Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, December 17, 1994 TAG: 9412190004
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-16 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT WILLIAMS ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Now that ``Star Trek: The Next Generation'' has warped into syndication, actor John de Lancie finds fewer opportunities to play the all-powerful, all-knowing, insufferable nemesis of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard.
``I can only do Q when they ask me,'' de Lancie said. He's made his guest appearance on ``Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,'' but that old magic isn't there when Q can't play with the doughty captain of the Enterprise.
``My main squeeze has always been Picard,'' de Lancie said. ``That's where the tension, the friction lies. And that's what's good about it. ... The more philosophical it is, the bigger the question, the better the character works.''
Yes, Trekkers, de Lancie already has met with the producers of ``Star Trek: Voyager,'' the 1995 incarnation of the Trek franchise, in which a Federation starship, lost in a remote corner of the galaxy, is trying to get home.
``They've come to me to the extent of saying, `Nobody from any of the series can make it over to `Voyager' because the distance is so far. Of course ... YOU can!''' He adopts a producer's leer and raises a speculative eyebrow.
``I said, `I have a feeling that if your ratings are not so hot, the distance is going to get really, really short.'''
Think of it! A wormhole through space, time and the February sweeps!
All in all, de Lancie feels the Star Trek franchise has been good to him. These days, he's even a featured player on the computer monitors of Star Trek fans everywhere.
``I'm a screen-saver!'' he notes, somewhere between amusement and bemusement. ``They asked me what lines I wanted. I suggested things like, `Your hard disk is ... gone!'' and `Do you know where your wife is?'
``They said, `Uh-huh. Well, maybe we'll just use lines from the show.'''
Star Trek also has merchandised his likeness as a Q action figure, and he graces the latest Star Trek pinball machine.
``There is all that cuckoo-ness,'' he said, ``and yet it's very disproportionate to the amount of times that I've been on, so it is a little unworldly.''
So, too, is De Lancie's current project. He's the narrator of a special, ``National Geographic Explorer: Searching for Extraterrestrials,'' which premieres Sunday on cable's TBS Superstation.
So, John, you've seen the film, you've read the text: Are they out there?
``Yeah. I just don't think they're visiting us,'' he said. ``It's unreasonable, actually, to think that they're not out there, given the odds.
``You've got seven trillion possible places to look! You've got to think you might possibly find something.''
De Lancie, a Juilliard-trained actor and teacher of the craft, keeps busy with things that interest and - like Q - amuse him.
One of his recent projects was directing Leonard Nimoy - yup, the original Mr. Spock - in a Halloween night adaptation of ``The War of the Worlds'' for National Public Radio.
Currently, he's directing an all-American cast in ``Julius Caesar'' for the BBC. (Q-like, he's playing the manipulative bad-guy Cassius.)
De Lancie insists he's not concerned getting typecast as Q.
``When you think about it, the alternative isn't so hot,'' he said. ``I mean, an actor's got to be known for something. Typecasting is an unfortunate kind of reflex punishment for having done a good job. But what's the alternative? To not do a good job?''
The magic de Lancie brings to his craft isn't always evident.
``Next Generation'' fans will recall a scene from the series finale where Q spirits Picard back through time to the very slime pool where life on Earth began.
Q delivers a touching speech to Picard (Patrick Stewart) on the irony of all life and civilization emerging from ``a handful of goo.'' Q kneels and dips up a handful, which drools down yuckily into the smoke of creation.
``Patrick and I were in front of a papier-mache boulder on a platform 25 feet above the floor,'' de Lancie said. ``Standing below me, on a platform 20 feet above the floor, was a stagehand holding a bucket of goo.
``All through that speech, I was moving my hand so that the goo was dripping down onto his head,'' de Lancie said, laughing. ``It gave me something. A twinkle. A Q-like twinkle.''
by CNB