Geek Interest – Page 3 – The Designer Monologues

September 8, 2016September 8, 2016

Star Trek at 50

Back in 2013, I did a blog entry on the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. As important as that show was to my foundations as a young geek, this year marks the 50th of one which looms even larger: Star Trek.

Star Trek was my first Geeky Thing. In the pre-Star-Wars days of the 1970s, it was one of the Colossi of my imagination (along with Planet of the Apes). The image above is a triptych painted by John Picacio (whom I’ve “online known” for years, and finally got to meet in person at WorldCon last month), used for three book covers to mark the 40th anniversary a decade ago. As definitive a Trek image as it is, though, my introduction to Trek can be summed up by a different, personal triptych.

My introduction to Star Trek came via my grandmother’s house. Several Star Trek books — the “Puzzle Manual”, pictured at left; Alan Dean Foster’s “Log” series, where he adapted episodes from the Animated Series — had been left on a few shelves around the house. I never found out whose they were: One of my uncles, perhaps? To this day, I’m unsure. But I devoured them, along with many, many viewings of the syndicated re-runs, which were shown Monday through Saturday at 6pm on WPIX, Channel 11 in New York. I was absolutely a part of that Second Wave of Trek Fandom that exploded via syndication after the show’s original cancellation.

Star Trek (along with Planet of the Apes, and then Doctor Who, and then Star Wars when I was eight years old) was my gateway into science fiction and All Things Nerdy which sprouted from there. My first comic books were Gold Key Star Trek comics. I devoured the tie-in novels through the 80s and well into the 90s. (I still occasionally pick up a new one, from time to time). From 1978 onward, there were Trek movies every couple of years, and then, in my freshman year of college, The Next Generation debuted. Throughout every iteration that has followed, I still remain a stalwart fan of the Original Series above all.

My love of nerdy things led directly to my career — and I was proud to have been able to contribute to Trek canon in my own small way, by writing a history of Vulcan for Last Unicorn Games’ Star Trek RPG in 1999, elements of which were later used on-screen in episodes of ENTERPRISE which were set on Vulcan, and referenced in several Trek novels as well (where I and my fellow sourcebook authors were thanked by name in the acknowledgements, which was a very nice gesture).

As I write this, another Star Trek RPG is in development, which I hope to contribute to — and, if I look above my desk, I see the following poster, a copy of which hung in my bedroom as an adolescent, and which my wife had custom framed (after I’d snapped this pic):

I haven’t been a big fan of the direction the property has taken over the past few years, but I’ve been glad for efforts like Star Trek Continues, pro-quality fan films keeping the spirit of the original Trek alive. Now, a new series is set to debut next year: Star Trek Discovery. Will I love it? We’ll see. I hope so.

But even if I don’t, I’m sure the “five year mission” of the Enterprise isn’t going to end for me any time soon. 50 years on, and it’s still going strong.

Live Long and Prosper, Star Trek.

August 22, 2016August 22, 2016

WorldCon Whirlwind (and a bit of a rant)

I’m currently catching my breath between the last 5 days spent at MidAmeriCon2 (the 74th Annual World Science Fiction Convention) in Kansas City, and later this week, when we take a cross-country drive to drop my youngest child off at his new college. (The picture, by the way, is author Brooke Johnson, with Laura and I. We’ve been on some panels together at ConQuest and now WorldCon, and had a good time hanging out.) Busy busy busy. But I wanted to get this down.

So, I had been lamenting that I’d missed the opportunity to charge my creative batteries at GenCon again — well, WorldCon took care of that. HOLY CRAP, I’m vibrating.

Spoke on several panels — kinda froze a bit when I noted that Larry Muhfuggin’ NIVEN was in the audience of one of them, hearing ME speak. WHAT IS THIS I DON’T EVEN. Met many, many brilliant people. Had the opportunity for sharing physical location with people that I’ve known for years online — turns out, the people from Twitter have, necks and bodies and legs and stuff. They’re not just disembodied heads in squares. Enjoyed time with folks that I already knew “fer realsies”, even though there never seemed to be enough time.

Came away from the show excited about the future — both for stuff that I’m already working on, and stuff that is just at the “percolating idea” stage. Feeling a much-needed sense of actual enthusiasm for my work, which is wonderful.

A couple of other take-aways from the show:

I’m in my late 40s, and there were rooms where I felt like one of the “young folks.” Seriously. SFF Fandom (with a Capital F) skews WAY old. I’d love to see more effort made to attract a younger cohort, or this stuff is eventually going to die out. It’s been pointed out to me that younger folks often can’t take the time and spend the money to attend — which is true, and not much can be done about that. But content-wise, there needs to be stuff to attract those that COULD attend, by giving them a reason to WANT TO. The ‘fan-culture’ stuff that’s been kinda stale since the mid-70s is not the way to do it. I mean, sure, have that for those that want it — but make more of an effort to recognize and accommodate 21st-Century fan culture, too.

Today, I’ve been reading another spate of post-Con horror stories about creepers, sexists, harassment, social dysfunction. Again. (As an example, this twitter-thread from Alyssa Wong.) Seeing expected messages of support, ally-dom, etc.
But. BUT.

I had convos in person with some folks AT the con about this stuff… and the amount of “well, we shouldn’t ostracize” push-back was noticeable.

Here’s the thing, though: the socially dysfunctional won’t stop these behaviors without it, to say nothing of the purposefully abusive. Until we get over the “geeks don’t ostracize” bullshit, it’s never gonna change. So yeah, offer ally-ship & support. But start actively insuring that there are negative consequences for these behaviors. Now.

People do this in your presence? Ostracize the shit out of them. “But they’re socially awkward” can no longer be allowed to be an excuse. Learn how to behave in public, or you don’t get to BE in public. This is Basic Adult Socialization 101. Long PAST time to start enforcing it.

Rant over. The positives far, far outweighed the negatives, in the end.

Also? I need to take more pictures when I’m at a Con. Folks are posting them all over the place.

Now, back to work.

May 21, 2016May 21, 2016

Trek Stuff

A bunch of Star Trek related news hit this week, as you might expect from the 50th anniversary year.

And on a related note: Wow, Paramount is blowing this anniversary, aren’t they? Compare what they’re doing with how the BBC handled the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. Paramount is doing (as far as I can tell) a single retrospective TV special later this Fall, a new installment in the JJ-Abrams-Reboot film series (with no ‘anniversary’ implications) and they’re not even launching the new series until NEXT YEAR. What the fuck, Paramount? Did the calendar sneak up on you?

Speaking of the new series, CBS showed a teaser during their Upfront presentation to advertisers this week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXpPweAooeE

Not much there, but what is there is interesting — especially “New Crews.” Plural. That lends some credence to the rumor that this show is going to be an “American Horror Story”/”True Detective”/”Fargo”-esque anthology series, where each season is a different story with a different set of characters. I’m looking forward to finding out more about it as 2017 approaches.

It appears that CBS/Paramount wants to pivot into creating stuff for fans to be excited about, rather than suing them in court — at a Trek fan event held last night, JJ Abrams told the assembled crowd that Paramount would be dropping their lawsuit against the fan film “Axanar.”

Axanar Productions definitely crossed the line. Not in their acquisition of a studio space, which they admit will be used for for-profit ventures outside of their film (shady, but not line-crossing, IMO), but in paying themselves 5-figure salaries. Plus, the producers are, bluntly, jerks, who have basically been swaggering around clothing themselves in borrowed glory — practically daring Paramount to sue.

I’m glad to see the lawsuit dropped (although I’ll wait until an official announcement from Paramount — how wild would it be if JJ Abrams said this in order to force their hands, because he saw the PR hurting the forthcoming Abrams-produced film?) — because of the chilling effect this was having on other fan films.

Star Trek Continues (my favorite), does it right: Registered as a non-profit, books available for audit on-demand, volunteer labor, and not trying to present themselves as a source of new, modern-day Trek, but specifically emulating the look, feel, and sound of the 1966 original. Their 6th episode, “Come Not Between Dragons” debuts later this month.

UPDATE: A Buzzfeed reporter tweeted an official response from CBS/Paramount, confirming the dropping of the case, and the additional news that they’re working on a set of fan film guidelines:

And, lastly: This morning the second trailer for the new J.J. Abrams-reboot Trek film, Star Trek Beyond, was released:

I think I’m going to have to view the reboot films the way that I view pizza outside of the Northeast. The stuff you get may be perfectly tasty for what it is, but it’s not actually pizza.

I actually was excited by the potential unlocked by the first film, but then they blew it with “Star Trek Into Darkness.” I don’t have high hopes for this one. Looks like a generally acceptable blow-em-up-real-good space opera spectacle, though.

Throughout my life, I’ve been a fan of both Star Wars and Star Trek — but I have to admit, that right now, I am far more excited about what’s coming for Star Wars than I am for anything Trek-related. I’d love it if CBS/Paramount would take a page from Lucasfilm’s post-Disney-acquisition playbook, at least as far as transmedia brand management goes, but I’m not holding my breath.

How great would that be, though?