Subcommander Tal

11 Nov 2024

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry #StarTrek

WALTER KOENIG. He was a lovely guy, and I’m fortunate I was able to meet him on three different occasions spread out over many years. He was always friendly, but, more interestingly, he was always authentic. You never got the sense that he was posing…

The last time I met him was at GalaxyCon in Richmond in 2023. He was a little old man then, but still had a sharp wit, and I took the opportunity to tell him how much I appreciated the interactions I’ve had with him over the years. A great guy and a straight shooter who will be missed…

Finally, the other cool thing about Walter of course is that he was really one of us. A genuine genre fan who liked comics, horror, baseball cards, and collecting. More than any other cast member I think he understood the slightly obsessive mindset of the Trek fan… R.I.P.

He has written some really interesting books, and you can tell he has mixed feelings about being famous for a role that was on the surface somewhat insubstantial (although memorable! He also has a very witty, slightly neurotic sense of humor…

Many of us remember him for his role as Bester on Babylon 5. I’ve always thought Walter is at his best doing villains. For a small guy he can project a lot of menace. He also has great comedic chops (and a memorable ability to scream!). In another incarnation he could’ve been a Joe Pesci-type actor…

The first time I met him was at a con in Baltimore. I was 14 and was going down on an escalator with a friend and Walter was coming up: we whispered excitedly wondering if it was him and he said “yes, it’s him!” He always had a realistic attitude to being a celebrity…

I met him again maybe fifteen years later at James Doohan’s final convention. I paid extra for tickets to the cocktail hour with some of the guests, and chatted with him about his son Andrew. I remember Walter was so straightforward, and didn’t put on airs at all…

22h

I’m very sad to hear of the passing of Walter Koenig, aka Pavel Chekov from Star Trek. I got to meet him on a few occasions, and he was always genuine, thoughtful, and a little anxious in a way that made him very relatable. R.I.P.

OMG I love the episode The Devil in the Dark!!

collectingtrek.caMatt Jefferies made Star Trek look believableMichael and Denise Okuda reflect on a humble visionary.

If you’re a Star Trek fan and not following @collectingtrek.bsky.social then you should be! He has great content and I thoroughly enjoy his blog, where he’s recently written about legendary set designer Matt Jeffries, among other things… collectingtrek.ca/2026/10/02/j...

“Can somebody tell me this guy’s name again?”

The older I get the more I seem to rediscover my childhood interests... Star Trek is certainly part of that. I've been rereading old fantasy/sci-fi novels from my youth and recently reread "Steel Beach" by John Varley. The gender-switching/plastic surgery and rogue AI hits harder these days...

Next up for me will likely be "Gateway" by Frederick Pohl, which is kind of the Platonic Ideal as far as pulp sci-fi is concerned. Great book. After that, "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. LeGuin, which is very moving…

@misterleslietos.bsky.social

After that I suppose I’ll boot up Space Quest or Alternate Reality on my old Mac SE… I will never be that 16-year-old in 1991 again, but he’s still in me.

Subcommander Tal reposted

Mister Leslie

Stardate 2588.4 if the men who reach out into space are able to find ways to feed the hungry millions of the world and to cure their diseases then how come I feel so empty inside all the time

Subcommander Tal reposted

Portalrealm

@portalrealm.bsky.social

3 June 2025

The Gorn warrior is wearing his traditional flexible rubber-like armour, shaped to resemble their ancient reptilian god of war. This armour is pliable for maximum manoeuvrability in battle and yet resilient to the most vicious of karate chops

@interwebkath.bsky.social

Are there any oldsters like me out there who used to play NetTrek? I have fond memories spending my lunch break in High School in the early 90’s goofing around with this game…

Subcommander Tal reposted

Kath

"A teleport? A tele... a teleport... like a beam-me-up teleport, like you see in Star Trek?" October's #StarTrek 🖖 prompts (created by @shelfnerds.bsky.social) are all about the transporters in Star Trek. Use the tag #TrekBeaming and play along with each day's prompt.

“Yeoman, where’s my chicken sandwich and coffee??”

It’s become hard for me to actually watch the Original Series… I know it too well… I prefer to just think about it and talk about it. There’s a lifetime supply of how much you can watch a show without exhausting it and I don’t want to reach it…

@misterleslietos.bsky.social

Coming in Fall 1983 to the NEW Paramount TV Network!! Star Trek: The Next Gen—oh wait never mind…

Subcommander Tal reposted

Mister Leslie

Stardate 2495.3 I like that everyone has hobbies on this ship: sulu likes fencing, uhura likes singing, chekov knows russian history, and scotty’s an alcoholic

Mr. Sulu, Man of Many Hobbies

22 Sept

18 Sept

they had no idea what they were getting into…

18 Sept

Through Space I fly my Bird of Prey, Through endless Night unlit by Day, And land upon a thousand Worlds ‘Round scattered Stars like gleaming pearls.

13 Sept

“Sorry Bill, we’ve got to wait til next season to kiss”

Subcommander Tal reposted

Jayce

@jayceb.bsky.social

13 Feb 2025

I know being a strict TOS purist and not really giving much of a care for the rest of Trek makes me VERY annoying but, God, fucking look at it.

Danika Harrod@danika.bsky.social

tv show lighting used to be beautiful… bring it back

Labor Day Weekend 1966, Cleveland OH. The 24th World Science Fiction Convention (or “Tricon”) was taking place. Gene Roddenberry was in attendance and gave a sneak peek of Star Trek by presenting both pilots, as well as a look at some of the show’s costumes.

Well, Happy Star Trek Day! I first started really becoming a fan of this show around its 20 year Anniversary, and now somehow that was 40 years ago... anyway, I wanted to share a few pics and mementos yet again... 1/

With the pandemic in 2020 and having more time on my hands I joined Twitter on a whim. That’s when I discovered the online community of fans, a whole new world of trivia, and I took on, randomly, the now-comfy alter ego of Subcommander Tal… 8/

Anyway, Star Trek for me is a TV show that always entertains. As a kid the ideas, characters and sci-fi captivated me; as a young adult I learned to love the messy business of tv production behind it. In recent years, it's been a source of fun, friends, and nostalgia. Happy 60th Star Trek!! 🎂🖖 /end

I also used to pontificate on Star Trek a lot on the old rec.arts.startrek Usenet newsgroup; sometimes the articles would get picked up by Trek newsletters. I also kept the letter writing tradition alive when TOS finally began to get squeezed out of reruns in tv lineups… 6/

I lost interest in Star Trek and moved on to other things after college. A couple decades later I rediscovered my fandom again thanks to finding the Star Trek Set Tour and the Inglorious Treksperts podcast. At that point I suppose I was old enough to enjoy my youth again… 7/

I'm not really a collector, and don't have much in terms of like figurines or ship models or things like that. I do love reading books about Star Trek, though. I'm less interested in fiction than I am in biographies and behind-the-scenes info... 4/

Ahh, the carefree days of the early and mid-nineties! I was an avid enough fan I got a couple mentions back in the day: one in Internet World magazine, the other in The Washington Times. I kept up my Trek interest into my first couple years of college… 5/

I was always aware of Star Trek, but as young teen in the late 80's I got obsessed. I loved the characters, stories, music, and aesthetic. I started going to conventions, mostly for the actors and the vibes. (Here's me in an old t-shirt from those days, and my cast photo with autographs)... 2/

My fandom peaked in the early 90's but then started to fade around the time of ST: Generations. Here's a few pins and things I've picked up from cons and book signings. I was also a volunteer at the Nat'l Air and Space Museum's Star Trek exhibit in '92... 3/

Sixty Years Ago today…

7 Sept

Looks like he could use a Savage Shower Curtain

31 Aug

Leslie Parrish (Carolyn Palamas) died recently. I’ll always remember this scene she played with Shatner in “Who Mourns for Adonais?” I’m not sure I agree with Kirk’s message, but I love the language of this speech, the romantic music, and the earnestness of the delivery. R.I.P.

A friend of mine stopped by today with a bunch of old Star Trek stuff her cousin was unloading. It’s giving nice nostalgia for what it was like being a Star Trek fan in the 90s…

I miss physical media: tapes, CDs, DVDs, etc. I still buy Blu-rays of things occasionally. It’s not just nostalgia, I like that it usually came with a digestible amount of information, and that you were limited by physical space. It helped you learn the content of your collection more intimately…

The little booklets in CD jewel cases, the summaries on the back of VHS cassettes, or the extras on DVDs: I read and watched them a million times. Now the entire universe is at your fingertips online, but it’s so vast I don’t learn anything from it. It just passes through me.

A friend of mine stopped by today with a bunch of old Star Trek stuff her cousin was unloading. It’s giving nice nostalgia for what it was like being a Star Trek fan in the 90s…

I’ll probably toss most of it, although I’m happy to get my hands on the black Asherman Compendium. The other thing I’m definitely keeping are these cute and obnoxious little keychains of a communicator and a tricorder.