There’s one that I’m really excited about; I have to tell you about this one, Adam! Back in 2001, during Season One, Barry Kibrick, who has a show here on the PBS affiliate called "Between the Lines"; he was putting together a show called "On the Set". The idea was that he would go to a different TV set every week, and he would pick a scene or a sequence from that week’s episode and he would dissect it – he would show you how those two minutes or ninety seconds of screen time came together, from every aspect, every department; from the writing room, to filming on stage, editing, to effects work, scoring – everything.
He spent a week on the
Enterprise set, and before that, he spent a week in the writing room with Brannon and Mike [Sussman] and Andre [Bormanis] and Phyllis [Strong] as they were writing and rewriting the episode. It was for the episode "
Vox Sola", which was a very interesting one production-wise since you had that organic thing growing and the actors hanging from it, and a lot of slimy goo – so he spent a week during the filming of "
Vox Sola" following Roxann Dawson around as she directed the episode and its great footage. He put together a thirty-minute piece called "On the Set –
Star Trek: Enterprise", which never saw the light of day. No one saw it. They showed it to Brannon and to John Wentworth at CBS Television publicity – because he helped set up the whole thing for Barry and his crew to film there. Barry made this pilot but it didn’t get picked up so he just kind of put it away.
Brannon – we were having dinner one night – he tells me,
"You have to find this thing. I saw it once; it’s got the best behind-the-scenes footage, and the writing staff working on the story, and you see how everything comes together in the end." So I contacted Barry – fortunately, he had the master – we went to CBS so that the team at CBS legal could clear it, and they’ve licensed it… so it’s going to be on the Blu-ray! It’s a fascinating – I will tell you this, and I’ve seen hundreds of hours of behind-the-scenes footage in my career – this is the most insightful footage ever, in terms of painting a very clear picture of what it takes to create television. Especially
Star Trek, which has some very specific parameters. All the usual suspects are in it – Mike Westmore, Mike and Denise Okuda, Dan Curry, Rick, Brannon, everyone. You see the making of an episode from every angle, and it’s amazing. I’m so happy we were able to clear it and include it – and find it, because no one had it! Even Brannon didn’t have it, he’s like,
"I don’t have it!" Rick Berman didn’t have it, John Wentworth at CBS Television didn’t have it; no one had it, because the show never aired.
). Not only this interview made me want to support more the project, I'm looking forward to this release more than to TNG S3. I know, I'm strange. I don't care.
