Were there any negative aspects to being on such a long running series?

People often imagine that the negative part of being on Star Trek is that you're type cast. I'm asked a lot if I am type cast now as that character. I don't think it's a phenomenon that is unique to Star Trek - it happens in any successful, long running series. You get associated with a character - look at Cheers. When the guys are finished on ER, they're going to have the same thing. People assume, for some reason, that it's exclusive to Star Trek but it's a problem if you come off a show for seven years.

Usually, the reaction you get from directors and producers is, 'Oh yeah, we know her, she's not right.' when, in fact, they don't understand that we've been playing a character that probably isn't like us very much at all. Especially for British actors, if they were to meet us, we're actually very different - we're actors and we play characters. It does take quite a long time to overcome that perception.