Star Trek

148 Pages·2012·63.6 MB·English

SSPPEECCIIAALL 22001144
CLASSIC INTERVIEWS: SHATNER, FRAKES, NIMOY, MULGREW
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EDITORIAL
• Editor: Christopher Cooper
•• SDeensiigonr eErd:i Dtoarn: MBuarratin Eden SSStttaaarrrdddaaattteee:: 6677335500..11
• • • BDAJCJC.oBonaaJh.pdSvn nAyi aRdC br Vo HoirBagnabaanhmsotr tujCotso :mPin,ut rotBeloelfrrimfr ysPsaor antoin dBodunu cMsrtk Lsa,:t rDdia.a:nm Coonr Ldirnydelof, “ T HISE JHUUSMTA BNE AGDINVNEINNTGU.”RE
• PKaartaem Aodudnyt, HJioemllae EEsnmteartt,a Linizm Heandtl:ey and GENE RODDENBERRY
John Robson
• Simon & Schuster US:
Ed Schlesinger
TITAN MAGAZINES
• Editorial Assistant: Tom Williams
• Production Supervisors: Kelly Fenlon &
Jackie Flook
• Art Director: Oz Browne
• Studio Manager: Selina Juneja From Christopher Pike [gotta love a captain named Chris!] to Jonathan Archer, by way
• Marketing Assistant: Tara Felton of Kirk, Sisko, Janeway, then back to Kirk again (albeit one that inhabits an alternate
• Circulation Manager: Steve Tothill
timeline), it’s been an astonishing voyage through space and time for Star Trek.
• Marketing Manager: Ricky Claydon
• US Advertising Manager: Jeni Smith We’ve seen the show cancelled, saved, revived as a cartoon then promoted to the
• Advertising Assistant: Sophie Pemberton silver screen, revived again, spun off (twice), prequeled, rebooted and… what next? Time
• Advertising Manager: Michelle Fairlamb will tell, but Star Trek sure as Gre’thor isn’t going away anytime soon.
• Publishing Manager: Darryl Tothill In just a few years, the show will pass the half-century mark, now existing in a world
• Publishing Director: Chris Teather
where the franchise’s futuristic hallmarks – swishing doors, personal communicators
• Operations Director: Leigh Baulch
• Executive Director: Vivian Cheung and PADDs – have become real-world essentials we couldn’t live without. When Star Trek
• Publisher: Nick Landau makes it back onto TV screens, it could all seem startlingly contemporary!
Talking of the real and the Trek worlds coming ever closer together, we’re well on track
DISTRIBUTION
to play out some major events from Trek’s future history: space probe Voyager 1 recently
• US Newsstand Distribution:
became the fi rst ever human-made object to leave our solar system, venturing into the
Total Publisher Services, Inc.
John Dziewiatkowski, 630-851-7683 space between the stars – we already know that’s going to cause us a whole pile of trouble
somewhere down the line, right? And we’d better start taking care of our oceans, too. I’d
• US Distribution:
Source Interlink, hate to think what would happen without at least a couple of Humpback Whales around to
Curtis Circulation Company take care of us.
• Canadian Distribution: Thankfully, we appear to have side-stepped Trek’s Eugenics Wars of the 1990s, and
Curtis Circulation Company avoided the exploits of Khan altogether. Either they happened in an alternate timeline, or
• Australia/New Zealand Distributors: there’s been a huge conspiracy to cover them up (is there an Admiral Marcus in the house?
Gordon & Gotch Actually, yes – we interview Into Darkness villain Peter Weller in this very issue!).
• UK/US Direct Sales Market: So what makes Star Trek a unique masterpiece of modern science fi ction? That’s what
Diamond Comic Distributors this special issue sets out to reveal. It’s your essential guide to the history of Star Trek,
• UK Newsstand: Comag as told through a collection of classic cast and crew interviews, and a host of fascinating
Henry Smith: 01895 433600
features. We take you through A Brief History of Trek, and take a peek at what might have
been as we reveal the unseen aliens of the J.J.verse, and discover the strange new world
SUBSCRIPTIONS:
into which Star Trek: Phase 3 might have taken us. Prepare for 148 pages of unadulterated
US: 1-800-999-9718 UK: 0844 322 1263
Star Trek magic.
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ST_SPCL_03_Captains_Log_v2.indd 3 10/11/13 11:16 AM
CONTENTS
FEATURES
06 A BRIEF HISTORY OF 74 UNSEEN TREK: GHOST
STAR TREK SHIP – STAR TREK
PHASE 3
Star Trek has benefi ted from any number
of second chances, as we fi nd out in this
essential guide to the history of the franchise. The inside story of how a bold new Trek comic
book series almost made it out of space dock.
30 BY THE FANS, FOR
THE FANS
134 UNSEEN TREK: ALIENATED
A love letter to Trek fans past, present and
future, from one of a new breed of social- The forgotten aliens of J.J. Abrams’ alternate
Star Trek timeline.
networking Trekkers.
46 A NEW BEGINNING
In 1987, Star Trek: The Next Generation took
the crew of a new Enterprise on ever bolder
missions, changing the face of television in
the process.
67 FOUR COLOR
FLASHBACK
Explore a strange alternate universe of splash
panels and word balloons, as we examine the
history of Star Trek in comic form.
“WE ALL WALKED OUT VERY PROUD OF
80 UNDISCOVERED
J.J. AND OURSELVES, BECAUSE IT WAS
COUNTRIES
SO BEAUTIFULLY DONE.”
Replacing a shiny starship with a gothic space
station is far from the biggest difference
between Deep Space Nine and the other Treks.
114 SUCH SWEET 140 REALITY BITES
SORROW
To hell with the temporal prime
directive! We explore Star Trek’s
Revisiting the swan song episodes of every diverging timelines, temporal
Star Trek series. incursions, and alternate realities.
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CONTENTS
INTERVIEWS
14 WILLIAM SHATNER
The original Captain Kirk invites us to enter Shatner’s World.
22 ROBERT JUSTMAN
A fascinating interview with one of the driving forces behind Star Trek
and The Next Generation. 14
34 PETER WELLER
A brand new and exclusive talk with Kirk’s true nemesis from Star Trek
Into Darkness.
38
38 & 128 LEONARD NIMOY
In an extensive two-part interview Leonard Nimoy looks back at life as
Spock, and how busy retirement can be...
52 JONATHAN FRAKES
The Enterprise-D’s Number One talks about how Star Trek pushed his
career in exciting and unexpected directions.
60 JOHN DE LANCIE
Join the Q, as we speak to the amazing Professor Quadwrangle and star 60
of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic!
74 HERMAN ZIMMERMAN
We speak to the award winning Deep Space Nine art director and
production designer.
80 ARMIN SHIMERMAN 108 MANNY
COTO
The Deep Space Nine and Buffy star on Quark, an actor’s life, and Shakespeare.
94 BRYAN FULLER
Enterprise showrunner
Manny Coto discusses
The Deep Space Nine and Voyager scribe discusses his work, and the
what might have
future of Trek.
been, had the show
100 KATE MULGREW continued.
A classic interview with Voyager’s formidable Captain Janeway.
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KK
A BTTRIERRF HIEESTORY OF
FROM THE
GREAT BIRD TO
THE BLACK HOLE
yifiso Sr uaes ctfh aofitisi nhll tmdewo ,crei tyyhaho ar oByulnfioy’ec rs useeKerts .c d dSpaooaitrnntoyecdesd h .r dc oYaohaferrra tie dnt y Ss cioHn tepua aHsrrry,o o epTsdlsilrtluyoaewcrtkt to’oisioonr nsdg y.t: owoifuri tyrh
time viewing. In 1969, real time was the only
1966-1969
viewing, and Friday was the worst night of
TO BOLDLY GO the week. The Friday time slot combined with
Gene Roddenberry’s fi rst pilot for his new budget cuts and declining quality killed Star
science fi ction series, “The Cage,” was rejected Trek with hardly a whimper.
as being both too brainy and too pessimistic.
1969…
Getting a second pilot was unprecedented, yet
Roddenberry got his second chance, and the INTO ETERNITY
result was a different tone and a new crew. Star Trek would have faded like any other
He had pitched the series as “Wagon cancelled show, except that it had just enough
Train to the Stars,” thanks to the dominance episodes to make it valuable in syndication
of Westerns at the time. The show became (today, 100 episodes is considered the
much closer to classic stories of life on a minimum). Its weekday evening syndicated
naval vessel (the Hornblower series; Master timeslot was highly visible, and again,
and Commander; Run Silent, Run Deep), compared to today, had little competition, as
portraying a crew of highly professional even the largest US cities offered only three
offi cers with very human qualities, facing network channels plus a few local stations.
challenges that often seemed insurmountable. Syndication saved Roddenberry’s
Though Star Trek earned a respectable masterpiece. The audience grew steadily,
audience and critical praise, it never had the attracting new fans and securing old ones,
ratings NBC wanted. Each year, renewal came until the fi rst Star Trek convention in New
down to squeaking by with the numbers, plus York in 1972 was attended by 3,000 people,
intense fan letter campaigns. The decision with convention attendance doubling a year
to move it to late Friday night was a death later. Roddenberry himself told the audience
sentence for a struggling show. Even with that, thanks to their numbers and enthusiasm,
today’s post-broadcast watching via DVR, he now believed a Star Trek movie might
Gorn but not forgotten.
discs and streaming, networks still prize real- someday happen.
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A BRIEF HISTORY OFTREK
CASTING THE
CAPTAINS
While each of Star Trek’s Captains seem
inevitable casting now, only Scott Bakula
actually landed his role without the
intervention of fate.
The very fi rst captain, Jeffrey Hunter, was
unavailable for the second pilot, opening the
way for William Shatner. It’s impossible now
to imagine Star Trek without Shatner’s larger-
than-life screen presence and comic timing,
or the chemistry with Nimoy and Kelley that
created a legendary on-screen trio.
Patrick Stewart was also a long shot,
with Roddenberry refusing to consider a
British actor to play his French Captain. Only
after tireless lobbying by Rick Berman was
Roddenberry fi nally convinced that no other
actor could fi ll such commanding boots.
Although Deep Space Nine’s producers
wanted an African-American for the role of
commander, they didn’t insist on one. They
auditioned many actors of Hispanic, European,
and South Asian descent as well as African-
Americans, before they found Avery Brooks.
Fans were happy to learn that Star Trek’s
1973-74
fi rst female lead, Voyager’s Janeway, would be
played by big-screen star Genevieve Bujold. RE-ANIMATION investment by converting Star Trek: Phase 2
But when Bujold abruptly quit after a single First, though, Roddenberry took Star Trek into Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
day of production, Kate Mulgrew stepped in at to a new frontier – an animated series. It
1979
the last minute and made Janeway her own. was produced under his control, with many
Chris Pine, Star Trek’s youngest Captain, now celebrated Star Trek writers and actors THE VOYAGER
is also the only one to audition solely for a contributing to its 22 episodes. Animation RETURNS
fi lm role, not a series. When he was offered allowed them to introduce non-humanoid Anxious to ride the wave of Star Wars’
the part of Kirk, he nearly turned it down aliens and large-scale effects for little cost, success, Paramount was frantic to get the
in favor of a role in a George Clooney fi lm. and the quality of the stories won Star Trek fi rst Star Trek movie into theaters. The rush
Pine’s choice proved especially serendipitous its fi rst Emmy. While the series has never was especially frustrating to director Robert
for his career, since that other fi lm remains offi cially been designated as canon, so many Wise, who found himself, for the fi rst time
unproduced. of its details have been re-used by later Star in a long and distinguished career, starting
Trek productions (notably Kirk’s middle name, a movie production without a fi nished script.
Tiberius) that it might as well be. Under enormous studio pressure to hurry up
and fi nish, he was not given adequate time
1977
for fi nished editing, sound mixing, special
A SECOND PHASE effects, or previews. Never happy with the
The explosion of fan interest in the ‘70s rushed theatrical version, he would have the
led Paramount to propose a second TV series opportunity, two decades after the original
with the same cast – another unprecedented release, to put together the polished version
second chance, as spinoffs even from of the fi lm he had always wished for, with the
successful shows were still relatively rare. Director’s Edition DVD. Yet despite the rush,
Sets were built, scripts were developed, and despite weaknesses in the script and
and a broadcast premiere was scheduled for the pacing, the movie was a great fi nancial
early 1978, when Paramount’s network deal success, thanks mainly to fans’ hunger for
fell apart. But 1977 was the summer of Star any new Star Trek material. The fi lm franchise
Pike Mk1, Jeffrey Hunter
Wars, and Paramount decided to recoup its was launched.
7
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1982
important, of course, it resurrected Spock. No one could have guessed in
THE NEEDS OF THE ONE 1984 that the beloved Vulcan’s return would lead to the longest-lasting
The second Star Trek fi lm, The Wrath of Khan, began inauspiciously portrayal of a Star Trek character by one actor.
with a series of rejected script drafts. Producer Harve Bennett, joining
1986
the franchise in 1980, suggested to director Nicholas Meyer, who was
starting from scratch, that the next movie should bring back a memorable THERE AND BACK AGAIN
villain from the series - Khan. Meyer himself did an uncredited rewrite With the crew still in exile on Vulcan at the end of Star Trek III, another
to produce the fi nal story. Meyer also remembered Montalban’s Khan as installment of their story was mandatory. And whether you prefer II or IV
having “a Lear-like grandeur. The arrogance and the pain walked hand in as your favorite original series fi lm depends on whether you favor tragic
hand.” While Montalban sometimes deprecated his Hispanic accent for drama or comic action. Either way, Star Trek: The Voyage Home was among
the role, Meyer considered it irrelevant: “His enunciation… was perfect.” the most successful of the original cast movies, and remains perhaps the
Montalban’s performance, a solid script and the heroic death of Spock most beloved, thanks to considerable character humor and an uplifting
made The Wrath of Khan one of the most successful and highly praised story. Its biggest revelation may be the teaming of DeForest Kelley and
Star Trek fi lms ever. James Doohan in a masterful con; their collaboration is so practiced, so
effortless, that this writer is convinced McCoy and Scotty must have a long,
unseen history of pranking their fellow offi cers.
1984
1989
I AM NOT THE RESURRECTION
We owe the subsequent Star Trek fi lms to Meyer losing an argument with HARD TIMES
Bennett. Meyer insisted that Spock should stay dead; Bennett, having seen Harve Bennett recalled that part of the problem with the decision to carry
the devastated audience reaction at the second fi lm’s fi rst test screening, on past the “trilogy” of II, III and IV might have been that everyone was
realized the ending needed to leave hope for Spock’s return, in yet another so exhilarated by the success of The Voyage Home, they felt they couldn’t
second chance. Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, written by Bennett possibly do anything wrong. Unfortunately, they could. William Shatner’s
himself, may be less beloved, and less fi nancially successful, than the directing debut Star Trek V: The Final Frontier became the least successful
two fi lms that bracketed it. Yet it still has many iconic moments, including of the original cast fi lms, both fi nancially and critically. Its production was
some awe-inspiring shots of Vulcan, the loss of the Enterprise, and some beset with all kinds of problems, including budget cuts that gutted the
fi lm best moments for the supporting cast (“Don’t call me tiny!”). Most special effects, plus a crippling teamsters’ strike.
8
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A BRIEF HISTORY OFTREK
WRITING STAR
TREK’S WOMEN
Roddenberry described his original fi rst
offi cer, Number One, as “almost glacier-like
in her imperturbability and precision.” He
probably thought making her an emotional
icicle was the only way to get a 1966 audience
to accept her rank and competence – yet both
NBC and the test audience detested her! While
Uhura, Janice Rand and Christine Chapel play
rather stereotyped supporting roles in the
series, the fi rst six movies saw them and other
female characters become more visible. The
1990s proved a decade of rapid evolution
for women on television, and Star Trek was
no exception. The writing team that initially
struggled with Tasha Yar and Deanna Troi was
soon writing complex, fascinating characters
like Kira, Dax, and the women of Voyager.
Now, well into the 21st century, few audiences
would accept a female character playing an old
stereotype, meaning Zoe Saldana’s Uhura does
1987-1995
far more than just “answer the phone.” of the 1960s; and Meyer, mindful of the recent
A NEW GENERATION collapse of the Iron Curtain, took the Klingon-
After years of toying with various ideas for Federation cold war into the future as well,
returning Star Trek to television, Paramount in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. He
fi nally committed itself to a new TV series, to wrote Chang as a deliberate opposite of Khan,
be distributed in syndication. Many of the new an antagonist who is more head than heart,
series’ concepts, and even some of its stories, immersed in politics, rather than personal
were recycled from Star Trek – Phase 2; but the big revenge. He also wrote the part specifi cally
innovation was setting the story a hundred years with Christopher Plummer in mind, though he
after the original series, with an entirely new crew. had no idea whether he could even get Plummer
Rick Berman, brought in early on to help develop for the role. Thanks to its focus on Cold War
the show, became the day-to-day showrunner, style realpolitik, the fi lm farewell for the
initiating a new generation of Star Trek leadership. original cast has an unusually world-weary
Despite uneven quality, especially at fi rst, tone, as the old warriors Kirk and Chang
Star Trek: The Next Generation’s production contemplate their place in a universe where
values, its splendid cast and above all its war threatens to become obsolete.
success in capturing the spirit of Star Trek for
1993-1999
a new era, made it a solid ratings success. It
gave the Star Trek franchise – and indeed, all LIFE ON THE EDGE
television science fi ction – a much needed The success of The Next Generation guaranteed
infusion of life. The strongest proof of The that Paramount would venture yet another
Next Generation’s success is that it remains syndicated series. The seed was Paramount
the only Star Trek spin-off series to have Chairman Brandon Tartikoff’s suggestion, “Let’s
moved from television to the big screen. do The Rifl eman in space,” providing the widowed
father and son at the heart of the story. Berman
1991
worked closely with Michael Piller to create a
THE END OF THE storyline that would stand apart from The Next
BEGINNING Generation. They conceived the wormhole, the
After the disappointment of Star Trek V, the broken-down space station, and especially the
director’s chair was handed back to Nicholas non-Starfl eet crew, to create more character
Meyer, along with the script. The fi rst Klingons confl ict and to avoid the sleek, deus ex machina
Denise Crosby in The Next Generation. and Romulans had refl ected Cold War tensions effi ciency of Starfl eet’s ships.
9
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ALL IN A KISS
While the kiss in “Plato’s Stepchildren” is
famous as the fi rst interracial kiss on US
network television, the presence of Sulu and
Uhura from the start of the series was far more
revolutionary. When black and Asian actors
appeared on US screens in the 1960s, their
roles were nearly always defi ned exclusively
by their race. So it’s impossible to overstate
the importance, in 1966, of George Takei and
Nichelle Nichols portraying senior offi cers
whose competence was taken for granted, and
whose ethnicity was merely one element of
their individuality.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was the only for its grueling production schedule. While
spin-off never to be on the air by itself. It may not a blockbuster success, the fi lm did please
Kirk and Uhura get friendly.
also be the most controversial series, with some most fans, and earned enough to encourage
fans considering its focus on war a betrayal of Paramount to greenlight a second fi lm. RED SHIRTS
Roddenberry’s utopian vision; while others insist
1995–2001
that its gritty realism, its remarkable ensemble
cast, and its many-threaded story arc make it the DELTA FORCE As early as the fi rst broadcast of the series,
best of Star Trek. Meanwhile, Paramount had already approved a attentive viewers realized that a landing
third new series, featuring Star Trek’s fi rst female party’s red-shirted security offi cers were
1994
lead as the ship’s captain. Writer Bryan Fuller generally doomed. The term “red shirt”
CHANGING UP recalled the biggest difference between writing for gradually became Star Trek fan shorthand for
Paramount announced a Next Generation movie Deep Space Nine and writing for Star Trek: Voyager those unlucky extras. Nearly fi ve decades on,
well before the series had fi nished airing, was that Paramount had made a reactionary it is now a widely accepted term for disposable
and gave it to Berman to produce. While he choice on story and character arcs. “At the end characters in any action story.
was delighted with the movie’s larger budget, of the episode, there was a history eraser button
coming up with the story was more challenging. and we moved forward to the next adventure.”
He knew from the fi rst that he wanted a “passing Unfortunately for Paramount, American television
the torch” story that would feature both original was already embracing serialization, especially
and new cast members. While Nimoy declined a in character development. Viewers had come to
role for creative reasons, Shatner was happy to expect beloved characters to change and grow, and
play Kirk one more time and bring the legendary the most frequent criticism of Voyager was always
Captain to a heroic death. its “reset button” characterizations.
The cast and crew may best remember Yet Voyager was a success in many ways,
the shooting of Star Trek: Generations as an running for seven seasons, introducing Star
exhausting marathon. They started work on Trek’s only female lead and other memorable
the fi lm almost immediately after fi nishing the characters, and above all, making the Borg
"Remember, men - let's be careful out there!"
fi nal scenes of their series, which was notorious defi nitively its own big bad guy.
10
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