Happy Trek 50th! It's only now I can be excited

Hey, it’s Sept. 8!

My early fandom benchmarks & treasures

The Official Big 5-0 is here, at last.
 
Everyone and their alien dog is doing the Star Trek thing: mainstream news, bloggers, entire nations of state-owned media.
 
So, just as I promised when I started this blog, I'll take the personal route on this landmark day.

And say, after a year of joining fans worldwide to celebrate and reflect on Gene Roddenberry’s gift to us all, that I’ve got to come clean and admit it:
 
I take Star Trek for granted. And always have.
 
I mean, don’t get me wrong: I likely would not have wound up with a lot of my life choices—from a wife, to the expression of career training in numerous fields—had it not been for the little space saga that could.
 
By that I mean the original series, of course—no bloody A, B, C, D, V, E, J, or new D—and the by fact that I was but a kid when I got trekkified: one hour at a time, one day at a time, every day after school. Just like so, so many others.

I fell for those characters, I fell for that universe. I fell for the fact it was our universe—as both a history buff and a NASA kid, it made complete sense.
 
Because here’s a second admission: I can be deadly with the practical and the pragmatic. I had a “Well, yeah” put-down comeback that was years ahead of the “Well, duh” fad...and I used it full force, on wide-beam setting on Star Trek. 
 
Of course our technology would progress from the wheel to the horsepower to the airplane to the starship… from fire to oil to antimatter. And for a species that grew from the level of caves to city-states to nations to United Nations, well of course we’d eventually become a union of intelligently populated planets—once we found them. And once they found us— because they, like us, had to figure out the self-survival recipe or they'd never have made it to the stars in the first place. (Well, most of them, anyway. Cue the grumpy Vulcans.)
 
I read the early books like Star Trek Lives!, grappling with why Trek was so mold-breakingly popular. I saw the interviews… I read the fan letters, the magazine essays.  Optimistic future, humanity survives, we don’t kill each other or the planet or the new kids we find out there to play with …yadda yadda yadda... yeah, yeah yeah.
 
It was a concept that got so many young people excited and engaged...and still does.

Me, not so much. Remember, I was "well, yeah" when "well, yeah" wasn't cool. I mean, I knew how to gush—I just didn't see the need. Duh.
 
But the years since this teenager fell for that vision of future history have hardly been rosy.  World progress has not been inevitable; tolerance and diversity and justice have not arisen automatically, along an ever-rising path to global peace and prosperity.

The go-go ‘70s grew into the cushy ‘80s and the dot-com ‘90s...and then, just about the time Star Trek's optimism seemed old hat in many ways... along came a global melt-down, a rebound of intolerance and pushback, and a generation that never saw a hot world war — but was sure plenty scared of a hot world.
 
And then Leonard died.

As I said at the time, his passing hit me not just hard, but unexpectedly: with guilt. Guilt that, while favoring McCoy and Scotty, and mourning De and Jimmy, I had taken Leonard and Spock far, far too much for granted.

And as the Five-O party started, and all the old truisms and quotes were trotted out again to explain Trek's appeal and Trek's longevity... I realized I was guilty once again. Of taking the core of the whole damn franchise for granted.

Even more than in 1966 or even 1986, Star Trek is an incredible gift of inspiration and hope, an ageless lesson in diversity and respect, a needed lesson in rationality and curiosity...and a damn flexible storytelling vehicle with great characters, cast, commentary and yes, canon—which you might say the biggest sign of respect of all: from creator to audience.

Yes, the years go by, world progress is not on autopilot, and it's actually gotten easier to gush about Star Trek. I bet we'll be saying the same thing after the next 50.

Duh.



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Have a great #happy50th day today! 
Remember to share your pics of your party or meetup tonight at Larry Nemecek's Facebook or on Twitter with the hastag #mytrek50 ....
And if in L.A. (or on Facebook Live) drop by our "we are all fans" Trek50 meetup tonight at Lucy's in Hollywood anytime from 6-10 p.m., co-hosted by Roddenberry's Mission Log podcast, for a toast on Star Trek's debut half-past hours across the US time zones, shared on Facebook Live.

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

RIP, Grace Lee: For many, you were our first

Our last two losses were hard, if not unexpected—but I didn't see this one coming.

Grace Lee "Yeoman Rand" Whitney, whose passing at home May 1 hit the web hard two days later on Sunday afternoon, was boppin' around the Vegas Khaaan landscape like always last August when I chatted with her for the umpteenth million time—perhaps most of all over the years while on set for Commander Janice Rand's final onscreen canon moment in Voyager's "Flashback" anniversary episode with George Takei.

But this week, my mind goes back to this moment, 17 years before that ...

...when we really first met, at a small convention in Dallas the summer The Motion Picture debuted (when everyone was disappointed that the TMP "trailer" so highly hyped was a non-event of ship stills "animation." Little did we know...). Yeah, she was a judge for the costume contest, and that's me afterward as my Tellarite in dress uniform, Dr. Ffalst—and this would be your typical selfie moment.

But our bonding moment that day was really more about this mood...

...when she was consoling me on losing out to not one but two sets of Rocky Horror babe-pair entrants, thanks to the otherwise all-male judging panel—and confiding that she had voted for me as obviously the best for anyone not acting on hormones alone. After sweating in the Texas humidity with that nose-putty pignose almost sliding off, delayed due to overflow to see the triler, her words were a comfort—but it was still the last time I ever went all-out and fully made up for a con masquerade. I had shared this pic before, but I had not shared the sentiment.

But hearing of Gracie's sudden loss on Sunday, checking it out with the Fresno Bee paper, and, again, soaking up the heartfelt words and memories so many fans online have poured out over social media everywhere… well, it struck me what so many of us first-generation fandom share: There's a good chance Gracie was our first.

Think about it: Before the Internet, of course, and even before the plethora of large well-run conventions... most of us in small towns and cities only read about our Trekfolks coming to cons in L.A. or New York, or Chicago. Our little "local" cons weren't about to afford Shatner or Nimoy—but, given pecking order and star billing, there was a good chance that a lot of small-time and start-up cons had Grace Lee as their first guest. And thus, she became the first "regular" that many, many fans ever met in person, chatted with, maybe grabbed a photo (from an actual camera), but at least came away clutching an autograph.

I've come to realize the past couple of days that, more than any other of her castmates, I have more Gracie stories stored up from both sides of the fan/pro demarcation than I'd realized. That also means, as sweet natured as she was, those same small and start-up cons could also be a trap: I know at least one instance when we bought her dinner, without her knowledge, when the host promoter smilingly sat at the table of the "guest dinner" but bailed on our bill.

But those are the exceptions to the rule. Gracie, much like Majel at her Lincoln Enterprises-turned-roddenberry.com table, was the epitomy of accessibility for her fans. Yes, star billing order drove that, but for small-town fans hungry for some "real life" contact with their favorite show in those pre-Internet, pre-saturation, and pre-'87 sequels days where it all began... well, Grace Lee was their first.

And from what I saw at Vegas 2014... she still was, for many.

All photos: Kevin Hopkins

Total disclosure, but more sharing: Gracie was actually my second, truth be told, after meeting George the year before—but I also remember, at that same Dallas convention, when we chased away those obnoxious singers on the millionth round of "Star Trekkin'" so she and her agent could chat with fans at her table in peace, as recorded in this Instamatic special (at right)!




Swift journeys, sweet, strong lady.

On losing Leonard: the first social mourning in Trek

I know it has been about seven weeks since Leonard Nimoy finally lost out in his battle with COPD.  On the 11th hour at deadline, official Star Trek Magazine held up a few days to include mention of his passing—and turned to me to do so. 

Very honored to do that, and very proud of the piece… especially from the angle of how, in 2015, we all experienced the moment and insight together: a real paradigm change, brought home by this central nexus in so many lives. And had we taken Spock for granted all these years?


STM's Issue 56 for Summer will be a full-on tribute issue in a few weeks, but Issue 55 for Spring is on newsstands now, with Spock on the cover of course... and this is how it opens:

Just one segment of the layout:

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?

Boomin' SoonerCon: Homies ridin' that Big Bang wave

You know something is really going right when your local sci-fi/comics con in the great
FLYOVER part of the country—a term as despised as "Okie" used to be, in its day—gets a full-page splash across the weekend newspaper front. And three stories in all. Online also, of course.

And this is Oklahoma we're talkin' about—and the ultra-conservative Daily Oklahoman doing the splashing.

In fact, it's so right, it's another example of what I'm going to start calling "The Big Bang Theory Era of Fandom"— as in, you get *It* (not just publicity, but respect) without even having to ask for it. As in, The Geeks Rule The World and never had to fire a shot: they just fixed the servers and wrote the code. (I recently opined abut this in my latest guest blog at startrek.com—and how it really All Started With A Big Borg.)

But there it was, from theory to reality in the reddest of states: the Ok's WeekendLook cover (above) dominated by a story and a montage of art of a classic Prime-film-era Enterprise,  native Sooner sci-fi great CJ Cherryh and fellow OK SpecFic Hall of Fame inductee James "Count Gregore" Ferguson, my bud Kevin Hopkins' SC22 poster art ...and an icon of even Star Trek Continues' lead faces in 2009 style. I made the news!

And what a shock at that. In MY day, in my con PR  trenches (that's my local fan production cred, kiddies), we had to fight for every scrap of space and airtime and legitimacy we could get—especially when we had no Trek actors to headline, with an old-school pure litcon. Even when we did have actors at ThunderCon, it was no picnic: even news column-inches and airtime-minutes do not buzz and turnout make.

It helps when the culture overalls just turns with you, and you're suddenly swimming downstream. And that's what happened for my SoonerCon peeps: pre-registrations jumped 50 percent over last year, and the military/college suburb of Midwest City literally schmoozed them away from a downtown location to a new conference center/hotel complex—to near-universal acclaim by fans, guests and dealers. SCon is still on the small side by national standards, but it may be about to explode—and have a Comic-Con savvy Chamber of Commerce helping out all along. It doesn't hurt to have the Starship Ajax team (and their bridge ripe for fan snaps) as yet another looming Star Trek national-level indie fan film of note rightin Oklahoma City, either.

In fact, indie films are a looming aspect at SCon already, as OKC's nascient Dead Center Film Fest attracted 15,000 this past year as well, I'm told. Saints preserve us. That aspect of creatives was on display often in panels and screenings at SCon, too, along with all the rest of the traditional fare and genres involved.

What astounded me, though, was how my benefit meetup for The Con of Wrath at this SoonerCon drew the most turnout ever, ANYwhere—even with S-Con's sub-Vegas scope in numbers. More on that later, but the night was a humbling moment and gratifying thrill to both entertain that size crowd and add an extra hour to big-screen our "Star Trek Continues" in its Oklahoma public premiere. The winners of an autographed STC Phoenix debut poster even turned around to re-gift it for a benefit Trek auction for the troops coming in November—so the good karma's really catching.

What' surprised me just as much: Okie and regional fans were coming in who want to talk Trekland who know me only by social media, not "back in the day" association—and that's great. It's exactly how I wanted to get to know more new fresh faces and hear what they're up to. But the topper may be that I came across yet another Con of Wrath "Survivor" from 1982 (left), Mary Cottley! Or better yet, SHE came across ME, thanks to all the legit media stories that led her in the door. Mary was rattling off some great memories from that crazy Houston weekend—and I doubt she forgets them before we get her on camera soon.

So sure, money talks—but equality of money is just as gratifying, as fandom is finding out these days. So, here's to SoonerCon 23 in 2014—where the buzz is already hot, the exhibitors are flocking, the guests and panelists are already brainstorming.

I look for Jerry Wall, Leonard Bishop, Aislinn Burrows and all the volunteers to pull off another great clambake next year. And even if the busy Matthew Price (thank you!) Is not still at the Oklahoman, whoever comes along in his shoes later on deserves to do no less to get the word out to the untapped but hungry readers and viewers as Matthew does, especially this year. Wow.

Yes, It's a Different World—and I am cheered to say that's sometimes a GOOD thing, Miri.

STV: Star Trek Continues' premiere week: Sneaky peeks!

Ready for even MORE new Trek?

In honor of the world premiere of Star Trek Continues  Friday at Phoenix Comicon with a gala screening, cast panel and signing—and yes, I hope many of you can join us—I put together this little pastiche of faces and moments from my own lenses during our January shoot for "Pilgrim of Eternity." It got its own world premiere as an exclusive clip I showed at BlasterCon in L.A. a couple weekends ago.

You can catch Grant Imahara from Mythbusters, Chris Doohan looking like another Doohan in red, fearless leader Vic Mignogna as Kirk and director, with Todd Haberkorn the Wonder Spock ... and a lot of the cast and crew, including me in McCoy togs and our Kim Stinger as Uhura bein' tough. I'll save some moments with Michael "Apollo" Forrest for a later time.

In fact, you can catch those three npow that we have premiered the thing! And if you crave EVEN MORE, bop over to the STC Facebook page, "Like" it, and scroll back through the last few weeks—there's been fun video and stills a-plenty.

For now, enjoy this teaser—literally!

STV: Kirk and Spock, on-set cut-ups: Star Trek Continues' Vic Mignogna and Todd Haberkorn

Let me introduce you to two of the best voice actors and most popular guests on the anime convention circuit—as well as a couple of all-around performers, directors and even editors: Vic Mignogna and Todd Haberkorn.

With all that, you're catching them at Trekland because Vic is the driving force—as producer, director, co-writer and Captain James T. Kirk—behind Star Trek Continues, which as you know by now this week is the latest "fan film" to debut that looks like anything but amateur. Todd, always at his side—well, sometimes—is holding on to the Spock ears and inflamed stoicism with great aplomb. (Vic was also crazy enough to ask me to step in at the 11th hour to play Dr. McCoy when the prior actor could not make the January shoot.)

With the world debut of "Pilgrim of Eternity" coming at Phoenix Comicon in big Room 120, this chat during the shoot is the third of four videos I'm premiering this week in the countdown to Friday night's huge screening and cast Q&A/signing event. Don't forget you can see more of the shorts at the STC website,  and more clips and stills at the Facebook page, too—which of course is easily Liked.

Till the premiere gets online ASAP after PHXCC for all to see ... Enjoy this third pre-premiere glimpse:



PLUS:  GRANT "MYTHBUSTERS" IMAHARA AS SULU—JUST CONFIRMED AS WELL!

STV: Preview Week Part 2: CHRIS Doohan provides the DNA as Scotty for 'Star Trek Continues'

Of all the fan films and all their cast members—celebrity or not—I doubt there is a case quite like what you see with one role in Star Trek Continues, where DNA trumps all.

Yes, the real-life actor behind one of those iconic Star Trek characters—the late, great Jimmy Doohan, our beloved "Scotty" of course —is being represented in the recast role by none other than his own son, Chris Doohan. Not an actor, Chris has slipped into the role, worked on his "Doohan Scotch" accent, and the result is absolutely amazing—as you can see in this test short filmed last summer.

As you can see in our meetup, Chris is pretty non-plussed by all this—which, as for all of us in the cast, was both a lot of hard work and just having a hoot of a shoot ...

Star Trek Continues has its world premiere at 6 p.m. this Friday, May 24 at Phoenix Comicon's main room—a screening, cast Q&A, and a mass signing! Look for it online as soon as possible via the STC website and the Facebook page.

STV: It's Grant 'Mythbusters' Imahara as Sulu! Must be premiere week for Star Trek Continues

Great news!

As if having Grant "Mythbusters" Imahara as our Sulu in the indie online series "Star Trek Continues" wasn't enough... as you can see in our vidchat below the fold ...

We just heard that Grant confirmed the Mythbusters shoot schedule will indeed let him join us for the episode's world premiere hoopla this Friday night at Phoenix Comicon. I was honored to have been asked to play McCoy in this series for the January shoot, but I also made sure to record several of our folk on camera for everyone in TREKLAND —and thus this little gem.

Here's Grant below ... in uniform and out ... for the episode wrangled and helmed by voice actor/director Vic Mignogna as Kirk, his colleague and popular voice actor Todd Haberkorn as Spock, Chris Doohan playing his dad's role as Scotty ... and original TOS "Apollo" Michael Forrest reprising his role ... in a very savvy way. Kim Stinger is Uhura and Wyatt Lenhart is Chekov, too, and Michele Specht plays Lt. McKenna, another new key character, along with Steve Dengler's Security Chief Drake.

There's a screening, panel and signing for the pilot "Pilgrim of Eternity," all starting Friday at 6 p.m. in the con's huge main room. The show will be online soon after, I'll be there all weekend... and I'll be rolling out more vidchats this week prior to the hoopla Friday. You could also check the website (with three short vignettes, from before my casting) and go LIKE the Facebook page, which has a ton more videos and behind-the-scenes photos. Caption contests, anyone?

Meanwhile, whaddya think about how well Grant channels his forebear? Yes, we go there, too:

LA ALERT: BlasterCon celebrates '70s-'80s Birth of Geek—say hi, and get a discount from TREKLAND

UPDATE:
Hey, turns out FRIDAY is "Star Trek Night" with Huston's "New Starship" Bridge restoration/Sci-Fi Museum panel at 5 p.m., our Con of Wrath and things Trekland show is at 6, and a Fan Films featuring ST Continues panel is at 7 p.m.
But there are a lot of unique touches with this show: check it out. Plus, the classic arcade games arcade will be open after Thursday's preview Red Carpet of celebs at 7 ish, too; check that link.

A new con in L.A.?

You bet—though the organizer of BlasterCon is hardly a rookie, and its focus is fresh: across-the-board genres, but a cool micro-focus on the fandom and franchises that exploded in the '70s and '80s, when everything in pop culture changed.

But it's coming up fast—so keep reading. And here's a special discount just for you Trekland guys and gals.

BlasterCon is just a month away, the May 10-12 weekend—and I only found about it a few weeks ago, when Todd Whitesel—a 20-year con vet and the 10-year organizer of anime's Pacific Media Expo—and program coordinator Tom Bateman asked me to be a guest. I guess something about the birth of media conventions with Star Trek in 1973, before Star Wars, and that whole "Con of Wrath" thing I've been soaked up with—much less the TNG rebirth in 1987—seemed to qualify for their theme.

It's over at the Warner Center Marriott, on Topanga Canyon and Oxnard; con rates, and all that. I'm still talking about programming details with them, and more of their other guests are to be announced—but it will be a cool, new, young con... so I hope to see you there. We'll have our Trekland "On Speaker" CDs and fundraiser Klingon PADDs to boot, as well as a laid-back day to have fun. And, potentially, one of our patented live "Con of Wrath" MEETUPS on Saturday night to boot.

And that discount? Go to the BlasterCon ticket link page and use this code just for TREKLAND readers to get $5 off admission: Q5RDB. It comes on top of whatever other discounts you may be getting already.


It'll be a fun weekend—right here "in town" (for me, anyway). Bring your cool mom on Sunday!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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




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

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

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

So, first the cool news:

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

In Bozeman, Montana*.

On April 5, 2063.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Look what #ST2009 did for that!



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

25-candle time: my own birth certificate for TNG

So much has been said about The Next Generation—a lot of it by me in blogs, like this ... and oh yeah, this thing.

So I think, on this 25th anniversary event, I'll spare you any more about how TNG not only resurrected Star Trek, but revitalized TV distribution and markets, sparked the genre TV revolution, stoked the mainstreaming of affordable digital visual effects into even non-genre television storytelling ... Much less gave Gene, Bob Justman, and many more of the 1960s show veterans a long-overdue reason to finally say with pride and satisfaction, "Aha—it WASN'T a fluke!"

Nope, I won't get into any of that. Instead, I'll just share a little personal memento ... back from the days when all I knew about TNG was what I could glean from David Gerrold's column in Starlog, like everybody else ...

...back to the days when we actually made cut-and-paste fliers with real cuts and paste, and then "Xeroxed" them—in black-and-white, since color cost so much. Enjoy this relic from my days in news in hometown Norman, Oklahoma ... when no one had ever seen that weird new font before... Behold:

And yes, Oct. 4—this was a syndicated show, remember? It aired throughout the week in various times across the country, city by city: the "premiere date" of Sept. 28 was actually just the first day available—Monday night, when TV-centric L.A.'s Channel 13, for one, had the good sense to run it.

Meanwhile,  good ol' KTVY Channel 4, as OKC's NBC affiliate, snapped up the chance to run TNG in that market because where else would it get such great ratings—at 10:30 SUNDAY NIGHT.  So, a two-hour Sunday late-night party going past midnight meant you had to be TOUGH Okie Trek fans to support your cause. But it was no different nationwide.

Except that we were, however, just about the LAST ones to see "Farpoint" in the whole country. And every episode after that. For seven years. (It's actually why I moved to L.A.)

Oh...and for all the loud noise from the loud TOS "It-ain't-Kirk-and-Spock" naysayers,  -->TNG's pilot beat its prime-time network competition—as one measure of success—in its various times and days in Los Angeles, Dallas, Seattle, Miami and Denver.

I bet we even won the 10:30 p.m. Sunday slot in OKC, too. 

Out in the open, New Starship has a logo contest

Have you heard about the project to re-assemble an Enterprise-D bridge from Vegas Experience and World Tour pieces, and to restore it for non-profit uses in Los Angeles?

Did you see our video visit (Part I) when it was still secret?

Well, tis hardly secret any longer, and the non-trademark-infringing "New Starship" project now is looking for a logo: check out the newly unveiled and ID'd Huston Huddleston himself as he asks you all for help via a contest for one that is similarly non-infringing:



(Recognize that fireplace? Those seats behind him?)

Hello, EP-CON—with an El Paso meetup for the doc!

Wait, it's not the end of summer con season yet! Footballs may be flying, but the temps are still in the 90s—and I'll be in El Paso for the booming EP-CON 2012 this weekend (Seriously, this show is just about doubling in size every year.)  Come out and see us, Big Bend Treklanders! (And among the many guests of all stripes are Trek resident Jeff Combs)

For me, our "Between the Cracks" show is 6-7 p.m. Saturday in Juarez Panel Room 2 —fresh with Walter Star Walk of Fame pics and other goodies. I'll also be at my table daytimes with my brand-new Trekland: On Speaker Vol. 1 CD, plus photos, books, and promoting THE CON OF WRATH, of course.

And we'll have a meet-up/fundraiser for the doc in Sun City style from 8-10 p.m. Saturday night—just like our prior ones. Our meetup site will be a downtown adjacent pub to be announced on Friday, so follow me on Twitter—but meanwhile, you can reserve yourself at the Facebook event page, too.

Of course, I'll also be at the con's official Launch Party at The Garden on Friday night 9 p.m., and our Meet-up Saturday night lets out in plenty of time to get us over to the official AfterParty at The Hoppy Monk til 1 a.m.!  All adjacent downtown—check them all out at Facebook, too.

STV: LOOK—video of that Enterprise-D bridge project!

I'm just going to let the video and my guest speak for themselves (below the fold).

Unless somehow the past couple weeks you've been under a rock and missed all the online pop culture news and blog stories and podcasts—and some misconceptions—and you still need a set-up for "that fan who saved the Enterprise bridge set when it was about to rot."

Yes, video. Whether you're either curious or cyncial, well, TREKLAND's STV camera is here to prove that there is a collection of Bridge pieces... no, not a filming set, but an amalgam of surplus pieces from the Star Trek Experience and Europe's 1999-era World Tour replicas—and so yes, both were licensed projects under the design and production eye of Trek TV/film production designer Herman Zimmerman and the Paramount team.

And yes, this thing really is sitting right in the San Fernando Valley in the home (and yard) of one Huston Huddleston—a screenwriter and songwriter and most of all fan/collector ... who, at the time we shot this before the national news storm leaked his name, had originally asked to be in cognito so as to avoid local pranksters.

He and his growing volunteer team now have a website at newstarship.com and an IndieGoGo fund page for the restoration—with a sweet video, several cool rewards for donors, a support store full of unique, custom-designed and tax-deductible goodies.... All with the aim of a non-profit foundation overseeing a rental center for parties, weddings, film projects ... even educational uses for schools and students.

Not to mention, meantime, the hope of a fundraising tour of the captain's chair (due to be finished by October) and other pieces at conventions around the country.

In an era left with a void for such popular uses after the closure of the original ST Experience in Las Vegas, it seems the demand is there—and people are clamoring for a replacement.

Enjoy this initial visit with my friend "Dallas" ...and send some IndieGoGo donation love their way if you can spare it. This is an exciting prospect, and one with a growing, capable brain trust behind it. There's a Facebook and Twitter space as well, of course, to keep up with the whole thing.

And we'll be back shortly with more footage of our visit to the bridge pieces from this "early" visit ...

Vegas Khaan 2012: Thoughts & thank-yous in review

I've been talking about this curve since 2009.

I was stupid enough to get separated from my Canon HD cam and didn't grab any vidchats this year—and I missed a few great ones.

And I don't care IF the "numbers" were down 10 % this year (blame it on the "last Nimoy con" spike of 2011), or that the Guinness Trek-costume-meetup world record didn't get broken (though "we" still hold it, by the way).

Fact is, this was still an incredible Vegas Khaaann we all just survived—and not just for the Hollywood2Vegas Tour I hosted before it (more on that soon).

You Trekland readers may recall I dubbed 2011 the "Comic-Conification" of Vegas Trek because of the explosion of really clever, obscure or elaborate, "out of the box" costumes—a huge jump last year.

Not only did that trend this year go off the scale, Captain, but my predicted "Comic-Conificiation Phase II" phenom came true as well: Vegas-goers simply had a slew of Secondary Theatre panels to choose from—from fun fan debates to hands-on updates from licensees, in non-stop schedules that kept that stage as busy as the main. A chunk of that was under the banner of the newly revitalized startrek.com, finally, and the rest was just licensees and our Trek names getting to their expanding audience.

Virginia Madsen: TruFan since TOS

Personally, I finally got to meet both writer-bloggers John Tenuto and Jordan Hoffman (though I missed meeting Trek professor Anthony Rotolo). And my theory of Virgina Madsen's appearance on Voyager was totally turned on its ear. Virginia was a table-mate of mine, and confided that she's been a Trek fan all her life, thanks to her mom: "I had to FIGHT my agent to get on Voyager," she told me, in between hopping up to take pics with every cool fan costume character who walked down our tween-table aisle.

Sorry, Paul R: it's not my book, it's yours—but I happened to have a Voyager Companion on me and presented it to her, with her "Unforgettable" right there in the sixth season where it belongs.

The above was an example of my Vegas Resolution 2012: to get out and see more peeps—pro and fan—than I did a year ago, when the scale of the new huge Rio environs just sneaked up and exhausted everyone who were used to the Hilton's smaller scale. I think everyone did a better job on that count, too.

Aside from success with my own projects, like our first Vegas fund-raiser meetup for The Con of Wrath—and my surprise CD, still yet to be fornally "launched"—I want to thank everyone who jumped into the RECORD-sized line at my annual Rapid-Fire Trivia on Thursday, and who seemed to enjoy and bravely speak out at our "state of the franchise" forum on Friday. I appreciate those of you came by to say you enjoyed that more than any other panel... at least, by Friday afternoon.

Kudos as always to CBS' Bill Burke and John Van Citters for our trivia prizes—the fans' smarts level was way up this year, and for the first time ever I had people pining for more trivia session later, on Saturday, before the stage pace got even more insane. I was thinking the Secondary Theater's turnout was smaller than last year, until stagemaster Doug Murray tipped me off that one wall had actually been opened up to make the room bigger this year for the Guinness record try (whew). But more on numbers and demos in a post to come, thanks to great points to ponder from my CBS buds. (That includes you too, Marian and Yasmine!).

I didn't get to see as many of our old actor peeps around stage as before, but did high-five a lot of them. That runs the gamut from Avery's really perception-challenging midnight concert Saturday, to Ira Behr's comical takeover of my table for pics (left). Most of all, I had not talked with Gates McFadden since 1995, so our chat was especially welcome (stay tuned).  It was also wonderful to see the last surviving brother of original Enterprise designer Matt Jefferies, Richard, tabling with his book on Matt's life again—after our chat in 2008; you really DO need one of these beautiful coffee table tomes if you are a fan at all. 

But most of all, those costumes! (I still avoid saying "cosplay," as that should refer to those who actually roleplay as well as don the duds—and there were still some of those. I'm looking at you, all-day-Pakled Ron Aponte (right). :-)  My regrets at not seeing the Vasquez Rocks live, nor any of the Crystalline Entities.

And those new fans! How many, one after another, came by the table and let me worm it out of them that this was not only their first Vegas Khaan!, but their first con anywhere, of any stripe. Some had been armchair fans for years, some came in with JJTrek—but all said it was just time to do it.

Trek teen geekgirls rule!

And that brings us to all the stereotype busters, god bless'em. Nervous Trek marketers worried about the under-30-fans dwindling, and that seemed to be true in the mid-Aughts—at least as far as the barometer of con attendance. Middle-age folks with hard-core jobs, more into actors than con-going, turned out on Saturday and/or Sunday on one-day tickets, especially for the TNG reunion or the "Four Captains." But the Vegas phenom has exploded since mid-decade for twentysomethings—thanks to JJ's movie, and thanks to the TNG-watching parents' kids now in their 20s and coming alone when their parents remained armchair fans (I heard that over and over, too: those '80s babies finally grew up).

Our other meme-buster remains women—and how. Not to be all sexist, but I've long fought to undo the meme that there were no women, much less attractive ladies, in Trek fandom. Of course that's silly: Spock's Vulcan sexual aloofness/seductiveness DROVE fandom in the first decade. But the con-going generation didn't replace that until recently, in big numbers, and now we have delightful young ladies all over the place--and smart, savvy, sassy ones sciencing and entrepreneuring up a storm, as part of the geekgal revolution. And thanks to 24/7, cross-platform media and online awareness.

Vegas Trek is also now so big that one can spend all their time in just one non-actor-focused angle—say, Star Trek Online's parties and events and developer-worship... much less the costumes... or the exploding podcaster community, led this year by a huge "Podcasters' Row": G&T Show, Priority One, Podcast UGC, Primetime UGC, Gates of Sto'Vo'Kor, and STOked Radio—all syndicated or live on Trek Radio, taking turns at their booth. (BTW: All you Cryptic and pod folks I finally met in the flesh are just a blur! Avatars and handles—not helpful!)

Ex-McFadden's: lost opp

Of course Vegas is still the place to see sights and hear news like no other: Mike and Denise Okuda inspecting the new Qmx Enterprise-A and Enterprise-D, or the unveiling of LaLaLand's amazing all-in-one TOS soundtrack  project. News that William Shatner's follow-up is a TNG doc with David Zappone and his Get a Life crew... and that David Gerrold is filming a doc on his works, too. Oh, and a personal mini-reunion with my old colleague Dan Madsen as he helps to ease Ashley Eckstein's Her Universe geekgirl fashion line into the Trek realm, with my buds Mary "Televixen" Czerwinski, Charity "Bye Bye Robot" Wood and Kayla Iacovino. Or see Rod introduce the slick and in-depth  Roddenberry episode-review podcast Mission Logs with host John Champion (and getting to meet co-host Ken Ray that night). Not near enough time with my buds Ian Spelling, Alec Peters and Anthony Pascale... or missing many, many others. (Ron and Brannon, my regrets.) 

Thanks also to all the early-birds who hit up our "Party Like a SpockStar" event at the Masquerade Bar, cosponsored with DVDGeeks review podcast; John and Mary's Bozo Buckets were a DVD-prize hit. Not so lucky was my voice, lost along with our space last year in the former McFadden's (above right) to rebranding/weeknight closure and the dull ambient roar of the Masquerade Village "stage" we were stuck with. So much for my karaoke.

Amid the mobs, there was a place for little moments: my Twitter bud and STO's Thomas Marrone fulfilling a lifelong dream of having Mike O. signing his TNG Tech Manual (left)... introducing "FX Ron" B. Moore, VFX supervisor from TNG's pilot through Enterprise's finale, to the radio guys (right) and getting him on live (and seeing his Memory-Alpha page for the first time!)  .... and catching a Nog-Jake reunion, as Cirroc Loftin and Aron Eisenberg found each other for a quick chat just at Sunday closing time in the vendor's room, right across from me:

Ferengi-Hewmon unscripted reunion

Touching history

Or even me, finding a rare fanboy moment and actually touching a piece of the original Galileo shuttlecraft plywood hull with the actual builder, car customizer Gene Winfield (right) in the original AMT Models deal that paid for the set piece.  But not to say, in all that, that I was crowdaphobic: I had to see the TNG reunion and most of Four Captains as well, myself.



But Vegas Khaan has gotten not just large but diverse—the 9-p.m.-bedtimers and the party peeps alike—and even spawned empowered fans who make their own events and spinoffs to fill the gaps that still remain, even after Creation's Adam and Gary keep expanding it ... proving that there's  plenty of small moments and personal bits that everyone can take away.

Thanks so much for all of you Khaaaners who shared little moments with me—either a question, or a trivia try, or a photo op (yours or mine).  My gratitude and thanks for all the support so many of you give Trekland, my new CD "On Speaker", and The Con of Wrath—both at the table and at the events.

And most of all—thanks to all of you who admitted, one way of another, that this was your FIRST Vegas Khaan... or first con, altogether. (Hey, don't forget to find and support your local sci-fi fandom, too!)  That's what keeps this event fresh, that's what keeps fandom fresh... that's what keeps STAR TREK and Gene's vision fresh and alive.

As if they need any help.



(Like so many others, I have these and more choice Vegas pics in an album at my Trekland Facebook page. "Like" the page, would you, if not already? There's plenty more albums of pics there, as well.)