Familiar Faces Star Alongside The 5th Passenger

Heard of it?

The answer is "Probably" as 5th Passenger stars four (count'em) FOUR Star Trek luminaries in the form of Tim Russ (Tuvok), Marina Sirtis (Troi), Robert Picardo (The Doctor) and Manu Intiraymi (Icheb) plus some Hellboy actor Doug Jones and even more faces from the sci-fi universe to boot.

Ok, here's the spiel in a couple of lines - Four crew, one escape pod, a pregnant officer, a lack of air and a mysterious fifth passenger who gradually picks off our well-known cast one by one. It can only mean it's going to be a race against time to get it before it gets them mixed in with a spadeful of conflict. Pre-production is well underway and the Kickstarter project is in full swing with just two weeks left to run.  $41,000 of the $65,000 has now been raised to make the movie viable and full pre-production can begin once the target has been met which looks like a real possibility.

"The fundraising is going well but we will definitely need more support if we are realistically going to make this initial goal." said cast member and writer, Morgan Lariah, "We really believe in this story and we know this film is something our audience is to enjoy."

With perks such as PDF scripts, access to donor-only groups, exclusive content, digital movie downloads, DVDs, lunches with crew and cast, names on end credits, costumes, miniatures (running out of breath...) and more and more, it's one of the more fan-friendly productions ensuring that backers are getting a lot of bang for their buck.

Explained writer/director Scott Baker, "I always have little seeds of ideas jumping around in my head. I really love The Twilight Zone and the way Rod Serling would tell stories and the core of this film is very much inspired by all the episodes of that show that I have watched."

"My friend Philip and I were chatting up ideas and bouncing different things back and forth when one of the little seeds came out. I wrote up a few scenes from it and took it to a table read session and the others really liked them, so I set in to flesh out the entire story."

Morgan was hooked very early on; "He approached me one day, told me the premise and how I would be great for the role of Miller. I was hooked!"

The big thing that will attract Star Trek fans to this project and certainly caught our eye was the unmistakable cast. "Scott met Manu Intiraymi on the set of another production and they chatted." recalled Morgan. "Scott mentioned 5th Passenger and how Manu is perfect for the role of Thompson."

Manu, who is also starring in the Tim Russ web-series "pilot" for Star Trek: Renegades loved the script and suggested the Tuvok actor for another of the parts in the movie, that of Franklin. "Tim joined us for the filming of the trailer. He recently helped to get Marina Sirtis and Robert Picardo on board as well." enthused Morgan,  "Having iconic Star Trek actors wasn't something that Scott and I initially planned but knowing these actors and their work we couldn't be happier with the cast we have. I can’t wait to see how they bring these roles to life."

Morgan herself was always slated for the key role of Eve Miller and recently started writing and producing her own projects such as the short film, 2-Star (which she co-wrote, produced and starred in) at the East End Film Festival in London and then went on to several other festivals internationally and in the United States. 

"I think we are so lucky to be living in this era where we have access to the equipment and technology that others before us could only dream of. Being on set with Tim Russ and Manu Intiraymi to film the trailer was such an incredible experience. They are such amazing actors and I loved watching their process. I can only imagine what acting alongside Doug Jones, Robert Picardo, Marina Sirtis and Hana (Molly O'Brien) Hatae (recently added to the cast) will be like but I am greatly looking forward to collaborating with them."

But it's not just about the wonderful world of Star Trek and while that is our main focus here(!) there are cast and crew who have been associated with films such as Captain America, Tron Legacy, Donnie Darko and series including Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It certainly looks like something which has brought together a bundle of experience from all corners of the sci-fi genre. Among those luminaries is visual magician Tobias Richter who has been seen bringing something amazing to the Axanar project in recent months.

The trailer itself is dark, brooding and atmospheric. If you're looking for a comedy element or a nice easy diversion then this won't float your boat but for those of you who like your sci-fi in the gritty tone rather than light and fluffy it'll be on your must-see list from this moment onwards. Seeing Star Trek actors facing off against each other rather than being all pally-pally makes a refreshing change and is out of the comfort zone in which we fans would usually see them. As trailers go there's not a lot given away but we go get to understand the filming style, a sense of the narrative and dialogue and a few shots both internal and exernal activity to keep you locked into your seats and more importantly helping fund this imaginative project.

Initially planned as a one-off ("You never know what will happen," said Scott), original movie, this was envisaged partly as a break from the explosion of superhero movies we've experienced in recent years; "Studios don't want to take chances on something new and I get that. They want safety. But that's where we come in. We are not beholden to men in suits who only see numbers." said producer Scott,  "We are looking to the fans of sci-fi and horror who want really new content. People vote everyday on what they want by where they spend their money. We're asking people to look at what we're doing, and if they like it, vote for us. We will deliver something amazing and NEW."

And on that one-off possibility, Morgan also wasn't sure if this would be the characters' only outing; "It’s funny because Scott and I know these characters so well. We know their past like our own and have mapped out their future. 5th Passenger only explores a sliver of their lives. We get to see and experience them just for this particular moment in time. If this first film is successful, we certainly can explore more of this universe with these characters."

It is still early days for the project but the Star Trek community is sure to be onboard with such a headline cast and knowing that in the background are some of the great heavyweights of the sci-fi movie industry itching to get started. I can only imagine that these characters will be worlds away from Icheb, Molly, The Doctor, Troi and Tuvok and will make compelling viewing in every sense.

Closed Morgan; "I think those who believe in the importance of strong female leads, diversity in casting and a captivating story will want to fund this project. I believe so strongly in making films that portray different aspects of the human condition, this is one of them."

Wanting to find out a bit more? Try out the 5th Passenger website or head onto their Kickstarter campaign and help fund the project.

What are your thoughts on 5th Passenger? Will you be joining their voyage? How about letting us know below or dropping by one of our (many) social media platforms...

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One of Seven: Voyager Year One – Part Two

Continuing a look back at Star Trek: Voyager Series One. A gourmet extravaganza of adventure helmed by Matt Goddard

 

In part one of this retrospective I looked at the premise of Star Trek: Voyager and its persistence in working against that in its first season.  It was unlucky, coming as the third live-action sequel, but its lofty mission was derailed by the perceived confines of the Star Trek series.  Now it’s time to look at the cast of Voyager, considering some of its strengths and mulling over the best and worst episodes before thinking long and hard about the worst season finale in Star Trek history.

Help! They've beamed out my lungs!

Novelty Characters

I completed part one of this retrospective considering how Voyager had simplified the Star Trek message.  An unfortunate an inevitable implication of this was that Voyager stuck religiously with the character of the week format.  As with other Star Trek series, that immediately put a lot of strain on characters who were difficult to warm to.  Novelty characters Neelix and Kes were hit the hardest.  Within three stories Kes’ nascent psychic abilities had emerged in the episode was (surely) wryly titled Time and Again.  Within five stores Neelix had his lungs transported out.  Neelix!  Sadly that episode wasn’t called They’ve Beamed out my Lungs! but that’s right - we were supposed to care about the Talaxian Morale officer’s fatal condition just five episodes in.  Both actors tried with their difficult and often blandly obvious characters.  Special mention should go to Jennifer Lien’s wonderfully level voice - but a nine year lifespan and insatiable swotting does not a likeable character make.  Fuse in the sudden telepathy - then ignored for several shows - and the comparisons with another counsellor are unflattering.

The show had strengths from the off though, don’t get me wrong.   Many of those weak points are shared with other Star Trek series.  The show was kept together by Kate Mulgrew’s sturdy performance and Robert Picardo’s brilliance. 

Picardo: A bargin at five times the size

Cast off

So, the crew of Voyager.  Mulgrew really is great.  She has that a distinctive voice and eye acting that fuses Picard and Sisko.  A good thing too, considering how central she is to the show.  Often the camera often just hangs around her, and unsurprisingly so.  Picardo plays a classic sci-fi trope but produces moments of great comedy that Ethan Phillips in his irritating role can only hope for.  The Doctor is instinctively funny from the off even if the concept doesn’t actually make much sense.  Elsewhere in the crew, Robert Duncan McNeill isn’t bad despite being given little to do except brat on about his piloting skills.  The result is a slightly more developed clone of The Next Generation season one La Forge. Kim isn’t too bad either...  Just a dull Star Trek trope that would be shown up far more in Enterprise when the same blandness was shared across several characters. Combine the two however, and their early exchanges relationships are excruciating.

The direction, budget and design were more sophisticated on Voyager than on earlier Trek series and that shone some unfortunate spotlights.   Robert Beltran puts in some great moments, but has a bit of a rough ride as a more spiritual Riker clone. It would be a few years before Beltran started to publically express his boredom with the show, but he seems a little distracted.  With every sweeping camera shot that keeps Kate Mulgrew’s nuanced performance in focus, his red decked form is slumping despondently in the background blur. That’s a bit of a shame. 

Full Klingon Torres: Mid sulk

In Voyager, the Spock archetype was fielded to Torres, who must contend with being both Klingon and human – despite reaching her mid-20s without doing so. It’s an episode like Faces that show the range that Roxann Biggs Dawson could bring to the show.  But as is probably realistic, the end result of the hybrid is a booming, glaring, mid-sulk teen.  Ah, but there’s a character arc with her and Starfleet you say?  Yes, at least three episodes of it.

Then there was Tuvok, good old reliable Tuvok.  There’s a reason that Spock was half human, why Romulans are great villains: full Vulcans are dull. Following Worf and ahead of Reed’s gung ho weapons lust in Enterprise, he really falls flat.  The position of confidant to the Captain is an interesting one, but worth so much less when the Maquis dynamic isn’t properly followed explored.  Tim Russ can’t be faulted for his performance which offers a slightly different Vulcan and even a hint of exasperated disapproval - if such a thing were possible.  It’s not a terrible thing that he has garnered more Vulcan screen time than anybody else.

It’s clear that all characters would have benefited from full serial arcs rather than the jumping between standard single episodes featuring the lesser characters – just as season three of Enterprise did.  

Seska: Not keeping up with Cardassians

That said, Voyager was a show was seeded more than many other Star Trek series.  Seska is interesting for one, creeping into the show in much the same way as O’Brien in The Next Generation.  Her reveal is a nice distraction late in the season, but draws another unfortunate comparison with Deep Space Nine.  While true to Cardassians’ stereotypical treachery, it’s a bit of a step back from Deep Space Nine’s subtly.  Just a few episodes later we see Tuvok attempting to discipline Maquis (yes, all four of them)...  And Seska’s name doesn’t even come up.  Chakotay’s inner-turmoil is a nice touch but it can only go so far as a metaphor for Maquis integration.  I can also see that Torres’ promotion scrap as a microcosm for the paperwork surrounding other Marquis crew members’ positioning (if I look really hard) but it’s all rather, to use a word, Basics.  Thinking about it, the fact there were so many Maquis on one ship in the Badlands seems very out of character.

The Best and the Worst

The first series has more than its fair share of generic Star Trek episodes, but there are glimmers.  An episode like Emanations really does go when no one has gone before; a believable, other quadrant conundrum. The two appearances by the Vidiians show that there are some good aliens on the horizon.  By Faces, they’re injecting some good old fashioned body horror into proceedings (poor old Durst, he’d only had one line before)

Ex Post Facto: Hercule Tuvok takes the floor

So, the best and worst:  A nadir has to be Ex Post Facto, where an interesting approach to a Star Trek Ex Post Facto’s a poor attempt at making a Voyager version of a Deep Space Nine ‘Give O’Brien Hell’ episode.  Aside from the monochrome flashbacks we also see Tuvok as Poirot – he even gathers the suspects in a room at the end! In retrospect a Vulcan is not the most charismatic of detectives, but there any strengths firmly end ...  We’re just weeks into a new quadrant and the Baneans are only the second civilisation that the Voyager crew meets.  Having initially sent off two scouts, Janeway then diverts the ship to free her man – Voyager's adherence to the Second Directive (the needs of the few) falls flat as soon as Paris and Chakotay make-up in Caretaker Part II.  There’s a cordial meeting with the alien race, with not a hint of translation issues. They even shake hands as standard and they let Tuvok into their prison facility with a phaser!  It’s incredibly sloppy but exposes where the creators’ interests lay.  They were willing to forgo consistency to pursue an idea. The episode collapses as if they completely forgot what they were making. Yes, it’s even worse than Neelix losing his lungs. Evoking a noir crime thriller at the beginning,

Eye of the Needle: Never trust a Vulcan Captain...

On the flip side, one highlight is Eye of the Needle. I’d been looking forward to it actually - I remembered its interesting temporal element and of course, it features a Romulan!  It is a neat, if slight 44 minutes.  It’s mainly let down by the delivery of its denouement.  Laugh a minute Tuvok chooses a rather un-dramatic (and illogical) time to check the Ship logs and tell the crew that the Romulan died some years previously.  “I thought I’d wait until the Romulan had gone before I ruined your day’” effectively. That said, it’s not a clean-cut story and although it’s narratively undermined, it’s the kind of science fiction that Voyager should strive for.

Special mention should also to the great holodeck romp Heroes and Demons.  Mainly because it’s a Picardo-centric episode and had the courage to draw parallels with one of the earliest works of the English language.  Brave.

No! Not Piller-filler...

Language and Legacy

It’s difficult to consider Voyager without thinking about its script and language.  That’s one thing that Voyager didn’t simplify.  Its use of technobabble is truly atrocious.  It really does feel like it was deliberately ramped up because that’s what viewers wanted.  I presume that the same would have happened in DS9 had they spent more time phasing anti-time and less time talking politics.  In Voyager, it’s off-putting and in Janeway’s case it diminishes her hands-on nature as a scientist.   It was a trick that The Next Generation never resorted to – or was it?  On that revered show, the cast called it ‘Piller-filler’ in reference to executive Producer Michael Piller.

The late Michael Piller is not just regarded as a legend of Star Trek.  The first episode of Best of Both Worlds remains one of the greatest pieces of television ever made.  But with Star Trek: Voyager, something went a little awry.  Was it him or co-creators Rick Berman or Jeri Taylor..?  Was the many producers including Braga and Biller?  It’s not just that the The Next Generation crew had split – for instance Klingon specialist Ronald Moore had jumped to Deep Space Nine and time fetishist Brannon Braga had been left to Voyager for the majority; split like Maquis and Starfleet.  Everyone involved has produced great film and television at points, but here the premise, the crew construction, the approach to the conceit... While it must have looked good on paper, it wilfully bucked growing TV trends.  

If anything Voyager was a show that looked back to the 1980s and not forward to the 21^st century.  There should have been the courage to commit to the innate drama of the series and not find a middle-ground by including at least ten stories that would look extremely average in any Alpha Quadrant set show.  Voyager would have been far better off finding a different solution to its pitch than the 75,000 light year trek.

A Simple Quest

As it is, Voyager took on one of simplest tales – the quest.  It’s The Odyssey, exactly The Odyssey.  It’s the search for the Grail. It’s the powerful, instinctively human quest story that has been told for millennia, the kind that Joseph Campbell’s eyes would widen at.  This was Star Trek’s only prolonged stab at something that monumental.  And they kind of missed. 

Sure, Enterprise’s stab at the Prometheus myth would later similarly flounder in its first season, but Voyager always niggles the most.   As I look on to Voyager’s following six seasons, I find one fact hard to avoid.  In the final episode of an admittedly shortened season one (16 episodes), just when you expect a cliff-hanger in true Star Trek style...  The antagonist turns out to be actual cheese.

"Get the cheese to sickbay"?  How did they let that one through?

Sadly, at the end of the first season it looked as though Voyager, unlike the villainous cheese, may take a long time to mature.

(NB - the actual season finale was supposed to have been The 37's but the last four episodes produced for season one were shipped to the beginning of season two. A shame as the ending of The 37's makes a hell of a lot more sense as a season closer than Learning Curve - Clive)

You can also read Part One of this article right now by following this link

One of Seven: Voyager Year One – Part One

In the first of a two part retrospective, Matt Goddard turns back the clock to 1995 as he ventures into the Delta Quadrant to relive the initial season of Star Trek's fourth incarnation as he begins a seven season rewatch...

So how does Star Trek: Voyager Series 1 shape up?  A Year of Hell, displaying Lifesigns or signalling Future’s End..?

This post comes with an air of inevitability, just like Voyager making its way home.  Was that ever in doubt?  It might be if Voyager was made today, but times have changed.  When the third Star Trek live action sequel series started, it wasn't immediately evident, but each of its forebears had laid down an impressive gauntlet.  As Voyager met her fate in the Badlands, Deep Space Nine was still in its infancy, but the intervening years have seen its stock rise considerably.  Of course, the other Star Trek series had achieved incredible success in their own lifetime on the small and large screen - but viewers of the awkward Deep Space Nine were always a little more partisan.

Post-Deep Space Nine

Voyager departs Deep Space Nine on its fateful journey

Earlier this year I completed a long and leisurely retrospective of that Deep Space vintage.   It was so leisurely that the Federation could have discovered the Dominion and kicked off a war in the same three year timeframe it took me to complete all seven series.  Satisfyingly however, the conclusion came in this the show’s 20^th anniversary year.  Even more satisfyingly, it confirmed my suspicions:  Deep Space Nine is an incredible achievement.  It took its position as the younger, difficult brother of TNG, with cynical and audience grabbing stunts and a flash new non-syndicated competitor and melded them with the strengths of its strong cast to produce something really special.  Something that Trekkies should be proud of.  I might tell you about it some time, but you hopefully know it already.

That’s the problem I had.  Fresh respect for Deep Space Nine.  So for my next mission I was torn where I should go. Jump backwards?  Hmm, perhaps forwards, ready to lap myself when Deep Space Nine makes it on to Blu-ray?  I was at yellow alert for some time before... Then I accidentally started watching Star Trek: Voyager. 

1995

It was Caretaker I couldn’t resist.  At the show’s launch in 1995 I read more about Voyager than I had about any other Trek show...  The American import Star Trek Magazine, The Radio Times coverage, the Telegraph article addressing Geneviève Bujold’s sudden departure.  I dutifully bought pilot on VHS and waited for the BBC to screen the full series...  Only to find it on Sunday afternoons. Pretty inconvenient. The result was a distinct lack of fond memories.  Oh, I was familiar with it.  I watched the first couple of seasons more than intermittently.  I was at university by the fifth season and was then routinely pulled back by the Borg (and the founder of this blog I may add – still, as far as I’m aware, un-assimilated) a couple of times after that. 

But that’s where the inevitability comes in.  I was always going to return to consider the series in its totality one day...  And that day has come.  I’ve just completed the first, shortened season so I’m about a seventh of the way through...  One of Seven sounds like a fairly average Borg, but how does that first season stand up now?

Well, put simply, it’s not as bad as I remember.  There are good points, as you’d hope with the talent involved.  It’s certainly watchable, there’s some great acting and it’s more cohesive than I remember...  But those points just serve to highlight the opportunity that was missed. Unfortunately, glaring problems are evident.  Painfully evident.  My biggest challenge viewing Voyager now is to remove the 18 intervening years of prejudice as well as a massively changed TV climate and scan the show anew.

Montagues & Capulets. And Neelix.

Voyager’s Premise

A quick and unnecessary recap shows that Voyager marked a further simplification of the Star Trek story. The five year mission had turned into the continuing mission which led to Starfleet’s incursions into the Gamma Quadrant and then led to a journey home.  The Voyages of, er, Voyager.  Not the Earth-threatening 20^th century satellite but the latest ship in the fleet, carrying bio-neural circuitry, 42 photon torpedoes and the unexpected weight of a 75 year journey back to Federation space with a skeleton crew of Montagues and Capulets. 

It sounds interesting.  More so perhaps than a space-station orbiting a ravaged planet of spiritual people.  As Voyager’s so utterly in line with the core exploration ideal of Star Trek, it’s a shame that the comparison with Deep Space Nine necessarily comes up.  The first two seasons of that second sequel were hardly classics.  In fact, of all the Star Trek shows, only The Original Series has any claim to hitting the ground running.  But at Voyager’s launch, while Deep Space Nine was starting to forge forward with genuine originality that would not only lay the path for Battlestar Galactica and all manner of other arc shows but also inadvertently undo the grip of star ship shows on American TV, Voyager was moving in the opposite direction.  And that perversely is at odds with the format of that long journey home.

The ingredients were all there.  The separation from the Federation, a whole new quadrant almost entirely untouched and that single minded quest to return home.  One of the greatest one-sheet pitches in Trek history surely?  Deep Space Nine got stick for its anti-exploration agenda, but DS9 personnel could disappear for months infiltrating the Orion Syndicate or taking shore leave on Earth.  Not on Voyager.  On that starship there were two nuanced enemies forced to work together to find a way home against adversity. 

The Star Trek Mould

The problem is that didn't quite work out that way.  Perhaps the myth of Star Trek was too great.  There’s almost a sense that it had the potential to rock the Star Trek ship too much.  Perhaps it was a natural response to Deep Space Nine’s early criticism, perhaps a sign that too many Star Trek stalwarts were involved, perhaps that too much rested on it as a launch show on the brand new United Paramount Network.  The show should have had more confidence to break the mould for its own dramatic good.

The under-exploration of the Maquis rabble suddenly forced into Starfleet uniforms was a major criticism levelled at the show when it premiered.  Another case of over promising in pre-publicity, it’s up there with Doctor Who promising every Dalek ever in a season premiere...  At the time I thought that Voyager had pursued diversity at all costs, but I was wrong.  There was nothing especially wrong with that differentiation from previous shows.  Yes, the Captain was female, the First Officer a Native American, the Helmsman a criminal, the Security officer a full Vulcan but it wasn't the diversity that was the issue.  The problem was the show's failure to confront and use that inherent diversity. 

"We're all in this together": State of Flux

Why have the Maquis aboard if you are not going to use them as the main fuel?  Maquis issues had virtually dissipated by the end of the pilot and the unfortunate mantra “We’re all in this together” (State of Flux) became a watch phrase for that under-explored dynamic.  But it wasn't just the crew dynamics that were scuppered by the Star Trek mould.

The Voyager Sigh

Failing to adhere to a clear and direct mission, the Voyager ‘sigh’ quickly developed.  That’s the sigh that came whenever an episode began with a variation of “We've taken a diversion from our journey home to...”.   With just the slightest of pretences, too many stories of the first series are ones that could have featured in any Star Trek show.  It’s an issue that Deep Space Nine soon found a release from thanks to interesting arcs and the benefits of its static soap-style locale. In Season One, Voyager barely took its finger off the episode reset button.  Each week, despite tackling profound issues that could have carried serious weight, there was little arc implication.  As the series progressed, it was easy to forget that the ship was speeding along in one direction as the journey often felt arbitrary in a format that gave it little concession. 

This wasn’t just The Next Generation's early, harmless rip-offs of The Original Series shows like The Naked Time, but a horrid mix of limited danger and repetition.  Within three episodes you had seen two incidents of multiple USS Voyagers and several rather dull discussions about contravention of the Prime Directive.  Incidents like this, possibly poor scheduling, perpetuated the idea that Voyager lacked ideas, but the main problem was they diluted the purity of its central story.  Instead of creating danger, Voyager’s mission decreased it.  While the Prime Directive seemed pointless from the beginning, the brig is constantly dismissed as a luxury.  All in all, that court martial is a long way off. 

Janeway's disciplinary technique meets the Voyager 'Sigh'

Of course, Voyager delved into the Holodeck, choosing to move away from Deep Space Nine‘s questionable suites to holonovels.  While I’m mindful that the season split doesn't help, it looks half-developed.  In the last episode of Season 1, Janeway’s struggle as a governess in her holodeck has clear parallels with Tuvok’s later tackling of the Maquis – but these aren't drawn out.  Future seasons would touch back on the brig, holonovels and the Prime Directive, but here I’m only looking at the season that surfaced in 1995.  While Batman was simplifying on the big screen, Star Trek simplified on the small screen.  

As with any Star Trek series, Voyager must be judged on the strength of its characters, cast and plots.

In part two of this retrospective, I’ll look at those elements as well as what went right and what went wrong...

Matt Goddard is a spectacularly accomplished writer, providing articles for the UK's Daily Mirror newspaper and in particular two pieces relating to the premiere of Star Trek Into Darkness earlier this year which can be found here and here. If you want you can follow his thoughts and meanderings on Twitter as @JokerMatt

You can read Part Two right now by following this handy link