That Young Ferengi: FCD Interview with Aron Eisenberg

I'm going to kick off and say that Aron Eisenberg is one of the nicest and most accommodating people I have ever interviewed. Fact.

Life recently has not been easy for the Nog actor as he explained on stage at First Contact Day 2016. He underwent a kidney transplant in December last year and it really has been a very emotional rollercoaster of a time. But he's fighting back and keen to work. Judging by the seemingly endless queue of people looking for an autograph, he's as popular as ever although it didn't quite start out that way as I discovered.

A part of the show from the first episode and almost the first scene, Eisenberg had no idea that his then-unnamed character (referred to as Quark's nephew only in Emissary) would become a recurring role; "I honestly didn't know how long I was going to be on the show or how long they were going to keep writing Nog in. Every episode, I thought, might be my last so even up to the seventh season I thought I could be done at any time. 

"That's probably my own insecurities thinking this  could be it. Once I got to the last episode of season seven I thought that's it I'm in it for the long haul and I was finally able to mellow out a little bit. I was always worried that I would get a script that would have me flying out the airlock if I didn't keep myself at the best level I could."

For seven years Eisenberg challenged himself with each story he was given; "The script dictates what I had to do so I couldn't change anything. The challenge never went away because they were always giving me new stuff to work with and it was always wonderful and exciting because they gave me such great stuff to do with Nog. Such a great arc with the pinnacle being Seige of AR-558 and It's Only a Paper Moon which was really the story of Nog. There were more stories done after the show that I would love to explore but I don't know if I'll ever have that opportunity."

Even in the novels Nog has been a major character such as in the latter stages of The Fall series for example. "I always hoped that some show would bring him back," continued Aron, "but I kinda lost hope with the new show when I heard that it was going back to the original timeline."

Whether that jump back to The Undiscovered Country is purely for ethos rather than the setting is still speculative of course but Aron is realistic that his character won't be returning given one speculative idea about the proposed time period.

One of the things that always struck me with Deep Space Nine was just how strong the supporting cast was and Aron appeared to agree; "It was such a large cast of people and it needed to be that way because it was on a space station so they had to bring stories to the station rather than The Next Generation that was going to the stories.

"Since the station was there they needed people constantly coming in and out...but they still kept everything connected to the story they built the foundations with and we had such a wonderful group of actors that were all immensely talented." Aron is quick to name Marc Alaimo, Casey Biggs, Jeffrey Combs and of course JG Hertzler among the  amazing cast that joined the show in recurring roles and made the show the unique Star Trek experience it became.

It was a very wonderful show and one of the reasons that the show was so good was because Paramount really didn't care about it. They jumped onto Voyager because it was their sendoff for [the] UPN [network]. We were the black sheep of the family which I think gave a lot more freedom to the writers to tell the stories that they wanted to tell without someone else saying they couldn't do things and got left to their own devices."

Deep Space Nine certainly went against the formula when it came to how it used the cast, even giving Nog his own episode in the final season; "They entrusted that episode to me (It's Only a Paper Moon) and I feel I did a god job and I've got many compliments especially from veterans and hats off to the writers for telling that story. At first I was the B story and they couldn't seem to fit enough of what they wanted to into it so they tried to make it the A story with a B story and they still couldn't make it work. They looked at it and asked "what is the story we want to tell?" They wanted to tell the story of Nog, a young officer dealing with the effects of war and that's what happened."

"I was so honoured they trusted me and a few years ago I asked one of the writers why they kept giving me stuff for Nog and he said it was because they knew I could handle it and I kept proving I could do it. I pushed myself to do the best I could and cared about every episode, every scene I was a part of and it paid off because it kept giving me more work. I wish it could have given me more work after the show!"

Eisenberg's passion and love for Deep Space Nine is evident in spades as he talks about his experiences which saw his character develop from the thieving nephew of the bar owner to a respected junior officer over the course of the series. In my personal opinion and something I put to the actor, was that Nog actually had one of the best and most encompassing story arcs of anybody in the show.

"Max and I had some of the best character development," recalled Aron, "We did! Sometimes you hear actors talk about their show - and not just in Star Trek - and they don't want to talk about the show that made them famous and brought their celebrity to them. I have the complete opposite point of view on that. I loved that show. I was so blessed to have what I have and if I never work again at least I have that. It's more than a lot of actors can say. I will always be a part of Americana. 

"During the (FCD) panel we were asked about how it felt to be immortalised [by TV] and when you're asked that you sometimes don't talk about what you want to discuss because you don't want to monopolise other people but the truth of the matter is its amazing to be part of something."

So did Star Trek go above Aron's expectations? Was it more than he had hoped it to be?

"When you start out as an actor you don't know what the road is going to be. You just want to work and do something you love, be part of shows, to grow, to excel and do the best you can just as anyone in any job; to go up the ranks and do better and something you love to do. That's all I wanted and then to get Star Trek and all these great things and great stories from Heart of Stone to Valiant to It's Only a Paper Moon and to be able to do what I love and have this range - I couldn't have asked for more.

Thinking of all those big Nog episodes of which I would also include Empok Nor, Eisenberg had the chance to star alongside such luminaries as Andy Robinson and James Darren. "It was a blessing and to go head to head with these amazing actors was incredible."

Eisenberg actually got a call from casting that James Darren wanted to rehearse with him. "I was like wow!" Said Aron who was invited to go over to Darren's house to run through the script for It's Only a Paper Moon. 

"It led to a stronger relationship with James that I think came through on set and in the episode. With Avery Brooks it was the same. Avery has a very strong personality and it comes across on the screen and it comes across when you're working with him. It's a wonderful feeling working with Avery because he's right there with you and I mean right there."

His most memorable experience with the Sisko actor came during the third season of the show just as Nog's Starfleet journey was beginning; "In doing Heart of Stone I remember we rehearsed it with the line "Tell me Nog, what is it you want?" he never grabbed me and in the first take we got to that scene he grabbed me and pulled me into him and I remember thinking "This is awesome, right here, right in the moment!" and I remember telling myself very quickly in a heartbeat that I can either go "holy s**t what's going on?!" or I can run with it. I made the right decision and went with it and it was such a wonderful scene to do because he's right there with you. He throws the ball, you thrown it back, he throws it again and you throw it back."

While Aron offers a lot of praise to Brooks for that scene, he's most complimentary in relation to all who were associated with the show; "To be honest you feel that way with everybody. I couldn't have had a better show to work with. The crew was awesome, the production was awesome and the cast was awesome. Sometimes I don't think I can ever get something as good as that ever again."

So what's ahead for Aron Eisenberg? Well, he's just out of recovery after his kidney transplant and now trying to find his way back. During his First Contact Day talk, Aron talked emotionally about his kidney transplant, how the first kidney had seen him through the birth of his sons and the seven years of Deep Space Nine, willing that it would stay healthy and give him that bit more time before requiring a replacement.

"I put acting on the back burner because I was raising my boys," explained Aron whose sons are now 17 and 19. "I really want to get into production and make movies and I miss acting so much. I'm trying to figure out how to get back."

Recent news from the Star Trek lines is that Eisenberg will be returning as Nog in the upcoming second instalment of Renegades. "But it's not just about Nog." he's quick to point out, "I would love to play him again, even in the new TV show but I don't think that's going to happen."

So for Aron Eisenberg the future offers a lot of possibilities and it was great to see him looking well and captivating the crowd at First Contact Day. I wish him all the best for the future.

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Returning Renegades

I was less than glowing in my review of Renegades a couple of months back and it's fair to say I did take a bit of flak from it.

However I seemed to receive more comments agreeing to some degree with what I'd said. The concept is sound,  the cast is superb and the starship effects stunning but there were core problems. The script didn't respect any of the characters' back stories and barely gave any time to the incoming cast to flesh them out. It wasn't well written but there was solid potential.

The good news is that they've just launched the Kickstarter campaign for the second and third episodes of the series plus managed to fill my inbox with a lot of news on improvements and additions for the return of Renegades. Promise? Absolutely and not a trickle of them either.

So let's take a glance at the production team. I was immediately impressed that visual luminary Andy Probert is coming on board to strengthen the backroom team. Probert's work on the movie Enterprise plus the NCC-1701-D is well-known; his original design for the Enterprise-C is legendary.

Second to that, Renegades have also brought in Melinda Snodgrass, story editor for season two and executive script consultant for The Next Generation. Notably Snodgrass was responsible for the script of The Measure of a Man so I can only surmise that bringing her on board is to ensure that the story has a more Star Trek feel to it and is handled by someone who truly understands the franchise and can write for the characters.

But it's in front of the camera that some of the biggest moves have come about as the production looks to raise funds for the second and third episodes. We have some news when it comes to new faces with a whole load of Star Trek alumni vying for screen time. First announced was Terry Farrell (Jadzia), then Robert Beltran (Chakotay), Hanna Hatae (Molly O'Brien) before Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko) and finally Aron Eisenberg (Nog). While this gives fans another reason to celebrate just as a new network Star Trek series I have my concerns.

So hark, we have a cast which will be bolstered by the arrival of five solid former cast members returning to their recognised roles from Deep Space Nine and Voyager what's happening to the cast from their recently released pilot? We know that Walter Koenig will be back for his final appearance as Chekov in episode two and will have Tuvok, played by Tim Russ, alongside him once again. Importantly Adrienne Wilkinson's key character as Lexxa Singh will be heading the crew. Gary Graham's Ragnar will be back as will Courtney Peldon's Andorian gal Shree and Corin Nemec's Captain Alvarez. 

But that's it and as it stands Sean Penn, Robert Picardo, Manu Intiraymi, Edward Furlong, Chasty Ballasteros and Larissa Gomes will all be conspicuously absent. Now that's a big cast cull, removing some very under-developed roles and, perhaps, excess stories or more simply letting people out who can't commit to another two adventures. A real disappointment as a couple of those characters deserved more screen-time to explain facets of their personalities and back-stories and it looks like we will be robbed of that opportunity. It also means that Wilkinson and Nemec are the only two actors who have not appeared in canon Star Trek.

Maybe some of them will be back as more news comes our way but if not it does appear that a smaller cast will allow more time to each character and allow a bit more development in place of a messy, packed set up. Certainly bringing Melinda Snodgrass into the production suggests a desire to make the second and third episodes more franchise-loyal than the pilot. Interestingly though both the back-room additions only had an influence on the franchise pre-1990 with Probert departing after the first year of The Next Generation and Snodgrass after the third. That might mean that the storytelling and the feel of the new episodes will be more akin to the early adventures of the NCC-1701-D and potentially more aligned with the standalone nature of The Original Series' episodes than we came to know with Deep Space Nine and more notably later years of Enterprise.

What about those casting announcements? How the new additions are going to be added into a story about, well, renegades, is going to be a puzzle. All I worry is that Nog and Chakotay will end up looking more like "baddies" than characters we will want to support here if they are placed against/chasing the Icarus. How can they be integrated into what is effectively an anti-Federation crew out there doing the things Starfleet can't do? Admiral Chekov's office could be very crowded indeed.

Casting more recognised Star Trek names is a big and very noticeable step which will make it more appealing to fans who may have chosen to avoid the pilot or even disliked it. For those who aren't returning it's a great shame but let's hope their replacements don't receive the same lax treatment especially now there's some original Star Trek writing involvement to steer the future of this web-series. There's a ton of potential here but it needs to be nurtured and directed in a way that might be deemed more "appropriate" for the show.

Over 2000 fans have donated $235,000 to the new episodes with just under two weeks to go to reach the desired $350,000. I think they will reach that goal however after the reaction to the first episode I believe it's going to be a bigger challenge to get these two stories completed and if not, could it be the end of Renegades? Probably not considering what has now been donated after the less than stellar pilot. At least the ball is now rolling but a lot of fans will be filled with trepidation before they even consider dropping a few dollars the way of the new Renegades production after episode one.

I don't have a clue where these new stories will be heading but I firmly believe that with the changes made, the production team have listened to critics and fans alike to ensure that mistakes are not repeated and the next instalments of Renegades will only receive explosively positive reviews. Please.

You can keep up to date with Renegades announcements by checking up on their official website.

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Renegades: Rubbish or Revelation?

I'm finally putting finger to keyboard about this one but it did take me until the eve of Star Trek's 49th birthday to do so.

There have already been a ton of reviews of Renegades out there especially since it's more public release on YouTube a couple of weeks ago, but with September's anniversary coming along I thought; "OK, what would Gene have thought of this? Is this truly what Star Trek is now and will be in the future?"

Flashback; it's taken around two years and then some to bring Renegades to reality and there have been some sizeable breaks between pre-production, then filming and finally the good old post-production polish but is it living up to the hype that the stellar Star Trek cast and co. have brought whether it was wanted or not? 

At a surface level it looks great. Renegades is a really shiny production that takes the Star Trek universe beyond Nemesis and into much darker times for the Federation. There's a ton of action, phaser battles, CG space combat and some seriously gorgeous ship sequences that rival anything we ever saw in Voyager and Enterprise. You certainly won't get bored watching it as the journey to the credits is one event after another with lots to keep you occupied visually. However it's when you start to get past the screen gloss and look into the heart of the movie that my appreciation begins to waiver. 

Let's handle the plot itself just to get us all on the same page. Renegades sees still-active 147 year old Admiral Pavel Chekov (Walter Koenig) and apparent Section 31 chief Commander Tuvok (Tim Russ who also pulls directorial duties) releasing genetic super-person Lexxa Singh (played by Adrienne Wilkinson and yes, a relation to Khan) from an Orion prison so she can lead her "motley crew" and stop a deadly super force from wreaking havoc on the galaxy. That's basically it in a nutshell aside from the array of set pieces which drop in to make this last more than 15 minutes. 

Koenig's involvement will certainly have bolstered interest but his scenes are very, very average and he's playing Chekov in his sleep here albeit carrying some big troubles on his experienced shoulders. When I watch his performance and compare it to something that I might see in Valiant, Continues or Dreadnought Dominion there's a passion that I see in those productions which I don't see within Walter's eyes or many others for that instance. I just don't believe in the characters nor in the desire of some actors to do this. 

On that note, what was with the great-granddaughter element in this? I wasn't sure where that was going but there is a moment which actually did shock me and was totally unexpected. Again, the acting is OK from this younger actress and I suspect we will see - and I would like to see - her story expanded in future episodes of Renegades.

Aiding Chekov is Andorian hacker Shree (Courtney Peldon) and Romulan assassin T'Leah (Larissa Gomez). Their appearance might seem like window-dressing to some degree but they are fairly important to protecting the admiral and uncovering some of the darker plot elements. The problem with both characters is that due to the other events and the cast size they really don't get a lot to do once they've had their "moment".

The Syphon, just to fill that in, is a race attacking planets, including ones which provide vital dilithium for the Federation, and  are therefore threatening the survival of the inter-planetary organisation. Since the activities of the Syphon are happening outside of Federation jurisdiction and they are not controlled by Federation laws the situation will need to be handled by someone else so if you can find them and no-body else can help maybe you can hire the - sorry slipped into another show there for a second but I'm sure you get the drift. They get shockingly little time here and the concluding events of the movie seem rushed and I didn't have any strong desire for the Syphon to be defeated. Their motives seemed lacklustre and they received little to work with. 

So let's look at the renegades themselves. Enter Lexxa; driven by the possibility that her mother, killed by Section 31, might still be around(?) and lots of angst all built up ready to let fly at the first opportunity. She's also the (deposed) captain of the renegade vessel, Icarus and is certainly keep to reacquire her position from it's Nausicaan encumbant. Lexxa's feisty, ass-kicking leader you'd expect to lead such a band and it gives Adrienne Wilkinson the chance to snarl at the camera and do some slow-mo walking. You know she's important because no-one else gets that treatment and her return to the bridge of the Icarus is fairly swift after a brief punch-up in an Orion prison and Tuvok letting her out. Adrienne Wilkinson does a fine job to work with what she gets and her story is at least interesting. I pray she gets better material to work with in the future of the series as once the prison fight had gone I didn't think her supposed superior skills were utilised to any degree.

There's an impressive ensemble just in the crew itself; Sean Young, probably most memorable for her performance as the Replicant Rachel in Bladerunner is Doctor Lucien an expert in holographic technology and typically on the run it seems although she has regular contact with guest-starring Robert Picardo's Lewis Zimmerman. The Young/Picardo scenes are probably the best pairing in the movie and are certainly played with a little more emotion and care.  Seeing Picardo back is a pleasure and he does genuinely look like he's enjoying being on the screen and back in Star Trek. Mind you, the Zimmerman we see here is nothing at all like the grouch we became familiar with in Voyager. 

We also get introduced to Chasty Ballasteros as Betazoid Ronara. Not quite what you might expect, Ronara can't do that whole empathic emotional bit that Troi was so good at in The Next Generation, rather she can manipulate people using her mental abilities. Nice trick and a nice twist on an established trope but it doesn't make her character any more memorable. Y'see, there are a lot of people in this production, a lot of main and guest characters and the 90 minute duration only just gives them all time to get a few lines and some shoe-horned character exposition. Given that these guys are supposed to have known each other for a while they spend a lot of the movie talking about basic information you would assume they already know. It's obviously for the audience but perhaps they didn't need to do as much and leave a lot of stuff unsaid to be explained in future installments? I actually felt this detracted from the pace of Renegades and stalled the motion of the story.

Also on board is Edward "Terminator 2" Furlong as Fixer. Seemingly the Icarus chief engineer, Furlong only really comes into his own towards the last 15 minutes of the film. He's OK but the performance is fairly forgettable except for that key section of the movie. At least he fares better than Manu Intiraymi as Icheb. While it's great to see a second Voyager character back in the fray and for Manu to be onboard, the Icheb character betrays a lot about what is critically wrong with Renegades. 

Gone is the intelligent, slightly withdrawn teenager from Voyager replaced by an almost vengeful soldier. Ok I get the whole Section 31 piece surrounding his evolution since Endgame but it seems a bit too far and nothing like the person we knew. Intiraymi does the best with the material he's given - in fact having spoken to him about Renegades I understand some of the issues a lot more and seriously feel that his character is underused and under-explored. He should be a major player but is at times relegated to a background role.

Same goes for Tuvok in that Russ seems to be playing him by rote and forgetting all the nuances that made him interesting particularly towards the end of the show. These character changes feel forced and likewise this movie feels forced. I enjoyed it but I couldn't buy into the nature of the renegade force or their very existence. Nor do I feel that anyone was done full justice or written properly given the numerous returning characters we had here. The whole point of Section 31 I thought was to deal with these kind of problems so that the Federation could deny all knowledge should anything go wrong. I'm really not sure if the writers got to grips with their source material properly here as it's much more a guns-blazing action piece than anything else. 

What they have attempted with Renegades is admirable but the cast is wasted on a basic action flick. Vic Mignogna's Cardassian is killed off early and could have been a fairly interesting character but now we'll never know.  Worst is that it's also taken me this long through the cast to remember that Gary Graham is in here as Ragnar, some form of mercenary type. I have a feeling he's going to be better treated as a character in Axanar than he does here. Truth be told both Ragnar and Sean Penn's Doctor Lucien benefit the most when they are alone aboard the Icarus evading the Archer. Again, a bit of a token character with not enough screen time to be fully developed in this installment.

From the very opening this feels like a 90's episode of Babylon 5 in the style of filming, the low tech sets and the amount of very evident green-screen really made this feel a little bit raw and retro. It's not a complaint because, hey, they have to reduce costs and this is never going to have quite the same feel as a TV episode but it's very telling what an independent production can complete versus the power of somewhere like CBS. Nor am I a great fan of the Syphon. The make-up is not that great, as an enemy I didn't buy into them and all we seemed to get was a lot of grunts and snorts through the monkey-esque mouthpieces. Borrada, their leader played by Bruce Young, could have been much better developed than just the archetypical villain role. I know he could have brought more depth to the role but the script, once again, is just as unforgiving and inflexible as his excessive makeup.

The plot point surrounding the use of portals to collapse planets into space and time is a really neat concept. It's not exactly new but the idea of encasing or destroying planets using it was fairly cool to see and did enhance the sense of danger especially when it turned to Earth as a potential target. The effects with this part were a bit iffy and some of the tension build up seemed to drag on a little longer than necessary. That's actually one of the directional points that did grate since it happened a few times - an angle lingered too long, a scene could have cut earlier or started just a fraction later.

There's a lot of blasting and battles but there doesn't feel like any form of Star Trek core; no morality, no deeper meaning that you would expect. It's almost as though Renegades is attempting the fast, visual gratification that modern blockbuster movies attempt, possibly aiming for a younger newer audience a la JJ's movies? I just found it lacking anything substantial. Many other popular fan series chose to stay in The Original Series era because it can be done less expensively and still look pretty good which is where Renegades vision and ability come into conflict quite drastically. With Renegades the intention is to make it look 24th Century but given the budget it just doesn't hit the mark. I'm sorry but unless you've got the millions that produced The Next Generation and the rest it's always going to look like a cheap knock-off however hard you try. Walls are a bit plain and shaky, sets look empty and there's a lot of obvious green-screen however, a lot of the visual effects added in post-production look great especially the tech on Icheb, some of the clear padd devices and the intensity of the ground battles.

Costuming too really bugged me. Not so much the renegades attire but the production's take on Starfleet's uniform which,  in every case be it Corin Nemec on the Archer,  Tuvok or Chekov looks like something you would buy from a fancy dress shop. It seems strangely oversized and in comparison to the clothes the main renegade characters receive they look really shoddy and poorly made. Sorry,  just an opinion but they aren't the best. The bridge set for the Archer too was very cramped, oddly shot and felt like it had been constructed in about five minutes. Sorry, I have major gripes with this as you can see....

Renegades is a heck of a lot darker and much less Starfleet than you will have experienced with even the conflict-filled world of Deep Space Nine. The appearance of the USS Archer with it's oddly wide deflector dish, as well as the inclusion of admirals Chekov and Paris (Richard Herd) keep a tag that we are still in the same Star Trek universe but I can't shake the feeling that this isn't quite Star Trek. Indeed as I asked at the start, would Gene have approved? I'm not sure he would have.

We know from interviews Roddenberry gave that he wanted other people to take on the franchise, to add their twist to it but the hopeful future he spoke of and believed in which in turn brought life to the Star Trek universe does not seem to exist in Renegades. The universe seems to have gone Bad (purposeful capital "B" there) and is only getting worse. Even Starfleet seems less optimistic and after the Dominion War, the multiple Borg attacks and the rest you'd probably not blame them but it there was always a sense of hope that seems to have been sapped from Renegades. If I was to understand the universe from this perspective I'd assume that s**t happens and deal with it.

We always knew that Renegades would not look as good as the TV show but I personally expected better given the time, effort and names associated with the project. It may not be the Star Trek we could have expected nor will it ever be canon but fans deserved something much more in keeping with the feel of the franchise. It's all well and good taking the idea in different directions but at its core anything Star Trek still needs to remain true to its founding principles to be truly considered Star Trek and I think that Renegades falls short of the mark with its desire for action over genuine character interaction and development.

I'll be the first to admit that I didn't donate to the project. OK, say what you will, I didn't and regretted it to the point where I did donate to Axanar. My problem is that I'm not sure how all the cash really was spent here. The cast is incredible but it just seems bloated in comparison to the plot needs, development (written that word A LOT here) and pacing. Less characters would have given more exposure to the necessary ones and potentially helped thicken out the story with something more meaningful. I know this comes across as an utter slating but it is still an improvement on productions from the 00's however while Renegades has been in production other units have caught up and passed what this movie has attempted to do in so many ways. 

Admittedly there's no-one trying to do post-Nemesis Star Trek so they do get a gold star for that and for effort but without the backing of a proper studio it's never going to hit the heights it needs to. Yes, yes, I know that's the point of the web-pilot to get that interest but so far I've not heard anything to suggest it's going to get that. Even more concerning is that the cast is going to be increased with the recent announcement that Terry (Jadzia Dax) Farrell will be boarding ship for the next episode - even less time for the existing crew to blossom?!

Renegades may well not be the optimistic future that Gene Roddenberry envisaged and brought to the screen on September 8th 1966 but it is still a vehicle to carry the name and keep the franchise alive in some form. While we are getting numerous series expanding the tales in the era of The Original Series, Renegades has been brave enough to move forward into new, uncharted visual territory and stake a claim. 

I look forward to the next phase of it's evolution and expect that a lot of lessons will be learned from the production of this movie. I have felt this has been a huge disappointment given all the factors that have gone into making a "new" Star Trek but I am hopefully confident that Renegades II will certainly be a step forward from here. Heck, we can't go backwards can we? 

How did you feel about Renegades? Was it as "miss" as I felt it was or am I being unjustly critical on something that's keeping Star Trek alive?

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From the Collective to the Circuit: Voyager's Manu Intiraymi on Voyager, Producing and More!

Blasting through to the sixth and seventh seasons of Voyager it can be easy to overlook some of the elements that helped evolve the show in its final years.

One of the biggest additions to the ship was Icheb. Originally one of the Borg children discovered in Collective, he would be the only one of that small group of survivors to would remain on the ship and return with it to the Alpha Quadrant (whatever happened to the baby?!).

But actor/producer Manu Intiraymi's (pronounced Inter-aye-may) association with Star Trek doesn't end there and in the last couple of years he's even brought Icheb back for the independent film, Star Trek: Renegades.

"I'd just finished a film called Whatever it Takes," recalled Manu when he spoke to me from Los Angeles shortly before the widespread release of Renegades. "It was a teen comedy with James Franco, Aaron Paul, Shane West and Colin Hanks and then a couple of months later I got the call from my agent to go and read for a part on Voyager. Originally I was reading for the Borg character that dies (First which went to Ryan Spahn) and I didn't get it so I was depressed. They called me and said that I'd actually got the other part of the number two supporting character. I was bummed but I still got to do Star Trek even though it wasn't the bad guy role. It then turned into two years of television because they kept that guy alive and turned him into Icheb."

Whether that was the plan from the start or something that happened along the way is a point Manu still doesn't know to this day. It may well have been they realised that he could be an asset to the show after the Icheb-focused episode Child's Play which took the character back to his homeworld. Not only that but the story revealed how Icheb was linked to the demise of the Borg ship from Collective and also put Manu onscreen alongside sci-fi stalwart Mark Shepherd; "Whether that was a tester episode to see what I could do I don't know," said Manu, "but I do owe thanks to Michael Taylor and Ken Biller as those guys were responsible, as I discovered recently at Las Vegas from Brian Fuller, for creating the character."

"A couple of years ago when we filmed Renegades I went back and watched those last couple of seasons and they were pretty good. I'm very proud of the work I did on that show. It was great opportunity to steal from all those guys (the cast) and learn their acting tricks and camera tricks. There were a lot of really good actors that I was lucky enough and smart enough to get as much knowledge as I could when I had the chance."

Oddly the way in which Manu got the chance to audition for Voyager isn't totally straight-forward. It seems that his first onscreen performance in Senseless alongside Marlon Wayans wasn't the best it could have been. Ron Cerma cast him in that movie and it ended up with the director yelling at Manu with him considering quitting acting and going home depressed. Three years later Ron was getting a pedicure alongside Manu's agent, Julian Lowry-Johnson, who suggested he should see the young actor for the role of Icheb. Ron gave Manu a second chance as his agent got his toe cut in frustration and if not for that, Manu Intiraymi may never have had the opportunity.

Manu's Borg costume was a little different to the standard outfit although it was designed by Bob Blackman. "He had designed an outfit that was half-assimilated (because of the virus Icheb had been carrying which awoke him early). All the way up to my crotch he left the leg open and then on the other side he had holes in the costume for my skin to show. The Borg bodysuits are pretty hard plastics and so anytime I moved where the plastics were and it met my skin it would chafe and slice into my leg or dig into my hip. At the end of the day I would go home and have marks all over me. It was uncomfortable and I threw a fit over the leg piece and said I didn't want to do it, I looked like a dork and would have to hide the open leg every time the camera was on it.

"Brannon Braga had to come down from the main office. He asked what was the problem. I told him that I was this bad-ass Borg with a skinny white leg and he took one look and said "Yeah; I wouldn't want to do that either; tough break man. That's the costume.

"I asked if we could at least put a panty-ho in there so they ended up putting a couple of Borg implants onto a panty-ho that they made me wear to make it look a little less skinny. It was funny because that was enough for me to feel comfortable!"

Manu recalled a lot of experiences on other shows as the guest character where the main cast would treat you as though you weren't there but on Voyager it was different, "Those actors were very welcoming. I felt like a part of the cast immediately. I didn't feel any pressure from the cast and they were all very friendly, enlightened, humble - good people. I got to know them then and I've got to know them even more from doing conventions every now and then. 

"I worked with Kate, Jeri and (Robert) Picardo a lot and Ethan (Phillips) for The Haunting of Deck Twelve and every other character at least once but the only person I only had one scene with was Robert Beltran. Over the last couple of years I've got to know him very well. He's one of the most respectful, funny, welcoming guys around. Now we're working on a project together. I've worked on three things with Tim Russ, I'm trying to get Ethan and Robert into a new movie I'm doing. They were all very kind to me and I don't have anything negative to say about them."

It's been almost two years since Renegades was filmed and Manu found it difficult to slip back into the character of Icheb which was down to how the project had evolved. "The screenplay that I read and thought was great and in which Icheb was a main character, had a lot of dialogue and a lot of scenes which were CG heavy was axed and they had to re-write."

While he was working on Unbelievable!!!!! which has a Star Trek-laden cast in itself, Manu spoke with Tim Russ only to discover that Renegades had undergone some drastic changes with the removal of Icheb which meant that Manu would be playing another character. 

"I got annoyed because I'd spent the previous year promoting it and then I got written back into the movie but whoever wrote him back in didn't seem to know the character because the dialogue wasn't like him. Icheb in Voyager was a genius, he had a big vocabulary and he spoke in a certain way and I remember there were lines in Renegades that would never come out of his mouth or if they did they would be much more creative! I kept fighting against it and would speak to Tim (Russ) who was directing and say "Look what Icheb's about to say in this scene - he wouldn't say that would he?"

"Tim would take a look at the line and say "No man, he wouldn't" and then we'd try and rewrite what he would say and if we couldn't come up with anything then I would just say nothing and drop the line. Even though Icheb is in the film quite a bit he's become a much more silent character. He's not the character we've got to know. If they do another I hope that they let Icheb speak some more and find out a bit about the man he's become because we don't learn a lot in Renegades except that he's been altered by Section 31.

"I'm very proud of Renegades and I do hope they do another. It'll be good to find out what happened to Icheb and why. He certainly looks cool in Renegades and I enjoyed making it!"

Talking of Star Trek (which we always like to do on here, surprisingly), we had to ask how the Icheb actor had found the recent Las Vegas convention; "It was amazing! It was a really nice show. The fans were great and I got to see so many fans, showrunners and writers that I'd not seen in so long. The panels were good and I got reconnected with Brannon Braga, bumped into Brian Fuller, saw friends and family and talked about developing The Circuit."

We'll come to that project in a bit as there's even more on his plate at the moment. You may recall from a while back that he's also involved with 5th Passenger and on this project, as a producer for the third time.

Written by Morgan Lariah and Scott Baker, it's the story of a group of characters stuck together on a lifepod with something sinister in there with them. The big thing that Manu brought to the table here was the cast, calling in stalwarts from the sci-fi sphere including Armin Shimerman, Tim Russ, Marina Sirtis and Hana Hatae among others.

"It was a blessing to get Armin," explained Manu as the part had been recast twice with Ethan Phillips then Robert Picardo in the role, "He brings something to the character that Ethan or Robert might not have done. Originally the character was a talky guy but over the rewrites his lines began to go away as he's a supporting character but Armin is such a good actor that even when he's in a scene not saying anything you're still focused on him. He brought this great subtle silence to his scenes."

"I think this film has a chance to be great," said Manu; "We have 70 minutes cut, we have a lot of digital effects to wait for and we probably won't be out until some time late next year but the film looks really good!

"We have to make sure that it's perfect. We shot a film for a little bit of money that looks like a big budget film and my terror going into it was that we were making a B-movie because we didn't have enough money. About a week in I knew we were shooting a really good movie and now the last thing we need to do is to raise the extra money and don't release it before each and every visual effect looks as good as the rest of the film."

So what has made 5th Passenger just so good an experience to work on? "Everything came together;" said Manu, "All the guys involved aren't getting paid what they're used to and with that usually one department (makeup, special effects, wardrobe, art, actors...) doesn't bring their best work and it only makes one thing to make a movie bad. In this case everyone brought their A-game. We had three guys building sets that were literally ready an hour before we were using them. I remember the roof for the lower half of our spaceship was up minutes before we moved the cameras over there. It was a miracle movie in so many ways - I didn't think it was going to get made for a few years and then we found these ship sets and we could go in and get the right to shoot on and redesign from an art design perspective.

"The fans were amazing. We knew we had to shoot the ship within a certain time-frame and we had three weeks to raise the funds so I called all the actors, we threw up a last minute Kickstarter and the fans donated $82,000 which was a miracle. Thank you to every one of them. Matching funds and getting more money meant we could get it all filmed in 17 days rather than three separate shoots. I'm really proud of everyone who worked on it but I don't think I could ever recreate all those miracles that happened to bring it all together!"

The movie Unbelievable is also due to come out with a 50-something cast list of sci-fi actors. A farce, it's cost $3 million dollars and Manu has yet to see the finished product; "It's going to be a funny and weird film. If it's terribly bad it might get to the point it's good!"

Now the big thing that is coming in 2016 is The Circuit. "I'm putting together this project which is ten different stories about ten different genres that have happened over the last 50 years of Star Trek/sci-fi/pop culture conventions. Five stories based on absolute fiction and five based on a true story. The first 12 minutes will be a thriller then that will end and the camera will follow someone and the genre will twist and suddenly you'll be watching a romance and that will end and you'll be in a noire film then a horror and then maybe a sci-fi epic. What's neat about it is that we want to tell the ten best stories that have happened in 50 years of this phenomenon of the convention.

"There's so many stories that happen behind the scenes that the fans don't get to see and that they need to know about. There's ten different directors, ten different writers and a single cinematographer to keep a certain look. All these stories will intertwine so it's one movie. Usually in an anthology film you would fade to black after ten minutes, a title card comes up but in this one we're going to switch genres instead.

"So far we have Walter Koenig, Tim Russ, Armin Shimerman, Gary Graham, JG Herzler, Robert O'Reilly, Vaughn Armstrong, Gigi Edgley (Farscape), Corin Nemec (Stargate) and probably Ethan Phillips and Robert Picardo (if they like what I write!), Robert Beltran, Nana Visitor, Terry Farrell, Bernard Wells (Mad Max: The Road Warrior), Doug Jones (Hellboy), Hana Hatae, Jerry Doyle (Babylon 5) and more!" (that is one HELL of a list)

Once this gets opened up next year, Manu is looking for five of these stories to come from the fanbase because these aren't just the actors' stories. "I was standing on the stage at the closing ceremony for Fedcon last year and looking out thinking 'look at all those stories! All these people are living lives and there must be some great stories out there. I know the stories I've heard over 15 years of going to conventions so I have lots to share but I know the fans must have them too. 

"We will be opening it for direct submissions from the fans and they will be story editor and work alongside our writers to get it right. Whoever that story is about be it them or their friends will then get played by famous actors if their piece is picked. It may be the first time that the fans and the actors will be involved directly and creatively in the making of a film. It's a really fun thing and I hope people get behind it. The first Indiegogo campaign should go live in April next year."

So to finish I had to ask - what was Manu's biggest moment from his association with Star Trek in the last 15 years?

"When I got the episode Imperfection I thought it was so well written and said so much about human kind's ability to do brave things and sacrifice oneself for friends and family. I called my mother and cried that I was finally going to get to do something that counts. I put everything I had into making sure that episode came off right. When you do TV it's different to doing theatre because you don't see if you've affected someone anywhere. The main reason that I act is because once in a while you get a chance to do a story that really affects people on a deep emotional level and vicariously through another human being's experience something that is important to us all.

"Then a year later I was in Germany at my first convention (Fedcon). I didn't know what a Q&A was and someone handed me a microphone and said that I had to go on stage and talk for a couple of hours. I went out and started talking. It was the first Q&A I did, it was also the best Q&A I ever did. I really connected with the audience in a way I've never had since. 

"About halfway through a man stood up and said that he wanted to thank me for the episode Imperfection because his cousin, who was standing next to him, had a kidney operation he was going through and they had watched that episode. It had given them the courage to believe that he was going to get a kidney, believe that he was going to be OK and it helped them get through that experience. They just wanted to thank me and the guy was in tears. It was powerful to the point where I just started crying with that individual and said thank you. That was the whole point to give everything you have to get more empathy and love if you can. I'm most thankful for that moment."

The show also gave Manu two great years of working with great actors, telling great stories but also gave him the opportunity to see the world, get cultured "...and most importantly meet fans. There's no other show in the world that I could have done which would have given me that."

You can follow Manu on Facebook, on Twitter as @manuintiraymi or on Istagram as @manuintiraymi - do it now!

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