Restored film frame, Star Trek: The Original Series, "And the Children Shall Lead"
Correct me if I'm wrong, but while the turbolift scene does include a close up of Spock, we never see Kirk's hands around his neck in it. In the final cut, Kirk grabs him in a different shot with both actors in the frame.
I'm reading sections of Fifty Year Mission -- the book documenting behind-the-scenes of the Trek franchise, and of course, being me, I skip right to Voyager and then right into Seven of Nine's introduction.
And oof.
It is a wonder how any good Trek is made, more so, that Seven of Nine is as good as she was. It was oof the way the character and Jeri were discussed behind the scenes.
A lot of fans know this, of course, but it's a wonder Jeri Ryan has any confidence because the way she's described as 'Walking Tits' was just terrible.
Seven of Nine enduring and becoming a favorite as much as she was is a testament to Jeri Ryan as an actor. Writing is part of it, but without Jeri to bring Seven to life she wouldn't have been memorable.
And, of course, there's the large part Kate Mulgrew played in how miserable Jeri was during those years.
Kate made Jeri so miserable that she hasn't watched (as of the book) Voyager Jeri ended up hating Star Trek because of her experience. She's grateful for playing Seven of Nine, and the rich canvas she was able to do with it but... I think after Voyager she thought she was done with Star Trek.
It's why, no matter what people think of Star Trek Picard as a whole, I am grateful for the whole production for bringing back both Seven of Nine and Jeri Ryan.
Especially Jeri Ryan, who finally had positive experiences on a Star Trek production. In a way, I'm glad the TNG cast kind of adopted Jeri Ryan into their cast since the TNG crew was the tightest crew during '90s Trek and beyond.
But also, because of Jeri's experiences on Voyager, she's always made sure to make the new people welcome, and as Evan Evagora (Elnor) mentioned in a recent interview, Jeri was like his big sister on set. She's always willing to speak up for people from crew to a guest day player.
In the Picard S3 commentaries, I love how Frakes and the others went quiet in Bounty once she started talking about Voyager, and they all said, in awe, how sneaky good Jeri Ryan was.
(Also, Jeri loves Frakes because of her time on Leverage, and vice-versa. There's a lot of cross-pollination between Leverage and the Trek productions).
(I know, too, some Trek fans here hate Terry Matalas -- which, as a 12 Monkeys fan, is... a strange state to be in -- but another reason Jeri enjoyed working on Star Trek Picard so much is how Matalas is one of her best friends. Jeri and Terry started Voyager the same year, and he was one of the few people who was kind to her.)
To Kate Mulgrew's credit, she took ownership of how terribly she treated Jeri.
In Hollywood, not a lot of people would own up to bad behavior and make amends, which she did.
Time away from the show and an overdue long heart-to-heart conversation between Kate and Jeri helped bury the hatchet. I don't think they'll ever be best friends but at least all the bad blood is under the bridge, and they made it to the other side.
Anyway, I am glad Jeri Ryan re-experienced Star Trek in a more positive light.
Also, Jeri is kind of tired of the catsuit questions anytime it's brought up in interviews you can hear that she's over the question.
“I did one tape… When the breakdown came in, I felt I was so right for the part. And yet, for whatever reason, when it came down to taping, it became really late at night in England, and my girlfriend and I… I just couldn’t do it.
I remember getting really emotional, on the brink of tears: ‘I just can’t do it. I’m giving up acting. I’m never doing this again. I’m done with self-tapes. I’ve been self-taping for months and months and months, and nothing’s happening.’
And then she said, ‘All right, look. Give it one more go. Stop being ridiculous.’ So I gave it one more go, and I’m not going to say the rest is history, because it’s not quite at that point. But, things moved on.
At that point, when I got offered the part, they said, ‘Right. Just to let you know, you’re playing Picard’s son.’ So I was like, ‘Oh, okay. That’s news.’ And it was hard to get my head around what that meant until I spoke to [Picard season 3 showrunner] Terry Matalas, and he gave me the full throttle rundown of what that was going to mean, and what would transpire for the role.”
— Ed Speleers on his audition for the role of Jack Crusher [x]
Restored film frame, Star Trek: The Original Series, "All Our Yesterdays"
It usually takes me several days to a week to restore just one frame, but it's so satisfying when that one little tweak suddenly brings everything back to life. And at full resolution it's cool to see tiny details like makeup lines, individual grey hairs, peach fuzz on ears, hidden zippers etc. I'm so glad I was able to find a close up of Deforest Kelley's eyes.
💙ᴗ💙