These Are The Voyages...
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! And she really fit in with this madcap atmosphere on the set. She was a delight. And actually what really made me happy was that as she did more and more episodes, especially toward the end of Next Gen and when she went on to DS9, they gave her episodes where you could really see what a great actress she was. She wasn't just the Auntie Mame of the galaxy, you know? She really was a gifted actress, and I was so happy that she got the opportunity to show that.
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.
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.
Apparently I'm the 'eye-candy' of TNG, which at my age I find quite a compliment.
I think the fans want to see the whole team in action, while that was very much Picard taking center stage. Also, I didn't think Tom Hardy was at all convincing as a young Patrick Stewart. Don't get me wrong - he's a great, great actor and a really lovely guy, but he didn't look a bit like Patrick at all. They should have cast James Marsters. They auditioned him, you know. I think, physically, he was much more suitable for the part.
I am not a sound bite person. I prefer to run at the mouth.
I think my most memorable moment was Patrick Dempsey calling me an icon! Can you imagine? I was so taken aback. Here I was on his set as a guest. It was a very generous thing to do.
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.
I'd be happy if I was still playing her [Troi] now. No, really. Being on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" was the best experience of my life.
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!'
It was the first time really that I got to be a mom, and I thought it was about time, really, because I really am old enough to be someone's mom. It was just a little bit of a shock going from never having been a mom to being a mom of a teenager. There was no kind of toddler stage for me, you know, mom of toddler, or mom of baby.
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 wasn't so much the fans as the cast. They were all lovely to work with on the set. Although I did hear they weren't at all happy with their show ending with what was essentially an episode of The Next Generation.
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 don't want to get any letters or postings on my website about how bad I look in this movie.
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 was sitting in a cold bath, all latexed up as a lizard or something, thinking, "They really don't pay me enough for this!".
The thing about 'Star Trek' is that it is not judgmental. You can do what ever you want, within reason.
When we ever had problems with potentially dangerous or unhealthy conditions on the set, Patrick Stewart was the first to complain. He went to SAG and made sure people came out and tested for toxins when the smoke machine was used.
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.
And personally - really the Roddenberrys kind of adopted me when I came to the States. I mean I was literally fresh of the boat when I got "Star Trek: The Next Generation", and they made sure that I had somewhere to go on the holidays, and that I wasn't sitting on my own in my apartment at Christmas. So... I actually used to call her "Mom". And when my own mother died, and I saw Majel soon after, I said to her "You know, you have to take care of yourself, because you're the only mom I've got left now..." So, it was very sad when I lost my other mom, too.
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.
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.
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. We knew that we weren't going to be taking over from the original cast, that it was going to be a whole new entity, but that was it. I remember I went to see Gene Roddenberry to ask him about my character, about her background and things like that. I'd done a history for her; her likes, dislikes, upbringing, things like that. And he just said, "Yeah, yeah, that's fine." I don't know if it was that he wasn't interested or whether I'd hit the nail on the head, but that was it. I don't think they told us much about it at all.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
As an actor, of course, you want to be in something that's successful.
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.
"These Are the Voyages..." was a good episode but not a great finale. They should have done a 2-hour one, you know, like we did. Then I would've gotten double the money - that would've been good"
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.
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