Generations of ‘Star Trek’ fans engage with shows’ iconic actors in Champlain Valley

TICONDEROGA, NEW YORK ― Clint Howard stood before a roomful of “Star Trek” fans to share his admittedly hazy memories from a 1966 appearance on an episode of the science-fiction television show.

He was 7 years old when he portrayed Balok, a man-child who first intimidated and then enchanted the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise, on the episode “The Corbomite Maneuver.” He welcomed crew members aboard his tiny ship and offered a beverage called tranya.

“You’re going to drink this pink grapefruit juice and you’re going to like it,” Clint Howard recalled his father, actor Rance Howard, telling him about the stand-in beverage representing tranya. Balok would say to the crew, “I hope you relish it as much as I,” but young Clint Howard didn’t relish the drink at all. He wished it was apple juice, not grapefruit juice.

“I barely got this thing to my lips,” he said.

The entire scene in the episode lasted less than four minutes. It was one of a few acting gigs Howard had each year as he and his brother, Ron Howard, followed in the family’s acting footsteps. He missed two days of school to film the scene. It was just another job, he said, and he didn’t think much about.

“Star Trek” fans, however, have thought about that episode and the other 78 shows in the original series, and all the episodes of all the ensuing “Star Trek” series, and all the movies to follow for the past 58 years. Hundreds of those fans gathered May 18 for the second day of the weekend-long “Trekonderoga” event that brought actors to the Star Trek Original Series Set Tour location in Ticonderoga, New York, just across Lake Champlain from Vermont.

Much like Howard, writer David Gerrold thought his “Star Trek” script “The Trouble with Tribbles” would be forgotten in a few years. More than a half a century later, he was in Ticonderoga to talk about that now-legendary episode and the enduring appeal of “Star Trek.”

“We knew we were doing something no one else was doing on television,” Gerrold told a crowd at Ticonderoga Elementary School, one of the annual event’s locations. “We did not realize that this thing was going to turn into a worldwide phenomenon.”

Lured to Ticonderoga by William Shatner

That phenomenon manifests vividly in a former grocery store in downtown Ticonderoga, a northern New York village best known for its Revolutionary War fort. The past was augmented by the future in 2015 when Ticonderoga native James Cawley, who worked in the wardrobe department for “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” opened the Star Trek Original Series Set Tour, a meticulous re-creation of the set where the show was filmed.

Trekonderoga is the centerpiece event at the site; this year’s gathering also drew “Star Trek” actors Walter Koenig, Jonathan Frakes and LeVar Burton. That lineup attracted about 500 fans – some wearing uniforms from the series or pointed Vulcan ears a la Mr. Spock − from across the country and Canada who were willing to pay hundreds of dollars to pose for photos with, get autographs from and listen to talks by the heroes from their TV screens.

"Star Trek" fan Thomas Baker of Pultneyville, New York, always runs into old friends in his annual visits to Trekonderoga. “It’s a good soul-enriching environment,” he said.

Stephen and Tiffani Shea of Boscawen, New Hampshire, had just posed for photos with Burton, a star of “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” when they talked with the Burlington Free Press about what lured them to Trekonderoga.

Tiffani Shea is not a big "Star Trek" fan – “I love 'Reading Rainbow,'” she said of the children’s show Burton hosted – but her husband is a lifelong “Star Trek” devotee. Years ago she asked Stephen Shea if he wanted a regular birthday present or a chance to meet his idol, William Shatner, who makes regular appearances at the Star Trek Original Series Set Tour, including sessions coming up in July and November.

The Sheas came to see Shatner. They keep coming back. Stephen Shea said the setting is much more intimate than similar Star Trek events held in big cities or splashy casinos.

He said the original “Star Trek,” as well as “Star Trek: The Next Generation” and “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” affected him originally because of all the cool aliens. The appeal of the show has changed now that he’s an adult.

“I’m all about the story,” Shea said. He likes that those versions of "Star Trek" explored characters and depth when other sci-fi shows are all about flashy special effects.

Inspired by Uhura, focus on civil rights

That depth appeals to those who helped create Star Trek. Gerrold said that’s why he submitted scripts for “Star Trek,” including “The Trouble with Tribbles,” the humor-filled episode that might be the most famous from the original series. He recognized that “Star Trek” treated science fiction with more intelligence that many other sci-fi shows on television.

“Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry built social issues including race, war, class and environmental degradation into the show. “’Star Trek’ was the most woke show on television,” according to Gerrold.

The actors at Trekonderoga told the Free Press of their appreciation for “Star Trek.” “Mostly I’m grateful,” said Frakes, who has continued to direct and act in “Star Trek” spinoff series. “It’s the gift that keeps on giving.”

Burton said he was inspired by the original series, especially the presence of Uhura, a strong Black woman on the bridge of the Enterprise, portrayed by Nichelle Nichols. “’Star Trek’ had a really major impact” on him, Burton said. “I love my association.”

Cast members from the original series, who dealt with ego battles and typecasting, had more complex relationships with “Star Trek.” Koenig has gone back and forth with his feelings about “Star Trek.”

“You know what Thomas Wolfe said?” Koenig said, referring to the novel “You Can’t Go Home Again.” “We go there every (expletive) week.”

Koenig can’t escape “Star Trek,” a show he was on for two seasons more than 50 years ago.

“You have to ask yourself, ‘Is this pathetic that I’m living in the past that way, or am I lucky that I have this?’” he said. Koenig has settled on the latter, he said, as “Star Trek” is something to feel good about because of what the show represents.

“Gene (Roddenberry) had very much a humanitarian point of view, a progressive civil-rights view” that Koenig said he is proud to have been involved in.

Vermont connections of ‘Star Trek’ actors

Gerrold told fans of his feelings about the show. “I was incredibly lucky to have been a part of it – very blessed,” according to Gerrold, who said “Star Trek” launched his career and gave him the confidence to continue as a writer.

Gerrold said he recently moved from Los Angeles to Vermont. Some of the actors who appeared at Trekonderoga spoke with the Free Press of their connections to the state just across the lake from Ticonderoga.

Koenig spent the summer of 1956 in Dorset, where he acted in four plays: “Susan and God,” “Dial M for Murder,” “Pygmalion” and “Time Out for Ginger.” Clint Howard said his older brother, Ron Howard – who acted in “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Happy Days” and directed films including “Backdraft” and “Apollo 13” - lived for a time near Brattleboro, where Clint Howard would visit him.

Frakes might have the most unusual connection to Vermont. He plays trombone on an obscure song by the Burlington-born jam-rock band Phish. The track “Riker’s Mailbox,” named for the character Frakes played on “Star Trek: The Next Generation,” appears on the 1994 Phish album “Hoist.”

Frakes said he lived next door to the album’s producer, Paul Fox, in Los Angeles. Frakes had a mailbox shaped like a cow in front of his house, and he said the mailbox was hit by cars on a semi-regular basis, leaving it considerably dinged-up.

The members of Phish came to Fox’s house while rehearsing for “Hoist.” Frakes said guitarist Trey Anastasio and drummer Jon Fishman were “massive” fans of “Star Trek” and invited him to rehearsals. They knew he had played trombone on the show and wanted him to perform on the song “Julius.”

“The range is way above my talent level,” Frakes recalled. “It became clear very quickly that I was not the ‘bone player they needed.” They hired other horn players for “Julius” but made Frakes’ contribution into the “Hoist” track “Riker’s Mailbox,” a 26-second snippet of squawk and other cacophonous sounds.

If you go

WHAT: Appearances by “Star Trek” actor William Shatner

WHEN: Friday, July 12-Sunday, July 14

WHERE: Star Trek Original Series Set Tour, Ticonderoga, New York

INFORMATION: $35-$1,575. www.startrektour.com

Contact Brent Hallenbeck atbhallenbeck@freepressmedia.com.