In Memoriam: Kenneth Mitchell

[00:00:00] Hey everybody Bill and Dan from Trek Eakes here and we're preempting our planned episode

[00:00:06] to discuss the life and

[00:00:10] contributions to Star Trek of the late great Ken Mitchell Dan

[00:00:15] We never enjoy having to do these types of episodes

[00:00:19] But for somebody like Ken who was such a just a beacon of light in this fandom, this is a tough, tough loss.

[00:00:27] It really is. Unfortunately, we all knew it was going to happen probably sooner rather than later.

[00:00:33] ALS is a bitch of a disease and very difficult and the life expectancy is not great for someone who is unfortunately afflicted with that disease.

[00:00:45] But I'll tell you what, Ken took it head on. He made it part of his Star Trek life, which

[00:00:54] we'll get into a little bit more. But he made other people around him comfortable with dealing

[00:00:59] with an uncomfortable situation. And when you say beacon of light, you could not have said

[00:01:04] it any better than that. He is going to be tremendously missed. His contributions to Star Trek and other shows

[00:01:10] throughout the last, well, I don't know, 20 years or so, as long as he's been doing this, have been

[00:01:15] fantastic. And it is, like you said, it is a tremendous loss.

[00:01:19] At the age of 49. I mean, think about that. That's younger than you and me and not very much.

[00:01:25] Not by much at all. It's kind of sobering to think that he was so young and had so much more.

[00:01:34] I'm sure he wanted to do just on the scope of his family. He leaves behind his wife and his two

[00:01:39] children. I can't imagine what it's like to go through having a loved one, have this type of disease,

[00:01:52] and just to watch the gradual degradation.

[00:01:56] Yeah, I can't really picture it either.

[00:01:59] The thing that I found so incredible, and I don't mean incredible in a good way is he made the announcement that he was

[00:02:07] suffering from ALS. And then over the course of the next couple of years to see the change in him

[00:02:16] to me was unbelievably quick. The different stages of which he was first announced it,

[00:02:24] then he was in a chair, then he couldn't

[00:02:26] speak, then he couldn't really move and speak. We got to see him in person in Chicago a couple

[00:02:32] of years ago. And this, I said it just a minute ago, this is a horrible disease. And I can

[00:02:40] only imagine what it's like for family members to have to deal with this on a daily basis for five and a half years as his family did. We only saw it a few times at conventions.

[00:02:52] He was also one of the on one of the Star Trek cruises a couple of years ago. And it's

[00:03:00] very sad. But at the same time, we're also here to celebrate what an incredible person he was and what a fantastic career he was.

[00:03:08] As we're talking about, he actually passed away

[00:03:11] on Saturday, February 24th,

[00:03:14] on his social media accounts, his family posted, quote,

[00:03:17] with heavy hearts, we announced the passing

[00:03:19] of Kenneth Alexander, Mitchell, beloved father, husband,

[00:03:23] brother, uncle, son, and dear friend.

[00:03:27] For five and a half years, Ken faced a series of awful challenges from ALS.

[00:03:32] And in truest Ken fashion, he managed to rise above each one with grace and commitment to

[00:03:37] living a full and joyous life and each moment."

[00:03:41] End quote.

[00:03:42] And that's 100% true.

[00:03:43] And all of the public appearances we saw of him after his announcement.

[00:03:49] That was exactly the case.

[00:03:50] You know, I want to talk a bit about what ALS is because I mean, people know the letters,

[00:03:55] but they don't really know the scope of it.

[00:03:58] And unfortunately, I know this from the top of my head.

[00:04:01] ALS is amiotrophic lateral sclerosis.

[00:04:04] It's one of the more horrible muscular

[00:04:07] distrophy. Anyone who's watched the Jerry Lewis telethon in days gone by ALS is what

[00:04:13] we refer to here commonly in the United States as Lou Gehrig's disease. The famous New York

[00:04:19] Yankee baseball player who died ultimately from ALS in 1941. They started to call it Lou Gehrig's disease because

[00:04:26] Lou Gehrig was one of the greatest baseball players of all time. Pride of the Yankees,

[00:04:31] if you've ever seen that movie, it's about him. But what happens is it destroys the motor neurons

[00:04:38] in your body. And those are the nerve cells that control muscle cells. They gradually decrease to

[00:04:44] the point where you really have

[00:04:46] no muscle control. They become weak and non-functional. And the fact amiotropic really

[00:04:52] comes from Greek roots that means without nourishment to muscles, which is literally

[00:04:57] why it is called that. So for the last five and a half years, Ken's motor neurons have

[00:05:03] been slowly dissipating to the point where,

[00:05:06] as you pointed out, Dan, not only did he have to be in a chair, but he could not speak or

[00:05:10] he could not walk. It is probably one of the most horrible ways that such a beacon of light,

[00:05:19] like Ken Mitchell, can go out of this world to be essentially trapped in one's own body at one point

[00:05:27] is a terrible thought. But like you said, every time he was seen, everything was about the moment

[00:05:35] and the joy. And if I can take anything away from Ken's passing, it's that, well, it goes back to enjoying the here and now, right?

[00:05:46] You know, was it that Picard says in the interlight, you know,

[00:05:50] make now most precious now, and never come again?

[00:05:52] Exactly. And that's what Ken did. And that's what I take away from all this.

[00:06:00] One of the things that really stands out to me, unfortunately, and I got to tell you,

[00:06:03] I really want to go on a Star Trek crew someday because it was just very recently,

[00:06:07] they just they just talked yesterday, I think, from their trip. They're always a great time.

[00:06:11] He was on one a couple years ago. He was actually on stage, joking about it.

[00:06:17] He was joking about the disease that was killing him and making him have to be in a chair and use

[00:06:21] a computer to communicate. And he was making people feel more comfortable

[00:06:26] by joking about his own affliction.

[00:06:28] That's the type of person Ken was.

[00:06:30] We saw that firsthand in Chicago.

[00:06:34] And it does show the type of character that he has

[00:06:38] or that he had and the type of person that he was.

[00:06:42] And seeing the outpouring of love

[00:06:46] from all of the people associated with Star Trek

[00:06:49] who have posted their condolences

[00:06:52] and their memories of him is another testament

[00:06:54] to how deeply he affected the people

[00:06:57] that he worked with on the set every day.

[00:06:59] Well, no, that same crew's a couple of years ago.

[00:07:01] He actually crowd-surfed after that.

[00:07:04] Right, you know,

[00:07:05] right. And to have his body being supported by all of the Trekkies that packed that room

[00:07:10] was just an amazingly special moment. And this past weekend on the Star Trek cruise,

[00:07:15] they, you know, as led by the mother of Klingons, Mary G. Foe, who was Chancellor L'Orrell,

[00:07:22] they performed with a Klingon death ritual. And I gotta tell you, I tiered up.

[00:07:26] I have not had the opportunity to watch it yet,

[00:07:28] not because I don't know it's there.

[00:07:30] I just haven't brought myself to see it to watch it

[00:07:33] because I'm sure it was very emotional

[00:07:35] for all of the people there.

[00:07:37] And as a matter of fact, if, correct me if I'm wrong, Bill,

[00:07:40] his passing happened after they left port.

[00:07:44] So all of the people on the cruise

[00:07:46] found out about his passing on the cruise.

[00:07:49] So it was news to them during it.

[00:07:52] I'm sure that must have been very difficult to deal with.

[00:07:55] I can't imagine, but to have that same room

[00:07:57] where he crowd served just a couple of years ago

[00:07:59] or similar room to it,

[00:08:01] be filled with hundreds of truckies performing

[00:08:04] and clinging on death ritual with the

[00:08:06] Chancellor herself is pretty amazing.

[00:08:10] It really is.

[00:08:12] Let's talk a little bit about what Ken has contributed to Star Trek because this, in

[00:08:16] terms of our fandom, is just as lasting a legacy as Ken's joy.

[00:08:21] There wasn't a time all that long ago when you and I were saying that Ken Mitchell

[00:08:26] should play every Klingon in the pre-TOS era and I still stand by it because he pretty much did.

[00:08:32] Yeah, he was fantastic. Of course, we were in Vegas when they were

[00:08:37] just releasing imagery of Ken as Cole in season one of Discovery, a relative of core, which I thought was very cool that they kept that tie to the next generation, excuse me, to the original series.

[00:08:52] And he did a fantastic job as the main villain, if you want to call him the villain in season one of Discovery, of course, playing Cole in season one.

[00:09:09] playing Cole in season one. And I'm sorry, spoiler alert, it's been around for years. He of course dies in that, but Ken kept coming back as different Klingons. In season two,

[00:09:14] he was Cole Shaw, and then he was Tenavic. In season three, this is what I love the most

[00:09:20] about what they did in Star Trek with Ken is he had already announced his

[00:09:25] disease and it was progressing rapidly.

[00:09:29] So he was unable to walk.

[00:09:31] In season three, they were able to write him into the storyline playing a human scientist

[00:09:35] by the name of Aurelio and they built a special chair, a futuristic looking wheelchair, so

[00:09:42] to speak, so that he could be on the set moving around

[00:09:45] He still had his speech at that point so he was able to to do his lines and everything and it was a great character

[00:09:52] I really liked that character a lot

[00:09:54] and then in season four

[00:09:58] He was not in season four, but a starship was named after Ken the USS Mitchell was named in Ken's honor

[00:10:05] Which was which was just wonderful to see and also he did some voice over work in lower decks

[00:10:11] So he has run the gambit in Star Trek and he will forever be part of Star Trek history lore fandom

[00:10:21] Anything you can think of any positive word that you want to think about about his contributions

[00:10:25] to Star Trek, they're all there.

[00:10:27] You know, I'm grateful to CBS and Alex Cartzman and the various showrunners on Discovery and

[00:10:37] Lower Decks for finding ways to keep Ken working.

[00:10:43] You know, because I mean, he's an actor.

[00:10:45] His skills are being able to inhabit characters

[00:10:48] and to bring them to life.

[00:10:50] And they found a way for him to still keep doing

[00:10:54] what he loved while he was still going through

[00:10:58] these daily trials and challenges

[00:11:01] with his muscular dystrophy.

[00:11:04] and challenges with his muscular dystrophy. My hat's off to them too for treating him like family,

[00:11:11] for making sure that he wasn't just left by the wayside

[00:11:15] and say, oh, well, thanks for all you did, Ken.

[00:11:17] Good luck.

[00:11:18] Yeah.

[00:11:19] Because there were a lot of studios that could have,

[00:11:21] and probably would have done that.

[00:11:24] People like Michelle Paradise tweeted out stuff and they all considered him family.

[00:11:30] You know, it's one thing, whenever somebody gets announced as being part of a Star Trek series,

[00:11:36] we the fans always, or I don't do this anymore because I'm not on what was formerly known as

[00:11:41] Twitter, we'd always send a tweet out that said, welcome to the family, the Star Trek family.

[00:11:46] True words cannot be spoken

[00:11:48] that he was actually part of the family.

[00:11:50] I mean, literally.

[00:11:51] I mean, it's, it just, seeing all of the responses

[00:11:54] by people on social media to his passing shows

[00:11:57] that he was considered a member of the family

[00:11:59] in every way, shape and form.

[00:12:01] I have to say, I love Cole, you know,

[00:12:03] team Cole for life still, but his portrayal of

[00:12:08] Tanavic in Star Trek Discovery season two, where Pike sort of meets and learns his fate,

[00:12:15] his eventual fate, is key not only to that arc of the season, but also to the portrayal of Pike in Strange New World.

[00:12:25] Yeah.

[00:12:26] It informs an entirely different series, you know, and I, it left quite an impression

[00:12:35] in a mark on me.

[00:12:36] I loved the way that, you know, his Klingon is sort of the guardian of these time crystals,

[00:12:42] you know, set Pike upon this course and said, look, you've got

[00:12:45] a choice here to make. You do this. You're committed to the fate you see.

[00:12:49] Yeah. You don't do this. You walk away.

[00:12:52] Right. And he did it. I really appreciated that character. That character could have

[00:12:57] been very confusing to some people. And some people probably didn't like the whole time

[00:13:01] crystal Klingon story arc. But having having 10 of it there

[00:13:05] and having it being played by Ken was really was really special. And the emotion played

[00:13:11] by both him and Anson in that specific scene with the Time Crystal was was one of those

[00:13:19] ones that you just don't forget.

[00:13:20] Yeah, absolutely. I mean, he was a joy to watch whenever he was on screen, honestly.

[00:13:27] Yeah.

[00:13:28] I like you really enjoyed the really old portion of Star Trek Discovery season three.

[00:13:34] We've got so many seasons to discover now.

[00:13:37] I can't get the cover, which one is which.

[00:13:41] Ken is also great in the movie Miracle about the 1984 Miracle and I s hockey team in the

[00:13:47] Lake Placid Olympics.

[00:13:48] That is a fantastic movie.

[00:13:51] And Marvel fans may remember that he had a small part in Captain Marvel is Joseph Danvers,

[00:13:55] which I completely forgot about.

[00:13:58] When I was reading all of the tributes and everything, I was like, Oh my gosh, I completely

[00:14:01] forgot.

[00:14:02] For me, I have talked about it countless times over the last several months when we have actually recorded. Grim has become my all-time

[00:14:09] favorite show. It just without a doubt, he's in an episode of Grim. And that makes me so happy to be

[00:14:15] able to say that he was in my favorite show. He played a a bloop bot, which basically is a werewolf.

[00:14:22] And his name was Larry McKenzie. He did not suffer a very good fate.

[00:14:26] A lot of the vesin in that show,

[00:14:27] which mean the creatures don't usually fair too well in Grimm,

[00:14:31] but he played a great, great, great character.

[00:14:34] And in the episode, people were,

[00:14:36] basically it was the whole idea of where Bigfoot came from.

[00:14:40] He was kind of like a Bigfoot.

[00:14:41] Interesting.

[00:14:42] Yeah, it was really a great episode.

[00:14:44] And I think I, more than one occasion,

[00:14:46] because we've, soon I've watched it several times now,

[00:14:49] the entire series, I've texted you a picture.

[00:14:51] I'm like, oh my gosh, yeah, that's right.

[00:14:52] Ken Mitchell's in Grimm.

[00:14:53] And I'd send a picture with him, you know,

[00:14:55] having died on a tree.

[00:14:58] You go watch the episode if you wanna know

[00:14:59] what I'm talking about, but I just love the fact

[00:15:01] that he was in Grimm.

[00:15:02] And he's my two favorite things,

[00:15:03] Grimm and Star Trek, he was in both of them.

[00:15:05] It's fantastic.

[00:15:06] There's another great series which was on,

[00:15:09] oh geez, I think 2006 or so called Jericho.

[00:15:12] That was a CBS series and it was short lived,

[00:15:15] but it was about a small town in Kansas

[00:15:17] that is literally left, you know,

[00:15:20] cut off from the world after seeing a mushroom cloud

[00:15:23] over nearby Denver.

[00:15:24] And it was a great series and it kind of had a major part in that series.

[00:15:29] And it's one of those ones that was canceled too soon.

[00:15:32] But it's definitely worth the watch. It's only about 28 episodes, but he's fantastic in it.

[00:15:38] Yeah, I've heard he's good in that. I also a show that I've never watched before.

[00:15:41] We had a recurring role and was Ghost Whisperer.

[00:15:44] I've heard good things about the show. I've never watched before, which he had a recurring role in was Ghost Whisperer. I've heard good

[00:15:45] things about the show. I've never actually watched it. And

[00:15:48] of course, there's been all kinds of reality shows that have

[00:15:50] come out after Ghost Whisperer, like Dog Whisperer and

[00:15:52] Horse Whisperer and all that. Not related, not related, not

[00:15:55] related whatsoever. But that's another one. So he's been in a

[00:15:59] whole lot of stuff. I think it is very safe to say he will

[00:16:03] always be remembered for his roles and Star Trek

[00:16:05] may be over everything else. Not only because of the number of roles that he played, but because

[00:16:11] of the powerful acting that he did might be hard to recognize him under a lot of that makeup. You

[00:16:16] could only see what he looked like when he was playing a human. But definitely team like you said

[00:16:22] team call all the time. I love the fact that in a lot of pictures

[00:16:25] that we see at conventions,

[00:16:26] he's wearing his team Cole hat.

[00:16:28] I think that's absolutely fantastic.

[00:16:29] Colactive, yup.

[00:16:30] The collective.

[00:16:31] And also one of the things that is very dear,

[00:16:34] near and dear to my heart,

[00:16:35] and I'm sure yours as well,

[00:16:36] when we were in Chicago,

[00:16:38] our good friends and fellow podcasters,

[00:16:43] excuse me, Emily and Mike Bovia put together a collage of all of Ken's

[00:16:48] characters and a giant poster and all of the people that were at the convention from

[00:16:53] the Trek Ekes podcast network signed that and they presented it to Ken at that convention,

[00:16:58] which was just an incredible, incredible thing to do.

[00:17:02] And my understanding is that he was very happy to receive it. And that's always something that's very special to me.

[00:17:08] Absolutely.

[00:17:09] I had the chance to get his autograph before his diagnosis was announced.

[00:17:14] So I saw him at the STLV in August and then it was later on,

[00:17:19] or I think early the next year where it was announced.

[00:17:22] And I had him sign my Star Trek Discovery print.

[00:17:24] I'm, you know, eventually was going to be, you know, I think early the next year where it was announced and I had him sign my Star Trek Discovery print.

[00:17:25] I'm, you know, eventually was going to be, you know,

[00:17:28] a fundraising item for the Hollywood Food Coalition

[00:17:33] and he was just the coolest character.

[00:17:35] You know, we talked about team coal for life

[00:17:37] and you know, he loved the fact that people were responding

[00:17:40] so well to the character and, you know,

[00:17:43] what can you say?

[00:17:44] He could not have been nicer.

[00:17:46] He just joy is really all I keep coming back to.

[00:17:50] And if I have half the joy in my remaining years that Ken Mitchell had in the last five,

[00:17:56] then I'll consider myself as having done pretty damn well.

[00:17:59] I think we should be very thankful that we have been able to meet him and talk to him.

[00:18:04] This is another perfect example, man.

[00:18:06] And I've said it every time we've had to have the unfortunate task of having these

[00:18:11] discussions and these memorial episodes.

[00:18:14] If you're at a convention and you want to meet someone and you want to get an autograph,

[00:18:20] don't do what I did with Renee and with Aaron and think that you'd be bothering them if

[00:18:25] they're at their table and they're looking at their phone or something.

[00:18:29] They're there to meet us.

[00:18:30] Go up there, tell them you enjoy what you do, what they've done.

[00:18:33] Get that autograph, get that selfie because you never know when you're not going to be

[00:18:38] able to do it again.

[00:18:39] And unfortunately here we have another situation where that's the case.

[00:18:44] Unfortunately, it is have another situation with that's the case. Unfortunately, it is sad, but true.

[00:18:47] Well, he was with us for a time and now he belongs to the ages.

[00:18:50] Ken Mitchell has been welcomed by the Warriors of Stovacore and we absolutely will miss him

[00:18:56] a great deal.

[00:18:58] We will return next time with a regularly scheduled episode, but for now, this has been

[00:19:04] a special episode of

[00:19:06] The Trek Ekes Podcast. Thank you so much for listening.

[00:19:09] Ken Mitchell, November 25, 1974 to February 24, 2024.