Cool 1979 interview with Star Trek - TMP cast

[Rico]

This is very cool.....

[youtube=425,350]cEgsfo0JDU4[/youtube]

[Yeoman Mara]

Wow!  That is very interesting to see all of them from way back in 1979 again.

[Dan M]

Thanks for sharing that Rico.  So much good stuff there.  Shatner looked so good in that movie, his most heroic.

The McCoy shot is flopped at -5:40.  That always cracks me up.

"Yuhura"

I love the backing music in the first half.  Very 70s.

PM Magazine.  I remember that.  I think most US markets had their own version of it (or Evening Magazine) with local hosts.  Tom Bergeron was the male co-host in Boston for a long time.

Persis Khambatta was so beautiful.

I was too young at the time to be aware of it, but maybe some of the older board members could say what the reaction was to the drastic change in look of the Klingons.  I imagine now it'd be slammed on every movie forum, but that was a different time.

Look at that MIB X-Wing.  [drool]

Mara, I love the avatar.

[Rico]

Yeah - a very cool blast from the past.  So sad that Persis is no longer with us.  And I agree - Shatner looked great in that movie.

[Bryancd]

Love the not yet done effect shots and no music. Shatner is full of it when he said it was a struggle to decide to come back! He needed that job in 1979. Some cool extra dialogue from Mark Lenord and you can hear the pod doors slam shut!

[Dan M]

Yeah, the pod doors were very noticeable.

I don't know if Shatner was completely full of it.  As with Nimoy, he likely attributed his struggles during that decade to his typecasting as Kirk.  A movie might've been a good paycheck, but it wasn't necessarily going to lead to anything more than reinforcing that typecasting.

Nimoy was in a similar position and he did say "no" for the longest time.

[Bryancd]

Good point. I still think Nimoy truley was trying to escape the type casting of Spock, but Shatner is an opportunist and I think he knew this was his big and only ticket. In 1979, he was NOT doing well in his career. Nimoy had "In Search Of" on TV and other interest as well while Shat had nada. Looking back now and listening to him, I realize what a genius he is at managing his image. Shat's the MAN!

[Rico]

Bryan - one thing to keep in mind regarding Shatner is he and Nimoy both had been trying to shake their Trek images for ten years when the movie idea came along.  I think it would be hard to go back to something you are trying to shake off for that long.  Actually when Trek was due to come back as a TV series and not a movie, Nimoy declined and they had hired another actor to play a new Vulcan science officer.  In any case, it's all water under bridge now.

[Bryancd]

No, I agree that Nimoy was definatley NOT into going back to Trek. Shatner I think is a different story. Following TOS, his career went no where and I think he was suprised by that. TMP and TWOK eventually led to T.J. Hooker and then Rescue 911, both of which kept hom working outside the ST films. Name one thing between 1969 and 1979 that he did if any consequence or paycheck?

[Rico]

That wasn't my point.  The reason he and everyone else had trouble getting other work was due to TOS and how identified they had become with their roles.  It's kind of like someone trying to kick a habit.  You work years to break it and then someone comes along to hand you a fix.  Kind of hard to accept that I would say.  So I don't blame him for being a bit hesitant.

[Bryancd]

For sure, it may have been a bitter pill to swallow from an ego standpoint. I'm sure he would have loved to have been offered up a ton of non-ST projects but found either he was typcast or considered a one trick pony for the role of JTK. This interview was shot after the film had been complete during the press build up, he just has that cat that swallowed the canary look about him, revelling in the return of the spotlight and having a chance to re-create his image a bit.
My point is that he's a sly one and I love him for it!

[Ktrek]

The Shat may not have had any "defining" roles in the ten years between the end of Star Trek and TMP but he continued to work unlike many other actors/actresses. He has somewhere around 80 appearances on other shows. So, if he was sooooo typecast then how was it that he managed to find so much work?

Thanks for posting that clip Rico. It was very interesting. I wish I had a good quality capture of it for my collection.

Kevin

[Dan M]

Yeah, I looked him up on IMDB because of this thread.  Take a look at how many guest roles he had in 1974.  I've never heard of an actor appearing on that many TV series in one season.

[moyer777]

That was a great interview, thanks for sharing it!