Spock and Data

Two strange Star Trek-related tidbits:

1. The short-lived cottage industry of Y2K survival books and videos probably isn't doing so well these days, but the materials are still available if you're interested. These ranged from the alarmist Y2K Millennium Meltdown: The Silent Bomb ("science fiction has become a science nightmare") to the outright paranoid Y2K: Hidden Dangers of Martial Law and a Police State ("Will President Bill Clinton use the Y2K computer bug crisis as a pretext to declare martial law and usher in a brutal Gestapo police state?"). Compared to others in the genre, Leonard Nimoy's Y2K Family Survival Guide seems almost rational. Almost. Anyway, I uploaded the short introduction video that I found on Usenet (6 meg AVI). If you want to see the rest, you can still buy it on Amazon. ($7.50, cheap!)

2. Another recent Usenet discovery is the little-known album recorded by Brent Spiner, most famously known for his role as Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation. (Maybe he was jealous of Spock and Kirk.) Ol' Yellow Eyes Is Back, released in 1991, features everyone's favorite android crooning his way through twelve Tin Pan Alley standards. "It's A Sin (To Tell a Lie)" features backup vocals by fellow cast members Levar Burton (Geordi La Forge), Jonathan Frakes (Commander Riker), Michael Dorn (Worf), and Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard). The album is long out of print, but you can hear "It's A Sin" here (4 meg MP3).