'Trek Nation' explores Gene Roddenberry's legacy as creator and father

‘Trek Nation’ explores Gene Roddenberry’s legacy as creator and father

May 1, 2010 12:20 PM PT

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It’s staggering to contemplate the true reach of ‘Star Trek.’ On television it yielded five television franchises (six, if you count the Saturday morning cartoon series). There have been 11 feature films -- and one ingenious and thinly disguised parody in ‘Galaxy Quest.’ There are hundreds of books and short stories, a massive mountain of toys and collectibles, comic books, clothing, fan fiction, artwork, academic papers and dissertations, spoofs, and the list just goes and on and on.

It’s interesting, then, to consider the man behind the original concept, the late Gene Roddenberry, and a new documentary that I’m hearing good things about, ‘Trek Nation.’

There is no shortage of biographical material about the El Paso native who was called the ‘Great Bird of the Galaxy’ by some of his more ardent admirers, but this project has an intriguing family component that might add different dimensions to a story that already covers a lot of deep space. The film also features interviews with George Lucas, Ronald D. Moore, Patrick Stewart, J.J. Abrams, Nichelle Nichols, Stan Lee, D.C. Fontana, Jonathan Frakes and many others.

Here’s the trailer...

The movie, directed by Scott Colthorp, is still up in the air a bit as far as release date and distribution, unfortunately...

-- Geoff Boucher

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