Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 5, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, July 1, 1988 Page: 5 of 32
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V
ILM
‘Next Generation’ puts
Trekkies in the thick of it
SERIES CREATOR THINKS NEW SERIES DONE WITH TASTE AND STYLE
By IVOR DAVIS
he bulk}' man in his 60s with the
M silver hair and a smile a mile wide
9 is sitting in front of the TV set like
JL a teenager who has just begun
summer vacation.
He is riveted by a commercial in which the
announcer thunders: “Capt. Kirk, Mr. Spock,
Klingons, fantastic space creatures, aliens,
superbeings and humans. It's not a TV show..
. it’s not a movie ... it’s a Star Trek adventure
you always dreamed of. But now you won’t
just dream it,you’llbe part of it... Star Trek..
. live.”
The screen goes ilent and Gene Roden-
berry, the former Los Angeles cop and World
War II bomber pilot who created the most
successful series in TV history, is on his feet.
"A pretty hot spot,” he says, referring to the
commercial proclaiming Universal Studios’
new Star Trek attraction. “I love that line
You’ll be part of it.’ ”
Rodenberry has been pan of it since he
brought the idea for Star Trek to Paramount
Studies more than two decades ago. They
made the series but cancelled it after one
year. Then a faithful band of fans complained
and the show'was revived. Today, Star Trek is
one of the best-known programs both on
television — repeats ofthe original series are
shown in more than 100 countries and the
new series Star Trek. The New Generation is
syndicated in the United States — and in
feature films. Four Star Trek movies have
earned nearly half a billion dollars at the box
office and a fifth one begins shooting in
September.
The newest spin-off is a Star Trek Ad-
venture, a $7 million tourist attraction at
Universal Studios in Universal City, Calif. It
permits tourists to step into the 23rd century
and participate in the filming of a mock
segment of the show.
The attraction includes a replica of the
Starship's control and transporter rooms (the
latter being where passengers are “beamed”
to another planet) where participants can
portray their favorite Star Trek character,
choosing from such luminaries as the nasty
Klingons or Starship crew members.
Thanks to the latest state-of-the-art tech-
niques, a scene is filmed, then edited into
footage that includes William Shatner as Capt.
Kirk and Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock. The
finale is a seven-minute screening ofthe just
shot film, which visitors can take home with
them for $35.
“I’m impressed with what they’ve done,"
says the 6-foot, 250-pound Rodenberry. “I was
worried at first that it might be a sloppy effort
to get money out of fans. But it’s done with
taste and style.”
Rodenberry says he was delighted to find
that his suggestions were integrated into the
Universal attraction.
“I thought it was going to be a Buck Rogers
science-fiction thing with horrid monsters
and good guys in white suits,” he says. “But
they listened to my comments w'hen I said I
didn’t want to do that. I told them that Star
Trek's philosophy is that ugly monsters aren’t
necessarily bad and that I didn’t w'ant death
and violence with those participating taking
zap guns and slaughtering everyone in the
final scene.”
T7 or Rodenberry, life in the ’80s couldn’t
A* be sweeter. He is particularly proud of
the New Generation show, which recently
won a Peabody Award and has become
Paramount’s biggest television hit, despite
early doom-and-gloom predictions.
“People said I was crazy to bring Star Trek
back to weekly Tv,” he says. "Even leonard
said it couldn’t be done I said, ‘Don’t tell me
it’s impossible.’ ”
However, he admits there were times when
he thought the Trekkies [faithful followers of
the series] were right. “We went through
scores of scripts, including one where a
bunch of space cadets were in charge of the
Enterprise. It didn’t work,” he says. "Even I
began to believe we couldn’t pull it off if we
had to get rid of Spock and Kirk.”
The new Star Tre/b takes place 85 years after
the Kirk era and consists of a fresh crew'
.headed by Capt. Jean-Luc Picard, played by
English Shakespearean actor Patrick Stewart.
The cast consists ofjonathan Franks as Cmdr.
William Riker; Levar Burton as Lt. Geordi
LaForge, who although blind “sees” with the
use of a prosthetic device over his eyes;
Denise Crosby, Bing’s granddaughter, as the
ship's security officer Lt. Tasha Yar; Gates
McFadden as the ship’s chief medic Dr.
Beverly Crusher; English actress Marina Birtis
as the half-human/half-alien Starfleet coun-
selor Deanna Troi; Brent Spiner as Lt. Cmdr.
Data, an android possessing superior strength
and a phenomenal memory-, and Wil
Wheaton as Crusher’s teenage son.
“I knew we had to win everyone’s con-
fidence by not giving them hand-me-down
versions or trotting out new actors to playing
Kirk and Spock,” says Rodenberry. “We were
never trying to compete with the old series.
When word of our plans leaked out, I got
letters from fans saying, ‘How dare you violate
everything we have come to believe in.’ But
once I saw the chemistry among the new cast
I felt relieved.”
Rodenberry says he blew up when he
heard that the lean, bald Stewart was being
flaws . . . like he hates children. He gets
annoyed at things and figures he has been in
command for 25 years and doesn’t hav e to put
up with irritating things.” he says.
Rodenberry smiles: “The other day Patrick
suggested we change one word in the show s
Gene Roddenberry.
line To bold}' go where no man has gone
before’ to To baldly go where no man has
gone before.’ ”
When the first Star Trek was made it cost
$184,000, recalls Rodenberry. Now, each one-
hour episode, w'ith special effects from
George Lucas’ company Industrial Light and
it with action, excitement and as a macho
man. Patrick does it with wisdom and cool-
ness under fire. He’s a man who shows his
■<
Boldly going where no one has gone before, including l-r: Brent Spiner (Lt Commander Data), Denise
Crosby (Lt. Tasha Yar), Patrick Stewart (Capt. Jean-Luc Picard) and Marina Sirtis (Counselor Deanna Troi)
in a scene from the new Star Trek series.
Nimoy |who played Spock in the old series
and directed Star Trek 111: The Search For
Spock in 1984] told me, ‘There’s no way you
can catch lightning in a bottle twice.’ They
kept telling me that no series in the history of
TV had been brought back and had been a
success. But I’m a stubborn guy. When they
considered to play the new captain of the
Starship.
“ ‘I will not have a bald actor in the
captain’s chair,’ I said.I was dead wrong. It is a
tough role. How do you top something Bill
Shatner made his own? But Patrick is enough
of an actor to have found his way. Shatner did
Magic, costs about $1.3 million. “There’s no
doubt about it," he says. “I like the New
Generation better than the old series.”
Ivor Doris is an entertainment writer in
Holfyuood. His column is distributed by New
York Times Syndication Sales Corp. ▼
THE DALLAS fDICL JILT I. IMS
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Vercher, Dennis. Dallas Voice (Dallas, Tex.), Vol. 5, No. 9, Ed. 1 Friday, July 1, 1988, newspaper, July 1, 1988; Dallas, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth615773/m1/5/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.