We’re honored to have among our participants, John Trimble. John and his wife, Bjo, saved Star Trek’s third season through their ‘SAVE Star Trek’ campaign, but also, comic book/sci fi conventions and fandom might not have developed without your dedication. How did you personally get involved in Trek?
John Trimble: Gene had brought three costumes to TriCon in ‘66 & managed to get Bjo to add them to the Futuristic Fashion Show she was running. After that show, he said something to the effect that the next time we were in LA (we lived in Oakland, CA at the time) we should call the studio and we’d do lunch. We figured that it was a typical “producer promise,” but when we were next in town, we’d wall him on it.
He heard his secretary say “Bjo Trimble?” and picked up his phone. We were invited to the studio for lunch and then turned loose on the lot, because he knew we’d know how to behave.
That was the first of several times we got to see parts of episodes of The Original Series in process. The atmosphere on the set was always very “up” & positive. Then, during the 2nd season we saw part of “The Deadly Years” being filmed & the whole atmosphere was very different; it seemed very “down.” We asked around the production and couldn’t find out why.
So then we did what you do when you want the real scoop on a TV set, we asked the Craft Services (snacks, coffee, etc.) people about it & were told that while nothing official had come down yet, the word was out that the show was going to be cancelled at the end of that season.
We had to leave to drive back to Oakland and on the looong trip back up the great central valley (this was before interstates), we talked about that. We knew that (in the 60s) unless a TV show had a minimum of three seasons, it would never go into syndication. Without that critical element, it would be shelved as another failed show. So I said to Bjo “there ought to be something we could do about that. I’d thrown down the family gauntlet and we spent the rest of the drive plotting out the basics of The Save Star Trek Campaign.
Image via StarTre .com
Rich Handley: I’d just like to say what an honor it is to be in this discussion with John. Among the very first Star Trek books I owned were The Star Trek Concordance and On the Good Ship Enterprise, which I read and reread in my teen years. In fact, the Concordance was the very first Trek book I ever asked my parents to buy, and it led to my own fascination with fictional lexicons. As an adult, I’ve written lexicons for several franchises–including for the Star Trek newspaper strips in IDW’s reprint books–and the Concordance was ever on my mind as I wrote them. So my sincere thanks to Bjo for, quite literally, inspiring my career path.
Carol Pinchefsky: I interviewed John and Bjo for an article that an editor ignored and never published. Bjo and John: I love you! One day, I’ll find a home for it! Thank you for everything!
Peter Briggs: I want to say a big personal “Thank You” to Bjo. Around 1978 in Britain, the WH Smith newsagent chain somehow unusually got their hands on imported copies of Bjo’s Star Trek Concordance, and the Franz Joseph Ballantine books (Medical Reference, Technical Manual, Blueprints). I bought them all and pored over them, time and time again, even though my obsession at that time had transferred from Space: 1999 to Star Wars.
Bjo’s Concordance was the Trek reference for me. And I dug the big spinning cardboard wheel on the cover!
Ian Spelling: Bjo and John are friends. Back when I was editor at StarTrek.com, we realized that they’d not really gotten their due, especially John since Bjo was always referred to as The Fan Who Saved Star Trek. We sought to do something to rectify that — even a bit. And we brought Bjo and John out for San Diego Comic Con, for the 50th anniversary festivities. A few weeks later, we brought them out for the big official convention in Las Vegas, and we surprised them on stage with a beautiful piece of artwork (by JK Woodward) commissioned to honor them and their role in the Star Trek phenomenon. I was the one who had to get them backstage. It was a wonderful moment, in front of thousands of fans, and they were so appreciative. That same weekend, we took them to a very fun, margarita-heavy dinner as well. Just two weeks ago, I got to moderate a Zoom panel with them to celebrate the 55th anniversary of Star Trek. Star Trek continues to grow and thrive, and none of it — including this conversation — would have happened with Bjo and John.
John Trimble: Thank you, Ian.
John Kirk: Meeting Bjo and John at SDCC 2016 was not only a highpoint of my convention-going experience but most definitely my Trek fandom. If it weren’t for their actions, where would we all be today?
Thanks to them both from a boy who grew up loving Star Trek and seeing it take such a prominent place in fandom.
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