Happy Birthday Nana Visitor!

I remember I was out of town, I think it was Boston, and I didn't know anything about conventions or the fan world or Trekkers or anything like that. And I was put in a hotel that had a convention going on, or at least I'm assuming that's what it was because everyone was dressed like Spock and it was really just the original characters. It just seemed like the most exotic, most fun world. That's all really I thought of it until I joined the cast.

The point of writing my name to you is that I see who you are, you see who I am... and that's what it's about.

That was the only exposure I had. I was very much into "War and Peace" and F. Scott Fitzgerald. I went through all the classics. I read scientists like Asimov and all those guys, but I never really understood the power of placing the lessons we learn through mythology in the future. In a future that looks the way Star Trek does. And I didn't understand the power of that until I started doing it.

Bill (Shatner) -- I have to say he's my absolute favorite. I thought, back in the day, when I was 18, he was the sexiest guy I could imagine, and I loved everything he did in that show. I was definitely...on his team.

I really loved our pilot. I was sick and missed the premiere of it in the theater. I had the flu. And they sent me a videotape of it. I remember goosebumps when the station appeared and that haunting music started playing. I just couldn't believe what the show looked like. I knew what the sets were, what the actors were, but putting it all together, I found it stunning.

I'm going to put my eyelashes on and stretch my legs out and do a show.

I think I'd want Data. I think that would be very, very useful.

I really wanted to do Captain Janeway. I wanted everything, but I didn't want to leave Kira...I wanted to do it all.

I'm more of a Star Trek person but I love Star Wars. I mean I'm a huge Joseph Campbell fan, and I read all his books. 

I don't get what my signature is supposed to mean if we haven't had some kind of exchange.

We need to tell ourselves stories that advance us, and Star Trek advances us.

I don't have a really good handle on reality, not when my senses are being filled like they were on the show. It was happening, and it was important. It was real to me.

Through history, human beings relay stories. They need myths, they need ways of seeing where they are, and where they could go. People talk about a journey in a spaceship. We have individual journeys of our own that we need to do while we're alive. I think it gives us ideas of how we could do it better and what makes it better and what are our dreams. I think that's why we need it.

I would love to have seen a male-female relationship that had nothing to do with falling in love, I'd love to prove, even on TV - even if it's not true! - that men and women can be friends without any kind of involvement.

I have deep feelings about Star Trek. I feel that it's able to present archetypes that are important storytelling tools. And we need storytelling.

My connection started when I was a teenager. I was about 18 years old and doing a Broadway show as a chorus girl. And it came on, on channel 11, I think it was at 6 or 6:30. I would fix myself dinner, sit down and watch Star Trek and then go do my show.