Star Trek: First Contact: The Making of the Classic Film E-Book

Joe Fordham

• Herausgeber: Titan Books
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 119

Beschreibung

An in-depth look at the making of Star Trek: First Contact, featuring rare and previously unseen production art and new and exclusive cast and crew interviews.Twenty-five years ago, Star Trek: First Contact saw Picard, Data, and the Enterprise crew go back in time to stop the Borg before they could prevent Earth's first contact with an alien species and assimilate the entire planet.Celebrate this landmark anniversary by taking a deep dive into the stories behind this beloved film. This beautiful coffee-table book is full to the brim of archival material, behind-the-scenes photography, concept art, production designs, and much more, and includes new and exclusive interviews with cast and crew, including Jonathan Frakes, Alice Krige, Rick Berman, Brannon Braga, Ronald D. Moore, Marina Sirtis, Herman Zimmerman, and Michael Westmore.

Leseprobe

STAR TREK: FIRST CONTACT –THE MAKING OF THE CLASSIC FILM

Standard Edition ISBN: 9781789098556Ebook ISBN: 9781803360836

Published byTitan BooksA division of Titan Publishing Group Ltd144 Southwark StLondonSE1 0UP

WWW.TITANBOOKS.COM

First edition: September 2022

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

TM & © 2022 CBS Studios Inc. © 2022 Paramount Pictures Corp. Star Trek and related marksand logos are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Every effort has been made to contact the copyright holders of all photographs used.

To receive advance information, news, competitions, and exclusive offers online, please sign up for the Titan newsletter on our website: www.titanbooks.com

Did you enjoy this book? We love to hear from our readers. Please e-mail us at: [email protected] or write to Reader Feedback at the above address.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

TITAN

BOOKS

™

CONTENTS

6

Federation, 1994: Introduction

10

Engage: Setting Up the Film

22

Captain’s Log: The Hunt for a Director

32

Set a Course for Earth: Writing the Story

42

Starfleet: Building Enterprise-E

74

History of the Future: Creating 2063

90

We Are Borg: Recreating an Old Enemy

118

Make It So: The Visual Effects

140

First Contact Day: Shaping a Legacy

160

Acknowledgments

FEDERATION, 1994

INTRODUCTION

P

aramount Pictures’ Star Trek: First Contactwas the eighth feature film based onGene Roddenberry’s Star Trek. ReleasedNovember 22, 1996, the film marked thefirst solo cinematic voyage of Jean-LucPicard and his crew that, for seven years,had blazed a trail across television screens,‘seeking new life and new civilizations’ inStar Trek: The Next Generation.

Next Generation’s seven-year runconcluded in May 1994 with a gentle codathat capped its two-hour final episode, ‘All

Good Things…’ written by Brannon Bragaand Ronald D. Moore. Captain Jean-LucPicard (Patrick Stewart), having survivedone of his most perplexing intergalacticconundrums, brushed off his tunic andsurprised his chiefs of staff—first officerWill Riker (Jonathan Frakes), lieutenantcommanders Data (Brent Spiner), GeordiLa Forge (LeVar Burton), and Worf (MichaelDorn), counselor Deanna Troi (MarinaSirtis), and chief medical officer BeverlyCrusher (Gates McFadden)—by joining an

informal gathering in Riker’s quarters for agame of poker.

The scene was the last filmed for theseries and attracted the interest of many ofthe production staff, who gathered for thefilming. “The shows were never necessarilyshot in order,” says executive producer RickBerman. “But let’s assume for a moment thatthis was. Patrick looked around at the pokergame, looking at the people with whom hehad spent the last seven years. They were hisfamily. They were people that he loved and

PREVIOUS SPREAD:

Beverly Crusher(Gates McFadden),Hawk (NealMcDonough), andWorf (Michael Dorn)encounter intruderson board theStarship Enterprise.

6

STAR TREK FIRST CONTACT

trusted. It was a great moment. I was there,and when the word ‘cut’ was spoken, therewere hugs and applause.

“On the other hand, we were weeks awayfrom starting production on the movie

Star Trek Generations and the whole groupwas about to reunite and start working onits first feature film. We did not feel thesadness of a team breaking up, or peoplegoing their separate ways. We were all

going to take a short break, to be backin uniform, and back on the set to doa feature film. The melancholy was notthere. But the warmth and the camaraderieof the characters sitting around that

7

THE MAKING OF THE CLASSIC FILM

card table was poignant, and affectedeverybody present.”

The series finale received the highestNielsen ratings of Next Generation’s178-episode run and earned its creators theWorld Science Fiction Society 1995 HugoAward for Best Dramatic Presentation. It wasa gratifying conclusion to a series that Wiredmagazine had dubbed ‘a bumpy ride’ in its firstseason, before the Next Generation cast weredeemed able successors to the original StarTrekseries’ hugely popular Captain James T.Kirk (William Shatner) and crew. In November1994, Paramount Pictures presented thepassing of the torch from Kirk to Picard bylaunching Star Trek Generations as the firstfeature film with Next Generation characters.

It was a boom time for Star Trek.Screenwriter Brannon Braga—who co-authored Picard’s feature debut with RonMoore, sharing story credit with Berman—recalls, “When Generations came out, StarTrek: The Next Generationwas at its apex. Thenumber-one show on television was E.R.,but we were the number-one syndicatedshow. Kirk and Picard appeared on the coverof Time magazine, which was a big deal.Generations, although it got mixed reviews,was a huge hit at the box office—it wasnumber one when it opened. And the NextGenseries finale that Ron and I had writtenhad just been nominated for a PrimetimeDramatic Emmy® for best series. That wasunheard of for a syndicated show, unheardof for a science-fiction show, and unheard ofin the history of Star Trek.”

The Paramount Pictures lot was buzzingwith the production of the space-station spin-

off series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, whichBerman and showrunner Michael Piller hadlaunched in 1993. Simultaneously, Bermanand Piller’s Star Trek: Voyager—featuringCaptain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) and hercrew—was midway through production ofits pilot episode. “There was a lot going on,”Braga recalls. “When Next Gen stopped, weknew the studio wanted another series totake its place as they launched their newnetwork, the United Paramount Network.So, after writing Generations with Ron, I wentright into writing Voyager while Ron waswriting Deep Space Nine. That’s when RickBerman called us to discuss the next film.”

8

STAR TREK FIRST CONTACT

THIS SPREAD: Thenewly appointedStarship EnterpriseNCC-1701–E speedsto answer a distresscall on Earth.

9

THE MAKING OF THE CLASSIC FILM

CHAPTER NUMBER 1

ENGAGE

SETTING UP THE FILM

ABOVE: Senior crewmembers assemblearound CaptainJean-Luc Picard(Patrick Stewart) onthe bridge of theEnterprise-E.

A

s Berman, Braga, and Moore wrestledwith story concepts that led to thegenesis of First Contact, the filmmakerswere mindful of the Star Trek feature-film legacy.

In 1978, Gene Roddenberry wascontemplating the release of the firstfeature film based on his Star Trek television

series when he told journalist Don Shayin Cinefantastique magazine, “I guessmy biggest fear was that it would not beStar Trek.”

The sentiment remained the topic ofdiscussion in every one of the subsequentStar Trek films. After Star Trek: The MotionPicture (1979) launched Kirk and his crew on

a cinematic trajectory, Star Trek II: The Wrathof Khan (1982) developed a story arc withthe original cast members through sevenfilms. However, the criteria remained. Whatmakes Star Trek tick, versus the dramaticneeds of a feature-film adventure?

After Roddenberry’s death in 1991,Paramount Studios chairman Jonathan

12

STAR TREK FIRST CONTACT

THIS PAGE:Executive producerRobert H. Justman,a veteran of StarTrek and Star Trek:The Next Generation,visits the FirstContact set.

Dolgen and president Sherry Lansingapproached Next Generation executiveproducer Rick Berman for guidance onfuture Trek films. Berman, a plain-speakingNew Yorker, was frank in his approach. “I’moften accused of being a ‘suit’ or a studioexecutive,” says Berman. “Before I came toLos Angeles, I’d been a television producer,director, and writer of documentaries inNew York for twenty years. When I cameto LA, I was an executive for less than ayear and a half before I went back intoproduction. I was the director of currentprogramming on Cheers, Family Ties, Webster,Call to Glory, and MacGyver—a lot of shows

that I was suddenly, quote-unquote, put incharge of. That was a joke because you don’tcome in as a young guy from New York andsuddenly start telling A-class writers what todo. But that was my job. And then I was putin charge of this potentially new Star Trekseries that Paramount had convinced GeneRoddenberry to do.”

At its inception, the Next Generationbrain trust had included Star Trek veterans—including Robert Justman and DorothyFontana—who had been instrumental in theoriginal series writing team. Berman wasless familiar with the workings of the UnitedFederation of Planets. “I was twenty years

younger and knew nothing about the oldshow,” Berman confesses. “In the ’60s, I wasdoing everything but watching television.Oddly enough, that was one of the thingsthat got me hired. I ended up spending timewith Gene, who took a liking to me. We hada lot in common about travel and a variety ofother interests. But I was fresh to Star Trek.”

The new show incorporated a paradigmshift, visually and aesthetically, in its upgradefrom the mid-twenty-third to twenty-fourthcentury, reinventing the look and feel ofStar Trek, while continuing Roddenberry’sfundamental premise of benevolent spaceexploration and a positive outlook of the

BELOW: Narrativeconcepts for StarTrek: First Contactquickly gravitatedto an adventurefeaturing thetwenty-fourth-century starshiparriving, via atemporal warp, inorbit above NorthAmerica, 2063.

14

STAR TREK FIRST CONTACT

ABOVE: The filmrekindled thechemistry of thecrew membersaboard theEnterprise, suchas Captain Picardand his androidfriend, LieutenantCommander Data(Brent Spiner), whileparallel action onEarth featured firstofficer William Riker(Jonathan Frakes).

future. Three showrunners—Maurice Hurley,Michael Piller, and Jeri Taylor—guided NextGenerationproductionunder Berman’stenure. Two of the show’s youngest writers,Ron Moore and Brannon Braga, joined theteam during the series’ early years.

Moore grew up in the 1970s as a nativeof Chowchilla, California, with the originalStar Trek as a staple. “I started watching itin syndication when I was in third or fourthgrade,” Moore recalls. “It was on five daysa week on Channel 26, my local station,and I became obsessed with it. For a while,

I didn’t realize other people shared myobsession. I didn’t know that there wereconventions and that there was a Star Trekfandom until I saw a cover article in Starlogmagazine. I was at the drug store, I picked itup and realized, Oh my God, there are otherfans out there like me!

"Even as a kid, I knew that Star Trek wason a different level. It seemed like a realplace, with real missions and stories, and Iliked the characters. It made me think aboutthe world in ways that I hadn’t thought aboutit before and challenged ideas of morality

and ethics. I watched it all the time, I wouldbuy any Star Trek books or magazines thatI found, and I wrote my own little stories.”

A speculative script submission earnedMoore a place on the Next Generationwriting staff while he was in his twenties.A year later, in June 1990, another newrecruit arrived from Boseman, Montana, onan internship with the Academy of MotionPicture Television Arts and Sciences. “Thefirst person I met was my mentor MichaelPiller, who hired me,” recalls BrannonBraga. “I walked into the Hart Building at

15

THE MAKING OF THE CLASSIC FILM

THIS PAGE: Intwenty-first-centuryMontana, Rikerjoins chief engineerGeordi La Forge(Levar Burton),who performsinvestigations aidedby his cyberneticocular implants.

age twenty-four and Michael was hunchedover his computer keyboard. The first wordsout of his mouth were, ‘Any ideas on how tobeat the Borg?’”

Piller was at the time writing theconclusion to Next Generation’s SeasonThree cliffhanger, ‘The Best of Both Worlds,’where a fearsome biomechanical cyborgspecies had enslaved Captain Picard. “Thatwas my first exposure to the Borg,” notesBraga. “I had seen Star Trek, and I watchedthe pilot of Next Generation, but then I fell

off. I had heard in college, leading up to myinternship, word on the street was, ‘Hey,Next Generation is good now.’ And then ‘TheBest of Both Worlds’ aired. I watched that andthought, Oh, this is good, these Borgs are cool.Gene Roddenberry, at that point, was part-time on the show. His health wasn’t great; infact, he died a year or so later [October 24,1991]. But I met Gene. He was a lovely man.I admitted to him that I was not a Star Trekfan, and I was intimidated because I didn’tknow the show very well, although I loved

science fiction. He said, ‘That’s a good thing.Bring a new perspective.’ It was clear to methat this would be an incredibly fun show towrite for because it was an anthology andit was a big universe. But I was also utterlyterrified because what Michael Piller wasdoing seemed like magic. I didn’t know howthey were coming up with ideas so quickly.I’d never been exposed to television writingbefore. It was radically new.”

Piller’s core writing staff—with Jeri Taylor,Joe Menosky, René Echevarria, Braga, and

ABOVE: JonathanFrakes confers withAlfre Woodard onthe Enterprise set.

Moore—maintained an output of twenty-six episodes a season. The two youngestwriters gravitated to each other, despitetheir differing relationships to the series.“Brannon and I just clicked,” Ron Moorecomments. “For both of us, it was our firstprofessional writing gig. Brannon likedscience fiction and, in particular, horrorand fantasy. I liked those things, too. Weloved film and we were both eager to makeour mark. I think the partnership worked