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He has also produced and hosted the documentary Trek Nation about his father and the impact of Star Trek. Trek Nation airs on Discovery’s Science channel periodically (check your local listings) and can now be downloaded and viewed on iTunes, VUDU, YouTube and Xbox Live. Roddenberry Entertainment is also boldly going where no film has gone before with the 360° movie experience White Room: 02B3.
Listeners are encouraged to submit questions for Rod by emailing them to questions@trekradio.net and join our interactive chat room to discuss the interview with fellow Trek fans and post questions which can be relayed to Rod during the interview. We look forward to Rod’s return and hope to see everyone this Friday!
San Diego Comic-Con is unquestioningly one of the largest pop culture events held in the United States. Over 130,000 Zombies, Super Heroes, Soldiers, Aliens, Ponies, Knights, Starship Captains, and Geeks of all ages descended upon the San Diego Convention Center with a single directive – to celebrate their fandom (Well, and to get blasted at the after-hours parties). Never one to be left out in the cold, we sent our own pop-culture Princess into the belly of the beast to bring you the very best from this year’s event. Here’s what she saw…
Super Hero Hijinx
The Supes continued to rule the school this year with Marvel Comics reigning supreme in Hall H. Robert Yeah-I’m-wearing-the-iron-man-glove Jr. was there. We were inundated with new info and footage about Iron Man 3 and we caught passing whispers about Rocket Raccoon and were told Ant Man will be kicking ass at any size. Not to be outdone, DC made sure we saw The Man of Steel take flight and Judge Dredd pronounce sentence. Much to our delight, a giant footprint heralded the arrival of Guillermo del Toro’s giant robot spectacle Pacific Rim!
There was much love for Joss Whedon, the “real” First Avenger. The man who helmed the largest superhero movie this century also hosted the most sentimental Q&A as he talked about Firefly’s 10-Year Reunion and the show’s rabid fans and science fiction legacy.
Small Screen Dreams Big
Now, while we kept looking for the comics we heard were somewhere in San Diego, we couldn’t help but enjoy the other huge Comic-Con presence this year – Television Awesomeness! Staff favorite The Walking Dead had much more than a shambling presence at this year’s event. In fact, to hear Risa tell it, it you couldn’t swing a Horga’hn without hitting a zombie… and don’t even try to grab your peanuts and Cracker Jacks because the whole of PETCO Park was swarming with undead!
That’s right, The Walking Dead Escape let you assume the role of a Survivor or a Zombie (and a spectator if you didn’t have the stomach for survival). They say dead men tell no tales, but if you have been tuning into www.trekradio.net then you know that we do… and we just could not say enough about the epicness of living out our deepest zombie survival fantasies. And did we mention you got to chain up and get your picture taken as one of Michonne’s Pets!? Oh, and the Governor, the prison, and Woodbury! WOODBURY! WOOOOODDBUUURRRRRRY!
Game of Thrones, you may know it as that little mom-and-pop show on the Home Box Office Network, seemed to be the bell of the ball and had a strong showing at their panel as the cast of thousands expanded beyond scorecard capacity!
Where the Fun Is
Apparently you didn’t even need a ticket to enjoy SDCC this year as the Gaslamp District became the unofficial Nerd Mecca with its cyclpoian eye firmly affixed to Nerd HQ, 15,000 square feet of warehouse space with panel rooms, signing tables, lounges, bars (Risa’s favorites), several dozen Xbox 360s, and a main room where the real fun took place.
The Hilton San Diego had an extreme makeover courtesy of Disney and HGTV as Frankenweenie’s Electrifying Garden took shape on the lawn. It was a surreal black and white experience that brought out the inner giddy in all Tim Burton fans.
We witnessed a gorgeous Art Exhibit at Michael J Wolf’s Fine Art Gallery, featuring Comic Book Villains and Heroes. Filled with authentic drawings, paintings and more, it was a MUST-SEE Exhibit. It was also part of a super cool charity project. Wecanbeheros.com/DarknessAndLight. DC Comics artist, Alex Ross had work displayed at the Chuck Jones Gallery that showed just how the line art becomes the painting.
And don’t forget the fun at the Roddenberry party at Club Fluxx! No detail went overlooked, and even the statuettes were dressed in Star Trek shirts. Now, while the details may be blurry (a sign of a great party) we do remember the fun, friends, and micro-skimpy outfits!
Trek Radio will be attending the Star Trek: TNG 25th anniversary party at Star Trek: The Exhibition next week on July 23rd and will be broadcasting live for anybody that cannot make it to the celebrations.
Station Founder Zach Nicodemous and DJ MightyMundane will be live from 5pm until 6pm Eastern Time providing full coverage of the event, conducting interviews with staff and much more! Then, throughout the evening, we will be joining other DJ’s on air with road reports from Point Orlando and more!
Would you like to meet us and join us on air? No problem – simply join us at our table in the main ten-forward dining area!
If you would like to attend the party, tickets are limited so you should order now! For only $40 per person you will receive a federation buffet, drinks, entry to the event at Regal Cinema’s Point Orlando where two episodes of TNG will be shown on the big screen for the first time, transportation to and from the theater, a special tour of exhibit after the show and some great prize giveaways.
To reserve your ticket now, contact Captain Don on 407-226-7220 or at dr@emsexhibits.com
Jonathan Frakes is best known as Commander William T. Riker on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space 9, Voyager and four Star Trek movies. Frakes has voiced himself on Fox’s Family Guy and David Xanatos on Disney’s Gargoyles. Frakes has been a regular on a number of soap operas and television series. Most recently, he appeared on Criminal Minds and NCIS: Los Angeles. Fresh from working on upcoming episodes of the TNT hit show Leverage, veteran actor and director Jonathan Frakes will join Trek Radio for an exclusive live interview, marking the first time “Number One” will appear live on the online radio station dedicated to the Star Trek and Sci-Fi community.
When: Friday, July 20, 2012, 6pm PDT/9pm EDT/2am GMT
If you’d like to ask a question, you can do so by emailing questions@trekradio.net or join the IRC chatroom to ask your question in person. We hope to see you there!
According to reports from ZombieVirus.org (ZVO), a “zombie virus” has already infected thousands of people across the globe, causing an epidemic of violence, cannibalism, loss of fine motor skills, and an insatiable hunger for human brains. The highly contagious virus is transferred via touch, especially by bites from infected individuals who have become zombified “walking dead”.
ZVO is tracking the spread of the epidemic and reports numerous confirmed cases which continue to be dismissed and covered up by governmental authorities and mainstream news organizations. The SoCal ZVO team has alerted residents in Southern California areas of elevated threat levels, recommending mass evacuations and preparedness training for those unable to evacuate. In particular danger are residents of San Diego, with the epidemic projected to reach severe levels in mid-July.
Independent zombie-watch groups have called for the immediate cancellation of the upcoming 2012 San Diego Comic-Con event scheduled for the 12th through 15th of July, though SDCC officials are apparently ignoring the warnings as the event is still scheduled to take place.
As comic book nerds, sci-fi geeks, and professional cosplayers gravitate to the area and gear up for SDCC, many are becoming infected by the zombie virus, turning into undead representations of their favorite characters. Locals in the area have already begun defending their homes against the invading undead horde and have uploaded videos of zombie attacks to Break.com.
Break Media, the official digital partner of Nerd Machine’s Nerd HQ, will broadcast nightly video reports hosted by zombie-slayer Zachary Levi, in addition to live streaming the “Conversations for a Cause” panels at SDCC.
Many ZVO team members believe an area at particular risk is Petco Park in San Diego, CA. Several individuals infected by the zombie virus have escaped quarantine and were tracked shambling toward Petco Park. Some ZVO members believe that many “Walking Dead” are attracted to this location for paranormal reasons. Despite warnings from authorities, local neighborhood groups have begun organizing an investigation of Petco Park and the surrounding area, while other residents are coordinating viewing parties to watch the zombie activity. Survivors and spectators can find more information and purchase tickets at the Walking Dead Escape website.
Intrepid Trek Radio representatives Risa and Deyvid will be on location reporting live from San Diego Comic-Con and will expose any zombie activity they encounter at the various events and parties they are scheduled to attend. We recommend SDCC attendees and San Diego area residents exercise extreme caution, refer to the Zombie Survival Guide and always follow all of the Zombieland rules. We hope every living person has a great time surviving this year’s San Diego Comic-Con.
Trek Radio was recently invited to explore the Star Trek Exhibition which beamed down to Orlando, FL in May 2012. We graciously accepted, packed our bags, set a course at maximum warp and were not disappointed when we arrived.
Just a few weeks into their away mission, the Star Trek Exhibition is shaping up nicely. The first thing that Captain Don Rousseau, sales and marketing manager was eager to explain is that, unlike the “other” Star Trek Exhibit that was touring the United States in 2011, this Star Trek Exhibit is here to stay.
“We are here through 2014 and if the Exhibition continues to be a success, we’ll be here indefinitely. We really want to become the Star Trek Experience for the East Coast albeit, without the restaurant due to space limitations.”
The first thing that meets your eyes when you enter the exhibit is the bridge of the original USS Enterprise from the original series. This is not a replica – It is the original set used in the 1960s. Without being quite sure that I had heard right, I asked Captain Rousseau if….“this is the ACTUAL chair that William Shatner used?”…. and with a smile on his face he replied in the affirmative.
Every costume, every prop and every item that you see is completely genuine – the costumes were worn by the actors in the shows and movies, the props were held in their hands and the chairs comfortably encompassed their buttocks. And it is this fact that makes the Star Trek Exhibition something special. You can walk around the bridge, sit in the Captain’s Chair and you are free to take photos. Other great photo opportunities include the Scorpion Fighter used in Star Trek Nemesis – it is full size and we were allowed behind the rope to take close up photos and get a peek inside so we can confirm that its 100% genuine and complete with interior and let’s not forget the Klingon Captains chair which you are completely free to sit in for photos – costume is optional!
Right now you can access the Exhibit for $15.95 a person ($9.95 for kids aged 5-12, kids under 5 go free!) and it’ll easily keep you occupied for over an hour as it stands right now, however, this introductory price will be going up at some point in the near future because the Exhibit has some big plans!
Captain Don informed me that they have two entire warehouses full of new items that they will be putting on display in the exhibit over the coming weeks, months and I’ll dare say years! CBS/Paramount are constantly shipping new items to the Exhibit and in the near future, full size sets for the Transporter Room and Holodeck will be going up. Exhibit refits will take place every 3-4 months to keep it fresh for repeat-visitors and in addition, they are in the process of hiring actors who will conduct tours of the Exhibit in full costume, put on short Star Trek scenes for visitors to watch and much more. I was also informed that the Exhibit may attempt to hold convention-style events in the near future, albeit, on a smaller scale due to their limited space.
All in all, Trek Radio is very happy to highly recommend the Exhibit to anyone visiting the Orlando area.
Special Event
If you are in the area on July 23rd, the Exhibit will be holding a special event to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of The Next Generation. A limited-access party will be taking place at the Exhibit in a recreation of ten-forward complete with bar area, furniture and period buffet (tribble nuggets and vulcan hot wings are on the menu). After a little while, a bus will take guests to the Orlando screening of The Next Generation’s “Datalore” and “Where No Man Has Gone Before” at Regal Cinemas, before returning to the exhibit for a special tour of new parts of the exhibit that will be opening up. Make up artists will also be on site to transform visiting guests into Andorians, Klingons, et cetera
If you wish to purchase tickets for this event, you can contact Captain Don Rousseau direct on dr@emsexhbits.com or get them via their websit at www.startrektheexhibition.com. At the time of writing this article, entry price is $40 dollars for the evening which starts at 5pm.
Article and Photos by Zach Nicodemous. Star Trek: The Exhibition is located at 7220 International Drive, Orlando, Florida, 32819 and is open year round.
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