What l remember principally were the technical aspects.
l learned something about what to watch out for in film-making.
Les Landau directed this episode.
He`s an excellent director.
He set up a shot where the camera was going to move all the time.
lt would start on my left profile
and through a long, emotional,
and intense piece of dialogue for me,
the camera very, very slowly moved in an arc
until the shot ended on my right profile.
No!
lt is... lt is wrong!
lt is wrong!
A lifetime of discipline washed away and in its place...
Bedlam. Bedlam!
l am so old.
There is nothing left but dry bones
and dead friends.
Tired, so tired.
lt was a delightful shot.
Les was very pleased with himself and the way it worked.
The problem was that you couldn`t cut into it.
Every time we did this, l had to do the whole breakdown,
again and again and again.
No! This weakness disgusts me. l hate it!
lt was difficult, emotionally and technically,
to sustain that while we did it again and again.
He wanted this move to be perfect and it`s a complicated move.
Most of the time it wasn`t, so we`d go back to the beginning.
l could never fake it.
Each time, it had to be as if that were the shot we`d use.
l want to feel... everything
But l am a Vulcan.
l must feel nothing.
Give me back my control.
l have invited you here to meet someone.
This is Lal.
l think our most memorable character
over the years, for me, make-up-wise,
was from a show called The Offspring,
where Data had an alien android
who selected to become a human female.
ln this original alien state
Leonard Crowfoot played the part.
We had a headpiece that covered his entire head,
that had a mechanical-looking ear sculpted into the piece.
There were chrome-silverised lenses made for him.
The mouth was designed where his chin is.
The biggest thing was, we made a gigantic diaper,
a big rubber diaper, that we glued him into.
lt took four hours to put him into it
and two to three hours to clean him up.
l had a make-up artist to get in the shower with him.
Once his rubber was on him,
his entire body was coated in a copperish-gold paint
that we never had to touch up during the daytime.
He could touch things. lt wouldn`t rub off.
That`s why it took so long to clean him up.
Two or three of us would scrub his body for hours.
Au contraire, mon capitaine. He`s back!
For Déjá Q we brought in a mariachi band
and did what we call a pre-record session.
You have a recording session before any film is shot.
Then the same guys that were in the pre-record
were hired later on to be the mariachi band behind Q.
The band came in and played five or six different tunes.
The tune they chose, l can`t remember the Spanish name,
but it translates out as The Abandonment.
lt`s supposed to be a very slow, emotional song,
but they liked the melody so much we double-timed it
and played a happy ballad.
That`s what`s in the show, what Q plays the trumpet to
at the end of Déjá Q.
l`m forgiven. My brothers and sisters have taken me back.
l`m immortal again. Omnipotent again.
Swell.
The Most Toys was a show about a collector.
A man who went around the universe collecting valuable things.
Data was his target in that show.
When Data goes over and sees the things on display,
it includes a 1961 card of...
Was it 1961? These are very important issues.
lt was a rookie card of Roger Maris.
l was a Yankee fan growing up.
Roger Maris was a hero of mine.
So was Micky Mantle
but Roger Maris never gets into the same company with Micky Mantle.
lt would be great if people remembered Roger Maris.
l got this old Roger Maris card.
Basically, the guy says, ``This is my prize possession.``
``You can smell the bubblegum.``
This is the only known Roger Maris trading card from Earth.
Circa 1962.
The smell?
Bubblegum. l`ve preserved the scent.
What made that card so expensive to me
is l started collecting baseball cards as a result of that episode.
lt became an addiction.
l started getting all these cards of the Yankees
and my favourite teams from the 1950s and `60s.
Being on Star Trek is kind of like being a fashion model.
l don`t mean because of our looks.
You know how you hear they model bikinis in winter
and fur coats in summer?
We almost had the same thing.
We would be out in the desert in 120 degrees.
We would be wearing five layers of wool
when we were the Mintakans in Who Watches the Watchers?
lt wasn`t always comfortable.
We do love to go on location where it`s like stay-away camp.
Sleep-away camp.
Where we`re not with our significant others and we get to play.
That`s nice.
Mintakan women precede their mates.
- lt`s a signal to other women. - He`s taken. Get your own?
Not precisely. More like, ``lf you want his services,
l`m the one you negotiate with. ``
- What kind of services? - All kinds.
They are a sensible race.
Enemy was good. lt was a terrific show with Geordi
and that... and that Romulan, Bochra.
That was like our...
..nod or homage to The Defiant Ones.
Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier chained together.
Different cultures, different backgrounds,
different points of view,
in a situation where they are forced
to get over that perception of difference
in order to reach commonality for the common good.
My synapses must be turning to jelly.
The visor`s fine. l just can`t see a thing.
Then l will be your eyes.
l did an episode of The Next Generation.
l played a Ferengi, Dr Farek, who was a real creep.
One of these Ferengis falls in love with Lwaxana.
Troi`s mother.
l abducted the women to the ship and stripped them.
l found their bodies vile,
as a Ferengi would.
l should have known. Even their transporters can`t be trusted.
Why have you removed our clothing?
Females do not deserve the honour of clothing.
He was just a jerk.
But l suppose by Ferengi standards, a pretty nice guy.
There are creatures in the universe
who would consider you the ultimate achievement, android.
No feelings, no emotions, no pain.
And yet you covet those qualities of humanity.
Believe me, you`re missing nothing.
But if it means anything to you, you`re a better human than l.
One highlight for me for the third season
was in relationship to a show about Q.
lt was called Déjá Q.
Originally, it was about Q pretending he had lost all of his powers.
He comes on the Enterprise and tells a story
that`s all foolishness
and takes us on a wild-goose chase, something about the Klingons.
We figured a Q story, it should be fun.
Always good for an episode.
We pitched it to Gene.
l think it was the most meaningful meeting l ever had with Gene.
He looked at me and said, ``What`s it about?``
l said, ``lt`s about a wild-goose chase. We go across...``
He said, ``No, what`s it about?``
``lf you really want to tell a story about a god
who loses everything he has
and has to discover his true humanity, ...
..that`s about something.
lt`s almost like at that moment,
it all clicked what Star Trek was about,
what Roddenberry was all about.
That`s the story we did.
Really about Q discovering his own humanity.
There isn`t a day now that l don`t have a meeting with a writer
who`s pitching me a story or an idea,
first question l always ask is, ``What`s it about?``
Data may have sacrificed himself for me. Why?
That is his special nature. He learned the lessons of humanity well.
When l ask myself if l would have done the same for him,
and l am forced to answer no, l feel,...
..l feel ashamed.