Unfortunately, on the same day that thousands of people were holding Elian Gonzales demonstrations and celebrating Earth Day, you couldn’t get most Angelinos to attend a Star Trek rally if you used dynamite.

"I felt pretty crummy when I heard [about the LA numbers]," says Russ Haslage, the Excelsior Campaign manager. "The interesting thing is that there were people who drove several hours from Las Vegas, Sacramento and San Diego to get there and only two people from LA were there [at the time]."

"It’s unfortunate. I guess you can attribute it to apathy. I was hoping for more," said Trekker Robert Peckyno who traveled from Pittsburgh, PA to the rally.

His wife, Laura Anderson, agrees: "It’s a much smaller crowd than I expected. All I can say is that in Pittsburgh, people stand behind things. The clubs are really big in Pittsburgh. I’m surprised. I think that if this were held in a smaller town I think more people would’ve shown up."

The rallies outside UPN affiliates elsewhere seemed to bear this out. According to Haslage, "the other cities, we’ve heard from -- Washington, Denver and Columbus, we’ve got glowing reports from all of those. Columbus was simply amazing. In a little town of Columbus, 24 people came out and there was a lot of press."

"[Star Trek executive producer Rick] Berman has said that, ‘we want to do shows the appeal to the heartland of America.’ Well, Columbus, Philly and Phoenix sounds like the heartland to me," argues Haslage.

Putting the "roots" in "grass-roots"

What about the charge that the Excelsior Campaign represents a minority opinion?

"The Excelsior era fans are not a minority," Haslage counters. "When Voyager needed to raise their ratings for sweeps last year, what did they do? They went to Excelsior. When DS9 needed to boost their ratings during sweeps the season before, they went back to original Trek. They know that there is money there, that there’s ratings there."

The Excelsior Campaign has the power of TV Guide behind them. According to a TV Guide online poll of general audience members who chose to participate, 59 percent favored a series starring Captain Sulu.

So what’s the big draw? Why would people get dressed in costumes and drive for hours to Hollywood?

"We’d like to see at least a glimmer of original Star Trek coming back to television. Bring some of the original values back, some of the original heroes," says Damien Metz, Captain of USS Columbia, the Las Vegas Star Trek club.

"Sulu’s great," Laura Anderson enthuses. "You can see whenever he takes the lead in the movie (Star Trek VI). He’s the hero of that movie. He should’ve had a series long ago. He’s already proven that he’s wonderful in that role. It’s already been proven that that role can be a very powerful and wonderful character. Why not go with it? You get back to the roots of the show."

Small steps for Sulu

So what’s next for the Excelsior Campaign?

"We didn’t make the giant step we had hoped, but it was positive," says Haslage, "at this point we’re starting on Phase 2. A little more recruitment, more letters. MANAA (Media Action Network for Asian Americans) will probably get a little more involved actively in writing to Paramount and CBS. We’ll probably do a more aggressive campaign, in small steps building up to a big event."

"We seemed to have more success with the letters than the rallies this time. So we’ll have to work on the rallies and build on our success from the letters. We aren’t nearly done with rallies yet. There will be another rally out there. We’re looking tentatively at September or October."

Haslage vows: "We have not yet begun to fight!"

Paramount, on the other hand, was not immediately available for comment.