[STARFLEET INTERNATIONAL]

STARFLEET

IN THE NEWS

[STARFLEET COMMUNICATIONS DIVISION]

----------

STARFLEET
In the News

----------

Best viewed with:

Microsoft Internet Explorer

or

Netscape Navigator

and

Lynx Enhanced!

----------

 

*--<STARFLEET>--*

 


From the New York Post -- 22 January 1997[NYPostOnline]

Trouble in Trek universe

By GERSH KUNTZMAN

EDGAR Torres wants to boldly go where no "Star Trek" fan club has gone before.

It's not just that Torres wants to start a chapter in the South Bronx, but that he also wants his officers (that's what fan club "captains" call their members) to devote themselves to community service -- fulfilling "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry's vision of the future.

Plastic Vulcan ears? Battery-powered phasers? Fake tricorders? Put 'em in a drawer.

Torres' red alert about community activism has been received like a photon torpedo by the captains of the city's other ships (that's how local chapters are known), the North Star and the Temperance, whose members are far more likely to debate whether Capt. Kirk violated the prime directive by destroying Vol in the episode titled "The Apple" than tutor kids. (By the way, he did!)

In other words, there's plenty of tribble, er, trouble in New York's Trek universe.

"I brought up the idea of community service, but the captain of the Temperance only paid lip service," said Torres, a former first officer aboard the Temperance before he quit -- or was forced out, depending on whom you ask -- to assume command of his own ship, the Osirus (named after the Egyptian god who banished ignorance).

"They just want to talk about the episodes."

That's mutiny to Temperance captain Michael Hernandez, who claims that Torres went behind his back to Star Fleet (also known as the International Star Trek Fan Association) and accused him of being unfit for command.

"Edgar had some wonderful ideas, but he shouldn't have written an eight-page letter to Star Fleet saying my meetings were incoherent," Hernandez said. "He was one of my best friends, but I haven't spoken to him in months."

But Hernandez admitted community service is a final frontier not yet conquered.

"The club is all in good fun," he said, wishing he had enough raw ensigns to have more activities like the El Dorado, a ship out of New Jersey, which conducts episode simulations where crew members run around a parking lot with phasers screaming things like "Spock, I'm hit!"

"I'd like to get into that kind of thing," Hernandez said, "but I don't have enough people."

Even the North Star, a Greenwich Village-based ship that caters primarily to gay and lesbian "Star Trek" fans, doesn't do enough community service to please Torres.

Capt. Michael Figueroa said that "getting into community service is primary on our agenda," but admitted that activism has been limited to marching in the AIDS walk and a Christmas toy drive.

"We're a group of people who like to watch episodes and go to the movies together," Figueroa said.

Star Fleet's new commander, Mike Smith, supported Torres' efforts.

"There's nothing wrong with splitting off from one club to start another," Smith said. "Some clubs do too much of one thing, whether it's community service or straight-out socializing, for some members. They're free to form their own clubs."

But for Edgar Torres, claiming Roddenberry's mantle has been about as easy as beaming up through an ion storm. The Osirus' maiden voyage in Hunts Point on Saturday was as crowded as a Romulan all-you-can-eat buffet, attended by only Torres' crew -- his wife, Maria (chief of operations), his best friend, Norbert Bonilla (first officer), Norbert's fiancee, Eleisha Cruz (chief medical officer) and ensign Ismael Diaz.

"It didn't go too well," Torres admitted, "but I know there are "Star Trek' fans in The Bronx who are committed to making this community better."


Copyright ©1996, N.Y.P. Holdings Inc.

 

*--<STARFLEET>--*

 

STARFLEET In the News: Last update Olde Earth Date: 9703.04
This page maintained by: Gordon Lloyd Goldberg (Comm@sfi.org)

The STARFLEET Logo on this page was adapted by Jeff Williams and then readapated along with doing some other junk'n'stuff (and a few other things) by Kurt Roithinger (gren@teleport.com). For more detailed information on the 'fleet web pages, please link to the Last Words...

 

[Paramount]

Star Trek; Star Trek: The Next Generation; Star Trek: Deep Space Nine; Star Trek: Voyager; STARFLEET, STARFLEET ACADEMY all ® Paramount Pictures, a VIACOM company. No Infringement Intended. STARFLEET - The International STAR TREK Fan Association , Inc., is a non-profit corporation in the State of NC, is not connected with Paramount, VIACOM, or Star Trek: The Official Fan Club, and has been in existence since 1974.