The Inexplicable Legend of Frank Force

Over on TrekBBS, someone was wondering why fans latched onto the USS Kelvin's Captain Robau as a "badass" many months before they had any idea what he'd be like in JJ Abrams' "Star Trek" movie.

The now-defunct "Star Trek" Club of NSW, Astrex, once had a bizarre in-joke running about an enigmatic actor called "Frank Force". I was in the US, at a Creation convention in January 1984, and I won some very rare "ST III: The Search for Spock" call sheets in their auction. The call sheets declared that one of the very last new main actors introduced in the script was Frank Force, playing "Nacluv".

This seemed rather bizarre, till a friend of the production team mentioned it was an anagram - "Vulcan" spelled backwards. Yes, it was Leonard Nimoy under a secret, assumed name, to hide his participation as a regenerated adult Spock till the last minute. After all, Spock was the most "frank force" in the universe.

Australia waited many months after the US to see ST III, giving Australian fans a lot of idle time to generate wacky Frank Force jokes. One penpal of mine, from Perth, arrived at Sydney airport for the film's gala premiere night, only to be collected by three complete strangers wearing large "Frank Force Fan Club" badges.

You'll notice that Director Nimoy also voices the USS Excelsior Elevator in ST III as "Frank Force", which got a huge cheer from us on opening night when the credits rolled.

Urbane Mr Urban

Actor Karl Urban (Dr Leonard McCoy in the new
"Star Trek" movie) signs autographs for fans
at Supanova, Olympic Park, Sydney, Australia.

Mr Urban was one of the celebrity guests at this weekend's Supanova convention.

After signing autographs all day, he then delivered a 45-minute presentation, starting from the aisle to the stage with his McCoy introductory speech from the movie ("Well, you were going to ask me to do those lines, weren't you?" he grinned), and then answering questions from the floor.

According to the charismatic Urban - in his, at times, Kiwi twang - he was in awe at just how funny, intelligent and talented his cast mates were. You can tell he's eager to work with them, and JJ Abrams, again next year.

Apparently, the "... everything but my bones" quip came from Urban himself - he was concerned that the Kirk of the new timeline wasn't the history buff the Shatner version was, so the "sawbones" nickname reference for McCoy was no longer appropriate, and the writers and JJ were thrilled by his suggestion, so it was included in the script.

The last question asked was about Leonard Nimoy. Urban seemed excited to tell this next anecdote, and it was a great moment to finish off with. Urban related the surreal experience of seeing Nimoy arrive on the soundstage in full Spock makeup, with the Vulcan ears and the eyebrows, but he didn't get much of a chance to get to know Nimoy until the rounds of publicity press junkets started.

He said that, after the movie had been viewed by the cast for the first time, Nimoy wanted Urban to meet Nimoy's wife, Susan Bay. She made a point of telling Urban, "You know, when you came onscreen as McCoy and delivered those opening lines, Leonard cried."




"Wait'll you're sitting pretty with a case of
Andorian shingles, see if you're still so relaxed
when you're bleeding from your eye sockets..."

Spock + Spock

Late-breaking news at Trek Today:



Leonard Nimoy and Zachary Quinto (of "Heroes") are Spock of Vulcan
in JJ Abrams' "Star Trek", Christmas 2008!

"Director and executive producer JJ Abrams has announced that Zachary Quinto - one of the stars of 'Heroes' - will play Spock in his upcoming eleventh 'Star Trek' film, and confirmed that Leonard Nimoy will play the older Spock as well.

From Comic-Con in San Diego, Abrams "introduced Quinto as the new Spock and confirmed William Shatner's statements that Leonard Nimoy would appear in the film as Spock in later years. The writers still want Shatner to appear as well as the original Kirk, but have not yet worked out a way for to bring in the character as an older man."