Tony Todd – Fan Film Factor

R.I.P. – TONY TODD (1954 – 2024)

Star Trek fans have lost another giant far too soon with the passing of actor TONY TODD on Wednesday, November 6, at the age of 69. This follows the death in January of this year of Star Trek actor GARY GRAHAM (Vulcan Ambassador Soval) in January at the age of 73 and Star Trek: Voyager co-creator and showrunner JERI TAYLOR last month.

To most of the general public, Tony Tood was known for being the titular character in the Candyman franchise of horror films—although his IMDb page features literally hundreds of roles in film and television, including The Crow (1994), The Rock (1996), Final Destination (2000) and its sequels, Homicide: Life on the Street, Boston Public, The District, 24, Splatter, Chuck, Transformers Prime, The Young and the Restless, Scream: The TV Series, The Flash, and many others.

But to Star Trek fans, he will forever be remembered for playing the role of Worf’s Klingon brother Commander Kurn in Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s “Sins of The Father,” “Redemption,” “Redemption, Part II,” along with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s “Sons of Mogh.” And perhaps even more impactful, in a single appearance in the fourth season DS9 episode “The Visitor,” Todd portrayed an adult Jake Sisko in a performance that, even having seen the episode dozens of times, still leaves me bawling my eyes out. That level of performance transcends mere acting and takes the craft to a totally higher plane of perfection.

Of course, this isn’t simply a Star Trek blog site; we focus on fan films. And Tony Todd was one of those few Star Trek actors who agreed to appear in a fan production—in his case, it was 2014’s PRELUDE TO AXANAR. Although he showed up for only a single day of green screen shooting, Tony provided fans with a tour de force performance as he brought to life the character of Admiral Marcus Ramirez, Starfleet Commander during the latter portion of the Four Years War with the Klingons.

Back when Star Trek actors were still appearing in fan-made productions, there was no requirement nor even expectation that they must throw themselves wholeheartedly into a small role in a 20-minute amateur film. After all, fans will love the actor for just showing up, so why work any harder than one has to, right? Well, wrong, actually. Trek actors graced fan films with impressively strong performances over years. But perhaps none will be remembered and cherished nearly as much as Tony Todd’s speech as Admiral Ramirez galvanizing a battle-weary Starfleet as the Federation was losing its war with the Klingon Empire. Take a look…

If you don’t get chills watching that speech, I don’t know what else I can say to you.

So on behalf of Star Trek fans everywhere, I would like to thank Todd Tony for his many outstanding performances and especially for bringing his talent, dedication, and professionalism to fan films, as well. You will be missed, Tony…and never, ever forgotten.

INTERLUDE update: How do you solve a problem like Ramirez?

The whole reason INTERLUDE exists (will exist) is because ALEC PETERS wanted to explain why Admiral Ramirez won’t be appearing in the Axanar sequels. In reality, actor TONY TODD left the production and declined to play Ramirez again. Actors J.G. HERTZLER, GARY GRAHAM, and the late RICHARD HATCH, on the other hand, decided to stick with Alec and see it through.

And while the loss of Richard hit us all very hard, it turned out that losing Tony Todd, even though he is an amazing actor, wasn’t as devastating a set-back for the Axanar script as was the loss of Kharn. In other words, it was fairly easy to write out Ramirez and replace him with a different Starfleet commanding admiral. In Alec’s original draft, Ramirez gets wounded while being escorted back on a convoy from a secret meeting. His injuries are serious enough that he has to sit out the rest of the war, turning over his duties to Admiral Threl of Androria.

My Interlude script took that quick “oh, by the way…” bit of exposition and expanded it into a 10-12 minute fan film (or so I hope!). The only problem is: now I need to show Ramirez!

Granted, he only needs to be wounded, so he won’t have any spoken lines. In the comic book version, it was easy to show him—as the artwork in the panel above illustrates him lying in the Ares sickbay covered in blood. But what about the fan film?

Of course, I could simply take the easy way out and just not show Ramirez in Sickbay at all…and instead have the doctor call up to the bridge, “Captain, Admiral Ramirez is in critical condition down here!” But that would have been such a cop out.

Also, I was kinda looking forward to filming a scene somewhere other than on the Ares Studios bridge set. Granted, it’s a AWESOME set, but I really wanted one or two other locations for the action, as well. Initially, that Sickbay scene was going to be filmed at Neutral Zone Studios in Kingsland, GA on the TOS sets previously used for Star Trek Continues and Starship Farragut. But that offer was rescinded. Fortunately, GLEN WOLFE stepped up and volunteered his WARP 66 Studios in Arkansas for the Sickbay scene.

Now we just needed to find someone to play Admiral Ramirez…!

TERRY McINTOSH is officially warned by actor TONY TODD not to use his AXANAR blooper footage!

After yesterday’s blog about the troubling behavior of TERRY McINTOSH, I’d really hoped to get back to fan films today. Yeah, I thought I was out, but Terry pulled me back in. However, this WILL be my last Terry McIntosh blog for the foreseeable future. I don’t want to keep giving him all this attention, even if it is completely negative. But I felt it was necessary to follow-up on yesterday’s blog because of something that happened later on last evening.

Quick recap: Terry McIntosh, who worked with Axanar Productions for years before flying off in a huff has all the footage from Prelude to Axanar…including outtakes. Even though Terry signed a non-disclosure agreement agreeing to keep all Axanar-related materials confidential, he already leaked an early version of the full Axanar script, and now he’s announced plans to release a Prelude to Axanar blooper reel…even though he doesn’t own the footage or have permission to do so.

Terry’s stated intention is to use the blooper reel to embarrass Alec Peters, who apparently worked through numerous bad takes to get his performance as Garth to a point where it would be strong enough to feature in the fan film alongside the professional actors (who obviously didn’t flub their lines as much as Alec did…since he’s not a trained actor).

Terry contacted the other actors (with the exception of the late Richard Hatch and his estate) to ask “permission” to use their blooper footage (failing to mention that he was no longer with Axanar Productions and was doing this “rogue” in an attempt to embarrass Alec Peters). Although Kate Vernon said okay, Gary Graham and J.G. Hertzler said no.

Then Terry said this:

In other words, Terry asked for permission, was not given that permission, and is now considering ignoring this actor’s wishes and using the footage anyway.

What I wrote in yesterday’s blog was NOT pretty. But at least, I thought, this can’t get any worse. There’s no way for Terry to possibly sink any lower.

Man, was I wrong…

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