It's just less than two weeks away, so if you haven't registered yet you better get on the ball. Comic-Con International, the most significant pop culture convention in the world where studios, networks, publishers, toy companies and you-name-it line up to grab a little attention from the fandom crowd for their latest offerings, takes over San Diego once again July 26-29, starting with a preview night on Wednesday the 25th.

Last year there was a prominent Star Trek presence at Comic-Con due to the 40th anniversary celebration. This year will be lighter on Trek in comparison, but it's still a very important event because Paramount will be making an announcement regarding the upcoming 2008 "Star Trek" movie produced by J.J. Abrams. It's been rumored there will be casting news, or perhaps an unveiling of the title and/or new artwork. We've been told that the writers and executive producers of the film, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, will join Abrams for this announcement, as well as producers Damon Lindelof and Bryan Burke, so it's bound to be fairly substantial.

The Paramount panel takes place on Thursday the 26th, from 1:30-3:30 in the largest programming room, Hall H (6,500 seats) on the ground level to the left of the Exhibit Hall. Other Paramount/DreamWorks/Nickelodeon movies reportedly lined up for presentations during this session include the "Untitled J.J. Abrams project" which presumably refers to the mysterious "1-18-08" trailer code-named "Cloverfield" (related story), along with Robert Zemeckis' "Beowulf" (featuring the voice of Dominic Keating), Tim Burton's "Sweeney Todd" (written by John Logan), the fourth "Indiana Jones" film, and others. We understand that "Star Trek" will be last on the two-hour agenda, but that could change.

Immediately prior to the Paramount session, from 12:30 to 1:30, another important Star Trek panel takes place. Many of you have been asking when the Remastered Original Series will come out on DVD, and the answers are coming. The HD-DVD release will be unveiled in a panel titled "Star Trek, The Original Series: As You've Never Seen It," with special guest Eugene W. "Rod" Roddenberry Jr., son of Gene Roddenberry. (The Comic-Con schedule says that this is Rod's first time at the convention, but that so ain't true.) Also scheduled is Bill Blackburn, who was a frequent extra on the Original Series — nonspeaking and usually uncredited — often playing a helmsman or security guard and only named once, as "Lt. Hadley" in "A Piece of the Action"; he was also the "White Rabbit" in "Shore Leave."

Other panelists in the Remastered DVD panel include representatives from CBS DVD and from New Wave Entertainment, producer of the special features. On that topic, panelists will talk about "never-before-seen, behind-the-scenes 8mm footage" on the discs. The schedule doesn't specify if any video will be shown at the panel.

The Remastered DVD panel takes place in Room 6CDEF (four rooms without partitions, holding 2,000 seats), which is upstairs and on the far opposite side of the convention center from Hall H, where the Paramount panel takes place right afterwards. The good news is, Comic-Con has instituted a 15-minute break between panels in the bigger rooms. The bad news is, you have to get in line for the studio presentations in Hall H really early to get in. (Lousy timing for us Trek folk, guys!) Hopefully, being a Thursday, the crowds won't be quite as intense as they would be on other days, and you can make both sessions. But if you're with a friend, you may want to tag-team it.

Another Star Trek panel takes place Saturday morning with no apparent conflicts (other than the fact that Saturday morning is the insanest time to arrive) featuring Wil Wheaton. This is a publishing panel titled "Star Trek in Print: The New Golden Age." Wheaton will be there to talk about the story he authored, titled "Te Cura Ipsum," for TOKYOPOP's second volume of Star Trek manga, "Kakan ni Shinkou," coming out in September. This will take place 10:30-11:30 in Room 2, upstairs.

Also scheduled for that publishing panel are Scott Tipton, author of the IDW comic "Star Trek: Klingons: Blood Will Tell #1"; plus editors Dan Taylor of IDW, Luis Reyes of TOKYOPOP, and Margaret Clark and Marco Palmieri of Pocket Books. Paula Block of CBS Consumer Products will moderate.

UPDATE 07.24.07: Wheaton has posted a blog saying that in addition to his Saturday panel, he will appear in the TOKYOPOP booth (#3529) at two "in-booth" panels. They are "Writing Prose vs. Writing Manga" on Thursday from 2:00-3:00, and a Star Trek-related panel on Saturday from 5:30-6:30.

A staple of Comic-Con, like any convention, is celebrity autographs, and there should be plenty to go around this year. The con has a central "Autograph Alley" upstairs, and usually quite a number of Trek celebrities are present, but as of publication time a schedule for that area has not yet been posted. Autographs are also abundant in the huge Exhibitors Hall if you know where and when to find them (or you just stumble upon them).

George Takei will be the guest of honor at the Diamond Select Toys & Collectibles booth (#2607, virtually front and center) on Saturday from 10:00 to 3:00, taking an hour off between noon and 1:00. He will be there to hawk the new line of Art Asylum's "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" action figures, in particular the "Sulu" figure. "McCoy," "Scotty" and "Chekov" will be sold by different dealers around the room, and if you buy all four and bring a completed "Star Trek" card back to Diamond Select, you will get a free "Khan" figure. Visit www.DiamondSelectToys.com for more info.

UPDATE 07.20.07: We've received this new information from a Diamond Select Toys (DST) press release: "New Force Comics (Booth #221) will offer the exclusive Dr. McCoy figure with online retailer Action Figure Xpress (Booth #4513) delivering an exclusive Scotty of their own. The exclusive Chekov will be available through Toy Rocket (Booth #5201) as their second exclusive release while DST (Booth #2607) will gives fans a chance to bring Mr. Sulu home. When purchasing all four 'Wrath of Khan' figures from their respective retailers, con-goers will be able to have a special Star Trek card stamped at each booth. Upon completing this card, adding their information and returning it to the DST booth during the convention, fans will receive the limited Genesis Khan figure at no cost while supplies last!" DST is also offering a Star Trek promotional figure to those who donate to the Robert A. Heinlein Blood Drive taking place upstairs in the Sails Pavilion. See this related product story for more.

Lightspeed Fine Arts Inc. is always a good source of Trek 'graphs, and this year they have the likes of LeVar Burton, Marina Sirtis, John de Lancie, Cirroc Lofton and Garrett Wang taking up residence at their booth (#3745, near the back and left of center). The celebrities' schedules vary over the weekend, so visit www.lightspeedfineart.com for more info.

Trek friend Ray Bradbury will be at the Every Picture Tells a Story Gallery booth (#4721) from 10-12 on Saturday morning. And these are only the things we've heard about — you never know who else may show up, scheduled or otherwise.

A number of other events celebrating Star Trek will take place over the weekend. Every year a group called the IKV Stranglehold holds a "Klingon Lifestyle Presentation," an entertaining look at "life aboard a Klingon vessel." Last year the ship "lost a valued member of the crew after a traitorous act," so, "their current mission forces them to travel a path few return from to regain what they lost." This stage show will be held in Room 6A (upstairs) Friday night, 7:30-8:30.

And Mark A. Altman, writer/producer of "Free Enterprise" and co-publisher of Geek Magazine, leads a couple of panels of "Treksperts" discussing the franchise in various ways. The first takes place Thursday evening, 6:00-7:00 in Room 5AB, called "Living Long and Prospering: Celebrating 40 Years of Star Trek." Here the panelists "reflect candidly on the good, the bad, and the ugly of 40 years of Star Trek," and also discuss The Next Generation's 20th anniversary and ponder its future, along with comments on the J.J. Abrams movie. This session includes Daren Dochterman, visual effects supervisor for the "Director's Edition" of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" (related podcast), as well as Robert Meyer Burnett, writer/director of "Free Enterprise," and other Geek Magazine minions.

A traditional Altman panel is "Starship Smackdown" in which the geeksperts debate which ships, robots, captains, aliens, etc., from different properties (Trek, "Wars," Firefly, "2001," you name it) would win in a showdown. This fourth-annual fan favorite takes place near the end of the weekend — Sunday from 2:30-4:00 in Room 2 — with Dochterman, Burnett and others participating.

The convention, which boasted 123,000 attendees last year, continues to swell every year. It's one of the most exciting and energized events you'll ever attend, but it's a madhouse ... a madhouse. If you're a first-timer, you'd be well-advised to consult a seasoned Comic-Con veteran about the best ways and times to negotiate San Diego and the crowds over the weekend. For instance, Saturday morning is the worst time to try to arrive, and Sunday evening is the worst time to leave (particularly driving north on the I-5). And if you don't already have a hotel reservation ... well, good luck.

Single-day memberships are still available for $25 for Thursday and Friday, $30 for Saturday, and $15 for Sunday (about half-price for children and seniors). Right now four-day memberships are sold out, but you can still get three-day passes that exclude Saturday for $55. Be sure to visit www.comic-con.org for registration and all other information.

Page 2: Other events featuring Trek personalities

Page 3: Chronological listing of events