It's a Wrap!

Today we wrapped shooting on the online Star Trek episode. It's been quite a ride. The decision was made to shoot the last two days in LA, first because we had some scenes on the Excelsior bridge and there was no such standing set built in Port Henry, and second, because the main New Voyages cast living out East was not needed for these scenes.
As it was, all of the actors involved in the Excelsior scenes already lived in LA. Only JOHN LIM – (young Sulu to the left with me) – needed to fly in to fly in to do his green screen work.

So while we were filming in Port Henry, crew people out here were busily building the Excelsior bridge. However, unlike in Port Henry, where fans have been building permanent sets to use in many episodes, we were only planning to use this one for one day and then strike it. Hence, we constructed only what would be seen on screen.

Basically, that meant the area of the bridge behind the command chair (a portion of these graphic displays you can see to the right, behind me and JOSEPH RENE, our hair wizard) and the command chair where Sulu sits.

In case you're wondering, Sulu’s command chair is a re-covered office chair.

The navigator and pilot sat on chairs 'borrowed' from the shuttlecraft and driven cross-country to LA by WINSTON ENGLE who was also carrying our footage with him, since he owns the computer it was transferred to and stored. Copies had been burned and sent on ahead but he was carrying the raw footage, making him a very important person.

Watching the green screen work between John and LIA JOHNSON (Dr. Chandris to the left with me again) was great fun. Although they had filmed the exteriors of the shuttlecraft back in NY and the two of them getting in and out of it, the interiors were going to be filmed here because the gravitational wave they'd be reacting to would be all optical effects. Hence, while they sat on the borrowed shuttlecraft seats in front of the green screen, they had no consoles in front of them. Out of camera sight, their fingers danced across a mike stand the crew had rigged sideways so they both could tap something on the same level line as each other. To their credit, they ACTED as if they had a full array of buttons and switches there in front of them.

They also had to simulate being buffetted by the gravitational wave. This looks on the screen a lot easier than it really is. The director can tell them to lean to the right, left, back and forward and he did. But it doesn't look right unless they each lean the same amount. And if one bounces up and down more than the other, that too doesn't look so good, either. And yet, they have to be able to synchronize their movements without looking at each other! When you see this episode, you will see what amazing pros they are in these scene.

I wish I could share with you some fun things that happened, but the shoot in LA went very smoothly as can be seen in the unharried looks on the faces of director MARC SCOTT ZICREE and thespian GEORGE TAKEI as they study some footage on Winston's monitor. For one thing, we had only a couple of scenes to do and most of the people working here had much experience working in production. It was also helpful that we were filming in the loading bay of a company which was in an industrial area on a side street on a weekend. We still had to contend with the occasional plane overhead, but we didn't have to contend with vehicle traffic on the main artery through town like we did in Port Henry. Or flies. No more wonderful blooper lines like Kirk saying, "There is no midnight in space. Just planes and flies."

GRACE LEE WHITNEY joined us to reprise her role of Commander Rand on the Excelsior. She's a lovely lady and she was quite entertaining -- with the colorful language used on most major sets to keep things moving through the inevitable setups and retakes.

The most difficult part was to find an Asian baby at the last moment to play Demora Sulu's daughter. We had several of our trusty crew people scouring all their friends and colleagues to come up with a suitable baby -- one who was young enough to be carried and who wouldn't demand her own trailer! With TV and Internet!

In the end, one of the guys connected with the company we were shooting in came up with the most perfect baby girl. Except there is a downside to having babies that young -- they don't like to be held by anybody other than their mothers and are quite vocal about it. And this one's mother was not the actress hired to play Demora. Still, it was cute to watch George making cooing noises and playing with the baby girl, getting her used to being with him -- for a short scene of maybe several seconds.

All in all, this was a great experience. As MICHAEL REAVES said in the interview I did with him for the Behind the Scenes documentary I'm producing, he's waited thirty years to sit in that captain's chair and hear them say these words. For all of us who grew up with Star Trek, who'd a thunk it -- that we'd be making an episode with Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Sulu, and Chekov... ever??? As professionals and as fans... together. Dreams do happen... and like Marc says, so does magic.