INTERVIEW

Exclusive: GEORGE TAKEI THANKS FANS FOR 40 YEARS OF 'STAR TREK' - PART 2

Captain Sulu would still be up for more adventures and boldly going as the HEROES star takes on NEW VOYAGES

George Takei, the actor most known to the entire world as Mr. Sulu from STAR TREK, says that he is expecting a new renaissance for STAR TREK due mostly to the fans that will never let the worldwide phenomenon die. With a new prequel film in the works from ALIAS creator JJ Abrams, a new HD DVD set for the first series of the classic TREK and of course the fan web based series NEW VOYAGES, it's the franchise that keeps on giving even though ironically it was unceremoniously canceled during its initial run before Kirk, Spock and the crew of the Enterprise even finished their five year mission on network television.



iF MAGAZINE chatted with Takei last week about the future of the future. And, really who better to talk about the ups and downs of a forty-year franchise than someone that was in on it from the beginning?

iF MAGAZINE: Last year was the 40th Anniversary of STAR TREK and it seems like Paramount is sort of in the rear in terms of anything special for the occasion?

GEORGE TAKEI: That’s because they’ve lost touch. It takes STAR TREK fans to goose them a little bit. That fan series NEW VOYAGES is one of the gooses, and then of course JJ Abrams is a savvy marketer and went and goosed them with the idea of a new STAR TREK movie.

iF: They’re also just releasing the first season of the Classic STAR TREK HD DVD sets as well, which look absolutely amazing.

TAKEI: Aren’t they sensational? It’s fantastic. I’ve seen them and it’s science fiction becoming reality. Now you watch it and you see us using cell phones which of course we called communicators, and in our times now the cell phone is already becoming a bit outdated and something of a nuisance.

iF: The bridge’s view screen is also very reminiscent of a flat screen TV in today’s world.

TAKEI: Exactly. [Laughs] I was in London last month doing promotion for the release of the HD DVD set and some of the British people that had seen it were just blown away by it. I think STAR TREK is going to enjoy another re-galvanization brought on by this. Of course, with another new movie coming out, we are going to live much longer than we ever expected. We’re certainly going to prosper in many ways.

iF: I don’t think STAR TREK will ever really go away. Hasn’t it become something of a worldwide pop culture phrase that creates instant recognition?

TAKEI: Absolutely, I think some call it a "global phenomenon." I’ve done conventions on every continent except Africa. Africa is the only continent that I haven’t done a STAR TREK convention on. Certainly, I’ve done conventions all over Europe, two in Japan, one in Singapore, many in Australia, two in Latin America; so Africa is really the next continent we have to conquer.

iF: How was filming for THE NEW VOYAGES?

TAKEI: The building that houses the sets for the series is in upstate New York in the Adirondacks; you don’t fly into Kennedy or LaGuardia, you fly into Vermont by Lake Superior and you go around the lake and go into the most rural area. You don’t have cell phone connection there. [Laughs] This guy James Cawley is beyond passionate as a STAR TREK fan, I think he’s an obsessed STAR TREK fan. He got this abandoned car dealership which is right next to a highway and built the set right there with the traffic zooming by every twenty seconds.

iF: I remember at one time there was supposed to be a series with Captain Sulu and the adventures of the USS Excelsior -- whatever happened to that series?

TAKEI: It was a vigorous campaign. When VOYAGER was about to go off, Paramount sent out a notice to fandom asking for suggestions on the next STAR TREK series they wanted to see. The fans started writing in about a series with Sulu in command of the USS Excelsior, there was a gentleman named Russ Haslage in Ohio that organized a major Internet campaign. There was a flood of letters from every corner of the world advocating for this Excelsior series and then Paramount suddenly decided they didn’t want fan advice or participation and went ahead and did what they wanted to anyway with ENTERPRISE which was a disastrous failure. So Paramount can’t be counted on for any kind of intelligence, there are no signs of intelligent life there. [Laughs]

iF: Well, I would say they obviously forgot that it was the fans that originally brought STAR TREK back and made it a successful film franchise that has made them a lot of money!

TAKEI: The people that really understand and love STAR TREK are no longer there. When Gene Roddenbery passed, that really was the end of STAR TREK, as we knew it. The series that came on immediately after was DEEP SPACE NINE, which was the polar opposite of Gene’s philosophy and vision of the future, so STAR TREK lost it’s way then and now the people at Paramount are all new people. Herb Solow who was the executive in charge of Desilu Studios is now a professor in Wales. We became very good friends and we had dinner with him and his wife before they left, and when I was in London last year I saw an article about a Professor Herb Solow! [Laughs] But, basically the people now at the studio have absolutely no connection with STAR TREK as we knew it, sadly.

iF: When ENTERPRISE ended it just left a void with nothing STAR TREK related on the air for the first time in years.

TAKEI: Well, ENTERPRISE too was literally going in the wrong direction. Gene was always forward looking and in terms of drama he wanted the shock of the new: new life, new civilizations. When you go backward people start nitpicking at the cannon and the technology.

iF: If you had your chance to do something with Sulu now, what would you do with that character?

TAKEI: Certainly now, we’re forty plus years later from when STAR TREK first started, so I’m not the young buck I was when I started on STAR TREK at the age of 27. So there are physical limitations there and the audience has changed, but I love Sulu and I that’s why I did the NEW VOYAGES, particularly because the script was so wonderful. My love for Sulu is there and if someone comes up with a wonderful approach to Sulu given the passage of time and given the aging process we all go through I would be up for it. In the crew of the Enterprise, Chekov was supposed to be the youngest, but Takei was actually the youngest if you get my meaning. [Laughs] I think it is still credible that we could get Sulu into some vigorous drama.



iF: Of course he has a family to consider?

TAKEI: If you saw NEW VOYAGES he has daughters plural, but Alana was lost.

