Happy Birthday Marina Sirtis!

The thing about 'Star Trek' is that it is not judgmental. You can do what ever you want, within reason.

Die Zeitlinie? Wir haben überhaupt keine Zeit um über die Zeit zu sprechen. Soviel Zeit haben wir nicht!

I was originally cast to be the brains of the Enterprise. Somehow I became The Chick. There's a little ugly girl inside of me going 'Yay! I'm a sex symbol!'

I am not a sound bite person. I prefer to run at the mouth.

I wasn't a 'Star Trek' fan, yet I knew who all the characters were. that goes to show what an impact the show had not just in entertainment but in life. I knew who Chekhov was and I knew who Kirk and Spock were, although I probably had never seen the show.

As an actor, of course, you want to be in something that's successful.

Gene Roddenberry's thing always was, we should not pass judgment on anything that anyone else believes in or what they do in their lives.

I've been getting a lot of science fiction scripts which contained variations on my 'Star Trek' character and I've been turning them down. I strongly feel that the next role I do, I should not be wearing spandex.

What they told us about 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' when we first started was that we were guaranteed 26 episodes, so that was the longest job I've ever had. And that was basically it - we didn't know what the premise of the show was going to be and we waited, week by week, to see a script.

The only difference was that we were going to places where no one had gone before, and the original cast were going to places where no man had been before.

I was a little scared, not so much when we were filming but when it came time for the first show to go on the air. We were being scrutinized so closely, especially by the press, and by the fans who were not happy about there being a new show at all. They were quite happy watching their re-runs of the original Star Trek and were quite miffed that we were trying to replace their idols. So I felt like I was jumping into an abyss sometimes.

Gene Rodenberry always said that despite all the technology and all the flashing lights and special effects and all that stuff, that fundamentally Star Trek was a people show, and it was about the people on the show who happened to be in these unusual situations.

I want to play parts that touch my heart or touch someone else's heart and, to be honest, that's what I'm good at. I'm not good at just chatting about the weather. I'm either good at being really funny or really dramatic. I don't have that gray area in the middle.

The challenge that I found was to stay true to the character, because she was so unlike me. I'm much more brash and loud and a bit obnoxious sometimes, to be honest. She was so cerebral and kind and nurturing and all those things. I'm not saying that I don't have those things in my personality, but they're certainly not on the outside. And the challenge was to not inject Marina into Councillor Troi, but to keep Councillor Troi true to who she was.

I come home after a weekend at a convention, and you have to scrape me off the ceiling. I'm so up and high and full of self-confidence, and I thank the fans for making me feel that way. Sometimes I think I should be paying the fans money to let me be there.

Well, Majel was amazing. When we first found out that she was going to be my mom on the show, we were all a little nervous, because we were very, very badly behaved on the set. We had way too much fun. And the Boss' Wife was coming, you know? But we soon found out that she was nuttier than the rest of us, really!

We knew that she ate chocolates and that she worked out, but that was really boring. I wanted to know what she did when she went on the holodeck. We basically never saw her off-duty or going on holiday. We knew she was a psychologist -- and a pretty good one -- but that was all we knew about her.

I've been getting a lot of science fiction scripts which contained variations on my Star Trek character and I've been turning them down. I strongly feel that the next role I do, I should not be wearing spandex.

We hate our uniforms. We've said it a gazillion times. It's like a chant that we have to say every day. They're hot, they're uncomfortable, and we can't wait to get out of them. But even when we get to wear something else, it's usually something hot. So I'm in a nice leather jacket in the mountains, on a day when the temperature turns out to be ninety degrees!

It was a fascinating sequence. What was funny was that my chair caught fire and burned my bottom. When we did the next take, I stopped in the middle of all the confusion and made sure there was nothing burning on my seat before I sat on it again. I think they had to cut that take out of the movie. 

I have the best time. My stand-up material is pretty well-set now. The traveling part gets me down, but the actual convention part I still love. I come home after a weekend at a convention, and you have to scrape me off the ceiling. I'm so up and high and full of self-confidence, and I thank the fans for making me feel that way. Sometimes I think I should be paying the fans money to let me be there. I bet they would like that, too. I probably get more out of it than they do. 

Besides "Star Trek: The Next Generation", I would have to say that most of my other favorite things that I've done have been theater projects. Playing Ophelia in "Hamlet" is one of my favorites. Esmeralda in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and Magenta in "Rocky Horror" are my other favorite stage roles.

I wasn't a "Star Trek" fan, yet I knew who all the characters were. That goes to show what an impact the show had--not just in entertainment but in life. I knew who Chekov was and I knew who Kirk and Spock were, although I probably had never seen the show. I don't know about the others, but I was a little scared, not so much when we were filming but when it came time for the first show to go on the air. We were being scrutinized so closely, especially by the press, and by the fans who were not happy about there being a new show at all. They were quite happy watching their reruns of the original Star Trek and were quite miffed that we were trying to replace their idols. So I felt like I was jumping into an abyss sometimes.

I'd be happy if I was still playing Troi now. No, really. Being on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was the best experience of my life. 

I was sitting in a cold bath, all latexed up as a lizard or something, thinking, "They really don't pay me enough for this!

They should've done a two-hour, you know, like we did. Then I would've gotten double the money, that would've been good.

Apparently I'm the 'eye-candy' of TNG, which at my age I find quite a compliment.

May you LLAP!