The Final Frontier 1/Final Frontier 1 (Disk 2 of 2).adf/RICHARD-ARNOLD/RICHARD-ARNOLD

Text File | 1991-09-09 | 92KB | 1,366 lines

                      RICHARD ARNOLD AT SILVERCON
                     -----------------------------
                        Edited by Simon Plumbe
                       ------------------------


One  of the  more popular  guests at  STAR TREK  conventions  is  Paramount's
Research Consultant  for STAR TREK - Richard Arnold. His  talks entertain and
inform thousands of Trekkers every year and he  is frequently asked back time
after time.

While at  Silvercon in  Scotland, his  181st  convention  (!), he  gave three
separate talks  including a  slide presentation  lasting for  a total of over
four hours! For those of you who weren't able to make it, or for those of you
who can't remember it all, here are the "edited highlights"!

Thanks  go to  Richard Arnold  for  his  assistance in  putting this  article
together.



In the beginning....
--------------------

Richard has  an enviable job at Paramount. He's their Research Consultant for
TREK and is effectively paid to know a lot about TREK and like so many on the
show nowadays including artist Mike Okuda and writer Ron Moore, Richard was a
fan before getting  involved as an  employee, but how did he  get involved in
TREK? "In 1974 I moved to Los Angeles, after 5 years  of going to conventions
and having met  pretty much everybody  involved in  STAR TREK at  that point.
Either I was a pleasant enough personality, thanks to my mother, or they felt
sorry  for me,  but they  sort of took  me in. And I  found myself being  the
'Resident Trekkie' for  Gene and his  assistant, Susan Sackett,  who is STILL
his assistant, by the way, 17  years later. As the 'Resident Trekkie', if you
will,  or as  the person who  happened to live  within  a few  blocks of  the
Studio, who they could call up with questions, they could borrow slides from,
I could track down things that they needed. I became more and more relied on,
as they were  developing the second series that  didn't happen - the one that
they announced in  1976, it began in  1977, they built the  sets and  started
writing  scripts. That became the first  movie. Throughout  the several years
until the  film was released  in late 1979, I  became more and more  and more
involved. By  the third film, I had an office at  the Studio, I had a parking
place, I had my name  on the directory  over the office door, I  had a charge
number, but I was  not being paid! I had no salary, I was  not an employee of
the  Studio, I just had all the  benefits of people who  had worked there for
years would have.  Gene felt that this  was ridiculous, and  basically forced
the Studio to hire me in 1986, in time for STAR TREK IV, the 20th Anniversary
and THE NEXT GENERATION which actually started  at the time I was hired. So I
was hired before all that happened."

But what does  his job ACTUALLY  entail? "Obviously,  there's been  plenty to
keep me busy since with the new series and two more feature films, well three
more  -  four,  five  and  six.  And  the  20th  Anniversary,  now  the  25th
Anniversary. All of this, the conventions are not part  of the job, they're a
perk.  They're  a benefit, if you  will, and I'm  sure John (deLancie)  would
agree with  that. This  is not  because  the Studio  sends us  out, it's  not
because they really see any direct gain from it, but indirectly it's millions
of dollars  of free public  relations for them, that all  the cast go out and
make these appearances. I go out, not really as a Paramount representative, I
go out  as sort of the fan who's working  on it, who you can ask any question
of and hopefully will have some intelligent answer to  give! That's what I do
basically,  everyday  at work.  I work  as an available  resource, sort  of a
'memory  pool',  if you  will, of  the original  series, the  films, the  new
series, everything  that's gone before that we can  certainly gospel, so that
people  don't  have  somebody  speak  in the  wrong  way,  or use  the  wrong
background information on  somebody or describe something in the wrong colour
so that the  costume is made in  the way that we've  already established they
use these  colours and  so on.  You know,  Romulans use  MIAMI VICE  colours,
Klingons are all  dirty, filthy, greasy  you know, and so on. There's certain
things established. So that's basically it, I'm there as an available source,
I  don't hang  over anybody's  shoulders  saying,  'No, you  can't do  that.'
..... now if anything  that's going to  go out as  merchandise, it's  brought
past Gene, and because he's so busy  with the series and everything else that
he's got, once he comes up to the office that Guy Vardaman and I work in, and
we read it,  go through it, go  through the problems in technical, historical
and character and  we make notations  on that, and  it all goes  back down to
Gene and  Gene is the  one who decides  whether 'this  story's good  for STAR
TREK'  or  it's  not,  what  should  change  and  what  is  the problem.  The
merchandise  is just  one part.  Home videos  another, public  relations,  TV
Syndication, feature publicity, the  series, any film that's in production. I
get calls from gameshows looking for questions for their shows. We just did a
big thing  with the  Smithsonian Institute  in Washington DC, I'm sure you're
familiar with  that, a  BIG 25th  Anniversary display and we tracked down all
kinds of photographs from private collections and  Studio archives and so on.
Same with the 25th Anniversary Coffee Table Book, which is going to be 300 or
so photographs in that, many of them  never before published. So it's keeping
in touch with everything that's going on now, as well as trying to keep track
of everything that  happened back  then, we have current addresses  and phone
numbers on a couple of hundred actors that  worked on the original series and
that's great when  it's time  for a  party, which will be coming  up shortly!
It'll have all  coming in as we did with the 20th Anniversary. So to give you
a kind of rough idea, I'm a 'Resident  Trekkie', I'm a fan who sits there and
is  just available  and some people  at the  Studio thinks it's  great, other
people think  that I  should be  thrown off the lot! Because  they don't like
fans on the lot, fans frequently are a problem."

As I said,  Richard got his  job from being a fan  first. How did fellow fan,
Ron Moore (author  of several episodes including The Best Of Both Worlds) get
involved? ".... he started out as a fan, two years ago this month we read his
first script, he was brought in, he was paid for that script which was called
The Bonding, and  it was shot at the beginning of  our second season. He then
submitted a  couple more stories,  The Defector was  one of those,  they made
that one  very quickly as  well. His episode, The Bonding, was  shot only two
weeks  after they  bought the script - that's  absolutely unheard of.  He was
then brought in  temporarily as a  staff writer, to see if he would work out,
he worked  out tremendously well, he  became a  full time writer  on the show
within  just a  few months.  Last season, for  the entire season, he  was our
Executive  Story Editor  on the  show  and  this fifth  season he's  now  the
Co-Producer of  the show! This is all in two years! He was a  fan outside the
studio gates, working for a pizza place and now he's making over a quarter of
a million dollars a year!!!! PLUS what  he gets paid for each  script that he
writes which  is $22,000  first payment on  a script if you  write it,  so he
still occasionally  goes 'Brrr' sitting at his  desk. He still can't  believe
it - it all happened so fast!"


We proudly present the cast.... or are they?
--------------------------------------------

It's rare for  a show like  STAR TREK to  change actors on a  character (even
though  it happens  in EVERY  Australian programme!), we saw a new Saavik for
STAR TREK III, in  the shape of  Robin Curtis. "Even  though Kirstie, for me,
was  the more  alien looking  Saavik, she  had  those incredible  eyes, Robin
became the Saavik  that I think most fans identify  as Saavik simply  because
she was in TWO films and has been very available for conventions and so on."

Like all  shows, STAR TREK has  been prone  to cast  changes and  last minute
alterations. In one  case, many fans were  certain that an actor  had changed
even when  it hadn't! The specific case was in the fourth season TNG episode,
Remember Me with Eric  Menyuk returning as The  Traveller. "Now we heard from
some fans who were CERTAIN that this  was another actor playing the role, but
it was the same actor - Eric started working out with weights after the first
episode that he  did and four years later  he'd gained 40 pounds. So  he just
looked very different." explains Richard.

Other situations have arose over the names of the  characters. It isn't until
season four  that Chief O'Brien  actually gets a first  name, Miles. However,
there was disagreement over his middle  name, Edward. "That's not  the one he
wanted.  Did  you  know  the  name  that HE  wanted  to  be his  first  name?
Alouicious! He  wanted to be Alouicious. He really  is Irish." Also, Jonathan
Frakes  had ideas for Riker's middle  name. "Not Tiberius! He's a  jazz fan -
Thelonius! He wants it to be Thelonius as in Thelonius Monk. But they'll only
get it if Gene agrees with it - and he didn't like Alouicious!"

Another  situation  concerning  Eric Menyuk  was that  of the  role of  Data.
".... he and  Brent were the  last two contenders for the  role of Data. That
was when  they wanted Data  to be bald. Eric was almost  Data, because he was
willing to shave  what little there  was left - Brent was not about  ready to
shave his head for this role, right, and then they cast Patrick!! Too bad for
Eric!"

Occasionally, the  cast get the  opportunity to play  different roles  in the
series, Brent Spiner playing  Lore for  example. Others, like  Marina Sirtis,
just get to  play different versions  of their character as she did when Troi
loses  her empathic abilities in  The Loss. "Troi  got to be kind  of bitchy.
Infact, her boyfriend says, 'How come when Troi loses her powers, she becomes
more  like you?!'  and that's  her  boyfriend,  Michael. She  said that  Troi
without powers  becomes like,  what did  she call  it, 'The Psycho Bitch From
Hell!' I think is the  way she  described herself!  You know,  like the worst
time of  the month!! And, you know,  Marina admits that that's the way she is
and it's difficult for  her boyfriend sometimes,  but it was  interesting the
way she  played it - she didn't  really realise  how much of  Marina she  was
putting into the role."

A problem Marina  has to put up  with on the show is the appearance of Whoopi
Goldberg as Guinan. If you notice, it's VERY rare that you get to see the two
of them  in a scene  together. One of  the rare occurrences  is in  The Loss.
".... because as Marina keeps saying, 'Guinan is Troi with a hat! They're the
same  character really  - one  does it  in  her  office or  in turbolifts  or
corridors,  and the  other one  does it  down in  Ten Forward.'  When  Whoopi
suddenly  becomes available, and they never know in advance  when she's going
to be  available, they'll  write  out  the Troi  scenes and  write in  Guinan
scenes, because they're basically BOTH counselors."

Remember the classic scene with Brent Spiner and DeForest Kelley in Encounter
At Farpoint? This  has caused a  great deal of  confusion amongst  fans, most
taking it for granted that it was  McCoy. Richard had something  to say about
that, "He's  never credited as  McCoy. It's just 'The Admiral'. That  was not
for the audience, that was for the fans. You see, the entire thing about that
was to show the fans that it's 100 years from the original series or 80 years
from the films. It's a long time later. Okay. And it was simply saying, 'They
may still be around, but  they're going to be really old and really decrepit!
And don't expect  to see them on the  show!' So that's why  that's why he was
even on  the show and again  he was never  named - it  was just for the fans,
okay. That's why, when  Riker says, 'Oh, on the U.S.S. Enterprise,  NCC 1701,
under the  command of  Captain  James T. Kirk...' (The Naked Now)  that's why
nobody at that point  drops to their knees and they play heavenly music! They
were trying to establish that, 'Yes' they will know who these people are, but
no they're not the only heroes that Starfleet's ever had. They're SOME of the
heroes. Okay, and  that's why we  don't refer to  them constantly  in the new
series. Also you have to understand something, they're  still working - those
original series  actors are still  playing those roles - only once  every two
years,  admittedly, but  they're  still  writing  stories  for them.  If we'd
established in  the new series what  had happened to all of them, there's  no
stories to tell! Because you'll know what happened to  everybody. So we can't
put then  in dangerous  situations, you'll  know they make  it out,  okay. So
that's not a reason to limit the possibilities."


That set looks familiar!
------------------------

In STAR TREK III, the set for the bar where McCoy is arrested is actually the
set used for the Sick Bay, but redressed!  As Richard says, "They never waste
anything on this show."

On of the  many TNG episodes  which re-used  old sets was  the story  Legacy,
which featured the sister of Tasha Yar, Ishara, played by Beth Toussaint. "If
the sets look  familiar go back and watch the  episode. Where they're running
through all  those underground  tunnels and everything - it's  the Borg ship,
redressed! It's still standing."

Other familiar scenes include McCoy's Sick Bay from THE MOTION PICTURE. "This
examination table, here,  is the same one that we use in THE NEXT GENERATION.
That's  the  same medical  screen  that we  use.  In  fact,  on Stage  9, the
corridors, the  semi-circular  ones, the Engine Room,  Transporter Room, Sick
Bay and Junior Officer's  Quarters are all 14 years old. Those sets have been
used all that time. Just redressed, so when STAR TREK VI came along, they had
to redress  everything back,  once again, to  the feature look  and this time
they spent  a fortune  doing it.  If you  remember in STAR TREK V a couple of
times you  saw sets that  were obviously  NEXT GEN? You  won't see that  this
time.  Nicholas Meyer was  very determined that  this would be  the look from
STAR TREK II."

Also, did  you know that  the Klingon Bridge set from the first film has been
seen more than once as  well. "This set has  been re-used over  and over  and
over in the films and  in the series as  well. It's been a  Klingon bridge, a
Romulan  bridge, Pakled bridge, torpedo  bay etc. A  lot of these  pieces are
still in use."


Occasionally, they get it wrong.
--------------------------------

Every show,  even STAR TREK  makes mistakes. The  fans seem to  take a lot of
pleasure in pointing them out, even if they don't actually  exist! One of the
more noticeable  errors was from  STAR TREK II: THE  WRATH OF KHAN. As you'll
remember, when  Khan encounters  Chekov, they  recognise each  other. Richard
continues the story, "In STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN, Khan says, 'Chekov,
isn't it?'  right, now that's  not really  possible because  considering that
Walter Koenig joined  the cast the next year! When Space Seed was made he was
off  working  on  MR NOVACK  or  something.  So how  could Chekov  have  been
recognised  by Khan if he wasn't on the ship yet? According to Walter Koenig,
who plays Chekov, Chekov was on board the  ship already, but he was a latrine
orderly on  one of the lower decks!  The deck that he  was working on is  the
same  deck that  Khan was being  held prisoner  on, well, where  his quarters
were, he  wasn't really  a prisoner. The quarters  that he had was  sort of a
'lower grade' quarters. There  were no facilities en suite, so Khan had to go
down the  corridor to use a rest  room. The only rest  room in that  area was
currently occupied by one Pavel Chekov, who, while  on duty, was suddenly hit
by  another wave  of Malackay's Malany,  which is  a 23rd Century  version of
Montezuma's  Revenge! He  was suffering  terribly and  he was  locked in  the
bathroom.  Khan,  whose genetically  engineered kidneys  were ready  to burst
after 200 years, was  outside the bathroom  door, pounding on it,  begging to
be let in! And when Chekov  finally flushed and opened the door, Khan grabbed
him, hauled him off the floor and said, 'You, I will never forget your face!'
That's according to Walter Koenig, not us, but it sounds pretty good to me!"

When they started  producing THE NEXT GENERATION,  another row was  triggered
over the  appearance of the  Romulans and how  they stopped  looking like the
Vulcans. Richard  explains what happened, "I don't think Michael Westmore was
aware that they were really the same  race when he developed the Romulans for
the final episode of the  first season which was  the first time that  we saw
that new make-up. The studio was already on strike at that point, you see the
Writer's Strike  had begun. That episode was  rushed into production  with no
writers to  work on it, which meant  that there was no  changes available for
the script, which meant there were no meetings, which  meant that Michael was
pretty much on his own to come  up with the make-up and I don't think he knew
about the  history of the two races. So, when  we saw that it was  like, 'Oh,
god!'. He didn't know, it was too late, they would have had to have gone back
and  refilmed  all  of that, so that's  one  of those  things where  the only
explanation we can come up with POSSIBLY is that in the 100 years between the
original series and the new series, other races have gotten infused  with the
Romulans as  well. Doesn't sound like a hell of an  explanation, but there it
is!"

Another argument  arose over  the accent  Marina Sirtis uses for Deanna Troi.
"When she was  first on the show, at  one of the conventions, she  was saying
that her accent was  a Betazoid accent. She'd  developed it to be  one. Well,
actually she hadn't - she was originally being cast as the character Yar, and
when she became  Troi she just kept the accent she'd developed. It's supposed
to  be sort  of middle  European. So it  became a Betazoid  accent. Then  her
mother shows up, Majel Barrett  as Lwaxana Troi, who does not do accents very
well, and she didn't have any time to learn it, so suddenly  her mother has a
very American  accent and Troi has this supposed Betazed  accent and the fans
are saying,  'Well, wait  a minute! If  that's a Betazed accent,  why doesn't
your mother sound like  that?' So  then she decided that it  was her father's
accent. And then we  heard from a fan who was a child  psychologist who said,
'Children don't learn their  accents from their fathers, they learn them from
their mothers because their mothers are the ones that are around them all the
time they're  growing up, not  their fathers  usually!' And we  answered that
with, 'She learned to speak TELEPATHICALLY from her mother, but VERBALLY from
her father!!' There you go, we really work on this sometimes!"

Night  Terrors,  from season  four, created  another chance  for the  fans to
complain! There is one scene where Worf is about to commit suicide because he
wasn't able  to dream!  However, the  fans complained  saying that  a Klingon
would never do that. Richard continues, "... most  of Klingon tradition again
is based  on Japanese Samurai tradition, and believe me, they've  got lots of
ways  to  dispatch themselves!  So they  went through  this whole  ritual  of
pouring the hot  oil and heating  it over the  candle and all  of that. So it
wasn't that he just decided to go down  and slit his wrists or anything. This
was a ceremony he was going to go through."

However, Richard's  favourite to  date relates  to the  closing scene  of the
fourth season TNG  episode, Family.  "At the very  end, Rene goes  out and is
lying under the tree looking up  at the stars. It's a very cute scene, it's a
very  moving  scene - let him  dream, right?  We got a  letter from  a fan in
Hawaii, who is  an astronomer and she said that the Orion  constellation that
you can see up in the sky would not be visible in France in the fall when the
grapes are being harvested! And we wrote  back and said, 'Who says it was the
fall? Earth is climatically controlled. Grapes could be grown year round.' We
have to make it up as we go!"

Another from Family is the fact that all of the French people in the episode,
including  Picard's family, all speak with English accents! "... let's put it
this way - it's 400 years from now. 400 years  ago, did anybody in the United
States have an American  accent? No! Everybody in  the United States  had, at
that point, Dutch  accents, British accents, Scots, Irish, Indian - whatever!
Times  change. People's move. And  what's to say with The  Chunnel opening up
soon, half of the  English population doesn't end  up in France? Maybe in the
Lebar region growing  wine grapes!' So, why  not? Let's just say from  now on
that English becomes the official language of the city of Lebar, France."

Another from  season four is from the episode Reunion. As  well as seeing the
return of  Worf's girlfriend K'eyhler, we  also see his son, Alexander (funny
name  for  a Klingon!). For  those of  you  who  haven't  seen  the  relevant
episodes, K'eyhler  last appeared in the  season two story The  Emissary, and
that was  their (K'eyhler's  and Worf's) first meeting for  five years or so,
and at that time she had no son. Until after their 'meeting' in that episode,
anyway. However, if Alexander is only  two years old, how is he able to talk,
walk and that  he is generally much bigger than normal two year olds? "... we
came up with a very good  answer for that and that is that the more primitive
the species, the  faster the young  are independant of  their parents.  Well,
that's true - humans  are about the slowest  developing species. We're  stuck
with our parents  until we're 18 and  then we're thrown out! But some species
are born independant, right, and in this case we figured because Klingons are
fairly primitive,  their young would  grow to maturity  alot faster.  We also
think their  life span is alot shorter. They're not like Romulans and Vulcans
- an old Klingon would probably be in his 50's or 60's."


The joker of the pack!
----------------------

William Shatner is  known as being a  bit of a practical  joker. Most  of you
know about the  running joke over Leonard Nimoy's bike when they were filming
the original  series (Bill Shatner kept  stealing the bike  every day!),  and
it's a habit he  still hasn't grown out of. One of the more recent pranks was
during the filming of STAR TREK VI. "DeForest Kelley who's, as I said, in his
early 70's now, was talking with Bill Shatner on the set - he seemed a little
troubled by  something, he seemed very serious - and he  said, 'Bill, I think
I'm starting to lose my mind and I think I'm starting to lose my memory, like
Alzheimer's was setting  in or something and I'm  really worried about it. It
happened to one of  my uncles and I saw him  slowly fade away and he  was the
age that I am  now.' and you would think  that would go to  Bill's heart, but
instead immediately Bill was trying to figure out how to get him! That's Bill
Shatner's sense  of humour I'm afraid. So  later in the day, De  Kelley is at
the coffee service table and as people of his age are want to do, this is the
story that Bill  tells, everyday at a certain  time he has a cup of tea and a
muffin, these raisin  muffins. And everyday at 4 o'clock  or whatever he does
it. So Bill was standing over there eating raw vegetables, you know, keep the
waist down, and  over comes De and he slices his  muffin and puts it into the
toaster and  pops it down and he's  standing there waiting for  his muffin to
pop up. And it hits Bill, 'Ah, right!' and he says, 'Brian!' who's one of the
make-up artists,  'Distract De!' right  so Brian goes over  and says, 'Er De,
can I have a  look at you over here  in the light, a look at your face here.'
and Bill runs over  and grabs the muffin out of the  toaster! And he goes off
to the side, right and he's standing there, looking innocent! And Brian says,
'Okay,  okay.' and  De goes back and  he stands there  waiting and,  'chunk',
comes up - nothing there  and looks at it, looks around the  table, goes over
and slices the  LAST muffin from  the sleeve, okay.  Puts it in  the toaster,
'chunk', puts it  down, stands there waiting and Bill  says, 'Brian! Distract
De!' 'Er De,  can I see  you over  here in  the  light about  here, I'm  just
worried about something on your face. Okay, fine, right.' and Bill goes over,
grabs the  muffin and runs down to  the end of the table, right  and De comes
back! 'Chunk', pops  up - nothing's there, right!  Now, Bill's got nowhere to
hide these, so  he's stuffing them in his mouth  madly like this,  right, and
De's looking  around and  he sees Bill  down at the end  of the table  and he
says,' You! You son  of a bitch! You're  driving me crazy!' right, and Bill's
going, 'urgh!' (coughing) like  this and De said, 'What?' and  he said, 'Call
911!'"

William Shatner also got a chance to get his own back on Nicholas Meyer while
he was directing STAR TREK VI. Nicholas  Meyer has a tendancy to smoke cigars
almost constantly  while he was  working. Richard  continues the story, "They
stink! I don't  know if it's because  they're not  expensive or  it's because
they are expensive, I don't know  which, but they stink! And it was bothering
a lot of the actors, even DeForest Kelley, who's a heavy smoker, was bothered
by the cigar  smoke. And finally, Bill  Shatner, who just  really had had it,
went over to the special effects guys and  said, 'Guys, I need a favour.' and
they  said, 'No, we're really  busy. I mean we don't have time for this.' and
he said, 'I want  something that  stinks so much that Nick  will stop smoking
his cigars.' and they said, 'We'll be right back!' So they came back and they
gave him  this little  bottle and  he popped  it open and he  said it  was as
though he had just  lifted one of his horse's tails  and stuck his face right
in! That bad, right, only  worse than that! So he too the bottle with  him on
to the set. Now he had already had an argument with Nick about the cigars and
Nick had said, 'I  need these, you know, I  need these in the morning, I need
them in the afternoon, and I need  them in the evening. I need these, right.'
So he walks up.  Now, the way Nick works is, you know, he's holding the cigar
and  directing the  sequence, right  and he's  saying, 'Okay, first  (takes a
puff and blows out) we're  going to have so and  so over here and then (takes
another puff  and blows out) we're  going to do  this and so on.'  it's like,
smoke everywhere, right! So he's in the middle of doing one of these and Bill
walks up and  says, 'Okay, what  do you need me to do in  this scene?' and he
says, 'Okay, well  Bill (takes a puff and  blows out) we need you over here.'
and Bill pops  the top on this thing and  stands there  holding it underneath
his nose!  And Nick said,  'Okay (takes a puff)  so you'll come  in.... Oh my
God!! Jeesh!  What is  that?' right and Bill  said, 'Oh this? I  need this. I
need this in  the morning, I need this in the afternoon and  I need it in the
evening!' and Nick  said, 'Urgh! Oh, I get it... it's the cigars, right?' and
Bill said, 'Yes.' so  after two days of  this, Nick quit  smoking the cigars.
Now, he  did go  back once they got  to the bigger  sets where  it wasn't  so
bothersome, but it was on the enclosed sets it was really a problem."

Another chance he had  to play about was during the making of STAR TREK V, in
particular, during the filming  of the scene in the Turbolift Shaft. "Now for
the Blooper Reel they did  for STAR TREK V which was  great fun, for the Wrap
Party, they had at  the bottom of the shaft there was just that grated floor.
They put  a big  cushion, sort of  a knob, down  there. And different  people
walked up  with a  huge mallet they  made from  empty  water bottles,  with a
baseball bat for a handle. They walked  up to it, take the mallet and hit the
pillow, right and then  you saw Kirk, Spock and McCoy shooting  up the shaft!
And this was all very carefully set up by Bill, as the director, just for fun
for the  Wrap Party.  And they  had the little  secretary that worked  in the
office, Mary Beth, she came  in, gave it all that she had, and they just sort
of went up  a little bit. And  then Harve (Bennett)  came in and  took a  big
swack at  it and  they  went up  a  little  more,  and  different  people had
different responses.  When they brought  in big John Dwyer, who  was the  set
decorator on the  original series and the set  decorator on STAR  TREK V, and
John is about six foot  six and 300 pounds! And John hit it so hard he almost
broke  the bat  and the three of  them go shooting  up, incredibly  fast, and
they're all going, 'Woah!' as they go up and  they get almost to the top when
they all cover their  heads and they stop just in  time and Bill  pulls out a
little gold hammer and hits a  bell, 'Ding!' Again, it was all set up for the
Wrap Party, it was great fun."


What they DIDN'T want you to see.
---------------------------------

As well as cutting scenes from the finished films and episodes for one reason
or another, there are  other scenes that don't even get that far. One example
is from the end of the second season story The Schizoid Man. "He (Data) tries
the beard to look like Riker at the beginning of the episode and they decided
that no, that doesn't work. Geordi  was laughing and Troi  was having to hold
back a laugh. They  said, 'Data, that doesn't  really work. Why don't you try
something  else.' At the very  end of The Schizoid Man, Data's on the bridge,
well they're  all on the bridge, and  the camera  is on  the Captain,  who is
glowering - he's very  upset about something. And  the camera's pulling back,
now Riker's in the shot - he's  saying, 'I don't know, I think it looks quite
distinguished.' and the camera pulls back farther. Now Troi's in the shot and
she says, 'I think it  looks very nice.' and the camera  pulls all the way up
to Data and pulls back to find out  you see the top of his head is bald! Data
has decided to go  bald and the Captain say, 'Well, I don't think it's funny.
Engage.' and that was really the  end of it and Patrick said, 'No!'  and that
was the end of that! There was  no more to that. There was  no question about
it going any farther. Patrick does have some say in this!"

A major problem the crew had with season four, specifically the later half of
the season,  was with  the hiding  of Gates  McFadden! As  you know,  she was
pregnant during  season four and  it caused a few problems, especially in the
episode  The Host.  "This was  a difficult episode for  Gates because she was
having to do a lot of romantic scenes and they could only shoot her from here
up because  she was  seven  and  a half  months pregnant  at this  point  and
DEFINATELY  showing. In fact,  her stand-in had to wear  a pillow in front of
her so  that whenever they were  setting up the shots  to make sure  that you
couldn't see it for when she stepped in."

Another problem  is that the producers  and directors  of THE NEXT GENERATION
don't like the actors to ad lib. Unfortunately, John de Lancie has a habit of
doing this, and some of his better work is often found when he is allowed to.
Unfortunately, we missed  a great line from  the fourth  season story,  Qpid,
"When Sir Guy of Gisbourne has just come down with  Maid Marian, the Sherriff
of  Nottingham, Q, is  surprised that  she's not going to  be executed - he's
going to marry  her. He doesn't quite know what to figure out about this. And
she has  just said, 'I'd  rather stay  with Sir  Guy.' and he  said, 'No,  of
course you would, my child, but I  have affairs of state to attend to' and so
on, and he sends her back up to her room. And he says to Q, 'It's going to be
a wonderful day tomorrow, a wedding AND an execution.' and that's the  end of
the scene, but John added in, 'I thought ALL weddings were executions!'"

A scene  with  an unusual story  behind it is  from STAR TREK III  when Sarek
performs the mind  meld on Kirk in  order to find Spock's Katra. "Mark Lenard
likes  to  say that  in the  one shot,  where you  see the  close up  of Bill
Shatner's eye with  the tear in  it - it wasn't that Bill worked up the tear,
it's that  in the  rehearsal he  poked him  in the  eye! That's  according to
Mark."

Remember the scene  in STAR TREK III when McCoy  is sitting in the bar trying
to find transport to  Genesis and he is approached by a security guard? "This
scene was changed  considerably from what was  in the script.  Originally, it
was a standing up situation and after the Neck Pinch didn't work, De was then
supposed to slug  it out with the guard  and do a fist fight with him. And he
told Leonard  that McCoy  would not get into  a fist fight  and Leonard said,
'Ah, but you're not  just McCoy, you're Spock right now.' and he said, 'Fine.
Spock would  be even  less likely to  get into a fist  fight!' So he  won the
argument and they played the scene sitting down."

A great scene  that was left  in was from  Future Imperfect.  "If you recall,
there is  a point where the  young boy,  Ethan, somehow  distracts them  (the
Romulans) and Riker punches Tomalok and they escape. You remember that scene?
Andreas Katsulas, who's  a wonderful  actor, must  have either  leaned in, or
Jonathan forgot  to pull the  punch, but he knocked him cold! Watch the scene
and watch his  face. He absolutely laid  him out! It was one  of those things
that happens on  the show occasionally. I  don't know if Andreas  is going to
want to come back again!"

As you know, there  was a lot of footage  left out of  STAR TREK II.  Most of
Todd Bryant's scenes were  removed, along with a  lot of the character scenes
featuring Scotty's nephew, Peter Preston. "Another one of the scenes that was
cut from this  film, STAR TREK II, is  when Kirk and  the young Peter Preston
are having  it out in Engineering.  He's telling  him, Kirk is  telling Peter
Preston, who is  Scotty's nephew, what  a pain in the ass  Scotty is,  always
complaining  about the engines  and, 'Do you know the  ribbing I have to take
from everybody  because of the conditions of the engines of this ship all the
time?' and  Peter  Preston  is saying  back  if  the Admiral  can't  see  the
Enterprise is  the best ship in  the fleet, he's as blind  as a Denebian Bat!
And Scotty steps  over and says, 'That'll  be enough of  that.' and says, 'My
sister's youngest - crazy  to go to space.' So  there's a whole  relationship
between Scotty  and the nephew and  Kirk that we never saw as well as between
the nephew and his  best friend, this young  cadet here, who  is Todd Bryant.
And Todd  was, of course, later  Captain Klaa in  STAR TREK V and  Todd is in
STAR  TREK  VI  as  well."  Fortunately,  when  ABC  television  in   America
transmitted the  film, they had it  re-edited and  a lot of the  lost footage
like this scene was put back in.

Another  'trim' was  near to the end  of STAR TREK III  where McCoy  talks to
Spock in the Sick Bay on the Klingon vessel. ".... this is the sequence where
McCoy says, 'It seems I've missed you. I don't think I could stand losing you
again.' that  wonderful sequence. If  you recall, Kirk was not in that scene,
right. That's because  this scene  was cut  dramatically. Originally  he's in
there saying, you  know, 'What can you  do for  him? Can  you help  him?' and
whatever and he  decides to go back  to the Bridge and  he's heading  out the
door when McCoy starts to talk to him and  he stands in the door, he's turned
and he's listening  and you see tears welling up  in his eyes. Is it the ship
being destroyed, the  Enterprise, is it the  death of his son, is  it getting
Spock back  is it just all  the last two movies, you  know, coming to  him at
once?  They  decided  that they  were  going  to  cut the  scene  because  it
'weakened' the  character of the Captain  to see him crying! There's  another
one of those decisions that you can't explain."


What of the future?
-------------------

When STAR  TREK: THE  NEXT GENERATION  finishes  it's  contracted run  of six
years, it  looks likely  that it will  move into films, but  how soon  after?
"There are two  scripts in the works right  now for some time in 1994.... The
fifth season has just  begun last Monday  on THE  NEXT GENERATION.  They will
have completed the sixth  season by the spring of 1993, a nice hiatus to give
everybody a  rest, and they could make  the movie in the fall of 93, and have
it out by the summer of 94."

But what of  the original cast?  "Well, all the  actors have said this is the
last one, with  two exceptions. Of  the seven cast  members, five  have said,
'This is it.' Both  Jimmy Doohan and  DeForest Kelley are in  their 70's, and
they just don't  want to keep up this kind  of work. It's very long  days and
it's several months straight.... Both De and Jimmy have said that this is it.
Leonard has said this is it. Walter has said that he wants to get on with his
career - he's  the youngest of all  of them and for the  last 20 years he has
hardly been able  to get work because STAR TREK is  still a going  concern. I
think Nichelle and George are probably the  only two who would really want to
see it  continuing. You  know George, he wants to  see STAR TREK XII: CAPTAIN
SULU MEETS WHATEVER! so, there's  still that, but as the original crew of the
original Enterprise, the way this movie ends it really is the last film. Now,
that doesn't mean  they can't do a  STAR TREK VII, if  this one makes  a HUGE
amount of  money, the Studio will  probably start pursuing  them, but at this
point, they're saying no. This is really the last."


Livingston the Fish!
--------------------

In Picard's  Ready Room, in  the one corner  is a spherical  glass bowl. This
fish tank  is the home of  Picard's Lionfish, Livingston,  named after one of
the Producers on  the series, David  Livingston. However, it's  not just  one
fish  that we've  ever seen - they're  now up to Livingston  the Sixth!  What
happened to the  other five? "Livingston the  First and Second - the cleaning
crew kept unplugging  the fish tank at  night! If there's  a light that's on,
they'd unplug it. So the  first two were found  floating......." If you think
that's bad, just wait until you hear what happened to the third! As you know,
studio lights  are very  bright, they  have to  be. Unfortunately, as  a side
effect  they  also get  quite  hot.  However, when  they filmed,  a light  is
actually needed  at the back of  the tank so you  can see anything  in there.
Richard  explains the  fate of  Livingston  the Third, "On  the Friday  night
everybody left,  and the  cleaning  crew DIDN'T  unplug it  and Monday  was a
holiday. So when we  came in Tuesday the  first thing that everybody said who
was  on the  set was, 'Somebody  had  FISH for  breakfast?'.  Livingston  was
hard-boiled!" Luckily, the fate of the others was less fatal! "Livingston the
Fourth turned  out to be a  LivingstonA and  had babies,  and Livingston  the
Fifth turned out, under  the lights, to be  the wrong colour! He was a little
too white. They use  a more reddish type  of Lion Fish, so we got  Livingston
the Sixth. Now, we'll probably  have Livingston the Seventh  this year - they
keep changing Livingston's on us!"


An Enterprising ship!
---------------------

Have you ever wondered how come a new Enterprise was constructed for Kirk and
Co. so quickly at the end of  STAR TREK IV? I mean, it could have only been a
few months  since the old  one was destroyed.  Richard gave  the explanation,
"They are given their new ship, the NCC-1701-A Enterprise, which is not a new
ship, in fact,  it's a refit  Constitution Class, as the  Enterprise had been
and  this was  the old Yorktown,  renamed Enterprise.  If it was  a brand new
ship, they wouldn't have put an 'A' on it."

Another question often raised by fans is concerning THE NEXT GENERATION. Have
you ever wondered why  the Federation STILL hasn't got cloaking devices, even
though they  are now the Klingon's  allies? "Because  they're not  a military
organisation. The Klingons definately are, but the Federation is not. They're
an exploratory organisation." The Federation DID have a cloaking  device once
(The  Enterprise Incident)  but Kirk  only stole that  so that the Federation
could defend against their  use. The final word on this has to  lie with Gene
Roddenberry, "Gene says, 'We don't sneak around  in space.', okay  and we all
said at  the  beginning of  this  new series,  'Gene, what  about the  saucer
section? At  least when you  separate the  secondary hull, shouldn't  that be
able to be cloaked?' and  Gene said, 'No, we don't  use cloaking devices.' So
believe me, we all tried to argue him in to it, but he was stubborn."

Also with  THE NEXT GENERATION,  if you  look at the  underside of the saucer
section, you'll  see a small disk. This  is, in fact, a smaller  vessel - the
Captain's  Yacht. So  why  haven't  we seen  it  used yet?  "I'll give  you a
probable reason why not. To  build the miniature would be probably $25,000 or
more. To build  the interior set that they'd  have to build to show us inside
of it would  probably be another $50,000 - $75,000. And then to do all of the
post production  special effects and  to change the bottom of  the saucer and
to build the close up section of the bottom of the saucer  would be that much
more again. So  you're talking  an enormous  percentage of  the budget in one
episode.  However, there's  a script in the works  for the fifth season  that
necessitates the use of the Captain's Yacht so if that script is approved, we
will finally  see it,  but it  has to  be important enough to bother spending
that much money. They don't throw money away on the show."

One  of  the   difficulties  in  writing  science   fiction  is  keeping  the
technological  advances believable.  How do  they manage?  Well, most  of the
technology is  based on  information supplied  by scientific groups.  Richard
continues, ".... JPL,  NASA, The American  Medical Association, all  kinds of
groups are very much involved and McDonald Douglas, who are currently working
with Space Station Freedom, I believe, just had one of their scientists up to
the show to the art department. We plan to visit their facilities as well. We
had David  Kreeger as one  of our consultants,  we've got somebody  different
this year, but we use REAL people, involved in REAL science to make sure that
everything makes  some sense. And  in spite of the fact that  we're trying to
project 400 years in the future, it's amazing how fast it catches up with us.
If you look  at the original  series, the hypo  spray that McCoy  uses - that
exists now! And the bio-beds that they used in the original series - there is
already a form of that - it doesn't have the eight readings, but it has three
already! So  there are  advances constantly in medical  fronts and scientific
fronts and computer  fronts and so on, that we try  and project WAY ahead and
it catches up quickly."


Writing for TREK.
-----------------

Season four  saw the return of  Lore in the episode  Brothers, written by the
show's Executive Producer  Rick Berman. It was an unusual experience for him,
as Richard relates, "..... he discovered just how difficult it is to work for
himself when  he wrote  that, because  he got into  terrible fights  with the
other producers  on the show and found  himself saying things  that he  would
normally laugh at in Writer's Meetings. You know, people say, 'But this works
so much more  better, dramatically.' and  they would say, 'Yes, but it's just
much too  expensive and  we can't do  it.' and he found  himself having to be
argued  out  of things  by the  other producers  who were  actually in  lower
positions than  him, but  as a  writer he  had to  accept it.  So I  think he
understands  and  respects far  better what  it  is that  the writers  now go
through. This  was probably a  blessing for the  writers on the  show that he
went through this experience."


D.C. or not D.C.?
-----------------

Regular readers of D.C. Comics STAR TREK titles will know of a special set of
2 4-issue mini-series  launched this year to tie in with the 25th Anniversary
called  The  Modala Imperative.  It  consists  of one  series  featuring  the
original  cast, and  then the  follow up  is a story with THE NEXT GENERATION
crew with  Spock and McCoy  as well! Normally, Paramount  are over protective
when  it comes  to major  events  like  this, so  how  did  it get  past Gene
Roddenberry? "We're  talking 25-30 million  a week for the  series, less than
200,000 a month  by books and less than  100,000 by the comics,  so it  was a
very small audience. I don't think it  was much of a concern that they had to
be absolutely as  cautious as we make everybody else. So yes, Gene did allow,
for that  time only,  the Spock and McCoy  story, but with  the understanding
that  the writer  could not later  say that we  were wrong if  we established
anything different.  I hope that's  clear to everybody  that if,  in THE NEXT
GENERATION, they decide to show McCoy in a very different kind of a story and
Spock with a completely different  background story, as to why he's there and
so  on,  that does  not make  us wrong  because the  comic was  there  first.
Anything that we do differently, the comic immediately becomes wrong, because
that's the way it  goes. Anything  that we do is  fact, anything  anyone else
does is fiction." Richard continues, "Peter David accepted that, that what he
was writing was not  going to be gospel. Gene  approved the USE  of those two
characters in the  new series time frame, but with  the understanding that no
gospel was being established  at that point. And it does not mean  that Spock
is even alive, it just means that the story was okay for this particular time
and yes,  we're planning  at some  point to use Spock in  THE NEXT GENERATION
anyway."

Also, if you recall, there used to be a lot of extra characters in the comics
that literally  disappeared  overnight. Why  did they  disappear? "It  wasn't
Paramount, it was  Gene Roddenberry that wanted them removed and it's because
STAR TREK is  about Kirk, Spock,  McCoy, Scotty, Sulu,  Chekov and Uhura.....
the story should  circle around Gene's  family of characters, not  some other
writer's  created  Universe that's  only  using  HIS characters  as  sideline
characters. That's why  he wanted them out. Very blunt!" Richard then went on
to present an  interesting analogy on  the subject, "Gene's built a house, in
the back yard is a sandbox. He lets his kids play in it and anyone that wants
to come and play in  the sandbox with his kids  is more than welcome  to, but
there are  certain rules - you don't  beat up his kids, you  don't go  to the
bathroom in the sandbox, you don't kick out all the sand and drag in your own
dirt. Okay, simple rules, very  easy to understand. So if you want to play in
his  Universe, please  feel  free  to do  so, just  don't push  his kids  out
bringing in your own friends to play with."


Dressed to kill!
----------------

The designs of the  costumes for THE NEXT  GENERATION are wonderful,  but did
you know that some of the  cast wear padding underneath? "Michael, because of
all the make-up and the wig looks kind of funny unless he's padded up so that
his head seems  to match the rest of him. So  they make Worf even bigger than
Michael is  and Michael's six  three and a half! So  they make him  that much
thicker looking. Patrick is padded in some areas, not in others, because he's
very powerfully built, but he is rather  short so they sort of pad his heels,
if you will, and  they pad his chest  a little bit as  well. Wil Wheaton  was
padded from  head to toe! Wil  is just incredibly  thin, and  then we  have a
couple of actors who are 'girdled' on the show, but we won't mention Jonathan
or LeVar!!"

Do you remember  the scene in The Best Of Both  Worlds part 2 where Picard is
standing in  Data's lab, hooked  up to the computer, covered  head to  toe in
Borg  implants?  Richard  describes  the costume  Patrick wore,  ".... he  is
actually  not wearing  any costume  in this  scene - he is technically nude -
these are  simply  rubber  pieces that  are GLUED  to his  skin! If  you look
closely in  the episode, all  this stuff is  just stuck on  him with surgical
adhesive which you  then rip off! And  he was in this get-up on  his birthday
and it wasn't just any birthday - it was his 50th birthday and he walked into
his trailer - there was  a big bunch of sterling  silver roses - 50 of them -
with a little card, 'Happy half a century'. Not what he needed to hear in the
mood that he was  in! And they had  organised for a stripper - they cancelled
her! He was in no mood to go through that!"

William Shatner has  had his problems with costumes  as well. If you remember
at the end  of STAR  TREK III, Kirk  lays his jacket  over the body  of David
before battling with Krugge. Richard  continues, "At the beginning of filming
of STAR TREK IV, they're  on the planet Vulcan, well they're  actually in the
Paramount parking lot again, and they're about to start shooting the sequence
standing outside  of the Bounty and  Bill says, 'Where's my jacket? I want my
jacket.' and they said, 'We don't  know. We weren't going to use that in this
film.' and he says, 'Well, I want the jacket.' because  he likes this leather
jacket, right.  There was  a mad  scramble for  it and it was pointed  out to
Leonard that his  jacket was on top of  David when Genesis  was destroyed. He
beamed up  without it so he couldn't  have had it. So Leonard said, 'Ah Bill,
you don't get your jacket because it was destroyed when Genesis blew up.' and
Bill thought about it for a second  and said, 'Well how about he bought a new
one on Vulcan?' So Leonard came back to us and said, 'He says he bought a new
one on Vulcan.' and  we said, 'Tell  him that Vulcans  would not sell leather
goods. It goes against their philosophy.' Anyway, he lost his argument!"

Not so much, a costume, but did you know that Patrick Stewart  was auditioned
for the  role of Picard.... in  a toupee! "Patrick  is very open  to the fact
that he has  a 'receeding hairline' as  he puts it! And he  started losing it
when he  was  19, or something  like  that, and  he's played  a lot  of roles
throughout his career  with or without his toupee, which  is named George! It
really is, he  needed George, I  think  he wore  George when  he was  playing
Sejanus in I, CLAUDIUS. And they wanted him to try out for STAR TREK with and
without the toupee. So  he called Sheila and  said, 'Can you send George over
in an envelope!' and she sent  him through some airline  where they literally
courier it from the  airport to the plane, to the  airport again. And he went
down to pick George up and  he was a little squashed  so he took him  in, had
him  cleaned, they  applied  George the  Monday morning, this  was after  the
Friday they called him and said, 'We need it.' and he did the reading and the
producers and the executives looked at him and said 'Thankyou.' and then they
asked him if he could  please take it off  which he did and  they came in and
looked at him  again and said,  'Okay' and they  decided to do  it without. I
think only because it just made him that more distinguished."


The Old vs. the New.
--------------------

For the first year or so of THE NEXT GENERATION, there were countless rumours
going around that  the original crew didn't actually  like the show. The real
story? Richard reveals all! "At first, there was a little tension there, from
the original  cast, not from the new  cast. The new  cast were in  awe of the
original cast and  when STAR TREK V  started up production, it  was the first
time that they  were on the lot  at the same time and a  lot of the cast from
the new series wanted me to take them over to watch them filming STAR TREK V.
And there  was very much  an 'us and  them' attitude at  that point, from the
original series  cast people, and the crew for some reason, I don't know why.
That was brought  to a head with an  incident that happened with Wil Wheaton.
Wil was one of their biggest fans and Wil wanted to go over and watch filming
and he was in awe  of Bill Shatner and  Bill was directing. So  he snuck over
with Mike Okuda's badge  on. Now he was  wearing his uniform and Mike Okuda's
Japanese!  Okay, so  obviously he  should  have  been  recognisable,  but  he
couldn't get  in  without a  badge on, the security  guards are dense!  So he
walks into the stage and he's like, 'Oh my god!' because it's the Shuttle Bay
set, which was  huge, it's the  whole Sound  Stage, and he's  walking in  and
who's the first person  that he sees walking  towards him? Bill  Shatner! And
Bill takes one look  at Wil, up and down, and says, 'Hiring 'em kind of young
aren't we?' and he  keeps walking. Now  that's Bill's sense  of humour.  Bill
knew who it was, right,  but Wil was crushed! He thought that Kirk hated him!
And he went  back over to  THE NEXT GENERATION  set and  said, 'Bill  Shatner
hates me! I want  to get out of this!' really  upset. And that went  on for a
couple of  months while  they were  filming it  and one  day Guy  and I  were
walking back  from lunch with  Wil and he  started up  again about, you know,
'I'll  never watch  the original STAR  TREK again!'  and so  on and  we said,
'Can't you get  over this?' and we grabbed him  by the elbows and dragged him
into Stage 4 where  they had the Bridge  built, and where  they were  filming
scenes on the Bridge. We  dragged him in, right up to  the cast, who were all
sitting there in their chairs waiting for the scene to start, and he loosened
up and started  talking to Jimmy,  George, Walter  and Nichelle who  were all
sitting there and  De Kelley, right. And then Bill walked by, right, and just
sort of looked  over at us and went into the set  because he was director and
getting it all ready and  Wil did this (cowered) and  Nichelle said,  'What's
the  matter?' and  he said, 'Bill  hates me!' and  she  said,  'What are  you
talking about?' and he  said, 'I was on the set, a while ago and he said, you
know, hiring them a  little young!' and she  said, 'Come on. That's his sense
of humour.' and she grabbed  him and dragged him into the  set and pushed him
right in front of Bill and said, 'Bill, this is Wil Wheaton, Wil this is Bill
Shatner.' right and  he said, 'Hello  young man. How are  you?' he shook  his
hand and they started talking, right, absolutely normal. And Wil was starting
to, like, float  off the floor! And in comes Leonard and the rest of the cast
and eventually he's  surrounded by the ENTIRE original cast, all talking with
him about how it's going on THE NEXT GENERATION and everything else. Somebody
was saying,  'Loved your  work in  STAND BY ME'  and Wil  was, like,  on  the
ceiling at this point! And then they had to shoot the scene so we had to drag
him out. That  ended that  problem and  it ended the rumours  that were going
around about  the fights between  the two series  which didn't  exist. It was
just this one incident that spurred all of that."

However, at that stage none of the original cast had OPENLY praised the show.
"Of the  original  series  cast, the  first  one  to acquiesce  was  Nichelle
Nichols. She  was at a convention  and the fans were trying to get her to say
negative things  about the new series and  she said, 'Look, I haven't watched
much of it. I've seen  a couple of episodes  and I don't think  they have the
same feeling  that  we had,  but they're  probably not  supposed to.  They're
probably  supposed  to  be  different.' And  she  said,  'You don't  seem  to
understand something, the  fans WON. They  wanted new STAR  TREK, they've got
new  STAR TREK. They've  got new  STAR TREK every week, instead  of having to
wait every  two years.  So it's  different, that's  the one  thing that  STAR
TREK's always been about, it's being different.' So she  was the first one to
REALLY give us support  and then Walter and George, and Jimmy came along, and
one by one they  started dropping  by and visiting  us on the new series sets
and then De, who'd  already been  in Encounter At  Farpoint, but  was sort of
reserving  judgement on the  new series, and  then Leonard was  the second to
last - you  all  know who  the last  was!  Leonard  was at  a  convention  in
Durboune,  Michigan, and  he was  up in  his  hotel  room flipping  channels,
killing time, and  an episode came  on and it just  happened to be one of the
better episodes, fortunately. He  came in  right at the  beginning of it, got
hooked on  it and watched it right through to  the end and  was late  getting
downstairs to his talk!  He was going to watch it  right through, and when he
came on  stage somebody asked  him, 'Have  you watched  THE NEXT GENERATION?'
they were looking  again for something negative, and he said, 'As a matter of
fact, I've just  finished watching one, which  is why  I'm late  getting down
here.' and he  said, 'It was very good, I  was very impressed.' and he thinks
it is a  worthy follower, if you will, to the original series. Bill Shatner -
Bill had not  seen the show and  whenever he was  asked he was  saying, 'No I
haven't had time  to watch it.' or  whatever and people kept thinking, 'Yeah,
right! He just  doesn't want to say anything.' but  he never had. He was busy
with 911,  which was  his new  series, his  horses, directing  STAR TREK  V -
everything else that he was working on kept him too busy to be watching TV on
Wednesday evening  at 8 o'clock  in Los Angeles. So,  he hadn't  seen it,  he
really hadn't and he was filming that Power commercial, you remember the one,
what was that, British  Power or something? And he was on Stage 9 in THE NEXT
GENERATION  Transporter Room  and they  also shot in the Engineering Section,
can truly  recognised in the  episodes as being NEXT GEN. Our cast was on the
next  stage, Stage 8, filming on  the Bridge, and somebody  came in and said,
'Do you know that  Bill Shatner and Jimmy Doohan are filming next door on our
sets?' and, you  know, 'Maybe we should go over and  visit them.' and Patrick
said, 'Let them  come here!' Anyway, Marina  said, 'Oh screw all of you!' and
she went over  there to watch some  of the filming and she was standing there
at the doorway to  the Transporter Room with  her Troi make-up and  hair, but
her own  clothes, right. And  Bill sort of looked  over and saw  her and  she
waved and he just sort  of and she thought, 'Oh my god, he doesn't know who I
am! He really  has not watched  the show. He  doesn't know  who I am.' So she
waited until he  was finished and  came off the Transporter  Platform and she
said, 'Hi, I'm  Marina Sirtis, I work on STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION.' and
he said, 'Oh,  hi! I'm sorry, I  haven't watched  the show.' and she says, 'I
understand  that.' and they  started talking and  she said, 'So, what  do you
think of our  sets?' and he says, 'Where  are you shooting?' and she thought,
'What a stupid  question, I mean these  are our sets!  We're shooting  on our
sets,  right!' but  it wasn't  until later  that when  she told  me that  she
thought he was being kind  of stupid, I said, 'No, Marina, he doesn't realise
that THE NEXT GENERATION is using  THEIR sets because the sets that he was on
today are  still HIS sets in his mind, because that's where they've made five
of the STAR TREK feature films.' and she didn't realise that the sets for THE
NEXT GENERATION were in  fact 14 years old, that they were THEIR sets as well
as OUR  sets. All the 'us and  them' and 'theirs  and ours' gets confusing, I
know, but that  was when Marina realised  he was absolutely sincere, not only
had he never  watched the show, he  didn't even realise what their sets were.
So after that, he  was still the only  hold-out, and then he did a convention
in New York with  Patrick Stewart and the  two of them were on stage together
at one point  in the convention and  somebody asked Bill, again  it was a set
up, 'Have  you watched  THE NEXT GENERATION?' everyone  was expecting  him to
say, 'No, I  really haven't had  time.' and he  said, 'Before I  came to this
convention, I had a feeling  that I probably should because I was going be on
stage with this  gentleman here, and  I watched it, I think it's excellent, I
think this gentleman is  a marvellous actor  and I'm very proud  to have them
follow us.' and  the room was  stunned! Absolutely  in shock and  Patrick was
blown away  by that! And later they  went out and had  a tremendous time, the
two of them. So he was the last hold-out. So now the original series cast are
very supportive of us and the original series cast - half of them are fans of
the original series, so the original series and THE NEXT GENERATION casts get
along beautifully now. They do conventions together as well."

Speaking of conventions.... "There was a very funny question asked of the two
captains, it was called the Two Captain's Show, in New York. I think DeForest
Kelley had been on just before and he was asked, 'If Kirk and Picard got into
a fight, who would  win?' and De thought  about it and  said, 'Well,  I'm not
going to give you the answer I'm giving you because of my loyalties, but I'll
explain it. Kirk  would win the fight. Not because  he's in better shape, but
because he would be the first one to throw a punch! Because Picard would want
to talk about  it!' And that's the  difference in the philosophy's of the two
shows isn't  it? You see  Kirk is, 'I'm  going  to count  to three  and fire.
One... two... fire!' And Picard was  always, 'I'm going to count to three and
fire. One...  two... three... I'm  not kidding... four...  five... six... I'm
still serious  about this!' So  there's the two approaches there from the two
captains.  I can  tell you some of  the hysterical events  that went  on that
evening. The two of them  had a great time poking fun at each other. Somebody
asked Patrick, 'Is it true that he had had something to do with the designing
of his sleep attire on the series?' and Patrick said, 'Yes, I must confess, I
designed Picard's Jim-Jams!' and Bill turned to him and said, 'Jim-Jams?' and
Patrick  said,  'You know,  pyjamas.' and  Bill  said,  'Oh, well  there's  a
difference  between Kirk  and Picard  right there.' and Patrick  said, 'What?
That Picard  says  Jim-Jams  instead  of  pyjamas?' and  he says,  'No,  Kirk
wouldn't wear them!' So it was great fun, that evening."


Not everything goes to plan....
-------------------------------

As with all shows, problems occur while filming, but none were as troubled as
the season four  finale, Redemption. "They  had to rebuild from  scratch this
set because when it went into  storage somehow it got destroyed. It happens -
it's happened  too many  times to  us. We use  a lot of  storage, indoor  and
outdoor, I  think sometimes they're just  not reading what  it says.  When it
says 'hold' that  means DON'T destroy  it. This had to be built from scratch.
It was  too big  a set  for the  budget  of the  episode to  build completely
because of everything else they were doing in the episode, so they only built
one end of it. And they kept redressing it as BOTH ends." But that wasn't all
of it, as  Richard illustrates, "Especially  considering that they just about
killed the film  lab because they LOST an entire  day's filming! And they had
to go back and  re-shoot EVERYTHING on  this again from  that day,  which was
infuriating - we were already far enough behind schedule as it was."

Another  problem  cropped up  a  year  earlier  with  the  previous  season's
cliffhanger, The Best Of Both Worlds as Richard disclosed, ...the sets of the
Borg ship were  built on Stage  16, which is our cavernous  planet stage, the
one that Patrick Stewart calls 'Planet Hell' because it's hell to film there.
They always have alot of smoke and  dust - it's terrible for the actors. It's
funny, the crew walk  around with gas masks on, and  everybody keeps  telling
the crew 'Oh, this  stuff doesn't  harm you  at all - it's  fine, don't worry
about it!' So the sets  had to be kept intact, because they  were going to be
coming back in 2½ months to film again. So they very carefully wrapped it all
up with plastic and  then sealed off the  sound stage. Paramount decided that
the alleyway  between stages 16 and  15 needed to be resurfaced and they were
going to cut some  grooves to run some power lines  through. So what they did
instead of running the  traffic through that alleyway, was they opened up the
huge  doors at  each end of Stage  16 and ran  the traffic THROUGH  our Sound
Stage! And  of course, the  tours wanted  to go  through there  and the  tour
guides eventually, over  what must have been a couple of weeks, tore open all
the plastic and  everybody was  being paraded through  our sets! And sets are
very fragile - they're not  meant to be tour items - and some damage was done
to the  sets, until  one day, somebody noticed  that one  of the  Sound Stage
doors was open and walked  inside and saw all  these track marks on the floor
of the  Sound Stage  and  called the  Production  Office  and  our  producers
absolutely flipped. Called the studio to  find out what the hell was going on
and it was very quickly locked up again and the studio had to pay to clean up
and fix the sets. It's amazing what they don't understand about STAR TREK and
that is that more people  that are on that studio tour  want to see STAR TREK
than anything else on the lot, and it's the one thing you CAN'T do is go into
the STAR TREK sets. When you take that studio tour, you're only allowed to go
into CHEERS - you know, the less popular shows!"

Also , remember the scene from TREK IV, where Chekov tries to make his escape
from all the U.S. Marines? "Leonard  is explaining that he's got all of these
marines about  to come charging  in, and he wants him  (Walter Koenig) to run
across the inside  deck of the Ranger, which  was doubling as the Enterprise,
and these  guys were all  going to be chasing him. And Leonard said, 'Now run
as fast as  you can but we  won't have  the camera  going to fast  because we
don't want  to make  this difficult  for you.'  and that  ticked Walter  off,
because he had just, I believe, turned 50 and was very proud of the fact that
he was running some seven miles a day at this point, which was more than he'd
ever run in his  life, so he was very  proud of himself. So  when that called
'Action' he took off like a bat  out of hell! And the camera  was lost in his
dust, right. So Leonard came over and said, 'Okay, slow it down and we'll try
and keep up with you, okay.' However, when they called 'Action' for real, the
marines this time  all came charging out and it scared the hell out of Walter
and he ran like a bat out  of hell again! They  were really frightening,  you
know,  all the  yelling  and the  weapons and  the sounds  and the  boots and
everything - it was frightening."

Did you know that there was  originally supposed to be an extra scene in STAR
TREK IV? "When  you see Sulu and McCoy and Scotty walking  down that hill and
Sulu looks into the  restaurant and then  they stop in front of the great big
'Yellow  Pages'  sign - they're  trying  to  figure  where  can  they  get  a
helicopter and plexiglass, right. This little boy comes running down the hill
in the  story, and says  something like, 'Uncle  Harato.' and  says something
rapidly in  Japanese. And  they all look sort  of surprised and  Sulu says in
very formal  Japanese, 'I'm sorry, I  think you have me confused with someone
else.' and the  little boy says, 'Oh, yeah, you're  not my Uncle  Harato' and
starts to  run off and he  says, 'Wait a minute,  wait a minute.  What's your
name?' and he says, 'My  name is Hariochichu (whatever-it-is) Sulu.' and runs
off down the  hill. And Sulu just smiles and turns to the other two and says,
'Gentlemen,  that  was  my   Great  Great  Great  Great  Great  Grandfather!'
Unfortunately, the little boy is absolutely terrified. They could not get him
to do  anything when the  camera was rolling, he  was so scared. So they just
had to lose the scene. It's too bad."

STAR TREK V had  it's  problems  as well, as  Richard explains.  "STAR TREK V
begins out  up just North  of the Redlands,  California, Southern California.
They're filming  out in  the desert  here. Rex  Holman, who  had been  in the
episode Spectre  Of The Gun as  one of the  Earps, as  J'onn and  Sybok here,
Laurence Luckinbill. They  had so many problems filming out on location, they
needed to get  some very heavy equipment out into the desert. The desert is a
National Park, I believe, and  you cannot do any damage to the lakebed there.
So they had to build a road to get the  trucks and the equipment  in, and the
cranes in order to shoot all this. And then run the tracks out as far as they
could, which had to  lay down on these little  pieces of wood so  they didn't
damage the  floor, because it's all considered a  historical site or whatever
- it's a National  Park. They had to get a geological survey done before they
could build  the roads. So  it  was all these  delays for  this film.  If you
haven't read Bill  Shatner's book, the Captain's Log: The Making Of Star Trek
V you really should, because they went through hell to get this done."

Why  did they  need the roads? Well,  do you remember  when the  Enterprise's
shuttle lands in Paradise City? "That shuttle which weighed 9000 pounds empty,
had to be lowered by crane for the landing sequence!"


The story BEHIND the story...
-----------------------------

There are  hundreds of small  anecdotes that  Richard can remember  about the
episodes and  films. One  of the  more memorable  concerns The  Best Of  Both
Worlds and a young  woman who was dying of  ovarian cancer. Richard continues
the tale, "And she had  watched part one of it, Best Of Both Worlds, and when
it ended with 'To Be  Continued', she was in a state  of panic, which was not
good in her condition, she was terminal. And her doctor called up to find out
if in fact it was true, was she  going to have to wait until the beginning of
the fourth season to find out what happened. And we said 'Unfortunately, yes'
and she  said 'Well, can you tell her what  it's about?' and we said 'No - it
hasn't  even been  written yet!  Because  we are  always  barely keeping  our
deadline.' We had not  written or filmed The Best Of Both Worlds Part 2 until
July, so it  was about a  month later.  In any  case, the  young lady who was
terminal was very  distraught by  this and I  told the doctor, 'Well,  let me
check a couple  of things and  we'll call you  back.' Called  the number  she
gave, it was a  hospital, I asked if they  had that patient, they said, 'Yes,
infact they  did, she was terminal.' and so we verified it, it was for  real.
You'd be surprised how often we get calls from somebody saying that they have
a son or a daughter  or a friend who  is dying and  can we fly the actors out
to  visit  them and  can  we  send them  the set  or something!  Some  really
outrageous requests, so we verified it, I talked to the producers and we came
up with a way  to deal with it. On  the Monday,  we called  the hospital. The
patient's husband was in the  room along with her  parents, some friends, her
children, other  nurses and doctors - quite  a crowd. They all  knew that she
was a big STAR TREK fan, they all knew that she'd  be getting a special phone
call - they  didn't know exactly what. She  was put on  the line  and I said,
'I understand that  you're quite upset about the outcome  of The Best Of Both
Worlds' and  she said 'Yes', because  she's a very big Captain Picard fan and
she was really concerned that he might not make it and I said 'Well, tell you
what, why don't I let HIM tell you', and handed the phone to Patrick Stewart!
And Patrick spent  the next 20 minutes  talking to her on  the phone, telling
her, 'Oh don't  worry, I have a very  resourceful crew, they'll  come up with
some sort  of a solution!' and  kept telling her, 'No, no, no, this is really
MY pleasure. It's very rare that we get a chance to talk with our fans one on
one - it's nice to  know that there's  somebody out there that really watches
and cares  that much.' and he made her feel  wonderful. In fact, so wonderful
that later that  day we got a call from the doctors  saying, 'Well, you'll be
happy to know  that we had to give  her TRANQUILISERS to bring  her down! She
was so excited, which  was also not good  in her condition,  that her family,
her parents in particular, had been out  in the hall in tears because she had
more  colour in  her cheeks  than  they  had seen  in a  LONG time.  She  was
determined  to see  that  episode.  She not  only outlived  the 30  days  she
supposedly had, but as of this month it's been a year and she's still living!
Because she's determined to see each new episode as it airs. And certainly by
giving her  another cliffhanger at  the end  of this  season, we've given her
three more months  she has to last! So, it was  great news and she's now home
with her family - she's no longer in the hospital."

Do you remember  the scene in Data's Day  where Doctor Crusher tries to teach
Data to  dance? Richard does! "...... he  did most of his  own dancing, Brent
Spiner. He had a double for the trenches and the turns because he's got a bad
back - he can  do them, but he  can't do them as well  as he really wanted to
and as well as Gates thought the android should be able to. She choreographed
the  scene, by  the way.  Gates McFadden,  as Cheryl  McFadden, used  to be a
choreographer and she  choreographed THE MUPPETS TAKE MANHATTAN and LABYRINTH
among other  things. So she  did all of her own dancing  and the choreography
and everything - she gets a credit at the end of the episode."

Did you know that the  fourth season episode, The Devil's Due, was written in
1977! "It was  written by Worley Thorne  for Kirk, Spock and  McCoy. Kirk and
Spock were supposed  to beam down to this planet, and  face the devil. It was
The Devil and  Daniel Webster really. However, the script was written for the
second STAR TREK series  that never happened,  that became the  first movie -
you  know the  history up  until  now.  And it  was a  script that  they kept
thinking they could do something with and they finally did. They re-wrote it,
re-wrote  it, re-wrote   it, to  this, The  Devil's Due.  Unfortunately,  with
Picard in the Kirk role, and Data in the Spock role, the first day on the set
Jonathan Frakes comes up to me and says, 'Was this written for the old guys?'
and I said, 'What do you mean Jonathan?' and he said, 'There's nothing for ME
to do in it!!' which was true. They'd taken the two, like, number one and two
positions and  there really wasn't  an in-between  character in  the original
series. That was one thing that was so obvious  from the script was there was
NOTHING for Riker!"

Do you remember the scene in STAR TREK IV when  Chekov and Uhura were looking
for the nuclear wessels  and Chekov is standing  on the street  corner asking
everyone in his Russian accent, in front of a policeman? ".... this policeman
over here was  a REAL San Francisco  Police Officer,  who was  supposed to be
keeping the traffic  and the real  pedestrians away  from the scene  that was
being filmed.  Now the  camera  was  obviously a  motion picture  camera,  so
anybody that  was nearby knew  what was going on, that  they were controlling
the traffic  and the pedestrians.  When they walked  over to the cop, right -
this whole scene was  ad lib - they only  had sort of a general background to
what they were  supposed to be doing.  They walked  over to  him, the  camera
followed and  he just stood there  staring at  them - he was  a cop! And then
this young lady  approached and  they thought she  was just another extra and
they asked her the same  question, 'Can you tell us where the nuclear wessels
are in  Alamida?' and she said, 'Oh, I think it's across the bay in Alamida.'
Watch Walter's  eyes, they almost pop  out! Extra's  are not  supposed to say
anything and she wasn't an extra - she was walking her dog!! So when they cut
the film they  had to track her down and get a  waiver from her so they could
keep the piece - it was cute!"


Linguistically speaking....
---------------------------

Have you ever wondered why so few humans speak  Klingonese and yet almost ALL
of the Klingons we ever  see speak perfect English? Richard gives the answer,
"Which answer  do you want - the  official answer  or the real  one! The real
answer is the audience  speaks English! So, you  know, everybody has to learn
to speak English except, I mean we don't have to speak other languages except
people like Picard who learn a few lines, because subtitling is a pain, so we
just assume that everybody speaks English, because that's the easiest way for
the audience. We  also have something  called the Universal Translator, so if
you can't understand  someone speaking to  you, you just do something to your
communicator or  it can be preset to just automatically  translate and you're
hearing everything in English. Now, I know that's, like bull, but it's a 20th
Century show being made for an English speaking audience so it's just sort of
convenient that the one language in the Universe, or at the known galaxy that
everybody is sort  of agreeing upon, is English, and again, it's probably not
even the same  English we speak  now, it's probably very different. Languages
change dramatically  over centuries, but  your television set has a Universal
Translator in it too!"

In STAR TREK II, we saw a short  scene where Saavik (Kirstie Alley) and Spock
were talking to each  other in Vulcan. "Well, they didn't, they spoke English
- it was later looped."

However, that proved  to the the first work on STAR TREK for language expert,
Marc Okrand. "Marc  was asked to create the  Vulcan language  for the  two of
them to speak. What they did in THE MOTION PICTURE for the Klingon language -
Jimmy Doohan created that! Jimmy Doohan is a master of languages and dialects
and  accents and  he created this  little bit  of Klingon  language for  Mark
Lenard to speak in THE MOTION PICTURE. Marc Okrand took the tapes of that and
created the  ENTIRE Klingon language based  on what Jimmy Doohan did! And for
that little bit of  Vulcan ..... Vulcanese? He watched  their mouths and came
up with words  that fit their  lip movements - that's why the Vulcans sound a
little strange."


Sometimes, relationships can be a difficult thing....
-----------------------------------------------------

When Troi loses  her abilities in The Loss, there was a scene where Riker was
comforting Troi and they  end up kissing (it was cut!). "This would have been
at the  very end of  the  episode, but  the producers  said, 'Friends  only!'
That's never  going to change - that's  the way it  is in the Writer's Guide,
that's the  way they created  it, that's the way Gene wants to keep it. Their
relationship is  very much the same  as the relationship  was supposed  to be
between Decker and  Ilia. They met  at her home  planet, if  you remember The
Motion  Picture, he was  stationed there when  he was a young  lieutenant, he
left to go off and pursue his  career, they met again when they were assigned
together  on the  Enterprise. What had  been a  relationship  was now  just a
friendship - the whole set up was  the same. So, Gene feels that it should be
kept this way."

However Marina is quite  pleased that the relationship between Troi and Riker
is  in the  past, mainly due to  Riker's more  promiscuous nature!  "..... as
Marina points  out, that Riker does  it at the drop of a hat! 'You wanna have
sex?', 'Uh, oh SURE! HEY!', 'You didn't have to ask!'. Where as Troi's always
very  very good  about, you know, who  she chooses  to be  with. Now  this is
because we  were just with  Marina, in Nurnburg  last weekend and  that's all
still fresh in  my mind. That HE goes on about how she's, you know, always in
bed with guys, rubbing  oil into their chests  and so on, and she says, 'Hah!
She's had two and he's - we've  lost count already!' that's why the producers
have decided to  keep it the two of  them apart as she  puts it, 'To make him
free to shtuck the bimbo of the week!'. And  Marina doesn't think that's fair
at  all,  because  she says  if  that's  true, Troi's  middle name  would  be
'Doormat'. So  there's obviously  no  relationship  going on  there, just  it
simply wouldn't be fair."


Sex and Religion in the 24th Century...
---------------------------------------

One episode that  really caused difficulties for  Richard was Galaxy's Child.
Why? Well, in America the show has recently been on the receiving end of some
unfair criticism from the  gay community. "You see, it's  one of those things
that wouldn't have occurred to us either. This episode was written by a writer
who CHOSE to make Leah Brahms married. We've been under pressure from the gay
community  for  a  long  time  now  to  establish  that  heterosexuality  and
homosexuality is  completely equal. Equally  acceptable, that is, in the 24th
Century. And they were asking us why couldn't we have made her a lesbian? You
know, why  couldn't she have  said to Geordi, 'Hey, didn't  the computer tell
you I'm  a lesbian?' instead of, 'Didn't  the computer tell you I'm married?'
And of course, either one  would have been fine, but  the writer didn't write
it that way. And to basically  attack us on that front is really unfair. Yes,
of  course, all  sexual  preferences, all  religious  choices,  all political
choices will  be equally respected  in the 24th Century. But  to specifically
address it  in episodes  that has  nothing to  do with  the story  whatsoever
doesn't really work on STAR TREK - it's pacification of a minority and we try
not to do that on STAR TREK. Yes,  absolutely, she  could have been  lesbian,
why not?  Unfortunately, it wasn't  written that way and  we're not trying to
force the  writers to  write that  way. So it just  didn't happen. And  we're
going to  try and address  that in  the fifth  season, but again  it can't be
forced."

Unfortunately, Richard  has also come  under personal  attack on this, simply
because he  was mis-quoted  on the matter. "I  was asked at  a convention  in
Boston why we had never seen a homosexual or  gay character put  on STAR TREK
and I asked, 'What does one look like?' And the person asking said, 'You know
what I mean.' and I said, 'No, I don't know what you mean. What does one look
like? How do you want us to show that somebody is gay? Do you want us to have
them act  differently? Because  that's offensive. You  should not  be able to
tell somebody's preference  by just looking  at them. Do you  want us to have
them walking around  sacheting with pink triangles on their uniforms?' Right,
now you laughed  at that. This person  didn't think that was  funny and I was
quoted as saying, 'If we're going to show gay people on STAR TREK, it's going
to be with pink triangles  on their  uniforms!' so  I am suddenly  a neo-nazi
homophobic! I'm  not kidding, we  have had hundreds  of letters  from the gay
community  because of that. And  it's sad because,  unfortunately, they're so
focused that they  don't realise that if they had actually found out what the
full  question  was and  what the  answer was,  that I'm  very aware  of  the
problems that they're  facing in the  community and that  certainly if a good
story came along we would  DO that story. But, so far  one HASN'T. How do you
address a non-issue? In the 24th Century, it should be a non-issue. So how do
you show the  problems the gay  community face in the  20th Century when they
should be  having no problems in  the 24th Century? One of  the people in our
writing staff  said, 'When  they ask  you that  question at  conventions, why
don't you just tell them that they found a cure for homosexuality in the 24th
Century!' I should  have thrown him off the  fourth floor! Most of the people
on  the show  are sensitive  to the  situation. So  it's not  an easy one, it
really isn't."

However, they aren't just  a target for the gay  community. The show has also
been attacked on religious grounds. "We've had a religious group, and I can't
think of the name of the group - it's probably best that I don't even mention
it, who have been saying that, 'STAR TREK is  some kind of communist plot' or
is 'to ploy the devil' or something! Because we're showing people in the 24th
Century and we're  saying that the  'second coming' still  hasn't happened in
400 years! Now, that never occurred to me  or anybody I don't think,  but 'Oh
Jees, we're  sorry!' - I'm sorry, I  should have said  Cheese! We slipped up,
I'm sorry - I've just offended all the Christians out there who are expecting
a second coming any day now! So, it's so hard to please  everybody, it really
is, we try not to tackle those  subjects. Sex, politics and religion are very
tricky."

Another, admittedly  smaller, problem the  show has to put up with is sexism,
one incident specifically  in the episode Qpid, in  the scene where Riker and
Co. disguise  themselves as monks and go to rescue Picard, "And what bothered
me and what bothered Marina  and Gates and unfortunately didn't bother enough
people on the show was that the guys got  to draw swords and the girls got to
smash bowls over people's heads! Just a little sexist! However, we're trying.
It's hard when you've got 6 out of 6 producers that are male. Okay, we've got
one Head Writer/Co-producer on the show who is female and that's Jerri Taylor
and  I think  between  her and  Ron Moore  and  Michael  Piller who's  really
terrific, I think it should get  better. I HOPE it will get better. But don't
forget, this  is a 20th  Century show being  made by 20th Century  men. I was
DEFINATELY with Marina last weekend wasn't I!!"


Guess who's dropped in for dinner!
---------------------------------

The show is no stranger to getting  guests on the set while filming. One such
time was  during the  filming of  part one of  Redemption when  ex-President,
Ronald Reagan turned up! "You never knew who's going to be a STAR TREK fan do
you? He'd been  trying to get over  to the sets for a  long time. He actually
wanted to see the movie sets, but there weren't any movie sets at this point.
They  weren't about to  become movie  sets for  another week or  so, so if he
could have  just waited another  week! However, they were  busily starting to
redress for STAR TREK VI over on Stage 8 and 9 at this point. All of the sets
of THE NEXT GENERATION, which are redresses of the feature sets anyway, since
they're all 14 years old, were  being redressed for  STAR TREK VI. The former
President knows  the original series  quite well, I can  tell that, I had the
privilege, if you will,  of taking him  around the  sets and showing  them to
him. He was, as I  said, more familiar with the original series - he'd seen a
couple of  THE  NEXT GENERATION  episodes and  what was  interesting was  his
reaction to  the Klingons. He liked  the Klingons - he said they reminded him
of  some of  his  former cabinet members! But  he was  telling a  story about
working on a  film at Paramount years  and years before, and  he sort of lost
track of what he was talking about and stood there looking a little confused.
And he said, 'I'm sorry. I have that condition that  you get, that old people
get when they can't  remember anything.  What's that  called?' and in unison,
everyone  said,  'Alzheimer's!' right,  because  that's  something  everybody
worries about and it was so  embarrassing because everyone had said it at the
same  time! Everybody  felt  about  that big!  And  he  said, 'That's  right,
Alzheimer's, but  I have Irish Alzheimer's.' and everybody said,, 'What?' and
he said, 'I  forget everything  but a  grudge!' He  set us  up for  a joke! I
couldn't  believe it!  He hadn't  forgotten his  story at  all! Okay,  he was
actually kind of interesting. Brent Spiner is our one cast member who doesn't
want visitors  on the  set. And  he's not  a Republican - he's made that very
clear! So  when he found  out the  President was  coming he  made a big stink
about, 'I don't  want him  visiting our sets!' and  so on. Well  Brent wasn't
working these  scenes as you may  know, if you've  seen the  episode, but yet
when the President was there, Brent came in on his day off to see him!!"


Making Whoopi!
--------------

One of the great things  about working on THE NEXT GENERATION is that Richard
has had the  chance to meet and work with Whoopi Goldberg. She has a tendancy
to play around on  set almost as much as Bill "Whoopi's always a character on
the  set. I  think I've  mentioned  several times  before she  swears like  a
sailor, but  not to shock people, it's  just the way she is. She kids around.
She uses some words  that most of us  don't use very  often - just as sort of
like colourful  metaphors - remember that line? And when she blows a line she
lets fly! At herself, mostly. But she's really great fun to watch. I remember
particularly in this one, where she's blown the scene about six times and she
stopped and just sort of swore to herself  and then turned around and started
to walk out the funny way that Oda Mae  walked in GHOST  and says, 'Excuse me
just  a minute, I  have to go outside  and fart!' which  really released  the
tension on the  stage! Everybody  laughed, she went out, probably blew on her
arm or  something, got everybody laughing, came back in and she got the scene
done. She's interesting to watch  work - she's an  Academy Award  winner now.
She is really terrific and yet you can see that when she's on STAR TREK she's
having a lot of fun, because she's probably our single biggest fan."

The episode  In Theory, Patrick  Stewart's first  episode as a  director, was
Whoopi's first on  the show after she had  won her OSCAR... and she made sure
that EVERYBODY knew about it! "Whoopi brought her Academy Award with her that
day and made sure that  EVERYBODY posed for a picture with her Academy Award!
She also set it very carefully down at the end of the bar when Patrick wasn't
looking and then was up here polishing it like this. Patrick's over here with
the camera  for the scene  where she's pouring the liquids - watch the scene.
And Patrick looked  around the  camera, looked  down the  end of the  bar and
said, 'What's that... Whoopi, would you  please get your  OSCAR off the bar!'
and she  said, 'Whoops,  how did  that  get  there!' She's  so proud  of that
Academy Award."


                           -----------------


All the  material in  this article  was recorded  over a  three day period at
Silvercon in  Glasgow, Scotland between  13th and 15th  July 1991.  Thanks to
Richard Arnold and to the Silvercon Committee for a great convention.

Also  thanks  to Mark  Haggett, Terence  Haggett  and  Andrew Wilk  for their
assistance in putting this all together.



              Next issue.... John de Lancie and Guy Vardaman!