Last day! Harlan's CITY audiobook stretch goal perks

Hey, crew—with so MUCH Trekland news and projects flying by in subspace, it's hard to keep up, I know. I know! 


But I'm been lax to talk about a wonderful project I got to be part of— the audiobook of Harlan Ellison's original "City of the Edge of Forever" scripts and the saga in-between, from Skyboat Media... and today is the final day (4 pm Pacific/ 7 pm Eastern) to be part of it all and get perks for its stretch goals from a smashing Kickstarter drive!

You saw the graphic novel a couple years ago under CBS' wing... THIS is an audiobook of that once-published story PLUS all the drafts before, scripted or not—PLUS Harlan's version of the story then and over the years, as only he can "set it straight." And you know the salt content of Harlan's personal logs...


Talented voices bring life to Beckwith, Trooper, LeBeque, and all the other characters you never knew (along with Sister Edith and the Trek regulars, of course)  from the Writer's Guild-winning version that later became the Hugo-award winning classic TOS episode...including LeVar Burton as the narrator...and moi, who tosses in a commentary (along with David Gerrold, D.C. Fontana, et al—great company!) —and the pivotal (koff, koff) role of a transporter chief.
 
The KS drive and the stretch goals chance ends at 4 pm Pacific/7 pm Eastern TODAY, so check it out!

And get some samples of iconic Harlan, and the likes of Jean Smart and the cast, here:

Twill be out from Skyboat Media, Harlan's longtime audio publisher, by summer convention time. Look for it! They'll be boothing at Vegas, #STLV— and I'll have more here, too.

TNG Movie Night S3: Sights, sounds & tales from L.A. to E.P.

We'll keep collecting anecdotes here, but it's safe to say Thursday night's "Best of Both Worlds" TNG Bluray movie night from CBS and Fathom Events was easily the biggest Trek blowout event in this series. And kudos to TrekRadio for having podcasters and others (like moi) call in from theaters around the country for a little live flavor of Collective fun.

TREKLAND had our ticket-giveaway winners among the hordes of non-drones heading to cinemas nationwide, and Canada too. As promised here's a round-up of what we got in—including a wedding proposal, thanks to Locutus (or at least thanks to his timing of return).

Of course, the fact that the newly HD'd show in question was "The Best of Both Worlds"—and an all-new cinematic edit to boot—didn't hurt the turnout.

The fact that the flick in question not only packs its own punch, but evokes for all who were around in 1990 that long-ago innocence of witnessing a breakout hit in the process, your reward for  standing by in the lean early years... before all the movies and sequels and had-to-get-a-job worldweariness. It calls to you, back to the days when you really could obsess over the world's best cliffhanger... all. summer. long.

Which, as @SirPatStew recounts in the new documentary, applied to parents as well as kids. (And I won't spoil his story, if you haven't seen it elsewhere yet.)
 
Still, I heard that some goers were confused with that Other Star Trek Movie coming next month ...

"There were five people (looked like a family) who got up and left at the beginning as soon as the Fathom trailers finished and the documentary came on. They apparently thought they had bought tickets for the new J.J. Abrams film-—you know, the one that hasn't even come out in the U.S. yet. Pretty amusing!"—Frank Gruber, Paramus, NJ screening

"Guy came out of the theater, saw an Into Darkness poster, said to his friend: 'That's what I THOUGHT we were coming to see!'—@gregharbin (Seattle)

Unofficial ground central for TNG movie night may have been at the Century City Arclight in L.A., where goers got to hear remarks from TNG staffers and Blu-ray project consultant Mike and Denise Okuda, LeVar "Geordi" Burton, onetime TNG S3 writer Ira Steven Behr, and even Elizabeth "Shelby" Dennehy herself, plus Blu-ray doc producers Robert Meyer Burnett and Roger Lay Jr. The Westmores Michael and Michael Jr, who did the Borg electronics, were also in the house—and thanks to my Vegas Vanna, Mary "Televixen" Czerwinski, for these photos while I was "on location" in El Paso:

Listening to Ira wax historic are (from left) Rob, Roger, Denise, Mike, and LeVar ...

...plus a zinger from Elizabeth!

And friend/photog Mary snags those Westmore boys

But meanwhile, in Charleston, S.C.:

"As the director of Carolina Alliance of Star Trek Fans... last night at a local Regal theater we hosted an event. I've worked with NCM Fathom Events since Season 1 and last night was our largest attendance yet!!! We even had a couple get ENGAGEd!"—Erika Y. Figueroa

Our ticket winner in Philly sent this:

"I attended the showing at the Rave 6 University City... It seats about 200 and was a sellout. As I waited for my friend Amy, I talked with members of the Philadelphia Star Trek Meetup Group and the Southeastern PA Nerd Herd.  I ended up missing the pre-show trivia questions and the [documentaries] and instead spent my time talking with my new friends! (Even more members of these 2 groups showed up after this photo was taken.)—Loretta Painter (in TNG T-shirt), Philadelphia

From our Cleveland-area winner, too, in North Canton:
"The theater was almost sold out, and I bought the tickets for our others there; I was going to help the less fortunate anyway."—Roger Scritchfield, Akron


We also heard from the USS Ticonderoga crew in Salt Lake City:
"We had more than the previous two showings"— @TardisCaptain_p

And the USS Atlantis in Idaho, too:

And yes, here in El Paso, where I was in town for Sun City SciFi con, the small but rowdy group at the "overflow" Tinseltown Cinemark theater stood up for my camera to yell out for TrekRadio, and then racked up a few raffle prizes from the con promoters:

Family night!: "Not a great shot, but here's me and my daughter, @ConeErica in Provo, UT"—@cone_is










We also got some thoughts from Treklanders who simply pinged me:

"Modern me got hit almost as hard in the gut as the 1990 me: Fleet graveyard scene hits me right in the feels every time. —@thejoncon, Phoenix area

"That was fun! Loads of #TNG fans, Trek t-shirts everywhere & even a few costumes. Too bad about tech issues tho."—@wetodded, San Diego

"Unfortunately, here at the Orem, UT event, nobody was in costume. Except me."—Scott Armstrong

"I wonder how many Miley Cyrus fans were disappointed last night?"—@doubleofive, Bedford, IN

"Yes [ennoyed],  but thanks to technical difficulties we lost 30 minutes of the episode #dontgotoAugustaGA —@The_Don_Burrito


"Awesome big sceen show, almost full theater, lots of fun, laughing, clapping, true ST fans." —@laura_leclair8, Revere, MA


The event has not dropped off, the numbers keep growing, and a TNG Season 4 promo night seems a sure thing—especially with that trailer for the set on view as well.  I have it on good authority that plans are well along for a repeat of this special edition and documenatry, so we'll see you in a few months back at the theater—even after that other Trek movie... and hopefully glitch free and with cheer to spare.

Closer look: That TNG/Reading Rainbow clip

Reading Rainbow may be gone, but its iconic TNG episode is a landmark.

Yes, Anthony's trekmovie.com and other sites picked up the end of LeVar Burton's Reading Rainbow this week after 26 years on PBS—premiering four years before TNG began—and linked you up to that classic TNG show in two parts that I too, yes, duly have around here on its original VHS cassette.

But here's some Trekland context about that episode—aside from "Gee, look how young they are all":

In the You Tube Part II clip, check out the funnies at 5:22 (above) and realize you are watching the very first bloopers of any kind made available to any audience from the TNG era onward. Until the onetime leak of the TNG 1st season party bloopers a few months later, this was *it* for fandom who'd been used to the infamous TOS outtakes as a convention staple for a decade.

Then too, gentle Internet/DVD generation: after the hoopla coverage of the series launch in September 1987 on ET and elsewhere, this was the only backstage look available for fans for years—and this "gold" is just simple behind-the-scenes footage, much less Rob Legato's visual effects world. Note their gear, too: still very much an analog world!

BONUS ROUND: Three gold stars to the first who can post the name of the episode being shot when the RR film crew comes calling on the bridge; double it if you can name the red-headed female stand-in in teal on the bridge, doing her job as a shot is set up and lit! Answers by Wednesday.