Shatner AS Kirk in a local parade, 1968: Priceless video

Click the image: Shatner in Columbia, SC Christmas parade—11/29/68

Here's a little jewel that proves why the Internet is AMAZING:

Twitter's @moonriverseeker just pinged me out of the blue today to ask about the source of this photo—obviously, Shatner doing a Captain Kirk local appearance to promote Trek in the '60s, one of many at the behest of NBC. (Leonard Nimoy has written about an infamous one he was a part of that changed his Spock outlook forever.)

Dealing with a university archive, I can't grab an embed code to share it intact here, but the link is easy enough to find. After all, I did it in about 10 minutes, just off the watermark of the frame grab—thanks to some basic guesswork and an excellent online browser of the University of South Carolina's MIRC archives. Turns out this is from B-roll film of the annual Columbia, S.C. Christmas Parade from Nov. 29, 1968, shot by WNOK News (now WLTX). (Well, that was easy.) The Shatner footage starts at 1:27, and is simple and yet oh so revealing ...

Best bit: how two adoring teenaged girls (left) are brave enough to have run out to the Shat's car for a quick up-close hello and maybe a smack, just as the newscam started to roll on him. Ahhh, and so it begins ... Don't THEY wish they could have Instagrammed that moment?

There's a bigger context, here too—after all, this is tumultuous 1968, year of Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King's assasinations, racial strife, the Vietnam Tet offensive and anti-war protests hounding LBJ from running again. What also strikes me is how both whites and blacks are somewhat mixed here on the sidewalk as parade-goers, as some glints of racial social integration are finally starting to take hold, even in South Carolina. On a lighter note, check out how crisp and sharp Shatner's costumed Kirk looks, just sitting in an open convertible—even in black and white—against the cold drab gray downtown of Columbia, and likely many other medium-sized cities?

BTW, what's up with that? Local TV news still shooting in B&W in 1968?  They reasoned most of their viewing audience had not yet jumped up to color? The local OKC stations had mostly gone to color by 1968, I'm sure of it. Sure, for film the color chemistry was a pain—no videotape yet either?

So, today's moral: Who knows how many more treasures are out there courtesy of local news cameras, even local home movies, that ought to be preserved as local snapshots in  time, and even turn out to have national interest?

Once again, I'll climb on my soapbox to plead with you all to preserve your local pop culture history—either by yourself, starting with your Trek or sci-fi / genre club looking into local roots and imagery and interview subjects ... or at least by finding out how you can help those, like MIRC at South Carolina, who already hip-deep into it.

Just because we're digging into a little chapter of Houston Trek history doesn't mean it can't go on all over the world.

"The Captains" poster winners from EPIX and Trekland

We have our winners!

Thanks to the offer from EPIX, promoting the release of those five new half-hour Captains' Close-Up spin-offs from William Shatner's The Captains on the eve of JJTrek II, this poster of Starfleet's finest is now en route to these trivia hounds, who are also our newest and smartest "official" Treklanders! It's a very signable print, perfect for something new to be con-graphed.

Congrats go out all over the country to:

Julie Gray
Seattle, WA

Melodie Maynor
Box Elder, SD

Christian Burris
Winston-Salem, NC

Meg Fouty
Nitro WV

Bob Slade
Grain Valley MO

J.W. Grabiak
Las Vegas, NV

Andrew Voth
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Mike Frazier
Mount Holly NC

Karen Brown
Virginia Beach, VA 

Thanks again for jumping in to enter another Trekland event, guys.

(BTW: The correct answer to the trivia question...

 "All of Star Trek's five lead captains are fictitiously said to have been born in the onetime United States of America ... except who?"

...was of course "Picard.")

Don't forget: You can still check the EPIX listings for TV repeats of, or just catch any of this Shatnerpalooza online at the site as well if EPIX is not available on your local system.

Catch the captains' solo acts on EPIX tonight—and win a poster from Trekland, too!

If you bought your tickets for Into Darkness for opening day Friday and then they moved the
debut up on you to today, don't despair: You can still celebrate "STID Eve" in your universe in a very Trekkish way AND do it for free. AND even win a poster from TREKLAND!

Or, go crash a screening any time—you've got two weeks on this deal:

From EPIX and the team that brought you William Shatner's Get a Life and The Captains documentaries, you can catch five new BONUS specials on the net: a special one-hour solo spotlight on each of Trek's five center-seaters starting at 8 p.m. ET tonight....and online for those unable to see EPIX.

The exclusive EPIX "The Captains Close-Up" series features more of those interviews conducted by Shatner with his Starfleet colleagues Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew, Patrick Stewart, and Scott Bakula. And the special series kicks off with a close-up interview with Shatner himself.

You can even get a free limited-edition full-size poster from The Captains (above), perfect for autographing at the next big con or two (or three) you make it to. EPIX is supplying me with 10 of these lovelies to give away to the first TEN Treklanders in the U.S. who sign up at larrynemecek.com and answer this trivia question correctly:

All of Star Trek's five lead captains are fictitiously said to have been born in the onetime United States of America ... except who?

Just hit the newsletter signup link, fill it out for name and email—but add your trivia guess (a lead captain's last name) and your full mail address after your first name in that "first name " text field. Do it quick! The first 10 correct U.S. answers win their sender a poster shipped directly from EPIX; lack of a mail address prohibits receipt of your prize. In any case, the quiz offer closes at 9 P.M. PDT / 12 AM EDT on TUESDAY, May 21. Good luck!

Meanwhile, if you can't access EPIX on your cable or dish system, all the new "solo" films are available on EpixHD.com and can be watched via a limited free trial link.

After accessing that link, here's the direct page for each captain's spotlight:


The Captains Close Up: William Shatner

The Captains Close Up: Avery Brooks

The Captains Close Up: Kate Mulgrew

The Captains Close Up: Patrick Stewart

The Captains Close Up: Scott Bakula


At any time, the entire original The Captains as produced and directed by Shatner remains on view at EpixHD.com with no limits. It is not part of tonight's special lineup, though.

Happy birthday, Bill: What NOT to get The Shat (video)

At 81, he will keep running right through those years one by one right up until the moment he simply can't run (or drop-and-roll) any more.

Yes, it feels as if everyone the world over today is singing happy birthday greetings to our newest one-man roadshow star, William Shatner.

But that's about all they can do. I mean, what do you get The Man who has everything?

For one thing, he certainly doesn't need to get A LIFE:




By the way—and without any intent to imply a copyright holding on the NBC video involved— that 1986 SNL sketch had more to do with promoting the current image of the "fanboy" ... and away from the female-driven, zine-writing/con-throwing FEMALE fan icon that first emerged in Trek fandom from the 70s. …

..and that—pssst!—never really ever went away!

So, today's true birthday gift to us all is that the old pizza-faced basement-dweller meme has morphed back into:
—... the Geek Revolution
—… the Geek Girl "movement" (though she's always been there)
—… and The Big Bang Theory being viewable on three or four channels every day, laughing all the way to the bank.

STV— Fotos and Fan Faces: More Video Vegas Khhaaann 2011

Hey, it's Chicago Trek con weekend from Creation— and in honor of the occasion, and of Leonard Nimoy's final planned convention appearance, here's some sights and sounds from Vegas Khhaaan! that I've been holding back these past few weeks. (Video below the fold) I sounded off already on what we learned there ...

But here's a little more of the fun flavor: To start, some pics from what turned out to be Leonard's next-last con appearance, for one thing—the long-term highlight of that Vegas weekend, for me ... and what I know will be just as moving for the Chi-town fans now:

And a hoot of a panel that Anthony Pascale asked me to join, apart from my own ...  and one just as vociferously attended: the "Captain Smackdown" panel. Alec Peters and I played not so much a dominant role, but a set-up for audience debate and voting—which is how I liked it. Here's the results—with 1 point for 1st place, 5 for last place in each category, and all representing actual audience vote results. And, yep, the woman outdrew the Brit and lost the tiebreaker to the Original: Who knew the Kathryn Janeway Protection-Promotion League would show up en masse?

The most personal moment of all was the fan who caught me to sign a photo—nothing special there, but what a photo: a stunning 8x10 print of my "Civilian #2" among the guest cameos in the audience of the Enterprise finale. You can bet I especially did a double-take when I saw the ENTERPRISE branding like a licensed photo (of me?) ... but it was all a custom home job. Thanks Willie—that was a moment for the ages. And thanks Dawn, Charity & Chris for the camera work, and helping make it a "corridor moment" for even more passers-by curious at our little mini-party there for a couple minutes. It just really got to me.

I think that was even more of a hoot than having The Shat's Fan Addicts film crew (led by Bill "in cognito" in his stand-out white hat) crash not one but two of our events: The annual rapid-fire trivia (thanks once again for prizes, CBS Consumer Products!) and our game for the evening freebirds at McFadden's on the Casino "strip" (with DVDGeeks' John and Mary and Treknews.net's Brian)...

And finally, as promised in that first post-Vegas '11 TREKLAND post, I went in wearing some new hats this year—producer, for one—and did it (like everyone else) in a new "home." So, that translates as a bit thrown out of routine, and not a lot of video shot. But here's some fun stuff, nonetheless—and, as always, the kind of thing that stops me in my tracks and forces me to whip out the camera... even after all these years, and over such a crazy-busy weekend ....




A big shout-out of thanks to Gary and Adam, and Stephanie and Val and Michelle and Richard and all the Creation gang, once again ... And a reminder not to forget my video visit from our own @Televixen Mary during her MakeMeDehner.com "tour," already up as a Trekland post, too ...

STV: Happy 45th, Star Trek—your gift: a rare video of your 20th!

So yes, to finish up your annual dilitihium-powered birthday candles: Happy Birthday, Star Trek! Although, as I always say, never forget we're merely marking the first airdate, not the pilot conception or even filming of "The Cage" over two years earlier. In fact, It's a good time to celebrate with a look back at Star Trek's SECOND-most important year...

I'm talking about 1986, When Everything Changed. Thanks to Star Trek IV having such early buzz (later fulfilled in acclaim and box office alike) ... which helped answer the ongoing clamor of local stations for "more Star Trek"  with the bold move to finally make a TV spinoff (what became The Next Generation, of course). With all that, someone figured out it might be time to finally mark the anniversary with an "official" blowout. And even a logo!

Thus, herewith we present—"fresh" from some old VHS tape from some dealer at some con back in the mists of time (and thus, apologies for its quality)—a very rare glimpse of the 20th anniversary Star Trek bash at the studio on Sept. 8, 1986. In context, the announcement of TNG was still a month away, while just five years and a month later Gene Roddenberry himself would be gone, after a series of strokes.

Still, the vindication in his voice here is palatable...

The brick heard round the world: who's really to thank?

We say it tongue in cheek on this anniversary date...

You can watch the clip below, but don't thank William Shatner—thank Gene, and Matt Jefferies, and Wah Chang—as you thank Dr. Martin Cooper (right) for making (and building) that first cell phone call happen 38 years ago today.

(And note, per the best in fictional "continuity checking," that Cooper made his call to a land line—of course. What other cell phone was there?)