Captain's Log: Conventions, Planets and Star Trek NCIS

Would J.J. Abrams' Star Trek (referred to here as Star Trek JJA) obliterate interest in the previous incarnations, more closely associated with Gene Roddenberry and those he tutored? This summer's conventions put that fear definitively to rest, at least for a few years more. Classic Trek stars were everywhere, playing to the same loving crowds.

Those crowds will get another chance in October at the Hollywood Xpo, which includes other s/f and related stars (from Ray Bradbury and Stan Lee to Richard Hatch) as well as other TV and film stars, but the lineup is Star Trek-heavy (Jonathan Frakes, Michael Dorn, John Billingsley, Connor Trineer, etc.) and features stars of the Original series and films, and the independent films Star Trek: Of Gods and Men and InAlienable, many of whom are the same people: notably Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, Alan Ruck and Tim Russ. Eugene "Rod" Roddenberry will also be there.

Though this is the first of what promises to be an annual event, the folks organizing it used to be called Planet Xpo, and they did the last two conventions I attended, first as a reporter ("Beam Me Up, Scotty, One More Time" in LA) and then as the host of the Soul of Star Trek panel (the 40th anniversary in Seattle.) The October 15-17 do is at the Hilton Universal City--more info at the web site.

Star Trek NCIS

We've careened through five plus seasons of NCIS on DVD this summer, and are finishing the 6th season just in time to start getting the new 7th season DVDs from netflix. I'm not going to explain this series for those who don't know it, but simply make a comment for those who do. (Though I will recommend it!) This insight came to me tonight, in fact, when I was struck by the character of Ziva, who as an Israeli is still learning American idioms, and does not use contractions. And that of course suggested: Ziva is Data!

Like Data and Spock, Ziva is an alien, highly skilled and intelligent but whose misunderstanding of human i.e. American behavior is often comical, while she's also physically stronger than everybody else. Like Data, Ziva does not use contractions. Even their names are similar.

It's interesting to figure out resemblances of the other NCIS characters to Star Trek/TNG, but the best actual correspondence is Ziva=Data. And I wonder if that was intentional.

New Worlds

Astronomers keep discovering new worlds around other stars. Last week scientists said they believe they've found an exoplanet closer to Earth's size than ever before, although it's actually about the size of Saturn. That's an artist's conception of it up there at the start of this post, as published in the New York Times.

Vermont

The Democratic primary is over among Vermont candidates for governor who made their choice of Star Trek or Star Wars in the video below, but the election may not be. So far the apparent winner is Peter Shumlin (Star Wars) but by fewer than 200 votes, so the runner-up, Doug Racine (Star Trek) is calling for a recount. May the force be with him. Or should I say live long and prosper?

Walter Koenig in InAlienable
photo by Michele K. Short

But before either of those comes InAlienable. Koenig wrote this non-Trek science fiction drama, and is its Executive Producer as well as a principal actor in it. On December 15 it will become available as an Internet pay-per-view on the Renegade website, at the low admission price net users are fond of ($2.99.) This experiment is, as Koenig has quipped, where no movie has gone before.

Yet it may well be where a lot more storytellers will go. When I talked last month with Sky Conway, producer of InAlienable as well as of Of Gods and Men, he was excited by the news that Intel had developed a chip that would enable high definition television to be transmitted across the Internet. He made it sound like that pretty much sealed the deal: the Internet was going to be the future, and very soon.

For the present this is one of the opportunities that new technologies provide for more of a direct connection between creators and audience. Everything from cheaper cameras and digital effects mean that making a movie no longer requires kowtowing to the whims of big studios, and now the Internet opens the way to more direct marketing and distribution, so those movies don’t need to follow dubious formulas for mass market acceptance. In the Trek world as elsewhere, the pioneers may have been younger enthusiasts, but these veterans have jumped in to help take it all to the next level.

Richard Hatch and Courtney Peldon in InAlienable.

The Interview: INALIENABLE

When the main character in this movie complains about the little monster around the house, he’s not kidding. There’s a certain creature feature factor in this film, perhaps due to its indiredt origins (as we learn in this interview) in the 50s classic, The Blob. But in true Trek style, writer Walter Koenig has more in mind—like, does an alien have inalienable rights? Like the best of Trek, InAlienable tells a fascinating “what if” story that nevertheless deals with contemporary human and political issues, including in this case, some being weighed right now by the U.S. Supreme Court. He also acts in the film and is its Executive Producer, with Sky Conway as one of the producers.

The cast of InAlienable includes Star Trek actors Marina Sirtis, Gary Graham, Alan Ruck, Tim Russ, J.G. Hertzler and Richard Herd, as well as Richard Hatch of Battlestar Galactica as the lead, Courtney Peldon of Boston Public, Jay Acovone of Stargate SG-1, Patricia Tallman of Battlestar, the veteran Eric Avari of, among many other projects, Jonathan Frakes’ The Librarian: Return to King Solomon’s Mines, young Jett Patrick, as well as Walter’s wife Judy Levitt, his son Andrew Koenig—both of whom also have appeared in Star Trek films or TV-- and daughter Danielle Koenig.


Q. What can you say about the story you tell in InAlienable?

WK. It’s about a scientist who lost his wife and his son in an accident that he feels responsible for. Eight years later he discovers he hosts what he initially believes is a parasite in his body. He goes through an evolution of emotions regarding the fact that he’s harboring this alien--from a scientific objectivity to a sense of repulsion, because he learns that it carries his DNA, and it is a monster of a sort. He feels it’s his curse, because he was responsible for the death of wife and child. But then he in effect gives birth to it, and ultimately he bonds with it. The government tries to take it from him, and there’s a custody hearing that’s the third act of the film.

Q. The line in the trailer that grabbed me was said by the defense attorney: “even aliens have inalienable rights.”

WK. Right, that was the whole idea behind the story: what constitutes an alien? And particularly one born here in this world, and should he not have available the same rights as anybody else? That was the basis of the custody hearing.

Q. You have quite a cast.

WK. I feel blessed that we had such a talented group –we made this film for very little money—well under a million dollars—and I had absolutely top- notch talent. Richard Hatch is really quite brilliant in the lead role. Cosrtney Peldon is wonderful as the leading lady. Marina Sirtis is really spectacular-- she is the attorney for the government, and she is so powerful. Eric Avari who plays Howard Ellis, the attorney you spoke of, brings a great sense of humor to the role. It’s a very intense story with a lot of deep emotion, and he really brought a wonderful balance.

I originally wrote the script seven years ago—actors have such extraordinary egos and they can’t perceive themselves as being anything other than a leading man, so I thought I would play the leading role. After a few years I realized that was out of the question, but what Richard did with it is precisely the way I would have approached it. On the other hand, when I wrote the character Howard Ellis I wrote it for a different kind of person, someone more like Ethan Phillips [who played Neelix on Star Trek: Voyager] but he wasn’t available. Eric was just one of those inspirational things--he read it and loved it, and we knew he had strong credentials, so we offered him the role—and he brought a whole different element to it, which was a delightful surprise. I wanted it to have some humor in it, but he brought his own approach. He was great.


Q. And Robert Dyke is the director?

WK. Yes. He did a film with Bruce Campbell and myself back in 1989 called Moontrap, which was very successful on video for a film without a general release. It was a science fiction movie, though one considerably different than mine. So I knew his work, he was very enthusiastic about the screenplay, and we were able to afford him, and I think he did a good job.

Eric Avari in InAlienable Photo by Michele.K. Short

Judy Levitt in InAlienable M.K. Short photo

Marina Sirtis in InAlienable M.K.Short photo

Q. Where did this story come from?

WK. I wrote it so long ago, I don’t know precisely how I got started on this. I do remember that I invited some friends over to watch the World Series. One was Sky Conway and another was Tony Franke--he was in the original The Blob, he played Steve McQueen’s friend. Sky got all excited because that was one of his favorite science fiction movies of all time. I think he suggested that if we could do something like that… I hadn’t been thinking about writing a story, putting together a project, but I came up with some ideas, and I wrote a step outline. Sky was enthusiastic about it so I went on and wrote a screenplay.

Q. And now you’re trying out a new model of distribution with Internet pay-for-view.

WK. Certainly everyone is becoming aware of the Internet for such purposes, and it’s going to be the first way we will distribute the film. There are other options as well later on—we have contact with the Sci-Fi network. DVDs and foreign distribution of DVDs are viable options, I think, and if we can get the film into some festivals we can open up more opportunities.

While I was waiting for the screenplay to be produced I decided to write it as a novel, and as a matter of fact this last weekend I was in New York, and I met with a young, enthusiastic agent who’d read the work, and we have struck a pact. She has several publishing houses in mind, and we’ll go from there.