Just as much as the Enterprise crew were my childhood heroes, I lived for the stories from the writers who brought Star Trek alive in magazines like Cinefantastique, StarLog and books like Trek Navigator and the DS9 and Captains’ Logs. So when I met Mark Altman at the New York 50th, I spent the weekend at his panels, getting his autographs on Free Enterprise (original and deluxe editions) and the books that helped me write so many law school Trek-themed papers my professors started expecting them. Alongside a cosplay winning female Khan, I also harangued him incessantly to create a Trek podcast….
We’re talking about memories, as Darren would say, and with every episode, The Inglorious Treksperts preserve and advance the meaning of Star Trek, from everything that goes into making it, to the gestalt of Trek worldwide, to its influence on our future. Sure, with a universe so expansive, fans will debate favorite shows, characters, movies, and books. The arguments get pretty heated. On any list of important characters, for example, O’Brien beats Ruk, and Captain Michael Burnham is in the top twenty. And maybe Pike keeps asking senior officers for opinions because it keeps his mind off where he’s heading and it makes him feel better to know he’s preparing them for the future all those strange new worlds will reveal. But our differences dissolve when the Treksperts – and of course this includes Rob Burnett – dive into what makes Trek work and why we all love it. They take us along for the journey, and reveal time and time again that Trek, at its core, is a belief system, and the only positive vision for our future that our species has ever created.
Thematically, the Treksperts get it. They have the knowledge. They have the passion. Collectively they possess centuries of wisdom, have spent their lives getting to know everyone in the industry, behind and in front of the camera. Every one of their interviews is a treasure chest, whether it’s with Anson Mount (!!), David Gerrold, Michael Sussman, Walter, Eddie Egan, Rekha Sharma, Nana (!!), Michael Westmore, Rafe Needleman, Laurence Luckinbill (!!), Harold Livingston (!!), Brannon Braga, Armin, Stashwick, Jeffrey Combs, Ira Steven Behr (!!), Brian Volk-Weiss (!!), Terry Farrell, Ralph Senensky (!!), Andreea Kindryd (!!!), Kirk Thatcher, Doug Drexler, or the Okudas, to name just a few.
The Treksperts get that talking about Trek is talking about the human condition: psychology at an Australian prison, science at a New York teleportation laboratory, house parties with Lou Reed, Ticonderoga and Elvis, Shatner’s view of his view of the Earth from space.
They recently asked fans why we love Trek. What keeps us watching Kirk and Scotty in a shuttlecraft circling the Enterprise, or being enthralled by that comet heralding our approach to DS9 (“Take Me Out to the Holosuite” is both the ultimate guilty pleasure and also the ground ball to get your sports friends into the show.), or breaking out into Where My Heart Will Take Me no matter how much we cringe, or watching two Starfleet officers draw a delta in the sand. These are just some of the reasons.
The problem, for them, is that due to their unique skill sets and knowledge bases they have begun to create a living history, and have now earned the responsibility to keep it alive. Fortunately, eight years in, we have some evidence that they are grooming a next generation of caretakers.
So long as the Treksperts provide the course headings, may we all keep on Trekking, Ingloriously, of course.
