For me it's very exciting," says Trish Stewart
in her dressing room trailer on the Columbia Pictures lot, where
Salvage 1 is filmed. "I don't think there's a comparable woman's role
on television. In Salvage 1 you have a woman who has a Ph.D., one who
doesn't go around tooting her own horn and accepts the fact that she
has weaknesses. She's capable, intelligent, an activator-not a reactor.
She's involved but still vulnerable, which I think is important.
"The
stereotype of a capable woman is usually one who is hard and cold, but
I think there's an unreality in that. Some women are so intent upon
taking on the role of the man that they are also taking on the
attributes that are considered masculine-instead of maintaining their
femininity and so many of the nice things about being a woman. Melanie
shows that you don't have to give up femininity."
Stewart
herself is a unique blend of softness, strength, humor and
intelligence. She is as capable of discussing the translinear vector
principle as she is of preparing omelettes or applying makeup.
"I
can't totally disassociate myself from the role I'm playing," Stewart
says."I bring my own strengths and vulnerability to the role of
Melanie."
There are still some significant differences between Stewart and the
character she plays.
"Melanie
is more willing to take chances than I am," Stewart explains. "In some
areas I'm chicken. But I'm expandmg, growing. I took off in March last
year and went backpacking around the world for four months. I hiked
through the Himalayas. I felt so brave and courageous. That was such a
departure for me.
"But
I had many moments of self-doubt. Lots of inner monologues where I'd
say to myself, 'What am I doing here?' Now Melanie wouldn't do that. If
Melanie needed a vacation, she wouldn't hesitate to take it. I get too
caught up in responsibility.
"I
think Melanie is accepting of people, as I believe I am, but she
doesn't try to accept responsibility for them. I have too much of a
tendency to be a caretaker. I think that somehow I ought to be able to
make everything right for everyone. And in taking responsibility for
others, there is a kind of judgrnent that goes along with it: saying
that they aren't
capable of doing it themselves.
"But
Melanie would probably say, 'Okay, I may not agree with what you're
doing, but I trust the fact that you know what you're getting into.'
Remember in the pilot when Melanie tells the movie cowboy, 'That's
enough explosive to break your ankles?' The guy persisted, 'and Melanie
said, 'Okay.' Then.. BOOM. But she told him."
Comedy or Adventure Show
Salvage
I is something of an enigmatic program. It doesn't fit easily into any
category. "We've had people say they don't know whether to call Salvage
I a comedy with adventure, or an adventure-drama with comedic
overtones," says Stewart.
"What
I say is that Salvage I is different. It is a unique melding of science
fiction and science fact. It is possible to build your own rocketship
and go to the Moon with the right fuel. The translinear vector
principle we use-that slow, steady-acceleration way of reaching the
Moon-that's real. But, as is pointed out in the pilot, unless you have
a really strong fuel to give you that thrust and keep you going, you
can't do it. But the fuel used on Salvage I is fictitious.
'Monohydrazine' is something they made up."
And
this is what gives Salvage I its science-fiction flavor. Stewart
herself is an SF enthusiast. Not only has she read most of the classics
(her favorite authors are Asimov, Bradbury and Heinlein, and her
favorite books are Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein and
Childhood's End by Arthur Clarke); but she has also dabbled at writing
science fiction. She's currently working on a book involving an
embryonic-transplant theme.
"I
got into a discussion with a friend of mine who was complaining that on
Star Trek everybody always looked like they came from the same racial
stock. I said, 'Why not? If you can transplant a monkey embryo into the
belly of a rabbit, ship the rabbit from England to Brazil, take the
embryo out and put it into a monkey. And that monkey bears a baby
monkey. Why not do it with humans?' Anyway, when I get time, I sit down
and work on my story involving human embryo transplants."
Asked
whether she had to do much research for the part of Melanie, Stewart
responds, "I took a lot of science when I was in school; so some of the
terminology is familiar to me. I'm also a voracious reader. But some
words were coined for the show. To learn these words, it's simply a
matter of familiarizing ourselves with the new words and making them
part of ourselves. It takes practice. But I haven't done any studying
about explosives-mainly because I haven't had time. We work 13 hours a
day for the most part, five or six days a week."
The
three principle performers-Stewart, Joel Higgins and Andy
Griffith-appear in almost every scene. Spending so much time together
could be a source of contention, but Stewart says otherwise. "I find everybody on Salvage I to be so helpful,
so determined to do a good job-not so concerned with I or me. For
instance, last night we were all standing around trying to film a scene
that was very static. Andy is just supposed to hand out mail-very
static. But now, instead of that, when Andy comes in, I'm going to be
doing yoga, and Joel is going to be playing the guitar-so that we are
active and not static. We three actors worked that out together. If the
script just doesn't track, if it doesn't work, we all sit down and try
to work out some hook, some joke, that will pull it together."
As
if to underscore what Stewart had just said, there comes a knock on her
trailer door. It is Andy Griffith. He interrupts the interview for a
few minutes to show her two pages of changes he had made in the script.
They go over the changes together, and Stewart volunteers additional
alterations.
"See
what I mean," she says as the door closes. "It's like this all the
time. We're always working to improve the show."
Although
Stewart loved the script for the pilot, she admits that there were
problems with subsequent shows.
"It's
not that we get bad scripts; it's just that everything has been so
rushed all season. We did the pilot, and then a week later got the
go-ahead for the show. They just didn't have time to get those scripts
together. They're still working on the scripts while we're shooting it.
I'm hoping that if the show is picked up for next season, they will
give us more time per episode."
The SFX-perts
One
strength of the pilot has been kept in the series--the special-effects
people. The producers were able to retain the same special-effects
experts, but they too have to work under the same time constrictions in
the series as the performers.
"Our
special-effects people," Stewart adds, "are working in a way almost
parallel to the premise of the show-putting things together out of junk
in a terribly short time. They work under tremendous pressure."
The
spaceship on the show has actually been constructed from old boilers
and other bits of junk. Its size is quite impressive when seen on the
set.
According
to Stewart, "The spaceship doesn't look like it's all that high on
television, but it is-about 32 feet high. When you're walking up that
ladder to the hatch and having to swing yourself out in order to get
into the hatch, it's pretty scary. And, of course, there are no nets. I
have often thought, 'Now, what if any of us ever accidently lost our
grips?'"
Luckily, no one has. But other accidents have plagued Stewart and her
colleagues right from the beginning. During the filming of the pilot,
she tripped over her costume, fell down a flight of stairs and tore
open her chin. She still bears a scar from that mishap. Many of the
early publicity stills of Stewart show her with her hand in front of
her chin to hide the wound, and in the pilot, chin straps were added to
the space helmets to conceal her cut chin.
In
the first episode of the series, none of the principals escaped injury.
"We were on location where it had been raining," Stewart explains, "and
the ground was muddy and slippery. I was running away from the
Bigfoot-like creature. Somehow I managed not to fall while I was
charging down a hill, but when I ran into Joel-whom I was supposed to
think is the creature and then start pounding him with my fists-he lost
his footing on a wet tree trunk. I fell down and cracked my head on a
boulder. Joel fell against a tree and broke a rib. Shortly after that,
Andy slipped, gashed his head and had to have six stitches. We all have
had disastrous accidents."
Trish
Stewart has suffered more than one nosebleed trying to rip her space
helmet off at the end of a scene. Not much oxygen gets into those
helmets, she says, and they get pretty hot. So the performers try to
get the helmets off as quickly as they can-often forgetting that the
base part that fits into the rim of the spacesuit is very narrow.
Subsequently, the helmets hit their noses.
"Window Dressing"
"I
really hadn't planned to get involved with a series (after leaving The
Young and The Restless)-at least not so soon. But I loved the script. I
really loved the script. I had been offered other roles for pilots, and
they were always such pat characters-mere window dressing. I hate that.
I don't even like the hour I have to spend in the morning with makeup,
hair and getting dressed. I find it anathema to be so occupied with the
external that one forgets about what's inside-what makes the character
tick. I thought-God, here's a woman who is well-rounded, not locked
into some area, who is a full human being. There are so many levels to
her.
"Obviously,
Melanie has an attraction to Skip, but there is also pain because of
the previous relationship with him. There's holding back, and her
vulnerability shows through in that.
"Usually,
I abhor romantic titillation. But on Salvage I, I think they are very
wise to underplay the romance. Because here it's a slow
reacknowledgement of a growing friendship, a growing relationship~the
kind that so often happens in real life where the love comes out of a
good strong friendship."
Stewart
laughingly adds, "They might soon break down to the point where they'll
go out to dinner occasionally. And we finally really kissed in the
Skylab episode!"
In
conclusion, Trish Stewart says that she, Andy Griffith and Joel Higgins
enjoy good relationships off camera as well as on. "We care about each
other-all three of us-which is very nice. And it's good for the show
because that's something you can't really fake."
STARLOG / March 1980
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