In the midst of anniversary season, I want to make sure to add this:
Five years ago today —on three weeks’ notice, then after a fog-delayed plane and an unplanned three-hour rental car ride— THIS happened (above).
Cameras rolled on Day 1 on “Pilgrim of Eternity,” and I was plunged into a completely new “family” and experience that simply blew me away— scary and awesome at the same time.
And I would have no idea of the way my life would be changed forever.
Even though I was exhausted, doubling up with night work on the massive Star Trek : Stellar Cartography I’d just started on with a deadline only three months away, it was an experience like no other—and one in hindsight I would never trade for anything.
After just a couple hours that first day, this cast and crew— some of whom had shot three short vignettes the summer before—simply boggled my mind that they came together from literally every corner of the country —Washington, New England, Florida and SoCal.
AND had not already been comfortably creating Trek side by side for years.
AND were so professional.
I’ve shared many moments myself here from the early days of STC, more than once—including both our Kirkstarters and “To Boldly IndieGogo.” And after the move away from playing McCoy when my 2013 just got too crammed full, I was happy to remain aboard as creative consultant for those 1 AM phone calls about Orion slavery and Tellarite misogyny and Romulan weaponry. Unofficially, I stayed on as a documenter, saw over half of the remaining shoot days in Georgia and some 2nd units in L.A., and still have hours of footage and more than a few still images y’all have never seen.
Some fans have called for it, and as non-fiction a documentary or “coffee table book” on STC’s five years and colorful cast and crew tales wouldn’t even violate the new fan-film guidelines, if it was crowd-funded. Maybe that will be the last laugh on the subject.
But as for me, my ST Continues experience reminded me once and for all that you can have dug archives and authored best-sellers, edited works that affected peoples’ lives, entertained and talked to thousands live on stage for 10 or 20 years … and still: almost laughably, it cannot compare to the respect, visibility and opportunity that suddenly comes along with being on screen.
It competed for time, but STC before and behind the camera wound doing far more than I could ever dream for The Con of Wrath push and developing my new-wave Portal 47 backstage fan experience.
Plus, I got so… many … truly …great …peeps …and wonderful memories in the bargain.
(And I kinda think you all might have even made out with good stuff, too.)
Thank you, Vic and all, for having me along for the ride in all its twists and turns. It all began in the Fallow Times for Trek— and while the era and vibe have certainly changed, it is so rare to start a project and see it through to its founding vision so amazingly. Oh, if only every on-camera project and crossword puzzle alike could say that.
Especially one with so many human moving parts and so little money to throw at it. What volumes that says for Star Trek, and for those to profess to love it!
