Marina Sirtis: I’m an old married woman, off the ship.

DE: There are an awful lot of hints of finality in the new film.

MS: You mean like ‘A Generation’s Final Journey?’ That big clue. Right bang on the poster...

DE: I understand you didn’t have anything to do with it being a swan song of some kind...

MS: Are we talking about Star Trek here? Do they ask opinions about things? No, no. That was something we knew, we knew when we started shooting that this was probably going to be the last movie.

DE: How do you feel about that?

MS: I don’t know, I think it sucks, actually, to be honest. I’m still young and vital, I feel I have a few more movies left in me. I don’t know. Maybe like it was time for the original cast, for their movies to end, maybe it was time for our movies to end. I don’t know.

MS: [laughs] It does. Except that Sherry Lansing [CEO of Paramount Studios] at the last premiere said that there is no Star Trek without Patrick Stewart and every suit in the place said ‘Oh my God, she didn’t really say that...’ and started taking out their pocket books and adding up how much money they had with them. But I don’t know, anything is possible. We could come back into a movie and Kate could be the captain, I mean they have a whole team of 30 actors or so to choose to put in movies. And they will all be much cheaper than us [laughs].

DE: So you were aware that it could be the last time?

MS: Oh, yes we were. When we read it, we knew. Actually, before we even read it, that was the vibe.

DE: And did that make it rather poignant?

MS: It was a really hard movie to make because of that. We all really get along; we are best friends outside of filming, so every scene was bittersweet. It was, ‘OK, this is the last time I’m going to be doing this, this is the last time I’m going to be working with whoever.’ Everything was the last time, and so it was really hard, especially for me because I’m like a faucet, I’m crying all the time.

DE: Did you enjoy having such serious issues to play?

MS: Yeah, because I used to be a serious character and then in First Contact they did that drunk thing and suddenly my character was wacky and zany and not really the cerebral serious person she was in the past, and it was nice to get back to that. Because I see myself as a big dramatic actress, unfortunately, [laughs] so I enjoy doing all that stuff - it’s the Greek in me comes out, you know.

DE: Did you see the marriage coming?

MS: No. Well, we knew early on, before I’d even seen a script, that Jonathan and I would be getting married.

DE: So how was the last day of shooting? Was it a bit like a funeral?

MS: Well, yes, that’s the problem with doing something for so long. I mean, seven years on the series, when we shot Generations, which was the movie that came after the series, it didn’t hit me that it was over at the end of the series - I had three days off and went into the movie right away. But at the end of the movie, I was literally walking around the sets, devastated, you know, having no idea that we were going to make another movie, I didn’t know, as far as I was concerned it was over and it was soul destroying, and then we figured out that we were doing some more. And now it’s come full circle again and yeah, it’s been such a huge part of our lives and a good part. None of us is going to turn around and say we regret a minute of it.

DE: What was the last scene you shot?

MS: God, I really can’t remember. I wasn’t there at the end. My filming finished about a month before the movie finished filming and I think it wasn’t an important scene, that’s probably why I don’t remember. It was probably something where I was, around.

DE: I’m sure that people in the wedding scene were looking at Worf, because that was part of that whole ménage a trois between your character Worf and Riker.

MS: No, we couldn't even go there. Because in the meantime, while Michael was on Deep Space 9, he got married to someone else and it was not an issue at all. Michael tried to make it an issue; he was playing a little hurt because he possibly still had feelings.

DE: So that wasn’t a real hangover?

MS: Oh, he had a hangover, but I think he had been drinking because he was upset. So you know Michael Dorn will milk everything out of every scene, what’s there to be had he will get it [laughs].

DE: Stuart Baird said that with the wedding scene he wanted to get everybody there, but that wasn’t possible so he had this small group. Why wasn’t it possible?

MS: To have everybody there? Well, we did. We obviously had the whole cast, we had Whoopie Goldberg, we had Will Wheaton, I think that’s all we brought in, that weren’t involved anymore.

DE: Will was very hurt that his part got cut out...

MS: Well, you know we all had stuff cut out. I had a lot cut out; Brent had even more, Patrick, we all had huge chunks cut out. It was a long script and Stuart wanted the picture to move. So stuff has gone but it makes for a better picture, I think.

DE: That last day, was the devastation you felt because you knew it was the last paycheck?

MS: The last paycheck? Oh, you know us so well [laughs]. It’s not like we weren’t not going to see each other again because we see each other all the time but we are our favorite people to work with, so that’s what it is.

DE: What have you done since Nemesis?

MS: I’ve done two other films this year where I didn’t have to wear a space suit, which is always good. The first one was a movie on PAX a few months ago and it was called Terminal Error, with Michael Nouri and then I did a film just recently with C Thomas Howell called Net Games, and that’s like a Fatal Attraction, kind of Basic Instinct in the age of the internet.

DE: How have you enjoyed the season-by-season retrospectives?

MS: You are assuming I watch this. I don’t watch myself.

DE: You have interviews on the DVDs.

MS: Do I? [Laughs]. Well, I know I’m being interviewed but I don’t watch them. I’m flicking the channels on TV and I come to TNN and I go ‘OK, there I am.’ and I move right along because I find myself totally uninteresting to watch. I’d rather watch West Wing than myself.

DE: Do you enjoy doing the interviews?

MS: We do so many interviews. And it’s OK; these are for the DVDs and they ask us questions about the specific seasons. We’re actors. We love talking about ourselves.

DE: How did it feel working with John Logan the screenwriter?

MS: It was brilliant. I mean we all went out to dinner last night, John included, and out of all of us at the table, John is the biggest Trekkie, and he’s watched every episode of every incarnation of Star Trek and he’s still watching Next Generation on TNN. Yeah, he’s a big fan and we knew that he would be really true to the spirit of Star Trek, the spirit of the characters, he knows our characters as well as we do and he just knows it, so there was never any concern that he was going to do a good job.

DE: What do you think about all speculation that still goes on about Star Trek, on the internet and everything?

MS: God bless them, it’s great, you know. It’s such a compliment to every cast of Star Trek to think that they have maintained this interest in the franchise after 36 years; you know it’s amazing. What else has been around for 36 years?

DE: Have you watched the new one?

MS: Enterprise? Bits and pieces. Not consistently.

DE: If they were to propose a new series with the ship that your character is going to, would you be interested in that?

MS: Sure.

DE: I had heard that a lot of you wanted the series to continue.

MS: Yes, Jonathan and me particularly wanted it to continue forever.

DE: It seems like it still could.

MS: Except that Jonathan is this big time director now, so I don’t know whether he would want to go back to being an actor on a TV series, we would have to see.

DE: Did it bug him that he didn’t direct for a third time?

MS: No, I don’t think he wanted to. I don’t think he wanted to direct this movie. He used Star Trek as a lot of people have used Star Trek as kind of a launching pad to other things that they wanted to do in their careers, whether it was writing like Brent with this movie, Jonathan and directing ...I think Jonathan felt he had learned the action stuff, all the special effects, all the different aspects of directing and now he had learned it and he could go on. He didn’t need to do another Star Trek film.

DE: Did you see the Denise Crosby documentary on all the fans?

MS: No.

DE: It’s a wonderful piece of work.

MS: It is? I sometimes have an issue with fan things, because I don’t like people making fun of the fans. If it’s affectionate, then OK, but I really get pissed off when people knock fans and make fun of them because they are the reasons I’ve grown accustomed to this lifestyle and God bless them, you know. May they keep watching.

DE: Do you ever go to the conventions?

MS: I was the convention Queen, unfortunately. You know, I never even feel I need a bodyguard or anything. I go to these things on my own, literally. Get on a plane, arrive, do the whole thing. I can remember Brent Spiner, who was a bit wary of doing them, asked me once, ‘What’s it like?’ After I’d come back from one and I said, ‘Brent, if you have a problem with being adored for two days then don’t go.’

DE: What do you think about My Big Fat Greek Wedding?

MS: I loved it, but why wasn’t I in it? That’s what I want to know.

DE: Thanks.