Captain's Log ST-CHI: A DS9 Love Fest with Chase Masterson, Nana Visitor and Cirroc Lofton
- Antal Bokor
- 1 hour ago
- 3 min read
One thing is always apparent when you go to Star Trek conventions: fans think Deep Space Nine is the best Star Trek show. Seriously. There are fans that love the other shows better, sure, but when Deep Space Nine is brought up it’s referred to as “the best Trek” more often than any other of the shows. And there has been a lot of Trek. And that must say something about the cast and crew that made it possible all of those years ago.
We got a chance to see Cirroc Lofton (Jake Sisko), Nana Visitor (Kira Nerys) and Chase Masterson (Leeta) at this year’s ST: CHI as they talked about their experiences with Star Trek Deep Space Nine. All things were discussed, from Nana Visitor's new rap name (Ill Nana, bestowed by Lofton and borrowed from Foxy Brown) to whether Gul Dukat was a sociopath (he was). Early on as the three were reflecting on fame, and the fact that their children don’t want to watch their old shows, Visitor mentioned an even more awkward consequence of fame: while her son was deployed to Afghanistan, apparently some fellow soldiers had a Kira Nerys picture they were using as a pin-up. Her son, understandably, was not okay with that.
One of the first questions an audience member asked was about whether the actors knew how long their characters’ romantic relationships would last on the show, and the short answer is “no.” These panels make it very apparent how little forward planning went into even such a treasured show as Deep Space Nine. Nana Visitor revealed that the iconic relationship between Odo (Rene Auberjonois) and Kira was based on a look that Odo gave Kira that was seen in the dailies.
Visitor recalled,
“They were watching dailies, and they went. ‘Oh, he's in love with her!’
And they wrote it from that. "And it was the way Renee looked at my character that they got that from. And, and that's those little moments. That's where they start to weave what’s going to happen.”
Enter a convincingly forlorn Lofton, who quipped “I was looking at you like that the whole time and they didn’t write anything for my character.”
In line with the last question, but much later in the panel, Chase Masterson told a story about Max Grodenchik, who played Rom on Deep Space Nine and turned out to be surprise love interest for the former Dabo girl. Masterson even mimicked the exchange between showrunner Ira Steven Behr and Max Grodenchik (while providing a perfect impression of Grodenchik)
“After (the episode) Bar Association, Ira (Steven Behr) took Max on a ‘father-son walk,’ and he said, “we’re gonna give you Leeta’ and Max said “Thank you!” and then (Ira) Said, ‘yeah, because Doctor Bashir, he’s like, really loved by all the ladies. And he’s, you know, he’s handsome and all that. So, I’m going to keep him single and Max said, ‘thank you?’”
Another interesting insight was when Cirroc Lofton was talking about Aron Eisenberg, the late actor who portrayed Nog–and had one of the greatest character arcs in TV history. According to the man himself, Eisenberg “dragged” Cirroc Lofton onto the podcast, which was the prototype for other Trek podcasts that followed–and there are quite a few.
Lofton said, "As far as the podcasting is concerned. I want to give Aron tremendous respect. And credit to Aaron Eisenberg because it was his idea to get it into that space.” he continued with, “(the) positive effect it had on my life, it’s just immeasurable. So I am eternally grateful for Aaron.”
.
Comments