Brent Spiner's Star Trek pride

09-09-2006 07:45

It's been 40 years since Captain James T. Kirk's first voyage into space, the final frontier. Since then, several other crews have boldly gone where the crew of the Starship Enterprise became legends and household names.However, despite the iconic status of the original series, it was the second incarnation of the 'Star Trek' universe - 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' - that captured the hearts of millions around the world.Like the series' predecessor, the cast and crew of TNG became some of the most recognisable faces on TV, and on the big screen in films including 'Generations', 'First Contact', 'Insurrection' and 'Nemesis'. Among the most recognisable of those faces is Brent Spiner who played the android Lieutenant Commander Data.Away from the 'Star Trek: The Next Generation'' universe - a place he has long left behind - Brent is a regular performer on the Broadway stage and has also starred in a string of blockbuster films including 'Independence Day' and 'The AviatorNow, Brent has been given the honour of representing the Star Trek universe in the UK as fans celebrate the franchise's 40th year.

Find out how his world, and the worlds behind his world, have been influenced by one of the most popular and most successful television shows in history.

You must be very proud to have been part of something so big and so well loved by fans.

I'm delighted to have been a part of it. I hope there is always an interest in it. It has just exploded, even though the original series wasn't wildly successful in it's time. No one had any idea 'Star Trek' was going to be as successful or as influential as it has been. It changed the face of sci-fi TV forever.

But 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' is now more popular than the original show.

I think it's because we came along at the right time. 'Star Trek' had come back as a movie, and had been successful, but when we came along it seemed impossible to people that we could do a 'Star Trek' without the original cast. However, it was the dubious nature of that that actually worked in our favour in the end.

So why did people take to 'Next Generation' but not the other 'Star Trek' shows like 'Enterprise'?

When we started people said we could never do another 'Star Trek' but when we did and it was good it was a bigger deal. The shows that came after us didn't have quite the same opportunity to prove something and so everyone had high expectations. People had no expectations of us apart from failure... which made our success bigger than ever. I really don't think people's issues with the other shows had anything to do with quality. I think the other shows were just as good as our show. If you look at all the other shows that are on TV now like 'Stargate', 'Babylon 5', The 4400' and '24' they all have writers on their staff who have written for 'Star Trek'. 'Next Generation' just came along at the right time. People were hungry for more 'Star Trek'. We never had any expectations attached to us, the people came after us did.

The list of guest stars on the show reads like a who's who of Hollywood. You had some great cameos on there.

We did, but back then we never knew those people would become as big as they did. We didn't have a clue. Ashley Judd was a guest star and we had no idea she was going to become this hugely popular actress. She wasn't even that good on the show. She was a novice, she didn't know what she was doing. She was okay, she looked adorable but we never knew she would turn out to be so truly gifted. Most of them were kids when they did the show, like Kirsten Dunst. I don't even remember her being on it. I remember Famke Janssen being on. It was one of the first things she did and she still had a sort of an accent at the time. I do remember Teri Hatcher being on the show though.

Do you ever look back at the shows and look at all the now-famous people you had on?

I don't. I hardly saw any of the shows. To this day I have only seen about 20 episodes of the show and so I don't really remember things about it. I remember doing certain things.