RIP Ron Thornton, CGI pioneer and fan media's hero too

I didn't know Ron Thornton that well, although he was certainly kind and generous and supportive of me in my writing and projects. I may not even have any pics with him, back from the time of no cameras-on-pagers known as The Nineties.

Following his passing Monday afternoon after a long illness, you can read much more by his Trekside colleagues Mike Okuda and Daren Dochterman here at the excellent remembrance startrek.com ran today... where I pilfered the above photo. There are many more reflections on Ron scattered around Facebook by both peers and proteges.

But with his far-too-soon passing on Monday, it brings to mind how much our world has changed, how much storytelling capability on television has changed.. and so much of it due to Ron. For all you kids raised on cheap n' easy CGI* you do on your own laptop... Ron was literally the one who brought the magic of new digital effects to weekly TV.

Ron was a hands-on visual effects guy, and has plenty of credits to prove it. But by the time he'd co-started Foundation Imaging and it bled over into Trek work where we needed to interact,  I saw him as head of his companies, mostly. But in that regard Ron was not only always glad to see and help me, but he made it possible for the CGI Trek journalism revolution as well. Beginning with the original UK Fact Files—and then our official Communicator mag and then the US Trek mag that Fact Files content became in the US—those digital ship shots were no longer a high-dollar wish-list item: Ron made it possible to supply us with the angles and 3/4 views of elusive CGI ships that Trek techheads were so hungry for, after mourning the phase-out of those beautiful, actual miniature ship models.

True, in the early years we used to talk about how all the Foundation effects on Babylon 5 were "so CG-ey"—that is, overly aliased, and obviously below the quality of shooting actual models. But the  evolution was speedy, for the important thing was that his breakthrough render farm concept allowed common PCs of that time to handle the high-data demands of CGI processing quickly as a networked unit. So speedy, in fact, that even the supervisors on state-of-the-art Star Trek, one by one--even, by DS9's last season, skeptic Gary Hutzel too—became convinced that CGI would be not just doable but respectable on TV limits... both in money AND time. Even for Star Trek.

It's ironic to me how today there's as much CGI digital work on TV now that has nothing to do with space battles—invasive viruses and infections illustrated with graphic motion on every procedural show, massive Earthly landscapes on global adventure shows, Earth-bound superheroics on all the superhero fad series... and it all kicked off with Ron finding a way to make it work on the small screen in the early 90s.

Excuse me. I know I must have a great shot with Ron here somewhere. I'm long overdue to dig it out.


*Just in case you need it: CGI is actually the acronym for "computer-generated imagery."

Cheers and tears in the news: just give me a second

Wow. I'm already behind on posting some thoughts about the passing of longtime Trek art department staffer and all-around gizmo genus Anthony Frederickson last week...

And now the whiplash news of today: a Roddenberry back in the producer credits of a Star Trek series—congrats Rod! And to Trevor Roth as well! ....yet coupled with the shock news of the passing of Emmy-wining Trek (and rebooted Battlestar) visual effects producer Gary Hutzel at age 60. Gary, for one thing, was one of the four voices heard on Trekland: On Speaker Vol. 3, celebrating the 20th anniversary of DS9's finale.

It's all a bit much at the moment, a bizarre mix of joy and sadness...all juxtapositioned on a single day. I was looking forward to seeing all of these shortly, and now... well, some not as much.

More on all this when I can give them their due, each in its own mood.

RIP, Grace Lee: For many, you were our first

Our last two losses were hard, if not unexpected—but I didn't see this one coming.

Grace Lee "Yeoman Rand" Whitney, whose passing at home May 1 hit the web hard two days later on Sunday afternoon, was boppin' around the Vegas Khaaan landscape like always last August when I chatted with her for the umpteenth million time—perhaps most of all over the years while on set for Commander Janice Rand's final onscreen canon moment in Voyager's "Flashback" anniversary episode with George Takei.

But this week, my mind goes back to this moment, 17 years before that ...

...when we really first met, at a small convention in Dallas the summer The Motion Picture debuted (when everyone was disappointed that the TMP "trailer" so highly hyped was a non-event of ship stills "animation." Little did we know...). Yeah, she was a judge for the costume contest, and that's me afterward as my Tellarite in dress uniform, Dr. Ffalst—and this would be your typical selfie moment.

But our bonding moment that day was really more about this mood...

...when she was consoling me on losing out to not one but two sets of Rocky Horror babe-pair entrants, thanks to the otherwise all-male judging panel—and confiding that she had voted for me as obviously the best for anyone not acting on hormones alone. After sweating in the Texas humidity with that nose-putty pignose almost sliding off, delayed due to overflow to see the triler, her words were a comfort—but it was still the last time I ever went all-out and fully made up for a con masquerade. I had shared this pic before, but I had not shared the sentiment.

But hearing of Gracie's sudden loss on Sunday, checking it out with the Fresno Bee paper, and, again, soaking up the heartfelt words and memories so many fans online have poured out over social media everywhere… well, it struck me what so many of us first-generation fandom share: There's a good chance Gracie was our first.

Think about it: Before the Internet, of course, and even before the plethora of large well-run conventions... most of us in small towns and cities only read about our Trekfolks coming to cons in L.A. or New York, or Chicago. Our little "local" cons weren't about to afford Shatner or Nimoy—but, given pecking order and star billing, there was a good chance that a lot of small-time and start-up cons had Grace Lee as their first guest. And thus, she became the first "regular" that many, many fans ever met in person, chatted with, maybe grabbed a photo (from an actual camera), but at least came away clutching an autograph.

I've come to realize the past couple of days that, more than any other of her castmates, I have more Gracie stories stored up from both sides of the fan/pro demarcation than I'd realized. That also means, as sweet natured as she was, those same small and start-up cons could also be a trap: I know at least one instance when we bought her dinner, without her knowledge, when the host promoter smilingly sat at the table of the "guest dinner" but bailed on our bill.

But those are the exceptions to the rule. Gracie, much like Majel at her Lincoln Enterprises-turned-roddenberry.com table, was the epitomy of accessibility for her fans. Yes, star billing order drove that, but for small-town fans hungry for some "real life" contact with their favorite show in those pre-Internet, pre-saturation, and pre-'87 sequels days where it all began... well, Grace Lee was their first.

And from what I saw at Vegas 2014... she still was, for many.

All photos: Kevin Hopkins

Total disclosure, but more sharing: Gracie was actually my second, truth be told, after meeting George the year before—but I also remember, at that same Dallas convention, when we chased away those obnoxious singers on the millionth round of "Star Trekkin'" so she and her agent could chat with fans at her table in peace, as recorded in this Instamatic special (at right)!




Swift journeys, sweet, strong lady.

RIP my friend and legal guide, John Couch

I have to take a minute and say this here, even though he was hardly a Treklander—before or behind the cameras,  merchandise or fandom...

But it's been  tough to deal with the passing of John Couch, one of our first touchstones in L.A. over these 20 years, via former TNG/DS9/VGR script coordinator turned actor's rep Lolita Fatjo; other Trek names in his circle are Eric Stillwell and DS9 guest actor (among many) Jim Metsker. He came here to pursue acting, as so many, do--wound up at Ralph Edwards Productions, and after taking a law degree in the 1990s he became their VP for business and legal affairs, and taught many law students and bar preppers.

But I remember John as a not just a wonderful, kind, quick-witted friend on the quiet side … from not just parties and get-togethers, but to our lunches near his Ralph Edwards office, across from the Chinese Theater in Hollywood, and sponsoring me into Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters after Charlie Washburn's passing, where he was a board member and longtime Ralph Edwards rep… to a patient legal ear through all the various family bumps or project repping…and finally, a reassuring force helping launch my documentary, The Con of Wrath—now, not to be there as it comes home.

Even though I must try to find a new "legal consultant," there's no way to replace a patient friend and advisor like that. Especially one who will answer a panicked call at 8 am on a Saturday in L.A. when the very first day of the shoot in Houston has a legal bombshell tossed at it!

Oh, and did I say John was one of about three in all of L.A. to give me a yell when my OU Sooners had a big win--or a big loss. He was really a basefall fan... his beloved SF Giants... but he knew what we all give up a bit to come here. "Congrats on your Sooners," he'd email or tell me.

Cancer sucks. Ten-month cancer is the worst.

But here's to all the good times, good memories, good freindship, John. Missing you much...but your legacy lives on in all those you touched.

Family wishes for Leonard memorial gift donations

Not mine, but forwarded to me—Marietta, near Atlanta, GA

Since Friday, life for me has been an overwhelming mix of feeling and fielding. 

I have tried to share my reflections on Leonard Nimoy in media everywhere —Twitter, Facebook, podcasts like a special The Ready Room, television like Sky News in UK/Europe, radio (Boston's WXTK) — everywhere, except right here on my own blog. 

But it's coming.

Meanwhile, in a telling way, you know where my head was from my very first tweet:

And many more followed.


For now, let me share the family's wishes for those wanting to make donations or memorial gifts in Leonard's name:

Everychild Foundation
PO Box 1808
Pacific Palisades, CA 90272

COPD Foundation
20F Street NW, Suite 200-A
Washington, DC 20001 

Beit T'Shuvah Treatment Center
8831 Venice Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90034 

Bay-Nimoy Early Childhood Center at Temple Israel of Hollywood
7300 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90046

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.

An Oscar moment for Charlie—watch TONIGHT!

One of my favorite moments of the Academy Awards broadcast each year, though bittersweet, is the “memorial reel” of those of distinction in the film industry—household name, or not—who have passed away during the last 12 months.

But you can bet that I’ll be watching this Sunday with even more interest, if that’s possible—and I hope you will be, too.

I hope you recall when I wrote of the passing of CharlesWashburn last April 13 when he succumbed to kidney failure. That’s his full name, but for the old gang at Desilu Studios from 1967-69 he’d be better known as “Charlie Star Trek”—a take-off on the way he answered the phone onstage in his role as an assistant director.

I felt met Charlie just six years ago now, while working on a 20^th anniversary timeline for The Next Generation for the old startrek.com—but I had long wanted to track him down for my TNG Companion book for his AD memories from two generations, after I realized he was one of the “old guard” Gene had first assembled for TNG who had worked on the original series.

See, efficient and quietly polite Charlie Washburn was a true pioneer in the industry: he landed in Hollywood in 1967 from his native Memphis, Tenn., on scholarship for the Director’s Guild trainee program—and soon became the first African-American DGA trainee graduate in history.  In that tumultuous time of social change, the fact that Charlie went on to become the first black full-time 2^nd A.D. in TV as well when he finished just adds to the luster. And the fact that a big chunk of this occurred during classic Star Trek’s second and third seasons (one as trainee, most of the next as 2nd AD)—well, that’s worthy of a trophy any day.

“When I started at Desilu, there were only three black employees on the whole lot,” Charlie told me once: “Nichelle Nichols, myself, and the guy who had the food truck—who closed it up after lunch and then shined shoes.” If anything can put Gene Rodenberry’s original creation smack in the middle of the times from whence it came, that was it.

He went on to many more film and TV production credits, of course, like the Bill Cosby Show, Vega$, Batman, and The Six Million Dollar Man.  Over his long career Charlie worked with the likes of Diana Ross and Sydney Poitier, and even did a little acting with Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry, to name a few.

At his passing I wrote that piece in his memory here, and included a couple of photos, including a recent shot I’d taken myself. Many fans here and elsewhere have thanked me for preserving his story, but—like so many other “little” tales of Star Trek yet to be recorded or told—it’s one I was thrilled to share, even if in a moment of passing.

Flash forward 10 months: It was only two weeks ago that the unit compiling the memorial reel wrote me to say they had been looking for Charlie items, found my blog, and wondered if I had more photos to share. Did I! We got them in touch with his grateful family, as well, who were thrilled and honored to get the news and share even more pics from his career, in and out of Star Trek. As of Tuesday, I was told it all was a “lock” in the final edit.

It's only fitting—and hurray for Charlie— when you recall that the Academy omitted our beloved Westerns bad-guy star DeForest Kelley from the memorial reel in 2000—and did the same with Jimmy Doohan in 2006, then "revisited" him a year later to make up for it.

Charlie was a bit of a pack rat, but that was because up until the end he filled his days still keeping busy researching and pitching scripts, knowing that some of his historical and unique angles would catch fire with some producer. They never did, but they should have.

As if turns out, they won’t use any of Charlie’s Star Trek shots for his moment in the limelight—makes sense, being the Oscars and not the Emmies of TV—but will use instead a brief clip he assistant-directed from 1972’s Lady Sings the Blues starring Diana Ross.

That—plus my portrait of him at his office desk just a year before he died. I was stunned to hear that news.

 














  
So be watching with me tonight, will you, as the honor roll of Hollywood takes their final bow. It will only be a couple seconds, but to bid a fond farewell to a good friend in such an arena—and to have had a small hand in making it happen, with a visual to boot—is a “memorial” I will treasure forever.   
And now, when you see his name flash by in the “TOS” credits those last two seasons—or even when you hear Scotty say “Washburn has a report” during “The Doomsday Machine”—I hope you’ll smile and think of what an unassuming and talented pioneer Charlie truly was.

He must have been. He’s on the Oscar reel!



This column ran on the startrek.com home page on Saturday, but we have added here one new on-set photo, and the mention of De and Jimmy's past history with the Academy memorial.  

RIP Sally Ride—but do you know her big Star Trek Moment?

It was January 10, 1995, and Star Trek: Voyager was just days away from becoming not only Star Trek's first true network series since the orignal... but also the first in the franchise to feature another groundbreaking casting choice: a female captain, Kathryn Janeway.

For the highly anticipated cast and crew premiere screening at Paramount, the UPN honchos and Voyager co-creators Rick Berman, Michael Piller and Jeri Taylor (in background) joined new lead Kate Mulgrew—whose Janeway role had been the brainchild of Taylor—and made sure to make a little history that night as well.

Who else to honor on such an auspicious night for the world's biggest space adventure and its first female regular captain .... than America's first female astronaut and high-flying gender pioneer, Dr. Sally K. Ride?

(I was there that night in the front press row, a recent arrival in LA myself, and I'm danged if I can locate my good original photos this second. Instead, here's the studio photog's image we ran in Communicator/Issue 101—so apologies for the print-screen.)

Ride passed away today of pancreatic cancer at 61, having made her mark at age 31 in 1983 as American's first woman in space, and then-youngest ever, at age 32. She left NASA in 1987 after nine years and one more mission, with a third mission postponed by the Challenger disaster and her sitting on the accident's review commission. She resigned to work at Stanford's Center for International Security and Arms Control, as her spot in history will always be assured.

But back on the Paramount Pictures main theater stage in 1995, after honoring Ride for such contributions to space exploration, Mulgrew presented her with a plaque and combadge from the show's sets so Ride "could beam up whenever she felt the need to." In line with the historic mutual love affair overall between Star Trek and NASA—America's fictional and real-life space heroes—Ride's remarks that night revealed she was suitably touched and honored to be a part of another landmark for women in culture.

Ride even had a second and earlier link to the franchise, of course, in that she was in the group of new astronauts chosen from among women and minorities recruited by the NASA program Nichelle "Uhura" Nichols headed in the 1970s-80s.

An Andy Griffith-Star Trek link? Not once, but twice!

Happy Independence Day, y'all...

And while all of America joins in to mourn and remember the great Andy Griffith, who died Tuesday at the age of 86, it took a Facebook poke from Dan Madsen to remind me of a site that actually has a great Andy-Star Trek connection: a study of the commonly seen Mayberry small town exteriors at the Desilu "Forty Acres" lot in Culver City that Desilu-produced Star Trek redressed and shot wider, in "Miri," "The Return of the Archons," "Errand of Mercy," and "The City on the Edge of Forever": with an even greater link here.  "Forty Acres" (actually 29) was also the home of the Hogan Heroes' "Stalag 13" POW camp set, with "Mayberry" serving earlier for both the Superman TV series and even as Atlanta in Gone With the Wind. The large outdoor set complex was sold, bulldozed and developed more industrially in 1976.

But Mayberry-Trek lives on in film: Not Andy per se, but the iconic "Goodnight, Sweetheart" Kirk-Edith scene in "City" actually includes a stroll past the iconic "Floyd's Barber Shop" (above), whose sign is left uncovered across the whole frame as the two tragic lovers walk by, on what is of course ostensibly a 1930 New York City street.

If you want to go one more Andy-Trek connection, don't forget the yes-they-really-aired-this-concept Salvage 1 (left), which starred Andy and was executive produced by none other than ... Harve Bennett! For all its glorious 19 episodes in 1979, over a half and a quarter season—this was Harve's TV follow-up to The SIx Million Dollar Man and his last series prior to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

What's more, guess who got her first writing credits ever on that Andy-starring series in its dying weeks? None other than future TNG executive producer and Voyager co-creator Jeri Taylor!

Just a quick note about George Murdock: RIP at 81

No, I did not know or even have the pleasure to meet actor George Murdock, who died last Monday at age 81. But I felt compelled to point out one fact:

The mainstream obits for Mr. Murdock are very complete, but they all love to lead with how he played "God" in Star Trek V ... and even zapped Kirk after the immortal line, "What does God need with a starship?"

That's nice, but ...The "God" role was a glorified, overexposed effects cameo with facial details barely perceptible.  To me, the more memorable of Murdock's two Trek roles is as the heroic  Admiral Hansen, doomed commander of the Starfleet armada wiped out in the infamous "battle" of Wolf 359 (above).

I can just see you saying Ah yes!  as your own light bulb goes off. In fact, I KNOW it did.

The little TV kid in me, too, loves Murdock for his dozen or so guest bits as the creepy Lt. Scanlon of Internal Affairs, an occasional thorn in the side of Barney Miller in the beloved but rarely seen ABC police sitcom. (Totally off-topic, but kudos to Shout! Factory for finally getting the whole 8-year series out on DVD.)

But there's one other role the gruff-talking native of Salina, Kans., could claim from the glory days of TV: he played Dr. Salik, the main doctor of TV"s original 1978 Battlestar Galactica... schlepping around his medical bay with bio-pod beds in that tan uniform.


So, farewell to another great character actor: George Murdock did it all.

RIP "Charlie Star Trek": My buddy Charles Washburn, 73

My friend Charles Washburn is gone.

If that name is not a familiar one, please bear with me and get to know it, at least now.  If the only fact that I relayed here today was that Charlie was the first-ever African-American to be a 2nd assistant director in Hollywood, in 1967 ... after having been the first black admitted and then graduated from the Director’s Guild of America trainee program the year before ... well, that would be enough.

Adding in the fact that both feats happened via the original Desilu Star Trek makes me doubly proud and honored to have known this Treklander, and hopefully helped to share his story and his person.

“When I started at Desilu, there were only three black employees on the whole lot,” Charlie told me once: “Nichelle Nichols, myself, and the guy who had the food truck—who closed it up after lunch and then shined shoes.”

Now THAT puts this “true Hollywood story” in perspective.

Charlie was laid to rest Tuesday in his native Memphis, Tenn., having finally lost his battle with kidney disease at age 73 on April 13, survived by a daughter and son. The word was not made public til a few days ago, and I feel torn that I was  in Houston on another shooting trip for The Con of Wrath—thus delaying my putting together these thoughts.  What I truly regret, though, is that I had meant to get back and visit him for a antyoher chat and clean-up session in recent months at the Screen Actor’s Home in the west Valley…  and just never got it done.

But then, I treasure the many hours we did share these past five years since 2007, when we first made acquaintance due to his stint as an early 1st AD for TNG and the 20^th anniversary pieces I did for the old startrek.com team.  For, more than any one-line "claim to fame" for the history books, Charlie was simply a gentleman—and a beaming human example of cheery, positive living.  He was raised with a certain amount of what we would call middle-class pride for his “people,” and yet growing up in the South of the ‘50s and ‘60s he could certainly use all of the optimism and cheer he could muster. Even more so for an energetic, college-trained young man with talent and the desire to make it, and going so far from home to do so.

Charlie had dozens of credits as he rose in the ranks—like Bill Cosby Show, Vega$, Batman, Six Million Dollar Man. And like everyone else in LaLa Land in all walks of life, he had numerous scripts and stories of his own tucked away, to pitch and plug at any moment—busy doing so even in his last few months (see his Actor's Home desk, below).  He also loved Westerns and their stars, especially the weekly Saturday morning serials he watched in color-blind mode as a young boy growing up, and was quite the expert. All of that leaves it no surprise that Charlie was also an exasperating and stubborn pack rat, as I soon realized when I helped him move his stored items ... often ...  as he compacted his life “stuff” and moved to an apartment at the Home, kidney dialysis slowing his pace just a bit the last couple years.  On the good side, though, that stash allowed him to selflessly share the original call sheets from his Season 2 shows as DGA Trainee, and then his alternating Season 3 eps as a full-fledged 2^nd AD….

I have my own interviews with Charlie archived, but thankfully he himself had done the same with Star Trek buddies like director Joe Pevney and others, before they passed.  It was all for had completed a chapter or two or three of his book-to-be, entitled “Charlie Star Trek”— his nickname from back in the day, from the way everyone at Desilu heard his greeting as he answered the onstage phone.  There’s a lot of history preserved there—and lots from succeeding shows as well that hopefully will come to light.

But of all that Charlie shared with me, I’m grateful for the entrée he gave into his beloved Pacific Pioneer Broadcasters, as much as all the Trekland info and insights…and most of all that sunny, warm-hearted cheer that greeted each and every soul he met, or idea he considered. In later years he even organized screenings and shows for residents at the Screen Actors Home himself, until he no longer do so, and I’m proud to have helped him meet-and-greet local L. A. fans who were unaware of him as a local treasure.  I wish we could have gotten him out much more, and to some of the larger conventions like Vegas—for, like producer Bob Justman in his final years, he truly was a long-lived eyewitness to the TOS crew that latter-day fans deserved to be aware of while they had him. You can see he and his words preserved, at least, in special features amid the latest remastered editions of the original series Blu-Ray sets.

What might stick in my mind most of all, perhaps, is the joy on Charlie’s face the night I got him over for that nationwide 40^th Anniversary remastered screening of “The Menagerie,” and fans in Burbank swarmed him in the lobby after he’d been introduced as the icon he was.

For my part, I’ll help get his words, deeds and legacy out to any Trekfans and filmbuffs I can, in any media that works. That’s the least we can do for ourselves… and Charlie Star Trek.

(And yes, the role of damage control team member Lt. Washburn in "The Doomsday Machine" was indeed named for him.)

RIP Ruth Roberts—and why she's more to us than a songwriter

We don't call this blog "Trekland" for nothing—in the end, amid all the fun stuff and funky facts, at heart it's all about the family with a Star Trek connection.

Today we got word of the passing of someone Trek fans may not recognize—unless you're a Mets fan, too!—but she had a pretty big hand in giving us everything from Locutus of Borg to Buck Bockai. And I just wanted to stop and mark the moment.

I'm talking about Ruth Roberts, 84, whose sizeable obituary in the New York Times actually cited her for her songwriting career, topped perhaps most famously by her co-credit for "Meet the Mets," the official song of that New York City National League baseball team since before its first game in 1963.

But the guy who preserved the wobbly writing of the "new" Star Trek during TNG's third season, allowed fans to submit scripts, hired the likes of youngsters Ron D. Moore, Rene Echevarria, Naren Shankar, Brannon Braga, and Ken Biller ... and yes, they guy who penned "The Best of Both Worlds" cliffhanger that propelled Star Trek to heights akin to Khan in 1982 and reboot Kirk/Spock in 2009 ... that guy, Michael Piller, was her son.

Roberts passed away Thursday of lung cancer at her Bronx home. Michael, ironically, died of cancer in 2005. Read about her life and, as with any parent, you can find out a little of what colored Michael's world—and thus, in turn what colored the universe he helped bring us on screen. It's all about the texture.

And so we remember Ruth Roberts. Even if we're not baseball fans.



But if you are...:

The ultimate 'reality': RIP Ryan Dunn ... and "Proving Ground" suspended

UPDATE 6/27/11: G4 announces resumption of Proving Ground in its old slot beginning 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 19 for the other eight unaired eps. Presumably the Star Trek show (see below) will remain as #3 (July 26?). Also, a special Attack of the Show one-hour tribute to Ryan will air just before that first re-airing on July 19.
---------------
In these days of broadened horizons here in Trekland, I had meant to start telling you this week about a real gonzo way I was going to be popping up on your TV machine next week. On, of all things, a reality show.

Ryan Dunn's ultimely death this morning in a car crash will delay all that. And remind us all, once again, How Fleeting It All is. As well as, it must be said in truth, what happens when you take chances and live perhaps too much on the edge. For that's right where Ryan lived, and my heart goes out to his family and that whole crazy crew that loved him for it.

Now, I'm hardly a fan of the reality "genre"—not to mention the whole Jackass franchise that made Ryan a star. But his new show Proving Ground that premiered on G4 just last Tuesday—a bit of Jackass meets Mythbusters that he co-hosts with vidgame vixen Jessica Chobot—needed an authority from a certain genre franchise for one of its theme shows. And who am I to argue?

It's not immediately mentioned on the brief G4 online obituary, but a G4 publicist tells me today that the completed series' air schedule is indefinitely suspended, until producers decide what and when to resume. That's why I can't show any more of the photo above.

No, it's not exactly my cup of tea, but those guys had their filmed-insanity bit down and were in the middle of expanding it for this series. And Ryan, for all his punkedness, was completely genial to me—including his amazement that somebody could even work as a Star Trek consultant... until I reminded him just what it was that he did, and we laughed.

That's why I'm in shock, an odd kind of shock, on the purely human level. Here—not like De Kelley or Jimmy Doohan or Marc Lenard, or even my dad—is someone I was just seeing a couple months ago in their prime, and now gone. This feeling now? Well, cliches are cliches because they ARE true. The word "fleeting" seems to have been invented just for this type of occasion, this helplessness.

But our meet-up was just a minor blip on Ryan's radar. I know his loss is really hitting hard on all those he worked closely with, then and now. It was the nature of the Jackass-centered, everyone-mix-it-up crew on the new show. My heart goes out to all of them left behind, as well.

RIP: Paul "Ensign Freeman-plus!" Baxley, 1923-2011

Unfortunately, neither the news nor its newsmakers always travel at the warp speed we desire—or in the luxury they deserve.

So it is we just received word of the passing March 4 of Trekland native Paul Baxley, he of the wig-losing village "patrol leader" on Neural, the stunt double for Kirk... and most famously, Ensign "I didn't throw the first punch" Freeman of "Tribbles" fame.

Sadly, his hometown obituary from Palmdale, Calif., was only prompted by a trigger from the Social Security Death Index, and did not include near enough biography as even his Memory-Alpha entry contains. Perhaps that will change with time.

Fortunately, his later work on all seven years of The Dukes of Hazard as stunt coordinator and director is being remembered by that crew, where John "Bo Duke" Schneider broke the news by email April 16.

Meanwhile, I'd suggest any TOS fan take a second and go to his online memory site and recall Paul, another one of the unsung faces of the classic series—and perhaps being one who did not know we all were out here. I, for one, regret never having gotten to meet the man and record his memories for others to share.

Check the Western movies' Boot Hill blog here for more of the story and the memorial in Los Angeles—mounted by the Dukes crew, but open to all fans and friends of Paul's.

Sadness, and sending our strength to the Koenigs

A full day of everything, from all parts of my life ... already behind on my Trekland blogging and videos … and then I come home late Friday to hear this tragic ending to the disappearance:

Andrew Koenig Dead: 'Growing Pains' Actor's Body Found After Suicide

Our thoughts and prayers and virtual willing of strength to Walter and Judy go out in this time... and if there is any way to turn this kind of tragedy into something for the long-term good of anyone suffering silently out there, I trust the Koenigs are able to harness it.

The world refers to Andrew for his Growing Pains role, but of course for Treklanders it was in his own right as submissive Skreean co-husband Tumak in DS9's "Sanctuary."

Awwwww. We lost our (admiral's) good hands

I had no idea he was still with us. But today comes word that Ed Rheimers, for Treklanders another of those flag-rank viewscreen guys—but one of the best known due to lucking out by drawing "The Trouble With Tribbles"—has passed away at the age of 96.

Rheimers is probably better known for what he didn't do on the air—but instead on scratchy faded film (check the 0:28 mark) ...



...that happened to be squirreled away and preserved as part of Star Trek's rebirth. I'm talking about the infamous blooper reels—back in the day when you didn't have to preface that with an acronym, especially "TOS"—and his seconds of fame when he mocked his own reassuring "good hands" Allstate persona of 22 years.

Will Dennis Haysbert ever top that record? We'll see. Maybe J.J. can get him into the gold cuffs, too.

But for now, Starbase Allstate will miss those mellifluous tones of Ed's.

Remembering Bob Justman: one year later

While I have been distracted and in slo-mo blog form dealing with family concerns ... Denise Okuda reminded many of us of the passing one year ago this week of the great yet undercredited Bob Justman.

One of my very first posts in "start-up" mode was an ode to Bob that week. Since many of you did not see it during that primeval era for Trekland, here 'tis again ... ready for fresh comments. And with another Bob pic (at left): from the Pasadena Grand Slam 2005, the appearance I'm so glad I arranged for him and for fans ... and hugging our First Lady of Trek, no less—herself recently passed.

These images remind me again: Life is so fleeting ... we should enjoy ourselves, our friends and our treasured assets as often as we can!

Two in One Day

No big pontificating today. How do you lose two huge icons like this at once?

Patrick McGoohan has no Trek connection, but we're all talking about him anyway. What an amazing feat--to go from commercial success with "Secret Agent Man" (thank you Johnny Rivers, for the "Secret Asian Man" theme song) to his against-the-grain self-made classic "The Prisoner," which rings so clearly once again in these days of "endless war" and susceptible civil liberties.

And then, to lose Ricardo Montalban as well. I wish I'd gotten to really meet him, although we set up an interview in 2002 after he was so proud when a life-long quest to help aspiring Latino performers and producers finally came to pass when his Nosotros foundation opened the Ricardo Montlaban Theatre in Hollywood. What an indelible career—from Latin lovers to "rrrich Corinthian leather" to the biggest Eugenics Wars devil of them all... and finally good ol' Mr. Rourke. Married to his wife Georgette in 1944 until she passed in 2007. And as far as Khan goes, when it comes to big-screen Trek villainy he's the bar that everyone else aspires to. And still never tops.

"Nick [Meyer] told me that when he went out on the road to promote [The Wrath of Khan], he was so full of all the technicalities of space travel, he became an expert. And he went to all of these interviews and gatherings, and yet he said the most commonly asked question, wherever he went, was 'Was that really Ricardo Montalban's chest?' !"—STC #139, Aug. 2002

As for any sadness today, let's just (CUE ukeleles) and leave it with the guy in the white dinner jacket :

"Smiles, everyone—smiles!"

Not letting Joe go unnoticed

We lost Joe Pevney at 96, the veteran director behind many of Star Trek’s classics, even before Bob Justman passed away. But since we were just getting BL rolling at the time (May 18) I didn’t want to let him go unmentioned here—especially because I regret never getting to go meet him at his Palm Desert home, near Palm Springs.

Many fans were surprised to learn he was still around, but while I’d met a friend of his a few years ago who was in touch and offered to set us up, it just never happened—and those are the ones you really regret letting get away.

And how: Pevney alternated shows most of the second season with Marc Daniels; I mean, try out this list for size—and while most of them fell his way just by the luck of the draw, just look at what he gave us, especially under the conditions they had to work under: "Arena," "The Return of the Archons," "A Taste of Armageddon," "The Devil in the Dark," "The City on the Edge of Forever," "Amok Time," "The Apple," "Catspaw," "Journey to Babel," "Friday's Child" (my prize for the most underappreciated original ep—it has it all!), "The Deadly Years," "Wolf in in the Fold," "The Immunity Syndrome"—and yes, "The Trouble With Tribbles."

But today, beyond the name and the resume, you can still get deeper into the man if you know where to dig: he’s among many interviewed by William Rotsler in his 1982 Star Trek Interview Book from Pocket—out of print now, but you can still find it. Stephen (Poe) Whitfield's classic The Making of Star Trek from Ballantine has a great photo of him (opposite p. 257) while on location shooting "Friday's Child."

There’s also the little-seen 1998 DVD Inside Star Trek, which yielded the mid-90s era photo I used here. Based on Herb Solow and Bob Justman’s book of the same title, it has interview soundbites with him along with many others—including Alexander Courage, who died just teh day before at 88, and will forever be known as the original Star Trek theme composer. Among his bits there, Pevney talks about seeing fuzzy, feathery "purple thing" on a keychain at a drug store, and telling propmaster Irving Feinberg about them as a cheap quickie source of tribbles!

Bob Justman is gone and will NOT be forgotten

I knew it was coming soon, but I still have to spill some thoughts. Bob Justman has passed away.

I was on the road in Germany for DaedalusCon, and my site was not even fully functional, when we got the news. But he meant so much to me, to so many and most of all to Star Trek that I'm not about to let this latent moment go by unnoticed.

First and foremost: Whatever credit Bob got for his role on Star Trek--both original and TNG—just bear in mind it was not and never will be enough. His stories have only begun to be told, even in co-writing Inside Star Trek with Desilu studio exec Herb Solow in 1996 ... The Okudas got snipperts of his tales of TOS in print, and I have a few recorded for some future projects—but it is hard to grasp, and as no knock on GR at all, how much of day-to-day classic Trek is in Bob's hands—and in turn influenced everyone and everything from The Next Generation (which he helped launch) to the Next Retro-Generation we are passing through today.

Compared to today's world of a dozen writer-producer credits before you ever get to the opening scene, the Trek staff was pretty bare: just GR, the showrunner like John D.F. Black or especially Gene Coon, a second staff writer like Dorothy Fontana, and then finally a post-production supervisor like Eddie Milkis. Bob did or headed the rest—and not just physical production with a hand in opticals and effects; he wrote script notes and even pitched stories. Including the pitch for what became "Tomorrow is Yesterday," the "Big E" as UFO over today's Earth, though he never got paid or credited for it--as documented in his book.

He was part of the old guard back in 1986-87 who re-gathered to prove Star Trek was no television fluke, and TNG was the result. That's where Bob saved my ass without even knowing it: given three months to write the development and first five seasons of the TNG Companion back in 1992, a four-hour interview with Bob at his home—and opening up his hard drive for printing out memo after memo—allowed me to put together the earliest detailed evolution of the show, complete with twists and turns and roads not taken. A lot of that interview still has not been published, but his own ideas in memo proof: Families aboard ship, a tough but sexy female security chief, an android character, a "Klingon marine" on the bridge to show the detente and distance from Kirk's era ... not to mention the "discoverer" and champion of Patrick Stewart as Picard .... Yep, that's all Bob.

In the past few years as his health slackened I made it a personal quest to try to help reconnect Bob with the fans, and the 20o5 Grand Slam appearance in Pasadena opened the door to a couple more--the last being last year's Vegas con (with thanks to Adam and Gary at Creation for doing so). In '05 I tho0ught he might have an hour to sign photos, but the day so energized him he stayed on for nearly four hours (photo above). All I wanted, all he deserved, was to get as many of today's fans to know his true impact on what they take for granted, and hear firsthand as many of his tales and insights as possible. During a DVD bonus features shoot in 2007 when his allotted 20-minute interview slot was up, just as he had gotten warmed up and overcome the rigors of mounting Parkinson's shakes, it was heartbreaking to hear him ask, "Oh, are we done already? I have a lot more to say"... I wanted to scream! to keep the rest of the notables waikting and let that camera roll for another half hour, but it was not meant to be.

Nice guys do not always finish last—they just tend to get overlooked, no matter how hard they work their butt off. THAT was Bob Justman, the meticulous worker and file-keeper of unbound energy and ideas whose career in film and TV will ways be capped by his love of Gene, his love for the vision, and his love Star Trek and its fans.