How did guest stars react?
 

I used to be a theatre major, so I tend to get strange thoughts when watching a show.

I got the Fan Collective: Borg a couple of weeks ago, and right now am watching Dark Frontier for the third or fourth time. It's only 18 minutes in, with Seven's parents on the Raven, and I'm looking at the set and wonder...

What do guest stars think when they know they don't have scenes with the cast, but they show up on that first day and see a fantastic looking set created just for their scenes? Is there a "Wow" moment for them? Or have they done so many different shows, it's just a "Meh" reaction? I've read many guest interviews where they talk about how friendly the ST casts and crews were, but seldom do they mention being impressed by the production values.

Re: How did guest stars react?
 

I guess it would depend on the actor. If neither one had done sci-fi, there was probably an 'oh cooool' moment.

Re: How did guest stars react?
 

I didn't mean to imply the Dark Frontier guests specifically. But I suppose whether they've worked in the genre before could be a factor.

Re: How did guest stars react?
 

"Will there be wookies in this?"

Re: How did guest stars react?
 

I liked the story in Solow/Justman's Inside Star Trek where there's some big studio executive meeting, and Lucille Ball thought the yet-to-air "Star Trek" was some sort of USO show.

Re: How did guest stars react?
 

"But it has 'Star' in it, it must be about ME!"

Re: How did guest stars react?
 

It's true, she was inside the Jupiter monolith.

Re: How did guest stars react?
 

Re: Dark Frontier

I really like composer David Bell's menacing Borg ship theme that runs during the corridor scenes in both the holodeck Fort Knox exercise and the actual mission.

Re: How did guest stars react?
 

Remember, those sets are just plywood, sheet metal, cheap carpet and paint. What we see as a finished episode, isn't what the actors see on set.

Re: How did guest stars react?
 

Well, it *is*, but they see the plain unpainted plywood on the other side as well, that's out of camera shot for us

Re: How did guest stars react?
 

And remember, we still don't have smellovision.

All the ceaseless farting on set.

So shameless.

Re: How did guest stars react?
 

I seem to remember hearing stories of people being wowed when they walked into the TNG Engineering set.

dJE

Re: How did guest stars react?
 

I know that. When I was doing theatre, our set flats were painted muslin stretched over a thin wooden frame. But it's still possible to be impressed by set design, even when you know what's behind the illusion.

Re: How did guest stars react?
 

Correct, but they might still be impressed.

Anyway, this is how I think they react:

Famous guest star: It's an honor to be here. Now, I want to fight the lion!

Producer: Sorry sir. This is Star Trek and there are no lions in this episode.

Famous guest star. What? No lion? I demand a lion! I'm a star. Star, star, star AND I WANT TO FIGHT THE LION!!!!!

Producer(to writer): Quick! Add a lion to the story and let him fight it!
;)

Re: How did guest stars react?
 

There's a nearly identical story of when they were filming TOS' "Shore Leave". Shatner really wanted to wrestle with the tiger and they had to talk him out of it.