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Voyager_Launch_Interviews
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1995-11-16
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TF01
3,Voyager Press Launch - Interviews
4,by Simon Plumbe and Mark Platts
While attending the press launch of Star Trek: Voyager, we were able
to grab a few minutes with some of the guests to talk about what they
had seen and what they thought of Voyager. However, before
interviewing the celebrities themselves, we started of with a brief
chat with CIC's Robert Hollocks...
Simon: Robert, how's the day gone so far for you?
Robert: Pretty well, I think. I must admit that I'm personally
pleased with it - it's always hard to judge what other people
think of stuff.
Mark: Were you nervous?
Robert: Yeah, very nervous actually. It's the first time I've done
such a theatrical presentation. We normally stand up in a
suit and say, "Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, boring,
boring, boring!" so it's quite nice to do something different
for a change as well.
Simon: What do you think of Voyager yourself?
Robert: I think it's great! I must admit I was a big fan of Next Gen
which was really how I got into it. I started off with that
and went back to the original series afterwards. I quite like
DS9, although I wasn't that struck on it at first, but I just
think that Voyager's brilliant. It's probably the best pilot
I've seen I think out of all of them.
Simon: How would you rate it in comparison with the other shows?
Robert: Well, I think it's got a long way to go to beat... well, not
a long way to go, but I think it's got a way to go to beat
The Next Generation...
Mark: It probably hasn't settled in yet, you haven't seen enough
episodes.
Robert: Yeah. I've seen about the first 5 or 6 now, and it's like all
of them - they all get better as they go on. I mean, I was
thinking back to Encounter At Farpoint which was... well, it
was okay but it was certainly nothing brilliant, and I don't
think The Next Generation begun until season three really.
But I think Voyager's much better than that - that pilot was
great and if that's what the start is like, what's it going
to be like in the next series? But then I would say that, I
suppose!
Simon: Is this the most expensive press launch you've done?
Robert: No, it was actually done on a really tight budget. We
desperately needed to do something different to get away from
the same old screening.
Simon: It looks like quite a lavish event.
Robert: I can't remember what the exact figure, but it was a lot less
than you'd think it would be. We cut loads of corners, hire
stuff on the cheap, we had people stitching their own
costumes - that kind of stuff - just so we could cut costs.
Just because we wanted to make it something special really.
The guys who did it, TAP - the agency who put it together -
were just great, they were so enthusiastic about it and they
really sort of worked really hard. Considering the budget. We
had more than our money's worth out of them I think!
Mark: Are you pleased with the coverage you've got from the camera
crews?
Robert: Yeah, it's brilliant. I was surprised how many people turned
up. Normally you'd get probably about a 30% drop-off - people
who say they'll come and they don't turn up - and I think
we've got 90% - 95% of people invited turn up! It's great.
The press coverage has been fantastic so hopefully, touch
wood, we'll get some good articles coming out of it as well!
Simon: Back to Voyager again, any word on the release of the special
edition?
Robert: Ah-ha! You've put me on the spot with this one! We're hoping
to do it late November now. The reason is that what we really
want to do is put "The Making Of Voyager" on the tape and do
it as we did the other two for Deep Space Nine and The Next
Generation. The trouble is we haven't had clearance from the
States to use it - it all takes so long to get the clearance
through.
Simon: Is that what delayed the release, because originally it was
supposed to be June, wasn't it?
Robert: That's right, so unfortunately the original plans with the
promotion was to have you collect four tokens and get the
video free, but we just couldn't get it cleared in time. So
at the moment we're hoping for November, it's looking
reasonably good, but we'll wait and see how it goes. Also I
think if I can't get clearance for that then we'll probably
just hold off on doing the Collector's Edition until we can
get it. I mean, the last thing we want to do is just release
a video for the sake of it.
Simon: Will you be increasing the production run over the DS9 and
Next Gen tapes?
Robert: Yes.
Simon: Because with the last couple of Collector's Editions, the
Next Gen one pretty much sold out overnight.
Robert: I mean, I wasn't working for CIC then and I remember going
into Our Price saying "I must come back and buy that." and I
went back the next day and it was gone! I couldn't get one
anywhere.
Simon: There was one story going around - I don't know whether you
can confirm this or not - that with the Next Gen tape that
HMV bought most of the stocks up in the country.
Robert: No, they were fairly evenly allocated as far as I know - it
was before my time! They were fairly evenly allocated, but
they just sold out literally straight away. It was just
incredible really. It's annoying because I still haven't got
it!!
Simon: You've got no chance now!
Robert: No, no chance! And with the DS9 one, I think the DS9 one's
pretty much on the verge of being sold out now - it seems a
bit slower.
Simon: Go to Birmingham!
Robert: There's lots there are there?
Simon: One branch of HMV has about 200 copies!
Robert: Oh... right! I mean, they should be fairly evenly spread out
because they're so limited. The Voyager one will be a limited
edition as well.
Simon: Will that still be 20,000?
Robert: We'll probably increase it to about 25,000 to 30,000 or it
wouldn't be limited so what we'd try to do is just make sure
everybody gets a fair crack at it.
Next up, we managed to grab a few words with Red Dwarf's Danny John
Jules (it made things easier as he remembered Simon from T'Kon '94
where he and Sven were providing security for Danny during the
autograph session)...
Simon: What did you think of Voyager?
Danny: I thought it was alright. Not bad, you know. It sounds a bit
like the last series of Red Dwarf, spending the whole series
with the crew looking for the ship. It's quite funny
actually, I thought, "Oh, this sounds familiar!".
Simon: Does it live up to your expectations?
Danny: Yes, I thought it was interesting - I thought the hologram
was interesting as well - kind of Rimmeresque!
Mark: I was just expecting the "H" to appear on his forehead!
Danny: It was a bit! After a while I was expecting him to crack
jokes! I think, rightly so, it will probably do well anyway
because it's different to the rest of the Star Treks.
Simon: Are you generally a fan of Trek?
Danny: I mean I've always watched them - I wouldn't call myself a
Trekkie, but I've always watched them. I've not really been
a fan. I always watched Batman and I always watched
Thunderbirds, there are certain shows...
Mark: [on Batman] The camp one, or the cartoon one?
Danny: The sixties one, yeah. I prefer them because in a way it's
more impressive because they had less to work with. Now, you
know, if you actually take out the glamour and the special
effects etc. etc. when you look at the actual substance,
it's not half of what the old ones were.
Mark: Probably that's what they're like though in America, trying
to rush them through to be as profitable as possible.
Danny: Well, there's so many Star Treks now that it can be helped
that it's playing against itself now. I mean it's impossible
not to be playing against itself.
Simon: How do you think it [Voyager] compares with the other Star
Trek shows?
Danny: Well, I think they're just trying to make it more modern.
They're just changing it to suit what's happening at the
time I think. Obviously it's going to be influenced by other
science fiction shows just like Red Dwarf was influenced by
all of the science fiction shows. Obviously you can see the
influence comes from. I think more and more it's influenced
by Hollywood rather than science fiction. It's definitely
down that road rather than the actual space thing!
I was still looking for the "spacey" story but it wasn't -
it could have been set in an apartment block really!
Mark: I mean it could have quite easily been changed into
something else.
Danny: Same story, exactly, yeah. It could have been moved to any
format really whereas there are certain things you can't
move out of space because you're dealing directly with
space. You know, that [Caretaker] was all about escaping one
thing to repair something else - you know that could have
been anything.
You know it's alright, they're fuelling what people want I
suppose in America. Otherwise they wouldn't keep making
these Star Trek, Star Trek, Star Trek - it seems to be
happening like that.
Finally, we talked to actor Don Henderson, best known to sci-fi and
fantasy fans for his appearances in Star Wars and Doctor Who, and who
just happened to be a friend of Patrick Stewart's...
Simon: Did you enjoy Voyager?
Don: Yes I did. It was strange, I didn't know anything about it
before I came. I'm a fan of science fiction television
generally and film. I thought it was very brave - a very
good idea to have a woman as the commander, the captain. I
think it will take a while for the really heavy Trekkie fans
to accept it, but I think it's a good idea.
[on Kate Mulgrew] Well, she's got a strange voice, she
sounds like Mickey Mouse! Her voice is strange! She overdoes
the "I'm a tough guy!". I almost expected her to go like
that [slaps his thigh!] - it was a little bit pantomime and
towards the end she did one of those sort of heroic looks
and I thought, "No... hang on!".
It's like a friend of mine who is a very, very tough guy in
real life. He's got a shaven heads, a glass eye, a face like
a dead bear's arse (!) - on top of that, he acts tough! I
said to him, "You don't need to do that, just walk on and
let them look at you!" He also has a very strange stare.
Funny enough, he's been in Star Trek, he's also been in
Babylon 5 - an English actor called Morgan Shepherd. Well,
he's got a glass eye and that gives him a very peculiar
stare and now he's learned not to act tough and he's totally
tough!
I think she [Kate Mulgrew] was overwrought with the role,
knowing what she was following. I think she's trying too
hard. It's just a very minor criticism. She just needs to
ease into it and everyone will accept it. Also watching that
["Caretaker"] together I found it a bit too much. What I
forget was that it's going out as an episode, and therefore
it will be fine. It was too much to concentrate on.
I like the way Star Trek went when Patrick Stewart was in it
because they've stopped doing all the "bang, bang" and
zooming about - it became more of a drama about conflict
between individuals - I don't know if you noticed that -
which I found more interesting. The same thing has happened
with Babylon 5. Babylon 5 is simply a United Nations in
space. I find that more interesting to watch than the sort
of banging and zooming about, which is fine. You need a bit
of that.
I don't know, I enjoyed it [Voyager] enormously. I think the
lady [Mulgrew] needs a bit of time to settle into it.
Mark: Do you think she's the strongest character? I must say, I
think the hologram is best though!
Don: Yeah, the hologram is fine. Also the little man who was
doing the space salvaging...
Simon: Neelix?
Don: Yes, he was good because there is always a need for an
eccentric character to add some humour. You need that, and
you've got that in Babylon 5 with quite a number of
characters to add humour to it. And you need that otherwise
it's all the same, even in the Star Wars films there was
humour. There was humour from the robots, and some of the
situations, you know. I think you need humour. I thought he
[Neelix] was brilliant.
I also liked Chakotay. I also found that there were perhaps
too many characters to take in.
Mark: I suppose it's a bit like The Next Generation to start with.
Don: Yes, yes, because the point is alot of it's already been
done. I had to keep reminding myself that when it goes out
you won't seen all that 2 hour thing in one go - it will be
in episodes and therefore it will probably work. But I think
it's really promising and I think it's a very good idea to
have a woman - they were going to do it in Doctor Who before
the BBC decided they didn't want to do it anymore. [Don then
made a rather unprintable remark about the BBC and their
attitude towards cancelling Doctor Who!!]
Simon: How do you think Voyager compares to the other Star Trek
shows?
Don: It's very difficult because each one has been different. The
Pat Stewart one is very good, and I kept on saying to him
that Shatner must have head-butted a wall because for years
he's been covering his bald patch up with a very bad wig and
what do they do? They cast an actor who's completely bald!
They cast a bald English actor to play a Frenchman with no
accent - he didn't bother with the accent!
I know Pat Stewart very well, I worked with him for six
years at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and he got this Star
Trek job purely by accident. It was one of those wonderful
things like being picked out of a chorus line to play the
lead in the West End. Very often they get people from the
Royal Shakespeare Company to go to America to do a lecture
tour of universities, to do a little Shakespeare and maybe
do a workshop teaching students.
And he [Patrick] was doing one of these and in the audience
happened to be Gene Roddenberry, because his son was at this
university. And he was looking at him, and he was thinking
of this new character who'd be a Frenchman, and he had seen
alot of French actors and he thought he was interesting
looking - he wasn't doing any acting, he was just talking
like a schoolmaster, asked him to come in and do a test and
he got the part! He [Gene] said, "Don't bother with the
accent, just do it with an English accent." And that's how
it happened - purely by accident, and doesn't that give us
all hope?!!
He's a very nice bloke! And also my wife is an actress, and
she is a friend of Marina Sirtis, so we have a family reason
for watching as well! We're both fans of science fiction,
and it's great to see your mates doing something for that.
[The subject then changed as Don talked about Patrick not
wanting to continue with TNG as a TV show] I guess he's had
enough.
Simon: Yes, well, it was fairly long hours when they were filming.
Don: Well he must have made an enormous amount of money and also
he's in a position now to do alot of other things, because
if you stay with it too long you won't get anything else.
It's like the Doctor Who's - it took a very long time for
Tom Baker to get regular work again. And of course, you
don't get paid enough, in this country anyway, to continue
for two or three years.
Simon: It happened to most of the cast of Star Wars as well.
Don: Yes, exactly. When you get in a series you think, "Oh, goody
goody! Regular money!" and you come out and you can't get
work - it's very depressing for you.
As a minor point, although I (Simon) have done a number of celebrity
interviews over the years (for The Final Frontier, other fanzines and
for professional magazines), these were the first I had done "off-
the-cuff" with no preparation before hand - usually I go in with a
list of key questions that I want to ask. For this we just press-
ganged the guests and made everything up as we went along!!