{"id":9421,"date":"2010-06-09T16:43:37","date_gmt":"2010-06-09T23:43:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.trektoday.com\/content\/?p=9421"},"modified":"2010-06-09T16:45:00","modified_gmt":"2010-06-09T23:45:00","slug":"takei-backs-ift-in-voyages-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/2010\/06\/takei-backs-ift-in-voyages-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Takei Supports IFT In Voyages Interview"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On June 15, The International Federation of Trekkers (IFT) will launch their new website, and part of their relaunch includes the premiere of <em>Voyages<\/em>, their official publication, as reported earlier <a href=\"http:\/\/www.trektoday.com\/content\/2010\/05\/new-trek-magazine-to-debut\/\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.trektoday.com\/content\/2010\/05\/international-federation-of-trekkies-relaunch\/\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><em>TrekToday<\/em> received a sneak peek of the forthcoming issue, and one of the articles in the magazine features <em>Star Trek<\/em>&#8216;s <strong>George Takei<\/strong>, who has a long association with the IFT, or the &#8220;Federation&#8221; as it is sometimes called.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><a href=\"http:\/\/www.trektoday.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/IFT052610.gif\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-9422\" title=\"IFT052610\" src=\"http:\/\/www.trektoday.com\/content\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/IFT052610.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a>Takei spoke about the relaunch and his past experiences with the Federation. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think IFT needs a refit,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Terms like that make it sound like it needs fixing. IFT doesn&#8217;t need fixing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think &#8216;refit&#8217; or &#8216;reinvention&#8217; reflects the pride you should have in IFT&#8217;s accomplishments. It makes it sound like IFT is worn down.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Fans may remember that IFT supported the creation of a U.S.S. Excelsior television series featuring Takei. &#8220;Back in the 1990s, said Takei, &#8220;<strong>Russ Haslage<\/strong> contacted me about a campaign to launch a new <em>Star Trek<\/em> series called Excelsior, which would have been based on the adventures of the U.S.S. Excelsior and Captain Sulu. And of course I have a deep and profound love and interest in Captain Sulu.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;And I must say, Russ and IFT mounted a very impressive campaign. It was a substantial idea. There was a huge following for it. And after all, <em>Star Trek VI<\/em> seemed to have opened the door for an Excelsior television series. But for whatever reason, Paramount didn&#8217;t pick up the idea. So despite that massive and heroic effort that was launched by all of the people, and I was absolutely convinced that the audience was there based on the reception of <em>Star Trek VI<\/em>, the idea didn&#8217;t go through. I was absolutely baffled.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>According to Takei, ITF is in keeping with <strong>Gene Roddenberry<\/strong>&#8216;s vision of the future. &#8220;What IFT has been doing is really laudable,&#8221; said Takei. &#8220;It is reflecting the philosophy of people working together to improve our society, which is absolutely in keeping with Gene&#8217;s vision.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On June 15, The International Federation of Trekkers (IFT) will launch their new website, and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2413,2416,2971,2421],"tags":[3195,2415,3269],"class_list":["post-9421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cast-crew","category-fandom","category-magazine","category-star-trek-tos","tag-international-federation-of-trekkers","tag-takei","tag-voyages"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","newsphere-slider-full":"","newsphere-featured":"","newsphere-medium":""},"author_info":{"display_name":"T&#39;Bonz","author_link":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/author\/tbonz\/"},"category_info":"<a href=\"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/categories\/cast-crew\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Cast &amp; Crew<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/categories\/fandom\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Fandom<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/categories\/magazine\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Magazine<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/categories\/star-trek-tos\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Star Trek: TOS<\/a>","tag_info":"Star Trek: TOS","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9421","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9421"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9421\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9425,"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9421\/revisions\/9425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9421"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9421"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trektoday.com\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9421"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}