'Enterprise' Guest Stars Recall Trek Experiences

Star Trek: Enterprise guest stars Tucker Smallwood and Laurence Monoson, who appeared last weekend at the SF Ball in Great Britain both expressed regret at the cancellation of the series, though each had appeared previously on the series and felt that the franchise would return in yet another form.

"My sense is in many ways this franchise was not taken to heart as some of the earlier incarnations were," said Smallwood in comments reported by Sci Fi Pulse. "It needs a bit of a break and maybe you know in 2 or 3 years whatever, it will come back with a new concept, a fresh idea and you will be hungry for new things."

In addition to his popular role as the Xindi Primate council member who appeared in numerous episodes of Enterprise's third season, Smallwood played Admiral Bullock in Star Trek: Voyager's "In the Flesh." A veteran actor of almost 40 years' experience, Smallwood noted that there was less collaboration between the actors and the production team on Star Trek than on most series. "They are unique in my experience," he explained. "I change everybody's dialogue...I know my own rhythms and generally writers know that I will respect their intent but I know how my character speaks and if it's an authority figure you can't be looking for how to say it." With Star Trek, however, "you do not change a definite article. I've never seen anything as arbitrary or as enforced as that."

He was pleased to be able to create the social mores of Xindi culture along with Randy Ogelsby (Degra). "Generally in science fiction and particularly in Star Trek the alien races have a culture and there's a bible." But unlike the Klingons, the social customs of the Xindi had not been scripted, which gave the actors some room in "creating all of that."

Monoson played first officer Matthew Ryan in the first season Enterprise episode "Fortunate Son" and the trainee storyteller Hovath from Deep Space Nine's "The Storyteller." He explained that he argued with the producers, saying that he did not want to shave his sideburns for a one-shot appearance and that when they made him a recurring character, then he'd consider it.

Concerning Enterprise, he noted, "One interesting thing have been hearing from people about this year is that it has been finding a certain cool groove, and it just seems to be finding its voice and Paramount have cancelled it when many thought the shows would run into infinity."

The original article with photographs may be found at Sci Fi Pulse.

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