-Here’s a brief recap of my time during the filming of “The Holiest Thing”-the latest episode from Star Trek:Phase II. I ‘m reprising my role as Ensign Dawson Walking Bear for this one. I was only scheduled to film for 2 days, but I showed up a day early to make sure things would be good on my end. My 1st time taking a train to a Phase II shoot-and I can’t remember the last time I took a train. All I can say is, make sure you go to the bathroom before boarding… 🙂

-My official day one. Call time for me was 11 AM. I got there and, like the day before, got re-acquainted with new and familiar faces. Unlike yesterday, it was crowded. I was wondering if we could find a place to park. By 1 PM, most of the people required for the bridge scenes were in costume and makeup. Unfortunately, things were running behind and, as a result, by 10 PM (call time) some of the people (including me) didn’t get to film at all this day. So basically I had a dry run. It’s OK-not close to the record (which was four 12 hour days straight in costume (but not makeup) with NoSS). I’m happy to say that my shirt was fully done and fit nice. They needed to blast thru the bridge scenes the next day so call time was 8 AM. I was hoping my contacts & allergies would be in a good mood…

-Day two-marathon day. Due to half the bridge leaving the next day, we had to get as much done as possible. As a result, we were filming past 5:30 AM (not PM, AM) the next morning. There was a break for dinner and another scene that had to be filmed in early evening so I took that time to not only take some power naps (I knew this was gonna be a long night) but also work on memorizing some new lines I’d been given. We all got thru it and I fell asleep in my hotel room around 6:10 AM…

-…to wake up three and a half hours later. One interesting thing I found out (the hard way) the day before was that you can’t buy a train ticket at the Port Henry Train Station-you need to get it online. That was interesting-especially since I had no way to print the e ticket myself. Thanks to Rob Mauro and Rip Rokken for saving me on this one. By 2:30 PM I was on the train back to Syracuse-which didn’t arrive until around 10 PM (in which I only slept for 30 minutes)…

-Overall, I had a good time, albeit it was bittersweet for me on certain levels. It was great to meet up with new and familiar faces this time-including some I’d only known for years via online. Also of note is this my 1st episode as Walking Bear w/ my hair fully pulled back. Maybe that will be part of the current series… “What hair style will Walking Bear have for this episode?” I can tell you right now I don’t see a mohawk at anytime… 🙂

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