"Since Patrick`s not here, we have to settle for you." "In the first season, these characters are all stumbling to find themselves, and the writers are stumbling to find them, as well." "So it`s always a little bit more of a struggle." "At the same time, the actors were getting to know each other, positioning and becoming friends, and developing relationships as a group of actors playing characters who were getting acquainted." "So it`s always a very interesting dynamic in a show`s first season." "A year ago, how could I possibly have imagined that l`d be sitting here in the captain`s chair on the USS Enterprise?" "This is my first go at episodic TV, so l`m learning on my feet about how one develops a character." "lt`s wonderful to work on a show where everybody wants it to be good." "That is what`s most exciting, that everybody wants it to be really good." "lt`s a privilege to be working on this project." "I hope that it will have somewhere near the success the first one did." "We should be so lucky." "When this first became a possibility, a good friend of mine here in Los Angeles said..." "This was, I think, just before my final meeting for the role..." ""How does it feel to be auditioning for an American icon?"" "It was rather nerve-racking." "I auditioned seven times." "lt`s one of the first jobs l`ve been nervous about." "I think that remark unnerved me more than anything else." "My manager and agent are going, "What`s a Klingon?"" "Seven times over a stretch of six weeks." "I said, "Hey, I know." "Don`t worry, I got it covered."" "I actually started auditioning on March 23rd, and heard that l`d got it on May 6th." "A million things go through your mind. lt`s gone, it`s taking so long, they`re trying to find someone else... I realised that being a Klingon meant no jokes, totally serious, aggressive, all that." "I pretty much went into the office, and didn`t talk to anybody." "With each audition, naturally the stakes were higher." "After every audition I said, "This is the worst", and it went on." "My buddies were there testing, too, and they were laughing," ""Hey, Mike, how`re you doing?" "Fine."" "The first time I read, I read Geordi as blind." "The second time, reading for Gene, I was awful." "Junie Lowry, at the second audition, said," ""LeVar, that was an interesting choice you made."" ""Wrong, but interesting."" "I said to my agent, "Beg them to let me read again. I can do better."" "l`d been in America for six months, and I was going home for a while, and I was packing when the call came." "Meantime, they`d said, "We`d like him back, we know he can do better."" "That was funny." "A few hours later, they`d have missed me." "Actually, I was the last one cast, and it was an afterthought." "They already had everybody cast, and they came up with this thing of having a Klingon at the last minute." "I had a fairly easy process of it with only three readings." "Some of them went through considerably more changes." "But we`re glad we`re here." "lt`s especially satisfying..." "lt`s always been interesting to me to play the number one in anything." "Kings, princes, prime ministers, dictators." "There`s no substitute for the biggest chair." "Counsellor..." "Do you believe a ship captain should explain every order?" "l`ve always been fascinated by power and how it`s used, by what authority is and how it`s exerted." "Therefore, to be at the helm of this extraordinary, wonderful vessel, with these thousand or more people on board is continually interesting because of how Picard exercises his huge authority and his influence over the others." "All decks, all stations..." "Battle stations." "l`ve always been a sucker for adventures, especially those that imply a certain amount of risk in them, either career risk, or professional risk, or technical risk, or something in terms of acting." "Helm setting warp 1.5, retroactive course." "Warp 1.5, retroactive 26 1 mark 31, sir." "Bridge to Engineering." "Stand by." "From the start, Gene Roddenberry`s notion about the character was that he would begin, sort of, as the blank tableau, and really kind of mechanical, and not particularly human." "But through osmosis and being around human beings for all the years, by the end, he would be as close to human as possible and still not." " You are fully functional?" " Of course, but..." "How fully?" "In every way." "You jewel." "That`s ex actly what I hoped." "An interesting fact is that Marina Sirtis and Denise Crosby who came to read for the roles of Troi and Tasha, we had them flop the other way." "What I understand from the producers is that they... they were sold on me as that part." "We wanted Marina to play Tasha, and Denise to play Troi." "When Roddenberry read the two of them, he suggested that we switch them, which in fact we did." "Gene felt that, ..." "and these are his words, that I was too much like Grace Kelly and that I couldn`t... that Troi should be this exotic, otherworldly creature, and I was just this kind of..." "American golden girl." "When I first got the job, I made him hate everybody." "Captain, these are Romulans." "They are without honour." "He did not like anybody on the ship, especially Data." "He thought Data was a Tonka toy, something to... "What is this?"" ""l`m taking orders from a machine."" "Emergency close." "Now show me your warrior fierceness." "In the first episode, it was my own hair, ... frizzed beyond belief." "In the first season, we were bun-head." "The hair is totally different." "For years it was that Donna Reed, Lena Horne..." "That Lena Horne thing." "Brent had the best line." "He says Worf is late for work cos he`s doing his hair, he`s curling it." ""That doesn`t work."" "Could you give him like a bouffant?" " Sure." "Would you like a bow on top?" " Maybe just a beehive." "The Eastern European accent started with the Tasha Yar auditions." "She was from Eastern Europe." "l`m sensing a... ..a powerful mind." "Then when they told me to make an accent up from Betazed, I just modified that Eastern European accent." "I based it on a friend who`s Israeli." "The cat`s out of the bag." "And... then we met my mother." "Where is everyone?" "I hate that." "Hello, Mother." "Don`t say it." "Think it." "Use your mind, not your mouth." "Hello, Mother." "My mother is Majel Barrett Roddenberry, and she had an American accent, so I asked where my accent was from." "They said it was my father." "There is such a thing as too much honesty with humans." "If they`d only say what they think instead of hiding it." "A shipload of such inconsistency could drive one insane." "He was described in the original character breakdown as racially black, and genetically blind from birth, which is such a cool combination." " Geordi, how can I help you?" " Help me to see, like you do." "But you see better than me." "But more isn`t better." "My eyes have been..." "They`ve sort of become a trademark of what I do as an actor." "And here, you never see my eyes." "In fact, in those scenes where l won`t have this on, say l`m being examined by the doctor, or I fall off a mountain, whatever, l`ve been separated from my visor, l`ll have on dead grey contact lenses." "So you`ll never see me use my eyes the way I have for the past 10 years, and have come to rely on them as an important tool in my work." "lt`s a great challenge, a great stretch for me, to use other parts of me in communicating." "These walls are something l`ve never seen before." "How are you ex amining them?" "Every way." "Microscopically, thermally, electromagnetically." "None of it is familiar." "When I thought of Q the first time, what first came to mind was a quote that was said about Byron," "and that was that he was "Mad, bad, and dangerous to know"." "As you said, l`m nothing if not imaginative." "And the game should reflect that." "If we must play a game, what would we win?" "The greatest possible future you could imagine." "Which requires something totally disastrous if you were to lose." "Now, the point of this game shall be can any of you stay alive?" "I think of him as being a naughty boy." "You`re not quite sure what`s going to happen with him." "l`m not quite sure." "Think fast, Cmdr Riker, and move fast." "You have one chance to save them." "Send them back to the ship." " You`ll let me beam them?" " Send them the same way I do." "You have the power." "You understand?" "l`ve given you the power of the Q." "Use it." "What Roddenberry told me about the character that led me to believe he saw a bit of Riker in himself was, ... he said," ""Frakes, l`m hiring you for this job because I recognise the Machiavellian glint in your eye."" "He said, "l have it in my own."" "So many minds on this ship, all free, released." "Deanna... I feel them all, what they want," "what they feel." "I was "feeling" a lot. I think I felt everything there was to feel." "With most life forms, I can usually feel something." "I feel such an abundance of wellbeing." "I sense the same thing." "I may not be able to understand or interpret it, but I feel something." "I keep sensing random thoughts, but two sets of them." "Such pain." "Great joy." "Terrible despair." "What`s wrong?" "I wish I could say." "I think the first year on any series is like a teething year." "You find what works, you find what doesn`t, on both sides of the camera." "We had a good solid week of rehearsal before we started shooting the two-hour telefilm." "Yeah, I like these people." "In real life?" "We basically hate each others` guts." "We seem to get along real well, and we`ve only been doing this three weeks." "l`m sure there`ll be conflict." "We`ll be all over the tabloids." ""Star Trek:" "The Next Generation, they hate each other."" "Actually, during the off season, a lot of us have hung out together." "Whether by design or by accident, he picked a bunch of people who hit it off immediately." "lt`s good." "lt`s a real family feeling." "The only drawback is that I have, like, eight mothers." "I am very, very flattered that I could be part of this." "And it will always be very special to me, this show." "I kind of trusted that Gene had a feel for casting, and I think he knew with all of us almost immediately who he wanted." "We just had to go through the process of the auditions, and this thing of going to the studio, and seeing the suits." "But I do feel, and from having talked to people since being involved in Star Trek, that he knew who he wanted." "I think it was well cast in that people who are spending 70, 80 hours a week together, still manage to laugh and enjoy each other`s company." "There`s a lot to be said for that." "I can only say that it is one of the happiest groups of actors, and the most talented l`ve ever been with, and l`m delighted to be in their company, working or relaxing." "Some problem, Riker?" "Just hoping this isn`t how all our missions will go." "No, Number One. l`m sure most will be much more interesting."