Geffen Playhouse

Hi David F

Sorry about the "I'" At the top of the page, there's supposed to be a "Studio Mail" to click on.

When my name appears as "I", the "Studio Mail" is there

If I use "Andy" or "Andrew" it disappears behind the "Upload Your Work" and I can't get to my mailbox.

If you look at a baby, all of his attention is devoted to identifying faces and faical expressions. Having a sense of what his parents are trying to communicate to him... is rewarded, and takes place without language or much conscious thought. If we have a connection to other people, that's where it comes from.

It's interesting to study the faces of actors, particulary on sitcoms... the regular viewers are determined almost totally by what their faces look like.

On Star Trek, the Klingon and Romulan makeup, and various alien races... totally cut off the audience wanting to watch the show. Jeri Ryan was the only actor who fit the mold... that, and Patrick Stewart's voice.

David:
Never had much use for Rumulans. The Vulcans gone bad where never convincing to me. Now Vulcans and Klingons I can understand, because I'm both at different times.

I believe that we are beings with spiritual power and a universal spiritual connection with the ultimate person I understand to be God, and the rest of humanity. If you have an interest in knowing more, I have recommended both the book "How God Changes Your Brain," about neurological studies on how the brain deals with faith and religion – written by an atheist and an agnostic, and the documentary,” The Quantum Advocate. The documentary focuses on the ideas of Quantum scientist Amit Goswani.

Goswanit says science has proved there is a conscience connection between human beings beyond what is physically possible. He postulates that what if a ultimate conscientiousness exists that provides conscientiousness to humans. And through whom we are all connected.

The authors of the book report that neurological science has determined that all brains are “hotwired for religion. The are using different kinds of religions meditation to deal with mental and physical health problems. The provide samples in the book and claim that even folks who don't believe in God, have shown improvement using these methods. They say that religion which advances a loving and forgiving God, improves compassion in human beings, improves their health, and also gives hope. All very good things. Unfortunately, toxic religion, the kind practices by Islamic terrorists, KKKers and such, has the opposite effect.

DOSCH
How lame can youi get? That santa claus proves there's no God was silly when it was first used eons ago. It is so silly. Seriously.

David,

I do know Michael R. A good guy. He was on first Season of Enterprise while I was taking a long and very enjoyable break from working. We were either in the same DGA Training class or one very close together, because we kept crossing paths many times over the years. Small world.

Did you work with him?

Calvin,

Thanks for the thoughts. No books in my future. There's an unwritten taboo in Hollywood: much like what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas: what happens on your show stays on your show. Celebs can dish all they want. The crew is expected to stay silent. Especially the AD's. People need to be able to trust that what they say will stay in confidence. I've been father-confessor to enough actors, directors and writers in my life to fill a couple of volumes. And I hope to be around for a couple more.

On your story idea about the Klingons and Vulcans, I don't know if you remember, but we had an episode on TNG like that, but it was Romulans and Klingons. The only reason I remember it was the actress who played Worf's love interest was in a Jeff Speakman movie I was the DGA Traineee on a few years before. Seeing her again on the TNG episode was a reminder to me of how important it is to be good to everyone you meet in the business, because you WILL work with everyone again (or not work if you can't play nice with others)... Luckily she was a sweetheart and I like to think I've always strived to be nice.

AS TO DEMONS IN THE REAL WORLD

I think you're right about this being a circular debate. Debating Demons is like debating God, the Big Bang or Dark Matter. It's a worthwhile exercise, but it takes place beyond the point where the laws of nature break down.

For my part, as I feel inclined to weigh in only toe deep on a philosophic debate, being in accord with Hamlet's admonition to Horatio that "there are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy" as well as a line from Ghostbusters "I've seen sh@t that would turn you white." I think that the greatest demons in the world are the ones we are capable of generating within ourselves. We do not need to imagine the devil to conure a Hitler, a Stalin or a Kim, but that does not exclude things beyond our ken from manifesting in this world. An open mind is vital to the artist, but the gullible may be bent to great evil in the name of good.

I think that most if not all manifestations of evil in the human mind are derived from our own frailties as creatures of the natural world. That said, I'm not going to bait the supernatural to test the theory.

I like my boring little life way too much. :)

Andy

You are not getting it. Because it deals only in the material, science is incapable of exploring spiritual matters. All it can do is study the material matter which may be influnced by the spiritual realm. So, I'm telling you peoplel who were thought to be possesed - because in South America some folks use Catholic symbols, like the Mother Mary, to also serve for occult worship of other believed beings - where curred, from what is considered to be the usual manifestations of a demonic attack, by excorism. According to medical science this can not happen.

The spiritual realm does exist, as we are just as much a part of it (althouigh we know much less about it) as we are part of the material realm. You have shut yourself off from the ability to experience that side of you, but it is still there. And at this point I'm done on this discussion. We are going around in circles.

CAlvin said, the Mennonite method was exorcism was a lot less dramatic than what Hollywood always displays. Friends and loved ones would rather around the possessed love one and sing hymns and pray prayers through a long night. what I refer to as demons, may in fact, rather than some individual being, indeed be some other from of manifestation.

We're on the internet.

A ton of medical journals, with articles written by medical doctors, easy to find through search engines.

Can you give me a legitimate medical journal that defines when exorcism is appropriate?

Humility, after all, is the only true doorway to wisdom and understanding.

Glug, glug, glug....drink more of that Kool-Aid.

Tell me this Calvin...why don't you believe in Santa? He's well known and celebrated in most countries. "The Night Before Christmas" is obviously a documented first person account of his existence. And if you don't believe in him clearly society has no reason "to be good for goodness sake" and will go all to hell in a murdering frenzy.

Knowledge is the only true doorway to wisdom and understanding.

Calvin said, Your thinking that all demon stories in the New Testament were just superstition caused by not understanding the real cause, was once widely accepted

Actually, we learn more about the causes of mental illness today. Nothing in science suggests there are any kind of manifestations, supernatural and demonic...

All mental illness has a medical cause. The Catholic Church can't rule it out as a cause, because it's always present.

Which raises an interesting possibi9lity for "Star Trek."

There are no supernatural manifestations, but we certainly have a ton of folklore and anecdotal evidence for it.

If Data was the result of a fairy tale about Pniochio, what could advanced science invent that would be similar to demonic possession? If the transporter is able to take a human body apart on a molecular level, could the "transporter trace" be used to create dumplicates, astral bodies, something that retains the memories but not the phsycial form?

David:

Thanks again for your background information on the Star Trek series. Have you ever thought of writing a book, or maybe some articles, on you experiences?

And it's worth realizing that the original Star Trek series was not popular as TV ratings go. But was the first series to be temporary saved by a fun protest at it's canceling. I expect someday an original Star Trek like series will be done by somebody else and steal away the kinds of fans who were hard core trekies. I have a story line worked out years ago about a conflict between Vulcans and Klingons that resulted in both groups being stranded on a planet and forgotten. Resulting in intermarriage and a new race of what turns about to be a mix of both being very human.

Andy,

when pastoring a small congregation on the eastern plains of Colorado, I met my family doctor's parents who, like their son were Mennonites, but also exorcists working in South America. These people were pretty much up on modern medicine. Your thinking that all demon stories in the New Testament were just superstition caused by not understanding the real cause, was once widely accepted by churches, but now has generally been dropped as resulting from a local of understanding of the possibilities of the supernatural.

As I remember, the Mennonite method was exorcism was a lot less dramatic than what Hollywood always displays. Friends and loved ones would rather around the possessed love one and sing hymns and pray prayers through a long night. My understanding Catholic Church rules out any possible medical cause before performing an exorcism.

Now I'm willing to concede that what I refer to as demons, may in fact, rather than some individual being, indeed be some other from of manifestation. But at this point demon is the best understanding we have.

Humility, after all, is the only true doorway to wisdom and understanding.

Let me amend that.

Benedict Cumberbatch is playing a new villain. He's charismatic. He was great in Sherlock Holmes.

He makes a great opponent for Zachary Quinto.

But, without knowing the plot, there doesn't seem to be any attempt to show Gene Roddenberry's dream of a future where people actually live together.

Maybe a civilization where androids like Data have replaced humanity... could show how the dream of living in peace backfired on all of us biological humans.

David,

Thank you for the insight. Mr. Spock was something of a personal hero for many years.

And then, Deep Space Nine. They took out the space ship. Where was the "to boldly go where no man has gone before" when the heroes are stuck in orbit around a planet?

But I still believe in that motto. We could use a few movies or TV shows that push us ahead. Not a short term projection based on current concepts, but yes, a quantum leap. (And it's no coincidence that the show "Quantum Leap" used an out-there concept of time travel without physical bodies.)

Gene Roddenberry had a concept. In the future, mankind will learn to move beyond their differences and live in peace. For the first season of "The Next Generation," that was the theme. But it didn't work. They ihntroduced the Borg in the first episode, "Farpoint Station," and the idea of "Borg" and the conflict it suggested pushed Gene's vision aside.

So, how does the Federation fight the Borg? Inject two powerful individuals who go to war with each other, and in the process, destroy both sides. Mutual Assured Destruction, where the goal IS the destruction.

"Terra Nova" bombed. "John Carter" didn't find an audience. The key to a new Star Trek TV series would be finding some conflict that the audience wants to watch. There are lots of possibilities that won't work because they've been done to death.

In terms of technology, it starts with warp drive and the transporter. The manipulation of matter on a molecular level, or even smaller. Where do you go from there?

One obvious step is, the Enterprise becomes a sentient being. If Data is sentient, then why isn't the much larger Enterprise? A robot is a robot, no matter how big.

Even a big-budget movie can fail if the villain doesn't capture our imaginations. Picard's time as a Borg was the scariest moment of the whole series. We knew that with Picard as a Borg, the Federation wouldn't last another month. Picard knew all the new weapons that the Federation was planning, which means the Borg had to attack sooner rather than later.

For the current Christ Pine version, they're going back to generic villains. Picard would not be a generic villain. He's not the only choice, but he would have the same charisma as Ricardo Montabalm as Khan.

The future isn't going according to Gene Roddenberry's dream. We're not finding ways to live together in peace and harmony. We;re finding new ways to motivate armies to fight for food, land and fresh drinking water. "The Hunger Games" might actually be our future.

All you can do... is create a Story World that fascinates, and hope they like it.

Andrew,

Yeah, There are lots of ways the franchise could go. Sadly the reality is, at heart Star Trek is a multi-billion dollar cash cow deeply embedded in the brand identity of a huge corporation. And that means that it will be handled with the same kid-gloves that resulted in the word Nerf becoming a verb (to Nerf something is to protect it so much it ceases to be fun).

Also, every executive involved will do two things: 1) stick a finger in the pot and stir creatively so that if it's a hit he or she can claim that contribution justifies their seven figure salary and 2) hire a bunch of expensive producer/writers so if it fails they have a scape goat ("but the writer's LAST series was SOOO successful...").

It will also have to have broad appeal, the concepts will have to be understandable to a general audience and the relationships will have to follow the conventions of a typical television show. Also, consider if it is developed, it will be a CBS/Viacom/Paramount production and will serve a strategic purpose within that crazy family. Will CBS win the fight and put it on at 8 PM Tuesday against American Idol to try to pull a young male demographic? Will Viacom try to make it the flagship of a Streaming Blockbuster outlet? Will Paramount bury it to protect the feature division profits?

Expect it to be conservative (with a light liberal moral core), populated by a mix of races and genders, with minimal or no GLBT characters (and no, middle America isn't the problem... ST sells huge internationally in markets where being gay is punishable by DEATH). Technology will not be a quantum leap ahead, but more a short term projection based on current tech with a little license taken for speed and fun.

It will also have to fit generally into the canon.

We used to speculate down on the "shop floor" about the places the series would go at the beginning of each iteration and even at the beginning of each season. But as seasons unfolded and years and episodes went by, that sort of speculation stopped (or was ground out). There was a monotonous sameness that permeated the scripts and it came generally from far above. This is the nature of a successful show (or even an unsuccessful one that once had a legacy as a money maker). The powers that be will not tolerate success to be risked by artistic types trying to make a statement. The only statement that matters is the fiscal one generated by MBAs and accountants every quarter.

Or... Gene's vision gave us a romance between Kirk and Uhura when it wasn't PC.

A cast member named Data who was an artifical person.

Then, a different series named Andromeda gave us a sentient ship who also appeared as a hologram and as an android, all controlled by the same AI unit.

I was watching Fringe tonight, and it was a chore. Abrams didn't hit it out of the park with this one.

A sense of joy and wonder... by showing the evolution of the human race after the Singularity, when machines are smarter than humans and a hundred times faster.

An android brain could be faster than human brains... to the point where the world around him would seem to slow down to a crawl, to a standstill, when he's thinking hard. Can an android move as fast?

I'm sure these ideas were considered, but there wasn't enough time or enough money in the budget. Today, there would be. After a $20 million Lost premiere and almost as much for Terra Nova, the TV audience wants... well, more.

I haven't really thought this out... but every Star Trek movie needs great villains.

But Picard and Seven of Nine still exist in the alternative time line. I think she was captured by the Borg before... well, when she was a child.

Imagine that Star Fleet sends Picard and Seven of Nine into the Borg collective as Trojan horses... and, bot by two teams unaware of the other. The Borg are unprepared for an attack from the inside... and, after a while, we see Borg Picard and Seven of Nine fighting each other. They're the villains of the alternate universe.

I thought Lucetis of Borg was the most interesting version of Picard...

You said, adventures that explore the human condition in exciting and vibrant ways. I think we lost that sense of joy and wonder

To boldly go where no man has gone before. Which means the Enterprise doesn't keep having the same adventures. It goes to a place in the universe full of wonder and mystery, where the human race hasn't been before...

A world of androids? A handful of humans venturing into a world where androids like Data have a different type of civilization? Mudd's World? Can the Borg assimilate androids with their nanobots? The implication was the Borg Queen could have assimilated Data but thought he was unique. An android civilization that's terrified of the Borg? They don't hide their fear the way humans do?

I know the direction Star Trek should take... but I'm not seeing the Story World yet.

The important thing, to me, would be not to repeat what's been done. Look at the jump in the look of the Emterprise from the original series, to the more impressive designs of the lmovies. Can the plot move forward to the same degree?

Andrew,

Yeah. I did eleven years on the various series (TNG, VOY, ENT). It was a lot of fun and a lot of good people. The cast and crew were very much a family on those shows. A dysfunctional family at times, but very human.

I think speculation on where the series could have gone is something that separates the fan base on the Star Trek franchise from most other series (genre or not). There are a lot of very imaginative, creative people who really enjoyed the rich universe that proliferated over all those decades.

My own impression of the long term plans laid out for each series were that for DS9 and VOY there were master arcs for the planned duration of each series, but that the evolution of the characters, changes on Cast and network notes significantly altered whatthey became. I don't think anyone ever articulated a long term concept beyond any given series, particularly in relation to bringing back characters from past series.

There were exceptions to this such as O'Brien on DS9, and things that might have been like on VOY, Robbie McNeill's character of Tom Paris was very early on called Locarno (I think that was the name) after the character he played on a TNG episode, Ensign Ro was supposed to be the Bajoran lead on DS9 and Tpol on ENT was supposed to be TPau from the original series. All these got nixed for various reasons, mostly to do with cost.

Sadly, although we occasionally got writers in who were fans or loved the franchise, for the most part after Gene died it was more a money generating machine than an attempt at enobling the human spirit.

I did enjoy the reboot. I'm not a big "alternate universe" fan. I think they could have just approached the whole thing from the angle that this is a reinterpretation like Battle Star Galactica and done just as well, but I suspect the execs at Paramount got scared about messing with the holy cash cow and decided to go with the altered timeline thing because, heck, every series and movie seemed to mess with the timeline anyway and that way this is the "real" Kirk and Spock, just in a universe where different things happened.

As far as getting Patrick back or any of the others, I'd say the odds are about zero. The franchise has moved on and the studio has committed to the Abrams projects for the next two feature outings. I have heard rumblings that deep in the secret bowels of Viacom there is a desire to exploit another TV iteration, but there is a big divide at Viacom between the feature division and TV (it's a very schizophrenic company). Paramount Features feels it would dilute the feature potential to have a Star Trek series playing while they're still popping out films. And any TV version would come with so much baggage it's hard to get successful show runners to want to take it on (other than the money it's a no win scenario creatively).

If there is another series I would like to see it done as something more in keeping with Gene's positive vision of the future as a place with limitless potential and full of adventures that explore the human condition in exciting and vibrant ways. I think we lost that sense of joy and wonder as the various iterations went on. Enterprise held the promise of recapturing that spirit, but sadly didn't.

One thing I do know, as long as there's a future, there will be a Star Trek series somewhere up ahead in it, ready to make Paramount a tribbles-worth of credits.

:)

The history of major mental illnesses, schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder (manic depression) or clinical depression

Aeschylus: Demon possession was the theory of Aeschylus to explain Mental illness ; exorcism the cure.

Possession by evil spirits, moral weakness, and other such "explanations" made a stigma of mental illness and placed the responsibility for a cure on the resulting outcasts themselves. The most apparently ill were chained to walls in institutions such as the infamous Bedlam, where the rest of society could forget they existed.

"Inmates" were crowded into dark cells, sometimes sleeping five to a mattress on dank damp floors, chained in place. There was no fresh air, no light, very little nutrition and they were whipped and beaten for misbehavior much like wild animals. No differentiation was made between mentally ill and criminally insane; all were packed together. Some women were committed at this time simply for the "crime" of attempting to leave their husband, or at their husband's insistence in order to gain control of her assets.

They were accused of having abandoned themselves to shameful and forbidden practices with the devil, sorcerers and other demons (unbelievably there are people who still believe this today). The mentally ill were accused of having succumbed to spells, incantations and of having committed many sinful offences and crimes. They were persecuted and many of them were burned at the stake.

The few doctors who thought the "insane" were mentally ill were ridiculed.

During the 1700's many people were simply locked away by their families, perhaps for a lifetime. Poorer individuals were jailed or placed in publicly funded almshouses.

Let's look at the real truth about demonic possession. Since there are no demons, there is no way to ever force a demon to leave. So the mentally ill never receive proper treatment.

A belief in demonic possession... is the same thing as condemning sick people to a life of torture and insults. Please get over this nonsense about "science can't prove" and stop hurting these people who are sick, not possessed.

Stage play? The fools! They should've made it into a musical. That's what brings in the big box office. Kinda rewrite it from the Devil's point of view and make him a sympathetic, misunderstood character like the Phantom. A couple of big production numbers with pea soup flying everywhere. And who wouldn't pay to see Father Karras, Father Merrin and the Devil doing eye-high leg kicks in perfect unison for the chorus line finale? You can't miss! I've even got the poster tag line: A production so dazzling it will make your head spin. And from the musical, it's just a natural segue to the theme park. Ka-ching!

Calvin,

Exorcism is an outstanding example of delusional thinking.

In the first century, 2,000 years ago, there was no concept of mental illness. No concept of protein sheaths being stripped away, or neurons refusing to fire.

They want to believe that supernatural creatures are taking possession of human bodies and brains. And that simply isn't happening. There's no mechanism for it to happen. The human brain is too complex for a "spirit" to move in and take over.

All the things you think science can't prove at this point... if you check the journals, if you read the books by real scientists, the answers are right there. When it comes to exorcism, we KNOW what's going on. If a person reads too many stories about demonic possession, they can interpret symptoms of brain malfunction and say "That's proof." But it is n't proof at all. It's just seeing what you're looking for. There is a human mechanism called Confirmation Bias, where we look at the data that supports our theory and we ignore the data that proves it wrong. Saying "science can't prove" is definitely an example of Confirmation Bias. Look at the things science CAN prove and you'll find the answers to the your mistake.

Andy,
either you are wrong, or a number of preachers and good Chrisitan folks I know are delusional. There's a lot of things science can't prove at this point.

I know there's been talk of another Star Trek series...

We know the Borg were planning to invade and conquer Earth. They took that story line into the movie and made it fascinating in "First Contact."

I'm thinking that Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine) and Picard both were turned back into Borg. Shouldn't be that hard to do. And the Federation was conquered and the Borg took over.

And then... take the next step. Create a story line that's interesting and doesn't copy what we already know. Based on what the Borg became as they evolved.

Maybe Data had a hand in it. He decides that the only way to avoid the Federation disappearing was to evolve the Borg to the next level... instead of being part of a collective, each individual that became a Borg became a superintellect that tried to take over...

I feel that "Star Trek" as a whole set us up for a promised invasion by the Borg, and then went with a reboot where Kirk's past was changed and he's now Chris Pine. But the Borg are still out there.

Hello, David..

Assistant Director on Star Trek TV series? That must have been interesting.

When are they going to bring back Patrick Stewart? I assume he's a Borg now....