[Captain Kirk, echoing] Space: the final frontier.
[Gates McFadden] For well over 50 years,
a fearless crew of pioneers have faced the unknown...
Out there.
[McFadden] ...on an endless quest, looking for stars.
Thataway.
[McFadden] But not up there in space.
More that direction.
[McFadden] Down here in Sector 001, otherwise known as Hollywood,
where you'll find every species in the galaxy.
You see, I'm an actor.
Every actor in town worked on those shows.
[McFadden] And this is the story.
- Not of the captains... -Aye, Captain.
[McFadden] ...or the ships they commanded but of the first officers...
-Fire. -[McFadden] ...crew...
It was a great part to get to play.
[McFadden] ...the occasional doctor...
That's odd.
[McFadden] Actually, that's me.
And of course, there were many, many aliens.
[all screaming]
[McFadden] From the original series...
Captain! [laughs]
[McFadden] ...to the movies and every TV series since.
Engage.
Yes! It was one of those great actor moments.
It was horrifying.
[McFadden] Star Trek means so much to so many.
You're Brad Pitt, mate, and they all want a piece of you.
You get Trekkies from birth to death.
[McFadden] And be it the big bucks...
or SAG minimum...
Co-workers were a pain in the ass.
[McFadden] ...it's the actors who bring Star Trek to life.
I fake for a living. It's what I do.
-[groans] -[squawks]
[McFadden] From the series regulars...
I was hired to play this character on the pilot and that was it.
[McFadden] ...bit parts, guest spots...
Guest stars.
And I played Rain Robinson in Star Trek: Voyager in 1997.
[clapperboard claps]
[McFadden] So beam aboard and hold on tight
as we boldly meet the actors of Star Trek.
And you can see it all from here in The Center Seat.
During stardate 1950s,
mankind had long been looking up at the stars...
and quickly back down again toward movie screens...
That is correct, sir.
[McFadden] ...fascinated by an unknown fictional universe
out of reach from science
but well within the grasp of our imaginations.
We have come to visit you in peace and with goodwill.
[McFadden] So for a young actor back then,
making it big sometimes meant shooting for the stars.
I think they're all dead.
I was always interested in science fiction and I had worked in science fiction
all the way back to 1950, Zombies of the Stratosphere.
[McFadden] Instead of plummeting through the stratosphere
and back to earth with a thud,
Leonard Nimoy was destined for far greater heights.
I was working pretty good at the time.
My career was moving along nicely.
[McFadden] So when an ex-World War II fighter pilot turned airline pilot
turned LAPD officer named Gene Roddenberry
turned his hand to scriptwriting,
well, Leonard Nimoy's ears didn't exactly prick up.
"He's going to produce a pilot. You might be cast in it.
It might be sold and it might go on the air."
You know, it was all those maybes.
[McFadden] And if it was going to happen, they'd probably need a...
-Captain? -Yes, sir.
Shatner, I think the one big film that he got was Judgment at Nuremberg
and everything, his career pointed right to him becoming,
uh, you know, the next movie star.
Okay, Judge.
I would have kept him away from television if I were his agent.
But as it turns out, look at this long, long, long career.
Head Warp Factor One.
And there's just a magnetism to him in his portrayal
that I think is really key to the success of the show.
[McFadden] But they could not do it alone.
Regarding the casting, the easiest place to go
was people that we were both familiar with
that we had both used on The Lieutenant.
My first television thing I did,
the producer-director was Gene Roddenberry.
I was just like, "Hey, let's go!" You know?
[McFadden] And boldly go they did.
It was an interracial show
of equal people doing equal things.
Transmission has been cut off.
I was the first African American actress in a leading role on television.
[McFadden] But in Hollywood, opportunities to play an iconic character
like this are few and far between.
It's the luck of the draw for freelance actors.
You never know what's coming down the pike.
This business is so extraordinary in terms of the serendipity,
in terms of the coincidence.
I know this saying. It was invented in Russia.
Three years before Star Trek , I was brought in to read
for a role of a Russian student who is defecting.
It was a show called Mr. Novak.
"You Americans live in a world of dreams."
I remember that was one of the lines.
Three years later, I get the call for Star Trek .
It makes me homesick.
Just like Russia.
More like the Garden of Eden, Ensign.
Of course, Doctor. The Garden of Eden was just outside Moscow.
You know, he looked like a Beatle, but that was okay.
[McFadden] Be it the original series or today,
actors need gigs,
and Star Trek had plenty.
As an agent, I thought that Star Trek was a great starting point
for a lot of people,
and often it would be their first television job.
I always thought that I would come to LA
and be on a great cop show like NYPD Blue,
but then I started booking Star Trek .
That was my first gig.
[McFadden] The same was true for Sarah Silverman.
You know, I was taking it really seriously and I took a...
I went to an acting coach.
Go back down the hall, take a left at Mars,
right at Haley's Comet.
I got to say really serious lines like...
What the hell?
And "Say hello to Saturn for me."
[McFadden] Not just the shows, movies too.
Star Trek was my first job as an actor.
What?
It was the most integral part of my career
because it not only put my foot in the door,
it shoved me through the door.
Thank you, sir.
[McFadden] It was Star Trek.
Once you get in, you never get out.
I was so happy to have a job.
It's a very unstable industry and when you get on a show,
you never know if it's gonna go.
Star Trek is a very unique animal in that way
because this is, like, the one rare occurrence
where you know that if you're signing a seven-year contract,
you're probably going seven years.
Holy cow, I don't know if I'm gonna be alive in seven years.
It's a nice little income coming in for seven years,
and that's precisely what I wanted to do at that time in my career.
And suddenly I'm looking at these houses that I've passed every day
for years and years and years and going,
"Might get one of those."
Always the optimist.
A Mercedes came down the road, "Might drive one of those."
[McFadden] But before you can live long in a prosperous fashion,
you need to get cast,
and the gatekeeper in the Star Trek universe...
Well, no, it wasn't Gene Roddenberry.
It's this guy.
I was casting director on Star Trek for 15 years,
throughout most of the four different TV series
and three movies.
[McFadden] The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine,
Voyager, Enterprise, Generations, First Contact, and Insurrection.
My job was to cast every speaking role in each episode,
and every year there were four or 500 actors cast on the shows.
[McFadden] But before you try to calculate
just how many faces Ron Surma must have seen over those years,
he did cheat a little.
Once you kind of get in the door, you're in that world.
You're on their radar.
I've done more different characters in the Star Trek franchise
than any other actor.
In fact, somebody told me it was in any episodic franchise in television.
[McFadden] So he may have been Ron's favorite,
but he wasn't exactly his number one.
Make it so, Number One.
The first thing I auditioned for was Riker in that show,
and they had me in maybe three times to read for him.
Didn't get him.
[McFadden] Nope, this guy did.
I'm here. [laughs]
[McFadden] Jonathan Frakes' portrayal of Riker,
though some said a little stiff in the beginning...
And I'm trying not to smile...
[McFadden] ...soon became a relaxed and beloved member
of The Next Generation crew.
Our lives were changed.
[McFadden] So it's no wonder that getting an audition for Star Trek
could be the biggest moment of some actors' careers.
No pressure.
Walk in the door and there are five or six other guys
that kinda look just like you.
And he's more famous and a bit better looking. [laughs]
As I waited outside, this minivan pulled up
and the door slid open and out came this leg
and in full Seven of Nine regalia, it was Jeri Ryan.
And I thought in that moment,
"This is what they want.
I mean, who am I kidding? I'm not gonna get this part."
You would know in the first minute
if they had a chance of getting the part or not.
[McFadden] With not long to impress,
some actors bend over backwards for the job.
At the very last minute, I decided...
There was a chair there, so I got in the chair,
I turned around upside down,
I threw my legs over, and I did the audition upside down.
[British accent] So I went in and I'm doing the audition like this.
You know, with a bit of an English, you know, accent.
You know, like, kind of Cockney-ish.
[normal voice] One of the producers come over to me
and says to me with a very stern face,
he goes, "There are no accents in Star Trek ."
You're not from this province, are you?
And neither are you.
And I cranked it up as far as I could
'cause I thought there's...
"I'm not leaving anything on the table when I walk out of here"
'cause I really wanted... I really wanted to get it.
[McFadden] Don't worry, he did.
Yes, sir.
[McFadden] Sometimes it's a grind.
So I had a couple of auditions.
Which I think I came in four times.
It was another audition among many.
You were brought in for, like, six auditions.
I auditioned, uh, seven times over six weeks.
And now you want to try it again?
You have to make an immediate impact in the room.
[McFadden] And sometimes you need a little luck.
I guess so.
I went in there, Avery says,
"You were the only person that gave me a hug in the audition."
"You know, you said 'Dad'" and he gave me a hug.
[chuckles]
And that was a smart move as the young Cirroc.
[McFadden] And then sometimes you just have to wing it.
I had never seen the series, so I went, "Hi, I'm Gates," you know.
"Is there a part you want me to audition for?"
And they said, "Well, there's three women's parts.
Just pick whichever one you wanna do."
And I picked the one that I thought was the funniest.
And it was about the last funny scene I ever saw for the character.
These aren't the remains of the ambassador.
[McFadden] But it's not just the main characters.
A big part of Star Trek is the supporting cast.
All that water.
When I went in to read, the producers would say,
"No, we want him to be meaner."
[groans]
I kept telling them, "I don't agree."
It's a shame.
I remember thinking in my mind, "Oh, man, I'm either gonna get this job
or I'm never gonna work in this town again." [laughs]
Some of the best auditions you get,
you'll ever do, don't go anywhere,
and some of the ones you don't think twice about,
suddenly the next thing you know...
-[screaming] -[gasps]
[McFadden] John Billingsley, who played Dr. Phlox on the series Enterprise ,
made an interesting actor's choice for his audition.
I punctuated the scenes with occasional squawks.
I thought perhaps in moments of rapture or joyous transport, he would...
[squawks]
And I auditioned and they seemed to like it
and they brought me back and I squawked
and they brought me back again and I squawked
and we had the first table read and I squawked,
and all the time I'm thinking, "Am I a bird? I don't know.
They're not making me look like a bird."
[squawks]
I happened to be there when he was gonna shoot his first scene,
which was the scene he'd auditioned with, and he went... [squawks]
And you just heard this.
And bear in mind, he's done this through all the auditions that he's had.
[squawks]
And you just heard this, "Cut, cut, cut!"
"Are you... me?" [laughs]
[McFadden] Or as John himself remembers it...
"John, quit... around!"
Which is how I knew I wasn't a bird.
[McFadden] Of course, some characters have been more successful
in developing a trademark sound.
[roars]
That is how the Klingon lures a mate.
When I called my agent, and the producers say, "Look, you know,
we wanna see him for the part of a Klingon
'cause we're gonna put a Klingon on the bridge,"
and I went, "Wow, what a great idea."
Do not approach me unannounced, especially when I'm eating.
[McFadden] Worf became a series regular
and an integral part of The Next Generation crew.
I am a Klingon.
[McFadden] And it worked out so well that he later became a series regular
on Deep Space Nine as well.
-Because when they call you... -[phone rings]
...they want you,
and it gives you a position of power
that we don't have as actors 99% of the time.
[McFadden] He's not wrong.
Most of us are lucky if we just get one big break.
[McFadden] Every Star Trek actor has their story.
I have been a Star Trek fan as long as I can remember.
[McFadden] And often with a personal connection to the show.
When I was growing up, my brother and I watched the original,
and it really did speak to us
because it was dealing with a lot of great stuff
and a lot of wonderful actors and they took chances.
One of the main reasons I loved it
is because I was in love with this guy named Bob.
And every week when the TV show was on, I got to go to Bob's house
and make out with him on the sofa without his mother objecting,
while we were watching Star Trek.
[F. Murray Abraham] I had a history with Star Trek
as so many of us did from television.
I mean, it was a part of my life.
And I looked at it, it sounded like fun, it sounded like a good idea.
And my kids said, "You better do it," so that was that.
[McFadden] Movie star Whoopi Goldberg had her reasons too.
Before Nichelle Nichols, we didn't exist anywhere in science fiction.
So I want to carry that female woman...
Of course, female woman, crazy.
Carry that woman thing forward,
so some little girl looks up and sees me and says,
"Oh, phew, we are there."
A few molecules off and poof, it's all gone, all of it.
Well, as a matter of fact, in 1977 in high school,
my friends and I did a reel-to-reel video of Star Trek .
When the other kids wanted to play Star Wars or A-Team or Knight Rider,
I was like, "Can we play Star Trek ? I wanna be Mr. Spock."
[McFadden] Who doesn't?
[screaming]
[McFadden] But there are a lot more aliens than just Vulcans
in the Star Trek universe.
When I got the phone call, they're like,
"Yeah, so they want you to play a Ferengi."
And I'm like, "What's a Ferengi?"
Ferengi as a species was started in Next Generation ,
and I was fortunate enough to be
one of the four actors who played that original,
those original four Ferengi.
We will accuse the humans of preparing to ambush us.
Ah.
I had no idea what a Cardassian was.
You know, if you told me it was a form of a pastrami sandwich,
you know, I would have said, "Oh okay, I'm playing a pastrami sandwich."
[McFadden] So how do you play an alien?
I'm still asking myself to this day,
"How do you play a Vulcan?"
"Is it burlesque? Do you go over the top?
Are they really weird? You know, do you do a voice?
Can you be funny?"
[McFadden] All they really had to do was look in a mirror.
"I don't have to play alien. I am an alien."
[McFadden] Because no amount of acting talent
can turn this face into this one.
Such is the power of makeup.
-Makeup? -[McFadden] That's right.
Special effects makeup.
I looked in the mirror and I thought, "Oh, my God, this is extraordinary."
And so I immediately got the character and what to do with him.
You know, you're a work of art. You're made into something.
You don't have to practically do anything. It's all done.
It kind of makes the character.
You know, when you look the way you imagined yourself looking,
it works.
[McFadden] And the man who made it work is Michael Westmore.
I was the makeup supervisor and designer on Star Trek: Next Generation,
Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Enterprise, four of the movies.
Anything that Star Trek touched over the 18 years, I was there.
He was a huge part of the success of our show.
Every week, he had to come up with something,
some alien race that nobody had ever seen before,
and create magic,
and that's what he did.
[McFadden] But the real magic happens when there's a collaboration
between the makeup artists and the actor.
So I get this lovely roll of Qatai.
Go down to the Westmore habitat on Paramount
and on the makeup shelf were a series of masks, faces, and heads.
I look up and I see, da-da-da...
the lions face.
Slightly damaged.
I went, "I love that."
And he went, "Okay, let's try that,"
tried it and looked in the mirror
and I began immediately to resonate with the mask.
I understood the value of the makeup through that four-and-a-half-hour process
because after we had finished with it, I was in that character.
While they're putting it on, I'd be sitting there
looking in the mirror, going, "Well, why did this character evolve this way?"
The Cardassians have this big neck thing
and I'd look at that and think,
"Man, these guys must have been really uptight for some millennium
and they're finally getting these things in their neck
just from straining from how much they hate everybody,
you know, for so long."
[McFadden] But this wasn't a shortcut to finding your inner alien.
Uh, it was horrifying.
[McFadden] So horrifying, in fact, that many actors said...
-No. -I will not do it.
There were often times where I would get an appointment for a client
and they would refuse to go in because they knew that it did involve makeup.
It's a lot to get used to.
My call time in the makeup trailer was 1:00 AM,
and we all assembled on the set at 7:00 AM to begin work.
[McFadden] And if that isn't tiring enough,
there are other problems too.
So we had to make molds of my ears.
And I'm a little bit claustrophobic.
I just... There is something about it.
I'm very claustrophobic.
If you have claustrophobia problems,
think twice before taking a job on Star Trek .
I think I had three calls
prior to shooting with prosthetics and with makeup.
And by this time, I was starting to get a little...
I was starting to get a little nervous about what I was in for.
[McFadden] Well, perhaps with good reason.
The initial mold, you're completely isolated.
And the only way you can breathe, the only way you can breathe,
is through two tiny straws that are stuck up in your nostrils,
which stick out of the plaster of Paris.
As it settles, you can feel it constricting your face
and you can feel that you're becoming dependent on these two straws.
And I was like... [screaming]
And they're putting this stuff on and I'm... [screaming]
I'm just, like, going crazy,
and the one guy is standing next to me, holding me.
You know, he said, "It's okay, it's okay."
[sighs] I still find gold in my, you know, various pores.
[McFadden] Even the great Vulcan himself
raised an eyebrow when it came to makeup.
The process, makeup process, did not get easier.
It became more difficult, actually.
Not only the ears, the eyebrows were very complicated too
because I shaved the outer half of my own eyebrows
and Freddy put on hair by hair every day.
You know, 2:00 in the morning, I'm tearing my nose off.
But I've got... [laughs]
I've got marks from that first year or so
when I didn't wanna take the 20 minutes,
so I learned very quickly to...
not quickly enough to avoid damage to my nose.
[McFadden] And if that wasn't enough skin off your nose,
there are even worse things to face.
People who didn't drink water would seize up
in the sense that it would get harder and harder
to keep lines in your head because you would be dehydrated.
I remember we filmed a scene and they said, "Okay, that's perfect.
We're just gonna bump in a little bit closer
and we're gonna do it again," and I said, "What are we doing?"
The said, "The exact same scene. You've got it."
And I said, "Oh, you're gonna have to give me the script."
I had no idea where we were, what we were doing.
And then one of the associate producers, I think it was David Livingston,
stepped in and said, "We gotta get him out of that suit.
We gotta get him out of here. He's unraveling."
So you're locked into this rubber mask.
At one point they say, "What's going on there?
There's something."
And I have had a collection of sweat so bad,
it's pooled and pushed the latex out back here.
So they lance it. [laughs]
And this just wash of warm water goes down my back,
and it's just one of the joys of show business.
[McFadden] These dedicated actors are either suffering for their art
or talking out of their...
Butt.
[McFadden] But in Matt Malloy's case, both are true.
They show me the thing, this foam thing,
that they mount on your head.
I said, "It looks like a baby's ass," and they said,
"Oh, the original had been a dip of a baby's ass."
[baby crying]
[speaking alien language]
I mean, it really did look like a butt, you know, I mean, a talking butt.
And doing scenes, I'm thinking, "How can they take this seriously?"
But yet it was absolutely compelling.
They were very careful about that,
to let me know what it was gonna look like.
It looked good.
By the way, they showed me the derivation of it.
It came from insects and creatures, live creatures,
that they borrowed things from.
I thought that was really smart.
The characters who were alien
really look like they could have occurred in nature.
[McFadden] But if actors had a call of nature while in costume, good luck.
Going to the bathroom was an issue.
Bathroom breaks didn't happen unless we got almost completely undressed.
That was the only way that occurred,
and there were enough of us that it slowed things down every once in a while.
We had to kind of take a good 15, 20 minutes
so everybody could get undone, they could head out,
head back in, get hooked back up again, and go back to work. [laughs]
Well, I had a bathroom buddy.
Bathroom buddy, bathroom buddy, please meet Tosk in the men's room.
And he would be on his knees in front of me
in front of my crotch, unhooking my suit
with me in this lizard mask.
-[zipper unzips] -[McFadden] For some,
all this was understandably just too much.
Wash!
[McFadden] As was the case for one actor.
At one point while he was about to shoot and he stood up,
he took his wig off,
he walked out to the front gate of Paramount,
threw the wig in the garbage can.
He just left.
They found one of the ears in a trash bin outside the stage.
[McFadden] But with acting, you can't walk the walk
until you've talked the talk.
[McFadden] Getting into character on Star Trek isn't always easy.
And if the horrors of the makeup chair or the ill-fitting costumes aren't enough,
wait until you actually have to speak.
I'm at home, just running it, running it, running it, just saying it out loud,
over and over and over again while washing dishes, cooking,
doing something like that,
just so that when we finally get there to shoot it,
that it, as Shakespeare would say, runs trippingly off the tongue.
It was tough and you only have a couple of shots at it
and you've got long speeches and what have you.
You have to give the impression that you're having a good time.
We would receive the episode, the new episode, the night before.
So if you had a 6:00 call, that means you were studying your scenes
maybe into 2:00, 3:00 in the morning.
[McFadden] Well, we all had different techniques.
My words, my words, my words, my lines.
If I didn't really need to read the whole script
and I knew exactly what Reed was doing in his said scenes,
I didn't read 'em.
No, I didn't. I read them. I actually did read them.
And then sometimes you'd show up
and the scene that you were working on that same night
had been rewritten.
[McFadden] And we're not talking your average,
run-of-the-mill dialogue rewrites.
Not everyone is fluent in the language of Star Trek.
Star Trek seemed to consistently call for theater actors,
Shakespearean actors in particular because the language is not comfortable
and had to be kind of highfalutin and stand a little straighter
and all that sort of stuff in order to do it,
and that had to do with having a theater background.
You have some really good actors who are doing things like Star Trek,
if there are any like Star Trek.
Yeah, 'cause we're used to language.
[McFadden] However, unlike the Bard's rich prose,
the words of Trek are sometimes a little less meaningful.
They were just gobbledygook to me.
I want you to install a bypass
between the main phaser array and the secondary generators.
I also want to run the main deflector pathway
through the warp power grid
and the auxiliary conduits through the lateral relays.
In some ways, it's almost like verse
in that there is a lot of, yes, technical...
What? Uh...
Technobabble.
Vent a couple of LN2 exhaust conduits along the dorsal emitters.
I could not get in on the day.
Make it look like we're in serious trouble.
It's the only line that I remember.
"Vent a couple of LN2 exhaust conduits around the dorsal emitters."
[man] Understood.
I've gotta say something about the... [sighs] I don't know.
The cumulus or the whatever the hell.
It's all that static-discharging gas.
I kept screwing up my lines.
May I speak, sir?
I was doing this elevator scene.
I remember I had an opportunity where I could look different.
[McFadden] Well, not that different.
I don't think it was a robe. I think it was a top.
[McFadden] Of course.
[Kirstie Alley] And I was on my way somewhere as a civilian
and I had some idea in my mind, which I have with every script.
I don't know why I've always done this.
Like, I probably need to flirt with Shatner,
you know, with Kirk, a little.
I wanted to wear my hair down because I was waiting for my moment
to be glamorous.
But every time I'd walk out of the elevator,
right before it would open,
Bill would go like, "Line line, line, line line."
Now I'm going to go. I'm like... [gasps]
Deer in headlights.
You're bothered.
And I was ready to cry.
And I kept coming out and I kept blowing the line,
and then he'd go, "All right, now this time you're gonna do it.
Line, line, line, line."
Oh, I wanted to kill him!
It's a test of character.
And then Nick took me aside.
He goes, "If you get it, good. If you don't, you don't."
And of course I got it.
Who's been holding up the damn elevator?
I think it was Garrett Wang that told me.
He said, "Oh, just be glad your character is not in engineering
'cause they get hammered with the technobabble."
Can I help you?
Uh, unless you can reroute the plasma regulator
to silo off the relay junction, then, uh, no.
And then the very next script that came out,
I'm asking Chakotay for an assignment in engineering.
I was like, "Oh, God, here we go!"
It was one of the banes of my existence,
was writing some of the technology and the tech talk of the show.
A tetryon beam is approaching, Captain.
We'll have to infuse it with a class-four, uh, whatever, you know.
There were just too many arguments in the writers room,
yelling at each other about what warp drive could and could not do.
[McFadden] But if you thought...
It's based on an FTL nanoprocessor with 25 bilateral kelilactirals,
with twenty of those being slaved into the primary heisenfram terminal.
Now, you do know what a bilateral kelilactiral is?
[McFadden] ...would be hard to memorize.
And of course you have to learn Klingon and so...
[imitating Klingon]
[speaking Klingon]
It's written out and then they have
the phonetic pronunciations underneath it as well.
So fortunately, that grad school phonetics class came in handy quite a bit.
[speaking Klingon]
It was incredible. They made up this entire language that worked.
I had one word and it seemed to be very important and it was...
[speaks Klingon]
Which I think means "Let's get the hell out of here"
or something like that.
Somebody sent me a hardbound edition of Hamlet
that had been translated into Klingon, which was astonishing.
You know, just the idea of translating Hamlet into French makes my head explode.
So it's one of my prized possessions. It's just...
It's really, really something.
I had to sing a song in Klingon, Klingonese.
[singing in Klingon]
I cannot remember it, so don't ask me.
[singing in Klingon]
-[man] Awesome. -[laughs]
[man] In English?
"Let's go kick some ass." [laughs]
[McFadden] No matter the alien race, from Andorian to Xindi,
all Star Trek actors must master the script,
whatever the language.
You gotta know every line verbatim.
They don't want you to change an "and" or an "or" or a...
Dabo?
You gotta know it cold.
-You're in pain, Seven. -[sighs]
I can help you.
[McFadden] But surely there was a little improvisation?
No, no, no, no. You can't improvise with the text.
Yeah, you don't. You don't, uh, paraphrase on Star Trek. [laughs]
I ad-libbed.
No, I'm kidding. -[man] Yeah.
Say the wrong thing, Torg!
[groans]
[McFadden] It seemed that the real overlords
of the Star Trek universe weren't the Klingons...
[speaking Klingon]
[McFadden] ...the Borg, or Q.
Moi?
[McFadden] Well, is he really a baddie?
Did you ever watch the show?
At our first meeting, you seized my vessel.
You condemned all humans as savages.
[McFadden] Good point.
It's the writers.
Basically, it's "This is how it's written, this is what we want, deliver it."
Star Trek is the only show I have ever worked on where
if you used a synonym for a word,
they would cut, the script guy would come over
and say, "You said 'cat' and the line is 'kitty.'"
[McFadden] Some actors had absolutely no issue with the writers whatsoever.
Probably the most vivid thing I remember about the whole thing
is that the first day I was on the set for a half-hour
and I was in bed with Deanna Troi.
I rather like that I'm more difficult to read than your other men.
I don't know who put that together. [chuckles]
But it worked for me.
[McFadden] Some things worked well again and again,
and that wasn't lost on the crew who'd spent years sitting uncomfortably...
In dark corners, you know, on hard, wooden apple boxes.
[McFadden] And be it the set of Enterprise, Voyager,
or the original series,
it's the crew who most noticed the writers repeat themselves.
He says, "Yeah, every character gets killed and then they bring them back."
He's brain dead.
Commander.
I said, "Really? I didn't know that. What else can you tell me?"
"Well, I'm sure you're gonna do an episode where your age a lot
and then they bring you back."
[The Doctor] Commander Chakotay is suffering bone decalcification,
tissue necrosis, decreased visual acuity, all classic signs of aging.
"And there'll probably be an episode where you fall in love with an alien."
[McFadden] Despite the...
Apple boxes.
[McFadden] ...the crew were also quite comfortable
in letting an actor know
when the writers had put the writing on the wall.
"So sorry to hear about what's happening to your character."
I said, "Why, what's happening to my character?"
And he said, "Oh, uh, maybe I better not tell you."
And I went in to Ron, I said, "Ron, do I die?"
Yes.
And he says, "Oh, I just didn't have the heart to tell you.
Who told you that?"
"It doesn't matter, doesn't matter."
[McFadden] And if your character does die,
think twice about taking a memento home
because as they say, you can't take it with you.
You cannot take anything off the set.
You would be in major trouble.
Any of their brand, any of the Star Trek brand,
they protected.
They had a checklist. They came back for your wardrobe.
[McFadden] Well, a few things slipped through.
There they are. Look at those. Look at those dusty old pair of boots.
[McFadden] With props and costumes
going for thousands on the collector market...
I did keep one other thing, but I sold it.
I had a friend that got a good hunk of the console years ago,
and I think he got about 40 grand for it.
[McFadden] ...the producers had to crack down on the bit parts:
taking bits.
When I was doing these things,
I never thought of asking to take anything.
[McFadden] Well, Mark Rolston did.
So I asked and got the most resounding, like,
"Don't you dare."
[McFadden] Richard Herd dared.
Very difficult learning how to chat away with the Klingon teeth,
which I saved, and sometimes I chased
my wife Patricia around the bedroom with my Klingon teeth. [laughs]
[McFadden] And Scott MacDonald dared.
This is a prop
from the set of Enterprise.
When I played Commander Dolim,
there was a scene where the Xindi reptiles were eating mice
as they discussed their plans to take over the universe.
And the pièce de résistance...
This is an unbelievable thing to have.
I don't know that very many actors have these.
[McFadden] But while some requests were thoroughly denied...
"Don't you dare."
[McFadden] The biggest props go to showrunner Brannon Braga,
who was dating...
-A Borg babe. -[McFadden] That'd be this Borg babe.
[sighs] I'm bored. Let's do something fun.
[McFadden] And thusly, Jeri Ryan had her dreams of taking part of the set home...
-Sweet dreams. -[McFadden] ...fulfilled.
Yeah, I have my alcove.
I figured, you know, four years of that makeup and that costume,
the least I can do is get my alcove to bring home.
[man] Was it hard to get it?
Uh...
-How hard was it to get the alcove? -[man] Yeah.
Uh, to my recollection, not at all.
I was, you know, dating Brannon Braga, so he had a little extra pull, probably.
[McFadden] He'd need all the pull he could get.
It was hard to deliver 'cause it's such a huge thing.
[horn honks]
[McFadden] Be it hours in the makeup chair,
finding ways to nick props from the set,
or lifting heavy set pieces into your girlfriend's apartment,
only a few actors have attained the one role that steals the show.
[McFadden] On any Star Trek show, it's important to know who's at the helm.
Take us in.
We had fine directors and we had directors,
really, really well-known directors in television,
seeking to do Star Trek.
And you know, all actors, here's what they wanna know about the director.
"Is he crazy?
How crazy?
Am I going to live?"
[McFadden] Armin Shimerman, appearing as one of the first ever Ferengi...
If he moves, kill him.
[McFadden] Sounds like he had a crazy one.
The director, uh, was giving us all sorts of bizarre directions.
[all grunting]
I got this one!
And in fact, my first four years as Quark
was to try and eradicate the mistakes I made as Letek.
Because I'm a people person.
[McFadden] But perhaps trying to avoid having a crazy director,
many of the actors themselves stepped behind the lens.
And the tradition of Star Trek actors becoming directors
extends all the way back to the great Spock himself.
People would often say to me, "You should be directing."
[chuckles] The fact is, I was... I was insulted.
I thought, "Are these people telling me there's something wrong with my acting?"
[laughs]
[McFadden] But it wasn't a bad idea
because as of the end of Star Trek II , Spock was dead
and Leonard Nimoy was resurrected as a feature film director.
In all, 15 cast members directed
over the hundred episodes and films.
So I threw my hat in the ring.
Obviously I had done a bunch of episodes.
By then, I was really into it. I was really psyched.
They took a chance. I thought, "Here we go."
And then that movie was a huge success
and made a lot of money and everybody liked it.
I loved him
when he was my first officer on the Enterprise.
Take us out of orbit, Ensign Crusher.
I love him when he directs me on Star Trek and on Leverage.
I love him when I call him because I need advice.
[McFadden] But not all actors make great directors at first.
My first day of shooting was a disaster.
We had this huge set and the first set-up,
I think it was, like, took about eight hours.
So the first day, I immediately fell a day behind.
[all grunting]
[Andrew Robinson] And Berman and Ira hated the episode.
You've never been right about anything.
Then they took me in the office and they made me go frame by frame by frame
because I was contracted to direct two more.
And Berman said, "If you weren't under contract,
I just wouldn't let you direct anymore," essentially. [laughs]
Now step aside, Toran, and allow me to finish this sorry business.
[McFadden] It seemed like everybody had the chance to direct.
[Robinson] Well, Avery directed.
"Hmm, I don't know if I can see him
directing this kind of stuff."
I don't care if the odds are against us.
Well, I was completely wrong. He was a wonderful director.
Such a great actor's director.
All the males were allowed to direct, whoever wanted to.
[McFadden] But as for me...
Did I have to campaign hard to direct an episode?
What do you think? Yeah.
It took until my seventh year to get it
and they gave me this kind of scary, spooky episode,
which was very un- Star Trek in a way.
I was so grateful that I got that script. I really was.
I had so much fun with it.
[McFadden] As one of the first women to direct Star Trek,
I hope that I had some small role in opening the door to other women directors.
And now Hanelle Culpepper is leading the way
with the Star Trek: Picard series,
becoming the first female director to launch a new Star Trek series.
But back in front of the camera,
it wasn't until year 2371
that a woman was finally put in charge.
Voyager had a female captain.
What can I do for you?
[McFadden] And with Kate Mulgrew commanding the ship,
Voyager was on course for seven more years of Star Trek.
But audiences were hardly bowled over in the beginning.
The ratings kept going lower and lower, and I think if you talk to the fans,
they would blame it on the writing.
[McFadden] So those writers wrote in a new character.
People saying it's a blatant attempt to up the ratings,
well, yeah, that's why they added the new character.
The ratings were lagging. The show was tanking.
[McFadden] And as they say, all publicity is good publicity.
We took a lot of criticism that we were, you know, cheapening the show
and we're turning into Baywatch in space.
Like, we got a lot of crap from the Deep Space Nine writers,
who thought we were kind of selling out
and bringing a bimbo onto the ship and all,
which frankly, kind of sexist.
And I see the way your pupils dilate when you look at my body.
Some of the members of cast thought that all the publicity
that this new character was going to be getting was sort of due them.
It was a mild shock.
[Vaughn Armstrong] There was a little conflict there, you know,
and usually when the cameras go off, there's some banter,
either work-wise or, uh, just to make things comfortable.
And I look to one of them in between the scenes
and she's staring at the board up here.
I looked over here and she's staring up at the board too.
I thought, "Well, I probably shouldn't interrupt them.
They must be, you know, just staying in a frame of mind that they need to."
Come to find out they could not stand each other.
You came here hoping to stop me. You will fail.
Turn this ship around. That's an order.
Your orders are irrelevant. I'm no longer under your command.
[McFadden] Jeri Ryan's character, Seven of Nine,
proved to be a fan favorite,
and ratings did begin to climb after her arrival.
Take off your clothes.
Uh...
[McFadden] However...
Coming into an existing show midway through is never easy.
It's never gonna be easy.
And when the attention shifts because there's somebody new
and the publicity machine is going crazy and they're making this huge push,
that's not gonna be easy.
It's just not.
But it was a very difficult four years. It was very tense.
It was not...
I don't, unfortunately, I don't look back...
As many laughs as I had
and as much as I adored working with all of them, I don't...
I can't look back on that four-year period with this wonderful, glowing memory
because it was so difficult.
It was so tense and difficult, so that's unfortunate.
I'm sorry that I can't look back on it with better memories.
Set a course.
[McFadden] When Voyager 's last episode...
For home.
[McFadden] ...screened May 23rd, 2001,
the fifth successful series of the Star Trek franchise was over.
But fans didn't have to wait long at all.
[announcer] Enterprise.
[McFadden] Because the promos were already rolling out for the next one.
Star Trek: Enterprise was to be the sixth series in the franchise.
However...
They kind of flooded the market with the three different series
at the same time.
[announcer 1] Star Trek: Voyager.
[announcer 2] Deep Space Nine.
You know, every time they turn on the television, there it was.
-Are you sure? -[Hawkins] Damn sure.
I remember taking the phone call about the show ending
and we were gonna have the big class photo outside the gates of Paramount.
And I'm standing with Brannon Braga, the chief guy.
And I saw Brannon turn around and he looked at this... [laughs]
...this hairy looking thing called the Tellarite,
standing there with the sun glancing off his nose.
And we all just looked at it.
He just went, "Yeah, it's time."
[laughs]
[man] That's funny.
Ah...
[man] That's good. -Ah.
[McFadden] And with that, for the first time in 18 years,
there would be no new Star Trek episodes.
So it's like, "Okay, let's take a break."
And now, ten years, ten years later...
[McFadden] It all started again.
And actors once again began looking for work.
When I heard they were doing a new Star Trek
and Star Trek: Discovery , I just begged my agent.
I just said, "I would love to meet the producers.
I'd love to see if there's anything that I might be right for."
I say bring it on.
And they said, "How about Harry Mudd?
It's a couple of episodes, might recur more."
And I was like, "Yes!"
It was one of those great actor moments of like, "Oh, this is delicious!"
And I will have my revenge.
Also, I'm gonna kill you as many times as possible.
[McFadden] However, Rainn Wilson was in an unusual position,
along with some other new Star Trek actors,
in that he was playing a role that already had a long history with the series.
I don't believe it.
I went back and watched the original Mudd episodes
and saw what he was doing.
You should refer to me as Mudd the First.
It was very similar to playing Dwight on The Office,
where I was inheriting a role from a previous actor.
So that's a great place to be in 'cause you get to steal what they do really well
and then you get to add your own mojo.
[McFadden] In recent years, mojo is flying everywhere.
J.J. Abrams' three Star Trek films made big bucks at the box office
by recasting characters from the original series.
It's not easy for all those actors to step into those roles. Not easy.
Treacherous. It's a treacherous step.
Very flattering to me that the character is strong enough
to be carried on by somebody else successfully.
I think it's great, and he's a very good actor,
very intelligent actor, so I'm very happy about it.
Oh, I think she's marvelous.
She told me, "I was so nervous when I got this role."
And I said, "Why? You're so good."
And she said, "I thought you would hate me."
And I said, "I do, you're just too damn good."
You know, so... [laughs]
[McFadden] We even saw a reprise of Star Trek 's greatest villain.
Khan!
[McFadden] As we know, originally played by...
Ricardo Montalban.
[laughs]
[McFadden] ...both in the '60s and '80s, but in 2013's Into Darkness...
You exploit my savagery.
[McFadden] ...Benedict Cumberbatch took on the role.
Shall we begin?
[McFadden] And even though his pecs were nowhere to be seen,
his acting muscles were on full display.
My name is Khan.
Here's the English accent. They told me I can't have one.
Look at him!
[McFadden] Well, whether you like it or not,
there is a place where every Star Trek actor can go
and be praised for their part in a TV show like no other.
For an actor, Star Trek is the gift that keeps on giving.
After you've done your Star Trek episodes, you can do conventions.
[McFadden] And as unique as they are, Star Trek conventions are not a new thing.
We did a convention almost immediately that the show was over.
[McFadden] And they are still here in some kind of...
Well...
What's the word I'm looking for?
I mean, it just generates again and again and again.
The best fans in the whole world...
...are Star Trek fans.
[McFadden] And Star Trek fans live for Star Trek.
You suddenly realize
how much they give a damn.
[McFadden] But in some cases, Star Trek actors live
because of Star Trek fans and the conventions.
It's still a huge part of my life,
and a big part of that is the fandom
and going all over the world doing conventions.
That's a whole new world that's opened up for me, uh,
signing Harry Mudd photos now.
-[camera shutter clicks] -Ugh.
I have signed so much in this world.
I mean, you know, and the fact that anybody wants
another of my signatures, I just can't believe it.
[camera shutter clicking]
Nobody really recognizes me unless I do this. [laughs]
[camera shutter clicking]
My situation is always people come up to the table
and they look at the pictures and then they look at me
and then they look at the pictures and then they look at me.
So I sit there kind of dealing in that sort of uncomfortable stew.
Actor ego stuff, I guess. I don't know.
[McFadden] Aw. Cheer up, guys.
It was depressing at first.
But they really want to meet you.
And it's...
for some of them, the high point of their life.
It's not difficult to make somebody's day when you're in this position.
It's really nice and it's nice to be able to make somebody smile.
[McFadden] Not everyone's approach is so altruistic.
I mean, the minute you walk in that hotel, you're Brad Pitt, mate,
and they all want a piece of you.
If you're not careful, you can wind up thinking you're Jesus Christ.
[chorus sings]
It was maybe too enjoyable.
I'm going to have to remind myself every day...
...that we didn't come out here to play God.
God, I remember my first convention.
Pushed open the bathroom door and there's two Klingons standing there.
[laughs]
And when they saw Malcolm Reed walking in, they were like... [imitates Klingon]
And I'm like, "All right, lads."
So I nip around the corner for a pee.
I can hear them whispering.
Presumably about me.
Well, that's obvious, sir.
Because it was in Klingon.
[laughs]
[imitates Klingon]
Well, as far as the perks of the show, um,
some of them I won't go into because I'm married now.
No, I'm not talking about groupies. Um...
[man] They exist?
Sort of. I mean, yeah, I won't say they don't exist.
Well, you know, when I was single, um...
Yes, you could find, uh...
You could have a nice, charming evening.
I can see the attraction.
Some women find those necks sexy.
-[laughs] -[man] That's awesome.
[McFadden] For all that Star Trek brought us,
the laughs, the tears, the pointy ears,
there's one thing that all of us lucky enough to have been part of it
are the most proud of.
I was pleased with the fact that we were dealing with issues
that had a socio-political reference and relevance.
[Nichelle Nichols] Gene set it all up, he did it,
and this is what we're going to do.
And you've got the script and you read the script and you go...
We'll start to live the way the Führer meant us to live.
"Is he kidding? They'll never let him get away with it."
[Michael Dorn] There was an episode where the guy
was black on one side and white on the other.
I mean, I mean, you'd have to be an idiot not to get that.
[D.C. Fontana] We were one of the few shows that could approach
the question of the Vietnam War 'cause nobody else could.
There's nothing good in war except its ending.
We could call it something else and still have it be about the war.
And nobody ever said a word to us.
Spock.
[Rick Worthy] There was so much happening racially and politically in the world.
And then you turn on your TV and then there's this white fellow
and this lovely Black woman and they have a kiss.
[McFadden] But not just any kiss.
This was the very first interracial kiss on television, so it was a big deal.
It wasn't a big deal to me.
[laughs]
Jesus!
Let's get on with it.
-[man] Did Shatner wanna do it? -Oh, yeah. Are you kidding?
[cheers and applause]
Genius.
That's why, for me, Star Trek has endured for 55 years
because everybody got the message that we are the same.
It doesn't matter whether we're Black, white, Hispanic, green, blue,
half-Black, half-white, we're all the same.
[Brannon Braga] Gene's vision, he was very clear.
The humans of the 24th century didn't have war, disease,
poverty, hunger.
Gone.
Religion too for that matter.
A secular, enlightened society.
For us in this country, it's sort of the idealization of American values
and, you know, how we see ourselves.
People of color and how people all over the world
can see themselves in the future
with important parts and important jobs in life,
and everybody's represented.
It's not just a fun TV show and it's not just a good TV show,
it's just...
It's special.
Gene Roddenberry was just amazing.
And I never forgave him for dying.
It was like someone you depend on
to keep bringing the beauty of the world to be.
Mm.
Well, I really think that's, in large part,
what the success of Star Trek as a franchise is.
Saving the galaxy.
It's because it's an optimistic view of the future,
and I think that's what people want to grab onto.
I think that we need that.
As long as we as a species have something to learn, Star Trek will be relevant.
To have created in this culture something that is as iconic
as the show, that lasts as long as the show,
that involves as many people as it has,
is quite extraordinary.
So it's a testament to the adventure that Roddenberry wanted to create.
Star Trek reflects in its various characters
different portions of the human condition.
[McFadden] And it's the actors who brought those characters to life
that we need to thank most of all.
You are sort of part of a legacy,
and there are legions of people that have been on the road
and the journey before you.
Most people are pretty proud to be in Star Trek.
You know, of any other show in the world that you could have gotten on,
a pretty cool one to have gotten on.
It was awesome, you know, to be a part of something that is iconic.
I was a Star Trek fan who was in a Star Trek series as a series regular.
I had won the lottery.
[Robinson] Being a part Star Trek , I'm not exaggerating here,
it really did change my life.
It opened up.
I thought what was going to be one episode
ended up being literally a life,
certainly a career-changing experience.
[McFadden] I've been so fortunate.
The whole energy of the show, the cast, the fans,
actually, I should be so lucky.
That's kind of trite and sentimental, but whatever.
[man] No, it's good. No, it's the way you feel.
And I love everybody. And you know, I love Dr. Crusher.
My experience on Star Trek is it would be hugely ungrateful of me
to have any kind of negative thoughts about it at all.
It's been a great blessing.
I mean, I got a picture of me with a ray gun, for God's sake, you know.
[Keating] Those years changed my life.
They continue to, you know, define my life in many ways.
Seven of Nine was a gift as an actor. She really was.
In every way, this character was.
This gave me a career.
And you couldn't...
I couldn't have asked for a richer role to play.
Star Trek is the most important thing I've done in my career.
The best, best part of having been part of the Star Trek experience
are the people I've gotten to know.
It was a gift to be able to be with those people all those hours every day.
We laughed all the time.
We're still, to a person, really close friends
all these years later.
They're family.
And that was really the greatest gift of all.
I'm really proud that I got to participate
because, you know, you don't get to say that with a lot of stuff.
This is one thing that, you know,
I always am lit when I think...
No, that didn't sound right. Hmm...
I always light up. [laughs]
[McFadden] To be an actor in the Star Trek legacy is an honor,
and as one of the 8,000-and-counting actors
who've become part of sci-fi lore,
there's one truth that can't be ignored.
[Armin Shimerman] I wonder sometimes whether playing Quark
was a detraction from my career.
Because Star Trek , although very popular around the world,
it's not very popular in Hollywood,
that it is a lesser franchise in most producers',
studio heads' minds.
The list of actors or actresses who have won awards
like Emmys or Oscars from working in a science-fiction project
is a very short list, very short list.
It is simply not recognized by members of the Academy
as a level of work that calls for honors,
calls for being honored that way.
Technical honors, yes,
wonderful special effects, wonderful sets, wonderful music,
and so forth, but not for the actors.
Actors who work in science fiction,
particularly then in those years,
are seen to be working in a kind of a subgenre,
that it's something less than wonderful,
something less than qualifies for honors,
and that's why actors avoided it.
I found a level of comfort doing it.
[McFadden] The great Leonard Nimoy passed away in 2015.
I shall simply say... good luck.
[McFadden] Having won neither an Emmy nor an Oscar.
And joining a list of acting legends who will live forever on our TVs,
whenever we need them,
knowing they were part of the most wonderful, celebrated,
long-running, and important TV shows ever made.
You see, I'm an actor.
[McFadden] But for those of us who love Star Trek,
in whichever series or timeline, we owe Star Trek's original actor,
and all those who came after him,
a lot.
What I wanted to do was make a living as an actor,
and I probably would have been happy in a stock company somewhere in Kansas,
doing plays week after week, playing different characters.
Instead, I was given a role that took me on a wonderful, wonderful journey.
[McFadden] From Roddenberry's vision to the writers who gave it life,
to the wizards who brought this utopian world onto our TV sets...
The reruns now plays every day, and in a way I have reached immortality
for at least another 50 years, maybe.
[McFadden] ...to the original actors who showed up on set and made history.
And we really never knew what was going to be in the future,
whether we had a future,
but this has been such a momentous circumstance in my life.
It was really, uh, profoundly wonderful.
I'm Star Trek and Star Trek is me.
Couldn't ask for more.
[man] I imagine you wouldn't trade your career for any other.
No, thank you. No, thank you.
I'm a very, very lucky guy.
[theme music playing]