In the latest Star Trek Magazine, #30, which is now on the newsstands, actor Robert Duncan McNeill shares his thoughts on the two “bad boys” that he portrayed in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager.

According to McNeill, there is an important difference between the two troublesome characters. “Fundamentally there’s a huge difference between the two of them,” said McNeill. “Nick Locarno was somebody who appeared to be a really good guy to the Starfleet teachers, faculty and staff, but deep down was a rotten guy. I think Tom Paris was the complete opposite of that. He appeared to be a little rotten on the outside, but was really a good guy underneath it all. Initially, Voyager’s creators might have conceived the character to be very much like Nick Locarno, but it became clear to me quite early on that he had to be very different.”

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Although Paramount wanted a more regal Trek, Robert Duncan McNeill (Tom Paris) and his fellow actors tried to slip in comedy whenever they could.

McNeill, now a director/producer on Chuck, explained that there was a reason for Paramount wanting to keep comedy out of Star Trek. “The comedy in Star Trek is always very subtle, if it’s there at all,” he said. “You know, Paramount would always tell us that on Star Trek, they wanted to protect their franchise during those years, by keeping it very regal. There was almost this royalty quality felt, like Patrick Stewart or Scott Bakula or Kate Mulgrew. There was this regal aspect that they thought was very important to the show and [that meant] not making fun of it.”

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J.J. Abrams spoke about the creation of a new Star Trek movie and what that entailed while castmembers described reaching out to their original series counterparts.

As reported by TrekMovie.com, to Abrams, it was not obvious that another Star Trek movie should be made, given the amount of shows and movies already out there for the long-term franchise . “I would never have thought to do another sequel to something that was started fifty years ago by Leonard Nimoy,” said Abrams. “Then I was told there were ten movies before! You know, doing Star Trek again is no cynical decision. The last two Star Trek movies and the last TV series didn’t work as well as expected. Star Trek is dead in many countries and not in very good shape in mine. But I love the characters and I thought that there was enormous emotional potential in bringing these characters back.” (more…)