Scott Atwell Star Trek Discussion thread (Series and Films) (2 Viewers)

[BobO'Link]

For people who like the Fotonovels, John Bryne has done a new series of them, creating ORIGINAL stories, and speaking for myself, I love them. It's the closest I have ever come to feeling like I am watching a new TOS ST episode. The series is called Star Trek New Visions. So far there are around ten or so issues, and you can buy them in three trade paperback collections. They just get better and better. And they are very creative. For example, Bryne couldn't get the rights to use the likeness of Roger C. carmel (Mudd), but that didn't stop Bryne from creating new stories about Mudd. A very imaginative and fun series.

You beat me to it! That's a very fun series. I've been purchasing them as they come out as I can't bear waiting for the collected volumes, although they're less expensive.

The last regular issue was #11 and was followed by a "New Visions Special" where Burne adapted "The Cage." It's about 10 pages longer than the usual story (50 pages rather than ~40). I've not yet read it but it looks to be a direct adaptation of the episode using the original dialog as well as images.

The next issue, #12, is due in September. There are currently 3 collected volumes, each containing 3 issues. I like how even the single issues are perfect bound with the title on the spine and a heavy cardstock type cover. I also like that the only internal ad is for the next "New Visions" title which is followed by a 3-4 page teaser for that issue. Much like the teaser at the end of a episode. No interruptions of the story for ads. All that makes them look and feel special.

 

[Carabimero]

I've been waiting for the books just to have the stories bound. It's hard. Such a fun series.

 

[Carabimero]

I shot this video of the maquettes for TOS. Here's some clips.

 

[Nelson Au]

You must have visited the sci if museum in Seattle to see that model of the layout of the sets. Looks like you had fun doing that video! I saw it there too. If you have the Star Trek Sketchbook there's some great photos of that model.

 

[Carabimero]

I don't have that book but I sure would like to know what a couple of those sets were.

 

[Nelson Au]

The book has a series of shots like these from different angles. Are we talking about the same thing?

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/...model_of_the_USS_Enterprise_interior_sets.jpg

 

[Carabimero]

Yes, I am wondering what the set to the right of the Bridge is. Not the shuttlecraft....?

 

[Nelson Au]

I believe that set is the Auxiliary Control room. Used most prominently in The Doomsday Machine and I, Mudd and several other episodes.

 

[Carabimero]

Thanks. I know they only used the observation deck in one episode, so it wasn't that I didn't think.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I attended the Star Trek Mission convention in New York City this weekend, which had been billed as the only official 50th anniversary celebration convention. I had mentioned a couple tidbits about it on a different Star Trek thread, and Nelson suggested that a fuller recap might be an enjoyable addition to this thread.

The event ran from Friday, September 2nd through Sunday, September 4th at the Javits Center in NYC. The convention was presented by ReedPop (the company that hosts New York Comic Con and some other major convention events throughout the country), by arrangement with CBS. I attended NYCC in 2013 and 2014, and came away turned off by how ReedPop runs events. Part of me was reluctant to attend once I found out they were running this convention, but ultimately, the lure of seeing a Star Trek convention in my neighborhood was too much to pass up.

Let me get the general cons out of the way before I move on to the pros: many people besides myself have noticed that ReedPop doesn't seem to care about the event itself or fan experience at that event. Much like a movie theater that doesn't care if their projection is bad or if their popcorn is stale, ReedPop just wants your money, and will not make any effort to correct problems (easily predictable and fixable problems) that crop up during the event. My biggest complaint is about how they ran their main room. Unlike Creation, which historically has run Star Trek conventions, ReedPop significantly oversells tickets beyond what they have capacity for in the main room. Therefore, although you'll see big posters and prominent placement on the website advertising that you'll get to see guests like William Shatner, the truth is that most people will be shut out of Shatner speaking and never had a chance to begin with. Main room seating is first come, first served, but the convention organizers deliberately chose an auditorium that was not the largest one in the building for main room events, which led to the entirely predicable outcome of most people not fitting in there. They also refused to allow fans to sit in the balcony seating. This led to hundreds (possibly more) fans being left out of key panels like a Next Generation cast reunion that they had believed their ticket granted them entry to. That's typical of how ReedPop runs events - they would rather have a panel appear full, with hundreds turned away, than have it in a larger room that would fit everyone but wouldn't appear as full. The only way to sort of guarantee getting to see Main Room events is to get into the room early in the day and not to leave, which means you might have to miss a smaller panel elsewhere, or sit through some things you weren't interested in, just to have a spot to see the things later in the day that were of interest. It's a really lousy way to run an event. It was a very different experience from when I saw the Creation-run convention in Boston in 2013. At the Creation event, there was significantly less merchandise, but it was run in a way where everyone who bought a ticket had an opportunity to see everything. Here in NY, I was also surprised at how few cast panels there were. The maximum amount of time you could spend seeing cast members from the 6 different shows and 13 different movies was six hours - only six hours of cast panels over a three day event seemed like not a lot to me. (I did not get any autographs or photos - there were no free opportunities to talk to cast members, photos and autographs began at a minimum of $20 with some going for $50 or more. I heard a lot of complaints by people who had spent $50 for a photo op and got less than ten seconds with the person, they had expected at least thirty seconds to say hello and exchange names.)

I'm sorry to begin with a complaint but I wanted to make that clear before I got into more details for a few reasons - one being that the way ReedPop ran the event colored by experience of everything there; the second being that I wanted to give an idea of why I saw some things but not other things; and third, to give you guys a better sense of how these things run so have all of the information needed to decide if you wanted to attend something like this in the future. I did end up camping out in the main room most of the time, so I got to see all of the big panels, but that means that I missed out almost entirely on anything involving fan interaction, and a lot of the more intellectual/discussion based panels that didn't feature cast members.

Now, onto the show...


Friday, September 2nd (Day 1 of 3)

I arrived just in time to see a smaller panel with David Gerrold, the writer of Trouble With Tribbles. If you've read his book on the making of the episode, or if you've seen him interviewed on different bonus features, you've probably heard most of what I heard at this panel. Although it was nice to have the chance to see him speak in person, I didn't really gleam a lot of insight from this panel.

Leaving the Gerrold panel, I then headed over to the main room for the Deep Space Nine cast reunion. Though they didn't have the complete cast, Terry Farrell, Michael Dorn, Armin Shimerman, Nany Visitor, Rene Auberjonois and Cirroc Lofton were all there. The panel was (badly) moderated by Jordan Hoffman, who apparently runs some kind of podcast. He was the worst kind of moderator - overly smug, impressed with the sound of his own voice, and longwinded. A good moderator should get out of the way and let the speakers speak. Instead, Hoffman would take simple ideas for questions and turn them into long spiels. (For instance, Hoffman wanted to ask the cast members if they had ever lived in New York, which is a reasonable question. Instead of just asking that, he spent about five minutes talking about his own experiences of New York before asking the question.) Since all of these panels are limited to about 50 minutes, each moment that Hoffman was talking about himself took away from hearing the cast. Unfortunately, Hoffman continued to ask questions in this fashion for about 40 minutes, so the audience only got a chance to ask questions for about ten minutes. (This was another major difference from Creation conventions I've attended, where they don't use a moderator and allow the audience to question the cast directly.) It was obvious that the group of actors onstage all had a great deal of affection for each other, and it was a delight to hear them recounting their experiences on Deep Space Nine - whenever they could get a word in. I don't really remember a specific moment of the panel, I'm not sure if that's because it was still early in the day for me, or if Hoffman's inane questions just made it not very memorable, or a little bit of both. (Hoffman also wasn't very well prepared, it seemed; he didn't know how to pronounce Nana Visitor's name. If you're being paid to moderate a panel, how hard is it to ask the guests how to properly pronounce their name before going onstage?) I do remember a little bit of amusing griping about having to wear makeup on the show, with Auberjonois, Shimerman and Dorn having amusing reactions while listening to each other describe the makeup.

After the Deep Space Nine panel, I took a few minutes to visit the exhibition hall aka the merchandise area. Looking over the weekend's schedule, this was the only time I felt that I could safely go and see all of this stuff and still not miss any speakers I wanted to see. I was a little underwhelmed by the merchandise selection. There were some high end vendors there like Anovos, which makes those expensive replica uniforms; unfortunately they were there more as a presence and not to really sell anything, so they didn't have costumes on-hand to try on. I've been curious about buying their stuff before, but their sizing runs very small (or at least did on the one piece I had bought from them a few years ago) so I was hesitant to buy from them again without trying it on first. Thought I could do that here, but that wasn't the case. A couple video game companies had booths there, but I'm not a gamer, so I didn't really stop to look - I think one was there for the Star Trek Timelines cell phone game (?) and one was there for a new virtual reality headset wearing game. Though I didn't personally see him, James Cawley brought a portion of his Star Trek fan film set to the exhibition hall, and you could get in line if you wanted to have your picture taken sitting in the captain's chair. Would have done it, but didn't have time. The postal service had a booth selling the newly issued Star Trek stamps. But almost everything being sold there was something you could find pretty easily on Amazon or eBay. I didn't really see a variety of rarer items or out of print things. I wasn't going to get anything as I figured everything I saw there I could find online for less. Then, as I was walking towards the exit, I saw that David Gerrold had a table there, and he was selling (among other things) a copy of his original Trouble With Tribbles script. I figured a chance to get a copy of the most famous episode's script signed and personalized by its author was worth $20, so I made my lone purchase of the event then and there. He seemed a little distant, but his assistant was very chatty, and the assistant and I (sorry, forgot his name!) had a pleasant chat.

From there, I headed back to the main hall to catch the end of Julie Nimoy's panel - really I was just getting there early to guarantee I'd have a spot for the Enterprise cast reunion that was coming up next. Julie was an articulate speaker, but the panel was specifically about the lung disease COPD that Leonard died from. At the time I arrived, audience members were sharing stories with her about how some of their loved ones had suffered or passed from this disease, so it was a very somber thing to walk into. That said, when Julie's film is eventually finished, perhaps it will help encourage people to quit smoking or to not try in the first place, and that would certainly be a noble achievement.

The Enterprise panel was, hands down, the very best thing I attended all weekend. I would not have expected this going in. Enterprise isn't my favorite Star Trek show, but there's a lot about it I like, and I had never seen any of its cast in person before. The whole crew wasn't there - just Dominic Keating, John Billingsley, Connor Trinneer and Anthony Montgomery. Montgomery had a broken leg but was still very animated. Jordan Hoffman was again moderating, and again doing a poor job - talking over the cast members, asking inane questions, and continuing to make it about himself. But then something hilarious happened. In the middle of one particularly long-winded question that didn't seem to be going anywhere, Montgomery got up, hopped across the stage (broken leg and all), and ripped the cards out of Hoffman's hands, started to read the question, decided it was a dumb question, and instead invited the audience to start asking questions. Because he and the rest of the cast were hilarious and charming, in the moment it didn't come across as insulting, but reading between the lines the Enterprise cast had clearly had enough of his guy. Hoffman tried to cut the Q&A short before time had run out, but Montgomery asked what time it was, realized that there were still ten minutes to go, and kept going. These guys were such fun. They know they weren't on the most beloved iteration of Star Trek, but they still treasured the experience of doing the show, and seemed genuinely humbled to be a part of something so huge. Billingsley set the tone early on when he held out a photo of himself that LeVar Burton had signed (with "bite me" above Burton's signature). Earlier in the day, Billingsley confessed, while he was at the autograph area waiting for autographing sessions to begin, he went around and replaced every other signer's photo with one of himself. Then, Billingsley said he would give that photo to whoever embarrassed the cast the most. When a women came up later and asked them all to describe their genitalia down to to the millimeter, she walked away with that photo. I learned that Montgomery's grandfather was a famous jazz guitarist, and that for most of his life, people had walked up to Montgomery wanting to meet him because of his grandfather; he said it was a strange and rewarding thing the first time someone wanted to meet him for his role in Trek and not just because of his grandfather. All of the cast ragged on Trinneer both for the episode where his character became pregnant, and for constantly forgetting the technobabble dialogue throughout the entire run of the series. They teased Scott Bakula for not being there a few times, and also told a story of a prank they all pulled on Bakula. At the beginning of his career, Bakula did a musical commercial for Canada Dry. The Enteprise crew got a copy of it, and one day had it programmed so that it would display simultaneously on every monitor and screen on the Bridge set. When Bakula was summoned to the set that day, not only did the video start playing everywhere in the room, but the entire cast and crew started dancing and singing along with it. Bakula was apparently not amused! When the panel was over, I felt that I really knew all of the guys that had been onstage. They were warm, witty and hilarious, did their best to answer fan questions, and looked like they were having a great time doing it.

Following the Enterprise cast panel, I stuck around to see Nicholas Meyer introduce Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan. I feel that ReedPop was a little deceptive in their advertising of this event - they advertised it as the World Premiere of a new 4K restoration of Wrath Of Khan. Well, it was the 4K restoration, but since the Blu-ray came out in June, I'd hardly call this screening a world premiere. It was also not shown in 4K, but rather, in HD on smaller screens to the left and right of the stage - not really a great way to watch a movie. Nicholas Meyer was interviewed by Josh Horowitz from MTV before the screening began; they spoke for about half an hour. If you've heard the commentary track on the disc, there wasn't much new to learn. But Meyer is an intelligent, articulate speaker, and I was very happy to get to hear him in person. There was no talk about a potential UHD release of this title. The two lines of dialogue that were dropped on the Blu-ray version of the director's cut were not addressed. About the only thing Meyer said in relation to the director's cut was that at the time the movie was being released theatrically, he butted heads with Harve Bennett and the studio over all of these little trims, and then when it was time to release the movie to broadcast television a couple years later, they didn't care at all and let him add whatever he wanted back in. He thought it was amusing and bizarre that they cared so much about two minutes of tiny trims at one moment, and then shortly after could care less. Meyer said something else I found interesting - he was talking about shooting the Spock death scene, and how he didn't get emotional filming it because that's not the way he works. He says when he works, he's trying to get reactions from us, the audience, but isn't so concerned with experiencing those feelings himself as he's creating the work. (Which makes total sense - how could he direct the death of Spock if he had been beside himself?) He also mentioned that Nimoy told a story for years where Nimoy claimed that Meyer had directed that famous death scene while wearing a Sherlock Holmes costume, which Nimoy felt was somewhat dismissive. Meyer laughed and explained that he's never worn a Sherlock Holmes costume in his life, but that he did have opera tickets that evening, so he came to the set in a suit rather than a more casual outfit. Meyer thinks that Nimoy must've remembered that Meyer had previously written Sherlock Holmes novels, and drawn a connection where there hadn't been one. Meyer then said that this is an example of why memory is so tricky - and that while he thinks all of the stories he's told are correct, he cautioned not to take everything as the absolute gospel because, after all of this time, he could simply be wrong about some things.

Meyer's interview was conducted before the start of the movie. Once the movie began, I decided to leave as I had seen Star Trek II fairly recently and the presentation in the auditorium wasn't an ideal way to watch the movie. That was the last event of the day on Friday.

Will try to report back on Saturday and Sunday soon...

 

[Nelson Au]

Hey Josh,

Thank you for taking so much time and effort for the overview of the first day of the convention. That was way more effort then I had meant to ask for! So thanks again. That's great.

I've been to many conventions and of late, I feel the same, though I mostly have gone to Creation conventions. They are well run, but as a friend put it, have a cookie cutter sameness to them. But that's not so bad. The stuff you see in the dealers room just are not as unique as they used to be. And you can get them elsewhere.

I'm sorry to read that the experience wasn't as great as it could have been. I haven't seen the Enterprise cast either at a convention live, but have seen the clips on-line and the interviews on the discs and they do look like a group that gets on really well. I'm glad Anthony Montgomery took the stage over and tried to get to the meat of the questions while time was left. It's pretty neat that recently Terry Ferrell has made so many appearances and rejoined the group so to speak. Again, I've seen clips of their Las Vegas appearances. YouTube is great in that you can miss a convention and can have a somewhat similar experience later at home.

I actually had a chance to meet Nicolas Meyer at a bookstore signing where he spoke about Star Trek. I think that was the release of the DC for Star Trek 6. it was a while ago. I brought my 2004 DVD copy of Star Trek 6 which he signed and added. "BSI". I later learned it meant Baker Street Illregulars by one of the HTF members.

Thanks again for taking so much time to write about the convention. I look forward to what happened on Saturday and Sunday.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

What was that great line from the movie "Lincoln"? "I could write shoulder speeches, but once I start, I get too lazy to stop?" That about sums up my writing style.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Star Trek Mission Convention NYC - Saturday, September 3rd (Day 2 of 3) - Part 1

Back for day two! On my way in, I noticed a few people with different signs and tshirts with references to the TNG episode Darmok. I am reminded that I am the only person in the world who things that's a dumb episode; right up there with Spock's Brain for me, only I find Spock's Brain more entertaining. The things I wanted to see most are all in the main hall today, so I decided to come in earlier and see the panel in the main room before the one I wanted to see so that I have a better chance of being in the room for everything. My plan pays off; when I arrive, the main room is at least half empty, and I have no problem getting a seat.

First panel of the day is called "Growing Up Trek" and it includes Leonard Nimoy's children, Adam and Julie, as well as Gene Roddenberry's son, Rod. The panel is moderated by Mark A. Altman, who keeps things moving well. You can tell that none of the three guests are naturally born public speakers, but at the same time, Altman makes them feel comfortable, and it's never awkward. They talk about their experiences growing up as the children of some of Star Trek's biggest names. Adam recalls it as being a more distressing thing; the long hours on the set took their toll on Leonard, and he would often have to work late, and then come home exhausted but not yet finished, as tomorrow's script pages would still need to be memorized. For Adam, I think he was both in awe of his father and a little bit jealous (understandably so) of the show because it seemed to get more of his dad's attention than he did. Julie was maybe a little bit more diplomatic but expressed the same sentiments. For Rod, it was a different experience because he had been born in the 1970s, after TOS was off the air but before TMP and TNG. To him, Star Trek was just this thing that his dad had done, but not something that he felt any connection to. Rod was still a young man when Gene passed. Rod's mother is Majel Barrett, and Rod remembered that when Gene died, there wasn't a lot of money, and that she hustled from convention to convention, doing personal appearances anywhere she could book them, in order to put Rod through college. As children, all three guests were at best indifferent to Trek, and at worst, jealous of it. But as adults, they've all come to love and appreciate the show. Rod will be the first to admit that he doesn't have every single line of every episode memorized, but that he's seen all of the original series and really made an effort to do that within the past few years. I thought it was cool that they all discovered something that we as fans have known for a while - that even though Gene's gone and Leonard's gone, when you put on an episode, for that next hour, they're alive and well and you can almost hear their thoughts and feel their presence as you watch it. I thought this was going to be one of those panels you sit through but don't really pay attention to, and I found it really engrossing. You could tell that Julie, Adam and Rod were listening to every question and thinking about their answers as they spoke, rather than just repeating stock answers.

The next panel was the TNG cast reunion, with Jonathan Frakes, LeVar Burton, Marina Sirtis, Michael Dorn and Gates McFadden. I had seen different configurations of the TNG cast twice before, but Frakes had been absent both of those times, so it was great to finally see him. The stage had a couple couches for the cast, and as Frakes came out, he tried to get into the couch with the same weird seating maneuver that Riker uses, and wasn't entirely successful - got a nice laugh. Unfortunately, this panel was also moderated by Jordan Hoffman. By this point, the crowd was getting restless with his questions, as he asked the exact same things to the DS9 and Enterprise panels the day before. He made no effort to alter the questions even when they didn't fit. (Example; he asked Terry Farrell what she thought Jadzia would be up to if DS9 had continued for another season.) As with the previous panels, Hoffman asked questions that either didn't fit, or turned 30 second questions into five minute soliloquies, so there was very little time for audience questions by the time he finished. You could see that Michael Dorn doesn't really have the patience for stupid questions. But the TNG cast is delightful, and even Hoffman couldn't sink this panel. During the fan questions, one man got his turn to ask a question, turned away from the stage (I could only hear this but couldn't actually see him from my seat), and proposed to his girlfriend in front of the TNG cast - and she said no! I don't know if she was saying no to him forever, or just no to that particular attempt at a proposal. Honestly, I don't blame her. It's one thing to propose to someone at a concert during your shared favorite song or something. But this just felt like the wrong place and time. The next question immediately following that one was from a woman who said that she had been inspired to go back to school at the age of 40 and become a therapist thanks to Deanna Troi, and wanted to know if Marina Sirtis had gotten any on-set training from psychologists; Sirtis said no, but was really moved by this story, and invited the woman to the stage for a hug. At first, when you see Marina Sirtis speak, you think she's totally different from Troi because she can be (to use her own words) loud and obnoxious, but after this panel, I'm not so sure they're that different - both the real Sirtis and the fictional Troi have heart to spare and come across as genuine, hardworking, kind souls that believe in fairness and justice and equality for all. So despite Marina's protests, I'm gonna disagree with her and say she's more like Troi than she thinks.

Gotta run, but will report back later with the rest of the Saturday panels...

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Great reports Josh. The first panel sounded fascinating.

 

[Jack P]

I watched an episode of TOS I don't think I'd seen in more than 30 years, "The Mark Of Gideon". It was one of those episodes that as a teen I remember thinking of as silly because of its conceit of an overpopulated planet somehow managing to find room to build an exact duplicate of the Enterprise and so I just never bothered to revisit it again in all the years since.

Watching it for the first time as an adult gave me a chance to really listen to the talky speeches that bog down the final part of the episode and I've now come away regarding this episode as even worse than its reputation because it is perhaps the ultimate embodiment of what happens when a writer wants to push an agenda point rooted in current events of the day and in the process is willing to throw all forms of story credibility out the window. In this case, the subject is overpopulation which in the late 1960s became a big pet issue of the day for some people, and which pushed along calls for changes in thinking regarding contraceptions and also of course abortion. So here we have an episode that wants to heighten the issue of overpopulation in a sci-fi trapping complete with the warnings about the birth rate continuing to rise etc. etc. for the sake of wanting to make the viewer come away thinking, "Gee, we need to push for all these ideas that will control the population etc. etc."

Except there's just one problem here in regards this story. And I'm not talking about the usual plot hole we focus on about the duplicate Enterprise on the planet. I'm asking this. The whole point of this elaborate deception on Kirk that takes place is so basically the planet can introduce what can only be called long-term genocide, that is introducing a disease that will thin out the population and lower the lifespan etc. and create a more "perfect" order. But in the zeal to push a "population control" message they seem to have forgotten something.

Wouldn't it be a LOT simpler for Gideon to just join the Federation knowing that their population surplus could then likely be dispersed on neighboring Federation planets with a lot more space to offer???????

Oh, but if you reduce it to something that simple that makes sense from a story standpoint, then guess what, you can't make all those speeches with coded references to the late 1960s population control debate in America and there goes the whole reason for your episode which isn't to write a good story but to push an agenda. And by any other name that is bad writing, period.

 

[Bryan^H]

Star Trek Mission Convention NYC - Saturday, September 3rd (Day 2 of 3) - Part 1

Back for day two! On my way in, I noticed a few people with different signs and tshirts with references to the TNG episode Darmok. I am reminded that I am the only person in the world who things that's a dumb episode; right up there with Spock's Brain for me, only I find Spock's Brain more entertaining.

HAha. You and me both. That is one of the worst episodes of all Trek(I'd take any of the bad Voyager episodes over it, hell I'll take any of the Brannon Braga horror story/techno babble/ paranoia episodes from TNG over it). I have never understood the fan favorite label it has achieved. Frustrating, annoying, and a complete waste of 45 minutes. One viewing was waaaay too much for me. Whenever I re-watch TNG I gleefully skip it.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Star Trek Mission Convention NYC - Saturday, September 3rd (Day 2 of 3) - Part 2

After the TNG panel, the main room next featured a joint panel with Bruce Greenwood (Admiral Pike) and Peter Weller (Admiral Marcus). Oddly, this was the only panel to feature anyone involved with the Kelvin universe. Given that it was "just" the supporting actors here, I didn't expect this to be a big draw, and I was right. But, as a wonderful upside to that, they had more time to answer each of the fan questions, and gave wonderfully in-depth responses. Jordan Hoffman once again brought his peculiar brand of moderation to the panel, but since Greenwood and Weller weren't hugely involved in Star Trek, he ran out of questions sooner, which gave fans more time to ask questions. Both of these gentlemen were remarkably intelligent and well-spoken, and Weller in fact now has a doctorate in Italian Renaissance art history (so we can now legitimately call him Dr. Weller). Perhaps surprisingly, Weller's guest starring role in Enterprise didn't come up. Greenwood credited a lot of his performance as Pike to both J.J. Abrams and Chris Pine, saying that rehearsing with Pine really helped him develop his portrayal. And Weller thought of Admiral Marcus as not necessarily a guy who was born bad, but someone who actually was right (and about the inevitability of conflict with the Klingons, he probably was) but who was brought down by his own hubris (thinking only he could defend Starfleet, waking up Khan to help him do it). I was really impressed with how vividly Weller recalled the character and choices he made on set while making the movie, especially given that it was a one-time role he did three years ago. Later (I think a younger girl) asked "Admiral Marcus, why did you wake up Khan? Didn't it seem like a bad idea?" I loved Weller's answer, because he did his best to indulge the kid and not talk down to her, and I'll bet she left feeling like she got to talk to someone in Starfleet. Weller elaborated on how he wasn't a bad guy, and really wanted to protect Starfleet, and just vamped on and on with a long and interesting answer, and then finally ended by saying, "But why did I wake him up? I have no idea." Smiles and laughs all around. Weller was asked about Buckaroo Bonzai (which I've never actually seen), and said that while he's really glad people like the movie, neither he nor the rest of the cast have any idea what it's about. He was also surprised at how many things in Robocop have come true. And of all the movies he's done, he's still very proud of Naked Lunch. Weller said he directs about ten to twelve episodes of episode television a year in addition to whichever acting roles he takes, and sometimes will teach an art history course. The intensity we often see in his performances came through in person, but there was something else too; he just seemed like the nicest, fairest, kindest guy - someone whose blustery exterior hides a strong sense of decency. Though Bruce Greenwood by comparison is a bit more laid back, he also radiated that "good guy" aura that his Pike character had. Greenwood was very proud of his work in an indie movie called Meek's Cutoff, and by the end of him talking about it, Weller was promising to watch it. By the time the panel was over, I wanted to hang out with these guys, grab some beers and talk all night. I got to do the next best thing, and ask a question. I was trying really hard to come up with one that I could ask them both that wasn't just Star Trek. Greenwood stars as JFK in "Thirteen Days" which is one of my all time favorite movies, and Weller was the bad guy in Season 5 of 24, and I think he was the best villain that show had on the best season they had. So I asked if they approached those roles, or roles like those roles where either the property and/or the character had been previously established vs. something where they're creating something brand new. Greenwood answered first, talking about working on Thirteen Days and calling David Self's script "actor-proof". He said that for that specific movie, he had a lot of historical footage to look at to try to get the character right. He also read a lot of JFK's writings and speeches to try to get a sense of how he thought. One trick he used during scenes where JFK has to make an important decision was to image what the alternate choices would be, so that when he was asked on camera what to do, it wouldn't just look like he was delivering a line but actually figuring it out. Weller began by talking about how his father worked for the government in intelligence, and saying that he was actually about ten years old living on a base in Berlin when those thirteen days happened, and talked about what it was like living in Berlin right at that moment in time, and how his dad would have lots of people over, men whose names Peter wasn't allowed to ask, some of whom struck Peter as being bad guys or not looking quite right. So when he was asked to do the role in 24 of an intelligence guy who goes bad, someone trying to do the wrong thing but for what he thought was the right reason, Weller immediately had an idea of who that character was because of growing up around people like that. So instead of having to try to fit into an established show and working on that, Weller already knew who the character was and that made the rest easy. I'm not doing the exchange justice, but it was a fascinating look into both men. At the end, they were asked about Anton Yelchin and both had very kind things to say. Weller only knew him for about a week on the Star Trek Into Darkness shoot, but Greenwood had spent much more time with him between the two films. Both of them talked about how senseless his loss seemed and how they're just at a loss to make sense of it. They spoke of his fierce intelligence, intellectual curiosity and warm personality. Greenwood mentioned that he had just seen Beyond for the first time the past weekend, and that he noticed at the end that Kirk toasted "to absent friends" and that the first cut was to Yelchin - and that obviously the movie was done before he died, but just how sad it was and how it really hit him.

I don't know a darned thing about Italian Renaissance art history, but I am absolutely sure that if Dr. Weller was teaching that class, I'd find it endlessly fascinating.

The next panel was the Star Trek Discovery sneak preview, with producers Kirsten Beyer and Nicholas Meyer, moderated by the singularly irritating Jordan Hoffman. Hoffman started off by mispronouncing Beyer's name repeatedly, confessing that he had just asked her before walking onstage and had forgotten it already. Meyer seemed visibly irritated by many of Hoffman's questions, and while Beyer was more diplomatic, I think she was happy when it was finally turned over to fan questions. This is a difficult panel to rate because they really had nothing they were allowed to talk about. It began with a short (less than five minute) video which featured clips from previous Star Trek shows, a few comments from Bryan Fuller (who wasn't there in the hall), and that tiny bit of CGI of the new ship that had previously surfaced online. There was a little bit of confusion about the number of episodes the season would be, as Fuller seemed to suggest it would be ten, while Hoffman said it would be thirteen. In the video, Fuller said that the name Discovery was a tribute to Kubrick's 2001 as well as the NASA shuttle. We didn't really get any new information about the show itself; the descriptions of things we already know came from Hoffman during the intro, and Meyer and Beyer didn't comment on any specifics during the panel. Beyer revealed that she is writing tie-in novels and co-writing tie-in comic books that are scheduled to be published around the premiere. Someone asked a question, more of a comment really, about how they felt that the reboot movies weren't true to the spirit of the original shows and wanted this show to be more about exploration and a positive vision of humanity and discovery, and wanted to know what to expect for the new show. Nick Meyer's deadpan response? "Lower your expectations." That's a great pull quote, but the rest of his answer put it in context. Meyer felt very strongly that art isn't a democracy, and that if it was his job to simply produce the things that everyone thinks they want already, it would be impossible for him to live up to everyone's preconceived notions and ideas, and it would be disappointing for the audience to get exactly what they think they wanted. Meyer said that audiences don't actually know what they want, and its the artist's job to convince the audience that they want whatever it is that the artist is selling. He continued by saying that the audience isn't being forced to watch the show, and that they have the choice to change the channel, but once they've settled on watching it, it's their job to take the journey that he's laying in front of them. Meyer's expressed similar ideas in his Trek movie commentaries, and it's something I agree with. Trek 2 is a great movie because Meyer was trying to make the best movie he could make, not because he was trying to check off a bunch of boxes on a list. Although it might sound a little negative in print, I think Meyer was just trying to say, Trust us, just come along with us for the ride and it'll be worth it. I think Kirsten Bayer wanted to make sure to be a little less ambiguous, so she added at the end that "We like all of those things about Trek that you said you like, don't worry." Both were quick to point out that the show is Bryan Fuller's baby; Meyer called himself a cog in the machine. Towards the end, Jordan Hoffman made what was probably his most bizarre comment over the entire convention. Said Hoffman, "Wouldn't it be cool if the end of the first season of Discovery has them finding Spock Prime's shuttle coming back from the Kelvin universe?" There was just complete silence in the room afterwards, and he acknowledged that his idea had landed with a thud by concluding, "Guess it's just me." I have no clue what he meant by that. This wasn't the best panel, but that was sorta expected beforehand. All they could really say was that there was a show coming and that we'd like it. They ducked all questions about being on CBS All Access vs. actual broadcast television, though Nick Meyer hinted at his own feelings by saying that he was glad it was going to be one episode a week instead of all of them at once, and that he missed appointment television.

After the panel ended, I had about half an hour before the next event was to begin. At certain times in the day, the main hall security was allowing people to exit to use the bathroom and re-enter without losing their seat as long as you got a bathroom pass on your way out. This was one of those times (the bathroom re-entry rules were constantly changing), so I took advantage of it and was happy to get up and stretch my legs for ten minutes. While I was out walking the main concourse, I heard a familiar voice behind me talking to another voice about airplane reservations; I turned around and sure enough, it was Nick Meyer. I usually don't get starstruck. I usually don't fawn. I was going to keep walking, but that little voice in my head told me to seize the moment. I quickly made eye contact and went for it: "Mr. Meyer, my name is Josh, and I'm terribly sorry to interrupt you, but I just wanted to say that your work has had a tremendously positive influence on my life, and I just wanted to say thank you." He looked genuinely touched, and offered me his hand, which I shook. And then I continued left, and he turned right, and that was that. Really cool. I think he was pleasantly surprised to have an interaction that wasn't a question about Star Trek or a request for a selfie or autograph. If I had just seen him at a restaurant or walking down the street I never would have stopped him, but I figured it was probably okay to give it a shot inside a Star Trek convention when no one else was around to notice. I still think I learned more from his two hour commentary on the Star Trek II DVD than I did in four years of film school.

Returning to the main hall, I got to my seat for the centerpiece event of the day, a staged reading of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Directed by Mark A. Altman, the cast was as follows:
Kirk - Mary Stuart Masterson
Spock - Damian Young
McCoy - Brian Haley
Sulu - John Kim
Uhura - Anna George
Chekov - Katarina Morhacova
Saavik - Terry Farrell (also read Starfleet President)
Sarek - Ethan Phillips
Admiral Cartwright - Robert Clohessy (also read Klingon Ambassador)
Scotty - Jack Ellison Conlee
Amanda - Barbara Garrick
Gillian - Nadia Dajani
Starship Commander - Bobak Ferdowski
with Nathan Aldrich, Leah Bonnema and Josephy Dylan Ruymen covering smaller parts

The cast was generally good, although it was obvious that some were more familiar with the script than others. Unfortunately, it was presented without any sort of stage direction or narration, which for me made it a very choppy experience. I don't need every single camera angle or shot being detailed, but there's a lot of important exposition lost when the story is reduced only to the dialogue. If you weren't intimately familiar with the movie, you would have been hopelessly lost during this reading. This reading really needed the simplest stage directions just to tie it together. Here's one of many examples for why the "dialogue only" approach didn't really work: when they travel back to the future at the end, there's some dialogue that happens about preparing for time warp. The next bit of dialogue that happens in the movie occurs when the crew is facing court martial at Starfleet headquarters. So that means that this production lept from them preparing to travel home to being put in a court martial, with the entire climax and resolution of the ship crashing in San Francisco bay, the crew escaping from the sinking ship, Kirk freeing the whales, the whales talking to the probe, the probe restoring earth's oceans and environment, and the probe leaving were all absent from this telling. Half of the jokes fell flat without any context. Another example: when Kirk and Spock are looking for whales, in the movie Kirk sees a billboard that tells him that there are two humpback whales named George and Gracie at the Cetacean Institute, and they board a bus to take them there. There's a great visual gag where they board, we see the bus doors close, we see the bus doesn't move, and then we see the doors open and Kirk and Spock exit, with Spock asking, "What did he mean, exact change?" It's a great little gag. It's completely killed in this reading of dialogue only, because we simply go from Kirk's line of "George and Gracie at the Cetacean Institute" to Spock's line "What did he mean, exact change?" Those two lines don't go together. There needed to be a minimum of something to establish that. And that's how the whole thing played. Because the parts were being played by actors I'm not as familiar with, with some reading multiple roles, it was really difficult at times to decipher exactly who was who and what was going on. I've never heard of a staged reading that omitted stage directions before. At one point, Spock is supposed to play a recording of whale sounds to the crew that they react to, but there was neither a recording of whale sounds played nor any indication that anything was being played, so the audience jumped in and made whale sounds, which cracked up the cast. I was so disappointed because this idea had such great potential, but with that one unfathomable oversight, the entire thing became nearly impossible to follow. The diehard fans stayed but a lot of people grew restless and left the room because they couldn't follow the action.

The staged reading began late and ran a couple minutes late, so I was late to my final panel of the day. I rushed across the building from one end of the other, and made it to the panel on the new TOS Roddenberry Vault set after they had begun. I didn't miss too much, just a few excerpts from the set. Roger Lay spoke, as did Rod Roddenberry, as well as someone from CBS whose name is escaping me at the moment. I have to say, I went into the panel thinking that there wasn't a shot that I'd buy this, and now I'm pretty close to being convinced - the $80 retail price is a little high, but I'm sure it'll be closer to half of that on street date. Here's what the set doesn't have: raw, unedited footage presented as raw, unedited footage. The panelists discussed finding this material, and spending a long time trying to figure out the best way to present it. What they had were 35mm dailies and trims that Roddenberry had taken home with him from the set, primarily from the first two seasons, that technically speaking he probably wasn't supposed to be taking. These 35mm prints had all of the problems you'd associate with older film from that era, with fading and scratching. The footage didn't look pristine like the restored episodes, and they didn't have the material or the budget to bring it to anything close to that. At the same time, they knew that there wasn't really a lot of extensive on-set documentary material on the original series - most of the bonus material on the existing sets is modern day talking heads. So it became apparent to them that they could use this footage to really give people a sense of what it was like to actually be on set as the show was being created and filmed, and focused their efforts on doing that. This wasn't a project undertaken lightly, or as a quick cash grab. They began work on this more than seven years ago, conducted over 60 hours of interviews during that time, and had countless legal and clearance obstacles to overcome. It's seems as if they're just barely making their release date. My initial impression before the panel was that this was something that CBS was slapping together quickly to get us to double dip on these episodes, and that it would be just a few minutes of new material. It turns out I was very wrong about that. As far as what's on the set, there will be twelve original series episodes from the first two seasons, presented with their original visual effects, and the option of restored mono or remixed surround. They confirmed that the transfers on the episodes will be the same ones from the existing Blu-ray sets. They recorded three new audio commentaries for the set. Eleven of the twelve episodes will include an isolated score track. And best of all, each disc will include an hour of new documentary material, adding up to a total of three hours of new documentary footage. The main one is called "Inside The Roddenberry Vault" and runs 90 minutes, split into three parts (one part for disc). The bulk of the found footage appears here, and is related to the episodes on the set. Some of the treasures will include a deleted scene from Space Seed, as well as George Kirk's deleted scene from Operation - Annihilate! Three other half hour documentaries will be included, one per disc. Star Trek: Revisiting A Classic will be about the creation of the show, and how the early episodes came together. Strange New Worlds will be about the creation of the original visual effects, and will also include some unused visual effects footage. Swept Up includes odds and ends from the footage that didn't really fit into anything else but that they wanted to include. Some of the vault footage included may run a minute or two, while other bits are quick trims. They really wanted to have it incorporated into documentaries so that they could give context to everything; for instance, showing you an alternate take after showing you the one used, or showing footage of rejected models or failed tests next to the completed versions. While I still would have preferred having the raw footage put on the disc in that form, the few minutes of the documentary that they previewed were really entertaining, and the context they've given the footage makes it easier to enjoy. At the end of the day, an $80 retail price is a lot to pay for three hours worth of new documentary footage, but when it was originally announced, I was guessing it would be more like half an hour, so this seems like a much more substantial release than I had anticipated. One thing I wondered, but didn't ask, was if anyone had any ethical or moral questions about releasing this footage. Leonard Nimoy had a huge falling out with Roddenberry at the end of the show over blooper reels; Nimoy felt that the set needed to be safe space where actors could feel free to make a mistake, and that any unused footage was private and not meant for the audience. Nimoy felt that in order to do his best work, he needed to feel safe that his mistakes wouldn't be made public for the audience's amusement. Nimoy wrote extensively about this in his autobiography. On one hand, I will treasure getting to see outtakes and deleted moments and trims where Nimoy cracks and breaks character - but on the other hand, he felt very strongly that we shouldn't see that material. I understand both sides of the argument. But I was very curious if that had ever been a consideration for the people making this set, or if so much time has passed, and the legacy of the show is so huge, that they felt the historical value outweighed any individual concerns.

That was my last panel for Saturday, which wound up being a pretty packed day.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

HAha. You and me both. That is one of the worst episodes of all Trek(I'd take any of the bad Voyager episodes over it, hell I'll take any of the Brannon Braga horror story/techno babble/ paranoia episodes from TNG over it). I have never understood the fan favorite label it has achieved. Frustrating, annoying, and a complete waste of 45 minutes. One viewing was waaaay too much for me. Whenever I re-watch TNG I gleefully skip it.

Oh thank you, I am so glad I'm not the only Darmok hater. My big problem is that the concept just doesn't work. The conflict in the episode is that Picard and the crew can't communicate with another culture, because people from this culture can only speak in metaphor. They simply don't understand words used on their own, or normal sentences. But that in and of itself is ridiculous. To create a metaphor, you need to use words. This culture couldn't have gotten to a point where they could say "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra" because they'd never have been able to come up with those words and assign them to the people and places they represent. If they don't understand the concept of people having names, how can they understand that there's a person called Darmok and a person called Jalad? If they don't understand the concept of words referring to places, how could they understand that Tanagra is a place? How could the sentence "Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra" hold any meaning at all if the species is incapable of understanding how individual words work? That's such a huge hole in the script and I'm amazed that it never comes up.

The scariest thing at the Star Trek Discovery panel was how they cited over and over that Joe Menosky (the writer of that episode) is on their staff, and that he's written fan favorite episodes so Discovery is in good hands. (The clip they showed with Bryan Fuller included a clip from this episode too.) I could be very happy never seeing this again as long as I live. Much like you, I would gladly take any Brannon Braga horror or technobabble story over this one. Hell, I'll take any of the first or second season clunkers over this one. Shades Of Grey may be a waste of time, but at least they pretty much acknowledge that up front. This episode has no redeeming qualities to me. I haven't seen Voyager beyond the pilot, but I've seen every single episode and movie for every other Trek, and I would put Darmok at the very bottom of my list.

 

[FanCollector]

Thanks for the descriptions, Josh. What a nice moment for both you and Nicholas Meyer. I'm sure that really meant something to him as an artist.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Thanks for the descriptions, Josh. What a nice moment for both you and Nicholas Meyer. I'm sure that really meant something to him as an artist.

When it was over, I was really amazed it had happened… and then immediately wished I had said something to indicate I had been familiar with his work outside of Star Trek. Hope that came through. It was really cool. To me, that meant more than any autograph or photo ever could. One of my heroes offered me a handshake - what more do you need?