Trek Central is on a brave new mission to explore this world and boldly seek out Star Trek super fans! We’re speaking to those who have used their passion for Star Trek to inspire communities, change the world, or have unique collections that cannot be replicated. Emmy-Award-winning Meteorologist Katie Nickolaou is one such person. She has lived her life following the ideals of Star Trek. She has even delivered Star Trek-themed weather reports for her community to enjoy.
Trek Central caught up with Katie and discussed how Star Trek has inspired her personal and professional life.
Trek Central: When did your love for Star Trek begin?
Katie Nickolaou: I think a lot of people tend to relate to it, and with my story of getting into Star Trek, a lot of people are shocked by it. Because if you look at me right now, I am an Emmy Award-winning meteorologist that gets on TV every day in front of unknown numbers of people and talks, and that’s terrifying! In sixth grade, I was afraid to leave my house and afraid to eat food and other things due to bullying. Then one night, I walked into my parents bedroom and my dad was watching Star Trek: The Next Generation “Gambit, Part 2” – which to this day, I’ve not met a single other person that started their Star Trek journey with “Gambit, Part 2” but here we are and it was amazing!
Trek Central: How did Star Trek help you through your childhood and bullying challenges?
Katie Nickolaou: To me, even though I knew it was a fictional show, the actors were always fine – they (directors) called cut, and they walked off set and went about their lives. I loved seeing the characters get back up there. Like “Gambit, Part 2” is pretty brutal, and they were pretty beat up. And then the next week, the next episode – they’re back up, like nothing happened. They’re out exploring because they wanted to. They didn’t want to miss anything. They want to see things. As a kid, I related to that and realized, wow, I am possibly missing something out there. On top of it, Star Trek is so into logic and logical thinking. It is the cornerstone of Star Trek. And anxiety is not logical – that’s how it survives. So, if you want to beat anxiety, you have to think logically and Star Trek makes you realize that. It gives you the guidebook for logic, and once you can adapt that and put it into your own brain, you can really overcome any anxiety that you face – at least in my circumstance.
Trek Central: What Star Trek series is your favorite? Do you have any favorite characters?
Katie Nickolaou: Oh gosh – it’s like choosing a favorite child! The overall series that I just keep going back and re-watching is Star Trek: Voyager. I adore Captain Janeway and her relationship with her crew; there’s just something about being strong, smart and in charge, that’s really fun for me. I find that I have favorite characters from every series. I have favorite plots from every series like there’s so much of my personality that has been molded, by all of them. It’s like, every character has played a part in my life.
Trek Central: You had the opportunity to meet Kate Mulgrew recently – tell us more about that.
Katie Nickolaou: Well, it was a gauntlet because I started out going to the San Diego Comic-Con first. Then I went to Star Trek: Las Vegas the next week and I knew that Kate Mulgrew was going to be at both. I wanted to go to see her panels and everything. So I was set on that and then I had the opportunity to go and meet her at San Diego Comic-Con in a hallway. The hegemons from Star Trek: Prodigy, introduced me to Kate, and I was just blown away – she started talking about the weather! She was really interested. One week later, we’re back in Las Vegas. I’m getting her autograph and I said “I don’t know if you remember me, but we met last week at San Diego Comic-Con!” and she’s like, “Oh yes, I remember you!” Then I said to her, here’s the turbulence report you didn’t ask for, and I had printed it out on a data pad. It was the actual current turbulence forecast because that’s what she had been asking me about in San Diego. We both got a good chuckle.
A snippet from her fun conversation with Kate Mulgrew can be seen here.
Trek Central: You also posted a great picture with Garret Wang and your amazing “Macrovirus” cosplay – but this wasn’t the first time you sported that cosplay, correct?
Katie Nickolaou: I debuted my macrovirus cosplay back in 2022 at Star Trek: Las Vegas and I had walked past his table and he actually stopped me. He’s like “I have to get a picture. Can I get a picture of you?” I was in shock and said, “you’re asking for a picture of me? Yeah!” So when I went back this year, he remembered me and told me he still had my picture. I was going to be the one to get a picture with him this time. He agreed and actually I handed him the macrovirus.
Trek Central: How did you make that cosplay?
Katie Nickolaou: It’s hard to put into words how you make that cosplay because the macrovirus itself is a foam pumpkin from a craft store. I got an extra large tall pumpkin and then I took the expanding insulating foam. I sprayed around it and created the general shape. Then I carved that like a turkey, used modeling foam on the outside to get the texture. For the tendrils, I made them out of wire wrapped in the modeling foam and connected with a bunch of nuts and bolts.
Long story short, when I was assembling it in the garage of my apartment complex, it looked suspicious – especially when I started making the phaser rifle because then I really started getting looks. The mini-macrovirus I debuted this year – that was made of a Nerf football and it worked like a charm! It’s all hooked up to a harness in the backpack. That may give me permanent back issues, but otherwise it was great!
Trek Central: Of all the comic-cons you’ve been too, do you have any favorite experiences?
Katie Nickolaou: Probably my favorite experience was when I did my Janeway macrovirus cosplay for the first time. There were two people at Star Trek: Las Vegas, who were visually impaired and I believe one was completely blind. They had no idea what the macrovirus looked like because it was a CGI created image. They came up and asked if they could feel my macro virus, and it was amazing. That changed cosplay for me because you don’t think that you can take something from a TV show and make it accessible for people who never would have otherwise felt it or seen it. That has always stuck with me and I actually saw them again this year at the con!
My craziest experience though was during my first ever Comic-Con, Star Trek: Chicago 2016. And I want on a date with Chase Masterson from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I literally had no idea what a Comic-Con was. I took my dad, because he got me into Star Trek and we walked in the front door and they were asking for volunteers. I just vividly remember thinking ‘it’s a Star Trek convention, what could go wrong?’ So I raised my hand and the guy on the stage was like “Yeah! Come on up. We want folks of all different backgrounds.” I get up there and apparently it was the Leeta Dating Game. He said “You have to try to convince Chase Masterson to take you on a date!” Instantly, I’m like oh my God and I was panicking. “
“I had five guys in front of me and then there’s me, being a straight woman. I was thinking of what I was going to say when they called on me. So I was like, “hey! I’m a Starfleet Cadet, I’m looking for a wing-woman to go out on the town with me, meet a couple Bajorans and get some Raktajino. Afterwards I’m like “Okay, cool. We’re good. I can breathe again, I did my part.” I go back in line a few minutes later. Chase comes up and says “I choose contestant number six, Katie!” I couldn’t believe it! She wraps her arm around me and she’s like let’s go get us some Dr. Bashirs! I ended up getting a $100 gift card and a certificate. At Star Trek: Las Vegas this year, I had her autograph it.
Trek Central: If there’s one Star Trek celebrity who you have not met yet, that you have a burning question you would want to ask them, who would it be? What would you ask them?
Katie Nickolaou: I’ve really desperately been wanting Scott Bakula. I just appreciate how gentle of a human soul he is, and how kind he is. And as far as the question I would ask him, I’d probably ask (being the weather nerd that I am) – Across all the shows and movies that he’s worked on, what’s the worst weather he’s had to act through? Especially with that New Orlean’s heat while filming NCIS.
Trek Central: Besides middle school, did Star Trek’s ideals help you through any other challenging times in your life?
Katie Nickolaou: When you watch it enough, it becomes a part of your brain and you start thinking the way like Star Trek teaches. In 2020, I went viral for a Tik Tok about why you shouldn’t eat icicles because they might have bird poop in them! Right now that Tik Tok has over 18 million views. It was a lot and it really kind of just catapulted me into a social media spotlight on the platforms. You get the good and the bad with that. When it came to dealing with the bad, you aren’t born with knowing how to handle harassment online. It’s a learned skill and I feel like I’m very lucky to have had Star Trek to guide me because I take a very Benjamin Sisko approach. I just lock down the hatches and hop in a runabout and go take out what needs to be taken out. I stand for what I believe in and I will not falter with that. I have fallen back on the leadership principles in Star Trek and the resiliency of it too.
See Katie Nicholaou’s viral Tik Tok here!
Trek Central: What inspired you to pursue meteorology?
Katie Nickolaou: My storm story origin happened when I was five years old, I was in a tornado and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. My parents didn’t think that was weird, so they let me go and study the weather to my heart’s content. And I just loved it. I watched the Weather Channel and I read as many books as I possibly could on it. In 2010, a tornado hit my grandparent’s house on the other side of town. Then in 2011, a tornado hit my house. That’s a sign in Michigan – if you’ve been in three tornadoes you either get underground or you study it.
So very early on I wanted to be a meteorologist. I’ve actually never wanted to be anything else. I actually have taken Star Trek and incorporated it into my job with my Fandom Forecasts. It was a fun little thing that I started back in 2020 during the pandemic because I’m in Sioux City, Iowa. What else was I going to do? I love Sioux City but it was a time where I was like, okay, I have to be creative on my own. It was a way to make people smile, and that’s what Star Trek did for me. So I might as well help the rest of the world discover that.
Trek Central: What other opportunities has your career, and through it your passion for Star Trek, afforded you?
Katie Nickolaou: I saw a real NASA launch in Florida – as close as anyone could get. It was amazing, especially since it kind of tied together my love of Star Trek and my love of weather. It was a weather satellite that’s going to launch us into the future and it helps save lives and it just, it felt like a beautiful mixture. I actually carried around a com badge with me around NASA. I took pictures in the Vehicle Assembly Building, and out at the launch site with this pad with the com badge. I actually had a NASA employee come up to me, he was like, “which one of you is the one with the come badge?” I responded “Yeah!” and he just thought it was awesome. I actually dropped the com badge near the crawler and it’s a bit damaged in the corner, but no regrets!
Most recently, I’ve become a moderator for panels at comic cons – leading questions with celebrities and coaching question and answer sessions!
Trek Central: Finally, if there was one thing the Star Trek envisions, or teaches us about the future – one change you would want to see in today’s world, what would that be?
Katie Nickolaou: I would love an acceptance of everyone working towards a common goal. There are so many things that are different in the world. Try as some may to keep groups separate, a lot of people agree on things that are all for the betterment of us as the human race. If more people could just see through the lines, and jump across them or reach across them or even poke a finger across them…I’d be very happy because Star Trek does that. In the future you get people from different planets, from different quadrants and they can work together for something because they all want to explore. I think if Humanity could find a way to want to explore together, it would solve a lot of issues.
Do you know someone who is a Super Fan?
If you or someone you know have unequivocal collections, have used the ideals of Star Trek to make the world a better place, or have epic “Faith of the Heart” – We want to hear from you! Please reach out to Trek Central via social media, or contact us!
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