TNG Movie Night S3: Sights, sounds & tales from L.A. to E.P.

We'll keep collecting anecdotes here, but it's safe to say Thursday night's "Best of Both Worlds" TNG Bluray movie night from CBS and Fathom Events was easily the biggest Trek blowout event in this series. And kudos to TrekRadio for having podcasters and others (like moi) call in from theaters around the country for a little live flavor of Collective fun.

TREKLAND had our ticket-giveaway winners among the hordes of non-drones heading to cinemas nationwide, and Canada too. As promised here's a round-up of what we got in—including a wedding proposal, thanks to Locutus (or at least thanks to his timing of return).

Of course, the fact that the newly HD'd show in question was "The Best of Both Worlds"—and an all-new cinematic edit to boot—didn't hurt the turnout.

The fact that the flick in question not only packs its own punch, but evokes for all who were around in 1990 that long-ago innocence of witnessing a breakout hit in the process, your reward for  standing by in the lean early years... before all the movies and sequels and had-to-get-a-job worldweariness. It calls to you, back to the days when you really could obsess over the world's best cliffhanger... all. summer. long.

Which, as @SirPatStew recounts in the new documentary, applied to parents as well as kids. (And I won't spoil his story, if you haven't seen it elsewhere yet.)
 
Still, I heard that some goers were confused with that Other Star Trek Movie coming next month ...

"There were five people (looked like a family) who got up and left at the beginning as soon as the Fathom trailers finished and the documentary came on. They apparently thought they had bought tickets for the new J.J. Abrams film-—you know, the one that hasn't even come out in the U.S. yet. Pretty amusing!"—Frank Gruber, Paramus, NJ screening

"Guy came out of the theater, saw an Into Darkness poster, said to his friend: 'That's what I THOUGHT we were coming to see!'—@gregharbin (Seattle)

Unofficial ground central for TNG movie night may have been at the Century City Arclight in L.A., where goers got to hear remarks from TNG staffers and Blu-ray project consultant Mike and Denise Okuda, LeVar "Geordi" Burton, onetime TNG S3 writer Ira Steven Behr, and even Elizabeth "Shelby" Dennehy herself, plus Blu-ray doc producers Robert Meyer Burnett and Roger Lay Jr. The Westmores Michael and Michael Jr, who did the Borg electronics, were also in the house—and thanks to my Vegas Vanna, Mary "Televixen" Czerwinski, for these photos while I was "on location" in El Paso:

Listening to Ira wax historic are (from left) Rob, Roger, Denise, Mike, and LeVar ...

...plus a zinger from Elizabeth!

And friend/photog Mary snags those Westmore boys

But meanwhile, in Charleston, S.C.:

"As the director of Carolina Alliance of Star Trek Fans... last night at a local Regal theater we hosted an event. I've worked with NCM Fathom Events since Season 1 and last night was our largest attendance yet!!! We even had a couple get ENGAGEd!"—Erika Y. Figueroa

Our ticket winner in Philly sent this:

"I attended the showing at the Rave 6 University City... It seats about 200 and was a sellout. As I waited for my friend Amy, I talked with members of the Philadelphia Star Trek Meetup Group and the Southeastern PA Nerd Herd.  I ended up missing the pre-show trivia questions and the [documentaries] and instead spent my time talking with my new friends! (Even more members of these 2 groups showed up after this photo was taken.)—Loretta Painter (in TNG T-shirt), Philadelphia

From our Cleveland-area winner, too, in North Canton:
"The theater was almost sold out, and I bought the tickets for our others there; I was going to help the less fortunate anyway."—Roger Scritchfield, Akron


We also heard from the USS Ticonderoga crew in Salt Lake City:
"We had more than the previous two showings"— @TardisCaptain_p

And the USS Atlantis in Idaho, too:

And yes, here in El Paso, where I was in town for Sun City SciFi con, the small but rowdy group at the "overflow" Tinseltown Cinemark theater stood up for my camera to yell out for TrekRadio, and then racked up a few raffle prizes from the con promoters:

Family night!: "Not a great shot, but here's me and my daughter, @ConeErica in Provo, UT"—@cone_is










We also got some thoughts from Treklanders who simply pinged me:

"Modern me got hit almost as hard in the gut as the 1990 me: Fleet graveyard scene hits me right in the feels every time. —@thejoncon, Phoenix area

"That was fun! Loads of #TNG fans, Trek t-shirts everywhere & even a few costumes. Too bad about tech issues tho."—@wetodded, San Diego

"Unfortunately, here at the Orem, UT event, nobody was in costume. Except me."—Scott Armstrong

"I wonder how many Miley Cyrus fans were disappointed last night?"—@doubleofive, Bedford, IN

"Yes [ennoyed],  but thanks to technical difficulties we lost 30 minutes of the episode #dontgotoAugustaGA —@The_Don_Burrito


"Awesome big sceen show, almost full theater, lots of fun, laughing, clapping, true ST fans." —@laura_leclair8, Revere, MA


The event has not dropped off, the numbers keep growing, and a TNG Season 4 promo night seems a sure thing—especially with that trailer for the set on view as well.  I have it on good authority that plans are well along for a repeat of this special edition and documenatry, so we'll see you in a few months back at the theater—even after that other Trek movie... and hopefully glitch free and with cheer to spare.

Light bulbs, Romulan transference: download this pod!

I've been a guest on many great Trek and sci-fi podcasts the last couple years or so, and trekfm's The Ready Room is one of them.  Including brand-new Ep. 73 just up this week, about all things Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.

I know, I know—28-year-old movie. Yada yada yada.

I don't say that just because host Chris Jones helped me produce my first interview-archives CD ... or because Greg Harbin made it to my first Seattle CON OF WRATH fundraiser.  Or even because they sat mum as I called them Mike & Bryan by mistake for a while. (Or because Charlynn Schmiedt was civil to me despite my all-in-the-family loving cracks about Voyager.)

No, it's not often that insights melt your brain while in the midst of recording or broadcasting... but that's exactly what happened amidst this show. I guess that speaks to the power and longevity of Star Trek... or something. Anyway, give a listen and see if you can see when I had my Joe E. "Romulan" Ross moment.*

At least enjoy that title: "Hot Vulcan Finger Action." Boy, that Chris... he knows how to market.








*Actor who's most famous for saying his trademark insistent "Oooooo! Oooooo!" in all his roles. Which, had he been living, might have included a Star Trek spinoff: "Pod 74, Where Are You?"

Nick Meyer's dark Frank Lloyd Wright bio-script moves forward

Picked this up in the trades chatter recently:

Nick Meyer, author of The View From the Bridge—and, oh yes: writer and/or director of the even-numbered TOS Trek films, which are included in the book—has penned a great script about a darkly bizarre 1910s chapter in the otherwise iconic American architecture giant, Frank Lloyd Wright. Here's the story start—and a comment from Nick below the fold:

Bruce Beresford to Direct Frank Lloyd Wright Biopic 'Taliesin' 

by Megan Lehmann/Hollywood Reporter 12/5/11

Producers J. Todd Harris and Ed Bachrach are behind the film, about the fabled American architect, which was written by Nicholas Meyer. Veteran filmmaker Bruce Beresford has signed on to develop and direct Taliesin....

The title refers to the architect’s former home and studio in rural Spring Green, Wis., where the key events in the film take place. The rambling hillside compound, considered a masterpiece of Prairie-style architecture, was the focus of scandal as Wright built it for himself and his married mistress Martha "Mamah" Cheney. In 1914, while Wright was away, a domestic worker murdered Cheney, her two children and four others by locking them inside and setting fire to the building.

“It’s a very good script,” Beresford told The Hollywood Reporter. “It doesn’t cover his whole life, just a small section of it, and it doesn’t whitewash him into some sort of saint." ...

Meanwhile,  Nick told me briefly about his script:

"Someone once said that Great Men are seldom Good Men. The movie explores that proposition and also questions whether the "ordinary rules" apply to such people—and what is the difference between chance and comeuppance.

I think that's what it's about."

And I think this will be a whale of a flesh-and-blood revelation into what has been for decades just a dusty-pedestalled cultural icon. Fun, fun.

(Photo: Meyer at the Star Trek Day picket during the WGA strike, December 2007)

Happy birthday, Harve—and you can (please) tell him so!

He was the first guy of at least 3 or 4 post-TOS to get the byline "The Man Who Saved Star Trek"—i.e., producing Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan as a budget-minded megahit comeback to The Motion Picture, finding and inviting writer-director Nick Meyer to the fold, and heading the "middle four" TOS movies overall in the '80s.

Now, just two months after he talked on camera for our documentary The Con of Wrath, comes word via wife Jani that Harve Bennett has been admitted to an assisted living center in the week of his birthday, Aug. 17.

BIRTHDAY cards would be the best medicine right now, Jani says, and invites fans from all over to send Harve birthday wishes—even if a few days late. If you saw me on stage at Vegas we passed along the address, but here it is again; Jani did not mind sharing the mail address with everyone:

Harve Bennett
444 Granite Street
Ashland, OR 97520

We'll have a promo clip for The Con of Wrath up soon from the summer cons that includes Harve—so for now, get those cards and cards into the mail. As I say here often, we have 45 years of incredible history to preserve, and pass on to our own "next generation." Here's a chance to say thanks in yet another way.

Happy birthday, De!

All our Star Trek favorites past and present have birthdays worth noting, of course...but as you veteran residents of Trekland know, I indulge my privilege and always take special care to mark the one of our late, great and much-beloved Dr. McCoy Prime—Jackson DeForest Kelley. He would have been 91 today had he not died on June 11, 1999—the first loss of the original regular cast. Jimmy Doohan followed six years later.

Aside from Trek and all those Westerns, here's a still from De's very first feature, a little film noir mystery from 1947 — that's *47* — called Fear in the Night (from Paramount, natch). De plays the lead: a guy who dreams he killed a man, then wakes up with spent bullets in his pocket .... And guys and gals, he's all of 27 here!

LA ALERT: Chase's movie now in theatres TODAY

Six years in the making, the movie I call "metaphysical film noir" is finally in theatres: Yesterday Was a Lie brings you Chase "Leeta" Masterson in a breakout role that builds off the sultry jazz/torchsinger career she's been building in recent years, and then some; for Treklanders, her co-star is Kipleigh Brown, who once guest-starred on Enterprise as Crewman Jane Taylor in "The Forgotten."

The brainchild and labor of love of James Kerwin, who combines his love of science with filmmaking, the picture is like nothing you've ever seen before and at times defies description: what seems a straight-ahead cop mystery at first soon turns into a puzzle of another kind...with layers and layers of it. But you'll be sucked in for sure.

I had the chance to see it a year ago as it made the rounds of the festival circuit and cleaned up on awards, and recently James has announced they got a distribution deal, followed by a DVD release in March. Somewhere there's paparazzi shot of Chase's "ex-husband" Max "Rom" Grodenchik and I during Monday's red-carpet gala at the Cinespace in Hollywood, but apart from that sideshow the film, with some late final tweaks, was a hit, as ever; James, Chase and the chief architects gathered there for a Q&A panel (below) and afterparty.

The film opens today in Los Angeles at the Sunset Laemmle, but you can track future venues off the website, for starters. By all means, if you are reading this and get the chance, be sure not to miss it. just schedule plenty of discussion time with your viewing party afterwards! And hopefully, we will get a future release of the soundtrack, which features Chase on both standards and original music by














James and Chase take questions from the appreciative crowd at the Hollywood Cinespace red-carpet premiere Nov. 7.