Character Insight No. 321: V'Las

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review V'Las, a recurring Vulcan character shown on Enterprise.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp321 

Administrator V'Las is the head of the Vulcan High Command in the era of Archer's Enterprise.  While in this role, he conspired with a deep-undercover Romulan operative named Talok to facilitate an invasion of Andoria by the Vulcans, which would lead to the subjugation of the Vulcan people by the Romulans.  He's a "tricky Dick" type of leader, by Star Trek presidential standards.

During the events of Enterprise, Captain Archer assists Vulcan and Andoria in signing a peace treaty and ending their long conflict.  However, V'Las is already plotting in the background to make a full scale attack on Andoria, and this is just a delay tactic to put the Andorians off guard.  His plans for invasion were threatened by a dissident group known as Syrannites.  That leads V'Las to make it his goal to eliminate these political dissidents, root and stem.

Part of his plan involved bombing the United Earth Embassy on Vulcan, trying to pin it to the dissident group.  To keep his plot secret, he ends up having to relieve Vulcan ambassador to Earth Soval of his job duties when Soval learns the truth about the bombing.  Soval then ends up letting Archer know what was going on, leading to a space battle where the Enterprise joins the Andorians in defending against the Vulcan attack.

Archer and T'Pau end up going to the High Command and presenting the Kir'Shara to undermine V'Las's authority to stop the battle and make him step down.  The last we see of V'Las is in a falling out with his Romulan agent Talok as they deal with the fallout of their conspiracy plots falling apart.  While V'Las tried to sow seeds of war in Vulcan, his efforts being foiled actually becomes one of the key moments leading to the eventual founding of the Federation, including both the Andorian Empire and the Vulcans.

A couple of theories have emerged in the novels as to why this head of the High Command would be a double agent for Romulus.  One theory is that the real V'Las was replaced by a Romulan agent at some point before he ascended to Administrator.  Another theory is that he is the son of Romulan sleeper agents who infiltrate Vulcan society after a war between those planets.  We are never given the total backstory on screen, so these are just interesting theories.

Robert Foxworth played V'Las, and this was also his second Trek role.  His first was as Admiral Leyton from a Deep Space 9 episode as we covered a few months back.  He's also known more recently as the voice of Ratchet, the Autobot medic in the live action Transformers movies.

----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 320: Jabara

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Nurse Jabara, a recurring character on Deep Space 9.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp320 

Nurse Jabara is a Bajoran militia member who gets assigned to Deep Space 9 when the Federation comes into the station.  She uses her medical expertise to help as a medical assistant to Dr. Bashir.  Thus, most of her appearances are in sickbay and helping out during medical crises.

In the episode Babel, she assists in the treatment of Miles O'Brien who was suffering from aphasia virus.  She helps contain the spread to other crew members while treating the virus.  She later appears in the episode The Wire and works on Elim Garak.  However, as the mysterious tailor often was, he made it difficult for her to effectively treat him so that he could keep some secrets about his past.

The next season, Nurse Jabara shows up in two more episodes.  In Life Support, she deals with Vedek Bareil after he is severely injured in a docking incident.  Then in Distant Voices, she treats her boss Bashir following the Doctor's attack from a Lethean criminal.  She appears in an illusion Bashir gets trapped in as well.

Jabara was played by Ann Gillespie, and this was her second role in Star Trek.  Her first role was in one episode of TNG as an ensign in Pen Pals.  She is best known for a recurring role as Jackie Taylor on Beverly Hills, 90210.  She serves in her free time as an episcopal priest now, making her a reverend as well as a Trek alumnus.

----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 319: The Roles of James Sloyan

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we continue our series on actors who played multiple roles in Star Trek, with a look at guest star James Sloyan, who played four different background characters on 3 different series of Trek.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp319 

James Sloyan was born in Indianapolis in 1940 but moved to Europe when he was a young boy.  As that was an interesting time in world and European history with World War II, his family moved around to many different places including Rome, Capri, Milan, Switzerland, and Ireland.  Thus, when the family moved back to the United States in 1957, James had a wealth of different cultural experiences to draw upon.  

Because they lived in upstate New York, he quickly involved himself in the theater by managing a local theater and then attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.  He was drafted into the Army and after 4 years of service, returned to his Shakespearean theater where he then performed in 28 plays and choreographed all onstage fight scenes.  He eventually moved his talents to some small roles in television, including serving as the voice of Lexus advertisements from 1989 to 2009.

In Star Trek, his first appearance was as the traitorous Romulan Admiral Alidar Jarok in the episode The Defector.  He returns a few seasons later to play an adult version of Worf's son Alexander Rozhenko in the episode Firstborn.  His performance as the Romulan Jarok was so well done that it led to these many other roles in the Trek series of the time.  Although Jarok did unknowingly lead the Enterprise into a Romulan trap, his desire to make a better future for his family was a relatable story that repeats itself in many works of fiction and stage plays.

QUOTE (from The Defector)

"There comes a time in a man's life that you cannot know... when he looks down at the first smile of his baby girl and realizes he must change the world for her... for all children."

James Sloyan then played Doctor Mora Pol in several episodes of Deep Space 9.  Pol was a Bajoran scientist who studied the changeling who became Odo over the many years of the Cardassian Occupation.  Pol therefore becomes a bit of a mentor figure for Odo, who adopts the same hairstyle when he takes humanoid form.  The relationship between these two characters is complicated as Pol used certain methods like shock therapy to train Odo, who did not agree with such practices.

However, Pol and Odo put their differences behind them when they train an infant changeling in the episode The Begotten.  Pol also serves an important role in providing research information and help to Dr. Bashir and others when Odo suffers from unknown ailments in a couple episodes.  Dr. Pol's work is the foundation which helps the Starfleet crew understand and manage their relationship with changelings, later to be the key players behind the adversary known as The Dominion.

QUOTE (from The Alternate)

Dr. Pol was originally to be played by Odo actor Rene Auberjonois, much like Brent Spiner and Robert Picardo played their mentor or creator figures, but the constant switching and heavy makeup differences between the two characters was too much for one actor to manage.  Thus, Sloyan was brought on and gives us more memorable performances in this recurring role.  James Sloyan reappeared once in Voyager, this time playing a Haakonian scientist in the episode Jetrel.

James Sloyan has been mostly retired from TV and movie acting since 2000.  In addition to Trek and on stage, he can be found in a ton of different shows like The Young and the Restless, Party of Five, MagGyver, Matlock, and Baywatch.

-----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 318: Herbert

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Ensign Herbert, a background character who appears in a couple episodes of TNG.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp318 

Ensign Herbert is a transporter chief who is seen running the console in the transporter room in a couple of episodes.  His first appearance comes in the first season episode We'll Always Have Paris.  He later shows up in season 2, including in the episode The Icarus Factor.  Obviously during this time period Chief Miles O'Brien is more typical at this post, but since O'Brien can't work 24 hours a day, it makes sense that we would sometimes see another face here.

There's not much fleshed out about this character on screen, so let's instead focus on the actor who plays this character, that being Lance Spellerberg.  Spellerberg is a proud alumnus of The Ohio State University, like yours truly, but unlike me, he went into theater and has made that into a successful career, mostly on stage rather than on screen.  His brother went into law and became a well-known entertainment lawyer, so both have a little slice of Hollywood in them.

  

He spent some time touring with the National Shakespeare Company while based in New York, and he has spent a couple decades acting in over 40 stage productions.  He has one writing credit to his name, that being the short film Thinking Too Much in 1993.  As is often the case with actors, he has led an interesting life path with stints in Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Honolulu to go along with the aforementioned NYC.  He married in 1994 and their only son just turned 18.  We will see if young Ellis will follow his father's footsteps.

On screen, in addition to Trek, Spellerberg has played small roles in movies like The Cookout and Double Jeopardy.  His appearance on TNG was his only screen appearance until 1997, when he then spent about 5-7 years doing small roles mostly on TV shows.  He is currently settled in Los Angeles and still pursues stage acting while he nears the age of 60.

----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 317: Vina

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Vina, a character who appeared on a few episodes of TOS before appearing again on Discovery this week.  Note that spoilers regarding Discovery will be at a minimum here.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp317 

With the character of Captain Pike coming back to a bigger role on Discovery than he had on TOS, you knew the show writers would not miss the opportunity to tie in some TOS stories and characters during his appearance on Discovery.  Although Spock is of course the featured attraction on season 2 of Discovery, another character from Pike's past has now appeared in Discovery, that being Vina.

Vina first appears in The Cage, the pilot episode where Captain Pike is leading the Enterprise.  She is a crewmember on the SS Columbia, which is a ship that crashes in 2236 on Talos IV while carrying a group of scientists on an expedition to the Talos star group.  She turns out to be the sole survivor, and the Talosians nurse her back to health when they take an interest in the human race.

This leads to the events of the The Cage, in which the Talosians lure the Enterprise to their planet and select Captain Pike to be a mate for Vina, hoping they can learn about human sexuality and companionship in the process.  However, the Enterprise crew proves that they would prefer death to life in captivity, and the Talosians lost interest in having humans grow to reclaim the surface of their planet.  Vina chooses to be left behind rather than go with the Enterprise because her beauty is just an illusion created by the Talosians, and she would rather maintain that than die with the humans.

Footage from her encounter with Pike is seen again in The Menagerie two-part episode, and she is determined to still be alive when the Enterprise returns to Talos 13 years after this original appearance.  With Discovery taking place 10 years before TOS, that means it's only been 3 years since the events of The Cage when Pike is aboard Discovery.  And that leads to Vina's appearance in the Discovery episode If Memory Serves.

While the purpose of her visit to Captain Pike will be left in spoiler land for this segment, Vina's reappearance in Discovery allows the show writers to explain what happened to Vina after the events of The Cage.  This helps bring a little closure to a relationship with Pike and a story that was aborted thanks to the reshuffling of the crew after the original TOS pilot.

QUOTE: ""There's something I need to say. When you came to Talos, I'd been alone for so many years. I never imagined happiness or love. And when the Talosians decided we were...unsuited for each other...when you left, it was worse. Because I knew what I'd lost.""

In TOS, Vina was played by Susan Oliver, who spent multiple weeks preparing for and filming the role thanks to all the different appearances she plays, including learning to dance so she can play an Orion slave girl version of herself.  Oliver acted for about 30 years before her death in 1990, including memorable small roles on shows like Love, American Style, Magnum, P.I., and Murder, She Wrote.  In Discovery the role was played by Melissa George, who is an Australian actress who has starred in the movie Triangle and the series Hunted.  She can be seen playing Charlotte as a co-star in the Bad Mothers series currently airing on Australian TV.

----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!

Character Insight No. 316: (Kai) Winn Adami

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Winn Adami, a recurring character from several seasons of Deep Space 9.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp316 

Over the years, we've discussed Winn in many contexts since she becomes a central character in the large story arc of DS9, but we've never profiled her directly.  Winn Adami is a Bajoran religious leader who is elected as the first Kai following the Cardassian Occupation.  Although she is steadfast in her orthodox faith for many years, she also shows capability for arrogance and treachery on many occasions when she tries to bend the will of the Prophets her way.

We first see Winn as a powerful vedek who is vying to takeover the role of kai, or spiritual leader of the Bajorans, following the disappearance of Kai Opaka shortly after the Federation takes over DS9. Winn was fiercely opposed to Ben Sisko as the Emissary and the Federation's involvement in the region, calling the organization without a soul. Winn tried to undermine Keiko O'Brien's school for not teaching enough religion and then tried to topple the Bajoran provisional government to break the ties with the Federation.  Neither effort succeeded, but Winn was able in the same time to force her primary opponent for the role of Kai, Bareil Antos, to step down from the election days before it occurs to basically give her the kai role.

Interestingly, the show writers has intended throughout the development of the second season to make Bareil the new kai, but a last minute decision was made to switch it to Winn to allow for much more conflict in future stories. Indeed, this character delivered on that promise.

As the kai, we see Winn take credit for the peace negotiations actually led by her former rival Bareil, get into a significant military conflict with farmers and former resistance fighters when she tries to win the political leadership role on Bajor as well as her religious leadership role, and support the appointment of a replacement Emissary when she just couldn't handle an outsider like Ben Sisko having more faith than her.

QUOTE: "I rid myself of the Prophets and shed a lifetime of hypocrisy."

She is then lured away from her faith by visions she receives caused by the pah-wraiths and by a farmer named Anjohl Tennan, who is actually Gul Dukat in disguise. She reveals that she has never been granted visions by the Prophets and that eventually causes her to turn her back on the faith, helping Dukat release the pah-wraiths into the world. She thinks they will choose her as their Emissary, but once again gets politically blindsided when they take possession of his body as their Emissary.

She realizes her mistake and tries to help Sisko as Dukat begins attacking him, but she ends up being engulfed in flames by Dukat, ending the Kai once and for all. Her last act shows her returning once more to her original faith, but this time acknowledging Ben Sisko as a true Emissary. 

Louise Fletcher plays Winn, and she's of course best known for her role as Nurse Mildred Ratched in One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, which won her a best actress Oscar. She's the only Trek actress who was won that award. Indeed, her acting chops added a ton to this show and the Bajoran storyline. She took the role initially because fellow star actress Whoopi Goldberg had done it, so she figured she could also make a memorable mark in Star Trek. And that's precisely what Fletcher did.  She is largely retired from acting today but still makes frequent public appearances at the age of 84.

----

Contact me with segment suggestions @BuckeyeFitzy on Twitter! Thanks!