Excelsior going after Koenig and Nichols

[MikeH92467]

Over it's 8 year run Star Trek: Excelsior has developed massive story arcs, produced a full-length musical and brought memorable characters to life (and death). Now we are offering fans a double barreled treat. We have released a new episode "A Day at the Park" and we have begun a Kickstarter drive that we hope over the next month will allow us to produce a 50th anniversary episode that will feature Walter Koenig and Nichelle Nichols. The goal is rather modest. In fact, even if we meet the initial goal, a substantial amount of the costs will be absorbed out of personal funds. The link above will take you to our website and provides a link to the Kickstarter page.

We hope you like the idea and if you can spare a few quadloos during this holiday season we will deeply appreciate it.

Thank you for your consideration!

 

[Amaris]

Re: Excelsior going after Koenig and Nicholls

It is very exciting, and I think it would be a boon for the people at Excelsior. I hope folks will donate if they can. It would be nice to have both Mr. Koenig and Ms. Nichols as guest stars on an episode.

 

[MikeH92467]

Re: Excelsior going after Koenig and Nicholls

Thank you John! I know how tight things can get, especially at this time of year, so anyone who doesn't have any extra cash can earn our gratitude by spreading the word.

 

[Maurice]

Re: Excelsior going after Koenig and Nicholls

Um it's NICHOLS with one L.

 

[WarpFactorZ]

Re: Excelsior going after Koenig and Nicholls

And the link doesn't work, OP. "starshipexcelsior" isn't a valid URL.

 

[Amaris]

Re: Excelsior going after Koenig and Nicholls

Here is the link to the latest episode: http://starshipexcelsior.com/

Here is the link to the Kickstarter campaign:

[Crowdfunding link removed by board policy.] -GLS

 

[JoeZhang]

Re: Excelsior going after Koenig and Nicholls

So is that episode on that page call "A day in the park" or " a day at the park"?

 

[Danlav05]

Re: Excelsior going after Koenig and Nicholls

Thank you John! I know how tight things can get, especially at this time of year, so anyone who doesn't have any extra cash can earn our gratitude by spreading the word.

Have you actually asked them provisionally?

 

[MikeH92467]

Re: Excelsior going after Koenig and Nicholls

So is that episode on that page call "A day in the park" or " a day at the park"?

At.

Hope you like it.


They have committed to do the show if the Kickstarter succeeds. As per the Kickstarter page it will take about $5600 to bring in Ms. Nichols. The first stretch goal to bring in Mr. Koenig would be $12,500.

 

[MikeH92467]

Re: Excelsior going after Koenig and Nicholls

Deleted

 

[Jedman67]

Re: Excelsior going after Koenig and Nicholls

That covers their acting fees? Or thats the minimum needed to be funded before the will participate?

 

[YJAGG]

Re: Excelsior going after Koenig and Nicholls

So is that episode on that page call "A day in the park" or " a day at the park"?

At.

Hope you like it.


They have committed to do the show if the Kickstarter succeeds. As per the Kickstarter page it will take about $5600 to bring in Ms. Nichols. The first stretch goal to bring in Mr. Koenig would be $12,500.

So Koenig, wants 6,900 for his voice, I wonder what Takei would want ...

 

[MikeH92467]

Re: Excelsior going after Koenig and Nicholls

So is that episode on that page call "A day in the park" or " a day at the park"?

At.

Hope you like it.


They have committed to do the show if the Kickstarter succeeds. As per the Kickstarter page it will take about $5600 to bring in Ms. Nichols. The first stretch goal to bring in Mr. Koenig would be $12,500.

So Koenig, wants 6,900 for his voice, I wonder what Takei would want ...

I wouldn't say that figure is quite right since there is a starter contribution of personal funds, but you are close. As far as Mr. Takei is concerned, the question is moot since he simply was not available for the project. (We did try).

 

[MikeH92467]

Re: Excelsior going after Koenig and Nicholls

That covers their acting fees? Or thats the minimum needed to be funded before the will participate?

If we hit the first goal we will make the episode with Ms. Nichols. If we make the second stretch goal we will have both.

 

[Wowbagger]

Re: Excelsior going after Koenig and Nicholls

So Koenig, wants 6,900 for his voice,

Hi, I'm James Heaney; Mike and I are colleagues on Excelsior, but I'm the one who did the actual talking to the actors' agents.

Like Mike said, our Kickstarter funding levels were determined after taking into account the personal funds we were able to raise internally. The hope was that we'd be able to do this without having to ask anyone outside the show for money -- but we still came up several thousand dollars short. (Hence our Kickstarter.) The funding we are looking for on the Kickstarter does not equal the amount of money Mr. Koenig and Ms. Nichols are actually asking for.

I wonder what Takei would want ...

We did ask Mr. Takei, but of course, as Mike said, Mr. Takei is all tied up with Allegiance right now, and plans to remain tied up with Allegiance for as long as possible. Since we plan to release our episode on the 50th Anniversary of Star Trek, the schedules just couldn't mesh. He had no choice but to decline, long before we would have been able to start talking about compensation numbers.

For what it's worth, though: while we were working with Mr. Koenig's agent, the topic of Mr. Takei came up. Mr. Koenig's agent asked for our full budget, then laughingly told me that, even Mr. Takei were available, we couldn't possibly hope to afford him. So, the answer is: Mr. Takei presumably asks for quite a tidy sum!

Thanks to everyone for taking a look at our show (and for considering our project)! This episode is truly intended not as a way for us to promote our show, but as a gift to the entire fandom on Star Trek's 50th birthday.

I mean, who wouldn't want to see Chekov and Uhura kicking ass and taking names together, one last time? And, having written the script, I can promise both ass-kicking and name-taking.

 

[MikeH92467]

Just as an update, a few days short of the halfway point we are more than halfway to meeting our goal which will allow us to have Ms. Nichols on board. We really would love to have both stars on board, but either way we promise a terrific episode.

 

[Jedman67]

Just out of curiosity, did you have to meet the actors standard asking rate, or did your negotiations allow you to agree on a 'better' price? (it's alright if you don't want/can't answer the question).

 

[MikeH92467]

James can weigh in if he wishes, but my feeling is that such things are best kept between the parties.

 

[Jedman67]

No problem, thanks for the response.

 

[MikeH92467]

As of Dec 1 we have made our initial goal and we can say for sure that Ms. Nichols will be part of our special show. We still have enough time to meet our stretch goal that would bring Walter Koenig on board. Thank you all for your support and wish us luck in making the stretch goal!