STLV: Enterprise Boys Talk Xindi Arc & Series Finale + Westmore Transforms Farrell Into Dax

entdax

Our last coverage of Saturday Star Trek Las Vegas events was a couple of interesting panels – one with castmembers of Star Trek Enterprise talking about the Season 3 Xindi arc, and another with make-up wizard Michael Westmore demonstrating how he did Terry Farrell’s Dax spots…and then she got into her Klingon dress! Check it out below

Enterprise 9/11 and the Xindi arc

The boys of Star Trek Enterprise started out joking around but then transitioned to being more serious for a talk about the season long Xindi arc for the third season of the series.

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Scott Bakula set the stage by noting “9/11 changed our show” and specifically influenced the Xindi arc for the third season of Enterprise.

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Connor Trinneer noted that the events of 9/11 initially made him reflect that working on a TV show was “unimportant,” however his father convinced him that the show was “incredibly important” to give people a diversion for an hour a week. Connor also talked about how his character’s arc – Trip dealing with the loss of his sister – helped him “work my stuff through in terms of 9/11.”

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Regarding Xindi arc John Billingsley had a different point of view, noting how he had “had extremely conflicted feelings about season three.” While he was happy about the serialization and how the writers “popped the tension” with the storytelling, but as a person he felt the show “came down on the side of a certain muscular, militaristic response” to 9/11 and he said he was not “personally comfortable” with that point of view. He went on to say “I wasn’t comfortable with what our government was doing and the way it responded after 9/11.” The comment drew applause from the crowd but some boos as well, with Billingsley noting “I said this in Oklahoma and barely made it out alive.”

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Anthony Montgomery talked about how the events of 9/11 have a practical effect as he attended his first con shortly after the event, subbing in for Jonathan Frakes who didn’t want to fly. The actor also noted that his character of Travis really didn’t have much to do during the third season, but he felt most fans appreciated the Xindi arc.

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During the Q&A portion the gang were asked if there were any unusual behind the scenes moments, John Billingsley noted that he once dressed up as Scott Bakula’s first wife “scared his children so much it ruined his birthday party.”

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When asked about how they prepared to be the “first crew” of the Star Trek universe in terms of future history, Billingsley said “we were committed to be ignorant…we didn’t know anything about aliens, Dominic [Keating] didn’t even know how to open the door.” Dominic added “I read twenty pages of [Frank Herbert’s] “Dune.” Anthony said he actually went out and bought every single episode of Star Trek available, adding “on VHS!” But after watching he cam to realize “we don’t have to do this, so I just allowed myself to do whatever we came up with…for us it was supposed to be all new.”

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Scott Bakula spoke at length about the Enterprise finale and sharing the screen with TNG stars Jonathan Frakes and Marina Sirtis [something writer/producer Brannon Braga admitted earlier at the con was an “idiotic idea”]. Bakula said:

Ending a television show – there is no happy way to do it. We were fortunate enough to not be cancelled after season 3…We were fortunate to have a season 4. The idea of the show originally was that we were going to create the Federation and that was going to be the evolution of our journey…We kind of jumped around. We got the Federation going. We got everybody sitting around the same table and said ‘this will work.’ And then they went in that other direction [for the finale]. Brannon did call me and asked ‘are you ok with this?’ But we had not been consulting on scripts in four years and it was not something I felt I had a dialog with, so I had been working inside that structure and I felt it was important do what we always did, what came down on the page. Do I regret it?…For a show like ours and a franchise like this, you are definitely not going to make everybody happy.

Trinneer then quipped “I didn’t care because I was already dead!”

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Michael Westmore remakes Terry Farrell as Dax

Another interesting Saturday panel featured Star Trek make-up supervisor Michael Westmore demonstrated what he did for every episode of Deep Space Nine and transformed Terry Farrell into the Trill, Jadzia Dax.

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Both came to the stage wearing “DAX-539” tee shirts, because this is the 539th time Westmore has done her Dax make-up.

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Westmore explained his technique saying he shakes his hands on purpose while painting them. Terry jokes that it feels like “there are little sperm” running up her face. For cosplayers planning to do their own Dax make-up, Michael explains he uses brown for spots and then accents them with burnt orange. He also noted how each application was a new experience and that he never used a stencil. “I did them by hand and the spots never looked the same way twice.” As each make-up job was a unique work of art, Westmore noted that every time he applied Terry’s make-up on the show he would sign shoulder.

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After he finished her spots and Terry left the stage for a wardrobe change, Westmore also talked about some of his other make-up work with Star Trek, including tidbits like how the original Borg were glued into their suits and had to be unglued to go to the bathroom. Regarding inspirations, he said the Jem’Hadar are cross between rhinoceros and dinosaur and the Hirogen are based on Gila monsters. He also talked about Klingon make-up saying that the distinctive foreheads are all based on dinosaur bones.

For fans who want more insights from Westmore, there is good news as he says he is almost ready to publish his memoirs, which he has been writing for 11 years.

Terry then returned in her Klingon wedding gown from DS9, and she looked fabulous! Here are some pictures.

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More to come

Stay tuned for TrekMovie’s Sunday STLV coverage including William Shatner and more from around the con

STLV Coverage so far:

Karl Urban panel

TNG Cast Panels + More from Thursday

Roddenberry announces “Fan Census” + reveals Gene’s grandson

TNG in HD Panel Reveals Season 7 Details + DS9 In HD possibility + more

DS9 Cast Panels + More from Friday

Brannon Braga Talks TNG, VOY, ENT and potential Trek future

Simon Pegg talks Scotty and Star Trek 2016 + Peter Weller talks Into Darkness

Voyager Panel with Mulgrew, Russ, Wang and Phillips

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Terry Farrell is gorgeous!

Would have been cool to see all of these in person but glad to at least see them here. Terry Farrell does indeed still look awesome though it looks like they ran her “spots differently lol, didn’t think they came together across her forhead like that? Of course there had to be a nitpick right lol.

Great job at convention coverage, Trekmovie.

Season 3 wasn’t necessarily great Trek, but it was dang good Television.

Michael Westmore also talked about some of the behind-the-scenes of the show “Face-Off”, such as how a lot of the work shown is not actually movie camera ready as is often portrayed on the show, altho still very impressive work for the amount of time that they have.

The Enterprise cast still looks like they could step in front of the cameras for season five, but Terry Farrell… I mean, WOW. 21 years after the premiere of Deep Space Nine and she’s still a knockout.

Damn you, Hollywood!
Put Terry onto our tv’s RIGHT NOW!!

Terry Farrell still looks beautiful.

Terry Farrell is vivacious and bodacious! =P and beautiful! =) love her! =D

I want to go to a convention!!!

She’s still hawt. I would like to finger her…as one of the prettiest women in Star Trek.

I don’t have any unpleasant associations with the Xindi arc because I’d tuned out by that point in ENT’s original run and watched Seasons 3 and 4 for the first time on Netflex a few years ago.

I really enjoy Season 3 now, though. It’s got a solid theme throughout the episode, the classic-Trek adventure of exploring the unknown, and I find it a lot of fun, even as dark as it was (considerably darker than DS9).

I agree with the dissatisfaction about the series finale. It was all just a dream??? I don’t understand how that was supposed to be “a Valentine for the fans.”

the last episode was so bad, in my mind it was a three parter we just never saw the last two parts, the first was what was put in the records part 2&3 is what real happen, trip did not die and married tpol however being human vulcan would had a hard time with that so they fake his death and change him to look vulcan with fake paper and all

Scott’s the only one of the “Enterprise boys” to have a steady job right now :)

She could fit into the “Wedding Gown” all these years later?

The best part was the photo op with Terry. The pre-convention info said she would be portraying Dax “facially”, so we were only expecting the spots. But she did the photo op in the dress, in full character. And she was stunning.

I’d so much like to see the ENT crew together one more time…please give us a reunion special for the 50th anniversary!!!

@6. Scott Gammans,
“The Enterprise cast still looks like they could step in front of the cameras for season five”

I hope you’re just being nice. They all look like a bunch of old men. Even Connor Trinneer who used to work out with at my gym, whom I last saw 2 years ago has aged dramatically.

What is this fan nostalgia that wants to see a geriatric crew go through the motions? Kirk had it right when he said “gallivanting around the cosmos is a game for the young”. Kirk had to be the youngest and oldest captain ever to serve in Starfleet, to say nothing of the “junior” officers. Few soldiers in our own military stay that long in active field duty.

We’ve seen very successful spinoffs, and now a reboot, introducing us to a greatly expanded cast of characters, all of which allow the franchise to continue on in the spirit of TOS. But these new casts have their time in the sun, and now the fans must accept that and move on. The ONLY reason the TOS cast made it to the adult diaper era in front of our eyes is because they were the first. There’s no real market for this kind of sentimentality otherwise, if for no other reason than it just doesn’t make any sense.

Demons and Terra Prime was the perfect finale for Enterprise. It actually gave all the characters (even Travis) something to do, it brought some kind of resolution to the Trip/T’Pol arc while still leaving things open ended, it had the perfect villain-a human who is against everything that Star Trek stands for, and it ended with different species coming together, ready to form the foundations of the Federation. Then These Are The Voyages happened. None of the Enterprise characters were important, since it was all about a character Journey that Riker went on decades ago, they just decided that Trip and T’Pol broke up, before killing Trip off for no reason, it’s villains were just some generic kidnappers/jewel thieves, and we don’t even really get to see any of the important parts of the Federation ceremony.

18. Curious Cadet

While you put it quite bluntly, I agree. The good thing with Nu-Trek is that they cast young, meaning we can have few adventures with this team before things get silly. Both the TOS films and TNG films suffered, IMO, from coming after the end of their TV runs, meaning that they had to work around age issues from the outset. You really need a 30-ish year-old crew from the outset and regular films. I wish Paramount would adopt the Marvel/Star Wars approach to Star Trek: a Nu-Trek movie one year and a spinoff, say a Cumberbatch-led Khan film, the next, along with an animated series. If they’d had that approach, we’d be awaiting Star Trek 4 by now and have had our third spinoff, say a Tom Hardy-led Stargazer film or a Bruce Greenwood-led Pike film, this year.

One Trek every four years is annoying me now. I loved STID, but was it worth a four-year wait as it becomes in increasingly ridiculous for the characters only to age a little in that time? Not really. The gap between ST09 and STID was practically longer than the entire run of TOS! At this rate, Chris Pine will be walking around in a blood-coloured uniform, wearing an Admiral’s star in the space of two more films!

I don’t even buy the quality over quantity argument: I don’t feel STID was any better for showing up after four years instead of two! Crews in the Trek franchise, especially any in spinoffs, have a limited shelf-life.

The ‘To oldly go’ jibe is cruel, but accurate. I love the original crew, but after TWOK very much dealt with Kirk accepting his increased age and the emergence of a new, younger generation seen in David and Saavik, I feel the franchise went in the wrong direction. Resurrecting Spock, IMO, damaged the credibility of the series (better Star Trek III had been a mirror universe film that had the alt-Spock cross sides!) and TSFS was all about oldies wrecking new technology and making young people look stupid.

Enterprise had its time, but the only way a return to that era could work for me would be to have a new show with the old cast members appearing as background characters.

#11.

*facepalm* Are you still in high school?

As for “These Are The Voyages…”, since the “flashback” scenes were set in a holodeck, I consider it a “glitchy” holodeck episode. That way, it’s easy to write off Trip’s death as an historical inaccuracy.

#20. Dom – August 5, 2014

I grew up with the Silver Age of comic books so this ageist thing of not believing that old people can be attractive or do heroic things or be interesting in anyway whatsoever is a total non sequitur for me. Julie Schwartz might not have invented it but he sure encouraged the development of the Earth II line of stories where the Heroes of the Golden Age that inspired and guided the younger heroes of my Silver Age with their “fictional” tales on Earth-I were alive and still kicking butt into their dotage.

Also, TV was brand new and still finding its way, if I wanted full-color adventures it was comics. But the looks often changed with different artists so I never got this silly notion that my fictionalized newer heroes always had to look EXACTLY one way and only one artist could depict them.

Then as TV matured I was a fan of BEWITCHED and I got used to a Darrin in color and then one in a totally different actor and suit.

ALIAS SMITH AND JONES went through it changes in one of the lead’s suicide and I still stuck with it.

My point is there’s no reason fictional characters can’t age. This is quite a separate issue from whether an originating actor remains competent to portray that aged role, and that is effected my many factors, one of which can be due to how an actor has aged but age is NOT the only reason nor is it it a sufficient reason to dismiss an actor out of hand for such a role. I rather think an audition should be.

Hi Disinvited (22)

I’m far from ageist (I’m hitting 40 myself soon and my parents are still very cool at 77 and 67!)

But, in film franchise terms, it’s better to start of with a younger cast than one that’s starting out older. Had the makers of TMP been ruthless, they should have only kept Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty and groomed a future lead actor to take over the franchise.

That’s why the huge gaps between Nu-Trek films annoy me. TOS had a young cast out adventuring and it’s nice to have that in Star Trek films, which otherwise were always about middle-aged-to-elderly characters. Star Trek is, by its nature, about a young generation going out and exploring. The movies were always a bit about older people navel-gazing and hanging around near Earth.

I’d happily watch the Nu-Trek cast age: I just want to see a sensible number of films about them as they age and, in the course of them ageing, see a new set of characters emerge so that, by the time a 50-something Chris Pine is Admiral Kirk, there’s a 30-something established successor in command of the Enterprise.

Like it or not, casual audiences are attracted to younger, more youthful-looking casts. The old Trek movies, apart from maybe “The Voyage Home” never garnered much interest from outside the die-hard fan base.

The younger audiences want energy.

The first “Star Wars” film came out a couple of years before “The Motion Picture” and featured young, up-and-coming actors, specifically, Harrison Ford, who would also be a big draw as Indiana Jones. None of the Trek cast members had that “cache”, and as such, you never saw the TOS cast involved in the same level of action that we saw in “Star Wars”.

The “X-Men” film franchise has avoided this by adding younger actors to the mix, some playing younger versions of characters played by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan. By doing this, they can keep the movies going long after Stewart and McKellan hang up their hats for good.

The problem with the TNG and TOS casts, is that they were, for the most part, tv actors. They had become famous by their work on the small screen. Their best moments as actors and their charaters’ best moments are featured in the episodes. By the time they were in the latter stages of their film run, the casts were far from their prime. The movies were running on nostalgia, which is not how you attract casual audiences.

The next “Star Wars” movie is bringing back the main cast members from the original movies, but make no mistake, the new cast will be carrying the torch, and the movie. Han, Luke, Leia, and Chewie will be there to serve the story, and to pass the torch to a new generation.

20. Dom – August 5, 2014
18. Curious Cadet

(As usual, I’m not commenting on the TNG movies, which had so many problems, including the performances, that I don’t hold any of them up as exemplars of anything.) That aside…

Younger actors may be sexier, but older actors have the potential to be better actors and offer more compelling performances.

They’ve lived more. Had more experiences to draw from. Ideally, veteran actors should understand the material more profoundly and give added depth and subtlety to what’s on the page. And I think that all applies to the performances of Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley, at least, in the TOS movies. As talented as Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto might be, I don’t think I’m likely to be as moved by a kid in his late 20s/early 30s acting like he knows what life is about.

The tearjerker scene at the beginning of ST09 was moving because of what’s happening in the scene—a woman giving birth, while her husband and father of her child is sacrificing his life for her and her child. The actors all turned in fine performances in that scene, but it’s not like they need to much about life in order to play that scene. Daddy dying is a pretty basic and primal tragedy. Nothing subtle or nuanced about it.

But, there’s a humanity that runs through the TOS movies that is significantly attributable to the actors’ interpretations of what was on the page. And obviously there’s no comparison between the original TWOK death scene and the travesty rip-off in STID.

I’m not meaning to paint a black and white issue. The BR Trek cast are all fine actors. But, there are benefits that come with veteran actors. Pike was the favorite BR Trek character for many of us, and the reason why has largely to do with the age and experience of the actor who played him. Bruce Greenwood brought depth to that character, even with the limitations of the script that he had to work from.

I also quite enjoyed Peter Weller’s performance in STID for the same reason. As one critic put it, Weller has just the right amount of a**hole in his tone when he calls Kirk, “son.” That nuance comes from experience, from playing the character with more than one dimension.

From Weller’s choice of that one vocal inflection, we get that Marcus is both annoyed by what he views as Kirk’s insolence while simultaneously trying to appeal as father figure to the fatherless young Captain whose surrogate father, Pike, was recently killed. Marcus knows Jim Kirk’s history and is trying to exploit it to his advantage in their stand-off, even as he knows that Kirk knows that the avuncular Admiral Marcus originally planned for Kirk and his entire crew to be killed. We get all of that just from Weller’s little vocal inflection on that one syllable. That’s the sort of added value that comes with experienced actors.

# 21. Red Dead Ryan – August 5, 2014

” *facepalm* Are you still in high school?” — Red Dead Ryan

If JiggsCasey is, that most likely means present Terry’s being compared directly to rerun Terry which can only further be a testament to staying out of the sun.

#23. Dom – August 5, 2014

I get ya. I was the same about the Spock character being resurrected in ST III. I love Nimoy. Loved the opportunities it afforded him. Hated that it killed the direction the films were set to go with new younger crew and cast for the reasons that you cited for the next generation of viewers. And I acknowledge going with a younger cast is basic economics, older more experienced actors command (demand?) more funds.

But I do balk at sweeping generalizations like “A TV series starring Mark Harmon is NEVER going to be successful because he’s too OLD.” – not that I am saying you were doing that now that we better understand each other.

#23. Dom – August 5, 2014

“…basic economics, older more experienced actors command (demand?) more funds..” — Disinvited

But after seeing the deal the young cast of THE BIG BANG THEORY just sealed I’m pretty sure that’s another sweeping broad generalization that needs to go out the window.

As a 21 year old, I generally prefer older actors. For the most part, they are better at acting. I couldn’t care less how attractive the cast of a Star Trek movie is. They are a starship crew, not supermodels. I’d take a group of older, experienced actors any day.

Older actors may give better performances, but so can younger ones. It really depends on the individual actors, along with the script and direction they are given.

The fact that there are younger and older characters (along with the actors who play them) represent life itself and reminds everyone of birth, youth, adulthood and old age…

I think the “Enterprise” crew all look just fine, as long as their characters came back with promotions equal to their ages and in different functions appropriate to their ranks, I’d be fine with it. However, I would not be fine with seeing them in movie after movie over a decade ….

If there are to be more AltTrek movies than the 2016 ones, it would be fun to see Admiral Archer in a SFHQ cameo, and perhaps Scotty consulting with Captain [or Admiral] Tucker about some advance in engineering; in brief cameos at Headquarters [It’s an AltVerse so Trip could still be alive :-)], in a realistic, not “just for nostalgia” sense. IDK who are the most popular characters from “Enterprise,” but those two, along with T’Pol and Reed, are my faves.

I absolutely hated the last episode of “Enterprise.” I think the show would have been much better served by concentrating more on the founding ceremony and perhaps some back-channel politicking [sort of how the initial episode went, for a “full circle” feel], rather than that awful “let’s have Riker and kill Trip” thing. If Trineer was worried about being stuck as Trip forever, his character could have been reassigned or quit the Fleet. Good grief.

And Terry Farrell! I just love her. I loved her as Jadzia Dax, and I love her vivacious personality. It’d be great to see her, too.

Oh dear, I forgot to inlude Dr Phlox among my favorite “Enterprise” characters. I loved his unique and sometimes experimental solutions to health problems, and his air of doctorly detachment. :-)

31-Trip died in 2161, and the timeline change was in 2233. Besides, he’d be over 140 by the time of the Abrams movies. The best Enterprise character to give a cameo to would be T’Pol, since Vulcans have such long lifespans. She can be a leader on New Vulcan, and a friend of the original Spock.

Yes, I really liked Dr Phlox as well. I always liked to hear him speak – such a great demeanour.

– and yes, the final episode of Enterprise was unbelievably dire. I think it would have to be one of the worst of all Star Trek episodes, if not the worst. I think I would rather have Spock’s Brain or the Way to Eden or whatever the one with the hippies, bad hair and even worse singing, was called. Those episodes can give you a good laugh. “These are the Voyages” just can’t do even that, because they all took it so seriously…grief almighty!

33, Damar, Aw darn it. I agree about T’Pol … except Jolene Blalock did not do so well portraying a very old Vulcan woman in the one “Enterprise” alternate reality episode.

34, Keachick, “The Way to Eden” is definitely not with that bunch of space hippies ;-).

# 35. Marja – August 5, 2014

” “The Way to Eden” is definitely not with that bunch of space hippies ;-).” — Marja

Yeah, the one with the space hippies was an episode of LOST IN SPACE with its spaceadelic groovy music. ;-)

Marja – Please do not confuse me…:) It was The Way to Eden. My son has scarpered off with all three TOS seasons that we FINALLY have on DVD, so I was a little confused.

I see him this Friday – must retrieve said DVDs…:)

Just watching AlJazeera News on TV here and the European Space Agency’s Rosetta space craft has now reached the comet and will hopefully be orbiting it for about a year. In that time, the scientists hope to be able to land a small drill to get samples. The Rosetta has travelled about 6 billion miles.

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/cosmic-first-rosetta-probe-goes-odd-duck-orbit-around-comet-n173776

37 Rose, Sorry for the confusion, I was making a leetle joke …

I was saying *my* Way to Eden would not include all those space hippies. It would more likely include a young and happy Enterprise crew in the recreation hall or botanical gardens — I think that would be more Eden-like …

Although I did kinda like that one space hippie Adam. He was a cheery soul. And he had a nice singing voice :-)

#38. Marja – August 7, 2014

It doesn’t help that the LOST IN SPACE episode was called, THE PROMISED PLANET.

A-OOGA! BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM BUM, DA DA DA DAH DIT DA DA DAH DA DAH DIT DAH DA DA…

#38. Marja – August 7, 2014

I recaLl Mummy said what they were actually dancing to on set was THE DOORS. Probably, their TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX…

I thought Enterprise was a good series that really began to find its stride in the fourth season and should have had a chance to continue for a couple more years, at least. The characters, the actors, the sets, the makeup, were all great. The problem with the series for the first three seasons was the writing.

There were some good episodes, some awesome episodes, and some not so good ones in the first two seasons. Although the concept of a season spanning story arc for the third season was an interesting idea, I personally did not like the whole Xindi storyline.

However, the fourth season was really good. They began to bring the series much closer to the original Trek series concept, and I was sad the show was canceled just at that point.

As to the final episode, I didn’t like it either. The writers did this fine cast and crew an injustice by framing the final episode as some sort of historical record in the memory banks of the computer on the TNG Enterprise. And for the record, they should not have killed Trip.

It would have been a much more fitting end to the series to have shown more of the interplanetary politics behind the founding of the Federation and a nice resolution to the story arc of the various characters.

Yep, Marja – I like your version of the Way to Eden. It could be, especially in this alt. universe with this nuKirk being a singer as well, ref: film Into the Woods, where he (as Prince Charming) gets to sing one of the main songs of the original Broadway musical – Agony.

The Shat-man could hold a tune (most of the time). It does seem that the Pine Captain Fine can do more than that. This has to be really exciting stuff…oh the possibilities…loving it already…:)

The Dancing Doctor (Dr Crusher – TNG) and the Singing Captain (Captain Kirk – alt universe)…and why not?