Trekkies 2 (2004) - full transcript

In this follow-up to the popular 1997 documentary, Denise Crosby returns for another look at fans of the "Star Trek" franchise. This time there are interviews with fans from other countries, updates on fans featured in the first film, and performances by "Star Trek"-themed "filk" bands.

Welcome to the commentary track
for Trekkies 2.

I'm Roger Nygard, director
of this documentary, and with me today...

Denise Crosby. I am the host
and one of the executive producers.

And Mike Leahy, producer.

So the first thing you're seeing
is the opening digital effect

that Gabriel Koerner created for us.

You may remember him
as the 14-year-old from the first Trekkies

talking about his opticals.

Yeah, Gabriel now is 21, I believe.

And working a lot in the industry.

He's doing a lot of digital effects.



And so he was a natural for us to go to
to design our opening title sequence.

We're hoping to be working for him
in a couple of years.

And he actually appears later in the film.

He's one of the original profilees
we wanted to go back to and revisit,

like Barbara Adams and Daryl Frazetti,
a couple of others.

And here's our beloved baby who was
on the design of the first Trekkies.

- The opening...
- The cover art of the box of the DVD.

I thought it was a good idea
to reprise that icon.

It was something different

to put the baby in space
and do a 2001 take-off.

Why do you have
the old TV here, Roger?

For just an art design choice.
You have to choose something.

The opening music is done by Fred
Schneider and Pat Irwin of the B-52s.

Obviously a very recognisable voice
and it sets the film off on the right tone.



We really wanted to have
a fun, upbeat movie.

- How did you get him?
- Fred is a big Star Trek fan.

He was going to contribute
something to the first Trekkies,

but we couldn't work it out because
his schedule didn't fit our schedule.

This time around I gave him a call
and said, "Trekkies 2 is in the works.

"Do you want to give it another shot?"
And he said yeah.

He was really thorough, too, about
researching what we shot for the lyrics

so that he could create some great lyrics.

Pat Irwin, who is the guitarist
and composer that he works with,

he put a theremin sound on,
which I had him take out

and then put it back in
once I saw it with the visuals

'cause it was really cool
over the Paramount logo.

Here we are, setting up the movie.
You need to set the stage.

We're telling a story,
even though it's a documentary,

and this sets the stage for the story.

We're in Germany.
Our first shoot, no?

Yeah. You can see Bonn,
Germany, in the background.

It was some castle
up in the hills over Bonn.

Now, the Germany stop.
That was our first convention.

Yeah. And one of the biggest.

It was amazing to me how pervasive
English is around the world.

I mean, we rarely had to translate.

Almost everybody knows English.
It's the language of the internet, I guess.

What's funny is we went into this
not really thinking that through

and we were happy to find out
everybody did speak English.

Lucky.

I started with an opening montage,
which is a Roger Nygard clich? now.

Did the same thing in Trekkies
and Six Days In Roswell,

but I think it gives people
an idea of what's to come

and maybe will help
hold them to the end.

Pique their interest enough
to hold them to the end.

We have a collection
of a lot of different interviews,

which again sets the stage for Germany.

Here are the many different sorts
of people you can meet.

This is Peter Walker.
He's a Brit living in Germany

and there were about 300 people
just like him shooting photo after photo

- in the audience.
- He didn't stop.

He just kept shooting. Literally
every second, his camera would go off.

The next shot is Denise.
You're walking on stage. 5,000 people.

It is phenomenal, you know.

It fills you with a lot of emotion, actually.

I always get, really,
a sort of mixture of warmth

and embarrassment.

How long ago was it
that you were on the series?

Well, you know, I mean,
'86 I believe the pilot was shot.

18 years and they're still jumping
to their feet like that. That's awesome.

I love this lady.
She's one of my favourites.

- The women in blue next to him.
- All she does is blink.

The intensity.
She was truly like an intellectual.

I cut to your reaction laughing
because it's what we're all doing.

It's a fun moment.

- This shocked us.
- I'd like to meet his mother.

- Now, this was really weird, Roger.
- It's the last thing I thought he'd say.

- The guy in green?
- He was a little much.

Again, a good sampling
is what I went for here

of the different people at a convention.

Just a short montage
of the varieties of people.

These guys looked great, I thought.

Ethan was probably the funniest guy
we met in the entire trip.

He has the funniest anecdote in history,
but it's in the bonus material.

These Trek dinners
were something new to me.

Had you heard about these?
In every city, they have a Trek dinner.

They get together
and talk about Star Trek.

No. This truly might be
a European phenomenon.

And all charity-related, which was neat.

That was something that we knew
from the first film and neglected,

and I'm glad we addressed it in this,

the charity aspect of Star Trek fans.

- It's a big part of what they do.
- This is my shot.

Denise, you're all over this movie, but...
No, not here. Sorry.

Mike's got some great shots in there.

I like the shot of Denise
washing the windshield.

That's what it was like. We piled
into a van and went on the road.

We just had to pitch in whenever.

To any aspiring filmmakers,
five people put this together.

With Paramount's backing, it was really
a little group that went out last summer

and made this movie happen.
It was great.

This is Christoph.
He and his fan-film friends,

they built one of the most
amazing sets you could imagine.

Hands down. This, I think, was
the most authentic-looking that I'd seen.

- Speaking of authentic-looking.
- This is Willi Wiegend.

We had J Trusk who was
a dead ringer for Captain Kirk

in the first Trekkies,
so I think Willi is our topper.

He's even better
because he doesn't speak English.

It's hard. How do you top your first
movie? There's only one first time.

Right? We had Klingons
ordering cheeseburgers

and this time we had Klingons playing
minigolf, so we gave it a shot.

In German. It was really important,
I think, to allow the people to speak

their native language also.

This is a phenomenon we see a couple
of times in the movie, the fan film,

where they pour all of their time
and energy for little exhibition.

Where are these going to go?

They can't be released
'cause it's Star Trek.

Wasn't it your idea, Mike,
to shoot this scene?

We shot the coverage, cut it together
and they re-enacted a scene for us

so we would have something,
'cause they didn't have a clip ready.

Billy Sullivan and JJ Holiday,
our composers, scored it,

just like you would score a TV episode.

What was neat about this guy
was he was in military fatigues,

having just come from the army that day,

and had to change into that
to shoot the scene.

London.

Yeah, we jumped over
from France to London,

so the film is not in the order
necessarily that we shot it.

It's more in an order
that we felt would flow.

We weren't planning a stop in England,

because the convention
we were going to was cancelled.

But we squeezed in a 36-hour stop

when we heard about Tony Alleyne,
who lives here.

And we didn't really have the budget,
but we squeezed it in there somehow.

How did you do that, Mike?

It just was close enough...
That's one thing about Europe.

It was close enough that we could
figure it out...and it paid off big time.

They were willing to come
to where we were staying.

They made it really easy.

We put the word out on the internet
to meet us at this hotel and at a pub

and enough people showed up
and we got some great footage.

And all different types of people,
very diverse.

We got lucky with that hotel lounge.
It gave us some nice backgrounds.

It's a hotel near the airport,
nothing fancy, but...

- It looks like we're in a palace.
- Yeah.

I think Tony Alleyne, who is coming up,
probably gets the award

for the most extraordinary
Star Trek fan on this tour.

And completely serious.

He had a little sense of humour,
but this is his real deal.

We weren't going to go to England
and he was the reason we went there.

I found out about him at the last minute

and that's when
we squeezed in this quick stop.

He was selling his apartment
on eBay for $2 million.

Yeah, he's known in England.

People who aren't Star Trek fans
have seen him advertise this.

You kept Denise out until
this last moment to get her reaction.

To get a genuine reaction to this place,
'cause you gotta react.

How long did it take him to make this?

That's JJ Holiday who's just joined us,
one of our composers.

He said it took him two years
to make the first console

and then another year or two
to finish the entire flat.

It's tiny. It's a one-bedroom,
one-bathroom flat.

Yeah, it's more like a studio.
One big room.

I remember we were in the bathroom
when there was this big crash.

- Remember that?
- Yeah.

Bill our sound mixer
was looking sheepishly at us

'cause he had touched something.

This piece of the shelf fell off
and broke this panel on the floor.

Tony was a little upset.

He was going to charge us,
but by the time we were done,

he gave us a pass.

Is he the sole constructor of all this?

- Yeah.
- After work or something?

He's an interior designer,
so it comes naturally

and he just turned his attention
on his own flat

in the Star Trek
The Next Generation style.

Roger, this is the most interesting
kind of logic that's in the movie.

He tries to give it away a couple of times.

Perfectly logical.

He can't give the console away,
so he builds an apartment around it.

- Very rational person.
- Why not? He lives there 24/7.

This is my face when he asks me
to come into the bathroom.

It's a good moment.

And what's odd is my name does not
appear on this list of the deceased.

That's because she's coming back.

My biggest question was how
he didn't suffocate in this apartment,

since he's down to one small window.

That tiny little crack.

I don't believe, as far as I know,
he still has not sold it for $2 million.

The whole point of it was a publicity ploy
to make people aware of it.

- Smart man. We went to England.
- Yeah. It worked.

Besides his construction, I think
you should emphasise his dedication.

His wife left him. He's obviously
had problems because of this.

- He's still...
- It's his therapy.

Anyone listening to this, when your wife
leaves you, this is what you do.

These transitions were created
by Gabriel Koerner as well.

What I wanted to do was show
where we were in a quick, simple way,

and Gabriel designed the panel effect.

Mike went to Venice
to get these shots.

I stayed on the beach.
Denise, did you stay on the beach?

I did. I did go up to a strange little
mountainous village with my family,

where they sold Mussolini wine.

Couldn't figure that one out.
There were all these pictures of II Duce.

- There's your son.
- There he is.

It was fun. The water was warm, too.
It was nice for swimming,

although there were
jellyfish everywhere.

And this is the big difference
between the conventions.

This was really about the food
and community and sharing.

The food is no joke in Italy.

The entire convention would stop
and we would meet for lunch at noon

and all eat together
and have this four-course meal,

go back to the convention
and at seven o'clock meet again.

The convention stops for two hours,
so we can eat together,

but the whole country stops
for two hours at lunch and dinner.

It's part of their culture and it extends to
the Star Trek convention.

- It's a great idea.
- Life as an addendum to food.

It was four or five courses,
one course after another.

The first time we ate lunch there,
they brought this plate of pasta

and then they kept bringing
more and more.

When does it stop?

This is Raffaello D'Agliano.

We felt we needed to put him
by the canal because he was in the navy.

It made sense. We had him redo
that story several times,

so we could get the close-up.

Also because cars kept driving by
and we had to do it over again,

he had to keep telling us his story.

I noticed they spoke less English in Italy
than some of the other countries

where we visited.

I think part of that was due to the fact
they see more dubbed programming

as opposed to subtitled.
If it's subtitled, then they hear English.

This is Andrea Papina. We almost
went to his house for an interview,

but we had to go to Florence, because
we had a Bill-tastrophe moment.

Our sound mixer's passport
was stolen,

so we had to get him a new passport
so we could go to Serbia next.

Our car was broken into.

That was the only thing
that befell us on this whole trip.

The best costumes
of any country are in Italy.

You've got a country full of Italian tailors.

They are nice, but later
I'll point out something

that was the most endearing uniform.

You really get a sense of the different
countries and the different styles.

Father Bernie Carman's an American
priest who comes every year

to the Italian convention.

Richard Arnold was
a little nervous about us showing

his Catholic Mass that takes place
at the convention.

I'm not sure why. There's no reason
the two can't coexist.

Well, it might have something to do
with the fact that Gene Roddenberry

was a devout atheist.

I found it fascinating,
just the mixture of the two things.

A moment we didn't get on camera

was when he does the Father,
Son and Holy Spirit

and he moves into a Vulcan salute.

That was a bummer we didn't get that.

That's part of documentary filmmaking,
a lot of missed opportunities.

You think back on all the things
that you didn't get.

Yeah, this is a serious guy.

He really brings his faith
into what he loves, which is Star Trek.

He had one of the best costumes, too.

Massimo and Jessica, they are
the ones we went home with.

We went to their store
and we did this interview with them.

We finished and had to
get to the airport in an hour

because of Bill's passport issue,

in order to be able
to get him on an aeroplane.

As we were packing up the equipment,
they said,

"By the way, we have this Star Trek
bridge in our basement."

I said, "What?
You didn't mention this till now?"

It's like you go to the doctor
and on the way out you say,

"I vomited blood this morning.
Does that mean anything?"

Nice metaphor, Rog.

I went down and got two shots of them

sitting in their bridge.

This was great. Remember?
This is an interesting story.

The power went out
and it was a high-security alert

and we're trying to grab a shot.

Basically slipped into the naval base.

Did we have permission?

We weren't sure, but we were
determined to grab that shot

and I could see the military police
walking toward us and thought,

"God, guys, we are so busted."

- But then they were totally cool.
- We had the shot in the camera anyway.

Is this the stop where we all
went out for sushi one night?

- Yes. The famous sushi I bought and...
- They double-ordered.

We'd all finished eating and Mike
accidentally ordered $50 more sushi,

'cause there was
a communication issue.

It's odd that we had
the communication issue in the US.

We travelled the world,
but I double-ordered sushi in the US.

I'm just bummed out that I missed it.

Then we packaged it up
and gave it to the valet parkers.

Bob Boudrouw made
another appearance in Trekkies.

He was in Trekkies and he returned with

a few more well-placed assessments
of the Trek fan psyche.

Why are we back in the US?

We wanted to check in
on some of our original profilees

and we didn't want
to neglect the United States.

Daryl Frazetti is on the East Coast
and we wanted to see him again,

the person who dresses his cats up
in Star Trek uniforms.

I remember Daryl told me
that his guidance counsellor

once suggested that he put his Trekkies
appearance on his resume.

Daryl Frazetti will probably make it
into Trekkies 3, if we do another.

I'd love to spend
another week with Daryl.

Yeah. Daryl sent all these great books
on geology and geodes

and fossils to my son Augie.

- That was nice.
- Yeah, Augie was really into it with him.

Jacqueline Lichtenberg, we actually
interviewed her in Newport Beach,

but we fitted her in here.

We could spend the whole movie
with her, she had so much information.

I had never actually been
to a Klingon bash before.

I don't know how I missed it, those guys.
It was Vaughn Armstrong and...

Robert O'Reilly is one
of the fuzzed-out faces.

This is the extreme fans segment
and the first of our theme questions.

One of my interests in doing a sequel
was to ask the fans

the questions about the issues they were
most critical of in the first Trekkies.

That we only showed
the more extreme fans, for instance.

It was their biggest criticism. I thought,
"Let's decide what's too extreme.

"Let's ask the fans themselves
and let them define it for us."

You could tell everybody agreed.

I knew there'd be no consensus.
There never is on an issue like that.

It's like the Trekkies vs.
Trekkers controversy.

No matter how extreme
you consider people,

they always thought there was
somebody more extreme than them.

One of my favourite moments
was interviewing Tony Alleyne

and he realised that he was
starting to sound like an anorak.

It's a moment for him there.
That's in the bonus material also.

This is Paul Rudeen. I like his folksy,
down-home, Minnesota approach.

Whether you get a tan or not
is the defining issue

of whether you're too extreme.

They all have anecdotes about people
who are more extreme than them.

Richard Arnold made another
appearance in Trekkies 2.

Dominic Keating, we caught up
with him in Australia

and we almost didn't get him.

We were going to interview him
in Sydney

and then he said, "No. Try me again
in Melbourne." Which we did.

And then he said OK. I'm glad he did
because he had some funny stories.

Tracy Scoggins has a great point
about going too far.

Just walk down Rodeo Drive.

We had to check in on Bobbie,
or Barbara Adams.

She's arguably the most famous
Star Trek fan in the world.

In the universe.

I don't think there's anyone else
more notorious. She has a following.

People come to her to get things signed.

And she's actually a great artist, too.

- Yeah, she is.
- Some of these drawings are beautiful.

- She's so sweet.
- She seems like it.

You guys must have had
a blast making this.

- Meeting these people.
- I really love our subject matter.

They're great people. I respect Barbara,
who makes a commitment to something.

I notice this thread of goodness in them.
That religious joining earlier.

It makes sense.

The charity work.
What was neat about travelling is

those customs doors would open
and we knew we would be greeted

by half a dozen
excellent human beings.

They would take us and show us around.

They took great care of us.

I remember we landed in Arkansas
in the middle of a storm.

We walked out of our hotel
and saw tornadoes

coming over the town of Little Rock,
right over downtown.

There's a photograph I put on
the website of a tornado going right by.

I would have to say
the second-best meal of the entire trip

to all eight countries
was in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Every night, me and David Doyle
and Bill Martel, camera and sound,

we went to a little shack
in downtown Little Rock

and they had the best
fried catfish. It was incredible.

Every night we'd go there
and have the same thing.

Even David Doyle?

Yeah, Mr Fried Food.

This a moment where the documentary
gods are shining on us.

We showed up and had a seven foot...

He's actually six foot seven
and I believe she's just under five feet.

- So the differential really struck.
- Did you stage this, Roger?

How could you?

- I love it.
- This is her living room.

- Is that right?
- Yeah.

Joel Soisson was going to be here.
He's our other executive producer.

But he said he didn't approve of people
being on commentary tracks

who have nothing to contribute, so I said,
"You should come here and say that

"and leave and slam the door
on your way out."

The uncanny resemblance.

This is Jean Whitehead. She lives
in the same complex as Barbara.

Jean Whitehead had just gone
to this UFO convention

and that was pure luck on our part that
she could come back and report to us

about having been there.

This is actually a portrait...

So that alien, I presume, sat for that.

I wonder if Jean saw
the alien sitting for that.

No, she just received that as a prize.

A door prize.

Barbara says the guardians
are looking out for us,

but I'd say the guardians must be
on a lunch break

- with the way things are in the world.
- No kidding.

They need to come back
and pay attention.

This was probably the most fun,
colourful place I've ever visited.

- Especially for you, Rog.
- It was great.

The nightlife there is amazing.
Unbelievable.

Insane. If you go to Brazil, you gotta go
with rope tied around your waist

so your friends can yank you
out of there

before you get stuck in that country,
enjoying yourself.

- We had three single guys there.
- This was amazing, this helicopter ride.

S?o Paulo is 14 million people.
It's massive.

They removed the door. I was strapped
in, so I could look down and see.

They asked if I'd be frightened to do
that and I said, "No. Let's do it."

- No vertigo?
- No, it was wild.

I was in the front seat holding
the camera and Mike and I took turns

because our DP, David Doyle,
wouldn't go on the helicopter.

He was afraid to get on the helicopter.

I think he'd seen Apocalypse Now
too many times.

This is great. Watch this.

I was holding the camera here
and it sounds a lot worse than it was.

She just hits the microphone
and then puts my eye out.

I love that she's so apologetic.

She's supposed to be a Klingon
and not care about those things.

Brazil is where Orson Welles didn't finish
a movie, speaking of Apocalypse Now.

It's Hearts Of Darkness,
the whole crew got lost there.

He should have had a rope around his
waist and had someone yank him out.

A couple of guys left their wives and...

Wow, not surprising.
It does kind of put a spell over you.

- Who are these...?
- Brazilians.

- Trek fans.
- Those are Trekkies.

This is Denizar Franco. He was
the first person we interviewed there.

I remember his apartment.
He had friends come over.

It was cramped and there was
excitement in the air

and I hid behind that refrigerator
for the interview.

- Why? Were you afraid of him?
- I'm not supposed to be on camera.

- There were no places to hide.
- I see.

Now, this is really funny.

When you knocked over
his super-valuable figurine,

I knew, at that second,
that is definitely in the movie.

There's no doubt in my mind.

There are a few of those,
but this is a great one. Watch his face.

He's been saving up for ever.

I don't even know
where they're supposed to go.

- What were you doing?
- I was going to play with them.

I had a Barbie doll house
when I grew up.

- I know what to do with these things.
- He was very nice about it.

I know. Poor guy. Oh, God.

- Who's this?
- Serginho Caffe.

He's a great example
of a very successful person

who just happens to like to wear
a Star Trek shirt to work.

- He's a radio personality there.
- Yeah.

Very big following. Sometimes he talked
about Star Trek on the air, but not often.

It was something
he liked to do in his own time

and was a part of who he is.

We shot this through the window.
It has a different look.

We're shooting through a window
that had years

of greasy palms pressed against it.

And here's famous Ralfo.

Oh, Ralfo.

- We love you, buddy.
- We do.

He really gave us a great tour of the city.

He is just a great cartoonist.

- This is his own work.
- In his store.

By the way, he's moved.
The store was in a basement

where water was leaking
through the wall.

He's moved to a nicer location.

This guy's not necessarily a Trekkie.

- He's just a publisher.
- He's both. He's into both.

He's wearing
a little communicator badge.

He's very philosophical about it.
Obviously he's making money,

but he's definitely understood
the reality of the world of Trek.

What was the English factor?

It was similar to Italy, where
they spoke less English.

This is a segment
where we asked people,

"When is it appropriate to wear
Star Trek uniform in public?"

Barbara Adams took a lot of heat
for wearing her uniform to jury duty

and I was hoping to have somebody
debate her on the subject.

We got lucky 'cause somebody did.

And leave it to Brannon Braga
to sum up the reality of it.

Yeah, it was great to have
Brannon in this movie also.

He's so funny. He's so dry.

He is, and he's been a great support.

That's Jacqueline Lichtenberg again.

She's one of the original people

who were involved
in the first Star Trek conventions.

Robert Burnett was someone
we got in toward the end.

I'm glad we got him in the movie

'cause he's now a luminary
in the Star Trek world

because of Free Enterprise,
and he's a major Star Trek fan.

He was as enthusiastic
as anyone we met.

We forgot to put this in the cut
and then you went back and...

Yeah. I added this really late. I found it.

I had 150 hours of footage
to wade through

and one of the last nuggets
that I dug out of that footage

was Richard Arnold's
Gene Roddenberry anecdote,

which sort of settles the debate
about Trekkies and Trekkers.

- Does it really?
- For me.

You gotta go with Gene Roddenberry's
take on it if you're going to make a call.

This is Benjamin Ossoff and I love
the fact he watched the same film

where some people took issue with
Barbara Adams wearing a uniform.

He saw that and it was
a positive influence on his life.

I think the topic of this movie
and the film are like a Rorschach test,

where people see different things

depending on what's inside themselves.

This is a nice moment here.
We get the debate first hand.

He did not know Barbara Adams was in
the room. It was a total surprise to him.

I love her. She's one of my favourites,
too, this nurse.

Catherine Blakley is her name.
She's cool.

What she says sums it up at the end.

She's so accepting of herself
for who she is, and I love that fact.

That's what a lot
of these Star Trek fans are like.

- These guys were from Spain.
- They met us in England.

We did get some Spaniards in the movie,
which was nice.

Robby Amper, who is also a fan-film
director, is fairly famous in Germany

for his fan films,
which have aired on German network.

He makes a great point here.

There's Ben.
He was part of the first group.

He's famous for being part of the original
Star Trek convention organisers.

I learned a little bit of Portuguese.

I won't ask what that means.

I don't know either.

What's this?
Where did we go to a yacht club?

- In San Diego.
- Where did that come from?

- I don't remember that location.
- That was a quick pick-up.

We were going to go shoot at Comicon
and we went to San Diego,

but they would not give us
press credentials.

So we said, "Whatever. Forget it."

But we did pick up interviews
that we had pre-arranged.

This is her great moment.

I love this.

The fringes?

This is great, too. She's just
trying to get it straight here.

I think the fringes are where it's at.

You mention that people
were inspired by the first film.

You know, Gabriel did a number
of TV shows for what's-his-name.

Yeah. He was on
The Drew Carey Show twice.

He was the Star Trek geek
on Beat The Geeks.

The whole thing with Drew Carey
is I was doing a guest spot

and I came on to do the first table read

and Drew was so excited I was there.

You know, from Trekkies.
Not Star Trek, but from Trekkies.

Speaking of Gabe, here he is.

Yeah, and I think Drew saw in Gabe
what he was back in the day.

Which happened a lot
in the first Trekkies.

Gabriel has a lot of fans.
We had to revisit Gabriel.

No way to do a sequel
and not check in on Gabriel.

He did all the cards for this.

All the visual effects, he did
on his home computer right behind him.

I just have one question.
Where's his mullet?

Yeah. I think
he has updated his hairstyle.

That's just not right.

Something wrong with that.

Maybe he doesn't have
an achy-breaky heart any more.

He's married.

He's great.

Every place we went, we tried to get
five or six visuals to sum up the location,

and the visuals for Bakersfield
are some of my favourite.

It totally sums up...
We nailed Bakersfield.

Gabriel's wife Allison, she was a little
shy about going on camera at first.

- I heard she wasn't going to do it.
- We had to talk her into it.

I'm glad she did. She really opened up
and augments Gabriel's stories.

Yeah, she completes him.

I like all the candles
burning in the background.

The mood. I like that.

They had just moved there
and the place was bare.

All we could find were two candles and
a couple of appliances for that corner.

- And the Enterprise.
- An Enterprise Gabriel had in his car.

It is amazing.
They are two peas in a pod.

While he was this geeky Star Trek kid,
she was a Goth chick at 15.

So they melded these two worlds
and are happily married in Bakersfield.

As much as Gabriel has changed,

his dad Richard Koerner
hasn't changed an iota.

Now, we saved all of
our California stops for last.

We loaded up a van and went
on the road around California.

Bakersfield was hot. It was really hot.

In his little tiny garage
to shoot the movie.

I just love the fact that Richard Koerner
is just so committed to his son,

you know, so supportive
of his endeavours.

- Loses his job, loses his fianc?e...
- And just keeps going.

"But goes, man, this is what my kid likes
and this is what I'm doing."

Now, you guys, Billy and JJ are here.

You guys did a great musical score.
It's from surf to Serbia.

- Surf to Serbia and back through Brazil.
- I love it.

What was the challenge like?

Well, the challenge for us, I think,

was that it was required
that we go all over the world,

so we had to get
a string quartet for France.

We had to do the English beat meets...

You know, Sid Vicious,
the English punk for England.

Serbian music I had to investigate,
'cause I'd never listened to it.

So I had to really listen to Serbian music.

So the challenge was
that everywhere we went,

we had to come up with something
that was true to that country.

Then you got Roger breathing
down over your shoulder,

who has rewrites and re-requests,
and that's just part of the game, I think.

For any composer working for a director,

they have their own idea about what they
want. That challenge was on top of it.

Remember you did France?
The first thing you turned in.

That really solidified for me
you doing this gig.

We didn't change a thing there. It was
great from the first to the last note.

It was nice to have you guys
on board again for the second one.

That continuity, I think it's great.

It's appreciated when film-makers come
back to people that started on a project.

That's where we felt that we had
an obligation to rise to the occasion

and do whatever we need to do
to deliver a score.

And it was challenging for us. It's a lot
of different styles of music, you know.

It was hot in this garage.
It was about 105 or 110.

I want to comment on that.
That beard is incredible.

- Is that fake?
- Yeah.

All I know watching this now
is I think of everywhere I hid,

behind walls and refrigerators,
trying to get out of the way.

- Which is not an easy task.
- Especially in these small places.

Gabriel has the most memorable
quotes from the first Trekkies,

and so we reprised a few of them here
just so he could give us an update.

His IQ, what is it, 200 or something,
this guy? I love him.

He's got a couple of good quotes
in this one.

He's got a great sense of humour
about it all.

- He gets it.
- Feel the power.

You can't harm Gabriel.
He's impervious to criticism, to insult.

He is comfortable in who he is.

I tell you, he is my idol.

I want to be like Gabriel.

- How old is he?
- 21 right now.

- And he's that together.
- I know.

Velma was having a ball with us,
the great-great-grandmother-in-law

and the three generations
of mother-in-laws.

All right, here's the shot. This is
my one shot I'm actually in the movie.

I think I'm sleeping on the train.
That's it. Sound asleep.

What's great about that
is in the car we were riding in,

the air conditioning had broken
and it was so unbelievably hot

that eventually I left that car
and found another one,

but Mike and David insisted
on just staying put

and I think they were passing out,
actually, from the heat.

They thought they were sleeping,
but they were passing out.

Did you mostly spend time in Paris?

Yeah. Paris is the most beautiful city
I have ever seen.

There are so many landmarks,
you can't see them all,

and every corner is art and architecture
and delicious food, museums.

- Tell us about her.
- She's the daughter of her.

OK.

That's Pascale
and her daughter Valentine.

They did not have a convention
scheduled in France,

so we made a special trip
to meet with this fan club

and, Denise, you made these contacts

for both France and Serbia
through Charlie Wall.

Right, Charlie is a writer
for The Communicator,

which is one of
the official Star Trek magazines

and...Charlie's name was brought up
to me and he was...

Really, I give him credit for
finding France and Serbia for us.

We've got him hard at work now
digging out Star Trek fans in Asia.

Trekkies 3.

- See, this guy knows how to live.
- Man, this was outrageous.

He must have made 15 quiches,
different quiches, by hand, you know.

This is a moment where we failed,

because right behind him is a wall
of Star Trek videos in his kitchen.

We did a pan over to it,
but we saw Bill in the shot.

You know, you just eat and drink
and eat and drink some more.

All we did. Talk about Star Trek
and then eat and drink some more.

Let's all move there.

Our lactose-intolerant DP could not wait

to get the hell out of
this cheese-soaked country.

- I know.
- This guy wrote a bunch of scripts.

He's got all these scripts here
and none of them are accepted

and he just laughs it off.

And he drew this cartoon book.
This guy's my hero. Look at this guy.

I know. And that was when he was a kid.

Another example of how phenomenal
these fan films are.

I had a lot of trouble finding
an ending for the France segment.

So I finally ended it on one of
Eric's stories about his comic book

and how he had to
move on to something else.

- He laughs. It was great.
- Look at this.

We laughed at
where he shrugs his shoulder...

We watched this 50 times.

There you go.

There goes 20 years of work.

So there's our ending for France.

Oh, God love him.

Normal fans. The most common
criticism that I have received

was, "You need to show
more 'normal' fans",

and my response was always,
"OK, but who decides what's normal?"

So again, let's ask the Star Trek fans.

Yeah. And what do they say?
Is there any general gist here?

Well, once again
it's hard to find a consensus.

Nobody can decide what is normal
or what's too far. They all disagree.

So once again it's a very accepting,
open society that's basically good.

That's what I get from it.

We found that a lot of Star Trek fans
revel in their oddness.

- It's all accepted. They value difference.
- Right.

It's a perfect society. I like it.

I'm joining.

- There's room. They'll let you in.
- I know they will.

- Where's this?
- Germany.

She had a romance brewing
with her fellow Trek fan.

That's on the bonus material.

A lot of romances ignite
at these conventions.

Another great cogent way
to sum it up from Brannon,

that if we did a documentary
on the average Star Trek fan,

we would bore everyone to tears.

If you did a documentary
on great sports heroes,

you wouldn't do it
on the guy who bats 200,

you'd do it on the exceptional player
who bats 400.

He summed it up right there.

This is one of my favourite moments.
What great timing.

Two fellas...

Two fellas...from Adelaide.

Phil Morris makes a great point.

He sums it up that if your obsessiveness
enhances your personality,

then it's a good thing. Why not?

He also has nice biceps.

Kind of like me. I felt a kinship with him.

You guys wear similar T-shirts.

- This is a great moment.
- I'm a little bigger than him.

- That's right.
- The hand grab for the microphone.

So desperate to talk.

Everybody obsesses about something.
I guess that's the point. We all do.

We're all obsessive about something.

Good examples of that.

She reminds me
of the way my mother was.

If someone's teasing you,
it's their problem. I love that.

Good advice.

Vaughn Armstrong became
the star of our bonus material.

He's all over it playing his ukulele.

He learned that ukulele to have
something to do at these conventions.

He went to a convention
and it was a disaster for him.

He didn't have anything prepared,
so you gotta learn a shtick.

Beautiful location. My God.

Yeah, that was in Munich.

We drove to Munich
just to meet with Robbie.

That's where I had a plate of schnitzel.
First time I've eaten pork in ten years.

- But I figure, when in Rome...
- It was good.

Or Munich. It was delicious.

Although, in Germany, every other
restaurant is an Italian restaurant.

- So...
- But really Italian.

It's not about
German food in Germany.

I loved this cue.
This cue was so fun to do.

Whistling.

Didn't you have to pitch that up?

I whistled twice
and everything worked out.

You did the whistling. Could you
give us a little taste of it now?

I can't. I can't do it.

Minnesota's my home state, so I know
what makes Minnesotans tick.

And I've known Brian Dellis
since college,

who we're about to focus on next.

He's our local Star Trek person
that we spent time with.

He's made Star Trek-related videos
ever since I've known him.

Brian's a good example
of people in Minnesota.

Brian and Paul Rudeen, Ken Wieken.

This is a clip from the original Trekkies.

We needed to choose some of
our original profilees to follow up on,

and some were available
and some weren't,

and Brian was available.

Just funny.

David Doyle and I and my 11-year-old
nephew shot this convention.

So the audio's not always that stellar
on this particular stop.

Brian's the real thing. He's had
Star Trek on his business card

ever since I've known him,
him in a Star Trek uniform.

You show some clips of some early
movies later, don't you? Of his.

Paramount should get him
to hawk Trekkies 2.

He's a promo man.

He's like the old Barnum & Bailey variety.

He's a force of nature.

This was fun -
the Klingon battle tournament.

We looked at the schedule
and only had time for a couple of things.

That sounded interesting.

I feel sorry for the family that came out
to Minnesota that same weekend

and are in their hotel room
looking out the window.

The atrium of their hotel lobby.

These are priceless.

This is some of my favourite stuff
in the movie.

This is just unbelievable.

Yeah, same guys.

- Together since the beginning.
- Are they lovers?

You can ask him
at the screening tonight.

Tonight is our premiere. I'm in a tie.

We're going to Paramount
to screen this movie.

You're wearing an orange shirt
like the guy in Suckers.

Yeah, right.

- My other film, Suckers.
- Give it a plug.

Now, Brian shot his fan film, The
Final Frontier Revisited, in two days.

Actually two half-days,
he shot this whole thing.

Where can you see this movie, Roger?

- On our bonus material.
- Sweet.

There's a commentary track
that goes along with that

that the three guys,
Brian and Paul and Ken, recorded.

Look at that picture. It's 20 years earlier.

He's still got the picture
from when he was 22.

And where is this set?

This is Hastings, Minnesota,
where there is this town...

A guy who owned 20 acres
just started buying up old buildings

and transporting them to his land,

and put them all there
and now he just has this Old West town.

So you can go out and film
a Western out here?

- You just gotta ask him.
- Really?

They shoot commercials there, too,

and all the extras are from
the Old West Society in Minnesota

and they donated their time
and their horses and wagons and guns.

It's all authentic. The guns
are original 100-year-old guns.

So what's the theme of this?
What's the general story, real quick?

That's his grandfather.
He's gone back in time.

It's time travel. There are
these typical Star Trek stories,

and one typical story is time travel.

And so the guy goes back in time
and confronts his...

Great-great-great-great-grandfather.

I put a ringing sound here.

There is a possibility that I attended
the same Alice Cooper concert

that Brian mentions,

because I did see Alice Cooper
at the Hollywood Bowl in the '70s.

I just remember a lot of snakes and that
was during his snake glam rock period.

Did he put himself in a guillotine?

- I think so.
- I saw it, too.

Synchronicity.

- This guy here, wow.
- Yeah, he's surreal.

- I think those are his real ears.
- That's Ken Wieken.

He lived in the same neighbourhood.
They all grew up together.

David Doyle, our DP, or Crazy Eye, as
Dave Smith called him in Sacramento,

was panicky from
how loud those guns were.

Those are full-load blanks there.

Yeah. By the way, just as a footnote,
he was called Crazy Eye

because he'd put one eye up to the
camera but look around with the other,

and it appeared
that his eyes could look

independently of one another,
like a reptile.

And they can, right?
I caught that a few times.

That's just one of many interesting
attributes of David Doyle.

There's a shot in here where
I actually thought it was David Doyle.

Everybody in Minnesota looks the same.

There. I thought that was David Doyle
when I first saw it.

That's Kim Thomassen.
He's an actor/comedian in Minnesota,

who worked with Brian.

I love the Minnesota accent,
how Brian pronounces "roof" as "rough".

Very Minnesota, accent-wise.

So he's killed his grandfather and now
he disappears because he never existed.

- You got it.
- That's more than I ever...

I'm still fixated on
the David Doyle look-alike.

Right. I thought
that was him, too, actually.

I think we all had a breakdown
at one point on the trip

and Australia was my breakdown,
where I was so sick for two days

and I just sort of pushed through it
to keep shooting.

It was SARS, wasn't it?

Let's remind our listening audience
that we flew back from Serbia

and had one day off
before we flew to Australia.

Talk about jet lag. I just collapsed,
I think, from all that travelling.

- Body shutdown.
- These guys were great.

He is the didgeridoo musician.

Billy tried to record some things here,
some didgeridoo, to augment this,

but it really showed just how great
what this guy's doing.

He's doing the real thing. It's so difficult.

He was just a street musician
in Sydney harbour.

Kathleen Copper,
she wins the tattoo award hands down.

She does. She didn't strike me
as a tattoo chick.

I thought we'd have to
do some persuading...

Not at all. No.

I guess if you get a tattoo,
the idea is to show it off.

I'm going to send this DVD
to her parents, so they can find out.

- This is Denise's finest moment.
- I love this quote.

Great. Great shot. Thanks, Rog.

Everybody was loose
and having a good time.

We're on a big floating ship
in the harbour

and with an unlimited amount of wine.

Nourishment.

Here's the last shot of the movie.

Connor Trinneer was the last interview.

We called his manager
for a photo clearance.

He suggested we interview him,
which is a first. It never happens.

Offered him right up.

We had some digital distortion
in Australia also

and I think it had to do with the PD-150.

It's not as stable a camera
as the DSR-500,

which were the two cameras we used,
the two DVCAM cameras.

And this guy hand-makes
these ships on Sydney harbour.

Beautiful craftsman.

He was there sanding
those little pieces by hand.

A thing I noticed is these quick edits,
but there are some interesting gems.

Very involved, all this,
what they're talking about.

The editing style that I went for here
was to keep it moving,

keep it bouncing, but there's not a
wasted frame between each sound bite.

There's no pause, so that when we do
pause, then the pause has emphasis.

You said you had 150 hours.

Yeah, it took me eight months
to wade through the footage.

- What's the running time?
- 93 minutes.

- And still seven minutes too long.
- Right.

It's always too long.
It's never short enough.

In every country we looked for somebody
to go home with and get in depth with.

We almost struck out in Australia.

We did. This is a last-minute grab,
then all of a sudden Judy appeared.

The last day of the last convention
we met her.

I knew immediately such a beacon
of positive energy would be great.

- The greatest smile.
- Great family.

Gabriel was like that from the first one.
You met Gabriel standing in line.

Yes, Denise did and we just did
the briefest of interviews with him.

"Hi, I'm Gabriel. I'm 14."

And then I was watching
the footage and I thought,

"This kid's different. He's interesting."

- Very articulate.
- We went back to him.

The younger daughter is corralled
into this. The older one is...

She's already broken out of the cult.

I love the generational difference here.

She's embarrassed by it now,
but she's at that age

when you rebel against everything.

Everything's embarrassing to her.

The teenage girls are embarrassed
by the ladies that come over

and have tea
and look at the heavenly bodies.

That was the unpredictable direction
of this segment.

You never know.
With a documentary, it's a journey.

You don't know where it's going to
take you and we met these women

talking about why they loved Star Trek
and it led in this direction,

where they just loved
to watch the bodies, the men.

We were going to go home
with Judy and talk to her

and she says, "Do you want me
to get the girls?" What girls?

"We get together every week." Within
hours, she had this group at her house

and we were there to interview them all.

And once again, heavy doses
of self-acceptance all around.

We were mixing this and it made me
laugh when our sound mixer,

who did a brilliant job, he says at this
quote, "Star Trek's good for everything."

I did not always remember
and I need to remember to do it better,

to get cover shots, get cutaways,
get reactions, get nodding heads,

because in the editing room
you can get stuck.

This is fun,
just to get his response to this.

Yeah. We had this clip
and we were showing Connor

what all his Aussie girlfriends
were saying about him.

"He's a bit of an all right."
I like that expression.

We asked him if he had a message
he would give that we could pass on

to the women of Australia,
and he gave this sweet message

and we made an MP3 and emailed it
to them, which they put on their website,

and everyone in Australia heard it.

If you ask us, do you want me to sing?

- Beg me.
- Of course we want you to sing.

This is when we knew
we had to find her home

and check out more about her.

She's very focused
on what she's interested in.

- Extremely.
- And very normal.

You know, the typical family.
Husband, wife, two kids.

Back to our home base, and how do you
sum up Los Angeles in five or six shots?

Traffic.

Surf music for LA.

Brannon was ready for a follow-up.

This time we invited the assistants to
talk about their fan experiences.

They have a lot of great anecdotes
because they deal with Star Trek fans.

On a daily basis, they get phone calls.

On the first film, we had Brannon
talking about all the packages sent in.

How do you top that? A great story,
but this time we have the crab guy.

Yeah. And, by the way, the guy
who sends the travel brochures

and just letters about what he had
for lunch, he's still sending them.

There they are. His desk is piled high
with that week's packages.

David Goodman,
another producer we interviewed,

didn't he tell you
about Romeo And Juliet?

He did. We credit David with that find.
That's coming up.

This is, to me, unbelievable.
I mean, I kind of want to see this show.

I hope somebody will make the crab
show. Electra The Giant Robot Crab.

This might be the impetus
to get that show made.

If anyone's listening.

Let's fish.

It's an obsession. Once again,
another facet of obsessive behaviour.

Romeo And Juliet: The Last Battlefield.

This was a gold mine, a nugget that fell...

Here we are in LA, but we don't know
it exists and someone says,

"By the way..." We're there
the next night with the camera.

I shot this and I keep thinking,
"Did David Doyle shoot anything?"

- Where is this in LA?
- This is in the tiniest theatre off of...

- No.
- It's between Hollywood and Sunset.

- Next to the Lava Lounge.
- And these are real thespians.

These are guys that are...

I had to have them re-enact crucial
scenes to get some coverage,

like the "Wherefore art thou Romeo?"
scene, for instance.

What was weird, having seen the whole
play - it does mesh these two things.

It's not as insane as you'd think.

- He pulled out an artefact from his past.
- Real fans.

- What year was that?
- '76.

I like this, how he shows
an example of how

Gene Roddenberry did borrow
from Shakespeare.

"Live long and prosper"
is basically taken from Shakespeare.

The audiences were having
as much fun as the actors.

I love the garage lights
up there on the ceiling.

Art just needs to happen.
You can't stop it.

It worked.

What was the audience like that night?

Some were in uniform,
some had half-white, half-black face.

So, like fans coming out
to support the theatre.

The filk segment belongs to Mike and
Stacy Chess, my editorial assistant.

Bill Martel shot it. I wasn't there.

It's a great segment.
It was headed for the bonus material,

but we loved it so much
we had to squeeze it in.

When I saw this,
this was priceless to me.

Again it's just the other expression of art.

These people are serious
and there's a lot of humour in it,

but they love the artistic expression.

And it's a unique aspect
of Star Trek fandom

that a lot of people don't know about.

Science fiction folk songs.
And Leslie Fish is an icon.

- Who did our continuity script?
- Rick's wife Fran.

Right, Fran, and she said, "Leslie Fish,
my gosh, you got her in this movie."

It brought back memories for her

'cause she's a superstar
in the filk world.

You came in the next day, Mike.

I had them strike off three copies
of this immediately.

These two girls were my favourite.
I need to look them up.

We need to do something
about them exclusively.

It'd be great to go and spend a week
with them and see their lives.

Wait till you hear the song. It's beautiful.

- They have beautiful voices.
- Their dad's in the background.

That's his real hair and they're playing...

I don't even want to talk over this
'cause I love it so much.

I like the way Bill recorded it, too.

Bill put a near mic and a far mic
and it captures what it's like to be there.

These are future Alanis Morissettes.

These girls are going to make it.

Unfortunately, they live near Alaska,
but we'll do something with them.

- Aren't they from Portland?
- That's near Alaska, isn't it?

We'll get an atlas out for you
when we get to the office.

- I don't know what that is.
- The unicorn guy.

The unicorn guy, of course.

This is the ballad
that Leslie Fish is best known for.

Everybody got up with her to sing.

They all knew every word.
We had them do it a couple of times

and I was singing by the second time.

This right here is what
that folk fake Chris Guest documentary...

- Mighty Wind.
- ...Mighty Wind wishes it could be.

- You don't need to make it up.
- This is just wonderful.

This is her smoking and drinking
in her hotel room with a few people

doing a private concert.
We set the camera up.

We got there, she'd written
another verse for a new song.

This is the Prime Directive segment,

where we needed to talk
about Star Trek charity work

and this is what you're talking about,
JJ, about how it's pervasive with fans.

I'd noticed that all the way through,
just watching as an observer here.

That sense of community,
it's very pliable, what it means to you,

and I think it's just an excuse
for something that's human.

Strangely enough,
being an alien sort of thing, isn't it?

It truly touches the best in people.

It allows people to really try
and be the best they can be.

When I was editing this,
it didn't quite flow

and Denise had the suggestion to move
the Donna Fleming segment to the end,

which played much better.
You were absolutely right about that.

I had the producer's assistants,
originally they ended the segment.

and it didn't quite end as well
because you can't top Donna's story.

No, it's real life-and-death situations.

We get serious here, and it was
intentional 'cause it's out there

and our job to document it
was to get all aspects,

and she drove far to be with us,
to tell us her story at the end of this clip.

That's true.

It was tough to do this interview, too,

because obviously this was
a very difficult thing for her to do.

Yeah. I wasn't present for this interview.

So this came as a complete surprise
to me when I viewed your cut, Roger.

And I was speechless.

I mean, being a mother myself,
I was so genuinely moved by it.

I just thought this is incredible.

And it's just one example for the
thousands of other examples out there

that we didn't meet or encounter.

For every one
there's another thousand just like it.

Which is a really nice segue, actually,
from that.

This is the heart of the movie for me,
and the uniforms,

they are all paper cut-out insignias
that they've taped to their blue shirts.

For the Serbian sci-fi club in Belgrade,
'cause there were two different groups.

They don't have a lot of money
and they needed to look the part,

so they went to this effort
of putting this together

on a limited budget, and it was
the most heartfelt uniform I saw.

What I sensed here was Star Trek,
they interpreted it as freedom.

Exactly.

Very well said.

It's a beacon of freedom
for their possible future.

If all these diverse people
can find a common peace,

then certainly the Muslims
and the Serbs,

you know, or the Croatians
and the Serbs, can find some peace.

Yeah. It's flared up since we've been
there, some of the in-fighting.

Right.

Everybody hates their neighbour, no
matter where you go around the world.

Hatfields, McCoys,
Serbians and Croatians.

Argentinians and Peruvians,
anywhere you go on the globe.

Indians, Pakistanis,
everybody hates their neighbour.

There are just too many people,
not enough land.

There it is. That's the insignia. It's just
a little piece of paper stuck to her outfit.

We're on top of the castle
for this interview.

And it's a nice-looking logo.

I had an opportunity to ride
the train with the camera.

An interesting story is once they heard
an American voice on this train car,

everybody got quiet in the whole car

and they all know English
and were listening

to the discussion I was having
with the people travelling with me.

When it pulled into the town, a man
started yelling something in Serbian

and I found out that he was announcing
to me, in his native tongue,

"This is my town.
This is where I'm from."

And he just wanted the American to
know the pride he had in his homeland.

This is Alexander Nedeljkovic,
the leader of the sci-fi club in Belgrade.

We were so tired
that we almost blew off that stop,

and he blew a gasket when we were
wavering about going there,

so we decided to make the stop
and I'm really glad we did.

I think his honour was at stake. He had
told everyone that we were coming.

Remember,
nobody had visited their country.

- They didn't want to lose an opportunity.
- That was part of it.

They were happy to see us.
Nobody visits them.

They can only travel
to the nearest five countries.

They need a visa to go anywhere
and it's difficult to get,

so they were like shut-ins.

It was huge. They built the convention
around Denise coming. Their first ever.

This is Veljko Vidic, and he owns
the only true Star Trek uniform in Serbia.

This is his mother
and the apartment they live in.

Yes, his mother was
quite a glamorous woman.

- Very proud.
- Very theatrical.

She was a like an old European
old-style actress.

I remember I brought a bottle
of water with gas in this room

and opened it up
and it sprayed and almost...

- Wrecked his drawings.
- Right.

But if you look at...
Veljko is an architecture student.

It's very detailed and specific.

And...he was like a kid,

pulling out his signed,
autographed baseball cards.

It was just unbelievable.
He wanted to show me everything.

Novi Sad is north of Belgrade and
it's where the Belgradians go to party.

It's a beautiful city,
full of beautiful architecture,

but it's also mixed with the very
plain-looking socialistic buildings.

- I was hiding behind that wall there.
- Next to Grandma.

And the incredible thing, too,
is that again here we are in Serbia,

a country that is struggling

and doesn't have much
in the way of excesses,

and they were so generous.

When we went to their house,
they had a table spread with food,

pulled out their best drinks.

Just, you know, again, people
generally that have less give more.

It was touching to be there.

The first convention ever. They felt like
they were joining the rest of the world

by having this convention.

They read on the internet how
everyone else has Star Trek conventions

and gets to share in that passion
and gather together.

They were joining the world community
of Star Trek fans.

There was electricity in this place.
It was hot. There was no elevator.

This is at the university
they're holding this,

where a number of them go to school,
and you'll see we were...

We were just dying of heat.

This girl memorised your entire death
speech and it's on our bonus material

and she recited it for us.

I think one of the most amazing things
was when a gentleman came up

and asked me to autograph a photo

and he was just
a big strong strapping farmer

that was working the fields all the time
and had those big calloused hands

and nits, you know,
and just gave me a photograph

and had tears in his eyes
that we were there

and that we recognised them.

We represent hope
or something to them.

There's a hope quality
that's really positive here.

Mike shot this segment with Relja,
and I told Mike after I saw it

that this is where you earned
your salary.

That was it, yeah.

I love how you shot the same story
in two locations, so I could intercut.

Yeah, I earned my $52.

There's movement here. I don't think
we have a lot 'cause of the talking heads.

A little different style.

Don't get us wrong.
David Doyle shot 95% of this movie,

but occasionally we would grab the
camera and grab something ourselves.

What time of year is this?
Where are you?

- Spring.
- Heading into summer.

- Yeah, May, June.
- It's nice and warm here at this point.

You can see the broken-down
infrastructure here.

We drove by buildings
that NATO had bombed

and bridges that were collapsed.

There's all bands in here.
This is all about bands.

There are five Star Trek-themed
tribute bands, all in Sacramento.

But they were all in cahoots
with each other in some way.

They know each other, played with
each other, been in each other's bands.

So there's a community of...
That's incredible.

Warp 11 is the first band and they take
the Star Trek tribute band role seriously.

They're really polished,
and their fans go nuts.

It's like being at a stadium rock concert,
a Def Leppard concert or something.

And the girls there you saw in red,
those are the Warpees.

The Warp 11 groupies.

They're satirical and fun.

Like all rock 'n' roll,
it's about drinking and sex,

and Star Trek, in this case.

They're obviously really into Star Trek
and have seen all the episodes.

It's hard to stop them.

The next band is No Kill I.

Seeing a No Kill I show to me is what it
would be like to see a Sex Pistols show.

You had no idea
what was going to happen next.

They were ready to walk off the stage
before it had even started.

They couldn't get friends in
on the guest list.

Weren't there bands with the same
name almost? No Kill I different versions.

- Exactly.
- Like Star Trek, there are sequel bands.

The audience was there for
the unpredictable nature of the show.

Mike, you were up front taking
pictures and then you bolted.

- You just panicked.
- I retreated. I gotta say...

- You were afraid?
- I don't think I was afraid.

- I just didn't want to get puked on.
- He was afraid.

He's on the floor and he's still singing.

That was Ed Hunter. Kirk.

We went to Dave Smith's place
the day after the show

and I think he was still hung over
when we interviewed him.

He's probably on a perpetual hangover.

He said in the old days he used to be,
but he took his drinking mug off the wall

just for this particular occasion.

There's a moment coming up
where I do pause.

I stopped and did a pause for emphasis,

which is right here when he is talking
about his Star Trek games.

Just so we could see
his thinking process.

I love the fact that he's an archbishop.

He ordered a certificate
through the mail for $5.

That's all it takes
to become a legal cleric.

Here's a sequel band.
These guys are great. Kind of ska.

They knew they were a parody
and totally play it up.

- So they're called No Kill I as well?
- The Next Generation.

And they were awesome.
Talk about getting the crowd into it.

I love his moves.

He was a replacement lead singer.
They couldn't find the original guy.

He had disappeared
and turned up subsequently,

pissed that they'd left him out,
but he was nowhere to be found.

This guy had long hair,
shoulder-length hair,

and they shaved it off just for
the Picard look for this concert.

This is No Kill I: Deep Space Nine.
Michael Leon, on the right

and singing now, he sent me a letter
after he had seen the first Trekkies.

He was the first contact I had
with these bands.

The letter looked like
it was written by a ten-year-old,

just kind of scrawled, which said,

"We play in this band.
Come and put us in your next movie."

- A few years later, it worked.
- Be careful what you ask for.

Stovokor, they come from Portland.

I think Dave Smith heard about them

and arranged to have them there
for the show.

That's near Alaska, isn't it?

- On your atlas.
- What does Stovokor mean?

It's the Valhalla for Klingons,
the place they go when a warrior dies.

Like he just explained.

I guess I should watch the movie.

Sorry.

Every one of these guys came out
and did their set and stole the show.

It was really a phenomenal evening.

Klingon death metal.

We interviewed them in the park
and, at one point,

they just start improv-ing with
a group who had stopped to watch.

I think, for me, this is
the funniest moment in the movie.

And the old guy was such a good sport.
I remember him just sitting there...

...and just saying, "I'm 93 years old."

That is...a riot.

I put the subtitles in for the songs

because you really do need to know
the lyrics of the songs to enjoy it.

Yes, and us old fogeys just can't hear
that rock 'n' roll too well any more.

There was some kind of a rivalry
going on between No Kill I and Warp 11.

A little bit of rivalry
and who came first and whose idea...

I think No Kill I was second
after The Shatners

and the other bands followed and
Warp 11 didn't want to orbit No Kill I.

They wanted to go
on their own trajectory.

Even with five bands, there was
plenty of room for everybody.

That's the rehearsal garage,
where they practise.

- There's Bill, our sound guy.
- Bill's cameo.

They all had
such a great sense of humour.

That was the overriding feeling
I got from Sacramento.

They'd totally embraced
Star Trek in a humorous way.

His lyrics are a blast.
They're really funny.

And just to hear that played live,
it's great.

Sums up the movie.

I love that quote.

Here's another Nygard clich?, the ending
montage with a look to the future,

but it's a sequel, and you have to follow
the original formula to some degree.

I like asking people to make predictions
'cause you get such diverse responses.

But you went far into the future with this.

Yeah. Looking at 100 years from now,
not next year.

What do you really predict
for the long term?

Richard Herd has a great quote
coming up where he says,

"The secret to any success
is not to give too much."

Which is so true.

This'll be a great idea for the Star Trek
movies to re-energise the franchise.

Do a Klingon movie,
a movie about just the Klingons.

That is a great idea.

The other interesting thing,
everybody had their favourites.

Every kind of Star Trek show
had fans, all over the world.

And factions and sub-factions
within sub-factions.

And here she is again, the blinker.

The stoic.

This was Jen's favourite quote.
The apple-pie quote.

Jen was our production
coordinator/associate producer.

It can be applied to so many
different aspects of life.

Even actually apple pie.

Gabriel's a smart guy.
You can ask him anything

and whatever
comes out of his mouth is gold.

He's just funny and he's fun to listen to.

This is Mike Standage,
and he was one of our hosts in England

and he makes a great point that the Star
Trek fan phenomenon is about family,

where people find a family atmosphere
and acceptance.

Your family has to accept you.
If you go home, they have to let you in.

That's what Star Trek
conventions are like.

This almost didn't end up
in the movie, did it?

No, you know, Joel Soisson was
the one who talked me into keeping it.

I was against putting in
this last montage.

It's like double montage upon montage

and I was a little egocentric
to put in self-referential reviews,

but it's fun to hear what people
thought about the first film

and again the criticism of the first film
gave them a chance

to air those points of view.

Yeah. A few people
really didn't appreciate it.

So it was neat to ask this question
and we're not shy.

We wanted to hear from everybody.

It was hard to get people who were
negative about Trekkies to talk about it.

When we did find someone, it was great.

I wanted to hear contradictory opinions.

It also sort of advertises Trekkies 3.

Here are all the things to come,
the people we didn't interview yet

from the first Trekkies.

Everybody missed the dentist.

- If we ever do a Trekkies 3.
- Did they?

A lot of people wanted
a follow-up on the dentist.

He's so memorable from the first one.

This was a blast. We learned a lot about
each other, travelling around the world.

It was quite an experience.
It was an Outward Bound experience.

Yeah, that's true. Survival of the fittest.

It was, and it's something
that would be fun to do again.

If they were all this fun.

The biggest mistake on the first trip
was we didn't allow any time to play,

and that's why we had more
nervous breakdowns on the first trip,

but we learned, and built in a couple
of vacation days everywhere we went.

It made all the difference.

Well, our travelling schedule was wild.

It would have taken down lesser men.

But we got through it.

We had a lot of people to thank
who helped us.

There was no way we could have
done this without their assistance,

and all the Star Trek fans
that we met, all the conventions.

Seeing it now, there's so many people
we didn't mention who were there for us

and we thank you.

Our apologies if we forgot you.
We did our best.

For credits, we tried to list everybody's
name who actually speaks on camera.

That was our criteria.

- Do you think you did it?
- I hope so. I don't know.

You'll hear.

If anyone sees a name discrepancy,
drop us an email and we'll fix it.

And if you're interested in Trekkies 3.

Let us know if you're worth
interviewing. We'll come to you.

- We did it in this one.
- We will find you.

Subtitles by Philip Macdonald