Dabble in Dabo

When you dabble in Dabo you may gain more than profit.  On Deep Space Nine, Quark's was the place to play the glorious game of galactic chance, Dabo - among other pleasures.  There were always more than a few friendly gals to help you navigate your greedy gambling.  Dabo Girls were quick to help celebrate your big win, or comfort you when you lost all your gold pressed latnium and went broke.

Love To Hate Em - Star Trek Characters So Hated They're Loved

Star Trek: Beyond, directed by Justin Lin, warps into theaters in summer 2016.  Starship Enterprise is a given - many even feel it’s the most important character of all - but who will the new players be? Aside from great visuals, space battles and weird alien creatures, Gene Roddenberry’s sci-fi legacy is about characters.

Trek's characters are popular, even beloved - but not all of them give us those cozy feelings of mirth.  Wesley Crusher?  Neelix? Q? Annoying enough for you? Wait, there's lots more!

Ensign Wesley Crusher - TNG

Wil Wheaton is now a respected author and official "geek" king of all things geeky on the Internet. But it wasn't always so rosy with him and many fans.  

In 1987, Gene Roddenberry's new Star Trek: The Next Generation was fresh out of the starting gates of television syndication, and boy genius Wesley Crusher was met by many fans with disdain. Wheaton had acted in big hit movies like Stephen King's Stand By Me, so his acting chops were never questioned, however the character as written was a bit too smug and superior for most. Wesley started out as a brainy kid and by the end of TNG he had matured into a Starfleet officer, then went off with a mysterious alien known as the Traveler to help shape his powerful intellect.

Lt. Reginald Barclay - TNG

Actor Dwight Schultz created a wishy washy, nerdy guy in Lt. Reginald Barclay. Though comical, many fans disliked him so much they loved to hate him. The character became something of the everyday man on board the Starship Enterprise. We can't all be heroic captains or brainy scientists. Barclay was something of a cross between a geek, a nerd and a neurotic. A "nerdotic"? Anyway, his episodes are memorable not only for Schultz's fine performances, but in the many ways Barclay found to get into trouble for himself and the Enterprise.

Q - TNG

How can a super powerful God like alien be annoying? Q (John DeLancie) must be related to the Greek gods, because he like them could really get under a mortal's skin.

Q debuted in the TNG's pilot "Encounter At Farpoint" and was a troublemaker in the finale "All Good Things." Along the way, Q tortured Picard's crew with sarcasm, gave Commander Riker superpowers to see him corrupted and even introduced us to the cybernetic baddies The Borg. Q is a crossover character who would annoy DS9 and Captain Sisko. He even found the lost Starfleet starship Voyager in the Delta Quadrant. DeLancie's character would delightedly irritate friend in real life Kate Mulgrew playing Captain Janeway.

Rom - DS9

The Ferengi are an alien race of profiteers. Humongous of ears and short of stature, to them everything in life revolves around a financial gain or personal profit. Rom, brother of barkeeper Quark on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was seen as pretty darned irritating.

Actor Max Grodenchik breathed life into the annoying Rom, who'd always be upset with Quark or frightened of him or worried or nervous - often all these at once. Rom whined a lot at everything. Over the course of the show, he became popular, in fact he married sexy Leeta, a Bajoran Dabo girl (cocktail waitress) and transformed himself into a gadget guru genius.

Nog - DS9
Son of Rom, Nog (Aron Eisenberg) started off on DS9 as deceptive, greedy and a chronic liar - and those were his good points.

He'd buddy around with Captain Benjamin Sisko's son Jake and the two would get into loads of trouble, usually at Nog's urging. Like his Dad, Nog would start to mature and think about more in life than just profit. He joined Starfleet and became such a dedicated cadet, he'd earn the respect of everyone, even disapproving uncle Quark.

Neelix - VOY

Star Trek: Voyager saw a Starship lost in space in the mysterious Delta Quadrant. To alleviate the tension, Neelix was a kind of chef and comedian. Unfortunately, he wasn't the best at either vocation.

Actor Ethan Phillips would prove himself something more than irritating as he brought a gentle dizziness to Neelix - a kind of bizarre galactic nerdy porcupine. With his weird spotty coloring and hairdo he looked like Patti Labelle's long lost alien love child. As the show progressed, Neelix goodie two shoes showed more spunk and then settled down with a colony of his people before Voyager returned to Earth.

Kai Winn - DS9

Oscar winner for One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, as the evil Nurse Ratched, Louise Fletcher created another memorable psycho in Kai Winn.

As spiritual leader of the Bajoran people, Kai Winn delighted in manipulating anyone she could get her hands on. Her lilting voice alone, could somehow grate as it soothed. She especially tried to influence who was stationed aboard DS9, but Kira always knew who she was dealing with and kept her ground. By the show's end, Winn had made a deal with the Cardassian equivalent of the devil - but was unaware. Her character's final scene is among the most weirdly powerful in all Trek history.

Seska - VOY

Played in a delightfully wicked manner by actress Martha Hackett, Seska would become one of the most truly love to hate em Trek characters.

Introduced in the first season as a Bajoran, Seska was found to be a Cardassian, genetically altered to appear so. Seska's schemes would peg her as one of the more scheming members of Captain Janeway's crew until she's ultimately revealed to be a traitor. Seska appeared in 13 episodes, including popping up in an alternate timeline "Shattered" and as a hologram in a battle simulation created by security chief Tuvok "Worst Case Scenario."

Interview Flashback: A Chat with Deep Space Nine's Chase Masterson - Leeta

This interview was originally published in 2008

Chase Masterson really does it all. She dances, sings, performs sketch comedy and stars in TV and movies.  She's also a movie producer. Her new film noir, Yesterday Was A Lie, is a complex story about the nature of reality from director James Kerwin and Chase is also a producer.

For millions of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fans around the world, Chase is known fondly as Leeta, the beautiful Bajoran girl who went from nightclub server to marrying an alien destined to become leader of the Ferengi Star Empire.  It was a one shot appearance initially, but blossomed into an important recurring character. It's a credit to Chase's talent and charisma that Leeta became such an integral part of the Star Trek and DS9 family.

I had the pleasure of learning more about Chase, her new movie and her musical pursuits, which all remain close to her heart.

What was it like growing up in Colorado?

I was born in Colorado, but grew up all over. My father was in the Army, so we lived in many different places, including Alaska & Germany. It was great traveling so much, early on - my father loved taking us on sidetrips. He became a travel agent after the Army and was so duly enamored with places we got to go, even on weekend. Morocco, Italy, London, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Munich and so many little towns in Germany. Being exposed to varied culture, different forms of theatre & art & music was extremely formative. It was wonderful.

The hard part was always having to say goodbye to people and places I loved and knowing, while it was great, it wasn't permanent. It's a very hard way to grow up. Always bittersweet.

The Groundlings.  In comedy improv circles it's legendary. What's the most useful thing you learned as a Groundling?

I wasn't actually in the Groundlings. I don't know where whoever said that heard it. I worked for a long time with some Groundlings in a side comedy troupe called "Hilarious: Gladiators of Comedy." It was crazily fun. We did mostly sketch, not lots of improv. I got my first agent & film through them.

The most important thing I learned was reinforcement and being positive onstage is key. Too many people have a competitive vibe that destroys chemistry and every other fun, important thing. Ego is the death of creativity. But when you really support each other & want for others to be great just as much as you want yourself to be, that's key. It makes it all worth doing, finding those who do as well.

Fans rave about DS9's dramatic nuances, but it was also one of the funniest TV shows ever. Example: A buddy hated Star Trek, but watched after I sold my Next Gen script, he then watched DS9 and called me, "This Quark is funny!", he raved.  Between Quark, Odo, Rom and Leeta, the laughs rarely stopped. Such an elegant blend of drama and comedy must have been truly rewarding.

I loved the comedy in DS9. I agree it was some of the best parts of the show. I mean, getting to teach Quark how to be a woman? It doesn't get any better than that.

As I often say, the beautiful blend of pathos & humor really came out of the hearts of who our writers were. They're extraordinarily insightful, passionately aware, alive human beings who love to laugh and make other people laugh. Ira Behr and Ron Moore and Rene Echevarria are all people who get it, you know? And they were brought together by one of the top writers of all time, Michael Piller, who we unfortunately lost far too soon. It's not surprising to me that the show's deep messages and hilarious antics were often both created by the same writer in the same episode. That's who these writers are.

You and Nana Visitor (Kira) are dancers.  There seems to be something rhythmically graceful about playing a Bajoran woman. How helpful is dance to you in moving as an actress?

My dance background has been invaluable. I think it helps any actor with poise and confidence. Specifically, with Leeta I used a lot of visual imagery to help me get her essence to be what I wanted her to be. (Contrary to some fans' belief, no, I'm not Leeta, and she isn't me!)

I saw Leeta as graceful in ways that are kind and loving, but also -- this may sound weird -- in ways that are like a snake. With nothing extra, only rarely having sudden movements, and much more calculated than she may have appeared -- or wanted to appear. With Leeta's background, she didn't want to give more information away than necessary...that's just one of those things from a Bajoran's childhood that doesn't go away. Leeta's movement style may not have been obvious to viewers, but it helped me in shaping her...or at least they kept me amused.

What I feel keyed Leeta into fans was her "everyday" quality. She wasn't a freedom fighter like Kira or Starfleet officer like Ensign Ro, yet was a magnetic, multi-faceted woman, whom you brought wonderfully to life. It's hard playing characters lacking a big arc like a Captain or a flashy alien, but you made Leeta intriguing. Apart from scripts and interplay between fellow actors, how did you keep Leeta fresh and us always interested?

I've always felt any person in real life or character onstage or onscreen is, for the people around them, a vessel for the world to enter in on. We have such influence on the people around us. We can cause them to see or feel differently about the rest of the world, by how we see it... by our reactions.

I saw Leeta as someone you'd want to see the world through, with enough innocence that life could remain exciting, even in the midst of the dark times of DS9. I've always thought it more exciting to be capable of having your head turned, than to be capable of turning heads. Staying alive, til you die, is the key. It's not always easy. That's part of why it's intriguing when we do it.

Also, Ira Behr said something interesting to me fairly early on, around the time Leeta & Rom got married. He told me that he thought Leeta & Rom would be the only truly happy married couple on television. Think about it. Most couples on TV are rarely role models for the institution of marriage, they mostly hate each other or just tolerate each other, deep down. It made me contemplate that real love - onscreen and off - is fun, or why is in it? And it should be portrayed that way. So part it was in finding things I absolutely craved about my husband Rom. Things that threw me smack in the middle of the throes of love with him again.

Thankfully, the writers made that easy. So did Max.

How great to have starred in a small role and then grown to such a level at the conclusion. Did you have a clue how important Leeta would become to the DS9 mythos?

I had no idea. I was, as all recurring characters were, just thankful to keep getting to play! Any episode was a real treat, and we never knew how many more there would be or wouldn't be. That's part of the joy that they kept us on for so long. Having the story line of getting with Rom was so much fun, but I never dreamed it would end with such a very "Star Trekian" ending - Rom being named the Grand Nagus (above Quark & Brunt) ;-) - how fun is that?

Have you seen the Star Trek: Experience in Las Vegas?

I love going to The Experience - it's one of my favorite places to go play, in this country anyway - I'd definitely recommend it! (And the Warp Core Breach. Also, try Leeta's soup du jour--)

What do you miss most about DS9?  Steady job?  Professional camaraderie? Craft services?

Boy, you really got me. How did you know that my favorite part of being an actor is the free cappuccino?

It's funny what you miss. Being in the make-up trailer with that incredibly talented team. Being at Paramount at 5 a.m...I was usually the first person on the lot other than security and my makeup girl. The moon was still out. And it was very quiet. Joyful. I do miss those days.

I miss being part of that team, working with that gang, working with the actors who were starting to direct. And especially I miss Rom. Max, too, but Rom separately. He was so very sweet to be around, and kept me laughing. Those were good times.

Geez Louise, I sound like the end of "Our Town."

Terry Farrell.  Do you recall the mood on the set knowing she was bowing out of the last season? Was there animosity at all? Did Nicolle DeBoer coming on as Ezri feel left out of the DS9 family?

I don't think there was any animosity at Terry leaving. She could have stayed if she'd wanted, and everyone had the option of leaving. Actors generally keep each others' professional decisions in a separate place emotionally, because we all have had to make tough ones.

And we've all been the new kid on the block. I think we did a pretty good job at welcoming Nicole, because we know how hard it can be. It's especially hard doing guest stars, because you're the new kid on every show you're on, it's like trying to blend in with the cool crowd, you know? And by the time you start to do actually do it, you're done.

Talk about your movie, Yesterday Was A Lie.  From what I've seen on the website - it strikes me as an atmospheric, film noir - yet also appears to be quite intellectual, even philosophical.

"Yesterday Was A Lie" is one of the best scripts I've ever read. It's the brainchild of award-winning writer/director, James Kerwin. I'm more excited about it than anything in a very long time.

The film, done in classic black & white, deals with theories of quantum physics explored in the 1930's and 40's by Feynman, Wheeler, and Schroedinger, as well as other experiments done more recently at MIT and other labs. It raises questions about the nature of reality and time. So it has elements of sci fi, which might also be sci fact, as we're beginning to understand.

It also contemplates the issue of social responsibility, which is a core issue of mine, and one, which a lot of people don't ever address. I play a singer who the lead character comes to know; she's a noir anti-heroine, with an extremely interesting journey. And the threads of symbolism are amazing... truly. In this film -- the more you look, the more you see.  In addition to being one of the leads, I produced the film, which could be a whole 'nother interview someday.

Check out our site - www.YesterdayWasALie.com.

Celine Dion was digitally paired with and sang with Elvis Presley on American Idol.  If you could sing, dance or perform with an entertainment idol of the past whom would it be and why?

Wow, what a cool question. My ultimate dream would be to sing & dance opposite Gene Kelley, but who wouldn't? Second to him would be none other than Donald O'Connor. Or maybe Tommy Tune. Or Vivian Blaine or Gwen Verdon. Or Rita Moreno, just for the electricity factor -- those ladies really lit it up.

I know, I know, I was born too late. I did get to sing with Jimmy Darren in Vegas. That was pretty much a dream.

Talk about your music.

I'm extremely excited about what's happening musically right now. I sing 4 songs in "Yesterday Was A Lie".  We'll be recording those in the next week. After the film wraps, I'll focus more on putting a new band together for music of the Golden Era, all that fun, romantic stuff that Ella Fitzgerald, Julie London, Frank Sinatra, Deano & the guys sang.

I have two CD's out, Thrill Of the Chase and AD ASTRA!  We've gotten some great reviews. Check 'em out - www.chasemasterson.com.

Thanks so much for taking the time to share these memories and thoughts with me,</b> Chase!

Thank you, Will! I appreciate it -- God bless you!

Spotlight On Ishka - Ferengi - Andrea Martin & Cecily Adams

Ferengi aren't usually an alien race one looks to when sexual attraction is a prime topic of conversation.  Still, you have to admire a people who are so prosperous when it comes to conducting business and making that all important profit.  The small in stature race is also known for a natural comic bent which can lead to great laughter - albeit, at times, unintentionally so.  In Deep Space Nine, the most famous Ferengi is Quark, played by Armin Shimmerman.  His mother is Ishka, affectionately known by her sons Quark and Rom as Moogie, played by actress Andrea Martin.

Andrea Martin - the American comedienne best known from the Canadian comedy TV show Second City Television SCTV - gave Ishka more than a devilish sparkle and hint of mischievousness.  Martin did enjoy creating the popular role, but refused to come back to reprise the fan favorite character because of the heavy make-up process, which she hated.  Actress and casting director Cecily Adams (daughter of Don Adams from TV classic Get Smart) took up Ishka's persona for several more DS9's eps after Martin backed out.

Deep Space Nine Sexy Spotlight - Dabo Girls

Quark's bar catered to the weary space traveler by offering them a host of exotic eats, drinks and entertainment.  One of the riskier kinds of play - to the wallet anyway - was playing Dabo.  This high stakes gambling activity took away many a player's gold pressed latinum.  While playing Dabo, you are treated to the professional services of the Dabo girl - a beautiful server who encourages you to play.

Dabo girls are basically a cross between a cocktail waitress and a geisha girl.  Leeta - played by actress Chase Masterson - joined up at Quark's as a Dabo girl and ended up marrying the owner's brother, the Ferengi Rom.