STV: David Goodman edits Kirk's bio! —Part 1

Didn't get all the best Trek goodies on your list for the holidays?

If you didn't already grab a copy of David Goodman's The Autobiography of James T. Kirk from Titan Books, maybe now's the time! Available everywhere live and online, it's David's second foray into non-fiction gap-filling, after FEDERATION: The First 150 Years in 2012. (And you know how I am about Trek gap-filling.)

In fact, I grabbed David once again in the off-hours at his office as Family Guy writer-producer to talk about the tome in a new vidchat: his choices, the process, and even fan feedback after Federation. 

WARNING: Loaded with all kinds of sidelong and unexplained Trek references, of course.

SECOND WARNING: Watch for the remainder of this chat in follow-ups in coming days!


FYI: Portal 47 members got to view this video up to 72 hours early before it went public—one feature of their deep-dive Trekland access.

STV: Gap-filling Star Trek with David Goodman and "Federation: The First 150 Years," Pt. 2

I'm rushing this into print because I hope you late shoppers still needing a cool Trek gift might see this and still do something about it!

That, and I just want to get more of this interview out, after our Part 1—because David Goodman and I had such a hoot. My very first reaction to Star Trek*, after posters and model kits, was the urge to fill up those annoying background gaps when it seemed we might not get any more on film--but to do it in a smart and agreeable way.

And with our fallow period of new Trek now in the Prime 'verse, and a return to Star Trek non-fiction looking better than ever, finally, David was the first true background fan to get a big chance again. I'm STILL jealous—and it has nothing to do with his time writing on Enterprise, or Futurama, or the MacFarlane Empire like Family Guy and American Dad—or just selling a new animated series to FOX, Murder Police.

So just hit that play button, because while I may even get an interviewee to cry, I rarely get them to curse at me. And rip me off on camera!

And know too: There is a Part 3 coming—one last entry about Trek canon and his gap-filling choices—plus a Part 4: apart from "FEDERATION: 150," David's prognostications on Trek now and future and my reaction to them. Keep staying tuned ... and for starters, listen to David's answer to the Eugenics War Conundrum ... the Cloaking Dilemma ... and Trill vs. Vulcan Parallelism...





*And I don't mean in 2009 ...

STV—"Federation" canon gap-filling, with David Goodman

Trek Background lovers, take note! You finally get your place back in the sun.

Star Trek Cool Week continues—as does our erstwhile focus on the new FEDERATION: The First 150 Years non-fiction book, capped now as promised by Part 1 of an extended and EXCLUSIVE vidchat with author and onetime Enterprise writer-producer David Goodman.

Oddly, it's the American Dad offices where we caught up with David to talk about his little history baby, FEDERATION: The Cool Book, and this look in brief at the beloved (by some of us) art of Trek "gap filling" that has gone on since the 1980s—and seems to blossom especially in time of "fallow production" (ie, a movies-only era, as then and now).

Listen as we hit some of the issues that fervent Trek canonistas care about—and I can say that, being one!—that he had to tackle and make choices.

And remember, this is just Part 1 with David... there is SO much more to come... in Part II!

It's FEDERATION DAY—exclusive art from the new non-fiction Trek book, on sale today

Well, this is exciting.

All joshing aside, as when we "opened our box" to unwrap the incredible FEDERATION: The First 150 Years:  I've known author David Goodman mainly from his day job—from when he signed aboard ENTERPRISE for its two middle seasons off the strength of his comedy writing for the classic "Where No Fan Has Gone Before" Trek homage on Futurama. Since then, of course, he's gone on to the Seth McFarlane Hit Factory and worked on both Family Guy and now American Dad.  

And just TODAY came news David's pilot for another animation comedy MURDER POLICE has just sold to series by Fox—so congrats, busy man.


But for today's EXCLUSIVE bit here: This original artwork of the founding UFP ambassadors and Charter signers—a full-page piece* by Mark McHaley, and just one of those to be found in FEDERATION amid a slew of original art concepts and graphic documents (click it open for it's full glory!).

To explain: That "unwrapping" vidpost is also where I told the improbable and personal story of all those various names that David uses here surrounding the Federation Charter ... and a refresher on its origins. And it's why FEDERATION's publishers and promoters allowed us the honor at Trekland of unveiling it for you. Suffice to say, I WISH I could tell my dad he had such a hand in Federation history ... and that my son really does not argue quite as much as a Tellarite.  And to think I owe it all to the TNG Companion and Penny Juday, the art department coordinator for Generations who said, "Hey, we can use some cool filler for the Picard scrapbook! Everyone is pitching in!" See how these goofy life stories snowball?

So to sum up: a must-have book with a cool concept (an anniversary exhibit on Memory Alpha), plus great artwork and removable goodies ... including this one, with an unexpected bonus personal "1994" touch for me. Just one more chink in the millions of stories that make up the Trek City. (And this one comes in time for gift-giving, of course, via Amazon.com).

And if this awesome art and our "unwrapping" tease are not enough—tomorrow follows with  another Trekland surprise: our EXCLUSIVE vidchat with David Goodman, in two parts. Stay tuned...




*The caption for McHaley's Page 90 chapter-opening artwork reads:  
Jonathan Archer speaking at the signing of the Federation Charter. Behind him, left to right, are Ambassadors T’Jan of Vulcan, Gort Sarahd of Andoria, Admiral Douglas, and Ambassador Natha Kell of Tellar

STV: Unwrapping! The 150 Years of FEDERATION (spoilers)

This box showed up on my porch a while back ... so let me show you what happened next.

To be truthful, I kinda had an idea... but it was still exciting to do this. Especially since the guy involved is a good guy.  And we'll be back with more of David Goodman, direct from Hollywood, to talk about it on camera prior to the Tuesday, Dec. 4 release date.

As you'll see, it's totally new and unseen. This book and I had never met each other before this show:

(WARNING!: This should have been in two parts, but I wanted to get it all to you now. So "Part 2" the second half  is full of SPOILERS, oh my!  And some unexpected surprises even beyond that ...

Comic-Con candids!

SAN DIEGO (LN.COM)—Star Trek itself did not plant a big footprint at Comic-Con, but Treklanders were all over...

Like David Goodman, his Enterprise writing stint over not long before he became Seth McFarlane’s head honcho for Family Guy—a Comic*Con favorite of the big rooms, of course—and these pages, too....













..or the big room crowd Rod Roddenberry (fourth from right) and Co. had for the debut of the Days Missing comic with Archaia Comics …













… Or the Trek vets who are swelling the ranks of the writing staff of fantasyland on Legend of the Seeker, like head writer Ken Biller (on the big screen)…
… plus fan2pro Mike Sussman, here (second from left) with fellow Seeker writers—but absent former science advisor-turned-scripter Andre Bormanis, who just came aboard for Seeker’s Season 2.

Star Trek itself? There was the Paramount Home Entertainment booth—always busy this year. Here, Wrangler Joyce heads up a line of over 100 (!!) patient fans on preview night: with her souvenire foam Vulcan hand in, uh, hand, she’s about to take them in small groups from the back wall staging area over to the PHE booth 8 yards away, where …

..they stand in line for a seat in the Kirk Prime chair—before the Kirk Sub-Prime bridge backdrop?—a pic with more Orion slave girls, and a shot at more freebies!

We missed the pics, but Saturday morning also featured a twin bill: Ron D. Moore and the next generation of Galactica via Caprica, as Brannon Braga meanwhile helped preview his new series Flash Forward (with John Cho). And all those other Trekland actors? They were everywhere.


UPDATE: ... including Robbie McNeill, part of our big Trek2Chuck connection … and that lucky duck, er, doc, Bob Picardo …

It's a TNG reunion—on Family Guy?

Sure, where else?

Famliy Guy regulars know that TNG bits pop up regularly, and that creator Seth MacFarlane is a true Trekkie with cameo-extra cred from Enterprise; head writer David Goodman wrote the classic Futurama TOS parody and had two years writing on Enterprise as well. (Someday we'll talk about that lost Trek sitcom, Herb 'n'Rita—right, David?)

The show has basically assembled the first-ever TNG reunion (post-Nemesis) when "All Dogs Do Not Go to Heaven" airs Sunday, March 29 at 9 p.m. EDT/8 CDT on FOX. There's been bits out elsewhere, but David sets us up at TREKLAND about his own cameo, too:

LN: So, the name of the TNG episode is “Not All Dogs Go to Heaven"—a reference back to the animated movie …??
DG: Right. There are two stories going on in the episode; it is not exclusively a TNG episode. One story involves Meg and Brian, and the other is the rest of the family, but in that story Stewie didn’t have a lot to do. So we came up with a story to go along with that that just involved Stewie: The family, in the opening of the show, goes to this Star Trek convention, and we have a lot of fun doing that; even though it’s been done before, we did our own spin on it. And I make a cameo appearance!* They drew me; a Star Trek narrative—it’s a real reach for me! (laughs)
And then Stewie’s upset cause he never gets a chance to get his question answered by the cast, so he buys plans for transporter at the convention, builds it, and beams the entire cast of The Next Generation to his bedroom.
LN: As only Stewie can.
DG: As only Stewie can.
LN: Has this become a case of “the B-story that took over the world,” as far as the attention, the publicity?
DG: I wouldn’t say it took over the world. The whole reason we did it was we felt like the original Star Trek’s been parodied on TV a lot, going back to SNL in the ‘70s, going right up to my Futurama episode. But we felt like there hadn’t been a lot of parodies of The Next Generation, and we also recognized just what a popular show that was. Y'know, a lot of people are familiar with that show; a lot of people outside of Star Trek fans are familiar with Star Trek: The Next Generation.

That, plus the fact that Patrick Stewart has been on our show a couple times—and he’s a recurring character on [sister series] American Dad; he’s always been very game for comedy.

LN: And Seth [creator MacFarlane] had done his cameos—

DG: Well, Seth did his cameos on Enterprise, and strictly because I was there; I take full credit for getting him on! And the first episode he’s on was one of mine [Ensign Rivers, “The Forgotten”].

LN: And he had been a fan before that, though; you didn’t hook him?

DG: That’s how I got the job on Family Guy—Seth and I shared an affinity for Star Trek, so that’s how far that goes back. And then I wound up on Enterprise; and he and I were still in contact with people, and Brannon and Rick [co-execs Braga and Berman] were big Family Guy fans, and it was easy for me to get him on the show. And after he was on once, they brought him back on again. Brannon and Seth since have become very good friends.
So—we’d also had Next Gen castmembers on the show. We’ve had Michael Dorn and Marina Sirtis and Jonathan Frakes—we’d had a bunch of them already voice themselves. And they were again all very happy to do it, and game.
LN: Just very little, one-off cameo bits, though—
DG: Yeah,—so we said, let’s just get the whole cast. And it was a blast—everybody was happy to be there, and excited. Wil Wheaton came in and spent the whole day! Recorded his voices, then was hanging out with the artists the whole day! Gates McFadden ended up selling her Star Trek: The Next Generation pinball machine to the episode’s director—it was a machine with a plaque on it, I think it was worth something and he collects pinball machines, so it was a very big thing for him. And then Denise Crosby came in, Marina—and they were all terrific. It was our own little … well, I said it about “Where No Fan Has Gone Before” [on Futurama], but the reality of producing the episode imitated the episode itself—because we basically were having our own little Star Trek convention at the offices.

LN: Doing your own Stewie beam-ins, as it were. … But you were recording the cast one at a time, correct—not in groups?
DG: You had to do them separately, because schedules didn’t permit them all at once. Patrick recorded from London; he was in a booth in London patched into ours here. Jonathan—initially we did him remotely, and then he came in recently to do some pickup lines. But yes, it was all scattered and spread out. … But it was great that everyone had a real sense of humor about it, and were willing to send themselves up.
LN: Did you consider anything else, as far this plot, to use them in?
DG: I don’t want to give away the story, because it takes a surprising twist; what Stewie actually does with the Next Generation cast, it’s definitely a Family Guy-esque twist. I don’t think anyone will see it coming, and we definitely had a lot of fun taking it in the direction it did. It’s not particularly racy or anything, but it’s just a very funny twist on this idea of getting this cast and spending time with the Next Generation cast. So, that was fun, too. It bears no similarity to any other Star Trek parody (laughs), I’m kinda confident.
LN: Stewie doesn’t put on a Barclay uniform and zap everyone into a module, or anything?

DG: Oh, no no… (laughs)
LN: How did the story idea develop? Were there any roads not taken?
DG: It actually started with the writer of the episode, Danny Smith, who came up with the idea with some of the writers. The original idea, what Seth had pitched was much of the first act of the episode—and we often do what we call a “first act mislead,” where the first act of the show doesn’t necessarily connect to the rest of the episode. And originally Seth had pitched a first act mislead that they go to a Star Trek convention; we hadn’t done it—let’s do it! And then it was Danny and a small group of writers who came up with the idea that Stewie doesn’t get his question answered, and he kidnaps the whole cast. So that was how the story developed.
LN: So it was pretty much this story, right out of the box, then.
DG: Yeah.
Well, the very first mention I’d heard was in a comment dropped by Jonathan; I asked you, and you said you should do more publicity on it—
DG: Yeah, we were then in TV Guide, and then FOX sent out a press release and it was picked up…
LN: —because I believe this was the first time, even though they were not physically together, that you had all the cast—even with Wil and Denise, too—for any kind of a production, even as a parody or a sketch.
DG: Yeah, I’m pretty geeky about that kind of stuff and I don’t believe there’s been one. So, doing this has been really fun!

*Nerd alert: David latter clarified that his cameo comes at the convention and he has a couple of lines, but plays a “generic con ATTENDEE, I'M NOT ID'd as a writer at all, I'm a geek in a blue original series shirt.”

Something like this, perhaps?