Trek1701

This year at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo they managed to gather the entire original cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation and they had their own separate ticketed event on the Saturday of the convention weekend called TNG EXPOsed, and I was there!! Here is some of my recollections of that evening. It was great to see them all on stage at the same time and if you want to watch it TNG EXPOsed is available for free viewing on YouTube.   It opened with a awesome band playing Sinatra and swing band style music, kinda like Michael Buble.  Then a recorded message from the Mayor of Calgary. Then the introduction of 'Emily Expo', the cons super sexy mascot. Then a video of Emily interviewing other sci-fi stars at the 'Emerald City Con' about TNG. Those interviewed included Christopher Judge (Stargate), Edward James Olmos (BSG), George Takei (Sulu), Walter Koenig (Chekov), Robert Picardo (The Doctor from 'Voyager') and others who I didn't k...

- In the original draft idea for Trek Spock was to have been red and from Mars... how would that have affected the franchise?? This would have drastically altered everything for Spock and viewers. Being red and from Mars may seem silly by  today's  standards but you have to remember that back in the 60's not much was known about Mars. There were no photos, no probes, just what could be seen by telescope and educated guesses. But Roddenberry was known for consulting with scientists about science stuff for Trek and he was probably advised to not have  Spock be from mars because the odds are against there being humanoid life on Mars. but by  today's  standards had they gone with that notion of being red and from Mars there is no doubt that Star Trek would be mocked and probably would never have been taken seriously, especially after NASA all but proved there not to be life on Mars.         - Originally Marina  Sirtis  audit...

This was originally posted on my 'Random Nerdness' blog before I created my 'Trek1701' blog, so I wanted to include this blog in my Trek blog. Season 6:   This was another solid season. Star Trek: Deep Space 9 launched mid-season and TNG viewers saw guest star Colm Meaney (Transporter Chief O'Brien) and his family transfer to DS9. Season 6 also marked the end of Whoopi Goldberg's tenure on the TNG series. She only appeared on 3 episodes and never returned. Her character made no official exit and I to this day I am not sure why she never returned to TNG in season 7. TNG needed a shake-up and they got it in the great 2 part episode 'Chain Of Command' with Picard being  transferred  and Ronny cox coming  on board  as 'Captain Edward Jellico'. Jellico was a very strict commanding officer who was hard to please and this created great drama for the actors, especially Rikers epic confrontation with Jellico. Also in that 2 parter Picard was captured...

This was originally posted on my 'Random Nerdness' blog before I created my 'Trek1701' blog, so I wanted to include this blog in my Trek blog.   Star Trek: The Next Generation:   I didn't watch TNG until it was in it's third season. At first I was a little  critical  of this new series. Captain Kirk was my Captain, his crew was the only crew I wanted to see. Being a 7 year old kid I just didn't understand why they couldn't do a new TV series with the original cast. Also at that time my family lived in an area where TNG was not available on the air waves. But when we moved to our acreage in 1989 I was able to start watching TNG, now in it's third season, for the first time. I soon forgot my misgivings of them not using the original cast and quickly embraced this new cast of intergalactic  travellers .   It was easy for me to get hooked into this series having watched it for the first time in it's third season, because in retrospect it was probably...