SciFiAndTvTalk

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Lisa Ryder (Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda)

Captain Beka Valentine (Lisa Ryder) in Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda.

Once again, I  have decided to open up the interview vault and revisit some of the many interviews I have had the pleasure of writing over the years and that just appeared in-print and not on-line. Today's interview is with Lisa Ryder, who talks about helping save the universe as Captain Beka Valentine in Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda. Enjoy, and keep coming back for more familiar faces and shows!

Whoever coined the phrase “blondes have more fun” must have been thinking of Lisa Ryder. It’s been over three years since the actress began her stint as Captain Beka Valentine on the hit syndicated Sci-Fi series Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda and she’s still having the time of her life. On this August morning, Ryder has just come out of hair and make-up and has dashed back to her trailer to get into her “Beka gear.” She can hardly wait to return to the set, though, to sit down and chat about the fourth-season story that she and the rest of the show’s cast and crew have just started filming, Spider’s Stratagem.

“I’m finding this episode really interesting. Let’s just say that something comes over Beka and she definitely makes a decision for the worse,” laughs the actress. “We’ve spent the past three seasons asking, ‘Is Beka on Dylan’s [Kevin Sorbo] side or not?’ And she’s had to work hard to prove her loyalty. Well, in this episode she decides, ‘Screw it! I’m not on your side. What do you think of that? In fact, I’m just plain evil.’ I think that’s quite an ‘out there’ choice for Beka. Also, when you make a choice to be evil and adopt that screw-it mentality it gives you a whole new perspective on things and, dare I say, a slightly more twisted sense of humour.”

In Andromeda’s year three cliffhanger Shadow Cast by a Final Salute, Tyr (Keith Hamilton Cobb) betrays Dylan and the rest of the Andromeda crew in an effort to advance the Nietzschean cause. His treachery opens the door for a host of other alien races to move in and contribute towards the unraveling of the newly reformed Commonwealth. At the end the story, Tyr leaves the Andromeda to assume his place as the new leader of the Drago-Kazov pride. Fifteen minutes have elapsed when we next see our heroes in the show’s fourth season opener Answers Given To Questions Never Asked. The episode reunited Ryder with an old acquaintance.

“Our guest-star was Nigel Bennett, whom I’d worked with on Forever Knight,” she says. “Actually, we were both on the series but never had scenes with one another. It’s funny, when we were filming that Andromeda episode I had a feeling of déjà vu and thought, ‘Lucien LaCroix and Tracy Vetter are finally getting together.’ I’m sure it will please those Forever Knight fans who may have always wondered if my character and Nigel’s ever did meet up. In fact, I ad-libbed a line that loosely makes reference to that at the end of the scene. I hope they keep it in. It was a treat for me to see Nigel again and finally work with him.

“The episode we shot right after that [Double or Nothingness] was a lot of fun for me to work on as well. Beka gets ‘high,’ not on [the drug] Flash but on an hallucinogen that Rommie [Lexa Doig] accidentally releases into the air supply. It makes my character paranoid as well as a little hostile and it’s not long before she starts hallucinating on the bridge. I laughed a great deal while we were doing that one. Of course, there’s also the episode where Beka hog-ties an 18-year-old young man. That was hilarious and very much ‘old school’ Beka. I think her line afterwards was something like, ‘Two minutes – I used to be able to do that in 30 seconds.’ It was as if the spirit of Ethlie Ann Vare [former series co-producer and executive story editor] suddenly invaded my dialogue. Although there hasn’t really been any Beka-centric stories so far this year there has been something special for her to do in almost every episode, and I’ve enjoyed that.”

It’s no secret that Vare was a stanch supporter of Beka. Many of her first and second season scripts, including The Ties That Bind, The Pearls That Were His Eyes and Be All My Sins Remembers, contributed greatly to the development of Ryder’s character. After three seasons, the actress is more comfortable than ever walking in Beka’s boots. In Andromeda’s fourth year, she hopes to re-examine those areas of Beka’s life that are familiar to her and audiences as well as explore new facets of her personality and background.

“You’d think, for example, that my character’s problem with authority figures would be sorted out by now, but it’s not,” notes Ryder. “That’s revisited this year due to the nature of the Commonwealth changing. Back in season one there was no Commonwealth and we were re-building it together. We had a common cause and Beka got on Dylan’s side because of that. Now it all seems to be falling apart and with it the reason she’s with Dylan. There’s a civil war being fought within the Commonwealth and the Triumvirs, who are the ruling body of the Tarazed Congress, come in and sort of take the reins.”

“So our allegiances are being questioned. Tyr’s leaving has to be dealt with as well and our loyalties to him are stirred up. On top of all this, the writers seem to be placing a huge emphasis on The Abyss. We’ve met him before. He’s the creature with the glowing red eyes. Most of the evil in the universe originates from The Abyss and this is how they’ve personified that threat. The Abyss is more or less infecting the Commonwealth with its evil and Beka is, I guess, tempted by it. Specifically in what ways, I don’t know - yet. How do you like that for a teaser,” chuckles the actress.

With all the anarchy going on around him Dylan can use all the help he can get when dealing with the Triumvirs and trying to restore some semblance of order to the galaxy. To that end, Steve Bacic’s character of Telemachus Rhade, the commander of Tarazed’s Home Guard, joins Andromeda as a semi-regular. Ironically, Telemachus is a direct descendent of Gaheris Rhade (also played by Bacic), Dylan’s former first officer and the one who betrayed him back in the show’s pilot episode. Having him onboard grates on Beka’s nerves to say the least.

“Telemachus is an academy guy and a decorated officer,” explains Ryder. “He shows up on our ship in a very exciting episode and Beka doesn’t trust him. Dylan, on the other hand, welcomes him with open arms. Telemachus is one of the Tarazeds [ancestors of Andromeda’s original crew] and he and his people pretty much worship Dylan. I think Beka still harbours a lot of problematic feelings towards Nietzscheans and, in particular, Tyr. Even so, she doesn’t want Tyr to be replaced so easily by Telemachus. Beka also doesn’t want to take a back seat to this new guy, who actually outranks Dylan on Terrazed. So there’s some conflict between the two of them. To further complicate things, Beka had a romance with Gaheris in an alternate reality story [An Unconquerable Man]. This doesn’t exist with Telemachus but that’s not to say there still isn’t some sexual tension.

“We recently did an episode where we find out some information about Beka’s mother and Telemachus is there to witness that. She ends up taking him into her confidence but hasn’t done that with anyone else onboard. In doing so, Beka has in a way made herself vulnerable to him. Again, I think her outlook has been colored by her relationship with Tyr so she’s giving Telemachus a really hard time. He brings out the worst in her but conversely it creates a wonderful chemistry as well.

"I love when a new element is introduced to the show. Sometimes as an actor you can get somewhat complacent playing the same role. So it’s neat every now and then to ask yourself, ‘Why did I do that?’ in a scene. Steve Bacic challenges me to do that. He’s been in so many of our episodes and has become like an old friend. Steve is quite a gregarious person so it’s easy to get to know him. He’s still figuring out how he wants to play his character and along the way he’s getting us to think more about our performances.”

Just as Beka is trying to get used to having Telemachus around, Tyr returns briefly in a two-part story Soon The Nearing Vortex and The World Turns All Around Her. Needless to say, Beka would rather he had stayed away. “As we all know Beka is secretly attracted to Tyr,” says Ryder. “For a while she was torn as to whether or not she should side with him or do what’s honorable and stand by Dylan. Here, Beka’s loyalties are yet again tested and the situation gets a little bit steamy.

“It was lovely to have Keith back. I didn’t realize how much I missed him. He’s such a good actor, especially when you’re doing a scene with actual conflict and stakes as opposed to just space doubletalk. Keith is really into that. After all, you can only do a fight so many different ways. I honestly feel that audiences are more interested in tuning into a TV show every week to see what’s going on with the relationships. As an actor that’s much more satisfying to play.”

Although she was a seasoned actress prior to becoming involved in Andromeda, Ryder has still learnt one or two new things about her craft while playing Beka. “Having come from the theatre, my instinct has always been not to be ‘too big’ when performing for the camera,” she says. “However, if you’re really connected emotionally to the scene then there’s no such thing as too big. I mean, being addicted to Flash was over-the-top acting but I felt a connection, so when I watched those scenes I thought they actually worked. If I can have a few more moments like that this season it’ll suit me just fine.”

Steve Eramo

Catching Up With Travelers' Patrick Gilmore

Actor Patrick Gilmore. Photo courtesy/copyright of Karolina Turek.

If you are a Sci-Fi and Fantasy TV fan, then you are likely to recognize Patrick Gilmore. Over the past 15 years, the handsome and congenial feature film, stage and TV actor has journeyed more than once down the genre path, having worked on the small screen in such hit series as The Dead Zone, Eureka, Stargate SG-1, Supernatural, Stargate Atlantis, Smallville, Battlestar Galactica, Fringe, Continuum and SGU Stargate Universe, playing Dr. Dale Volker, one of a group of human scientists, military officers and civilians marooned several billion light years from Earth onboard the alien spaceship Destiny. Currently, he can be seen as David Mailer in Travelers, a contemporary Sci-Fi drama that has a connection to not one but three of the actor’s previous gigs.

“Brad Wright, who was one of the executive producers and co-creators of Stargate Universe along with the previous two Stargate TV series, created as well as executive produced Travelers, and in doing so, wrote the David Mailer role with me in mind,” says Gilmore. “I still had to audition, though, and prove I could do it. So they put the word out to my agent, and I booked an audition. When I received the first Travelers script and began reading it, I could hear my voice in David’s lines, if you know what I mean. Because Brad wrote the role for me, it felt especially comfortable speaking those words. So it was humbling and exciting to get out there and start playing such a role. I owe Brad a huge debt of gratitude for everything.”

Having premiered in October on Canada’s Showcase Network and just recently (December 23rd 2016) for the rest of the world on Netflix, Travelers involves a group of time travelers that journey from Earth’s distant future back to the 21st century. However, instead of arriving in their respective corporeal forms, they transfer only their consciousnesses into the minds of five humans seconds before they are about to die – Marcy (Mackenzie Porter), a young intellectually disabled woman; Trevor (Jared Abrahamson), a high school quarterback; Carly (Nesta Cooper), a young single mother trapped in an abusive relationship; and Phillip (Reilly Dolman), a drug-addicted college student.

They are soon joined by their leader, whose consciousness takes over the body of FBI Special Agent Grant Maclaren (Eric McCormack). Their objective is to alter specific past events in order to protect humankind from future extinction. David Mailer also becomes involved in the traveler’s mission, but in a somewhat more indirect capacity. Stepping into his character’s shoes for the first time was quite a memorable as well as challenging experience for Gilmore.

“Mackenzie Porter and I had the pleasure of not only being involved in the first day of shooting on Travelers, but our two characters were the focus of the very first scene that was filmed,” recalls the actor. “That’s something I had never experienced before, insofar as being part of the first step into a brand new world, and it was a bit daunting. We were all pros, but this show didn’t exist before. It was different with Stargate Universe in that there were multiple seasons of SG-1 as well as Atlantis to refer back to. With Travelers, though, we were embarking on something that was totally unknown. We shot that first scene on a bus, and I remember saying to our director Nick Hurran, that he should probably say a little speech because it was a pretty thrilling moment. We were all about to start telling a brand new story, not knowing where it would take us. Everyone was getting to know each other and eager to learn and create something.

“That excitement is what sticks out most for me about my first day of work on the show. It was challenging, too, because, like the rest of the cast, I was laying the foundation for an entire season with regard to my character.  I had to make sure that all my [acting] choices were carefully thought out, because they would recur and reflect who this character of David Mailer would be for at least an entire season. Hopefully we’ll be lucky and it will last longer. You don’t know, though, starting out, so it was a delicate balancing act for me to decide just who I wanted David to be. It was much different with Stargate Universe, because initially I only had a couple of lines, and In fact, my character was supposed to be killed off. However, five episodes in, they [the show’s producers/writers] decided to keep him around. So I didn’t have to be too concerned about who Dale Volker was going to be. He just evolved naturally, whereas on Travelers, I wanted David to show potential and be interesting right from the start.”

Compared to the other five aforementioned regular Travelers characters, David Mailer is very much the “odd man out,” in that a future consciousness has not taken up residence in his body. As such, his involvement in the story is unlike that of the others, and his perception of the events unfolding around him serves a unique purpose to those watching. “My character is a social worker who works with a mentally challenged young woman named Marcy,” explains Gilmore. “She works at a library, and David is, among other things, teaching her how to read as well as speak without a stutter. Marcy is very sweet and the two of them have developed a lovely little friendship. Then one day, according to David, not only can Marcy speak without a stutter as well as read without help, but she has also acquired this wide range of medical knowledge. This totally jars David’s world.

“So that’s how the show begins, and my character’s story arc is very much entwined with Marcy’s,” continues the actor. “Through her, David gets to know some of the other Travelers, but he’s kind of kept in the dark as to what they are actually doing. Certain peoples’ lives have been taken over by ‘foreigners’ from the future, if you will, and David is a reflection of how that affects the lives of the 21st century native, positively as well as negatively.

“I’ve had the chance to talk about Travelers for a little bit, and the more I do, the more I understand its themes and overall intent. To me, the show is about second chances. Rarely do we get a second chance, and here is a story about people from the future travelling back to the present to give humanity a second chance. As a social worker, David Mailer is a perfect microcosm of that. His job is to help people get on the right track and assist them in getting a second chance. He gets thrown into the mix with the time travelers, with his role being in a way like that of the audience, because he doesn’t quite understand what’s happening or how it’s happening.

“Like the audience, David is experiencing these time travelers along with their lives and reacting to everything in an honest fashion. This show is very much rooted in reality; that’s the beauty of it, which I thought was also true of Stargate Universe. It’s not over the top, but, instead very gritty, really grounded and quite moving.  My brother, who passively watches some of what I do, got hooked on Travelers, and he’s a tough audience. After watching an episode, he’ll send me a text that reads, ‘Oh, my God, this is so intense!’ A lot of that has to do with the gifted group of actors on the show, including Eric McCormack, who’s steering the ship. He’s not only a master of timing, but an incredibly talented, subtle and available actor. Eric is able to infuse material that is, again, dark, gritty and well-written, with humor, while not going over the top. That can be tough at times, because it’s fun to make viewers laugh, but you can’t forget the intensity of the situation, to use my brother’s words.”

Along with Travelers, Gilmore also has a recurring role on You Me Her, which airs on Direct TV’s Audience Network and has been renewed for a second as well as third season. “My character’s name is Shaun and he’s a bit of an eavesdropper who likes to chime in on peoples’ problems in a very incoherent, irreverent way,” he says. “We just finished filming season two [late November 2016] and they gave me much more to do this season, which was really wonderful. Oftentimes they just let the camera roll while I very much ramble, which fits the character because he doesn’t make a lot of sense,” jokes Gilmore. “That was a great deal of fun, and, like Travelers, is a show chock full of talent. The second season starts airing in February, and hopefully it, as well as Travelers, will stick around for a while.”

Steve Eramo

As noted above, photo courtesy/copyright of Karolima Turek, so please no unauthorized copying or duplicating of any kind. Thanks!

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - J. August Richards (Angel)

Angel's Charles Gunn (J. August Richards).

Once again, I  have decided to open up the interview vault and revisit some of the many interviews I have had the pleasure of writing over the years and that just appeared in-print and not on-line. Today's interview is with J. August Richards, who talks about working for Angel Investigations and playing Charles Gunn in Angel. Enjoy, and keep coming back for more familiar faces and shows!

Every so often we all need a bit of encouragement when pursuing our dreams. For actor J. August Richards, one such moment came a few years ago during an acting workshop being taught by Eric La Salle (ER) and Michael Beach (Third Watch). “One day, they gave me a scene to do from Danny and the Deep Blue Sea and I just couldn’t get it,” recalls Richards.

“While I was busy trying to work it out, Mike Beach casually told the class a lie about me. I turned around and said, ‘That’s not true,’ and he said, ‘Yes it is.’ Mike kept going on at me until I finally stood up, got in his face and yelled, ‘No, it isn’t!’ He yelled back at me, ‘Now put that [energy] back into your performance!’ That was one of those major light bulb moments for me, and something I always keep in mind when I’m performing.”

For over 15 years, Richards has been honing his craft as a stage, feature film and TV actor. Nowadays, he is busy helping rid Los Angeles of vampires, demons and other assorted evils as Charles Gunn on Angel. Introduced in the first season story War Zone, Gunn used to live on the streets of LA with his younger sister Alonna (Michelle Kelly). He became the self-appointed leader of a small gang of youths who fought against the creatures that preyed on them. Gunn’s life changed forever when he was forced to kill his sister after she was turned into a vampire. Much to his chagrin, he put aside his prejudices in order to join forces with a 200-year-old vampire named Angel (David Boreanaz). Being part of Angel Investigations and a fulltime demon slayer has forced Gunn to grow up fast.

“Before the Christmas break we shot an episode called Cavalry in which my character has to deal with a lot of personal issues along with some very global ones,” explains Richards. “The way he handles himself will show audiences that he’s not the same guy he used to be. What I like most about this [fourth] season is that Gunn’s past has sort of been left behind. When I joined the program as a regular in the second year, a lot of his involvement in the episodes focused on his early days as a slayer. By that I mean they dealt with his old gang. This year, Gunn’s story arc is more about what’s happening in the present. He has his own mission – which is more far-reaching – as opposed to just trying to save a small group of people. Gunn taught his friends everything he knows, and now it’s up to them to take care of themselves, and they’re quite capable of that. They realize he’s needed elsewhere.

“Another aspect of my character’s growth has been his acceptance of the fact that not everything is black or white, and that there are, in fact, shades of gray” continues the actor. “When Gunn originally met Angel his plan was, ‘OK, I’ll work with him as long as he doesn’t get in the way of my killing vampires.’ At the same time he was also thinking, ‘Angel will be the very last vampire that I kill.’ To Gunn, all vampires were evil, even Angel, and there was no place for them in this world. However, nowadays my character is fighting hard to try to protect Angel, so his attitude has completely changed. I think it’s sometimes a shock to Gunn as to just how far he will go to save Angel."

Despite his character’s initial animosity towards Angel, Richards has nothing but good things to say about the show’s leading man, David Boreanaz. “It’s great working with David,” he says. “What I enjoy most of all is his sense of humor. He’s quite good at keeping things light when the scenes are very taxing or dark. Sometimes, though, it’s really hard to keep a straight face when you’re acting opposite David because he always trying to crack you up. I don’t want to even think about how much film we’ve wasted this year just from laughing.”

In Angel’s third-season cliffhanger Tomorrow, Justine (Laurie Holloman) tricks Connor (Vincent Kartheiser) into thinking that Angel is a murderer. As a result, he sentences his father to a living death beneath the ocean. Meanwhile, Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter) receives a heavenly message telling her that she must leave this world for another. Both characters had been missing for three months when the program returned for its fourth season with the episode Deep Down. In it, Wesley (Alexis Denisof) is still off pursuing his own agenda and Gunn and Fred (Amy Acker) are left to search for their friends and colleagues.

“It felt a little strange filming our first episode this year,” says Richards. “Usually, the season opener is directed by David Greenwalt (executive producer), but, sadly for us, he left Angel to work on a new TV show of his own [Miracles]. David was very much a mentor of mine and always will be. So it was a bit difficult for me to come back to work after the hiatus and not have him direct us. That’s not to take anything away from Terrence O’Hara, who directed the episode, it just wasn’t the same, do you know what I mean? We still had a good time shooting it, though, and I thought the story itself was neat as it gave Gunn and Fred a chance to run Angel Investigations. We did a lot of night shoots in downtown LA as both characters were talking to various vampires in an effort to find Angel. I especially enjoyed the scene on the roof with Connor, Fred and Gunn. That was fun to do.”

Even with Connor’s betrayal of Angel, Gunn’s opinion of the young man hasn’t changed this season. “Gunn sees Connor as a child,” notes the actor. “I remember when my sister used to come home from college during the summer. She’d always treat me as if I were still nine years old because that’s how she remembered me. That’s how I think Gunn perceives Connor, as a kid who still has a great deal of growing up to do.”

Unfortunately, Gunn’s friendship with Wesley is not on quite as even a keel. “I always thought of Wesley as being one of Gunn’s best friends,” says Richards. “So when he kidnapped [baby] Connor it felt like a total betrayal to Gunn. Also, as you can see in the current episodes, Wesley still has feelings for my character’s girlfriend Fred, so that’s put a further strain on their relationship. You know what, though, when I’m doing a scene between Gunn and Wesley I tend to think about how those closest to you can sometimes hurt you more than strangers. That’s a big help to me when playing out that relationship.

“Believe it or not, the close bond shared by Gunn and Wesley was never supposed to be. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that the show’s producers and writers noticed the on-screen chemistry between Alexis and myself way back in the second season. That’s one of the neat things about working on Angel. You can contribute to your character’s development by just doing your job as an actor. Sometimes when we’re getting ready to do a scene I’ll tell myself, ‘Forget everything you know about Gunn and just go with the moment.’ By approaching your character in a different way you might discover something new about him or her.

“The dynamic between everyone on the series is so fluid and alive. It’s constantly shifting. One week someone might be on the outside, and the next week he or she might be back on the inside. It’s not as if in every episode I’m turning to Wesley and saying, ‘We’ve got to go kill that demon.’ Instead, there might be a story where I turn to him and say, ‘I feel like killing you.’ So I truly appreciate how the writers have kept the show fresh not only for the actors but also the audience.”

As the actor mentioned, there is still some friction between Gunn and Wesley regarding Fred. The former resident of another dimension called Pylea, Fred first crossed paths with Angel and company in the second season episode Belonging. After sharing a multi-story adventure with them in her world, she returned with Gunn and the others to their universe. It wasn’t long before Gunn and Wesley both realized they were attracted to her, but it was Gunn who finally won her over.

“My character cares very much about Fred and wants to protect her. I think Gunn needs to have a woman in his life to watch over because of the way in which he failed with his sister,” muses Richards. “Not that he doesn’t love Fred – he truly does – but that’s where their relationship stems from. I was reading somewhere recently that some people try to put themselves in a situation from the past in the hope of changing the outcome. That’s what Gunn is trying to do in his life.

“I’m quite pleased with how our writers have dealt with the relationship between him and Fred. I loved the way it came about in the third season story Waiting in the Wings, which was written and directed by Joss Whedon [executive producer]. That’s still my all-time favorite Angel episode. Because our series is action/fantasy oriented there’s not much time for long sweeping romantic scenes. We can’t afford to slow the pace down. Knowing that, I think The Powers That Be have done a fine job of not only fitting an on-going romance into the show’s story arc but also fostering its growth.”

Another memorable episode for Richards is this season’s Spin the Bottle. In it, Lorne (Andy Hallett) casts a spell that inadvertently erases Gunn’s and his friends’ memories and causes them to revert back to their high school personas. This story was also written as well as directed by Whedon. “Joss tends to give a lot of notes when he directs,” says the actor. “The nice thing is that his notes are actually helpful. The same is true of David Greenwalt. They have very specific ideas about who these characters are and, in particular, what they intended when they wrote each scene. Because they see things a certain way in their mind they ask you to play it that way at least once. However, if it doesn’t quite work they’re totally open to your thoughts and suggestions on how you would like to approach the scene. It’s a great way to work.”

Richards chuckles when asked what his idea of the ideal Gunn episode would be if he were given the opportunity to write one. “It’s not necessarily the ideal Gunn episode as much as the ideal J. August Richards episode,” laughs the actor. “I think we should do a story that picks up where a previous one ends. Let’s say there’s an episode with Angel and the guys searching for a talisman. By the end of the story they find it and that’s how my episode opens. The director would yell, ‘Cut,’ and we’d suddenly be ‘playing’ our real selves on the Angel set. Angel would be David, Cordy would be Charisma, Gunn would be me, etc. We’d go home and be living these lives that aren’t really ours. Eventually we figure out that something is not right and that, in fact, the talisman has caused this. Our heroes then have to return to the set and reenact an Angel episode in order to set things right. I think it would make a cool story. Now I just have to sit down and write it.”

Richards made his professional debut on an episode of The Cosby Show back in 1988. Since then, he has appeared in several other roles including guest-star spots on such hit TV series as JAG, Chicago Hope, Nash Bridges and The West Wing. It is, however, the actor’s work on Angel that has made him a familiar face around the world.

“My girlfriend [actress Tangi Miller] and I visited Australia last summer [2002] and I’ve never been recognized so much in my entire life,” says Richards. “What amazes me most is that some of the people who stop me and ask about Angel aren’t what I’d consider to be your typical viewers. The fact that we have such a diverse audience makes me think we must be doing something right.”

As children, Richards and his sister used to watch Three’s Company. They promised each other that when they grew up they would move to California (where the show took place) and go to college. Richards never imagined that this dream would one day lead to a successful acting career. Not surprisingly, starting out in the business wasn’t easy, but he never gave up.

“I remember trying to get my Screen Actors Guild [SAG] card. To do that you need to get a SAG job, but for that you need a SAG card. I thought, ‘What am I going to do?’ You have to find creative ways to get your foot in the door. It’s that old saying, ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again,’ so that’s what I did and it paid off. I’ve worked steadily now for the past several years and I definitely feel blessed. I’m one of the lucky ones and I’m so grateful for that.”

Steve Eramo

Doctor Who New Season Trailer Released! (BBC America)

Behind-the-scenes filming of Doctor Who's 10th season with Pearl Mackie (Bill) and The Doctor (Peter Capaldi). Photo copyright of BBC America.

BBC America's Doctor Who "First Look" trailer for the upcoming season 10 has been released online ahead of tonight’s Christmas special @ 9;00 p.m. EST/8:00 CT. Have  look below and see what’s in store for the Doctor (Peter Capaldi) and Bill (new companion played by Pearl Mackie) in 2017!

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Jeri Ryan (Star Trek: Voyager)

Star Trek: Voyager's Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan).

Once again, I  have decided to open up the interview vault and revisit some of the many interviews I have had the pleasure of writing over the years and that just appeared in-print and not on-line. Today's interview is with Jeri Ryan, who talks about joining the crew of The U.S.S. Voyager as Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Voyager. Enjoy, and keep coming back for more familiar faces and shows!

The slogan, “You’ve come a long way, baby,” was once used not only to advertise a popular brand of cigarette but also to promote the women’s movement.  This phrase could just as easily refer to the growth of women’s roles over the years in television science fiction.  Back in the sixties Lost in Space’s Doctor Maureen Robinson and Star Trek’s Lieutenant Uhura stood for equality in outer space.  In the seventies Liz Shaw, Jo Grant, Sarah Jane Smith and Leela brought women’s liberation to Doctor Who’s TARDIS.  The arrival of Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in the eighties featured several strong female characters and in 1995 Captain Kathryn Janeway took command of her own starship in Star Trek: Voyager.

With the coming of the next millennium a new female character has emerged to shake things up in the Delta Quadrant.  The bold and beautiful Borg Seven of Nine is the newest addition to Captain Janeway’s crew on The U.S.S. Voyager.  Separated from the collective during a battle with Species 8472, Seven has managed to shed some of her Borg persona and is slowly trying to find her human self.  Since coming aboard Voyager she has been treated with a mixture of confusion, contempt and compassion by the ship’s crew.  Seven’s continuing struggle to fit in and gain the trust of those around her is just part of what makes playing the character enjoyable for Jeri Ryan.

“Seven is terrific and she is really a great deal of fun to play and a wonderful challenge as an actor, which is sort of a rare treat,” enthuses Ryan.  “She’s an interesting dichotomy.  On the one hand, she is so wise and intelligent and strong and retains all the knowledge assimilated by the Borg, but on the other hand she’s emotionally very childlike.  All of these things, like emotions and coping with being an individual and dealing with interpersonal relationships, Seven is facing for the first time in her memory.  So she’s very immature from that perspective and she’s constantly learning and evolving, which I think is great.

“One of my fears early on, especially given Seven’s overtly sexual and physical appearance, was that this would be a really easy character for them to just say, ‘OK, bam!  She’s a human.  Now let’s get her into bed with this one and that one.’  So I was a little nervous about that at the beginning but I have to say that the writers and producers have shown remarkable restraint with this character.  I think they’ve done a tremendous job, better than I expected and every bit as good as I’d hoped, at retaining some of the mystery surrounding her.  They’ve also kept that Borg edge which is what I think is the interesting part about the character, and not rushed her into humanity, which I think would have been a mistake.

“So what I think Seven brings to Voyager, apart from the fact that she’s a fresh character so there are new relationships for all of the other characters to explore, is conflict,” adds Ryan.  “Voyager was a pretty cozy place before Seven came along,” she laughs.  “So I think it’s great to have somebody come in and rock the boat and go nose-to-nose with the captain and say, ‘No, I think you’re wrong.  I think this is an illogical decision.’ ”

Prior to beginning work on Voyager, Ryan was only slightly familiar with the series but she had absolutely no idea who or what a Borg is.  When her agent received the character breakdown for Seven of Nine he passed it on to the actress for her to read.  Her initial reaction to the role was, to say the least, lukewarm.

“Nothing in the breakdown sort of leapt out and said, ‘Oh, you’ve got to do this.  It’s a great role,’ so I passed on it.  I know the casting people for Voyager very well and they’re very sweet.  They called my agent back and said, ‘Look, we really think this is a good role for Jeri.  She really needs to look at this.’  So they sent the two audition pieces to me, the first of which was one of the most beautifully written audition pieces I’d ever read.  It was a scene between Seven and Chakotay [Robert Beltran] where Seven remembers laughter for the first time.  Unfortunately, it never ended up being used in the show but it was just so touching.

“The other scene was one with Seven and Harry Kim [Garrett Wang] from the episode Revulsion where Seven tells him to take off his clothes, which was not one of my favorites.  I personally found it terribly predictable and a bit cheesy,” notes Ryan.  “If it had been that scene alone there wouldn’t have been a question in my mind; I would have never done the audition.  That scene with Chakotay, though, really piqued my interest.”

Ryan went in to read for the producers and then again for Voyager cocreator and co-executive producer Rick Berman, who was out of town for her audition.  She accepted their offer of the part on a Wednesday and arrangements were made for her to read for the executives at Paramount Studios on Friday.  “Well, that night I began to panic,” she recalls.  “All I kept thinking was that this was going to be the end of my career and that I would be pigeonholed as this sort of alien babe forever, so I cancelled the test.  The next morning Rick Berman phoned me at my apartment and said, ‘Look, I understand that you have some reservations.  Why don’t you come in and meet with me and the other producers?  I promise we’ll answer all of your questions and see if we can figure out a solution.’

“I was half expecting an ambush,” she jokes.  “It would have been three against one at that point, but they were just great.  Rick, Jeri Taylor and Brannon Braga sat down with me in Rick’s office for well over an hour.  They really did answer all my questions and allay my fears. They also gave me a history of Star Trek and the Borg in a nutshell so I’d have some idea as to what I was doing.  Rick actually gave me the best piece of advice I’ve gotten so far.  It wasn’t really advice but more of a clue as to what to expect.  He said, ‘You’re getting on a freight train and you have no idea how fast you’re moving until you’re on it,’ and it was completely accurate, but it’s been wonderful.  I couldn’t be more pleased with the way this has turned out from just a pure enjoyment perspective and also from a career standpoint.  It’s been tremendous and far exceeded my best expectations, which is really nice,” she laughs.

In Voyager’s fourth-season opener Scorpion, Part II Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) surprises her crew when she forges an alliance with the Borg in order to devise a way to defeat Species 8472.  Unfortunately, the Borg are unaccustomed to interacting with anyone outside their own collective, so they attempt to establish a temporary link with Janeway and Tuvok (Tim Russ).  The captain objects, however, and instead she suggests that they appoint a single Borg drone to act as an intermediary between their two species.  All agree and assign Seven of Nine to the task.  Although Seven easily assumes her new duties, Ryan initially had some difficulty assimilating herself into the part.

“I was petrified on that first day,” she says.  “When I auditioned it was for Seven of Nine as she was midway into the season where she has already been on Voyager for a while and is well on her way to becoming human.  In my initial meeting with Rick and everyone else I was told that for the first couple of episodes I was going to be Borg.  They gave me a copy of the Star Trek film First Contact to watch so I could learn about the Borg.  I was told to disregard the Borg Queen because she’s a total anomaly, so all I had to base my performance on were the drones.  I thought, ‘OK, Seven is one of the drones.  She’ll wander around in the background silently, as a Borg drone does, and then at some point they’ll separate me and I’ll start to talk and act.’

“When the first script came out I found out I’m all over this thing talking as a Borg and I was panic-stricken,” chuckles Ryan.  “I had no idea even where to begin, so I went immediately to Rick Berman’s office and again they were just wonderful.  They were very clear with the fact that they wanted a completely new Borg.  What they were looking for was almost a happy medium between the freedom of the Borg Queen and the robotics of the drones.”

Most early publicity photos of Seven of Nine show Ryan wearing the silvery formfitting bodysuit the character changes into at the end of the episode The Gift.  This outfit is hardly standard Starfleet issue but it is far more comfortable and easier to get around in than the Borg costume the actress wore when she debuted as Seven.  “Breathing was pretty much kept to a minimum in that first outfit,” she jokes.

“I had my left eye completely covered by a laser, so my depth perception was completely gone, which is something I hadn’t counted on.  I knew that I wouldn’t be able to see on one side but I didn’t think I’d have that much of a problem getting around, which is kind of funny.  I had never been on the bridge set until I was there filming in full Borg costume and didn’t realize that there were steps and a couple of different levels.  I couldn’t tell the difference between the two, so I was tripping and making a total idiot of myself walking around that first day.  I was hardly a graceful Borg.”

She may be separated from the Borg collective, but if Seven of Nine stops and thinks for a moment she will realize that she is the seventh of Voyager’s nine regular characters.  Ryan was brought in to replace the departing Jennifer Lien who played Kes.  In the episode The Gift Kes gives up her corporeal form in order to evolve into a higher state of being, while Seven must decide between life as a Borg drone or a human.

“I loved The Gift, not because it was Seven’s big transition episode but just because I thought it was a beautifully written story,” says Ryan.  “I felt the writers took a great deal of care with the scenes involving Janeway and Kes and Janeway and Seven.  The director of that episode, Anson Williams, was a dream to work with as well.  There’s a scene in the brig that is my favorite of anything we’ve done.  It’s the one in which Janeway tells Seven that she has no choice; she is going to become human.  The captain has made the decision for her and that’s the way it is, and Seven tells her, ‘Well, then you’re no different from the Borg.’  I just love that.  I applauded the fact that the writers had the guts to make it a gray issue as opposed to a black-and-white one.  They didn’t make Janeway completely right sitting on her white horse and the Borg completely evil, because they’re not.  They had a lot of courage to do something like that and I thought it was terrific.

“I also enjoyed The Raven, which, again, is another sort of big transition episode for Seven.  You finally get a glimpse into her past and her memories as a young child.  It was a pleasure to be directed by LeVar Burton [Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge in The Next Generation].  This episode also gave me the chance to finally appear with Ethan Phillips [Neelix].  He is such a delight to work with, although I can’t keep a straight face with him, so it takes forever to get through a scene,” laughs the actress.

One of the most difficult aspects for Seven of becoming human has been having to learn how to function in a society where everyone does not think alike.  As part of the Borg collective she and her fellow drones would be given a task and solve it in unison using their joint consciousness.  On Voyager Seven has had to adjust to working as part of a team, each member of which has his or her own opinion on the best way to attack a problem.  More often than not Seven feels her decision is the right one and has no hesitation in expressing this to those around her, even Captain Janeway.

“Seven’s relationship with Janeway has developed from sort of a mentor/student thing into almost a mother/daughter rapport which was, to be honest with you, making both Kate and myself a little nervous,” explains Ryan.  “It was getting, again, too cozy too quickly.  We wanted to keep that conflict and I think the writers recognized this because they’ve really made a concerted effort to bring that edge back in recent episodes.  Now it’s sort of turned into a battle between mom and the unruly teenager, which is a bit more interesting to play.”

Surprisingly, one of the few people on Voyager with whom Seven is most comfortable is Vulcan Lieutenant Commander Tuvok.  The Borg respects the logical way in which his mind operates and has even asked his opinion regarding her behavior in certain situations.  Ryan is pleased that the professional relationship between these two characters has been allowed to develop.  “I really thought that watching these two sort of monotone, logic-driven characters interact would end up being one of the most boring things ever shown on television.  It’s developed, however, into Seven’s first friendship.  She’s the only one who really understands the logical side of Tuvok’s personality.  He stands on the edge of humanity and comments on its foibles and the various human neuroses and looks at it all with the same sort of perspective as Seven does.  So I think she learns a lot from him and at the same time she also respects him.

“Tuvok and Janeway, and for a different reason the Doctor [Robert Picardo], are, I think, the only crewmembers for whom Seven does have a great deal of respect,” muses Ryan.  “Not that she doesn’t respect the others, but those three are the only ones she views as almost superior beings like the Borg and more on her level.  Not quite,” she adds, “but almost.”

“Her relationship with the Doctor is also developing into something quite interesting.  Seven respects him because he’s another technological being like herself.  All the other crewmembers are completely organic and so they’re flawed, but his existence depends on technology and she really admires that.  As for the Doctor, he’s taken her under his wing as well and is sort of acting as an unofficial teacher in the ways of humanity and social mores.”

One Voyager crewmember who has been infatuated with Seven right from the start is Ensign Harry Kim.  The lovestruck ensign has a difficult time expressing his feelings, which is cause for great amusement among his fellow crewmates.  “Part of Seven’s appeal is the fact that she has absolutely no clue as to the effect her physical appearance has on, say, Harry Kim.  None!  She doesn’t understand how he would feel if she stood six inches from his face, and I love that.  I think Seven is sort of amused by Harry, as much as a Borg can be at this point, and intrigued by his occasional outbursts of prepubescent behavior.”

A Borg drone has very little time to enjoy itself when it is busy trying to assimilate unwilling species.  Despite becoming more and more human, Seven still has a difficult time understanding why those around her would choose to waste time engaging in joviality.  Ryan, on the other hand, says that she and her Voyager costars always manage to fit a laugh or two into their hectic working day.

“Anyone who has seen me on the show knows I don’t use my own voice for Seven.  I speak very differently than she does.  In one of my first scenes with Bob Picardo I had to make this rather long-winded speech.  I was sort of in mid-monologue and I lapsed back into my normal voice about halfway through.  When we cut Bob looked at me and slowly nodded his head.  He said, ‘I like it.  I like it.  Sort of eighty-three percent Borg and seventeen percent white trash,’ which I thought was just hysterical.

“There are very few scenes when you get the entire cast together and I almost pity any director who has such a scene because chaos reigns supreme.  We completely lose control and nothing gets done.  A moment like this came when we opened the astrometrics lab at the beginning of Year of Hell, Part I.  Everyone was there late and we were all a bit punchy.  All I can remember is, oh, God, Robert Beltran, Tim Russ and Ethan Phillips hopping around the set doing their impressions of Michael Flatley, the Lord of the Dance guy.  They were totally out of control.  I was laughing so hard that I had tears running down my face.  I keep telling everyone that everybody here is a psychopath,” she laughs.  “They’re either all going to become stand-up comics or they’re going to open an asylum and commit us all.  Well, at least we’d have a good time.”

It did not take long for the news to circulate when it was first announced that the actress was joining the cast of Voyager.  Ryan’s face has appeared in the pages of countless magazines and newspapers and in a recent search of the Internet there were over one hundred sites dedicated to her.  In a November issue of America’s TV Guide magazine Ryan was voted one of television’s top twenty sexy stars.  How does the actress feel about being caught in the middle of all this media attention?

“It’s pretty surreal, I mean, it really is,” she says.  “That’s the one word I keep coming back to, but that really sums up this whole experience.  To be quite honest, the press attention has been a delightful surprise.  I knew that it would be big news in the Star Trek world but I had no idea how vast that world is and how many demographics it really cuts across.  I also didn’t realize how much interest it would generate in just the mainstream entertainment medium alone.  The character really has received a lot of attention, which is a nice surprise, and all positive attention for the most part, which is even nicer.”

Before starting work on Voyager, Ryan costarred as Juliet, a no-nonsense Russian agent battling extraterrestrials in the short-lived NBC television series Dark Skies.  Juliet arrived with a bang at Majestic-12’s top secret headquarters and certainly rocked the boat in the limited time she was on the program.  “Like Seven she was a very strong and intelligent female,” says Ryan in describing Juliet.  “It’s very sad but there aren’t many roles like that right now for women, especially if you’re of a certain physical type.  So from that perspective it was a rare treat to play Juliet.  She was a tough cookie.  You didn’t want to mess with her,” laughs the actress.  “She really took charge of her life and several other peoples’ as well.

“Dark Skies was a great experience,” she continues.  “I enjoyed everything about it.  I don’t have a bad thing to say about the program.  Granted, it was my first series, so I’m sure I looked at things through rose-colored glasses, but I loved it.  It was another situation where I got along very well with everyone who worked on the show.  The producers [Bryce Zabel and Brad Markowitz] were great.  I loved Eric Close and Megan Ward, and as for J.T. Walsh, well, he’s one of my favorite people on the planet [N.B. - he died 27th February, 1998].  Everyone - Tim Kelleher, Conor O’Farrell - I had a ball working with them all.  Unfortunately, our time together was brief.  That wasn’t unexpected, but it was disappointing for all of us.

“I would have loved for the show to have gone on for another season.  I think in some ways Dark Skies was sort of just finding its feet when it was cancelled, which is too bad.  I think NBC gave it a huge send-off at the start of the season and pretty much said, ‘OK, you’re on your own.’  We also had the time slot of death, Saturday nights at eight o’clock, and that didn’t help.  Of course, when it ended there was the standard actor’s panic of, ‘Oh, no.  I’ll never work again,’ but I was quite fortunate.  We wrapped Dark Skies around the end of March [1997] and I started Voyager in May, so I had very little downtime, which was good.  Well, it was good in some ways because I didn’t have time to freak out about it.  It would have been nice, though, to have caught up on some rest before starting this whirlwind trip through space.”

The actress also recently completed work on an independent film called The Last Man.  The actress plays Sarah, one of three people left living after a disaster on Earth.  “She has a bit of a darker past, so she has a lot going on in her mind, which made her fun to play.  Filming it, however, was pretty much hell because it was an extremely low-budget feature.  We shot it in the desert in the middle of nowhere and everything that could go wrong did go wrong.  It was brutal, but we still had a good time - most of the time,” she laughs.

Ryan is considering working on a feature film during the Voyager hiatus but if she does not she is then looking forward to spending all of her time with her husband Jack and their son Alex.  For the moment, however, Seven of Nine is keeping her busy and happy.  “I get to hang out with my friends and goof off and pretend that I’m flying in space, which is what my three-year-old son does, and they pay me for this.  I’m a lucky gal.”

Steve Eramo

This Week on Aftermath - "Whispers of Immortality" (Season Finale - Syfy US)

(L-R) Louis Ferreira as Bob "Moondog" Black, James Tupper as Joshua Copeland and Julia Sarah Stone as Dana Copeland in "Whispers of Immortality." Photo copyright of Syfy.

In the season one finale of Aftermath, the end of the world has arrived, and the Copelands must use every ally and every bit of knowledge they possess to survive. It still might not be enough. Check out the clip below from Whispers of Immortality and then make sure to tune in to see how our family of survivors fares on Tuesday, December 20th @ 10:00 p.m. EXT/9:00 p.m CT on Syfy (US).

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Rene Auberjonois (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Constable Odo (Rene Auberjonois).

Once again, I  have decided to open up the interview vault and revisit some of the many interviews I have had the pleasure of writing over the years and that just appeared in-print and not on-line. Today's interview is with Rene Auberjonois, who talks about his first four seasons playing Constable Odo in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Enjoy, and keep coming back for more familiar faces and shows!

"When I started working on the series my character was a total mystery," explains actor Rene Auberjonois, who has spent the last four years upholding law and order as the shape-shifting Constable Odo on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.  "Odo's an orphan.  He has no idea where he's from, if he has any family or even what he is.  It was this that actually fascinated me about the part.

"For the first couple of seasons people would ask me, 'When are we going to find out?'  I used to jokingly say, 'Well, the day we find out where Odo is from is the day that they're writing me out of the series.'  When we were getting ready to start the third season I had lunch with the producers and writers and they said, 'We wanted you to know that we're going to find out where Odo is from, but we don't want you to think we're writing you out of the series,' because they'd heard me make that joke.

"The initial mystery surrounding my character was, of course, the driving force and the viewers found that very interesting.  For the sake of people just now beginning to see the show I don't want to give anything away, but we do find out more about Odo and learn something about his antecedents and where he's from.

"I've been pleased that the answer to where Odo is from is as complex and rich in dramatic possibilities as the question," continues the actor.  "Sometimes the question is more interesting than the answer and that's something that's always concerned me, but in this case I think they've been very smart.  The answer is sort of like a Rubik's Cube.  It just continues to make for an intriguing and complex situation and gives the character other interesting things to struggle with.

"The character walks a fine line.  If he steps in one direction he can become almost a fascist and, yet, he's tremendously passionate and caring and a character whose interest in justice is very admirable to me, so, he's always challenging and changing.  He's a changer, a shape-shifter, a changeling and that makes it a lot easier to be in the fourth season of the show and not start to feel kind of bored with yourself.  That's one of the dangers of doing a show for a long time - you start to get bored - and that hasn't happened in Deep Space Nine."

The actor's passion for his profession stretches back to when he was only six years old.  Although he was not a child actor, Auberjonois spent his early years performing in various school productions along with local acting groups and community theatres.  After completing his high school education in England where his father is a foreign correspondent, he returned to the United States and began studying drama at the prestigious Carnegie-Mellon University.

"When I was sixteen I was offered an apprenticeship at Stratford, Connecticut.  Actor John Houseman was an old friend of the family and he very generously gave me a break as an apprentice - just carrying spears and things - but even before that I was acting and have always wanted to act.

"I come from a very artistic family," he continues.  "My grandfather, after whom I'm named, was a very fine and highly regarded painter in Switzerland where his work is in almost every museum.  My dad is a writer and also a wonderful artist himself.  I'm not a writer but I do a lot of drawing, sketching and photography.  If I weren't a performing artist I would be some kind of artist.  It's in my blood."

A distinguished theatrical actor (his performance in the Broadway production of CoCo which starred the legendary Katharine Hepburn, earned him a Tony Award) Auberjonois's face is familiar to audiences which have enjoyed his work in films such as Brewster McCloud, The Eyes of Laura Mars and The Lost Language of the Cranes.  He has also appeared in countless television series including a seven-year stint opposite Star Trek: Voyager's Ethan Phillips (Neelix) in the hit American comedy series Benson.  Despite this long and varied list of credentials Auberjonois sat in the hallway alongside other hopefuls when he went to audition for the part of Odo in Star Trek:Deep Space Nine.

"That actually surprises some people.  Not that I'm some megastar, but I have had an extensive career and have been around a long time, so, people tend to assume, 'Oh, well, they just offer you things,' but, in fact, there was a tremendous amount of competition to get onto DS9.  It was, of course, a plum assignment which any actor would recognize as sort of a sure bet [that the series would triumph].

"In some ways I was a victim of my own success in other areas," he says.  "I think it was hard for them to imagine me as Odo.  If they knew my work they knew me as that sort of uptight twit Clayton from Benson and because of this I feel they needed some convincing that I would be able to make the character an acceptable, truthful interpretation of what they had in mind, although they didn't really have all that much in mind.  Odo was quite amorphous and they could have gone in a lot of different directions with the character, which was another reason it was hard, because they didn't have a specific image in mind."

Auberjonois returned home from his fourth audition on a Friday afternoon only to receive a telephone call from his agent telling him the studio executives wanted the actor to come back and audition one more time.  "I offered to go back right then and there and he said, 'No, they want you to come back on Monday.'  I said, 'You know, I think I've done it enough times.'  I told him I'd have to give it some thought.  Of course, if I didn't go back it would have meant forfeiting the role.

"As soon as I hung up the phone rang again.  This time it was my daughter, who's a young actress.  She knew I was supposed to be going in that day for my last audition and wanted to know how it went.  I said, 'They want me to come back one more time,' and she said, 'Oh, that's great!'  It was this positive, hopeful, joyous, youthful attitude that made me pause and think for a second.  I said, 'You're right.  It's great.'  I called up my agent and said, 'OK, I'll go back in,' and, of course, that was the one that clinched it."

Once a new alien culture has been created on paper for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, it is up to costume designers, hairstylists and makeup artists to bring the character to life.  The process is time-consuming and sometimes grueling one for the individual designing the look as well as for the actor or actress who must be transformed.  For Auberjonois the creation of Odo's unique look began in the program's pilot episode "Emissary" and continued throughout the show's first season.

"From the beginning makeup artist Mike Westmore said to me, 'This is going to be a very difficult makeup process.  It's probably the hardest makeup I've ever attempted to do because it doesn't have a lot of nooks, crannies, wrinkles, bumps and things to hide in.  We're trying to get a very special kind of undefined, amorphous, almost polished look - like a pebble on the beach that's been sandwashed - and that's a very, very difficult thing to do with makeup.'

"They were reticent to make it all in one piece and, so, it was all made up in several little pieces," explains Auberjonois.  "It would change radically from hour-to-hour, scene-to-scene and show-to-show.  Of course, the rationalization is that I'm a shape-shifter and we could get away with that, but it really was a problem.  It was a very uncomfortable, difficult and long process and the hours on the pilot were incredibly long.  I remember one time coming into makeup at 7:30 in the morning and not getting out of it until 4:30 the next morning, so that's around twenty-odd hours of wearing the makeup.

"Out of a fourteen or fifteen hour day, which is our usual sort of workday, if I actually end up acting for twenty minutes out of those fifteen hours that's a long time, so, what I remember about the pilot is a lot of sitting around and feeling very out of control because I couldn't control how my face was going to end up.  I would sit in the chair for three to four hours, then look in the mirror and the makeup wouldn't be acceptable, so, we had to start again.  It went through a lot of changes during the first season and partially through the second season but now it's pretty close to perfected as it ever will be."

Along with a mysterious background and his unique face, Odo also has the ability to shape-shift or morph into a wide variety of lifeforms and inanimate objects.  This often comes in handy in his character's capacity as chief of security aboard Deep Space Nine, but, as Auberjonois points out, it has not become a crutch for the series.

"Frankly, the aspect of morphing has always been the least interesting thing about the character for me, partly because it's done on a computer.  I have nothing to do with it.  I love to see it but it's also, candidly, a bit of a gimmick and anytime a television series depends on a gimmick you know it has a very finite existence.  Fortunately, they're very clever and knew this up front.  We go many, many episodes without my morphing, so, the audience is waiting for it and, as a result, it keeps the concept very fresh and interesting."

Auberjonois admits that it is difficult for him to pick out a favorite episode.  Like most actors in a long-running series, the episodes tend to meld into one big adventure, especially when the cast sometimes complete one story, break for lunch and then come back to start work on the next one.

"One of my favorite shows is one that I had very little to do with but is a wonderful episode from the first season called Captive Pursuit.  To me it's a classic Star Trek kind of story, almost a fox hunt in space with this alien creature being chased by a high order of hunters.

"I also enjoy the episode The Forsaken with Majel Barrett Roddenberry as Lwaxana Troi.  In fact, I was talking to my dad and his wife yesterday and they had just seen it the night before.  It is just a very personal and sweet story."

Another of the actor's personal favorite is the second-season story Necessary Evil.  This unusually dark and gritty episode takes viewers back to the time the Cardassians controlled Deep Space Nine and also explores the relationship between Odo and Major Kira (Nana Visitor). "That whole relationship has evolved into a kind of unrequited love story for Odo in relationship to Kira," Auberjonois explains.  "She is totally unaware of his deep feelings for her.  She considers him, if not her dearest, one of her dearest friends, but she's completely unaware of how he feels about her.  For Odo his feelings are very conflicted and confused.  There's so much that's unanswered about him and a lot of his background has not prepared him in any way to deal with emotions.

"A lot of the fans find their relationship very touching and really hope that Kira and Odo will get together someday.  I've always said that would never happen - it's just out of the question - but I don't have the answers to what is going to happen.  We just shot an episode [Crossfire] which, I think, resolves the relationship.  It's a very touching and sweet story in which she remains totally oblivious to his feelings and it's Quark [Armin Shimerman] who, in the wonderful sort of symbiotic love/hate relationship he has with Odo, helps him to come to terms with his feelings."

While the feelings Odo has for Quark are much less congenial than those he expresses toward Major Kira, the actors portraying Deep Space Nine's oddest couple are much closer in real life.  "Armin is my closest friend," he says.  "I'm always happy when I open the script and there's a scene between Odo and Quark.  I love working with Armin and I think the writers bring out some wonderful aspects of our characters on the show.

"People always say they love the relationship between the two characters which surprises both Armin and me because we actually have very little to do with each other on the show.  We're sort of like a seasoning to the stew but we've never been the stew.  Perhaps that's for the best.  Maybe it means there really isn't anywhere to go with those characters except to have occasional scenes in which they sort of lock horns or jibe at one another."

When Star Trek: Deep Space Nine made its American television debut four years ago some critics were quick to attack the program, comparing it to its immensely popular older sibling Star Trek: The Next Generation.  The show, which finished filming its fourth season at the end of April 1996, has survived some early growing pains and warped ahead to become America's top syndicated dramatic series.

"When you begin a show the writers have a concept and it's the actor's job to come in as the instrument and interpret the music conceived by the writers.  As time goes on you become part of the music.  You're not only interpreting the music but you begin to influence it.  They see what your instrument is and what is does and they respond to it.  The whole thing becomes a more collaborative effort in the sense that your input as an actor begins to influence what is written about your character and how it is used.

"Looking back over the seasons and seeing how the show has evolved is fascinating to me, not only for myself, which, of course is fascinating," laughs the actor, "but to see how other members of our cast have evolved, shifted, changed and grown.  That's one of the joys of being part of an ensemble.

"When people first questioned whether or not DS9 was as good as The Next Generation or if it would ever really find its audience I would say, 'You know, we're all lucky that this show is probably going to run for a number of years.  In that time we'll find our way and the audience will find us.'  The fourth season is the proof of the pudding.  It's the best season we've ever had and the audience is the most positive.

"It took a long time for people to get to know us and for us to know ourselves,' says Auberjonois thoughtfully.  "That was true of The Next Generation and now it's true of us.  We've found ourselves and it's going to take Voyager that long too, that's the way it is.  It takes time to get it so you're all hearing the same music."

Steve Eramo

This Week on Shooter - "Killing Zone" (USA Network)

Rathford O'Brien (William Fichtner) in "Killing Zone." Photo copyright of The USA Network.

This week on USA Network's Shooter, Bob Lee (Ryan Phillippe) goes off the grid to track down his former instructor, Sergeant Major Rathford O’Brien (William Fichtner), who may have critical information to uncovering the conspiracy, as Nadine (Cynthia Addai-Robinson)  interrogates Jack Payne (Eddie McClintock) following his arrest. Meanwhile, Isaac (Omar Epps) discovers the conspiracy has a much darker history than he imagined, while a reporter presents Julie (Shantel VanSanten)with another way out. Check out the clip below from Killing Zone and then tune in Tuesday, December 20th @ 10:00 p.m. EST/9:00 p.m. CT for the entire episode.

This Week on Z Nation - "Everybody Dies In The End" (Season Finale - Syfy US)

(L-R) Caitlin Carmichael as Lucy and Keith Allan as Murphy in "Everybody Dies in The End." Photo copyright of Syfy.

This week on Z Nation, Addy (Anastasia Baranova) and Doc (Russell Hodgkinson) have no idea where Lucy (Caitlin Carmichael) is when they’re approached by a very unusual Zombie! They catch up with Warren (Kellita Smith) and the others but the reunion is short-lived. The Man (Joseph Gatt) has Lucy captive at the highest point for miles, and while the Heroes must battle Zona Blends, Enders, Zombies, the fate of humanity hangs in the balance in this season three finale cliffhanger. Check out the clip below and then make sure to tune in for Everybody Dies in the End on Friday, December 16th @ 9:00 p.m. EST/8:00 p.m. CT on Syfy (US).

Sci-Fi Blast From The Past - Jennifer O'Dell (The Lost World)

Veronica (Jennifer O'Dell) in The Lost World.

Once again, I  have decided to open up the interview vault and revisit some of the many interviews I have had the pleasure of writing over the years and that just appeared in-print and not on-line. Today's interview is with actress Jennifer O'Dell, who talks about played resident action gal Veronica in The Lost World. Enjoy, and keep coming back for more familiar faces and shows!

In the past three years, Jennifer O’Dell has gained quite a following with her portrayal of the beautiful blonde jungle bombshell Veronica on The Lost World. Each week she fends off the unwanted advances of two and four-legged foes by using her brute strength and feminine wiles. Although it’s hard to picture anyone else wearing Veronica’s loincloth, O’Dell was, in fact, nearly passed over for the role when the show was originally being cast.

“At the time I was going on four or five auditions a day,” she recalls. “As a starving actor trying to pay the rent I told my agent, ‘I’ll try out for anything.’ One day she called to tell me about the breakdown for this character of Veronica in a pilot that was going to be shot in Australia. I said, ‘Great! Send me out for that. I’ll go to Australia.’ So I went on one audition and then another a week later, both of which were put on tape. Two weeks passed and I didn’t hear anything. Soon after, I had another audition with the same casting director, and when I asked her about The Lost World I was told they had passed on me because I was a little too contemporary looking. I thought, ‘OK,’ and didn’t think anything more about it.

“A week later the casting agent phoned and asked me to come back in.’ I told her, ‘I thought they passed on me.’ She explained they still hadn’t found the right girl for the role, and that she had convinced them to take another look at my tape because she felt I’d be perfect for the role. So I went back in and this time they had a couple of other girls there along with a couple of guys who were trying out for the role of Ned Malone. They wanted each of us to read with the guys in order to see how we looked together and if we had any kind of chemistry. I was in the audition room for two hours and felt like I had a good rapport with the producers. I kept thinking, ‘Something is going to happen here.’ The next day my agent got a call telling her I would be leaving in about a week to go to Australia for a month-and-a-half to film the pilot, and three years later here I am,” enthuses O’Dell.

Besides being an actress, O’Dell is also a trained singer and dancer. She was eight years old when she made her TV debut in a national candy advert. “I was like, ‘Hey, I like this job. I get paid and I don’t have to go to school.’ When you’re a kid that’s pretty neat,” she laughs. After doing two other commercials, her mother decided to take her little girl out of the business so that she could have a normal childhood. O’Dell went on to appear in plays throughout high school, but it wasn’t until a while after graduation that she considered pursuing an acting career.

“I was doing 9 to 5 jobs, everything from massage therapy to secretarial work and even selling shoes at Nordstroms [department store],” says O’Dell. “I was working myself into the ground and not making very much money. One day I asked myself, ‘What am I doing here?’ I always knew what I wanted to do with my life but was afraid to take a chance. Finally, when I was around 21 or 22, I got so fed up that I said, ‘Forget this lifestyle.’ So I moved to Los Angeles, where I met my best friend, who’s also my agent. She’s one of the most wonderful people in the whole world and we clicked immediately. The day we met she arranged an audition for me and I got the job. She’s sent me out on many different auditions since then and I couldn’t be more happier with the way things have turned out.”

O’Dell’s feature film credits include Sometimes They Come Back…For More, Point Doom and Molly. On TV she was a regular on The Hollywood Squares, and has also guest-starred on such series as Renegade, Silk Stalkings, Pacific Blue, Beverly Hills 90210 and Diagnosis Murder. Even with all her previous acting experience, working on The Lost World has turned out to be an eye-opener for O’Dell.

“I was 23 when I came to Australia,” she notes. “There I was halfway across the world by myself, I didn’t know anyone, so it was a pretty big growing experience for me. When we did the pilot I thought, ‘Just go for it,’ and I ended up having a blast. However, there was so much more to the actual filming process than I initially imagined. I was and still am very eager to learn it all. I don’t just mean acting-wise but also technically insofar as everything that goes on behind the cameras. It’s great when you know all that stuff as well because it makes everyone else job much easier.

“Although I had been acting for some time I hadn’t been on a show that shoots this intensely for such a relatively short period of time,” adds the actress. “This [third] season we did 22 episodes in six months, which is unheard of. In the two years previous we did it in eight months, whereas series such as Xena and Hercules took 10 months to film the same number of shows. Our cast and crew are doing 12 to 15 hour days with 10-hour turnarounds Monday through Friday, so we’re working our little butts off down here,” laughs O’Dell. “Thank goodness, though, everyone loves what they do.”

Long-time viewers of The Lost World know that a young Veronica was left to fend for herself when her parents, who were part of an earlier expedition to the Amazon plateau, disappeared. She grew up to have a healthy respect for the jungle’s beauty as well as the dangers lurking behind every bush. More civil than savage, the character has changed quite a bit since she first swung onto the scene.

“Veronica has matured by leaps and bounds,” says O’Dell. “When we shot the pilot I didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye with the director on how to portray her. He wanted me to play Veronica as a young, naïve little jungle girl, and that just didn’t work. My character is much stronger than that. I mean, this is somebody who has grown up in the jungle and taught herself how to survive. To be honest, I don’t like mentioning the pilot. I’d rather skip right to the first season where I was able to begin making some changes to my character. These were the result of my own decisions, which I felt were correct and that I should have gone with from the very beginning.

“I’m really pleased with how the writers have developed Veronica this season. After three years, they’ve become comfortable with who our characters are and are writing more for each individual’s story line. They’ve taken bits and pieces from all The Lost World shows we’ve done over the past two seasons and woven them into their writing this year. So we’re learning more about who Challenger [Peter McCauley], Roxton [Will Snow], Marguerite [Rachel Blakely], Ned [David Orth] and Veronica are, and I think the fans are really enjoying that.”

As The Lost World’s resident action gal, O’Dell has found herself in a number of interesting situations over the past three seasons. “In one of the very first episodes we did [Nectar], Will, David and I were covered from head to toe in goop,” chuckles the actress. “I remember another episode where Rachel and I had do a fight scene and we ended up wrestling in mud. It was so funny because when the director yelled, ‘Cut!’ all the crew guys held up scorecards. We have a ball working on this show and I’m pleased to say everyone gets along very well.

“I’ve fallen off a horse a couple of times and taken a few big jumps,” she continues. “I’ve also [accidentally] hit one or two people during fights. There was one take where I nailed a ‘cannibal’ right in the nose. Because he wasn’t a stunt guy he didn’t know how to snap his head back before my fist could made contact. He was standing a bit too close to me and I clipped him. I felt terrible, but luckily he wasn’t badly hurt. It’s a miracle, actually, that I haven’t hurt myself considering I’m such a klutz. I’ll bump and fall into anything in front of me. I’ve got really good balance, however, and I’m flexible. I can also hyperextend my whole body, which is one of the reasons why I can fight so well.

“I do all my own stunts, at least everything the producers will allow me to do. It’s all part of the fun. I’d rather handle my own fight scenes or whatever before turning it over to someone else. I will admit, though, that I have learnt to pace myself. If I’m filming a fight scene first thing in the morning I’m so tired by the end of the day that I can’t do anything else. I’ve got to keep my energy up, so that’s when my stunt girl will do my wide-shots and then I’ll step in for the close-ups.”

Towards the end of The Lost World’s third season, the actress gained an on-screen sidekick when Lara Cox joined the cast as Finn, a young woman from the future who comes to stay with Veronica and the others on the plateau. “She’s like a little sister to my character,” says O’Dell. “Like Veronica, her parents died when Finn was young. She’s a strong-willed individual who looks up to Veronica and is trying to be like her, so the writers have paired them up quite a bit. In their first episode together Veronica and Finn coming bounding through the tree house like Batman and Robin to save their friends. Lara and I have a great time working with each other and she fits in really well with the rest of the cast.”

Knowing she almost lost out on playing Veronica, O’Dell is even more grateful to be part of The Lost World. “The show has helped me not only build my self-confidence as an actor but also hone my craft,” she says. “It’s a match made in heaven and one I hope will continue for a while yet to come.”

Steve Eramo