Shepherd: Trek Fans Love Morn
2 min readEven though Star Trek: Deep Space Nine has been over for years, fans still remember and love the character of Morn.
Mark Allen Shepherd, who portrayed the silent character, was surprised and gratified at how popular Morn became. “I was so amazed that I had to collect at least one copy of every magazine that had Morn on the cover or featured somehow inside: covers of Entertainment Weekly, Starburst, MAD magazine, Fangoria, DS9 comic books, as well as Newsweek, TV Guide, Star Trek Magazine, Starlog, Deep Space Nine Magazine, etc. It was unbelievable when the studio started delivering me large manila envelopes filled with fan mail.”
Receiving over a thousand pieces of fan mail meant that many more fans loved Morn. “I’m told that every piece of fan mail represents an estimated fifteen-thousand fans,” said Shepherd, “and when I received one thousand pieces of fan mail that means that some fifteen million fans love Morn, a character that never said a word in the seven years that he was on the show.”
In fact, the character became so popular that a publicist told Shepherd something rather surprising. “I was told by a publicist for the show ‘Did you know that we’ve been told by production to tone down your character a bit because we are starting to get more requests for pictures of Morn in print than some of the stars of the show?'”
The character still draws interest even today. “In Germany, where I live now, there was a Star Trek 50th anniversary feature done in the local TV Guide & Movie magazine that had Morn listed number five in a top 10 list of the Most Curious Stories in Star Trek History,” explained Shepherd. “It’s just one of those things that has almost a magical quality to it and seems to take on a life of its own, and it’s something I’m very grateful for.”
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