Zar - Son of Spock and Zarabeth - Life Before the Enterprise

Appearance/Capabilities
Zar was born in the Sarpeidon Ice Age, and was the son of Zarabeth and Spock - making him one-quarter Vulcan. Despite being one a quarter Vulcan, his appearance was distinctly Vulcanoid, with a marked resemblance to Spock. His eyes were grey, and he had dark hair. His hearing was exceptional, but although he had the Vulcan inner eyelid, his vision was barely outside human range. His blood type was different than anything the Doctor had ever seen before - a greenish-grey mix. He had spectacular muscle tone from living and hunting in the wilderness, with wide shoulders. McCoy made an observation while Zar was in the Enterprise that at a proper weight, Zar would easily mass more than Spock. Zar also had large keloid scars from an attack by a Vitha - one running along the right forearm from his wrist to his elbow, and another from the outside of his right thigh running nearly to his knee. The only noticable features that belonged to his mother were his jaw and mouth.

Zar was highly intelligent and had amazing telepathic abilities, being able to project strong emotions such as hunger or fear onto other beings. Doctor McCoy also found that when pinching a nerve on Zar's arm, they could both feel the pain. Zar also experienced premonitions, and could pick up on the feelings of those around him.

From the cover of "Yesterday's Son" - click to enlarge

Early Life on Sarpeidon
Zar lived with his mother Zarabeth until she died after falling into a crevasse when he was 19 summers old. Unable to properly bury the body, he placed it underneath an ice sheet in a cave. From that time until he was 25 summers old he lived in complete solitude. To fend off the cold when in the wilderness, he wore a face shield, hood, and furs. Underneath this he wore a leather tunic, under which his emaciation was severe (despite his muscle tone, strength, and endurance). When Zar had 15 summers, he had studied himself in a mirror that his mother had, and then he painted his face on the cave wall along with hunting pictures. After his mother's death, he would sometimes talk to to this face.

He would hunt animals for food, the only real nourishment being meat in the ice age. Because of his ability to mentally project intense feelings, he was able to stop an animal for long enough to capture and kill it.

When Zarabeth was living, Zar found that he could tell what his mother was thinking - but was told that it was not polite to do so without permission. Zarabeth also taught him to read, and would often correct his grammar - before she was exiled to Sarpeidon, she was a teacher. Zarabeth also spoke fondly of Spock to Zar, telling him that he was always loving and caring.


There will be a post about Zar's life on the Enterprise, and afterwards.

Yesterday's Son and Time for Yesterday

Y is for Yesterday!

Remember the TOS episode "All Our Yesterdays"? In this episode, Spock and Doctor McCoy get trapped in the Sarpeidon Ice Age, and Spock starts reverting to the ways of his ancestors five thousand years before he was born. He eats meat, acts aggressively towards McCoy, and falls in love with Zarabeth (an exile). Oh, and then this happens between them:

Gee, I wonder what happened next, after the camera stopped shooting? Don't worry, you'll find out if you keep reading...

There are actually two books that are a follow-up to this episode - "Yesterday's Son", and "Time for Yesterday" by A.C. Crispin. It is in these books that we meet Spock and Zarabeth's son - Zar. I won't go much into the plot, because these are two of my favorite books and I would hate to spoil anybody's experience.

I had always wondered what kind of father Spock would make (although Spock was certainly Saavik's father figure for some time - see "The Pandora Principle"), and things certainly get interesting between Spock and Zar. I recall reading about Zar at mealtime, expressing his angst by eating a meat sandwich deliberately in front of his father.

There are a few strange details, such as Spock being unable to reveal that Zar is his son because of his age. When Spock goes back through the Guardian of Forever to find Zar, he expected to find a baby. Instead he finds a 25 year old man. I find it strange that a man as old as Spock would not be able to have a 25 year old son, seeing as Vulcans live about twice as long as humans, and Spock looks to be quite old enough in the illustrations on the covers. In fact, he looks to be close to the same age as Sarek was in Journey to Babel, and Spock was certainly older than 25 in that episode.

Despite some oddities, however, these are absolutely amazing books. I would highly recommend finding them in any way you can, and reading them at least ten times each.

Yesterday's Son (from the back cover):

The Romulans attack the planet Gateway, where Federation scientists are studying the Guardian of Forever - the mysterious portal to the past. The Enterprise must protect the Guardian - or destroy it. But Spock has already used the portal to journey to the past. On the planet Sarpeidon, 5000 years ago, Spock knew a beautiful, primitive woman. Now he has gone to meet his son!

Time for Yesterday (from the back cover):

Time in the galaxy has stopped running in its normal course. That can mean only one thing - the Guardian of Forever is malfunctioning. To save the universe, Starfleet Command reunites three of its most legendary figures - Admiral James T. Kirk, Spock of Vulcan, and Dr. Leonard McCoy - and sends them on a desperate mission to contact the Guardian, a journey that ultimately takes them 5,000 years into the past. They must find Spock's son Zar once again - and bring him back to their time to telepathically communicate with the Guardian.

But Zar is enmeshed in troubles of his own, and soon Kirk, Spock, and McCoy find themselves in a desperate struggle to save both their world - and his!

William Shatner - Personality Presents the Original Crew #1 1991

W is for William Shatner!

Once there was a girl, trying not to trip over her Vulcan robes as she was shuffling around in paper and books on a convention table. I don't know why she was searching so eagerly - she had not money left. But there it was: Personality Presents the Original Crew - the illustrated biography magazine. Upon glancing over at the magazines, her molecules dissipated and the entire convention room was attacked by Canadian demon-beavers. The only way for her mother to restore the balance was for her to buy the girl the magazines, which were 12 dollars for William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy.

That was a close one.

This magazine's art and lettering was done by Aldrin "Buzz" Aw, and was written by Stephen Spire III. The entire magazine in a biography of William Shatner in comic form. I scanned a few of the best pages. Click image to enlarge.

The magazine starts as such:

"On Thrursday, September 8th 1966 at exactly 8:30P.M. the world was changed forever."

Captain Kirk, Spock, and Dr. McCoy have become modern myths. Heroes in a future that shows hope and promise. This is the story of a man who gave the orders. The big boss, the top man... William Shatner. Captain of the Starship Enterprise."

"Yet, can you picture anybody else playing the part? 

Of course he wasn't born a full fledged Starship Commender. He had to work hard to get that post. Although, a thought comes to mind, let's imagine he was born as Kirk.

Doctor: Nurse! Come here quick! I can't believe my ears!
Nurse: What is it Doctor?
Doctor: Listen to this.
Fetus Shatner: Beam me up, Scotty!"

The "fan" shown in this magazine is a short boy, presumably a child, with a Spock hair cut, fake pointed ears, a Star Trek uniform, and glasses. This fan is shown writing letters for the campaign to save Star Trek, watching the show/movies, and standing around looking inquisitively at a picture of William Shatner.

The magazine is written in a very fun way, and goes through most of William Shatner's life up until that point (1991). It goes over his relationship with his father (how he wanted William to take over his clothing business and felt that acting was foolish, leading to William making his own way in poverty) and about how his father dies during the filming of "Devil in the Dark".

There is even an entire page dedicated to the fluctuations in his weight during the filming of Star Trek (TOS).

Fun facts from the magazine:
In college he worked for the Canadian Broadcasting Company on radio.
He started his television career on a live show called Playhouse 90.
One of the Twilight Zone episodes he appeared in was called "Project Vulcan".
His first major Motion Picture debut was in the 1957 adaptation of "The Brothers Karamazov", followed by "Judgement in Nuremburg"  and "The Intruder" (also known as "Shame" and "I Hate Your Guts").
He also played a murderous mental patient in "Impulse", and starred in an epic B-movie called "Kingdom of the Spiders".
Paramount was only ready to make a Star Trek movie after the success of Star Wars.

The one thing that troubles me are the spelling errors, of which there are a lot of. Despite these errors, however (do they even bother anybody else?), this magazine is one of my favorites and is a very fun read - especially with the superbly done illustrations. One the back cover is very detailed, realistic painting of Patrick Stewart, and there are other TNG portraits scattered inside as well.

PS. That girl from the beginning was me.

Vibrant Oxymoron - T'Laina Revealed

V is for Vibrant Oxymoron!

Ever since I started this blog, I have refrained from posting any pictures of my face. I had a lot of reasons - privacy, mystery... but I got over that quickly. I decided today that I would give my readers (whom I appreciate greatly) a little treat, so I went outside with my camera and took some quick pictures.

I look so impressed all of the time.

That was sarcasm.

Last time I posted a picture of with my hair on here, it was turquoise in the front and blonde in the back. It has grown out a bit since then, and I decided to dye the rest of my hair (which is naturally dark brown). In case anyone is curious, I used Atomic Turquoise Manic Panic.

I recently got braces, which feels strange sometimes. I find that I don't even know how to hold my mouth anymore.

Fun fact: I wear a lot of plaid. My closet looks like a lumberjack ate his/her clothes and vomited on the floor.

I also have an anatomical skull model whom I named Gregory after Dr. Gregory House. I bought it to work one day, but they told me that I couldn't have it at the checkout.

I just really enjoy biology. (See? I have interests other than Star Trek and Doctor Who!)

So there you have it. The face behind the blog.

Fan fact #2: these pictures are unedited, except for the watermark, and taken with a Fujifilm FinePix S3400.

Uniforms for Star Trek: The Motion Picture - From the Files of Starfleet Command Headquarters

U is for Uniforms!

Within the Marvel comic "Spock... the Barbarian!" from 1981 is a few pages on Starfleet uniforms as seen in The Motion Picture. The coloring is a little off from what we see in the Motion Picture, but the information still applies.

First we get a look at the Class-A uniforms, along with the gold insignia styles and their ranks. The Class-A uniforms are only worn when VIPs (ambassadors, admirals, etc.) are on board, or at ceremonial functions such as funerals, special dinners, or weddings. During the motion picture we see Kirk in both the Admiral's (or Flag Officer's) and the Captain's Class-A uniform, as he was an admiral at the very beginning of the movie until he took over as Captain.

This page also informs us on the "Commodore" rank - "An honorary title; usually the senior Captain in an organization - a captain who performs the duties of an admiral."

As far as Class-A uniforms go, this page states that the command level officers (Kirk, Spock, Decker, Scotty, etc.) wear grey (although it usually looks blue),  whereas the lower-level officers and crew (Uhura, Chekov, Sulu, etc.) wear beige. For whatever reason, Spock wears his Class-A uniform with a black collar.

And by the way, those are life support monitor belt buckles on the front of their uniforms (referred to in this guide as a bio-scan belt buckle).

The Class-B uniforms are more casual, with either long or short sleeves, and are worn daily around the ship. There are three uniform colors, shown below, and shoulder tabs and insignia showing department and rank. A white shirt and grey pants are worn by command level officers, and  the lower officers wear beige. Enlisted personnel wear light and dark brown. The insignia worn on the breast match the tabs in color.

Grey: Operations division: Security
Yellow/Gold: Operations division: Communications and Command division: Helm and Navigation
Green: Sciences division: Medical
Orange: Sciences division: Research and technical
Red: Operations division: Engineering and maintenance
White: Command.

Rank is indicated by stripes, except for the yellow squares worn on the tabs of Chiefs.

The medical Class-A uniforms are very much like the others, but with a v-cut collar. Dr. McCoy, being a command level officer, wears grey, while Dr. Chapel wears beige.

The medical work uniforms are white, but without a bio-scan belt buckle. These uniforms are worn only in sickbay and in surgery. The medical worksuits for lower ranking officers are also white, but have the bio-scan buckle. Both the medical work uniform and the medical worksuit have a caduceus instead of the insignia, but the work uniforms have shoulder tabs that indicate rank.

For informal occasions outside of sickbay, Both McCoy and Chapel wear white pants, with either a white tunic (McCoy) or a beige tunic (Chapel) over top.

The general leisure uniforms (wraparound tunics) are generally worn while off duty. Like the other uniforms, these come in grey, beige, and brown depending on rank.

The duty jackets/excursion jacket worn by the landing parties were manila, with colored strips around the upper arm indicating rank. There is a "blooper" in the Motion Picture where at one point, Spock and McCoy's rank strips are reversed. The duty jackets have two large pockets on either side. There is also an alternate duty jacket for colder conditions, with fur cuffs and a hood.

The work suit uniform is worn by engineering, technicians, and maintenance personnel on the job, and sometimes under a duty jacket. Kirk and Spock wear these uniforms as well in grey. These suits also come in white, brown, and beige - and green on planetary stations. Also known as a jumpsuit, some of these suits had large pockets on the thighs.

The engineering anti-radiation suits are worn "in and around warp engines and matter/antimatter power chambers" and come in white or brown.

The shoes worn by the Enterprise crew are attached to their trousers.

Some security personnel (starship and base) wore full body armor with a helmet, which was dark with white details. These pages also fail to go over the protective suit worn by certain (minor) members of the crew, the thruster suit, the civilian tunic (also seen only on minor/background characters), pressure suits, and the petty officer insignia (which is a gold triangle).

Tablet Fun - Star Trek Practice Doodles

T is for Tablets!

The other day, I finally got a tablet - Wacom Bamboo Capture. I had wanted to get one for quite a while, but never got around to it. When I first started using it, I could get anything right - I could barely draw a line across the screen.

It helps if you don't use it sideways.

Once I lined it up under my keyboard (I don't know why I didn't before), things got better. I started practicing immediately the next day by drawing a picture of Sarek:

It doesn't look very much like him, aside from the uniform - the face is crazy because of my lack of coordination - but it was a beginning, and not bad for a first attempt. The next day I drew a picture of Captain Picard in Kirk's fatshirt:

That drawing turned out much better, as I was finally getting to a point where I knew what I was doing. The lines actually went, for the most part, where I wanted them to go.

Today, I drew a quick picture of Captain Benjamin Sisko, one of my favorite captains:

As you can probably see, I am getting quite a bit better at digital art. Not great, mind you, but better than I was before. With a year or so of daily practice, I am sure that I will get to the point where what is in my mind can be adequately transferred onto the screen.

Sensorites and the Sense Sphere

S is for Sensorites and the Sense Sphere!

The Sensorites are a humanoid race residing within the Sense Sphere.

Sense Sphere
The Sense Sphere is located in the same star system as the Ood Sphere, which explains the similarities between the Sensorites and the Ood. Because their planet has two suns, the Sensorites have never experienced a natural darkness/night time. The planet has numerous caves, and is very rich in molybdenum - it is because of the Sense Sphere's abundance of molybdenum that thousands of the Sensorites were wiped out in the 28th century.

In the 1964 serial "The Sensorites", we learned that the Sense Sphere was visited by two groups from Earth desperate to mine the planet for molybdenum. The first group attempted to leave the planet for reinforcements, but crashed in their haste. This crash polluted the Sense Sphere with a disease that continued to wipe out thousands of Sensorites.

The second group (arriving years later) was, because of the first incident with humans, kept prisoner in their ship in orbit around the planet. This was so that the Sensorites and their planet would not be damaged and exploited further.

The Doctor eventually achieved peace between the Sensorites and the Humans, and it turned out that the disease was caused by the insane survivors of the first group's crash deliberately poisoning the Sensorites with atropine/nightshade.

If you are interested in reading about the serial in detail, allow me to direct you HERE.

The Sensorites
The Sensorites have long, bulbous heads, flat faces, and large black eyes. The white/grey hair around their mouths usually extends up to the ear, and is swept upwards. Because of the lack of nighttime and darkness on the Sense Sphere, the Sensorites fear the dark as they are unable to see in anything darker than dim light. They are also very sensitive to noises, and telepathic. They are able to control and telepathically interfere with the mental status of other humans (and perhaps other humanoids in general). The Sensorites varied very little between each other in appearance, sometimes experiencing difficulty recognizing those of their own race.

Early Sensorite History
In the Doctor Who Annual 1966 (The Monsters from Earth) we learn that in their early history, the Sensorites worshipped the Zilgans who lived in the darkness of the caves. The Zilgans were spider-like creatures, larger than the average grown man. The Sensorites would feed the Zilgans their criminals as punishment. At this time in their history they did not wear clothing as they did in the serial.

The first picture was scanned from the amazing hardcover book "The Doctor Who Illustrated A-Z" by Lesley Standring, 1985. Click the image to view it in epic proportions.

Romulan - the species I would sometimes like to be.

R is for Romulan!

Three alien species that I would, if I had the choice, have been born as are Vulcan, Mintakan, and Romulan. Notice a pattern?

About a week or so ago, I began drawing a picture in ink of what I might look like as a Romulan:

I find Romulan (and Mintakan) forehead ridges to be quite aesthetically pleasing.

More art: Bitter Ambiguity.

Q

Q is for... Q!

The Q are often known as an "omnipotent" and immortal species with a great deal of control over space, matter, and time. The Q have been known to travel through time, create alternate timelines, move asteroid belts and stars, change universal states of nature, and teleport with great ease. They have also been able to transfer their powers to other life forms, and have their powers removed by a higher authority in the Q Continuum.

There are, however, concerns about the Q's omnipotence. In the Voyager episode "Death Wish", Q (who later named himself Quinn) informs the crew that the Q are not, in fact, omnipotent:

"You mustn't think of us as omnipotent, no matter what The Continuum would like you to believe. You and your ship seem incredibly powerful to lifeforms without your technological expertise! It's no different with us; we may appear omnipotent to you, but believe me, we're not!"

The Q later known as Quinn - Deathwish

It is in this episode that we are also made aware that the Q had been influencing human history since (at least) the time of Isaac Newton, and that the Q can be made mortal and die/be executed (backing up Quinn's claim that the Q are not entirely omnipotent).

There are also concerns about the initial state of the Q - is has been suggested (both by Q) that they had evolved over countless centuries into the "ultimate form of evolution", and that they had always been as they were, without a beginning.

Q judges - Q2

Being immortal and seemingly omnipotent, the Q soon fell into a sort of stagnation. Having seen, done, and said all that there was, they found no reason to speak to one another or to venture outside of the Continuum. To correct this stagnant state, the Q known as Quinn committed suicide in an attempt to create unpredictable social consequences that would force the Q to interact. Unfortunately, his suicide brought on a civil war within the continuum between the traditional Q and the "Freedom Faction", political idealists led by Q (John De Lancie). These two factions created weapons that could affect even the immortal Q, which resulted in serious damage being done to subspace to such a degree that the Q outside of the Continuum lost their immortality and powers, and many stars were going supernova.

Mating Q - Q and the Grey

The civil war is ended when Q (John De Lancie) mates with a female Q (by touching fingers) and produces a child, something that has not been done in the continuum for over ten millennia. Of course, we know that this child grows to be quite the troublemaker.

Quite accidentally, I have only included pictures from Voyager (the Q appeared in three VOY episodes), and  most of the information gathered for this post is from Voyager as well - this is merely because the Q race was explored more deeply in this series. Q first appeared in the TNG pilot, "Encounter at Farpoint", and the Q appeared many times later - in 8 TNG episodes, and one DS9 episode.

Fun fact: I had always thought that Trelane (TOS The Squire of Gothos) might be a Q - a fact backed up by a book I recently read - Q-squared by Peter David.

Primitive Vulcans - A History

P is for Primitive Vulcans!

The first Vulcans appeared much like the paleolithic humans of Earth. They were slowly learning to use tools, and without formal speech. When these primitive Vulcans inhabited the planet, most of the it flowed with water and was covered with lush vegetation. The area surrounding Mount Seleya was one of the exceptions, much like we know of it today.

These primitive Vulcans were generally peaceful, communicating telepathically and living off of the abundant supply of food and water given to them by the planet. They did not understand why the nourishment was there, about death, or why urges would come upon them every so many years that sent them to act strangely upon one another (perhaps what we now know as the Pon Farr). These Vulcans could go without food and water for at least a week, although they very rarely needed to do so.

I once drew a picture of how I imagined these primitive Vulcans, but with some modern touches - less hair, attention payed to aesthetics, etc. I posted it before, but I am going to show it here as well: 

As I mentioned, there was no formal speech for a very long time - there were no names. They seemed to believe in a higher power referred to later as "the Other". They were without worries, as "the Other" always knew what was best for them.

Eventually there would be one who desired exploration rather than mere "being" - it is said that this Vulcan often walked farther than any other , eventually realizing that by hollowing out a gourd-like plant and dipping it in the water, one could drink more easily as well as store water for later. Because of this discovery, a Vulcan would be able to travel father, and for longer. It is said that he walked until the water and vegetation were gone, after which he pressed on to the monstrous sight of what would later be called Mount Seleya.

It is also said that it is in the desert leading to Mount Seleya that the concept of language was discovered - a gift from the Underlier (also known as the A'kweth, and sometimes as the Tcha'besheh). This gift was passed on by telepathically or physically presenting an image or item, and uttering a sound/series of sounds which would become it's name. The Vulcan was named the Vulcan equivalent of "the Wanderer", and was called upon to come up with names - soon, song was also be invented.

This was shortly before an intense solar flare from 40 Eri A transformed the planet into what we know today - burning the forests and boiling seventy percent of the oceans until all that was left of the ocean beds were scorched sand and mud, and all in no more than a day. Most of the living creatures on the planet died, and only the toughest Vulcans survived.


Note: Information taken from "Spock's World" by Diane Duane.

Omnibus Volume 1 - Star Trek Comics - Issues 4-18

O is for Omnibus!

It can be difficult to find individual comics that are in good condition, especially when it comes to Star Trek comics. Luckily, IDW publishing released omnibuses, in volumes. Volume one, which I own, contains the Marvel Comics issues 4 to 18 - all in one book.

Buying this book is considerably easier than tracking down an buying the individual comics, but has one very serious drawback: the print quality. Throughout this post I will be showing scanned panels from issues 10 and 18 - first from the original comic, and then from the omnibus (click images to enlarge):

As you may see, the artwork is often blurred, and details tend to go missing all together. This may be caused by the resizing of the pages for the book. The colors are brighter, but not always better.

Here Spock and Kirk are turned into pirates on a ship:

The contrast is increased greatly, and the color is more saturated. In some panels, it is not such a distraction:

And in other panels, I find it too distracting to even continue reading:

For this reason, I tend to use my omnibus for reference - I turn to the original issues when I want to read , as art quality and aesthetics are very important to me when it comes to comics.

Below, you may see how certain details and lines disappear completely, altering the entire "essence" of the art:

Often, there is a speckling effect when it comes to blocks of black color:

Once more example (just because I really enjoy these panels) with all of the quality problems I mentioned in one: Over-saturated colors, blurring, white speckling, and disappearing details:

Very distracting, is it not? And not only that, but I feel that publishing something of this quality is degrading to the original artists - vandalism. I really wish they would have worked these issues out before publication.

However - I would like to point out that despite these problems, owning the omnibus is great for reference, and better than nothing if one cannot find the separate issues. The story is still there, and just as amazing.

Nichelle Nichols - Uhura and Beyond - Starlog January 1995

N is for Nichelle Nichols!

I really enjoy Uhura as a character - she is an intelligent and powerful woman, and broke racial barriers. Not only that, but she is absolutely beautiful. Some of my favorite interactions are between Spock and Uhura in the original series, and between Uhura and Scotty in Star Trek V - The Final Frontier.

There was a feature on Nichelle Nichols in the January 1995 issue of Starlog magazine (click images to enlarge):

In this article, she speaks about her autobiography, "Beyond Uhura" - a book which I hope to read in the near future. She writes about how racism has affected her career, and a near rape by a respected lawyer. She also writes about how important music is to her, and the projects she has been involved with throughout her life.

Interestingly, she also writes about her serious relationship with Gene Roddenberry (by the time Star Trek began, they were just close friends), and her intense dislike for William Shatner. I do not enjoy reading about her hostile feelings towards him, because I have heard him speak about the situations discussed from his point of view as well (when I saw him live). I actually found myself disliking Nichelle, and then wondering why - I knew then that I should disregard the seemingly petty argument and focus on the positive aspects of both actors. I still am not fond of Nichelle, but I quite enjoy Uhura.

Uhura seems very bitter about a lot of things when it comes to Star Trek. She also recalls how she felt when she was left out of the Generations movie - stating (jokingly?) that "they successfully left out the two minorities".

The article focuses for a while on her recent projects at the time ("Saturn's Child") and how she would like to end up on Broadway - and then goes back to the topic of Star Trek, where she leaves us with this:

"People still say to me from time to time, 'what does it feel like to know that you will always be known as Uhura?' and I always say, just a bit flippantly, 'It's better than being known as an ax murderer.'" Well, that's positive. (Sarcasm.) She follows that by stating that she loves Star Trek, and she hopes that comes through in her book.

Michael Dorn - Comic and Toy Expo Q&A 2012

M is for Michael Dorn!

At the beginning of March, as some of you may recall, I had a chance to meet Michael Dorn at the Comic and Toy Expo - I took a lot of video and a few pictures, but I never quite got to uploading them as I promised. This changes today.

I actually saw him on the Saturday, but I was to shy to go up and speak with him. He was sitting at the desk, but there was nobody there - people seemed to be ignoring him. I tried to get up the courage to say hello, but to no avail. I did, however, manage a greeting as I passed him in the hall later that day - to which he responded and practically melted my brain with his charm.

I did go over to talk to him the next day, and had him sign a DS9 publicity photo. We spoke for a while, and then I gallivanted off to search through the comics.

And then came the Q&A session. He is hilarious - a very funny guy. He answered a lot of questions, including a couple of mine, and spoke about how he got the role, the shenanigans going on when the camera wasn't rolling, and how the DS9 cast was much more serious than the TNG cast. I would highly recommend watching the video I took, even if the picture quality gets pretty bad for a couple of minutes. For those who do not wish to watch the videos, I wrote out some quotes as well.

"They called (About TNG casting), and they said 'Aw, too late - we've already had everybody cast, and if anything happens in the future we'll let you know'.  And to me, that's a big brush off, so you kind of go 'Okay, thanks, goodbye, later.' And then two weeks later, I get a call - and my manager says 'Hey Michael, they want to see you for the role of a Klingon' - and I knew, I mean I was a fan of the original so I knew what they wanted. So that's - that's how it happened.


"I was in an acting class at the time, and this wonderful teacher taught me how to - you know, you walk in the building - you walk in the set - you walk, wherever you're gonna go to audition as the character.

And so I walked in, very stern, and not very talking to people, and people are like 'Hey Michael, how you doing?' (Michael glares sternly) And I went up to the secretary and I said (in what we now know as Worf's voice) 'Excuse me. Is there a place where I can be by myself.' And she goes 'uh... yeah, over there' ... 'Thank you.' And I walked in there and I sat by myself, and then I went into the audition, and I knew - you know, I've seen Gene Roddenberry, and Bob Justman, and all these people - and they're sitting there.  And I wanna go 'Hey, Gene! Hi!' you know, but - I was very stern, I didn't crack a smile and just did it, and left. And said, 'thank you very much.' and left. And that's how it happened. And I guess they probably just went, '... he's nuts.' you know? 'We like him.'"


"I think the Worf and Dax thing was a great story line."

"I still think she (Nicole) should have ended up with Worf. At the very end, when he's leaving, she goes... looks at Julian, and says 'I'm sorry, Julian, I can't do this. I belong with Worf.' and goes off with him - but that didn't happen."

I got to ask a couple questions of my own - I asked, first of all, if he related at all to Worf:

"I'm kind of the same - I'm a little gruff and surly at times - you know, I didn't think I was, but I am."


"I actually learned a lot, or admired a lot, about Worf - because he was really a strong character and all that, but he was also learning, and trying to understand , you know, Klingons, and aliens, and things like that and he was struggling with it, but he was, he was learning."


"Worf wasn't exactly the brightest bulb in the world - I mean, it wasn't he was stupid, but he was just sort of like - he didn't understand... people. In general. 'You want me to do that? Really?' You know? And I'm kind of like that too."

And then I asked him if he like swimming, or if it was too much like bathing:
"Too much like bathing. No, actually, I like to bathe... (starts laughing) I'm sorry..."


"My favorite piece of technology, which was on Deep Space Nine, was... the Defiant. Yeah, you know - that's a very cool ride."


"There's a youtube video that somebody put together of Worf getting shit down every time he says something, you know? Which is pretty funny. 'Well Captain I think we should -' 'No, Mister Worf, Shut up!'... It's a very funny video..."

"Whenever Patrick and Jonathan would be standing at the screen, and I'm back there and I have to be very serious, and they'd turn and walk back to their seats - they were always making faces at me."
"And you'll see in a couple episodes, I'm like this - (looks down, pretending to concentrate on the console,, pressing buttons)"

"One time he (Patrick Stewart) actually ran, jumped on his chair and jumped over the horseshoe to get at me - I don't know why... but he jumped up and I caught him - and I'm holding him like this (arms stretched out in front of him) and he looks at me and he went 'Aaaw, I love you Mister Worf.'"

A local news crew also asked him to, for the camera, repeat the line from First Contact - "If you were any other man, I would kill you where you stand". He did - but Michael, that's not how you said it in the movie! I'll forgive you, though - it's been a little while.