Greetings from TREKLAND: the place I've lived and worked for some 20 years as Star Trek author, interviewer, editor, commentator, producer, event wrangler.
Now I share the folks, fun, fotos and future of it all here at Trekland — all in my own unique slant. So what are you waiting for? Jump in, sound off, geek out.
Didn't get all the best Trek goodies on your list for the holidays? If you didn't already grab a copy of David Goodman's The Autobiography of James T. Kirk from Titan Books, maybe now's the time! Available everywhere live and online, it's David's second foray into non-fiction gap-filling, after FEDERATION: The First 150 Years in 2012. (And you know how I am about Trek gap-filling.) In fact, I grabbed David once again in the off-hours at his office as Family Guy writer-producerto talk about the tome in a new vidchat: his choices, the process, and even fan feedback after Federation.
WARNING: Loaded with all kinds of sidelong and unexplained Trek references, of course.
SECOND WARNING: Watch for the remainder of this chat in follow-ups in coming days!
FYI:
Portal 47 members got to view this video up to 72 hours early before it
went public—one feature of their deep-dive Trekland access.
UPDATE: "The Captains" reruns Monday, March 14 at 8a & 2p ET/6a & 11a PT! Set yer DVRs!
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There IS life after Election Day hoopla...
Case in point: The very next night— Wednesday Nov. 3—there's zillions of notables on camera for The Captains of the Final Frontier, a new Biography Channel TWO-hour documentary about a quintet of fictional folks named Kirk, Picard, Sisko, Janeway and Archer.
Check your local listing and cable channels—but it is nominally set to air at 9 p.m Eastern...and I'm proud to say I worked as consultant to the operation. Check it out for a little post-election escape:
And yes—Biography Channel is supposed to be about REAL people, sure. They tell me that past episodes of Biography on fictional characters got rave reviews and good numbers, so in the search for a follow-up....well, what fictional folk are more real than Star Trek's?
What's funny is, producer Lauri Marini contacted me to be on-camera, along with many others you'll know ... and I wound up having a great time, doing a lot more backgrounding for the show. Then, two months into my involvement last summer, one day we suddenly heard all the buzz about a "five captains special" being put together William Shatner's group. What else was I to think other than he had gotten involved in this show?—just last like time, after several of us had taped some bits that were eventually left behind on the cutting-room floor for a U.K. Star Trek doc that one day suddenly morphed into How William Shatner Changed the World.
But this time—no such merging. Bill's own captain's special is an entirely separate project and, apparently, scheduled to be seen next spring. Right now, though, the Shat does lead a one-hour special that airs just before this one, hosting his castmates and their TOS clips in Star Trek: Captain's Log. The whole package re-airs at 12 a.m./1 a.m. ET, and then again later in the week.
For these two hours, talking about the personalities and how they got there (or didn't), you can see the familiar faces of Kate Mulgrew, Tim Russ, Nana Visitor, Denise Crosby, Dominic Keating, Anthony Montgomery, and Vaughn Armstrong ... the not-so-familiar faces of producer-writers Rick Berman, Nick Meyer, Manny Coto, Ira Steven Behr, Rene Echevarria, Michael & Denise Okuda, and Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens ... and authors joining me like Kirsten Beyer, Keith R.A. DeCandido, David R. George III, David Mack and Geoffrey Thorne. PLUS comics creator Ken Penders and Rod Roddenberry! With no more canon filmic Trek for 18 months—well, here's two hours for ya.
TRIVIA TIME: In that promo video above, we see Bob Picardo and Kate Mulgrew—but who's the unseen voice at the end talking about casting? The Comments below are open for your guesses!!
Matt Jefferies has a hallowed place in Trekland as the designer of the original Enterprise of 1964 (or 2145!), as well as the look and feel of its interiors, its props, and its earliest alien worlds. In short, he brought Gene's vision to life—a genius, especially in light of the limited time, crew and budgets he had to work with.
But there was much more to the veteran, flier, Hollywood artisan and beloved brother and husband than "just" Star Trek—especially the part about coming up from humble roots to leave a legacy both beloved and legendary.
So take a listen: Who better to get it all down than his brother Richard, who tells me all about Beyond the Clouds: The Lifelong Trek of Walter "Matt" Jefferies, Artist and Visionary ...
By the way, it is a great book and pictorial story: at Borders, Barnes and Noble, Baker & Taylor, or www.mattjefferies.com.
Didn't get all the best Trek goodies on your list for the holidays? 
