George Takei

July, 2000, TORONTO - The theme running through this past month turned out to be interchange; interchange of many kinds - international, cultural, technological and generational. And it had me traveling over half this globe to three nations.

The first country I traveled to was Japan. I am a commissioner on the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission, an independent Federal agency that has as its mission, broadly put, to enrich mutual understanding. One of our projects is to utilize the internet by building a site that chronicles the past fifty-year history of the cultural and educational interchange between our two nations. The U.S. working group, of which I am a member, met with our Japanese counterparts to set the basic architecture of the prototype and to outline the content of the site.

Our two-day agenda was fully packed. June was the rainy season in Tokyo and, true to the time of year, it rained both days of our meeting. The air was dense and steamy but, thankfully, air-conditioning made our working time productive. In concert, we set the structure of the project and arrived at mutual agreements on the subjects to be addressed on the site. The bi-national internet interchange project is off to a good start. Our timetable is to have the prototype ready by next spring.

The next day, changing roles, I put on my hat as the Chairman of the Japanese American National Museum for a series of meetings arranged by the Tokyo office of the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau. Our strategy is to increase tourism by the Japanese to Los Angeles - or people interchange -- by highlighting the Japanese American National Museum. The meetings were with Japanese travel bureaus and agency representatives. Lunch was with about a dozen Japanese travel journalists at a Chinese restaurant. I discovered, however, that my attraction to these people was -- not so much my chairmanship of the Japanese American National Museum -- but as Captain Sulu of Star Trek. One of the journalists even brought his collection of Star Trek books as well as the blueprint of the Starship Enterprise to be autographed. I noted for him that my Captain Sulu uniform from "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" was on display at the Japanese American National Museum. Whatever the occasion, Star Trek is an inevitable part of anything with which I might be associated. As long as my primary mission is served - in this case, increased attendance at the Japanese American National Museum - I am a willing Captain Sulu. Star Trek is a powerful magnet for any good cause.

The next evening, however, was an unadulterated Star Trek event. Russ Haslage of the Excelsior campaign had arranged via the internet for me to meet with a small group of Japanese Star Trek fans that are supporters of the Excelsior campaign for a relaxed evening over sushi. The enthusiasm for a new "Star Trek: Excelsior" television series, it seems, spans this globe.

I discovered that many of the Japanese fans were studying English. So I proposed that we make our evening an opportunity for some linguistic interchange. I promised to speak to them in Japanese if they would try to speak to me in English. It was an engaging evening of lively conversations in broken accents and laughter mixed with mangled syntaxes.

A week in Tokyo seems to fly at warp speed. Before an electrifying performance of Kabuki at the famed Kabuki-za Theater or a day trip to the dazzling new development complexes built on land fill in Yokohama could become fond memories, I found myself on a plane bound for home. I left Tokyo at 3 p.m. on a Saturday afternoon and, after a numbing ten-hour flight, arrived back in Los Angeles at 9 a.m. on that same Saturday morning! I was back before I had even left! Not only was I jet-lagged, I had to live through another Saturday. What unanticipated forms of punishment will warp speed impose?

With only the two Saturdays and a Sunday for recovery back in Los Angeles, I was off to Washington D.C. for a momentous event. Twenty-two Asian American veterans of World War II were to be granted the Medal of Honor, the highest military accolade this country can grant. At the end of the war more than fifty years ago, they had been given the second highest honor, the Silver Star. But because of the prevailing attitudes toward Asian Americans at the time, and especially toward Japanese Americans, the Pentagon was requested to again review the records of the Asian American Silver Star recipients. Twenty-two of them - twenty being Japanese Americans with one Chinese and one Filipino- were found to be worthy of the Medal of Honor. The greatest honor a soldier can receive was to be awarded at a White House ceremony by the President and, on the following day, they were to be inducted into the Hall of Heroes at the Pentagon. I was again to represent the Japanese American National Museum at both events and I had the honor of serving as the master of ceremonies of the celebration reception in the evening. But I also had a personal responsibility to be there as well. I owed an enormous debt to these veterans.

The America that I enjoy today is a vastly different world from that before World War II. The opportunities I enjoy today, where Asian Americans can choose to live wherever we want, receive the education for which we qualify, have the freedom to pursue the careers that we want, are possible in large measure because of the gallantry of these extraordinary men. They fought for a nation that had incarcerated their families behind the barbed wires of internment camps. Their country had failed the ideals to which these young men had pledged their allegiance every day in school -- but they had not. Their incredible faith in those ideals and their extraordinary valor changed, not only the course of the war, but the hearts and minds of a nation. I owe so much to them. The legacy of their generation to mine is enormous. I owe my America to them. My pride as an American is solidly based on the awesome price they paid. To witness the seven surviving veterans, some of who are now frail and unsteady in their steps, receiving the Medal of Honor from the President in the White House was a profoundly moving experience. One of them was my friend, U.S. Senator from Hawaii, Daniel Inouye. I will never forget that moment.

A quick shuttle flight for a meeting in New York and I was again back in Los Angeles to perch briefly at home. But two days later, I was back in what is now becoming my second home -- an airline seat - bound for Toronto, Canada. I am working on the narration of a documentary on Canada's effort to develop a new, low-cost and clean source of energy - nuclear fusion.

A sobering fact is that world energy consumption will at least double by the year 2010 - only ten years off. Canada's campaign to develop fusion energy, or energy produced by the combining of atoms -- as opposed to fission, or the splitting of atoms -- is in concert with a consortium of nations. As a citizen of the U.S., but also as a futurist and an environmentalist, I am excited to be participating, if only as an actor-narrator, on this visionary project. I certainly feel I have a duty to make up for the part I have played in my heavy consumption of energy jetting all over our much-beleaguered planet.

December, 2006 It has been fifteen years since my last and final marathon. That was the London Marathon back in 1991. Since that punishing run, I have become a steadfast follower of, what is called, the Law of Nature. It decrees that as time passes, the mind is supposed to grow with insights as the body gives up its strength. It didn't take my mind to inform my body that the latter is true. I can't run 26.2 miles anymore. My days of running marathons are over.

However, I still savor the good memories of those days strategizing with other runners on the long distance runs, going on long, sweaty training runs with them, and sharing what we learned with each other after each run. One of the things we often talked about was the "second wind" - that burst of renewed energy that runners seem to get at some point in the run, when we are feeling totally spent, straining to lift the feet, and dog-tired but determined to keep staggering forward. Suddenly, the feet inexplicably regain their easy stride, the breathing becomes relaxed and steady, and the pace picks up. This usually happens at about the two-third point in the run for most runners.

That notion of the "second wind" seems to be holding true for my career as well this past year. My work schedule seemed to suddenly pick up renewed energy. As the months passed, the pace has ramped up to warp speed. And, I find my intensifying work schedule as invigorating as being back at the helm of the Starship Enterprise going at warp ten.

2006 began with a jump-start on the second day of the new year. A call from Gary Dell'Abate, the producer of the Howard Stern Show on Sirius Satellite Radio, inviting me to come aboard the show as its "official" announcer was the shot from the starting gun. And I was off and running. As I've written in my blog at the beginning of the year, I agreed to join the show and be with the Howard Stern team as often as my schedule would allow. A year has passed and the team has now become family. I have a hilarious good time with Howard, who I consider the "great truth teller," my "cuddly muffin" Artie Lange, the classy lady Robin Quivers, Fred, Benjy, and the two "boy friends," Sal and Richard. And, occasionally, I drag out my soapbox and speechify on issues to boot. It seems I am now identified, not only with Star Trek but with the Howard Stern Show as well.

Howard Stern has heated up my career. Streams of offers for episodic television began coming into my agent's office. "Malcolm in the Middle," "Freddie," "Will and Grace," - alas, all these shows were canceled shortly after my appearance. I hope I wasn't the one that jinxed them. Happily, "Psych," and "Cory in the House" are alive and thriving after my guest appearance. I hope I've brought them some long life and prosperity.

The pace of conventions also has taken off by the amazing fact that the year 2006 is Star Trek's 40th birthday. This is truly a remarkable event. A show that was so low rated back in the '60s that it was canceled after only three seasons has lived so incredibly long and prospered in so many unimagined ways. This is unprecedented. I celebrated this happy event throughout the year with fans at conventions all over the world from Europe to North America to Asia. At 9 p.m. on September 8, 2006 - exactly forty years since Star Trek was first aired on NBC back in 1966 - Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry, a crowded bevy of fans, many from overseas, and I toasted this propitious moment with sparkling champagne up in the landmark Space Needle in Seattle, Washington. How cool was that! It's a memory I'll never forget.

One amazing thing followed another. I filmed a new Star Trek episode - in, of all places, the lush, verdant wilds of the Adirondacks! It was put together by - of all people, devoted Star Trek fans! The show will be accessed - of all things, by the internet! Forty years can produce such undreamed of wonders. This series of Star Trek episodes called "Star Trek: New Voyages" was created by people who discovered Star Trek on television as youngsters in high school or college and today are successful people each in their respective professions. Led by James Cawley, they remain committed Star Trek fans to this day; so committed that they have pooled their money, energies, and passion to produce the "New Voyages" series.

My participation in it began with director/filmmaker Marc Zicree, who found a story developed by Hollywood science fiction writer, Michael Reaves, for a contemplated revival of Star Trek as a television series in the '70s. The series revival was not to be but the story remained glowing in Marc's mind. He came over to my home and shared his enthusiasm for the script and the idea of doing it as part of the "New Voyages" series. I read the script. It was a terrific Sulu story. In it, he ages thirty years, and during those years, he falls in love, they have a daughter, and tragically, he loses his wife. It turns out, however, that those thirty years were just three minutes to the crew of the Enterprise. It is a moving drama -and I didn't have to endure the aging make up for it. The power of my acting, I'd like to think - but more accurately the years that have passed since the TV series, made age make up unnecessary.

The experience of filming this project was as arduous as it was wonderful. The hours were tough and long but I loved the dedication of the hardworking cast and crew. The role was challenging and at the same time, enormously fulfilling. Marc Zicree is a passionate and utterly committed director. I think we have an extraordinary Star Trek episode. I can't wait for it to be web cast in March next year.

There was another Star Trek landmark. Paramount Studios decided to clear out its warehouse of all its vast collection of Star Trek props, costumes, spacecraft models, and other memorabilia and put them up for sale at the prestigious Christy's auction house. That many of these collectibles sold for as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars is another measure of the economic success of the fans who discovered the show so long ago. Like Star Trek, the fans too have lived long and prospered.

The feature film part of my "second wind" included "The Great Buck Howard" with John Malkovitch and Tom Hanks and "Finishing the Game" directed by hot young director Justin Lin, about martial artist, Bruce Lee's last, uncompleted Hong Kong film. Both films will be released next year.

The topper of the year came like an early Christmas gift in late November. I was cast in the highest-rated new television series of this season, NBC-TV's "Heroes." I will play the powerful and wealthy industrialist father of the time traveling Star Trek fan Hiro Nakamura, wonderfully acted by Masi Oka. Is this déjà vu all over again? And, so auspiciously, in the 40th anniversary year. My first episode will air on Monday night, January 29, 2007. So next year, you will be seeing a lot of the results of my "second wind."

2006 has been a richly engaging and exciting year. Like in marathon running, I know that a tremendous stimulant to the "second wind" comes from the cheering and the support of the people on the sidelines. As we briskly stride into the next year, my heartfelt thanks goes out to all who have been such an integral part of this fantastic run that I have enjoyed this past year. May I extend to all, my heartiest cheers for a happy holiday season.

May, 2006

11TH STAR TREK FILM TO CENTER ON KIRK & SPOCK

This is a startling new development for the "Star Trek" franchise and I am very excited about the news.

When we filmed the pilot in 1965, we were praying it would sell — to think that in 2006 Paramount would be revving up to make the 11th "Star Trek" feature film would have been beyond the most fantastical of thoughts back in 1965.

I wonder what Sulu would have been up to in those early days at Starfleet Academy?

We've lived much longer than we ever thought, and will continue to prosper in so many unimagined ways in the future.