My panel, my table, my stuff —just a corner of Trekland in the HUGE Star Trek year at Comic-Con San Diego

Wow.  Maybe it's because this is Comic-Con NUMBER 47?

San Diego Comic-Con has never been about Star Trek; it's always been about, well, comic books. And manga. Superheroes. And, for the past 20 or so years, the blockbusters derived therefrom. Sci-fi, fantasy, horror and anime, you get to come too.  

"Oh well, see you in Vegas" has been the cry among Trekfolk at SDCC the past decade or so, since I started going in 2006.  I've always felt badly that Star Trek's golden age and its incredible casts and creators came too soon for the bigtime, Hall H Comic-Con treatment.

UNTIL NOW. And good on CBS Consumer Products, and CBS and Paramount in general, for finally corralling an historically huge, Dyson Sphere-sized year for Trek. Having both the new mpovie AND the new series AND the 50th anniversary to play off is about as natural an opening as you're going to get, and they have not disappointed. Starting with a Comic-Con program cover featuring Leonard Nimoy's Spock (at right)!

Of course if you don't have a way in by now, you ain't gettin' in ... but if you're among the 150,000 plus on business and/or pleasure in San Diego his week...Here's a huge list of all things official Trek and licensees here. Huge! The MAC Trek cosmetics line and the 50 on 50 art exhibit with artist signings and that cover Spock image are among the panels and products.

And I'd just add to that, the first Trek pin collectibles from my old buddy Dan Madsen's FanSets (too new to get its own booth) will be at Comikaze and StylnOnline booths—and an even bigger hit now that folks can see "augmented reality" with the PokemonGO craze.

Now for my little corner of Trekland, here's my deets—and THANKS AGAIN to Cat Roberts, our Lt. Palmer of Star Trek Continues et al, and John for hosting our "Dr. Trek" crowdfunder again on Friday night!

—WEDNESDAYMaybe I'll see you before or after the 8 p.m. IMAX World Premiere of Star Trek Beyond?

—THURSDAY:
8-9 pm, 29AB: "Trekland's Between the Cracks Show: The How We Got To 50 Edition" PANEL — Our annual updated look at all things Trek in-perspective and in-jokey will also this year hopefully have a brand-new sneak-footage reel for The Con of Wrath! Plus we'll have a lightning PORTAL 47 beam-aboard bonus for this night only!

I'm up against some good folks in this slot, sadly, but you can click here in to the SDCC event site/app scheduler here as well. Please do!

—FRIDAY:

2:30-5:30 pm, AA23: Autograph Alley table— Easiest place to catch me! I'll have photos, On Speaker CDs, Portal 47 info, maybe even a book or two--and get into the Portal 47 prize drawing.  Oh and opinions and news on all things hot. Click here to save on your SDCC site/app scheduler.

Just be advised I must leave sooner than the normal 7:00 ending time because of ...

First SDCC doc crowdfunder, in 2012!

6:30-8:30 pm, Dr. Trek Show crowdfunder for The Con of Wrath, adjoining Petco Field*—The annual event supporting my doc wherever I am a live con guest—now wrapping up its final year of filming: as usual $20 not only gets you a screen credit but here live it's access to prize trivia, rare Trek footage and newest sneak-peek footage for the doc—including the latest, of Nichelle Nichols and Laura Banks.
*Check out the Facebook event page for the exact address and arrival directions. Share it if you can! 

—SATURDAY:

4:30-7 pm, AA23: Autograph Alley table—Ditto as above! But note I will be delayed past the 2:30 start time due to covering the big Hall H panel 2-3 and media afterward. Still, it's the last, easiest place to catch me—photos, On Speaker CDs, Portal 47 info, maybe even a book or two--and last chance for the Portal 47 prize drawing. Late news punditry, too. Click here to save on your SDCC site/app scheduler.
This schedule means, sadly, I will be timed out of Ben Robinson's Star Trek Ships panel immediately afterward with Rick Sternbach and Dan Curry...but again, it's all Treklanders all long overdue for a little Comic-Con love.



Here's hoping we all survive the Comic-Con crazy.... Especially me, because Tuesday starts our incredible #LA2Vegas / #SFx2  50th anniversary expanded edition of the Trek Film Sites Tour. And then right into sold-out, five-day #STLV.

Trek well!

Sulu is gay! The retcon of all retcons—or was it?

And the Trek headlines keep comin':

Now comes word from down-under Sydney, from the first true world premiere of Star Trek Beyond (sorry, gold-ticket Comic-Con San Diego, you're only the IMAX world premiere)...

...that Sulu is GAY. 

Gene and Rick and all the rest, trying to be progressive even at their limits of commercial TV in the 60s and even the 80s, always said the point to having a gay character would be that it should not be a major point. And that's apparently what writers Simon Pegg and Doug Jung, director Justin Lin and actor John Cho have done here, per this reporter:

Hikaru Sulu, played by John Cho, is shown in Star Trek Beyond as the loving father of a daughter with a same sex partner. And in typical trailblazing Trek fashion — it’s just not a big deal.

And you though Sulu's cool movie moment for Beyond would be that trailer-glimpsed nod to Demora—an alt-verse spanning fact that did not have to be the same in both timestreams, obviously, but cute and harmless fanservice by Pegg and Lin.

Who cares if they've stolen a little thunder from Bryan Fuller's onrushing new CBS All-Access Trek series, where I'm sure—knowing Bryan, and the annoying time-lag in getting an LGBTQ character finally to onscreen Trek—it is in the offing somehow.

It's an obvious nod and choice to beloved George Takei, who came out himself in 2005...but I'm sitting here realizing that it's far more than that. Don't even be limited by any post-Kelvin Prime/non-Prime distinction: his parents were the same in both universes, yes? And part from the offscreen implications of a daughter Demora, Sulu through all his appearances in TV and film was never even seen fakily paired up with a female other than in a cordial social sense. Certainly not like hot-blooded helm-mate Chekov...or infamous Kirk, pub-crawler Scotty, divorced Southern gentleman McCoy ....and even seven-year Spock. (Oh, and those Deltan pheromones do it to anybody, deleted scene or not.)
 
It's the retcon that was there all along—whether or not George had had a behind-the-scenes understanding with Gene and Co. about not portraying Sulu as outwardly heterosexual to begin with. Any of the supporting cast getting that much screen time for any character development was a miracle—and yet even Uhura got a hetero moment with her salt-vampired crewman, much less even Rand and Chapel.

Yes, THIS is much more the kind of surprise I like to keep getting about my Trek as 2016 and #FiveOhFever roll along. Stay tuned... I have a feeling there'll be more.

Including a comment soon from George....here seen with husband Brad at our The Con of Wrath shoot:

From the fan-film guidelines to Rihanna, and Beyond — My take on all those Trek headlines, in one fell swoop

 
Wow. I picked the wrong week to go off-the-grid into bad wi-fi back home in Soonerland...!

I have so much to get done with "5-0 Fever" con summer and the Trek tour bearing down, plus a new On Speaker archival CD edition to get out ... and a nice website redesign for Trekland, finally, and Portal 47 both in the works...

But I have to say a few things about the crazy going down in Trekland the last few days—starting with the fan film guidelines came out the day I traveled to SoonerCon. (Of course. Oh, and the reaction.)
 
So take an extra 4.7 minutes and I'll wrap it all up for now in one subspace blast and say...

REALLY, Trekland? So much hate and trolling and boycotting...and, right NOW?

Take a breath and step back a sec. Let's put it on the main viewer, shall we?

It's July, 2016. We have a Star Trek feature film that is not only looking more like Star Trek to the hardcore than its two priors... but an exciting episodic series under an award-winning Trek vet with a mix of both Trek alumni and newer voices ...on a platform that will not be ruled by ratings numbers or even note-popping censors ... and, in Rihanna's "Sledgehammer," a Bond-like music hit and video mix from an actual fangirl superstar that will cross generations, continents and media to bring all-new eyeballs to all things movie-Trek and start the pipeline of fresh cadets and warriors and drones all over again.

Rihanna's "Sledgehammer" video w alt-Enterprise: Anyone else see a "The Doomsday Machine" homage here?

PLUS an awesome 50th anniversary that *is* living up to far more than just party hype—with major conventions around the globe, concerts and museum /science tours and the return of the 1960s original 11-footer Big E to its rightful place of inspiring honor in the Smithsonian, complete with a highly researched paint and detail restoration. I just missed seeing the 1701 in 1976, saw it in 1986, was disappointed in 1992... and can't wait to glimpse her return to glory in a couple weeks, right before Shore Leave.

And this is all grabbing mainstream media attention ...smack in the middle of the Big Bang Theory Era. That's what they used to call "synergy."

How people can be poking holes in all that positive, franchise-refreshing force for good is just beyond me. Really. But hey, don't misunderstand: I'm not saying go vanilla—I'm just saying go smart.

What I really refuse to do is get too sucked into the time and negativity sink over the Axanar lawsuit and all the tangent spinoffs from it—while still avoiding any "deer in the headlights" blindsiding.  While you might be feeling a bit down that the Golden Age of Fan Films seems to be over, let me just suggest that it might simply be ...evolving. For I remember all the prior times "Paramount" was decried by fans— from the marketing study and boycott over Spock's death threatened for The Wrath of Khan, to the upset over the "new" upstart TNG without Kirk/Spock/McCoy... and the yell over every new iteration of series to come. And somehow, it all came out in the end just fine. I even hear Star Trek AND its fandom hung around and pressed on.

Look, my low-key friend John van Citters of CBS licensing is now an unlikely Internet star front-and-center over the "fan film guidelines" (thanks to Jordan Hoffman's new official podcast Engage)—but that's the same JVC who used to point out to me years ago, at the clamor for embracing such "rules," how "a Lucasfilms model of 5-minute festival entries would never fly with Trek fans so let's just leave it in the gray area to avoid getting those lawyers involved"--the guys who care less about promotion and brand-building, and more about fiduciary duty and legal precedent. As is their oath. 

That's how I know what a huge leap these guidelines were, for the corporate machinery to agree to as much as they did—even as, to some fans, that 15/30-minute limit may seem restrictive...which is inevitable. There will be a bit of customizing in reaction, on a case-by-case basis ... but look, guys: For nearly two years, I've been worried. I mean, I've been soooo proud to have acted in, and remain a part of the think thank, for Continues; I appeared in New Voyages early on, and have supported Starbase Studios back home in OKC plus any other project that asked for it, on principal.  And yet, sadly, the boom does seem unsustainable in some ways: Today's zooming crowdfunding and temptations mean it was increasingly likely this ever-more-overloaded plane was going to have a rough landing on the choppy sea of expectations sometime— and becoming more apparent every month to many of us.


And face it: As I've said for a couple years now, I was also expecting a lot of the fan-film fire to go out—by fan producers, if not backers and attention spans in general—once a Trek series got going again, sucking all the air out of the room with new canon content to follow and fathom. That's right around the corner, now.

Question is, when and where and how rough would that landing be, who'd take charge in the crisis (if anyone), and who would get hurt in the crash? And would the "owner" CBS/Paramount get blamed, no matter what?

The post-guidelines world will not be this way forever—just ask the website owners who freely post scene clip frames today, unlike in 1996 when C&D's by Paramount went out as frame-grabbing exploded ... or the "official" editors like me four years later who could not mention actors' non-Trek crossover projects in depth—until we could. (Professor X in a Trek mag, anyone?) Or the idea of limiting later-generation Trek cast and crew to only licensed conventions (ca 2001).

The truth is, things in any pop culture franchise "poppish" enough to be alive are always the edgiest on the cutting edge—the fun frontier where no attorneys or rights-protectors have gone before. Until everyone does go there, at least, and things settle down....and then start up again in another paradigm. That's just the world we live it. It's unsettled, but it's ever-fresh: And it's the price you pay for having an incredibly attractive, thought-provoking little space show that keeps attracting new fans, new iterations, new business ...and refuses to die after 50 years.

The other truth is this: For all the meme meltdowns online past and present, fan film fandom... con-going regulars  ....hell, all Internet Trek fandom... are just a drop in the bucket among all the armchair fans out there. You know: the folks who watch the shows, buy the books and toys, and raise their kids with Trek?

And now... a boycott? Really? Aside from the basic math, consider the timing.

Because Vulcan's Forge was never like this: We are FINALLY emerging from wandering the Trek desert of the last 12 years, and have now a transition time from what *was* to what *is*—whether it's fan film parameters or a hit music/movie video or a for-pay streaming platform in the fast-changing media landscape. Same as 1979, 1982, 1987, 2001 ...and 2006.

Thank the Prophets it's happened again. It means we're still alive... and that a 100th anniversary Trektennial in 2066 is a pretty sure bet.

Oh—and beyond our selfish fun? Star Trek remains a good bet for a wracked world that could really use some hope and intelligent futurism in its free time right about now. 

Just like in 1966.

On a day like today, HERE's how to apply Trek therapy

Back to "5-0 Fever"and more videos in a second....

But today, on this tragically historic day of the biggest mass shooting in US history... followed on soon by the discovery of an Indiana kid in L.A. trying to make his own anti-gay mark... I've seen lots of numb, mourning, sad folks online sharing their grief, talking, and even railing about all the topics-turned-hotspots: Literally, the ol' guns, gays and God wrapped up in one bloody package for legitimate discussion, hot debate, and of course political opportunism ...whether anything really changes, or not.

And of course from Trekland's perch I see a lot of Trek fans, somewhere along the numbness spectrum, announcing they're just about to go off and binge-watch a chunk o'Trek to escape and chill out in their beloved universe where such crap doesn't happen.

Usually.

Because, really—to be truthful and credit Gene Roddenberry and his writer-descendants... the "perfect" 23rd and 24th centuries were often times not seen to be so—and at times dispensed with teh alien metaphor and came close to home.

What comes to mind? Well, if you do an "escape bingewatch" today... what about gender equality in TNG's "The Outcast," the paranoid fascism of DS9's "Past Tense" I & II (above) or "Homefront/Paradise Lost" ... theology tyranny in "In The Hands Of the Prophets" or Voyager's "Distant Origin"... or Enterprise's xenophobic dive into "Demons/ Terra Prime"? 

Then maybe wind it all up with TOS's "Day of The Dove," and wish we could find our planet's rotating ball of noncorporeal hate-consuming light sparkles...and deal with it all as easily as that.

And then go curl up and watch "Tribbles" or "Piece of the Action," and hug those pillows, loved ones or both.

And keep dreaming—and working—for "The Big Bird's Dream," each in your own way. 

In other words: Keep on Trekkin'... with meaning.

Onion moment on 'Conan': Star Trek still too popular?

Sure, it's a fun clip... played for laughs by Conan & crew.

But it brings up a larger question:

Is it a good thing that we live in a world where Star Trek has gone so mainstream, having helped lead the successful geek revolution ... that it smacks of joyless canonista to point out that an actual "lost" TOS-era clip would have had swarthy, smooth-head Klingons—not ridgeheads?

Or would that prove the fact that once again Trekfen can't take a joke, and can't be equally ridiculed on the mainstage as all other aspects of culture should be open to?

I mean, you can be a clueless fan and call in to Conan to correct that... and you know it'll just lead to more comebacks that will prove the point.  Or already have.
 
Where DO you draw the line? And no father?  #firstworldgenremetaproblems

After a year: Nimoy fan/patron Bonnie Moss reflects

It's amazing how the one-year anniversary of Leonard Nimoy's passing stirred up again so many feelings for fans around the world and especially online. We remember how news of his passing melted down the Internet for a weekend, and was a wake-up call that his appeal had gone mainstream because Trek and its ideals had gone mainstream.

So it was an echo, a major echo, that we felt as Feb. 27 passed this year. So many felt compelled to share their feelings online, to marvel at how it had been a year already and still they felt the loss. By a quirk of timing, we even got his visage as the final frame of the 2016 Oscars "In Memorial" reel.

I helped my friend, The Con of Wrath survivor/donor and lifelong Leonard fan/patron Bonnie Moss, to share her memories of Leonard on several podcasts and interviews at the time (at right, with LN)—especially after the North Carolina gallery show of his work she helped curate, that went on just after his death. 

And then last weekend, as the timing led us to revisit those feelings for many of us, Bonnie shared an email with her friends about that one-year anniversary... and she gave me permission to share it with Trekland:

This Year Was Different:
(Bonnie Moss)

It's hard to comprehend it has been 12 months since losing one of the most beloved actors and individuals of our generation, Leonard Nimoy.  A year without his tweets making insightful and timely comments on today's world events. A year without hearing more commentary on his prior work, his profession in general or his current passions. A year without that still melodic voice, handsome visage and genuine affection for fans, expressed in new and future manifestations. We miss you. Daily.

I also give thanks that we were able to share part of those 83 years with you. Leonard Nimoy was a man of true diversity in his gifts and talents, who also admired and represented the broader diversity on this planet and beyond. He continued to challenge himself, he learned from his mistakes and he stayed true to his core values.

He loved his wife and family-even the challenges of blending two entities into one appear to have been met and he would be SO moved and proud by the ongoing respect and affection still in evidence among his loved ones. Thank-you, Susan Nimoy, for your efforts in this and for your impact on Leonard's health. You gave us more years with him than we might not have had otherwise.

Leonard would have loved celebrating Star Trek's 50th this year. He was looking forward to it. He certainly would have found a way to be part of it, by skype, social media or through another creative conduit, given his health limitations. Instead, we will honor and treasure his memory. The two upcoming documentaries currently in production through his two children, Julie and Adam, will be an important part of this acknowledgement.

On a personal note- thanks, Leonard, for 35 years of great performances and personal kindnesses. From our first meeting: "Why are you in the rain? Come on (backstage)--you'll get wet!"  To our last: "So good to see you again."

Thank-you for taking care of us. It was good to see you too…

                                     

                            Both photos courtesy Bonnie White: Below, at a 1979

                            performance of Vincent.

The new Star Trek stamps: THEY didn't need a petition!

The news today about the four Star Trek stamps for the 50th anniversary next year is welcome, fun news. I love the crisp look by designers The Heads of State, though with a definite Prime TOS  tilt to them… which is, after all, appropriate for the 1966 anniversary. I didn't see a first day of issue listed anywhere, yet, but… Sept. 8, anyone?

And somehow, it is SO perfect that the sight of beaming, a Vulcan salute, the Big E and the delta shield patch with warp stars … should all be emblazoned with FOREVER in all caps.

(Yes, I know that the unending label is about the postage rate. Still,  it's awesome.)




We've come a long way since the USPS finally recognized Star Trek with a stamp, albeit through the backdoor via the 1960s edition of the "Celebrate the Century" millenium-looking decade by decade special stamp sheets, in 1999 (at right). It was a hoot to deal with helping announce the release of that issue in the old Communicator as the official source. Of course, nowadays the Postral Service is hip to giving pop-culturists (and promotion-cooperative media) exactly the nostalgia they crave on a dwindling communication art form.

What's almost forgotten now is that  Bill Kraft, a stamp collector from  Sauk Rapids, Minn., led a lonely, 17-year petition campaign for a Star Trek stamp all through the '70s, '80s and into the '90s to help that along—i.e., on paper with stamps!—way before The Big Bang Theory and the geek revolution made it mainstream. As both a Trek fan and a stamp collector, *I* was a party to that petition as well… and I'm so glad Bill shared the celebrity support letters and the saga of that effort in his book, Maybe We Should Get God to Write a Letter…. still available on Amazon.

How fitting that when news broke about the new bright and shiny pop-art Trek stamps for 2016, I got this short email from Bill about the story:

"I'm assuming it is in conjunction with Trek's 50th anniversary. I didn't even have to campaign this time."

We do still have our Star Trek campaigns to wage, Bill. It's just that commemorative stamps are not one of them! 

STV: Need your lost Vegas Trek wedding plaque?

We finally get back on track with our vidchats here—and while this was recorded a while back, the project is very much still in play:

Anyone who got married from 1998-2004 at the late, great Star Trek: The Experience at the old Las Vegas Hilton may not realize it, but there's an historical marker of their wedding they may not even be aware of.

And now, local fan J. Marty Dormany has rescued those markers—small plaques with each couple's name and wedding date that were once affixed to a plaque that hung at the venue—and is trying to reunite each couple with their piece of Trek history.  Just give a listen and learn how:





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. 

Listen: I deep-dive the Trek 2017 news on NPR & Trek.fm

For those of you who prefer your Trek 2017 info and discussion audio-style as well as deep,
I took part in two great discussions this week that are now downloadable for a listen at your leisure.

Many are familiar with The Ready Room, the flagship program of Chris Jones' Trek.fm network of podcasts—and for the third time this year he invited me on for a breaking-news special edition. This time, rather than the deaths of Leonard Nimoy and Harve Bennett, we had a much more upbeat time talking about the future: the news, business angle and still many questions surrounding "Star Trek 2017"—as well as the stupifying and varied fan reaction to the CBS All Access streaming platform it would pioneer. It's 90 minutes and quite a deep dive, by the times we plumb the angles and implications...and as usual I hope I brought some historical and production context many fans might not have thought of yet.

Also this week, NPR radio host Tom Ashbrook in Boston invited me on his On Point call-in talk show Friday to join two TV critics and bring the hot-news Trek perspective to the topic—the current so-called TV  "reboot" wave. Of course I made the point that Star Trek has already passed through its initial "regeneration" not once but twice, 1986 and 2009—and that to fans this represents not a TV fad but just the latest volume in the series FINALLY coming out, dammit. I had the last half-hour of the hour-long show, but it's all great fun with X-Files and Gilmore Girls getting the secondary attention from the other guests, as well as Trek. You can listen or download it as well at the link.

And if you are not in the download audio habit—that's simply what a podcast is!—they make a great on-demand companion for your long commute, your long jog or workout, or whenever meaningful (and specialized) audio can come in handy. 

Here's as good a time as any to try them out!  I've been a guest on 30+ shows all across Chris's Trek.fm network for years now and he even has a special page made up for them in Trek.fm's coveted "featured iTunes" status section...although you can get to them in a zillion ways—including just direct audio play off the website.

Of course, this was also the topic of this month's "Ask Dr. Trek" Roundtable telebriefing in my Portal 47 group of backstage deep-divers (that's the session where they pepper me, instead of a wonderful guest Trek voice you've likely never heard from—which is the second one of the month). And true to my archive opening feature in P47, I shared both Bob Justman's 1986 memos and Interstat fan letters that year to show how much things are still the same between 1986 and 2015.
 If you're diggin' these type of second-level info, past or future, you really should come through the Portal with us each month for the whole package!

Happy 94th, Gene: Would you have been @trekmaker?

Gene Roddenberry would have been 94 today. I could just leave you here with this simple, backyard LA Times photo I came across (at right, with the now-missing three-foot 1964 Big E).... or reiterate some thoughts I had a few years back about "GR" and me and us ...

We've had so much fill in in recent years for rank-and-file fans on the full story of the "godhood" versus all the man's human's foibles.... much less the workhorses who also brought the Star Trek vision about: Bob Justman, Dorothy Fontana, Gene Coon, Matt Jefferies, and more ... then Harve Bennett and Nick Meyer who popped up the movies so that Rick Berman and Michael Piller could come along and restart the sequel machine...and many more with them all.

But I've been thinking lately about Gene, and what he would have been like living in a 24/7 social media world. I think he would have loved the chaos and messiness, but most of all loved the empowerment of fans, the increased communication and the increasing channels of fan creativity—even as the holders of the copyright deal with it as a monster of popularity and thoughtfulness and try to let that leashed beast run as freely as possibly.

He may have been a visionary, but he did know how to access and wield some pretty powerful hands-on tools. He saw a paradigm or two come along in his own life as media monopoly power broke up for TV content and delivery, and would be delighted that even so many more options exist now for producers and their ideas.

Most of all, I believe the vibrant, sprawling geek-is-mainstream sensibility he helped ignite would just tickle him. I'm betting.

What about you? How do you see Gene Roddenberry today, after all we now know and measure since the early days?

Five years since Barrow: Will Rogers, and Trekland

I can't believe it's been FIVE YEARS since we were in Barrow, Alaska, on the 75th anniversary of the death of my hero and fellow Okie-turned-Callie,  Will Rogers… and an incredible trip of a lifetime, a real bucket-list event, that I realized later had a Trek connection of sorts.

Very proud of those reflections!

Now, we are hip deep in 80th anniversary events at Will's state park ranch in the Palisades, and I invite all SoCal'ers over to see: Friday night was the annual Movies in Will's Backyard, where instead o a 1930s classic we saw the 1987 HBO special doc Will Rogers: Look Back in Laughter... and a wonderful panel of its production team, plus host Robin Williams' insane outtakes as various tourist guises—a rarity to be sure. The Dog Iron Polo Match, which benefits the WR Ranch Foundation, is today with a memorial flyover for aviation booster Will, as we had at several key cities to his life story in 2010.

What does all this have to do with Trekland? I fleshed out my thoughts on this five years ago, when I realized that both entities struck a chord in me—the ol' "better future" expectation, and one with a sense of humor—especially when viewed through the prism of Leonard McCoy,  on Star Trek's side of the ledger.

It all makes sense to me—whether spoken in 1935, 1965, 2015 or 2065. RIght?

In Seattle? See this summer's Outdoor Trek, 'Amok Time'

If it's Trekland in the summer in Seattle, then it must be time for "Outdoor Trek"—a live Trek-in-the-park by the homegrown Hello Earth troupe that plays for donations as a non-profit, and offers an innovative, fun, Shakespeare-esque approach to minimalist staging, the Redshirts backing band, and "blind-sex" casting.

Here's my impromptu vidchat (below) with director Joy DeLyria and Kris "Kirk" Hambrick at Emerald City Comic-Con in 2014 (just before my panel!) and their goals and history—but the keys are all the same as they are for this summer's offering, "Amok Time". Listen for their intriguing thoughts about Star Trek's boldness, then and now, and translating that via today's cultural and gender points of view.

The group, with assistant to the producers Phillip Duff along (and standing just off-camera here), took their cue from Portland's "Trek in the Park," which since has run its planned five summers and ended. The Seattle crew has received good press and support locally, as well as around the fandomosphere, and has no plans for stopping with a similar five-years-only mission: The tell me that show number six is due to follow for 2016, and audience-goers once again vote by coin and cash for their choice among finalist titles for the next year's TOS script.

Check the links to the website and their Facebook for more details, both under Hello Earth (Twitter too) ...but "Amok Time" performances are 7 pm Saturday and 2 pm Sundays in Blanche Lavizzo Park, with pre-show musical guests an hour prior (Marc Okrand helped kick off opening weekend!), and food trucks on hand an hour before that. See the video for images as well from past and current park-TOS moments (Photos by This Apeture, Phil Duff, and others).



OH—and I love the live stage transporter beams.

STV: Meet Star Trek's '60s-style poster artist, Juan Ortiz

This one has been in the can for a while, but hey—people still love Juan Ortiz' funky
60's-style Star Trek poster looks, and very few folks have got to meet this incredible artist who's started a mini-franchise all his own with these iconic, widely-diverse graphics: posters for all 80 original Trek episodes, and now the animated series, too, on everything from T-shirts to trading cards.

CBS helped collect them all into a "coffee table" style book, STAR TREK: The Art of Juan Ortiz —it still makes a great self-gift if you didn't get enough Trek in your stocking!—and during the 2013 holiday season sponsored a gala signing event for author and book, opening a gallery show of the posters at the West Coast venue of the Paley Center for Media in Beverly Hills. The event was reported, but here's how it looked and sounded, along with Juan and his fans:

Single episode posters (and in the U.K. too) and spin-off goodies like shot glasses, and trading cards from Rittenhouse Archives, are available, too.

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.

When Tweetworlds collide: Star Trek and my Sooners

We've come so far.

As a kid and teen in Oklahoma, your fandoms of football and Trek were almost never even allowed to intersect, much less thought of as even on the same plane—and it wasn't from a mainstream culture-vs.-geek minority standpoint, either. Many litfans I know zealously guarded their anti-sports reputation (and in Oklahoma that might as well have been anti-football). IDIC, schmIDIC—you got it both ways if you were caught in the middle!

No longer. The subject comes up from time to time—and, with a growing relationship between Trekland and trek.fm, the podcast/online empire of Alabama native and fan Chris Jones, Thursday's Oklahoma-Bama meetup in the Sugar Bowl was an inevitable Tweeparama in the making.

First off, I had to share when this graphic flashed across the screen of the pre-game show—and I knew any Vegas Khaaaaan veteran of more than 3 years could have told ESPN Something was Wrong with their captions!

But then I was blindsided by this gem that Chris Photoshopped:

(Apologies to the Rikers and to Late Season 2)

But them, as my Sooner crimson outplayed the Crimson Tide and shocked not only the whole world but their own fans as well ...thanks to the sudden blossoming of young quarterback Trevor Knight!... I had this exchange of Tweets with Chris that hopefully you TOS'ers will appreciate:

Followed up by a great touche from my gracious-in-losing target:

Finally, after a goofy, salt-in-the-wound fumble off 'Bama for a late touchdown that OU unexpectedly added on:

What can I do when they just keep slapping me in the face?

And if you are wondering just what that 47 is doing in my temporary Twitter avatar this weekend, it has nothing to do with Trek or even that play. You're welcome.



So—do you notice sports and geekery colliding more these days? Or is it ALL just becoming one big pastiche of enriching distraction?

Wow: The real-life birthplace of the Enterprise—TODAY

Buddy Dayton Ward's reposting of this iconic 1964 photo with a reminder of the 49th birthday of the "real" NCC-1701 earlier this week was a great kick in the butt to get something done I'd meant to do for years.

Meant to, in fact, ever since we had first published that photo and many more 13 years ago in a great piece by model historian William McCullars in the old Communicator (#132). It was piece that made me realize once again that, duh, we do live in SoCal here—and that once again the future "San Francisco" had again been faked for Star Trek. About a mile from me.

For just as, say, the Bird-of-Prey "Bounty" had really set down on Will Rogers' polo field in ST IV, not Golden Gate Park... so too were the Starfleet "San Fransisco Navy Yards" actually located at ... 104 E. Providencia in Burbank. That, you see, was the 1964 location of Volmer Jensen's Production Models Shop ... and the location of that iconic photo above, snapped on the occasion as primary model contractor Richard C. Datin (at left in photo) took delivery of the 11-footer for Howard A. Anderson Effects and Desilu.

I had been meaning for years to go over, scout the area, and try to recreate the angles in that now-famous photo—and another couple more we had from William but didn't publish. It was Dec. 30, only a day later and about the same long-shadowed time of late afternoon.

What I found... was astounding. Click and compare for yourself—12/29/64 vs. 12/30/13:

The distant church, the midground building on left, and especially the motel and the brick-topped short stucco sidewalk wall at right are all intact and obviously visible. Even the sidewalk and many phone/power poles appear to be the same. Changes in trim, doors and windows plugged since 1964—all can be picked out.

This second UNPUBLSHED photo (aside from William's now-gone website), which has a bit of Jensen's shop sign, gets an updated angle too. The dang modern green-screened gate is in the way, but try to look past it and see the short stucco "fence" turn back anyway. I was staring into a late afternoon sun-blanked MacBook monitor for reference, so my angle is not as true as I'd like; I should have been further left into the street, but hey:

 

There is no photo (to my knowledge) of Jensen's shop head-on, but here's the angle of what's there today (right): a tile and flooring shop, where I met the owner's brother Tony—who was well aware of the historic nature of his brother's little enterprise. They had not received many pilgrims like me, but the notoriety of the place had been handed down from neighbors and prior owners.


All these pics are another good reminder why both Tonight Show's Johnny Carson and Laugh-In writers thought the irony of a 1960s global media capital with a "Mayberry" downtown was too much to pass up—and so "Beautiful Downtown Burbank" was as much a local joke as a worldwide catchphrase.

I got by just in time, as Tony reminded me: the downtown modernizing of Burbank since the 1990s now means that a new IKEA and parking lot are going in this year just behind the shop, and a new downtown Hilton is going in across the street —taking out all the surrounding block of old 50s-60s low-story, freeway-adjacent industrial buildings. The building across the street at left and all the low-key use will be gone in a year—as will the flooring shop's neighbors.

Somehow, THIS shop escaped the new IKEA plan buyout... so, like Independence Hall amidst tall downtown Philly, this little Burbank division of Starfleet appears to live on—for now.

(What—you think the comparison in history is too much? Get out of here, Herbert.)