George Takei will be in Seattle next weekend to serve as narrator in a special concert of "Sci-Fi Favorites" by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. This first program in the 2007-08 Seattle Pops series will feature music from Star Trek and other science fiction films and TV shows such as "Star Wars," "E.T.," "Superman," "2001: A Space Odyssey" and the "Harry Potter" films.

Takei will be joined on-stage by soprano Kristen Plumley, tenor Mike Eldred, and local singing ensemble Vocalpoint! Seattle. Nationally renowned pops conductor Jack Everly will lead the orchestra, and the presentation includes a laser light show. There will be five performances from Thursday, September 20, through Sunday, September 23 (with two on Saturday). Costumes are welcome.

The Symphony performs at Benaroya Hall in downtown Seattle. For tickets, visit SeattleSymphony.org (click on "Sci-Fi Favorites," or on the calendar click a date between Sept. 20-23).

In similar news, Terry O'Quinn, "Admiral Pressman" in "The Pegasus," will narrate a concert of the music of Lost in Hawaii, where that show is primarily filmed, on Saturday, Sept. 22. The Honolulu Symphony will perform the works of Michael Giacchino, the composer for Lost who reportedly will also work with J.J. Abrams on his upcoming "Star Trek" film. For more info on that concert, visit HonoluluSymphony.com.

Doohan Tributes Re-Opened for Second Memorial Spaceflight

Earlier this year there was a lot of hoopla surrounding the memorial spaceflight for James Doohan, which also involved Original Series talent John Meredyth Lucas and astronaut Gordon Cooper. That was actually only the first of two planned missions to send the honorees' cremated remains into space. The countdown is now beginning for the second one, which is projected to occur in the first quarter of 2008. Therefore, Space Services Inc., aka Celestis — who provides the space memorial service — is re-opening its forum to allow fans to compose messages of tribute to Doohan, as well as to Cooper, to accompany those remains into their second, more lasting journey into the final frontier.

The new tribute messages will be combined with the ones already collected (numbering more than 12,000) and will be digitized on a CD for inclusion with the memorial payload. That forum will be open until September 25, because "payload integration" with the rocket will take place on the 27th. Visit this link to post your message. You can also post tributes to Gordon Cooper at this link.

Unlike the flight earlier this year, the 2008 launch — called the "Explorers Flight" — will send its cargo into semi-permanent orbit above Earth. Thus, Jimmy Doohan will symbolically be flying over us in space for several years. Ultimately the payload will de-orbit and burn up in the atmosphere.

The Explorers Flight will be launched on a Falcon 1 rocket by Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX), piggybacking on a commercial satellite payload. This was the original flight planned by Celestis in 2005 to memorialize Doohan and others, but delays in the development of the Falcon rocket compelled Celestis to give the families an additional memorial flight in the interim. That was the April launch out of New Mexico, called the "Legacy Flight," courtesy of UP Aerospace, which lifted its payload into zero-G space for a few minutes and then returned to Earth.

SpaceX will launch the Explorers Flight from the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Despite the rocket's imminent integration, a specific launch date has not yet been determined. We will keep you apprised of details as they develop.

In related news, Doohan's widow Wende and son Chris Doohan are traveling to Scotland this weekend to attend a special commemoration of the Star Trek legend in the town of Linlithgow, according to BBC News. The Annet House Museum there already hosts the James Doohan Memorial exhibition of personal memorabilia and props, and will unveil a plaque in his honor this Monday, September 17. "James Doohan and his memorable Star Trek character, engineer Montgomery Scott, are known to millions all over the world, and it is fitting that a permanent memorial is erected in Linlithgow, Scotty's future birthplace," said a local official. Located 20 miles west of Edinburgh, Linlithgow claims Scotty as its native son based on D.C. Fontana's novel "Vulcan's Glory" (rather than any "canonical" references in the Original Series).

Congrats to Emmy Winners So Far

Last weekend the Creative Arts Emmy Awards were handed out at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, honoring mostly the craftsmen who work behind the scenes in television. Star Trek alumni Gary Hutzel and Doug Drexler were among the trophy winners when Battlestar Galactica was tapped for "Outstanding Special Visual Effects For A Series."

In addition, former Trek casting directors Junie Lowry Johnson and Libby Goldstein won "Outstanding Casting For A Comedy Series" for their work on Ugly Betty. The Creative Arts Emmys can be seen on the E! Entertainment network on Saturday, Sept. 15, at 8 p.m. (please check your local listings).

Most of the Emmy nominations of interest to the Trek audience are in contention at the Primetime Emmy Awards taking place this Sunday, Sept. 16, to be broadcast on Fox at 8 p.m. ET/PT (live on the East Coast, delayed on the West). William Shatner is up once again for "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series" on behalf of Boston Legal. This will be his third personal Emmy if he wins. His "Comedy Central Roast" from last year is also up for an award, in "Outstanding Variety, Music or Comedy Special." Boston Legal itself is vying for "Best Drama Series," competing against Heroes, House, Grey's Anatomy and The Sopranos.

In the actor category, Shatner's competition includes Lost's Terry O'Quinn. In the category "Outstanding Dramatic Writing," Ronald D. Moore is nominated for his Battlestar Galactica third season premiere. His competition includes "Star Trek XI" producer Damon Lindelof, who co-wrote the season-finale script for Lost.

Vanessa Williams ("Arandis") is up for "Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series" for Ugly Betty, and Padma Lakshmi ("Precious Cargo") could win "Outstanding Reality-Competition Program" as host of Top Chef. (Related story.)

Kelsey Grammer ("Captain Bateson") and Terri Hatcher ("Lt. Robinson") will be presenters at the Primetime Emmys, and Seth MacFarlane ("Ensign Rivers") will voice "Stewie" and "Brian" of Family Guy in a song-and-dance tribute to the year in TV.

She's Three of Nine ... Months, That Is

Start knitting those Borgling booties — Jeri Ryan is having a baby.

People magazine reports that the newlywed is due to give birth in March 2008, and she does not yet know the gender of the child. Ryan, 39, got married in June to French chef Christophe Emé, with whom she runs a restaurant in Hollywood called Ortolan (related story, pg. 2).

"She is thrilled about the new addition and they are very, very happy," says a rep for Ms. Ryan. "They are beyond excited and are beaming from ear to ear." (Beaming. Ha.) This is Ryan's second child; she has a 12-year-old son, Alex, from her first marriage to banker/politician Jack Ryan.

Ryan is currently working on the second season of CBS' Shark, which premieres on Sunday, Sept. 23. According to TVGuide.com, the show's producers have not decided yet how or if they will incorporate Ryan's pregnancy into her character, Jessica Devlin, who ostensibly will have a greater role in the show this season because of certain plot twists last season.

Showbiz Briefs: Stewart, Cox, Schirripa

A press conference was held last Tuesday in the U.K. to announce that Patrick Stewart will perform once again for the Royal Shakespeare Company next year in a production of "Hamlet." Stewart will be Claudius, the villainous uncle of Prince Hamlet, while the title role will be played by David Tennant, the current incarnation of "Doctor Who." That production is due to run from July to November next year in Stratford-upon-Avon. Meanwhile, Stewart is taking his current production of "Macbeth" to the Gielgud Theatre in London's West End for a 10-week engagement starting September 21. For more info and links to tickets, visit The Patrick Stewart Network. Stewart is reportedly also preparing to film the "X-Men" prequel "Magneto," reprising his role as a not-yet-dead Prof. Charles Xavier. The movie will be shot in Europe and Argentina.

Our favorite pen pal "Sarjenka" is now writing in with her football predictions. Nikki Cox is participating with her husband, Jay Mohr, in a series of videos on FoxSports.com about the current pro football season. Called "The Alternative with Jay Mohr," the host brings his wife in on the closing segment to compare picks for the upcoming NFL weekend. We haven't seen a new video yet for Week 2, but in their first video together prior to last weekend, she knew her sports better than he did — Cox picked three out of five teams correctly, compared to two for Mohr. To catch this video series, visit this Fox Sports article and click on the video thumbnail showing Nikki and Jay.

Steven R. Schirripa, who played "Carmine" in the "Storm Front" two-parter, has a new television project now that The Sopranos is off the air (besides, his character was whacked anyway). According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Italian-American will host a cooking-themed series called "Steve Schirripa's Hungry." The show will be available on the free video-on-demand digital cable network called Lifeskool. Schirripa, author of "The Goomba Diet," will take viewers on a tour of his favorite restaurants, chefs, pastry shops, cheese stores and butcher shops in his native New York, and each episode will also consist of a cooking lesson. It is set to debut in December. For more, see this HollywoodReporter.com story.