|
|
By Melissa Perenson
or more than a decade, Marina Sirtis has been synonymous with Star Trek, taking the role of the Star Trek: The Next Generation's resident empath and ship's counselor Deanna Troi and molding it in her own image. Sirtis has continually taken her character in new directions--as evidenced by her scene-stealing, zany streak in Star Trek: First Contact and her romantic-comedian role in Star Trek: Insurrection.
She will soon appear in the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Pathfinder," donning her uniform once more to join a fellow Next Gen'er Dwight Schultz (who played the Everyman's crew member, Reginald Barclay) in an episode that could alter the starship Voyager's destiny.
How did the producer's let you know they were interested in having you on board for this episode?
Sirtis: They called my manager, or my agent, and asked if I would be interested in doing a Voyager. And so I said, "Well, find out what the story line is," because there wasn't a script. I've always really enjoyed Dwight, so I just thought it would be fun to work with him again.
When did you find out what the story actually was?
Sirtis: Not until I got the script, which usually is about 10 minutes before you start shooting. [laughs] I got it about a week before we started shooting, a few days before. I didn't really want to be a hologram or anything. It was great that I wasn't, that I was a real person. And I was on Earth with Dwight's [character, Barclay]. Basically, Barclay is trying to make contact with Voyager. He's become obsessed with this whole idea of contacting Voyager. My concern, or Troi's concern, is that he's losing touch with reality again and that we're going to have a relapse into the old [holo-obsession] disorder. I think it's a really good story. If you look at it in terms of Voyager history, this episode is going to be the start of them coming home. So it's kind of a landmark episode, I suppose.
Did you ever expect your character to have the opportunity to appear on Voyager?
Sirtis: Well, no I didn't, because very early on in Voyager, they did ask me to do one, but it was a very short scene, it was like a half-page scene or one scene--I didn't even see the script--where I was a hologram in this tiny little scene. And I really didn't want to--it was too soon after Next Gen had finished, and I wasn't sure that I wanted to go back on one of the other shows in such a minor role. So I had turned that down, and I wasn't sure if they'd ever ask me to do another one. But, of course, they're bigger people than I am [laughs]. Actually, I spoke with [producer] Brannon [Braga] about it, and he quite understood my feelings, and I think it's great that they eventually came up with something that I could do. Which was actually really nice, because in the movies I've kind of gone away from what Troi used to be in the series. And this is going back to the nurturing, kind, psychologist Troi, not the wacky, zany person that she's been in the last two movies. There was one particular scene that was very emotional, where you get this kind of quiet that goes over the crew and everyone is really into it, and it was lovely to have that feeling again, as Troi, having that effect on the crew.
Did it feel a little strange doing a Voyager episode where you used to film Next Generation?
Sirtis: You know what? It was like wow, this is like stepping back in time. They're our old stages, so it was really like going home. It was a different experience than say, if I was working with the Voyager crew, where I would have been the guest star on their show. And I would have felt like that. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but I didn't have that experience at all, because they weren't there. And so it was me with my old [production] crew--I knew two-thirds of the people there. And Dwight. I was like Princess Marina again, you know, it was fabulous [laughs].
What's the focus of this episode?
Sirtis: It's basically a Barclay episode. He's in it all the way through; it's his episode. We did all of my scenes in two days, because they were all in one set. And it was nice, because we did them in order as well, which was great--and very unusual. But because of the location and not having to move around and just being in that one set, we could start at the beginning and work our way through the story lines.
Given the emotionally charged nature of those scenes, I would think that that was actually to your benefit.
Sirtis: Oh yeah, I mean it's always great; that's why I like to do theater, there's always a beginning, a middle, and an end--and there's an arc. So it was almost like doing a play, because there was a definite arc of the relationship, and the story, and a denouement at the end. It was very cool.
There you were on your old soundstages, at your old haunt, did you have the urge to walk around and see what's there now?
Sirtis: I had a little sneak look around. Thinking, "now, what's behind this," [laughs] "oh, that wasn't there," "oh, they have corridors that are different from ours." And of course I had to walk through various corridors to get to my set.
Were you tempted at all by the captain's chair, now owned of course by Kate Mulgrew, a.k.a. Captain Janeway?
Sirtis: No, I didn't, I didn't. Patrick [Stewart] had always trained us very well not to sit in his chair when he wasn't there, so maybe the training has lasted. So, no, I didn't go and sit in Kate's chair. It actually didn't even occur to me.
That brush with flying the Enterprise in Star Trek: Generations didn't sink through enough, eh?
Sirtis: Yeah, I've noticed they get me off the bridge as quickly as possible in the movies now, and send me down to the planet as fast as they can, maybe they never want to take the chance of me being the only one on the bridge who can drive the ship again, I don't know.
Do you have any thoughts on Star Trek: Insurrection not performing up to expectations?
Sirtis: Well, I don't want to go into that, you know, odd-number thing--although it's hard to not wonder about it. I thought Insurrection was a really good film. I think it was a film that Gene Roddenberry would have been proud of.
What have you heard about the next Star Trek movie?
Sirtis: We've heard nothing about another movie. We haven't even heard that there's going to be another movie, so as far as we're concerned at this point in time, we're done. We've done our contractual three pictures, and we haven't heard anything else, so.
Star Trek isn't the only science fiction coal you have in the fire, so to speak. You're also going to appear in Earth: Final Conflict. Was it out of talking with Majel Barrett Roddenberry that this role came up?
Sirtis: Well, ever since the show started, Majel and I had been in contact, we're very good friends, and I had told her I'd love to be on it. She knew I would like to be on it, and I knew that she wanted me on it.
Tell us about your character on the show.
Sirtis: Her name is Sister Margaret. She's the leader of a cult; they're like nuns, but they're not. And they are devoted to the Taelons, absolutely besotted with them. She discovers this kind of energy merging ceremony, or she develops it, and so she has this master plan to mingle the two species; but she also has a secret personal agenda that we don't know about until the end of the show. She's a very weird and strange and edgy.
What else is on tap for you in the future?
Sirtis: Well, I'm shooting a movie in England next summer, which is called Meg Foster. It sounds strange, but it's like a film noir teen movie. I know that sounds a bit like a contradiction in terms, but it's a very interesting concept to make a dark teenagers' film. I'll be playing the evil bad person in that, too. That's the only thing that's a definite right now.