SLEEK, GEEK, CHIC
‘Star Trek’ fans go where few have gone before with new movie
by Mark Volpe

Once there was an Elvis impersonator who wanted to be a part of the original “Star Trek” universe. Seriously. You can’t make this up.

Using the original series blueprints (acquired via his role as a costumer on “Star Trek: The Next Generation”), James “Kirk” Cawley and his friends rented a studio flat to construct their scale model of the Enterprise NCC-1701’s bridge and began shooting a fourth season of the original “Star Trek” as if the show had never been cancelled in 1969. Under the title “Star Trek: New Voyages,” their pointillist, pointed-eared attention to detail caused a Trekkie sensation. Cawley’s gamble that the original series characters could be personified by fresh faces paid off, producing the finest “Star Trek” fan films (fan-produced tributes) to date. The four films to date are greatly ambitious in their production design and perfect in their homage to the original, so professional and well-produced, in fact, that many original cast members of “Star Trek” rekindled their old stereotyping roles to beam aboard.

Tonight, Cawley gets to play Kirk opposite original series stars George Takei (”Captain Hikaru Sulu”), Grace Lee Whitney (”Commander Janice Rand”) and Majel Barrett Roddenberry (”Computer Voice”). Rod Roddenberry (son of Gene) is onboard as Consulting Producer, and veteran television writer Marc Scott Zicree directed and wrote “World Enough And Time.” Walter Koenig (”Chekov”) is also here to lend his support to the “New Voyages,” having appeared as Ensign Chekov in the previous episode feature-length episode, “To Serve All My Days.” And all this because a group of fans’ will to hit the sky trail again was so strong? Strange new worlds, indeed.

As I wait in line for popcorn, I talk with co-producer Don Balderamos. He tells me that the estimated budget for “World Enough And Time” is about one million dollars in donated post-production, with the cast and on-set crew working just for the love of the thing. He explains how impeccable names like Grace Lee Whitney and Majel Barrett Roddenberry connected Cawley to real people like director Marc Scott Zicree and his wife, Elaine, who have hundreds of network television writing credits to their names (and would never consider working on fan films unless they had big gun names like George Takei and Walter Koenig, with directing the episode being a nice bonus.) “World Enough and Time” took a year to polish and perfect; about a year per episode so far. And the chain of custody seems like a postmodern Kobayashi Maru, one that Cawley cleverly reprograms to win a legitimate Internet-distributed franchise where he gets to play Kirk.

The line outside the theatre is 150 people long and growing, larger than the crew compliment of the USS Angeles. There are local news people tripping over other local news people to get footage of Cawley, the guy who plays Kirk, hugging some pretty young thing in bellbottoms. And there’s Jeffery Quinn, the kid who plays Spock, doing the Vulcan salute with a fiendish smile. I screened the series pilot, “Come What May,” at my FanzillaCon tribute in Worcester in June 2004, and it is just so satisfying to see Cawley and his team continuing to show their love of “Trek” by extracting every last dollar of value from affordable, retail-bought tools like Adobe PhotoShop and AfterEffects, giving them the power to make it Starfleet to the last blue shirt.

I could go on gushing about my never-ending childhood fascination with Uncle Gene’s ever-relevant wagon train to the stars, but instead, just read the words of the people involved as I heard them at the Hollywood premiere of this bold new chapter in “Star Trek” lore:

JAMES CAWLEY - “Kirk”

WorcesterMovies: How does it feel to be a fan film celebrity?

James Cawley: I don’t know. (Laughs.) I’ve never thought of myself as a celebrity. Just a fan.

WM: How many people on your MySpace page?

JC: I don’t have a MySpace page. Look - the only thing I can do with a computer is check my email.

(He walks away and toward the pretty young thing in the bellbottoms.)

JEFFERY QUINN - “Mr. Spock” &
JULIENNE IRONS - “Lt. Uhura”

WorcesterMovies: Tell me about the differences between your perspective on these “Star Trek” characters and the way they were originally played on the show.

Jeffery Quinn: The original counterparts have been known to “Star Trek” fans for nearly forty years now, so we have some pretty big shoes to step into! The biggest thing we all deal with is getting our version of the character across without emulating or parodying or mocking of the previous actor. We actually have to work to get people to accept us. I think, in this episode, we certainly succeed.

Julienne Irons: Yeah, it took me a little while to kind of fill those shoes. I didn’t know which way I wanted to go. Do I want to create my own LT. Uhura or stick with what Nichols did? In the end, I ended up creating my own version of Lt. Uhura because I had to. I had no other way of portraying her. I couldn’t copycat.

WM: How was it playing against the original Mr. Sulu?

JI: Amazing: Amazing!

JQ: George’s quality of acting has just helped each of us. Julienne is a professional actress, I’m an aspiring actor. Having George out there really made us bring our a-game. We really had to step up to bring it up to his level – [acting coach] Elaine Zicree helped us out a lot. We were in awe to have George there, just like Walter Koenig, who did our last episode. Hey, we only have a few more [original series leads] left on this list!

JI: It felt like we’re really doing “Star Trek” now! We have Walter, we have George. And that feels so good.

WM: You had worked with a lot of Original Series guest stars prior…

JQ: Yes, William Windom. Barbara Luna, who plays his wife in “In Harm’s Way.” A lot of them have jumped at the chance to play a role they did so long ago.

JI: I’m routing for Ms. Nichols to come, I need an episode with Ms. Nichols. Are you listening? (Laughs.)

WM: Who writes this stuff? How do you get that garage to look like the bridge?

JQ: There’s actually a team of really great people that live in the immediate area where we keep our sets and they are, you know, the true keepers of the flame. They go there every single day, keep up the maintenance on the bridge and the sets. James Cawley, who plays Kirk, in coordination with as many volunteers as we can count, have put time and work into building complete recreations of the bridge, 360 degrees, transporter room set, corridor sets, shuttle craft – I mean, amazing things out of the very limited budget. And with the help from our friends out here in Hollywood, they bring their expertise and professionalism, which again, rolls over. There’s about a 150% learning curve in between each of our episodes.

JI: Amazing…

WM: George [Takei] is known now for a character he plays on “Heroes,” Walter [Koenig] for a character he played on “Babylon 5.” Would you ever do a fan film set in those particular universes?

JQ: A “Heroes” fan film would be pretty interesting.

WM: Would James Cawley play Sylar?

JQ: (Laughs.) No, I think I would play Sylar.

JI: I would have to be the cheerleader. Save the cheerleader, save the world!

WM: And “Babylon 5”?

JQ: We had the good fortune of meeting and working with “Bab 5” special effects pioneer Ron Thorton. We have that connection with him. I started working earlier this year for “Battlestar Galactica” in the special effects department. What he did on “Bab 5” laid the groundwork for what we’re doing now. So, yeah.

WM: How many friends on your MySpace page?

JI: Oh my god! I put a message on the “New Voyages” message board saying, ‘Join my MySpace page,’ and I’ve got so many friends now!

JQ: I did the same thing and I got zero.

NATASHA SOUDEK - “Lt. Soudek”

WorcesterMovies: Your real last name is Soudek?

NS: The director decided that my last name sounded Vulcan, so I got to have my name as the character.

WM: Is your character a traditional Vulcan?

NS: I’m the first blonde Vulcan ever.

(She smiles and walks away.)

WM: Man, I forgot to ask her about her MySpace page…

WALTER KOENIG - “Ensign Chekov”

WorcesterMovies: What was it like to take the character you played on the original series into a fan film environment?

Walter Koenig: Well… It was a fan film environment but it was also a professional environment. Everybody was very professional in their work. We worked long hours, we worked very cooperatively, it was really a family feeling. I felt very gratified by the experience and very rewarded that I had a chance to do something with the character that I never had a chance to do with, you know, in fifty, sixty, seventy eighty million dollar movies. It was very satisfying. It brought me some closure so I was very pleased about that.

WM: Did you have anything to do with the writing of the script of your episode? Did you influence it?

WK: I invited Dorothy Fontana to come aboard. She wrote the script but it was basically my concept, not my execution.

WM: Would you ever do a “Babylon 5” fan film if the production values were as high?

WK: I suppose anything is possible. I never thought I would do the “Star Trek” fan film, but there you go. I never say never. Life changes, my thinking process changes, everything keeps undergoing an evolution of sorts, so I no longer think in terms of absolutes.

WM: Thank you for your time. And I don’t suppose I could get a picture?

Koenig: (Laughs!) Okay. What is this for?

Worcester Movies: My high school yearbook reunion photo. Actually, I ran into you once when I was 12 and once again in an elevator in Brentwood when I was 28.

Koenig: (Laughs, looks around nonchalantly for uniformed security officer.)

GEORGE TAKEI - “Captain Hikaru Sulu”

WorcesterMovies: What was it like for you to rekindle a role you created in the ‘60s for a fan film made in the new millennium?

George Takei: This was the best Sulu role that I’ve ever had in my forty-plus years with “Star Trek.” Yes, Captain Sulu in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country was wonderful, but this is such a dimensional role. There’s a little swashbuckling where I get to do some sword fighting. There’s a very sensitive and tender father/daughter relationship – I have a daughter, a beautiful young lady in this one – and there is moving, tragic final scene. As Sulu, I get to sink my teeth into a very full, dimensional, meaty role.

WM: Would you ever revive your role from “Heroes” in a fan film?

GT: We will have to see, won’t we, because with this one, we had a legion of dedicated passionate fans that’s global: Asia, Latin America, Europe, and Australia. And it’s their energy that made this fan film possible. And when “Heroes” demonstrates that it has that kind of global support and global passion, I certainly think that is a viable idea.

WM: Would you take a photograph with me?

GT: (unintelligible, looks around nonchalantly for uniformed security officer.)

MARC SCOTT ZICREE - Director and Writer &
JAMES CAWLEY - “Kirk”

WorcesterMovies: How does an Elvis impersonator end up meeting and partnering with such a great director? How does that work?

JC: Well, again, it’s the power of “Star Trek.” Um, we were working on an episode with Walter Koenig – not sure if he snuck out, he’s about to be a grandfather, so he’s a bit nervous tonight. But Walter was working on an episode with us and he appeared at a convention at which Marc was also appearing and they shared a conversation and Marc was very much so intrigued by what he heard. So Marc actually emailed “New Voyages,” but it went to the wrong email and the PR guy said, “Oh we’re not taking script submissions.” So by a funny chain of events, he ended up getting the phone number of “Doc John” who plays Dr. McCoy, and that actually went to his parents – so what brought the main cast together was the Internet and the fact that Jack Marshall, who was my partner for quite some time, posted a photograph of my bridge set on the Internet and someone went to the site, started calling us, emailing us, and that is how we all found one another – through the passion and the love of the material.

Marc Zicree: Thank you for the compliment about my directorial skills, but actually, this is the first thing I’ve ever directed. I’ve sold over 100 scripts, I’ve been a producer on shows, but I’ve never directed. And whenever I was on a show, “Sliders” or whatever, I’d say to my boss, the exec producer, ‘I’d sort of like to direct,’ and they’d say, ‘Well, next year, next year,’ like a kid, but eventually meant, you know, never. So when i said to James, I’d be interested in directing this, he said point blank, ‘Do you want to direct it?’ and I said yes, and he said, well, you’re the director, that’s one less problem for me. And no one at any stage of the game ever asked me if I knew how to direct. But fortunately, I was surrounded by very talented people. My wife had directed for stage, so… I learned. We learn as we go.

ANDY BRAY - “Ensign Chekov”

WorcesterMovies: We were just talking about your scene with Koenig and its “Chekovian” overtones.

Andy Bray: I was thinking at the time, ‘Oh, gee, great, I get to do a scene with Walter.’ I get to play Chekov opposite. That to me was the most thrilling part of it. Then when we actually sat down to shoot it, that’s when we got the direction that it was going to be very surreal, very deep moods, dark colors. We were going to do more odd camera angles, then we made it simple. But we kept the kind of surreal atmosphere that personified Chekov’s inner struggles.

WM: It was like “The Cherry Orchard”. A classic play.

AB: What a great scene to do, not just with Walter but for anyone to do. But to do it opposite of the Chekov was a thrill.

WM: Are you a fan of the Original Series?

AB: Yes, I am a fan of “Star Trek.” I grew up watching the movies. It was such an amazing moment to sit down across from ‘The Real Chekov,’ him in his uniform, me in my uniform, and just play a scene.

WM: Was that the official end of the character?

AB: Well, in the episode, if you watch it, they do not actually say it, but it could be interpreted that he died. Every fan knows the movies go on, the character of Chekov goes on. But Walter wanted to put a period on the end of his career as Chekov, to go out with an episode that gave him a chance to round the character, to do more with the character than he ever got to do in movies or the series, and say goodbye to “Star Trek.” So it’s not so much the end of the character as the end of Walter playing the character, passing the torch onto another actor.

WM: Did you struggle with the accent?

AB: Before I got the coach, I was doing a stage production of [Original Series episode] “Spock’s Brain.”

WM: You did a stage production of “Spock’s Brain”?!

AB: We did it at Paramount and the Improv, Paramount down in Irvine, a word-for-word “Spock’s Brain” but we played it for laughs, which is not hard to do with “Spock’s Brain.” And we took it to Vegas. And when we took it to Vegas, Walter was there. And he saw it, came to the play, came backstage afterwards and spoke with me and that’s how I got involved with “New Voyages.” Walter was the one who recommended me to “New Voyages.” But when I started preparations for that play, the guy who was directing it said you look like Chekov, you’re perfect for the part, as long as you can do the accent, it’s yours. And I freaked out, went home, and started watching episode after episode, waking up every day watching “Spock’s Brain” over and over and over again. The key to doing it is doing the lip thing. (He does the lip thing.) Once you do the lip thing, the voice comes naturally. (As Chekov): “And it’s wery, wery easy to do Chekov.”•••

Mark Volpe is a freelance writer, musician and “Star Trek” devotee living in Los Angeles. He spearheaded the world’s first fan film festival called FanzillaCon in Worcester in 2004.