In Memoriam :: To Boldly Go in Another Direction.

"Lost civilizations ... Extraterrestrials ... Myths and Monsters ... Missing persons ... Magic and witchcraft ... Unexplained phenomenon ... In Search Of... cameras are traveling the world, seeking out these great mysteries. This program was the result of scientists, researches, and a group of highly skilled technicians."

Now, I love Mr. Spock as much as the next person, but I kinda grew up in a Star Trek vacuum, meaning no local stations had it in syndication after I was old enough to really pay attention to such things. (I still have only seen a handful of the original series episodes, slowly trying to rectify that on Netflix.) But In Search Of..., on the other hand, was a weekend staple for nearly ten years and this is why it came to mind first when I heard of Leonard Nimoy's passing yesterday. 

I remember clearly getting itchy at Sunday School when I was kid, hoping things would get wrapped up in time to get home to catch it. (I also remember if a football or baseball game got done earlier than expected on our local NBC affiliate, In Search Of... episodes would be used to plug up the gap.) And then there I sat, invited in and given a tour by our most gracious host, enraptured by the mysteries of the unknown. Haven't been the same since. Ask anybody. 

"The miracle is this: the more we share, the more we have." 

Leonard Nimoy

(1931-2015)

Good Reads :: A 250 Page Mission to Boldly Go Where No Zombie Has Gone Before!

So. Just finished up Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall's Night of the Living Trekkies, a novel which concerns the staff at a Houston hotel as they brace themselves for the onslaught of a weekend Star Trek convention only to be overrun by something far more sinister -- and hungry. 

Here, our story focuses on a certain bellhop named -- wait for it -- Jim Pike, a former Trekker whose enthusiasm for the fantastic has been scuttled by an IED reality check and two tours in Afghanistan. 

But once the shit hits the fan, this disgruntled vet, along with his Andorian sister, a hired cosplayer decked out as Slave Leia, a Klingon from Atlanta who builds replica sci-fi melee weapons, an overweight computer programmer who still lives with his mom, a keynote speaker on Xenobiology from Harvard, and a Red Shirt named William 'Willie' Makeitt, must fight their way from room to room and floor to floor, trying to escape before they're all assimilated into the zombie horde. Well, technically, they're not really zombies, but more of a Van Vogt-tian space parasite infection.

Anyhoo, filled with about a gabillion inside jokes, several of which had me barking out with laughter, the dual-authors really know their Trek lore; and though their end result is completely disposable once the last page is finished, the novel is well worth a read.

Sure, the plot and characters are all unrepentantly silly, but it's in a 'having fun with the cliches' as opposed to 'making fun of them' if that makes any sense. I mean, What is a Zombie Apocalypse but a total Kobayashi Maru?

Now, the only real disappointment I had with Night of the Living Trekkies was it barely scratched the surface on the whole notion of Gene Roddenberry's optimism butting heads with George Romero's pessimism -- an idea I felt deserved to be explored further. 

But! What we got was good enough and manages to actually exceed its novelty trappings while embracing them at the same time as the novel finally answers the eternal question: What will it take to make a cross-fandom relationship work? Alien Zombiegeddon.

Beyond that? Only 250 pages and a quick read. Track it down and engage as soon as possible, Boils and Ghouls.