'Trekland, Supplemental"—and startrek.com is LIVE again

Almost lost amid the crush and glare of Vegas Trek headlines was the chance to declare this startling statement:

I'm back on startrek.com, and I'm in good company.

For a while there it was beginning to look like no one could ever utter those first words again. But yes: Check out my debut piece—musing about fandom today and tomorrow, as well as the franchise—in a series we artfully christened "Trekland, Supplemental." I guessed we pricked a nerve somehow; the commenters are hopping already, too.

The grand ol' site has been on autopilot since the staff—and yours truly as a consultant—was let go in a 300-some mass layoff by CBS Interactive late in 2007. Startrek.com, which existed initially in the early days of the World Wide Web as "Star Trek Continuum" on MSN, had been around in roughly the same format since 1996 til then.

The retooled, redesigned site with a New York-based CBS crew has been open for business again in beta version since July 15—did you catch the news at trekmovie and trekweb and trektoday, for starters? (BTW: As sometimes happens, I'll let the main Trek news like that streak by at TREKLAND until there's something past the press release to add—and here's one of those times.)

Now, there's a series of guest bloggers each taking their own slant. After Leonard Nimoy penned a debut greeting, Doug Drexler went next July 30, sharing some of his personal Drexfiles video shot around the lot and FX houses over the years; Propworx' new auction king Alec Peters had the week before. For my part, TLS will be taking an occasional look at Trek topics both backward and forward in focus.

ST.com and staff have always been under the domain of first Paramount, then CBS, via their online/interactive units. But as a rare legacy site for either entity—being about a classic, not current movie or prime time show—it's always been an odd fit.

Now, CBS's licensing side has the keys, and is back spreading news about both productions and products—and keeping much of the raw database alive; the forums boards never stopped. There's also a news feed being tapped from all three of those fan news sites, as well, plus original news too.

I miss having all things Star Trek not being in LA, where it was made, but it's good to have the body of that URL back with blood pumping again. There's already a lot up and running, so go over and take a look—and watch those beta-version baby steps grow to full stride once again.