Eugene W. Roddenberry, son of the late "Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry, got an endorsement of sorts from Paramount Pictures when Star Trek.com -- the official studio site for Star Trek -- featured Roddenberry's work-in-progress documentary "Trek Nation."

According to the site, "Trek Nation" will explore the impact Star Trek has had on society as well as individuals, and also explore some of the more dramatic cases of lives being literally turned around due to its influence. Of course, while work is continuing on the documentary, even more work is taking place behind-the-scenes as Roddenberry, along with filmmaker Scott Colthorp and Atmosphere Pictures, continue to look for financial backing of the project.

"If we can get the fans behind it, they'll know that it's a project with integrity, and hopefully, we can convince an executive or a production company somewhere of the same thing," Roddenberry recently told Star Trek.com.

Roddenberry said that Star Trek fans are everywhere, and he hopes that this documentary will break the common stereotype of a Trekkie.

"There are two ideas to this documentary right now," Roddenberry said. "One is to see that Star Trek has affected lives for the better, has influenced people in amazing ways, whether it's about people overcoming enourmous disabilities, or being influenced not to commit suicide, or some of the other dramatic stories that are out there. The other idea is to get away from the stereotype of a Star Trek fan being the 35-year-old living in his mother's basement. Because in reality, in almost every walk of life, there's a Star Trek fan.

"I've found out that some of these big hulky NFL linebackers are Star Trek fans. There's a gang in Toronto of Harley-Davidson riders, a Hell's Angels branch, where some of those guys are Star Trek fans. We all knwo that many astronauts are fans. Vin Diesel, a modern-day movie star hunk, is also a Star Trek fan.

"So the average Joe who sees this, sees that someone like Vin Diesel's a fan, maybe he'll realize there's something to this Star Trek thing."

Star Trek.com also is featuring the trailer Atmosphere Pictures made for the documentary, but Roddenberry did reveal that the release date in the trailer of this coming January is not set in stone, and the documentary could in fact be set for later in 2004.

"I'm really trying to empower the fans and say, stand up and be proud of liking Star Trek," Roddenberry said. "Unfortunately, there's been this notion of everyone being kind of a nerd. Well, either way, be proud of it! And you know what, I'll be the biggest Star Trek nerd of 'em all."

"Trek Nation" is seeing some competition from Roger Nygard and actress Denise Crosby who put together the first Star Trek documentary "Trekkies." The duo is working on a sequel to that film, and it is unclear at this time why the official site left off "Trekkies 2" in its report. Nygard told Airlock Alpha earlier this month that Paramount had an option to fund any sequel to the first documentary, that was distributed by Paramount Classics, and that they had exercised that option. (original story)

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