And away we go!

Well, what do you know? From books to magazines to websites—and now my own blog: long envisioned, finally a fact. And the full site just following behind in a few weeks.

My aim is to have a place to vent and tell tales and host friends, all based on my Star Trek years. In a way, it’s come full circle since TNG went on year after year with no real background info for starving fans, until my home-grown TNG concordance zines (based on Bjo Trimble’s classic TOS model) went from local readers to the TNG staffwriters to Pocket Books.

And just like then, I had to do it. There’s a big vacuum out there in Trekland since the extended hiatus of our Communicator magazine/Official Fan Club, coupled with the undoing and hazy future of startrek.com. And while I hope you all caught my Endgame and A Fistful of Data columns in the beautiful Titan Star Trek magazine from the U.K., and trekmovie.com has come out of nowhere to fill a great need for newsiness and “vent-ability,” along with all the other websites … well, I just felt the urge to “do it my way,” as Frank's old song goes. I think I have something to add.

And that way is the personal way—intimate as a dinner conversation or late-night dorm talk, you might say. I'm a one-man army, not a machine—so don’t look for unending buckets of STUFF for stuff’s sake. I don't want to add to more of the same.

Then again, that doesn’t mean “disconnected.” Look for plenty of insider commentary, and room for sound-off on the passing parade out there. Friends from Trek Land will be dropping by often, too—there are a lot of good people with lots to share, and not just the “familiar faces,” either.

Come to think of it, maybe “personal” then should just mean “worth stopping in for”: Makes you think, makes you laugh… and most of all, spreads the word—the word that may be buried in the zillion-channel world out there. Or just never dug up in the first place. Still.

And that brings on my first rant: Don’t ever let anyone tell you the story has been sewn up on Star Trek. In 40+ years and 600+ hours, there’s always another insight to uncover, another story to tell, another goof to smooth out. The folks who worry that all the words have been written—it all just makes me laugh... like the unsavvy mainstream media types who proclaimed the franchise "dead" just because Enterprise was cancelled. Geez, there's tales from the ‘60s and ‘70s that still need to get out on the record—so what are we standing around here for? Don't just stand there jawin', Spock; get crackin’! Of course we’ll go afield from Trek at times, sure—but Gene's sandbox is where our heart is.

So .... sign up now, and come back often: enjoy the company, watch us grow, query the owner, and by all means sound off!

(And those of you who thought this was going to be a post about Jackie Gleason ... take 50 bonus points. You know who you are.)