Awesome snapshot captures moi and many at Beyond Fan Day event

More thoughts and images to come on this... But I just had to post this now:

With over 500 people squeezed in to the ST Beyond "Fan Day" hoopla Friday night, this was an amazing moment caught by the event photog—and then as the one frame chosen for the press kit: Click to enlarge and see so many friends and colleagues caught in the shot! And all of them playing...

While I am hard at work (lower right, interviewing fan). Of course!

(Look for the results of my labors, barely slipped in on deadline, in the next official Star Trek Magazine from Titan UK/US.)

Sorry, Houston—but hello, Phoenix: Trekland is en route!

5/21/16 UPDATE: Due to our lone but major Con of Wrath shoot subject's medical emergency, this Houston trip has been postponed—and, thus, our appearance at Space City. The con was a late add-on to this trip, thanks to SCCC, so it made no sense to go at this time. I miss the chance to talk with local fans about their knowledge of our subject—or not!
------ 

Check it out: I'll now be seeing you fine fan folks for two days of Space City Comic-Con in Houston May 27-28 —tied in with our last planning shooting trip for "The Con of Wrath"—AND at Phoenix Comicon over its final three days, June 3-5.

That all just came together in the last three weeks or so—and my con calendar just got a lot busier even further afield. Houston details are in flux, but here's what I can tell you:

Aside from planning my own panel and a table at Houston Space City, I'll also be joining our Star Trek Continues gang on site — Chris, Michelle, Chuck and guest Gigi— for at least one panel, too, around the 2 p.m. Saturday screening.

Most of all, because we'll be in the HOME TOWN of "The Con of Wrath,"  aka Ultimate Fantasy and HoustonCon 1982... we'll be filming some special footage with random Trek fans for the documentary as well. And within the bowels of Space City, I'll be talking Enterprise in Space, too, of course.
Meanwhile a week later in downtown Phoenix, here's the skinny on me for PHXCC: two true panels and my solo Trekland shot at 3 p.m. Saturday.


"PHXCC" also looks to be the first for one of my pioneering Portal 47 perks: a local meetup for member deep-divers in a given area where I'm a con guest. And, apparently, our Phoenix colony insists on it.

The venues are TBA, but at BOTH cons you can count on a "Dr. Trek Show" crowdfunder party for the doc, as I've hosted across the country since 2012—two hours of prize trivia, rare Trek video, sneak peeks from "Con of Wrath"....and Portal-like tales from me. Stay tuned, and make sure to be "liked" on both my Trekland and "Con of Wrath" Facebook pages to keep up. 




If you're going to be on hand at either event, make sure to come say hello or make it to a panel—or even to "Dr. Trek."


We'll also update this and a stand-alone post for Houston as it gets closer in.

Oh—and still later: Aside from my regular summer con schedule of late, note also that I'll now be a guest again finally at hallowed Shore Leave in Baltimore July 15-17, and a Library Portal Trek tour across mid-Michigan in September! More on all that later as well, too.

Louisiana fans—see you at Alexandria's CreativeCon!

The southwest Louisiana cons in Lake Charles have been kind to host me often in recent years, but this Saturday I'm excited to see more mid-state Treklanders and a little out-of-the-box as the guest of "CreativeCon" in Alexandria!

This second annual event of the local library, aimed at the general public to promote books and pop culture's modern links, is free of charge from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Alexandria Mall —with a day full of hands-on fannish crafts and topics like propbuilding and cosplay, and a costume contest too.
And then, to help bring the message of Star Trek as it turns 50 this year, I get hauled away from my table at 1-2 p.m. as the featured guest with an all-new Trekland show. CreativeCon's mantra is "Remember: it was a book before it was a movie, game or TV show"—and while not technically true of Star Trek, there's no doubt that hundreds of books, comics and games have expanded Trek for folks ever since Gold Key #1 and Mission to Horatius hit the shelves.

A lot of my Cajun fan-friends will be on hand repping their own interests as well, and I hope to make a lot of new ones to boot. 

Good on Rapides Parish and Alexandria for reaching out to the community in such a big way.  The Big 5-0 for Trek rolls on!

A real 'killer' con gig for me—for the Sooner!

Well, this is fun: There's nothing like a shoutout from your old hometown, all in the name of a good cause.

But did I just pick up another convention appearance this year?

The historic Sooner Theatre Foundation back in Norman, OK (also home to Football Ground Zero) has a recent tradition of hosting cute, themed original murder mystery dinner musicals each winter to help fund its youth programs.

And it looks like I just became a local accessory to the deed. 

Proving the geeks HAVE won, this year's extravaganza is  "Sci-Fi Murder Con," an interactive whodunit running three nights this weekend that is peppered with characters supposedly attending the USFUS, or "United Science Fiction Universe Society," per local attorney, theatre booster and onetime State Student Council Workshop mate-of-mine Ben Odom.


"The plot is Star Trek vs. Star Wars for control of the United Fan Convention—the Kirk type gets murdered, and Dr Who is the detective," Ben tells me. "I play a fan (below, at left) who dresses up as a TOS Klingon and writes fan fiction."

And here's the kicker:

In the best spirit of any Trek graphic goodie, he listed moi as the con's "keynote speaker"!


"The  'program' is a stage prop we point to at times in the show, so there is only a front and back cover to it. But I thought this would be a little in-joke for some in Norman… and a fun salute to your Trek cred !" 

"We are sold out for the three nights already," he adds. "It will raise all the money needed for youth programs for the theater."
 


And if I can be a guest at another great local con with a charity like that—who am I to quibble that it's all fictional?


Thanks, Ben, for the great nod from some of the homies who remember me—and recall that I was involved with the old Can-Do Follies at the Sooner during the depressing oil bust years of the '80s.  (In fact, the "networking" button I wore as Caleb McCoy in Allison Winter's Divine White web series was THE button we had for the troupe and the spirit-raising campaign back then.)


If you are in the area, why not check out the ticket status just in case  get yourself to downtown Norman for a great rollicking cause?  Just don't blame me if the USFUS concomm never comes to pick me up at the airport.

Four in a row? National events where I'll be Trekking

It's finally here. 2016—otherwise known as Trek's 50th anniversary year—is just crazy with all kinds of events large and small, and some of them for the broader public are not even "conventional" conventions. 

For me, from SoCal to Louisiana and Ohio, the 5-0 year kicks off with a bang on a real range of events—from old friends to all-new cities! I'm so excited.

More details coming soon—all have been on my calendar for some time—but in brief, for now:
 
—Gallifrey One here in LA THIS weekend is, yes primarily a Who con and, yes, sold out  months ago, as usual—but if you are there it's worth a mention! I'll be amid several Star Trek Continues events Saturday, plus my own hour at 1:30 pm Sunday....and some table-time as well. All at the LAX Marriott.


—Then, all the way to Alexandria, Louisiana, the next Saturday, Feb. 20, where I'm the guest of honor at "CreativeCon" sponsored by the Rapides Parish Libraries at the Alexandria Mall there. No visit for me to either Lake Charles con this year, so here's hoping all our Cajun buds can make it to Alexandria and catch our latest show, aimed at a broad audience and called "Star Trek: Fifty Years of the Not-So Final Frontier." (Give'em a head's up, my Pelican Stater Treklanders, and click on their Facebook Event page,)

 
—The next weekend, Feb. 26-28, I'm in San Diego and honored to join the guest list headlined by original series (and early TNG) luminaries Dorothy Fontana, David Gerrold and Bjo Trimble at longtime sci-fi ConDor Con XXIII, at the Town and Country Hotel and Center.
More on that later, too—but get your memberships now! This is a rare treat—and in an easy-going atmosphere, too. ConDor has been around 23 years and has all your fun trappings of a lit/SF con, too—Trek is merely the focus this year.

—And then, two weeks later over March , another true first for me: I'll be in Cleveland! Thanks to CONCoction, an emerging media convention that is a just-right size to have Trek fun but without the sardine effect. And since I've not experienced much fandom in the old Midwest, much less Ohio, I'm doubly excited to bring Trekland and share with fans there. If you're in the region, I'd love to see you at the Airport Sheraton—so check out the schedule and tickets now!


We catch a breather then before a hop across the pond in the U.K., hitting Sci-Fi Scarborough in that coastal town April 9-10! And in some lavishly quaint digs—check out the tickets there ...and I'll have more soon.


You can see the rest of my con year as it emerges on my calendar, too—and if you're thinking about jumping in on the booming #LA2Vegas and/or #SFSF legs of Geek Nation Tours this year, act fast—we have 10 tour spots left, but those Creation #STLV tickets are about gone!

STV: David Goodman edits Kirk's bio! —Part 1

Didn't get all the best Trek goodies on your list for the holidays?

If you didn't already grab a copy of David Goodman's The Autobiography of James T. Kirk from Titan Books, maybe now's the time! Available everywhere live and online, it's David's second foray into non-fiction gap-filling, after FEDERATION: The First 150 Years in 2012. (And you know how I am about Trek gap-filling.)

In fact, I grabbed David once again in the off-hours at his office as Family Guy writer-producer to talk about the tome in a new vidchat: his choices, the process, and even fan feedback after Federation. 

WARNING: Loaded with all kinds of sidelong and unexplained Trek references, of course.

SECOND WARNING: Watch for the remainder of this chat in follow-ups in coming days!


FYI: Portal 47 members got to view this video up to 72 hours early before it went public—one feature of their deep-dive Trekland access.

TWENTY years ago? A pitch you can't 'Prophecy'

Well, THIS is a moment locked in time for me...and it was exactly 20 years ago today that we rehearsed for it:

This sale memo, from Voyager's Jeri Taylor and signed under fellow exec producer Michael Piller's
reply, was about our pitch called "Reflections," or "Descendants," or "Alliances Undone," or "Birds of a Feather"... whatever... that SOLD... then got bumped for 4 years, sank into the unused "sold" pile, but then finally got plucked out to produce (with update) seven years later as "Prophecy."

It's been an anniversary memory for me all week, exactly (gulp) two decades ago: The TNG Companion was two years old, our new home home in L.A./Burbank was into its fifth month, Janet's six-week Voyager temp job had just been made permanent, and the extended contact from all our new opportunities had won us an invitation to pitch stories.

Yes, Dec. 12  was the night we rehearsed our 3 or 4 pitches with script coordinator and buddy/boss Lolita Fatjo at Micelli's in Hollywood, and got her notes; the very next day, we met with Jeri in her Hart Building office to try them all for real. And it was all, of course, still six weeks or so until the world at large would even see Voyager and meet its denizens on TV.

I had heard all the TNG writers tell of their own pitch experiences—of the nerves and mistakes in both their own as writers, and of the hopefuls they heard ideas from—and thus Lolita's gentle reminder that "no one sells on their first pitch" had been well taken.

Which, of course, was all the more weird when we DID do just that—and with the one idea, of course, we thought the least of: our "token 'Klingon in the Delta Quadrant' story, to mess with B'Elanna's Klingon half" idea. Thank you, Jeri—and thank you for being gentle with the rookies. And you too, Michael, wherever you are—bedecked in Dodger blue, I'm sure).

It was hardly the last time we pitched to either show—back in the day of Michael's revolutionary but time-consuming open-door policy for non-agented writers and spec scripts—but it was the only time we ever sold. Of course. (The old maxim about "you never get to do the teleplay for your first story sale," however, came perfectly true.) I even found out later we weren't even the first ones to pitch a "Klingon generational ship" story for Voyager.

March 1995: A "bottle show" no longer...

We used to tell the full story at convention talks—the prep and pitch, the writer meetings, the directed enlarging and then shrinking of the bottle story scope as the show and staff evolved, its disappearance and then final-season resurrection—as a snapshot of the outside-writer process, and how wacky a "textbook case" of off-staff TV selling and writing can actually be, and over several years. I've told parts of the saga on a couple of podcast interviews, but any of you new fans want us to pipe up about it for a current con, just let me know. (For the right rum mixture, I'll even share all the better concepts we pitched on either "middle show" that didn't sell.)

But for young Okie kids getting a tad later start in the biz than usual, it was three fast days in a week I'll always remember.

STV: It's FarragutFest! Celebrate with two REAL and local crew of the Farragut & Enterprise

If it's the first weekend of December, it must be FARRAGUT FEST down in Kingsland, GA, home to the Farragut Studios that boasts the rebuild of Desilu's storied Stage 9...i.e., the original Star Trek sets of the 1960s whose amazing recreations are used here now for both the Starship Farragut and Star Trek Continues indie fan film series, of which I've come to be quite familiar.

If you are lucky enough to be in the region—I hope to go one year, but families already come from several states away to get to walk those hallowed corridors in these incredible lookalikes—I hope you tell Royal Weaver and Sam Rooks hi, if you meet them (video below the fold). Those two, and many more, are part of the local crew who build and maintain those stages year-round in-between times the rest of us are away.  In between the tours, panels and even vendors of FarragutFest, they are among the many who can tell you all the history and backstage detail you'd ever want to know.

And that's why I took time during the "Mirror" shoot for STC's "Fairest of Them All" last spring—our own chat cut short by the needs of the shoot, as you'll see—to get both of these guys on camera and get them their due. The photo (left) just happens to be them atop and steadying a ladder to be able to run the Tantalus Field cover during that filming.

Also during shoots, Sam spends a lot of time with lights, while Royal is everyone's number one door man—and I don't mean the taxi-hailing kind, I mean the sliding Starfleet kind. It's a special art, as anyone who's seen the original bloopers knows all too well!

So—in honor of another FarragutFest this weekend, here's my chat with the locals, to celebrate! If you can't be there, try for 2015—I know I will—and meanwhile check out the Farragut Films Facebook page where I'm sure there'll be pics a-plenty. Go "Like" their page—and of course, go "Like" the Star Trek Continues page as well— if somehow *gasp* you haven't already!

Kevin Dilmore shows Hallmark's new Trek ornaments —plus sneak peeks at the 2015s, AND his new book

Hey, it's that time of year again: Time to chat again with Trek novelist and Hallmark hangabout Kevin Dilmore...

Because it's THAT time of year again: Here's Hallmark's new Star Trek ornaments for 2014! And even 2015...

As usual, Kevin—my onetime Communicator magazine hire;ing—and I have way too much fun looking at all the new baubles and their subject matter, which find a way to get cooler and cooler each year. And what better backdrop than the raucous roar of Comic-Con #SDCC behind us?

What's more, hang on to the very end for a word about Kevin's latest Trek novel now out from Pocket Books with co-author Dayton Ward, whom I've caught at SDCC before as well. The new title is second in the Seekers series, Point of Divergence ... in stores now.

I'll give a prize if you can watch this and list off all 47 Star Trek riffs we took off on....!



BTW: Would you believe the gummy "RECORD" button on my HD cam? We actually did this entire bit once through before I realized it had not been captured—and thus our extra giddiness at diving back in for an even more brilliant chat.

Niners take note: New 'On Speaker' CD #3 is now out!

The Vegas Trek sneak-peek debut is over—and Volume 3 of "Trekland: On Speaker" is here for good!

As our buds at trekmovie.com have noted, this is the archival series that shares my long-stored, long-form audio interviews with Trek creators from back in the day—fresh from the work, and remastered from old analog cassette tape to digital files.

And as a bookend to last year's edition marking 20 years since the TNG finale, for 2014's debut at Vegas Khhaaann we are celebrating in like fashion the 15th anniversary of "What You Leave Behind," the two-hour final chapter of DS9.

For "What They Left Behind" you get an hour and 18 minutes of revealing conversations from back in 1999-2000 with writer-producer Ron D. Moore, visual FX producer Dan Curry and supervisor Gary Hutzel, and some 25 minutes with show runner Ira Steven Behr—with not a shallow sound bite in sight. Plus, as an actual CD in jewel case, you get my three-panel liner notes, photos and context, along with my brief audio intros to the album and each guest. 

I'll even sign it for you! 

On my website, you can get yours—or check out the two-fer special if you get the new issue and Vol. 2 as well: the  similar disc celebrating  "All Good Things…," TNG's glorious ending.  (At the moment, Vol. 1 —"Future Voices, Passed"—is not available in hard copy, but will soon be downloadable; stay tuned.)

Once again, hats off to buddy Chris Jones at trek.fm/Stellar Debris for both his graphics on the case liner design and for the audio remastering project (and for the nice shout-out on "The Ready Room" news). And kudos to QBT Media in Monrovia, all the CDs I now have in stock are professionally printed and pressed. Many thanks also to everyone at Vegas Khhaaan who snapped one up, including everyone on the LA2Vegas Trek Tour who took me up on my special just for them!

Back to BayouCon!—and SoonerCon right behind

For some reason they just love them some Trekland in small-but-growing BayouCon in southwest Louisiana—so I'll see all my Cajun friends there again this weekend for Year Number 5, right?

Although it is on the smaller end of the con scale, I always have a great time with the fan-folks and food of "Contraband Country," and hope everyone makes it out. Who knows, maybe another junior blogger will be on hand to pick up a new headline-grabbing non-tidfbit?

It's a jammed weekend as you can see here, and I don't arrive until just as it all opens, so here's what's what for just me:

FRIDAY:
@ 8:45, Film Festival : I'll do a mini-Q&A at the end of screening Star Trek Continues Ep. 1, "Pilgrim of Eternity"

SATURDAY:
4 pm, Main Stage: "Trekland: Between the Cracks": My old favorite venue for the latest visual springboards to news, in-jokes, throwbacks and topic-starters. And, of course,  constantly updated with the most in "What kind of world we live in" from the Trekland perspective: have you realized what's really going on these days?

@7:40 pm, Film Festival: Post-screening Q&A after 7pm showing of Star Trek Continues' Ep. 3, "Fairest of Them All"—This is the one JUST OUT…from the mirror universe. Proud to be consulting and on hand for this one.

8-10 pm, Film Festival: The latest CON OF WRATH crowdfunder-meetup "Dr. Trek Show"; as usual, it's a pitch-in $20 for a screen credit, plus a shot at prize trivia, rare Trek clips and sneak peeks from the doc.

SUNDAY:
12 noon, Main Stage: Our "State of the Trek" Open forum on what's up with the biz and the fandom of Trek. Prepare to have your perspective stretched by me as well as fellow fans.


And there you go, Cajuns. I hear there's a new recipe of jambalaya comin' backstage … 

Meanwhile, NEXT weekend, Red Dirt Staters:

I'll focus on it more in a day or two, but the schedule for SoonerCon 23 is already up for next weekend back in Oklahoma City,or, actually, suburban Midwest City—which doubles as my annual entree to a visit "back home." All our Trekland fun is on tap there too—including a Con of Wrath "Dr. Trek" crowdfunder meetup, of course—plus it's the added bonus of being back among my peeps. And this year with mon capitan Vic Mignogna on site, too—assuming he survives his Aussie sojourn!  

One-day or full SCon membership passes in all forms are still available—online, mail, other locations, and at the door!

No, it never truly 'ended': Happy 20th, 'All Good Things'

Well, here's a benchmark everyone is talking about feeling "old" over.

For those of you who didn't get your TNG through a Blu-ray or Netflix binge-watch, today marks the 20th anniversary of the week-long birthday of the airing of TNG's celebrated finale, "All Good Things...".*

Yep, TWENTY.


I could only cram in so much for this wonderful and complex show in the TNG Companion show notes... still available on Kindle or the occasional rare paperback that pops up... Which is why I love doing the Trekland: On Speaker CD series now. Funny how we chose "All Good Things..." for our Vol. 2, this year!

Enjoy updates with Ron D. Moore and Brannon Braga for AGT all over the web this year, but if you want to actually hear them... much less showrunner Michael Piller, or director Rick Kolbe, both of whom have passed now... you might check out our great disk of their voices ...from 1994 ... and the liner notes.

Time has been very kind to Ron and Brannon's career milestone, but it only took a year or so before everyone (including the writers) realized, ironically, that the rushed, 24/7 writing job they cranked out on this series-ender was a far more powerful piece than the Generations feature film they'd slaved over for more than a year... for various reasons.

Filming was still mostly secreted to little ol' me, recent;y arrived in LA to write the TNG Companion update, but in my two-month stay I got an awful lot of sneak-peeks, and a look at the script as well, to be able to ask about it in time. I remember standing outside Stage 8-9 the day they shot the "full crew" scene of Past Picard's arrival address to his "new" crew, and seeing buddy and Trek extra Guy Vardeman emerge among the mob after it wrapped—wearing his "Darien Wallace" command red uniform, noticing he was wearing lieutenant commander pips, and getting shushed before I opened my big mouth too loud. Such was the mood and vibe and the way of things, back in the day.

Lots of folks will be hauling it out to watch, today, I'll bet. Just don't forget: you can legally party on this topic for six more days.* Just sayin.'





*I say week-long because, as you should recall, TNG was syndicated, with various markets seeing it on various days of the week... and May 23 was merely the first available date in the week for aiting: a Monday, as the LA and many other affiliates had it. We at the time in Oklahoma City, of course, had to wait til Sunday night as usual... 10:30 p.m. On May 29.

McCoy fans: This is how far we've come

I've talked about how I felt like I'd found the lost De Kelley Fan Club chapter when I walked into the Star Trek Continues wardrobe room last year to play McCoy and found his fans all over the place… and then wondered where they'd been all these years.  De as much joked about the same thing to me once.

And now, still amidst some personal archeology after last year's move, I came across some real artifacts that brought it all home to me again about what it was like to be an early-day McCoy fan:

For lo: my very first Star Trek T-shirt:

It was an iron-on transfer from a still (and thus the fade) bought by mail-order from Gene and Majel's own Lincoln Enterprises (now roddenberry.com)... and I specifically recall having to go that route because it was the only way to get ANY shot of McCoy on a Tshirt from them, in any form or fashion. I was yet to find my second and third mail-order companies.

So, yes: I could only get McCoy in a NAZI UNIFORM … sharing frame with Kirk and Spock... to get him at all.

Oh well, I was a kid, what did I know? Except bafflement.

But hey— if I was laying out my own cash (or begging Mom for it), that short had better be proclaiming McCoy on its chest. There were enough Enterprise, and show logo, and Kirk, and Spock shirts floating around by then. Geez. But that was it.

The NEXT year, I finally found a place that would take a photo and make a custom iron-on from it—woohoo, high-tech!  And so, you can tell by the fading how much I wore...

...my SECOND Star Trek T-shirt:

Still a shared pose, but at least a fun and pretty moment from fave "Journey to Babel." But still, though:  few choices.

You modern-day McCoy fans don't know how good you've got it!

And now, get off my astro-turf.

LA ALERT: Join Marc Cushman & I Tuesday in Burbank

I had to miss author-screenwriter Marc Cushman's initial event last winter in support of his amazing These Are The Voyagers, a TOS Season 1 history based on his myth-busting Nielsen ratings exposé and his slogging through the archived show memos that I'm so envious he had the time to slog through!

But now, check out what's up THIS Tuesday, May 20 at Burbank's Buena Vista Library in a free event at 6 p.m.:

Hard on the headlines this week of his special Saturn Award for the book project, Marc's Season 2 follow-up book is being celebrated with another screening in Burbank — "Amok Time" —followed by a panel I'll be on, along with Arlene "T'Pring" Martel herself, plus old buddy and Access Hollywood's movie critic Scott Mantz and our own Vic Mignogna of Star Trek Continues.

Arlene will even join Marc for a reading of the show notes from "Amok TIme" to open the evening—all at the Buena Vista Public Library, 300 N. Buena Vista St. Burbank, CA 91505.  Marc has two follow-ups slated for locales in Santa Monica and San Diego, too.

To mark the tour, and Marc's special Saturn Award announcement, stay tuned here for the long-awaited first segment of the vidchat we did when the Season 1 edition came out.

After 12 years—TWELVE YEARS—I'm finally jumping the pond, back into the land of Lt.
John Kyle and Lt. Malcolm Reed.

For now it can be told:

DESTINATION STAR TREK "3" will be back in London—an all-Trek mega-show and licensed by CBS, on Oct. 3-5 ...

... and I will be there! The show announced the initial guest list today, and thanks to Media 10 and Showmasters I'm very thrilled to be among that batch of great Trek guest actors—with even more to come.

Now, please understand: I've enjoyed my time with the crazy German fans for many conventions—and I'm about to head for famous fabulous FedCon in Dusseldorf later this month.

But I've also partied with even Italian, Greek, and Czech fans since I got to raise a pint or 47 with my peeps in Blimey, which is also global prime-time Trekland. That trip was in 2002...and that followed our only other stage appearance six years earlier, the amazing 1996 Generation II show at the Royal Albert Hall.

Mind you, this is coming from the guy who has written a column for UK-based Titan's Star Trek (Monthly) since its fifth issue in 1995 .... yes, 1995... and was a writer and art coordinator for the storied, original UK-based Fact Files for all six years of its incredible go-round.

That leaves a lot of both fans AND colleagues in the UK whom I've not crossed paths with in ages...and it's safe to say I just can't wait to be heading back, finally. I'm really looking forward to sharing time with our old fan friends and all those who's come along since then, reading and following our projects very kindly but never getting a chance give a yell in person.

Since the "old" Star Trek world I knew blew up on the corporate, production, and licensee levels in 2005-06, you readers know it's been quite a ride to figure out how to share my Trekland perspectives of past, present and future as it has evolved over those "fallow" post-TV Trek years.

A chance to party with the UK's finest is a long time coming... and meet all those Facebook and Twitter folks in person. Several have let me know they wrote to request that I be invited, and them are the mates who'll get me to pick up the pub bill!*

*Uh....proof of dated petition required on that one.

My thanks: The Trekland Trunk has been open six months!

With everything else going on at such a crazed pace this year, I realized today I needed to stop and say something.

THANK YOU.

It's been about six months since I first opened the Trekland Trunk for my mostly studio archival pieces... and for something that is supposed to be so cut-and-dried simple, I just wanted to say thanks to all who have bid or bought a piece. Unfortunately for me, I think everyone has found things to wind up being pretty affordable!

Actually, I was never one who enjoyed the whole huckster vibe, as I proclaimed when I started this ... and so, set up the Facebook page and Twitter lists... not random posts and emails, ack... as the way to let those interested (and only them) know. Forgive me for when I sometimes try to cast a wider net, but if I do so it's for good reason.

It's not a page for the hard-core collectors—almost no big-ticket items. In fact, I think it's more for fans of a given show, or character, or ship... who'd like a really unique or rare  memento of their passion when one pops up .... than about collecting for it's own sake.

So, given that, the response has been gratifying — and especially from those of you who are able to come back as regulars. And a special shout-out to those various "aliens" who chime in on our weekly "local" non-Ebay sessions on Facebook group message thread. I'm just glad to see things get a good home...even if it is to a Breen, Borg, Ferengi or what-have-you.

Right now, in this calm between April and June-July con madness when the Trunk had gotten bare, I'll be restocking with more of the pieces and trying to keep the variety up as well. Right now, there's FIVE items up —the most since the holidays.

There's plenty more to go—and, shock the Prophets, there's even a STAR WARS studio gift up! With a couple more fun and old things of theirs coming soon.

But no worries—I work in Trekland, and that's where the Trunk's heart will stay.  If you are new to this realm, why not go Like the Facebook page to keep up, or follow the Twitter? And, of course, share with your buds who might be interested.

I've still got the info and/or pics archived, believe me... but the real stuff taking up space is now out and in good homes.  Thanks again for being good adopters!

Or—maybe it's time for that first visit? C'mon, take a peek ... :-)

Treklanders around Detroit? Come meet up at Midwest Media Expo!

And now for something completely different…

It's a combination of my:
—a) setting foot in Michigan for the first time ever
—b) doing a convention as a fivesome with my Star Trek Continues cohorts, and
—c) guesting at a convention without any top-line actors or author/artists, but indeed some bigtime voice actors  (STC company included!).

It's otherwise known as the Midwest Media Expo in downtown Detroit's Renaisssance Center, the second edition of this "celebration of all popular media, including: Animation, Television, Film, Literature, Video Games, Tabletop Gaming, Comics, and Internet Culture",  and runs from 2 p.m. Friday/25th through 5 p.m. Sunday/27th. I'll be there doing my own thing, but also appearing with the hootful otherwise known as STC's Vic Mignogna, Todd Haberkorn, Chris Doohan, and Steve Dengler.

Outside voice actors, the other guests are all leaders in fandom movements like indie films and other productions, web stars, podcasters, and cosplay… and I can't wait to see what the audience shapes up as. For me, this is truly a new kinda deal…but I have hunch that, whatever happens: fans will be fans. We'll see how Trek turns out at this multi-genre show… but I know we'll have a good group for our screenings. 

And, above all, I'm looking forward to being on Michigan turf for the first time ever… and meeting the fine folks of the USS Intrepid club chapter again, at least. 

Not to mention some of our ST Continues crew visiting from adjacent Ohio—the great Liz, Abbey (my Nurse Temple), and her hubby Adam! 

So here's the weekend for me: 

FRI:
4-6 p.m., 4th Floor West Foyer: STC group autographs/LN tabling

SAT:
11 am-12:30 pm, Main Events 1/Cabot Ballroom: ST Continues panel

9-10:30 pm, Panel Room 2/Ambassador 3: Our "Trekland: Between the Cracks" show

11 pm -1 am: TBA close by: My crowdfunder "Dr. Trek Show" meetup for The Con of Wrath
(Not on advance con schedule online) 

SUN:
12:30-2:30 pm, 4th Floor West Foyer: STC group autographs/LN tabling

And just to be clear-ish:

I will indeed be doing a "Dr. Trek Show" crowdfunder meetup for "The Con of Wrath" as well, but right now it's looking like 11 pm-1 am… at a site close by, but TBA. Stay tuned, MME'ers.

Happy birthday, Grace Lee! Remember 1979?

A very special shout-out of birthday greetings today to the one and only Grace Lee Whitney, and the incredibly heroic life and career she's had many times over.

So, how about a Throwback "Tuesday" to celebrate? Here's the cover to her 45 rpm she had at Tex-Con 1979, Dallas (right).... and to my knowledge, this pic (below) and its set have never been published anywhere before—from that same con, just after she helped judge the costume contest and tried to console an entrant who lost out to the fad Rocky Horror skin-baring babes:

 Don't forget that Rand got into the officer corps and rose to commander's rank, at least, with Captain Sulu's Excelsior crew. And Grace, of course, is still chatting with fans just now coming to Star Trek at the Vegas Khaaaan and others when she can.


Do you have a fave Rand moment on the screen—or a Grace Lee memory from real life to share?

It's birthday boy Grant "Sulu" Imahara during "Lolani," the 2013 Star Trek Continues shoot for Episode 2!

Grant Imahara has a been a real hoot to know and work with amid my ongoing connection with Star Trek Continues ever since the pilot episode, and during the shoot for Episode 2 "Lolani" in 2013 his one day on set actually fell on his Oct. 23 birthday. (Note that this is just a couple days before my infamous "Cure" moment, and my voice is already suffering from Travel Crud.)

But Grant is in fine form, as you can tell by our quick vidgab (below the fold), filmed between takes and amidst the chaos. Watch for my shot of the moment when Sulu turned back into Mythbuster Grant and he tried to troubleshoot a stuck Suluscope (I always called it the "Viewmaster") ...along with a peek at the creatively-"sculpted" Enterprise birthday cake Grant was presented later that night.

As the world will see, Grant has a notable moment in Episode 3 of Star Trek Continues, coming in summer 2013. I missed seeing him during that shoot, so I guess it was a good thing I "saved" him back in Episode 1, eh?

And if all this "Continues" talk is new to you, what are you waiting for? Go here to see STC prior episodes on YouTube or Vimeo... and "like" the Facebook page as well to keep up with news of the latest stuff. And, yes, our Kirkstarter is indeed over with success.

NORTH FLORIDA FLASH: A "Con of Wrath" meetup in Jacksonville—THIS Saturday night, March 8!

Things happen fast! Watch out, north Florida/south Georgia:

Just in the last two weeks I've gotten freed up to visit the next Star Trek Continues shoot, so while in the area why *not* bring the "Dr. Trek Show" to Jacksonville, finally, for THE CON OF WRATH as well? 7 pm this SATURDAY, March 8!

It will be our typical laid-back two-hours-plus from the convention circuit, just switched up a bit for a stand-alone format here. Yes, the night is still all about supporting and sharing my documentary project in progress, The Con of Wrath—seen now as the most infamous event in pop culture media fandom, the meltdown-to-miracle of the "Ultimate Fantasy" in Houston, 1982, Star Trek’s first big all-cast arena “rock show.”

And yes, the night is broadly all for Trek fans, indie fans, documentary fans...pop culture buffs of all stripes …

But this night, we are thankful to the Florida State College-JAX campus for hosting our venue… and in deference, the event is free and open to the public for the rare Trek clips, the sneak peeks from the doc so far, and the Q&A tales you can pry out of me. For this occasion, I'll also have a story or two from the new STAR TREK: STELLAR CARTOGRAPHY maps/book set for the Trekademics on hand.

But, as with our usual format, those who also take our live "crowd funding" opportunity of a $20 donation not only get their screen credit, but also a shot at batches of trivia for prizes! And maybe a couple other surprises as well.

I'll also have a small sales table with a few copies of STSC, "Trekland: On Speaker" CDs, and some older items as well.

Find us at 7 p.m. at the FSCJ campus downtown at 3939 Roosevelt Ave, Jacksonville 32202 ... ROOM E104. Please "Join" the Facebook Event page, if you can!

Help me preserve Trek history in return for a screen credit—and have a bonus blast doing it! After a 2013 given over to so many new projects that the doc took a back seat, we are now ramping up "The Con of Wrath" again to get on with the rest of filming and editing.

Please spread word to your fellow fans in the area on Twitter, Facebook, and all that.