Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Star Trek Dream

I dreamt last night that I was on the set for the filming of the final scenes of a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode. Picard, Troi, Riker and Crusher had beamed down to a planet and been trapped by a group of aliens whose ship had crashed there. These aliens were reptilian, an apparent offshoot of the Gorn. Something in the planet’s atmosphere was causing the Gorns to mutate into near-mindless alligator type creatures. The ones who were still OK insisted that the humans, who were unaffected by the condition, help them solve the problem before they were all lost.

In the scene I witnessed, the Trek crew discovered that the problem had something to do with unequal air pressures inside and outside the bodies of the aliens. These pressures were causing their skulls and bodies to distort. Once the Trek crew figured out the problem, the aliens had a device that was able to equalize the pressures and prevent the mutations from occurring.

It was clear to me that the actors thought the whole concept was very weak and they weren’t really enjoying themselves. As the last scene was filmed and the actors headed for the dressing room area, I was walking along with them and saw lots of head shaking. As Patrick Stewart was unbuttoning the top of his uniform he made the comment: “That was insane.” 

I guess that’s why this episode never aired!

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16 comments:

Tom Doolan said...

Aside from the Air Pressure element, it sounds like a cool episode.

Brian Miller said...

ha. i wonder if after a certain time, the actors do get tired of the roles...esp of such an iconic franchise...knowing they will forever be thought of in that role...stewart of course as professor X as well.....

Charles Gramlich said...

Tom, yeah, that was pretty weird. They pressed this device on the skull and suddenly the pressure all equalized and it shrunk. lol.

Brian, I know some of 'em do. Probably a lot more who never say anything about it.

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Damn, I want dreams like that!
I would've bought the concept.

Charles Gramlich said...

Alex, it was fun seeing the skull inflate and then deflate as the treatment worked. And the skull looked largely like metal, which was also kind of neat

Oscar Case said...

Was tht a dream oir real life? You have vivid dreams, Charles.

Erik Donald France said...

Superb . . . cool working it all out on the set in your mind, with double layers of commentary all orchestrated by . . . your own imagination and thought patterns . . .

Charles Gramlich said...

Oscar, I sure would have enjoyed sitting in on an episode.

Erik, it is weird how the mind directs such things.

Prashant C. Trikannad said...

I have never gone beyond the original Shatner-Nimoy-Kelley "Star Trek" series though I've seen parts of the latter film and television versions. The roles of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Professor Charles Xavier suit Patrick Stewart.

pattinase (abbott) said...

This is hysterical. I wish I had dreams like this one. Or a dream I even remembered. My husband always dreams he is in eastern Europe. Too bad he doesn't make use of it.

Charles Gramlich said...

Prashant, I watched all the Next Generation episodes, but after that fell off the Trek wagon in the sense of not keeping up with Deep Space Nine, Voyager, or Enterprise.

Riot Kitty said...

That image of Patrick Stewart is hilarious! My dreams are much weirder, and unfortunately don't involve Patrick Stewart.

BernardL said...

Any dream you survive is a good one. :)

Charles Gramlich said...

Riot Kitty, I would have preferred more of Beverly Crusher in the dream than Stewart. :)

Bernard, never really thought of it that way but I can see that you are right.

jodi said...

Charles-I cannot abide with Star Trek!

X. Dell said...

Well, that explains why THAT episode never aired. But what's the explanation for the first two seasons?