Scoggins As The Feisty Gilora
2 min read
Sci-fi fans know Tracy Scoggins for her role as Elizabeth Lochley on Babylon 5, but she also had a role in the Star Trek universe.
Scoggins played the Cardassian Gilora Rejal, who mistook Miles O’Brien’s gruffness as a sign of attraction to her on Deep Space Nine‘s Destiny.
Originally, Scoggins was to have been a Klingon on Deep Space Nine. “I’d been asked to play a Klingon and, unfortunately, I’d just severed my Achilles doing sports,” she said. “And, apparently, Klingons are fragile, so I didn’t get to do that part. But I did get Gilora Rejal.”
Scoggins really enjoyed playing an alien. “First of all, she was an intelligent alien, a science officer,” said Scoggins. “I like playing aliens because every day is like Halloween when you’re doing it. You’re free to misbehave. You’re free to take license. You might do things that you wouldn’t do playing, say, the daughter of a dean. When I did DS9, most of my scenes were with Colm Meaney, and I’m a huge fan of his. And I liked that she had an edge to her. She was smart and had this edge, and yet I also got to be sexy. Nobody cared that she was sexy, but she got to be sexy.”
Scoggins misbehaved in-between takes as well. “I went around the Paramount lot and terrorized kids who were there on field trips, and I insulted studio executives,” she said. “I had a ball. I would literally walk up to these precious little children and say, ‘Oh, what are you doing here?’ The kids would tell me they’re having hamburgers at the commissary and I’d tell them I like to eat children who like to eat hamburgers. So they’d go screaming off to their teacher. Finally, security called the sound stage and said, ‘Could you guys try a little harder to keep your aliens contained over there.'”
Although best-known for her work on Babylon 5, Scoggins was a Star Trek fan dating back to her childhood. “I was an original Star Trek fan,” she said. “The original Star Trek helped my mold my life. Mr. Spock…it makes me emotional just thinking about Leonard Nimoy. I played competitive chess as a child and there was no girls’ team because I was always the only girl. Kids would tease me. I don’t like the word bully. But they’d be somewhat unkind. And here came Mr. Spock with his 3D chess set. Suddenly, I was like, ‘Who’s your daddy now?'”
Scoggins will be appearing at the Official Star Trek Convention in Las Vegas next month.
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“I went around the Paramount lot and terrorized kids who were there on field trips, and I insulted studio executives,”
Hmm. Odd that she wasn’t invited back for another Trek role.
I know, right?
Hmm. Sounds like Kang’s kind of woman.