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TF01 3,Voyager Press Launch - Interviews 4,by Simon Plumbe and Mark Platts While attending the press launch of Star Trek: Voyager, we were able to grab a few minutes with some of the guests to talk about what they had seen and what they thought of Voyager. However, before interviewing the celebrities themselves, we started of with a brief chat with CIC's Robert Hollocks... Simon: Robert, how's the day gone so far for you? Robert: Pretty well, I think. I must admit that I'm personally pleased with it - it's always hard to judge what other people think of stuff. Mark: Were you nervous? Robert: Yeah, very nervous actually. It's the first time I've done such a theatrical presentation. We normally stand up in a suit and say, "Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, boring, boring, boring!" so it's quite nice to do something different for a change as well. Simon: What do you think of Voyager yourself? Robert: I think it's great! I must admit I was a big fan of Next Gen which was really how I got into it. I started off with that and went back to the original series afterwards. I quite like DS9, although I wasn't that struck on it at first, but I just think that Voyager's brilliant. It's probably the best pilot I've seen I think out of all of them. Simon: How would you rate it in comparison with the other shows? Robert: Well, I think it's got a long way to go to beat... well, not a long way to go, but I think it's got a way to go to beat The Next Generation... Mark: It probably hasn't settled in yet, you haven't seen enough episodes. Robert: Yeah. I've seen about the first 5 or 6 now, and it's like all of them - they all get better as they go on. I mean, I was thinking back to Encounter At Farpoint which was... well, it was okay but it was certainly nothing brilliant, and I don't think The Next Generation begun until season three really. But I think Voyager's much better than that - that pilot was great and if that's what the start is like, what's it going to be like in the next series? But then I would say that, I suppose! Simon: Is this the most expensive press launch you've done? Robert: No, it was actually done on a really tight budget. We desperately needed to do something different to get away from the same old screening. Simon: It looks like quite a lavish event. Robert: I can't remember what the exact figure, but it was a lot less than you'd think it would be. We cut loads of corners, hire stuff on the cheap, we had people stitching their own costumes - that kind of stuff - just so we could cut costs. Just because we wanted to make it something special really. The guys who did it, TAP - the agency who put it together - were just great, they were so enthusiastic about it and they really sort of worked really hard. Considering the budget. We had more than our money's worth out of them I think! Mark: Are you pleased with the coverage you've got from the camera crews? Robert: Yeah, it's brilliant. I was surprised how many people turned up. Normally you'd get probably about a 30% drop-off - people who say they'll come and they don't turn up - and I think we've got 90% - 95% of people invited turn up! It's great. The press coverage has been fantastic so hopefully, touch wood, we'll get some good articles coming out of it as well! Simon: Back to Voyager again, any word on the release of the special edition? Robert: Ah-ha! You've put me on the spot with this one! We're hoping to do it late November now. The reason is that what we really want to do is put "The Making Of Voyager" on the tape and do it as we did the other two for Deep Space Nine and The Next Generation. The trouble is we haven't had clearance from the States to use it - it all takes so long to get the clearance through. Simon: Is that what delayed the release, because originally it was supposed to be June, wasn't it? Robert: That's right, so unfortunately the original plans with the promotion was to have you collect four tokens and get the video free, but we just couldn't get it cleared in time. So at the moment we're hoping for November, it's looking reasonably good, but we'll wait and see how it goes. Also I think if I can't get clearance for that then we'll probably just hold off on doing the Collector's Edition until we can get it. I mean, the last thing we want to do is just release a video for the sake of it. Simon: Will you be increasing the production run over the DS9 and Next Gen tapes? Robert: Yes. Simon: Because with the last couple of Collector's Editions, the Next Gen one pretty much sold out overnight. Robert: I mean, I wasn't working for CIC then and I remember going into Our Price saying "I must come back and buy that." and I went back the next day and it was gone! I couldn't get one anywhere. Simon: There was one story going around - I don't know whether you can confirm this or not - that with the Next Gen tape that HMV bought most of the stocks up in the country. Robert: No, they were fairly evenly allocated as far as I know - it was before my time! They were fairly evenly allocated, but they just sold out literally straight away. It was just incredible really. It's annoying because I still haven't got it!! Simon: You've got no chance now! Robert: No, no chance! And with the DS9 one, I think the DS9 one's pretty much on the verge of being sold out now - it seems a bit slower. Simon: Go to Birmingham! Robert: There's lots there are there? Simon: One branch of HMV has about 200 copies! Robert: Oh... right! I mean, they should be fairly evenly spread out because they're so limited. The Voyager one will be a limited edition as well. Simon: Will that still be 20,000? Robert: We'll probably increase it to about 25,000 to 30,000 or it wouldn't be limited so what we'd try to do is just make sure everybody gets a fair crack at it. Next up, we managed to grab a few words with Red Dwarf's Danny John Jules (it made things easier as he remembered Simon from T'Kon '94 where he and Sven were providing security for Danny during the autograph session)... Simon: What did you think of Voyager? Danny: I thought it was alright. Not bad, you know. It sounds a bit like the last series of Red Dwarf, spending the whole series with the crew looking for the ship. It's quite funny actually, I thought, "Oh, this sounds familiar!". Simon: Does it live up to your expectations? Danny: Yes, I thought it was interesting - I thought the hologram was interesting as well - kind of Rimmeresque! Mark: I was just expecting the "H" to appear on his forehead! Danny: It was a bit! After a while I was expecting him to crack jokes! I think, rightly so, it will probably do well anyway because it's different to the rest of the Star Treks. Simon: Are you generally a fan of Trek? Danny: I mean I've always watched them - I wouldn't call myself a Trekkie, but I've always watched them. I've not really been a fan. I always watched Batman and I always watched Thunderbirds, there are certain shows... Mark: [on Batman] The camp one, or the cartoon one? Danny: The sixties one, yeah. I prefer them because in a way it's more impressive because they had less to work with. Now, you know, if you actually take out the glamour and the special effects etc. etc. when you look at the actual substance, it's not half of what the old ones were. Mark: Probably that's what they're like though in America, trying to rush them through to be as profitable as possible. Danny: Well, there's so many Star Treks now that it can be helped that it's playing against itself now. I mean it's impossible not to be playing against itself. Simon: How do you think it [Voyager] compares with the other Star Trek shows? Danny: Well, I think they're just trying to make it more modern. They're just changing it to suit what's happening at the time I think. Obviously it's going to be influenced by other science fiction shows just like Red Dwarf was influenced by all of the science fiction shows. Obviously you can see the influence comes from. I think more and more it's influenced by Hollywood rather than science fiction. It's definitely down that road rather than the actual space thing! I was still looking for the "spacey" story but it wasn't - it could have been set in an apartment block really! Mark: I mean it could have quite easily been changed into something else. Danny: Same story, exactly, yeah. It could have been moved to any format really whereas there are certain things you can't move out of space because you're dealing directly with space. You know, that [Caretaker] was all about escaping one thing to repair something else - you know that could have been anything. You know it's alright, they're fuelling what people want I suppose in America. Otherwise they wouldn't keep making these Star Trek, Star Trek, Star Trek - it seems to be happening like that. Finally, we talked to actor Don Henderson, best known to sci-fi and fantasy fans for his appearances in Star Wars and Doctor Who, and who just happened to be a friend of Patrick Stewart's... Simon: Did you enjoy Voyager? Don: Yes I did. It was strange, I didn't know anything about it before I came. I'm a fan of science fiction television generally and film. I thought it was very brave - a very good idea to have a woman as the commander, the captain. I think it will take a while for the really heavy Trekkie fans to accept it, but I think it's a good idea. [on Kate Mulgrew] Well, she's got a strange voice, she sounds like Mickey Mouse! Her voice is strange! She overdoes the "I'm a tough guy!". I almost expected her to go like that [slaps his thigh!] - it was a little bit pantomime and towards the end she did one of those sort of heroic looks and I thought, "No... hang on!". It's like a friend of mine who is a very, very tough guy in real life. He's got a shaven heads, a glass eye, a face like a dead bear's arse (!) - on top of that, he acts tough! I said to him, "You don't need to do that, just walk on and let them look at you!" He also has a very strange stare. Funny enough, he's been in Star Trek, he's also been in Babylon 5 - an English actor called Morgan Shepherd. Well, he's got a glass eye and that gives him a very peculiar stare and now he's learned not to act tough and he's totally tough! I think she [Kate Mulgrew] was overwrought with the role, knowing what she was following. I think she's trying too hard. It's just a very minor criticism. She just needs to ease into it and everyone will accept it. Also watching that ["Caretaker"] together I found it a bit too much. What I forget was that it's going out as an episode, and therefore it will be fine. It was too much to concentrate on. I like the way Star Trek went when Patrick Stewart was in it because they've stopped doing all the "bang, bang" and zooming about - it became more of a drama about conflict between individuals - I don't know if you noticed that - which I found more interesting. The same thing has happened with Babylon 5. Babylon 5 is simply a United Nations in space. I find that more interesting to watch than the sort of banging and zooming about, which is fine. You need a bit of that. I don't know, I enjoyed it [Voyager] enormously. I think the lady [Mulgrew] needs a bit of time to settle into it. Mark: Do you think she's the strongest character? I must say, I think the hologram is best though! Don: Yeah, the hologram is fine. Also the little man who was doing the space salvaging... Simon: Neelix? Don: Yes, he was good because there is always a need for an eccentric character to add some humour. You need that, and you've got that in Babylon 5 with quite a number of characters to add humour to it. And you need that otherwise it's all the same, even in the Star Wars films there was humour. There was humour from the robots, and some of the situations, you know. I think you need humour. I thought he [Neelix] was brilliant. I also liked Chakotay. I also found that there were perhaps too many characters to take in. Mark: I suppose it's a bit like The Next Generation to start with. Don: Yes, yes, because the point is alot of it's already been done. I had to keep reminding myself that when it goes out you won't seen all that 2 hour thing in one go - it will be in episodes and therefore it will probably work. But I think it's really promising and I think it's a very good idea to have a woman - they were going to do it in Doctor Who before the BBC decided they didn't want to do it anymore. [Don then made a rather unprintable remark about the BBC and their attitude towards cancelling Doctor Who!!] Simon: How do you think Voyager compares to the other Star Trek shows? Don: It's very difficult because each one has been different. The Pat Stewart one is very good, and I kept on saying to him that Shatner must have head-butted a wall because for years he's been covering his bald patch up with a very bad wig and what do they do? They cast an actor who's completely bald! They cast a bald English actor to play a Frenchman with no accent - he didn't bother with the accent! I know Pat Stewart very well, I worked with him for six years at the Royal Shakespeare Company, and he got this Star Trek job purely by accident. It was one of those wonderful things like being picked out of a chorus line to play the lead in the West End. Very often they get people from the Royal Shakespeare Company to go to America to do a lecture tour of universities, to do a little Shakespeare and maybe do a workshop teaching students. And he [Patrick] was doing one of these and in the audience happened to be Gene Roddenberry, because his son was at this university. And he was looking at him, and he was thinking of this new character who'd be a Frenchman, and he had seen alot of French actors and he thought he was interesting looking - he wasn't doing any acting, he was just talking like a schoolmaster, asked him to come in and do a test and he got the part! He [Gene] said, "Don't bother with the accent, just do it with an English accent." And that's how it happened - purely by accident, and doesn't that give us all hope?!! He's a very nice bloke! And also my wife is an actress, and she is a friend of Marina Sirtis, so we have a family reason for watching as well! We're both fans of science fiction, and it's great to see your mates doing something for that. [The subject then changed as Don talked about Patrick not wanting to continue with TNG as a TV show] I guess he's had enough. Simon: Yes, well, it was fairly long hours when they were filming. Don: Well he must have made an enormous amount of money and also he's in a position now to do alot of other things, because if you stay with it too long you won't get anything else. It's like the Doctor Who's - it took a very long time for Tom Baker to get regular work again. And of course, you don't get paid enough, in this country anyway, to continue for two or three years. Simon: It happened to most of the cast of Star Wars as well. Don: Yes, exactly. When you get in a series you think, "Oh, goody goody! Regular money!" and you come out and you can't get work - it's very depressing for you. As a minor point, although I (Simon) have done a number of celebrity interviews over the years (for The Final Frontier, other fanzines and for professional magazines), these were the first I had done "off- the-cuff" with no preparation before hand - usually I go in with a list of key questions that I want to ask. For this we just press- ganged the guests and made everything up as we went along!!