Nogulich Nostalgic For Nechayev

Natalija Nogulich said that she was "captivated by the intelligence and intrigue" of Star Trek: The Next Generation's scripts when she was cast as Admiral Alynna Nechayev.

In an interview with Australia's Sci Fi Reporter E-Newsletter, Nogulich said that she had seen a few episodes of the original series episodes of the original series but "was not what you would call a 'Trekkie'" until she was cast on Next Gen - on which she also had an appreciation for the actors, whom she called "superb and very persuasive in each of their roles."

Nogulich had auditioned to be on Star Trek before but did not feel that the earlier roles fit her the way Nechayev did. "My character was featured in some of the biggest and perhaps most dramatic episodes of Next Gen and DS9," she observed. "I felt that she was created to be a straight up, principled, disciplined officer, who always had the interest of the Federation at heart. It made her a tough cookie some of the time."

However, Nogulich felt that Nechayev revealed more of her private side in later episodes, "and that after he had offered me tea and Valerian canapé, there was an underlying mutual understanding between them." She was impressed by the range of fans with whom she has come into contact and found that "some loved my character, some hated her, but they loved to hate her, and therefore never missed an episode, and became fans. She was a complex character and that's compelling."

An actress with a substantial TV resume, Nogulich has done comedy on Designing Women and played a darkly sardonic judge on The Practice. A recent appearance on 24 delighted her because that series is "one of my all time favourite shows." She founded a California theatre company, the Grace Players, where she recently finished a cycle of Eugene O'Neill plays and is about to begin a Shakespeare festival. In addition, she has written a screenplay, A Woman's War, about the Balkan civil war in the 1990's.

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