Montgomery: Trek Has No Racial Boundaries

As the latest African-American actor to be featured in a Trek series, Anthony Montgomery (Travis Mayweather) is thrilled that the franchise continues to embrace people of all different races.

"I love the fact that Star Trek has always been a show that does not have racial boundaries at all," Montgomery told SFX Magazine's Ed Gross (via the Great Link). "When you hear people say, 'It doesn't matter whether you're red, yellow, green or blue,' Star Trek actually has people that are red, yellow, green and blue. I love that."

The crew of the Enterprise NX-01 is a prime example of this philosophy, according to the actor. "We have every walk of life on this show. We've got the alien doctor, the Vulcan, myself as an African-American and Linda Park as an Asian-American comm officer. That's what Star Trek is. That's the best part, to me, about the whole thing. We're bridging gaps, and Star Trek has done that for years."

Montgomery is excited to act as a positive African-American role model. "It's wonderful to have this opportunity, because as an actor, you're not always blessed to work in itself, and when you do get to work, the work you do doesn't always affect people in that kind of way," he said. "I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to affect a positive change, to whatever degree, and evoke some kind of thought process, even if it's on a subconscious level.

To read the full interview with Montgomery, pick up the February 2002 issue of SFX Magazine, out now. Alternatively, a transcript can be found at the Great Link.

Scott Bakula (Jonathan Archer) is also thrilled to be on-board Enterprise, but he was initially very nervous about following in the footsteps of the other Trek captains.

"It was intimidating thinking about it," Bakula told the TV Guide Channel. "Now that I'm into it, it's not so much, but there's been a lot of great captains before me."

The actor said he hopes people will embrace Archer on his own merits. "The curse is off because in a sense I get to become the first captain, so I'm not living up to their history, I'm living up to what people in their minds think about me," he said. "Obviously people compare captains and you can't do anything about that, you know 'Who's your favourite captain? blah blah blah.'

"But this is a brand new scene," Bakula continued, "and people who have never seen the Star Trek series could hook on to the first episode, the pilot episode, and come along for the ride from the beginning because you don't need to know what's been going on for the last 35 years."

The 45-second video interview can be downloaded here at the TV Guide Channel. Thanks to Miri for this!

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