The Game produced by Kelsey Grammer ("Captain Bateson") in its Sunday comedy lineup, and has ordered Hidden Palms (previously called Palm Springs) starring Sharon Lawrence ("Amelia Earhart") as a midseason replacement. In addition, the hybrid network has provided an afterlife for 7th Heaven, starring Stephen Collins ("Will Decker") and Catherine Hicks ("Gillian Taylor"), on Monday nights. Heaven just aired its presumed series finale on The WB last week amid much fanfare, but apparently the powers that be felt the family show still has enough life for an 11th season.

Shatner Roundup: Israel, Letterman, "Hedge"

The Jewish National Fund (JNF) has announced that William Shatner and his wife Elizabeth will be in Israel the last week of May to help develop a program of therapeutic riding centers for disabled children in that country, similar to his work domestically for AHEAD With Horses. To that end, he has taken on the role of spokesman for The William Shatner/Jewish National Fund Therapeutic Riding Consortium Endowment for Israel.

"Fifteen years ago I spearheaded the Hollywood Charity Horse Show; now I want to go and make a difference internationally," Shatner said. "I am particularly interested in what JNF is doing with this project as I see it as a way to foster peace between the nations. What better way to create a dialogue than by helping handicapped children from different countries feel good about themselves?"

The goal is to raise $10 million to fund 30 therapeutic riding programs throughout Israel, and to provide scholarships for children of all religious and ethnic backgrounds, including Jordanians and Palestinians. To learn more about this, see this press release at www.jnf.org. (The press release notes that many people don't know that Shatner "is Jewish and of Polish descent.")

Did you see Shatner on the Late Show with David Letterman last night? He made an appearance to plug the two-hour season finale of Boston Legal tonight (Tuesday) on ABC starting at 9:00 p.m. ET/PT (guest-starring Jeri Ryan, though he didn't mention that). After making his entrance to a Paul Shaffer rendition of "Rocket Man," Shatner conversed with Letterman about "punching out the bullies" at his school in Canada, which felt like it was in slow motion because of the snow. He also talked a great deal about some of his equestrian activities, and showed a clip of himself winning a world championship trotting competition. Then, Letterman brought up the kidney stone story, and Shatner again related the painfulness of that experience. "I kept screaming, 'Give me some morphine,' they kept asking me to sign autographs," he said. The $75,000 raised from auctioning off that stone was added to the $20,000 already gathered by the cast of Boston Legal for Habitat for Humanity, and it went to build a house for a family in Louisiana.

After the next commercial break, Letterman was "interrupted" by his announcer, Alan Kalter, in a parody of an "Amok Time" fight with a ridiculously dressed lirpa-wielding nemesis, complete with the classic TOS fight music. Kalter, in a gold captain's uniform, got knocked down, then he shot the lizard-like nemesis with a phaser and pinned him to the floor, yelling dramatically, "...and I shall go on hurting you, you green-blooded son-of-a-bitch!" Letterman asked, "Excuse me, Allan, what exactly are you doing over there?" Kalter replied calmly, "Just doing my pilates, Dave."

Something Shatner failed to mention last night was this weekend's premiere of "Over the Hedge" from DreamWorks Animation, in which he gives voice to "Ozzie," a very melodramatic possum. At 96 minutes, it should be a delightful and much shorter alternative to "The Da Vinci Code"!

(Next weekend: "X-Men: The Last Stand," with Patrick Stewart, Famke Janssen, and Kelsey Grammer!)

UPDATE: The Museum of Television & Radio held a webcast with the cast and producers of Boston Legal, including Shatner and Rene Auberjonois, on Monday from New York. To see the 45-minute video, visit MTR.org.

Frakes Delivers Commencement Address

Jonathan Frakes ("William Riker") offered some words of wisdom to the graduates of Rockport College in Rockport, Maine, last Friday. The actor/director, who lives in nearby Belfast, is on the faculty of the college, teaching film acting, directing and project development, and mentoring students through the process of making their final films.

According to The Camden Herald, Frakes encouraged the graduates to constantly read, "and not just scripts. You need to read Joyce and Hemingway and Faulkner." He warned that the film industry can be harsh, but, "If your mind and your heart and your gut tell you you have to do it, carry on." See the full story at this Camden Herald link.

Others in the News: Combs, Garr, Luckinbill, "The Vulcan" Pitch

Jeffrey Combs ("Weyoun," "Brunt," "Shran," etc.) will be staying on with the USA Network's The 4400 in its upcoming third season, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Combs will reprise his heavily recurring role as Kevin Burkhoff, introduced last season. The 4400 is produced by Combs' old bosses at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Ira Steven Behr and René Echevarria.

Teri Garr ("Roberta Lincoln") will take part in a fundraiser for PEN USA, a non-profit that promotes reading and defends the First Amendment. On Sunday, June 4, Garr will join Carrie Fisher, Gore Vidal and other celebrities in "Forbidden Fruit: Readings from Banned Works of Literature" at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Visit www.penusa.org for more info.

Laurence Luckinbill ("Sybok") will be present for a Q&A session at a screening of "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier" on July 21 at The Ridgefield Playhouse in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Visit www.ridgefieldplayhouse.org for more info.

"The Vulcan" is the name of a unique pitch used by Joe Nelson of the Kansas City Royals. He calls it "the Vulcan" because it employs the hand configuration used in the salute made famous by Leonard Nimoy. "Nelson is able to grip a baseball between his four fingers — the thumb is not involved — as he tries to Vulcanize hitters with the offspeed pitch," states this MLB.com article. We can only hope that Nelson is able to pitch long and prosper as a result!