Forget Hollywood. When J.J. Abrams gets ready to premiere "Star Trek XI" on Christmas Day 2008, the red carpet should be rolled out not at Grauman's Chinese Theater, but in the small Canadian town of Vulcan, Alberta.
Yes, you've heard of this town before. It has just under 2,000 people outside of Calgary, and it has everything from replicas of the USS Enterprise as statues in the town square, to town council members wearing Starfleet uniforms.
The town has capitalized on its coincidental name likeness with Spock's homeworld for years, and now they want to take it a step further by luring the world premiere of the next Star Trek movie featuring not one, but two Spocks across the Canadian border.
"I'm just starting to pull the idea together," said Dayna Dickens, the town's tourism coordinator, according to the Vulcan Advocate. "Hopefully Paramount will say yes."
But that may be a hard sell, especially since Vulcan isn't the only Star Trek-themed city in the world. Riverside, Iowa -- the fictional birthplace of Capt. James T. Kirk -- could also jump on the bandwagon and try to lure the premiere. The town is half the size of Vulcan, but is also complete with its own statues of the USS Enterprise. And one shouldn't forget the adopted fictional birthplace of Montgomery Scott in Linlithgow, Scotland, which is probably the newest of Star Trek-themed towns.
"The potential for publicity is good," Dickens told Vulcan's Chamber of Commerce. "We have about 18 months" to make something happen.
About the Author:
Michael Hinman is the founder and site coordinator for Airlock Alpha and the entire BlipNetwork. He owns Quantum Global Media Inc., the parent corporation of the BlipNetwork. He's a print journalist by day, and lives in Tampa, Fla.
