Other content : Bob For A Day

When I was 12, the TV station that broadcast episodes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” every weeknight where I lived held a contest whose prize allowed a lucky fan to introduce two “Star Trek” episodes (along with an episode of “M*A*S*H”) on a Friday night.

The contest was called “Bob For A Day” because there was a station employee named Bob who normally introduced the shows. I was one of four winners.

I introduced my two episodes and made nerdy jokes about the stars going backwards in one scene that took place on the bridge. I was pretty excited about the whole thing and not even a little bit embarrassed when it was written up in the school paper.

That same year I dressed up as a member of the Borg collective for Hallowe’en.

I’m not half as cool now as I was then.

Enter the power of the Internet...

Not satisfied with letting the VHS copy of my television appearance sit neglected in my room, I wired my webcam and a VCR up to Johnston’s computer and made a digital version of the tape.

The files are Windows Media files because I couldn’t find a free encoder for any other major file type. I might change this eventually.

For now, I’ve tested these files on Macs and PCs and they seem to work fine. I don’t know that I’ll be able to do much to help you if they don’t work for you, unfortunately...

Part One

The first clip is of Bob introducing me. Everything was shot at my family’s house in Richmond, and there’a shot of Bob pretending to clean my room.

[ Play video (956 KB; 78 seconds) ]

Part Two

The second clip is one final shot of me. I bring out a book on scientific mistakes in “Star Trek” and explain that the stars are going backwards in the last shot of the episode. Then I make a smooth segue into upcoming episodes and wrap things up with a joke about replacing Bob. There”s also a final shot of my entry form.

[ Play video (364 KB; 30 second) ]