Trekonderoga 2021, the annual Star Trek fan event that takes place in—where else—Ticonderoga, New York, is kicking off this weekend. George Takei, better known as USS Enterprise helmsman Sulu, will be beaming down to attend. There will also be a costume contest (from the official rules: nudity is not a costume) and opportunities to tour a painstakingly recreated set of the Enterprise. The mastermind behind all this is superfan James Cawley, who built sets from the original Star Trek series in the upstate town, funded in part by his earnings as an Elvis impersonator.
As he prepared for the weekend by doing some last-minute cleaning of the recreation of the Enterprise's bridge, Cawley spoke with WNYC host David Furst about Trekonderoga, his relationship with William Shatner, and his passion for all things Star Trek.
This conversation has been edited for clarity by Kate Hinds.
First of all: why does Ticonderoga have this incredible replica of the bridge of the starship Enterprise? I suppose the answer is "why not?", but I’d expect to see something like this in Hollywood. Well, here's the thing. It's 13,000 square feet, so it's massive. And as we all know, real estate in Manhattan and Los Angeles is extremely expensive, and this is a permanent attraction -- it doesn't move from place to place. So you're literally walking into a one-to-one recreation of the Desilu soundstage from 55 years ago. So you have to plan it out and build it appropriately so that it stays in one place. And Ticonderoga is part of the greater Lake George region. We have a very beautiful tourist area up here in the Adirondacks so it's a great place for it. A lot of people come through here annually and we expect that just to continue to grow.
There's also the transporter room. Why was this something that you felt like you had to do? It's more than the bridge and the transporter room. It's every set that the actors worked on every day, laid out and recreated exactly the way they were when the actors worked on them. So you're talking about the transporter room, the sick bay, the lab, Dr. McCoy's office, Captain Kirk's quarters, the briefing room, engineering, the entire corridor layout. It's literally like being an actor on a time trip and going back to work on the show. I grew up with Star Trek. I was just enamored with it and never lost the passion for it. So here we are today still celebrating it.
How accurate is the set? Deadly. We worked from the original blueprints. They were given to me by the original costume designer who had them in his possession. We kept thousands of stills from the original series in high definition. We've sourced and located hundreds of antiques and antique furniture. We've rebuilt every jelly bean button. Everything is laid out, every color, proportionally. Every surviving actor from the main cast has been here, and many of the guest stars. Bill Shatner loves it so much he's here twice a year.
Twice a year?! He's here twice a year. He usually comes in June or July and then he's back in November. He'll be here again on November 12th and 13th. All of the stars enjoy it so much that they actually lead the tours. They are your tour guides through the sets and they recount what it was like to be on the show.
A recreation of the transporter room
New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie has visited, and sat in Kirk's chair. And as you say, William Shatner has been there multiple times. Did you ever see this becoming this big of a deal? I always had my thoughts that it would grow and become a big deal because, you know, I am a Star Trek fan and I like to think that I know what other fans would like to see. So I always had my wishes and my hopes and it has done what I thought it would do. Did I ever think the stars would love it this much? Probably not, so that's been a real bonus. And to get to know Bill Shatner and some of the others has been terrific.
Do you get to call him Bill? I call him Bill. Yeah. [Editor’s Note: So does WNYC host Alison’s Stewart, who just interviewed Shatner about “Bill,” his new autobiographical album, a collaboration with Joe Walsh, Brad Paisley, Robert Randolph, and Joe Jonas, among others.]
What did he say when he first visited? Did he have any disputes about things not being exactly where they were supposed to be? Through his agent [he] had a specific set of requirements. Bill, you know, he's seen a lot of recreations over the years, [he's] like, ‘Well, I don't really want to get stuck in the captain's chair all day.’ That kind of thing. So we said, ‘No problem, you know, whatever your requirements are, no problem.’ And then he was doing some other appearances around the country and ran into some folks from Paramount and CBS. And they had been talking to him about the quality of this set. So his curiosity, I think, arose. And when he got here, he walked in the door and he said: take me to the bridge.
So of course I took him to the bridge and he stood there for what seemed like an eternity, but it was probably only about three or four minutes. And he just applauded and said, ‘You know, this is it. The proportions are perfect. This is unbelievable.’ He said, ‘That's my chair.’ And he went and sat in the chair.
Did you ever think in your life there would come a day where William Shatner would say to you: “Take me to the bridge"? He's such a great guy. [Editor’s note: Shatner, who turned 90 earlier this year, worked a trip to Ticonderoga into part of his birthday celebrations.] He has a lot of input into what we do to make the event better. We asked him what he would like to do, what his preference was for signing autographs, and he said, ‘Well, why don't I just sit in my quarters? And people can come down the corridor and line up and sign autographs that way.’ And I thought, ‘Jeez, that’s great.’ So the fans got to stand in the corridors of the Enterprise and wait to go into Captain Kirk's quarters to greet him. I mean, how, how cool is that?
A recreation of the Enterprise's bridge
In the last few hours before this event kicks off, what are the final things that you're doing to get ready? Basic maintenance, cleaning. And of course we're still running daily tours at the same time, so we've got all that going on. Plus we are debuting Star Trek. The Next Generation. We are actively building that soundstage so that the fans of that show will be able to visit that. And we're going to be debuting part of that bridge set this weekend for people on an insider's tour.
What kind of a building is this in? Well, the original series set is in a building that was built in 1965. It was originally built to be a grocery store, and it was a grocery store for decades, and then it was vacant. And so we bought it and completely renovated the space to turn it into Star Trek. And then next door was a two-story department store, which we just acquired. And that's where the Next Generation is going.
Do I have this right that you initially partially financed this with money that you made from your work as an Elvis impersonator? Yeah. For 31 years, I've toured the country as Elvis at major shows. I'm not the jelly donut guy and I'm not the wedding Elvis, if you will excuse the term. But I played a lot of casinos, a lot of theaters and showrooms over the years, and toured with the original Jordanaires as backup groups. So it's been a great career. I live by the philosophy, 'Don't ever let anybody tell you, you can't do something if you want it to just go out and do it and you pull it off.’
And apparently if you build it, they will come. They will come.
