Biggs: Taking Damar From Lackey To Leader
2 min read
When Casey Biggs was initially asked to play Damar in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, he had no idea that a small role would blossom into four years worth of appearances on the show.
The role was initially supposed to be a one-time appearance. “I …said, ““Why are they asking me to come in here? They could get anyone to do this,'” said Biggs. “It was like one line, or something”.
“Little did I know they were looking for a foil for Dukat, for Marc Alaimo’s character,” said Biggs. “When I got on there they just liked what I was doing so much that they just kept writing more and more and more. I was on the show for four years, I think, and the role kept getting bigger and bigger. It was a wonderful character arc to play, to go from the bad guy’s lackey to the leader of the empire. That was pretty great.”
Biggs knew nothing about the Cardassians, but Marc Alaimo [Dukat] set him at ease. “I’d never done anything like it before,” said Biggs. “I had no idea who these Cardassians were. My first day I met Marc Alaimo, and thank God. He’s the quintessential Cardassian. He is Cardassian. He said, ‘Arrrggh, don’t worry about it. I’ll tell you what you need to know.'”
Like many actors, Biggs has favorite episodes. He especially likes the episode [Strange Bedfellows] where he twice taunts Weyoun #8; once encouraging the Vorta to “talk to Worf again” (after Worf had snapped the neck of Weyoun #7 earlier in the episode) and once taunting Weyoun when Weyoun was dreading a meeting with the Female Founder after Worf and Ezri escaped from detention. “I liked the one where I kept killing off Weyoun,” he said. “I remember a wonderful scene where Weyoun comes into my office and starts griping at me, and I say, ‘You’d better be careful or I’ll be talking to Weyoun #9 pretty soon.’ I loved that kind of stuff.”
Biggs also liked Tacking into the Wind. “That was also the episode where I found out that I had a family,” he said. “I had no idea that Damar even had a family until I read that script. Weyoun comes in and says, ‘Well, your wife and child were killed.’ I read that and said, ‘I had no idea that I had a wife and child.’ I might have played Damar a little differently if I had known that.”
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