After 20 years, "Tribble-ations" is still Trek's best fan film

November 4th is not only the day to say "Happy Will Rogers Birthday!"—yes, there is a physical as well as a philosophical link there—but this year it's the 20th anniversary of DS9's delightfully and awesomely monument anniversary homage show, "Trials and Tribble-ations."

Now this is a valentine to fans. I mean, it's pro-Trek's own fan film, is what it is.

Look, even if you're not a DS9 fan or even an original series fan—you must get  familiar with this episode. It's the "Charlie Brown Christmas" of Trek that transcends everything else ... and when it was made, I dived in to do a two-day set visit for the best bits for a TEN-page feature for the official Communicator magazine (before I was editor)... and wound up helping make a little history myself.

In fact, I've long said this was the most effortlessly fun writing project I've ever had—it's both a diary and an interview digest. That shoot was simply a magical time ..as magical as the final episode preserved on film turned out to be.
Sadly, none of the custom photos I took were used on deadline for the spread, but you can still see and read these original PDF pages here, via my site:

 

What's more, this year's Trekland: On Speaker Vol. 5 "30 at 50" featured my remastered stage visit to "Tribble-ations" (as well as "Flashback"), and there's even more good background there—in 17 of the actual voices, from 1996. It's a great anniversary year gift! The new online order page is coming with the new site in a matter of days, but for now...

When I am live at conventions, as with Northeast Trek Con or Starbase Indy, you can grab one from me there.. as you could since its debut at STLV.

Here's the back cover:

STV: Happy 50th from Star Trek crews past

YES! Finally, new Trekland video—and a brand-new intro! But the 50th celebration has only just begun ... for a whole year, yes?
 
So here's some faces and voices I've been holding back for the Happy 50th party—just the kind of behind-the-scenes insight that I love recording and revealing... from the TNG Companion where I met many of them, to our deep-diving Portal 47 today. Some you know; most you will not. (A few have been P47 guests; many others will be, too.)

For all or part of 18+ years, various teams of skilled show-biz folk brought us 737 hours of TV and films from Gene Roddenberry's universe...and could not help but form their own bonds of workaday friendship as well as professional pride.

With social media to help, the group held its third reunion in six years on May 22 in LA's Griffin Park—and it seemed natural to record for posterity some shoutouts for the 50th. I only regret that this was the smallest turnout of the three, and I did not get more folks on camera—to represent even more of the older series, or more of the various departments that go into getting an episode made.

Of course they have all gone on to other shows, other projects or even other careers now... but you can tell how most would agree that their working Star Trek years were something special, if not the highlights of their resume.

And that they are all fans, too.

LA ALERT: Jimmy Darren sings it 'Vic ' style Nov. 13

He's done it around the country... he's done it with orchestras, at Trek cons the past few years—at Vegas Khaaan (at right, 2011), and most recently at Destination: Star Trek London.

But for the first time in 45 years, James Darren will bring his echo of DS9's "Vic Fontaine" here to a club in L.A., pallie!

"I can't believe I haven't sang at a club in L.A. since the old Cocoanut Grove at the Ambassador Hotel in 1969," he told me.

Pencil in Jimmy's show for next Thursday, Nov. 13, at the Catalina Jazz Club at 6725 West Sunset Blvd., Hollywood 90028 Sunset, at Las Palmas. Better grab tickets now, online at the link above, and not put it off—or call (323) 466-2210. The show at 8:30 p.m., but doors open for dinner at 7. (Note this is NOT a club out on Catalina Island).

Jimmy promises a great night of standards, stories and comedy patter in the "Vic" vein—both from the old Vegas days, and maybe even DS9 in this "mainstream" location.

The crowd at DST3 in London (below) had a great time—including all those dancers on the floor!

Niners take note: New 'On Speaker' CD #3 is now out!

The Vegas Trek sneak-peek debut is over—and Volume 3 of "Trekland: On Speaker" is here for good!

As our buds at trekmovie.com have noted, this is the archival series that shares my long-stored, long-form audio interviews with Trek creators from back in the day—fresh from the work, and remastered from old analog cassette tape to digital files.

And as a bookend to last year's edition marking 20 years since the TNG finale, for 2014's debut at Vegas Khhaaann we are celebrating in like fashion the 15th anniversary of "What You Leave Behind," the two-hour final chapter of DS9.

For "What They Left Behind" you get an hour and 18 minutes of revealing conversations from back in 1999-2000 with writer-producer Ron D. Moore, visual FX producer Dan Curry and supervisor Gary Hutzel, and some 25 minutes with show runner Ira Steven Behr—with not a shallow sound bite in sight. Plus, as an actual CD in jewel case, you get my three-panel liner notes, photos and context, along with my brief audio intros to the album and each guest. 

I'll even sign it for you! 

On my website, you can get yours—or check out the two-fer special if you get the new issue and Vol. 2 as well: the  similar disc celebrating  "All Good Things…," TNG's glorious ending.  (At the moment, Vol. 1 —"Future Voices, Passed"—is not available in hard copy, but will soon be downloadable; stay tuned.)

Once again, hats off to buddy Chris Jones at trek.fm/Stellar Debris for both his graphics on the case liner design and for the audio remastering project (and for the nice shout-out on "The Ready Room" news). And kudos to QBT Media in Monrovia, all the CDs I now have in stock are professionally printed and pressed. Many thanks also to everyone at Vegas Khhaaan who snapped one up, including everyone on the LA2Vegas Trek Tour who took me up on my special just for them!

Online alert: Watch Kitty Swink's online auction promo for the Antaeus

Star Trek power couple Armin "Quark" Shimerman and Kitty "Rozahn/Luaran" Swink have shared news from their Antaeus Theatre company with Trekland before.

And now, to help LA's classical theatre company, here's a fun video (at right) that Kitty directed to promote Antaeus's annual Online Auction fundraiser!

"I literally took the art off of our wall. And dressed Ann Noble in my DS9 hat and Armin's Klingon Shakespeare shirt," tells us.

Keep an eye peeled for a unique sculpture by none other than Rene "Odo" Auberjonois, too...and a few loose editorial comments... And if you can throw them some support, please do.

RIP Cliff Bole: Modern Trek's prolific, hard-working director—and blue-guys namesake

I've been meaning to share a few thoughts these past busy weeks about prolific director Cliff Bole, 76, who passed away Feb. 15 and may well go down in history amid a long career best known as the most prolific TNG director of all (25 hours)—with 42 hours of Trek in toto, with 7 more on DS9 and 10 on Voyager. Cliff died at his home in Palm Desert, Calif., after a long battle with cancer. 

As a sign of his impact, no other Trek director is also the namesake for a species (the Bolians, debuted in the episode "Conspiracy" he directed) or a landmark (the Cliffs of Bole, from DS9's "Invasive Procedure" that he did not direct).

Atop that long list of Trek credits, of course, will always and forever be "The Best of Both Worlds"—both parts. When I first met Cliff during my second trip to L.A. in 1993 (above), settling in to do research over two weeks as a "tourist" and not under the gun of a cruelly close deadline, Cliff eagerly returned my call for an interview—Trek had not been done to death by then, and no Internet yet!—and he invited me out to his house in the Valley. As I recall now, that was actually my first "trip" there, outside the Glendale/Hollywood "axis" my two annual book research trips had revolved around so far.

Car-crazy Cliff and the '41 Mercury
he showed off to me in 1993

That's where we snapped the shots I share here, including his then-current car project ... and all in Cliff's no-nonsense, plain-spoken, gruff-around-the-edges language that didn't hold back on the honesty or the fun memories at all. He was upfront about his resume, called a dog a dog as well as a hit a hit, and took the blame or credit as much as anyone in TV directing can do. He threw a lot of insights at me that I was only then beginning to appreciate, and going back through that first, long interview I'm reminded of how much Treklanders like him taught me about not only the well-oiled Trek machine, but Hollywood in general.

Along with the "BOBW"s, too, he also admits to the "Aquiel"s of the bunch, as well. For TV directors, it's always a mixed bag and a bit of the "luck of the draw" when scripts are being cranked out in a long season. Here's some of what he told me about that upon our first meeting back in March 1993:
“There were a couple I thought might be my last! The crew works so damn hard and you try, but you just can‘t come to bat every time and hit a home run. You try to at least get on base, first."

"It was one helluva ride!"

He began all the way back with only the series’ seventh show, "Lonely Among Us": "I managed to survive the first year—which in itself I’m proud of! The most dangerous thing about episodic directors: if you stay around too long you‘re going to fall through some of the cracks. I don’t care how good the writers are, there’s going to be one episode that doesn‘t have it all. But you’re going to fall through the cracks and the chances are that they’re going to say, ‘Well, get rid of this bum!’ It’s going to happen and it‘s happened to me on a lot of series, and it’s dangerous. The best thing to do is hit a couple of episodes and get out.”

But not so with TNG, and he praised onetime Warner Brothers contact Rick Berman for the stability he brought to the production—even the "regular irregulars" like himself were made part of the family. Flight enthusiast Michael Dorn convinced him to get his own license again after a 20-year lapse in the air; special effects man Wil Thoms once towed Bole’s restored 1940 pickup truck to a friend who bought it in Seattle, using a trailer loaned by one of the set grips.

“We had so much fun. We had some uptightness, but God, this was a family; we had marriages, divorces—I got divorced in the middle of it; people had kids and family. More than anything I’ve ever experienced, there’s major family stuff going on here.”
Cliff had thoughts on all his TNG shows for me, but of course everyone wants to hear about BOBW—as he told me, in 1994:  “Mike Westmore (makeup designer) called me up one night and he said, ‘I‘ve got this idea for a laser’ and I said ‘Jesus Christ, that sounds great! Do it! Do it! Do it!’ He said, ‘where do you want to put it?’ And I said, ‘Right here, man, on the side of the head—and every time he looks in the camera it’s there.’ I went to grammar school with Mike; we started out in kindergarten together! 

And then this, about the pre-sir Patrick Stewart: “I remember once I said ‘OK, we’re finished for the night—I don’t think I need this close-up of Patrick’...And he looked down at me—we’re all dead tired—and gave me one of those great English eye looks, from up on his pedestal in the lab. And then I said,  ‘Well, I guess I’ll shoot a close-up of Patrick here!’ ” 
 
According to his full obituary biography as submitted by family—where you can leave your own thoughts on his work, online—Clifford John Bole was born in San Francisco on Nov. 9, 1937, but grew up in the San Fernando Valley of north L.A., turning his interest in the biz into a life as a "set rat," sneaking in with friends to watch productions in progress on location or the nearby studios.

Bole (left) consults on-set on DS9
with script supervisor Judi Brown
and Rene Auberjonois

"I've been here since I was 4; my dad in vaudeville, ran theaters in San Francisco, and he always said 'Don't get into this end of the business!' In the old Valley, we had studio backlots bigger than Burbank—Universal, Warners, Republic...9, 10, 15 streets. They used to shoot on Saturdays, and at 6 o'clock Saturdays we were on our bikes, crossing the LA River on a raft to watch 'em." Breaking in as a script clerk and starting out as the on-set script supervisor for McHale's Navy, Cliff has credits as a director on Baywatch, Charlie's Angels, Fantasy Island, MacGyver, M.A.N.T.I.S., Matt Houston, Mission: Impossible, Scarecrow and Mrs. King, Spencer for Hire, Strike Force, The Six Million Dollar Man, The X Files, T.J. Hooker, and Vega$. 

In 2005, Cliff was recognized with a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs Walk of Stars, and turned to his car crush to complete Cars Under the Stars, a documentary showcasing the popular El Paseo Cruise Night event there. He was also an avid pilot, boater, golfer and dirt bike rider, where he shared close ties with the stunt community and counted Ronnie Rondell, Roy "Snuffy" Harrison and the late Hal Needham as close friends. He was also an Army vet and was stationed in Korea; survivors are his wife, son, daughter, and two grandchildren.

The family suggests that friends wishing to honor his memory contribute to a cancer research organization of their choice, or visit his star in Palm Springs. A celebration of life will be held later in the year; I hope to be able to go, and share some of the mentions from the day with Trekland.
 
Official startrek.com had a memorial post with reflections on Cliff and his work by many of his Trek colleagues.

Recalling a real Treklander: prop master Joe Longo, 74

This past Wednesday, I joined a few Trek folks (and many family and friends) to bid goodbye to a Treklander who ended up his long Hollywood career in Starfleet: prop master Joe Longo, who died Jan. 5 at age 73. As a sweet memento, the family had even reproduced Joe's trading card (from the 1993 Skybox "TNG behind the scenes" set) for all attendees at the mausoleum service. I took it, but I actually already had one—from the original set. Maybe you have one, too.

Now, this is not a case of a long shared personal history: When I met him, Joe had just moved from alternating episodes on TNG for five years to go over full-time on the new DS9. We had a good sit-down to cover those years in 1993, when I came out to work on the first TNG Companion edition, and I snapped this photo (at right) up in his office in the "Dreier Building" row of offices over Stages 8-9.  (How many first-season DS9 props can you identify on his walls?) Our chat is one of the famous 400+ hours on those cassette tapes I have.

But he was indeed on DS9 by the time I got to L.A. full-time, and I wouldn't really get to come back around to deal with his newer show until the Fact Files partwork and Communicator magazine took off a few years later. Long story short, as gruff as he always looked, Joe was a no-nonsense guy but was great to share his TNG memories with me, as fellow prop master Alan Sims had … and Joe helped out whenever I needed it after that. And I always loved to hear another Golden Age of Hollywood story about a movie, series, or an actor, when he had a sec. But, unfortunately, that was not too common. 

So check out some memories from co-workers like John Eaves, Mike Okuda, Doug Drexler and Rick Sternbach in this memorial post from Jan. 29 at star trek.com; those of you with the Okudas' Encyclopedia, note how Doug clevely worked Joe in as some of the uniform illustration "models" (with his bushy 'stach.).  For my part, let me simply share the photo above, and the memorial program below—with his career and some fun parting insights about a name you'll now now a little bit about, every time you see it forever on 12 total seasons of classic Star Trek TV, plus two films—ST II and III.

Over the last few years there have been times when I had to be away and miss a final memorial to one of our Trek family, and I always regret it. It reminds me I do have a few more to catch up on after Joe.

As for Joe, check out an another extra: look for that card below, too.

Happy birthday, Armin!—and check out this comedy's Kickstarter video

Armin and I during the 2007 Writer's Guild strike "Trek Day"

Yes, happy birthday today to a great actor, scholar, novelist, genre fan, union guy, Ferengi—and the man who first opened the door for us on opening night at Quark's!

Our best greetings to Armin Shimerman — who I hear also made a wicked recurring name for himself as Principal Snyder on  Buffy and tunneldweller Pascal on Beauty and the Beast).

While we wish him well today and I have your attention, check him out with Harry "Tam Elbrun/Nathan Samuels" Groener in this YouTube for a Kickstarter campaign on a hilarious indie comedy they and a host of genre names are involved with—Armin's wife Kitty, Barry Bostwick, many more ... and co-created and produced by Gabriel Diani, the guy who portrayed Spock to straight comic perfection in the tiny yet brilliant and even licensed 2004 production of "Spock's Brain" at an OC comedy club. How many in-jokes can you count? And this is just one of a dozen shorts featuring a lot of familiar faces in the film and, uh, "dry" wit... it's Diani & Devine Meet The Apolcalypse:

Now that I have my own attention free to look at other projects, I hope you all check out all the many cute vids and make a donation—a lot of your favorite actors are helping Gabe and Etta out with their project. Gabe even does a great turn in one as young sarcastic Mark Twain on the Internets machine ...

LA ALERT: Armin's LOL in mockumentary teaser for play

As you wait for your Into Darkness tickets, SoCal, check out this offbeat trailer for a new production of Arthur Miller's classic "The Crucible," co-starring our own Armin "Quark" Shimerman. The promo trailer, that is—not the play, which he co-directs.


Miller's timeless statement about literal witchhunts has nothing to do with DS9, Buffy... or Mad Men (watch it), or even The Office ...  but Armin and co-director Geoffrey "Hot Tooth" Wade shine in this offbeat approach to promoting the play.  And the show's befuddled cast are along for the ride.

Too much fun!

So, SoCal-ers... go see another fine Anteus production weekends May 16-July 7 (see info here) from Armin and Kitty and et al's troupe, L.A.'s classical theatre company. It's not the first time we've told you about Antaeus ... or that they have stooped to such tomfoolery for attention! (And look for a cameo of wife Kitty in the tag!)

LA ALERT!: Kitty's back in a moving social play, "Ladyhouse Blues"

One of the founding aims of TREKLAND: The Blog! was to keep up with what other projects the far-flung Trek family has gone on to, both before the camera and behind it—or, back in the realm of live performance, both on stage and backstage.

Kitty Swink and husband Armin Shimerman have been among those here in our pages who have been happy to share a current project, so I'm happy to help Kitty wrap up the current run of a powerful play in L.A. she shared with us, Kevin O'Morrison's 1979 "Ladyhouse Blues." This Andak Theatre production ends next weekend, March 24, with 8 p.m. shows Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. matinees Saturday and Sunday—all at the small-house NewPlace Studio Theatre in North Hollywood. All the ticket and performance info you need is here.

Kitty plays Liz (in center at left), the widowed matriarch of four daughters who live in a  man-less 1919 St. Louis tenement dubbed a "ladyhouse," so named for the missing husbands and sons gone to war typical of urban areas during and right after World War I . The LA Times had a great interview with Kitty, where she joked to me "managed to talk more about Star Trek than the play." Kitty, of course, played twice on DS9: as Bajoran Minister Rozahn in "Sanctuary" (below right) and as a Vorta, Luaran, in "Tacking Into the Wind."



She has the only Trek connection in the all-female cast of "Ladyhouse Blues," although Antak co-founder Dakin Matthews did play Janeway mentor Admiral Patterson in Voyager's "Relativity."

This is your final chance weekend to catch "Ladyhouse Blues," so catch one of the last four performances, will you? It's a great revival of the 1976 play and and covers so many levels: rural to urban migration, labor activism, women's roles in transition—plus the never-ending crap of bureaucracy and poltics....all from the standpoint of a strong woman raising more just like her, in a time of great social upheaval.

20 years since "Emmissary"? Happy birthday, DS9!

In honor of Deep Space Nine's premiere anniversary week—and YES, it was a syndicated show, and premiered on a different night in each market city where it was shown, for a week after Sunday, Jan. 3, 1993 ...

Here's a mystery DS9 "premiere" photo (at right, and below): Can you identify it? While you ponder, here's also a quick dive into a vidchat with Ira Behr from 2011 (below the fold), the fourth of a series we ran a year ago, as he waxes on about DS9 at my urging—and why it's appreciated more as the years go by than it was back in the day. (Some of you newer readers may never have seen it; it was shot during his first-year tenure as showrunner on Alphas.) I always am peeved a bit at how we always celebrate the premiers of series, but not the finales or other major moments—but there you go. We are only human... at least, us Sol III natives, anyway.

So, the mystery picture first:

And now Ira reminiscing (and for a spacer):



Gee, did you really need help on this? Our mystery pic is a rare shot of the Promenade going up on Stage 17 from what you might call even before the Terok Nor days: the spring of 1992 prior to the pilot filming that summer—"the biggest standing set in all of Hollywood" for seven years, as the Paramount tour guides used to brag. This shot does not do its scope justice, even with the crew guys for scale... but you get the idea. And a cool snapshot in history. Enjoy!

Survive the turkey, then head to Indy with me!

If your fandom turf in the East Midwest or Northern South actually overlaps the Indianapolis area, then by all means and best available speed you MUST head over to the ever-booming StarBase Indy convention at the Indianapolis Marriott East next weekend, after Thanksgiving Thursday.

For me, THIS one is personal.

Not only will Trekland be there, but also Nikki "Ezri Dax" deBoer, Bob and JG— the Klingon Chancellor brothers in and out of makeup (or something like that) ... plus their makeup whiz John Palladin, Alexis Cruz of Stargate fame, and my old Trek Life Etc. artist buddy and Indy local David Reddick. And lots more, including NASA astronaut and native Dr. David Wolf.

See, I'd been a guest at Indy back in 2004 and 2005, when both this convention and Star Trek itself were sagging with doubt about the future. Enterprise's flame dimmed, and then did go out, with turnout and optimism plummeting about Trek for all but the hard-core. That's why, as I told Ron Hawkins of the suburban Reporter-Times for his great profile piece, that I've been so thrilled to see not only Starbase Indy but also all of Trek make a comeback of optimism, exuberance and direction (not to mention demographics—the whole "youth thing.")

Nay, it's been transformed into so many platforms of fun it's been incredible... and again, I mean both the con AND fandom: Geek culture, fangirls and the JJ renewal have all bloomed and boomed since then. For SBI, Kim Huff and her gang stay totally locally run and fan-run to boot. With THREE charities to benefit. And tracks and great panels on indie filmmaking, other media franchises, writers, costuming, art, gaming ... of course.

What a difference seven years makes. It's been such a kick to be invited back after this bounce back for Indy... and to even have them GIVE me space and schedule gridtime for our traditional CON OF WRATH Meetup/Fundraiser Party—my documentary about the most "glorious failure" in Trek and pop culture history  ... as well as all the other stuff. Here's the "known space" where I'll be:

FRIDAY:
7 p.m.—Meet and Greet with all guests, during Opening Ceremonies,

SATURDAY:

12 noon—Trekland: Between the Cracks: Our signature "slide show"-plus of in-jokes, info and archives.... updated for SBI, of course, with even some JJverse updates.

10:30 p.m.-1 a.m.—Our Meetup-Fundraiser for THE CON OF WRATH where, as always, $20 not only gets you your screen credit (as per any donor) but also two hours of prize trivia, rare Trek video, and new clips yet unseen from our shoots for THE CON OF WRATH. Can Indy outpace even Vegas and Comic-Con (at right) and the blast we had back home in OKC, and just recently in Austin? We'll see! (And this still leaves an hour for late-night Karaoke...)

SUNDAY:
1 p.m.— Star Trek: The State of the Franchise: Our patented past-present-future Trek discussion forum where, as we recover on Sunday, we provide floor mics and I kick off YOUR crosstalk and opinions, dear audience, to maybe send each others' Trek insight where it has not gone before.

AND of course I'll be no stranger at my TREKLAND table, with new CDs, photos, SECRET FUNDRAISERS, and cool stuff cleaned out of my closet like old scripts.  SBI enjoys the nighttime services of Barfleet party-givers, too, which seems like a natural watering hole as well. (I can't let the Chancellors outgun me, now can I?)

This will be the last con of 2012 for me, in what has become a groundbreaking one in many ways—and my, I can't wait to see how much little Starbase Indy has grown! If you are in the neighborhood, please stop by.

STV: Finally, Niners: Part 4 of our Ira Steven Behr vidchat

A lot has happened since I first caught up last year with Ira Steven Behr—he of the TNG pivotal Season 3, and then showrunner the final five of his brilliant seven-year stint on DS9—and then ran three parts of our four-part video chat. For one thing, he's moved on from working on SyFy's Alphas, and for another he's confirmed to be a guest—after many years—for this year's Creation Vegas Khaaan in August!


Frankly, I'm shocked—shocked!—not to have been deluged with your demands for the promised but unfulfilled finale Part Four. Well, you can call off your non-existent email campaign, and just shut down the fax, okay?  Thankfully, in the final minutes we mainly wax poetic and/or nostalgic about DS9, so no ham, no fowl—it's just as pithy as it was a few months back and no worse for the delay. Here you go ... 

Anybody have any lingering questions for Ira for NEXT time? Comment below!

STV: Ira Steven Behr, Part 3 of 4—On "Alpha"s AND "DS9"...

Have you been watching Alphas on SyFy at 10 p.m. Mondays?  Exec producer Ira Steven Behr is an old friend from his Trekland days heading up the writers on DS9 (and the creator of Jennifer Hetrick's rogue archeologist Vash on TNG, to boot).

If you haven't caught the earlier installments of this interview, here's Part I and Part 2 all ready for you—where, among other things, Ira runs through the David Straithaim-led cast and characters of his new hit (it's doing very well).  In Part 3 here, Ira makes the point—in case you haven't been keeping up!—that the Alphas' "superhuman" abilities are natural, right from the brain: neither the comic-book super-Heroes style, nor of The 4400 alien-additive variety (and he should know, having headed up the latter show).

In fact, we finally turn the convo in this segment to waxing reflective on DS9 ... and yes, it all concludes in Part 4, coming up soon.



BTW: As Ira describes, here's real-life "Alpha" Stephen Wiltshire in action with his Manhattan memory mural.

STV: Ira Steven Behr, Part 2: On his new ALPHAS of SyFy—and DS9, of course

It's been some weeks for Ira Steven Behr since we posted Part I of our pre-ALPHAS vidchat.... In that time, the new 10 p.m. Monday series has come in for great critical and audience approval alike and become SyFy's newest hit.  


Meanwhile, here's our next piece with the DS9 showrunner, also of the late great The 4400 and many more—in which Ira addresses more of his new show and can't help but shout out to his old Trek days. Especially since I lead him there...with even more to come in Part 3: we're just getting warmed up.

STV: Ira Steven Behr, Part I—on "Alphas," "DS9"... and what about that manuscript?!

Congrats to Ira Steven Behr, showrunner for the new SyFy Monday-night hit Alphas—according to early numbers and critical response—and thanks to him for sitting down for yet another talk about it... but this time, on guerilla-cam for Trekland.

Can I tell you a story? On my second working trip to Hollywood—but the first not be crazed, not on an insane deadline and for longer than five days—Ira was my very first interview subject during his first year on DS9. At the time I had no idea he'd just had a run-in with a well-known genre magazine writer. And his first sentence to me was, before I ever sat down on a chair in his Hart Building office: "You aren't going to fuck around with my quotes, are you?  You better not. Because I'm tired of being honest and being misquoted."

Welcome to Hollywood and Trekland, Larry.

But what a bonding moment. So thanks for sharing again, Ira—my ST VI Blu-ray audio-mate. I guess I faked the trust thing good enough.



And everybody else, stay tuned for the rest with Ira next week ...and for more new eps of Alphas on SyFy Mondays at 10 pm ET/PT. As for DS9 and The 4400—you can find 'em on DVD (October for Netflix).

As for Ira's book ...we'll have to be patient.

STV: Long-lost chat! Alphas/DS9's Ira Steven Behr—novelist?

In honor of Ira Steven Behr's new show Alphas premiering this week on SyFy (he's the showrunner, just not the creator—sound familiar?) ...

...Here's a vidchat he and I did, pre-HD, that was ready to go but delayed in posting at Trekland.com from back in December 2008, during the Hollywood writer's strike and just after the end of his show The 4400. I taped this just after we'd had lunch and recorded our joint audio commentary for the Blu-ray edition of ST VI: The Undiscovered Country.

The passion, idealism and, yes, a slightly twisted dark side all come through in Ira's years of running DS9--as well as his stint on UPN's Twilight Zone redux, and especially The 4400. What's you don't sense by merely watching his series, though, is that Ira is a hoot. And he knows his Hollywood stuff.

It all came back to me recently that, aside from his DVD bonus appearances, most fans haven't had a real chance to meet Ira—so I was pleased when he let me hound him for a little catch-up chat outside Mulberry's Pizza. The guy who brought multiple mainstream Ferengis, the Bell Riots and swingin' Vic Fontaine to Star Trek is the real deal. (And he's even using a computer now—wow.)

We had a hoot with ST VI, and the Blu-ray edition subsequently saw the light of day—which is more than I can say for this chat ... until now! (Notice this clip is still 4x3 aspect, not HD, and lacks the STV endtag theme: I chose to keep it pristine here, and not re-edit.)

I didn't realize it going in that day, but we wound up talking mostly about his big project of the strike-caused hiatus... a novel!  So—did he ever finish the manuscript from '08? For the answer, stay tuned HERE this week, and see... and check out Alphas at 10 p.m. Mondays PT/ET on SyFy, with encore airings through the week.

(More Ira, and of a more recent nature. Coming up this week ...!)

Don't miss! Saturday's online Trek auction—with “visual technobabble”?

After all the big pioneering Trek auctions of recent years, let’s hope new bid-fests have not become passé.

Especially one THIS Saturday—tomorrow—that may have somehow flown low under your radar! It deserves better, because there’s a whole class of cool collectible that’s never really been out in public before. And if you are new to Trek auctions, you have to check this out.

Propworx, partnering now with LiveAuctioneers.com for the online mechanics, is offering a huge new catalog of 257 various Trek goodies in an online-only, 21-hour auction opening at 1 pm ET/10 am PT (links below). My buddy Alec Peters, collectors’ guru blogger and founder of Propworx, points out there’s a raft of reasonable items in the $100-$200 range—all the way up to, amazingly, an actual original Star Trek series matte painting—on glass!—of Starbase 11 from “The Menagerie.”

But what caught my eye are a few bid items that should appeal to both art lovers as well as the graphics techheads—we know who we are!—and anyone who appreciates true Trek history.

Most of all— I bet you’ve never seen anything quite like them in a major auction before! Don't let them get away.

I’m talking about the original artboard paste-ups for what we lovingly call “Okudagrams,” after Mike O. himself—not just sketches, and not the final colorful translight controls and readouts as used on-set, but the ROOT of what made them: original paper black-and-white paste-ups on heavy stock, used to shoot film that was then gelled with cut-to-fit colored plastic sheet.

Eventually, about midway through DS9, tech finally evolved to allow a direct output from the art department’s Macs to a large, continuous-sheet renderer—ending the time-consuming paper paste-up, film shoot, and then cookie-cutter gelling of clear film. As with fully-formed filming miniatures, it was yet another hands-on analog process made outmoded by the CGI and digital tech evolution revolution.

But those artboard paste-ups—with a lot of fine type and in-jokes galore, for you eagle-eyed out there—actually are original works of art, too, when you think about it, and deserve to be framed and treated as such. Some of them are truly iconic and one-timers—like the Kirk and Spock personal log and daily schedules text panels from their quarters in Star Trek VI (above—apologies for the low-res image), or the animation board for the Klingon's sighting in to shoot Voyager 1. Others are like the oft-seen DS9 station cutaway chart with IDs, used everywhere—but this is the original! … or even the periodic table of the "elements" from TNG and DS9, or the DS9 Replimat menu and greeting signs, chock-full of a zillion small-type in-jokes.

What’s more, most of them even come with their own “certificate of authenticity” by way of scrawled handwritten notes to the camera operator, like “Please Shoot 150%."

Can you tell I love these things?  I have several, and they are a techheads' dream. Talk about touching the real thing... ! And being able to READ it, finally? C'mon, you text geeks—you know who you are.

All you need to do for bidding is to register on Live Auctioneers here—and you can also download the full color 158-page catalog for free at Propworx' site; it's as easy as Ebay to bid, and will stay open 21 hours. Alec's premiere Star Trek Prop, Costume & Auction blog has been going since the Christie's auction in 2006 at startrekprops.com.

Saturday’s auction has tons of high- (and low-) profile costumes, props and paper goods like scripts and call sheets, too—and this session even has “rainbow pages” final scripts with the companion first-draft versions, itself a rare offering for those who love script evolution (but not well illustrated in the photos).

But wow—just don’t let the simple, underrated descriptions of the “artboard” artwork pass you by.

It’s like owning your own real piece of visual technobabble—suitable for framing!

LA ALERT: Your weekend? Theatre with Armin & Kitty, dinner with Cirroc!

This should be a no-brainer if you're in SoCal looking for a great weekend Trekland date:

So, let us review:
First, get tickets for Armin and Kitty's Irish play "Juno and the Paycock" at the Odyssey Theatre that we chatted and told you about, near Wilshire and Sepulveda (half-priced tickets at Goldstar) ...




... and then head just south, down Sepulveda to Jefferson, and have "before" or "after" dinner with Cirroc and his lovely Sara at their self-named Cafe Cirroc and Sara the Wine Cellar, as he described to us last fall (And yes, there's a very good chance he'll be there pleasing patrons):

STV: LA ALERT: See Kitty and Armin in Irish classic "Juno and the Paycock"

Talk about timeless: According to Armin "Quark" Shimerman, Irish national playwright hero Sean O'Casey's 1920s classic "Juno and the Paycock" is a comedy set against the Irish civil war—or as he says, "The Honeymooners during the U.S. Civil War"—and has something to reflect on about all the conflicts today at their root affecting local folks. What's more, Kitty has the title lead as matriarch Juno; Armin plays the "paycock's" best friend and enabler.

The show runs through June 5 at the Odyssey Theatre in South LA along Sepulveda— but here, let Arin and Kitty tell you about it ...and the other Treklanders involved!:



Did you catch Armin and Kitty's convention appearance list for 2011 in there, too?

The Odyssey Theatre also has an excellent preview trailer up on YouTube: