The U.S.S. Sydney, en route to Earth following the end of the Dominion War, receives a coded message on a Starfleet emergency frequency.

In this quick episode I thank everyone involved in the production.

With the Las Vegas Star Trek convention less than a month away, I decided to find out just how panel hosts get the most out of the audience and their guest, all while keeping to to a strict timetable governed by ticket sales, photo ops and signing tables�

Now, standing up in front of a couple hundred people isn�t everyone�s idea of a fun time, but one of the awesome people who do it every Supanova weekend is Ben Sorensen, a sales rep turned emcee when he tried to get his gaming chairs happening at the Aussie convention a few years ago. Fast forward to 2018 and Ben�s panels are some of the liveliest and most engaging of the weekend and I asked him how he pulls it off and what it�s like to work with the audience, the guests and the stopwatch�

Gary Davis, the man behind Dreadnought Dominion, is back on the show to plug his new vignettes that were shot in May on the former Star Trek Continues sets (now Stage 9 Productions under Ray Tesi.)

Not only are these fan films true to the guidelines, they�re unique in their plots � one uses a Q to break the fourth wall and the other introduces Gary�s wife as the Beta-shift�s communications officer� the first deaf communicator in Starfleet. It�s a first that should�ve been thought of long ago, but it�s finally here and it�s executed flawlessly� hear about it in Gary�s own words:

Supanova hit Sydney�s Olympic Park Showgrounds last weekend and The Trekzone Plexus was there to cover the panel action� and meet today�s interviewee once again � Mr Vic Mignogna. He�s back for a second go on the show and this time he�s not holding back about the state of fan films.

�I always wanted to make Star Trek with friends, not just hired guns.� He explained before elaborating eloquently about the conclusion of Continues and the other �full length� productions that were running at the time, the generosity of CBS and Paramount to allow them to wrap production when they did and the behaviour of a few who have sought to exclude others from participating in the great hobby that are Star Trek fan films.

The Trekzone Spotlight isn't the first, nor the only, podcast featuring and occasionally focusing on Star Trek - there are a heap of great ones out there.

Today, I got the creators from four of my favourite podcasts on The Trekzone Spotlight... and, in no particular order, asked them to tell us a bit about how they got started, what they do and what's in store for folks that haven't discovered them yet.

Following the successful 'fan films done right' series of episodes, it's time to dip our toes back into Star Trek fan film making, and today's guest has been producing some great shorts across eight titles. Randy Landers is certainly another of the folks getting on with the hobby of creating fan films.

Additionally, I posed a couple questions to Randy about his invitation of Alec Peters to the fan film panel at the recent Treklanta convention:

When you think of NASA, you think of the American space program � not the many components that make up that behemoth of scientific research and space exploration� and now Australia is joining the international community with a space agency of our own.

From July 1, the Australian Government will establish the bureaucracy desperately needed says today�s guest Brad Tucker from the Australian National University. He also explains why we have the need for a government agency to regulate and mandate our space objectives and confirms that even New Zealand has a space program!

It's that time of year again, as the Supanova Pop Culture Expo rolls around the country, bringing fans closer to their favourite stars... Sydney had their moment last week, now it's the Gold Coast's turn and what a con - a bigger crowd than last year came out to meet three massive names from the Whoniverse (and other celebs too!)

Trekzone was there in the Cosplay Theatre live tweeting the Peter Capaldi and Pearl Mackie Q session, then the incredible John Barrowman Q later in the afternoon. Check out the Twitter Moment here. To round out the day at the Gold Coast Convention Centre, I went backstage to meet Aussie actors John Jarrett (Wolf Creek) and Bob Morley (The 100.)

Joining me on this edition of The Trekzone Spotlight is Professor Tamara Davis, an astrophysicist at the University of Queensland. In this first part we're chatting about gravitational waves and black holes.

The Perth filming road trip wraps this week with an on set interview with show regular Aaron Vanderkley, directing his fourth Star Trek fan film. Joining us are the two lead actors in the upcoming short.