Published Aug 29, 2019
This Month in 'Trek': The Kids are Alright
Featuring the best of 'Star Trek' from around the web.
StarTrek.com
Each month, StarTrek.com scours the internet for the best writing, art, crafting, and all-around creative endeavors from the global Star Trek community. Our picks for August include a nifty fandom survey, a bit of linguistics, and, of course, we can't help but revisit some of our tiniest fans at Star Trek Las Vegas.
Those pesky Tardigrades were in the news again. The BBC reported that the Discovery favorite may be living in the thousands on the moon.
They were travelling on an Israeli spacecraft that crash-landed on the moon in April. And the co-founder of the organisation that put them there thinks they're almost definitely still alive. The water bears had been dehydrated to place them in suspended animation and then encased in artificial amber. "We believe the chances of survival for the tardigrades... are extremely high," Arch Mission Foundation boss Nova Spivack said. — "Tardigrades: 'Water bears' stuck on the moon after crash," BBC, August 7, 2019
Wil Wheaton sent Instagram into a tizzy when he posted this picture from a themed party he attended... dressed as Commander Riker!
Whether or not you happened to spend your childhood on the Enterprise, August was a great month for kids and Star Trek cosplay.
My little guy doing his #startrek fleet cheer At this year’s Convention. pic.twitter.com/bc1kMv5nem
— KCCO-VCR (@kccoVCR) August 11, 2019
Star Trek Kids Say the Darnedest Things at STLV
Also from our younger fans, check out some of these awesome fan art illustrations and excellent in-the-lines coloring skills. The talent truly jumped out in August.
Presenting this excellent fan art by my 6 year old daughter. Her two favorite Voyager characters. #kathrynjaneway#sevenofnine@TheKateMulgrew@JeriLRyanpic.twitter.com/Jw4w6LAk5m
— Manalyzer13 (@Manalyzer131) August 11, 2019
.@JeriLRyan My daughter wanted to color. She saw the coloring sheet of Seven I had printed out and claimed it. She wanted to know if Seven liked butterflies, so I told her I’d ask! #StarTrekpic.twitter.com/hCDakMH704
— Dr. Bruce Finklea (@BruceFinklea) August 13, 2019
My 10 year old felt left out that I hadn't posted her art, so I told her I'd post something for her. Her favorite crew. #startrekvoy@TheKateMulgrew@roxdaws@robertbeltran74@GarrettRWang@RobertPicardo@timruss2@JeriLRyanpic.twitter.com/ZESSEUKRdR
— Manalyzer13 (@Manalyzer131) August 20, 2019
Is Sir Patrick Stewart inadvertently responsible for the way we say 'data' outside the realm of Star Trek? As Gizmodo reported, Brent Spiner seems to think so.
Per Gizmodo's report:
When Patrick Stewart’s character Jean-Luc Picard first addresses Brent Spiner’s Data, his pronunciation of the word differed to Spiner’s. To settle the d?d? versus dad? debate, Gene Roddenberry created a new rule for the show, on the spot, that whoever says a name first decides how it’s pronounced from then on. So after seven seasons and 178 episodes of Star Trek: TNG, Stewart’s pronunciation of data, a product of growing up in Yorkshire, England, has slowly but surely replaced the way Spiner and millions of other Americans were first taught to pronounce the word.
Finally, we found this report (admittedly, from July; but hey, we are all busy) fascinating. In their survey of pop culture fans, The Morning Consult and The Hollywood Reporter found that the question, "Do you prefer Star Wars or Star Trek?" massively oversimplifies fans' interests.
Pop culture fans are preparing to descend on San Diego on Thursday for Comic-Con, where a common question asked by fans at the panels is “Star Trek or Star Wars?” Since the annual convention’s beginning, fans have been passionately loyal to their favorite franchises, but Morning Consult data suggest that these lines between these fan groups are in fact quite blurry....
...The data shows that Marvel and “Star Wars” have the biggest overlap with other fandoms. But while video game Fortnite was at the bottom of the list in popularity — and subsequently last in crossover appeal — it has been able to capitalize on fandom overlap through collaboration with more popular franchises.
The findings were summed up in the handy chart featured below. How do their results match up with your own interests?
62% of Harry Potter fans are also Trekkies, and how other fandoms overlap #ComicCon2019https://t.co/7g6Eu3sJ5Fpic.twitter.com/93M9hrWzZ5
— Joanna Piacenza (@jpiacenza) July 17, 2019
