TONIGHT! 6pm PDT/9pm EDT Unspun With AnnaZ and Mercuria
An interview with MICHELE MALKIN!
Click HERE to listen LIVE!
Call in! 1-868-RadioFR!
Posted on 12/10/2002 6:11:14 PM PST by new cruelty
By LUAINE LEE Scripps Howard News Service December 10, 2002
NEW YORK - Don't ask Brent Spiner, the lovable yellow-eyed Data from "Star Trek: The Next Generation," what happened in Episode 17. Or 42. Or 135, for that matter.
Spiner doesn't watch the show much, even though he starred on it for seven years and is back again, squeezed into his Spandex leotards and pancake-batter makeup for the new feature, "Star Trek Nemesis."
"I didn't watch the show," he says, looking strangely normal on this brisk afternoon in a bustling hotel here. "I did it one time, and it was over. ... I like other things (aside from science fiction). I'd seen a lot of the original series when I was in college, seen about 20 episodes of our series, and that's it. For the most part, I'm not a huge sci-fi fan. For me, I like Jack Haley in 'The Wizard of Oz.' "
Spiner admits he was worried about accepting the role when it rolled around 15 years ago, and he was still a hand-to-mouth thespian. "I was really afraid to take it because I thought it would ruin my career. It wasn't that I was constantly working, but I worked a lot at that time before I did 'Star Trek.' I'd already done four Broadway shows. I had done a lot of guest shots, other pilots. Things were happening, I was working. Then I got offered this and a friend of mine, who's an actor, I said to him, 'I don't know if I should take this. I may never work again.'
"He said, 'You're crazy, you'll work MORE.' He was right, really. I think I've been working a great deal since the series ended in other things. I don't know, I may have never really emerged in any sort of way. I may have been a journeyman actor - which is what I was and might've been completely happy with that."
Even so, Spiner, 53, admits that his life changed with the advent of Data and his total recall. "The biggest difference for me was the luxury - being an actor - of being able to pay my rent every month without thinking about it, of knowing for sure I could pay my rent or mortgage or whatever. It was a huge difference and huge luxury for an actor. That's been the biggest difference. And my parents don't really worry about my future because I'm an actor."
Spiner, whose gentle spirit shines through the heavy makeup and limited emotionality of his android character, admits he's playing a new role now for which he's singularly unqualified: The role of father.
"I don't know the first thing about being a father because I didn't have a role model. I didn't have anyone doing it every day for me to know what to do for my son," he says.
Spiner's dad, who owned and operated a furniture store in his native Houston, died when Brent was 10 months old. His mother married five years later and his stepfather adopted him and his older brother.
"Fortunately, I think it (parenting) comes naturally," he says, shifting in his chair, a shaft of sunlight piercing the afternoon haze. "As long as you respect your child, loving him becomes really natural. I don't know what I'm going to do when he's older and things like discipline are concerned. I'm just not sure how I'm going to deal with that."
Becoming a father was a revelation, says Spiner, who's married to Loree McBride. "What I discovered about me was that I was capable of doing it, which is something I just doubted for a long time because I didn't have a real role model for it. I really questioned whether I could do it, and I'm having a really nice time with it."
While many famous television personalities, like Henry Winkler, Carroll O'Connor, Roseanne, Richard Thomas and Mary Tyler Moore, have had difficulties erasing their indelible TV images, Spiner hasn't suffered a similar plight. "It's not a problem," he says, shaking his head.
"I don't think the industry knows who I am. I've done 10 other movies since the series ended that haven't been 'Star Trek.' I've done other television shows and Broadway. I did '1776' here five years ago, the lead in a Broadway show. I never had done that before. I did the series, so obviously it hasn't hurt me," he says, shrugging.
TONIGHT! 6pm PDT/9pm EDT Unspun With AnnaZ and Mercuria
An interview with MICHELE MALKIN!
Click HERE to listen LIVE!
Call in! 1-868-RadioFR!
Sometimes it's frightening how time flies.
Actress Marina Sirtis (news ) poses for a photo after arriving to the premiere of 'Star Trek Nemesis' in Los Angeles, California on December 9, 2002.
Sirtis stars as Lt. Commander Deanna Troi in the movie, which opens in the United States on December 13. REUTERS/Adrees Latif
I always thought one of 'em was bigger than the other.
17 = "When the bough breaks". 42 = "Q Who". 135 = "The Quality of Life".
"I didn't watch the show," he says
How sad. STtNG had some great episodes.
Good for him. There is a lesson in this. I must say, I've always been impressed by actors who are better than the silly trash they appear in.
Silly Trash?!?
I always thought it was good entertainment and I like science fiction. I am also aware that Gene Roddenberry was somewhat of a Liberal but I overlooked it.
I remember that- good line.
That almost makes up for him springing out from behind cover and yelling "Drop your weapons" and calling it "a warrior's reaction".
I used to refer to her in TNG as 'the fifth wheel'.
10) Troi would not comprehend their emotions: "Captain, I sense...whoo! whoo! ...You numbskull.... Why, I oughta..."
9) Riker will be reduced to tears when they call him "Fat Boy."
8) Transporter. Cream pie. You get the picture.
7) Curly could jam turbolifts with his head, rendering security unable to leave their deck.
6) Larry, Moe and Curly have already been where no man has been before.
5) The Enterprise crew will be mesmerized by Curly as he does the curly shuffle, and Moe and Larry will take control of the ship.
4) Wesley won't be there to save the Enterprise in the last few minutes with something he learned in science class.
3) Picard doesn't know The Block.
2) If Curly can take a lead pipe to the head, he's just going to laugh at a phaser on stun.
1) Any stooge can outrun Enterprise security.
As an ardent Asimov afficiando, (aliteraton anyone), I enjoyed the character Data, as much as his early guise as "Robbie the Robot"
"Warning Will robinson!!!"
And who can forget that sinister character from "Captain Video and his Video Rangers" You know, the evil Tobor, (which was robot spelled backwards)!
But my favorite movies are good old kick butt war movies.
It did get better as time went on. Also, I think part of my initial reaction to it was that the cast was too large and I was getting confused about who was whom. Once I recognized everyone and the story lines improved, I was hooked.
Robbie Restoration Reported There is an excellent history of Robots in entertainment at this site.
BTW the "Lost in Space" space ship was recycled from the movie Forbidden Planet as well and showed up in many movie/TV venues including "Twilight Zone"!
Agree. I much prefered the capitalist alternative Babylon-5, where political deceit, corruption and murder were still part of the social fabric, because liberal fascism was *not* assumed to be the inevitible natural order of government.
IIRC, Whoopie Goldberg approached Paramount about a bit-part in the series. Seems she's been a Trek fan for a long time. They created not only a role for her, but an entire part of the ship which had never even been *mentioned* previously.
The only episode that I liked her in was the one in which Q zips the Enterprise far into hostile, uncharted space and forces the first confrontation with the Borg.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.