Post by Dimitris on May 18, 2005 9:36:42 GMT -5
05.16.2005
Report: Last Episode Viewing Party
At least 250 people attended the "Last Episode Viewing Party" co-sponsored by Roddenberry Productions and Trek United last Friday night at a hotel near the Los Angeles International Airport. It was a lively event of fans and dignitaries celebrating Star Trek: Enterprise and giving it a cheerful send-off on the night of the series finale.
Several members of the Enterprise production team were special guests at the gathering, including Michael and Denise Okuda, visual effects wizards Dan Curry and Ronald B. Moore, scenic artists Alan Kobayashi and James Van Over, security-guard-turned-background-admiral Steve D'Errico, and others. The one celebrity actor in attendance was Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Chase Masterson ("Leeta").
"You guys, this is so cool that you're here!" Masterson told the crowd when she was introduced, astonished at the turnout. "I just want to say, I think it's totally great what you did for Enterprise and for Star Trek [during the "Save Enterprise" campaign]. We supported you guys absolutely all the way, and we're still holding out hope for a lot of great Star Trek in the future. The spirit of you guys, and the love, is just wonderful! God bless you!"
Also speaking during the evening were David Alexander, the author of the official Gene Roddenberry biography "Star Trek Creator"; Tim Brazeal, head of Trek United; several fan organizations; and a 10-year-old fan from Dallas, Texas, who has organized several petitions on his own to save the show and who told the crowd, "I'm mainly here to tell you, the youth cares about Enterprise, not just all you old people."
The son of Star Trek's creator, Eugene W. "Rod" Roddenberry Jr., was the principal host of the evening. "You guys just impress me," he told the fans at one point. "I had no idea this many would show up."
The event did not escape the curse of Friday the 13th, however. The eating, drinking, mingling and speech-giving gave way to the anticipated 8:00 start of the first episode of the night, "Terra Prime." But as the big-screen projection system was turned to channel 13 (the local UPN station — another 13!), that channel turned out to be an in-house hotel program. The channel that was supposed to carry UPN was blank. It was never determined whether the outage was local to the hotel or due to a system-wide cable problem, but by 8:30 the signal did come on (whew!) and the crowd was able to enjoy the second half of "Terra Prime." (In the intervening half-hour, Roddenberry entertained the audience with a blooper reel and to help make up for the blunder, the hotel agreed to comp everyone's parking.)
The reaction to the ending of "Terra Prime" was quite emotional, and the audience was primed for the final episode, "These Are the Voyages..." showing at 9:00. They were delighted to see Jonathan Frakes as Will Riker and Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi, and soundly applauded the Next Generation sets and the shots of the Enterprise-D. Generally the audience response to the show was quite positive (though they sort of made fun of the title theme by holding up lighters and swaying to the music). During the breaks, when UPN ran promos of their other shows, namely America's Next Top Model and Britney and Kevin: Chaotic, the audience booed.
The crowd was moved by the finale's ending, which juxtaposed the Captain Picard and Captain Kirk "These are the voyages ..." speeches with one by Captain Archer. But there was disappointment that after so much build-up in the story to Archer's founding-of-the-Federation speech, the scenario cuts off before it. "It would've made it perfect if they had found a way to include the speech," long-time Trek fan Donna Long said. "At least the beginning of it, something!"
Roddenberry Jr. concluded the evening by telling the crowd of fans, "Thank you to everyone here for, basically, 40 years of a great run. I know Star Trek will never die, not because Paramount or the Roddenberrys won't let it, but it won't die because you guys won't let it. I know Star Trek will come back in one form or another."
Report: Last Episode Viewing Party
At least 250 people attended the "Last Episode Viewing Party" co-sponsored by Roddenberry Productions and Trek United last Friday night at a hotel near the Los Angeles International Airport. It was a lively event of fans and dignitaries celebrating Star Trek: Enterprise and giving it a cheerful send-off on the night of the series finale.
Several members of the Enterprise production team were special guests at the gathering, including Michael and Denise Okuda, visual effects wizards Dan Curry and Ronald B. Moore, scenic artists Alan Kobayashi and James Van Over, security-guard-turned-background-admiral Steve D'Errico, and others. The one celebrity actor in attendance was Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Chase Masterson ("Leeta").
"You guys, this is so cool that you're here!" Masterson told the crowd when she was introduced, astonished at the turnout. "I just want to say, I think it's totally great what you did for Enterprise and for Star Trek [during the "Save Enterprise" campaign]. We supported you guys absolutely all the way, and we're still holding out hope for a lot of great Star Trek in the future. The spirit of you guys, and the love, is just wonderful! God bless you!"
Also speaking during the evening were David Alexander, the author of the official Gene Roddenberry biography "Star Trek Creator"; Tim Brazeal, head of Trek United; several fan organizations; and a 10-year-old fan from Dallas, Texas, who has organized several petitions on his own to save the show and who told the crowd, "I'm mainly here to tell you, the youth cares about Enterprise, not just all you old people."
The son of Star Trek's creator, Eugene W. "Rod" Roddenberry Jr., was the principal host of the evening. "You guys just impress me," he told the fans at one point. "I had no idea this many would show up."
The event did not escape the curse of Friday the 13th, however. The eating, drinking, mingling and speech-giving gave way to the anticipated 8:00 start of the first episode of the night, "Terra Prime." But as the big-screen projection system was turned to channel 13 (the local UPN station — another 13!), that channel turned out to be an in-house hotel program. The channel that was supposed to carry UPN was blank. It was never determined whether the outage was local to the hotel or due to a system-wide cable problem, but by 8:30 the signal did come on (whew!) and the crowd was able to enjoy the second half of "Terra Prime." (In the intervening half-hour, Roddenberry entertained the audience with a blooper reel and to help make up for the blunder, the hotel agreed to comp everyone's parking.)
The reaction to the ending of "Terra Prime" was quite emotional, and the audience was primed for the final episode, "These Are the Voyages..." showing at 9:00. They were delighted to see Jonathan Frakes as Will Riker and Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi, and soundly applauded the Next Generation sets and the shots of the Enterprise-D. Generally the audience response to the show was quite positive (though they sort of made fun of the title theme by holding up lighters and swaying to the music). During the breaks, when UPN ran promos of their other shows, namely America's Next Top Model and Britney and Kevin: Chaotic, the audience booed.
The crowd was moved by the finale's ending, which juxtaposed the Captain Picard and Captain Kirk "These are the voyages ..." speeches with one by Captain Archer. But there was disappointment that after so much build-up in the story to Archer's founding-of-the-Federation speech, the scenario cuts off before it. "It would've made it perfect if they had found a way to include the speech," long-time Trek fan Donna Long said. "At least the beginning of it, something!"
Roddenberry Jr. concluded the evening by telling the crowd of fans, "Thank you to everyone here for, basically, 40 years of a great run. I know Star Trek will never die, not because Paramount or the Roddenberrys won't let it, but it won't die because you guys won't let it. I know Star Trek will come back in one form or another."