Stardate 0108.01: Beginnings and Endings

By: Michelle Erica Green
Date: Monday, January 08, 2001

Finally, someone who understands! Trek X screenwriter John Logan told startrek.com this week that he's a lifelong fan who went trick-or-treating in his youth dressed as Captain Kirk. 'I'm a rabid fan...I'm not just doing this for the money, believe me,' elaborated the Emmy-nominated writer. 'While other kids went out to play Cowboys and Indians, I was playing Kirk and the Klingons. When I got this job, it was a good feeling to call up my mother and say, 'See? All this really paid off!''

Though he offered few details on the story, Logan did confirm the presence of Romulans in the next film, as well as a new villain whom the writer hopes will become the equal of Khan from Star Trek II: The Wraith of Khan. 'Picard needs an adversary or a foe that is up to his level,' he noted. Logan also seeks continuity with the newer Trek shows, revealing that he had just watched seven episodes of Deep Space Nine's Dominion War arc to refresh his memory on how Worf received an assignment to the Klingon homeworld. Logan further implied that aliens rarely seen since the original series will be featured in the new film, which he called 'a very ambitious story.'

In the hope that his affection for the characters will show in the finished product, Logan has incorporated ideas from his friend Brent Spiner, who introduced the writer to the production team. He has also talked to Patrick Stewart, who reportedly made suggestions on the development of Picard's character. 'I have some great new races and ships in this script,' promised the enthusiastic Logan. 'There will be lots of little things that fans will recognize...I want to put in a lot of cool stuff that no one in the main audience will understand, but fans will see and get it right away.'


'At age 39, to be able to sit in the captain's chair is a dream come true,' continued Logan. 'I find this incredibly exciting but it carries a lot of responsibility...I have such love and such respect for these characters, and I feel that I owe them a lot. So I want to treat them right.'

A 39-year-old Chicago native, Logan co-wrote the screenplay for Oliver Stone's football movie Any Given Sunday. Many in the industry consider him a good bet for an Academy Award nomination for Gladiator this year. In addition to his success as a screenwriter, he has had many plays produced.

Yet his own family thinks of him a dedicated Trekkie. He laughs, 'My mother tells me some of her earliest memories of our relationship was my arguing with her to stay up late and watch Star Trek.' I think we're all glad he won.

In Star Trek: Voyager news, Jeri Ryan told TV Guide this week that the cast is not being told how the series will end, because the producers are 'afraid we'll squeal.' Still, Ryan added, 'I suspect that we'll get home.'

Kate Mulgrew suggested to Cinescape Online that the producers might decide to film more than one conclusion, just to keep everyone guessing. 'I don't have a clue,' Mulgrew admitted, but she added that, 'given the studio's input...we may shoot a couple of endings, which would be smart because I think it's very important that the ending be splendid, bold and unpredictable.'

Mulgrew also confirmed that Captain Janeway indeed does have a romance in the upcoming sweeps two-parter 'Work Force.' In that episode, Janeway has her personality altered when aliens abduct her to their vast labor complex, yet once there, 'she's terribly happy. You've never seen her act this young, this happy or this in love. She comes to learn in a very difficult way that this persona is not her reality, and she has to say goodbye to it. I think viewers will be surprised and delighted by it...it's beautifully done.'

Surprised? Gosh, I sure am...not. So once again, as in 'Persistence of Vision' and 'Fair Haven' and even my beloved 'Resolutions,' Janeway can only be a happy woman when she's not thinking straight as a starship captain?

It's a comfort to know that, no matter what else happens in the final episodes, Voyager is definitely going to end.

Trek People: A Captain Honored, An Alien Lost

Starfleet may not yet have promoted Jean-Luc Picard to admiral, but Patrick Stewart has been made a Commander in the Order of British Empire. TrekWeb links to a BBC report showing Stewart on the New Year's Honours List of the Queen, who also recently knighted Stephen Spielberg. The tribute caps a vintage year for 60-year-old Stewart, who earned positive reviews and a small fortune playing Professor X in The X-Men film. He also got married to his longtime girlfriend, former Star Trek: The Next Generation staffer Wendy Neuss, with whom he currently has plans to produce an Old Texas version of King Lear for Turner Network Television.

Yorkshire-born Stewart started acting at age 12, abandoning both school and a brief career in journalism before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1966. After playing many classical roles, he became an honorary associate of the famed troupe. In 1993, Stewart won a Drama Desk Award for best solo performance in an adaptation of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, which has since been produced for TNT. The star of the BBC mini-series I, Claudius and the acclaimed drama Jeffrey received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1996.

In addition to seven seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation and three films, Stewart has done voice work for several Trek video games. Yet the actor told the BBC that despite his fame from Star Trek, 'I think my appearance in The Simpsons and an appearance that I did on Sesame Streetin praise of the letter Bwere perhaps the two most distinguished bits of work that I've done in the U.S.'

On a sad note, our favorite Martian Ray Walston has passed away. Yahoo posted an Associated Press report last Tuesday on the death of the 86-year-old actor, who played Starfleet Academy groundskeeper Boothby in the TNG episode 'The First Duty' and Voyager episodes 'In the Flesh' and 'The Fight.' Despite his limited screen time, the character of Boothby has been enormously popular in Pocket Books Trek novels and fan fiction alike.

New Orleans-born Walston is probably best known for his role as Uncle Martin on the sitcom My Favorite Martian, which went on the air in 1963. He won a Tony Award in 1955 for his performance as the devil in Damn Yankees, a role he reprised in the 1958 film. Afterwards, Walston appeared in dozens of other theatrical productions and many supporting film and television parts, including Buck Rogers, The Sting and Stephen King's The Stand.

In later years, Walston played mostly crusty old men like Poopdeck Pappy in Robert Altman's live-action Popeye and cantankerous Mr. Hand in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. In the 1990s he won successive Emmy Awards for his role as Judge Henry Bone on Picket Fences. He also made a cameo appearance in the feature film My Favorite Martian, starring Christopher Lloyd as Uncle Martin.

Trek Comics: Star Trek Special

WildStorm's $6.95 glossy-cover one-shot has something to delight all Trek fans. From superb cover art of the four captains to a heartrending concluding story in honor of DeForest Kelley, the writers and artists have created a very nice package. Though the stories fit together awkwardly in places, the art and stories offer a smorgasbord of treats at a very reasonable price. This Star Trek Special's a keeper.

In the first story, Ian Edginton's 'Bloodline,' the Enterprise-A responds to a distress call from the Feynman, where Kirk's nephew Peter is now stationed. Peter has never forgiven his uncle for refusing to adopt him after his father's death, nor for the fact that Jim Kirk's legend as a womanizer outlives Sam Kirk's renown as a scientist. McCoy gets a bit out of character describing David Marcus' murder at the hands of the Klingons to bring Peter around, then Kirk comes up with his usual heroics against mechanical problems and deadly aliens. It's a bit predictable, but fans of 'Operation: Annihilate' will be glad to learn what happened to Kirk's kin. The artwork has clear lines and lots of colorful background detail.

'A Rolling Stone Gathers No Nanoprobes,' a Next Generation-era story in which the Borg attempt to assimilate a planet inhabited mostly by Horta, introduces a likeable group of miners but assumes that the Horta voice simulators invert most English phrases, which makes for some clunky dialogue. Oddly, the Borg sound casual in conversation with one another. It's hard in a comic to convey a collective voice. It's also hard with limited colors to make the Horta look like living rocks rather than large dung heaps. So the two great scary alien species seem a little tame, but the witty story moves quickly.

The Star Trek: Deep Space Nine offering, a Benny Russell story set before 'Far Beyond the Stars,' explains the genesis of Russell's interest in science fiction...when he begins to see Klingons and Gorn rampaging on the streets of New York, and isn't sure whether he's being given a vision or having a hallucination. He sees greedy newsmen as Ferengi and Uncle Sam as a Borg. 'When the Stars Came A'Calling' has wonderful retro-style art and highly stylized narration, a little gem that works perfectly for this short format.

I will restrain myself from making any jokes about the title of the Voyager tale 'Exercises in Futility,' in which Wonder-Borg Seven of Nine tries to come up with a way to get the ship back to Earth. The babe factor is very high, as Seven, Janeway and Torres are featured in practically every framemany of which repeat, since every suggestion of Seven's leads to disaster predicted by the crew but ignored by Janeway in her pursuit of her obsession to get home. The characters look terrific and the dialogue is quite humorous. Sadly, the writers have done a fine job summarizing the series' past couple of seasons in a nutshell.

'The Legacy of Elenor Dain' brings together the crews of the original Enterprise and the Enterprise-D in the tragic story of a woman who risks her life in an attempt to preserve her artistic legacy. Only after two generations have passed does her legacy come to light. This dark, lushly illustrated story dovetails nicely with the tale of Kirk and his nephew from the beginning of the comic book, and sets a melancholy tone for the conclusion.

'The Wake' reunites an aged, suffering Dr. McCoy with some old friends, following the news of Kirk's miraculous recovery from the Nexus and subsequent loss saving a planet from a madman. Simple, spare drawings create an intimate feel. The wake is for Kirk, but it's also a beautiful elegy for the entire original cast, and left tears in my eyes.

This Star Trek Special is worth owning for the final story alone, and for the cover by John Van Fleet. Hamilton should get him to paint their collectible plates.

Trek Books: Star Trek: Dark Passions Book Two

When we left our heroes in the alternate universe at the end of Dark Passions Book One, Intendant Kira had become Overseer for the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance and had taken control of all trade and shipping in the vast network. Kira has many enemies, including Gul Dukat, Deanna Troi, the allies of Winn Adami who don't even realize Kira ordered Winn's assassination, and B'Elanna Torres, Intendant of the Sol system. But Kira also has two things going for her: she has acquired an Iconian portal that allows her to travel to any point in time and space, and Seven of Nine has become her ally and lover. If Intendant Kira weren't such a needy, greedy person, she could live contentedly as the second most important person in the Alliance, answering only to Regent Worf.

But as we all know, the Intendant places a higher value on her lusts and her ego even than power. When Deanna Troi seduces her, hoping to win back the rights to regional gambling licenses so that she can build a retreat for herself and Worf in the Betazed system, Kira jeopardizes everything to attempt to take revenge against a woman she once loved. In her ruthlessness, Kira sells Seven as a slave, unaware that the Cardassian-reared human is secretly an agent of the Obsidian Order. It appears as if nothing can save Seven, not even her budding friendship with Torres, until Seven encounters a group of rebel miners led by a woman named Kathryn Janeway.

F/F slash fans, rejoice, for although the men are apparently as straight in the mirror universe as they are on regular Trek, the women are much more interested in each other. Deanna, who thinks of Worf as the great love of her life, nevertheless spends most of her energy in Dark Passions seducing Kiraand she does a good job convincing readers as well as the Intendant that her desire is sincere. B'Elanna, who wants to impress Worf and bolster the Sol system, develops a strong bond with Seven, who has already become Kira's intimate. Unfortunately, lesbian Leeta barely gets mentioned in book two and Ziyal forgets her crush on Winn Adami during the trauma of discovering her true parentage, but there's still plenty of female bonding.

Janeway/Seven fans will be particularly pleased, for although Seven and her mentor don't actually get together in Dark Passions, they meet on more equal footing and build a more mature bond than their temperamental mother-daughter relationship on Voyager. When Seven first encounters Janeway, she cannot even speak, having had her vocal chords tampered with by Kira. Yet she manages to win the trust of the older women after Janeway impresses her with her resourcefulness, and by the fact that she never acts like a slave. Chakotay, Paris and Kim are also prisoners in the mining complex, along with Beverly Crusher and Robin Lefler; J/Cers may be pleased to know that Chakotay remains Janeway's devoted second in command even in the alternate universe, though unfortunately he doesn't get to say much.

I'm not sure why, but I like Wright's Seven better than Voyager's. The two are in analogous situations, since the mirror universe's Cardassians raised Annika Hansen in much the same way as the Borg reared Seven of Nine, with her individuality subsumed to the violent dictates of duty. Seven retains her childlike vulnerability while performing extraordinary feats, and doesn't sound like nearly as much of a know-it-all, perhaps because the Intendant and her cronies behave so badly. Although she was born Human, Seven knows far more about nearly every alien species, and hasn't found much to like about her own kind until she encounters Janeway. The transition seems more natural somehow, more balanced.

The ending is a bit unsatisfactory only because these books precede Deep Space Nine's 'Crossover.' It's hard not to wonder what happened to the balance of power in the months between the events of Dark Passions and the television episodes. But maybe Wright will write a sequel, and get some of the men naked for a change.