Listen: I deep-dive the Trek 2017 news on NPR & Trek.fm

For those of you who prefer your Trek 2017 info and discussion audio-style as well as deep,
I took part in two great discussions this week that are now downloadable for a listen at your leisure.

Many are familiar with The Ready Room, the flagship program of Chris Jones' Trek.fm network of podcasts—and for the third time this year he invited me on for a breaking-news special edition. This time, rather than the deaths of Leonard Nimoy and Harve Bennett, we had a much more upbeat time talking about the future: the news, business angle and still many questions surrounding "Star Trek 2017"—as well as the stupifying and varied fan reaction to the CBS All Access streaming platform it would pioneer. It's 90 minutes and quite a deep dive, by the times we plumb the angles and implications...and as usual I hope I brought some historical and production context many fans might not have thought of yet.

Also this week, NPR radio host Tom Ashbrook in Boston invited me on his On Point call-in talk show Friday to join two TV critics and bring the hot-news Trek perspective to the topic—the current so-called TV  "reboot" wave. Of course I made the point that Star Trek has already passed through its initial "regeneration" not once but twice, 1986 and 2009—and that to fans this represents not a TV fad but just the latest volume in the series FINALLY coming out, dammit. I had the last half-hour of the hour-long show, but it's all great fun with X-Files and Gilmore Girls getting the secondary attention from the other guests, as well as Trek. You can listen or download it as well at the link.

And if you are not in the download audio habit—that's simply what a podcast is!—they make a great on-demand companion for your long commute, your long jog or workout, or whenever meaningful (and specialized) audio can come in handy. 

Here's as good a time as any to try them out!  I've been a guest on 30+ shows all across Chris's Trek.fm network for years now and he even has a special page made up for them in Trek.fm's coveted "featured iTunes" status section...although you can get to them in a zillion ways—including just direct audio play off the website.

Of course, this was also the topic of this month's "Ask Dr. Trek" Roundtable telebriefing in my Portal 47 group of backstage deep-divers (that's the session where they pepper me, instead of a wonderful guest Trek voice you've likely never heard from—which is the second one of the month). And true to my archive opening feature in P47, I shared both Bob Justman's 1986 memos and Interstat fan letters that year to show how much things are still the same between 1986 and 2015.
 If you're diggin' these type of second-level info, past or future, you really should come through the Portal with us each month for the whole package!

Light bulbs, Romulan transference: download this pod!

I've been a guest on many great Trek and sci-fi podcasts the last couple years or so, and trekfm's The Ready Room is one of them.  Including brand-new Ep. 73 just up this week, about all things Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

I know, I know—28-year-old movie. Yada yada yada.

I don't say that just because host Chris Jones helped me produce my first interview-archives CD ... or because Greg Harbin made it to my first Seattle CON OF WRATH fundraiser.  Or even because they sat mum as I called them Mike & Bryan by mistake for a while. (Or because Charlynn Schmiedt was civil to me despite my all-in-the-family loving cracks about Voyager.)

No, it's not often that insights melt your brain while in the midst of recording or broadcasting... but that's exactly what happened amidst this show. I guess that speaks to the power and longevity of Star Trek... or something. Anyway, give a listen and see if you can see when I had my Joe E. "Romulan" Ross moment.*

At least enjoy that title: "Hot Vulcan Finger Action." Boy, that Chris... he knows how to market.








*Actor who's most famous for saying his trademark insistent "Oooooo! Oooooo!" in all his roles. Which, had he been living, might have included a Star Trek spinoff: "Pod 74, Where Are You?"

"Klingon love machine god"? We're on The Ready Room

The log line should say:
 "For the first time in years, Larry Nemecek talks about his experience in selling, developing, mourning, and then watching the resurrection of their Season 1 Voyager story idea that finally became Season 7's 'Prophecy'."

But a chunk of this "The Ready Room" Episode 52 on Trek.fm is, um, wacky as well, with Chris and Greg. I've been tardy to tell of it here, delayed by SoonerCon & Sooner State travels.

I wonder if THAT qualifies as The Other Side of the Room? (Oh, you have to listen...The TRR News is great, then we come on at the 53:23 mark—if you don't do chapters via an iTunes download.)

Pods and news and secrets—what a day

Wow, this is an insane day prior to travel... but had to share about what you can download TODAY: A great show with some deep places ... really! .... as I got to be a part of trek.fm's "The Ready Room" podcast this week— for their Episode Number 47, naturally!  (And yes, we did review "47" for the newbies."

Totally unrelated, but in breaking secret news I have to sit on something that will surely make news when I can say! At least, among the hard-core canonistas ... and perhaps even my author friends.  More on that in a few months, when I can ...


But back to trek.fm today and your download click-finger:

Now that fandom and the biz have awokened from the drunk of how the Star Trek 2009 dynamic would play out,  Trek's current and future form wound up as our topic —and former Treklanders Doug Mirabelo, onetime emergency Andorian, PA,  and Rick Berman's last assistant at Parmaount, and industry vet Jose Munoz, also a former PA at Star Trek back in the day, joined me from their Zero Room geek-media podcast (and their great Star Trek animated pitch with Dave Rossi) for this show. Hosts Chris and Greg gamely tried to herd the cats. I had not talked to Doug nor Jose in years, so it was doubly fun. And heaven forbid any of us had strong opinions to spout.

And I even use some colorful metaphors. Yes, really.

A shout-out to Chris and Greg for including in the news roundup that it's the final weeks of open registration for our "Hollywood to Vegas" Trek filming site tour that I'll be hosting for Geek Nation Tours in August, pre-Vegas Khhaaann. Please give Teras an email for info so he can call you and see how to make it work best.

Trek.fm's The Ready Room: Fun with TNG's "Sins of the Father"

There are lots of great Trek and sci-fi podcasts out there, with engaging and knowledgeable hosts, just pouring out their passion and love for the topic. (I should know, I've been hitting a lot of them.)

And if you are not listening to Chris and Greg's Trek.fm's podcasts, including The Ready Room, you are missing out. And here's the perfect reason to start: the guys were crazy enough to have me on TRR this week when the Very Serious Subject was  TNG's landmark "Sins of the Father." (Okay, maybe not THAT serious.)

Sure, you may have seen it, and even know it was an important Klingon episode. But can you count the ways?

There is sooooo much context wrapped up in this episode, and where it fell in Greater Trekland History on so many levels, that an hour barely contains it. Much less all the other tangents we work in.

Of course they offer news on the front end of the download, too—and, among several stories, Teras Cassidy and I make a brief appearance to talk about the latest on our "Hollywood to Vegas" Trek film sites trip from Teras' Geek Nation Tours.

But there's a good chunk here that is nothing but pure-dee-ol' Trek nuts and bolts. I hope you give it a listen, and stay with them for a lot of great guests.

'Weird Shit' in The Ready Room: Podcast is up!

Podcast month for me continues, apparently —I know, in this crazed month elsewhere, I have a backlog of blog topics besides me to get to!—but right now I have to tell you what Trekfm's  Christopher Jones and Greg Harbin are up to in their The Ready Room show:

TNG's "Schisms" and "Weird Shit" tales, circa the later TNG era, that's what. Hey, the term was right from exec producer Jeri Taylor—especially for the X-Files-like stories being turned out by newly minted staff writer Brannon Braga back in the day... like this one. At least, that was my contribution to the hour's discussion, along with "Group Clicking" and "Fish Monks."

Anyway, the fun and madness is now up here at their site. The first 57:15 is news'n'views, and then the "Schisms" start...

My "Pendulum Theory" gone wild, takes over Trek.fm! Kinda.

I've been talking about it for years—just an observation—but my eighth "Supplemental" TREKLAND post for rebooted startrek.com about the pendulum swings of Star Trek fan tastes-n-trends seems to caught a lot of notice.

That includes the guys behind trek.fm's The Ready Room weekly podcast, Christopher Jones and Greg Harbin, who had me on for TRR #19, "It Doesn't Have to be Seven Years Apart," which is posted now and also available on iTunes.

Thanks to the title given the original piece by startrek.com—"Is It Time For a TNG Comeback?"—there seems to be a lot of misconception about what I meant (era/vibe/look, not specifically a Stewart/Spiner/Frakes et al reunion movie again). The TRR guys let me come on to talk about the piece and clarify some of those sidetracked misconceptions, but we also opined on The Big Trek Picture in general, especially as to any future TV return. And they were even gracious enough to let me talk about The Con of Wrath and even about the long-lost Grolst coming to light.

I hope everyone gives it a listen and becomes regular TRR listeners. It's a slick addition to their trek.fm lineup of shows and features, and one of many great Trek podcasts that Treklanders are privileged to enjoy.