See Also: 'Shadows of P'Jem' Episode Guide

Jeffrey Combs recently spoke about his latest appearance on Enterprise and his feeling that the latest member of the Trek family is the closest to the Original Series yet.

"I think that of all the permutations that have come along since the original series it is the most faithful and closest to the tone and dynamic of the original," he told 13th Street. "It's simpler in its point of view, it has a strong captain - I like Scott [Bakula] a lot. He's real good in front and behind the camera and you just have immediate credibility there."

The actor spoke of his surprise that he was asked back to play the same character again on the series. "Well, when I auditioned for Voyager their philosophy was that there wouldn't be recurring roles on the show, and they stuck to that. But DS9 had a multitude of them, and I suspect on this show they had to find a middle ground between the two, especially if you're going to be dealing with the pre-Federation and the dynamics of how it all came together over a span of time, how can you not acknowledge that there's going to be some threads that run through that."

In tonight's epsides, Shadows of P'Jem, Shran comes face to face with the NX-01 crew again. "Well, the first one ends with my character sort of begrudgingly thinking maybe these humanoids can be trusted a little bit," Combs explained. "But also the gnawing pain that I owe this guy, which I don't like and is an interesting dynamic to play. With this one I basically get to say 'Okay, we're even now.'"

Combs revealed that he once auditioned for the part of the Next Generation's Commander Riker. "I remember going to that audition wearing cowboy boots, thinking 'I'm not this guy. This is the wrong role for me to go out for.' My agent sent me up for that."

The actor almost seems glad that he didn't win the part. "Jonathan Frakes is Riker. You needed someone with some physical stature and I was not that. I walked in there and I remember the director they had was Mr. I'll-Do-The-Reading-Myself, and so uncharacteristic for Star Trek he was reading the lines in this rapid fire way, almost like "Can you react fast enough?" I just thought it was all wrong from start to finish and I just thought they were flying through it to get me out of there because they were behind schedule. It just seemed weird and wrong."

More from Jeffrey Combs, including his thoughts on the Andorians and his Deep Space Nine roles, can be found in the original article at 13th Street.

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