LA ALERT: Armin's back in 'Discord' through Dec. 21

If you missed our own Armin "Quark" Shimerman in the new play last spring about three historical bigwigs who edited their own Bibles finding themselves trapped in a limbo together across time and space in a battle of wits and whys… here's your chance to see the show on a bigger stage, even more refined.

Yes, the same cast—which also include onetime Trek guest star Larry Cedar as Thomas Jefferson, to Armin's Count Tolstoy and David Melville's Charles Dickens—gets an up-tweak now at the Geffen Theatre in a run that's already won rave reviews around town and a one-month extension to boot. It plays weeknights at 8 p.m. through Dec. 21 except for Mondays, with double showtimes on weekends: 3 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Check out the play website and remaining tickets for Geffen’s Audrey Skirball Theatre at 10886 Le Conte, or call 310-208-5454.

For more on "Discord" itself, written by Real Time With Bill Maher exec producer Scott Carter, there's always our prior Trekland post here ... as well as our backstage, post-play chat with Armin about the play's themes and playing Tolstoy within it.  Ignore the detail s of that small-theatre run; stick with the play's core and Armin's basic thoughts about it—and Tolstoy.  You'll notice that this upgraded production has given Armin's Tolstoy a much more sophisticated makeup and costume (seen in photo at left):

Happy Easter: The secular humanist has come a long way

I'm talking here about Gene Roddenberry himself, of course... and the various iterations of formal religion, informal spirituality, and all the various spectrum-stops in between that reject either. They've been debated and discussed regarding their true meaning in Star Trek for years.

One of the engines powering all that now, of course, is the Internet—and the easy laptop access to posting video that now lets us peek into every little nook and cranny of the world that used to go by unseen to anyone but locals.

But I don't quite think I've ever seen anything like this: Somebody's obviously a big Trek fan at this Clay Center, Kansas, Christian school, and it's great that Trek is knocking down walls and opening minds—whether because  JJTrek's pure blockbuster power has crashed the mainstream party, or just that the TNG generation has now taken over everywhere. But this is still a stretch:

An Easter Trek

... As Captain Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy and Lt. Scott, Asa Peterson, Samuel Graham, David Stuenkel and Brett Wallace came to an M-Class planet where they observed a world enlightened by Jesus ... "and may have even surpassed us."

... By the end of the program the Star Trek crew vowed to spread this knowledge throughout the universe.

I wonder what Kahless or the Vedek Assembly would have to say about that?

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.

STV: Spirit of Trek III: Robert O'Reilly & Gowron's Clerics Crisis

Church-state relations among Klingons?

Yep, TNG's "Rightful Heir" and Robert "Gowron" O'Reilly can only mean one thing: It's already time for a another monthly chapter of "Spirit of Star Trek," the free live screen-n-talk series for those in or near the Los Angeles area.

Next up it's Sunday, April 26 from 7-9 p.m., co-hosted by makeup guru Michael Westmore and Curtis Webster, pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Encino. But the evening is anything but "churchy," as you might guess—from the big-screen viewing of a relevant episode to the funny, probing or even personal dialogue among hosts. guests and audience on the spirituality, morals and yes great backstage stories of the various Star Treks, viewed through the alien lens. Here's Bob's take on it in a nice chat...


Before "Rightful Heir" aired late in TNG in 1993, we'd only seen Klingon warriors and the occasional spy or envoy—but clerics? And revered empire founder Kahless as a messianic figure vowing to "return"? And secular Gowron's deal to allow that cloned yet incredible "return" while holding on to the seat of power after all—any lessons for us as we grapple with the "separation of church and state" today? Those and more are sure to be topics for the night—a chat like no other you've seen at a convention, or Congress or church for that matter. A brief reception follows.

The event is free, but donations are welcome; the church is at 4963 Balboa, just south of the 101. Always best to RSVP: Call Amber at 818-788-1147.