VAUGHN ARMSTRONG SPEAKS

Vaughn Armstrong

Vaughn Armstrong, who plays Korath in [#171 and #172 Endgame], as at the end of the series, holds the record (beating Marc Alaimo, best-known as Gul Dukat in [DS9]) for playing the most guest-starring roles in all of Star Trek. Armstrong has played Klingon criminal Captain Korris in [TNG: Heart of Glory], the Cardassian called Gul Danar in [DS9: Past Prologue], and the Cardassian Seskal in [DS9: When It Rains] and [DS9: The Dogs of War]. He also plays several different roles in [Enterprise] including Admiral Forrest. His appearances in [Star Trek Voyager] are as follows: the Romulan scientist Telek R'mor in [#7 Eye of the Needle] the former Borg drone Two of Nine a.k.a. Lansor in [#122 Survival Instinct] the Vidiian ship's captain in [#143 Fury] Alpha-Hirogen in [#155 Flesh and Blood, Part One] the Klingon scientist Korath in [#171 Endgame, Part One]

My name is Vaughn Armstrong and I come from a little town in Southern California named Redlands, better known as 'felony flats'. Actually, the San Bernardino County doesn't have a whole lot to do there so the teenagers run around, get in trouble, drink and all of that. I feel very fortunate that I found a way out of that destruction. Now, there is a very nice community in many ways, but at the time, during the 60s, there was a lot of drug use and thank God for this theatre teacher who found something positive in my abilities and showed them to me and allowed me to pursue something that would get me out of trouble. In fact, it's kind of the reason I got into it. I attribute my success, what there is of it, to both she and my mother, who offered me money to get into a play because she saw I was kind of rowdy and liked to have fun and that my friends liked to have fun in ways that might get me sent to jail one day. So she offered money to audition for a play, I got into the play, I got the first, really good kiss I ever had in that play and that was it. I guess you could say, money and women was why I got into acting. Of course, reasons change as time goes on — I went to a performing arts school — University Center for Performing Arts, and there we all considered ourselves young geniuses and wanted to do art for art's sake. Then, of course, you move to Los Angeles and it becomes money and women again. And then, I got married, had two children, and the reasons change. Then, it's simply survival and putting your kids through school, putting shoes on their feet. You know, doing the profession for the reasons of finance and self-fulfillment, both.

The year I first got into acting was 1966. I sort of hate to say that in a room like this, with people who were probably not born then. I'm just kidding. I moved to Los Angeles after going to a junior college for a while. I moved to Los Angeles to be a star. I never had a single audition. So, I went to New Hampshire, I hitch-hiked back. I found out I had been drafted. I went straight to Vietnam. I did not pass go or collect $200. I did, however, get out of the infantry and into entertainment. And in Vietnam, I actually built a theatre and produced a play called, "The Day the Whores Came Out to Play Tennis" by Arthur Cobitt. There were no women in that play, by the way, though I got a few volunteers to do something in the beginning, which we won't go into. But to get the guys to go to the play, you had to have a little flesh in it...I said we weren't going to go into that, didn't I? So we'll go on. And then I returned. Got back to Colorado Springs. Ran the theatre, I was the NCO in charge of Ford-Carson little theatre for about a year. Got out of that, went to a summer stock in Kansas where I met my wife of 25 years. Then, began working in Los Angeles and haven't really stopped since. I guess my first role in L.A. was in an ABC children's special, named, "My Dear Uncle Sherlock", with Royal Dano. You remember, Royal Dano? Great old character actor. Most famed for his role as Lincoln in Disneyland. I think he also did a film as Lincoln, as well...I'm not sure. He told me a great thing, he said, "Use their money. Go ahead. If you screw up keep going because it's not your film. It's not your money. Just do it until you feel you've got it right." I try not to do that. I try to get it right because I tried a couple of times and some of the producers didn't have his same philosophy. I found it's easier for a person who's been in it for 50 years to do that than somebody who's been in it for two years. They don't looking on it as lightly if you've been in it for two years. They think you're screwing up whereas if you've done it for fifty years, they think you're an artist. So that was my first television role. I did others, in the early days — 'Lou Grant', 'Wonder Woman', 'Remington Steele', a bunch of those. Just really never kind of stopped working.

I have done eleven different characters in four different series. I think the only series I wasn't on was [TOS].

The first convention I went to was in Blackpool, England, which is why I started playing the ukelele. The folks who ran the convention said that I would have a little chat with the audience, and I thought they were talking about me and a panel of actors sitting in a room with sixty people answering a few questions. And I get back stage and the volunteer is.... And I hear rumbling out front and I go: "What was that?" And they go: "You take the microphone. There'll be a microphone here, microphone there." And the music starts and it's this great [Star Trek Voyager] song, ta da da!, and he says now: "Go!" And there are three thousand people, with just me on the stage! I have no idea what it is I am supposed to say to these people. And I look behind me - really trying to run out - and I see a close-up of my face, it was a good thirty feet tall, so every pore of fear is the size of my head. And I sort of danced round, trying to open it up to some questions, and really have not had such a frightening stage experience in my entire life. And after me came Bob Picardo, with these great songs about this character and that, and I was inspired. I said: "That's the ticket right there." So I donned my harmonica harness and my ukelele and wrote three little Star Trek songs, and I threaten them with it when I get on stage.

He sings:

I got the Enterprise blues,
Blue as I can be,
Well, you took off into space,
And you took off without me.
Oh, come on, give me a forehead,
Put me back on TV.
Well, I can be any creature
That you need on your show.
Yes, I can be a Klingon,
Like nobody that you know.
Oh, come on, give me a forehead,
Enterprise don't go.
I got a Cardassian neck,
What the heck,
I'm wearing Klingon shoes,
Give me the blues
About the Hirogen hunt,
My board can be blunt.
Got Vidiian flesh.
I'm such a mess.
I've got the blues.
Well, I'm now the Admiral,
Maybe I got some clout,
Least I'm hoping they don't throw me out.
If they do, you don't want to shout out
The blues.
I got the Enterprise blues.

It goes on from there. [ST DVD has a clip from [#133 Virtuoso] of the Qomar looking rather bemused then applauding]: Yes, yes, thank you very much.

The first one is easy to remember. That was that [TNG] Klingon, Korris, in [TNG: Heart Of Glory], where you got the idea for the first time really that Klingons were treacherous but honourable, or at least I recall it being the first time. I remember everyone being pretty shocked when we let out that great death yell.

I didn't do another one until [DS9], the first Season, I think it was the second or third episode, a Cardassian named Gul Danar. And I didn't get him right. I played him more like a Klingon.The later Cardassian that I did I understood them better. They were more like the Nazis of the universe. They had a little something to hide and nothing they ever told you might be the truth, and they always wanted to take over, to be the ruling class, which really isn't what a Klingon is. A Klingon is "out there". I played the Cardassian a little too "out there".

Those make-ups are somewhat arduous, and that particular character (the Vidiian captain in [#143 Fury]), that was the longest portion of him was getting the make-up on. Then I got in front of the camera and I think I had three scenes. Each one was done in the first take. There was almost a big guffaw afterwards because nobody could believe that we were done in like a half an hour after I finally got in front of the camera. That's pretty all I remember about him except for the contact lenses. I hate those. I don't wear them well, but that's the Vidiian from my perspective.

Two of Nine, Seven's older brother as it were, and what was interesting about him was that he had, as we begin, he had once been free, and now he was a Borg beginning to get little flashes of recall of what had occurred to him when he had his own mind, and he began to feel a little, just enough, to know that he wanted freedom. So that whole quest was to find that individual freedom and at the end they have a choice, I think. They can go back with the Borg and live to be 120 or they can stay free and live to be two weeks older than they are that moment, and they choose the latter; they choose two weeks of freedom. I loved that. I just loved it.

She [Jeri Ryan] was one of those people, one of those rare people, who really knew something about the character that I was about to play, because she had been one, so I did ask her a lot of questions and she was very helpful. For instance, there was a scene where some of us began to sit around the fire. She said: "You know, Borgs don't sit." It was a big deal. Since then Jeri had told us this was something new, it became a whole new scene. She was very helpful, very sweet, a really fine lady as well as a fine actress. I really enjoyed working with Jeri.

the Borg drones gather around the camp fire, [Survival Instinct]

Lansor says farewell to Seven, [Survival Instinct]

I came in for the audition for Korath when he was first being used in the Star Trek Experience at the Hilton, and I went in and I did the audition and, you know, he had this great line: "You will regret defying me!" And several of the people in the room kind of jumped, and I knew at that moment that I pretty much had that role. And he later came back in the last episode of [Star Trek Voyager] as a much older Klingon.

Vaughn Armstrong gives the line: "You will regret defying me!"

Korath, [#171 Endgame, Part One]

The technique that is required to make a character under that much rubber is very helpful. You know, you have to start with who the human is but then you have to continue and go beyond that because he's not human. You can't really have a good creature, though, unless you find his reality as a human. That's kind of like what Star Trek states, even though you've got this kind of forehead and you've got that kind of ears we're all human, we all have a heart that is waiting to be good, somewhere down there, even the Klingons are now kind of good guys. What used to be real treachery has now turned to honour, and they emphasise the good in even the worst of the creatures in outer space. They're looking for that good anyway, whether they emphasise it or not is something else.

[Enterprise: Broken Bow]

The richness of the individual character is what I have enjoyed much, and they're all so rich, no matter what they are, whether human or not. Admiral Forrest (his character in [Enterprise], the series which followed [Star Trek Voyager]) has been a blast, particularly the last couple of episodes. So I think the richness they have given all of my characters is what's been fun.

As at August 2003, recent roles: I have done "NYPD Blue". I did a "West Wing". I did a new one, called "Philly", that is another Stephen Botchco show where I play a wife-beater who kills us both finally out of love. (Takes deep breath) Theatre — yes, I get these great roles. I'm always either sitting in jail or dead.

There is nothing that I don't love about acting. I love being on the set, I love the level of concentration it takes. I love the fact that I feel I have to be in good physical condition and good mental condition, that you have to maintain yourself in those times when you're not working, you have to maintain a degree of self-discipline.

It's all fairly challenging. I would call none of it hard. To me, digging a ditch is hard. All of Star Trek has been challenging. I would say the Hirogen makeup was probably the most challenging thing. (He plays Alpha-Hirogen in the Season 7 story [Flesh And Blood].) Now, I love getting into characters and they're all very challenging but to pick out which character aspect would be most difficulties is hard to do. This makeup, boy, it comes up under the eye, here, and goes into the lip here. I think you also have contacts in that one so this portion of it was kind of pushing down on the eyeball, into the contact. It's a rubber mask...it's not rubber but I don't know what it is. I'm going to call it rubber. It's something like rubber — that has a neck that goes down into a rubber suit that covers your entire body and you have the gloves on that are rubber and the boots on that are rubber, so for me there's no place to sweat. And I sweat. My dad was a roofer — I don't know if I mentioned — and he used to have a perpetual (we used to watch him work occasionally) he would have a perpetual drop of sweat coming off of his nose constantly. My brother and I would be taking bets on where it would drop or when. And I inherited that from him and in this Hirogen suit, if I would touch this cheek, sweat would come dripping out of my eye and out of my mouth because that was the only place that there was an exit. And people thought I was crying and drooling the whole time, and I said, "No, I'm just hot". So just remaining conscious in the heat, under the makeup, is probably the most challenging.

Favourite character: I play a pretty popular character, Telek R'Mor, which was the Romulan scientist in space in the episode [#7 Eye Of The Needle]. We had to go through a little wormhole, and see if they can get back to the correct section of the universe. It turns out that it's in the past so that they can't go back or else they'll all be two years old or whatever. That was a very nice character to portray because of the conflicts he had within himself, like I said, he's worried about what his government feels and what draws him to the humans was the humanity in himself which was the love for his child which he had not yet seen, and he realised that the humans on this ship also had family that they missed and that allowed him to find the connection with the human race. I love that character. The Romulan would probably be the guy, Dr Telek R'Mor (TOSTW oh so incorrectly spells it "Dr. Tellegrimore"!) (in [#7 Eye Of The Needle]), was kind of a dichotomy that he was in a bad guy race. The Romulans are not known as the nicest people. But he had real family values. He was worried about his daughter and understood the need of the Voyager crew to get back and see their family, and I liked that about him.

I also loved, of course, the first Klingon because he was the first role. And I got to go all out — it was entitled [TNG: Heart Of Glory] (he calls it "The Heart Of Glory"). I mentioned they were the 'bikers of the universe'. Rob Bowman directed that episode and that was a direction he gave me. He said, " These are the bikers of the universe". That was a lot of fun to play. of them all, those two, then again, Two of Nine was a lot of fun, too. You don't get a lot of opportunities to do these kind of roles anywhere else and they're all so very rich because they have their human elements, like I said, but then again they have these alien elements which can go over the top. You can use it to really play. Now, you have to make them believable and that's where the human comes in but particularly in roles like the Klingon you can just go mad.

Sources: two ST DVD interviews 2003, TOSTW interview 2001. Text is not in the order given in sources. Pictures may differ from sources.