Whether it’s exploring strange new worlds or learning about new life and civilizations, local Grande Prairie podcasters are boldly sharing their love of Star Trek.
Dan Gunther and Barry DeFord’s weekly podcast, Positively Trek, serves as a creative outlet to share their love of Star Trek with the world, while also strengthening their friendship.
“I don’t remember a time that I didn’t like Star Trek,” said Gunther in his home, which is filled with Star Trek memorabilia and a wall of signed photos of the franchise’s many stars.
“I can remember the first Star Trek that I was exposed to was on Saturday mornings. I’d get up and watch some cartoons, but then 8 a.m. would hit, and I’d switch over to CBC and watch Star Trek: The Original Series.”
His love for the show would just grow from there.
As a child, he was drawn to adventure and science fiction, but as he got older, the message of Star Trek resonated with him.
Star Trek shows “the world that we could have,” he said.
“You go to the theatre and watch something like Terminator or Terminator 2, and it’s the world is going to end, and things are going to be really bad, and Star Trek says there’s bad stuff that happens, but we come out the other side, and we grow, and we learn.”
Additionally, Star Trek offers a view of “professionals working together and doing a good job together and not like climbing over each other to get a promotion or stabbing each other in the back or automatically assuming the worst about each other, and that is a unique aspect of Star Trek.”
Gunther started a website reviewing Star Trek novels, which led him to joining the Literary Treks podcast.
It would lead to him meeting Bruce Gibson, who would become a co-host, and the duo would eventually decide to start their own podcast.
“We kind of workshopped ideas and eventually came up with Positively Trek in 2020,” said Gunther.
“I know everybody started podcasts in 2020 because everything was shut down, but we’d been talking about it since early 2019 and putting things together.”
Online discourse about Star Trek was similar to that of many other fandoms; it felt polarized, with commentators saying the worst of the franchise and pushing a narrative that everything new is bad, all in the name of views on the internet.
“We didn’t want to shy away from constructive criticism, but at the same time, we wanted to frame everything in a positive manner,” said Gunther, and Positively Trek was born.
“If we have complaints, it would be actual substantive complaints, not stuff like ‘the people in charge all have to be fired, and this is the worst thing to ever happen, and you’re not a true Star Trek fan if you like it.’”
The duo were working to ensure their fandom could be a positive space.
The podcast would gain its followers, and Gunther and Gibson would work to balance their “normal lives” and their podcasting life.
Eventually, Gibson stepped away due to the time commitment.
“It was either find another co-host or stop doing the podcast,” said Gunther, but he had a person in mind.
Gunther had met a like-minded person in Las Vegas at a Star Trek convention.
That was DeFord, whom Gunther describes as “my first and only choice for someone to continue the podcast with.”
Even though they met in Vegas, they both turned out to live in the same city: Grande Prairie.
“It was a real glitch in the Matrix moment where I met this guy, a huge Star Trek fan, huge fan of podcasting,” said Gunther.
DeFord was previously on the PoliTreks podcast, which combined politics and Star Trek, but had been stepping away from the medium.
“I wasn’t necessarily sure if I had anything more to say,” said DeFord.
Still, he took on the role as another way to build his friendship with Gunther.
“What I really enjoy about Gunther and podcasting with him specifically is that he creates a lot of space for the way I approach the fandom, and I think that’s the sign of a really good Trek fan.”
“I believe in the mission, and I think that’s one of the biggest pieces, which is trying to look at things through a bit of a more positive lens.
“I think there are a lot of people who, especially in the world of amateur internet media, use rage as a way to make their podcast relevant.
“I don’t know if we come off as a little doe-eyed sometimes, so be it; I’d rather be happy than unhappy.”
The podcast was also a way for them to just be friends and meet up a bit more regularly.
“It’s hard to do stuff as adults to be a friend with a person, and so I guess one of my motives was this is wonderful because I want to know this person, and I want to have a friendship with them,” said DeFord.
The new views brought to the podcast also helped Gunther look at it in a new way.
“DeFord’s superpower is, I’ll be talking about this thing that I know and have watched dozens of times, and he’ll bring a perspective to it that makes me look at it and go, I never thought of it that way,” said Gunther.
“I’m incredibly political, and I don’t really divorce myself from that,” said DeFord.
“I have my own political and spiritual beliefs, but I think the best part about Star Trek fandom again is the fact that there’s room for everybody.”
“I don’t think Star Trek is socialism or is communism or anything like that; it’s actually beyond it. “It’s interesting to get to even imagine that because, as Mark Fisher, another noted socialist thinker, said, why we have so much dystopia when we think about our future these days is that it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than it is the end of capitalism, and Star Trek gives us an alternative to all of that in a very positive light.”
The podcast has allowed the duo to share what they love with the world.
“Gunther has an encyclopedic knowledge of Star Trek, his Patrick Stewart impression is terrifyingly good, he’s watched more Star Trek than me and has dedicated more of his attention to it, and I think, to his credit, he approaches that very vast knowledge with a level of humility.”
“Find a friend who accepts you for who you are, because that’s what makes Positively Trek so positive,” said DeFord.
“The takeaway should be sharing your enjoyment.”
Positively Trek has released more than 300 episodes and can be found at positivelytrek.com/.
Episodes have also included interviews with authors such as David Mack, Dayton Ward, and Una McCormack, and even actors from various Star Trek series such as Nana Visitor from Deep Space Nine and Noah Averbach-Katz and Adil Hussain from Star Trek: Discovery.
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