“Trekspert” Mark A. Altman is following up his recent CW docuseries The Greatest Geek Year Ever: 1982 with a new documentary that will be exploring iconic Star Trek locations. Deep Space Nine star Terry Farrell has just joined the project with is currently being crowdfunded.
To Boldly Go
The new documentary titled To Boldly is described as “part travelogue, part history lesson, part Curb Your Enthusiasm.” The documentary will feature the hosts of the Inglorious Treksperts podcast: Mark A. Altman, Daren Dochterma, and Ashley E. Miller on a road trip adventure making stops at the most iconic filming locations from the Star Trek franchise.
To get things started the doc has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter with lots of perks for backers. This video introduces the doc and the campaign.
Planned locations for this documentary road trip include Vasquez Rocks (multiple Star Trek episodes and movies), The Valley of Fire (Star Trek Generations), Bronson Caves (multiple Star Trek episodes and movies), Trona Peaks (Star Trek V), The Titan Missile Museum (Star Trek: First Contact), Calloway Vineyard and Winery (“All Good Things”), and the Brandeis-Bardin Institute (Star Trek VI).
To Boldly Go will feature stars, directors, writers, and producers of multiple Star Trek shows and movies talking about the locations and making of classic episodes throughout the 60-year history of Star Trek. And the team just announced that Terry Farrell will be joining the Treksperts on this tour through Trek history.
“‘To Boldly Go’ is not just a documentary,” says Altman in a statement, “it’s a voyage of discovery. It’s a time machine that takes viewers back to the making of some of the most iconic television and movies in pop culture history, and this Kickstarter gives fans a chance to be a major part of this project from its inception through completion and take fans on the ultimate road trek.”
The Kickstarter campaign launched at San Diego Comic-Con has already achieved close to a quarter of its funding goal. Following its San Diego launch, the Treksperts have gone on a whistle-stop tour in support of the Kickstarter, with appearances at GalaxyCon Raleigh, Creation Entertainment’s 57-Year Mission Las Vegas, and GalaxyCon Austin. GalaxyCon is partnering with the Treksperts to assist with marketing efforts along with producing unique rewards for the campaign.
Fans who back the project on Kickstarter can pick up perks including exclusive merchandise and experiences such as a Pet Vasquez Rock, collectible pins and postcard sets, one-of-a-kind excursions to filming locations with legendary Star Trek celebrities, crew jackets, and even credits in the finished film along with an invite to the premiere. The campaign wraps up on September 5th. To find out more visit makethetrek.com the official Kickstarter page for To Boldly Go.
It’s not all Southern California, people. They also filmed in Nevada and Arizona!
Kidding aside, I do enjoy revisits to special filming locations. Every time I go to the UK I try to find at least one Doctor Who spot.
I LOVE Terry Farrell, but find it interesting that she show features her, considering she could seldom go on location without serious measures being taken to protect her from the sun, which did NOT agree with her (which, I recall reading somewhere years ago, was the reason why Dax was injured and kept inside the ship in “Rocks and Shoals” instead of running around in the deserty sun). But for all I know, the doc will address this. Looks like a great watch.
Shame on me for only having been to 4 of these 7 locations given I have driven all over SoCal (and NV) the last 30 years — this is not going to cut it. I will get to the remaining 3 in the next 6 months.
If the creators of this cool doc are reading this, I would immediately donate $500 for a set visit, but no way would I have $7500 for that — that is freaking nuts (it’s not like this is Trek 14…lol)
Well, if they gave away the set visit for $500 they would need to do 15 times as many visits to raise the same amount of money. The production would get no work done accomodating that many guests on set, or the visit would need to be a much less personal, immersive experience (i.e. less time, less access to creatives, large group).
At the end of the day, this is a small movie production first, not a tourist attraction.
Dude, that makes zero sense because those are all public places and if I knew the shooting schedule I could just show up from a distance and watch anyway — FOR FREE
I would also argue that if they did $500 for 1 hour set visits and keep the $7500 level expensive price for a VIP all-day set visit, that they would make a lot more money overall.
For the deep space nine documentary $300 got me to Paramont studios for the premiere, with the producers and much of the cast. I gladly paid that.
I also think it’s kind of lame that only the people that can pay $14,000 for replica models of the starships, and who own so much of Star Trek history from all the very expense auctions over the years (“This belongs in a museum”) can afford to go to to the outdoor set at a freaking public location for this.
But I wish them well and look forward to the documentary.
What they’re offering is actually giving you close-up access for a day. This will probably be a rather small production with limited crew and equipment, not a “whole village” like you might expect for a big blockbuster movie. The location shoots will also probably have to happen on a tight schedule.
Having lots of people on a small set who don’t belong there would slow down production. That’s why this is only open to a small number of people.
Like you said: you can watch from afar for free (if you find out their schedule). They’re not asking for money from you to do that.
They may sell tickets to the premiere later if that’s what you want.
I don’t disagree with you here. I think they are missing an opportunity though for more cash by not having a more minimalist set visit option…like I said, I would pay $500 today for that if it was offered, and I doubt I am alone on that.
Premiere tickets — yeah, I’d be up for that. Maybe I will see you there and we can argue Trek some…lol
Doubtful since I live on a different continent.
Iceland too! I’ve bene to 4 Trek locations used in Iceland. Beautiful!
I’ve done the Jordan location, but not Iceland. I did do the Isle of Skye location from Prometheus, and the Skellig Michael location from Star Wars.
Do Jordan also. It was used in Disco’s “The Vulcan Hello.” King Abdullah is a huge Trek fan (I interviewed him about it in the 90s and he is a RABID fan and was a crew member in the hallway on Voyager) and you could maybe swing an on camera interview with him as well. :)
That’s fun. I don’t live in SoCal but it’s a 6 hr drive and I have family down there.
I’ve been to the Bronson Canyon (also used for the TV Batman Bat-Cave), Northrup Grumman in Redondo Beach (Operation Annihilate) and over course, the Vasquez Rocks.