Star Trek Monthly Interviews

Nikolas Haynes at the Trek Galaxy sends along word he's put up reprints of two interviews that appeared in the new October 2000 edition of the British Star Trek Monthly Magazine.

In the first interview, Michael Westmore, Star Trek's make-up supervisor, talks about the process involved in creating Trek's makeup, Voyager's seventh season, and his own involvement with Trek's future:

"Rick Berman say's they're working on the movie script, and another Star Trek series. [...] Normally, I don't get involved with the movies until the new calendar year, and then it goes great guns. That's when they finally put the production into gear. Set designs and things like that have to start earlier because there's so much of that to do, but make-up wise, we normally start on 1 January and have three months to build up anything we need. No special office has been set up for either the new series or the next movie yet, though."

You see all the rumours on the Internet. Everyone's speculating, but until Rick Berman calls me in, hands me a script and says, 'This is what we're doing,' I don't pay any attention. It's like me with my foreheads and noses: there are still a lot of areas Star Trek can go into. I think they've been very clever in doing each series for seven years and then starting a new show, instead of trying to continue a series for 10 or 12 years. It brings in new faces, new circumstances. I think it's been healthy for the show… it's kept it fresh."

"I'd like to get started with [the fifth series] at least. I don't know if I would retire somewhere along the way or not, but I would sure love to get it going."

A bit more unusual is the second interview available at the Trek Galaxy, dealing with Jackie Edwards, the personal assistant to Patrick Stewart (Jean-Luc Picard). Here's what his job actually consists of:

"This job entails every little thing, from business stuff to personal stuff, from buying batteries and house-sitting [when Stewart's away from home], to booking appointments, answering the phone, and a lot of drudge work like filing and licence approvals for products. When he's gone, my number is the one the security people and the gardener and the pool guy and everybody else in the world has. He's very active in his fan club, so I arrange for him to attend their functions."

Discuss this news item at Trek BBS!
 Add TrekToday RSS feed to your news reader or My Yahoo!
Also a CSI: Crime Scene Investigation fan? Then visit CSIFiles.com!