This must be considered the best news to hit the Star Trek franchise in some years. As Aaron points out below, Bethesda Softworks annouced today that all five actors who protrayed the Stark Trek captains on the relevision series -- William Shatner (The Original Series), Patrick Stewart (The Next Generation), Avery Brooks (Deep Space Nine), Kate Mulgrew (Voyager) and Scott Bakula (Enterprise) -- will provide their voices for the upcoming title Star Trek: Legacy.

Bethesda really knows how to please the fans. With the 40th anniversary of Star
Trek just weeks away (the first episode of the original series, "The Man Trap,"
aired on Sept. 8, 1966), the game developer wipped out the big guns for the
ailing franchise. And they don't get much bigger than this, as Legacy will mark
the first time the stars of all five Star Trek series have appeared in the same
game. The game, which puts players in the role of a Starfleet admiral who leads
a task force of ships, is being developed for the Xbox 360 and the PC and is
scheduled for take off this fall.

But perhaps even better than having all five captains is the news that acclaimed
Star Trek writer Dorothy "D.C." Fontana is co-writing Legacy. Fontana penned a
number of notable episodes for both the original series, The Next Generation and
Deep Space Nine. In addition, Fonanta wrote the script for the cancelled PC game
href="http://www.twitchguru.com/2006/07/20/the_best_games_never_published/page2.
html">Star Trek: The Secret of Vulcan Fury, which was a heavily hyped and
anticipated title that focused on the wars between the Vulcans and Romulans.
There are few details, however, about Legacy's story. But with all five captains
at the helm for the upcoming game, that's about all that's missing.

But Star Trek is going to need more than just a PC/video game to help bring back
the franchise. Poor scripts and unispired writing, coupled with a puzzling lack
of direction from former producers Brannon Braga and Rick Berman, has left Star
Trek in worse shape than the Enterprise at the end of of The Wrath of Khan
(speaking of, is that the U.S.S. Reliant in the photo above?). It's been pretty
much all downhill since Deep Space Nine concluded in 1999 (and what a conclusion
that was); Voyager was pretty much a disgrace and Enterprise has some good
moments (mmmmm, T'Pol...) but wasn't able to pull it together before being
cancelled during Season 4. And please, don't get either Aaron or I started about
Star Trek: Nemesis -- that made Star Trek V: The Final Frontier look like
freakin' "Hamlet."

So currently, we're left with no Star Trek TV series other than the fan-created
series Star Trek: New Voyages. Right now, we're left with the rumor-filled Star
Trek XI (that's eleven for all you non-Romans). All that we know is that J.J.
Abrams (TV's "Lost," "Mission Impossible III") is produced the film and may
direct as well. Everything else -- Matt Damon as Kirk? Philip Seymour Hoffman as
Bones? BEN AFFLECK as SPOCK!!!!!! -- is a bunch of Internet rumors.

I'll say this -- if they can get all the captains together for a game, then by
God, they should be able to get a decent TV series back on and make a good Stark
Trek XI.