Some new thoughts on thankful—Dateline: Trekland

Normally, any Thanksgiving post by me anywhere turns on a fun recall of the epic WKRP episode. You know.

But this year—and not through any trauma, or epic turn of life—I"m feeling my thankfulness in some all new ways. And no, not even for the 50th anniversary of this driving force that has entertained,  enraptured, inspired and even connected so many around the world in such good works and ideals.

And not even for a new series, finally... much less another stab at a feature film.

No, I'm feeling thankful for all of you out there who are reading these words, following my projects, sending good thoughts my way or even sounding off. And most of all, taking active part.

Because, bit by bit, that thankful feedback and my own slooow evolution of awareness has helped me to really, finally, figure out my place in Trekland...and the greater world today. Exciting wacky projects still come along out of the blue, of course, but the scariness of losing old "big box" bosses and paradigms has finally begun to yield to an excitement for the new world of DIY business ...and how that might apply to all things Trek.

And, especially, to those who love, treasure, and unabashedly honor Gene's creation as a driving force of fun or even philosophy in their lives.

Some of you may recall I talked about a couple of major goals at the dawn of 2014... and how I had to make priorities, even among my beloved Trek projects. Now, almost two years later, I'm finally getting there.

Finding the ways that today's tech and culture allow me to freshen the old, uncover the forgotten, and help those folks connect the Trek dots even as new dots are being created .... well, I'm grateful and thankful for the sense to figure that out, and for all those who seem to want me to. Just about the time I decided that every story, insight or memento in Trek's First Fifty is moldy-old or just tired ... along comes a new fan who needs a new shot of Trekland goodness—or a whole generation who does, too. And they in turn regurge, and bring a shiny fresh take on it to entertain and inspire all of us. Especially me!

I love how Trek, via its fans, never grows old. What a core, future-leaning gift of intelllgence, love, fun and respect that Gene and all his collaborators left us in that silly little failed TV show.

So yes—thanks to you all for finding the worth and enjoyment of my experiments in bringing  the Trek odyssey to life in unique, all-new ways —my ways— with On Speaker, with The Trekland Trunk... and now, especially, the real cherry on top: Portal 47.

It's still a new, evolving experiment with a long way to go, but I'm thankful so many of you all feel the ride is worth it, and continue to jump aboard—and share the word.

In fact, I'll be sharing a word or two here tomorrow on my new Trek works—just in time for Cyber Monday. More on that then, but for now...

No, I've never felt a Thanksgiving like this before. With the new economy, new self-awareness, and Gene's vision still exciting all of us young and old, I look forward to moving on ... with many more thankful days to come.

You want a Trek pic for the Fourth? Here's a new one

Time for the token Trek holiday tie-in image!

And for America's  Independence Day, you could go to your "E'd Pebnista" moment from TOS,  your "Alternate Voyager" Golden Gate fireworks welcome home—maybe even your Bajoran lightship greeting by Cardassians with space flares, of all things.

Or you could reflect on the patriotic, Minutemen, even black-ops side of "freedom" and "independence"—and remember a little fireworks on Organia from "Errand of Mercy" ...

…even, still, taking that show's comment on "inevitable" enemies and war to heart:

Come vote! The Enterprise in Space design poll ends Dec. 21

Hey: It's another update for Enterprise in Space—a quick one...

THIS is the week everyone and anyone can vote for their favorite among the 18 designs submitted in the non-profit orbiter's design contest (at right). The winning NSS Enterprise design will have be made spaceworthy—especially for re-entry—but founder Shawn Case and the team intend to push the artistic envelope before the engineering realities have to kick in, as they will—and fit our "sci-fi to sci-fact" theme.

But hurry and go now: Voting closes at midnight UTC, NEXT Sunday, Dec. 21! (That's 7 pm EST/ 4 pm PST). The cut-off was just extended two days.

And say—you don't even have to be one of our "$20 virtual crewmember" donors to vote. The winning design will have to be made spaceworthy, of course, but we want the design to have a distinctive aesthetic we can utilize as much as possible.


Here's a video about voting to get you in the mood!




Look, I'm the promotion spokesperson for EIS, as I've been excited to say before. I've talked about some of the details there, but the most audacious part of this is not so much the "rocket science" required but the bold concept that enough Trek and sci-fi futurists around the world want to honor our future's brightest minds and ideas in the name... of Enterprise. A REAL one. And this design contest is just another way that grassroots nature for EIS is being put on display. It's one of teh reasons the project was appealing to the National Space Society to sponsor.

So: THIS WEEK, please go help us make a choice! The public voting will be followed by a five-judge panel of space and sci-fi notables, and the winner and finalists announced on Jan. 21 (full info here).

Of course, with one week to go til Christmas and names still on your quickie-gift list, please consider this option for stocking stuffers, Secret Santa gifts at work or church, or easy mailers to distant relatives...complete with a holiday theme on their crew certificate.

And as always, please share the vote and the whole shebang—on or off Facebook or Twitter.

Cyber Monday? Two quick gift ideas from Trekland!

Well, in the spirit of the day—a quick suggestion and a reminder this holiday season:

If you need stocking stuffers, or easy gifts for the workplace, schoolplace, churchplace or distant relatives... and don't mind taking a charitable tax deduction... why not get your friends and family likewise inspired into the future—and signed aboard the First Enterprise In Space?

I'm talking about offering "gift seats" as virtual crewmembers about "Enterprise in Space," the NSS Enterprise orbiter non-profit mission with student projects and aerospace demonstrators that will launch in 2019, sponsored by the National Space Society and with an incredible team in charge I'm pleased to be part of.

It's the same simple set-up as always: As with any donor of our only grassroots request (you can give more, of course, as your passion demands it!), each "crewmember" has their name added to a chip that will join the payload and be recovered—proving all those "aboard" were aboard the first really spaceborne Enterprise.

Yes, there's a gift certificate option you can download after your simple $20 donation (or more)—plus your loved one is set up to get all updates and special news over the four-year life of the mission til launch, and then after re-entry and recovery for display and touring, to boot!

Then, too: As a 501c(3) non-profit… if you need to do good works AND reduce your taxes, you can also park your giving with EIS as well by Dec. 31, or April 15. OR... even have us as your sci-fi convention or other event's beneficiary "charity," if you need one that looks futureward.

Of course, for variety, far be it for me not to also toss in a reminder about those REMASTERED archival interview Trekland CDs of mine, recorded during finales of TNG 1994 and DS9 1999—Vol. 2 and 3 (at left) still available in hard-shell and ready for an autograph if you want it, now with a 2-fer price!  I'm also happy to personalize to whatever giftee name you'd like, if you just include the info on the order form.

Kevin Dilmore shows Hallmark's new Trek ornaments —plus sneak peeks at the 2015s, AND his new book

Hey, it's that time of year again: Time to chat again with Trek novelist and Hallmark hangabout Kevin Dilmore...

Because it's THAT time of year again: Here's Hallmark's new Star Trek ornaments for 2014! And even 2015...

As usual, Kevin—my onetime Communicator magazine hire;ing—and I have way too much fun looking at all the new baubles and their subject matter, which find a way to get cooler and cooler each year. And what better backdrop than the raucous roar of Comic-Con #SDCC behind us?

What's more, hang on to the very end for a word about Kevin's latest Trek novel now out from Pocket Books with co-author Dayton Ward, whom I've caught at SDCC before as well. The new title is second in the Seekers series, Point of Divergence ... in stores now.

I'll give a prize if you can watch this and list off all 47 Star Trek riffs we took off on....!



BTW: Would you believe the gummy "RECORD" button on my HD cam? We actually did this entire bit once through before I realized it had not been captured—and thus our extra giddiness at diving back in for an even more brilliant chat.

It's APRIL FIFTH: Make First Contact with #StarTrekDay & share your pics!

WE WANT YOUR PICS! Of what? See below...

So, first the cool news:

In this, the FORTY-SEVENTH year of aired Star Trek .... we have exactly FIFTY YEARS until first contact with the Vulcans.

In Bozeman, Montana*.

On April 5, 2063.

Sparked by Zephram Cochrane's test warp flight of the Phoenix that day, a landmark in human history.

(Since the Vulcans, Romulans and Klingons, for starters, had all already been there/done that.)

Meanwhile, back in our time ... the boom in social media has led to the cutesy mainstream appearance of memes and trivia in posts and tweets that geeks formerly had to pass amongst themselves, like secret handshakes. Such as the launch of the Jupiter II (Oct. 16, 1997), or the day the Moon was blasted out of its Earth orbit (Sept. 13,1999)—did you miss them both? (And if I have to explain either one of those non-Trek references, you need to go back to Go and not collect 200 quatloos.)

But thus was how Star Trek's birthday on Sept. 8 (1966, first airing of TOS on NBC), and May 4th over in SWarsville  (May the Fourth/ "May the Force...",  get it?) got even more note among the mundanes .... and were soon to be joined by 4/5/63 as just as key a date in Trekland—The Day Everything Changed. Finally.—when humanity not only got a faster-than-light engine but a Galactic Consciousness as well (according to First Contact, of course.)

And in typical Twitter  "hashtags" or trending label protocol, that begat  #firstcontactday or #starwarsday or #maythefourth. #Startrekbirthday seemed a little long for Sept. 6 every year, though.

Now, this year and this week, I'm being told, via TrekRadio and others, that there's a movement afoot to unify behind "Star Trek Day" as a sole hastag/moniker for April 5—only to enlarge the outreach and the viral factor for those mundanes who see it and recognize more easily the franchise, not just an event.

Now, as usual, it's not a lockstep monolith of ideas on this. Some folks resent not saving Sept. 8 for #startrekday, and want to keep April 5 as #firstcontactday. I can see both sides, but I also see that #firstcontactday has limited recognition to a wider audience... nay, even the vast armchair fandom out there who merely sit and watch and enjoy Trek, and not much more beyond their living rooms and dens.

So, I'm all in for the unified #startrekday hastag. Call it #firstcontactday to your Alpha Beta Trekka frat brothers and sisters if you will, too—for it is. But let's think big.

Celebrate in your own burg and check out all the Facebook events—which, of course, touch on Star Trek's greater message of IDIC and world peace and understanding or even reveling in the Other—not fearing it, as our dark sides (and recent politics) would have you do.

In fact, are you having a Star Trek Day event for First Contact? If so, send us your pics at  larry@larrynemecek.com and we'll share them with all.

But don't ever underestimate the power of marketing to keep your passion bigger than a cult.

Look what #ST2009 did for that!



*Thus becoming the second immense event in history ever to happen in that burg. Along with the birth of Brannon Braga.

STV: Still time to get a Trek ornament—right, Kevin Dilmore?

Are you a fan of the Hallmark Star Trek holiday ornaments?

This may have been shot at ComicCon last summer, but it's a reminder that a) the Hallmark line has been a part of tree-trimming for fans since 1991 (!!) and b) with two weekends to go, it's still not too late to grab your ornament of choice—ship, figure, or scene?

Plus—you get: A sneak peak at the real 2013 ornament prototypes (as at right). And our nerdness over Scotty's prop, Kirk's hair... etc... etc...

Kevin Dilmore, of course, is not only a noted Star Trek fiction scribe with Pocket Books, —usually with writing partner Dayton Ward—but a writer (and Trek think-tanker) for Hallmark greetings in Kansas City. He also gets to show off a couple of his new franchise greeting cards, too. And a Batman?

Enjoy the madcap frenzy of ComicCon behind our talk... it could just as easily have been the buzz in a December department store display, right?

A TOUR of the real Trekland? Guess who's leading it?

So, this guy walks up to me at the Vegas Khaaaan last year ...

And stunzap! —next thing I know I've been tractor-beamed into leading a tour for fans taking in 4 1/2 days worth of Star Trek film sites, around L.A. and en route to Vegas so as to end up—and extend through—the annual Creation Vegas blowout next August.

Well, actually, he didn't really have to stun me. Or even twist my arm—as if I had to tell you that.

You can read all about the facts of the "Exploring Trek Sites: Hollywood to Vegas With Larry Nemecek" here, but I want to talk about the feelings this all conjures up. Like how I'm flattered  to have Teras Kassidy approach me to partner with him on this Trek sites tour ... and how I'm confident to do so, knowing that his Geek Nation Tours has been doing theme tours for various flavors of "geeks" around the U.S. and Europe since 2009. And how I'm thrilled that this has been a great add to his travel agency of 13 years—so I know I've hitched my good name to one that's equally dependable.

I'm also excited to think of Trek site touring in terms of a group dynamic, and a big crowd. But not too big: one example being Teras' quality control, insisting on a one-bus limit so there's no "second class" tour-fans on the "second" bus getting just the faceless audio off a wireless mic pickup from Bus 1, or an exhausted host (ahem) hopping back and forth between stops. I've hit the Trekland sites over the years with friends and visiting "scholars," of course—I'm lookin' at you, Jorg!—but never considered how to maneuver a busload of Trekkies into these sites. And in a schedule that makes sense for fans who are also human beings needing food, shelter and plumbing.

I'm also curious to see what climes and time zones' natives decide to beam in and make up that busload, which will spend a couple days in greater L.A. and then actually hit the road for some rarer sites before we pull into Vegas just in time for the Creation clambake.  Seriously, Teras' agency reaches from Oz to Japan to the Americas and then cross the pond to the U.K. and Germany... so I hope we have quite the World Wide Warpcore of fans in the mix for this thing. They ALL can speak English, you know.

Most of all, I'm delighted to do double-duty once again: researching Trek's filming location for all series and movies. My archive of call sheets and memos, and those hundreds of interviews back to 1992, are the best source—but this has been a great poke in the butt to finish doing the legwork.

Of course, we can't go everywhere. Some are not open to groups, and we've only got 4 1/2 days! And—do you go to the obvious sites anyone can get to, like a Paramount studio tour or Vasquez Rocks? Do you play the numbers and favor Original Series or TNG or movies, or include a broad swath of the series? I've tried to factor in all series and their movies—including JJ Trek—and we have the known as well the obscure. For one thing, fans on their own won't get to go to those places with a great tour guide, and for another—well, again, I think a boatload of Trekkies from around the world will be just an awesome experience you can;t easily replicate. Of course, there are planned outs where you can take off on your own if you need your own space, so to speak.

I've already lined up one special: none other than Bobby Clark the Gorn will meet us at Vasquez Rocks—you can see him at the big cons,incuding Vegas, but how many get to hear him talk about that inhabiting that Gorn suit right on the iconic site where he so famously fought James T.? We may add a few more surprises in, too; we already have some "fudge factor" sites bneyond what you will read about, just in case we get a chance at, or have to adjust, to a Plan B due to factors beyond our control.

Seriously, folks, I just can't get across how excited I am to be a part of this. And Teras has all kinds of options for accomodating your not-so-fannish travelmate or spouse... or if you already have your Rio or other Vegas hotel reserved ... or in matching you up to a "double opccupancy" partner.  I know it has a pricetag, but if there's any way you can beam in and join us this Aug.  4-13 in Los Angeles ... and wind up in Vegas to survive the Khaaann—well, be there or be dunsel!

We're not dead, Jim

Sorry for the lag here in posts. We are not going away quietly into that good night, by any means. House, family, career and yes holiday concerns really ganged up on us.

What's really frustrating is that I have tons of video to put up, and a few interviews to transcribe as well. As well as some pending thoughts I know you're just dying to hear. And yes, some "Ask Dr. Trek" replies to share.

For now I'll leave you with some holiday cheer... and I don't mean Dr. Helen Noel!

Here's hoping you have a restful, fun and reflective season.

LA Alert!: Sandra PIller's Toys for Tots holiday concert Dec. 6

All Treklanders know the name Piller, but this time we're not about the late great Michael, writer-producer and arguably "the man who saved Next Generation." Quite apart from his contributions, his widow Sandra Piller has always had a music career in her own right—an L.A. native with plenty of Nashville savvy. And since his passing in 2005, she has plunged right ahead to renew her singing and songwriting: her latest CD Kindred Spirits on Shady Hill Records is now out, a mix of heartfelt country and pop/folk.

This weekend, as part of the holiday cheer, I wanted to help Sandra get word out to the SoCal region: her band's holiday show this Sunday, Dec. 6, at Molly Malone's on Fairfax from 7-10 p.m. carries an admission price of simply an unwrapped toy for Toys for Tots.

Sandra is also introducing her new single, "Mistletoe and You." Go by and give her some support on what will be a fun night with good music and good food, and take another chance to help out Toys for Tots this year.

Facebookers can check out more at her event page here.