"Star Trek Story" - BBC Documentary

[Jon1701]

Hello people,

Been rooting through my old VHS tapes and I found this. It was from "Star Trek Night", a 30th anniversary special on BBC2 in the UK in 1996.

There were a few documentaries and a couple of talking heads but the main feature was this documentary Star Trek Story. I've looked around on the net and youtube and never seen it since so I thought I would upload it.

It takes a few left turns, but on the whole it is well done. Most of the stories have been told, but its interesting to see interviews with Herb Solow amongst others.

Enjoy.

 

[Sandoval]

I remember watching it.

 

[Valin]

I watched part 1; pretty interesting. Was that Paul McCann's voice I heard during the first pilot clip?

That "Gene" song was ... different.

 

[Dick_Valentine]

I remember all the build up to Star Trek night and being pretty excited as a kid.

Wasn't it also the night they premièred Caretaker at about Midnight or something and that was the whole excuse for the night?

Trivia note: The voice over for the linking material of the night was Craig Charles who plays Lister in Red Dwarf.

A nice tie in was when Red Dwarf got its own night a year or two later, Patrick Stewart was the one who linked the items together!
(And also told a story about how he picked up the phone to his lawyer intending to tell him to sue the makers for daring to make a sci-fi show that looked a bit like Star Trek! (though I'm pretty sure this was based on the episode "Holoship" where the uniforms are a bit similar on the hollagrammatic ship....) )

 

[Iamnotspock]

I watched part 1; pretty interesting. Was that Paul McCann's voice I heard during the first pilot clip?

Indeed it was. I remember watching Star Trek Night until I had to go to bed, being ten years old at the time. It was a Monday night in September '96. I recorded the rest and watched it the next day. Star Trek Story was on after 9:00 and I remember being a little confused by the references to Slash Fiction...

The night also saw the UK terrestrial premiere of Voyager, with "Caretaker" at 10:50pm. The series followed a few months later.

 

[Maurice]

You might want to consider putting annotations at end end of each linking to the next segment.

 

[Jon1701]

You might want to consider putting annotations at end end of each linking to the next segment.

I know what you mean, but it isnt that hard to figure out where parts 2, 3 and 4 are.

I mean, if you can't work that out what are you doing on the internet? (I'm not referring to you specifically by the way).

Wasn't it also the night they premièred Caretaker at about Midnight or something and that was the whole excuse for the night?

It certainly was, but Voyager had been out a good year and a half at this point - I think most of the season was available on video.

I still stayed up and watched it though.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

That old TOS radio ad was cool. I'd watch a show like that!

I think Brent Spiner was right - Christ wasn't "naive." I can't envision Data throwing the moneychangers out of the Temple.

 

[Jon1701]

That old TOS radio ad was cool. I'd watch a show like that!

"Storrrrr Trek..."

 

[Temis the Vorta]

They made Spock sound like he was going to be the mysterious villain of the show! I might have been disappointed to find that wasn't the case.

 

[Rarewolf]

I think Star Trek might be the only show to ever have two Theme nights on BBC2. Who's have tended to be on digital channels.

 

[Trek Survivor]

Yep, I remember watching this at the time.

Voyager did indeed receive its terrestrial premiere that night - starting at 10.40pm with "Caretaker". "Caretaker" was then repeated on Saturday 28th September in the afternoon, before the series began proper with "Parallax" on Sunday 29th Sept.

"Voyager" received its BBC premiere far quicker than DS9 (2.5 years) and TNG (3 years) did. This was testament to just how popular Trek was in the mid-1990s, and it was doing very well for BBC2. It was around this time they started showing double episodes, often editing two-parters together (e.g. "Past Tense", "Improbable Cause/Die Is Cast", "Best of Both Worlds") together.

Good times.

 

[bbailey861]

New to me, so, thank you for the link.

 

[22 Stars]

This is great, thanks for the link!

 

[plynch]

Ms. Nichols sounds good. A bit like Bobby Short, actually.

 

[Valin]

Was that Paul McCann's voice I heard during the first pilot clip?

Indeed it was.

Thanks for verifying that.