The Species page allows you to start an interactive "Web Adventure" based on the movie. The adventure consists of a series of images from the film with explanatory text to walk you through the more significant scenes and give you an idea of the plot. The interactive part is that some pages give you a choice between two possibilities for what happens next. Choose correctly: you get the next page in the sequence (easier if you have already seen the movie). Choose incorrectly: you're dead (you are offered an opportunity to return to the beginning to start over). This is not a problem however_simply use the "back" function of your browser to return to where you guessed wrong and proceed with the other choice.
The Web version is slightly different than the movie in that the main sequence of events is presented from the point of view of the alien. This makes the web adventure of interest even if you have already seen the movie. It requires some patience however, as the graphics are large files (mostly in the 50k to 60k range).
Of course the reason MGM/UA put this site together is to get people to go see the movie. This probably explains why the web adventure only takes you about halfway through the movie plot. The movie is rated "R" but the web adventure is more like "PG-13." Film clips are available at various places in the web adventure if you have the patience to download multi-megabyte files and player software to view them.
In olden times, before the World Wide Web, if you wrote a science fiction novel and wanted to publish it you would send manuscripts to editors at publishing houses and hope that one of them would take the time to read it. If someone liked it enough they m ight risk the money to print thousands of copies and ship them to bookstores in the hope that someone would buy them. Now you have another alternative, which is to self-publish on the web. This is what Curtis C. Chen has done with his novel, Free Fall.
Curtis is a recent graduate of Stanford University in computer science who writes science fiction for fun. Free Fall, his first novel, is set in the year 2060 when humans have explored the solar system and established an interplanetary society. Fusion- p owered spacecraft have brought Mars, Jupiter's moons, and the asteroid belt within easy reach. Colonies are well established and are beginning to chafe under the control of Earth- based government. Businesses compete, sometimes ruthlessly, for new markets and sources of supply. Free Fall is about ordinary people who live and die, work and rest, love and fight much like their ancestors did...except they are not on planet Earth. It is a fast-paced adventure full of spaceflight, corporate intrigue, politics, and computers. Be forewarned though, it is billed as the first part of a trilogy and it does leave you hanging at the end.
My name is John Grams. Age 11. My friends (David Bolton [webmaster] and Alex Winnet) and I found these and more of the Ferangi Rules of Acquisition on the Deep Space 9 Web site.
At the Deep Space 9 Web site you will see links to pages about episodes from all three seasons. You can also preview new episodes that haven't aired yet. It also has links to the Rules of Acquisition, cast photos, quick reference, and pictures of the star ship, the Defiant.
Alex was excited to visit the site of one of his favorite shows, "The X-Files." The site has everything a fan could want. When it opens, two green words appear with a distorted, glowing, alien "X" busting through. Here you have the ability to preview fut ure episodes, play some X-files trivia, and join fan clubs. X-files fans will love this site.
We also checked out Spock' s hut. (I have a dog named Spock, but this isn't a site for dogs!) Spock's hut has links to many sci-fi sites such as Star Trek and Babylon 5. It also has an interesting background.