Although he had a television resume dating back to the 1970s, Robert Picardo‘s life changed after signing on for Star Trek: Voyager.

Part of the reason that Star Trek was so different was the fandom associated with it. “One of the odd things about getting a Star Trek role that doesn’t have anything to do with any other kind of television show is that the moment your agent calls and says, ‘Well, you got the part,’ you also got your first two convention offers,” said Picardo.

“I don’t know if it’s just science fiction fans, or specifically Star Trek (fans), that they like to meet the actors as well as just watch the show,” said Picardo.

But before the conventions and fan adulation, a show has to succeed first. “The way I used to describe it when they first started airing the Voyager episodes,” said Picardo, “and people who were loyal fans of the Star Trek franchise became accustomed to the new faces of our cast, is that there’s a certain amount of fear as to whether or not they’ll embrace the show, and like it, and stick with it.

“But once they do embrace it, you feel a little bit like you’re boarding a bus that’s already going eighty miles per hour. It’s kind of a shock to jump on, but then it’s a nice ride once you’re there.”

Of course, that bus can slam into a wall if an actor makes the wrong move, like dissing fandom. “What I’ve learned is you can make fun of yourself, and Star Trek fans react well to that,” said Picardo. “You can make fun of pretty much anything, except their interest in the show. You don’t want to belittle their interest in the show, because it means something serious to them.”

Picardo will be appearing this weekend at the St. Louis Science Center.

Star Trek Director Cliff Bole didn’t start working right away on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine due to philosophical differences between Michael Piller and him.

Piller believed that Bole was not creative enough. “Mr. Piller and I were not in sync,” said Bole. “He thought I was a studio man and not creative, and I’d keep telling him, ‘Go back and look at The Best of Both Worlds.’”

Bole’s working hours were also an issue with Piller, who seemed to think that Bole wasn’t putting in enough effort. “He said, ‘Well, you don’t work late,’” said Bole.” I said, ‘I do my best not to because I don’t want to burn out the crew or my actors and, by the way, I know what I’m doing and I come in prepared.’ I was trained as a script clerk and an assistant. I’m a set rat, and have been on sets my whole life. When I was a kid I lived in the San Fernando Valley, and on Saturdays we’d go sneak onto all the back lots, roll around and watch what they were doing. So all that added up to I was very, very prepared. I’d had a couple of directors that I’d worked with over the years that I admired – John Huston and people like that – and I picked up a lot of experience. Michael Piller thought just because I wasn’t there for fourteen and fifteen hours a day that I was ducking creativity.”

Obviously, Bole’s work proved to be acceptable to Piller as Bole returned to direct more Deep Space Nine episodes, including Cardassians, The Collaborator, Equilibrium, Defiant, Explorers and Facets.

Bole went on to direct ten episodes of Star Trek: Voyager after his work on Deep Space Nine.

Cliff Bole directed forty-two episodes of Star Trek; from Star Trek: The Next Generation through Star Trek: Voyager and he had an alien race named after him too.

Most of Bole’s Star Trek directing experience was with The Next Generation, where he directed twenty-five episodes, including the acclaimed The Best of Both Worlds: Parts I and II, and Unification Part II, in which Leonard Nimoy reprised his role of Spock.

Bole’s first job on Trek came courtesy of a Paramount connection. “I had a couple of guys up in management at Paramount who I knew and one of them, a fellow named Jeff Hayes, made a suggestion to Rick Berman that Rick use me,” said Bole. “I knew Rick from when he was over at Warner Bros. He’d seen some of my film and that’s how it happened. I went in for one and I stayed for almost twenty years.”

Being new to Star Trek meant not knowing about various characteristics of the Trek alien races, and Bole found out once that Vulcans don’t laugh, courtesy of Gene Roddenberry. “I did one episode with a Spock-like character in it, and this character laughed,” said Bole. “Roddenberry saw the dailies and said, ‘That was the biggest mistake you ever made.’ I said, ‘Well, I was only following the script, because it was written.’ Vulcans don’t laugh or smile, but it got by everybody. This laugh was kind of a broad laugh, but it was written. Anyway, we did a retake of it and it was fine, and it never happened again, I can assure you. But that was Roddenberry who picked it out.”

Bole knew that the two episodes of The Best of Both Worlds were “going to be great episodes. I knew it from the get-go, from the script, and I put everything I had into them. Everything. I remember that I had my wife read the script to me as I’m driving back from our place in Mt. Shasta, and then I said, ‘Do you mind driving?’ It was a joy and it was a fish-out-of-water story as far as Patrick [Stewart] was concerned, and he was into it. So it all gelled. I’m not surprised it’s well regarded because of all the work that was put into it.”

And what of that race named after Bole, the Bolians? “When it first happened I thought someone was pulling my leg, maybe Berman or someone else,” he said. “Then it became an iten. I was proud of it. To hear your name constructed into the name of an alien race, I thought it was great — and I still do. It comes up all the time. People ask me about it all the time. I’m amazed that people still follow the show enough to ask about it.”

January begins with Albuquerque Comic Con, which will run from January 13-15 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Albuquerque. In attendance will be Star Trek: The Next Generation‘s Brent Spiner.

Next up is Oz Trek 7, to be held January 28-29 at the Rydges Melbourne, in Melbourne, Australia. In attendance at Oz Trek 7 will be Walter Koenig and Chase Masterson.

Wrapping up January will be Wizard World New Orleans Comic Con, also held on January 28-29. Wizard World New Orleans Comic Con will be held at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center and will feature William Shatner.

In February, MegaCon will be held from February 17-19 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. In attendance will be Kate Mulgrew, Tim Russ, Robert Picardo, Brent Spiner and Arne Starr.

From February 24-26, GalaxyFest 2012 will be held at the Antler’s Hilton in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In attendance will be Robert Picardo and Denise Crosby.

Phillips will be appearing in Arachnoquake, joining Tracey Gold (Growing Pains), Bug Hall (The Little Rascals) and Edward Furlong (Terminator 2: Judgment Day).

In Arachnoquake, “massive earthquakes unleash giant albino spiders. Freed from their ancient subterranean prison, the spiders go on a murderous rampage through New Orleans.”

Phillips will be playing a character by the name of Roy.

Arachnoquake is currently in production in Louisiana, and IMDB gives an air date of June 2012.

A call from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s Chase Masterson (Leeta), who took on the role of Mrs. Fezziwig, set the wheels in motion for the musical CD, based on 1970′s musical Scrooge.

Preparation for the role by Picardo began by watching Scrooge, which starred Albert Finney in the title role. “I’d never seen this musical adaptation of Dickens‘ A Christmas Carol,” said Picardo, “so I watched the DVD and found myself quite moved by Finney’s performance, made all the more impressive by the fact that he was only in his mid-thirties at the time.

“The Leslie Bricusse songs were great, and Scrooge’s transformation from isolated misanthrope (I Hate People) to redeemed man/giddy enthusiast (I Like Life) through his visions of Christmases past, present and ‘yet to come,’ was beautifully realized in song.

“I was particularly touched by his ballad of remorse ‘You. . . You,’ which Scrooge sings when he realizes he lost his one true love to his obsession for making money. The greatest acting challenge was ‘I’ll Begin Again,’ the impassioned pledge to change his life that Scrooge sings when he awakens in panic and dread from his terrible dreams. Watching Finney in that scene in the movie was heartbreaking. No one could improve on that, I thought. So…why try?”

It turns out that the original film soundtrack was never released on CD, but is only available on vinyl. “Here was an opportunity to bring this music to a new generation of listeners, and my only responsibility was to do my best to live up to that opportunity,” said Picardo. “And — let’s face it — I’ve had a certain amount of experience playing cranky curmudgeons, even a few non-holographic ones.”

Scrooge is available for download on iTunes and Amazon. The CD can be purchased at Buysoundtrax.com. The first one hundred CDs ordered will come with an extra booklet signed by Mr. Picardo.

For Drexler, the thing that stands out most was the friends that he made over the years. “These people are still my friends, and I still work with many of them, too,” he said. Those friends included Mike and Denise Okuda. “I owe [Mike] much for [taking a chance on me], but the friendship that we have, it’s something you can’t put any price on.”

Star Trek: The Next Generation was the most fun time for Drexler. “I’ve been in this business for thirty-two years, and I’ve never seen anything like the cast on TNG,” he said. “You read about shows where they say it’s a big family and then you find out they really hated each other. Not on TNG. It was a genuine family and everyone had a ball. It was sheer fun, no matter how late you worked. Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes, the guys were wacky and totally loony. They didn’t take anything seriously until the camera was rolling. Honestly, I don’t think I ever saw a normal rehearsal. Every rehearsal had somebody trying to crack somebody else up. But once they called action, they were right on the money. If I could go back to a time, it would probably be to that show.”

After Star Trek: Enterprise wrapped, Drexler worried about future employment. “When Enterprise ended, I was thinking, ‘Man, I was on Star Trek shows for seventeen years! This could be the end of it! I’ll never work again! Who gets a streak of luck like that?’ But when I get home, there’s a message from Gary [Hutzel] on the answering machine. Lightning! Right away I knew he was going to ask me to come to Battlestar Galactica. I called him and he said, ‘I heard about Enterprise.’ I said, ‘Yeah…’ He said, ‘You know, Doug, every cloud has a silver lining.’ And that was it, I was on the show.

Drexler is currently working on Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome, and waiting to see if it is picked up as a series.

Created by Matt Palazzolo, Bloomers is a web-based comedy about a “diverse group of friends finding new ways to love, work and laugh in downtown Los Angeles.”

Russ not only co-directs, but can be seen in one of the episodes as Mr. Adler, the “tough boss” of one of Bloomers characters.

Bloomers is so-named because many of the characters in the show work in an underwear design company. In addition, says series creator Palazzolo, “this group of friends is growing up, blooming so to speak.”

The first episode went online yesterday and can be seen below:

Star Trek: Voyager‘s Garrett Wang used to be a fan of the man best-known for playing Captain Kirk until an unfortunate meeting with Shatner changed his mind.

Wang shared his story of what went wrong with the crowd at Comikaze Expo, which took place last weekend at the Los Angeles Convention Center. “I was at the Tulsa Trek Expo [last year],” he said. “I was in the ‘green room,’ so this is a backstage room where only the actors are. So I walked up to him and said ‘Mr. Shatner, I finally get to meet you.’

“[Shatner's handshake] was limp-wristed; he gave me this, like he was the Queen of England or something. So he gives me that, then in the middle of the handshake, he looks away, then he pulls his hand away and he wipes it off on his shirt, right in front of me.

“All I saw was red. You know what? God help me, I want to punch his fat belly right now. I was so mad. I want to tell you guys, I love Captain Kirk, but I fricken’ cannot stand William Shatner. I’m gonna say that right now. That is no way to treat someone.”

At Comikaze, Wang also spoke about the Star Trek XI premiere back in 2009 and his thoughts on the lack of Star Trek: Voyager actors in attendance.  According to Wang, none of the Voyager actors were invited to that premiere. “I just gave you seven years of my life,” said Wang. “You think I can get an invite to the damn premiere? No.”

In spite of that disrespect, Wang said that he would love to be part of a new Star Trek series.

Back in 1992, Beethoven, a movie featuring a St. Bernard dog, arrived in theaters. It was followed by five sequels, and the sixth, Beethoven’s Christmas Adventure, was released yesterday.

In Beethoven’s Christmas Adventure, Christmas elf “Henry (Kyle Massey) is disappointed to find himself working in the stable, not the toy workshop. Feeling unappreciated, he flees the North Pole with Santa’s sleigh and magical bag of toys, only to crash land in a tree, stranding himself—and Santa’s bag—in a suburban American neighborhood. When the bag ends up in the hands of an unscrupulous toy store owner, it looks like Christmas won’t be coming this year. That is, until the plucky and adorable Beethoven and his human pal Mason (Munro Chambers) join forces with Henry to save the holiday.”

Picardo can be seen as Smirch in Beethoven’s Christmas Adventure. A clip from the movie can be seen below.

http://youtu.be/7NkEohtmIW8