PRELUDE to

		STAR TREK: THE CROUTON GENERATION
		SEASON FIVE MAXI-SERIES OPENER
		      "The Perfect Game"


In case you missed it:

o  Chris Crouton died unexpectedly in "Trial by Chaos".  One of these days,
     Chris Hassell might actually finish the story so we can see how.
o  Highlander is thus now in temporary command of the _USS Croutonprize_,
     pending assignment of a new captain.
o  Rhee Savan has transferred back to _USS Croutonprize_, now as its
     Chief Engineer.
o  Avenger was on a long vacation.  He did some stuff that never got
     published and brought back a small amount of intelligence on the
     situation in the Hidden Valley Ranch.
o  Crossfire took a year's leave of absence to get out his frustrations.
     While he was gone, his mother, Starburst Blake, tried to visit him
     aboard _Croutonprize_ and revealed his name is "Zephiram Blake."
     As you saw in "It's a Wonderful Crouton", Crossfire is now on his
     way back to the _Croutonprize_...
o  Remember the HVR Trilogy?  In the first two episodes of Dave Learn's
     trilogy, the Borg demolished the HVR.  Bloocheez was nearly killed,
     but survived to plot a power struggle.  The final installment will
     appear soon as episode 7 of "The Perfect Game."
o  Missy went through some hell in Season Four's opener "The Silence of the
     Croutons."  You might want to refresh your memory, since it sets up
     certain events of "The Perfect Game."
o  More Borg episodes have aired on ST:TNG:  5th season's "I, Borg" and
     6th/7th season cliff-hanger two-parter, "Descent."  They may be
     relevant. ]-)
 

And in other news:

o  The Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins joined the National League.
o  Chris Platt graduated and moved to Dartmouth to be a Plasma Physics
     grad student.  He's been quietly living with his NorthStar Advantage,
     playing with ionized gas, plus he's found a "DReamy" Crouton Lady.
o  The Admiral graduated, couldn't find much work (or sympathy), pulled out
     most of his hair and finally returned to school June 1993 to pursue
     teacher certification in secondary physics and mathematics at the
     University of Colorado @ Denver.  He's also changed a bit...
o  Crossfire graduated and hasn't had the greatest luck with jobs either,
     but at least he's having some fun in the meantime.
o  Icefalcon graduated and started teaching science to eighth graders at a
     Denver middle school.
o  Dave Quixote graduated Lafayette, went to Haiti for a while, came back
     and wondered why TPG wasn't done yet, then disappeared to Haiti again.
o  Eliana graduated and went to Russia for a while.
o  Chi An Chow finished his Master's and got a high-paying job in Sunnyvale,
     CA.  Of course, most of that money's going to rent.
o  Clinton/Bush/Perot.  Was that scary or what?
o  Soraya finally graduated (how many majors???) and then quickly found a
    job at NOAA.  Slime.
o  Missy graduated, went to University of Wisconsin @ Madison, married
     a graduating physics undergrad from Wisconsin named Jason Maron on
     July 3, 1993, then managed to get transferred into Caltech so she
     could do her grad work next to her husband (since he had already
     been accepted at Caltech).  You'll find Jason on the _Subaru_ in
     "The Perfect Game" as the new science officer.
o  Kabeta graduated Harvard, tried out Berkeley's Journalism School, was
     visited by some ants, pulled several more Katherines, decided
     Cambridge was where she'd rather stay and thus returned to Harvard
     for the History of Science graduate program she wanted to get into
     in the first place.
o  A lot of other people graduated Harvard and most ended up in California
     for no readily apparent reason.
o  Richard Muirden graduated, visited us all here on the wrong side of the
     world, then returned home to start his job.  While he was in Boulder,
     he got a chance to see _Deep Space Nine_ and a bunch of "new" TNG.
     Then these kidney problems cropped up -- good luck, RAM!
o  T'Lilith graduated in the top of her class at Colorado College, worked
     in a hospital cancer research lab for a year, then started up an
     MD/PhD program in Genetics at University of Michigan.  (Hey, maybe
     Kris will be able to do something for those kidneys in a few years?)
o  Did I mention that _Deep Space Nine_ premiered Jan. 1993?
o  _Babylon 5_ is coming in January 1994 too!
o  Euge Yee graduated and is now looking at the same job market Crossfire
     and the Admiral have been having soooo much fun with.  Anybody heard
     from him lately?
o  Ditto for hj.
o  Mad Magazine voted Rush Limbaugh most worthy of an unneccesary root
     canal.  Gilbert Gottfried and Barney the Dinosaur came in 2nd & 3rd.
o  Did you know that Pat Buchanan is so homophobic he thinks global warming
     is caused by the AIDS quilt?  (Courtesy John Zola)
o  The Minnesota Twins beat the Braves to win the 1991 World Series, the
     best series in history.
o  Kirby Puckett was named MVP of the 1993 All-Star Game.
o  Do you see any bias in this baseball reporting?
o  Not really.  The Red Sox and the Cubs *NEVER* do anything worth a
     mention.  Then there's that minor league team in San Diego.
o  _Cheers_ went off the air before ST:TNG could use the entire cast in
     cameos.  Well, at least two of them made it into "The Perfect Game."
o  "The Perfect Game" dragged on two years longer than expected, primarily
     due to Avenger's problems with life and writer's block plus some of
     Kabeta's own share of each.
o  I'm sure I'm leaving a lot out.


One final thing:

     "The Perfect Game" makes several references to previously posted
TCG episodes and to the as-yet unpublished TCG novel "Fearful Symmetry"
by Jonathan Reid, which details the events of the Borg Dilemma of
eleven years ago.  Jon has become similarly delayed with this project
and we had originally hoped it would precede "The Perfect Game".
I don't think "The Perfect Game" will be too confusing without having
read "Fearful Symmetry".  One detail that might be helpful though:
     Avenger's Revenge is a tactic Avenger came up with on the spot
during the Borg Dilemma to defeat three Borg ships single-handedly at
Regulus.  He was awarded a medal and the name "Avenger's Revenge" stuck
like the old "Picard Maneuver" did to Picard.  Jon came up with this
whole thing himself to explain an award I had included in Avenger's
service record -- the actual details of Avenger's Revenge and the
situation that caused it will be revealed in "Fearful Symmetry".


SHARE AND ENJOY!