Billingsley: 'Enterprise' Should Lose More Often

See Also: 'Doctor's Orders' Episode Guide

The Enterprise crew didn't suffer from enough setbacks during the show's first two years on the air, actor John Billingsley (Phlox) said recently.

"In the first and second season, we were able to master every situation so perfectly that it just became routine," Billingsley told Kate O'Hare at Zap2it. "There have been episodes in which there has been a moral struggle, but when it comes down to brass tacks, we're gonna win."

In the interview, conducted in November during the filming of "Doctor's Orders", the actor expressed a desire to see the NX-01's journeys mirror other voyages of exploration. "I have always been interested — and am still interested, and will be interested — in having us lose. For the most part, most of the explorers of the world lived short and violent lives. That's the nature of things, of course, but that runs into the demands of network television."

While Billingsley usually doesn't get as much screen time as the other Enterprise cast members, tonight's episode is all his. In "Doctor's Orders", Phlox helps T'Pol run the ship while the rest of the crew is in stasis — and even appears naked. So what do Denobulans look like in the buff?

"I have a spiny ridge glued onto my back," the actor said. "There are some striations painted down my front to match my face and hands. Of course, I was hoping there would be other appendages and protuberances, so that people would be walking around in slack-jawed admiration for the rest of the run of the show. After all, I have three wives. What does that suggest? What does that imply?"

To read the full interview, in which Billingsley also talked about Phlox's philosophy, head over to Zap2it.

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