The Chronowerx building from “Future’s End.

LA trip – day three

I had a hard time sleeping the second night in LA, I guess I was still suffering from jetlag and a little nervous because of the upcoming day, so I got up really early and changed my plans for the day a little (I’m glad I did in retrospect!). I had originally planned to visit the MTA building (Henry Starling’s Chronowerx building in “Future’s end I+II”) and the square in front of Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (again Future’s end II, the Doctor meets Paris, Tuvok and Rain Robinson here) early Monday morning, before I had to get on the plane at 2.30 PM. I decided to go Sunday morning instead, which left me half a day on Monday to visit another location.

So, I set off at 6.30 AM to visit two locations from “Future’s end” on my own.

Whereas LA had been intimidatingly crowded Friday night at the Walk of Fame, downtown was eerily quiet and deserted Sunday morning shortly after sunrise. I got to see a completely different side of the city that morning. I took the empty Red line subway to Union Station and got off to see my first downtown shooting location: the MTA building. It was funny seeing the building without the Chronowerx signs added in post production but visiting this place before the morning rush was really something. There was nobody except for me on the long plaza, so I took countless photos from all angles. I had forgotten my sheet with screenshots of the building, so I tried to remember the few camera angles that were used. Funny how I expected the Aeon to smash through some upper windows any second! After getting my shots, I went down to Union Station again to cross over (under?) to the other site of the highway. I could have taken the subway to Civic Center to quickly get to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, but I wanted to take the scenic route, past the famous LA City Hall. I had used google Earth to memorize the trip from Union Station past the City Hall to Dorothy Chandler Pavilion so it was easy finding my way around. I passed some interesting sights, especially The Times building seemed really spooky and Hollywood-like.

(Below) The MTA building which doubled as the “Future’s End” landmark.

Arriving at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, I realized that not much had changed since Future’s end was shot in 1996. I was able to recreate many of the shots from my screenshot worksheet and it took several attempts until the fountain on the square was sputtering water in the same formation as it had on my screenshot of the Doctor in front of the fountain (it annoyed me that I had forgotten the screenshots of the MTA building so I had to do this as accurately as possible )

(Below) The good Doctor at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion from “Future’s End”.

(Above) The Chandler pavilion as it appears today, in downtown LA.

After that, I took the still deserted subway back to my hotel and waited for Jeff to pick me up to see the two biggest shooting locations: the Tillman water reclamation plant (actually the Japanese Garden in front of it) and Vasquez Rocks.

At the Japanese garden, we met Alec, a friend and founder of the Star Trek Prop, Costume and Auction blog and forum mentioned earlier. I’ve known Alec for a couple of years now, helping out identifying props and costumes sold by It’s a Wrap on eBay, but I had never met him in person. The three of us decided to go through the Japanese garden together and I readied my camera to take more than 200 photos.

(Above) Starfleet Headquarters, in realitythe Tillman water reclamation plant, and the Japanese Gardens, then and now.

If you have never been to the garden, GO THERE! Every corner here has some Star Trek history, the building, the garden, the lake and fountains – everything screams Starfleet Headquarters. It was amazing going through the grounds, seeing how little had changed since the garden had appeared in so many episodes (Rubicun III in “Justice”, Starfleet Academy/Headquarters in “The first duty”, “Homefront”/Paradise lost”, “In the flesh”) and yet one could see how much some of the trees had grown or had been replaced. I managed to identify and match many camera angles and got the big “Oh my god, you are really HERE” feeling for the first time. So I knelt down, like Boothby and Picard did, under the tree where Boothby had to replant the flowerbed several times, because Picard had been sitting in it.

(Below) Boothby (Ray Walston) tends the flora on the verdant Starfleet campus, and the real life location today.

I found the place where Janeway and Species 8472-Boothby many years later agreed to try to get to know each other better in “In the flesh” and found many spots were half naked Edo had been jogging and smooching around. So little had changed in contrast to the lily ponds at the Huntington Library, it was simply amazing. Using the raised walkway, I also got to take a look (and sniff) at the other side of the building, the industrial part which had been used as the polaric ion power plant in “Time and again”. Finally, we went into the building. The inside had never been seen in a Star Trek episode, still, it did look really Starfleet-ish, the set designers had tried to mimic the outside appearance of the building in “Homefront”/”Paradise lost” and especially “In the flesh”, so I really felt like in a Starfleet facility. After taking some final shots, we decided to get something to eat. What better place to do so than Mel’s Diner, known from American Graffiti?

(Below) Jörg, just before going into themain Starfleet administration building. He signed up for five years of deep space duty.

(Above) The administration building, and surrounding area had grown significantly thanks to VFX by the time DS9 rolled around.

So I got to see another famous LA shooting location (even if not from Star Trek) and newly invigorated, we set out for the Agua Dulce valley to make our way to the most famous of all Star Trek shooting locations – Vasquez Rocks.

(Below) No caption needed.

Rounding the last corner and seeing the famous rock formation was just amazing. Even though it was starting to get really hot, I didn’t mind the heat or the sun and we started climbing up the rocks to get to some famous spots. We got the “Kirk faces of the Gorn” shot, the “Picard gets his Mintakan tapestry” shot, the “Riker is beamed away in a hollow rock” shot and many more. I can also proudly say that the little late summer tan I got in the US, I got at Vasquez Rocks

(Below) The camoflaged Mintaken observation lab from TNG.

We met another collector of Star Trek props at the rock formation. He had brought some tricorders from his collection and the assassin’s rifle from Star Trek VI. So I got to play around with some major Star Trek props at Vasquez Rocks – unbelievable! (For a production map of Vasquez –   http://drexfiles.wordpress.com/2009/01/07/vasquez-interstellar-truck-stop/ )

(Above) Riker and Jörg hide in that famous  hollow rock formation at Vasquez. Watch for Rattlesnakes!

(Above) Alec Peters, Jörg, and Jeff feeling quite at home. (Right) Jörg goes Gorn hunting with the assassin’s rifle from Star Trek VI

We drove back to LA soon after. The shooting location trips were over for that day, but the Star Trek events were far from over – our next stop: Chateaux Drex.

Doug was chilling with buddy Jack Marshall there, watching a Blu-ray and sipping some iced tea (hey, that’s what I do with my friends too! ) It didn’t take long until we sat on the couch, discussing the merits of the new movie, BSG, Doctor Who, Firefly – oh my. Then Dorth, the kitchengoddess, came around the corner and handed us some more iced tea and delicious cookies. I never got to say thank you and good bye, Dorth!

THANK YOU for the yummy cookies and the refreshing iced tea!

I could write a whole week of blog entries just about this visit, but I have one more event to report about. Thanks for inviting us to your place, Doug! It was great meeting you and Dorth in person! We quickly had to leave because we didn’t want to miss our final stop of the day, the “Star Trek: 45: Years of Designing the Future” event.

Denise had told me about the event but I didn’t really have time to find out what it was all about. I knew some people that had worked on Star Trek were there and that TMP remastered would be shown later that evening. We made it to the Egyptian Theatre on time to meet up with Alec again, who had left after Vasquez Rocks. He promptly signaled me to come over to meet John Eaves who was also sitting in the movie theatre next to him. So, I, completely flabbergasted, got to meet John Eaves too. I wish I could have asked some more intelligent questions, John, instead of just “What are you doing here?” but I was simply not prepared for that!

(Above) Left to right – John Jefferies, Joe Jennings, Herman Zimmerman, and Scott Chambliss at the the “Star Trek: 45: Years of Designing the Future” event.

After finding a seat, it took a moment until I had finally realized where I was: A movie theatre full of Trekkies and people that had worked on the show, most of them both at the same time! When my eyes had gotten used to the darkness, I spotted Mike Okuda taking pics of the guests of honor in the front row, Larry Nemecek hovering around, David Rossi was there, Daren Dochterman too and was that Herman Zimmerman in the front row?? Oh boy! But where was Denise? After all it was her birthday and she had told me about this amazing event so I wanted to wish her a happy birthday in person. We never got to meet, alas; one more reason for me to come to LA again! 

All I can say about the event that followed is – awesome! As soon as the montage of screenshots from various Star Trek episodes and movies, put together by Mike and Denise Okuda started, I felt at home. I kept thinking: That’s what you do, taking screenshots and digging through them, looking for stuff in the background and finding good shots of people, props, ships etc. Now, seeing that on the big movie screen was incredible. The discussion, hosted by Daren Dochterman, was interesting and immensely funny at the same time. Everybody had some juicy stories to recount and several jokes to crack. Especially the montage of interviews with the late Harold Michelson was a blast – I wish he could have been there in person!

After the roundtable discussion, the final treat of the evening followed: Getting to see Star Trek – The Motion Picture (remastered) on the big screen in a movie theatre filled with fans. You see, I wasn’t born yet back in 1979 and started to watch the movies on a big movie screen with Generations, so finally seeing the first movie that way was quite a treat. Something else was really amazing, though: When I watch Star Trek with my friends, I know I’m surrounded by a few Trekkies that also love the stuff, but boy, that doesn’t compare to watching Trek with a whole audience of fervent fans. Whenever Dr. McCoy appeared on screen or made a remark, the whole audience was cheering, applauding and laughing. Whenever something thoughtful was said, people sighed and said “Yeah!”, every jocular remark was met with cheers and applause – it was just incredible. I shamefully must admit though, I was so exhausted (I blame it on the jetlag) that I drifted off a couple of times during the V’Ger fly-over scenes…

This was an awesome day I will never, ever forget. Thank you very much, Jeff Zucker, Alec Peters, Mister X (it was great meeting you at Vasquez Rocks!), Doug Drexler and Denise Okuda for making this happen!

I said goodbye to Jeff and went up to my hotel room, not yet knowing that I would do one more trip with Larry Nemecek the next morning. More about that – tomorrow!