As you probably already know, Paramount Pictures started the "Star Trek: Continuum" (or, as they like to call it, "The official Star Trek site") some months ago. The idea, per se, is a good one. Unfortunately, the Star Trek: Continuum is accessible only to MSN (Microsoft Network) subscribers.
Currently, to access MSN you must:
The ones who don't use any of the above products and who don't want to pay the monthly fee to Mr. Gates are simply locked out! Don't you think that the "official" Star Trek site should be accessible by everyone?!?
Serdar Tokatligil and Luca Sambucci started a letter campaign to ask Paramount to make Star Trek: Continuum public. If you want support it, please write a letter to:
Paramount Digital Entertainmentand send a copy of your letter to:
Paramount Picturesand ask them to make the "Star Trek: Continuum" public. Please be polite, but make your points clear. Do not write "Star Trek" on the envelope, and do not identify yourself as a member of a fanclub.
If your mother language is not English and you don't have the time to write a letter by yourself, you can use Luca and Serdar's letter:
Dear Paramount Digital Entertainment,
As Internet-using Star Trek fans, we would like to express our outrage and extreme disappointment regarding your recent actions concerning the "Official Star Trek Website -- Star Trek Continuum".
As the official site, this should be for the use of ALL fans of the series.
You remember them? They're the ones who kept the first 3 seasons of the original series running, who supported it and spread the word when it went into syndication from the '70s onwards. The ones who organised the conferences, supported "The Next Generation", "Deep Space Nine" and now "Voyager". The ones who paid for all those cinema tickets and went to the movies so many times that they ensured that every Trek movie you made would be a blockbuster over and over. The ones who bought all the videos, clothes, soundtracks, books, CD-ROM's, and merchandising, and God only knows what else was churned out by the Paramount marketing and merchandising behemoth (quite happily parting with our hard-earned cash, because we loved the series so much--in all its incarnations).
Do you remember them?
Do you?You sure have a funny way of showing it--or maybe it's a case of selective amnesia.
We don't object to hosting the official site on the Microsoft Network; what we do object to in the strongest possible terms is being locked out unless we are MSN subscribers!!
You may entice us to buy more Trekwares; that is, after all, your business. We may buy or not, as we choose--and more often than not we choose to do so.
You are NOT however in the business of FORCING us to purchase an account with a specific internet service provider (i.e. MSN), WHETHER OR NOT WE WANT TO with an ISP which may or may not be of our won choosing; that is something which you have NO right to do.
Rest assured that we (and all other fans who are of the same opinion--and there a great host of those) will not let this matter simply rest. We will pursue it as long as we have to until the situation changes.
Serdar Tokatligil (UK)
Luca Sambucci (Italy)
You may get the letter as a zipped MS Word for Windows 6.0 file.
Then just add your name to the letter, sign it and send it to Paramount.
If you want, drop Luca a note telling him that you've sent the letter. He'd like to see how many will support this campaign.
Thank you very much in advance! All help will be appreciated!
Luca Sambucci
Copyright © 1994-1996 Luca Sambucci
Star Trek™, Star Trek: The Next Generation™, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine™, andStar Trek: Voyager™ are registered trademarks of Paramount Pictures, registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. No infringement intended.