[laughs]

"This is really good music." And, uh, afterwards, after, uh, the evening, we were all being bussed back to the hotel, I asked Nick if this was something that he would be interested in writing more pieces, uh, and he said yes.

And so over the last couple of years, we, uh, we have, uh, he has composed different pieces, uh, uh, Tapestry and a, and a, and a speech, which I gave and which we can explain later, and, and a couple of other pieces.

And, um, when it ca- And, and the, the idea in my mind was that, um, to bring this, this new music into symphonic halls, because it's at that level.

Uh, so when, uh, um, Winnipeg asked if, if I'd be interested in coming here, and they said, "Well, what would you like to do?" This was after Peer Gynt.

I said, "Well, I have an idea for kind of a Star Trek, and we'll use m- some of the chestnuts from, from the Star Trek, some of the best ones."

And how much did it change what you wanted to say? Or, uh, or were you just on the same page from the get-go?

Well, I had to find what I wanted to say because of the fact of the matter is, is that, you know, just imagine that you're going to make a meal, okay? And you open the refrigerator.

I wrote this next piece, and it's called Darmok and Jalad."

And I had no idea what he was talking about.

And I, he walked away crestfallen because Darmok and Jalad is a, a beloved Star Trek piece.

And I thought, "Well, you know what? Rather than sit back here, uh, in the green room just getting nervous for my, for the second half of the show, I'll go out and listen." And I went out and listened, and I went, "Wow, this music is terrific.

I mean, it's really terrific." And I grew up in the symphony orchestra world.

My father was with the Philadelphia Orchestra, so I, I, I'm, I'm somewhat versed in, in all of this.

And it was after that that on the way back to the hotel I said to him, "Would you be interested in writing some more pieces?" And he said...

That sounds-

Can you talk a little bit about what it's like to interact with people who are so deeply invested in these stories and in these worlds?

Well, the Star Trek fandom is a really smart fandom.

They are, for the most part, very literate, science-oriented, progressive.

Gene's...

Nick and I put one of his letters, his speeches to music, where he makes the comment, "Humanity will reach maturity and wisdom on the day it learns to value diversity in life and in ideas." You know, back in '71, that was a pretty, um, bold statement to say, and I think it is still a bold statement to say because, um, Star Trek is a peculiar fandom in that it's also extremely loyal.

They have read all the material.

They have read the books.

So what is it about the sci-fi fantasy space?

So you ever talk to you about that?

no he didn't um as a matter of fact he and i had a couple of lunches and what we talked about almost exclusively was airplanes i had written a script about a bunch of uh young boys uh you know in a private school kind of a rundown way private school for wayward kids who who um uh had put together a peaton pole aircraft and peaton it was called the peaton pole air camper and uh for 500 in 1925 500 is a lot of money yeah you could buy they would send you the kit you had to supply the model the model a engine and you had now an airplane.

And so we talked quite a bit about it.

I didn't know anything about Trillane.

I had not watched the television series.

I was a kid who did not who who had a lot of problems in school.

academic problems yeah area there and um i had a reading issue and and all that type of stuff and uh so my parents simply turned off the television i mean they they cut the cord on the tv wow and um so I never really watched any of that and so it was only after maybe two or three years after doing Trek that somebody said that I was asked about Trillane and I said I have no idea what you're talking about and so they sent me a um a video and uh and I watched it and I went oh very interesting very interesting the energy it has there's sort of the sameness in the energy and what have you um you know the gene that they originally wanted gene originally wanted to go immediately to series and uh he did not want a movie of the week but they insisted on a movie of the week so if you take a look at farpoint you can see a very um clear seam where he put two stories together I mean it's not it's not I dare say it's not particularly elegant scene I mean it's it's uh the the intertwining of the stories is not if you were writing it from the start, you I don't think you would have kind of put it together that way, just in terms of storytelling.

so

[laughs]

When I, when I got this job, I was told, "You know, you're gonna be able to do stuff that you don't, people usually don't hire you to do." And then, uh, my concern o- obviously was is whether I was gonna be, you know, emotionally prepared for it.

And then I discovered that actually I was [laughs] perhaps a little over-prepared for it.

Jesus.

It's possible.

It, it turns out that not only is the money not from your mother, she didn't even know that you have cancer.

You never went to see her.

I, I, I dropped you at the airport.