Star Trek Insurrection, My Story
In the spring of 1998 we were living the in Mammoth Lakes area, in particular the Long
Valley area. On the way to work one day I was listening to one of the local radio
stations. An announcement was made that the Star Trek crew would be filming in the area
and extras would be needed. Being the job addicted person that I am, I ignored the
announcement and braved the long trip to Bridgeport and went to work. Once at work I
called my wife to tell her what I had heard on the radio and that was that.
A few days later I decided to go fishing and since I did not feel like driving for a
long distance, I decided to go to Convict Lake which was about two miles north of
our house. Rather than taking the hard way and hiking around the north side of the
lake I drove the car around the south side and had to walk only a few feet to the lake.
After setting my tackle box on a log I set up my pole and got ready to cast. I
then noticed a small wooden bridge with yellow ‘caution’ tape across the
entrance. I though “great, they are building a fishing pier”. A few
weeks later I returned to the same location and noticed that the wooden bridge had been
removed. I thought to myself, “that's odd, why would they start building
a fishing pier and then tear it down”. I again thought nothing of it and
continued with my fishing.
When we finally went to see the movie we sat there watching the scenes unfold hoping to
catch a glimpse of our old stomping grounds. As the scene where the children show
the crew where they saw Data, it opens up with a spectacular view of Convict Lake.
We were completely overwhelmed. There in front of us on the big screen were 100%
recognizable views of the area were I had spent countless hours fishing.
Numerous scenes with the before mentioned wooden bridge were shown, and a scene from
the water showing the crew on the shore was shown. This scene showed the crew on
shore and a log to the side of them, yes, the log I used to sit and place my tackle box
on. Data then walks off the shore and into the lake in the exact spot where I have
lost numerous Fire Tiger Kastmaster lures. I hope he did not get stuck by any of
them.
The next scene shows the Holodeck ship coming out of the water. You can see the
trail on the other side of the lake where we used to hike and if you examine our picture
of the lake, the boat is in about the location where you see the Holodeck ship come out of
the water.
Since we no longer live in the Mammoth area I am not able to show you anything further
of the area. When the snow thaws we will be making a trip back and will show you
pictures of the Convict Lake area that you will be able to recognize from the move, but
until then this is it.
