It may be OK to end an Old Year bitter but it can't be OK to stay that way long. Bad attitudes are neither appealing nor productive, no matter how appropriate those attitudes might be. Yes yes, they killed Star Trek, the bastards. Yet, though the outlook for further adventures may seem in that sense dim, with a little retrospect I realize we've been through worse. (We as fans of the show that is. Those higher up the production ladder may not fare so well.) Once before fans were forced by circumstance to carry the creative load alone. I speak of course, of the Time Without Trek.

TOS went off the air right as men went on the moon. At that point (or at least early on) the consensus was that Trek was gone for good. One could argue the extended period between Turnabout Intruder and The Wrath of Khan was a Trek desert, a barren stretch eased at times by the Animated Series and The Motion Picture. If we weren't pessimistic then, why choose to be so now? Today we've got things going for us.

A great deal of my optimism for this Year in Trek is the announced DVD release of TAS. Wouldn't it be something for a motivated fan to digitize the keyframes, enhance the animation, and re-release TAS? C'mon guys, the soundtrack's already done! And speaking of fan efforts (and by all means we should, and often), there's also the highly anticipated third issue from the spectacular New Voyages team. One drools considering the collaboration of Koenig, Fontana, Marshall … and Roddenberry! Unless they mangle it (not very likely, since they love their work), that should only stoke the fires of re-interest back to the beginning where it belongs.

Rumors fly about securing notable talent for a new movie but, you know? That doesn't sound particularly interesting anymore. Good Trek is about humanity as a whole; characters can make for memorable Trek but they can't make Trek in and of themselves. Perhaps as computers help people to connect, the larger network of Trekkers will find that increased connectivity results in increased creativity. Sure seems to help so far.

We crossed a vast desert in our collective stellar journey some thirty years ago. That desolate part of our trek took almost a decade yet produced many good things, and nourished the rebirth of the greater Trek that was to emerge. So instead of being saddened by developments, I will interpret them positively. Am I excited? You betcha!