Interview with Dave Blazer on Starfleet and Star Trek Fandom

Hey guys, what's going on? You are listening

to... Future Imperfect, only on ThisWeekendGeek

.net. I'm one of your hosts, Mike the Birdman

Da, but I'm not alone through this trek across

the stars. I'm joined by the co -creator of the

Geek Cash Radio Network. Steve Megatron Phillips.

You know, it's weird to actually say that and

not have Blanchard in my ear for a change. It's

a nice welcome change on this show. But yes,

guys, we are talking Trek here on This Week in

Geek. This is going to be one of our new shows

launching forward into 2012. And basically, we

got the idea for this show. I got the idea for

this show while watching Star Trek's documentary

Trekkies, which actually ties into our topic

today. There was a talk show years upon years

ago that's actually on the radio called Talking

Trek. And it was basically an online convention.

They said some people talk French, some people

talk German, we talk Trek. That's sort of the

same mantra we're gonna proceed with with our

show Future Imperfect, which is the name me and

Steve came up with, to describe, well, the future's

pretty cool, the future's pretty bright, but

it's not exactly perfect when you look at all

the problems that happen in Star Trek. But that's

not to say that there aren't creative solutions

with the United Federation of Planets, treaties,

you know, all sorts of neat things that happen

with Star Trek. So I guess Steve to... Let's

get people introduced to you because we we've

had you on this week in geek before but since

this is a new show Let's get people reacquainted

with who you are Well, first of all, I'm of course

like you said before the co -creator of the geek

cast radio network I'm an avid fan of Many things

geek obviously. I love films. I love cartoons

I love Transformers and of course Star Trek.

I have a deep fascination with voice acting that

I'd like to actually partake in in the future.

I've interviewed a great deal of famous voice

actors and pretty much I'm a web tech guru for

the most part. And it's nice to have you a part

of working with us here on This Winged Geek.

You've actually taken over a good chunk of the

web duties from our former guy, Steve Snowball

Sailor, who just merely just doesn't have time

to necessarily do that for us all the time now.

So now we have you, and the website, well, it

mostly works. Eventually we'll fix that stupid

Facebook thing. So we do apologize for people

that are trying to comment via Facebook. But

speaking of things. Well, it does it does work.

But the thing is, it's Facebook's open graph

thing. It's it's the way it's set up. It works

flawlessly, despite what it tells you. It's witchcraft

is what it is. Yes. Just saying. All right, guys.

Now, before we start things off and I want to

kick things off in the right way as sort of a

welcome to the new show sort of thing. I'm giving

some stuff away. Oh, that's right. So this comes

just courtesy of Paramount Pictures Canada and

U .S. Opley. I'm giving out a copy of The Collected

Edition of Klingon Monopoly. That's right, in

full Klingons. Oh, Kaplach, warriors. You can

actually read this in full Klingon, but there

is also the bilingual translation into good old

f - you know, standard Federation English, if

you want to play this. And I'm also giving away

the Season 1 Blu -rays for Star Trek The Next

Generation, the sampler disc that comes out later

on this month. I'll be sending that out. Now,

this contest is open to North America only, simply

because, well, the Blu -ray is NTSC. region one

first off. And number two, I don't want to ship

this thing overseas because I will get raped

in shipping charges. So what you have to do to

win this is send me a one paragraph Klingon inspired

war speech. So basically tell me how you'll drink

the blood of your enemies, smash their skulls

into dust and hear the cries of their women or

something. So to do this, write KlingonWarCry

as the subject in your email and you will be

emailing feedback at thisweekengeek .net and

we will be accepting entries all the way up until

February 8th where we will notify the winner

via email and we may even call you on the show

if you happen to include your phone number. I

think it would be kind of cool. Anyway, so like

I said guys, today's inaugural episode is going

to be talking about the fandom of Star Trek,

so how me and Steve got involved, some of our

memories talking about the conventions, the fan

clubs, and what it means to be a Trek fan in

2012 these days. But before we do that, we have

a segment on the show, which we're going to call

the L -car segment, where we take a look at the

Library Access Con... Library computer access

system and see what random item we can talk about

in Star Trek this week. This will be done by

Steve each and every show. So Steve, take it

away with the LCARS computer access system this

week. Hello and welcome to Locars. Today we begin

our first of many journeys into Star Trek's computer

library to discuss, quite frankly, something

awesome. In this debut episode, I'd like to talk

about the ship that began it all, the Enterprise.

When I say the Enterprise, I don't mean the NX

-01 Quantum Leap Enterprise, no. I mean the original

series Enterprise. Program complete. Enter when

ready. The USS Enterprise, NCC 1701, was a Federation

Constitution class heavy cruiser that was in

service with Starfleet in the mid to late 23rd

century. In the course of her career, the Enterprise

became the most celebrated starship of her time.

The ship itself endured 40 years of service,

discovery, upgrades, and at least two refits,

unlike most of her... later namesakes. It achieved

much of what many starships, captains, and her

crews nearly dreamed of. Much of that being first

contacts, military engagements, and time travels.

She achieved her most lasting fame from the five

-year mission under the command of Captain James

T. Kirk, my favorite captain out of all of Starfleet.

This enterprise, unfortunately, was destroyed

over the Genesis planet in 2285 in a battle with

some rogue Klingons to save Captain Spock. In

Star Trek 3, the search for Spock. Suffice it

to say, Star Trek wouldn't have been quite what

we know it is today without the specific ship

to guide our light into this great fandom. So

with that, I'll toss it back to the podcast with

Mike and myself. with the following clip. In

any case, I'll be watching. See you... out there.

And we're back with Future Imperfect. Yeah! We

are still getting there. So, uh... yeah! Yes,

as you guys can tell, me and Steve, we're just

kind of getting... Definitely still getting the

hang of it. Yeah, just because me and Steve have

actually never worked together separately on

a show. We've worked together with some of our

friends. So this is sort of our shakedown cruise

for the USS Future Imperfect. So bear with us

while we figure things out. So like I said, Steve,

thank you for doing that element on the USS Enterprise.

What we're going to talk about next week... Who

knows, I'm just gonna have Steve open a Star

Trek dictionary and pick something. So like I

said, today's topic is the fandom, and my fandom

goes all the way back to probably, I remember

grade 7 specifically when I got into this, so

I was in maybe, I'm trying to think what the

year would have been, probably around 92, 93.

So Star Trek was probably in its fifth or sixth

season. And I had just started getting into it.

As one of my teachers in public school, named

Mr. Collins, I found out he was a Star Trek fan.

I had him loan me some of his Star Trek tapes

that he would record off a television, because

in my family, we didn't have cable. We had satellite,

but I wasn't allowed to use it. So I could only

get my Trek in bits and bursts. And I started

watching, and the first episode I saw... was

Descent, part 1 and 2, which is where Data's

brother, Lore, takes over a small boar collective

and gives Data the emotion chip, and he tries

to kill Geordi, and this, that, and the other

thing we also see is Commander Troy take over

the Enterprise and destroy a boar cube using

a sun. Which was pretty creative. And that's

when I really kind of got into it, because my

friend Wayne Richards at the time was another

huge Trek guy, and we started talking about the

ships, the technology, and then for Christmas

that year, 1991, 92, whenever, my parents got

me the Enterprise D, the Romulan Warbird, and

the Shuttlecraft Goddard, which I still currently

have in my house being piloted by Ensign Wesley

Crusher, as of this recording. And that's kind

of how I got into it. And there would be a small

gathering of Star Trek fans, and I don't know

why this happened, but I'm from a small town

called Owensound, Ontario, Canada. And for some

reason in the Grey County Mall, which is affectionately

called the Dirt Mall, if you lived in the area,

it was the small little ghetto mall, they had

a Star Trek convention there once. There were

Klingons, Councilor Troi, not - Marina sear it's

but someone dressed like her and some other people

but the weird thing is they had the bridge of

the original enterprise 1701 the the original

and counselor Troy was on the bridge. It was

very weird and That's all I can remember about

how I got into the fandom. What about you Steve?

Well, what actually began me Jumping into the

fandom was my parents actually were huge Trekkies

My mom grew up with it as did my dad with the

original series and of course By proxy that's

what I got to know it from I used to sit and

watch television with my parents and if you know

pretty much everybody knows when you're a kid

and There's the big TV out in the living room

you watch what your parents watch if you want

to stay up later so Yeah, I pretty much watched

the original series and then TNG which I Both

series. I greatly loved and To help encourage

it my parents Bought me a ton of the action figures

the ships VHS tapes for those of you that know

what those are It was just it was awesome and

then one year I actually got to go to a truck

convention which to me was just freaking awesome.

I got to meet John Delancey at the time, got

a autograph, and I still have it to this day,

perfectly contained and everything. And I've

seen every Star Trek movie since generations

in the theater, and I'd have to say, out of everything,

my... My whole exposure with Trek has just been

a long journey that I've just had Nothing, but

good things to say about I'd say I'm probably

the same way with you where I've seen every Trek

movie in theaters I think the only one I didn't

see in theaters at least initially was I think

Nemesis, but I'm not even a hundred percent sure

of that Although I'd say the worst of the bunch

was insurrection just saying I'd have to agree

with you. That movie was fucking terrible. By

the way, we're explicit, just so you know. I

guess you haven't figured that out yet. But yeah,

I mean, being a Trek fan in the 90s, that was

the heyday, in my opinion. I mean, you had TNG

had come to an end in 1994. You had the revival

of the other series on the air through reruns

you'd still had DS 9 was running until 1999 Voyager

ended and I think 2002 Enterprise was launched

during this time which was sort of the prequel

to the original series like a hundred years before

Spock and Kirk were Running around and TNG movies

were still being made good or bad And I remember

a lot of the action figures being just there

are so many of them and I'm really regretting

the fact that I stopped collecting for a while

because I've always wanted to find a Playmates

era Voyager and I look on eBay and I don't see

anything for less than a hundred two three hundred

dollars I've never seen one go below a hundred

which sucks and I hear on the convention circuit

they can go about as high as six if they're complete

inbox now One of the interesting things about

the fandom is, well, it's how we all meet and

how we all find each other. When I was a kid,

like I said, back in grade seven, there was a

Star Trek club at my public school. And as I

went to high school, there wasn't necessarily

a formal Star Trek club, but we knew how to find

each other. Like I had a friend of mine, Mark.

Mark and he's the guy that got me into TNG stuff

really really really heavily I remember one year

he gave me the Star Trek technical manual because

he was getting out of it I was getting into it

and my friend Jared Chesel was also a bit of

a Star Trek nut too so we used to randomly just

do things at school that were Star Trek the one

memory I have and I'll never forget this we were

in grade 11 or 12 so 98 99 something like that

we have this huge cafeteria At West Hill, which

is the high school that I went to and they always

played music during lunch, right? so one day

someone decides to put a sound effects CD in

the CD player and We have The Star Trek alarm

klaxon as one of the sounds on it, that whee,

whee. Oh, that's awesome. And it goes off and

then the person didn't want to play that and

they hit another button and it was a grandfather

clock. So my buddy Chessel jumps to his feet,

he goes, red alert, all hands to battle stations,

grandfather clock decloaking off the port bow.

And me and him just jumped to our feet and run

out of the cafeteria. Everyone was just stood

there just stunned, didn't know what the hell

happened. But I just remember that as one of

my very early memories of Star Trek is that's

how a lot of us in our little group found each

other is through the grandfather clock decloaking

off the port bow. We also randomly played the

role playing game which at the time was run by

Lash Unicorn Games, which we will talk about

that on the show as there have been several incarnations

from FASA and other groups across the world who

hold the license to it such as Decipher, who

also made the card game if I'm not mistaken as

well. But before we go any further, I guess Steve,

do you have any unusual stories of the fandom

before we jump into where it's going now and

where it's going to go? Well, for instance, while

I was watching Trekkies, I found myself quite

disturbed by some of the weird things fans happen

to decide they want from the actors. One of which

being, somebody went around trying to get a vial

of Scotty's blood. Oh yeah, that guy. Which to

me, that is just, that is beyond obsessive. Like,

I can see wanting to, you know, beat him, get

a handshake, you know, hang out with him, get

a, you know, an autograph, but to sit there and

want their damn blood. That's just freaking weird.

Come on, you could clone Scotty. That is true.

You could. If it were legal. You could take it

to the 24th century and preserve him. See, there

you go. I mean, this time he doesn't have to

get caught in a transporter accident. He can

just be cloned. He can be like Kahn in Space

Seed. God! See, that's how far I'm willing to

take it. But yeah, like I remember in Trekkies...

My favorite story out of that one is where John

Delancey is talking, and this is in the first

Trekkies, and he's talking about how he's walking

down the street one day. Oh, I love that. And

a guy says, are you Q? And he's like, yeah. Can

you bring people back from the dead? Only if

I like them. Cool. And then he walked away. That

was hilarious. That was the best story out of

Trekkies right there. And for those of you that

may not necessarily know what we're talking about,

Trekkies was a documentary that was made back

in 1998, I think, produced by Denise Crosby,

aka Lieutenant Tasha Yar, who died in the second

season episode, Skin of Evil. My God, I realized

how much of this crap I knew right off the top

of my head. And it's basically an examination

of Trekkies, but also has interviews with the

original cast of the show. More of the original

show than TNG, which I found to be remarkably

interesting. Although I don't think Shatner spoke

during that doc, but it was mostly George Takei.

What the guy? Nichelle Nichols. Nichelle Nichols,

Leonard Nimoy. The guy that plays Chekhov, Walter

Cohen, Will Wheaton was interviewed at one point.

I think they taught the freaks a little bit.

I don't know if they taught the stewards more

in Trekkies 2 than they do anything else. It's

an interesting documentary. They also show several

Obsessive fans over the course and actually one

of the fans on there The guy who ends up designing

his own Starships and wearing his own uniform

surprisingly enough this guy went on to be a

big deal in Hollywood This guy went on to design

the Vipers for Battlestar Galactica worked on

Superman returns in the series finale of Enterprise

So he's done a fair number of things. He's still

pretty active in CG modeling and miniatures,

as far as I know, whose name completely escapes

me at this moment. But it's just amazing to see

what the fandom can create and where it can lead.

Now, one of the groups that we actually had a

chance to actually talk to before this episode

aired is actually one of the big fan clubs for

Star Trek. And they are Starfleet. They're known

as one of the largest fan organizations out there

currently for Star Trek. Over 4 ,500 members

as of this recording, if I'm pretty sure. So

I had a chance to sit down with Dave Blazer of

Starfleet, and you can find their website over

at, I'm just pulling it up right now, so just

give me a second, that's SFI .org. And here's

the interview that I had a chance to record with

Dave last week about the fandom, the conventions,

and some of the cool things you can do if you

happen to be a member of this wonderful fan org.

Hey guys, what's going on? You are listening

to Future Imperfect, the, well, only Star Trek

podcast currently on This Week in Geek. I'm your

host, Mike the Birdman Dodd. And well, as you've

heard me and Steve Megatron Phillips talk over

the last little bit, we're talking about the

fandom of Star Trek in our premiere episode.

And it's something that I always wondered about,

about being a part of, being one of those guys.

in the star trek fan clubs am i one of the am

i going to be one of those people that wears

the pointy ears and the spock uniform all day

long Well, sadly, folks, I think it's actually

starting to shape up that way. I wear a combadge

everywhere I go, and occasionally I'll get some

looks. But I recently became a part of an organization,

and they're actually sponsoring This Week in

Geek with a complimentary membership for myself.

And I'm talking about Starfleet, one of the fan

clubs for Star Trek. Not the official one, because

there are several... other fandoms out there.

But Starfleet's the one that I took a look at

simply because these guys seemed a little more

personal. And little did I know that just over

an hour and a half away from where I live right

now, the president of Starfleet lives not too

far from me. So I want to welcome Dave Blazer,

the president of Starfleet, one of the biggest

fan clubs in Star Trek right now. Welcome to

Future Imperfect, Dave. Thanks, Mike. I guess

I got to ask for all the listeners out there

of This Week in Geek and Future Imperfect, what

is Starfleet? Well, simply put, Starfleet is

a Star Trek fan club. Where we got started really

was back in the 70s. there was a gentleman down

in Lubbock, Texas, I believe, who wanted to get

together and really celebrate and enjoy Star

Trek. And so he got some of his friends together

and they started their own fan club together

called the USS Enterprise. This is back in 1973.

So Star Trek had been off the air for about four

years and they were the ones who really wanted

to kind of live that lifestyle and enjoy the

show and try and see what they could do to get

things happen again and really get their enjoyment

of Star Trek out there and share it with everyone

else. Now, what has it been like to be a part

of Starfleet simply because now we have the internet

era and new media, Facebook, Twitter, etc. What's

it been like to grow the fan club from the days

where it was just people meeting in maybe the

odd convention hall and exchanging newsletters

to being this 21st century entity? It's wildly

different than what it was even going back to

the 80s. Back when Starfleet first started and

throughout the course of the years, your real...

only source for getting news and information

about the franchise and about what was going

on with the production of the motion picture

when it came out in 1979 and all the movies since

then was from fan clubs and Starfleet had a bit

of a hand in that at some point we had some some

well -connected members long time ago with people

who you know worked in the studios who worked

for Paramount and for later Viacom who could

get the skinny for us and provide that information

And it was kind of one of those exclusive things

that we could have for our members. The internet

era really, really changed that for us, where

it became much more. easy and convenient to get

that kind of information off the web. You know,

you got Star Trek .com, you've got TrekToday

.com, TrekWeb .com, all those places you can

go and you can look up for all of that information,

what's happening with the studios and what's

happening with the show and the movie. You know,

you can go right now, in fact, and do a search

and find, you know, that the sequel to 2009's

Star Trek started filming very recently and they

I've got all the cast back together and it's

like a big family reunion. Being part of a fan

club now, it's a lot less of getting the latest

skinny and the latest news. It's much more about

the social interaction, having fun together,

interacting and really sharing that love of Star

Trek and doing other things together as well.

A lot of Star Trek, Starfleet chapters, excuse

me, tend to be very community focused as well.

They wanna do things that are positive and good

in their communities. Now that's something I

actually... that actually really attracted me

to Starfleet is that you guys are a more social

fan club. So can you explain some of the things

that make Starfleet more social than say some

of the other organizations that are out there

right now? One of the best examples that I can

give you is that there's the official Star Trek

fan club, and there's another organization out

there that they're large, but for the most part,

it's more or less a magazine subscription than

anything else. You can walk down the street,

pass by somebody who's a member of the official

fan club, and not even know that they're a member.

Whereas with Starfleet, A lot of it has to do

with getting together in the clubs, interacting,

having fun, like I said. So the chapters, a lot

of chapters will get together on a monthly basis

or even sometimes much more frequently than that

or via the internet and do various, you know,

email lists or online gaming, things of that

nature. So it's a lot more social and interactive.

So when you're walking down the street, if you're

a member of Starfleet and there's another member

of Starfleet that happens to live in your town,

you can... If you've gone through the same chapter,

you've been part of the same chapter, you see

them, you know that they're a part, and you can

have somebody to interact with and socialize

with. It's like a big, well, it's not really

a big, but I guess it's a way to expand your

circle of friends. Now, I understand Starfleet,

now the different chapters, they do different

social events, and the one that you and I are

a part of, Dave, we're part of the USS Hadfield,

correct? That is correct. And we all get together

about once a month and we do either a trivia

night or a Mexican night or just basically different

things to get together as a community. What are

some of the other events that other chapters

put together for their members? It's wild and

varied depending on the chapter and the... different

personalities involved. There's one chapter actually

down in, I want to say Missouri, that right now

they're doing a play -by -Twitter role -playing

game, which I thought was amazing when I saw

that today when I was reading the status reports.

Other chapters get together and they'll do, like

I said, some community type work. Some chapters

will do some fundraising for a local charity.

I've heard of various chapters who have been

involved with Habitat for Humanity. Some of them

just get together. They'll do movie nights. They'll

do things like that. I'm trying to think of some

good examples for you. Yeah, that's the kind

of thing they do. Now, I understand, Dave, that

once a year there's a big get -together that

everybody does, and this year it's being held

where again? In Memphis, Tennessee. And what

is that event? Basically, if people wanted to

check out Starfleet and they want to see what

the big grand event is that we do every year,

what is it? And tell us about it. Well, Starfleet

annually has an international conference or what

we call the International Conference. It's a

requirement for Starfleet to have a once a year

business meeting for the board of directors and

for our executive committee where we get together

we talk about the business of Starfleet running

the organization and Address the various things

that we have to do on a business level Expanding

on that though. We make it into kind of a social

weekend as well where members can get together

and have Well, okay. Let me start with the the

actual typical order of events. Friday night

we usually have a nice dinner with what we call

the Marine Mess, where the Starfleet Marines

have their own, it's kind of like a ceremonial

type dinner. And you get together, you have fun,

you socialize, you interact with people. Opening

ceremonies are later on Friday night. Saturday

is our general session where we have kind of

the state of the fleet. speeches that are happening.

Each of the executive committee members gets

up, gives their report about what's happening

with their particular department, how we're spending

the finances of the club, very responsibly, making

sure that we do things correctly. Then we do

hand out our annual awards, we present our scholarship

winners, and then we usually have in the afternoon

our convention type programming. More geared

specifically towards Starfleet and its chapters

and interacting, having fun. In some cases, you'll

have some how to do things within your chapters,

like how to put together a newsletter, how to

manage your chapter's finances, things like that.

But you'll also have the focus on... what you're

doing to have fun. Saturday night usually we

have a banquet and charity auction and followed

very quickly by the dance. That's the word I

was looking for, dance. And there's always room

parties as well that take place where a lot of

socializing, interacting, bouncing from room

to room, having lots of drinks and having fun.

See, and that's I think something that definitely

takes Starfleet into a whole new realm of the

fandom is the fact that it's so accessible and

people can do this. So Dave, I guess to you as

my final question, if people want to find out

more about Starfleet and join up, where would

they have to go? You can find out pretty much

everything you want to know from our website

at www .starfleet .com or if you want, you can

drop an email to myself at CS at SFI dot org.

Excellent stuff, Dave. Well, I got to say, I'm

really looking forward to talking to you again

here on Future Imperfect. And well, got to say

it's great to be a part of Starfleet and hopefully

you guys out there will take the initiative and

join Starfleet. Find your local chapters, go

out there and make some new friends. Celebrate

Trek. And hey, be like me, carry a con badge

everywhere you go. Well, guys, that's pretty

much going to do it for this interview segment

for Future Imperfect. I'm going to throw things

back to me and Steve, and we'll be back right

here on Future Imperfect, only on ThisWeekInGeek

.net. And welcome back to Future Imperfect. So

big thanks to Dave from Starfleet for actually

coming on the show and talking about it now as

of this episode's recording Well, we're recording

this on Monday. It's gonna be coming out on Wednesday.

So from the future There actually is an event

in Toronto this weekend For the Klingons there

is CAGFest in Toronto. Just type that into Google

K -A -G Fest Toronto, and I'm sure something's

bound to come up via there. That's one of the

neater things I found out about looking at some

of the different fan clubs and groups that still

gather to this very day is that they still get

together in costume. They do crazy things like

have Klingon bowling and other weird shit like

that. That's kind of cool. Yeah, it is because

the fact that because the Internet exists, I

wondered if the fandom would fracture because

now we can all Access the fan club from anywhere

we want we can be at home be at work on our mobile

devices So what's the need? to gather anymore,

and I'm glad organizations like Starfleet exist

and CAG because these groups are still out there.

I mean, one of the things I got from watching

Trekkies 1 and 2 about the fandom is it got me

revitalized into realizing just how big of a

Star Trek fan I actually was. I want to be that

uniform -wearing weirdo. I want to be surrounded

by people who can tell me who was the director

of photography on this episode, what kind of

phaser is that, what's the refit condition of

the Enterprise -C sort of thing, who was the

commanding officer. I like that. I like being

around what I would call them a super nerd, and

I don't mean that in a derogatory term. I mean

that in the fact that they understand a fandom

so deeply and so purely that I don't know I mean

I think the best way to describe it is it's like

the Phantom got left behind I mean because you

see people talk about Transformers these days

you see them talk about any number of different

anime shows I mean My Little Pony's come into

its own recently with the whole Brony thing and

Trekkies We've kind of been left behind. I mean,

yeah, we had the 2009 movie. That was awesome.

Star Trek Online. Still awesome. But you always

hear more about Star Wars in the popular media

or something else. It's like Trekkies got left

behind. Oh, yeah. And it's kind of sad to see

that the only form of anything Star Trek nowadays

is in just the Abrams verse. I mean, you don't

see anything anymore. Yeah, because it's like

they forgot it existed and the fact that there

was a series of novels, I think done by Delray,

don't quote me on that, which attempted to continue

the universe after the movies and the shows had

ended. I think it's terrible. I've read the summaries

online. they kill Captain Janeway and the Borg

are completely destroyed and the universe is

just it's not the Trek that I recognize and even

Star Trek Online takes a cue from the Abrams

verse in the fact that it takes into effect into

effect that the supernova near Romula still exploded.

Now the Klingons are at war with the Federation,

the Borg are back, the Dominion are a new threat

again. And it's all because of the Abrams Earth,

which is great that it revitalized a property

that had been gone for quite some time. In fact,

I can't remember. This is the only time in my

life. Think about it, dude. There's no new Trek

on television right now. And I think that's kind

of sad because I personally looked forward to

watching a Star Trek show besides Enterprise,

because I have different reasons for that, but

I'll get into that at some other time in the

future. I liked seeing this show on TV and it

was like my weekly thing to go watch. Yeah, and

now that we don't have that, like I said, I wondered

what happened to the fandom, but by talking with

people like Dave, the fandoms there, it's just...

I guess we're quieter than we ever have been,

although there's always Star Trek conventions

going on. I mean, in fact, I just read about

this huge one happening this year, happens in

Las Vegas, second week there, and they've got...

Kate Mulgrew's coming out, Avery Brooks, Patrick

Stewart, because this is the 25th anniversary

of Star Trek The Next Generation is this year.

Wow. Yeah, I know. I mean, 25 years. Holy crap.

I can't believe it's been that long. I mean,

we are now those people saying, man, I remember

when Captain Picard, we're this is our generation's

Trek. It's weird to think about that. I mean,

think about that. I mean, Voyager's 25th anniversary

will be in 10 years. Cuz it started back in 1995

That's just crazy. I know just to think how old

are all these shows are but yeah, so they got

the shoes in there's also a crew There's a cruise

you can go on with Garrett Wong who played and

to Harry Kim John Billingsley who played dr.

Flock's Denise Crosby who played Tasha Yar you

can go hang out these guys on a cruise ship for

a week $2 ,500 But it may be legitimately kind

of cool. I'm actually kind of looking into it

if I can somehow find a way to raise that kind

of money by the end of the year. But that's really

cool. The fact that there are these things still

out there. There are still these little mini

conventions and I'm surprised. to go back to

my original point, that there is no Trekkan TV,

because look at the success of the sci -fi series

that are out there now. Fringe is out there,

there was previously, up until about two years

ago, the revitalized Battlestar Galactica, which

was a fantastic series. And we'll actually talk

about that here on Future Imperfect, because

I would love to do a comparison. of Star Trek

versus other universes. And I think Battlestar

is one that definitely needs to be examined.

But it's a great time for sci -fi on television

right now, but there is no great long -running

franchise. I mean, Stargate's done in all its

incarnations now. Battlestar is off the air.

What do we have in terms of sci -fi television

on the air right now? We've got Alcatraz, I guess.

Which which is kind of sci -fi, but it's also

a JJ Abrams production, so it's almost its own

thing But you say JJ Abrams. It's almost its

entire different links sub sub genre Trying to

think what else we got um fringe I'm thinking

here. What else? Terra Nova yeah And I wouldn't

consider any of the supernatural shows to be

sci -fi. I mean there's a Doctor Who, but that's

so spread out that it's just generally sci -fi,

because Star Trek and Doctor Who, yeah, they

both happen in space, but Doctor Who has more,

it's a more open storytelling device, because

of the whole time and space thing, they can go

anywhere at any time, so they're not necessarily

tied to a starship or a star base. and if they

want their episode to happen inside of a giant

mushroom they could in theory find a way to make

it happen inside of a giant mushroom um i'm trying

to think like it's weird though to look out on

the fandom i remember in the late 90s in probably

96 as as early there were crap tons of star trek

fan sites Oh yeah, everywhere. Yeah, I remember

there were so many play -by -email groups, there

were archives dedicated to it. Nowadays, there

are still Star Trek websites out there, and there

are some really good ones. But it's almost like

it's an endangered species now. Like they're

hard, like the good ones are really hard to find.

Yeah, and it's kind of saddening because, I mean...

It's it's like almost like sci -fi is kind of

died out in a sense and we need actually somebody

to come along and Pick it back up and I think

a new Star Trek series would do just that Yeah,

I I mean I completely agree because it would

be nice to have a Star Trek series that was meant

for us and not necessarily have to be in the

Abrams verse. And there was talk in the fandom

about what's it gonna be. Could it be on a Borg

vessel? Is it like a section 31 ship? Is it a

Klingon ship or something like that? And it would

be nice just to have something that was uniquely

us. And there are some wonderful writers out

there that could bring this to life. I mean,

I'm pretty sure Ronald Moore could bring this

back to television if he wanted. There's no reason.

why we shouldn't have a Trek on the small screen,

not just the big screen. Like I said, I am looking

forward to the Abrams movie, and I will say the

Abrams movie did do a fair chunk to punch me

in the arm to get back into it. I mean, I contacted

playmates when the movie came out and they sent

me a bunch of stuff which we covered when the

first movie came out a couple of years ago here

on Twig. I still have my phaser, I've got my

bridge set, a couple of my friends gave me Star

Trek figures for my birthday. I think I still

have Spock, Kirk and Dr. McCoy somewhere. But

I don't know. I mean, I wish the fandom was a

little more vocal. I mean, George Takei did a

video a couple of weeks ago where he was talking

about he wants us to unite in peace Star Wars

and Star Trek fans against a common enemy. That

common enemy being Stephanie Myers Twilight.

I think it's a wonderful thing and reality TV

in general. I completely agree. We as fans should

unite and destroy these rat bastards. But I don't

know. Like I said, it's like our fandom has its

head down and I don't know why. And I know there's

going to be people out there that are disagreeing

with me. Tell me where you are so we can find

you. Feedback at thisweekengeek .net. We want

to talk with you. We want to have you guys involved.

Like the idea of Future Imperfect, like I said,

is to take the spirit of what Talking Trek was.

I'd like for us to be that again in the new media

age. I mean... just for us to see where all of

our friends and family have gone that are Trekkies

to bring back the heyday of the 90s. And I'm

sure that the new Abrams movies will do that.

So I guess, Steve, before we close things out,

where do you think the fandom's going? Honestly,

I think a lot of them are still very interested.

I just think that a lot of them have kind of

gone into a sort of dormancy just based on the

fact that It's there's nothing new going on.

I mean we've had a couple years since The Abrams

film before that there was a couple years that

we didn't have anything In between and then now

we've we've been postponed because that GI Joe

movie To 2013 before we're even gonna see another

Trek film. So that'll have been another four

years. So I just I think that there needs to

be some kind of a public resurgence and not just

conventions. I think there needs to just be a

widespread something to pop up that can unite

all of us to try and get something going. Just

because at this point, I don't see many new fans

coming to the franchise and I don't see many

of them staying only for the fact that there's

no media for it. You know what has to happen,

Steve? I just had this thought right now. There

needs to be a Star Trek flash mob. In somewhere

very public, like Times Square or something.

Get as many nerds as you can in their uniforms

just to show up and just dance or something.

I don't know, fight a Borg or something. There

could be something, I mean, Star Wars the Old

Republic did it in Times Square. They had a flash

mob. We deserve one too. So that is my challenge

to the Star Trek community. Let's organize a

Star Trek flash mob in a very public place on

a very nice day sometime this year. Let's remind

the world that good things still happen, that

Gene Roddenberry's dream did not die, that despite

the doomsday clock being five minutes to midnight

right now, we can set that all the way back to

nothing. Because, you know what? He dreamed of

a better world for all of us. Didn't matter what

race you were, what orientation you were, didn't

matter anything. We united for a common purpose.

It was to explore space, to basically broaden

our horizons as human beings and as a collective,

you know... Force in the universe. So as inspirational

as I'm sure that sounds I'm pretty sure that

I've run out of things to talk about about the

fandom I know we're still out there. I know we

still exist. We've gone underground for right

now But I'm looking for you guys to be like the

Bay shore or the beige the beige or Resistance,

let me know you're out there. Feedback at thisweekendgeek

.net. Also, guys, do not forget our contest.

I want to give away a copy of Klingon Monopoly,

which we're going to have a review of that. Next

show will probably be put together by my able

-bodied young ward, Scotty Bordas, or myself,

depending. And we're actually going to have a

review of Star Trek items every show, brought

to you by ThinkGeek .com and whoever else will

send us stuff, to let you know what's worth your

hard -earned Gold Press Latinum. So anyway, for

Future Imperfect, I want to thank everyone for

coming onto the show. Like I said, email feedback

at thisweekengeek .net with your one paragraph

Klingon war speech. I want to hear it. If it's

an actual Klingon, I will take the time to translate

it and find someone who can speak Klingon to

do it on the show. So anyway, for Future Imperfect,

we have been... Steve Megatron Phillips. And

I've been Mike the Birdman Dodd, saying, live

free or die hard. We'll catch you guys again

next time, right here on This Week in Geeks .net's

Future Imperfect.