Blumberg said he’s looking forward to hearing a wide array of questions and opinions about Star Trek at the event, which will take place on Wednesday, May 20, 2009, from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM.

The author or co author of several books on pop culture subjects ranging from Doctor Who to zombie movies, he is no stranger to Star Trek. A nearly lifelong fan of the franchise, he spent a couple seasons as a pitching writer for Star Trek: Voyager, along with fellow writer Mark Haynes and Scoop’s J.C, Vaughn, who conducted this interview.

Scoop: How did you first discover Star Trek? Was it with the re-runs of the original series
Dr. Arnold T. Blumberg (ATB): It’s impossible to remember the first time I encountered Star Trek; it’s one of those things where I just can’t remember when I didn’t know about it. But I was watching the original show in reruns first, in the mid-‘70s, and just generally growing up with the entire saga starting from that dark period after its initial cancellation and before the first film. I was a massive sci-fi and comic fan, and for many years to come after first seeing the Enterprise streak by, Star Trek was the most important thing in my fan world apart from Star Wars (occasionally). I bought every comic, every book, every magazine, toys, you name it. I immersed myself in the history – both the continuity of the fictional universe and all the behind-the-scenes minutiae of the production. It was #1 for me.

Scoop:  What was your reaction to the show? Were you hooked right away or did it take a while?
ATB: Again, it’s tough to remember except that I can’t recall when I was wasn’t into Star Trek at the beginning (I can certainly remember when I stopped being into it, but that’s another story), so I must have been hooked right away.

Scoop:  Now you're a very well established scholar and author, but on the level of the young man you were at the time, what was it that grabbed you about the show and or the characters?
ATB: I’m sure part of it back then was the exciting adventure, dynamic characters, fun aliens and monsters, the technology – oh yes, the phasers and tricorders and communicators and transporter and all that! – and even just the amazing design and vibrant color palette. Let’s face it, the original series was just brilliant entertainment all around.

Scoop: On a more adult, intellectual level, when you look at it today, why do you think it works?
ATB: These have all become clichés because they’ve been said so many times by people like us as well as people from within the show itself, but the series captured something in that three-way lead structure. Kirk – the commanding, occasionally brazen but always heroic and compassionate Captain, McCoy with the emotional fervor, the heart laid bare, while Spock provides the sound reasoning and cold logic. They’re the Id, Ego and Super-Ego embodied.

Together all three are one amazing person, and it’s that very humanity (yes, even Spock) that anchors the otherwise fanciful stories and sci-fi trappings. There’s the social commentary, the optimistic view of the future, sure, but I think at the core of it is the fact that you have three friends that are inseparable and together they represent everything bold and true about humanity. Which is not to exclude all the other great characters in the main bridge crew and beyond, but it all starts with Kirk, Spock and McCoy.

Scoop: Having a show that works isn't that difficult. Many programs have done that. To what, though, would you attribute the lasting impact of the original Star Trek?
ATB: One of those magic questions. I usually answer these kind of “How do you think X stood the test of time?” questions by saying if I knew how, I’d be somewhere else making billions! There’s the simple but somewhat unattractive answer that sometimes a show or movie is just there at the right place and right time to capture an audience forever. But there have to be other, more specific reasons, and again, many of them have been discussed at length for decades.

There’s the warmth and humanity of the characters, the universality of them – everyone can say they see something of themselves reflected back at them, or they know a friend that’s rational like Spock or passionate like McCoy. Let’s not shortchange the fact that Roddenberry’s basic notion that humanity has a wondrous, prosperous future ahead is endless attractive to us – it reassures us that yes, we will not give in to our baser instincts but strive to achieve and eventually become something greater.

And with every next generation – heh, heh – Star Trek has evolved to reflect the society in which we live, the values we hold important, and the perils we face. It’s a mirror for all of us. (A mirror, mirror? Never mind.)

Scoop: What was your first interaction with Star Trek fandom?
ATB: While I was a Star Trek fan beyond belief throughout my childhood, buying every Trek item that wasn’t nailed down, watching every episode, every movie, every making-of special or interview, I was very late to get involved with organized fandom. A lot of that kind of experience really only came about for me years after drifting away from Trek, when I very happily joined the Doctor Who fan community.

But the first time I stepped beyond just enjoying Trek on my own, I went to my first-ever convention for anything – except some local comic book shows that weren’t really cons but just organized flea markets – in 1986 when Star Trek IV was about to come out in theaters. It was one of those Creation conventions – they ruled everything back then – and Walter Koenig was the guest. It was exciting to see all the stuff in the dealers’ room – and this was at the tail end of the real Trek convention experience, when you could still see lots of unlicensed fanzines and beautifully made phaser and communicator garage kits. Then Creation and Paramount shut all that down.

And I made my first ever (but minor) fan faux pas when before his scheduled talk, I saw Koenig just milling around the dealers’ room. With my parents’ encouragement (so I partly blame them), I walked up to him to ask for his autograph and he very politely told me there would be a time for that later. He was gracious and said it with a smile, but I felt like an idiot. Live and learn.

I went to a few more cons to see folks like Brent Spiner and Marina Sirtis – and once, the Man himself, Shatner – but the Creation cons were a pretty soulless affair after a while and I never really interacted with anyone else there. No panels or socializing. So that was about it. Many years later, my association with fellow fans would involve even pitching to the show itself as a writing team…but you’d know something about that!

Scoop: What makes Trek so much fun to talk about with other fans or even non-fans
ATB: When you’re emotionally invested in something as a fan, naturally you’re really motivated to want to share that enthusiasm with other fans – even non-fans (which of course leads to lots of rolling eyes and desperate sighs).

But that’s the way it is with all kinds of fandom and collecting, it’s a passion. So when you can get a bunch of people together in a room to talk about the fact that Star Trek II is one of the greatest cinematic achievements known to Man or you can chat with friends about all those annoying but somehow exciting inconsistencies in the names given to Starfleet in early episodes of the original series, it’s just a joy.

Scoop: Is there really a lot of room for discussion or is it just a bunch of people sitting around agreeing with each other?
ATB: I did mention the inconsistencies, didn’t I? After 40-plus years of storytelling, 11 movies, hundreds upon hundreds of television episodes, books, comics, on and on, you could never run out of things to talk about, whether it’s the performance of an actor or the design of a phaser or a million other bits and pieces.

And of course, you can’t put fans together without expecting sparks. I mentioned before that it’s a joy to share your love of something like Trek with others, but that comes at a price, and that price is the same passion that got you there in the first place. Because if you think you know exactly what and why Trek works, and what this line of dialogue in that episode meant, you can bet there are a hundred other fans out there with completely different opinions – and they all know they’re right and you’re wrong.

Simply put, there can be a lot of extreme contention among fans, arguing, complaining, everything negative under the sun. But again, passion. You can’t have good without the bad.

Scoop: Will you be getting into all the different Star Trek series (Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager) and all the movies as well?
ATB:  I started with the original series of course and then I loved the Next Generation (and still do). Deep Space Nine was an interesting animal, in that to this day I still say I think it’s the best that Trek has ever done in terms of writing, cohesive, complex story telling and character development – especially the last couple seasons – but it’s not my favorite show and not one I can easily revisit at all. It feels of a time and not something I can drop back into like the old series or TNG.

And then there’s Voyager, Saturday morning Star Trek written with all the disdain that can be offered by adults that don’t respect their audience in the slightest. I have a much longer story I can tell about why Voyager was the breaking point – creatively bankrupt, juvenile, maddening – but it was all the more depressing since it temporarily aired right alongside Trek at its most intelligent (DS9).

But this is where Trek was beaten out of me by the very people making it. Voyager killed so much of my love for Star Trek that I couldn’t watch anything related to Trek for years afterward. I’ve rediscovered the first two shows now, but it was a long break. Except of course for peeking in to a couple episodes of Enterprise, about which the less said, the better (although I have to admit, I’ve seen quite a few repeats of them now on Sci Fi Channel, and I think that while terrible, it’s slightly better than Voyager).

Scoop: What about other iterations such as novels, comic books, video games, and so on?
ATB: When I was in full Trek mode, I bought literally every single novel that came out and read every one. Enjoyed almost all of them, but of course there were stand-out classics, like The Entropy Effect, The Wounded Sky, Imzadi. I read every comic book – the single best run was the DC series that ran after Star Trek III up to V. I probably played a video game here and there, but that was never as a big a pastime for me as reading.

In Part II of Star Trek: Talking the Talk, we’ll talk with Dr. Blumberg about the new Star Trek feature film, the various DVD releases of the original and subsequent series, and why he’s just plain wrong about Enterprise (that’s our story, and we’re sticking to it).

To learn more about Geppi’s Entertainment Museum, visit their website.