The "Ships of the Line" has always been my favorite among the selection of Star Trek-themed calendars available each year, and this year is no exception. While I do enjoy seeing the usual character shots every month in the other calendars, the "Ships of the Line" is the one that takes my breath away. The 2004 version of the calendar has a wider array of contributors, including visual effects artists Doug Drexler, Daren R. Dochterman, John Teska and other familiar names from behind the scenes of Trek. The images in this edition are less photo-realistic than they have been in the past; they are presented as graphical illustrations of familiar scenes without the attempts to emulate a candid photograph. They are still finely detailed, however, and capture the grandeur of what it must be like to see one of these starships up close.

This particular calendar is heavy on images from Star Trek: Enterprise — the construction of the NX-01 over Earth, the "Minefield" incident, etc. There is a good sampling from the other series (although, alas, DS9 was overlooked this year), and from the movies. There are a couple of images that don't seem to be from any particular episode, just "what-if" scenarios — but that's part of the imagination and appeal of this calendar series. But I do love the renderings of the Doomsday Machine and the Botany Bay.  [Sandy]