What do you get if you cross a Star Trek convention with a horde of shuffling, flesh-craved zombies? No, that’s not the start of a particularly egregious gag, but the premise for Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall’s delightfully playful Night of the Living Trekkies, which is out now from Quirk Books. Anderson took time out to speak to Total Sci-Fi about the origin of the book and his upcoming voyages…

Where did you get the idea of marrying Star Trek and zombies?

I first explored the idea of putting geeks up against some kind of horror element back in 2007 with a short story called, Blood, Gridlock and PEZ, in which three fans of comic book, toys and video games came face-to-face with an axe-wielding maniac. The story really let me explore the humorous side of horror. [The podcast Pseudopod produced it in audio which you can listen to here: http://pseudopod.org/2008/01/18/pseudopod-73-blood-gridlock-and-pez] The response I got was the best I’d received thus far in my writing career so I looked for ways to expand on the theme.

I am a huge Trekkie, and a zombie freak, so I’m very surprised, looking back, that the concept didn’t occur to me sooner, but the idea didn’t come to me until late in 2008 when I was watching, for the 10th time, one of my favourite documentaries, Trekkies. Directed by Roger Nygard and staring Denise Crosby, it’s an in-depth and entertaining exploration of the devoted fans of Star Trek and their world, from home life to conventions.

I was not even halfway through the film when it hit me. I kept thinking in the right situation, under the right dire circumstances, these guys can become the heroes. And of course the right situation was the zombie apocalypse.

Do you think you need to be a Trekkie (or a Trekker!) to enjoy the novel, or is it aimed at general comic horror fans too?

Would being a die-hard, phaser-packing, tricorder-carrying Trekkie make it possible to get every single minor reference? Yes, but that deep Trek knowledge is not necessary to get the majority of the jokes, follow the story or the horror.

It’s very much in the spirit of Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright’s series Spaced, and of course their film, Shaun of the Dead. There is parody, dark humour, multiple sci-fi franchise-referencing, all flavoured with some good old fashioned, flesh-eating horror. A smorgasbord in which there is something for everyone.

Did you have to do a lot of research for the novel, or did you draw on your own encyclopaedic knowledge of Trek?

Not really for the story itself, but I did for some of the finer points – those really deep details that most readers are not going to notice except for the die-hard Trekkie.

I can recite Star Trek and Star Wars dialogue as well as my fellow sci-fi geeks but there are those that can tell you the differences between the uniforms of the emergency medical hologram on Voyager and the emergency medical hologram that appeared in Star Trek First Contact. I know the difference now but before working on Night of the Living Trekkies, I didn’t.

Was it important for you to work out a clever, original reason for your zombie apocalypse?

I get the impression that it is not something that is important to zombie fans or the genre itself, but even now as I watch the amazing AMC show The Walking Dead, I always wonder how or why. Very often a zombie story will shuffle out a few vague details and let the audience fill in the blanks, and I admit there is a lot of intrigue in not knowing the full story.

But as a zombie fan, I think the stories that attract me the most are the ones that try to cast some sort of explanation, something original and new. And that is definitely what we were shooting for with Night of the Living Trekkies.

We noticed that there weren’t many references to Star Trek Enterprise. Is that because you’re not a fan?

Not at all. I enjoyed Enterprise, a little more than DS9, but not as much as Voyager. I think the lack of references was mostly because that particular Star Trek incarnation was not that popular, not only with Star Trek fans, but in general. Referencing a show that had low viewership would be taking the chance that few would get the joke.

Aside from Star Trek, what have been your main influences?

Besides all things sci-fi (Star Wars, BSG, Farscape, Doctor Who, Space 1999, Buck Rogers, Stargate Universe, Aliens) the works of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright have really pushed me towards geeky, horror, action, comedy. I think most everything they have done thus far is brilliant. I’ve not seen Simon and Nick in the film Paul yet, but I’m really looking forward to it.

The works of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett are some of my favourites, along with Kurt Vonnegut (Hocus Pocus and Slaughterhouse Five in particular) and the novels of Arthur C. Clarke.

Why do you think zombies are so popular right now?

I think that popular culture embraces or gravitates toward horror as more and more people feel out of control, not just with their current situations, but the future.

When I was growing up in the 80s we all kind of believed that there wouldn’t be much of a future beyond a nuclear wasteland, an Armageddon designed and produced by a previous generation, that we could neither control nor prevent.

I think now that people in their 20s and 30s are suffering a similar disposition, always thinking that some kind of apocalypse is just around the corner. It might be a financial apocalypse, bioterrorism, natural disaster; even the threat of a nuclear catastrophe still hangs over our heads like an ominous radioactive cloud. Any kind of mass breakdown in the social order seems very real and very possible, and zombies are the horrific representation of that fear.

What’s your own favourite Trek franchise, episode and character?

This is tough, but if you’re putting a disrupter to my head and making me answer, I’ll say Star Trek the original series, ‘The Naked Time’, and Captain James Tiberius Kirk.

When I think of Star Trek the first images that come to mind are all from the original series. The way the bridge is laid out, the sound of the proton torpedoes, the short length of Yeoman Rand’s outfit… it’s the original series all the way!

I loved the episode, ‘The Naked Time’, mostly because the characters got to step outside themselves for a while, creating some of Star Trek’s most memorable moments. Sulu with his foil in the corridor; Nurse Chapel confessing her love to Spock; Spock hurling Kirk over a table; it’s a fun episode.

As for my favourite Star Trek character, that's not hard at all. Kirk is Han Solo, Buck Rogers, Starbuck, Flash Gordon and Commander Adama all rolled into one. Intergalactic women love him and Klingons fear him. Captain James Tiberius Kirk is and has always been my favourite Star Trek character.

What’s next for you? Any chance of a follow-up to Night of the Living Trekkies?

As far as a follow up to Night of the Living Trekkies, I certainly hope so. I might know more about that by mid-summer. And there has been some film interest, but nothing has been inked yet.

Currently I’m putting together a collection of short stories with the tale that inspired Night of the Living Trekkies, Blood, Gridlock and PEZ, as the lead story. I have a dark, comic YA novel that is getting ready for market, and I’m halfway through a first draft of an all-new zombie novel which, like Night of the Living Trekkies, has a new twist on the genre.

Night of the Living Trekkies is out now (Quirk Books). Click here to read the review.

Visit www.kevindavidanderson.com