Ten-Forward's best listener is returning to Broadway. Whoopi Goldberg ("Guinan") made one of her first big career splashes in a one-woman show on Broadway back in the 1980s, and now she's headed back to the Great White Way. To celebrate the twentieth anniversary of her original show, Goldberg will be appearing in "Whoopi" at the Lyceum Theater in November, directed once again by Mike Nichols. The play will begin previews on November 6 and officially open on November 17, and will have a limited run, playing though January 30. Before the New York run, the show will play a one-week engagement at the Merriam Theater in Philadelphia beginning October 13.

Futurama's Tribute to Trek Hits DVD

Matt Groening's animated comedy Futurama continues to roll out its DVD releases with the fourth season hitting stores, featuring a Star Trek tribute unlike any other. The episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" features almost all of the voices of the surviving Original Series cast members playing (and poking fun at) themselves. In the episode, the preserved heads (this does take place in the distant "future") of William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei and Walter Koenig take part in a hysterical adventure, packed with Star Trek references and jokes. (James Doohan was unable to participate, his character replaced by "Welshy.") The Futurama Fourth Season DVD set is in stores now.

It's strangely appropriate that in the same month that James Doohan is being honored with a farewell convention and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, an invention that his character brought from the future to a chemist in 1986 is now rearing its head in the scientific world. Remember "Transparent Aluminum," the matrix for which Scotty conjured up on an ancient Macintosh for Dr. Nichols ("Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home")? Well, instead of Plexicorp in San Francisco, it's actually 3M in Minnesota claiming credit for a new form of glass made from alumina (aluminum oxide), according to this article at physicsweb.org. At the same time, there is a ceramic research lab in Dresden, Germany, claiming to have developed "transparent alumina" that is amazingly light but three times tougher than hardened steel of the same thickness, according to this Rense.com page. Well, maybe Dr. Nichols sold off the formula to others in order to become "rich beyond the dreams of avarice" like Dr. McCoy promised.