Burton: Father-Daughter Bonding
2 min readLeVar Burton loves it when two generations connect via Star Trek.
While on the set of The Jensen Project, Burton spoke about father-daughter bonding, via Trek or other TV shows. “”I love it when I hear women say they watch Star Trek with their fathers,” he said. “Mica [Burton’s daughter] is not a huge science fiction fan, although when she was little she could identify the different versions of Star Trek just by looking at them. She knew the difference between The Next Generation and Voyager and Deep Space Nine.”
Mica used to watch her father’s show, Reading Rainbow. “…when she was really, really small, she used to call me Daddy Rainbow, from Reading Rainbow, which I have that recorded,” said Burton. “I have a recording of her saying Daddy Rainbow which, my heart melted every time she said that. But I love hearing that fathers and daughters watch Trek together.”
Burton and his daughter will be in attendance at a Star Trek convention in Phoenix this weekend, his daughter’s first Star Trek convention. “There’s a huge anime aspect of it too,” said Burton, who went on to explain that his daughter is a huge anime fan. “I love that my kid has found a passion that involves dressing up and creating a character and stepping into another persona a little bit. My exposure to Star Trek fans at Star Trek conventions over the years has really sort of shown me that people who engage in a fantasy life, a healthy fantasy life are a lot of fun.”
The Jensen Project, a show about twelve geniuses in upstate New York who brainstorm ideas about how to save the world, will air this July. Burton will play Kendrick James. When asked if he could explain his character Twitter-style in one-hundred-and-forty characters or less, Burton said, “Kendrick James is a genius and chief of security for the Jensen Project.”