Live Long and Prosper

With a flashy new movie
coming in May, Star Trek is on the mind of just about every
sci-fi fan these days.

Keeping that flame
alive since 2002's
Star Trek: Nemesis

and the end of TV's
Enterprise

in 2005 has been a series of Internet-based shows lovingly
created by fans, and I'm lucky enough to have a Trek
history-making role in one of the latest,
Star Trek: Osiris

.

I'm a full-time
journalist, sometime actor, and all-around sci-fi geek. After
being an extra in the
Transformers

movie (I'm "Little green dot running in terror"), I
was online looking for my next opportunity when I ran across
the audition notice for this Star Trek fan show. I was busy in
the chorus of a community theater production of
Beauty and the Beast

, but it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get my feet wet
with real lines in front of a camera.

Filmed on a
green-screen set in the basement of cowriter, coproducer,
codirector, and star Jay Miller's home, the new series
boldly goes (sorry, had to get one pun in there) where the
various TV series and movies have balked. Miller plays the
starship
Osiris

's captain, Kieran Bale, and I play his partner, Lt. Commander
Justin Ambrose.

Granted, it's a small
role. Since Ambrose is stationed on a different ship, I only
appear in one short scene (so far) as the proud but
long-suffering spouse of a starship captain. But that captain
is gay, and while
Osiris

isn't the only Trek Web-based series with gay characters,
that's still not something you see on prime time.

The first half of the
pilot episode of
Star Trek: Osiris

is available starting Saturday at

www.stosiris.com

. The second half is coming soon. The series takes place about
nine months after the events of the movie
Star Trek: Nemesis

, which left open the opportunity for a lasting peace between
the Federation and the Romulan Empire.

Captain Bale is taking
the USS
Osiris

out on its maiden voyage, an important diplomatic mission, when
a threat from within Starfleet itself threatens the crew of the

Osiris

and the very core of the Federation.

Miller, who's gay, and
his friend Todd Adams, who's straight, have been Trek fans for
years. Inspired by the Web series
Star Trek: Hidden Frontier

, which launched the phenomenon in 2000 and has also included
gay story lines, they decided to create their own.