Film4 hosted a Star Trek Weekend (16th-17th October) showcasing all ten feature-length movies!
Leonard Nimoy and Jonathan Frakes introduced each movie. Whilst I hoped that the 10min excerpts preceding the feature would have been the same thing (from the descriptions listed on Sky Programme Guide), they were not - much to my disappointment!
I only managed to record, to my knowledge, one excerpt in it's entirety. I might have 'accidentally' recorded the others as an indirect consequence of recording the features, but will have to check that out when I'm more organised.
Below is a transcript of that sole interview, before the showing of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
Leonard Nimony and Jonathan Frakes on Star Trek (5 mins)
Leonard Nimoy:
"Gene Rodenberry had a great vision for Star Trek, and it was that vision that made us the best of what we were, when we were at our best. He was with us for the first two seasons and then was gone. The third season, he was off doing other work. And I think the season, the third season showed it as a result. And when it was over, I was frankly glad that it was over because we were not doing good work and rather than dry this thing further into the ground, why don't we leave it alone, and hope the best of what we did survives. And I think that did happen.
Subsequently when he was asked to make a Star Trek movie, it was right that he was called upon, to do it, but I don't think he was at his best in making decisions about that first movie. He had this sense that it should be different from the series, that it should have a grander look, that we should take advantage of the money and the special effects and so forth, that it should be more intellectual, and less adventurous, so shall we say for lack of a better word he struggled with that story, right down till the very end he was writing writing writing writing, and struggled with it, and then when it came time to make Star Trek II the studio decided it definitely wanted other people at the helm, producing and writing, and I think as a result of the experience on the filming of the First Star Trek Movie, because not only had the story and the script didn't work all that successfully it had also gotten out of hand financially, and they wanted a different kind of leadership taking charge of the film."
Jonathan Frakes:
"When I first got the audition for Star Trek, I went in to meet with the Casting Director. Ultimately I auditioned seven times over six weeks because the original, our Star Trek was made directly for syndication which meant that everyone at Paramount practically has a say in who was going to be cast in their show. It was not a network, it was not made, it was made differently, it was the first hour scripted drama made directly for syndication so a lot of people had their noses in the pot if you will. There were a lot of cooks, so there were a lot of auditions.
I of course, wore the same shirt to every audition, and by the time the seven weeks were up, the shirt walked and put itself on. The last two or three auditions which were for the heads of the studio, Gene Roddenberry would invite me to his office to prepare for the audition with the Direector Cory Allen, who directed the Pilot. And Gene was so passionate about his belief of what life should be like in the 24th Century that he shared that with me, because he wanted Riker to have that same passion, and what he said to me I'll never forget, which was "In the 24th Century, there will be no hunger, there will be no greed, and all the children will know how to read." And he'd wrap his big space-bird arm around me and say "Let's go get you this job" It still gives me [motions goosebumps]. He was awesome."
Leonard Nimoy:
"When I was making Star Trek III and IV, I went to him, I still had great respect for his ideas and his input we gave him ths script and asked him if I could have a meeting and listen to his comments and er, on Star Trek VI I remember I had a profound moment with him where he said ths script works, it makes sense, everything falls into place, it comes together, finally at the end, but he said I'm missing one thing, and I said What is that? and he said We don't know something new and really intriguing about the Klingons. What is it that has made them so angry all these years?
He was absolutely right. And I conveyed that to Nicholas Myer. We could not find a way, given where we were in the process to build on that idea. It was a wonderful idea. And that was the mind that Rodenberry worked with at its best. What has made them so angry all these years. If we could have found that out, what was it about the interior life of their culture, what had happened to them in their past? What had gone wrong in their relationships with eachother, other nations or whatever, where have they lost their way to become so paranoid? So paranoid! And, er, he was right. We didn't capture that. We did a good adventure, but we didn't capture that."
Leonard Nimoy on Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (5 mins)
Leonard Nimoy:
"Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan put Star Trek back on the water so to speak, and er, it recaptured the energy, it recaptured the chemistry, of the cast. Nicholad Myer who Directed it er, had kind of a jaunty point of view about the whole thing. Sort of high jinx space, er, he had a very strong sense of what might work dramatically, er Hare Benett captured a very strong idea to bring back Ricardo Montablan who had been one of our better guest stars in one of our better good episodes. And we were back on the rails now. The music had a very jaunty naval feeling about it, er the ships were something like submarines out of water but in space instead, er there was that naughtical sense about it. Hare Bennet came to my home to invite to be in the film and said 'How would you like to have a great death scene?'. And I thought if this is going to be the last of the Star Trek movies, and if the Spock character can be given a glorious end, saving his ship mates and the ship from disaster, and go out in a blaze of glory, why not do that. And that's the way I went to work on Star Trek II.
By the time it came to do the death scene, I had second thoughts because I realised by then, that we had in fact recaptured the sense of Star rek at it's best, and that now I was going to take myself out of it. And I thought, I wondered if I had made a mistake. At the same time there was a wonderful scene written for us, the ending scene between Kirk and Spock, a very moving scene had been written, and it played extremely well. When we were doing the scene, Benett came to me on the set and said 'Could you do or say anything that would give us a string to lead us to another film, another idea, or a continuation of some kind of Spock philosophy, or whatever. I said 'Yes, I think I have an idea'. Before I'd entered the chamber where Spock is about to die saving the ship, I went to the unconscious McCoy, and I put my hand on his face in a mind-meld gesture, and I simply said: 'Remember'."
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