On Shore Leave #21, hosts Heather and Jeff sit down with Dr. Trek himself, Larry Nemecek, for an extended chat about his upcoming GeekNation "Kirk Memorial Valley of Fire Tour", Portal 47, the Con of Wrath documentary, conventions of the past, Star Trek fandom and lots more!

Up first - we announce the winner of a ShopLLAP gift card in our iTunes review contest! Thanks to everyone who participated, we really appreciate your feedback. Keep listening for our next contest to be announced very soon!

2017 GeekNation Kirk Memorial Valley of Fire 1-Day Tour

• Departs August 1st, 2017 from the Rio hotel, the day before the convention starts
• Larry gives us more details on this year&apo;s tour
• A surprise special guest will be joining this year's tour!
• Bonnie Moss phones in to give us her highlights from last year's tour
• Larry looks back on his favorite memories from previous tours
• Book your tickets now!

STLV & Other Convention Topics

• Larry's table in the vendor room at the 2017 Star Trek Las Vegas Convention
• "Con Creep" - how fans are showing up at the Rio days before and staying days after the convention more and more frequently each year
• Larry reminisces about Trek cons of the past including pre-Creation Vegas cons and Grand Slam Conventions
• Heather looks back on her first Vegas con & other cons prior to STLV and why she prefers STLV to other conventions
• Star Trek at the StarCon convention
• Events at StarFest and how they differ from Creation conventions
• The year-over-year improvements to Quark's at STLV and the Roddenberry stage
• Heather and Larry talk about running into Trek actors at Masquerade & iBar at the Rio
• "Wearing costumes" versus cosplay and the evolution at Trek cons over the years
• Larry and Heather talk about the truth behind "the rise of girl fandom" and the major role of female Trek fans in the building of Trek fandom and the convention community
• The role Star Trek played in spurring on today's Comic Con/Sci-Fi convention circuit
• The Kelvin timeline movies bringing new fans to the Trek universe and adding a new dimension to Star Trek cons post-2009
• How Star Trek survived, and thrived, after being cancelled (hint : it was the fans!)
• Heather dives into her Trek history and how it got her started going to conventions
• The wealth of Trek books available on many diverse topics
• The availability of information and resources today versus the early Star Trek days
• Star Trek newsletters pre-dating today&s message boards and social media for Trek conversations
• "New" Star Trek actors and why you don't see more of them at Trek conventions

Other Topics Include

• Portal 47 update
• Con of Wrath documentary update

Links