griffith@dweeb.fx.com (Jim Griffith) (08/06/90)
Sigh. I've finished it. This is a report on four hours of Richard Arnold
and two hours of George Takei at Timecon '90. Since this is just under 800
lines long, I'm going to try to organize it somewhat. It's organized as
follows:
GEORGE TAKEI
RICHARD ARNOLD
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Star Trek VI: Lambada! (heh)
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Season 3
Season 4 Preview and Plans for the Future
General Star Trek comments
GENERAL TIMECON COMMENTS
USENET DINNER
So you can skip ahead to the points that you are interested in reading
about. It's all worthwhile (in my opinion, but I spent several hours
transcribing all six hours of this stuff, so I'm decidedly biased). There
is new information scattered all through here, as well as some rehashing of
old stuff. I consider this all to be basically 90% accurate. Richard
*has* lied to me (or at least misled, intentionally or unintentionally)
once in the past. There are certain topics on which he's obviously not
free to speak, but if he says something will or won't happen, he's about
95% accurate.
GEORGE TAKEI
"Don't call me 'Tiny'"...
He started off by commenting that he was blind as a bat, and that people
would have to wave vigorously in order to get his attention. His first
feature film was while he was a drama student at UCLA. A casting director
from Warner put him in a feature film called _ICE PALACE_ starring Richard
Burton, Robert Ryne, and Karen Jones (based on Edna Ferber's book about
Alaska). He played a young cannery worker who becomes a friend of Richard
Burton, who also played a cannery worker. When Burton's character becomes
successful, he takes George's character into his household as the "major
domo". Through the movie, George's character goes from about 16 to 66.
Subsequently, he did _NEVER SO FEW_ with Frank Sinatra and Gina
Lolabrigitti (I *know* I got that one wrong), where he played a Viet Cong
soldier. He did _MAJORITY OF ONE_ with Alec Guinness and Rosilyn Russell,
where he played another major domo, this time for Alec Guinness. He also
appeared in _THE GREEN BERETS_ with John Wayne, where he played the captain
of the South Vietnamese forces. He also played a young assistant DA in
_THE AMERICAN DREAM_, with Stuart Whitman.
He recently completed two films, _RETURN FROM THE RIVER KWAI_ and _BLOOD
OATH_. He did KWAI two years ago in the Philippines. He said that it's
not as good as the first one, but it's still a good one. KWAI is tied up
in legal difficulties. The producer of _BRIDGE OVER THE RIVER KWAI_, Sam
Spiegel, left an estate with a group of "very avaricious, venal lawyers".
The lawyers are attempting to copyright "River Kwai", so they're moving to
block the movie from being released. This is something of a joke, since
there *is* a place called "River Kwai", and you can't copyright a place (he
used the example of "Beverly Hills").
Anyways, the producer wouldn't "pay ransom" to release the film, so the
lawyers went to the distributor (Tri-Star), and told them that as soon as
the release date was announced, they'd file a lawsuit. The suit would
quickly be thrown out of court, but until it is, Tri-Star would be enjoined
from releasing the film. So Tri-Star won't set a release date.
So now the producer has obligations to his investors, and Tri-Star has
prevented him from meeting his deadlines. So the producer is suing both
the Spiegel estate and Tri-Star for damage done to his business. Sigh.
The film *has* been released in Europe and Japan, but it can't be released
in the US yet. As for a video release, it's been released in England and
Japan. Problem is that the English videotape format is incompatible with
US VCR's, and the Japanese version has the reverse dubbing of what English-
speaking viewers would want.
George plays the commandant of the internment camp. The film picks up
where the first left off, and the war is going badly for the Japanese. The
Japanese high command sends orders for George to take his prisoners and
bring them back to Japan for labor. So he's supposed to march them back,
essentially. Timothy Bottoms plays an Australian prisoner who is rather
troublesome. He constantly tries to escape, and George is forced to make
an example of him. So there is a very formal, ritualistic ceremony where
Bottoms loses his head.
_BLOOD OATH_ takes place after WWII, and it deals with the Australian war
crimes tribunal, organized to deal with Japanese war crimes (which are not
well described, historically, unlike the German war crimes trials).
MacArthur had decreed that the emperor would be immune from prosecution.
George plays the aristocratic cousin of the emperor, educated at Oxford,
and very refined. During the war, he had become vice-admiral of the
Japanese navy. He is also in charge of an island where the Japanese had a
prison camp, and when the Australians retake the island after the war, they
find evidence of war atrocities - mutilated bodies, etc. So George's
character is held responsible and is put on trial. MacArthur is very
uneasy about this, since he's a cousin of the emperor. Bryan Brown plays
the prosecuting attorney, a straight arrow. He's caught between the
pressure of the press, which advocates "stringing them up" and the
military, who wants him to let George off, due to George's lineage. So
material witnesses and evidence becomes unavailable. George's character
ends up getting off and his underlings shoulder the blame.
He was asked if given a choice of roles and leading ladies, what he would
choose. His first reaction was that unlike some of the other Star Trek
actors, he's quite pleased to have been a part of Star Trek, and he feels
really blessed to have had the opportunity, although he thinks that there
is a lot of depth to Sulu that hasn't been explored. He said that some of
the others feel that Star Trek limited their opportunities in the industry,
and he feels that he's had enough movie roles that this isn't true for
him. He would like to do Shakespeare - Cassius, Macbeth, or Hamlet. But
he'd better get to him soon, because Hamlet isn't a geriatric character...
(his words). He thinks that this is more possible for him now, since there
is more emphasis on the acting being true to the role, rather than the
actor being true to the role, so there could be an Asian Macbeth. He
pointed out Stacy Keach as Hamlet to James Earl Jones as Claudius (Hamlet's
uncle) in a New York (Central Park) production.
As for leading ladies, he's particularly impressed with the versatility and
subtlety and range of Michelle Pfeiffer. He also had a lot of respect for
Demi Moore's performance in _GHOST_, as well as Whoopie Goldberg's. He'd
also like to act opposite Maggie Smith.
He was asked if he keeps in regular touch with the rest of the original
cast. He said that he does with Walter Koenig, because Walter is great at
hearing rumors, and *sharing* rumors (and possibly *making up* rumors?
Walter wondered). Walter is putting together a two-person play with Mark
Lenard in the San Fernando valley (CA) (note that I saw an "Entertainment
Tonight" piece on it. It basically involves Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry
Finn meeting again in their middle ages). He sees Gene occasionally at the
studio. Jimmy Doohan and Nichelle are good friends of his. He was
politically active with Leonard Nimoy for years, but Leonard's been busy
lately with his career, so they haven't seen each other much. He's been in
touch with DeForrest a lot lately, because his wife Carolyn has been ill,
and George has been wishing them well.
In STIII, in the scene where McCoy is being rescued from the psych ward,
there were some difficulties in that scene. The first time they filmed it,
George put everything into it, and the stuntman put everything into it, and
the end result was that he went flying way past the mark - out of camera
view. So they had to go again, and this time, both of them eased off
somewhat, and the guy barely went anywhere. So the third time, they
finally got it right.
For Star Trek VI, there *will* be one, with the original cast. According
to Paramount, Star Trek V lost $30 million. He was really shocked by Harve
Bennett's proposal for the "Academy days" script, mainly because he
couldn't imagine anyone else being able to pull it off. George thought
that he had to report to his "true bosses", namely the fans. So for the
first thirteen weeks of this year, he did a convention every weekend,
telling fans what was happening. And fan pressure caused Paramount to
reevaluate their position and dump Harve Bennett. They announced the 25th
Anniversary release date for Star Trek VI, with the original cast, to be
September 8, 1991.
George felt that this was best, because he felt that the "Academy days"
movie would have bombed, and two movie bombs in a row would have finished
off Star Trek for all time.
The problem now is that they have a release date. However, they don't have
a producer, director, or script. They have been talking to Leonard Nimoy
about directing. Leonard has an acting job from September to November, and
they would need to being filming in December (or maybe January), but the
director will need to begin around October. And he clearly can't do that.
If they were to start later than what is planned, the movie won't be the
quality that it should be. So what Leonard is proposing is that they
consider that entire first season to be the date, rather than just the date
of the first episode. Therefore, they could release the movie at any time
up until April or May of '92 and still have it constitute a 25th
Anniversary release. Leonard *does* want to direct it, but he wants the
movie done *right*, and that can't be done with the release date that
they've announced. So they need to move the date before Leonard will
agree. So WRITE TO PARAMOUNT ABOUT IT!!!
As for the premiere, they were proposing to release it at the Aerospace
museum where the first movie was premiered, but the museum has denied them
permission. So now they're talking about New York. George suggested that
San Francisco made more sense, since that is where Starfleet is located and
that's where Sulu was born (and that was roughly where he happened to be
speaking at the time he said this...). Makes sense to me...
He suggested that Star Trek VI should perhaps have some kind of
contemporary relevance. He pointed out that the largest contemporary issue
is the collapse of the Berlin wall, and that perhaps an appropriate
commentary on that might be some kind of resolution of the Klingon
conflict. (What occurred to *me* was that if there was some kind of
conflict, it would surely involve more starships than just the Enterprise.
I would like to see a conflict with Kirk and Spock on the Enterprise, and
Sulu commanding a different starship, and Chekhov commanding another one,
so you could get multiple views of the conflict, as well as showing
multiple approaches to the situation.)
One of his comments was that he felt that STIV was so successful because it
really showed the entire cast working together towards the solution of the
problem, rather that just the "three main characters".
He was asked if he'd consider doing ST:TNG, and he said that he's been
*suggesting* it. Problem is that it's unreasonable for him to do that.
He'd be 125 or so, and it would be difficult to put him in and make the
episode work (although he suggested using the slingshot effect to go
forward in time...).
He was asked how well-defined his character was prior to his receiving the
role. He said that the central characters were fairly well-defined, but
the peripheral characters were only vaguely defined, and he had some
latitude to put some of himself into the character. But he could only
flesh his character out in the context of the scripts.
He was asked if he was a pilot (specifically referring to his flying a Huey
in STIV). He said that while he may play the best helmsman in the galaxy,
"there is this stereotype of Asian drivers... And the reason why we have
stereotypes is because there's a grain of truth to them...". A couple
weeks back, he was driving with a friend, and he accidentally went through
a yellow light. A car honked at him, and his friend stuck his head out and
shouted "I'm sorry, but he's an Asian driver!". He prefers solid ground to
terra firma. In fact, the scenes shot in the helicopter were actually done
while the chopper was on the ground.
He's working on a non-science fiction novel, which he thinks Star Trek fans
will like, because it starts out at a Star Trek convention.
RICHARD ARNOLD
Star Trek: The Motion Picture :
In Star Trek: The Motion Picture, in the "crowd scene", which was the crew
briefing on the rec deck, the crowd was composed of Star Trek fans. There
was no open call for extras - the news spread by word-of-mouth. In the
crowd was David Gerrold, Robert Wise's wife (Wise directed the movie),
Paula Crist, Jim Kirk, Richard Arnold, Fred Bronson, Susan Sackett, and
Bjo Trimble. Only a dozen or so of the crowd were specifically chosen for
who they were, and the remaining 133 were chosen out of the hundreds that
showed up on the basis of who could fit into the pre-made costumes.
Richard pointed out that Ilea and Decker from ST:TMP became Troi and Riker
in ST:TNG.
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan :
The original title for STII was "The Revenge of Khan". However, the
original title for the third Star Wars movie was "The Revenge of the
Jedi". Since the two titles were so similar, the two studios agreed to
both change their titles, so we got "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" and
"Return of the Jedi".
One of the shots shown was the one of "Khan recognizing Chekhov as the one
who shut him out of that bathroom fifteen years ago", as Richard put it.
In the scene where Khan activates Genesis, they had to shoot the scene
several times, because the counter on the Genesis device wouldn't start
correctly. So here Montalban has to drag himself across the bridge, start
up the Genesis device, and the damned counter won't work. So on the third
take, when it failed again, Montalban turned to Nicholas Meyer and said
"Can't you get this -- thing to work?" (Montalban generally being the
consummate professional). Meyer, with his ever-present cigar, pulls the
cigar from his mouth, turns to the assistant director, and says "Is it too
late to get another Mexican for this part?". They got it right on the next
shot.
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock :
There is a wonderful parody written so as to be STIV. At the end of STIII,
Kruge is hanging on to Kirk's boot, and Kirk kicks him off. Star Trek IV
picks up with Kirk acting odd. Turns out that Kruge left his "putra" in
Kirk, and all these Klingons want to get Kirk back to Klingon to recover
the putra - not because Kruge was important, but because he owed everyone
money...
In STIII, Kirk lays his leather jacket over the dead David. At the start
of STIV, Shatner wanted to wear the same jacket. Richard immediately
jumped up and said "you can't do that, the jacket was destroyed on
Genesis." Bill said "well, maybe he bought a new one on Vulcan". But Bill
ended up losing on that issue.
In the scene where McCoy is talking to Spock on the sickbay bed, there is a
shot of Kirk watching, with tears in his eyes. But the scene was cut
because it "would have made Kirk appear too vulnerable".
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home :
Kirk Thatcher (formerly with ILM) worked as Leonard Nimoy's assistant. He
wrote the song "I Hate You", which was played by "The Edge of Ettiquette"
to be used on the boom box carried by the punk rocker - himself. So now
you know. And now you can stop bringing it up...
There is this lady who is walking her dog when she gets stopped by Uhura
and Chekhov (I think) and tries to tell them where Alameda is. If Nichols
and Koenig appear somewhat shocked by her answer, it is because no one that
they ask during that scene was supposed to be able to answer them. Turns
out that that woman was actually just some woman out walking her dog, and
she'd somehow gotten into the shot. They later had to look her up and get
her to sign a waiver to use the shot with her. She naturally asked for a
day's wages for the part.
There was a scene planned with George Takei in which he encounters a little
boy who turns out to be his great-great-great-great-grandfather. But the
boy kept freezing during the scene, so it was scrapped.
The Enterprise-A is not actually a new ship. It is actually the Yorktown
(NCC-1700), which is the Enterprise's sister ship, and which starts out the
movie in trouble. It was renamed Enterprise after the refit.
The intention during STIV was to show that Saavik was pregnant with Spock's
child, but they cut the scenes in favor of other scenes. The scenes
*might* be restored for the televised version... But as far as "official
Star Trek" is concerned, we don't know. For all we know, she's full
Vulcan, as her heritage is only defined in the novelization, which is "Star
Trek fiction".
Someone asked if the probe in STIV would ever be better explained. Richard
said that someone (either Diane or Vonda) proposed a Star Trek novel which
explained it better. Problem was that 75% of the novel took place millions
of years ago, and it just didn't have enough Star Trek in it to qualify as
a "Star Trek" novel.
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier :
In STV, DeForrest Kelley looked very frail, because he had had an operation
about two weeks prior to filming. Since then, he's put on about 20 pounds,
mainly muscle, so he's much better now.
The hangar deck in STV is actually a redress of the palace ballroom from
_COMING TO AMERICA_. They painted over $100,000 worth of gold-painted
gilting to make the shuttle bay.
There is a gag reel for STV that is not being shown to fans.
The change in hairstyle for Sybok in STV is due to the fact that the scenes
where he has shorter hair were shot prior to the scenes where he has longer
hair.
The person who played "God" in STV was George Murdoch, who also played
Admiral Hansen in "The Best of Both Worlds".
Star Trek VI :
At this point, Star Trek VI is simply something that Paramount would like
to do. There are problems with the schedule, but Paramount *is* interested
in it.
ST:TNG Season 3 :
The start of the season was somewhat confused because they didn't know
whether or not Dr. Crusher would be back. Diana Muldaur was not going to
return, and rather than try to get a third person to play the doctor, they
decided to try to get Gates again. This had nothing to do with getting
Gates back in particular. The problems that had existed with the Dr.
Crusher character had largely gone away (Wesley was no longer dependent on
her, the concern about a romantic relationship between her and Picard had
been quashed rather firmly, etc.). So she was available and they got her
back.
The third episode shown ("Ensigns of Command") was actually the first
filmed. The original script had Data having sex with whats-her-name, but
Gene said "no".
The tall negotiator in "The Price" was played by Kevin Peter Hall, who also
played the predator in _PREDATOR_ and Harry in _HARRY AND THE HENDERSONS_
"The High Ground" was basically a story about the Irish-English conflict.
They even went so far as to mention the Irish Unification of 2024 in that
episode.
In "The Offspring", the neuter gold-tone version of Lal was played by the
same actor who played Trent in "Angel One". In order to do the part, he
had to be shaved from the neck down, wear prosthetics over his head, upper
chest, and crotch, and be covered in gold-tone make-up. He then had to
remain standing for fourteen hours straight, for three days in a row.
During those fourteen hours, he couldn't sit, eat, go to the bathroom, or
bend over.
"Sarek" was essentially a Ronald Reagan episode.
In "Sins of the Father", they had 22 Klingons at once, which is a record.
It required all of the Klingon suits that they had.
When Michael Westmore has to create a strange alien, he tries to draw from
nature, so as to make it more believable. In "Allegiance", the brute-like
dude was based on a baboon.
"Hollow Pursuits" addressed some points that a lot of fans have been
raising. Richard told about one letter, in which a fan asked just how far
one could go with the holodeck. Specifically, could you have sex with a
holodeck character? And if so, when you left, would the sperm fall to the
floor? He envisioned Picard walking on to the holodeck and slipping on
something... In the episode, Wil Wheaton was required to eat a lot of
blueberry pie - 16 pieces of it. Unfortunately, after "Stand By Me", he
can't stand the smell of blueberry.
For "The Most Toys", this addressed the issue of whether or not Data can
kill some one. As far as Gene is concerned, the answer is "no". But as
far as Brent is concerned, sure, he'd have killed the little creep. David
Rapoport was originally slated to appear as Fajo, and he'd filmed three
days of it before being hospitalized due to his suicide attempt. The story
writer happens to be a baseball card collector.
In "Sarek", yes, a young Lieutenant Picard did attend the wedding of
Sarek's son, but they didn't say which son, and Sarek could conceivably
have had another son in that time. Richard specifically said that Sarek
referred to Spock in the past tense. Also, that *was* a Brahms piece in
the Mozart concert. That was unintentional, but they couldn't find a
Mozart piece that conveyed the mood that they wanted. And they didn't say
that it was an all-Mozart concert.
In Transfigurations, when John Doe is on the bed, still seriously injured,
there is a scene where Gates has this long technical speech, which she had
a hard time doing. The actor playing John Doe was in make-up starting
around 4:15 a.m., and he was quite tired. So when she finally made it
through the speech, she leaned over him to say her last line, and you could
hear John Doe snoring. He'd fallen asleep. Note that Patrick had also
fallen asleep during his surgery in "Samaritan Snare".
Now, Richard specifically said not to repeat this next bit, because he
knows that it would get back to Michael, but of course, I got it on tape,
and I'm going to repeat it. In that same episode, when Worf gets thrown
over the railing and has his neck broken, and Gates is kneeling, lifting
him up, she's in the middle of some line, when Michael "let one fly"...
In "The Best of Both Worlds", Patrick wasn't supposed to shoot the laser
straight into the camera, but it just happened. Someone asked what the
laser was for, and Richard said "I dunno, it looks neat".
They didn't make a third-season blooper reel. Everyone was so upset about
the first-season one getting out that three of the cast members asked that
they not make any more (Patrick Stewart was apparently one, I'd guess that
the other two were Brent Spiner and Marina Sirtis).
ST:TNG Season 4 Preview and Plans for the Future:
During the break, Patrick Stewart did a film in New York, Gates did a play,
Michael Dorn "flew around" - he passed his flying instrumentation test or
something like that, Wil did a "Monsters" episode and some NASA promo work,
Brent is recording an album which will probably be released in December
(they call him "old yellow-eyes"), Marina did a feature film in England
(that she stars in), Johnathan got a second place in New York, since his
wife (Jeanie Francis (sp)) works there, and they have a two-coast
relationship.
If you catch ST:TNG on Saturdays, you will see the season premiere on
September 29th (the satellite uplink will be on September 22nd). Here's
what Richard said about the season opener (without giving away details).
At the end of the teaser, you're going to be freaked. At the end of the
first act, you're going to be pulling out your typewriter. at the end of
the second act, you're going to be pulling out your gun and loading it. At
the end of the third act, you'll begin to understand where they're going
with the episode, but you're still going to be mad. At the end of the
fourth act, you're going to understand better where they're going with the
episode, and you're going to be saying to yourself "do I go down to the
studio and burn it to the ground or not?". At the end of the fifth act,
you'll understand.
"The Best of Both Worlds" will largely be concluded in part II, the season
opener. There will be a lot of loose ends left, which will be resolved in
the second episode, called "Family", essentially part III. So they're
going to resolve the cliff-hanger over two episodes. Family will take part
on Earth. Shelby will return for the resolution of the Borg Trilogy, and
she will probably be a recurring character, but not a regular one.
(Just to throw some speculation in at this point, the shot Geordi fires
will clearly not destroy the Borg ship, since Stewart has signed for the
rest of the season. None of the regulars will be killed, and as far as I
know, there will be no significant change in the status of the Federation.
Within those parameters, you can guess away.)
In "The Best of Both Worlds II", there is a scene where Guinan and Picard
talk about their past relationship. It's supposedly a great throwaway
scene.
They will be introducing a young female character as a regular at some
time. She's been called "a friend for Data". Your guess is as good as
mine.
Richard agrees that Troi is largely ineffectual. He blames this on the
fact that the writing cast has generally been male, and the strong moments
in Troi's history can be traced back to either the Pulaski character, who
Troi could play off of well, or female writers like Melinda. There is a
new female writer (something like "Jerry Taylor"), who will hopefully help
her character out. He mentioned that she worked on the third or fourth
episode, called "Suddenly Human", which is supposed to be something of a
tear-jerker, and deals with child abuse. In it, Troi is counseling on a
certain approach to dealing with the child, which Picard opposes, because
she says that he's acting from his heart, rather than from his head. Troi
basically says that he's making the situation worse by taking that
approach. Richard also said that there have been problems with a
particular producer cutting key scenes from episodes. There have been a
couple of cases where Troi has been written to have her draw a phaser while
on an away team, but this producer didn't think that girls should fight.
Sigh. They've had to fight against that a lot, and things should get
better because of a better writing staff (or at least one with more Star
Trek vision).
LeVar Burton didn't show up on the first day of shooting. So they call to
find out where he is, and it turns out he was in the hospital to have his
gallbladder removed. Many of his lines were reassigned to O'Brien and
Wesley. He now has to go back and shoot the scenes where he was needed
significantly after the fact. They went ahead and filmed the scenes that
he was supposed to be in without him, to get the footage of the other
actors, and they'll now have to go back and redo the scenes with him.
Someone (Ben?) said that they had heard that most of his lines were given
to O'Brien, and Richard said that he'd probably heard that from either
Michael "Big Mouth" Dorn or Marina "Can't Keep Quiet" Sirtis...
According to Richard, Patrick Stewart was *not* late in signing for this
season - he is under a six-year contract to Paramount. Patrick was very
irate when he heard about the rumors on CompuServe (and USENET). He wanted
to know who the hell J. Michael Strazinsky was. They don't take the
computer nets that seriously. I pointed out that there are roughly 35,000
on USENET alone, and he said that even if there were 100,000, it wouldn't
matter, since ST:TNG's estimated viewing audience is 30 million. Richard
said not to take any "this is an official statement" comments on the net
seriously. Even though a couple of the crew have net access (Mike Okuda is
on GENIE), they would never leak anything to a net that the weren't allowed
to leak, and they're allowed to leak nothing - only Richard is.
O'Brien's character will be elaborated on. Colm has picked a first name,
which *may* be used, but they haven't decided yet.
For the fourth season, one of the characters will get married, around the
seventh episode. We will get to meet Picard's family and Worf's (human)
family. We will learn more about the Crusher background. They will pick
up on "Sins of the Father" and "The Emissary". As they currently have it
planned, K'Eyhlar will beam aboard pregnant...
(More speculation at this point. The "married" character could very well
be Worf - to K'Eyhlar. It could also be Data - to his "young friend". My
best guess is that it will be O'Brien, since his character "will be
elaborated on").
Whoopi Goldberg will be back for the fourth season (but note that at the
same convention, Majel Barrett directly contradicted this). Whoopi is a
pretty serious Trek fan. She owns all of the Galoob figures. She is in a
management contract that prevents her from appearing at conventions for
less than $25,000. She can show up for free, as a surprise guest. But she
can't show up as an announced guest. She *has* gone to conventions
incognito (like Mark Hamill). She also collects anything from the '20's
and '30's which degrades blacks (the old "Sambo" items).
We will probably see Commander Tomalak again.
We will likely see the starbase from STIII again this season.
Richard said that the Romulans now probably know as much about the Borg as
we know. Picard hasn't necessarily informed them about it, but it's
assumed that they've been watching what has been happening with them. They
could not have seen the Enterprise's encounter with them in "Q-Who?", since
that took place on the other side of the galaxy.
Will "Conspiracy" be followed up on? Possibly. They're not actively
pursuing it, but if they receive a good script which deals with it, they
will consider it. Did they get a lot of flak for the violence in that
episode? Not really - it wasn't any more violent than the news...
Will we ever see the two Ferengi in the shuttlecraft that went through the
wormhole again? Dunno.
Can we expect anything special for the 25th Anniversary for ST;TNG? Arnold
said that this would be around the opening of the fifth season, and there
is a "very special" episode planned.
There will not be a Tholian episode. Basically, the Federation is
surrounded on two sides by Tholians, Klingons, Romulans, etc., and now they
are exploring the side away from the discovered races, so we won't be
encountered the old familiar races that much.
Will we see any of the earlier Enterprises again? Not likely. The
Enterprise-B is an Excelsior-class ship, which is created fifteen or twenty
years after the Excelsior is destroyed in the transwarp test. Richard
figures that the war with the Klingons occurs around 2288, so it isn't
until around 2290 that shipbuilding picks up again and we get the
Enterprise-B.
According to Richard, Geordi won't get normal vision, since the return to
"limited normal vision" would handicap him. He'd need to take some serious
time off to retrain himself.
Nichelle Nichols and Whoopi have become good friends. Nichelle would like
to play Guinan's mother, but Whoopi would like her to play her daughter.
One or the other will probably be done since Gene likes the idea.
They are considering releasing ST:TNG on video. They are planning on
releasing "Encounter at Farpoint" on video, and if that sells well, they
might release the rest. If not, then a release is iffy. The problem is
that everyone tapes the episodes now, and Paramount knows that.
Don't expect a ST:TNG movie in 1994, like Marilyn Beck said. That would be
the absolute earliest, and they don't expect to follow that timeline.
General Star Trek Comments :
In Fall of 1991 (late August), Rick Sternbach and Mike Okuda, who are
technical consultants and graphic artists for ST:TNG, will be releasing a
Star Trek technical manual, based entirely on the technical work they've
done for ST:TNG. This is information that already appeared in the series,
as well as information that script writers can draw from. No other books
are considered "Star Trek fact", and scripts which draw from other novels
and references will probably get their references removed prior to
shooting...
Paramount will be putting out a 25th Anniversary Star Trek coffee-table
book, in which will appear approximately 800 photos, most of which will not
have been previously published. Most of the shots are from the movies.
This will be out around late August of '91.
"The Bonding", "The Defector", "Yesterday's Enterprise", and "Tin Man" were
fan-written. A first-draft script will earn $11,000. If it is produced,
both times it is aired will earn the writer $11,000 each, and the writer
will continue to earn residuals.
According to Richard, transwarp is a complete failure, causing the
destruction of the Excelsior in its first test. There is no "ultrawarp".
The Excelsior-class Enterprise has conventional warp, but certain elements
of transwarp were incorporated into warpdrive to improve performance.
Someone asked if in ST:TNG, does Data really have no feelings? Richard
said "oh yeah". Basically, Data has enough experience with feelings to
understand and occasionally emulate them. But he has no feelings of his
own. There have been occasional "throwaway" scenes proposed, where Data
has a feeling, but they've been cut out, because if they're going to give
him a feeling, they're going to make it into an entire episode. In fact,
the original version of "Skin of Evil" had Yar saying to Data "And Data, it
*did* happen", and at the very end, a close-up of Data showed a single tear
running down his face. But that was cut out because that was a "throwaway"
- it didn't do justice to what was happening. In a later episode, there
was a scene proposed where something emotional was going on and Troi
suddenly reacts because she senses an emotion in Data. Also, in "Tin Man",
when Troi says "Data, you really *do* understand", she was supposed to be
sensing an emotion in Data, but again, that was a throwaway.
At one point, Patrick Stewart was actually three days away from being asked
to leave the country, due to immigration laws, but former California
governor Brown stepped in and got it taken care of, so he could start doing
Pontiac commercials. They couldn't convince the INS that Patrick was
absolutely necessary to the series.
ST:TNG spends $1.6 million per episode (as compared to Doctor Who's
$25,900).
Richard was asked in which ways he'd like to see the series improved. He
said that the first season didn't start out that well, because Gene found
himself battling against the same kind of situations he had run into when
he was under NBC's thumb. Paramount managed to put several "Paramount
boys" into production spots, such as Maurice Hurley (I think). There were
a lot of "Miami Vice" style production droids who wanted far more action in
the scripts, and Gene ended up spending a lot of time rewriting scripts
because of that. This lasted through to the middle of the second season.
The third season started off badly as well, because of a man named Michael
Wagner, who was also a Miami Vice person. The first three scripts he
submitted were all horribly wrong. Michael had been brought in under the
impression that he was supposed to revive a dead show or fix something that
was broken, essentially, despite the fact that ST:TNG had been steadily
improving. It became a "Gene or Mike" situation, and Mike was gone. He
was replaced by Michael Pillar, who Gene personally interviewed (Pillar
wrote "The Best of Both Worlds"). So things got better. Pillar does a
good job of balancing between Gene's interests and Paramount's.
"Skin of Evil"'s "Armus" was named after Burton Armus.
ST:TNG is feeling no pressure from the other hour-long syndicated shows
having folded. The shows that folded were all given as much financial
backing as ST:TNG, so its continued success just shows the quality and
viewer interest in the show. Richard said that the staying power of ST:TNG
is *not* due to the "Trekkies", but to the other 95% of its audience, who
keep watching the show. Certainly the "Trekkies" are a high-visibility
portion of the audience, but the bulk of the audience never attend cons,
never collect paraphernalia, etc. At that point, I said "yeah, they have
lives", which Richard seemed to take personally (although it's not how I
intended it).
Richard did the covers from the TOS videos.
To disclaim some rumors, there is nothing happening between Crusher and
Picard. And Starfleet is *not* a military organization.
Gates McFadden did appear in _THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER_, and she might be
appearing in the sequel, which is in the planning stage, and which would
also star Alec Baldwin (note that my sources say that Paramount is
considering Clancy's _CLEAR AND PRESENT DANGER_ for the sequel). She will
also appear with James Belushi and Charles Grodin in _TAKING CARE OF
BUSINESS_ (which also happens to have John DeLancie in it).
Will a "next Next Generation" be made? Probably not. Gene feels that the
success of the original series was largely due to the original characters
and the actors who played them. He was really incensed over the "Academy
days" script. A quote Richard threw out was "to assume that the casting of
those actors in those roles had nothing to do with the success of the
original series is the height of arrogance" (which happens to be a close
parallel to that quote the Traveller threw out in "Where No One Has Gone
Before" - "what wonderful arrogance"). Gene directed that quote to Harve
Bennett. Gene sees the original cast as his children and the new cast as
his grandchildren. If they can keep the majority of the cast interested in
the series, they might make a seventh, eighth, or ninth season of ST:TNG.
Richard was quick to say that Star Trek isn't about war, so there won't be
any war stories. There may be some slight conflict between the Romulans,
but there won't be any kind of war.
In the original series, warp X was (X * c^X), so warp 3 was 3(c^3) With the
new technology, it's a lot faster than that, but the numbers have been
scaled down so that they're essentially used the same as in the original
series, even though in reality they're much faster. So warp 9 in TOS is
actually much slower than warp 9 in TNG.
Richard said that he has the problem of showing up on the set wearing a
clever Star Trek shirt (like the Simpson's "Live long and eat my phaser,
dude" shirt), and everyone wanting it. He's had to give away a lot of his
shirts.
If the Enterprise-D seems "empty", keep in mind that the Enterprise-D can
carry up to 15,000 civilians (I've heard in past conventions that the
corridor walls actually house stasis units), but only currently carries
1000. So it *should* seem empty.
The dress Troi wears is *green*. It photographs *blue*, but it is really
green. The gold that Data, Worf, and Geordi wear are more of a
green-mustard than gold. The blue that the medical staff wear is actually
greenish too.
Brent Spiner wears a backbrace because of a previous injury. The new
uniforms allow him to wear it underneath, while the old ones made the brace
too visible.
GENERAL TIMECON COMMENTS
I wasn't actually looking forward to this con, mainly because I prefer to
go to a con because of big name guests - the "Big Three" or any of the TNG
cast, or so I can get information about the next season (Richard Arnold).
And Timecon is a 50% Dr. Who con. But I really had fun. One thing I
noticed more this year than last was how enjoyable the "less-famous" guests
are. A *lot* of these are really excellent speakers. I got a kick out of
listening to John Levene (Dr. Who's "Sgt. Benton"), Sylvester McCoy ((the
sixth?) Doctor), and Richard Chaves (Colonel Ironhorse from "War of the
Worlds"). McCoy in particular is hilarious, even though I'm not a Who kind
of guy. And listening to Levene and McCoy play off of each other was a
riot. In general, everyone was having fun - Chaves and Arnold, Levene and
Arnold, Levene and McCoy. If you don't go to many conventions because of a
lack of well-known speakers, I urge you to go anyways. The "lesser-known"
stars have a lot of neat general-industry stories, in addition to the
series/movie-specific ones.
The Con itself was remarkably subdued. I was surprised. There was an
excellent dealers' room (although they had to expand to the second floor to
deal with too many tables). The security (I mean FLARE) staff was
well-organized and did a good job. About the only complaint I had was that
I ended up missing a lot of stuff because of the schedule (they scheduled
Richard Arnold and George Takei at the same time in different rooms, they
had Majel Barrett and a Star Trek quiz simultaneously, etc.).
In general, if you have the opportunity to attend Timecon, do so.
USENET DINNER
This was actually a lot of fun. We had around fifteen USENET folk show up
and grace us with their presence. We met, took an hour to get organized,
went out to Pedro's, took about an hour to eat dinner, then went back and
Con'ed around for the rest of the weekend. I'd like to acknowledge the
people who showed up and identified themselves: Mark Holtz ("hi, I'm
mholtz@sactoh0!"), Barbara "Cherry Stem" Nash ("Look, I did it again!"),
Chris Ambler ("Wow. Sorry, Jen, I'm leaving you for Barbara"), Chet Erez
("Oh, goody, Jen's available!"), Jennifer Tayler ("Wait, wait, I missed
something here..."), Peter Shipley ("EEEEK! I touched a Dweeb!"), Sal
Zaragoza ("Smile when you say that..."), Ben "Quizmaster" Ragunton ("But,
but, I had my hand up first!"), Karen Black ("*You're* Jim Griffith!"),
George Herbert ("The OCF Gang: Making Tomorrow's mistakes Today!"), Guy
Martin, John Kusters, Michael Morrell ("I usually don't have people riding
in the back seat."), Lee Thompson, Sean "Yoda" Rouse ("I know Pete and Sal
are around here somewhere..."), our poor waitress ("Separate checks?!?!?"),
and, of course, myself ("Don't worry, I'll figure the check out..."). I
look forward to having a bigger and better dinner at next year's LA
Creation Con. But Chris gets to figure out the check next time...
Jim
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Edited by Jim Griffith - the official scapegoat for r.a.s.i.
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