"It All Started With a Big... Borg?"

Did today's Geek Revolution really all stem from Locutus and "Fire!"?



This was my most recent guest blog over at startrek.com, on June 20 — (with new mashup art!) and I just wanted to make sure everyone had a chance to see it. It elaborates on a thread I got into on a podcast brainstorm recently... and really stuck with me.

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All right— I have a theory to propose. See what you think. It’s pretty deep, so hang with me:

Ahem.

For the current “geek revolution” that permeates our culture and brought all things “genre” to the mainstream of America ….

... we can thank Next Generation showrunner Michael Piller. And his insecurities.

Yep, I think it was the late, great executive producer of TNG (left) who set in motion events that led to all the fan-love that’s sweeping the country (and a lot of corporate board rooms to boot).  After the last round of CBS’s incredible TNG Blu-ray remasters and their Fathom Events theater showcase, well… my mind started to put 2 and 2 together one night while I was yakking away as a guest on a Trek podcast.

And it hit me like a ton of thermoconcrete. Here, just follow along:

It’s obvious that we live amidst a “Geeks Rule the World” vibe these days, right? For a lot of us over a certain age, it’s incredible that Star Trek fans and every other nerd nirvanist of all ages are allowed—nay, encouraged—to wear their con badge of honor openly, their heart on their sleeve, as it were…in full uncloseted view of everyone! The “geek girl” explosion, the cool-kids cosplay club… football Trekkies... the designers of cell phones, iPads, even a Vulcan-loving President —yep, it’s an amazing time, when you think about it.

What lit the fuse on such an explosion? Well, network TV can play a big role in changing the culture, reaching millions easily and putting new memes and ideas into play almost overnight —and there’s the clue. We have more than anecdotal evidence of this, of course: What better old-guard metric to check than your friendly A.C. Nielsens, the same TV audience ratings that ironically once doomed the original Star Trek (using, by the way, only raw numbers, not targeted demographics). Yes, check out the runaway No. 1 comedy on the list for forever, and—duh— you’ll come up with The Big Bang Theory. (For that matter, you could also check out the top syndicated-rerun package in every local TV market, and just about get the same answer. TBBT rules.)

Sheldon and Leonard’s excellent adventures (with constant Trek references and guest stars in the mix) have been a hit ever since their debut, and come from the great comedy bloodline of creators Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady. But there are never guarantees in show biz, and TV series are an expensive gamble for a network —which is why few survive the process to be written, green-lit, filmed as a pilot episode, and then picked up to be risked in a high-pressure prime-time slot to deliver ratings and pay back the investment, with dividends. Now, what might have helped convinced CBS to take such a chance on an offbeat premise back in the spring of 2007?

(Okay, stay with me— it’s about to get thick and fast:)

I remember it well: 2007 was the year that everything melted down at San Diego Comic-Con, the granddaddy of what we now know as the new generation of megacons . This and every other “comic con” are hardly about just comics, writers and artists anymore, right?  It’s the stars who have the magnetism, and those tens of thousands of fans who swelled attendance numbers in the Aughts were there because of stars brought in by Hollywood—the Hollywood  that had begun to put those blockbusters on the big screens in a big way never seen before. The “day trip” vibe down to San Diego, for one thing, and the fertile audience of hard-core fantasy, sci-fi and comics fans just ripe to test-market: it was too much for studios to resist, and the mutual love affair bloomed big-time. That shockwave of numbers and the pop-culture headlines couldn’t help but put an obvious “new” hot audience on the radar of any network savvy enough to jump on it in a smart way.

But what had happened to Hollywood in the first place, going all-out on summer blockbusters and epic franchise flicks? I mean, comics-borne movies and fantasy epics have always been around, but this many? And with this attitude? And with this much respect—usually!—for the source material? (Oh, and cue the return of even the Star Wars saga by the late 1990s.) And—why the merger of studios and comics lines landing front-page in the Wall Street Journal as well as Variety?

Probably, in turn, because the small screen just couldn’t hold it all anymore. Yes, in many ways those big genre movies of the Nineties and Aughts were a no-brainer after all the sci-fi, swords and superheroes making inroads on network TV—like Buffy, Angel, Firefly… Lois and Clark, that begat Smallville … not to mention X-Files and the new quirk of humorous paranoia, plus Voyager and Enterprise, of course. It was also a time when, with the coming of CSI and all it inspired, a typical police procedural drama suddenly had more CGI “real science” visual effects each week than any ol’ space opera ever dreamed of.

The Big 4 networks, in turn, were just passing along the spillover from the genre explosion they saw on lower-risk cable nets, and even non-network syndication—like Babylon 5, Hercules, Xena, Farscape, Andromeda: Where did they and the wanna-bes suddenly come from? In fact, where the heck did syndication come up with anything but talk shows and game shows, anyway ?

You got it—you can “blame” it all on the riskiest gamble of all, The Next Generation (with Deep Space Nine the original second-wave series). As executive producer Rick Berman has noted, the TV world of 1986 gave TNG little chance to survive its triple knock as sci-fi, as a sequel and as a syndicated show.  The first two seasons were rocky—but eventually the show not only settled, but skyrocketed in quality and viewers ... and did, indeed, set off that sci-fi boom of the Nineties. All of which, of course, became competition for the Trek franchise itself.

So where did TNG’s turnaround occur? Remember—the show was budgeted to last seven years, yes, but a full yet mediocre run would never have sparked a revolution in anyone’s entertainment universe. In the long run, we can all pretty much agree it was that amazing, rags-to-riches third season when Piller came aboard —with “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” “Sins of the Father,” “The Offspring,” “The Defector,” “The Price,” “Hollow Pursuits,” “Captain’s Holiday”… But even with that list, we know what really put TNG on the map with the masses in one fell swoop.

That amazing cliffhanger, “The Best of Both Worlds,” the Borgification of Picard… Riker’s one word, “Fire!”… and then a blackout, a slamming music cue, and the simple but excruciating words “To Be Continued."

That epic moment, borne of head writer Piller’s angst about returning to the series or not, was his way of painting the conclusion writer into a horrible corner—before he knew that writer would be himself, after all.  

Of course, you could argue there’d be no TNG at all without the original Star Trek… and no Star Trek without Gene Roddenberry’s inspiration from The Twilight Zone, Have Gun Will Travel and Forbidden Planet, for starters. Yes, you could take this back even further, if you wanted.

But for now, I like this cause and effect. Without Michael, Locutus and “The Best of Both Worlds”… there’d be no Evil Wil Wheaton,  snark, and the verbification of “cosplay.”  We owe today’s sweeping freedom of geek pride to a Borg wash-out and a last-minute red laser unit.

I mean, isn’t it obvious to you?

The 'sexiest WOMAN alive'... is a Trekkie. No poser.

This... is the world we live in. The kids have grown up, and they were soaked in media, even more than before.

At least the good kind, thank goodness.

In case you missed the Esquire PR splash Friday, Mila Kunis just became the ultimate poster child for the Geek Girl Revolution, perhaps.

Because, as we noted last year (in case it got past you), she also told GQ last year:

Mila Kunis:  ...Let me give you my rundown of the series in order of most favorite to least favorite. ... Okay. You should know this list is an ongoing argument between Seth MacFarlane and myself. But I have it: The Next Generation; the original series; then Voyager ... then I have Deep Space Nine. Then last is Enterprise. ...

Not that all geek girls have to be Esquire-hawt... but that you can even utter the phrase "I'm a Trekkie" (as she has) and then grace such a cover? That's a revelation.

And, yes, the pushback to  geekgirlness as a movement brings on the cry of "POSER!"  by their disbelieving fellow gender, at times. This girl, anyway, is the real deal.

It's a package deal that, whatever your package, continues to amaze me. Not that it exists—women ran First Generation Trek fandom, recall—but that the modern PR machine is up with that.

I dunno—maybe it's just reflecting culture, and all that stuff.

"The Con of Wrath": Big story, big donation, big apology!

Treklanders, I've  been sitting on a big story for nearly a month and I want to apologize to you all—especially to Bonnie.

Bonnie (I'm going to protect her identity, for now) also gets a HUGE thank-you from me. I had to go out and buy new jaw glue when my old one fell off when her envelope arrived in the snailmail.

As a North Carolina stalwart and Trekkie since Day One, Bonnie's one of those fans who were actually AT the 1982 Ultimate Fantasy event that I'm searching out for my documentary "The Con of Wrath," along with the cast and committee. We had met last August at Vegas Khhaaan! when she marched up, parked herself at my table and said, "Hey! I'm a Survivor!" And I instantly knew of course what she meant.

We stayed in touch ... she sent some UF photos from 1982 ... and then early in June I got the following letter, along with a VERY nice donation check. (Check the "crowdfunding" donor levels here for The Con of Wrath and you can likely figure it all out.)

Look, we have not yet ramped up our serious funding efforts, and for now are relying on fan-level crowdfunding.  So this cash IS very, very welcome... and hopefully a portent of things to come from others across the country whom I don't even really know but who want to be vested in this project for all fandom, old and new and wherever they are.

Or, maybe I should just share Bonnie's words ... (emphasis in boldface is mine):
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Well, "say hello to my little friend" AND your new co-producer!

I felt I needed to do this for the documentary for several reasons:

1) I am a survivor of "The Con of Wrath" and have the memories (or those my brain has allowed me to remember) to prove it!

2)  I wanted to represent the Trek/fan girls out there—we've scaled the heights and been in the trenches in Trekland for many years, too!

3) I'm not from Houston or Burbank or New York or L.A.—I'm from a small Southern town. The Con of Wrath, and fandom in general, was/is made up of folks from all countries, states and walks of life. I wanted that to be apparent (And I think you do too!) in the making and outcome of this film.

AND FINALLY 4) I just love a great story! (The jacket and watch sound cool too —ahem. {*}) 

Hope this will help keep you keeping on!

Best,

Nimoy-devotee extraordinaire and... co-producer??

Bonnie

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Part of my apology to Bonnie about being so tardy to share this news is that she has longtime Trek-friends who don't believe her. Sorry again—never meant to ever leave a donor hanging! No, indeed.

Especially a letter-writer who says what I have been saying for years now—that the geekgirl revolution is great for the attention it is getting, but the all-male stereotype of Treksters is not deserved nor accurate: women led fandom in the early years. Plus, her observation about scattered or small-town Trekfans feeling "a part of it all" is priceless—it's not the thrust of "The Con of Wrath," but it's nice subtext.

So THANK YOU so much, Bonnie, and to any other like-minded friends you might have who want to help preserve the textures of Trek history—whether or not you were there firsthand. And anyone else, at any level, who feels so moved—please be my guest!

Rest assured my jaw has been safely glued back on.  But I'd be happy to do so again, any time.

So, what do you think of Bonnie's letter—do YOU agree with her feelings?

DOC UPDATE: As a "weekend" project, after all, we are currently concentrating on editing the many hours of voices we have in the digital can so far, exploring the best ways to further make "The Con of Wrath" come alive ... and looking at "the next level." There's more key faces to film, as well... as well as more Survivors' voices to gather. More on all that, too, to be shared at the summer cons! Or stay abreast with our monthly, non-spammy e-newsletter.

...Also, a sidebar: at Fundrazr you can help camerman Neal recover the loss from a bizarre theft of some gear in Houston during our second June shoot. If you can help fill this loophole, please do so for this and his other projects—thanks!

Fan girl fashion hits Trekland, and look who's involved!

You may have seen everywhere today the entry of Her Universe, the two-year-old femfan fashion brainchild of Star Wars voice actress Ashley Eckstein, into the Star TREK universe today with an intro line of tops.  What you may not know is the familiar Treklander who's been advising her young company all along...

None other than my good buddy and longtime boss/colleague, Dan Madsen, founder and late head of both the Star Wars and former Star Trek official fan clubs—whose Communicator magazine I manage-edited for eight years.

Thanks to Dan (with me on a recent visit, below), I've had a front-row seat as Ashley founded and expanded her company from her Star Wars origins to recent forays into licenses for both Trek and also Doctor Who, announced last week.

"I started working with Ashley from the very beginning of Her Universe and it has been one of the best experiences I have ever had,' Dan tells me. "She is truly a fangirl and loves all things sci-fi. From the very beginning, we always hoped we would get the license to do Star Trek apparel for women, so it was quite exciting when it happened. It also has been one of the most requested licenses we have had."

"It is great to be back in the Star Trek universe and talking Trek again!"

As I told Dan and Ashley in 2010—and as they well knew already—this is a perfect way to reach and serve the long-ignored "geek girl" revolution that has been sweeping fandom and the convention scene in just the past few years. In Trekland especially, many would say it's been there all along--just ignored the early days of feminine power driving early Trek fandom in the '60s and 70s. (In fact, that "T" at top carries the first big Trek fan slogan OF those early-era female fans—as first burst into the mainstream in TV Guide's 3/25/72 story "Grokking Mr. Spock," about the first-ever Trek convention).

CBS Consumer Products licensing has even allowed a special logo just for Trek products of a female nature, exclusive to Her Universe (at left).




Other obvious and not-so-obvious designs in the initial line are below—including the all-important subtle "Made you look!" polo with a simple and cryptic "LLAP" chest logo:

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.

Vegas in my aft viewer: A year like none before

Artwork courtesy CharityWood.com

Something happened this year ... still not exactly sure of all the reasons ... but the big annual Creation Trek bash in Vegas—Vegas Khhaaan! to the Facebookers and simply #STLV to the Twitterati—went to a whole new plane. A whole new critter.

And I should know—I've seen them all.

In a time when the Trek anniversaries are piling up right and left—the 45th for the franchise debut this year, the 30th for Star Trek II and the 25th for TNG both in '82—this was also the 10th year for a grand "Vegas Khhaaan" since they started in 2001... and Creation's had them all after that first one by Dave Scott's now-defunct Slanted Fedora shows. So, maybe it was about time for what happened.

Especially in a year when the overall U.S. economy remains poor-to-middling, these numbers and demographics are Just Amazing.

Now, you've read all the basic reporting elsewhere already; I'm going to save my stills and video for a separate post, and some more sentimental bits with it. So THIS missive will be  some general observations with big-picture touches. And brother I've got more than a few, but the overall bottom line?

Vegas Trek simply EXPLODED this year, pure and simple.

And on so many levels!

—Pure numbers? Reports say about 20,000 total sold seat-days—about 13,000 unique fans in all —and only the bigger space afforded by the Rio absorbed the uptick. Many complained of the longer walk in these post-Hilton digs, but at least there was no Sardine Factor at work anywhere. And Creation thankfully saw it coming: we got an email note a week earlier that doors and dealers would be open an hour earlier on the weekend—starting at 7 AM!

—Costumes? Oh my god—at one point I Tweeted that the overwhelm onrush felt like the "Comicconification of Vegas"... meaning, in reference to the huge cosplay rep of Comic-Con San Diego, that we had not the just the number but the ingenuity and obscurity—ie, the coolness factor—of so many outfits and concepts had just shot through the stratosphere. (See more later, soon!).

—The secondary room, after one or two years as I've been keeping tabs, is now clearly a monster to be reckoned with. Time was when the "side stage" was home to great but woefully under-attended scientists who'd attract maybe a dozen or so hard-core fans, the ones not aware they were supposed to be in a line somewhere. But, beginning with the new influx from JJ's movie we saw in '09, that room has reeked with newbies the first year, and then just simply big numbers—usually 150 or more. My events were there (trivia line, at right), as were Anthony "trekmovie.com" Pasquale's, and many more.

—Those two groups famously thought to be absent from Trek fandom by hand-wringing marketers only three years ago—a) anyone under 20, much less anyone under 30 ... and b) those of the female gender—were instead, in a word, EVERYWHERE. The Orion slave-girl explosion of 2010 has just evolved into so many guest-star homages—or totally creative getups with skin—that it was simply breathtaking. Of course, Uhura/Rand red miniskirts remain a staple, but there were so many more—in both Nichols and Saldana versions. And so many more adult incarnations were busting out, too, if you know what I mean. Congrats to Mary Czerwinski & Co. who hosted both a first-ever geekgirls panel for Vegas—again, heavily attended—as well as a crafting panels for anyone, especially the kids and parents. It was just the tip of the iceberg.

—A twenty-something crowd also translated into a party crowd, both at the Creation planned events as well as the Rio's nightclubs in general. For the "overflow" fans shut out of Creation's sellout events, we co-sponsored a Thursday night game night with DVD Geeks and treknews.net  at McFadden's, an early but noisy fan favorite—but the open-area'd iBar and Masquerade Bar also came in for a lot of biz. As they, and a special indie Trek party at Crown discovered, Trekfen like their volume low for talking... but, again, that's a growing pain.

Setting the record: LV Weekly/Sam Morris photo

—And all of it combined for smashing the ever-climbing Guinness World Record for The Most Real Star Trek Costumes In One Place—a total that in just the past couple years has become a big annual triangular rivalry between Vegas, Dragon*Con in Atlanta, and FedCon in Germany. Each one constantly raises the bar in turn, but this go-round all those factors above helped Vegas smash the record of 691 with an incredible 1,040—and it stopped there only because of the clock, and that the Guinness folk ran through all their "official counter cards." Reports of at least 60-100 more waiting in line would have boomed it bigger,  of course.

But why?

Maybe it was simply the new digs at the Rio, after the two-year farewell to an Experience-less Hilton finally gave out for Creation owners Adam Malin and Gary Berman and crew. Certainly in part it was the hubbub about being Leonard Nimoy's last Vegas appearance before his retirement from the con circuit this year (and what a farewell it was.) Maybe it's the ongoing earthquake caused by the JJ movie of 2009, where "new" fans continue to tumble into "old fandom," assimilating not just TOS but TNG and all the rest.

It's all of that, and perhaps one more factor: one I stumbled into just a few short weeks earlier.

In the words of social science, Trek big-con fans are finally "self-empowered" as never before—mostly thanks to social media, which finally hit con fandom in ways far beyond mere one-to-one contact. Groups like the "Unofficial Star Trek Las Vegas Convention 2011" on Facebook, whose 250+ members fast evolved into a fertile ground for hatching meetups, party ideas, newbie help, costume details—and simply introductions. In short, Creation provided the main program, but fans had a way to organize themselves, and early on, when they had the time and inclination.

Not to get too Vulcan about this, but what we did was just see a huge shift in the culture of fandom, yet again—the impact of online media. It was hardly an Arab Spring, but the effect is the same: self-powered organizing. And it's got nowhere to go but up. Already, plans are in the works: you can see the wheels spinning, plans evolving, and shields adapting...

All of this shows a few things, coupled with the "show of hands" polls I took in my audiences, or in just talking with peeps at my table or happenstance in the halls:

—Fans old and new, whether first-gen Trekkies or converts from the 2009 flick, have NOT forgotten any of the "700 Club" TOS or TNG, etc.,  series. If there was to be a mass migration to "modern" Star Trek alone, and a virtual "Forget" mind-meld of All That Went Before... well, it's not with this bunch. Even though a lot of them do owe their fandom entry to JJ-Trek.

—In fact, the image of young, partying, good lookin' and nay even imbibing Starfleeters was everywhere in media—not that that's not 180-degrees misleading in its own way, too. A lot of those folks ARE workin' it this weekend, in any of a zillion niche jobs. But the fact that media admitted to the possiblity the image EXISTS, 25 years after Shatner's "Get a Life" SNL skit forever sent stereotypes askew, is shocking enough. And long overdue. Creation's Vegas con logo (right), the play on the historic Vegas tourism logo, actually finally begins to make sense!

—Which in turn, finally, points to a trend I've noticed in the days since—this one in national media: maybe generational, maybe part of this post-2009 "mainstreaming" perception. And it may be the most shocking one of all: the Era of the Respectiful National Journalist Who Gets It. Maybe, finally, someone realized that the guys who paint their bellies topless in subzero endzone cheap seats for football are no more/no less crazy that the Trekfans who get their Orion green or Andorian blue on—with a lot more philosophy and a lot less alcohol involved in the latter. Somewhat less, anyway.

Yessir, we may finally have gone where no Vegas Khhaaan—and the ever-powerful national media meme—have ever gone before.

Beyond the new hotel thing, even.




On the fun side: More pics and video to come. Stay tuned ...

TLS Reprint: When is a Fan Not a Fan?

As a guest blogger over at the new startrek.com, every couple months I contribute a "Trekland, Supplemental" log entry to that reborn site with rights to do as I please with it. Here's one topic I wanted to make sure we had here "in the flesh"—it seemed to spark a lot of buzz:
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Can there be such a thing as a fan who’s not “fan” enough?

Or better yet, to steal an old philosophical poser: “If a fan fell in the forest and there was no one to hear it, would he/she still make a fan noise?”

I think we all know there’s diversity (ahem) in Star Trek fandom, as in the great world of sci-fi/genre followers in general.

But news reports spawned by some polls and survey results in recent weeks have sparked an interesting reaction from some in my circle when the results challenged traditional thinking about Trekfans. More females than males? Fan majorities who did not view wearing fan costumes as typical?  Surprising results, yes?

But I soon got to be far more intrigued with the reaction of mainstream fans to those accounts, as to the results themselves— and even a little amused.  One even told me that, even if such fans existed, they were obviously so far off the radar that, well, who cares?

In other words, the most intriguing, underlying —and apparently disturbing— question is: What if everything you thought you knew about Star Trek fans was wrong? Or even skewed? What if your own “lyin’ eyes” are not enough?

Now, even legit or academic polls of individual Star Trek fans can be sketchy, and depend upon methodology for any grounding, of course. And they can all be done with the best of intentions and planning and “survey math.” In the lay world, my mind goes back to the famous “Dewey Defeats Truman” premature headline and the telephone polls of voters that set up the expectation —until someone realized later that, in 1948, a lot of folks still just didn’t have phones. And, apparently, in key areas a lot of those “invisible” folks without a phone voted for “Give ‘em Hell” Harry. The lesson: Not owning the media channel in play did not make one less of a voter, much less a stake-holder.

So —have we at last, thanks to the Internet, been able to tap into the great body of what I call “armchair” fans? Up til now, the only measuring stick anyone at the top of a pop culture enterprise had available —say, the Star Trek franchise in this case— were the raw numbers of simple TV viewer ratings and demos or box office receipts, refined in ever more niche-ier ways by retail sales figures for various model kits or action figures, or even convention tickets.

As Star Trek and geek culture go more mainstream, for good or bad many such surveys can be taken more easily and in more detail on-line by self-volunteered fans; they are hardly the pre-selected “scientific sample” type often seen in political polling, for instance. Or even for consumer trends.

But does that negate the finding when done over a broad scale? Especially for those fans who self-report as “not active”? And then, what does that mean?  Some are mere viewers, some are on both the high and low end of the spectrum for buying books, DVDs and other merchandise —but all quietly.

Again, my point is not so much the veracity or standing of individual poll results —but just being open to the idea that, just as with Amazon or Arctic explorations even today, there may be still new species of critter yet to be discovered.

Years ago, the literary sci-fi fan world would get into debates about defining “true” fans —with the litmus test being whether or not they had read certain science fiction classic authors or novels.  In Trekland, we bemoaned for years the lack of reality and respect showed by local TV stations nationwide who always popped up to “cover” a local convention in its dying hours —and then invariably grab only the overly costumed and made-up alien folk to go on-camera as the “face of fandom.” Over the years, that old hack has even colored how otherwise devout Trekfans measure their own “fannishness,” according to some of these surveys.

So, is a true Trek fan one who remains glued to their screen, talkative to their friends, but “invisible” to convention photogs and fan club charity drives?  I threw out this question re: the truth and even scope of “invisible” fans to my online Twitter and Facebook Trekland community:  One thought you had to be a fan of more than one series to be a Trekfan, beyond one’s lone fave series —unless it was Classic Trek only, and they never returned, which it made it OK as the pioneer. And so it goes.

If nothing else, this whole subject does do a great service by holding up a mirror —to our assumptions, if not our faces. Respected folks I know in Trekland seem to dismiss the possibility —or even the worth or value — of knowing about “invisible” fandom out there if it doesn’t cross into more commercial, and thus, identifiable aspects. Or doesn’t look “typical” even when it does —as one well-dressed, Steve Madden-heeled woman did as she Tweeted to me her last action figure buy at her local store. Another simply posted that perhaps being a “true fan” meant not being ashamed to admit you like Trek.

I used to refer to those of the convention-shy, club-averse corner of Trekworld  as simply “armchair fans,” but maybe there’s a far more vast “cloaked” fandom out there  than even those who will see this blog online, much less respond.

What say you? Does that Trekfan falling all alone in the forest really make a noise? Is that you, or someone you know? Or should anyone really care?

I’d love to hear from the “silent majority”!

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And, as you can see, we did. Follow on the conversation here, if you'd like.

Forget soccer: make way for Con Moms!

This.... THIS is why Comic-Con is busting at the seams.

In the words of a mom in Middletown, Conn., commenting re: an online news story about a local convention:

"This is my third year taking my kids to the Con - now ages 8, 13, 15 and 18.

We look forward to it all year.

Just a word to parents. If - like me - you worry about the passive watching of cartoons, playing video games and reading endless manga/graphic novels - then take your kids to the Con! It all comes to life and they are having play battles with foam swords, meeting new people over games of apples to apples and Risk, taking photos of other kids dressed up as characters and meeting the artists who draw the webcomics they read online. It's really a positive environment. But bring some healthy snacks - I was mobbed by teens when I pulled out a bag of cherries of and blueberries.

See you there? "

Forget soccer moms. Or even geekgirls. Welcome to con moms!

I just happened to come across this little snippet of real life, this little snapshot of why Hollywood has swollen San Diego Comic-Con into a crowd bigger than the largest city of eight U.S. states ... why it's easy for Trek to be cool again and have a zillion genre cousins in the same boat: and why all things geek are mainstream (are we going to have to just break down and redefine "geek"?)

why new ones are popping up all over and the middling ones are booming too....

It's as homegrown and innocuous as can be. What's the big deal, you say?

The backstory: the recent ConnectiCon in Waterbury, Conn., elicited *gasp* a straight, on-the-nose news story in the straight, on-the-nose Republican-American newspaper's online pages. Time was when even your city's typical "alternative weekly" tabloid couldn't resist taking a few token pot-shots at the local Star Trek or comic or gaming con. And the con comm would be thrilled to have it.

Especially since all they'd ever get out of the local TV coverage is the token "get the face-painted alien geeks in costume" shots ... at 11 p.m. .... on SUNday. Thanks guys--insults, AND too late to Harness the Power of Mass Media in time and let it help get us anyone new in the door. And believe me--back in the day in Oklahoma City with SoonerCon and ThunderCon, I stood in those shoes all TOO often.

But see, pioneers get to be martyrs. Those who follow on today's trails just get to be real, and read about it. No one even realizes how easy it is to get both respect and normality. Or how impossible it was only a short while back.

But back to "Middletown Mom" and the Republic-American Dot Com: praise be to reporter Kristi Tousignant. It took a generation before all the Trek fanboys (and girls) got old enough to get pro credentials and WRITE the shows they wanted, dammit; looks like Kristi is in the same mold, on the news front.

ConnectiCon is a sort of modern-day Star Trek convention, targetting the wide-ranging sci-fi interests of today's younger generation. ...

"I really just enjoy seeing people with similar interests to myself in one building," ConnectiCon chairman Matt Daigle said. "It's like a vacation weekend."

Taking a step into the convention center Friday was like walking through the looking glass into Wonderland. People wearing fuzzy tails and ears walked past Hello Kitty characters and knights in full metal armor. There was Captain Jack Sparrow, Darth Vader, Queen Amidala and even a few scantily-clad Na'vi from "Avatar."

Hardly news to us—but that's not the point. It's hardly "news" to anyone—but now, it's a nice "color" feature story.

And then, that blessed comment from Middletown Mom. Actually, I know of several Con Moms who exist already. As do you, I'll bet.

Yep. Talk about the Next Generation? Well, there it sits.

PHOTO: Darlene Douty/ Republican-American
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