One of the fascinating aspects of hanging out with kids is recognizing what they’ll be missing. No kid will ever declare “I’m bored!” unless they’re dragged to grandma’s Luddite home. Netflix, the internet, mobile devices…look at video games!

Alright so I am gonna do my best to explain this fantastic Canadian historical Trekkie-ness. You remember Wayne’s World? It was a public access show inspired by Myers’ time in the Toronto borough we both grew up in…Scarborough (same streets etc.).

(You want more surreal…David Furnish Elton’s…husband? they married? Elton’s man…he grew up on the same streets…same high school as Myers, I went to a punk high school).

Anyways as part of that upbringing we watched Trillium 10 a Scarborough based public access channel; most of the shows were utter crap…poorly lit, subpar productions, nap inducing content!

Except on Friday nights; from 10pm to midnight Ten Forward hosted by Captain John aired…nerds could call in (well not call…you could open a hail, of course!!) to argue about Trek minutiae, continuity errors etc. This was mid-90s so Next Gen was going strong and pre-internet this was our lone outlet.

Captain John would give you Trek dirt too…upcoming guests, books etc. Must See TV!!

Captain John co-hosts included Commander Bob, Ensign Andy and Lieutenant Sue!! (I remember Andy and Bob not Sue!).

You have no idea how magical this all was…nerds unleashed on tv!!!

Over 20 hours of this have surfaced on YouTube…so behold Captain John via BlogTO.

It was awesome. And terrible! This show is the image I have every time somebody references “nerds in a wood paneled basement.”

It’s also a prime example of the courage people had pre-social media. The viciousness of social media means we will lose out on shows like this…can you imagine…a fat tv host in a Star Trek (non-canon) uniform in the twitter era?! He’d be destroyed, gutted and memed. (Though considering the utter cheeze quality…maybe courage isn’t always a good thing!)

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Also published on Medium.