Happy Birthday Marina Sirtis!

I don't want to get any letters or postings on my website about how bad I look in this movie.

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 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 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.

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. 

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

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

"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"

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.

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.

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.

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.

How many mulligans are you allowed in around of golf?

Are any bookmakers giving odds on how many days after Donny is out of office, @FLOTUS files for divorce?

Everyone is asking what is @StormyDaniels motivation? IMO that that is not the issue. The issue is, that she was paid $130,000  11 days before the election and if that was a payment for her silence, to influence the outcome, that’s a crime.

To all the “despicables” who turned on the young people who marched on Saturday, you obviously weren’t out in the crowd because there were thousands of adults marching too.

This is how we show our thanks to someone who put his life on the line for our country! I thought #Bone-Spur-Donny was all about respecting the military. He proves, once again, that everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie. 

If bone-spur-Donny goes through with his lawsuit against @StormyDaniels he will have to be deposed. Does he really want to open that can of worms if the lady has photographic proof? 

IMO Mark Zuckerberg’s “apology” rings as hollow as the “thoughts and prayers” we get from politicians.

Happy Birthday William Shatner!

All I know is that I am constantly intrigued by something I'm doing.

A series is filled with compromises. 

I'm not out to convince anybody of anything.

I was built for the long run, not for the short dash, I guess.

My kids say if there's any family dinner that doesn't result in somebody crying, it's not a good dinner. They cry because it helps relieve them of a guilt or some onerous emotional burden. It's like a family tradition.

There's an ecstasy about doing something really good on film: the composition of a shot, the drama within the shot, the texture... It's palpable.

I know very little about the viral, electronic world, but I use Twitter to communicate not only information that I think some of the fans want to hear about but also ideas. 

Why does the lizard stick his tongue out? The lizard sticks its tongue out because that's the way its listening and looking and tasting its environment. It's its means of appreciating what's in front of it. 

Everybody has their 15 minutes, and those 15 minutes should be spent in a private limo and a private plane. It's the ultimate. 

I hate flying, flat out hate its guts.

A stage actor has to be 10% aware of the audience as he's performing.

I think making a good film shot is joyful. 

I've been approached to do some things with astronauts and the preparation that astronauts go through.

Babies have big heads and big eyes, and tiny little bodies with tiny little arms and legs. So did the aliens at Roswell! I rest my case.

The actor is in the hands of a lot of other people, over which he has no control.

Divorce is probably as painful as death.

Every piece of entertainment is made with the idea that 'This is going to be terrific' and 'This is the best thing I've ever done' and then it hits the public and then the public tells you whether it's good or bad.

In my proudest moments, I think I had a real hand in the creative force of making 'Star Trek.' But most of the time, I don't think about it.

I've never not appeared in front of a live audience for any longer period than a month or two.

How do I stay so healthy and boyishly handsome? It's simple. I drink the blood of young runaways. 

At 40, I went to bed for three days. I thought my life is over.

Every day I realized I would not be a star. 

No matter how prosaic something is that you've done and been a part of again and again, there is so much more there that you haven't seen.

I'm surfing the giant life wave. 

A tree you pass by every day is just a tree. If you are to closely examine what a tree has and the life a tree has, even the smallest thing can withstand a curiosity, and you can examine whole worlds.

I often conduct interviews in my truck. 

These people who come to Comic-Con and dress up - all across the country, the rest of the population who doesn't understand are scoffing at them.

The possibilities that are suggested in quantum physics tell us that everything that we're looking at may not be in fact there, so the underlying nature of being is weird.

My mother was an exuberant, silly lady. 

It's irksome to read about someone I don't recognize. It frightens me.

I am private.

If we can clean up our world, I'll bet you we can achieve warp drive. 

Yeah, I do stand-up, my own type of stand-up.

I love to evoke the bones and meat and thoughts of characters.

The great mystery of our consciousness is beyond our grasp.

I find the whole time travel question very unsettling if you take it to its logical extension. I think it might eventually be possible, but then what happens?

My name is William Shatner, and I am Canadian!

Although I'm a business major out of McGill University, I know nothing... but then I found out much later in life, nobody knows anything.

I love technology.

The good life is one that's artistically made.

I've been breeding Dobies for years. Almost won the breed in Westminster at one time.

So many dot-com companies were formulated on air.

I've never been without a dog. I've made trips across the country with a dog.

If I'm given an opportunity to do something, I do it. Or else I fool around with it. 

When you've done the technical part, you're then into the joy, the zen, into being. Technology no longer exists for you. You're then into the mystery of the thing you're doing.

My plan has always been to return to Broadway every 50 years. 

I spent years doing 'Star Trek' bits and things, and a lot of people loved it, a lot of people mocked it.

Montreal is a very cosmopolitan, sophisticated, erudite, educated, glorious city today. But it wasn't quite that way when I was growing up there. There was a lot of anti-Semitism. And I had to deal with that in an area of the city that had very few Jews.

I like making people laugh. It comes off and shines in everything I do. 

When I direct and have to look at filmed scenes of myself, I suck.

Instead of playing something heavily, I play it lightly. Since people like to cast cyclically, once you've done one thing, people want to put you in that bag again. And since I want to work, I let it happen.

I am not a Starfleet commander, or T.J. Hooker. I don't live on Starship NCC-1701, or own a phaser. And I don't know anybody named Bones, Sulu, or Spock.

In entertainment, whether it's movies or television or whatever, I'm a great audience, but I don't remember the names of the people I've seen or the groups that I've heard.

I never watched 'Star Trek.' 

I'm not technically adept at music, but I'd love to be part of a discussion of where progressive rock ends and country music begins.

I sometimes find that in interviews you learn more about yourself than the person learned about you.

I see myself as an actor with a love of music. 

I played comedies and dramas.

I love horses. There's something practical and mystical about them.

No, I don't regret anything at this point. That may change on the next phone call, but at the moment I don't regret anything.

Over the years, I've become barraged by comments from people, such as, 'Beam me up, Scotty!' and I became defensive. I felt they were derisive and engendered an attitude. I am grateful for the success, but didn't want to be mocked. 

Getting that audience approval is always a question mark, and it's always that flag that flutters in front of you.

I didn't realize that, in doing a documentary, there is this process of discovery. It's not like a film or a play with a set script. It sort of reveals itself.

We meet aliens every day who have something to give us. They come in the form of people with different opinions.

Voice acting is very interesting, I've done several animated projects, and you have to make the voice reflect the character and try and do as much with a word as you can with a look in a live-action film. 

I did a movie in Esperanto.

Success is different for everyone; everybody defines it in their own way, and that's part of what we do in 'Close Up', finding what it was each person wanted to achieve and what their willingness to sacrifice for that was. 

You and I and everybody in show business and the entertainment industry fly by the seat of our pants. We don't know quite what is going to happen. 

If someone criticizes my acting, they may be right. 

I'm anxious to make another film. 

My fear is dying badly, through illness or injury. But what a glorious demise it would be to burn up in space.

I've been in that angst of loneliness, where you're really alone in the universe, except for the dog.

With three kids, it was always very, very tight, and it was always a scramble for what was my next job. So I learned never to go into debt because I don't want those monthly payments to preoccupy my thoughts.

I thought I was loved.

I was always working. Maybe you weren't aware of the movies I was making, or the television I was doing, or the shows I was creating, or the books I was writing; there have been thirty. But I have always been solidly at work, running as fast as I can. 

I think the supernatural is a catch-all for everything we don't understand about the vast other parts of life that we cannot perceive. 

The conundrum of free will and destiny has always kept me dangling.

I don't know how to deal with being 80. 

I love to go to a movie, get a Diet Coke and a barrel of popcorn, and sit there with my kids and watch a film.

I find age such a foreign concept. I have to be reminded. I still have the extraordinary feeling of adventure, striking out into unknown fields.

 I don't watch television.

I envy the people who say, 'oh, well, I've got my name in the golden book and I'm going to be entered into the pearly gates.' 

The problem is I don't know anything or anyone. I am so focused on the immediate picture in front of me.

A director is a choreographer, both politically and creatively. 

Fate gives you the finger and you accept.

If saving money is wrong, I don't want to be right!

Things people say strike me as amusing, and I am prone to saying out loud what everybody's thinking.

Acting is easier - writing is more creative. The lazy man vies with the industrious.

It was the early 1970s and I was recently divorced. I had three kids and was totally broke. I managed to find work back east on the straw-hat circuit - summer stock - but couldn't afford hotels, so I lived out of the back of my truck, under a hard shell.

You know, the process of making a documentary is one of discovery, and like writing a story, you follow a lead and that leads you to something else and then by the time you finish, the story is nothing like you expected.

We live in grief for having left the womb, for having left the teat, then school, then home. In my case, it was leaving marriages, and the death of my wife.

The name Shatner is Austrian and partly Germanic, and there's Germanic reticence and silence perhaps, but there is passion underneath.

Death is an absolute marvel.

I frequently dream of being on these horses' backs and running across a field. And the horse and I are one.

I've blundered my way through life.

The longer I go about living, I see it's the relationship that is most meaningful.

Ads need to be little pieces of entertainment. 

The basic quality that any great story must have is a story that illustrates the human condition. 

When there are tiers of meaning in an ad it intrigues the audience and they look for it again and again.

I love technology. Matches, to light a fire, is really high tech. The wheel is really one of the great inventions of all time. Other than that, I am an ignoramus about technology.

My site has the whole thing - blogs, information, video interviews. 

This is my saddest story: In grade school, they would have us open our Valentine's cards and read them out loud. I always sent cards to myself because nobody else did. 

I see people putting text messages on the phone or computer and I think, 'Why don't you just call?' 

Remember - you can't beam through a force field. So, don't try it.

The only subject I know anything about is myself and I don't know that too clearly.

You have to create your life. You have to carve it, like a sculpture.

What is down will go up. At the same time, you have to be prepared for what is up to go down. 

Sci-fi films are the epic films of the day because we can no longer put 10,000 extras in the scene - but we can draw thousands of aliens with computers.

It's very easy to say no to leaving the house. 

The mysteriousness and mystique of space is such, that science fiction attempts to tantalize you by telling you a story that could possibly be out there and that's the appeal of science fiction.

I don't read reviews.

You know who I am?! I'm William Tiberius Shatner!

I enjoyed reading all the classic authors like Isaac Asimov and Bradbury.


My being Jewish does not inform the things I do, necessarily. 'Exodus' is a wonderful piece, no matter what religion you are. 'The Shiva Club,' which is a movie I am attempting to make sometime soon, is about crashing a shiva, if you will. A couple of comics crash a shiva. I could have, I suppose, made it an Irish wake, but the shiva I was more familiar with.

Success should always be just beyond your grasp.

Given the freedom to create, everybody is creative. All of us have an innate, instinctive desire to change our environment, to put our original stamp on this world, to tell a story never told before. I’m absolutely thrilled at the moment of creativity – when suddenly I’ve synthesized my experiences, reality, and my imagination into something entirely new. But most people are too busy working on survival to find the opportunity to create. Fortunately, I’ve been freed by reputation, by the economics of success, and by emotional contentment to turn my ideas into reality. I’ve discovered that the more freedom I have to be creative, the more creative I become.

Well-written words are music.

Being an icon is overrated, remember an icon can be moved by a mouse.

My wife and my three kids and my grandchildren are my life, but my horses and my dogs are everything else. 

What does God need with a starship?

I think the acting satisfies the need and desire for approval.

If you make a fool of yourself, you can do it with dignity, without taking your pants down. And if you do take your pants down, you can still do it with dignity.

Gradually the live TV scene simmered out, replaced by film, and that took place in L.A. So many actors left New York. 

Everyone knows everything about all of us. That's too much knowledge!

My beautiful wife is dead. She meant everything to me. Her laughter, her tears and her joy will remain with me the rest of my life.

I love living in Los Angeles.

Writing is truly a creative art - putting word to a blank piece of paper and ending up with a full-fledged story rife with character and plot. 

I don't think in terms of God.

Energy is the key to creativity. Energy is the key to life.

There exists nowhere on Earth a "soulful place" -- everywhere you are, is the soulful place. The entire world is filled with mystical qualities, including your little slice of the world. Paradise and enlightenment are always within your reach. It's joy. And you should work on filling all your years with as much joy as possible.

I believe that when things happen, they happen with a purpose. 

All in all, Kirk's character is something I am very proud of. 

I have been accused of never saying no. 

The ability to breathe the air and drink the water will be what the wars will be about from here on in. And it's coming with alarming rapidity. 

I believe in taking what happens as inevitable.

But if you want to know the truth, the weirdest thing that has happened has been my discovery that people who attend the conventions are filled with love.

There's a joy and a pain about directing where the dreams you have are becoming concrete but the attention to detail, the need for time is such that it's overwhelming at times, and the stream of responsibility.

When I'm interviewing somebody I don't work from prepared questions. 

I didn't want to do the sitcom thing, but I didn't know what else to do. 

I'm a performer, comedian, entertainer, writer and director.

My dad was good with actions.

I'm gonna reveal something to you that's going to come as a shock: If you're a stupid young man, you're usually a stupid old man. Most people, including myself, keep repeating the same mistakes.

Most people, including myself, keep repeating the same mistakes. 

If you read my books, especially the Star Trek books and the Quest for Tomorrow books, you'll see in them the core theme of the basic humanistic questions that Star Trek asked.

There's too many people in the world. 

Regret is the worst human emotion. If you took another road, you might have fallen off a cliff. I'm content.

I'm just quizzical about how things work and why things are. 

Captain Kirk has been a source of pleasure and income for a long time. 

I can't type. Can't do it.

I think that prog rock is the science fiction of music. Science fiction speculates on what the future might be and look like and how we'll get there, and yet there's always a central theme of humanity, or there should be. Progressive rock has the same concept of exploration into the parts of the music world that hasn't been explored.

Marriage is a reflection of your life in general: how you treat people, how you argue, how secure you are in your own thoughts. How vehemently do you argue your point of view? With what disdain do you view the other's point of view?

And I enjoyed the celebrity and the creativity that was involved in Star Trek.

Tabloid stuff just offends. 

I think of doing a series as very hard work. But then I've talked to coal miners, and that's really hard work.

I can't stand the gossip of celebrities' lives, all the time! Every minute! 

When I did the film Generations, in which the character died, I felt like a guest for the first time. That made me very sad.

Writing an acceptance speech gives you the expectation of winning, and you are therefore devastated or hurt if you didn't win.

Spencer Tracy was a man who did very much what I do on a set, and that is, he comes down and he does his job, and then he goes back to his dressing room. 

My dad died of a stroke.

I also derive a great deal of pleasure from horses and dogs... the ocean... and love.

Exercise? A Jew doesn't exercise. 

I love the concept of togetherness and the entwinement of marriage.

Nature is perfect.

I've got rock 'n' roll in my blood. 

 All any artist can do is please themselves.

Nobody could have imagined the phenomenon that 'Star Trek' became. It's still almost impossible to imagine.

I'm always open to the possibility that somebody's got a better idea than I have. It happens with some frequency.

If you make a fool of yourself, you can do it with dignity, without taking your pants down. And if you do take your pants down, you can still do it with dignity. 

My understanding is, the fans are so ravenous in Canada, they gnaw on the stars. 

View the list I don't know how I got to this point but it must be as a result of everything that has come before so if I were to change something, I might not be at this point now.

I'm an optimist.

I'm looking for the perfect paintball movie.

The political scene is already so turgid, it doesn't need more of that from me.

The essence of paint ball is the fact that when you get hit by a ball full of paint, it hurts just enough to say, 'Ow, I gotta get out of the way,' but not enough to say, 'I quit.'

I had been in a Shakespeare company for three years and done a lot of Shakespeare. That was fun. That was interesting. 

Here's something pompous - you take your day and artistically create it, so every moment has an artistic flavor.

I don't think of myself as being tied. 

Happy Birthday Sonequa Martin-Green!

It's really sad to say I wasn't surprised. Because of the state of our world currently and the state of our world right now and because of where we come from as a country. I was sad, I was disappointed, but I wasn't necessarily surprised. I will say though, on the other hand—you know what, I'm going to amend my statement. Yeah, it actually was surprising in this particular instance because a lot of the sort of backlash for the diversity were people who say they're long-term Trek fans.

Playing dead is just like playing alive: It's really just about you believing what you're doing and diving into the story headfirst.

So that was completely antithetical to me because how can you appreciate a legacy that is steeped in diversity, but be upset by diversity…that was a little confusing for me.

I do tend to be a leader in situations in my own life.

As I've said before, I just encourage anybody who has an issue with it to just tune in and join this journey with us, because it's a human story and it's a story about life and hopefully it will bring people together and make them see there's not much that separates us.

I would love to see myself in a position where I'm able to create opportunities for other people. I would love to see my husband and myself in a position to incite social change in a major way.

We're hoping that we take the pressure that feel, because we do take it so seriously, we hope that we can funnel it into the story.

I do have siblings, but I don't have any brothers.

There's gonna be all the twists and turns you would expect and twists and turns you did not expect, the finale is probably the most jam-packed episode there's ever been. Things are packed into it like sardines. All of the life is squeezed in there. They lengthened it to 90 minutes because there's just so much. It's a supersized monstrosity.

Finding true strength, not pretending to have strength, but actually being strong, and realizing that self-preservation is usually something that you do out of fear.

I think the craftsmanship of this show is through the roof. I am floored by everyone's artistry.

I think motherhood preps you for every single aspect of life. It's impossible to encapsulate in words how much motherhood prepped me for being a human being.

Obviously stories can be so healing. Art is so healing. And I think when you have a story that shows a picture of a utopian future – it's been this way the entire time this is the legacy of 'Star Trek' – and I think that when you can tap into that, when you can key into that, I think that having a vision of it can help you actualize it.

I was on track to change my name. In college, I was dead set on it. I was going to change it to Sonè or something. But my mentor at the time, Seth Panitch, who teaches at UA, said, “No! Don’t do that. You should keep it. That’s you.” I said OK and I never thought [changing my name] again.

It was a bit hurtful but I'm a black woman that was raised in the South. So it did not surprise me. I'm used to that, unfortunately. On one end I wasn't surprised, on the other end I sort of was because diversity and universality are pillars of 'Star Trek.' That is the legacy of it.

Not being secure affects us as humans. It throws us off our balance. It puts us in disarray.

'Star Trek' has always gone boldly, it always has. That's been the essence of it.

It is very fun to play [lead character on Star Trek Discvoery] because as Michael Burnham, being her, it’s a very conflicting identity. There’s an identity crisis at the very root of it all and to be someone who is constantly striving and constantly climbing and scraping, it’s challenging and it creates a lot of wounds. It can be quite damaging and it has been for me as Michael because it’s been in a not-so-conducive environment, at least on Vulcan. So it’s challenging and fulfilling in the all the right ways.

We're upholding the legacy but again taking that next step forward because here I am, the first black female lead. We've got the first Asian female captain, we've got the first woman captain – with a woman first officer.

For me, it's the three Fs: faith, family, and fitness.

So the naysayers – I think it's completely antithetical. If you say you're a longtime Trek fan, it doesn't make sense to me.

[Filming The Walking Dead] was extremely challenging both physically and emotionally, but I was able to do it. It was a blessing that I was able to do everything I would normally do if I wasn’t pregnant.

I have stage combat training from college, which is drastically different than fighting for the screen, but I do enjoy that kind of stuff.

I just let go and committed wholeheartedly. I was surprised at how much fun I had, actually.

I have been determined to go through every single bit of the canon. I started bingeing before we started production on the original, and I'm watching episodes here and there of all the different shows.

[Star Trek] was on the television when I was growing up. I remember seeing reruns of TOS, and some Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, so I had a peripheral understanding of it. I had seen the most recent JJ Abrams movies and, once I got the role, I decided I was going to see everything. I got as far as I could before I had to start working on my current story. I still say that I’ll see everything, we’ll see how long it takes me.

Happy Birthday John de Lancie!

As pathologists, you will learn the nature of disease and it's causes, it's processes, development, and consequences. But far far more than that. I like to think of the pathologist as offering a window to god, if you will. Now, it may be said that pathology is the study of all things human, save the soul of course. But it is in that particular branch of pathology known as forensics, that we will delve into what it means to be inhuman. You will see the perversion, the corruption of the flesh by all means unnatural. And then we will work backwards, always back to that original pristine design, to determine the affecting cause of death.

In a story so bizarre I can scarcely believe the event I'm reporting, and yet corroborated by at least a dozen eye witnesses. A white male apparently fell from the sky above downtown Los Angeles today, landed in the middle of a busy intersection, destroying one vehicle and hospitalising its elderly driver,and then was removed from the scene even before emergency personnel could respond. Without a body the police have yet to piece together the events of the day.It can only be described as implausible. Reports of a second body landing in the Boyle Heights area have yet to be confirmed, and are being treated as the bullshit they most likely are.

Roddenberry warned me that I had no idea what I was getting into with Star Trek. Someone should have warned me about My Little Pony! Egads!

Astonishing isn't it, but the one conspiracy theory Donald Trump doesn't believe in, is the Russians hacking the election.

Meryl Streep's speech was eloquent. The response...not so.

Why must the @'s count in the 140?! These's nothing to read finally.

Many actors who came out of the theater, who came out of doing a lot of Shakespeare, and a lot of other types of authors as well, have the skill set to handle complex words. Knowing that, then now all of sudden you go, "Well, actually, you know now it does sort of make sense," if you go and look at the cast of "Star Trek." They did a lot of Shakespeare in their day. There's Patrick [Stewart,] there's Armin [Shimerman,] and then there's René Auberjonois, on and on and on. A lot of us had done that type of material, which made us capable to do the "Star Trek" material. Bill Shatner, he was at the Shakespeare Festival up in Ontario, that's where he got his chops.

Very memorable weekend in Milwaukee. Great con, great people and great German food. What more could one ask for?Auf Wiedersehen, ponies!

Truth: The majority of Americans did not vote for Trump. Truth: Trump was aided by a Russian cyber attack against our country. Illegitimate!

I'm in Milwaukee! Just had a ton of German food. Getting ready for a Brony weekend. Come join.

I was not a good student, and the reason I was not a good student is that I didn't know how to read. ... I was dyslexic, but at the time that was not really a word that was used. What was used was "mildly retarded" or "slow."  I ended up flunking out of a couple of schools. The last school I went to, they said "Oh, no, no, we think he's dyslexic, but nobody really knew what to do with that. I probably was 14 by that time. My teacher, who was really quite a wonderful teacher ... we would do projects.

The poetry slam is a great event. I start off the proceeding and then others read the poems. Often very funny, moving, revealing and fun.

House GOP votes to gut House ethics committee. Welcome to the new order.

In this time of Discord and Chaos the Reason Rally should give us all hope. Be a voice for a better future. Let Reason ring!

Trump's used of the phrase "enemy of the people" is chilling. There's a history to that sentiment and it's not good - for anyone! Look it up

The Humanist weekend was wonderful. Very smart, very inspiring. If you don't know about the American Humanist look them up. Well worth it.

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy & prosperous new year. Let's take a moment to be grateful & generous and expansive towards others. Cheers!

I'm in Chicago this weekend speaking at the Humanist convention. Can't wait to meet all the fine folks. The following week the Reason Rally

A very happy holidays to all from 21.9750° N, 96.0833° E. The weather is a comfortable 72 degrees and Christmas is in the air.

For those of you who said, Thailand, you are correct. Bravo! Specifically, Pharos.

Here's a hint for architect buffs. Because land is scarce they are growing ivy and trees on and in the building.

Hong Kong! Why the mask? Hey, I saw Contagion. Need I say more? 

I'm not a great Twitterer. Chit chat eludes me. My followers seem to be from 2 camps:Trek & MLP. I'm going Twit about both - substantively

A chicken head and a bottle beer - heaven.

Just given book about Twittering by someone who will remain nameless. Practicing 1st chapter "Ambient Intimacy" So..Runny nose Off to yoga.

Don't usually get into this but: The witches' brew the Rep Party has been stirring for the last 7 years boiled over last night. Shame !

I have just finished recording some of the STTimelines dialogue. Let's just call it what it is: Q Unleashed!

If you've been following: this clue was difficult. Yes, still Burma. I'm on a river. Answer: Irrawaddy. Go to Google Earth. Follow along.

I'm back. After sailing to the South Sea, being kidnapped and tattooed by cannibals...I'm back. Let's talk.

Everyone! The game STTimelines is up & running. Wonderful work by lots of very talented people. Have a look and let me know what you think.

Xmas Dinner: Rakhine fish paste, pork curry & sour mango pickle, pomelo & pounded fish, roasted eggplant salad. Yum

Happy Birthday Connor Trinneer!

On losing the audience of 'Star Trek: Enterprise': "I don't know exactly when they tuned out, but they did, obviously, somewhere along season one or two. We had a great season last year with the Xindi storyline and we still weren't able to get them back. For network shows, it doesn't seem particularly important for them to publicize the science fiction genre, or it wasn't that important for UPN to publicize our show. They sort of let that go and I don't think we had a lot of momentum in terms of backing from the network. But they have their own concerns. So I think it was a combination of things. I think different camps weren't in sync at the right time to draw in people.

Someone said that Paramount went to the well one too many times and our show just happened to be that walk to the well. I tend to agree with that. I don't think our numbers were really that much worse than Voyager or Deep Space Nine -- they were all in the same ballpark -- but the cost-to-viewer ratio of Star Trek reached a point when we were making Enterprise where it was no longer satisfactory to the studio. Star Trek was no longer cost effective.

Ultimately, that was what they were looking for. There was no point to go five years -- if you were going to go five years you were going to go seven. There's nothing for them -- they were going to get their package.

The funny thing is, most actors are actors because they couldn’t do math.  At least I am!

I did yeah, terribly so. But oddly, it skipped a generation, because my son is obsessed with math and science and physics and calculus. And it’s a remarkable thing to watch because he seems to have a sense of understanding that I guess I never had. The older I’ve gotten, the more I can appreciate it, but really, for me,  in terms of getting through school, math was always just…agh…here it comes…an hour of THIS.

I don’t know what this guy’s speech is.  I have a feeling that … there are so many things in culture, science, our lives that Star Trek really introduced, in a way. The way we communicate now, all these things that they were doing, especially in the original series, that didn’t exist, ways in which we can evaluate people in medicine, that I’m sure he’s going to cover. But what I think I’ll do is … one, give my brief history of math in my own personal life and share my son’s love for it, and really the parent’s joy in watching somebody do things such as … he’d wake up in the morning, and we have a blackboard in our utility room that he would just fill with these equations, and when he’d get out of the shower he’d do it on the mirror, in the foggy mirror. He probably didn’t understand the totality of the equation itself but it doesn’t matter, it’s the interest.

Well, I’ve heard for years, “You should play George W. Bush,” and I’m like, “Shut up.” And you know, when prompted, I can do him, and I went into this audition and sat down and did the scene, and the casting director said, “Do that again.”
I did it again, and she’s like, “Not all the time…” and she points at the tip of her nose: “You can look just like him.” And I said, “Yeah, I’ve heard that.” And she said, “It’s kind of uncanny. I don’t know what’s going to happen here but it’s kind of uncanny.” And I said, “Well, thanks.” You know, at any audition, you do your thing, you walk out, and you try to forget about it.
And then I got it, and was immediately terrified.

A couple of ‘em. Out of the gate, episode three, I was pregnant. One thing about playing a man who’s pregnant, you want to get that right as best you can. So I really spent a lot of time thinking about what I knew from some of the things that happen to women when they get pregnant. Some of them weren’t in the script and I had them put them in.

Well... when he got emotional when he was eating the breadsticks. That wasn’t in the script, that he starts to cry. And they also put in a scene where he’s talking about how it would be really dangerous for a little one, ‘cause there was an elevator that had been worked on, in Engineering, from one floor to another. And I’d expressed some things, like, “I want him to have real emotional concern for the unknown, such as ‘What if a little kid walked in? What if a little one walked in here and had to shut this hatch? He could cut his finger off!’” I’m not sure that’s the exact dialogue but it was something to that effect.

Yeah. I get asked a lot: what would you have liked them to do more with your character?  I’m always at a loss for words because I always felt like they handed me so much. And I’d get asked by the producers at the beginning of every year and at the end of every year, what are you looking forward to, at the end of the year, how’d you feel about your character development. I was always so impressed with how they handled him. Because early on the series, I got handed some episodes that if I didn’t do them well, they were probably going to write less for me. I don’t know, but I did hear that pretty quickly, the writers heard my voice—the character—and that made it pretty easy for them to write for me. So at the end of every year, I was always impressed and humbled by the things that they’d thrown my way.

I forgot about it all. I was just out there, trying to tell a story. And that’s, at the end of the day, what you’re doing. I mean yes, there’s this outside pressure from the fandom, and the responsibilities for carrying on the message through the canon, but just tell the story. Because it takes care of itself, because it’s Star Trek.
I think it’s time to do another one. It’s been, what ten or eleven years, something like that, and from what I’ve heard, don’t write this in stone, each season will be its own thing in that it’s not going to go necessarily in a linear fashion like this happened and then this happened and then this happened, like most of them did. They may jump years, they may do all sorts of things. But the people involved, it’s such an important franchise for [them], that they’ve got a lot of fingers in that pie to get it right.  Sometimes that can be a bad thing but I think that there’s enough people involved that know what they’re doing that they’ll be in good shape. I’m excited about it.

The conventions! 
In all honesty, the work is the work. You’re an actor, you go in there, you put on your costume, you create a character, and you go do your thing. But it was the conventions that were the big shocker to me, I didn’t know what to expect.
I, in fact, didn’t do one until it was near my hometown. My first one was in Portland, Oregon—I’m from Kelso, Washington, which is about 44 minutes away—and I did that one because my parents would come and I’d feel like I’d have somebody in the audience that still loved me!
But immediately, I was embraced by the fans, and it was a wonderful experience, and that whole world of the Trekkers … I knew nothing about. Zero. Since then, of course, I’ve become pretty well versed in the whole thing, having done a bunch of ‘em, but yeah, it was the outside stuff of the show that I wasn’t prepared for.
The work is the work.

Yeah! I’d almost say equally as important as the show itself.

My favorite color is blue!

I got to play the right guy for me. I really believe that. I hit the lottery with Trip. He had so much going on with him as we went along throughout the series and so many things put in front of him. Real dynamic storytelling was the plate that I ate off of every day. I would not trade having played Trip Tucker for any other part.

I’d almost died a couple of times before that anyway. It’s science fiction, nobody ever really dies in science fiction.

Anything can happen! I’ve thought about this. I’m like, “Could I be like Obi Wan, or R2D2, or Princess Leia, when they do a little video presentation of certain things you need to know, and all of a sudden Trip’ll pop up?”
He’s dead at that point, but you know … I think it would be no problem whatsoever to incorporate the soul of Trip Tucker into something.

I am a fiercely proud American.  I like most Americans descend from immigrants.  I am the product of their dream.  Today I feel such shame.

I had the profound honor of telling the story of Trip Tucker.

I think Alice is in trouble.  Folks are going for it in Yakima!  

I loved the last episode.  I had the profound honor of telling the story

I wish I knew what the rest of this sign said... 

Glad to be home but didn't think we'd drag race to touch down.  The planes actually kept getting…

Really, what did you think was going to happen under Trumpcare?  It would get better?  The list of this shit show goes on and on.

All the episodes and tons of extras, all at a great price...sounds like a must have set for #StarTrek fans!

Yes it's April 1st in some parts of the world.  You don't have Trader Joes.  The Trader Joes bit was my point,  not the world clock.

Thank you to all the veterans who've protected this great country of ours!!!

The Mother Fuckin chandelier at The Shrine Theater.......pardon my French. 

We've moved.  Went back to the old place to pick up some stuff.  Thought this was a perfect reminder…

Happy Birthday James Frain!

With my guy, every now and then, he puts on a mask and does that, but he isn't that. Most of the time that we see him, he isn't that. Most of the time that we see him, he's fun to hang around with. I think that's unusual, to that extent.

Acting isn't something that I think about very consciously, somehow that just doesn't work for me. I just kind of feel my way into it.

Now it's all about the word of mouth, and watching a series on Netflix. That's the way people actually consume this stuff now, instead of waiting for a DVD release you're not really sure you want to buy. And I think it's fantastic, because then I can watch the shows that I missed, over a weekend. I love doing that.

I'm not particularly an expert on the genre. Correct me if I'm wrong, but usually you see most of the super-villain in his villainous role. He's the Green Goblin, or whatever various bad guys in Batman, or something like that. It's the excessive, larger than life, cartoon-ish, costumed character that is the personification of evil and has to be destroyed.

Sometimes it's fun to be the guy who doesn't know that he's bad, like the character I played in 'True Blood'. 

And sometimes it's fun to be the guy who just really enjoys it, like the guy I'm playing now on The Cape. He's more that. He's much more flashy and debonaire and devil may care-ish. He just loves doing bad in the world. That's real fun to do.

'X-Files' wasn't a big show in England.

Evil is a broad church. There are so many different ways to be evil. Sometimes it's fun to be the guy who doesn't know that he's bad, like the character I played in True Blood. He was pretty angsty about it, but he thought he was doing the right thing.

Bruges is a beautiful medieval city almost untouched by time. If you like jazz, you will be well catered for. If you like chocolate and beer, you will be in heaven.

I would want to keep that in a little glass sphere, perhaps in the corner of my living room, lit up. But, I think that's an extremely expensive rig. The costumes were crazy expensive, beyond anything they could afford to give you, to take away. They're going to be in a museum of some kind, on display until they get the go for Tron: Legacy 2. It would have been awesome to keep, though. I don't think there was anything that they could afford to let go. I probably would have been arrested.

'The Buccaneers' was an Edith Wharton novel, and she never finished it, and a screenwriter adapted it for television.

For all that Tron wanted to be, it ultimately had to be a fun ride for the audience and I was going to be one of the comic characters, and he was really on top of that. He was having such a good time doing it. That's my memory of it. I'd love to work with him again. I think he's great.

I've got this thing where I think great shows have great credit sequences. I don't know why that is, exactly. 

Working with Joe Kosinski, definitely. I loved working with Joe. For a guy who doesn't really come from the fiction world - he comes from advertising and architecture - he's extremely easy-going and very calm. He's extremely detailed, but a very generous and fun director to work with. He really encouraged me to find the fun in the part and to have fun with it.

I don't keep a record of the parts I've played, and I don't compare characters, but maybe I should? I could construct a graphic that grades badness and madness levels? Interesting idea.

That was one of the things I hadn't really put together. Since the first movie and this movie, the rest of us have been living that revolution, largely engineered by people who were Tron fans. That's pretty deep, man.

I was watching the last season of 'Mad Men,' and they're now so in their characters and they're so comfortable in their characters, and they're doing such good work. That can only happen from doing it over and over, and developing a character over seven years. 

You know, what I didn't know was how many people in the tech world the original movie had such an impression on. That's really interesting to me because a lot of the people who created this technological revolution that we're all living through were kids when Tron came out, and they saw Tron and it impacted them.

Cable series have more time to focus on characters, and a structure that allows for a development in character as you go along. Network shows have a pressure of time and space that is completely different. 

The costumes, the light rigs and the effects are seamlessly joined. I'm kind of bummed that I don't get the experience that you get with just watching it cold. By the time we'd seen all the visuals put together, I'd sort of become used to that world. It's still pretty impressive.

As movies and TV projects come up, they go out to the agents, and we just go out and audition for them.

I also thought the music was a huge contribution, in terms of creating the scale of that. And, I was impressed with just how natural and fluid the world looks. The world is so artificial and it requires so much work to make all the different pieces add up together, but when it comes together, it just looks effortless. It's amazing.

Forney in 'Where the Heart Is' has more fans than any other character I've played.

I was surprised by how much of it I was in (Tron: Legacy). I thought the character was just going to register as a smaller figure because most of what I did was with a body double, and then I would do the stand-in with Jeff Bridges and he would be just wearing his regular clothes.

Characters who have some kind of free rein on their darker selves are always fun because they've taken the license off. You just get to fill out all the colors.

Working with CGI is more like doing theater where your sort of imagining things. I didn't experience it as restrictive.

The acting in 'Downton Abbey' has been consistently excellent across the board. 

I am a little in awe of Jeff Bridges. He's an actor I have admired for many years, and so I didn't know who I was going to get, in the sense that I didn't know what he was going to be like. And so I was pleasantly surprised that he is this kind of laid-back guy.

The problem with trying to make a film good and have it work for an audience is the problem of trying to tell a story well. The shape or the color of it doesn't matter.

Every project has its things to be overcome, but I didn't find that there was anything particularly impossible about what we were doing - it was all quite exciting.

'The Cape' is a really good comic! They invented the whole character, and now they've built a book of 'The Cape' for the show. When I was a kid, I used to love Batman, and I loved Spider-Man. My favorite was this guy called Judge Dredd. I know they made a movie of that in the '90s.

Working in 3D I didn't experience much of a difference, except that the cameras are very big so they can't be moved around with as much ease. It was more like, when you've seen photos of cameras from the 1930s being moved around with these huge cranes. So there was something quite sort of old-fashioned about it almost.