“For The World Is Hollow” Reading, Garrett Wang’s Comedy, Risa Party – TrekMovie.com

Star Trek: The Cruise VIII docked at Costa Maya, Mexico early Tuesday in perfectly warm, sunny weather. The ship full of Star Trek fans headed to the gangplank, eager for their first away missions at the tourist-friendly destination with a wide range of shops and easy access to beaches, notable for its access to Mayan ruins accessible through shuttles on-site. On shore fans could be entertained by impressive Mesoamerican cultural recreations in the town square while back on the ship, the evening was packed with some of the best recurring cruise events. We have breakdowns of a couple of the highlights from the evening and more pictures from the day’s festivities.

“For the World is Hollow…” reading

One of the keystone events of this convention was the live script reading of “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” from The Original Series. Directed by DS9 start Nana Visitor, the celebrity guests of STTC team up to recreate the classic TOS episode with the spirit of a group of actors who have already been partying for three days straight. The “dream cast” that Visitor teased earlier was Tawny Newsome (Lower Decks) as Kirk, Jeffrey Combs (DS9 and Enterprise guest star) as Spock, Ethan Phillips (Voyager) as McCoy, Jonathan Del Arco (TNG and Picard guest star) as Scotty, Mary Wiseman (Discovery) as Chapel, Denise Crosby (TNG) as Sulu, and Celia Rose Gooding (Strange New Worlds) as (Nichelle’s) Uhura. Natives of the Yonada were played by Voyager’s Roxann Dawson and Robert Picardo.

A very grouchy Jonathan Frakes (TNG) acted as the Oracle and demonstrated his ability to simultaneously operate an LED light while wearing a hoodie.

To make the production more unique, Nana revealed that in her preparation for the show, she requested the original script from CBS… only to be told that it was lost. No official copy of the shooting script could be found. What was available was a transcription of the episode as it exists today, but that is only the barest framework of what would have gone into making the episode. Cut lines, stage direction, and description would have all been part of the original Hendrick Vollarets draft, and would’ve been useful for Nana. She described her creative process under such trying circumstances:

“It was directed by Tony Leader and written by Hendrick Vollarts. And Natira, a huge guest star, was played by Kate Woodville. What was fascinating to me about this is when, when I thought about this as a possibility, I contacted CBS. They told me it was a lost episode. They lost the script. So what we got was the lines from the episode, but there were no stage directions. None. So I did some of my own. And I might have been a couple of tequilas in.”

Some of the better touches to the production were to use red STTC VIII t-shirts as the “instrument of obedience” as well as to let an animation of our own cruise ship act as the viewscreen image for the spaceship Yonada. The show itself was a smashing success, performed to two packed audiences by the end of the evening.

Garrett Wang stand-up

Garrett Wang brought a new comedy act in his signature style, telling a series of stories along a theme, many of which are so recent that his material is closer to improvisation than a set. While this routine did not have a title as it had in previous years, Wang said that the title should be “Family” as the common theme was the connections between his literal family and his Voyager cast family. His stories involve how his mother gets along very well with his castmates but tends to call them by their character names, and how the fan tradition of exchanging gifts at conventions dovetails well with traditional Chinese gift-giving culture:

“But one family gave [my mom] a tribble! She said, ‘And they gave me this fuzzy thing… and then another fan gave me this pin, which says LLAP. Live long and progress!’ I said, ‘Mom, it’s live long and prosper.’ ‘I know! Live long and progress!’”

Making the “family” connection even more meaningful, Wang was introduced by his fellow cast member and best friend Robert McNeill, who is on his first Star Trek Cruise trip, plus Wang’s parents were in the audience. The ship audience, in turn, has made a running gag out of adopting the Lower Decks chant to other situations, and Garrett is now welcomed onto the stage to screams of “Two-pip Kim! Two-pip Kim!”

Return to Risa

If there were one theme night that would just ruin Star Trek: The Cruise were it to go missing, it would be Risa’s Festival of the Moon party.

Being on a boat with warm sea air, a clear starry sky, and a top-notch band, it’s only natural to want to put your Trek spin on a beach party.

Guests are encouraged to dress in floral prints, swimsuits, or pleasure planet-ready version of their favorite Star Trek characters.

Costa Maya photos

More cruising

The next day on the itinerary will bring not only Cozumel, but the arrival of headliner Kate Mulgrew. Check back for more updates. And if you missed them, check out: