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.)

RIP, Leonard Nimoy: So many talents—but Spock's #1

FInal Vegas Khhaaan Trek convention appearance, August 2011

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy birthday De: even belatedly, a special wish

Ever since I launched TREKLAND a few years back, I always make it a point to mark at least one Trekland birthday every year, out of all the many involved: my own personal fave, our own DeForest Kelley—and do it by sharing a photo from the file I collected from friends after his death in 1999.

This year, I am a day late—but I hope not a dollar short. In fact, this year of all years it's been a bittersweet personal moment for me after all the younger years feelings for De and his iconic role among roles... then meeting him as a fan, and then meeting him as a colleague—though for all too short a time.

And now, to know him as an item of research of sorts: playing McCoy, on short notice, in the debut full episode of Star Trek Continues, as I tweeted and Facebook'd a couple days ago on the run.  It's a labor of love that must also be real work, fitted in on a month's notice amid other new cramped deadlines—though I'd like to think I've been doing the research by osmosis all along.

So it's not only a belated birthday wish—but one made on the road, to boot. Even so, I wanted to share a photo—and this one, a Trek topic from the second season, will bear special meaning, as I'll share eventually: ...and my big thanks to trekcore.com for being the online site that had it handy where I could find it on short notice!

Happy birthday, De—I hope somewhere, somehow, you know why I'm late...and accept it as a gift in spirit.

The week's OTHER anniversary bash: A Bittersweet Happy 15 to The Experience

I missed a party last night that I really hated to miss.

Because there's not just one big Trek anniversary to celebrate this week: It was 15 years ago January 4—just yesterday/Friday—that Star Trek: The Experience had its gala opening for a couple thousand bigwigs and exuberant fans at the Las Vegas Hilton.

Of course we all know by now that hotel machinations ended the three-way deal when its 10 years ran out in 2008, and fans everywhere mourned the closing of STTE, its Klingon and Borg simulator rides, Star Trek museum, Promenade shops and especially Quark's bar and grill. Today, thousands more mourn that they never had a chance to visit—or weren't even fans at the time—and listen wistfully to the stories of old now growing more vivid than Klingon battle songs.

So, to mark the occasion, Vernon Wilmer—the unofficial archivist of it all and creator of the Star Trek: My Experience web documentary series—and Trekcast podcaster/former Quarks bartender Darren Benjamin gathered fellow onetime actors and other employees of "STTE" as well as fans to mark the 1998 opening last night. I wanted to zoom up to Vegas from Burbank, but simply could not as my January has exploded (In fact, this will be a thin month for TREKLAND postings, I'll warn you).

And just as we pine for a Star Trek SERIES to return Trek to its rightful spot in society as well as our imaginations .. so do folks yen for a return of The Experience, in some real-life, hands-on Trek-theme interaction. The quickie attempt by a local developer fizzled under the weight of the decision-making as well as the market crash, and now the CBS-desired idea sits without a rudder or a leader.

So, yes, a party for grander times! Changes at the LV Hilton, er "Hotel," have rendered even the old STTE-adjacent SpaceQuest Bar a moot place to go, so the bash came to Darren's current digs at McMullan's across town. (I'd send you to the Facebook event page and photos, but it's a private list). I feel badly for missing it because I WAS there at the grand opening—as a museum contributor as well as a Trek licensee (Communicator managing editor) and overlapping press. I've shared stories of that night many times...and I have video to put up, still... but for today I thought I'd share these (as well as the link to Vernon's documentary Facebook page, as well)...

Winners and pics!: TNG HD's Theatre show Thursday

Here they are!

The winners of our pair o' tickets in five major cities to Thursday's big nationwide theater event, "TNG: A Celebration of Season 2," marking the release of another season of remastered Next Generation on HD Blu-ray, on sale the very next day.

A big hat-tip to everyone—especially Michelle Portillo at NCM/Fathom Events and Nick Tarnowski at Allied Integrated Marketing—who helped Trekland play Santa in these five cities to these smart and lucky fans plus a guest:

—Joseph Daniele, Cambridge/Boston
—Deborah Pesa, New York City;
—Charles Wagner, Skokie/Chicago;
—Lauren Little, Orlando
—John Williams, Kent/Seattle

Thanks to everyone who entered—and for those who lived everywhere else in the U.S., hopefully we'll do this again sometime and set up your city for the giveaway.

Meanwhile, everybody else still has time to grab tickets and go to a theater near you—just check on the Fathom Events TNG page and theater list.  Of course, the S2 Blu-ray set itself can be pre-ordered from many sites.

AND NOW: Remember what a party the TNG Season 1 "theater night" turned into last July? Many of you were there, and on the spur of the moment when I asked everybody to share pics with us the next day, you responded! Clubs, buddy groups and anybody who dressed up or made a night of it sent in their fun pics and we posted a lot of them.

So, do the same: just email them to larry@larrynemecek.com that night or the next day, and make sure to give me a full name (or first name and initial) and mention what city you're in (and the club name, ship chapter, or whatever moniker your group might like to be ID'd as.)

Our five winners are going to send their theater pics from "TNG S2" night as well—and I will jump in with mine, too. So here's to a fun night of big-screen "The Measure of The Man," "Q Who?," and the next chapter in the amazing Remastered TNG documentary of the next Blu-ray season sets, directed by Robert Meyer Burnett amid a sea of colorful characters talkin' Trek of the Next Gen persuasion.

And stay tuned: by Thursday we'll run Part II of our chat with longtime TV Trek VFX supervisor Dan Curry and his work on Season 2—analog show then, and Blu-ray consulting now.

Panel rookie no more!—ComicCon '11: some reflections

Get ready for a big wrap-up ... even video below! .... because the phenom that I've only tasted since 2006—an eon ago now, it seems—this year was a very different Comic-Con experience for me, as it was planned. I gave up purely fanboy moments ages ago—even though I still make sure to find one or two, like Chuck before, Looney Tunes this year. [See yesterday's photo.]

I barely got around the exhibit floor, and had to apologize to a lot of boothing buds that I didn't get to see—but I was still present enough to be struck by all the sudden elbow room, even at midday Friday and Saturday. You could breathe! But was this due to a big dropoff at the "long sold out" show?

Hardly—just the effects of the big push do centralize events out of the Convention Center and into the bigger adjacent hotels. Lots of events, and new maps to show it all—big program book/app revamp. (And thumbs up for it to SDCC staff). Seems to be working, too—and ending all the talk of recent years about taking mushrooming SDCC to L.A. or Vegas—that, and the city bond issue recently passed to expand the convention center soon.

No surprise, as the city tourism booth folks told me that nothing brings it to San Diego like Comic-Con—other events at most are 1/5 the size and money impact of SDCC. So locals sit up and listen when this fandom barks ...and even tax themselves more!—a far cry from all those years of being dissed by the hotel help and diner waitresses, ridiculed in so many cities while at cons, even as they added to the tax base and local economy just as much as any straight-laced trade show or sports event. There's another culture sea-change for fandom!

And here's another:  The first thing to hit me on Thursday, though, in a tweet-exchange I shared with dear @Televixen: even more teenage girls, streaming into the center, en masse. NORMAL ones. Not even of the anime/manga cosplay variety: these looked like "ordinary" freshmen, like they skipped 4th-hour cheerleader practice or a mall meetup to come over to Comic-Con for the day's kicks. In a pack. Over and over. I wish I'd snapped a few of them without seeming like a weirdo ... but the Twoint is: "Corner is turned: How much longer can we call fandom "geek"?

Friday I had the pleasure of hosting Alison White, our creator-producer-actress of the L.A. Comedy Awards-nominated webseries "Divine White's Introduction to Hollywood" that coaxed me back onscreen as a guest star . OK, so it's not really genre—unless you count as the Brits as aliens!—and then Sunday I scooped up two licensee vidchats I'll get up ASAP with Dana at Andovos high-end costumes and Neil Bulk with the new TNG CDs released by LaLaLand Records. Their presence, as well as Roddenberry's and those of say IDW and CBS and Hallmark, for starters, made sure there was a Trek look to Comic-Con, even in an off (ie, non-movie) year.

But most of all, I had my serious hat on for just one thing, like never before: my commitments. A longer-than-normal table slot in prime time Friday and Saturday in Autograph Alley?—thank you Katherine! It cut down my con roving time, but I learned long ago for me a SDCC table wasn't about "sales bucks" but about having a stated place where anyone could find me in this sea of humanity—old friends, new business contacts. Indeed, this year I look up to see a fellow approach, saying he had done all the official translations into Japanese for my TNG Companion editions, and wanted to meet me! How cool is that? So thanks, Norihiko Nakajima, for tracking me down!


The topper, though, was my DEBUT for Comic-Con—thanks Eddie!—in what would be the oxymoron of a "solo panel." Here's a truism: You can do the same thing for 10 years, but no one takes it seriously until you NAME it—so, my slideshow... ahem, "Trek: Between the Cracks" ... finally came to SDCC. But, running low on prep time to puff it into an SDCC-worthy level, and up against all Saturday-night competition... anxiety reigned until Friday night's prep. Then, even a sinus cold Saturday couldn't stop us, and the result—a whoopin' 500-some SRO crowd seemed to have a good time.

Best of all, at the end of the hour,  that crowd got the WORLD PREMIERE of our first public promo trailer for The Con of Wrath, featuring teaser clips of Harve and Walter, along with my intro. Thanks to DP Neal Hallford for helping there...

If you were in 7AB that night, too, thanks much for sharing your time with us... (and if you took any pics of me, feel free to share! Just use LN.com's contact form.) I trust you learned and laughed, equally... and hope you can give The Con of Wrath's webpage and Facebook page a look and a Like—especially the small-donor and thank-you's gifts page.

And thanks to the mob that stuck around afterward, including current ST Magazine writer Dwayne Day—good to meet!

So, yes—a more serious Con for me, more work-mission-oriented and tiring, less friending and partying. General trends were obvious as well, mostly for the better .... but overall: Unique and ever-fun as always.

Especially when you consider I got two shout-outs: the panel, previewed by the Nikki Finke bunch at deadline.com (see 7:30 p.m.)—pretty funny, sadly accurate!

And, finally, the showstopper: my old college buddy Steve Myers, now anchor at ABC Channel 7 in Amarillo, threw this special tag out Thursday to close a network feature on Comic-Con. He  shared a little code with all those Panhandlers whom I bet had no clue what he was talking about:

And oh—you want a happy ending, even after that? Literally, on my way out the front door Sunday on final exit, I was able to trade my SDCC "big bag" adorned by Fringe for the one featuring LooneyTunes' Bugs and Daffy. Seriously—just as I stepped outside.

So that's it: a few random thoughts on all things Comic-Con and Me.
Okay, okay, a token costume shot, too:

Is it live, or is it matte painting?

Saturday, 7 p.m., downtown L.A. looking west: I would have thought this was a great matte painting or stage backdrop ... had I not seen it in real life with my own eyes. The camera did a good job capturing what I saw and sensed, though:






















It was en route to see Robert Beltran's play Solitude, so I guess that qualifies it for Trekland ...