"Beam Me Up, Scotty."
Went to Trek in the Park ON Saturday. It’s another typically weird Portland thing, where a local “theater group” get together to reenact an episode of the original Star Trek series, in the park. (Think Shakespeare in the Park, on a much, much smaller budget.) This year, they did “Space Seed”. They do it in full costume, with a few minimal set pieces but full sound effects. The opening sequence “Space, the final frontier…” and the theme song are included. The woman who sang the theme was genuinely amazing.
It’s not intended as a parody, but a genuine recreation. The actors don’t completely mimic the original actors, thank goodness, but bring their own style to the parts. I have never seen a more badass Uhura. The actor’s performances varied, but the actors who played Kirk, Spock, and Khan were all outstanding. Scotty seemed good too, but they work without microphones, and it was difficult to hear him at times.
I would guess that there were at least 400 people there, trying to inhabit a mini-amphitheater intended to contain 100 at best. Plus, it was over 90 degrees that day, and not enough shade. We got there over an hour early and still ended up sitting behind the performers. We were lucky enough to get some shade, though, so it wasn’t too bad. We were close enough to hear most of it, at least.
It was fun to be surrounded by so many Star Trek geeks. Every familiar sound effect sent a round a giggles through the crowd. Even the shortest, least important scenes generated applause. At the end of the show, while doing their bows, they suddenly broke into a scene from “Mirror, Mirror”, and as soon as Spoke showed up in his goatee, the crowd went crazy. (Myself included.) Khan suddenly turned into Chekov, and everyone stripped off the standard versions of their uniform shirts to reveal the mirror-verse tunic and sash.
All in all, it was great fun. They’re playing for one more weekend, and I really want to go again. I might, in fact, even if it means going by myself.