As a fan of the initial series, what was it like when you were auditioning for Next Generation?

Years ago I was doing a TV movie called Emergency Room and it a fairly miserable experience. But there was a producer on that show, a man named Bob Justman. And I knew his name from the credits of Star Trek. And we used to sit around, during lighting set ups and talk about Star Trek. I just loved to hear stories about it because I was just such a big fan.

Flash forward, I don�t know, six, seven years later, I get this call from Bob Justman and he�s working at Paramount on this new Star Trek series and he said I remember your love of the show, we�ve got this character, would you be interested in coming in and seeing us? And I said is Gene involved? He said he is. And I said I�ll be right there.

Having a chance not only to meet Gene, but to read for him with an eye towards becoming a member of a cast of a new version of Star Trek was pretty exciting for me.

At the beginning, you know, there was a lot of conversation in the press at what a bad idea this was. To do another version of Star Trek. Deep down inside, in my heart, I knew that competing with the original cast was an impossibility in terms of, you know, going out to the fan base and saying, you know, please accept us, please love us. I thought that since Gene was involved we had a real good shot of making a good show that would carry on in that tradition of Star Trek.