Post Convention Blues

What could possibly be better than spending a weekend with the people that you have persistently watched grow and develop on television for twenty years,  in some cases even longer? For most fans of film and television, their relationship with the characters they love starts and ends with watching the movie or TV show, but for a Star Trek fan its much more hands on than that as we have the luxury of being part of one of entertainments largest ever fan bases.  Because of that, the demand for meeting the stars causes dozens of conventions all around the world and almost every week of the year.   

Me and Aron Eisenberg (Nog) 

I am a collector of personalised Star Trek autographs and have been attending conventions for many years, the first being ‘Generations 2’ at the Royal Albert Hall in London back in 1996. I have recently returned from the Destination Star Trek 3 event, also in London, and have discovered that the often mentioned ‘Post Con Blues’ is a very real thing. I'm sure it affects people in different ways, some feel down because they have to go back to work afterwards and some because they generally spend most of their time alone and they must leave their new like-minded friends behind. For me, it is a sort of sick feeling of nostalgia and loss in my stomach, the loss being the time I spent as a teenager growing up in the middle of Star Trek’s  Golden Age. A time which had three different Trek incarnations running simultaneously, with weekly events  to keep me satisfied such as a monthly magazine, fact files delivered to my door and VHS releases of brand new episodes. I had the original excitement of the season ending cliff-hangers and genuinely did not know what was going to happen next. There was  even a hotline you could ring to listen to actors interviews as they gave hints of upcoming story lines.

A small selection of my Autograph collection

The thing that depresses me the most after having attended an event like Destination Star Trek is the realisation that what has been has gone and could never return (at least not to the way it used to be). We all watch Star Trek on an almost unending loop, and by the time you’ve finished watching, say,  The Next Generation, it's been six months since you watched Voyager, so it's time to start that series over again. All the Star Trek shows (after season two of TNG) are holding up remarkably well with the passage of time, as are the movies, and it is easy to forget that over 25 years have passed since the TNG crew were in their prime. The ‘modern’ series of DS9, Voyager and Enterprise were produced to such high standards that they look like they could still be in production today, until of course you actually meet your idols! For me, there lies the problem. There is something terribly depressing about seeing a face that yesterday (on TV) was strong, commanding and comforting and today is aged, withered and tired. They are not the people you remember and it can be a little disheartening as it hits you that the show you love is as good as an antique. The last time I saw the legendary Uhura was two days before DST3, she was doing the naked fan dance in ST:5. To be confronted by a little old lady with white hair in a wheelchair a few days later only served as a reminder that the actors are ageing, that I am old and that the movies are classics. Perhaps there’s a sub conscious thought way in the back of our minds that keeps whispering  ‘’they may do a DS9 movie or one last TNG outing’’, but seeing the actors in the flesh then destroys that possibility.  I think the biggest wake-up call for me over the weekend was meeting Hana Hatae who played little 5 year old Molly O’Brian. Of course Hana is all grown up now and is a far cry from the character she used to play in Deep Space Nine. I probably know more about the O’Brian family than I do about my own neighbours, and I miss following those characters, and all of the other Star Trek personas.  We did grow up together after all. 

Me and Hana Hatae (Molly O'Brian)

Despite pining for the time when Star Trek was in the middle of its franchise boom, meeting the people that made the show a reality is the next best thing to still having the programme on air, and I will continue to follow them as we grow old together. It isn’t difficult to understand why Trek fans hunger for new (old style/traditional) Star Trek and we can only hope that CBS acknowledges this sooner rather than later. For now, lets hope the existing retired casts Live Long and Prosper.

'The Host' and the changing face of the Trill race.

For such a huge and varied universe, Star Trek has managed to stay pretty consistent, partly due to a long-serving production team and partly due to the fans anal attitude to fine details. Of course, this is TV and after spanning five decades, the show simply couldn't adhere to the production values of the 60s show and artistic licence was taken with technology and the look of alien races when Star Trek was brought back in the 80s. This was unavoidable and widely accepted as compulsory by the fan base, yet ultimately many Star Trek episodes offered geeky explanations as to why things were altered along the Trek timeline. The most famous of these alterations was the change in the look of the Klingon race when The Next Generation added a full prosthetic make up to them which the Original series could not afford. This mystery was tackled, explained and solved more than forty years later in an episode of  Enterprise - one of the shows finer moments. Differences between the 60's Star Trek series and the 80's one were unavoidable and forgiveable, but what about between the 80's and later 90's shows?

Here is a niggle I've had since I began following Star Trek. In Season 4 of The Next Generation a race called the Trill were created, initially as the 'Alien of the week' but later on in Deep Space Nine they returned as series regulars. TNG Trill looked like a slapdash, nondescript beige forehead-appliance type humanoid which could not use the transporter for fear of damaging their Symbiont, and the Symbiont themselves, appearing as colourful neon fat slugs, could exist in human hosts for a week or so before being rejected.

Odan from TNG episode 'The Host'

Our first look at a Symbiont (TNG 'The Host')

When the producers of Deep Space Nine decided that the concept of the Trill demanded more exploration, they included one as their Science Officer. After casting an attractive young female actress, they decided they didn't want to cover her face with prosthetics and so designed a less restrictive make-up for the Trill. So, that's the TV show explanation, but what about a Star Trek cannon explanation?

Now that Trek is no longer on TV, it's unlikely that this particular mystery will be officially solved, so I guess we could take some artistic licence ourselves and theorize between us. Away we go.....

Trill Jadzia Dax from Deep Space Nine.

Which series has the best finale?

First of all, I will be starting with The Next Generation for this one. After cancellation, the Original Series just ended, and on a bit of a bum note I might add. The rest of the Star Trek series attempted to wrap up the entire run of the shows in a final two-hour special (with the exception of Enterprise).

An almost dead cert for a successful Star Trek episode is the inclusion of time travel in the story line.  The final episode of TNG went in this direction with 'All Good Things...', and has Picard flipping through three time periods: past, present and future. The story was a Star Trek treatment of the classic Dickens tale 'A Christmas Carol', where Captain Picard was sent back to when he first took command of the Enterprise and then forward to when he is retired.  It's always a kick to catch a glimpse of our characters in a possible future and see how they could turn out.  The geekiest little moments in this episode for me are in the future time-scape, when we find out that Picard and Crusher eventually got married and seeing Geordie with ocular implants (which later became a reality in the movies).

'All Good Things...' was an outstanding episode - it had action, it brought the series full circle by bringing back Q and his judgement of humanity which he started in the pilot episode, and it is concluded with Picard finally joining the senior officers for a game of poker which was a nice touch.  This episode didn't wrap up the series like some of the other closing episodes from the sister shows, but that's because it didn't need to. The Next Generation was going straight over to the big screen, so the crew was kept intact and the mission of the Enterprise was left on-going. As good as this episode is, it could have been put anywhere throughout the show's run. When it comes to finalising a show, no other terminated like the next Star Trek spin-off, Deep Space Nine.

TNG; The future Enterprise D from 'All Good things...'

Whilst Star Trek: Deep Space Nine took a little longer to find its feet than its predecessor, once it hit its stride there was no stopping it.  It's huge sweeping story arcs revolving around the Dominion War lasted several seasons, and with the show being set on a huge space station, it had many semi regular characters popping in and out every year so there were a lot of loose threads to tie up when the show ended. Never before or since have we had a Star Trek show be so defiantly concluded, with many of the crew members heading off to new lives and some even meeting a grizzly end. In my opinion, 'What You Leave Behind' is the finest series closer of any show I have watched and I judge it so because it is the only one which I have shed a tear to! The music plays a big part in making the final scenes so poignant, that mixed with flash backs of experiences the characters had and the whole crew gathering before saying goodbye to long friendships and relationships. You are left in little doubt that this is the end for Deep Space Nine, and it was, this show never made it to the big screen like TNG.

DS9: The last pan shot of the station

Star Trek Voyager's concept was a little different from the other shows, and with them spending seven years trying to reach home, it seemed inevitable that the final episode would see them achieve this. Sure enough, the final shot before the credits roll on 'Endgame' have Voyager approaching Earth escorted by a Federation fleet. A winning theme that Star Trek can always rely on to deliver a popular episode other than time travel is the Borg. 'Endgame' uses both time travel AND the Borg to give us an action-packed, high concept science fiction finale that entertains from start to finish. The main criticism from the fans about this episode is that it ends! You've heard the old adage 'always leave them wanting more'?  Well, that's what they did. Unfortunately we were clamouring to see our characters and their reactions to being back on Earth, so we ended up feeling a little cheated. All in all, 'Endgame' was great Star Trek.

Voyager approaches Earth after 7 years in the Delta Quadrant

Now, if you're a Trekkie (which I assume you are if you've read this far) then you will have been dreading this bit!  The final episode of Enterprise has been dissed and slated by fans ever since it aired.  The show had been cancelled and, had it have reached its seventh season, then I'm sure 'the birth of the Federation' angle would have been a great pay-off to fans of the series. Instead, we were given a rushed crossover/holodeck farce that focused on The Next Generation character of Riker.  While it was nice to see Riker, Troi and bits of the Enterprise-D again, the episode did very little for the NX-01 characters and only served to show how Archer's service had ultimately given rise to the Federation.  There was a little confusion from fans that mistakenly likened the episode to Patrick Duffy in the shower in Dallas and the whole thing being a dream. That was not the case.  Just look at the episode as a flash back from Riker's point of view. All the events in Enterprise really happened in the Star Trek timeline, so don't be thinking we were robbed of the four years we spent watching the show. The best thing about this episode is the closing monologue of the legendary 'Space, the final frontier' in the voices of Kirk, Picard and Archer. It has a 'lump in the throat' feeling going on as we realise that this is the moment that Star Trek was departing from our screens, perhaps forever!

Enterprise: The last Star Trek image we see on television



Creating 7 of 9 for a convention

It's rare I go to a convention these days without Cosplaying. The women of Star trek are legendary and plentiful but for a Drag Queen, the glamorous females in Trek shows are few and far between. They may be beautiful, but more often than not, they are neck to toe in boiler suit like uniforms. For a Drag Act, it's all about exaggerating those feminine features like curves, lips, legs and eyes so my Cosplay options have always been rather limited. It was inevitable that one day I would have to tackle the Seven of Nine look and decided to do so for Destination Star Trek Frankfurt. It was a time consuming and expensive process, but here is the final result and how it was achieved...

As with all my Trek costumes, it starts with images and screencaps of the outfit in question, and where possible, stills of the actual screen-used garment in it's natural state without TV lighting and colour tampering. Usually I find these images on auction site archives where the original outfit has been sold after production had ended. These kinds of sites carry detailed pictures taken from all angles and close ups of seams and linings.

Seven's catsuit was relatively easy for the costume-maker to replicate but it was the under-garment which gave Seven her ribbing which was the fiddly bit. Again, the corset had previously been sold at auction and images were plentiful...

 

Front and back view of 7's under-garment

Whilst visiting the First Contact Day event in Leicester, I browsed a fabric shop as a Drag Queen would and spotted a stretchy blue matt Lycra with a sparkly fleck running through it. It immediately reminded me of Seven of Nine's outfit and so I bought up enough to one day have the costume made. It sat in my dressing room for over a year until I decided it was time for a new Cosplay. Below is the design sheet which I sent to the costume-maker (along with a few clips on DVD of the costume in use on TV so he could get a feel of how it moved and creased)...


Seven of Nine mood board (the text description of detail was taken from the auction of the original outfit)

One of the most difficult aspects of the 7 of 9 costume is the facial implants she wears.  I thought I had found the better quality ones available online and ordered them (£16 for the eye piece and the cheek star), but when they arrived, they were lacking in detail and the paint job was basic. I decided to have a go at making my own and created some clay replicas, followed buy a mold and ultimately the latex prosthetics. I finished them off with a four-colour paint job and sponge texturing and was very pleased with the result - so much so that I now offer them on my eBay. The hand-piece was a lot of trial and error, but I found the best result came from cutting the tips off rubber Halloween witches fingers, popping them on the ends of my fingers and painting liquid latex over them and down and around my hand. After two or so hours with a useless hand held in the air drying, I peeled off the latex and finger tips and treated it to the same paint job as the face pieces.

One of the things which I've noticed other Seven of Nine Cosplays lack, is the unique built in footwear that is seamless to the costume. I can understand why people struggle with this as it requires very exact measurements of some very unusual places. No matter how we tried it, we couldn't get the fabric to sit tight around the ankle whilst the shoe was pulling on it and I really wanted to get that 'sprayed on' look for the costume. To get around it, we cheated a little and separated the shoes from the jump suit and opted to cover them with the same fabric. This was achieved by painting the shoe with PVA glue, stretching over the fabric and jamming the excess between the shoe leather and sole using a  screw driver. Unless you're planning to end up with your ankles up the side of someones head, then the join between costume and footwear is virtually undetectable (plus has the added benefit of being able to take off your shoes when you've been on heels all day, which I found a great relief).

In my regular Drag work I prefer hair which is high, big and bold, however, Jeri Ryan has quite a natural looking style, a simple French twist and cow lick quiff. As a man, using my own hair was out of the question (I have none!) so the front hairline of the wig had to be a very high quality lace front one. I found that the colour 'Honeysuckle' was a perfect match for Jeri Ryan's natural colour.  The wig was done by a professional wig-dresser from a selection of screen captured pictures.

All in all, the whole look was very successful, especially enjoyed by Gates McFadden (Crusher) who asked for a picture which she later Tweeted, Marina Sirtis (Troi) who complimented me on my Camel's Toe or lack of, and Connor Trinneer (Tucker) who wolf whistled at me from his signing table!

The cost of the combined ensemble was approximately £350.

So, what's next for Misty in the world of Star Trek Cosplay? Well, I'm inclined to bring back the big hair and wild Gagaesque wardrobe so my initial thought is Lwaxana Troi.

See you in Space Trekkies!

Who likes Dr Pulaski?

In Season 2 of The Next Generation, Gates McFadden took a year out to have a baby and was replaced with Diana Muldaur who had previously played 'Bimbo of the Week' twice in The Original Series. I don't ever remember being a great fan of Dr Pulaski, not particularly because I was attached to Dr Crusher, but there was nothing likeable about Pulaski for a teenager. I simply saw her as a cantankerous ageing broad with a chip on her shoulder. I'm on my umpteenth re-watch of TNG and I'm currently in mid Season 2. This time around I actually saw her as dry, and quite amusing, possibly because our age gap has decreased since the last time I watched her. Whilst looking through her IMDb, I came across a quote from the actress which put me on the offensive once again, she said....

"A lot of people ask me why I did Star Trek for a year and I said, "because it sounded wonderful and  creative, fun and children's theatre." It wasn't any of those things... that was a mistake of mine."

The implication that Star Trek is neither wonderful or creative is annoying enough but 'children's theatre'?  Perhaps the brightly coloured pyjama uniforms gave her this 'Teletubbies in Space' analogy, either way, I do not agree with her assessment. She does go on to say some wonderful things about Gene Roddenberry and his imagination so redeems herself a little. I suppose we just have to keep in mind that doing Star Trek was just a job for some actors and we can't expect them to love it as much as we do. Having said that, guess who is at the London Film Comic Con signing autographs and doing talks this year? Well, at 75 year old, she's actually welcome to £15 of my money for her squiggle.  It could supplement her pension.

Diana Muldaur wearing well at 75?

The actress interviews for TNG Blue Ray

Muldaur recently did an interview for the New Blue Ray Box sets of The Next Generation and as you might expect, she sings the praises of the show and its crew, in fact, she came across quite lovely and I look forward to meeting her later in the year.

My final thoughts on this character are as follows:

1. She is just like a female Dr McCoy
2. She is the only officer that talks down to the Captain and gets away with it
3. She wears a Skant variation and is the only officer that is allowed to wear trousers underneath
4. If she had stayed with the series, Worf would have been her greatest 'bounce off' character

Janeways hair: What's with that?

I LOVE CAPTAIN KATHRYN JANEWAY! Don't worry if you didn't absorb that statement, as it will be repeated several times during this article.

So anyway, yeah, I love Captain Janeway and there are a million and one reasons why. This piece focuses on not one or more of those reasons, but instead on a subject which has plagued Janeway and Mulgrew herself for many years, and still does as far as Kate is concerned!

Janeways hair! We've heard Kate Mulgrew talk about this subject many-a time and at conventions it's her most commonly asked question.

''So hey, I'm Cedric from Outer Mongolia, I'm a big fan [wipes runny noes and squints over his jam jars]...What was with the hair?''

As she has explained in the past, the 'Suits' became a little nervous over putting a woman in the Captain's chair in what was ultimately a Boys Club. This could have brought a grinding halt to the franchise as males in their 30s were the biggest demographic. Would they follow a woman? Well, of course, we now know the answer to that question, and Voyager is one of the most loved of the Star Trek spin offs.  So why was Janeway's hair such a concern for the studio bigwigs? ('wigs'....see what I did there?)

A persons hair says a lot about them, and when creating a character, the hair style can denoted many things without them saying a word. It could give an indication of what their job is, how vain they are and how they view themselves, whether it be a practical style or for display, rather like a peacock. Whilst shooting the Pilot of Voyager, Janeway was given a feminine, shoulder-length, natural smooth flat bob, which was quickly dismissed by Paramount - many feel because it was simply too 'girly'. Janeway was quickly given her famous Bun of Steel (which I personally think makes her look like a school dinner lady), and please note: Aunt Bessie sports the same hair style today!

We've all heard of Aunt Kathy, well, here's Aunt Bessie.

The bun was eventually followed by my personal favourite, the volumised bob. There were a few variations of the bob, for example, the 'Year of Hell' bob that I'm sure had a few people going ''ahhhhh, that's why it ain't happening with Chakotay, she's a Les...'' ANYWAY...

Janeway sported several styles through Voyager's seven seasons, and her hair became as legendary as her ship and crew, but did it really make a difference how she wore her hair from episode to episode? Well, let's switch her hair with another Starfleet Captain and see.

PicaJane?

The hair department is clearly a very important piece of the Star Trek production puzzle, yet through bobs, short and long, flat and volumed, buns with varying degrees of firmness, French Twists, hair broaches and Rapunzel-waves that tickled her arse-crack, Janeway was unmistakably in command and anyone under that command knew who the boss was... even her bun used to repair itself between torpedo blasts.  Now THAT'S a diva if ever I saw one.

So what would I have done if I'd have been dressing for the Voyager hair department? Well...

PS. I love Captain Janeway

What rank is O'Brian?

While all the other character in Star Trek remained the same rank or gradually rose up the chain of command, Miles Edward O'Brian seems to have been demoted and, at one point, fluctuated!
We all know that ultimately his position was Chief, whether that be of the Transporter Room on the Enterprise-D or of engineering on Deep Space 9. What seems clear is that, from the very beginning, the writers did not know what to do with O'Brian, or indeed what purpose he was serving.
When we first see him in the pilot episode of The Next Generation: he is at the com station of the battle bridge wearing a RED uniform! He was not a principle cast member and therefore it was assumed he was there as cannon-fodder. At that time he wore one pip (Ensign).

The next time we see O'Brian, he has apparently transferred departments and wears gold (a much safer option), but now appears to be a lieutenant!


Season 1 TNG: Ensign O'Brian, The Red Shirt!

Season 2 TNG: Lt. O'Brian in Gold

Rather than a background extra/lacky he was given the prestigious job of sounding card to the Bridge crew, usually over a game of poker, probably because of his 'every man' image and accent - a role that he was used for many times in the later DS9 years. With that role would have to come a back story, and for O'Brian, a family too. As TNG continued, 'The Chief' as he was now known, seemed to randomly revert back to an Ensign for no apparent reason and with no explanation! The character makes references to being an un-commissioned officer and not a graduate of the academy which did not fit the rank he seemed to be carrying.

Season 3 TNG: Ensign O'Brian?

Now, all the confusion as to his rank was cleared up on more than one occasion in Deep Space Nine when he made numerous references to being non-commissioned, and to have never attended Starfleet academy. He points out that even Ensigns don't need to call him sir as he is not an officer. All this however does not explain the early Next Gen muddle. Off course its likely to be the writers finding their feet and once they realised Colm Meany would be a semi regular reoccurring character, they settled him in to a nice back story. This is not of course a Star trek answer and you know what us Trekkies can be like when it comes down to the fine details.

If any one does have a genuine Star trek explanation, then please get in contact...The Truth Is Out There!

Season 6 DS9: Chief Petty Officer O'Brian