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Introduction to EAS

EAS in a Nutshell - Motivation - Viewing Requirements

"Space - the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise, its five-year mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before."

EAS in a Nutshell

Ex Astris Scientia (EAS) is an unofficial, non-commercial and private website dedicated to the Star Trek science fiction franchise. It was created and is maintained by long-time Star Trek fan Bernd Schneider. The focus of EAS is the collection and study of any data pertaining to starships and future technology that appeared in the various TV series and movies, as well as the discussion of artistic, social or philosophical aspects of Star Trek. The Starship Database, Starship Articles, Fleet Charts, Treknology Encyclopedia and considerations about Time Travel and Inconsistencies are the most comprehensive accounts of their kind available online, and are considered by some fans as almost authoritative references. EAS is canon-based, meaning that only evidence that actually appeared on screen is taken into account. No games and no novels. If possible, updates and amendments of the facts and conclusions at EAS take place immediately whenever newly found canon evidence requires them.

In addition, EAS includes episode reviews (although those of TNG and DS9 are still in work), galleries of starships and other pictures, most of which were originally scanned for this site and are not available in this form elsewhere. Among the numerous smaller sections of the site the continually updated Links page with 200 hand-picked Star Trek sites is of particular interest, as well as the renowned Ex Astris Excellentia Award (EAE), which is given out to an outstanding Trek site once per month since 1999. EAS itself received a large number of distinctions too.

The site was launched on January 21st, 1998, at that time located on the server of the University of Siegen at www.uni-siegen.de/~ihe/bs/startrek. The current domain is www.ex-astris-scientia.org. The language of EAS is English. A small number of articles are available in German. However, an EAS version in German or other translations of the site are not being planned. While EAS is essentially based on static HTML, there are several customized or custom-made CGI and PHP scripts implementing interactive functions like the Guestbook, Add Your Link, Poll, Feedback Form, Episode Review Submission Form, Substance/Particle Submission Form and the Site Search. An RSS newsfeed is available as well. A strict ethical code enforced at EAS includes a ban on scripts that are not under the control of the EAS webmaster, as well as on any form of advertisements.

With roughly 5000 unique visitors every day and 180 gigabytes transfer volume per month EAS is among the most frequented Star Trek websites, and is probably the most successful Trek-related site maintained by a single individual. As of October 2007 the site ranks at #4 in the Star Trek category at Alexa, only surpassed by Startrek.com, Memory Alpha and Outpost 10F.

EAS spawned several fan projects that would not quite fit into the strictly canon nature of the site and were outsourced to their own websites with distinct names and layouts, namely the Advanced Starship Design Bureau (ASDB), The Starfleet Museum, the Journal of Applied Treknology (JoAT), Star Trek Fan Fiction and Canon Fodder. All these sites reside on the same server as the main site and are taken care of by Bernd Schneider. The officially endorsed forum of EAS is the Subspace Comms Network.

Motivation

It was in 1973 when I made first contact with Star Trek: The Original Series. As a child I didn't get the whole picture of what was going on in the show, but there was already some difference between Star Trek and other TV series to me. It must have been the very special, often surrealistic atmosphere -although I would have chosen different words- and the fact that future technology was credibly presented for the first time. In those days TOS epitomized the vision of scientific miracles and of a bright future more than any other fiction. Contrary to common belief I don't think that it has lost much of its credibility since. I was lucky that my father was not really interested in football (soccer), otherwise I would have been facing the same dilemma that many German families had on Saturday afternoons when Star Trek was aired on the second channel and the sports news on the first one. There was no chance yet for Star Trek to become really popular. Another problem, especially in Germany, was and still is that the episodes are shown exclusively in a dubbed version. Translation errors and unintentional humor included. Especially TOS has been given a silly undertone that can't be found in the English version.

I didn't see the Star Trek movies of the 70's and 80's in the theater, perhaps because cinema generally wasn't very popular. The first time that I watched Star Trek again after it hadn't been repeated for almost a decade was in 1988. It was also the first time that the complete series was aired in Germany (save "Patterns of Force"), and I didn't miss a single episode. Yes, there were really bad ones, but even the worst episodes became pieces of the entirety, the Star Trek Universe. TNG marked a new beginning, and I liked it from the very first episode. There were not only the advances in both fictional technology and real-world VFX. TNG was special because it had both the pleasant atmosphere with carpeted floor in the engineering room and, on the other hand, still the daring "where no one has gone before" feel. And great stories. And JLP, the best of all captains.

Well, I didn't care much for DS9 in the beginning, which is mostly because the stories of the first season were so darn boring. Subsequently, as it developed and unfolded its story arcs, I became very fond of it. DS9 was the series that perfectly combined the bright and hilarious with the dark and threatening, and so were the characters: always good for a surprise. I don't know to express it better, it created new facets of Star Trek, this simple explanation should suffice. The same goes for Voyager. However, unlike DS9 this series hit me like a lightning. Ask my pals Thorsten and Steffi about my facial expression when I saw the starship's engines fold upward for the first time. It was the series of "Wow!" effects, which doesn't mean that profound stories were missing. They were rather the rule than the exception. It's only that the many critics probably failed to see them behind the outstanding visual effects. Enterprise continued where Voyager ended. Only set 200 years too early. The series became a valuable part of the franchise as late as in the final season. With a couple of notable exceptions Enterprise was lacking a vision and the distinctiveness that has been a part of all Star Trek series so far. But as Dr. Phlox would put it, "Optimism!"

What do I like most about Star Trek? Well, I could give you the short, superficial and obvious answer: starships! On the other hand, there is the sophisticated and commonly quoted motive of pursuing Gene Roddenberry's vision of a better future. While both answers are true, I usually consider the whole of it, the consistency that keeps Star Trek together and that distinguishes it from other fiction. This is the Star Trek Universe or, at least, my view of it.

Why did I create this website? The answer may surprise, but I did it all for myself in the first place. I have always tried to sort out and categorize things, and this is my approach to Star Trek likewise. After the fun of watching comes the fun of analyzing. So this website is more or less my personal compendium of Star Trek, as far as I have the time to and feel like adding something. However, before you call me egocentric, I have done few things about this site all alone. There were many visitors who gave me feedback, be it praise or criticism, or provided me with valuable information and suggestions. I maintain regular contact with several of them, and a few of them I can even call my friends. I think this alone was worth while all the efforts putting up this site, as an incentive for discussions about our favorite (I hope so) science fiction.

Make it so!

Bernd Schneider

Viewing Requirements

I originally designed the site layout and techniques with a Pentium I 100MHz with 32MB RAM and 2MB graphics board and for Netscape 3. That was in 1998. But in order to take advantage of the increasing number of text and layout enhancements a CSS-compatible browser (at least Internet Explorer 5 or Mozilla 1.1) is required to view the current site correctly. I strongly recommend using Mozilla Firefox. It is faster, safer and incredibly more intuitive and versatile. Internet Explorer is just a poor excuse of a browser that suffers from its obscure security concept, its irresolvable integration with the Windows (file) Explorer and its inflexible user interface. 

This website is laid out to occupy the whole screen width and not a tiny portion of your browser window. 1024*768 or 1280*1024 pixels or is the optimum screen resolution, but it will mostly look good even at as few as 800*600 pixels. True color is strongly recommended. If you see ugly color steps in images, especially where there should be a gradient, it is probably because you have only 16 bit color depth or less.

I don't use unnecessary plug-ins only to beef up the site, except for a few JavaScripts for non-essential functions. This is for the simple reason that I want to provide facts, opinion and fun about Star Trek and not an online computer game. I neither have the time nor the knowledge for that. I also don't think it would be creative to build just another interactive LCARS menu. Finally, I don't want to lock you out just because your browser is either not fit for it or even wrongfully blocks "potentially hazardous" content to "protect" you. While I can naturally not warrant that it is safe from being hacked, EAS is one of the most secure sites you can possibly visit. If anything shouldn't work as expected (especially in Internet Explorer if you insist on still using it), do not hesitate to lower the security settings for EAS, although you normally should never need more than JavaScript.

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	Last modified: 20.07.08
http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/misc/introduction.htm