50 Years of Star Trek Page #6

- Nobody does that kind of stuff.

- Right.

On science fiction in particular.

And so I think that

show in terms of its depth,

in terms of the issues it would address,

I thought made it the best.

And, you know, arguably

there are some of the best episodes

of all 700-plus hours.

"The Next Generation"

had become such a success

in first-run syndication for the studio

that they wanted more, so

you had "Deep Space Nine,"

which was about a space station

and it was a little darker.

"Next Gen" was my

undergraduate studies

in TV writing and production,

and "Deep Space Nine" was graduate.

"DS9" had such a different feel

while still being "Star Trek."

It took things even deeper.

We were attracted to

doing darker stories.

We were attracted to doing stories

that had much more conflict in them,

that were more morally ambiguous,

that were tackling difficult

subject matter

with our characters.

And we all felt that

we were pushing "Trek,"

but none of us felt

like we were breaking it.

That was the first time that you see

what television is now, which

is dark and foreboding.

And I really wanted to do the show.

Really wanted to do the show.

I-I was like...

I just... not only as an actor who

would get a steady paycheck,

but more importantly,

as a fan of the show

I wanted to be part of the

ethos that was "Star Trek."

It's really nice to see that

people could stick with the show

when it became darker and

more demanding of its audience.

But no victory can make this

moment any easier for me.

And I promise I will not

rest until I stand with you again.

Somebody had the brilliant idea

of bringing Worf onto our show.

Unfortunately, I will be

away from the station at that time.

What they hoped

would happen did happen.

Thousands, if not millions, of people

watched because Worf was on the show.

And so our fan base got resurrected

because of Michael Dorn.

And I had my concerns about that

'cause I didn't want

Worf to be standing around,

just to be a, you

know, some guy that just...

They throw in there.

I really want him to

open up as a character.

Worf was, like, really the

only choice from that cast

that made any sense and

that would actually add

something to the puzzle.

Here's the war-like

character coming into a situation

that's a war-torn environment.

So that made a certain amount of sense.

What is that smell?

Is there a pile of

rotting forshak in here.

I loved my time on "Next Generation,"

but the work I did on "Deep

Space" was much better.

Over my tenure on "Deep Space,"

that was the mantra was,

"How far can we push this franchise?

Or what are the places we can go

that none of the other shows can go?

What can't they do in 'Star Trek, '

and is there a way we can do it?"

Every "Star Trek" show broke

grounds in some way, you know?

"Deep Space Nine," Sisko,

he was a black captain.

And then you have

Janeway in "Voyager," a woman.

I mean, they were always thinking ahead.

Narrator:
When

"Voyager" launches in 1995,

"Star Trek" has been

pushing the envelope

for nearly 30 years.

The new series pushes further.

A lot of women of a certain age

who that show meant a

lot to because of Kate.

You know, they look at it, you know,

the same way that guys of my generation

look at Kirk as a role model,

they look at Kate's Janeway and say,

"You know, she proved that, you know,

"I could be thoughtful and

smart and commanding,

and not necessarily use my sexuality

to get what I want."

Then you leave me no choice.

You are hereby relieved of

duty until further notice.

As a writer, writing Captain Janeway,

I didn't think of her as a woman.

I thought of her as the captain.

And I think it's great that

she ended up being a role model

to a lot of people, men or women.

I was very happy and proud

of what the producers had

done with this cast in "Voyager."

First of all, starting

off with a female captain

'cause we had not seen that before.

My friend, Rene, got

cast in "Deep Space."

And he told me how cool

it was, and I envied him.

I said, "What a great

show to be on," you know.

And then a couple of years later,

boom, I was in "Voyager."

And I-I had no idea

what the character

was makeup-wise, you know?

But I flew out and

I-I went into the room,

and there was UPN, and

there was Paramount,

and there were the

creators of "Star Trek."

And, um, I read

and I guess I was exactly

what what they were looking for.

"Star Trek:
Voyager" is probably

my first acting job.

And I was so

excited, and I was so nervous.

It was a two-part special and

I was playing a scientist.

What do you do here?

- We watch the skies.

- For what?

Signs of extraterrestrial life.

Nice meeting you.

I remembered going to my acting coach,

and he read through the script.

And I was looking to him for guidance.

And he just went, uh,

"You know, sometimes when

you're running from lasers,

you just... you just gotta

pretend you're running from lasers."

- Get down!

- [laser fire]

I was like, "Oh.' Ahem.

It gave me so much freedom.

I was like, "Oh, yeah, I

just... I pretend," you know?

You don't really draw from

your childhood or something.

You just pretend you're

running from lasers.

[laser fire]

What the hell?

What I wanted to do

was bring the Borg in.

It was my feeling that the Borg

could always be "Voyager's" Klingons.

They needed a recurring villain.

And for better or worse,

that's what we ended up doing.

And it's one of the

things that defined "Voyager"

was the introduction of

the Seven of Nine character.

You had a very sexy

woman in a very sexy outfit.

You know, it was supposed to lure in

a certain male demographic.

But, in reality, she

was the Spock character.

She was the Data character.

Report.

I've applied 10,053 algorithms

to the energy signatures

produced by chaotic space.

The Roddenberry influence

was always respected.

We didn't want to do something

totally, outrageously anti-Roddenberry.

It's almost like you

have to keep pinching yourself.

You show up on these sets and

you have to remind yourself,

"I'm in the middle of

something that when we do it right,

is really important, can

really affect people."

Now it's hard to do

that on every single episode.

I don't know who has

ever succeeded in that,

but I think that we

all could feel as a cast

when we were telling a good

story and doing it well.

There was a lot of

discussion what "Enterprise"

would look like and feel like.

Narrator:
"Star Trek: Enterprise"

is a prequel to the entire franchise.

Set in the 22nd century,

as Starfleet's first

explorers venture into space.

You know, we were trying to, I think,

deconstruct "Star Trek"

and figure out, you know,

how it all came together.

You know, we'd certainly seen the future

of where it was all going.

And it was a real

challenge to kind of back that up

and imagine, you

know, what was this...

What was this like 150

years before Captain Kirk.

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