BLTN: So THAT'S what Isis has been up to all these years

Just making sure you did NOT miss this, amid a crazy-busy last couple weeks:

Angela Dorian, 1968 Playboy Playmate of the Year, charged in attempted murder: report

A one-time Playboy Playmate may be forced to cover up -- with a prison uniform.

Angela Dorian, who in 1968 graced the pages of the men's magazine as Playmate of the Year, has been charged with attempted murder, according to TMZ. ...

And why is this tucked away here on TREKLAND? Check out Angela Dorian in one of her uncredited roles:

Yep!
Time was, we didn't even have good records on a lot of TOS non-speaking extras—a gap now slowly being filled in by many of us. That to-do list includes the name of just who it was that appeared as the very human form of "Isis" the cat, in the very last scenes of the would-be spinoff pilot "Assignment: Earth." So a h/t to Scott Dutton and his singular focus on that episode as a magnet—thanks to his little seed of online info, this startling news story about Angela Dorian ... or Victoria (Vetri) Rathgeb ... got way more play than it would have just a few years ago:

And what's the point really lost in all this?
Attempted murder or not—whoever knew a Playmate of the Year was EVER involved with Trek?

The polls are in!—from Plano

DVDs and reruns still win out... and gaming is on the bottom.

That's how fans get their "Trek fix" in the Fallow Time — according to an informal, show-of-hands/applause survey I took from among 300+ fans at the Trek Fan Days show in the north Dallas burb of Plano, Texas.  A very opinionated, well-informed and sophisticated bunch, too, I might add.

Here's how that response went overall—in order of applause noise—when I asked:
"What's the main way you get your Trek fix these days, with nothing but a new movie every 2-3 years now?"
1) DVDs and TV reruns
2) Pocket novels
3) Comics
4) Local fan clubs and events
5) Gaming, video and otherwise
6) Fan films: view or take part

If all you Treklanders want to cast votes on a similar poll, I've put it up at larrynemecek.com. Sound off there yourself!

Now, many of you who've seen me over the years at conventions know that I love to share both pics and grins from my archives ... the visual and the verbal. And I hope it's been fun, plus a little eye-opening, on your Trek experience. We do "panels" of course on all kinds of topics, but the o' digital slideshow is the mainstay of my "solo act."

So you may understand how, the past two weeks at cons in the L.A. and Dallas areas, the last of visual projection power led me going in to feel a little, well, crippled. But both times I've gone to Plan B and it's been a hoot: we just talk about The Franchise: "Whither Star Trek?"

And thus, the show-of-hands polling. Here's more from Plano:

With our Bill Shatner as the headliner and the TNG boys onstage too, the crowd of 300+ that stayed put all day let me know that they overwhelmingly loved JJ's 2009 movie, with only a half-dozen flamers still vocally upset over the disputed issues of both canon and "Roddenberry soul."

On the other hand, as opposed to that newbie mob from the 2009 Vegas panel, in this Texas & etc. crowd only a half-dozen or so admit to being new fans only since JJTrek pulled them in. In other words, this was a veteran crowd.

But this was open mic night, and we got detailed feedback on everything from a new Trek TV series' chances and scope, to the depth (or not) of the Star Trek Online MMO game.

Thanks to the great crowd from all over who got to Plano—and who deluged me before an afterward. We are short on pix, but what a great, fresh and refreshed bunch! A pleasure to boldly go with you.

It's a double-whammy in the new ST mag

The many off-camera faces of Patrick Stewart?

Hey, check it out—that's the theme of my latest Lost & Found column, spicing up yet another issue of the licensed Star Trek magazine from Titan Mags of the UK.

Issue 29 is now out on the stands, and the partial image at right is but a sample—snapped behind the scenes of Patrick while shooting the pilot "Encounter at Farpoint" back in '87. But who's with him, and where are they both? There's more where that came from—and across the years, too.


Once again, I'm a double-threat in each issue, now that "A Fistful of Data" is back. Check out this issue's queries:how I help the poor fan who can't find the Mutara Nebula in reel life ... and someone who has an iconic palette quandary about redshirts.


Oh, and there's really good articles to go with the pictures, too.

"Trekland: Supplemental" #2 at ST.com: Comic-con Treks?

For my second shot at our "remote location" blog over at the new startrek.com, I decided to take a shot at putting what seems to be some new Trekland perspectives into context: gleanings about fans that I've picked up from a busy year of hanging out at the comic-cons.

Head over and take a look!

Of course, they're really multi-genre and hardly "just" about comics these days, following on San Diego's  Hollywood-boosted connection that's exploding turnout the past decade ...and spreading to other comic cons nationwide. You'd think, after inventing the all-media con format, that Star Trek would hardy be on view there—in competition with the rest of the wide world of pop culture.

But you'd be wrong.

Here's why: This is a shot from my TREK-only "Between the Cracks" show at Seattle's Emerald City Comic-Con earlier this year. And that's typical for all...

Texasses, Okies, Arkies, Cajuns—see you in Plano?

If it seems like all I'm doing these days is veering from con to con ... well, that would be an accurate statement. Three in a row and we're done for the year...

But this Saturday and Sunday, I'll be part of the billing for the Star Trek Fan Days show by Official PIx at the Plano Center in Plano, Texas (not "Fancy, Texas").  The Shat has agreed to join me, as well as Christopher Lloyd, Tia Carrerre, Tom Felton of Harry Potter fame, plus TNG's Michael and Jonathan again —they're stalking me, after the Xpo!—PLUS Brent...and still more.

Wish I could stay for a true visit—head north up I-35 back to Red Dirt Land and back home—but it's to be a quickie weekend instead. Maybe some of y'all can get down the pike? It's a true show, not a convention—there's no evening events. But that leaves time open for us to "tour the locals." And for my homies: That will mean Braums, for chocolate chip shakes!

Thoughts on NYCC

Is it possible these past few weeks could be even more a blur?

Since I sneaked into NY Comic-Con, the trip was more about meetings than con-performance. So it was that while I did very little table-time—thanks, ye visitors who made it by!—I got more caught up with the "new" startrek.com ... documentaries for TV ... and other such business. Still a great trip, with hopefully more news to come.

BTW: For you Brooks & Reiner "2000-Year-Old Man" fans, I felt like I was in Cave 17 when I wound up at Table 17.

I have just a couple more thoughts on "Trek and the Comic-Cons" here at this place.


Now it's on to two more cons in the next two weeks! The new Hollywood Xpo right here in L.A. at the Universal Hilton next weekend—where I will be Larry, your Trek Events Emcee—and then at Star Trek Fan Days in Plano, Texas just north of Dallas—back home to my next-door peeps.  We'll have me ever-evolving "Between the Cracks" digital slideshow and a lot of, well, Trekland philosophy to share.

Shhhh!! I'm at New York Comic-Con

Okay, it's not on anything official... but I'm mounting a sneak invasion of New York Comic-Con this weekend at Jacob Javitz Center. It's kinda fun, since I've never done a con in New York State before. Next time, I may let the world know up front.

If you must pin me down, try in Room 1A15 at 5:15 p.m. Saturday : I'll be assisting colleague Daryl Frazetti with the group panel on "Metropolis vs.  Gotham City."  Just after, I'll be at the table for an hour or so ....

...just in case there actually are any true Treklanders at NYCC, one of the still-truer COMIC-cons in the country.  If you are truly there, please come by and make large talk with me on all things Trek.

Otherwise, re: me being there: Just keep it to yourself, huh?

Back from hiatus soon. Really. You'll love it.

Okay, gang—my apologies for seeming so dormant on the world's longest hiatus here the past few weeks, since the Alaska trip.

Lots of stuff happening on the home front and that's been distracting—but that's no excuse when there's so much Treklandia piled up and sitting in drafts to display, pass along, share.

Also, it's about time to replace the last-generation PowerPC G5 Mac tower—sadly, it cannot be upgraded—so I can do decent modern editing and use the high-fallootin' HD video off the new Canon Vixia I finally bought this summer. Both of which are key to the TREKLAND "Switching to Visual" bits you know and love.

All this to say—thanks for your patience and indulgence. ...