From: bkr24@cas.org (Keith Rose)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.info
Subject: CONVENTION REPORT: Creation Con with Marina Sirtis
Followup-To: rec.arts.startrek.misc
Date: 10 Sep 1992 00:54:16 GMT
Organization: Vulcan Science Academy, Tau Ceti Sector
Distribution: world
Reply-To: bkr24@cas.org
NNTP-Posting-Host: xcf.berkeley.edu
Originator: griffith@xcf.Berkeley.EDU


[Note - at long last, I've updated the r.a.s.i. archives on scam.berkeley.edu.
	Sorry for the delay, but a lack of Internet will do that (and I wasn't
	about to cut-and-paste 6 months' worth of articles either - ed.]


I attended a Creation convention here in Columbus, Ohio this past Labor Day
weekend.  It ran both Saturday (09/05) and Sunday (09/06).  I went to the
show on Saturday.  The feature guest was Marina Sirtis, who plays Counselor
Troi on "Star Trek: The Next Generation."  On Saturday, the convention
started at 11:00 AM and ran through 7:00 PM.  Ms. Sirtis was scheduled to
speak from 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM.  Her talk was definitely the highlight of the
day, and I will divulge as much as I can remember from her talk shortly.
But first let me speak a little about the rest of the convention.

I though it was boring.  There just wasn't much to do except wander around
the dealer's room, and there certainly wasn't enough stuff to look at in the
dealer's room to occupy several hours.  A lot of the events taking place in
the "show" room weren't really my cup of tea: "Star Trek Trivia
Competition," "Creation's Music Video Salute to {Commander Riker, Women of
Star Trek, Scotty, Counselor Troi}."

The auction was kind of entertaining.  The best part of that was at the end
of the auction, when the auctioneer (Sharon Delaney) put the last item of
the auction up for bid "as an experiment."  As she offered the item she took
the first bid from a boy who had been trying to buy _anything_ the whole
auction.  As soon as he raised his hand she pointed to him and yelled
"Sold!" before anybody had a chance to bid against him.  It made his whole
day, and I was glad to see it.

I missed the update discussion on "The Next Generation" because I didn't get
to the convention until about 1:00 PM, and that talk was finished.  I
attended the discussion about "Deep Space Nine," but no new information was
given.

Anyway, Ms. Sirtis came on stage at 4:30 PM as scheduled and talked for a
little more than a hour.  She mostly just answered questions from the
audience, and most of the comments that follow are in response to some
question or another.  My disclaimer is that this is entirely from memory; I
took no notes.  All quotes are probably inexact, but the meaning is the
same.  I will send a copy of this to Ms. Sirtis via US mail to Paramount,
and if she corrects me on any point I will post a follow-up correction.  Of
course, spelling mistakes and typos are all mine.

    She claims the title of "Convention Queen," and has been dubbed
    "Marina the Mouth" by Patrick Stewart.  She is known for telling
    stories that the other actors might be embarrassed to tell
    themselves (not dirt, mind you).  She said that she was the second
    of the cast to do a convention; LeVar was first.  Of course, he
    went to one, and was so scared that he didn't do another one for
    four years. {The Get-A-Lifers strike again!  :-)}  She said that
    she likes doing them.

    Somebody asked her why Galoob didn't make an "action figure"
    (doll) of her when they produced that first run of toys during the
    first season.  She said the reason stems back to the costume she
    wore during "Encounter at Farpoint."  The producers weren't happy
    with the "cosmic cheerleader" look, and were experimenting with
    different looks.  The day that Galoob came to photograph the
    characters for their figures she happened to be wearing a costume
    that was so bad her hairdresser said that it looked "like
    something her mother wore to a bar mitzvah thirteen years ago." So
    she wasn't exactly presentable for photographs, so no toy.  I
    _think_ she said that she is going to have an action figure for
    the next round of toys, but I am not sure I heard that right.  She
    also said that she thinks that there might be a real doll of her
    character coming out sometime.

    She will have a new hair style this coming season.  She pulled her
    hair back to give us a "preview" of what it will look like.  The
    audience applauded, but I'm not sure I saw a difference between it
    and her current hair style.  But, she seemed happy about the
    change, noting that the new hair style wouldn't be as tight and
    so it wouldn't give her headaches.

    She said that she has a little dog (its breed and name escape me,
    but I remember she said it was little) and three cats.  She
    admitted fully that her dog is a "child substitute," and she
    treats it as such; she babies it.  When it was a puppy she used to
    take it to work with her.  She told a story of a time when she
    left it with Brent Spiner in his trailer so that she could shoot a
    scene.  She was gone for about ten minutes, and was "suffering
    withdrawal" from being away from her "baby" so long.  Evidently
    Brent must have heard her coming back toward his trailer, because
    when she opened the door he was busy stuffing the dog into his
    microwave!  All parties involved (Marina, Brent, and the dog)
    survived the prank.  The other thing she mentioned about her pets
    was that she was kind of miffed (in a playful sense) that the
    producers didn't use _her_ pets when animals were needed in
    certain story lines (like Data's cat, "Spot").

    She mentioned that she and Michael Dorn are good friends.  She
    told a story of the time that she, Michael, and her husband
    (to-be) went for a ride in Michael's plane.  It was close to
    lunch, and Michael asked Marina if she and her husband (to-be)
    wanted to go to lunch in Santa Barbara.  She wasn't too keen on
    the idea, but "did her duty" and went along.  The entire flight up
    to Santa Barbara she was extremely frightened; "The bad thing
    about prop planes is that you can _see_ if the props quit!"  She
    slept the ride home, mostly out of "self defense," and was shocked
    to hear her husband (to-be) exclaim, once they were on the ground,
    that Michael let him fly the plane for a while!

    She talked a little bit about "Deep Space Nine."  Nothing about
    the stories or characters; mostly about production.  She said that
    "half of Paramount" is devoted to Star Trek now, with two shows
    being produced at the same time.  However, the mood on the "Deep
    Space Nine" set is more tense, because there is more pressure on
    them for their pilot.  Anyway, the DSN cast has been shooting
    _long_ hours; shooting long into the night and early morning.
    Because some of the TNG cast have some part in the DSN pilot they
    have been working long hours as well.  She told a story of
    Patrick, Jonathan, and Brent bursting into the DSN studio at 1:00
    AM singing the "Good Morning, Good Morning" song from "Singing in
    the Rain", just to break the ice.

    She mentioned that TNG is produced much like major motion pictures
    are produced, but with a schedule of a TV show.  They are shot
    with only one camera, and that they do the same scene many times
    with the camera at different angles.

    She said that the cast of TNG generally have a good time during
    filming.  Brent is known for singing "Volare," complete with a jig
    to accompany it.

    Somebody asked her how she liked "Imzadi" by Peter David.  She
    said that she hadn't read it yet.  She saw the hardback at the
    airport, but was going to wait until it came out softback.  She
    seemed rather indignant that she given a copy of the book,
    considering her character was prominently featured on the cover.
    Somebody towards the back of the room quickly took up a
    collection, went out to the dealer's room and bought a copy for
    her.  She did mention that Peter David was her favorite ST writer.

    She did express interest in reading for one of those audio tape
    versions of a future Star Trek book.

    A young girl in the audience asked her if "Troi were going to have
    another baby, and keep it this time."  Her response was that she
    didn't know what future stories might hold for her character.  But
    she went on to say that she is now married, and her "biological
    clock is ticking," and that she personally wants children.  She is
    not sure how the producers would feel about her character being
    pregnant if she herself were to get pregnant, but she lamented
    that "she had no lab coat to hide behind."

    Somebody asked her about her accent on the show (she has a British
    accent in real life).  She said that when the show first started,
    the producers asked her to do an accent for her character, because
    they didn't want two British accents; Patrick having the other
    one.  She said that she was too "new" at the time to question why
    the character that was supposedly French got to keep his British
    accent.  Anyway, she said "Yes" and asked what kind of accent they
    wanted.  They said "Betazed."  So of course she made up a new
    accent, because who would tell her it was wrong!?  But more and
    more Betazed characters appeared on the show with totally US
    American accents.  She has been trying to tone down the accent the
    past few years; she claims that there is a big difference between
    her accent now and the first season.

    Somebody asked her how Majel was doing.  She said that she was
    doing OK; that she handling her loss fine. "A real brick," as they
    say in England.  At least that's what Marina said.  She referred
    to Majel as her "L. A. Mom;" her real Mom is in England.  Marina
    herself is from London.

    She talked some about "Power Play" {I think that's it; its the one
    where she, Data, and O'Brien are taken over by "entities"}.  She
    said that she enjoyed playing the part, but she wished she had
    been a little more "psycho" with her performance; she rarely gets
    to act "forceful."  She said that they had nicknames during
    shooting; she was Slugger, but that Brent kept calling her Sluggo;
    Brent was Slasher; and I forget what they called O'Brien.  She
    said that the producers wanted to give the part of the entity
    leader to Brent, but that the writer fought hard to keep her with
    that part.  She was grateful for that.

    She had nothing but praise for Brent's work; he is her favorite.
    She said that everybody besides him comes to work with their
    scripts in tow, still memorizing their lines.  Brent comes to work
    with everything memorized, and is "word perfect."  I assume she is
    _not_ making reference to the popular word processor. :-)

    Somebody asked her about an interview with her that Cinefantastique
    (sp?) had done.  She immediately said that she had never done an
    interview with them.  She said they just take things she says at
    conventions in response to audience questions, and reformat it as
    if they had done an interview with her.  Understandably, she is
    not too keen on Cinefantastique (sp?).

    Somebody asked what she would do with a ST show if she had
    control.  She said that she used to say "I'd be Captain for a day"
    until the episode "Disaster."  Now she says "I'd be Captain for a
    day, and know what I'm doing!"  She took umbrage with the fact
    that she is a Lt. Commander, and this lowly Ensign had to give her
    technical advice.  She said that if she was an officer, then she
    must have had to go to Star Fleet.  If so, where was she during
    the technical classes?  She said that Patrick and Jonathan like to
    kid her that she skipped those classes so that she could get her
    legs waxed.

    Somebody asked her about "Time's Arrow, Part II."  She said that
    she personally didn't "get" it, but she didn't give any other
    opinion.  She kind of spilled the beans with one comment, or at
    least she thought so.  I didn't really think that what she said
    was a spoiler.  She asked that nobody repeat it, so I won't.  And
    don't ask.  She said that part of the problem with "TA II" is that
    it was written after "TA I" was shot.

    She said that they have filmed six episodes of the season so far,
    and she knew about the next two after that.  She doesn't know any
    more than that.

    Somebody asked her how she felt about doing "The Naked Now."  She
    said that she didn't enjoy doing the episode, because she was
    embarrassed by her part.  She didn't know the cast very well, and
    here she was "throwing herself at people."  She said that she was
    still British enough to be uptight about that.  She admired Denise
    for being Californian enough to enjoy herself.  She said that she
    has been in California long enough now to loosen up a bit.  :-)

    She gave her height as 5'3", for those who care.

    She had a part in a movie that went straight to video.  Its called
    something like "Waxworks"; I'm sure one of the Frequently Asked
    Questions list has all the information about it.  She thought it
    was kind of ironic that somebody in the audience owned a copy of
    it, and she herself hasn't even seen it yet.  {Did I mention that
    the guy who owned it also happened to be wearing a Star Fleet
    uniform?  Did I need to? :-)}  Anyway, she enjoyed making the
    movie.  Her character was "bad" and many things happened to her
    character that she had never experienced; for example, she was
    hanged, she was exploded, etc.  Sounds fun!

    Somebody asked her if any new "Troi" episodes had been filmed for
    the coming season.  She said "yes", and that episode dealt with
    her character being "possessed by yet-another-entity."  The
    audience laughed hard at that.  She said that she really doesn't
    mind all of the "possession" episodes, because they give her
    something different to do.  She poked fun at getting new scripts,
    and rifling through them anxiously to see if "I get possessed by
    any entities this week."

    She said that she has no directing aspirations.  She said that if
    she did, it would be just a whim, and she didn't really feel right
    about taking the job away from somebody who really wanted it.  She
    said that, if anything, she would like to produce rather than
    direct.

    She said that the cast is only signed for six seasons right now.
    She did say that, if she were asked right now, she would agree to
    a seventh season.

    Somebody asked her what her favorite episode was, and she named
    "The Child." She said that she is still moved by that episode.
    The one thing that bothered her was filming the birth scene.  She
    said that it was very emotional for her, and having the film crew
    around bothered her.  She also said that the effect of making the
    newborn look "newly born" was achieved using mayonnaise and
    strawberry jelly.  The audiences reaction: "Ugh."

    She made some flip comment about the women of the TNG cast beating
    up the men {see "Power Play," etc.} and how the men "need to visit
    the gym." :-)

Well, that's about all I remember about her talk.  She was very entertaining
to listen to.  If you get the chance to see her in person, consider going; I
had a fun time.

--
Keith Rose					INTERNET: bkr24@cas.org
						BITNET: bkr24@cas.bitnet

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