This Week in Star Trek History: April 8-13

April 8

Kane Hodder was born on this day in 1955. You won’t find Hodder in the credits of any Star Trek episode, but that was him on camera as a Jem’Hadar in the DS9 episode “What You Leave Behind.” Hodder, in addition to serving as a stuntman or stunt coordinator for dozens of films and television shows, is something of a legend to countless horror fans around the world. Why? Hodder played Jason Voorhees in four of the Friday the 13th features.

Production began this day in 1996 on Star Trek: Resurrection. That’s not a mistake. The film went on to become the blockbuster known as Star Trek: First Contact actually commenced shooting under the title Resurrection.

April 9

The Voyager episode “Before and After” premiered on this day in 1997. The Kes-centric third-season hour sent the ship’s resident Ocampa jumping through time, enabling viewers to glimpse her in the past, present and future. It’s widely considered among the best installments of Voyager.

John Eaves was born on this day in 1962. In addition to being one of our favorite StarTrek.com guest bloggers, he was a production illustrator on Trek productions including DS9, Enterprise and several of the features, among them Star Trek V, Generations, First Contact and Star Trek (2009).

April 10

The actor Kevin Peter Hall died on this day in 1991. Hall – who’d auditioned for the characters LaForge and Data -- had guest starred as Caldonian negotiator Leyor in the third-season TNG episode “The Price.” He gained his own measure of fame, however, playing the Predator in the sci-fi film Predator and its sequel, as well as the title creature in the Harry and the Henderson film and subsequent spin-off TV series. Sadly, Hall was only 35 years old when he succumbed to AIDS-related pneumonia after contracting the HIV virus from a tainted blood transfusion.

These days, most movies open “day and date,” meaning that they open on the same day internationally. Much of that has to do with marketing, with studios able to claim their movie debuted to however many tens of millions of dollars it grossed over its opening weekend. And quite a bit of it has to do with a concerted effort to prevent bootlegging/downloading of films from country to country. Back in the day, however, films tended to debut in the U.S. and Canada, and then roll out in other nations. Case in point: Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, which opened in America in November 1986, Australia in December 1986, Japan in March 1987 and England on April 10, 1987. The Voyage Home didn’t even reach France, Finland and Sweden until early 1989.

April 11

It was on this day in 1994 that Pocket Books/Aladdin Paperbacks published Stowaways, the second in its series of DS9 young adult novels. In the Brad Strickland-penned story, Jake and Nog set about rescuing Dr. Bashir, who’s been kidnapped by a group of assassins.

Michele Scarabelli was born on this day in 1955. Scarabelli is best known to sci-fi fans for her role as the alien mom Susan Francisco on the series Alien Nation and in several subsequent made-for-television movies. But she made her mark in the Star Trek universe as well, guest starring in the TNG episode “In Theory” as Jenna D’Sora, an Enterprise crew member who briefly dates Data.

April 12

TNG composer Ron Jones and an orchestra recorded the score for the fourth-season episode “The Drumhead” on this day in 1991. This would be, quite controversially, Jones’ final score for TNG.

Jennifer Morrison was born on this day in 1979. Morrison, of course, played Kirk’s mother, Winona Kirk, in Star Trek (2009). The actress, whom TV audiences will recognize as Dr. Cameron on House and as Zoey Pierson on How I Met Your Mother, has completed the upcoming film Warrior, in which she plays the wife of Star Trek: Nemesis villain Tom Hardy.