Trekstorm: Mr. Spock's Wild Ride

Last week, when I posted about the long-dormant proposal for a "Star Trek" re-boot, written by J. Michael Straczynski and myself two years ago, I didn't appreciate how it would be such a classic lesson in the power of the web to get info out there quickly. But it is.

You have to understand that this blog averages only about 100 hits a day. I'd started the blog to better understand the whole experience, teach myself some new computer skills, and so on. Anyway, the baseline: 100 hits a day. These are distinct "visits" from unique people and not just "page views" (we get about 180 of those).

Yesterday, "For What It's Worth" received 8,758 hits. Let's see: that's 87 times normal. Here's what it looks like on Site Meter:

You can see for yourself that it was cruising along in the 80-120 hits per day, 100 hits average. Then a couple of other blogs picked up on it and I had two 900 hits days in a row and I was astounded. I figured that was the big traffic and it would die down. But then the Sci-Fi Channel web-site picked up on it and it went through the roof. Yesterday, at its peak wave, the blog was hit by nearly 700 people in a single hour, something I thought was possible only on porn sites. Here's a look at what the week looked like:

I entertained the idea of re-writing that blog post to focus only on "Star Trek" but opted to keep it in its original state. What prompted me to put the treatment out there for download in the first place was no grand scheme but the comments of Stephen Hawking about needing to move out into the stars. I started writing about that, and suddenly I'd verged into "Star Trek" territory and just kind of went with that energy.

In retrospect, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. We all know how powerful the "Star Trek" franchise is and how deeply its fans care about it.

As a consequence, a lot of people have posted thoughtful comments both here and elsewhere on the web about the content of that blog and the proposal it described. I learned a lot. Thanks to everyone who took the time, and let's hope some good comes out of all this.

Not everyone agrees on what should happen with "Star Trek," of course. Lots of different ideas. But the majority did seem to spark to the simplicity of what JMS and I were saying:

There is so damn much continuity to take into consideration in the "Star Trek" world that the best thing to do is a complete re-boot, to start over, and let a new generation of writers take a swing at it without the Old Guard wagging fingers pre-emptively on new takes and directions.

People are still dropping in to read that post but, in a few days, things will probably return to normal. Anyway, thanks for stopping by this blog, all of you from all around the world, and please do come back again.

Comments

[ASP web hosting]

Thank you for the information

[M Johnson]

This article explains a few things about Star Trek, and if you're interested, then this is worth reading, because you can never tell what you don't know.

[smkyqtzxtl]

We keep watching the various seasons of Star Trek that we own and the movies....am longing for more. We feel like we know these people personally. any chance of a reboot or rewrite or reprise would be gratefully appreciated here. Maybe like the American Idol, common folks like us who live in the shadows of obscurity could take a crack at some plot lines, twists and dreams of science in some sort of writers forum. What do you think?

[Tom]

Love the treatment. Wish it was going to be made.

The ONLY thing that I don't like is the idea of changing a characters gender. (i.e. Scotty as a woman) Just create a new character, already!! I HATE that the new Battlestar did that. Give Scotty a female assistant that is even smarter than he is, and make her the reason he's a miracle worker..fine. Just leave his gender alone!

I'd also like someone to keep some part of the original tech look. One of the coolest "Enterprise" episodes had the alternate universe Classic Ship. I just felt like "Man, that is what a starship is supposed to look like!"

[spud murphy]

The internet is a crazy beast that I too am only beginning to figure out. My big foray at the moment is into the world of Flickr. I'm trying to understand what people like and don't like. Most of the time I get a few hits for my images, but the one time I posted some images of a Star Wars Lego AT-AT my photostream hits just sky rocketted I couldn't believe it. Any way sure enough after a few days it all settled back to normal. Just goes to show you if you use something beloved of so many people the internet will draw them to you. (Shameful Plug : The Photo set is linked if any one is interested)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65176998@N00/sets/72057594133451527/

As to the Star Trek Re-Boot proposal, thanks for posting it. I was dying to see it way back when JMS first posted comments about it, I thought it would remain hidden for ever ala the Star Wars Christmas Special.

That all said the ST post might have brought me here but now that I have found it I think I'll be back more often.

[AlRO]

I think the idea that was proposed in that document is provocative and interesting.. I would love to see this happen, as a long time Star Trek fan since the Original Series.

I've fallen in love with Battlestar Galactica Rebooted... so i don't see why this couldn't work for Trek...

Keep up the fight - I think it's worth pursuing..