TNG Movie Night S3: Sights, sounds & tales from L.A. to E.P.

We'll keep collecting anecdotes here, but it's safe to say Thursday night's "Best of Both Worlds" TNG Bluray movie night from CBS and Fathom Events was easily the biggest Trek blowout event in this series. And kudos to TrekRadio for having podcasters and others (like moi) call in from theaters around the country for a little live flavor of Collective fun.

TREKLAND had our ticket-giveaway winners among the hordes of non-drones heading to cinemas nationwide, and Canada too. As promised here's a round-up of what we got in—including a wedding proposal, thanks to Locutus (or at least thanks to his timing of return).

Of course, the fact that the newly HD'd show in question was "The Best of Both Worlds"—and an all-new cinematic edit to boot—didn't hurt the turnout.

The fact that the flick in question not only packs its own punch, but evokes for all who were around in 1990 that long-ago innocence of witnessing a breakout hit in the process, your reward for  standing by in the lean early years... before all the movies and sequels and had-to-get-a-job worldweariness. It calls to you, back to the days when you really could obsess over the world's best cliffhanger... all. summer. long.

Which, as @SirPatStew recounts in the new documentary, applied to parents as well as kids. (And I won't spoil his story, if you haven't seen it elsewhere yet.)
 
Still, I heard that some goers were confused with that Other Star Trek Movie coming next month ...

"There were five people (looked like a family) who got up and left at the beginning as soon as the Fathom trailers finished and the documentary came on. They apparently thought they had bought tickets for the new J.J. Abrams film-—you know, the one that hasn't even come out in the U.S. yet. Pretty amusing!"—Frank Gruber, Paramus, NJ screening

"Guy came out of the theater, saw an Into Darkness poster, said to his friend: 'That's what I THOUGHT we were coming to see!'—@gregharbin (Seattle)

Unofficial ground central for TNG movie night may have been at the Century City Arclight in L.A., where goers got to hear remarks from TNG staffers and Blu-ray project consultant Mike and Denise Okuda, LeVar "Geordi" Burton, onetime TNG S3 writer Ira Steven Behr, and even Elizabeth "Shelby" Dennehy herself, plus Blu-ray doc producers Robert Meyer Burnett and Roger Lay Jr. The Westmores Michael and Michael Jr, who did the Borg electronics, were also in the house—and thanks to my Vegas Vanna, Mary "Televixen" Czerwinski, for these photos while I was "on location" in El Paso:

Listening to Ira wax historic are (from left) Rob, Roger, Denise, Mike, and LeVar ...

...plus a zinger from Elizabeth!

And friend/photog Mary snags those Westmore boys

But meanwhile, in Charleston, S.C.:

"As the director of Carolina Alliance of Star Trek Fans... last night at a local Regal theater we hosted an event. I've worked with NCM Fathom Events since Season 1 and last night was our largest attendance yet!!! We even had a couple get ENGAGEd!"—Erika Y. Figueroa

Our ticket winner in Philly sent this:

"I attended the showing at the Rave 6 University City... It seats about 200 and was a sellout. As I waited for my friend Amy, I talked with members of the Philadelphia Star Trek Meetup Group and the Southeastern PA Nerd Herd.  I ended up missing the pre-show trivia questions and the [documentaries] and instead spent my time talking with my new friends! (Even more members of these 2 groups showed up after this photo was taken.)—Loretta Painter (in TNG T-shirt), Philadelphia

From our Cleveland-area winner, too, in North Canton:
"The theater was almost sold out, and I bought the tickets for our others there; I was going to help the less fortunate anyway."—Roger Scritchfield, Akron


We also heard from the USS Ticonderoga crew in Salt Lake City:
"We had more than the previous two showings"— @TardisCaptain_p

And the USS Atlantis in Idaho, too:

And yes, here in El Paso, where I was in town for Sun City SciFi con, the small but rowdy group at the "overflow" Tinseltown Cinemark theater stood up for my camera to yell out for TrekRadio, and then racked up a few raffle prizes from the con promoters:

Family night!: "Not a great shot, but here's me and my daughter, @ConeErica in Provo, UT"—@cone_is










We also got some thoughts from Treklanders who simply pinged me:

"Modern me got hit almost as hard in the gut as the 1990 me: Fleet graveyard scene hits me right in the feels every time. —@thejoncon, Phoenix area

"That was fun! Loads of #TNG fans, Trek t-shirts everywhere & even a few costumes. Too bad about tech issues tho."—@wetodded, San Diego

"Unfortunately, here at the Orem, UT event, nobody was in costume. Except me."—Scott Armstrong

"I wonder how many Miley Cyrus fans were disappointed last night?"—@doubleofive, Bedford, IN

"Yes [ennoyed],  but thanks to technical difficulties we lost 30 minutes of the episode #dontgotoAugustaGA —@The_Don_Burrito


"Awesome big sceen show, almost full theater, lots of fun, laughing, clapping, true ST fans." —@laura_leclair8, Revere, MA


The event has not dropped off, the numbers keep growing, and a TNG Season 4 promo night seems a sure thing—especially with that trailer for the set on view as well.  I have it on good authority that plans are well along for a repeat of this special edition and documenatry, so we'll see you in a few months back at the theater—even after that other Trek movie... and hopefully glitch free and with cheer to spare.

TNG S3 movie night is here! Share your pics and stories

Are you one of the Treklanders heading to theaters tomorrow night in drones... er, droves... to catch TNG's "The Best of Both Worlds" in HD and an all-new cinematic-length edit?

Well, you're not alone! It's become a huge night for CBS Home Entertainment and its sparkling TNG Blu-ray remastered series —with Season 3 next out on April 30, and up for pre-order now. There's also a single disc on sale of what you'll see Thursday, the specially-edited "film" of BOBW and a documentary.

Here at Trekland, do you remember what we did for the inaugural S1 movie night and the  S2 followup? Fans took pics of the evening and shared them—so let's do that again. And drop me a note about the night as well. Just use larry@larrynemecek.com, even if you post them elsewhere—and don't forget a note about your experience.

For instance, many of the theaters are sold out! So what does your crowd look like? Much less your own party group? Share, and we'll run as many as we can—along with the stories of our five Trekland ticket winners for two passes in Phoenix, Kansas City, Cleveland, Philly and Boston.

Tell me what you think of not only the night, but the feature edit—and the documentary that will be shown. Roger Lay and Rob Burnett have done another great and unvarnished job on the docs, and I just watched Season 3's full-season set where Michael Piller's stabilizing of the scripts and the upset writing staff is a highlight—and the subject of a special tribute. Any reader of my TNG Companion knows I long ago called him "the man who saved TNG," and thus perhaps all future Star Trek—and Ira Steven Behr is particularly honest about painting a complete picture of Michael. You'll want to watch ALL FOUR of the new docs when you get the S3 set right off the bat—and yes, all the DVD-era features are here as well. Plus, an all-new assembled blooper reel, too... or "gag reel," as they say in the biz.

TrekRadio has planned to have 12 movie sites nationwide covered by popular podcasters with live reports Thursday, so be listening there if you can't make it ... As for me, I'll be at the Tinseltown Theatre in El Paso with fans there, on the eve of Sun City SciFi con this weekend—and of course sharing a shot or two.

And an FYI: CBS is being modest about it, but each of these TNG movie nights truly is a promotion for each new Blu-ray set. In order to keep it that way and avoid higher costs from add-on fees to original actors and crew, any actual profit CBS makes is being donated once again to the American Red Cross. So you can even feel even better while you're rescuing Picard... and TV history.

And getting in training for that OTHER movie next month ...

Is it psych or is it Trek-v-Wars? Our WonderCon panel is online!

Before we get any further from that WonderCon weekend...

I want to make sure all our Trekland friends got to see this fun panel's video (below the fold) that my friend Dr. Andrea Letamendi asked me to be part of a few months back. Joining in on an actual comic-con type panel—you know, with panelists—is still a new thing to me, coming from the arena of the solo show from Trek and media cons.

But Drea wanted me to be involved as the "franchise guy" for Trek, and I met the other panelists that day (at left, with mod Brian Ward of Shout!Factory (center), Robot Chicken writer and Wars guy Hugh Sterbakov (right), and Drs. Drea and Ali Mattu).  It was amazing I made it in time with Friday LA freeway traffic snarls ...and this vid, recorded by Ali's front-row friend Lowen Baumgarten, shows me to all the world sneaking in as I barely make the opening intros, before I'd even got by to get a badge (how did WC even let me in?)

Seriously, Drea and Ali had a great plan of getting across some serious behavioral points and even concepts for storytelling, within the fun of the moment. But I came away from that hour at first feeling like it got caught somewhere between her pitch and the later trash-talk smackdown format it turned into—and I was concerned it came off as a mishmash.

But never fear—this is Trek and Wars. We had to run off as it ended, but random folks kept stopping to tell me all weekend in Anaheim that they loved the panel ... and now this video shows people were indeed having a good time. The fact that the Trek folk were outnumbered 2-1 and yet actually edged in the "winner vote" at the end tells the tale as well. (We did, actually, as this actual Yahoo News story seems to point out). Maybe that's the old bit of the Wars folk showing up "armed for bear" and the IDIC Trek gang just rolling their eyes at all of it, "Really?" It was also fun correcting or detailing even a few innocent misconceptions by our Wars brethren about Trek, which I think the audience appreciated—especially regarding any monolithic Trek reaction to artificial intelligence, whether android, robotic or (my inclusion) holographic.

Doubly fun was getting in a zinger that not only barbed the Wars crowd (since we had to go there), but also the old Shatner/SNL "Get a life!" wrongful Trek stereotype as well. (Thanks, reporter Eric, for getting that in.) In fact, Drea's title got a lot of mainstream media play before and after; driving down, it was one of just two KNX radio news highlights of the WC day mentioned.

But I had a blast meeting Dr. Ali from NYU and Hugh, albeit oh so briefly, as well as working with Drea and Brian. The SDCC gods willing, we might even revisit nurture-v-nature and all the rest at San Diego—so if you happen to make it down in July, take a look for us.




AND the right side of our house, with Lowell in full hand-held mode:

Our winners and pics! TNG's movie night is Thursday

So, here they are!

For the second time, I'm excited to be able to partner with Fathom Events, CBS and Allied-THA marketing to get 10 winning fans to the next TNG Blu-ray movie event night this Thursday, April 25. It's all to mark another remastered TNG season set release in Blu-ray, of course—this time, a special re-edited "movie" version of "The Best of Both Worlds" —and that solo disc plus the regular S3 set are coming April 30.

After our first group of winners last fall, I went with an all-new group of cities—except for Boston, where I wanted to bring a little smile to the fandom end of that hard-pressed area liast week. Our other cities for the free pair of passes this round were Phoenix, Kansas City, Cleveland and Philadelphia.

All of them promise to send along pics and a note from Thursday night—as I hope all y'all will do, so we have a great round-up of costumes and crowds at Trekland as we've done in the past.

So congrats to our Treklanders who knew the answer "Admiral Hansen," with actor George Murdock having played Galactica's Dr. Salik on the original BSG, and then were lucky enough to get drawn out of the pile (with help from another TNG vet, at left)

Nathaniel Bennett, Boston 
     Roger H. Scritchfield, Cleveland
          Travis Pflanz, Kansas City
               Loretta Painter,  Philadelphia
                     and David Williams, Phoenix.

Thank you winners, and everyone who pitched in from those five markets, for taking part.

It's a festive week as the TNG event kicks off with the overwhelming favorite TNG episode seen in an all-new refined light ...  and the ramp-up for Star Trek Into Darkness bombards us with trailers, leaks, and sneekpeaks daily until its US debut May 17 ... while going up down-under already.

So send us your group shots and even the movie house, if things get Fleet Festive where you are—feel free to send us a note too—to larry@larrynemecek.com, and we'll run them as we did for S1 and S2. That goes for you too, Canada!

And if you need a reason to think about getting the new season ...

Big Bend fans: Meet us at Sun City SciFi in El Paso!

Hey, all you fan-folks  through the Rio Grande region of West Texas and southern New Mexico—

Let me remind you about a new sci-fi con in El Paso next weekend—where I'm looking forward to meeting a lot of new fan-buds myself ... and playing Mad Science to boot, for the first time since 2003!

Well, maybe more Fun than Mad... because Sun City SciFi is the latest start-up convention in El Paso—the birthplace of Gene Roddenberry— and has been nice enough to have me back out. Marina, Tony Amendola, Robin Cruz,  and a host of comics, anime and other sci-fi guests are there too ...

I'll be in El Paso a day early for Thursday, the night of the nationwide TNG "Best of Both Worlds" High-Def Movie Night from CBS and Fathom Events, so come out and we'll see the show together, after a con PRE-preview at 5 p.m. at the theater.

The entire convention is at the El Paso Airport Marriott, so fans and events are all on one site for maximum fan logistical awesomeness ... and the hotel lounge has been good enough to host our next version of the "Con of Wrath" meetup/fundraiser party.

... Plus, with the Gene Roddenberry Planetarium in his birthplace town, we will stage a return of a "Trek Stars/Real Stars" astro-smackdown on Sunday!

So here's my scoop:

THURSDAY:

—TNG MOVIE NIGHT: 5 p.m. Meet/greet Trekland table, convention giveaways...7 p.m. "Best of Both Worlds" movie: Tinseltown Cinemark, 11855 Gateway West, 79936

FRIDAY:

—PREVIEW NIGHT, 6-9 p.m., Exhibitor Room: A laid-back night for weekend passholders to come by and check out all that is TREKLAND and "The Con of Wrath."


SATURDAY:

—TREKLAND'S "BETWEEEN THE CRACKS" SHOW, 12 noon, Main Stage:  Our trademark "slideshow" of Trek in-jokes, news, behind the scenes...from all 47 years of Trek. Plus our traditional audience poll start-up: do you know you own Trek profile?

—WAK-A-BLOOPER: 5 p.m., Main Stage: Can you get your snark on? Here's a new one—be in the crowd and help decide the best shout-out caption for some very offbeat Trek clips across all the series. And yes, for prizes ....courtesy Sun City Scifi!

—CON OF WRATH Meetup, El Paso Edition!: 9-11 p.m., right in the Marriott lounge: our patented BONUS off-grid road show of prize trivia, rare Trek video, and exclusive raw celeb clips from our own doc about this infamous event from heroic Trek pop culture meltdown history!

SUNDAY:

—TREK STARS/ REAL STARS, 12 noon, Main Stage: With co-guest Cory Stone, director of the Gene Roddenberry Planetarium, in which we lovingly "debate" just how many of Star Trek's real-life star homes really do work out for harboring native life—blue, furry, or otherwise. No really—we have a list and everything. The same panel I've only done twice before: at NASA's Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, AL in 2003 and at Muenster Planetarium in Germany in 1998!

 —RAPID-FIRE TREK TRIVIA, 1:30 p.m., Game Room: Better not be late! This is a half-hour of unfancy Q/As, just you (and the rest of the crowd) and me for a cool prize. If you've ever seen me do this at the Vegas Khaaann!, this is how we roll! With prizes courtesy of Sun City SCifi!


And the rest of the time... come visit at my table where I'll have the latest in Trekland goodies and gossip.

Just another week from now—I hope the Borderlands do us proud. I'll be sending EP's own pics for Thursday's TNG movie night from our trivia ticket winners and everyone else in for our Trekland photo roundup the next day, too!

LA ALERT: Fan-to-fan, join "Trek to the Troops" Saturday and help make up military care packages

 
A quick shout-out to all SoCal area Treklanders, or anyone who wants to help out our service men and women with a little real-life Starfleet flavor:

Christopher Mulrooney, whose "Trek to the Troops" organization makes sure that Trek and its fans and celebs have a way to help those in the uniform of this century, has a "Sci-Fi Fan Volunteer Day" packaging event and fun stuff  planned for all day tomorrow, Saturday, April 20, anytime from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. (with noon hour off for lunch) at the Army National Guard Armory in Van Nuys, 17330 Victory Boulevard. Care packages assembled will be forwarded via the overall Operation Gratitude volunteer program, which sends over 100,000 packages a year to active duty personnel, woun ded warriors, veterans and their children alike.

You can help on site with all kinds of packaging; the link above has an NBC-4 local report on the work of volunteers. For his event, Chris says there will be photo ops, so come in costume if you have one. Check the link above for what to do, bring and expect. I'll be there as well for the Beta shift, as it were.


It's not even Trek-specific: Chris tells me there's elements of the local 501st Stormtroopers due to help out too—that is, if we can keep the whiteheads and the redshirts at peace.

If you can't make it, a suggested donation of $15 for one care package, or more, can be made at the TTTT website (left column).

Chris has been leading this L.A.-area show of Trek support for those in uniform since his own return from Iraq in 2005, and gotten a lot of high-ranking help to do so. As it turns out—surprise, surprise—a lot of today's troops are big Trek and sci-fi fans, and enjoy the support and even the surprises that the civvies group is able to beam into their lives.

Check out Trek to the Troops' Facebook page for the group to see how a lot of the past events have unfolded.

Win tickets to TNG's "Best of Both Worlds Movie" night from Trekland !

UPDATE: The contest is officially closed, but it will be 3-4 hours until I start sorting entries. If you want to take the chance, I will consider entries that come in during that time, until 10 pm EDT/ 7 pm PDT.

------------------------------------------------------------------
So here we go again!

Are you ready to shoot for a pair of free tickets to see TNG's remastered "The Best of Both Worlds—The Movie" next Thursday, April 25? At a Fathom Events theater near you?

Near you, that is, IF you live in or near Phoenix, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Cleveland ... or Boston. Those are our Big Five this time around.

Once again, I'm thrilled that Fathom and Allied-THA have been gracious enough to let TREKLAND sponsor 10 lucky winners to this event in five cities around the country. The night, of course, is to promote the sale of the much-anticipated 3rd season set of the ongoing TNG Blu-ray remastered project by CBS that has been such a hot seller and godsend to Prime-starved Trekfen the past year. And this special "movie" version of BOBW will be available as well! More on that below the fold, but first:

Entering Trekland's "Best of Both Worlds Movie" ticket contest, as with our Season 2  theater event last winter, is simple—but do it fast!

The only caveat is you have to be situated and able to attend the screening in one of those cities, of course: all are new this time around except for Boston—I just couldn't resist a little nod to their city this week.  You need only send your email, your mailing address for the ticket delivery from Fathom, and your answer to this question:

In "The Best of Both Worlds" (parts 1 and/or 2), what is the character name of the actor/actress who also played a senior member of the crew of the original Battlestar Galactica?

HOW TO ENTER:

Once again, we're doing this simply—so pay attention to this quickie entry process and its quirks:


—Go to my website, larrynemecek.com, and click on the yellow Newsletter box at left.

— In the "First Name" box, ignore that label and write your FULL NAME and complete mailing address: street, city, state, zip code.

— In the "Last Name" box, ignore that label as well and type one of the five "TICKET CITY" listed that is proximate to you—Phoenix, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Cleveland, or Boston ... followed by the two-word answer to the above question. (Example:  "Boston — Wil Wheaton". (Sample only:Wil was many things but he was NOT Boxey. Or even Muffet.)

Again, fair warning: Unless you want to spring for a plane/train ticket or long-haul it, please do not enter unless you are in or near one of the five metro areas listed. Sorry, Rest of America (including my native and adopted homes)—We went into new cities, and we'll get even more of you next time.)

That's it!

ONE entry per person—thanks!

ENTRY DEADLINE is 6 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time/ 3 p.m. Pacific on Sunday, April 21!


Five winners will be announced by Monday night, April 22—after I draw from among all those submitting both the correct answer AND a complete, useable email and mailing address; both are required in order to win. Fathom Events will be provided the five winners' addresses, and will supply the prize tickets directly to them. Also, Fathom will award the specific theater passes as close as possible based on geography.

NOTE: Aside from the five winners, all email and address data is seen and retained only by me and does not go on to Fathom or any other corporate entity.  If you wish to opt-out of my list, write "opt-out" after your trivia answer. Otherwise, I hope you stay in for my low-key monthly contact through the year of rare goodies, sneak peeks, front-row insights, con travels and project updates from all over Trekland.

Meanwhile, if you want a sure thing for "TNG 'Best of Both Worlds' Movie Night" tickets next Thursday, April 25, go here to go ahead and order yours. Ever since the Fathom/CBS hookup began for TNG, people have been looking forward to THIS one—and some theaters are already a sellout. But just call first: tickets are still available in dozens of sceening theaters across the country that will actually be beamed the program as part of the exclusive National CineMedia Digital Broadcast Network —check out the theater list HERE.  And if you do come across a sell-out, let us know ASAP here, or on Trekland Facebook or Twitter, will you?

Last DVD generation (above); remastered clip (below)

Of course, the movie hoopla calls attention to the latest amazing season of Blu-ray return-to-film HD remastering (see at right), added footage, and all-new bonus documentaries from CBS (plus all those  released before) that goes on sale everywhere Tuesday, April 30 —or in advance now.  The movie night this time spotlights a special special "polish" version of the classic cliffhanger and conclusion that changed Star Trek forever—and even U.S. television!



For truly, if you are a Trek fan, you should indeed know how "The Best of Both Worlds" changed Star Trek—and not just TNG ("Cliffhangers and sweeps-event two-parters for everyone!") ... AND that the astronomic reaction to the summer-long wait for the conclusion to "Mr. Worf—fire!" generated so much heat across the industry that season-finale cliffhangers came back into vogue across all genres, including network shows. "Who Shot J.R?" may have been the question of the summer in 1980, but it took Locutus of Borg to make it stick 10 years later. I'm just sayin.'

And once again—send us your pics of the April 25 crowd and/or cosplayers from TNG movie night wherever you see it (to larry@larrynemecek.com), and we'll share them with everyone!

See the entire press release for the night below...but first:


CANADIAN FANS: No ticket giveaway for you here, but you do have the chance to also catch the movie version of this classic on a big screen. As my onetime ST Communicator writer James Careless tells Trekland:

Fortunately for Canadian Star Trek fans, April 25 is springtime in the Great White North. This is why Canadian Trekkies will flock to theaters to see the one-day-only showing of ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation: Best of Both Worlds ’ at any of 50 movie houses nationwide. It is being hosted by Cineplex Entertainment as part of the company’s Front Row Centre Events (FRPC) package.

“FRPC is designed to really utilize our theatres on quiet days with unique events,” explains Brad LaDoucer, Cineplex’s VP of alternative programming. “We did a 25th anniversary event last year to mark the original launch of Star Trek: The Next Generation, featuring some of the series’ most-loved episodes, and it was very well received.” Cineplex also enjoyed similar success when it screened Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

As for fans wearing costumes on the big night? “We encourage our guests to come in their favorite Star Trek regalia,” says Mike Langdon, Cineplex’s director of communications. However, phasers and Klingon bat’leths should be kept at home – and fans are asked to turn off their communicators for the duration of the movie.

Tickets for the Canadian April 25 screening of "Best of Both Worlds" can be bought online now at www.cineplex.com.

------------------------------------------------------------------

And meanwhile back in the States, here's the full press release on the event—where profits, by the way, as a promotional event, will be donated to the American Red Cross:

“Star Trek: The Next Generation® – The Best of Both Worlds” Event Transports into Cinemas on April 25 

NCM® Fathom Events, CBS Home Entertainment and IGN Present a One-Night Event Featuring the Classic Series’ Third Season Finale and Fourth Season Premiere Remastered into a Feature-Length Presentation

Special Event Will Precede “Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Best of Both Worlds” Blu-ray Releases on April 30

Centennial, Colo. – Feb. 27, 2013 – “You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.” Trekkers nationwide will soon heed those commands as NCM® Fathom Events, CBS Home Entertainment and IGN present “Star Trek: The Next Generation – The Best of Both Worlds,” which beams into select cinemas on Thursday, April 25 at 7:00 p.m. local time. The fan-favorite two-part episode – "The Best of Both Worlds" – is comprised of the third season finale and the fourth season premiere, with Part 1 making TV Guide's list of "TV's Top 100 Episodes of All Time.” The episodes have been remastered into a feature-length presentation and will be presented on the big screen.

Tickets for “Star Trek: The Next Generation® – The Best of Both Worlds” are available at presenting theater box offices and online at www.FathomEvents.com. The event will be broadcast to more than 550 select movie theaters across the country through NCM’s exclusive Digital Broadcast Network. For a complete list of theater locations and prices, visit the NCM Fathom Events website (theaters and participants are subject to change).

Fans will enjoy this digitally restored and gloriously remastered presentation in high definition. The fascinating storyline follows the cybernetic alien race, the Borg, as they abduct and transform Capt. Picard into a half-Borg, half-human called Locutus.  Meanwhile, the Enterprise crew must race against time to intercept the nefarious Borg cube before it reaches Earth to enslave humanity.

“Fans have been discussing these historic episodes since they first aired, and we’re excited to present them like never before, newly improved and on the big screen,” said Ken Ross, executive vice president and general manager of CBS Home Entertainment.  “This special event will ensure that ‘The Best of Both Worlds’ will remain a classic throughout the 21st Century — and beyond.”

Created by Gene Roddenberry as part of the “Star Trek” franchise, “Star Trek: The Next Generation” premiered 21 years after the debut of the original “Star Trek” series. Featuring one of the most endearing ensemble casts in television history, with seven seasons and 176 episodes, “Star Trek: The Next Generation” took fans on the remarkable continuing voyages of the Starship Enterprise, set in the 24th century.

“After the success of the first two ‘Star Trek: The Next Generation’ events, we couldn’t wait to bring additional seasons back to the big screen for fans to enjoy,” said Shelly Maxwell, executive vice president of NCM Fathom Events. “Fans will be absolutely thrilled with the presentation of these ‘Next Generation’ classics.”

“Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 3” and “The Best of Both Worlds” will be released on Blu-ray on April 30.

CBS is a proud and long-standing supporter of the American Red Cross and will continue to show its support through this event. CBS will make a financial donation to support the Red Cross which shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nation's blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families.


About National CineMedia (NCM)
National CineMedia (NCM) operates NCM Media Networks, a leading integrated media company reaching U.S. consumers in movie theaters, online and through mobile technology. The NCM Cinema Network and NCM Fathom Events present cinema advertising and events across the nation’s largest digital in-theater network, comprised of theaters owned by AMC Entertainment Inc., Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: CNK), Regal Entertainment Group (NYSE: RGC) and other leading regional theater circuits. NCM’s theater advertising network covers 183 Designated Market Areas® (49 of the top 50) and includes over 19,300 screens (approximately 18,500 digital). During 2012, approximately 710 million patrons attended movies shown in theaters in which NCM currently has exclusive, cinema advertising agreements in place.  The NCM Fathom Events live digital broadcast network (“DBN”) is comprised of over 740 locations in 172 Designated Market Areas® (including all of the top 50). The NCM Interactive Network offers 360-degree integrated marketing opportunities in combination with cinema, encompassing 41 entertainment-related websites, online widgets and mobile applications.  National CineMedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: NCMI) owns a 48.6% interest in and is the managing member of National CineMedia LLC. For more information, visit www.ncm.com or www.FathomEvents.com. (NCMI-E)

About CBS Home Entertainment
CBS Home Entertainment manages the worldwide DVD and Blu-ray businesses for the CBS Corporation across all lines of content including current hits and classic series from the vast CBS library, as well as new releases from Showtime Networks. CBS Home Entertainment products are released on the CBS DVD and CBS Blu-ray labels.  

About IGN Entertainment
IGN Entertainment is the leading Internet media and services provider focused on the video game and entertainment enthusiast markets. Collectively, IGN's properties reach more than 57 million unique users worldwide, according to Internet audience measurement firm comScore.  IGN's network of video game-related properties (IGN.com, 1UP.com, GameSpy and others) is the Web's #1 video game information destination. IGN also owns the world's largest men's lifestyle website, AskMen.com, and men's entertainment site UGO.com. IGN is headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, with offices across North America, Europe and Australia.

- 30 -


-----------------------------------------

Note: This story's initial post did include one difference in the cities covered, but now reflects the final list of those involved.

Voyager/BSG's Michael Taylor talks SyFy's DEFIANCE debut tonight—Pt. 1

Writer-producer Michael Taylor, who I've known since the later Voyager days, sat down with me last summer for an EXCLUSIVE early chat about the unique and potentially historic TV/game crossover project called DEFIANCE—whose TV incarnation on SyFy debuts tonight at 9 ET/PT.

Here's just Part I of our chat—where we're just getting started on the idea... and how the heck a busy TV staff can interface enough with a game staff to make the revolutionary concept work. Coming in future TREKLAND segments: details on the development of the characters and setting—a future Earth where eco-damage from an aliens/human war on Earth has repaired by terraforming where they all must now work together.

Mike, of course, also wrote some great episodes on Ron Moore's Battlestar Galactica and was involved with both Caprica and Blood and Chrome (as well as the late Michael Piller's breakout Dead Zone on USA). Later on, we'll reminisce about those years as well—and there's more below the video fold here, too:


Yes, there's more—like this FYI: In case any of you are out there grousing about getting invested in an expensive and risky genre series only to see it cancelled after one year—apparently, series exec producer Kevin Murphy is letting on that the series' second season is already into production. We'll try to update with Mike on that as well.

Meanwhile, in case you haven't seen it, here's the extended trailer for the TV series:



AND the first 14 minutes of Monday's pilot (sorry for the embedded ad)...

WonderCon look-back: A Bones-Sulu reunion AND a hit panel on video

What a difference a year makes.

A year ago we were drowning in a monsoon that ruined the mood at what I called "strip mall con"—the normally San-Fran-based Wondercon, San Diego's little brother relocated to Anaheim for a year or two and struggling then to share parking with two high school sports events at the convention center there. Meh. People were drenched waiting in open air for slow, overwhelmed and distant shuttle buses.

This year? Wow, and not just for the very welcome sun:

FIRST, I pull off a successful meet-up for "The Con of Wrath" (more on that soon)...

... AND enjoy the largesse of some table space at the hubbub of Enterprise-D chair photo opps thanks to Huston Huddleston (rear, left) and his booming non-profit restoration project and science center "New Starship"....

...WHERE we had a McCoy-Sulu reunion with Grant Imahara of Mythbusters (left and right), soon to be seen as the helmsman opposite my doctor in the new Star Trek Continues indie online series—the pilot episode to debut at PhoenixComicon May 24 (more on THAT later, too!) ...

...PLUS have a wealth of Treklanders drop by: longtime Trek illustrator-author (and Voyager designer ) Rick Sternbach and Voyager illustrator Tim Earls .,.. PLUS post-production producer Steve Welke, all of whom recorded vidchats with me for the blog for later: look for them soon.

Rick...

...Tim...

...and Steve!

PLUS a genre psychology panel I was asked to join that garnered a lot of news attention, recorded on homespun video for posterity (with a cool opening sequence)—and more on THAT later as well.

We even worked!—and got in an interview on the run with one of the dealers who was a pivotal key in the saving of "The Con of Wrath," our documentary on the 1982 Ultimate Fantasy show in Houston that was Stat Trek's most glorious failure. You "Wrath" supporters will hear more about that as well.

I also made it over to the CBS Blu-ray Remastering panel, for the great clips and reaction from another full house (at left) to the Okudas, producer Roger Lay, doc director Robert Burnett and even Brannon the Braga back on his outreach effort. I was sad to hear., though, the offhand news that longtime TV Trek set decorator Jimmy Mees had just passed away. (More on him soon, as well.)

All in all, from my admittedly narrow point-of-view on 2 of the 3 days the weekend, my two days at WonderCon WERE a wonder—a good mix of fans, coming from all across the genre spectrum of course, even as the Trek variety tended to find me—and in surprisingly and healthy numbers, judging by both the panels and the obvious cosplay. I really, really was amazed at the contrast between last year and this—both in numbers and in Trek repping. It was a good year for the show in deed, where I heard totals jumped up from around 40,000 last year to 50,000 this time. With the entire convention center uncontested by high school cheerleaders and girls volleyball championships—confusing the anime fans boys with cosplay photo meltdown—things overall seemed more settled, and folks having a more leisurely and settled time.

I still miss, however, the lack of anywhere to go NOT associated with the nearby hotels—as helpful as they are, overflow choices are still limited. With Anaheim set up to fuel Disney full-time or to host events whose members hit Disney for the night... there's just no mom-and-pop or local nightlife or pubs/eateries in walking distance. And heaven forbid you give up your hard-won, hard-paid parking spot in midday or early evening! Whether WonderCon returns wholly to San Fransisco's Moscone Center, or maintains split campuses now in both OC and the Bay, is among the choices the WC has said it will consider... based on venue vibes like this. Wherever it is held, WonderCon is enjoying the boom of popularity as many regional comic-cons enjoy these days as people shy away—or are forced away from ticket sales shutouts—from megamonstrosity CCSD and its 150,000 bodies in July.

Finally, though—just a big thanks to everyone who came and braved the sunshine this year, and offered up some fun chat or good cosplay, or both:

Ex-Brit Ben Paddon of L.A.'s own TShirt 

Especiale gracias to you guys-n-gals who made it to any or all three of the panels I was a part of, including our "traditional" Saturday evening Trekland "Between the Cracks" show—even if we did have to have it in the "classroom" room, you stuck by. And look for those psych-panel video and donor tribute posts before much more time gets by.

Oh—and you wanna say something about the Hawaiian shirt? Well, GO ahead. Disrespect the uniform.

First Contact trivia time: Win a collectible from Trekland on #StarTrekDay!

Now, don't forget to hashtag #startrekday today on Twitter to trend for the masses to see ... and to send me pics of your First Contact celebration today large or small for our Trekland round-up...

But now: anyone who can answer all three of these by MIDNIGHT PACIFIC DAYLIGHT TIME TODAY ...

...Wins a free souvenir ticket to BOTH the Klingon Encounter and the Borg 4-D rides at Star Trek: The Experience! (That's right—sadly, they are both gone: These are mint-condition collectibles.) PLUS a STTE "brochure card."

Remember:
To enter, you must sign up on our newslist, if not already (relax: I don't sell it or spam you!)
And:
To win, you must answer all three correctly via Comments below or email to larry@larrynemecek.com ...  and be the FIRST (via timestamp) to have all three correct.

THE QUESTION:

--Three major "data point" facts now associated with the Vulcans' first contact with Zefram Cochrane and humans on April 5, 2063, as initially seen in Star Trek: First Contact ...

...were not IN that film, and were actually retconned (retroactively made part of canon) by later Star Trek aired sources:
—a what
—a where
—a who.

Name all three!

It's APRIL FIFTH: Make First Contact with #StarTrekDay & share your pics!

WE WANT YOUR PICS! Of what? See below...

So, first the cool news:

In this, the FORTY-SEVENTH year of aired Star Trek .... we have exactly FIFTY YEARS until first contact with the Vulcans.

In Bozeman, Montana*.

On April 5, 2063.

Sparked by Zephram Cochrane's test warp flight of the Phoenix that day, a landmark in human history.

(Since the Vulcans, Romulans and Klingons, for starters, had all already been there/done that.)

Meanwhile, back in our time ... the boom in social media has led to the cutesy mainstream appearance of memes and trivia in posts and tweets that geeks formerly had to pass amongst themselves, like secret handshakes. Such as the launch of the Jupiter II (Oct. 16, 1997), or the day the Moon was blasted out of its Earth orbit (Sept. 13,1999)—did you miss them both? (And if I have to explain either one of those non-Trek references, you need to go back to Go and not collect 200 quatloos.)

But thus was how Star Trek's birthday on Sept. 8 (1966, first airing of TOS on NBC), and May 4th over in SWarsville  (May the Fourth/ "May the Force...",  get it?) got even more note among the mundanes .... and were soon to be joined by 4/5/63 as just as key a date in Trekland—The Day Everything Changed. Finally.—when humanity not only got a faster-than-light engine but a Galactic Consciousness as well (according to First Contact, of course.)

And in typical Twitter  "hashtags" or trending label protocol, that begat  #firstcontactday or #starwarsday or #maythefourth. #Startrekbirthday seemed a little long for Sept. 6 every year, though.

Now, this year and this week, I'm being told, via TrekRadio and others, that there's a movement afoot to unify behind "Star Trek Day" as a sole hastag/moniker for April 5—only to enlarge the outreach and the viral factor for those mundanes who see it and recognize more easily the franchise, not just an event.

Now, as usual, it's not a lockstep monolith of ideas on this. Some folks resent not saving Sept. 8 for #startrekday, and want to keep April 5 as #firstcontactday. I can see both sides, but I also see that #firstcontactday has limited recognition to a wider audience... nay, even the vast armchair fandom out there who merely sit and watch and enjoy Trek, and not much more beyond their living rooms and dens.

So, I'm all in for the unified #startrekday hastag. Call it #firstcontactday to your Alpha Beta Trekka frat brothers and sisters if you will, too—for it is. But let's think big.

Celebrate in your own burg and check out all the Facebook events—which, of course, touch on Star Trek's greater message of IDIC and world peace and understanding or even reveling in the Other—not fearing it, as our dark sides (and recent politics) would have you do.

In fact, are you having a Star Trek Day event for First Contact? If so, send us your pics at  larry@larrynemecek.com and we'll share them with all.

But don't ever underestimate the power of marketing to keep your passion bigger than a cult.

Look what #ST2009 did for that!



*Thus becoming the second immense event in history ever to happen in that burg. Along with the birth of Brannon Braga.

Look who strikes again—in mainstream news, no less

Do we really need to say any more? 


Still, if so ... here's your homework.

Thanks, Macy's, for being part of our so-very-scientific sample:

.....read more .....

NO April Fools—this actually existed...

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Okay, who wants to guess the approximate timing and occasion?
(I mean, there's no prize or anything, but ...)