jay@smu.UUCP (05/08/84)
#N:smu:18200001:000:8364
smu!jay May 7 16:15:00 1984
"In Search of Spock and other things"
Recently, Leonard Nimoy visted the University of Texas at Arlington
and gave us some insight into his series, "In Search of..." and, of course,
into Start Trek III. I'll give the introduction, the information on "In Search
of..." and then on to the little bit Start Trek III that was given (in case you
want to skip).
When he entered, he was greated with the usual standing ovation. 1600
people can be kind of loud. And his saying, "Please, less emotion!" didn't
help to quell the cheering. He first began by saying that he would immediately
answer questions like, "Will Spock be coming back?", "What's your favorite
episode?", "Are you still angry at the way you've been treated", etc. His
response was "Yes, No, Maybe, ..." and we were just as surprised and laughing
just as much as you are (take that any way you wish).
"In Search of..."
He began by talking about his series, "In Search of..." Apparently he was
just trying to convey some of his philosophies and ideas that he gathered while
doing research for the series.
He spoke of reincarnation, and that got a go round of laughter from the
audience. He belives that reincarnation, ESP, precognition, etc. are valid
possibilities. That there are some phenomena that simply cannot be explained
away by the current scientific philosophies. The specific case he refered to
was that of Anna Manheim(?). There was a woman, who recently died, who claimed
to be Anastasia. German scientists had developed a new theory on the methods
of identification that seemed to prove that she was indeed Anastasia. The
theory is that, not the finger prints, but the ears provide the greatest degree
of accuracy when attempting to identify people. This too brought laughter from
the audience.
He also talked about Loch Ness. He believes that there is Something down
there. One of the popular theories, he said, was the idea that it was a giant
eel. The eels are common on the loch. There nature for the males to make an
arduous journey across the locj and through a channel to the sea, there they
would mate and die. The theory is that one eel didn't quite relish the idea
of dieing so it stayed behind. It eventually grew too big to navigate the
channel and it was then caught in the loch. Now, whether the eel was afraid
of dieing or was just not interested in mating compared to dieing, no one
knows. One idea is that he was just a gay eel (laughter).
He talked about acupuncture (no jokes here). He said that his crew filmed
chinese brain surgery and that all that was used in the way of anathesia was
one needle placed above the right eyebrow and one placed on the right wrist.
The patient was also awake for the entire procedure so that she could assist
the doctor by commenting on the sensations produced as he probed the brain.
"In Search of Spock"
He then asked, "What else would you like to know?" What indeed. He then
lowered the lights and began to show film clips from Star Trek III. The first
three slides were the most beautiful you could imagine! First, the Enterprise
as a small ship on the screen approaching a Starbase! It was a blocky, dumbell
shape with the docking area on the upper bell. Next was a view of the
Enterprise entering the dock and the next was a profile view of her through the
lounge windows! Wonderful!
The story begins within minutes of the ending of STII. Therefore everthing
remains the same. The ship, the uniforms (sigh of relief) and the people. The
cast from STII has only one alteration. Saavik is not going to be played by
Kirstie Alley. She asked for too much money (more than the stars) and so they
just didn't call back. I forgot the name of the replacement (please, no
flames, it's hard to write in the dark). In addition to the regular cast are
a few wonderful surprises. Spock isn't anywhere to be seen, but dad is, and
he's played by (who else) Mark Leonard. Another Vulcan is played by Dame
Judith Anderson. We sisn't quite get the role but she looks Very much like
T'pau. And the Klingons are back (the bumpy ones). Also, there appears to
be a very luscious Klingon commander that 'ole James Tomcat Kirk my play for
(no information, though).
Leonard refused to divulge Anything about Spock's fate and he wouldn't,
of course, give away the plot. But it looks to be packed. Leonard commented
along with the slides and the overall impression he was trying to make was
that the story has a plot, that it is about People, not gadgets (even though
the special effects are reported to be outstanding). The whole tone of his
comments was the fact that there were problems that needed to be solved and
situations that needed to be faced.
One scene had Kirk talking to Sarek and Leonard commented, "Here's Kirk
giving Sarek a piece of his mind." Then a close-up shot of Sarek with a
thoughtful expression and, "Looks like he's got something on his mind." Then
another shot of Sarek attempting a mind meld with Kirk and, "Here's Sarek
giving Kirk a piece of His mind."
Leonard apparently had trouble getting people to follow his directions
(what director doesn't). One scene showed Leonard and Shatner talking and
Leonard commented, "Here I'm trying to tell Bill what I want him to do." In
the next they were sitting off camera and "Here I am pleading with Bill to do
what I want him to do." In the next shot, he and the stunt coordinator (the
one for "T.J. Hooker") are sitting on the edge of a cliff in one of the scenes
and Bill is no where near and he says, "I think this is self-explanitory." I
a beautiful shot of Uhura standing on a transporter pad, crouching and with
phaser drawn and pointef toward the camera, he says, "This is what happened
when I tried to tell Nichelle what to do." The last of that series was a
picture of him, yelling through a megaphone, with fog in the background and
he commented, "Here I am trying to tell Anyone what to do!"
There are some beautiful looking scenes and you get to have a wonderful
time extrapolating plots from them. Just to summarize (and in no known order):
There's the view of the Klingon battle cruiser, a little more streamlined
but still with some fog. Kirk (facing the enemy), the landing party (running
away) and a Klingon (holding the weapon). Kirk, looking over the edge of the
cliff and smiling. A council chamber on Vulcan. Dr. Mcoy talking to a very
ugly humanoid in a bar (tufts of hair growing out here and there, although the
positioning is symmetrical). Kirk at some control panel and the lucious
Klingon commander standing behind. A fight scene on what must be the Genesis
created planet, with a view in the background of a planetoid that is volcanic
and heavily striated with lava flows (I though the Genesis planet didn't get
a moon created with it?). The Klingon battle cruiser here is now a Klingon
bird of prey. It has the same fuselage as the Klingon ship but the engines
are now mounted on straight wing extensions from the body, and another scene
shows the ship landing on a planet!
There were more but they all crowd together in my mind. However, there are
a couple of scenes that I want to describe here last. The first is the
Enterprise in a faceoff with the Klingon bird of prey. The Enterprise has some
nasty holes in the engineering hull. The next is Dr. Mcoy in what must be a
lounge of the Starbase. He is giving that ugly guy a Vulcan neck pinch! The
last two are related to Spock. The first is a view of David (Kirk's son) and
Saalik on the Genesis planet with Spock's MARK VI pod in the foreground. And
then the wonderful shot of Kirk bending over a display screen on the
Enterprise. He is looking at the computer recording of Spock's last mind meld
with Dr. McCoy when he said, "Remember..."
Would a cheer of "ALL RIGHT!!!" be good enough, NO. Well, I hope this
small draught is enough to satisfy you until the premire date of June 1st.
If anyone else sees the presentation as it's being played, please update and
correct any information. Leonard said that he knows Star Trek and that he
put the friendship and camaraderie back into it that was absent in STI and that
made a good comeback in STII, let's hope he's right.
Live long and Prosper!dwhitney@uok.UUCP (05/15/84)
#R:smu:18200001:uok:8400038:000:253 uok!dwhitney May 14 22:53:00 1984 Did anyone in the crowd at UT Arlington ask Nimoy anything about the rumor that the Enterprise is going to be destroyed??? (By the way, Robin Curtis is now the new Saavik..) Thanks David E. Whitney, University of OKlahoma !ctvax!uokvax!uok!dwhitney