Slice of SciFi News Briefs

Star Trek New Voyages episode “World Enough and Time,” starring Trek icon George Takei and the entire New Voyages cast is eligible for a eligible for a Hugo Award nomination at this year’s event. The script was written by Star Trek veteran writers Michael Reaves and Marc Scott Zicree. Members of the World Science Fiction Society will be casting their votes

After almost 4 months there are signs that the WGA strike may be coming to a close. Light at the end of the tunnel comes in the form of resumed (informal) talks between writers and studio/network producers which begin today. The WGA and AMPTP might try to hammer out a deal for the writers similar to that forged with the directors just last week.

Nintendo tops sales in 2007 with its video games topping out at nearly $18 billion (USD) in sales.

In other gaming news, Vivendi has secured a Euros 3.5 billion ($5.08 billion - USD) loan to back its acquisition of controlling stakes in U.S.-based vidgame maker Activision and French phone operator Neuf Cegetel.

Internet companies, including giants like Yahoo, are not immune to the current U.S. and international money woes. Yahoo is getting ready to lay off hundreds of its workers as part of the hurting Internet icon’s effort to re focus its efforts to boost its sagging stock, according to published reports in the Wall Street Journal and New York Times.

Because of the lengthy WGA strike several networks have been forced to curtail, and in some cases completely dissolve, their upfronts and first-look deals with directors and actors. Fox and CBS were the first to begin the process of canning future ideas and the people connected to them. Now it appears that NBC is preparing to do the same.

See Summer Glau (”Firefly”/”Serenity,” “The 4400,” “Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”) being interviewed on a Fox L.A. morning talk show. You can catch the video interview HERE.