| CONTENTS |
UPCOMING
EVENTS
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Saturday, September 28: STARFLEET
Bowling Challenge
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Sat., October 12: Project:
Potemkin Open House (Albany GA)
SAVE THESE DATES NOW: DETAILS
TO BE ANNOUNCED
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Saturday, October 26: Halloween
Spooktacular
• Saturday, November
16: Fall Business & Dinner Meeting
• Saturday, December
7: Farragut Fest 2013 (Kingsland GA)
• Saturday, December 21:
USS Republic Christmas Party
NEWS
& ANNOUNCEMENTS
• It's YOUR club... what
do YOU want to do?
• Personnel Records
• Library Computer
• Recent Chapter Event Photos
SIDEBAR
• September Birthdays
•
Welcome
Aboard!
• Member Reenlistments
• Past Due Membership Renewals
• About the Republic
• For More Information
• USS Republic Online
• Crew Roster
• News from TrekMovie.com
— Editorial:
Star Trek is not broken |
UPCOMING
EVENTS
Eighth
Annual STARFLEET Bowling Challenge
6:30 p.m. Saturday, September 28, 2013
Midtown
Bowl
1936 Piedmont Circle, Atlanta GA 30324
(404) 874-5703 || www.midtownbowl.com
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ENS1
Wil Sims, Cynthia Coles and CO Capt Eric L. Watts
were the only three participants in last year's STARFLEET
Bowling Challenge. We can do better than
that this year, can't we? Please come out
and have a good time with your fellow crewmates!
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Join the
USS Republic for our Eighth Annual STARFLEET Bowling
Challenge! We once again challenge the Klingon
Assault Group and the Georgia
501st to this perenially popular event... we'll see
who shows up to meet us in the alley!
The game fee is $20.00 per person for two hours of
bowling and includes shoe rental. CASH ONLY,
PLEASE, and please pay the Republic, who has already
paid for the lane rental. We have rented two lanes
which accommodate up to six players each. Please
RSVP if you plan to attend so we can add lanes if necessary. Please
arrive no later than 6:30 p.m. to pay for play, get your shoes
and choose your ball. First ball rolls promptly at 7:00
p.m., so please arrive early and be ready to roll (literally)
at 7:00 p.m. Midtown
Bowl's food grill offers a broad range of menu items
and adult beverages are available at the full-service bar.
The
2007 Bowling Challenge turned out to be a huge media
event with lots of TV cameras and all the challenges since
then have been just as much fun, if perhaps not as well-attended.
Plan to wear your best Star Trek costume or your
USS Republic sport shirt or chapter t-shirt for this
fun-filled family-friendly event!
MAP AND DIRECTIONS |
Project:
Potemkin Open House
11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., Saturday, October 12, 2013
Stellar Video Services
2925 Ledo Road #11, Albany GA 31707 |
 Project:
Potemkin,
Albany's own Star Trek Internet film series, is sponsoring
an Open House on October 12, from 11:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.
Their sets are located at 2925 Ledo Road, Suite 11,
Albany, Georgia 31707 (behind The Dive Shop and LimbCare).
 There
is no charge for admission; however, donations will be gladly
accepted to fund our upcoming purchase of costumes and makeup
for both the October and November shoots. Come see the
new studio sets, check out our latest releases, get up-to-date
information on our new projects, meet our stars and guest
stars, and basically have a great time.
At 3:00 p.m., we're planning on having sneak previews of our
upcoming releases for 2014. Don't miss out on this opportunity! For
more information, visit the Project:
Potemkin
Open House Facebook event page.
Project: Potemkin is a fan-directed Internet film series
based on the universe of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek.
As a result, this project generates no revenue in any
way. The series is based in and around the southwest
Georgia area.
Carpooling to Albany
Republic CO Capt Eric L. Watts will depart Doraville
for Albany promptly at 8:00 p.m. Saturday morning and will
return to Atlanta late that afternoon. Anyone who
wishes to carpool with him should contact
the Captain to make rendezvous arrangements. |
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NEWS
& ANNOUNCEMENTS
It's
YOUR club... what do YOU want to do? |
 For
five and a half years, the sidebar on the right-hand side
of this newsletter has boasted, "The Republic
plans and coordinates an active schedule of events for its
members." Indeed, those events include business
dinner meetings, marching in parades, recruitment tables and
room parties at local conventions, "away missions"
to movie premieres, museums and fan film studios, charity
putt-putt challenges, bowling challenges, fundraising events,
holiday potluck and/or dinner parties for Valentines Day,
Halloween and Christmas, pool parties, gaming nights, fan
film screenings, picnics at Centennial Olympic Park, and occasional
really special events such as answering phones for
Georgia Public Broadcasting on live television. We
even host our own Star Trek convention.
The Republic's chapter motto is "Boldly Going...
Boldly Doing." No one can say that we haven't lived
up to that ideal. The Republic offers a
greater variety of events and activities for its members than
most likely any other chapter in STARFLEET. And yet,
participation in and attendance at these events continues
to remain disappointingly low. Our membership roster
has hovered between three and four dozen members for the last
three years, but attendance at our club events is seldom more
than an embarrassingly small fraction of that. We
would really like to see that change.
As a member of the Republic, you always have
the privilege of suggesting, at any time, an activity you'd
like to see the chapter plan, organize, arrange, coordinate
and/or host. If there's any kind of activity or
event that you'd like to see added to the Republic's
calendar, please contact
the Captain with your idea and we'll do everything
we can to make it happen. In the meantime, please
remember that this is your club, and your participation
in club events is the only reason we're here. We
hope to see you soon. |
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Personnel
Records
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Congratulations
to Ens Robert T.
Efurd, who received a grade of HONORS for the STARFLEET
Academy course "Officer's Training School"
from the Institute of Leadership Studies, completed
on September 8, 2013 |
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Congratulations
to Ens Lee Johnson,
who received a grade of HONORS for the STARFLEET Academy
course "Officer's Training School" from the
Institute of Leadership Studies, completed on September
10, 2013 |
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Congratulations
to Ens Tiffany
Johnson, who received a grade of HONORS for the
STARFLEET Academy course "Officer's Training School"
from the Institute of Leadership Studies, completed
on September 10, 2013 |
 STARFLEET
Academy is a special collection of correspondence courses
available to every STARFLEET member. Over 60 Academy
Colleges offer courses spanning all aspects of Star
Trek and science fiction; some courses even cover non-sci-fi
real world topics. Each college offers dozens of different
courses at varying levels of challenge from super-easy to
really hard. In total, there are nearly 1,000 different
courses available. Take
a course today!
Something
special going on in your life? Submit
your Personnel Record for publication in the next
issue of The Republiqué!
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Library
Computer
CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE |
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This
1966 article about the imminent series premiere of Star
Trek, believed to have been published in a Florida newspaper,
offers some very interesting opinions on how and why science
fiction on television had been mostly unsuccessful up until
that time, as well as some background information on the
development of this new show and its cast and crew. It
also proffered this bold prediction: "If Star Trek will
not back off social issues and commentary, if its characters
are strong and believable and if one sees a minimum of light
panels that always seem to keep blazing on TV space ships,
the series will have a better than even chance of succeeding."
As most of us know, Star Trek debuted on September
8, 1966. Whether the Sept. 15 date listed in the article
was a typo or the official premiere date was changed after
its publication is unknown. If the latter, that would be
a very interesting discovery of long-forgotten bit of Star
Trek trivia.
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Recent
Chapter Event Photos
CLICK ANY PHOTO TO ENLARGE |
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Away
Mission to Night at the Museum || August
10, 2013
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ENS1
Julianne Trew, Greg Wallace,
ENS1 Jeff Trew, ENS3 Jenilee Trew, ENS1 Joanne Trew and
Republic
CO Capt Eric L. Watts at the Night of the Museum event at
the Tellus Science Museum in Cartersville on the occasion
of the Captain's 52nd birthday.
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Ensigns
Lee and Tiffany Johnson, Republic
CO Capt Eric L. Watts and ENS1 Wil Sims all in costume and,
unexpectedly, posing for photos and signing autographs at
the Night of the Museum event at the Tellus Science Museum
in Cartersville.
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Away
Mission to The Skywalkers || August
24, 2013
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ENS1
Claire Willis, Republic CO Capt Eric L. Watts, ENS2
Eddie Hines and Dawn Kil at the Yard House restaurant at
Atlantic Station. It's a shame more people didn't
come out for this event... the movie was really good.
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SEPTEMBER
BIRTHDAYS
Friday, September 13
ENS Reggie Lewis
Sunday, September 15
ENS3 Leslie C. Gronski
Monday, September 23
ENS Tiffany Johnson
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WELCOME
ABOARD!
3 New Members in August!
Lt. Katherine E. Cline
Ens Lee Johnson
Ens Tiffany Johnson
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MEMBER
REENLISTMENTS
These members renewed their SFI and chapter
dues in August. Thank you!
ENS3 Patricia Houk
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PAST
DUE MEMBERSHIP RENEWALS
These members' dues
expired between May and August. Please
renew now!
ENS1 Lea Hepler
ENS3 Tracy O'Quinn
ENS1 Elisa Roper
Cmdr David A. Slaughter
ENS2 Marilyn Teague
ENS3 Robert Teague
ENS2 Chris White
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ABOUT
THE REPUBLIC
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The
USS Republic NCC-1371 was originally commissioned
as a chapter of STARFLEET International on May 14, 1988,
at the Dixie-Trek convention in Atlanta, Georgia. As
of September 22, 2013, the Republic crew includes 44
members who are active members of STARFLEET in good
standing.
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The
Republic plans and coordinates an active schedule
of events for its members, but does not hold meetings
on a consistently fixed date each month.
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Because
the USS Republic is a duly commissioned chapter
of STARFLEET International and is bound and governed by
its Constitution and By-Laws, membership in STARFLEET
is a prerequisite for membership in the Republic. Combined
annual dues for both groups are $25 per person and is
collected by the chapter (family discounts are available
with certain conditions and restrictions). Membership
in the Republic includes access to our YahooGroups
message board, voting privileges in chapter elections
and additional privileges that occasionally become available.
Additional information on Republic membership
and how to join or reenlist is on our award-winning web
site.
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FOR
MORE INFORMATION
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USS
REPUBLIC ONLINE
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CREW
ROSTER
AS OF SEPTEMBER 22, 2013
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Crmn Eliya Brog
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CDT
Zarena Nova Tucker
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ENS1
"Wolfy"
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NEWS
from
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| Editorial:
Star Trek is not broken |
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By
"The Stig"
September 13, 2013
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| There
has been some talk recently that Star Trek is broken.
It's lost its way and needs to be shepherded back
to the true path. Where is the social commentary?
Where are the big ideas? |
| What
about Gene's vision? |
| I'd
argue that if we're expecting cutting social commentary
or big ideas, Star Trek isn't (and never has been)
particularly effective on that front. It's always
played it safe, with pat answers and trite conclusions to
all the "issues" presented. The "first interracial
kiss" was anything but, depicted as a forced and unpleasant
affair thanks to alien mind control. Commentary on
race relations was boiled down to aliens bisected by white
and black makeup. |
| Even
the much-vaunted Deep Space Nine failed to actually
create the moral grey area that fans give it credit for.
Our heroes always did the "right" thing and even in
their darkest hour, it was alien third-parties that did
the dirty work (I'm looking at you, "In the Pale Moonlight"). |
| On
the other hand, if you're looking for rousing adventure,
exciting spectacle and human characters, you'd also be disappointed
by The Next Generation-era Star Trek. Thanks
to Roddenberry's self-aggrandizing view of "evolved humanity,"
we got stale and stiff characters with a "higher sensibility."
Picard and his crew would hit their marks and declaim,
loudly, that humanity had evolved past such petty squabbles.
Here was a show with a large extended cast, the most
interesting, human, and believable of which was the android. |
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least First Contact had the balls to call Picard
on his bullshit, if even for a moment. |
| However… |
| If
you look at the original, with no bloody A,B,C or D, you
get relatable people who have interpersonal conflicts, petty
fights and make all-too-human mistakes. Kirk and Spock
have a shouting match over what to do about Anton Karidian
in "The Conscience of the King." Kirk's obsession
with the gas creature that attacked the Farragut
puts the Enterprise in grave jeopardy in "Obsession." |
| Sure,
it's just as sexist as you'd expect a television show from
the '60s to be, but there's a core there that has endured
all these years. It's a winning formula: The cocksure
captain, emotionless first officer and a collection of colorful
crewmembers (mostly) working together. This is a story
about a team, a family, with all the ups and downs that
encompasses. |
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| The
rub is that, when Abrams looked at reviving Star Trek,
he didn't look to TNG-era Trek. He looked
back, way back, to the '60s and an action-adventure series
that captured the imagination and attention of a generation. |
| The
question is, why? |
| It's
because TNG Trek and beyond never actually continued
the original series. In reality, it went sideways
from the heart and soul of Trek and never really
honored what it was about in the first place. We haven't
had a true, spiritual successor to the original series until
Abrams came along. Nothing that came after managed
to capture the verve and sheer enthusiasm of that series:
the life-and-death stakes mixed with just the right measure
of irreverence. If I were to sit down fresh and watch
Star Trek with new eyes, then the succeeding films
and television shows, there would be no question: |
| Abrams
got it right. |
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