Fandom.com Interviews

Over at Fandom.com’s STC, AntonyF has posted an interview he conducted recently with Jonathan Del Arco, known to the majority of us as Hugh from the TNG episodes, ‘I, Borg’ and ‘Descent II’, where we’re first introduced to the notion of a Borg severed from the collective. Del Arco, as we have known for some time, will be appearing in next week’s Voyager episode, ‘The Void’ as ‘Fantome’. Unlike his previous Trek appearances, this role is more physical than vocal – Fantome is more or less deaf and mute. In the full interview, a snippet of which can be found below, Del Arco talks more about the episode – from the ordeals of makeup to working with the Voyager cast – in addition to some words on his role as Hugh and his current and upcoming work.

Of course it was an entirely new actors for Jonathan to deal with, with no Whoopi or Patrick this time around. But Jonathan is happy with his experience with the latest Trek cast. "They were great. The only two characters I didn`t have scenes with where Kim and Paris, but I had little scenes with the others. Jeri Ryan was, of course, amazing. We had really great fun together. She mentioned she wanted to keep one of me, to adopt one. So that`s pretty good. I`m probably the envy of most people in the galaxy; she wanted a Fantome of her own! There is some pet-like quality to him. I`d be more than willing to stay on the ship and be Jeri`s pet. Not a problem with that!" he laughs.

"Robert Picardo was wonderful too, he came up with lots of great ideas for me. He was great about sharing that, and he was coming up with things for us to do, because so much of what we were doing together was physical; some of it was kind of humorous physical comedy in a way. In the episode he`s sort of my protector, because I`m pretty much afraid of everything."

The Doctor says in "Lineage" that B’Elanna’s pregnancy could last 30 weeks or less, because of her Klingon side. So she is still pregnant later on, in the two-part episode "Workforce," in which the Voyager crew wind up on an alien planet under strange circumstances. But Dawson’s main focus, especially during the second part of the episode, was from the other side of the camera, directing her fellow actors for the second time. She explains the setup, saying, "In ‘Workforce Part I’ we discover that 99% of the crew have been abducted, basically given these new lives, and had their lives on Voyager wiped out of their memories. They believe that they exist as part of this workforce on this planet. Three of our crew, Robert Beltran [Chakotay], and Ethan Phillips [Neelix], and the Doctor are the only ones that have not been abducted and brainwashed. Their job is to get down there and try to convince these people that the lives they are existing are not their own. The way they have to convince them, and what they have to do to return the crew to the ship is all what occurs in the second half of ‘Workforce.’"

Dawson adds, "The first part was directed by Allan Kroeker who is just a fabulous director. Both episodes were also shot at some locations, still on the Paramount lot but actually on location at different areas of the lot, rather than just in the soundstages. So we had some exterior shots, out of the ship into the real air. I enjoyed that."

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