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.

10 years and counting: the last trek of a Prime Enterprise

It's been 10 years since the world last traveled aboard an Enterprise of the Prime Universe .... May 13, 2005. My, where's a decade gone?

Well, it's gone to many places where no one had gone before ... the dimensions have been ever-evolving and ever-surprising, and one might say ever-alternate ... but for now, let's take a moment and recall that day.

Actually, 5/13/05 was the main date the world will remember for this media creature's memorial. For many of us closer to the patient, the final day had actually been March 8, when first-unit filming famously wrapped on the Enterprise series—ending with a guest-laden, DS9-style "last day" for cast, crew and guest celebrities—including a very grateful yours truly.

I shared that day back in my old Endgame column in official Star Trek Magazine  (the pre-US's UK version)... and I have "reprinted" that column here, below the fold. But first, a couple of visual bookmarks for you from that finale, "These Are The Voyages..."—a regretted episode that is hardly beloved for its TNG envelope concept and death of Trip, and yet at the same time can't help but be bittersweet for so many reasons—as the end of a series, and the end of an era.

In that spirit, here's two never-published shots from my archive: the "final day" of guest extras as seen through the eyes of, yes, the guest extras' shoes....(can you spot the extras who did not make it on camera?) ....

LARRY NEMECEK PHOTO

... and, as taken on April 1, 2005 (no foolin'), outside Stages 8-9 on old "Star Trek row"...the glimmers of a starship already going in mothballs:

LARRY NEMECEK PHOTO

If you catch me at a con this summer, I may well be sharing more of these memories as we mark 10 years without Trek on TV.

I know you all agree with me: It's been way too long without. The mnid-2005 meme of Trek being too "old and tired" and even dying, has since been blown out of the sky. So what gives?

Well, while we wait— here as promised: the full column I penned for Star Trek Magazine for the November 2005 issue (my manuscript version), about that last day:

ENDGAME #3

There’s been a lot of critical brickbats tossed about regarding “These Are the Voyages…,” the finale for Enterprise—and I can’t say as how I’d even toss a few myself. But the episode will always carry a bittersweet memory, personally, since it was the show where, after 13 years of working around the Paramount lot, I finally broke down and asked to be a guest extra.

I just missed the chance to be a Tellarite in the “Demons”/”Terra Prime” two-parter, but then won a reprieve for this all-human scene—and the cream-colored suit I’d be wearing had been donned by Avery “Sisko” Brooks as 1950s writer Benny Russell in DS9’s “Far Beyond the Stars”!

Writer and fellow “human VIP” Judith-Reeves Stevens had the same experience: she wound up in the dark-green affair that Gates “Beverly Crusher” McFadden had worn to the funeral in TNG’s “Sub Rosa.” The NX-01’s uniforms, spruced up to reflect six years of age, now bore MACO-like name tags, most after staffers; Judith’s husband, fellow writer Gar Reeves-Stevens, was actually “Crewman Brad Yacobian,” the veteran line producer.

Everyone looked so fine in their duds— legendary Star Trek fan, Oscar winner and staff illustrator Doug Drexler in updated Starfleet togs, as was assistant editor (and former Brannon Braga assistant) Mike O’Halloran, my seatmate. For the civilians, there was associate producer Dave Rossi and his then still-fiance, Lili; first assistant director Dave Trotti and his wife and longtime extra/stand-in Amy Kate (in matching maroon accents!), writer Andre Bormanis, script coordinator Juan Fernandes, Donna Rooney, assistant to Manny Coto—and of course, Admiral Coto himself, enjoying what would be his climax to 18 months in professional Star Trek. (Check out the photo here to see who’s who in the main scene). Mike Sussman was the only writer staffer not in costume, aside from Brannon; he was down to watch and rib us, but Mike had already taken a turn as a dead Defiant “redshirt” for “In a Mirror, Darkly” Part 2—and in turn for that had worn David Gerrold’s guest-cameo uniform from DS9’s “Trials and Tribble-ations!”

So it was, outside the old Stage 8-9 entrance, as all these bodies—no strangers to Star Trek, but not in an on-camera role—snapped pics and reminisced, along with many of the “regular” Enterprise regulars as well. Star Trek’s familiar ban on cameras had long gone out the window as the final weeks and days wound down.

According to my call sheet—now covered with signatures, like a senior’s yearbook—we finally trooped onstage at 11 a.m. after a 9:45 makeup call. You never saw 90% of it, but we spent much time blocking, rehearsing and shooting an elaborate walk-in sequence for the “VIPs” as Reed, Hoshi and Travis chat from their front-row balcony seats. In my own subtext, I was a civilian military contractor pleased that Starfleet would be staffing up—and thus the reason for my sitting just two down from “Admiral” Coto!

I had wondered for some time how this day would feel—not as to be truly “playing” on camera, but just the air of the wrap. With memories still fresh from Deep Space Nine’s storied last day of guest extras on the Vic’s set, it was much the same—although a lot less time-consuming. A “surprise” guest was Majel Roddenberry, accompanied by son Rod, who made a thank-you to cast and crew as she had on the final day of every series since Gene’s death in 1991.

Still, the big scene was only half a day and we were done by 3 p.m.—though I hung on far into the night, like many others, determined to see it through to final wrap. Even so, I gave up at 1 a.m., after the T’Pol-Trip shuttlepod scene and during the run-up to Archer’s speech. The evening bore moment after moment of private little farewells among actors and crew alike, and just like fans everywhere they too all speculated on how long Star Trek’s hibernation would last.

The crisp March night air greeted me as, for the last time for whoknows how long, I left a Star Trek soundstage and headed home. As with us all, the past of Enterprise and its run cut short came back to me, knowing this “last day” would be just as much a tangle of emotions and memories as the series itself.

STV: Why Doug Drexler backs that petition for a Netflix ENTERPRISE

Amid all the hoopla over that movie that came out May 17, or even our little Star Trek Continues ...

You might have choked on your gagh a few weeks back to read about a campaign to get Netflix to fund a "fifth season" of none other than... Star Trek: Enterprise?

It may have even popped up on your Facebook. That's how I first dropped my jaw over the topic. But I find out all about in this vidchat--just below. But first, consider this:

Netflix funding of original series and now the return of "old" series, of course, is a done deal already: new eps of cult classic Arrested Development are a movie lead-in, Kevin Spacey's original House of Cards aired there too—and now a Veronica Mars comeback movie, of all things, is green-lit after zillions of Kickstarter backers.

So look at where we are in 2013!

For the first time, a "dead" show could actually be brought back to life with non-network backing .... even an online streaming service. And the show's still-pissed-off fanbase would actually have a hand in resurrecting it by demand, and continued streaming.

And so that leads us to Jen DeSalle and Robert Bolivar, who decided to launch their own Facebook et al petition campaign to convince Netflix to do the same thing for Enterprise. After all, if zillions got a 20-something mystery drama back in production, surely many times more would stand up for the disrespected and increasingly missed final incarnation of TV Trek?

Then what to my wondering eye should appear than the respected name of Doug Drexler among the "backers" of the petition drive. No fan-flak he, make-up and CGI pro Doug went on to the Battlestar franchise of course and works all over now—but Trek is still his heart and soul. He wouldn't attach his name to this Facebook petition to Netflix lightly—so I had to track him down and ask, given all we know about Trek TV these days...



So the Facebook campaign HQ is here—and I wrote the founders to get more about it.

Jen told me that she was for the campaign to convince Netflix even with the Paramount/CBS "moratorium" on Trek TV. "Trek on TV has consistently done better than any of the movies by far. Now, CBS may not see this in the short term but over time, one of the things we hope to show them, is that the TV side is not only profitable, but, in the case of a series like Enterprise, also cost-effective." And, she adds, the "selfish" chance for a lifelong fan to create a page, CGI mockups and promo banners on such a campaign with Doug and other sites was "too much to pass up".

It was a comment by exec producer Brannon Braga, of all people, about using Netlfix to revive Enterprise as a renewed series or even TV movie that nudged Bolivar to jump ahead with the campaign for fans who feel "cheated" at the early departure of the NX-01. "Network interference, declining ratings and other studio red tape are something that every show has faced," Rob says. "Enterprise was just hitting its stride when it was cancelled. With our Facebook campaign, we are doing something that has never really been done with Trek before. We have gathered the fans, actors, production staff, etc.— all of them in basically the same place to support each other and the cause. Are there hurdles? Absolutely, but we have the ability of hindsight this time around. We know what works and what doesn’t. We know how to keep costs down and with the advances in digital sets; we can film just about anything. I think that Netflix is the perfect medium for this type of endeavor. Enterprise fans deserve this. We just want to see the series played out the way it was supposed to be.

" It's a worthwhile cause, and I hope, and pray that it is noticed, that we are heard, and we get our dream, at least one more season of Enterprise, to see some of what we can do now, and of course maybe the Romulan War wouldn't hurt.," Jen adds. As does Rob: "Streaming media is the future of television, and so is Star Trek."

What do YOU think? Does this really have a chance of appealing to Netlfix, much less persuading CBS to let it be done in the first place?

Or do we truly live in an "all bets are off" media world of change today, and who knows?