Downey & Seymour Remember Days Past

Deborah Downey and Carolyn Seymour are two names and faces that may or may not be known to you. Downey appeared in the classic Original Series episode 'The Way to Eden', while Seymour has appeared in both the Next Generation and Voyager, in addition to roles on 'Babylon Five' and another sci-fi classic, 'Quantum Leap'.

"I was a singer, I wasn't an actress, I was trying to make it in music, and I did some acting on the sidelines," Downey told Hartriono B. Sastrowardoyo at a recent Philadelphia convention. It was actually that musical talent, rather than her acting ability, which won her the role of Mavig on the show's fifth last episode 'The Way to Eden'. In it, the script required her character to have a musical jam session with Leonard Nimoy's Spock. "It was so much fun" she recalled, "I was eighteen at that time. Can you imagine?" That jam session is now immortalized as the video jacket cover for the episode and as the picture on its trading card.

While working with Nimony, she found him to be a "very pleasant, very nice man. Just exactly as you would expect him to be. Funny and warm and charming, he made you feel at ease because he knew you were scared." She had her makeup done right next to the legendary actor, and even had the opportunity to take a couple of pairs of 'Spock Ears' home as a keepsake.

Unfortunately, at 19 Downey developed temporomandibular joint disease, an arthritic condition involving the jaw which made singing more or less impossible. She stuck to the arts, however, and is now a successful portrait painter who will be doing paintings of some of the Star Trek characters.

Carolyn Seymour, on the other hand, is still acting today and has appeared in several episodes of both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Voyager. Like Downey though, she also found her time spent on the Trek sets to be an enjoyable experience - despite a major down-side. "Oh, I do loved doing them! I remembered they were such a great company to work with, and just great people. I always had such a good time working on Star Trek, even if it meant putting in long long long hours. Punishing hours."

Seymour has played three roles in 'The Next Generation' and ranks the first of them along side 'Quantum Leap' character Zoey as one of her favourite characters to play. "I think Sub-Commander Taris was a fabulous character. I loved playing Zoey in Quantum Leap. But I played so many evil characters it's quite difficult. You sit there and have to think of something new with every one. They can't all be the same. [pause] But I think Sub-Commander Taris was my favorite." Seymour has also played Science Minister Mirasta Yale in season four episode 'First Contact' and Commander Toreth in season six's 'Face of the Enemy'.

As the holonovel character 'Mrs. Templeton', Seymour appeared in three Voyager episodes, 'Eye of the Needle', 'Cathexis' and 'Persistence of Vision' - and got to have fight with the Captain. "I don't think they knew what was going to happen with Mrs. Templeton," she told her interviewers. "They got carried away, and I wound up having that fight with Capt. Janeway." She says she thinks that "Janeway was to supposed to have wound up killing [Templeton], but she couldn't do that, because she's never killed anyone." This plot line was apparently "going to go further but they decided to do less on the holodeck. They were doing too much on the holodeck, so they took her off."

The Great Link has both interviews in their Conventions and People section. The complete interview with Deborah Downey can be found by following this link, while Carolyn Seymour's full interview with Hartriono B. Sastrowardoyo and Bob Vosseller can be found here.

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