Spock's booger
plus a Mind Meld with NYTimes bestselling author Andrew Shaffer
Greetings and felicitations!
Hip. Hip. Hoorah!
Tally ho!
Here we are in the midst of another week trapped at home. It’s been good for me - I especially enjoy my new mid-afternoon ice cream breaks.
And now that I’ve got the food talk out of the way, I will remind you that this week I am discussing boogers. Specifically, Spock’s booger. Read on to find out more.
Also, I am introducing a new recurring section in which I’ll share art and a comment from one of my favorites, Lee Sargent. I came across him on Twitter a few years ago when he was doing a Trek365 project - a new Star Trek related drawing every day. I ended up buying a couple of his originals, including this one, which I currently have framed in my office space.
That reminds me, I need to go make some coffee. (No chicken sandwich for me right now, though.)
You’ve no doubt seen this already, but just in case.
SPOCK’S BOOGER
This weekend, Dayton Ward reminded me of the time, four years ago, when I caused Spock to say the word “Booger.”
It started innocuously, as such things usually do.
Dayton Ward is, of course, the New York Times bestselling author of numerous excellent Star Trek novels. And one day, he sent out this tweet.
To which, my friend Sue London replied:
That obviously triggered a WKRP memory, and somehow my brain gave me the bright idea to write this:
And like the majority of things I say on Twitter, I promptly forgot all about it.
But Dayton did not, as he discussed on his blog: “Boogers are logical…and profitable.”
Here is page 284 of Dayton Ward’s Star Trek novel, Elusive Salvation.
Check and mate. Dayton won. In fact, he won two dollars, which I PayPal-ed to him.
To be honest, I sent him one dollar and then he jokingly reminded me about the extra dollar if it came from Spock, which I’d forgotten about, but I promptly sent him a second dollar. Never let it be said that I am not a man of my word.
Also, Spock’s Booger is totally going to be the name of my new band.
More confirmation that predicting the future is hard.
ART TREK TUESDAY
By Lee Sargent
Each week, one of my favorite artists, Lee Sargent, draws a random Trek-related scene. This week’s drawing is from a second season episode of The Animated Series: “The Pirates of Orion.”
As with quite a few of the animated series I have very little recollection of this episode. So I was kind of interested to see what early Orions look like and wow, they have got themselves some funky outfits.
They continuously mispronounce the Orion name so these guys might not be part of the Orion Syndicate.
This animated episode could easily have been shot as a proper live action episode of TOS as the only real big ticket item effects wise is the Orion spaceship and some asteroids that blow up. Oh and we do get to see a Starfleet freighter.
The animated episodes always feel a little stilted, like the actors weren't quite sure what to do with just voice acting and this one does drag slightly but at least it's a reasonably straight forward episode.
Plus the energy ripple around them, for those who don't watch the animated show, is a life support field from their belts ;)
Check out more of Lee’s art at LeeDrawsStuff.com. Support his work at Patreon.com
[COMPUTER VOICE] How do you feel?
MIND MELD
With Andrew Shaffer
In which we get to know a Trek fan just a little bit better.
Today we talk to Andrew Shaffer, New York Times bestselling author of numerous books, including the Obama/Biden mystery series (Hope Never Dies and Hope Rides Again), Ghosts From Our Past (as featured in the 2016 Ghostbusters movie), and How to Survive a Sharknado. His most recent work is a hilarious chapbook, Let’s See Them Poems.
What's your personal history with Star Trek?
I was a loyal viewer of ST:TNG in my teenage years—I was a nerd. Nerds watched Star Trek, and snubbed our noses at Star Wars. Never really latched on to any of the other series or crews, though. I gave Deep Space Nine a whirl, but that was about it. Picard was my guy, what can I say? So I truly hadn't thought about the Star Trek universe in years until the CBS All Access show Picard. I'm probably exactly the type of "lapsed fan" that CBS was targeting with Picard.
More of a disclaimer than a humblebrag: Secret Hideout, the production company behind Picard, optioned my Obama Biden mystery novels for film and TV. There were some other interested parties, but one of the reasons I went with them was the remote possibility of bumping into Patrick Stewart in the elevator. That hasn't happened...yet.
Favorite Captain (and why)?
Picard. Because he's the best, that's why. If I had to pick a second, I'd go with Captain Riker of the USS Titan.
An underrated episode (or movie or even entire series)?
Star Trek as a whole is underrated, if you compare it to other sci-fi or superhero properties. Modern day fandom was built by Trekkies. Star Wars and Lord of the Rings have both gone mainstream, but for some reason Star Trek feels like it's still on the edge of pop culture. Nerd stigma?
An overrated episode (or movie or even entire series)?
I didn't really grok either of the Chris Pine films. They were action movies, which were fine by action movie standards. Were they "Star Trek," though? The films obviously have their fans. Maybe Star Trek, like Star Wars, can encompass more than one aesthetic. My favorite Star Wars film is Rogue One, which feels the least like "Star Wars," I think.
Which alien species would you want to abduct you?
I wouldn't mind being abducted by Narissa, the Romulan villain from Picard. She can...uh, torture me if she wants.
Which series would you be most inclined to write a parody of?
There are Star Trek nods in two of my books, actually. In Fifty Shames of Earl Grey, Brent Spiner shows up in full Data costume as the "android butler" of the titular character. And in Catsby, a parody of The Great Gatsby, a furry actor by the name of "Sir Catrick Stewart" mentors the narrator. They're more loving tributes to Star Trek than parodies.
Which Captain would best handle a sharknado?
I'm almost certain they don't train you for that sort of thing in the Starfleet Academy. So-called "space sharknados" are freak occurrences and not particularly long-lasting. Sharks require oxygen. Tornados require wind. Neither of which are easy to come by in the vacuum of space. So your question is not logical, Neil. But Wil Wheaton did appear in Sharknado 2, so I feel like we've already seen as much of a crossover as we'll ever see between those two universes.
You can find out more about Andrew at his website.
Keep up with him on Twitter and Instagram.
Parents just don’t understand.
THIS WEEK IN TREK HISTORY
Welcome to another glorious week of Star Trek history! A certain captain once said "We've been through death, and life together" and while there is definitely a melancholic tone in the air, we should also not forget the paraphrasing of a cranky doctor: "They're really not dead, not as long as we remember them." Bonus points if you're also thinking about Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza.
We'll start with a birth of a kind, as on April 27, 1969, Star Trek made its debut in Japan, launching its adventures via the Nippon Television Network Corporation. Of course, one of the most famous Star Trek characters is Hikaru Sulu, who - while being born in San Francisco - is Asian-American. And hot stuff with a fencing sword!
Also born this week, in a manner of speaking, was Kirsten Dunst (April 30, 1982), who took time out from training to be Spidey's girlfriend to appear in the TNG episode "Dark Page," which aired in November 1993. Also making a successful exit from warp was Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson (May 2, 1972) who appeared in VOY episode "Tsunkatse" in February 2000, where he appeared in a WWE/Trek crossover where he wrestled with Seven of Nine. But speaking of Voyager, the big birth this week, of course, is Kathryn Janeway herself, Kate Mulgrew (April 29, 1955), who, like James T. Kirk, was born in Iowa and only works in outer space.
Sadly, on the 29th of April, we lost two big personalities. In 2012, composer Joel Goldsmith, son of Jerry Goldsmith and who composed several cues for Star Trek: First Contact, passed away, while in 1989 we lost the ultimate redhead in the shape of Lucille Ball, who while often seen as a goofy comedian and entertainer, is one of the people actually responsible for Star Trek making it off the ground, as the owner of production company Desilu. And while we lost James Doohan on July 20, 2005 he, together with his indelible personality of Montgomery Scott, finally made it to the final frontier, as his ashes were launched into space from the state of New Mexico on April 28, 2007. The word is given.
In musical news, scores for two iconic TNG episodes were recorded this week, beginning with "Conspiracy" by Dennis McCarthy. The music for "alien" "chest" bursters" was recorded on April 29, 1988 at the Universal Studios Scoring Stage, while Ron Jones' eerie score for "Q Who," which was the debut of the Borg, was recorded on April 27, 1989 on Paramount's Stage M. Jones' score featured the biggest ensemble used by him on The Next Generation, a huge-for-TV number of 59 musicians.
And on May 1, 1992, Praxis was blown up again, this time in Hungarian as Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country made its debut. "Addig nem tapasztalta meg Shakespeare-t, amíg el nem olvasta őt az eredeti Klingonban!"
As always, I am a fan of Trek art.
DIRECTIVES
Remember the working tricorder I shared last week? Here are wonderful DETAILS.
New Twitter account for the excellent Star Trek Fact Check site: @FactTreks.
Fascinating. I guess this Mego figure comes from the valley.
It’s a shame my wife would never go for this, it sure would look good over the couch in our living room.
Want to pay a Star Trek star to record a personal video greeting for you? Well, friends, you can make it so.
Anovos - the company that makes replica Star Trek and Star Wars uniforms - has a great blog that’s had some really good Trek content recently. I particularly enjoyed their look at the uniforms of Beyond as well as this post about their replica of the Animated Series uniform shirt. Which, if you want to buy me one, I’d take a size large just to be safe…
That’s all for this week.
Know someone you’d like to see in our Mind Meld feature? Maybe you? Let me know.
Meanwhile, LLAP, and thanks for reading. If I had a Kolinahr pendant I would mail it to you, because you are the most logical creature in the universe.