Darren: I Gotta Do This
1 min readWhen first approached to do Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, James Darren was lukewarm on the idea.
It took several attempts by Ira Behr to get Darren involved in the series. “I didn’t want to do it,” he said. “A singer on Star Trek? Are you crazy?”
Darren was more amenable to a different role on the show though. “I’ll be on as an alien, not a singer,” he said, until they had him read the script for his role. “I did,” said Darren, “and it was, ‘Crap! I gotta do this!”
The part turned out to be fun for Darren. “…The whole thing about this guy being from the ’50s and being a lounge singer and me being a hologram was even more interesting,” he said. “They built this big lounge set, and when I would get up to sing, the whole crew would stop working to watch. I did 10 of those episodes and I had a ball. That was one of the highlights of my career.”
Darren still performs live and will be appearing this evening as part of the Swing, Swing, Swing concert with the Four Aces and Gene Krupa Tribute Big Band in Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza. His website is located here.
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