Posted:
05:18:41 on March 13 2002
By: Alexander Chase
Dept: General Star Trek
Tech TV has posted a list (a la David Letterman's Top 10 lists) by Nichelle Nichols of her funniest Star Trek moments as part of promotional material for her recent appearance on the cable network's show "The Screen Savers."
1. The day the actors took Leonard Nimoy's bike (which he used for transportation around the Paramount lot) and hung it in the rafters on the sound stage. He didn't find it for days, until they finally pointed to it."
2. The day Jimmy Doohan fell into the water off the Bird of Prey. All the actors in the live scene thought it was a joke and jumped in after him. Nimoy, who was directing the film, was flabbergasted but quickly jumped in with them and screamed at the camera crew, "Keep shooting -- keep shooting!" It turned out to be a keeper and one of the best shots in the movie.
3. In "Apollo's Stepchildren," Uhura and Kirk were supposed to kiss under duress from their captors. It became an issue with the director and Gene Roddenberry finally decided to shoot the scene with and without the kiss. Bill Shatner kept kissing until there was only time for one more take. When the camera zoomed in, Bill crossed his eyes and the director didn't notice it until the next day in dailies. Of course the last scene was unusable and they had to go with the kiss scene, which became history as the first interracial kiss on TV.
4. On the streets of San Francisco, in "Star Trek IV" I believe, Chekhov and Uhura were walking among the people asking where Alameda was. They were questioning extras in the scene who were to ignore them and walk on. A beautiful woman in a creme suit, with two dogs on a leash, waltzed by and Chekhov asked his question. To everyone's shocked amazement, she answered, "It's over the bridge, I think, in that direction." Nimoy, the director, yelled, "Cut."
The light was gone and there wasn't time to set up the scene again. Nimoy was furious. Then he realized she looked good in the scene and decided to keep it in. Later, he learned she was an aspiring actress and had broken into the crowd purposely. The problem was that she was not a member of the union and thus could not speak in the scene. Finally I came up with Taft-Hartley, which was a law saying that you could hire a "must join" first-time actor and get around the problem. The extra got her Screen Actors Guild card and the scene was saved.
For the original article, check out this page.
