Chapter 204: March 1985
First update in a week. Sorry for the long wait. In this update, President Glenn gets an infrastructure bill and a sweeping law protecting the disabled passed. He also announces a European trip to meet both his NATO allies and Mikhail Gorbachev in May. Emmy buzz once again surrounds Nichelle Nichols for leading Starfleet Intelligence, and Walter Koenig for his writing. The 57th Academy Awards takes place on March 25. Finally, we have more Starfleet Intelligence episodes.
GLENN SIGNS INFRASTRUCTURE, DISABILITY RIGHTS BILLS
WILL TOUR EUROPE, MEET GORBACHEV IN JUNE
March 14, 1985
President Glenn signed two more major pieces of legislation into law today. The Infrastructure Revitalization Act of 1985 allocates $350 billion to restore old infrastructure and begin new projects, including high-speed rail networks for the Northeast Corridor, the Midwest, and the West Coast. The infrastructure bill will also modernize hospitals, schools and power plants, and includes new funding for hydroelectric power in the Great Lakes and Southern states. "This infrastructure investment is the largest since Eisenhower approved the interstate highway system," Glenn said at a signing ceremony. "During the campaign, I noticed that industrial infrastructure was in a state of decay, and I feared that the United States would fall behind the Soviet Union economically. Therefore, this law was considered a necessity both to improve the lives of everyday Americans and for national security." First Lady Annie Glenn applauded when her husband signed the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1985. The sweeping legislation bans employers from discriminating against individuals with disabilities, and is an addition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. "Americans with disabilities will no longer be an excluded class in this country," the President said. My wife Annie will go on a national tour to promote the law, including meeting with the CEOs of major companies such as Ford and General Motors to change their hiring practices.
The President also announced an international trip to Europe in May. He will meet British prime minister Margaret Thatcher for three days, from May 10 to May 13, in London. The President will then meet his French counterpart, Francois Mitterrand, from May 15 to May 17, and West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl from May 19 to May 21. He will then chair a meeting of NATO in Brussels over Memorial Day Weekend. Finally, the President will cap off his European tour with a weeklong summit with Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva in the first week in June. A major foreign policy announcement is expected during the bilateral meeting with Thatcher. The President is believed to be writing a foreign policy doctrine which will be implemented before his summit with Gorbachev. "President Glenn and I are discussing the finer details of the Glenn Doctrine," Secretary of State Jimmy Carter said. "We will seek a more peaceful world, and during our first contact with Premier Gorbachev, we determined that some of his goals and our goals are aligned. The summit with Gorbachev will act as a means to iron out differences and develop cooperation in areas where our aims are newly similar, such as the situation in Afghanistan."
EMMY BUZZ BUILDING FOR NICHOLS, KOENIG
KOENIG'S BETA POLARIS SCRIPT ONE OF THE BEST IN YEARS
March 22, 1985
Although the Emmys are still half a year away, buzz is building both for Nichelle Nichols, the lead in Starfleet: Intelligence, to win Best Actress in a Drama for the second time in three years. Her performances have been widely acclaimed all season by critics, and she is expected to be in the mix with both of Cagney and Lacey's leads, Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless, for the drama honor. "Nichols is an unquestioned television star now, just like William Shatner was in the 1960s on the original Star Trek," said Cecil Smith, the television critic for the Los Angeles Times. "The only question for me is if Starfleet Intelligence becomes a movie series like the 1960s Trek series. Some of their stories are excellent. I was particularly moved by the episode where that Klingon criminal, Kruge I think it was, a futuristic Einsatzgruppen monster if there ever was one, slaughters thousands of his own people in concentration camps." The episode Smith is referring to, Genocide on Beta Polaris, was written by Nichols' co-star, Walter Koenig. "That episode of television is a masterpiece. One of the best I have seen in years in any genre," Smith said. "There is a Holocaust denial movement trying to convert people to their insidious ideology, and that episode reminded me of a futuristic version of the Holocaust, just with aliens perpetrating the genocide instead of humans." Harve Bennett, executive producer of Starfleet Intelligence, debated whether to accept the script, but decided to give the green light. "Our heroes in Starfleet Intelligence work to stop crimes against humanity and other species," Bennett said. "We wanted to shine a light on ourselves. Sometimes what we see isn't pretty."
The 57th Academy Awards took place on March 25, 1985. William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy share their recollections. Shatner was nominated for Best Actor in Star Trek III, while Nimoy was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in The Godfather: Part III.
William Shatner:
In 1979, I was nominated for Best Actor in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I believed that I would never get another chance at an Academy Award. However, the Academy surprised me with a nomination for Star Trek III. I wasn't expecting to win, but found out that I was the second favorite behind F. Murray Abraham, who won for portraying Salieri in Amadeus. I was surprised that the voters placed me in front of Al Pacino, who turned in a masterful performance as Michael Corleone in the third Godfather movie. I was also pleased that Leonard was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in the same movie. The Best Actor category was stacked with remarkable talent. Abraham, Pacino, Tom Hulce, Sam Waterston, who would later star in Law and Order, and myself. However, my potential moment of glory was towards the end of the program. Very early on, the nominees for Best Supporting Actor were announced. Leonard also fell short of the Golden Globe, and he was favored to win that evening. Haing S. Ngor won for The Killing Fields. He would also win the Oscar over Leonard. And it wasn't my night either. Shirley MacLaine announced the Best Actor nominees, and Al Pacino took home the award for The Godfather. As I recall, the Godfather Part III had a pretty good night. It pretty much swept everything. I believe it won four or five. I thought Amadeus was a better movie, but the Academy didn't. I wouldn't get another chance from the Academy in terms of a Best Actor nomination, but there was a special surprise in store from the Academy when we finished our run with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. The Academy was considering me for an Honorary Oscar after Star Trek VI...
Leonard Nimoy:
I didn't have to wait very long to find out my fate. I thought after the Golden Globes that Haing Ngor would win for The Killing Fields, and if I had a vote, it would go to him. When the announcement came, Haing Ngor won, and I congratulated him. After what he went through, I was actually happy not to win. I wouldn't win another Academy Award as an actor, but Steven Spielberg asked me to be a producer for Schindler's List after I directed a series of films in the 1980s and early 1990s, and I accepted.
NOTABLE ACADEMY AWARD WINS:
Best Picture: The Godfather, Part III
Best Director: Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather, Part III
Best Actor: Al Pacino, The Godfather, Part III
Best Actress: Diane Keaton, The Godfather, Part III
Best Supporting Actor: Haing S. Ngor, The Killing Fields
Best Supporting Actress: Peggy Ashcroft, A Passage to India
Best Adapted Screenplay: Amadeus
Best Art Direction: Amadeus
STARFLEET INTELLIGENCE EPISODES
EPISODE 66: THE RIBBONS. (Airdate: March 5, 1985). Uhura and her team are asked to investigate the presence of subspace ribbons, an anomaly never seen before. Karlax determines that the ribbons are not of natural origin; somebody created them. In Orion space, an Orion scientist, Ghruk, is testing subspace weapons, which are intended to tear fabrics in subspace, and make the medium un-usable in terms of allowing the Federation to communicate with its fleets. If the Orions are able to develop these weapons, the Federation could not coordinate ship movements through subspace communication. Uhura asks Karlax if the Klingons were developing subspace weapons, and Karlax confirms that they are not. Marx senses that it is the Orions, and Uhura's team discovers that the subspace ribbons are indeed small artificially created anomalies. The team goes to Orion space in an effort to apprehend Ghruk, but are captured themselves and taken to Orion Prime for interrogation.
EPISODE 67: THE RIBBONS, PART II (Airdate: March 12, 1985). While captured on Orion Prime, Uhura and her team are sentenced to death. However, they escape the prison cell through Neras' timely intervention. Neras knows where Ghruk's laboratory is, and Uhura's team finds Ghruk. They are able to capture the designs for the subspace weapons, but are unable to capture the scientist before the Orions figure out their location. Uhura's team escapes with the weapons schematics. Chekov discovers that the weapons are of crude design, and the subspace ribbons created by the small prototypes are fixable. Chekov develops the fix, which requires energy from trilithium resin, and the breaches in space are fixed. Uhura reports her findings to Starfleet Command, and the Federation sends out an all points bulletin to the entire division to capture Ghruk. As it turns out, Ghruk is on the way to the exact coordinates, wondering how the ribbons were repaired. Uhura's team captures him and Karlax interrogates him brutally, to the point where Uhura has to relieve him of his duties.
EPISODE 68: OLD LOYALTIES. (Airdate: March 19, 1985). Karlax resigns from Starfleet Intelligence after Uhura relieves him of duties, and returns to Klingon space. He meets Endira, his old love, who tempts him into joining the Klingon secret services. Karlax accepts. Endira doesn't know that Uhura sent Karlax deep undercover into the Klingon Empire to monitor political developments, specifically whether there would be more attempts against Chancellor K'Pac's rule. In the meantime, Uhura and Marx are able to monitor all of Karlax's movements, and they discover that the House of Koloth is planning a coup attempt after Koloth's death. Karlax receives this information. Endira, a member of the House of Koloth, tries to seduce Karlax into joining in the plot, but Karlax blows up the plot, and Koloth's house is disgraced. Karlax is asked to become a full-time member of the Klingon secret services, and temporarily accepts.
EPISODE 69: THE TEARS OF THE SINGERS (Airdate: March 26, 1985). Adapted from/a sequel to the RL Star Trek novel The Tears of the Singers. Uhura must save the Taygetians, a species who spends most of their time singing, from a Klingon intervention. However, the planet Taygeta V is in free space, not claimed by either the Federation or Klingons, and the Klingons attempt to take the territory. Uhura runs into John Maslin, the son of her old flame Guy Maslin who she fell in love with when she was aboard the Enterprise during the original five-year mission. However, Uhura discovers that John Maslin is running the operation for the Klingons, and has to kill him to stop the Klingons from taking over the system.
GLENN SIGNS INFRASTRUCTURE, DISABILITY RIGHTS BILLS
WILL TOUR EUROPE, MEET GORBACHEV IN JUNE
March 14, 1985
President Glenn signed two more major pieces of legislation into law today. The Infrastructure Revitalization Act of 1985 allocates $350 billion to restore old infrastructure and begin new projects, including high-speed rail networks for the Northeast Corridor, the Midwest, and the West Coast. The infrastructure bill will also modernize hospitals, schools and power plants, and includes new funding for hydroelectric power in the Great Lakes and Southern states. "This infrastructure investment is the largest since Eisenhower approved the interstate highway system," Glenn said at a signing ceremony. "During the campaign, I noticed that industrial infrastructure was in a state of decay, and I feared that the United States would fall behind the Soviet Union economically. Therefore, this law was considered a necessity both to improve the lives of everyday Americans and for national security." First Lady Annie Glenn applauded when her husband signed the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1985. The sweeping legislation bans employers from discriminating against individuals with disabilities, and is an addition to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. "Americans with disabilities will no longer be an excluded class in this country," the President said. My wife Annie will go on a national tour to promote the law, including meeting with the CEOs of major companies such as Ford and General Motors to change their hiring practices.
The President also announced an international trip to Europe in May. He will meet British prime minister Margaret Thatcher for three days, from May 10 to May 13, in London. The President will then meet his French counterpart, Francois Mitterrand, from May 15 to May 17, and West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl from May 19 to May 21. He will then chair a meeting of NATO in Brussels over Memorial Day Weekend. Finally, the President will cap off his European tour with a weeklong summit with Soviet premier Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva in the first week in June. A major foreign policy announcement is expected during the bilateral meeting with Thatcher. The President is believed to be writing a foreign policy doctrine which will be implemented before his summit with Gorbachev. "President Glenn and I are discussing the finer details of the Glenn Doctrine," Secretary of State Jimmy Carter said. "We will seek a more peaceful world, and during our first contact with Premier Gorbachev, we determined that some of his goals and our goals are aligned. The summit with Gorbachev will act as a means to iron out differences and develop cooperation in areas where our aims are newly similar, such as the situation in Afghanistan."
EMMY BUZZ BUILDING FOR NICHOLS, KOENIG
KOENIG'S BETA POLARIS SCRIPT ONE OF THE BEST IN YEARS
March 22, 1985
Although the Emmys are still half a year away, buzz is building both for Nichelle Nichols, the lead in Starfleet: Intelligence, to win Best Actress in a Drama for the second time in three years. Her performances have been widely acclaimed all season by critics, and she is expected to be in the mix with both of Cagney and Lacey's leads, Tyne Daly and Sharon Gless, for the drama honor. "Nichols is an unquestioned television star now, just like William Shatner was in the 1960s on the original Star Trek," said Cecil Smith, the television critic for the Los Angeles Times. "The only question for me is if Starfleet Intelligence becomes a movie series like the 1960s Trek series. Some of their stories are excellent. I was particularly moved by the episode where that Klingon criminal, Kruge I think it was, a futuristic Einsatzgruppen monster if there ever was one, slaughters thousands of his own people in concentration camps." The episode Smith is referring to, Genocide on Beta Polaris, was written by Nichols' co-star, Walter Koenig. "That episode of television is a masterpiece. One of the best I have seen in years in any genre," Smith said. "There is a Holocaust denial movement trying to convert people to their insidious ideology, and that episode reminded me of a futuristic version of the Holocaust, just with aliens perpetrating the genocide instead of humans." Harve Bennett, executive producer of Starfleet Intelligence, debated whether to accept the script, but decided to give the green light. "Our heroes in Starfleet Intelligence work to stop crimes against humanity and other species," Bennett said. "We wanted to shine a light on ourselves. Sometimes what we see isn't pretty."
The 57th Academy Awards took place on March 25, 1985. William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy share their recollections. Shatner was nominated for Best Actor in Star Trek III, while Nimoy was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in The Godfather: Part III.
William Shatner:
In 1979, I was nominated for Best Actor in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. I believed that I would never get another chance at an Academy Award. However, the Academy surprised me with a nomination for Star Trek III. I wasn't expecting to win, but found out that I was the second favorite behind F. Murray Abraham, who won for portraying Salieri in Amadeus. I was surprised that the voters placed me in front of Al Pacino, who turned in a masterful performance as Michael Corleone in the third Godfather movie. I was also pleased that Leonard was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in the same movie. The Best Actor category was stacked with remarkable talent. Abraham, Pacino, Tom Hulce, Sam Waterston, who would later star in Law and Order, and myself. However, my potential moment of glory was towards the end of the program. Very early on, the nominees for Best Supporting Actor were announced. Leonard also fell short of the Golden Globe, and he was favored to win that evening. Haing S. Ngor won for The Killing Fields. He would also win the Oscar over Leonard. And it wasn't my night either. Shirley MacLaine announced the Best Actor nominees, and Al Pacino took home the award for The Godfather. As I recall, the Godfather Part III had a pretty good night. It pretty much swept everything. I believe it won four or five. I thought Amadeus was a better movie, but the Academy didn't. I wouldn't get another chance from the Academy in terms of a Best Actor nomination, but there was a special surprise in store from the Academy when we finished our run with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. The Academy was considering me for an Honorary Oscar after Star Trek VI...
Leonard Nimoy:
I didn't have to wait very long to find out my fate. I thought after the Golden Globes that Haing Ngor would win for The Killing Fields, and if I had a vote, it would go to him. When the announcement came, Haing Ngor won, and I congratulated him. After what he went through, I was actually happy not to win. I wouldn't win another Academy Award as an actor, but Steven Spielberg asked me to be a producer for Schindler's List after I directed a series of films in the 1980s and early 1990s, and I accepted.
NOTABLE ACADEMY AWARD WINS:
Best Picture: The Godfather, Part III
Best Director: Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather, Part III
Best Actor: Al Pacino, The Godfather, Part III
Best Actress: Diane Keaton, The Godfather, Part III
Best Supporting Actor: Haing S. Ngor, The Killing Fields
Best Supporting Actress: Peggy Ashcroft, A Passage to India
Best Adapted Screenplay: Amadeus
Best Art Direction: Amadeus
STARFLEET INTELLIGENCE EPISODES
EPISODE 66: THE RIBBONS. (Airdate: March 5, 1985). Uhura and her team are asked to investigate the presence of subspace ribbons, an anomaly never seen before. Karlax determines that the ribbons are not of natural origin; somebody created them. In Orion space, an Orion scientist, Ghruk, is testing subspace weapons, which are intended to tear fabrics in subspace, and make the medium un-usable in terms of allowing the Federation to communicate with its fleets. If the Orions are able to develop these weapons, the Federation could not coordinate ship movements through subspace communication. Uhura asks Karlax if the Klingons were developing subspace weapons, and Karlax confirms that they are not. Marx senses that it is the Orions, and Uhura's team discovers that the subspace ribbons are indeed small artificially created anomalies. The team goes to Orion space in an effort to apprehend Ghruk, but are captured themselves and taken to Orion Prime for interrogation.
EPISODE 67: THE RIBBONS, PART II (Airdate: March 12, 1985). While captured on Orion Prime, Uhura and her team are sentenced to death. However, they escape the prison cell through Neras' timely intervention. Neras knows where Ghruk's laboratory is, and Uhura's team finds Ghruk. They are able to capture the designs for the subspace weapons, but are unable to capture the scientist before the Orions figure out their location. Uhura's team escapes with the weapons schematics. Chekov discovers that the weapons are of crude design, and the subspace ribbons created by the small prototypes are fixable. Chekov develops the fix, which requires energy from trilithium resin, and the breaches in space are fixed. Uhura reports her findings to Starfleet Command, and the Federation sends out an all points bulletin to the entire division to capture Ghruk. As it turns out, Ghruk is on the way to the exact coordinates, wondering how the ribbons were repaired. Uhura's team captures him and Karlax interrogates him brutally, to the point where Uhura has to relieve him of his duties.
EPISODE 68: OLD LOYALTIES. (Airdate: March 19, 1985). Karlax resigns from Starfleet Intelligence after Uhura relieves him of duties, and returns to Klingon space. He meets Endira, his old love, who tempts him into joining the Klingon secret services. Karlax accepts. Endira doesn't know that Uhura sent Karlax deep undercover into the Klingon Empire to monitor political developments, specifically whether there would be more attempts against Chancellor K'Pac's rule. In the meantime, Uhura and Marx are able to monitor all of Karlax's movements, and they discover that the House of Koloth is planning a coup attempt after Koloth's death. Karlax receives this information. Endira, a member of the House of Koloth, tries to seduce Karlax into joining in the plot, but Karlax blows up the plot, and Koloth's house is disgraced. Karlax is asked to become a full-time member of the Klingon secret services, and temporarily accepts.
EPISODE 69: THE TEARS OF THE SINGERS (Airdate: March 26, 1985). Adapted from/a sequel to the RL Star Trek novel The Tears of the Singers. Uhura must save the Taygetians, a species who spends most of their time singing, from a Klingon intervention. However, the planet Taygeta V is in free space, not claimed by either the Federation or Klingons, and the Klingons attempt to take the territory. Uhura runs into John Maslin, the son of her old flame Guy Maslin who she fell in love with when she was aboard the Enterprise during the original five-year mission. However, Uhura discovers that John Maslin is running the operation for the Klingons, and has to kill him to stop the Klingons from taking over the system.
