Residents of Vulcan, a small town in the western Canadian province of Alberta, want pointy-eared Mr. Spock of "Star Trek" fame to come home.
Although the Vulcans from the farming and ranching town of 1,500 aren't from Spock's dusty planet in the 1960s science fiction show, they want to arrange a large Star Trek convention next summer to celebration the show's 25th anniversary and invite Leonard Nimoy, the actor who played Spock.The town's Economic Development Committee decided Vulcan, named more than 80 years ago for the mythical Roman god of fire, needed a gimmick to draw tourists, Mayor Bill Yee said.
"Our town, for the last 10 to 20 years, has been standing still," Yee said.
"We want to get our town on the map of North America," Yee said. "We got the name of Vulcan and we're going to use it."
Paramount, which owns the licensing rights to the shows, is discussing the possibility of giving the town some rights, a spokesman said.
"Right now we're at the discussion state," said Jonathan Zilli, Paramount director of international licensing.
Greg Deitz, who has spearheaded part of the town's campaign, said besides inviting Nimoy to a Trekkie convention, there may be other gimmicks.
A theater may run Star Trek repeats or the town may have a model of the starship USS Enterprise, Deitz said.
Most of the town's residents own their own pairs of made-in-Hong Kong Spock ears, modeled after the ears of the fictitious Spock who had green blood.
Peter Pickersgill, editor of the local newspaper The Vulcan Advocate, which has a pair of Spock ears on the masthead, said "it's a fun thing."