If you’ve watched just about any series of Star Trek, from Voyager to Next Generations, even the original series, and just about every other series in between, you’ve likely seen a desert episode or two. While not always, usually those shots are filmed in or around the city of Lone Pine, CA.
The region can be seen in a lot of Star Trek content, but on this particular day, we’re looking at the Voyager two-part episodes Basics. The episode serves as the season two finale and sees Maje-Culluh and his Kazon-Nistrim crew capture the ship, thanks in part to the Cardassian spy, Seska.
It’s a great episode, but on the Delta Flyers podcast with former Voyager actors, Garrett Wang and Robert Duncan McNeill revealed that Lone Pine wasn’t actually very accepting to the Star Trek crew.
Wang, who played Harry Kim on Voyager, told the audience of the Delta Flyers that he remembers receiving a memo from the higher-ups that basically said Wang, Tim Russ (Tuvok), and Robert Beltran (Chakotay) to be careful while in Lone Pine due to the city being known as a “rough” area. Wang believes the implication was clear why there being warned to not travel around town without a group.
McNeill remembers the memo but himself believed they all received it and not just the actors of color.
The story of the memo and the conversation that surrounds it starts at about 5:30 into the episode.
While there is some misremembering as to who on the cast the memo was sent to, both McNeill and Wang’s version shared one distinct commonality and that was that Lone Pine was a dangerous and rowdy area; so be careful.
It’s a sobering reminder of what these men and women had to go through to film a series so many people love. The episode wasn’t all doom and gloom, however, as Wang also shared another fascinating tidbit.
Apparently, the series was so tight on money, that Wang had to wear Brent Spiner’s old crew-shoes, which were flat rubber, with no tread, and was prone to becoming very slippery if in the wrong conditions.
Wang’s bad shoe story ends the way you think it would.
The Delta Flyer’s podcast is always worth a listen and always provides some interesting tidbits and news. It’s worth checking out.