Trek Trak Director replaced?!

[peacelovefandom.livejournal.com]

Just saw this via Roddenberry.com:

Star Trek's "Trek Trak" director Eric Watts has been replaced. He didn't resign, he was replaced.

Link to the article: http://www.roddenberry.com/community/index/detail?id=594

What were they thinking?


EDIT: Costuming Track's Brian Holloway the next to be axed? (Link)

Comments

[numbereleven.livejournal.com]

I was under the impression that no one held the title from year to year, but were instead "asked back" yearly to avoid this very drama.

[peacelovefandom.livejournal.com]

How do you "avoid drama" when you don't "ask back" someone who's been "asked back" for 17 years?

[numbereleven.livejournal.com]

Dunno. That was my only input. =)

[pktaxwench.livejournal.com]

No, your impression makes lots of sense to me. But then again, many people seem to attribute huge amounts of weight to being in charge of tracks, to the point that their own sense of self worth seems to be tied to perceived 'power' they think they wield at conventions, so I can't help but snicker at people going bonkers over this.

It's just a sci-fi convention, people. Not only that, but it's just a volunteer one, not a livelihood or something significant. Seriously, there's really much more important things in life to be upset about.

[ladytalker13.livejournal.com]

Your description is certainly not Eric... he's a taskmaster at times, but as a track director he has to make it all work. And he has, wonderfully...

[pktaxwench.livejournal.com]

Obviously, not, if he's been FIRED.

[ladytalker13.livejournal.com]

I don't beleive it's a matter of competence - he's proven that. It's more likely a matter of infernal internal politics.

[thegodmatt.livejournal.com]

I don't know ...
I worked for him several years back and it was one of the most unpleasant cons I've ever been to. I've worked every con since that one and haven't had nearly the drama, stress or hell-ish experience I did working under Eric. Favouritism ran the ship and he counted hours like no other.

[woofiegrrl.livejournal.com]

Everybody knows Eric is a little abrasive, even he knows it. But he was good at what he did, which was putting on an enjoyable track for the fans. I worked alongside him a little bit at my first D*C last year, and he can be tough on his workers, but the end result is usually good, from what I can tell.

It's certainly a very puzzling decision by D*C. I've heard mixed comments about whether he "brought" Shatner, Nimoy, and Stewart last year - apparently track directors don't select the guests? - but he certainly did a good job presenting the track they were in.

I dunno. On the one hand, new blood is good. On the other hand, why mess with a sure thing?

[peacelovefandom.livejournal.com]

I was a panelist for Eric back in 08 and have nothing but positive things to say about the experience. I don't care if he brought the guests or not, but he helmed one of the best Trek programming tracks (better than most Trek only cons!) of any con I've ever attended, and I've been doing cons for a decade now.

[mcb397.livejournal.com]

I read a comment somewhere that part of the reason was due to Shatner, Nimoy, and Stewart having problems with how he handled their panels...

I guess no one will ever know the whole story except him and the powers that be.

[jane-says.livejournal.com]

Wow ... just wow. Didn't Eric invent TrekTrak? I know owns the trademark for "TrekTrak".

I'll be sad to see him go. He was always a hoot to be around in the few Dragon*Cons I've gotten to. Well, I guess I'll have to share the vid him dancing around and being generally funny at the Shatner-Nimoy panel, the first 1:30.

[omahastar.livejournal.com]

Correction - He owns the website trektrak.com, but TrekTrak is not trademarked.

[peacelovefandom.livejournal.com]

It does say on the site that it is indeed trademarked?

[omahastar.livejournal.com]

And? It's his website. He can write anything he wants on it. That doesn't mean it reflects reality. The term "trektrak" is not, in reality, registered.

It's actually very simple to find out if something is registered or not. There's a nifty website called the United States Patent and Trademark Office (uspto.gov), which is searchable.

search on trektrak (http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=toc&state=4004%3Am00o44.1.1&p_search=searchss&p_L=50&BackReference=&p_plural=yes&p_s_PARA1=&p_tagrepl%7E%3A=PARA1%24LD&expr=PARA1+AND+PARA2&p_s_PARA2=trektrak&p_tagrepl%7E%3A=PARA2%24COMB&p_op_ALL=AND&a_default=search&a_search=Submit+Query&a_search=Submit+Query). No trademark exists. Yet when I search for "Dragon Con" I get four results (http://tess2.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=toc&state=4004%3Am00o44.1.1&p_search=searchss&p_L=50&BackReference=&p_plural=yes&p_s_PARA1=&p_tagrepl%7E%3A=PARA1%24LD&expr=PARA1+AND+PARA2&p_s_PARA2=dragon+con&p_tagrepl%7E%3A=PARA2%24COMB&p_op_ALL=AND&a_default=search&a_search=Submit+Query) related to our convention and two for something completely unrelated from 1987.

What's this all tell us? Eric is mistaken where the facts are concerned, and anyone who is truly questioning him can find out how full of it he is in about 2 minutes on google.

[peacelovefandom.livejournal.com]

No need to get nasty. I didn't know the Trademark database was available online, and the original comment didn't offer proof that it wasn't. Calm down.

[omahastar.livejournal.com]

Ah. Sorry if you took it that way. I wasn't being nasty. I was trying to be helpful. I notice when people post things that others disagree with, generally the first thing they ask for is a link ... proof of what the person is saying. I provided that.

Eric and I have had run-ins in the past. I think he's a self-important jerk with an overinflated ego. See, I dared question him once on why he was making the TT panels about himself instead of about the guests. He threatened to have me expelled from the convention. Then he went into the TT yahoo group and banned me. Since I didn't ask it in a harsh way, nor did I yell at him or do anything other than ask a question (a politely worded one, too), his response was just a wee bit over the top.

I'm sure there are those who sit back and enjoy whatever Eric did, and that's great. I am not one of them, and I'm thrilled he's been fired. It should have happened back when he first started the track's decline instead of letting it continue to devolve.

[montanaro.livejournal.com]

This does not surprise me.

[wolfchylde.livejournal.com]

If you dig back a year or two ago, there was a HUGE thread involving complaints revolving around TrekTrak, the GLBT party, and the director's overall attitude. I remember it pretty vividly because for everyone one person that commented in favor of him, there were two or three that thought the track and everything involved with the track had gotten stagnant, and that his attitude bordered on 'tough shit, it's MY track'.

Of course fans are getting bent out of shape, and it's being treated as some huge travesty, but when the Blind Ferret people got booted, everyone was like "well it's D*C's event, they can do what they want with impunity"...

Funny how that works, eh?

[woofiegrrl.livejournal.com]

I believe somebody in the Roddenberry.com post's comments linked to that thread. Ah yes, this is it (http://community.livejournal.com/dragoncon/1816524.html).

[wiebke.livejournal.com]

Yay, I'm glad I wasn't just imagining that whole discussion.

[angelsjoy.livejournal.com]

The 2008 panel with Avery Brooks and Michael Dorn was uncomfortable at best, unpleasant at worst. Eric was asking questions that the actors did not want to answer and when the audience politely asked him to leave that line of questioning, he got huffy. It made for a miserable experience for both the actors and the audience.

[peacelovefandom.livejournal.com]

1) The audience did not ask nicely, someone shouted at him
2) I was glad he , which they get asked at every single convention for the the past 10 years. Avery was fine talking about it. Michael Dorn got uncomfortable. It was a gamble that didn't pay off, but at least he was trying to ask something different.

[theaterman007.livejournal.com]

I say Great! Out with the old and in with the new! The few times I had interaction with him he was an butt that pushed his own agenda!

[theaterman007.livejournal.com]

I also have a question: How many episodes of Star Trek was Eric in?

[pktaxwench.livejournal.com]

Heeheeheee...

[wildflowerz.livejournal.com]

With the kind of introduction he gets before he comes on to introduce the actual guess, you'd think, right?

see also:

[elemess.livejournal.com]

this thread (http://community.livejournal.com/atlanta/3622081.html) from last week in the atlanta community

[nightwing22dg.livejournal.com]

I really only noticed him 1st a few years back when I hoped to meet Michael Reaves (author of many things and story editor for Batman: The Animated Series and Gargoyles). It seemed odd to me that he was only scheduled for 2 Trek panels and nothing else. I saw him at the door to the room and asked if Micheal Reaves would be attending that panel. He told me he had no idea but I should come check out the panel to see. (He never did show up which seemed in keeping with DragonCon's inability to identify when some guests really were not there. Though it seems the con has gotten better at identifying guests that are no shows more accurately.) The few times I saw him at panels he seemed to keep things interesting and lively. He always seemed to me to be a guy passionate about his Star Trek and his programming. My main problem with the Trek panels stems from the fact that the Trek stars rarely talk about Star Trek. For me this made the big Star Trek panels not as memorable or enjoyable. I wouldn't fault Eric with that. I just think that Trek actors must hate talking about the show. They also seem to have really inflated egos with what they charge in relation to other guests. (Though I will always point out how great it was to meet James Doohan and getting an affordable autograph for $20). It seems strange to me they let him go. The article in question says that two popular track directors were let go. Does anyone know who the other one was?

[woofiegrrl.livejournal.com]

I've heard rumors but I don't dare spread them since I'm such a D*C newbie.

[hazelwitch.livejournal.com]

I was there at the tail end of the Patrick Stewart panel, which ran over about half an hour--relevant, as I was up next as moderator for a YA Lit guest panel there in the Atrium Ballroom. Sir Patrick was distinctly uncomfortable with Eric's cajolery, including attempts to get him to do something with a cardboard cutout of himself. I think we were both relieved when the panel finally wrapped.

[stigmund.livejournal.com]

Between that, his flirty "Bear" comments with Frakes a few years back, and last year's political questions with Dorn and Brooks, Eric has put many a guest in highly uncomfortable situations.

These, combined with other issues already addressed by others, leads me to think it was a culmination of numerous little things by him that lead to this.

[feuervogel]

OMG, no way. Flirting with guests is just not OK. And I'm assuming the politics questions to Dorn & Brooks regarded the first black president? ... :headdesk:

[guen-the-cat.livejournal.com]

I can't comment on the Trek Track business, but I have to say I'm kind of glad that the Costuming Track may be getting a new director. There's been drama there too in the past, but drama aside, I haven't really had any desire to attend their panels eventhough the whole reason I go to DC is for costuming.

Issues or no, sometimes it is a good thing to shake things up via bringing in a new director. Having the same person run the show forever isn't good in my opinion. New ideas keep things fresh.

[wynnegruffyd.livejournal.com]

I agree with the previous poster. I no longer attend the Miss Klingon Beauty Contest because it has denegrated to such a level of lameness that I can no longer endure Eric's posturing or the lack of shear resemblence to Klingonness that made the first few years so enjoyable. Either update and revamp or be relegated to the downward spiral of sameness year after year. Eric in his prime was funny, engaging, innovative but over the past 3-4 years became a spotlight hog and self important that he didn't seem to pick up on when he was making the guest stars uncomfortable. I would like to see the TrekTrak go in a different direction and add some new features instead of the same ole panels, 10 Forward, Miss Klingon Beauty Contest.

[jamesclayton.livejournal.com]

On the one hand I understand completely about people's comments regarding how he made both actors and audience members uncomfortable with some of his line of questioning. I read on another forum that Trek has always been a "family" show and Eric sometimes made things less "family" oriented with some of his comments. I don't buy the notion that simply because of his homosexuality, that somehow made it less family oriented (as someone said on another forum) however flirting with guests, the whole "bear" comment thing with Frakes, etc is not appropriate for an audience that may contain children. However, you cannot take children to the con and expect them not to have something that is probably not age-appropriate for them shoved in their faces; such is the nature of the con. But, yes, Eric didn't have to contribute to that either.

On the other hand, of all my complaints regarding the way DragonCon was handled last year and in years previous, never once have I took issue with anything Eric has done. If anything, the way he ran things at TrekTrak always made the highlight of my experience for any given year. I think the DragonCon Powers That Be could actually learn a few things from him & the way he handled his track.

[woofiegrrl.livejournal.com]

I agree. Being gay isn't inappropriate, being sexual IS. That includes flirting. Quite frankly, I wouldn't want anybody flirting with me if I was a guest, because that's crossing a line. Especially if it's same-sex flirting when I'm not interested in that. (I happen to be gay, but think hypothetically!) I just don't find flirting appropriate at all. It's not about the host, it's about the guest. We, as the audience, want the guest to connect with US and pay attention to US, not the host.

[mir280.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that Brian has also had quite a few complaints over the years. I think some new people with new ideas might be a very good thing for the Costuming track. It's been good in the past but somehow it's kind of stayed the same and I think new people might help it grow and become really amazing.

[genixbear.livejournal.com]

Eric has always creeped me out whenever I see him around, whether it be at DC or out at the bars in Atlanta. I do hope that the rainbow flag party stays.

As for Brian, I think some new blood is really needed in the costuming track, I've gone to some panels there since that is what I'm really interested in, and some tracks have been almost the exact same thing from one year to the next, it almost seemed like people were placed to ask certain questions just to keep the panel on a certain vein. Almost every costuming panel I've been too has dealt more fantasy/old english costuming, than what is really more popular now, like superheroes/comics, video games, and anime. They did have a few steampunk panels, and one about spandex costumes, but it was a little short on content in my opinion.

[lilithschilde.livejournal.com]

Change can be a good thing. I don't know much about Eric, but I've been to some large panels where he was present, and was definitely surprised by some of his behaviour.

As for Brian - good riddance. I've been waiting for years for him to be removed as director, and if this is true and it's finally happening, I will be overjoyed. He has been inappropriate to some of his staff members and has had numerous complaints against him from staff and attendeed alike. He's very arrogant to the point of talking down to people who won't spend hundreds of dollars to get a real human hair wig for their costume. I refuse to go to any panels he's on. In addition, maybe with a director who has better planning and management skills, the Friday night fashion show (which is supposed to be pre-judged) won't have attendees waiting for ages while the winners are announced, watching the same sword routines to fill the time gap.