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Trek Geeks - A Star Trek Podcast is a casual discussion on Star Trek between two friends that have known each other for 20 years.

Each week, Dan Davidson and Bill Smith will highlight various Star Trek topics covering The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...as well as the new feature films and independently produced shows! In addition, they'll stump one another with trivia and have conversations with various contributors and celebrities throughout the Star Trek Universe.

About

William Smith

The first episode of Star Trek that Bill can remember watching as a child in the 1970’s is “The Corbomite Maneuver.”  He watched it unwillingly because his older brother wanted to, but over time he became a die-hard fan.

He loves all Star Trek–except Voyager–and thinks that more Star Trek is good Star Trek, whether it’s feature films, television series, or fan productions on the Internet.

He attended his first Star Trek convention in the late 1980’s in Manchester, New Hampshire thanks to the kindness of a Star Trek cast member.  Bill was a teenager and had no money to attend the convention.  He was just hoping to get into the Dealer’s Room to find some cheap collectibles.  He was standing alone in the lobby of the hotel ballroom looking out the window to see if his ride had arrived when there was a tap on his shoulder.

When he turned around, he was standing face-to-face with a smiling George Takei who asked him, “Are you going inside?” Takei was referring to the main ballroom where he was about to appear before the assembled Trekkies.  Bill explained that he didn’t have the money to attend, to which Takei replied, “It’s alright…I don’t think anyone will say anything if you come in with me.  C’mon, let’s go!”

With that gesture, Bill sat in the last seat in the last row and felt at home.  That was, until he went outside and found out his Mom had been waiting in the parking lot for 45 minutes to give him a ride home.

Bill lives in New Hampshire with his wife and dog.  He is an I.T. Systems Engineer by trade. In addition to being a near life long Trekkie, he has also been a blogger of national politics since 2003.  In the summer of 2011, he was the first person to have a Tweet answered directly by a sitting President of the United States in the Twitter Town Hall.

 

Dan Davidson

Very similar to his partner in crime, Dan was forced into watching Star Trek by his older brother back in the 70’s and 80’s when it was on Boston’s WLVI TV 56.  He hated it.  His first memory of the show was the Gorn in “Arena”.  He was against the show simply because he wanted to watch some other piece of crap show like Gilligan’s Island or Brady Bunch.

Deep Space Nine is by far and away Dan’s favorite series.  If you can get through the first two seasons of bad writing which is pretty much the same for all the Trek spinoffs, such as Sisko playing hopscotch in “Move Along Home”, worse acting (again, Sisko playing hopscotch in “Move Along Home”) and meh special effects, you will see some of the best story telling in television history.  The Dominion War was unlike anything he had ever seen and believed that the Founders, the Jem’hadar, the Vorta, Gul Dukat’s betrayal of his people and the genocide of the Spoonheads made for some of the most riveting TV ever.  Take away the lame episodes with Worf and Ezri’s sexual tension and it may be as close to television perfection as one can find!

Dan has been to approximately a dozen conventions through the years.  The last one he attended was in the mid 90’s in Nashua, New Hampshire.  A witty and fun John de Lancie was the guest of honor, and because it was such a smaller convention that usual, Jon signed autographs for free for anyone who wanted one.  Dan still has a Starfleet Academy onesie signed by Q himself that has never been worn, and never will be.

One of the greatest Star Trek moments occurred with fellow Trek Geek, Bill Smith, when both gents travelled to a local book store one afternoon to get an autograph from Mr. Spock Prime himself, Leonard Nimoy, who had done an audio novel with John de Lancie.  I think Bill might still have the picture of the two of us with Leonard.  Always friendly and thankful to his fans, it was a great afternoon, even if we were only with the guest of honor for 30 seconds!

Unknown to Dan at the time that it would close less than a year later, Dan was able to journey to Las Vegas and witness the Star Trek Experience in all of its glory in the late 2000’s.  Drinking a Warp Core Breach with his wife and being insulted by a Klingon and Ferengi bartender all in the same afternoon will go down as one of the best days of his life!

Dan lives in Yarmouth, Maine with his beautiful wife and two wonderful daughters, along with his two adorable dogs.  He is an IT Professional in Portland ME who holds the official title of ‘Production Process Engineer’ which basically means he needs to make sure everything is working – all the time.  In addition to Star Trek, Dan has two other addictions:  Walt Disney World and ABC’s show ‘Lost’ which he was introduced to by a coworker a year before the show ended.  When asked to keep an open mind and watch just the pilot before making any decisions, Dan ended up watching the first five seasons in about 3 months so that he could enjoy the final season and the AWESOME finale.  Dan is DEFINITELY on the side of ‘the island happened.’ (For those who have no idea what that means, please watch the show and prepare to be dazzled!)