‘Star Trek’ Tie-In for ‘Brief History’

Hardly anyone saw the documentary about physicist Stephen Hawking, “A Brief History of Time,” in theaters, so Paramount is trying anything it can to boost the movie’s home video fortunes.

Hawking is doing a guest shot on “Star Trek: The Next Generation” on June 21. So Paramount delayed the release of the tape several weeks, to last Wednesday, hoping the publicity surrounding his TV appearance might generate interest in the tape. This is all possible because of a common denominator--Paramount--whose home video division released the tape and whose TV unit produces “Star Trek.”