All I know's what I read on [public] Twitter

Hey, I'm as up for a little Internet hits-n-glory as the next um, millennial… 

But the reports of my having "announced" or "broken" news re: the writing staff of the new Star Trek 2017 series are … greatly exaggerated, to steal a line from Mark Twain. I did see an exciting, and almost unbelievable public Tweet from show writer Kemp Powers about Joe Menosky, and mentioned it during a panel at Phoenix ComicCon, betraying my own excitement about it. But one audience tweet later, and you'd think I unmasked Watergate's Deep Throat.  I've tried to clarify the detail, but to no avail. 

Gotta love the Internet…. or not. Making news for having eyes! 

And hey. I love PHXCC (more to come on that).. but what IS it about Phoenix writers and me? 

Hold your horses—there's no Netflix-CBS "talks" *

Before I get to a look back at FedCon, or Phoenix Comicon…. or a deadline reminder to you about the coming LA2Vega Trek tour and the one-day special we threw in... before all my backlogged videos patiently waiting… I need to address this today.

There's a story up on "Plus.Google" by an unnamed writer—yes, a story without a byline—that quotes me from a Phoenix Comicon panel Saturday saying Netflix and CBS are "in talks" to do a new Star Trek series. "Lucrative" ones, no less.

And that's not true.

I know Trek fans are hungry for new material and hoping that someone "gets it" and gets on with doing one. That's why everything from the continuing novels to fan fiction, to Star Trek Online and other games, to the fan films, to  cosplayers and prop and shipbuilders are all still going strong: People are desperate for new Star Trek—including the new fans driven by JJ or the Bluray remasters and, yes, mass Netlfix availability. And, said desperate fans pounce on every crumb that's out there — as good fans would. Or they even do more, like organizing a Facebook "petition" campaign to get Netflix to produce a "fifth season" of Enterprise.

But this non-bylined writer known only as "Starfleet Intelligence" is too wrapped up in tossing around jazzy phrases of TheBizSpeak in this post, and has the situation blown up way too big —though it makes a nice screaming headline. I wish he or she had talked to me afterward for some real context to the tiny bit I DID mention. (or even got my bio right.) 

So, HERE's some context.

As we know by now, Netflix has changed the TV/media landscape yet again by becoming a platform of clout with original shows like House of Cards and Orange Is the New Black—popular not only with fans, but critics...and now the award shows. It's in Netflix's interest to be casting about for new shows—including those from known franchises. I understand Star Trek is one of them—especially as Trek's 737 hours of "reruns" performs as a top draw ON Netflix. As I understand it, there have been overtures.  But none taken. So far.

That's it, guys. I appreciate the pedestal, of sorts, but this excitable blogger makes it sound as if show budgets and writer's guides for a done-deal Trek series are already floating around in CBS offices. Maybe they are—but not to my knowledge. We all know plenty of people in private and public have pitched show concepts and formats—and on a "channel" that makes financial and distributional sense. And, we do know that one good way to help get Star Trek back is to keep those Netflix viewer "ratings" tickers clicking right along marathon-style, as a barometer, to reveal any and all Trek shows being watched. But inertia and the unanswered questions of who, what, when, where, and how much have, so far, won out. Sadly.

Oh—and someone also needs to tell this "reporter" that Star Trek Communicator is not a current thing. 

Sadly. *sniff*



*Again: That *I* know of.

Big week: Hear Sci-fi Diner & see you in Plano/Dallas!

Hey gang--the ever-cool Scott and Mike had me on for my first visit over at SciFi Diner this week, and we obviously had way too much fun pod-talking what's up with Trekland these days.

So much fun, in fact, that they have threatened to have me back...! (Grab it at the link above, of course, or get SciFi Diner on iTunes.)

 
And then... Well, if you find yourself anywhere near North Texas THIS weekend and have a week to kill before the Super Bowl, pay attention:

My mutley male mug joins the otherwise heavenly lineup with Nichelle Nichols and a raft of ladies for the next Sci-Fi Days convention honoring "Women of Sci-Fi."  It's at the Plano Center, and Dr. Daryl Frazetti is there with his irrestible fandom academics along with a couple other male holdouts...

But mostly we're inundated with the lovely likes of Morena Baccarin of Firefly and V, BSG's Tricia Helfer and Katee Sackhoff, Stargate Universe's Alaina Huffman, and more!   Looking forward to the wall-to-wall coverage from Chris and Charity at Subspace Communiques, as well.

I really hope all of you who gave us such a great response in October are up to it again—this time WITH my "Between the Cracks" show in store!

True-life believer defends her Trek luv

With all the Trek franchise frenzy focused on winning back the "young'uns"--i.e., anyone under 30, or born with digital video impulses in their blood—we sometime forget about other demographics of fandom that are just as vital.

Case in point: I really enjoyed this crossover post into Trekland... from an unexpected blogging realm, to be sure. Which, of course, only goes to show the Power of Gene:

To-wit: a young housewife/mother nominally blogs on family survival on "Under $1,000 a month"—but it's also spiced with her devout yet open-minded Christianity. Now, there's two adjectives I don't usually hear together, but this post reveals how the "silent majority" of believers like her is still alive and surviving. "Emily Under" offers a spirited defense of how her beliefs get along just fine, thank you, with her Luv of Trek.

Is it surprising this is an under-explored concept? Either the louder Trekfans are humanists like Gene himself and show anything from discomfort to outright disdain for theology ... or it's the believers of any faith who point to that humanism, as Gene wove into his secular Federation Starfleet, and ignore one or the other as irreconcilable.

But for once, one of the latter crowd queried "Emily" on this very topic--"Why does your family love Star Trek so much? It is not a Christian program and in fact it strongly promotes a lot of non-Christian ideas"— and it's her reply that caught my eye:

"...It is possible that our children may think the world of Star Trek is real, but we are planning on teaching them the difference between what is imagined and what is real. Star Trek is a great way to get them thinking about imaginary worlds, possibilities, new ways of thinking and other peoples' points of view. In our opinion, that is a good thing for children."

I tend to think the only young'uns in the bag for fandom these days are the actual kids of uberfans, the ones I see at Vegas and such: they are brought up in the "family." But Emily is an earnest but hardly hardcore Trekfan, so thanks to her her kids will likely join that majority of armchair fans, present and future, that love them some Starfleet in their own "silent majority" way....buy the products, see the movies, pile up the TV ratings—all in the privacy of their own home, and no further.

Since I caught this post, I've since realized that Emily is no longer blogging on her main family homemaking topic, though the archive is there. That's what makes this sidebar post--and the slice-of-nonfandom comments below it—all the more illuminating.

A healthy love of Trek while embracing religious views is a great thing and hardly inconceivable—and thank goodness that Emily, at least, got to spread the good news. About that. At least to a few.