I attended my first Star Trek convention when I was about 13 years old. It was an amazing and unusual experience that i’ll never forget. As a young kid, the amount of toys and memorabelia was overwhelming, but the moment I remember most clearly was waiting in line to get into the event. It stretched through the lobby and out the front doors of whatever Toronto hotel it was held in. A plethora of folks, some dressed as civilians, most dressed as Klingons. As all of the excited fans slowly shifted their way into the convention hall, a man in front of me, dressed in a full Deep Space Nine era starfleet uniform, turned around and began talking to a 7 year old kid. He nervously pulled a thick stack of white paper out of his backpack, which turned out to be a Star Trek script he had written. He began talking to this poor child about the script, giving him an on the spot pitch. It was a practice run of sorts, as he had planned to hand the script over to Gates McFadden, the celebrity guest at that years convention. It was a truley horrifying moment for both the child and myself.

According to most fans, people like this are the exception and not the rule. This was the basis for much of the criticism directed at Roger Nygard’s documentary film Trekkies. His expose of die hard Trek fans left a bad taste in the mouth of Trekker’s/Trekkies who’d prefer to seperate themselves from those people whom they may consider extreme. Personally, I really enjoyed the first Trekkies. The sequel was alright, but seemed to spread itself a little thin in its attempt to tackle a worldwide love of Star Trek. So what could possibly be next? Well according to /Film, a Trekkies three is on the way. But there is a catch…the film won’t see the light of day until 2011! According to an interview with Nygar over at Trek Movie.com, the film series is following a seven cycle. Sort of a nerd version of Michael Apted’s Up Series. The focus this time around will be fan films, something that was touched upon in the last film. I think this is probably one of the more interesting aspects of fandom. People put so much time and money into these projects that they can’t legally release. We will also see the return of fan favourite Gabriel Kroener. Sounds good to me. Trekkies 3 will most likely see a direct to DVD release, and according to Nygard, distribution deals are still in the works with Paramount and could ultimately rely on the success of J.J. Abrams upcoming installment in the franchise.

Related Link: /Film: Trekkies 3 in the Works (via)

Bonus Video: Film Junk Versus: Episode 4, ‘Star Wars vs. Star Trek’ – This is an episode of the video podcast I produce with Sean over at Film Junk. In this episode, we take a tour of a particularily rabid Star Trek fan’s collection that is more than deserving of an apprearance in the next Trekkies.