“SHE’S HAD TO BECOMEAWARRIOR”
GATES MCFADDEN IS CRUSHER
There aren’t many actors who return to a role over 35 years…
It felt absolutely sensational. I can’t think of a better gift. We all love each other, we really are a family. Then to have a really great script… I loved what Terry Matalas did with the story. He’s really fantastic. It was almost indescribable, because on the one hand it was just like normal. We were used to being together, we socialise together. On the other hand, he allowed us to have evolved in those characters, and certainly Crusher evolved. So it was really a tremendous gift.
Everyone’s got really substantial roles in this season.
It’s true. That’s thanks to Terry, who really wanted to honour all of our characters. That doesn’t happen that often. It felt terrific. We talked about it, and he really allowed input. I had talked with the writers, because otherwise I think some of us weren’t interested in doing it just to put in a fast appearance. We wanted it to be interesting to us as a role for an actor. And they came up with a storyline that really, really worked.
What I liked was that our characters were not just black and white. All of the characters have strengths and weaknesses. What is so very Star Trek: The Next Generation is that ultimately, no matter how we disagree about something initially, we come together for the betterment of the large group. And that is Star Trek. We want to do for the greater good, what needs to be done.
To me, what was really different in this iteration is that you saw that we had aged, in particular. Crusher had not been in Starfleet, like the others had stayed in Starfleet much longer.
So that’s interesting in and of itself. She’s had to become a warrior in a different way. She was really exploring places that had not been explored and planets that didn’t have medical help. So that was fascinating. And I like any kind of action, I’ve always loved that. And I love the fact that I start the whole third season. [Laughs] It’s like out of the blue.
How did this differ from your previous experiences?
It was very different for me. I would say working on this was my best experience working with the TNG cast, for me personally, because I felt that the character that I was originally hired to play really came into being in this season, very beautifully. I love that. I think everybody has such strong storylines and they do them so well, I was just in awe of how much I love our cast and their choices as actors and in the scenes.
It’s fantastic. I think one feels our genuine rapport. That’s something that can’t be manufactured, that really is there. When you’re playing the scene with someone who you’ve known for so many years, and we’ve laughed and cried as human beings. What can I say? I think everybody does a really terrific job. The other new characters were so well-cast, there are so many terrific performances. Also the look of it. When we were shooting it I was like, “It’s so dark, can they even see us?” Well, I think it looks beautiful. I really went, “Okay, technology has moved on” [laughs] and it is terrific. It looks like a film – I mean, it really does look like a movie.
Where do you think the road leads for you and the cast?
I know where I would love it to lead. I actually would love to continue working with the actors on the series. I think there still is a series there. Yes, of course, it would be great to do a film, as long as it doesn’t become something where there’s really only one lead character, because I wouldn’t be interested in that. I really feel we are an ensemble. That’s what makes us wonderful. Patrick has been our leader, and he will continue to be, but I feel that we really are a family and the family should shine. I think I’m not the only one probably on that. If the stories are good, I’m there. I don’t think any of us have even a glimmer of feeling we’re out to pasture. [Laughs]
At what point did you realise this would be with you forever?
The first time I realised the power of it was when I had thousands of letters when I was let go from the show [in 1988]. The outpouring of the fans, that was the first time I even understood that fans kind of were there, what fans were, and that they really cared and they were very articulate about why they felt this way. That was my first glimmer of it.
What’s the strangest piece of Crusher merch you’ve seen?
The ugliest one has to be the Pez. Marina [Sirtis] and I got the ugliest faces on that. Sometimes they just said, “Oh well, let’s just forget Crusher,” and they wouldn’t even put me in it, they put a spaceship or the world or something. I didn’t understand Comic Cons and all of that. Now I do. It’s a community that has joined together a lot of people in a way that is positive, not negative.
Undiscovered Country, you know what I mean? That would be a moment in Star Trek history that everyone would remember. And that’s certainly true here.”
Speaking of Undiscovered Country, there is a link, albeit familial, with Picard; Amanda Plummer, the daughter of Christopher Plummer (who played Chang), appears as Vadic. But Matalas is quick to question her being referred to as one of three villains in this season.
“They are certainly villains in the way that you would know them as villains,” he considers, “but they’re not traditional villains, meaning I don’t know that they will all fulfil that specific role. Without spoiling anything.
“We really wanted a major villain for Vadic that she should be a larger than life, classic Star Trek villain who had her own reasons for doing what she does. And when you heard them, you’d say, ‘You know, she might have a point.’
“In the writers’ room as we were creating her character I always referenced Amanda Plummer. I love that certain unhinged quality that she would give in her performances but incredible sympathetic ones, sympathetic qualities as well. There’s a vulnerability to her as well, that was what made her perfect for Vadic. We were lucky that she said yes.
“And then as far as the other two, [Daniel Davis as Professor Moriarty and Brent Spiner as Lore] you kind of have to wait and see how those play out to understand how organically they fit into the story.”
Elsewhere, Matalas has shot down fan theories that Doctor Pulaski puts in an appearance, or that the Enterprise E appears. Here he’s also ready to debunk rumours that Denise Crosby will return.
“There’s definitely a reference to Tasha Yar. But it’s not beyond that.”
BRAND NEW VISION
As someone who grew up with The Next Generation – and clearly knows the characters well – Matalas would also later go on to work on both Voyager and Enterprise. Getting to write for another iconic cast, as well as characters who have legendary status in sci-fi history, brought a whole new level to his Star Trek experience.
“It was surreal,” he says, “and there was tremendous pressure to get it right. The first thing I said was that I didn’t want to do anything that any of these actors didn’t feel strongly for. So I looped them into the conversation from minute one and took them through the story as I saw it.
“I was very fortunate that everyone saw it mostly the same way. So crafting where these characters have been for 25 years, and where we meet them with these actors, was an incredible collaboration, and it made for a richer portrayal of where they are now.”
He says that the cast did have firm ideas of where they wanted their characters to be all these years later.
“But we had the same firm ideas. So there was never a disagreement. When I called Levar and I’m like, ‘Here’s who I think Geordi is. Here’s where I think Geordi is and here’s who he is now and the story that we will be telling,’ once I took him through the beginning, middle and end, he was in tears, which then put me in tears. He was like, ‘I absolutely want to do this. I want to do this so bad.’ Those are beyond meaningful experiences to do right by them, and to be on the same page is extraordinary.”
Never mind just being on the same page as sci-fi legends – we enquire with obvious fanboy glee just what it’s like being on set with The Next Generation cast.
“I get asked this a lot,” he says, “and the truth is there was such a pressure to get it right, and we didn’t have a lot of time, that there was rarely a moment where – and it did happen!
I didn’t want to do anything that any of these actors didn’t feel strongly for
– but there was rarely a moment where you can take a breath and be like, ‘Oh my god, look at what we’re doing.’ There was such a drive for perfection with all of us to get this right. We were working, we were on the job,” he laughs.
“So it would be little, little tiny moments where I would turn to another writer, or I would turn to Jonathan, who I was fortunate enough to have to hang out with me at video village [the area around the monitor on set] for the entire two-hour shoot that I did of the finale,” he says of his stint directing the final two episodes.
“The last two, he was there for every second. He’s a good friend. It’s those moments you would turn and say, ‘Look at what we’re doing. How cool is this?’ But mostly the pressure of the job doesn’t allow you too much of that. It’s not really until post and it comes together with music that you can be like, ‘Oh my god, look at what we did.’ But in the moment, there’s just too much adrenaline.”
He takes a long, unexpected pause when asked if that means he didn’t do a “silent scream” when walking onto the set of any starship.
“It’s a really tough question,” he eventually says. “Because yes, of course, any time your job is ‘first thing in the morning, get a fresh coffee and walk onto a starship’, you know you are blessed. But I think that the second that’s all it becomes – without the real, genuine fear that you’re going to fuck this up – it becomes dangerous. At least for me.
“For others, I’m sure there’s a healthier way to work. But for me, I knew we had one shot at this. And every second was an opportunity to make it better. So that sort of colours your ability to stop and smell the roses.”
Next up for Matalas is a pilot for Disney+, a reimagining of their Witch Mountain film franchise based on the 1968 novel. The project, which he’s co-writing and executive-producing alongside 12 Monkeys colleague Travis Fickett, stars Bryce Dallas Howard. In terms of Star Trek, however, there’s nothing on the immediate horizon.
“I think it would depend quite a bit on how season three does,” he says, humbly. “At the moment there are early discussions of ideas, but nothing specific in mind. I know that certainly, as I said, there are things I would love to do in this time period, in this world, very much.
“But not at the moment, no. But they know where to find me. I’m ready and willing to return to Star Trek at any time!”
Star Trek: Picard season three is on Prime Video in the UK and Paramount+ in the US from 16 February.