Region 2 "Newsletter of the Year" Award, 2012
Region 2 "Newsletter of the Year" Award, 2nd Place, 2011
Region 2 "Best Electronic Newsletter" Award, 2009

Volume I, Number 67
October 2013
CONTENTS
UPCOMING EVENTS
•  Sunday, October 27: 7th Annual Halloween Spooktacular
•  Saturday, November 9: Away Mission to Thor: The Dark World
•  Saturday, November 16: Fall Business & Dinner Meeting
•  Saturday, December 7: Farragut Fest 2013 (Kingsland GA)

SAVE THESE DATES NOW:  DETAILS TO BE ANNOUNCED

•  Saturday, December 21: USS Republic Christmas Party

NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
•  TrekTrax Atlanta new staff appointments and promotions
•  Personnel Records
•  Library Computer
•  Recent Chapter Event Photos

SIDEBAR
•  October Birthdays
•  Membership Renewals
•  About the Republic
•  For More Information
•  USS Republic Online
•  Crew Roster
•  News from TrekMovie.com
   — Editorial: You Just Can't Bring Star Trek Back to the Small Screen (But How You Would If You Could)
UPCOMING EVENTS
The USS Republic's Seventh Annual Halloween Spooktacular

6:00 p.m. Sunday, October 27, 2013
Terminus Media LLC
2103 Idlewood Road, Suite B; Tucker GA  30084
Capt Michael Cowart was absolutely ghoulish at last year's Halloween Spooktacular!
Members and friends of the USS Republic are invited to our Seventh Annual Halloween Spooktacular, to be held this year at the "office" of Terminus Media LLC in Tucker.  (Their "office" is actually a two-story house that has been converted into a commercial business site.)  Many thanks to our old friend Tony Cade (formerly of The Dragon's Horde, now of Challenges at North DeKalb Mall) for inviting us!

Located on Idlewood Road in downtown Tucker, the door to Terminus Media is actually hidden by this lovely box truck.  But there's plenty of parking, so bring friends!
This is a pot-luck event, so please bring a dish, dessert or appetizer to share with our friends!  Anything you might like to bring, from a meat dish or casserole to some type of snackie/munchie/nibbler, would be perfect!  A selection of Klingon Bloodwine, Saurian Brandy and Romulan Ale jelly shots, as well as a limited variety of adult beverages, will be available to guests of the age of majority, courtesy of the USS Republic.  Feel free to bring your own, and please be responsible.

This is, of course, a costume-encouraged (but not required) event—and not necessarily Star Trek or science fiction costumes!  It's Halloween, so be as creative as you'd like and come dressed in your scariest outfit!

We'll have games to play, "scary" stuff to watch on TV (there's a widescreen TV and lots of living room furniture for seating) and hopefully lots of great food to eat, so come on out and spend a festive evening with your friends aboard the Republic!

Please visit our Facebook event page and click "Join" if you're planning to come, and tell us what you're planning to bring!  We hope to see you there!
Away Mission to Thor: The Dark World

2:00 p.m. Saturday, November 9, 2013

United Artists Perimeter Pointe Stadium 10
1155 Mount Vernon Highway, Sandy Springs GA  30338
Marvel's Thor: The Dark World continues the big-screen adventures of Thor, the Mighty Avenger, as he battles to save Earth and all the Nine Realms from a shadowy enemy that predates the universe itself.  In the aftermath of Marvel's Thor and The Avengers, Thor fights to restore order across the cosmos... but an ancient race led by the vengeful Malekith returns to plunge the universe back into darkness.  Faced with an enemy that even Odin and Asgard cannot withstand, Thor must embark on his most perilous and personal journey yet, one that will reunite him with Jane Foster and force him to sacrifice everything to save us all.

Starring Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Stellan Skarsgård, Idris Elba, Christopher Eccleston, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Kat Dennings, Ray Stevenson, Zachary Levi, Tadanobu Asano and Jaimie Alexander with Rene Russo and Anthony Hopkins as Odin,
Thor: The Dark World is directed by Alan Taylor, produced by Kevin Feige and presented by Marvel Studios.  Thor first appeared in the comic book Journey into Mystery #83 in August 1962.

Join your friends and shipmates at the
United Artists Perimeter Pointe Stadium 10 in Sandy Springs for this two-dimensional, regular screen 2:00 matinée showing for only $9.50 for adults, $9.00 for seniors aged 60 and over, and $8.50 for aged 11 and under.  (Prices for the next 2D screening are $11.75 for adults, and prices for 3D and IMAX screens are exorbitant.)  Please Like and Share our Facebook event page to let us know that you'll be attending, wear your favorite USS Republic shirt or Star Trek costume, and be sure to stay for our traditional group shot in the lobby when the movie is over!
Fall Business & Dinner Meeting

7:00 p.m. Saturday, November 16, 2013
Galaxy Diner
3320 Henderson Mill Road, Chamblee GA  30341
(770) 723-9555
Please make plans to join your friends and crewmates at the USS Republic's Fall Dinner & Business Meeting, where we'll get together for fun, fellowship and fannishness!  And while we're at it, we'll also
discuss plans for the chapter for the next several months, including upcoming chapter events and our big annual convention, TrekTrax Atlanta, in April.  This would be an ideal opportunity for anyone who is interested in serving as a staff volunteer for the convention to sign up and climb on board.  Your input and feedback, ideas and suggestions, and participation and attendance are all welcomed, invited and needed as we chart our course for the next six months.  Plan to attend and bring a friend or two!

And what better place to hold a Star Trek fan club dinner meeting than at... the Galaxy Diner?  Conveniently located near the I-285 and Chamblee Tucker Road interchange, the Galaxy Diner offers delicious American, Italian and Greek cuisine favorites in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere where, they say, you will always feel right at home.  Their patio is open year-round, their Saturday night dinner special is all-you- can-eat catfish, and for our members of the age of majority, they also offer a selection of domestic and imported beer and house wines.  For a complete list of all their appetizer, dinner and dessert selections, please visit their web site.  For a restaurant critic's opinion of the place, read this.

In the meantime, please let us know if you're planning to attend by "joining" our Facebook Event Page so we can arrange for appropriate and sufficient seating.  Thank you!  Live Long & Prosper!
Away Mission to Farragut Fest 2013

9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Saturday, December 7, 2013
Farragut Films Studios
451 West William Avenue, Kingsland GA  31548
Farragut Fest 2013 is a celebration of science fiction, Star Trek and "All Things Farragut" on Saturday, December 7, at Farragut Films' studios in Kingsland, Georgia.  Kingsland is about 35 miles north of Jacksonville, Florida, and a 350-mile, 5-hour drive from Atlanta.

Farragut Fest includes an open house, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., of the studios, where you can walk through the largest display of freestanding Star Trek sets on planet Earth and meet some of the cast and crew from the Internet series Starship Farragut, Star Trek Continues, Dreadnought Dominion and ExeterTrek.  There will also be dealers with a variety of collectibles and merchandise for sale.  Both the open house and the screening are free to the general public.

CO Capt Eric L. Watts is planning to leave Atlanta around 7:00 a.m. Saturday morning and hopes to arrive in Kingsland around noon.  Unlike last year, when Farragut Fest's events continued well into the evening and an overnight stay was required, this year's event will end at 5:00 p.m. with no events planned for the evening.  Therefore, Captain Eric will return to Atlanta on Saturday evening.  If you are interested in carpooling with Captain Eric, please contact the Captain and/or post a message on our Facebook page to coordinate travel arrangements.  Additional information about nearby motels and directions to the event can be found on Farragut Fest's web site.
NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

TrekTrax Atlanta announces new staff appointments and promotions
TrekTrax Atlanta is pleased to announce that Ms. Marcia Patterson has joined the convention as its Director of Space Opera Track Operations.

Ms. Patterson gets great joy from helping fans and stars interact for magical fun.  From childhood, like zillions of others, she became enthralled with Star Trek, along with reruns of The Outer Limits and The Twilight Zone.  Her semi-pro involvement with sci-fi fandom began with her love of the television show Beauty and the Beast (with Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman).  She was selected to head the large local Beauty and the Beast fan club and helped organize South of Oz, a Beauty and the Beast fan convention in Florida, where she produced the literary competition, hosted the award show and produced her first celebrity and fan panels.

In the mid 1990s, in northeast Florida, Ms. Patterson worked as host and head writer for the First Coast Fandom cable show and as editor and co-publisher of the zine FanNews.  In the sports world, she was voted in as president of the official fan club for the Jacksonville Jaguars NFL team and did voice work for their commercials.  In 2003, she created Stargate Offworld, the first fan-produced Stargate-only convention in the United States.

Ms. Patterson served as staff for the American Sci-Fi Track at Dragon*Con for many years and as the director of their Stargate Programming Track for three years.  She "birthed" the MegaPanel, for a mix of fun and madness, where she hosted up to a dozen guests on stage at the same time.  She has also produced fan programming at the sprawling San Diego Comic-Con.

Over the years, Ms. Patterson has continued to work with producers, media outlets, companies and production companies, actors, across many fields, and now joins the staff of TrekTrax Atlanta as Director of the Space Opera Programming Track to help foster new adventures!
  
TrekTrax Atlanta is also pleased to announce that Ms. Cheralyn Lambeth has joined the convention as its Co-Director of Star Wars Programming.

Ms. Lambeth likes to refer to herself as a "fan who went pro," crediting her work in the film/TV/entertainment industry to her early love of Star Wars.  After a brief stint in the Air Force Reserve, she went on to study drama and Radio/Television/Motion Pictures at the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill.  Shortly after graduation, Ms. Lambeth relocated to New York to study at The Juilliard School and earned her first fifteen minutes of fame performing Off-Broadway with John Leguiazamo in Mambo Mouth.  She then moved to Minneapolis to create Muppet costumes for Sesame Street Live (as well as a large purple bunny for the film The Net), and returned to New York a year later to work with Jim Henson Productions on the TV series Dinosaurs! and the film The Muppet Christmas Carol.

After her time at Henson, Ms. Lambeth worked with Paramount Production Services, creating costumes and props for Paramount properties such as the Star Trek Earth Tour, Titanic: The Movie on Tour, and Star Trek: The Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton.  Some of her other credits include work both behind and in front of the camera on The Patriot, The New World, Evan Almighty and Leatherheads, as well as costuming work on the National Park Service film Manassas: End of Innoncence, directed by Star Wars sound specialist Ben Burtt.  She was also a principal character in The History Channel docudrama "Isaac's Storm," which premiered in the fall of 2004 and can still occasionally be seen on THC.  Her most recent work is on the film Blood Done Sign My Name with Rick Schroeder.

On the fan side of things, Ms. Lambeth is proud to be an active and longtime member of the Fighting 501st Legion of Stormtroopers.  She also serves as the voice of the Federation starship Montana in the acclaimed Star Trek fan audio series Star Trek: The Continuing Mission.

Most recently, Ms. Lambeth has been expanding her interest in paranormal research, combining that with her theatrical background to produce her first book, Haunted Theaters of the Carolinas, published by Schiffer Publishing in 2009.  She is currently working on Ghosts of Greater Charlotte (North Carolina) as well as completing a book on puppetry, The Well Dressed Puppet, both to be published by Schiffer.
  
TrekTrax Atlanta is also pleased to announce that Ms. Jenna McCoy has joined the convention as its Director of Firefly Programming.

Jenna "Tink" McCoy has been a science fiction fan since she was a small child and clearly remembers seeing Star Wars in the theater in 1977, when she was five, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture in the theater in 1979, when she was seven.  She considers Star Trek, Star Wars, Doctor Who and Firefly as her favorite sci-fi franchises of all time.

Ms. McCoy has attended Dragon*Con and many other southeastern conventions for more than twenty-five years, and served as a staff volunteer for the Southern Interactive Entertainment and Game Expo (a.k.a. SIEGE) in 2009.  She has served as the Vice Chairman of the Southeastern Browncoats since 2003, has been a member-at-large of the Atlanta Browncoats since 2005, and has assisted with their "Can't Stop the Serenity" screenings for the last five years.  She is also an Imperial Cadet in the Georgia Garrison of the 501st Legion and participates in the 76th Independent Battalion.

Ms. McCoy will be working closely with the Southeastern and Atlanta Browncoats to develop and present nine hours of outstanding Firefly programming for TrekTrax Atlanta.
  
TrekTrax Atlanta is also pleased to announce that Mr. Russell Ruhland has joined the convention as its Director of On-Site Registration.

Mr. Ruhland has been a fan of science fiction since his early youth when the Thunderbirds puppet sci-fi TV show was aired in the 1960s.  Although his sci-fi followings were interrupted on various occasions during a 20-year career in the U.S. Army, Mr. Ruhland continued to keep up with as much sci-fi fandom as possible.  He has been a dedicated attendee of Dragon*Con for the last 10 years and of TrekTrax Atlanta since its beginning.  His favorite sci-fi interests include Star Trek, the original BBC Dr. Who and the black & white sci-fi film classics.

Mr. Ruhland is currently a longtime member of the STARFLEET International Fan Association and serves as the commanding officer of the Columbus, Georgia, chapter, the USS DaVinci.  He assists with various sci-fi-related events at the Coca-Cola Space Science Center in Columbus, Georgia, and was a member of the registration staff for TrekTrax Atlanta in 2013.
  
As part of its reorganization, TrekTrax Atlanta is also pleased to announce that Mr. Brian Holloway (above left), who has served the convention as Director of Costuming & Makeup for the last three years, has been promoted to Director of Star Trek Track Operations; Mr. Marq Collins (above center), who previously served as a Co-Director of Klingon Programming, has been promoted to Director of Videography; and Mr. Mark A. Ozanick (above right), who previously served as a volunteer staff member for Guest Transportation & Services, has been promoted to Director of that department.
Personnel Records
Congratulations to Ens Derek Leman, who received a grade of DISTINCTION for the STARFLEET Academy course "Officer's Training School" from the Institute of Leadership Studies, completed on October 1, 2013
Congratulations to Lt. JG Robert Simon, who received a grade of PASS for the STARFLEET Academy course "PD-100 Marine Basic Training" from the School of Professional Development, completed on October 17, 2013

STARFLEET Academy is a special collection of correspondence courses available to every STARFLEET member.  Over 60 Academy Colleges offer courses spanning all aspects of Star Trek and science fiction; some courses even cover non-sci-fi real world topics.  Each college offers dozens of different courses at varying levels of challenge from super-easy to really hard.  In total, there are nearly 1,000 different courses available.  Take a course today!

Something special going on in your life?  Submit your Personnel Record for publication in the next issue of The Republiqué!

Library Computer
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE
Mayberry on the Edge of Forever?  Maybe... maybe not.  The web site Mayberry in Star Trek makes a compelling argument that the episodes "Miri" and "City on the Edge of Forever" were both filmed on the same outdoor lots as was The Andy Griffith Show and cites this iconic image of Kirk and Edith Keeler walking past Floyd's Barber Shop.  But... it is really?  In the top photo, all three words are on one line across two window panes.  In the bottom left photo, from an Andy Griffifth Show episode, Opie is seen walking past Floyd's Barber Shop, but "Floyd's" is on one line on the store window and "Barber Shop" is on another.  In the bottom right photo, from another episode, the three words are all on different window panes.  Clearly, neither of these barber shop windows is the one seen in "City."

But the bottom two photos also indicate that Floyd's barber shop window was replaced at least once during the series' eight-season run, and it's possible that the window that Kirk and Keeler walk past was yet another actual set window.  But it's also possible that the "City" window was never seen in Mayberry and that
Star Trek's set designers painted "Floyd's Barber Shop" on theirs as an homage to the venerable and well-loved sitcom.
Recent Chapter Event Photos
CLICK ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE
World Record Attempt at Dragon Con  ||  September 1, 2013
More than a thousand Star Trek fans assembled in the Marriott Marquis Atrium Ballroom in an attempt to break the Guinness world record for the most costumed Star Trek fans in one room at one time, but the effort fell short by less than a hundred such fans.  Many past and present members of the USS Republic participated in the event, including the Captain, but we were unable to get everyone together for a group photo as we'd hoped.  When the disappointing results were announced, many fans suggested that if Dragon Con should choose to attempt this again, it should be held on a Saturday rather than a Sunday in order to get the most number of fans together.
STARFLEET Bowling Challenge  ||  September 28, 2013
ENS1 Todd Dissinger and Republic CO Capt Eric L. Watts played three games against each other, with the Captain taking two out of three, with scores of 141-119, 142-136 and 101-138.  A good time was had by... both.

OCTOBER BIRTHDAYS

Wednesday, October 2

ENS1 Nelson M. Barnhouse

Thursday, October 10
Ens Lauren Rhodes

Friday, October 11
Ens Derek Leman

Monday, October 14
ENS1 Daniel Wolfgang

Wednesday, October 16
ENS1 K'La Albertini

Thursday, October 24
ENS1 Mark A. Ozanick

Wednesday, October 30
ENS1 Eddie Hines

MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS
These members' dues will
expire in November.
  Please renew now!

CDT1 Karl Dissinger
ENS1 Todd Dissinger
ENS1 Hal Doby
ENS2 Tasheka Gipson
ENS2 Tracey S. Harwell
ENS2 Renardo Hunter

ABOUT THE REPUBLIC
The USS Republic NCC-1371 was originally commissioned as a chapter of STARFLEET International on May 14, 1988, at the Dixie-Trek convention in Atlanta, Georgia.  As of October 19, 2013, the Republic crew includes 44 members who are active members of STARFLEET in good standing.
The Republic plans and coordinates an active schedule of events for its members, but does not hold meetings on a consistently fixed date each month.
Because the USS Republic is a duly commissioned chapter of STARFLEET International and is bound and governed by its Constitution and By-Laws, membership in STARFLEET is a prerequisite for membership in the Republic.  Combined annual dues for both groups are $25 per person and is collected by the chapter (family discounts are available with certain conditions and restrictions).  Membership in the Republic includes access to our YahooGroups message board, voting privileges in chapter elections and additional privileges that occasionally become available.  Additional information on Republic membership and how to join or reenlist is on our award-winning web site.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

USS REPUBLIC ONLINE

CREW ROSTER
AS OF OCTOBER 19, 2013
Crmn Eliya Brog
CDT Zarena Nova Tucker
ENS1 "Wolfy"

NEWS from
Editorial: You Just Can't Bring Star Trek Back to the Small Screen (But How You Would If You Could)
By Jared Whitley
September 19, 2013
In "The Icarus Factor," Riker is offered his own ship and we meet his father for the first (and only) time.  But the episode is better remembered for the subplot, where Worf is in a particularly grouchy mood.  He yells "Enough!" at Wesley and "Be gone!" to Data, who—with his trademark gentleness—describes the Klingon as "out of sorts."  Worf's friends determine that the only solution to his foul spirits is to hit him repeatedly with pain sticks.
I have been reminded of this episode as I've followed the recent furor over Star Trek Into Darkness.  Just as Worf wasn't really mad at his crewmates, I believe that much of the anger toward STID has nothing to do with the film: fans are angry because they have to wait four years to see a new movie when what they really want is new episodes every week.
As a writer here said: "Star Trek should be back on TV.  Period."  And of course Trek fans are going to say that—but even Rolling Stone said the same thing.
Since the success of the 2009 reboot, the subject has come up a lot, especially as some interested parties have tried to resurrect Star Trek on the small screen.  This hasn't happened (obviously) because, as some speculate, executives don't want to kill the golden goose (again).  But from a branding perspective, one movie every four years has still kept people buying merchandise, buying Blu-rays and going to conventions.  Plus, the Internet is taking care of the Trek legacy by itself, with Patrick Stewart-themed memes and web series like SF Debris—so the suits are probably fine with the status quo.
Also, I'm sure these execs have come to the conclusion that you just can't make another Star Trek series because...
1) It's all been done already.
As anyone will tell you, the biggest problem with doing anything Star Trek-related is that it's already been done before.  Some people will actually put together videos demonstrating how there is nothing new under any sun in the Alpha Quadrant.
While the Abrams team is certainly well versed in Trek lore, I'm going to bet they didn't set out to make most of the allusions cited in this Red Letter Media video.  But with about 750 hours worth of Star Trek, it's probably hard to create something that doesn't feel like man has gone there before, especially when...
2) Its core concept doesn't work anymore.
Star Trek's original concept was heavy-handed polemics about social issues behind the guise of science fiction—the only way you could address these issues at the time because of network censors.  (The Twilight Zone had shown the way a few years earlier.)  This was creative in the 1960s.  It was groundbreaking in the 1960s.  It was relevant and interesting and bold to say that (space) racism was bad in the 1960s... but it's not now.  Even some of the more transparent allegories from TNG were eyeroll-inducing in the '80s, like when they taught us that drugs are bad, that space racism is bad, and that drugs are bad.
There aren't any stories you can't tell anymore.  There aren't any social issues you have to masquerade in science fiction—unless you want to talk about the collapse of white middle America, and then you have to use zombies.  So because of that...
3) It wouldn't fit into the modern TV landscape.
The best TV shows of the last 10 years are all about a damaged male protagonist who survives in an unfair world by making decisions that are mostly immoral, but entirely understandable: Walter White in Breaking Bad, Don Draper in Mad Men, Tony Soprano in The Sopranos, Stringer Bell in The Wire and Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones.
And that paradigm is antithetical to Star Trek's philosophy: good people from a perfect world doing good.  They tried to change the perfect world part with Voyager, by isolating the crew to ostensibly make them desperate, but the effort was always half-assed.  Trek demi-god Ronald D. Moore had to show them how to do it with both cheeks on Battlestar Galactica.  (As to a lesser extent did Joss Whedon with Firefly.)
The only way they could make a Star Trek series that fit this new model would be to redo Deep Space Nine and make the main characters Quark and Morn.  Cooking space meth.  For the space mafia.  While sexually harassing space secretaries at a space ad agency.
So everything's been done, your core concept is 40 years out of date, and you wouldn't fit on TV anyway.  So what does that leave?  Generic action movies in Star Trek drag.  Folks can criticize the writers of the Abramsverse, but they just don't have a lot of options.
You just can't do another Star Trek series again.  You just can't.
But here's how you do it.
1) Put someone invested in charge.
We are living in a Golden Age of designer TV shows, and each one is connected to one or two key creative individuals—not studio executives, committees or a revolving door of writers.  A new Trek series would also need strong creative leadership.
The best team to lead a new Trek series would be one outsider and one insider.  For the outsider, I'd pick Jane Espenson, who's worked on Buffy, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Torchwood, Game of Thrones, and so on.  That's some serious industry and nerd credibility right there.  For the insider, I'd pick Jonathan Frakes, whose work behind the camera has been more important than his work in front of it.  And unlike Riker refusing command of his own ship, Jonathan Frakes would be happy to take the conn of a new show.
2) Keep it short.
The Next Generation created a standard that a Star Trek show should last seven years and 170 episodes.  This is probably not the case.  DS9 dragged out the Dominion War for one year too long and Voyager's premise got so stale they had to retool it halfway through as Star Trek: Borg.  Keep yourself to about 50 episodes over four or five seasons.
3) It's the characters, stupid.
The problem with Star Trek's demise in 2005 was not that the stories were all the same: it's that the characters were the same—a bland array of uniformed individuals who increasingly felt like copies of copies.  If the characters are fun and different, you can recycle stories.
The best example of this is "Arena" and "Darmok."  For those who don't know, these are the episodes where the captain is forced into a hand-to-hand combat with an alien.
Both episodes have the same premise.  Both are awesome—and they both very different because Kirk and Picard are such different characters.
You could do another ship-through-the-universe show, but not a ship full of model Starfleet officers.  The main characters might not be the senior officers, but rather the "Lower Decks" characters—or misfits who never would have made it onto the Enterprise.  The most interesting characters on all of TNG were Barclay and Ro, both of whom were rejects dealing with their infuriatingly perfect senior officers.
All of this could be consistent with the known Trek universe but still fit the modern taste for grittier stories.
4) Please leave Wrath of Khan alone.
Yes, it was the best film.  But the last three movies all cribbed heavily from it—that's one-quarter of the film franchise.  (Enterprise also did a Wrath of Khan three-parter in its last year.  You probably haven't seen it.  It's on Netflix.)  There are other good episodes/movies you can reference.  The real crime of Into Darkness is they cast this great up-and-coming actor and rather than create a new, exciting character, they shoe-horned him into a part that will, forever, be unfavorably compared to the star of Fantasy Island.
5) Listen to your fans – even the ones who hate you.
For years, Trek fans demanded a TV show about Captain Sulu.  Rick Berman gave them Enterprise. Here's a graphic of its ratings..
Here's a screen capture from George Takei's Facebook page.
So to put a fine point on it: more people follow George Takei on a daily basis than watched most of Enterprise.  Who knew he was so charming and wonderful?  (Answer: Star Trek fans.)
6) Find the right theme.
The original series and movies hit the right chord because they were essentially the Cold War in space.  The U.S. was the Federation and the Soviets were the Klingons.  And from 1966 to 1991, that basic premise worked really well: it was timely, creative and meaningful.
So you'd have to come up with something comparable.  And no, it's not "terrorism in space."  Terrorism-themed fiction had already been played out by 2005.  A much better contemporary theme is the "The Post-American World" we now live in—so you could make a Trek series about a "post-Federation galaxy" or a "post-Earth Federation," where alien worlds don't need as much protection because the Klingons and/or Romulans aren't as adversarial as they used to be.  Or something akin to Asimov's Foundation series, but with Earth as Trantor.  Of course, the trouble is they already kind of did this on Andromeda.  But they could do it again with more interesting characters and the Trek brand.  (And a cameo or two from George Takei for good measure.)
It would definitely be a challenge to get a successful Star Trek series up and running.  But with the right people, the right concept, the right format and the right characters, it could be done.  The most important part of a successful TV show, viewership, is already taken care of—the furor over STID proves it.  For fans, the best part about loving Star Trek is hating Star Trek.  Bring on the pain sticks!
REPRINTED FROM TREKMOVIE.COM
© 2013 SciFanatic Network
USS Republic NCC-1371
B O L D L Y    G O I N G 
 B O L D L Y    D O I N G™
2902 Aspen Woods Entry
  Atlanta, Georgia  30360-2759
  www.USSRepublic.com
Commanding Officer
  Captain Eric L. Watts
Executive Officer
  Admiral W. Michael Henigan

The Republiqué Volume I, Number 67, October 2013.
Published monthly by and Copyright © 2013 USS Republic NCC-1371.
Captain Eric L. Watts, Editor.

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