From: "bernie wong" <bernie.wong@canrem.com>
Subject: Star Trek spinoff set is out of this world.
Reply-To: "bernie wong" <bernie.wong@canrem.com>
Organization: Canada Remote Systems
Distribution: rec
Date: 9 Jan 93 22:24:56 EST

The following article comes from the Toronto Star, Saturday January 9th 
edition in the Entertainment section.  The article was written by Rob 
Salem, so all credit really goes to him.  BTW, I don't know if the 
entire article will make it due to software problems, so if it gets cut 
off past 99 lines or so, give me a yell.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Star Trek spinoff set is out of this world.  _Deep Space Nine_ director 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
conducts guided tour of 24th century.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
     The large, iguana-faced humanoid takes his seat at the control 
console of the stolen alien spacecraft.  His name is Chris, and he's 
having motivation problems.
     "Shouldn't I be making my stand _before_ he says 'Engage warp 
engines'?" he asks of no one in particular.
     Directory Paul Lynch is on the other side of the universe. 
_Literally_.  He's maybe 25 feet away, hunkered down in front of a video 
monitor, behind a large, hanging sheet of black velvet dotted with tiny 
chips of reflective plastic -- properly lit and seen through a 
space-station porthole, this will appear on television to be an entire 
glaxay of stars.
     In space, no one can see the seams.  Frankly, it's a bit of a 
letdown.  On TV, everything seems so shiny and sophisticated and larger 
than life.  The reality here, deep in the heart of the Paramount Studios 
lot, is considerably smaller.  And made of plywood.  With wires hanging 
out the back.
     But there sure is an awful lot of it.  With the lauch of _Deep 
Space Nine_ (beginning its regular run tonight at 6 on CITY-TV), 
Paramount's _Star Trek_ production unit has grown to the size of a small 
village, filling six studio soundstages and a number of other buildings.
     Stage 18 is the _Deep Space Nine_ "swing stage", which means that 
one week it might contain a Cardassian torture chamber, the next a bad 
fish restaurant on Omicron Ceti III.  At the moment it houses the bridge 
of the aforementioned stolen spaceship, and, off in the back, a prison 
cell that will be violently escaped from later on this afternoon.
     This will be the fourth episode of the new _Star Trek_ spin-off 
series, and the second of four that Lynch has been signed to direct this 
season.  As soon as he wraps this one, the busy Toronto-based director 
(his TV credits include _Moonlighting_, _Top Cops_, _Twilight Zone_ and 
_Ray Bradbury Theatre_) will be coming home to direct an episode of the 
Nick Mancuso series, _Matrix_.  And then he'll turn around and head 
right back to L.A. -- back to the future.
     Lynch is already a _Star Trek_ veteran, having directed five 
episodes of _Deep Space Nine_'s sister series, _Star Trek: The Next 
Generation_.
     "But _Next Generation_ was a breeze compared to this one," he 
confides between takes.  "This show is enormously complex, much more 
complicated to shoot than _Next Generation_ ever was.  This is probably 
the most complicated television series that has ever been made.
     "There are at least twice as many special effects, which are both 
visual and actual on-set effects.  And then you've got the mid-range, 
which is where you do on-set effects that _become_ optical effects -- 
computer 'morphing' is an example of that.
     "Then you've got action.  Then you've got comedy, which takes time, 
because it's all timing more than anything else.  And you have all of 
these elements at work in any given show.  So it's a very time-consuming 
and complex show to do, particularly given the level of quality that's 
been established.
     "Everything has to be the best, and that takes time.  Sometimes 
they're only just finished something as we're walking in to shoot it.  
Like right now.  All we're waiting for right now is a cover for this 
little box..."
     Eventually, the little box is covered, and Chris the iguana-man 
gets an answer to his question.  The scene is shot and reshot from 
various angles.  Time for lunch.
     Or perhaps a quick walking tour of _Deep Space Nine_'s standing 
sets.  Right next door on Stage 17 is the one set that does seem larger 
than life -- in fact, it's one of the largest, most elavorate sets on 
the entire lot -- the massive multi-tiered mega-mall known as "The 
Promenade" (though Lynch insists on referring to it as "The Galleria").  
     Down the road a bit is Stage 4, which contains the space-station 
docking bay, living quarters, and the "Operations Control Centre", or 
"Ops," the _DS9_ equivalent of the bridge on the starship Enterprise.
     "You should see this place when it's all lit up," enthuses Lynch.  
"_Wonderful_ looking sets on this show.  But it's almost like shooting 
in live locations.  Like the Ops set here -- none of these walls move.  
Nothign moves.  Very tought to shoot."
     Over to the _Next Generation_ side of the street, and their three 
sound stages -- Stage 8 with the bridge, conference room and 
"Ten-Forward" lunge, Stage 9 with engineering, sick bay and transporter 
room.  Stage 16 is their multi-use swing stage -- dubbed "Planet Hell" 
by the _Next Generation_ crew.
     "That stage has a really big basement," explains Lynch, "so it's 
good for caves and caverns, stuff like that."
     Security is tight around all _Star Trek_ stages, this one in 
particular.  The guard outside the door is reluctant to let us pass, 
even though he recognizes Lynch.  "I just want to say hello to Les," 
Lynch tells him, referring to his friend Les Landau, another frequent 
_Next Generation_ director, who is working inside.
     Heaven has come to "Planet Hell" -- the room is draped in spotless 
white fabric and everything is blindingly overlit.  It is brighter on 
the inside of Stage 16 than it is outside in the afternoon sun.
     "Paul, how nice to see you again," rings out a very commanding, 
very familiar voice.  "And how nice of your to come dressed as a priest.  
I'm dead, you know."
     Out from the glare steps _Next Generation_ star Patrick Stewart, 
ribbing Lynch about his incongrously all-black ensemble.  As for 
Stewart's alter ego, the noble Captain Jean-Luc Picard, he does indeed 
appear to be, if not actually dead, at least seriously injured, judging 
by the large crimson stain across the chest of his Starfleet uniform.
     Of course, even if he is dead, in the _Star Trek_ universe these 
things are rarely permanent.
     Back across the street to Stage 18, where the _DS9_ crew is ready 
to start shooting in the corridor outside the prison cell.  There is a 
sign posted on the soundstage door warning that artificial smoke 
machines may be in use and listing harmful chemicals that might be 
present in the air -- though nothing you wouldn't find in your average 
L.A. smog report.
     Lynch returns to his video monitor -- actually a portable 
black-and-white relic from the late 1960s, barely held together by 
electrical tape and with only a tenous hold on its closed-circuit 
signal.
     Lynch stops the rolling screen wiht a playful smack.  "The best 
money could buy," he smirks.  "At a lawn sale."
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Well, that's about it!  Hope you liked the article, and hope it wasn't 
too riddled with spelling mistakes (I don't have a scanner so I had to 
type all 97 lines by myself).  

The article has a picture which is obviously sometime during a break 
(it's not a clip from an actual episode).  It has from left to right, 
Dr. Bashir, Lt. Dax, Cmdr. Sisko, and Odo standing together in a room I 
haven't seen before.  Bashir has his hands behind his back, and a grim 
smile on his face.  Dax looks quite serious, looking at something I'll  
explain later.  Her left hand is out as if she's gesturing an 
explanation.  Sisko is just look at the thing quite seriously.  Odo is 
in a tank top, and his left hand appears to be scratching his makeup!  
:-)

In front of them is an alien who seems to be slightly submerged in 
water.  He is in a larger plastic case.  The alien is humanoid, and 
kinda looks like an adult sized fetus cause his skin is light and you 
can see veins and stuff.

Hmmm...  Well, this is line 136 and I feared that you might not be 
reading this message at this point.  Either my local BBS cut the article 
after 99 lines, or it split it into two messages.  Let's hope it's the 
latter!


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Jason Wong
Calling from Markham, Ontario CANADA.  It's not cold though!  :-)
INTERNET E-MAIL: bernie.wong@canrem.com


... That's........arrogant presumption.  Kirk
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