Vulcan, Alberta: population of approximately 2,000 and a town that has become a tourist attraction due to chance and smarts. Latching on to the Star Trek coincidence, the town has embraced its connection with Star Trek fandom (if only in name) and built a solid tourist business but it looks like the town won’t be making any gains from the upcoming Star Trek film.

The enterprising community put forth a proposal to host the film’s world premiere, a proposal that was eventually supported by Mr. Spock himself, Leonard Nimoy, and recently rejected by Paramount. There isn’t a single reason for the rejection but there has been speculation that the fact that Vulcan lacks a theatre could have played a major role in the rejection since a custom made screen would have to be brought in. One would think that since the campaign has been active since 2007, the studio would have started planning in advance to accommodate the request which would have been a nice gesture on the film’s behalf but alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

There is a silver lining to this entire thing. Though the premiere will not take place in Vulcan, the studio has asked that representatives of the town participate in a media event taking place in Calgary a few days before the film’s release and if that’s not exciting enough for members of the community, there could be another fannish event on the horizon. The town is in negotiations to become “an officially licensed Star Trek destination”. What that means exactly I’m not sure but I am positive it will mean even more attention for the town.

For myself, I can’t wait for the next opportunity to drive through Alberta. We missed Vulcan on our last trip but I look forward to rectifying that sooner rather than later. Who knows, maybe by then they’ll be able to stamp my Star Trek passport.