The past year will be known in the world of Star Trek for three main news items: the 40th anniversary of the airing of the Original Series with all the incumbent celebrations, the announcement of an eleventh film under the guidance of J.J. Abrams that is set to hit theaters in late 2008, and the hugely successful Christie's auction of props and costumes. Ironically, amidst all this attention heaped upon the franchise, 2006 also had the dubious distinction of being the first year in two decades that no new Star Trek was in production. At least, not by its corporate owners...

Outside of Star Trek, the world continues to be rocked by turmoil, especially in Iraq and in the Darfur region of Sudan. A steady reminder that lessons from TV shows don't necessarily filter down to the places that need it most. But while politicians debate what constitutes genocide or what is a viable solution for a seemingly unwinnable war, for many of us, the core values of Star Trek are still something we can all aspire to, at least in our hearts. On the plus side, the natural disasters that plagued 2005 seemed to abate this past year. But that doesn't mean things are going great guns for the future of our planet, as climate change is now a certainty, not some harebrained theory. Just this week it was reported that an ancient ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic broke free, and polar bears were declared an endangered species — clear symptoms of environmental decay, with our own fingerprints all over it. Of course, the future remains to be seen, but let's hope that we can still turn things around and not become like one of those planets that the Enterprise-D has to rescue to avert a cataclysm.

Back to 2006 and Star Trek. If there is a theme to the past year, it is that the fans took ownership of the franchise. Sound surprising? Consider the following: With the Christie's auction, and the more recent It's a Wrap! auction/sale of props and merchandise, fans have access to artifacts never previously attainable in such abundance. Literally thousands of items that have either been used on the set or seen on screen have been put in the hands of people who want them the most and/or who can afford them the most.

With DVDs of every show and movie, along with new digital platforms available, fans can watch Star Trek when, how and where they want with pretty much no limitations. No longer do you have to make yourself available to sit in front of your television at a prescribed airtime, or record them on wretched VHS tapes. You can TiVo episodes, and store them digitally, download them to your computer via services offered from MovieLink, Amazon.com, Google, Xbox 360 and more, or just pop in a DVD. With the Animated Series finally getting a much deserved release, fans are now completely satiated. Or are they?

Another key point of fan "ownership" this year was the mainstream emergence of the popular "fan film" or "webisode," in which the fans themselves extend the Trek universe with their own story ideas, using amateur actors and with increasing frequency, bona fide Star Trek actors. This in itself is almost as old as the Internet, with groups like "Starship Farragut" from Northern Virginia, "Star Trek: Intrepid" in Scotland, "Star Trek: Hidden Frontier" in Los Angeles, and "Starship Exeter" in Austin, Texas, all making self-produced webisodes for free downloads (in order to avoid copyright infringement problems, they cannot make money). Star Trek: New Voyages in upstate New York kicked things up a notch when their webisodes started incorporating stars like Walter Koenig and George Takei. With the yet-to-be-released independent production titled "Star Trek: Of Gods and Men," things are about to get shaken up even more. Directed by Tim Russ and starring such stalwarts as Koenig, Russ, Nichelle Nichols, Garrett Wang, Alan Ruck, Gary Graham and more, "Of Gods and Men" is set to knock "fan films" up to the next level. Just what that level will be shall be seen. Stay tuned.

Finally, with the 40th anniversary of Star Trek and the conventions and celebrations that ensued, fans got as close to the stars and the essence of Trek as possible. We even saw the appearance of convention virgin Scott Bakula at Creation's enormously successful Las Vegas show last August. Talks, autographs, dessert parties and photo ops with the stars put the fans right into the mix, something they obviously relish as the numbers for conventions continue to grow.

As for Star Trek stars in 2006, you simply could not turn on your TV without coming across the ubiquitous William Shatner. It was a banner year for the Bill, with his continuing, award-winning role on Boston Legal, his voicing one of the five captains in the "Star Trek: Legacy" video game, the now-defunct Show Me the Money game show, an induction into the TV Hall of Fame and, of course, his biggest and most successful role as a guest in our own STARTREK.COM interview! Sorry, we mean the Celebrity Roast of William Shatner where he was skewered by comedians and fellow actors courtesy of Comedy Central. (Look for the uncensored DVD of that memorable night next year.)

George Takei got the year off to a good start by signing on as an occasional guest announcer on the raunchy, yet very funny Howard Stern Show on Sirius sattelite radio. Since coming out of the closet last year, George has been more in the limelight than ever before as guest appearances on shows like Will & Grace (and an upcoming episode of Heroes) soon followed, and his tireless activism across the country has led to such honors as being named Grand Marshal of the Chicago Pride Parade. Good career move, George!

Other Trek stars made lots of news in various ways throughout the year. For instance, Leonard Nimoy had a theater named after him at the newly refurbished Griffith Observatory, itself a guest star in Voyager's "Future's End, Part I," which had a star-studded re-opening very recently. Patrick Stewart has also been a bustle of acitivity this year; he's earned rave reviews for his performances as "Antony" and "Prospero" at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and during the RSC's one international tour, he took time out to conduct the University of Michigan marching band during a halftime show. That on top of his duties as Chancellor of Huddersfield University, his "Legacy" voice work, and much more.

In late August, it was announced that CBS Digital was in charge of remastering the Original Series for syndication. When first announced, it certainly raised a few eyebrows as fans feared the advent of digital chaos that arguably has clogged up another "Star" franchise which will remain unnamed. Fears were soon averted, though, as the team of Michael Okuda, Denise Okuda, Dave Rossi and the CBS Digital team made good on their promises of not changing any story points, but merely enhancing FX that were either missing or badly in need of correcting.

2006 was a very good year for the fans, in spite of the fact that production of new Star Trek is still but a distant, barely visible vessel on the horizon. But we've waited before and we will wait again, with our hands politely folded behind our backs as we work locally and think globally and contemplate all the good that world peace in 2007 will bring. Something like that, anyway.

Page 2: In Memoriam