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Marina Sirtis returns to action as Deanna Troi on Dec. 1 when she guest-stars in the "Pathfinder" episode of ``Star Trek: Voyager.''
Some Trekkers might say it's about time, but here's a tasty factoid: Sirtis passed on an earlier ``Voyager'' guest-spot offer. ``I think it was their first season,'' Sirtis says. ``It was a very, very small role _ I was going to be a hologram or something like that in one scene. ``I turned it down because, if I did an episode, I wanted it to be something a little meatier,'' she says. ``I didn't want to waste my guest shot doing a small part like that.''
Sirtis plays a decidedly meaty role in ``Pathfinder,'' which revolves around the ever-eccentric Reg Barclay (Dwight Schultz) and his quest to contact the Voyager crew. Everyone around him figures that he's losing his marbles again.
Enter Troi.
``I come down to Earth after he calls me, in order to help him out,'' Sirtis says by telephone from her home in Los Angeles. ``And he does it -- he makes contact.
``Deanna is counseling,'' she says. ``She's back to being a counselor, and she's not the wacky, zany Deanna from the movies. She's the Deanna from `The Next Generation,' the sympathetic, empathic counselor.
``There were wonderful scenes, the kind of emotional moments I haven't gotten to do in a long time,'' Sirtis says. ``When I was doing them on `Voyager,' I realized I'd actually missed the fact that Deanna was the touchstone and kind of the emotional heart of the crew on the series.
``It was such a great feeling to do that again.'' Even better, Sirtis believes that ``Pathfinder'' could trigger major repercussions in Trekland.
``This is my take,'' she says. ``I could be totally wrong, but I've got a feeling that `Pathfinder' is the beginning of bringing Voyager back to Earth.''
While that remains to be seen, Sirtis is moving on to other projects. Though still the queen of the convention circuit, she along with her husband, Michael Lamper recently bought a Mexican restaurant in the Los Angeles area, and the actress has also completed an episode of ``Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict.''
The hour, entitled ``The Cloister,'' will air the week of Dec. 6. It features Sirtis as Sister Margaret, the intense, unyielding leader of a cult of women devoted to the show's main alien threat, the Taelons.
``I called Majel a few months ago, just to chat and see what she was up to,'' Sirtis says, referring to Majel Barrett Roddenberry. The widow of ``Trek'' creator Gene Roddenberry, Barrett Roddenberry played Sirtis' mother on ``Next Gen'' and executive-produces ``Earth: Final Conflict.''
``She told me about her new shows and how well things were going,'' Sirtis says. ``She had been a little unhappy with `Earth: Final Conflict' last season, but said it was going great again. And I said, `Well, is there anything in it for me?' ``Majel said, `Funny you should say that. We just got a script that I think you might want to do,''' she recalls. ``I said, `Well, I'll do it.' And that was what happened.''
At the moment, Sirtis is anxiously awaiting the start of television's pilot season, hoping to hook up with another series that will enjoy a long and prosperous run. She's not, however, holding her breath waiting for word on ``Star Trek 10.''
``I've heard nothing,'' she says. ``At this point I won't be surprised at whatever happens. I won't be surprised if we make one, and I won't be surprised if we don't.'' If the movie doesn't happen, she adds, it won't necessarily be a bad thing. ``It's time to let the battery recharge,'' Sirtis says. ``I wasn't crazy about `The Phantom Menace,' I have to say, but I think one of the reasons it did so well was that people were just so desperate to see another `Star Wars' movie. ``I think it would behoove us to get our fans a little hungrier for `Star Trek' projects than they are right now.''
c.1999 Ian Spelling (Ian Spelling is a New York-based free-lance writer.)