“THE TREK FILES” PODCAST TO DEBUT JAN. 23:
A WEEKLY GENE RODDENBERRY ARCHIVES DEEP-DIVE
HOSTED BY “DR. TREK,” LARRY NEMECEKGoing where no Star Trek podcast has gone before, “The Trek Files” debuts Jan. 23 as a weekly “look” deep into the mostly unseen archives of Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, hosted by Larry “Dr. Trek” Nemecek on the Roddenberry Podcast Network.
On each 15-minute episode, Nemecek will be joined by a guest to examine a specially selected “document of the week,” recalling its original context as well as its relevance for today’s Trek and the world at large.
“Even with all the Star Trek “archiving” going on now, there are so many papers and memos in my dad’s archives that still have not seen the light of day,” said Eugene “Rod” Roddenberry, executive producer on the new program, an EP on “Star Trek: Discovery” from CBS All Access, and family overseer of his father’s legacy. “I’m so excited to get into these plans, notes, and letters from him andthose he worked with—and share them now for all to see. And who better to lead this look at these people and their times in the right context than “Dr. Trek,” Larry Nemecek?”
“When Rod approached me with this concept— to boldly go into Gene’s mind where no archivist had gone before!—I was honored, yes, but really just downright thrilled,” Nemecek said. “We’re only just now going through some of these folders and finding things that no one has been privy to. To be getting into the nitty-gritty of not just the 1960s papers, but bringing a sharp focus to what we’ve only known as fuzzy facts: Reactions, and paths not taken, and even “creative differences”— from the would-be “first movie” ideas of the 70s, the path through the 1980s movies and then the TV revival with The Next Generation.”
“I’ve enjoyed appearing on lots of quality Trek, geek and media geek podcasts, and still will, “ Nemecek adds, “since I decided years ago never to host my own only to just pile on more of the ‘same-o, same-o’ out there. That’s what I love about doing “The Trek Files”: we certainly add something unique and fresh to the Trek conversation, and to Gene’s colorful and even controversial legacy.”
Putting in multiple appearances in the first round of guests are:
— John Champion, series co-producer and co-host of the network’s flagship Mission Log podcast;—Dave Rossi, associate producer on Enterprise and the original Star TrekRemastered project, and a longtime assistant to former Trek EP Rick Berman; and
—Dorothy “D.C.” Fontana, legendary story editor for the original series, story editor/associate producer for The Animated Series, TNG associate producer and writer of its pilot episode—and creator of so much original Spock/Vulcan background.
Gene Roddenberry, creator of the original “Star Trek” and “Star Trek: The Next Generation” series that led to the groundbreaking 50-year franchise that followed, died in 1991. Many of his papers have been donated to his namesake archive collection at UCLA, but “The Trek Files” is about to look at documents even apart from those.
Listeners each week will not only be able to download the episodes for listening, but scans of the document in question as well—all at the program’s hub on Facebook, www.facebook.com/TheTrekFiles. Lead-off sponsor is Eaglemoss Collections, maker of the Star Trek Starships Collection and magazine.
Seen as a progressive futurist whose ideas form the core of Star Trek’s unifying optimism, Roddenberry’s ideas and storytelling have attracted a global audience whose devotion over 50 years led to an unprecedented franchise revival in the 1970s that soon “wrote the book” on what modern pop culture franchises and fanbases look like.
