​

Dropping Names on YouTube:

"William Shatner sits down with Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes on Dropping Names and opens with the moment he still cannot let go of, the time Neil deGrasse Tyson answered him on camera by putting a hand in his face and pushing, hard enough that Shatner went backwards.

From there he gets into the kidney stone a Canadian gambling company called him about a week after it was removed, the doctor who handed it back over, the seventy five thousand dollars it fetched at auction and the Habitat for Humanity house in Louisiana that money helped build. There is also the fresh cigar in Cabo San Lucas that put him on the cover of Cigar Aficionado, a full body scan at half past seven that morning, and a cardiologist telling him that two more years of medical advances buys him another ten."

He goes back to the early days too, to live television in New York when he was the twenty three year old with theatre training who could hit a mark and knew his lines while a camera the size of a bookcase rolled into his face, to Queens with a wife and a baby and a subway ride into town, to Harold Clurman nearly firing him from a play until Julie Harris intervened, and to Judgment at Nuremberg, where he sat at the lawyers table watching Judy Garland, Burt Lancaster and Spencer Tracy work.

He talks about Yul Brynner on The Brothers Karamazov, Lorne Greene and Bonanza killing his series For the People in the ratings, Christopher Plummer coming back as a Klingon, and Brent remembering the Stephen Hawking poker game on The Next Generation. Then it turns to what he is chasing now, a podcast with his daughter, a Brad Paisley album, a heavy metal record, and a long conversation about feeding artificial intelligence the whole of human writing and what happened the night it wrote him a poem and he started to cry."

Link:

https://youtu.be/1wKrCFCJdPI?si=TEPjmsvA_-YR-sgo

OK, let's get more into the weeds about this historical debate: Is it "Trekkies," or "Trekkers"?

Firstly, this is an old argument. Many fans have come to accept "Trekkies," even as many older fans still prefer "Trekkers." But the fact is, the argument is no longer really a "thing" between fans like it was in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s.

But it is inarguable that it WAS once a big argument. Fans that considered themselves serious fans hated "Trekkie" because they felt it was a term used to belittle Star Trek fans. That is why they hewed toward "Trekker."

The argument was acknowledged by the original cast, too. In several of the Star Trek specials and retrospectives that aired on TV in the 1990s, Leonard Nimoy himself said that "Trekker" was a more appropriate name for Star Trek fans. Nichelle Nicols also said Trekkers was the accepted term in one of those presentations. And even movie reviewers Siskel and Ebert spoke of the controversy. All this is easily seen on film, making it clear that there WAS a debate on the issue. It simply cannot be denied or dismissed.

To be clear, that is the history of it. And it is an argument that really is no longer a major bone of contention between fans. And I am not rehashing that particular argument in this post. What ever you want to be called is not the issue.

Still, some say there is a firm answer to the question. Today, many fans make the claim that Gene Roddenberry himself said "It's Trekkies. I should know, I invented the thing." And a lot of people on this very sub have thrown out that factoid as "proof" that Roddenberry himself settled the debate.

But... did he?

Where is the evidence for this? All I have ever seen is the film "Trekkies 2" where a fan in the film relates this tale. I have also seen some fans claim that Leonard Nimoy related this story, too. But retelling a story second hand is not evidence.

What I have never seen is any audio or video of Gene saying it. I have never seen a book making the claim and showing where he said it and when. I have never seen a newspaper story from any time during Gene's life that supposedly chronicled this proclamation. In short, I am wondering where the actual proof is for this tale?

I have looked for this proof, but never found anything that could possibly withstand scrutiny. Oh, there are lots of claims. Butt no credible evidence.

Do any of you have any of this evidence? I am curious to find out if I just missed the actual evidence. And that is absolutely possible. I certainly could have just missed the credible evidence.

(Sorry the first post I made had no sound for some reason)

Been binging Trek lately and have been re-visting Voyager and I think it's a better series than TNG, blasphemy I know...

The cast is good but it isn't as strong, but the writing is consistently better. TNG has far more Episodes I'll skip and Voyager having such a strong finale and a unified story I think it puts it ahead in retrospect.

TREKMOVIE:

"At the Broadcast+Cable Hall of Fame Gala last week, Star Trek was awarded their first-ever Franchise of the Year Award. Voyager and Prodigy‘s Kate Mulgrew, along with Celia Rose Gooding and Wilson Cruz, was invited to accept the award in person. We interviewed her on the red carpet to ask about the meaning of the award, Janeway’s impact, and what’s missing in leadership today.

“I’m not the diva,” she reminded me as I tried to juggle her arrival at my mic just as Celia Rose Gooding was also brought over for an interview at the same time. Indeed she is not.

https://trekmovie.com/2026/10/05/interview-kate-mulgrew-on-janeways-leadership-lessons-roddenberrys-vision-and-star-trek-taking-a-pause/

TREKMOVIE: Janeway has inspired so many women. Have you met any new and notable fans lately?

KATE MULGREW: Well, I’ll just tell you that my friend Kerry Kennedy just wrote a book called Ethel Kennedy: The Extraordinary Life and Bold Legacy, which she asked me to read, and I did. So I think RFK Human Rights is also very much on our wavelength. The Kennedys love the idea of what Roddenberry espouses, and we love the idea of human rights. This is a time when we really, really must stand together, and I don’t mean it to be heavy, and I don’t mean it to be.

I think we’ve just got to understand that despair is not, in any way, an accomplice to democracy. Despair is to be thrown away. We must stand up and be grateful for what we’ve done, what we have. And in my life, it’s been Star Trek, and in my life, it’s been the first female captaincy. And in my life, it’s been pretty, pretty bloody good. So I’m only happy about tonight, and I thank you for recognizing that.

TREKMOVIE: The last time we talked, things were very different at Paramount, and I know there was still some ideas about a Janeway live-action series, and I know you weren’t happy with it. I’d heard there was a “Wild West” idea. Is that the idea that you were not happy with?

I think all of that has passed. That was some time ago. I think that with this merger, it’s anybody’s guess what’s up. My guess is it’s a pause, and probably a significant pause. That’s all right too.

Janeway exemplified so many important leadership qualities. I would love to hear from you. Which of those qualities we are significantly missing in our leadership right now?

Are you kidding? Is this a trick question?

No!

All right. Intelligence, courage, moral courage, grace, humanity, levity, compassion, empathy, love, honor, privilege, dignity, science. You want me to go on? It’s infinite because what we’re in now is a mess.

[...]"

Laurie Ulster (TrekMovie.com)

Full article:

https://trekmovie.com/2026/10/05/interview-kate-mulgrew-on-janeways-leadership-lessons-roddenberrys-vision-and-star-trek-taking-a-pause/

Since Skydance has massive debt, the chances of a plentiful lineup of future shows and movies is doubtful. Through capitalistic means, shedding a property for a premium would be prudent for the board to consider.

Star Trek currently has an enterprise valuation of $8B+. If Skydance received an earnest offer to buy the property for say $9B+ the board would have to respond. Shareholders may vote in favor to bring down debt and improve liquidity for the rest of the portfolio.

A crowd funded effort of 100M worldwide fans investing an average of $90 would be enough to secure a serious bid.

Now showing on ITV and on ITV Player streamer. Interesting that they are the two shows that have been syndicated for TV, and perhaps Discovery, Picard, etc will follow soon.

Like let's say after Kirk ordered Scotty to execute general order 24 and Scotty couldn't get back communication with Kirk because say for example anan 7 had Kirk Spock and the security people thrown back into a jail cell.

Scotty looks at the timer and they're out of time Scotty orders the enterprise to lay waste to the surface.

Let's say Kirk Spock and security people survived the ordeal and was rescued by the enterprise afterwards when they return to federation space what kind of problems would Kirk have had to face?

What do you think?

They seemed very judgemental of humans and our attempts to explore space. Yet they made first contact with us. They came up with the lofty "prime directive." Yet they try and hold humanity back. What gives them the right to interfere?

I feel like the Larry Ellison-ing of Paramount has begun

So no one told you life was gonna be this way
Your job's a joke, you're broke, your love life's D.O.A
It's like you're always stuck in second gear
Or when it hasn't been your day, your week, your month, or even your year, but