Vegas Khaaann! Here's my stuff and MY NEWS!

UPDATE: The room site (Masque Rm 4020) and Facebook Event page for Saturday's "Dr. Trek Show" for The Con of Wrath are now posted (more below).


The big Creation Star Trek #STLV Las Vegas KHHAAANN! faces the same challenge as Star Trek itself: How do you do the same fun thing year after year, but have something new as well?

Everyone from Creation, CBS and all the actors, crew and fans on down face that challenge and meet it swimmingly each year.  For so many folks it's just a big reunion  There's already more of the new photo op and stop-in features around the con site you saw last year ... but for ME here in Trekland, this year is fresh on two counts:

FIRST, we'll have the WORLD DEBUT of the fourth entry in our TREKLAND: ON SPEAKER themed and remastered archival CDs—this year for the 20th anniversary of Voyager's launch, and it;s titled "Taking Care of 'Caretaker' " with the 1994-95 voices of Jeri Taylor, Dan Curry, Richard James and Rick Kolbe. At the table, and available for signing! Plus, some Vol. 2s and 3s.

And SECOND—the all-new debut of my PORTAL 47 backstage beam-in pass, the all-new Star Trek insider "savvy fan" home experience I've been talking about developing for years. You can hear about it and get the info sheet at any of my events this long weekend —or the table. (Stay tuned for more here soon, too).

Best of all, the new On Speaker edition and/or a three-month pass through PORTAL 47 will be among the prizes at several of my events this weekend! 



So what's the TREKLAND DAY BY DAY?

First up: This year I'll be returning to posted TABLE HOURS at my booth, which will not be a 24/7 affair!  So check the table for final hours posted by Day 1.

Just know I will be there 4-5 hours a day at least… especially with both my brand-new offerings as well as the latest breaking news about ENTERPRISE IN SPACE,  the Con of Wrath, Star Trek Continues, 

Look for a few "live" TREKLAND TRUNK items with me on-site, for those interested, who'd like to save postage or even freight. (Watch for updates at table and at the Trekland Trunk Facebook list.) We are already planning a "T-Trunk Regulars" meetup, with about a dozen or so of them on hand.

I"m sure we'll also try for a LA2Vegas tour alumni photo as well!

But my big agenda of course begins before the actual con starts:

WEDNESDAY—

—7 am sharp, Rio front doors: We'll be loading up the SUVs for our second annual "Kirk Memorial" Valley of Fire adventure (and lunch) with Geek Nation Tours—check to see if we still have any of our 20 spots left. This is the "off year" for the big week-long tour, but for the Big 5-0 in 2016 we already have the "LA2Vegas" planned to feature some all-new sights AND also include our first-ever "SFx2" option —location sites and stops around SAN FRANSISCO! Teras of GNT will be at his booth all weekend for more info … But on Wednesday, we'll be back by mid-afternoon for plenty of time to rest up, cool off and get ready for ….

—9-Midnight?, Masquerade Bar/Rio: The FIFTH ANNUAL LANDING PARTY co-sponsored by Trekland along with the Roddenberry MIssion Log podcast, Glue Guns and Phasers, trekmovie.com—Games, trivia, prizes … and my first real public unveiling of PORTAL 47. At the Rio's Masquerade Bar, of course—since the Rio's  Irish pub space is STILL closed. But everyone will be there! 


THURSDAY:
—For the first time in ages—aside from table hours, I'll have no scheduled events this day…aside from meetups  and gladhanding. Which means after all these years I might finally make it to karaoke!


FRIDAY:
—9:55 AM, Secondary Stage: The STLV debut of CAPTIONS LOGGED, where I preside over a goofy blooper image caption contest based on part of my official Trek magazine column. Compete against your fellow fans, winners by audience choice! Prizes and fun, for 35 minutes. so don't be tardy.

—NOON, Main Stage: Leonard Nimoy Memorial:  Not sure the exact time yet, but one of the emotional highlights this year has to be Adam Nimoy's appearance and update on his documentary about his father. Creation's Adam Malin asked me to join him and Richard Arnold to reminisce during a slide show, either before or after his interview with Adam.

—11:30 pm,  AMC Town Square 18 off-site, 6587 La Vegas Blvd.: A special FREE screening of Star Trek Continues' Ep. 4, The White Iris, with much of the cast and some fellow crew (see the link)—just like last year. This actually follows a 9-11 pm screening and panel of Star Trek Renegades, with specialty Trek drink-drinks in-between.  FREE tickets will be distributed by trekmovie.com  AT THE SCREENING SITE to the first 250 people in line!


SATURDAY:
—9-11 pm, Rio Masquerade Tower RM 4020: Yes, of  course it's another DR. TREK SHOW crowdfunder party for THE CON OF WRATH—you now the drill: Kick in $20 or more for your screen credit (or add to past gifts), and live we'll have trivia, prizes, rare Trek video AND doc clips—including this year's latest from Laura Banks and Nichelle Nichols!  This may overlap some other nightlife still not announced, but hey—having 15 or 20 is just fine. Of all the live cons where I gratefully host this event, there's none like STLV! 


SUNDAY:
—Again, a day I'll be "off the grid" aside from tabling.

So, tell me again what's so big about a five-day Khaaaann is in 2016?


Well, that's my end of it. Lighter this year on hard-core talks, so more for me to focus on of "mine"—and to just enjoy seeing everyone. Aside from the official Creation schedule, check out these boards on Facebook — like Unofficial STLV and STLV After Hours.

Lag's over— just in time for Grand Slam & Gallifrey!

You will please excuse my absence the past three weeks from TREKLAND, guys'n'gals—although you might catch me at the right moment late-night at Trekland on Facebook, and on Twitter. (On a break. In tiny, tiny little time windows.)  Did I spoil you with that flurry of posts and videos here in December?

You see, deadlines and shoot schedules are a cruel master*. But what I need to let you know this week is that I'll be on hand for two—count'em TWO—conventions this President's Day weekend in SoCal:

—This FRIDAY, I'll be at the annual Gallifrey One con at the LAX Marriott—nominally a huge Who con, my buddy Shaun Lyon has enough "media" guests and programming in that there's plenty to support crossover Trek fans.

My "Between the Cracks 2013" panel show is at 1:30 pm for an hour, PLUS I'll be tabling as well with news of some Trek stored stuff to sell, hopefully locally.

—And SATURDAY, for the resurrection of their big Grand Slam Sci-Fi Summit brand, I'll see you there while sharing a table with De Kelley biographer Terry Rioux (her book at left), with Tour and CD info a-plenty.

And Sunday? Who knows where I'll perch. You'll hear about it on Facebook and Twitter, at least.

On BOTH sites, I'll have Trekland on CD copies for sale, info on what's different for the 2013 Trek "LA2Vegas" film site tour... and I hope to have night-time meetup-fundraisers again at one or both cons for The Con of Wrath, as we gear up for a new film round this March. Con fans across the country came out all last year, but I've never had one of these "shows" in my home town—well, new home, anyway.

And part of the magic is that they are impromptu—so stay tuned on all subspace Twitter and Facebook channels if you are not present but nearby, and want to jump in.

And then, I promise—more Trekland here very very soon.* A bunch has been going on all over, in case you too are behind.






*Let me just say—quickly for now—that I still have our David Goodman video series to finish posting, PLUS video from the Star Trek Continues shoot in January (and yes, I have still-fresh thoughts on that incredible odyssey of playing McCoy to share, when I catch a breath). I've even picked up a fan club (oh boy). Plus all that other Trek going on on Blu-rays and such. (I hear there's a movie or something, coming.)

The Vegas Vamp: Where to Find Me—and a SURPRISE

It's the busiest year ever for me AND for everyone else setting foot in Creation's annual Vegas Trekapalooza event.

I'm debuting a NEW SURPRISE product to be announced on Thursday ... for one thing... all part of my promotion and fundraising for THE CON OF WRATH, among the usual fun stuff. So please be on the lookout for that.

(And please note: Anything I host or co-sponsor in the EVENING hours is for those of you who are sold out of, or do not wish to partake of, the scheduled convention events and parties. Please support Creation all you can in this once-a year blowout like no other.)

I'll be rolling into town about 6 p.m. Wednesday after five days with the Holywood2vegas Trek Film Tour with Teras and Geek Nation Tours (check out the booth and future plans, shared with TrekRadio) but I barely have time to grab my room key becasue it all starts Wednesday night:

And note this does not include table time—check my table, and at Geek Nation Tours, for posted hours there—because I did a lousy job of seeing fans and pros alike last year!

WEDNESDAY
—9 p.m.: The "Second Annual Party Like A Spock Star" Game and Trivia Night," co-sponsored with DVD Geeks and Trek News.Net. at Masquerade Bar in the Rio's casino nightlife area. No cost! Just come have a blast!  (At left: Here we are last year!)


THURSDAY

—5:30 p.m.: The Fifth Annual Rapid-Fire Trivia Prize Challenge —And once again with prizes thanks to CBS Consumer Products (at right). Get in line, take a Q, win a prize or lose and get back in line—it's that simple. Secondary Theatre

—"Evening" : I'll be hanging out with fans and the DJ folks in the TrekRadio party at Irish Pub (formerly McFadden's) in the casino area ... and who knows what all that will be, but I've been told I'll be "handing out prizes." So it sounds like a blast!

FRIDAY:

—2:15 p.m.: "Star Trek: Today and Tomorrow," my forum to engage YOU and your fellow fans on the status of Star Trek--how it got here and where it might be headed, with business, cultural and even ego-political angles you might not have considered. Secondary Theatre  (At left: In Dallas/Plano, 2010)

—9-11 p.m., in MY SUITE! (Room to be announced)  My latest Meetup/Fundraiser for THE CON OF WRATH: Vegas Edition! Yes, we do what we've been doing all year on the con trail: offering fans a chance to chip in to save some Trek history and expose an amazing human-nature tale all in one with our documentary. Have you read about this?: For a $20 (or more) chip in, you get not only the screen credit and thank-yous later, but a chance at trivia/prizes, rar trek videos and sneak-peek raw footage from the doc...and the chance to ask me tell tales I'd never do on stage in public! After doing this on the run, and even attacking massive Comic-Con San Diego (left), I want to see what our Trek Tweeps can do at VegasTrek.  (And ... whether we need to do a second party on Saturday night?)

SATURDAY:
—9:40 a.m.  (gulp): Panelist on Jordan Hoffman's "Best TOS Episode" debate panel for startrek.com, Secondary Theatre.  Well, THIS should be fun: "Friday's Child," anyone?

—Oh come on, you know I'll be doing more. I gotta see the costume record attempt, for one thing...


SUNDAY:
—I'll be recovering, but look for my posted hours at my TREKLAND table and the Geek Nation Tour/TrekRadio booth, where we'll have fresh pics from our adventures along our just-completed Trek, even as the group stays together for night events and dinners during the con.

There you go. If I survive the Tour, I'll be in great shape for this and probably a lot more...!

And mark my words: the formerly forgotten "secondary stage" is EXPLODING with panelists, historians, academics, scientists, and oh yes LICENSEES to talk about their Trek products. If last year was the "Comiconification" of Vegas in a costumes/cosplay sense .. then it's happening this year again but in regards to companies and presentations.

More about that later, but for now I just want to scope you out on Trekland Central for Vegas...

Whoa.

Vegas in my aft viewer: A year like none before

Artwork courtesy CharityWood.com

Something happened this year ... still not exactly sure of all the reasons ... but the big annual Creation Trek bash in Vegas—Vegas Khhaaan! to the Facebookers and simply #STLV to the Twitterati—went to a whole new plane. A whole new critter.

And I should know—I've seen them all.

In a time when the Trek anniversaries are piling up right and left—the 45th for the franchise debut this year, the 30th for Star Trek II and the 25th for TNG both in '82—this was also the 10th year for a grand "Vegas Khhaaan" since they started in 2001... and Creation's had them all after that first one by Dave Scott's now-defunct Slanted Fedora shows. So, maybe it was about time for what happened.

Especially in a year when the overall U.S. economy remains poor-to-middling, these numbers and demographics are Just Amazing.

Now, you've read all the basic reporting elsewhere already; I'm going to save my stills and video for a separate post, and some more sentimental bits with it. So THIS missive will be  some general observations with big-picture touches. And brother I've got more than a few, but the overall bottom line?

Vegas Trek simply EXPLODED this year, pure and simple.

And on so many levels!

—Pure numbers? Reports say about 20,000 total sold seat-days—about 13,000 unique fans in all —and only the bigger space afforded by the Rio absorbed the uptick. Many complained of the longer walk in these post-Hilton digs, but at least there was no Sardine Factor at work anywhere. And Creation thankfully saw it coming: we got an email note a week earlier that doors and dealers would be open an hour earlier on the weekend—starting at 7 AM!

—Costumes? Oh my god—at one point I Tweeted that the overwhelm onrush felt like the "Comicconification of Vegas"... meaning, in reference to the huge cosplay rep of Comic-Con San Diego, that we had not the just the number but the ingenuity and obscurity—ie, the coolness factor—of so many outfits and concepts had just shot through the stratosphere. (See more later, soon!).

—The secondary room, after one or two years as I've been keeping tabs, is now clearly a monster to be reckoned with. Time was when the "side stage" was home to great but woefully under-attended scientists who'd attract maybe a dozen or so hard-core fans, the ones not aware they were supposed to be in a line somewhere. But, beginning with the new influx from JJ's movie we saw in '09, that room has reeked with newbies the first year, and then just simply big numbers—usually 150 or more. My events were there (trivia line, at right), as were Anthony "trekmovie.com" Pasquale's, and many more.

—Those two groups famously thought to be absent from Trek fandom by hand-wringing marketers only three years ago—a) anyone under 20, much less anyone under 30 ... and b) those of the female gender—were instead, in a word, EVERYWHERE. The Orion slave-girl explosion of 2010 has just evolved into so many guest-star homages—or totally creative getups with skin—that it was simply breathtaking. Of course, Uhura/Rand red miniskirts remain a staple, but there were so many more—in both Nichols and Saldana versions. And so many more adult incarnations were busting out, too, if you know what I mean. Congrats to Mary Czerwinski & Co. who hosted both a first-ever geekgirls panel for Vegas—again, heavily attended—as well as a crafting panels for anyone, especially the kids and parents. It was just the tip of the iceberg.

—A twenty-something crowd also translated into a party crowd, both at the Creation planned events as well as the Rio's nightclubs in general. For the "overflow" fans shut out of Creation's sellout events, we co-sponsored a Thursday night game night with DVD Geeks and treknews.net  at McFadden's, an early but noisy fan favorite—but the open-area'd iBar and Masquerade Bar also came in for a lot of biz. As they, and a special indie Trek party at Crown discovered, Trekfen like their volume low for talking... but, again, that's a growing pain.

Setting the record: LV Weekly/Sam Morris photo

—And all of it combined for smashing the ever-climbing Guinness World Record for The Most Real Star Trek Costumes In One Place—a total that in just the past couple years has become a big annual triangular rivalry between Vegas, Dragon*Con in Atlanta, and FedCon in Germany. Each one constantly raises the bar in turn, but this go-round all those factors above helped Vegas smash the record of 691 with an incredible 1,040—and it stopped there only because of the clock, and that the Guinness folk ran through all their "official counter cards." Reports of at least 60-100 more waiting in line would have boomed it bigger,  of course.

But why?

Maybe it was simply the new digs at the Rio, after the two-year farewell to an Experience-less Hilton finally gave out for Creation owners Adam Malin and Gary Berman and crew. Certainly in part it was the hubbub about being Leonard Nimoy's last Vegas appearance before his retirement from the con circuit this year (and what a farewell it was.) Maybe it's the ongoing earthquake caused by the JJ movie of 2009, where "new" fans continue to tumble into "old fandom," assimilating not just TOS but TNG and all the rest.

It's all of that, and perhaps one more factor: one I stumbled into just a few short weeks earlier.

In the words of social science, Trek big-con fans are finally "self-empowered" as never before—mostly thanks to social media, which finally hit con fandom in ways far beyond mere one-to-one contact. Groups like the "Unofficial Star Trek Las Vegas Convention 2011" on Facebook, whose 250+ members fast evolved into a fertile ground for hatching meetups, party ideas, newbie help, costume details—and simply introductions. In short, Creation provided the main program, but fans had a way to organize themselves, and early on, when they had the time and inclination.

Not to get too Vulcan about this, but what we did was just see a huge shift in the culture of fandom, yet again—the impact of online media. It was hardly an Arab Spring, but the effect is the same: self-powered organizing. And it's got nowhere to go but up. Already, plans are in the works: you can see the wheels spinning, plans evolving, and shields adapting...

All of this shows a few things, coupled with the "show of hands" polls I took in my audiences, or in just talking with peeps at my table or happenstance in the halls:

—Fans old and new, whether first-gen Trekkies or converts from the 2009 flick, have NOT forgotten any of the "700 Club" TOS or TNG, etc.,  series. If there was to be a mass migration to "modern" Star Trek alone, and a virtual "Forget" mind-meld of All That Went Before... well, it's not with this bunch. Even though a lot of them do owe their fandom entry to JJ-Trek.

—In fact, the image of young, partying, good lookin' and nay even imbibing Starfleeters was everywhere in media—not that that's not 180-degrees misleading in its own way, too. A lot of those folks ARE workin' it this weekend, in any of a zillion niche jobs. But the fact that media admitted to the possiblity the image EXISTS, 25 years after Shatner's "Get a Life" SNL skit forever sent stereotypes askew, is shocking enough. And long overdue. Creation's Vegas con logo (right), the play on the historic Vegas tourism logo, actually finally begins to make sense!

—Which in turn, finally, points to a trend I've noticed in the days since—this one in national media: maybe generational, maybe part of this post-2009 "mainstreaming" perception. And it may be the most shocking one of all: the Era of the Respectiful National Journalist Who Gets It. Maybe, finally, someone realized that the guys who paint their bellies topless in subzero endzone cheap seats for football are no more/no less crazy that the Trekfans who get their Orion green or Andorian blue on—with a lot more philosophy and a lot less alcohol involved in the latter. Somewhat less, anyway.

Yessir, we may finally have gone where no Vegas Khhaaan—and the ever-powerful national media meme—have ever gone before.

Beyond the new hotel thing, even.




On the fun side: More pics and video to come. Stay tuned ...

Grand Slam & cast reality: it's a movie world

Almost let this get by, but Creation's recent regretful announcement postponing of the Trek side of its planned new "Grand Slam" show move to November due to a lack of ST '09 cast coming aboard was ... well... too bad, but not totally unexpected.

Kudos for Creation for trying for an event that would make sense after a blockbuster June opening, of course.

But as we wondered aloud a year ago—a movie-only franchise cast is different than a TV franchise cast:

... For now, anyway, while you’ll see their beaming faces all over at promo time next May, I’m betting they’ll be absent from standard convention slots fans are so accustomed to. They will likely love this movie—and the next ones—and their fans, and what they do for their careers… But as film actors they will likely be out doing just that, trekking the studio/meeting circuit, rather than the con circuit.

I’m just sayin.’

Zack Quinto had a bit o' fan background, and had his Heroes genre experience going in; he's been a Vegas visitor more than once. Give the rest of 'em time. Meanwhile, Adam and Gary, we still think a fall L.A. media con is still a great idea, down the road.