The new site is now open. You may reach it by visiting www.startrekbenevolence.com. If you've bookmarked this site, please update your bookmarks to point to the new site. If you've reached this site through a direct link to this page, the link is outdated. This site will no longer be updated, so please visit the new site for any and all updates, then leave feedback or email me to let me know what you think of the site and the story!

The new site is ready and I am going to relaunch Star Trek: Benevolence on Saturday, October 1, 2005. The new site will include the improved Season 1 (Series) Preview in PDF format. The improved first episode will be posted approximately one week after that, and the second episode will be posted approximately two weeks after the first under a new title. Then, during the first week of November, the third episode ("Experiments") will be posted for the first time.

I've had to reformat my hard drive and reinstall Windows and all of my other software, so my computer's been out of commission for the past several days (almost two weeks), but I did have all of my files backed up, so I didn't lose anything important. Now that the computer is up and running again, I have once again resumed work on Star Trek: Benevolence. The new website is now complete. I want to check it a few more times for errors before opening it. There are a few stray lines of code and an error message in the heading of the forums, but the forums appear to work correctly and with the exception of making the forums' pages look ugly, I don't think there are any problems. I may go ahead and open the new site and fix the error as soon as I figure out what the problem is and how to fix it.

First of all, I want to express my deepest sympathies to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The devastation is widespread, and those directly affected have a very long road to recovery ahead of them. I would like to take this opportunity to ask everyone who visits this site who is in a position to help those in need to do so. Whether it be a donation of money (however large or small), a donation of food, clothes, or other supplies, or simply some kind words to anyone you may know who was affected, ANY AND ALL help that we can provide to the victims of Katrina is needed. Please visit the American Red Cross website for information and a list of ways you can help.

On a much lighter note, I have continued work on Star Trek: Benevolence. All of the updates to the the preview and the first two episodes have been completed and they have been converted into the Adobe PDF format. The new site is almost finished; all that's left is for me to set up the new forums. I will be working on that as well as completing "Experiments," the third episode, over the next several days. Once the new forums are up, I will set everything up so that the URLs you are currently using to reach this site redirect you to the new and improved version. Please check back frequently for updates as I hope to be working somewhat heavily on Benevolence in the coming days and weeks. The creative bug finally bit me again :-)

ONCE AGAIN I have to apologize for the extremely lengthy delays. Since my last update, I've had many things to take time away from working on Benevolence, including starting a new job. I am also currently in the proccess of trying to get another new (full time) job, I've started a new writing project (unrelated to Star Trek: Benevolence), and have a few different trips planned for this summer. I do intend to continue working on Benevolence, but I am not sure what the timeline may be. Also, considerring the events of the final episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise, I may rework some of my original ideas to incorporate more of Star Trek's "history" into my story.

Again, I am sorry for the lengthy delay, and as I am unsure of the timeline, please continue to check the site periodically for additional updates. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to al readers of Star Trek: Benevolence, and I hope that you will continue to visit this site regularly as I continue to work on the new site layout and the story itself.

STAR TREK: BENEVOLENCE WILL RETURN!

"EXPERIMENTS" UPDATE
I am still not finished with "Experiments". I have done a lot of work on it since my last update, though. I would say it is probably 2/3 done. I hope to have it finished very soon, but I am extremely busy with work, college classes, and working on my websites, along with a few other things, so I do not know how much time I might be able to spend on. I WILL NEVER GIVE UP ONT IT so please just keep checking for updates.

NEW SITE UPDATE
As I mentioned before, I am working on a new version of the Star Trek: Benevolence website. I had a few technical difficulties with it, but I think I have the issues resolved now. The new site is almost ready to launch, so keep checking for updates.

NEW ADDRESS
In addition to the current LONG address (startrekbenevolence.adamargabright.com), Star Trek: Benevolence can now be reached at its new address, www.startrekbenevolence.com. This new address is preferred, so please update your bookmarks.

RELAUNCH PROJECT
I am going to "relaunch" Star Trek: Benevolence to try and get everything back on track. To do this, I have developed a plan. The relaunch will begin when the new site is completed and ready to receive visitors.

The content of the new site will feature revised drafts of the episodes that have already been posted and a revised preview document. These revised episodes will have a few details changed: the ship's registry number will be changed to remain consistent with what has been seen in the real Star Trek series, and episode two will have a new title. I have not decided yet, but I am considering adding some scenes to the first two episodes.

When I had first written the season one and series preview, I was actually preparing it for myself as part of the preparation to write the actual story. After that time, I had decided to change a few things, but those changes were reflected only in the story; not the preview. The preview has been heavily edited to reflect the changes I have made since I had first written it: a bio for Corday has been added, Weaver's bio has been removed as she is not a member of the Benevolence crew (she's still in the story, but the preview only contains info for the ship's crew members), uniform, comm. badge, rank insignia, and uniform color code graphics have been updated and amended, the characters' information has been reordered to reflect the chain of command, the ship's registry number has been changed (as mentioned earlier), the ship's specifications have been updated and amended, and a few other details have been updated.

All of the episodes and the preview documents will be presented as Adobe PDF files and will feature on the first page a new cover design and specific graphics for each episode or preview. Please note that these updated drafts will not appear on the current site because I am waiting to post them on the new site.

Once everything for the new site is in place, I will first post the preview document in the downloads section. A few days after that, I will add the first episode, "A New Frontier", to the downloads section, followed by the second episode two to three weeks later. By that time, I will have completed the third episode, "Experiments," which will be added to the "downloads" section two to three weeks following the second episode. From that point on, as we have already seen, I cannot guarantee how long it will take to complete future episodes, but I do already have plans for the next seven episodes after “Experiments,” and vague plans for several more after that. I have written notes for episode four, "Medical Emergency" (title may change), and it picks up pretty much where "Experiments" leaves off, so I anticipate writing it will go smoothly. With "Experiments" I've had to do a lot of thinking as to what exactly I want to happen and how it will lead into future episodes, but now that I have my plans figured out, (time permitting) I should be able to write future episodes a little quicker.

After the relaunch, I still plan on dividing the story into "seasons" because my original concept was to write it as though the story was that of a real TV show. I had planned for season one to contain nine episodes, and every season after that will have ten. Currently, I am planning a cliffhanger for the ninth episode, and I am going to delay the posting of the tenth episode for at least a month after I have finished writing it. Even though it will be ready to post, I'm going to hold all of you in suspense for a little while. :-)

Also, the new site will have a new message board. The old one on the current site will still work for a while, but I would rather everyone that wants to use a message board register for the new one when it becomes available and use it instead of the old one.

Please check back frequently for updates. I think the new site is almost ready to launch, so this will all get going shortly.

I have done some more work, but "Experiments" is still not complete. I just wanted to let everyone know that it is still being worked on.

I'm still writing "Experiments." I've made some progress, but not as much as I would like. Hopefully I will get it finished in the near future, but I'm VERY busy right now.

In addition, I've been working on a "refit" for the website. It's almost completely finished. I just need to work out a few minor details and then test the site myself and have a few other people test it to see if anything's wrong. I will finalize the update simultaneously with the posting of "Experiments."

Since I've fallen behind in posting one episode each month, and it seems like writing an episode will consistantly take longer than a month, I'm dropping the idea of a monthly episode- for now. For the rest of Season One (01.03 - 01.09), I will simply write them as quickly as possible and post them when they are finished, without expecting to post them at a certain time interval. I will post updates here periodically, just to reassure everyone that I am still working on it and that I haven't given up. More details on why I have decided not to do one each month as well as my plan for improving the episode postings starting with Season Two can be found in the Members' Forum on the Star Trek: Benevolence message boards. You will need to register as a membeer of the message board to access the members' forum if you haveb't already done so.

Additionally, I have started writing "Experiments." That's all I have to say about it now, but keep checking for updates.

You can read it here or by clicking the button on the menu to the left.

I'm still in the process of writing "Morale Crisis" and hope to put it on the site pretty soon. I may or may not be able to get the next episode, "Experiments," up by the end of June, but I'm still hopeful that I will. I've been pretty busy with other stuff lately, and I haven't been able to spend as much time writing as I would have liked, but I do have the stories lined up and I'm still working on it. I just wanted to let everyone know that I haven't given up.

Also, you may have noticed that the site is now hosted at a different location. I've started a new site with a paid webhosting account from Surpass Hosting and registerred my own domain so that I can do things that could not be done with a free host like 0catch.com, which I was using before. I plan to do some new things later on, but for now the big advantage is NO MORE ADVERTISEMENTS AT THE TOP OF EVERY PAGE AND NO MORE ANNOYING POP-UPS! Hopefully, I'll get some time to do more work on the site and add some new enhancements, but I'd rather spend more of my "creativity time" on writing the story. I'll spruce up the site later.

You can now get a free e-mail address by clicking here or the "WEBMAIL" button on the menu to the left. The e-mail service is powerred by Zap Zone Network and your address will be "yourname@startrekbenevolence.zzn.com" where "yourname" is replaced by something of your choice.

Be warned, this free service is filled with advertisements. However, I may be making a major upgrade to the site in the future that could allow me to offer free e-mail accounts to website visitors without tons of advertisements. I'm not sure that I will be making this upgrade, but if I do, I will post any updated information.

I'm a little behind schedule as far as where I would like to be in writing the story. I may not be able to post it by the end of the month, seeing as how there are only a few days left in May and only about half of the story is finished. I do, however, hope to post it very soon. I also plan to post "Experiments," the third episode, in June.

I have to appologize in advance about a problem with the message board. The host for the message board is Forumer.com. They are a free host for Invision Power Board message boards. Apparently, they will occasionally have a server problem. During the times that the server is too busy or if the server goes down, you wil see a blank white page with a single "1" in the top-left corner. I realize that this can be frustrating and I appologize for the inconvenience. If you encounter this error, please check back with the message board at a later time. Thank you for your patience.

The staff of Chicago's County General Hospital is transported from the 21st century to the 24th, where they are trained to become the crew for the U.S.S. Benevolence, Starfleet's most advanced hospital starship, during a war against the Romulan Empire.

You can read this episode by clicking its button on the menu to the left. Once you've read it, don't forget to leave feedback in the discussion forums!

"A New Frontier" is finally finished. I wish I would have been able to finish and post it earlier in the month, but I had too many other things to do. I will get to work soon on the second episode, "Morale Crisis," and hopefully I will be able to post it sometime in May.

I've decided to change the discussion board to one using the Invision Power Board software, which offers more features and an interface that I feel is easier to navigate. Click here to visit the new forums. Also, anyone who registerred with the old board will have to register again, as I do not have a way to transfer members' accounts from one board to the other. I appologize for the inconvenience. The old board will remain up for a while, but please use the new one. The old one will only be there as a reference for a short period of time.

I have been working on the first episode, "A New Frontier." I have a large portion of it done and plan to post it later this month.

If you look at the navigation menu to the left, you'll notice that I have given each episode a title and a planned release time. All of these details are subject to change, but I'm not planning on making many changes to them as they are now. When an episode is ready to post, I will create a link to it where that episode's title appears now.

In the Discussion Board, I have created a "Members Only" section for registerred members of the board. It will contain information about my plans for the fanfic series, early access to the episodes, and other information that you will need to register as a message board member to access.

I have changed my method of writing this fanfiction series. I am now in the process of writing individual episodes' synopsis. Until now, I have just been working on the first episode. Now, I think it will be easier to create continuous storylines and having the main plots ready before I start should help me to make the series better.

If you've read the series preview, you may have noticed the "Year 1" subtitle. Since the idea behind this is to write it as though it were an actual TV series, I plan to write the episodes in "seasons." I do not, however, plan to have the seasons running at the same times as television seasons. (September-May). I hope to complete the first episode and make it available sometime in April and release a new episode once each month until December. This means that I will have 9 episodes in the first season. I plan to leave a brief space, most likely two months, in between seasons, meaning that the first episode of season two should be out in March 2005 and that season two will have an even 10 episodes instead of 9. This schedule is what I hope to do, but it is not definite and is subject change. In addition, I plan to create a "Season Preview" similar to the series preview now available. This will document any changes to the cast of characters, the ship, etc. and will only be available for a short period of one to two weeks prior to the release of the first episode of season two. This is because I plan to end season one in a cliffhanger and don't want everyone to know what is going to happen in the first episode of the second season.

I have planned to make a few changes in the first episode that will deviate from what was stated in the series preview.

• I will not include Robert Romano as a character in the first episode. I had planned to include him as the ship's first captain and then have Carter to take his place at the end of the episode. Despite a lot of thinking, I could not come up with a reasonable way to include this character without losing all of the "ER" story developments that have occurred since the episode "Freefall" originally aired in November.


• Dr. Elizabeth Corday will be a regular character instead of an episode 1 guest. She will hold the rank of Lt. Commander and will have a permanent station in the main sickbay as the ship's chief medical officer.


• Crewman Sim Tucker will not appear in the first episode.

I have created a discussion board with many different categories and forums to post in. Please, register now! Also, I'm looking for people to help moderate the individual forums. For more information, look in the "Board Operations" forum. You can access the message board here or by clicking the link at the bottom of the navigation menu to the left. I look forward to hearing from you!

Since I'm writing each chapter, or "episode," as though it were part of an actual TV series, the first episode will most likely be the longest of the whole series just like many series make their debut with a two-hour special. The first episode will involve the County General staff being transported to the 24th century by accident, explain why Starfleet wants them to be the crew of a hospital starship, establish that the Federation is in a very bloody war with the Romulan Empire, and "set up" the rest of the series. I plan to include lots of interaction between characters throughout the series and I will establish some of the "background" for the relationships between characters meeting each other for the first time in this first episode. I also plan to include a major action scene that will test the abilities of the ship and its crew. In this action scene, I'll get to show off some of the new technologies I thought up that the U.S.S. Benevolence has been equipped with. For more information on those, read the series preview. Also, I will be mentioning things in the first episode as well as throughout the rest of the series that happened in either "ER" or a "Star Trek" series or film. However, the entire history of all of those characters and events are too large to provide in this series, so I'm going to assume that everyone reading is already familiar with the characters and past storylines of "ER" and "Star Trek." I have begun working on the first episode, but I do not have an ETA for its completion. I will post an update when it is available to read.

The series preview page is now up. It provides information about the general plot of the series, the ship, the characters, and other information. You can read it here.

PLEASE NOTE: SOME CHANGES HAVE BEEN MADE TO THE SERIES. THE PREVIEW DOCUMENT HAS NOT BEEN UPDATED TO REFLECT THESE CHANGES. FOR INFORMATION ON THE CHANGES, PLEASE READ THE "STATUS REPORT" POSTED ON MONDAY, MARCH 22, 2004.