"I almost committed suicide," admitted Grace Lee Whitney of her emotional experience after being fired from the original Star Trek series, saying Leonard Nimoy saved her by convincing her that Janice Rand would be brought back - and she was, although not until Star Trek: The Motion Picture and on television not before an appearance on Star Trek: Voyager.

In a new interview with Dreamwatch (via TrekWeb), Whitney said she has longed to work on a series of Star Trek: Excelsior TV movies, which would also allow perennial fan favourite George Takei to reprise his role as Captain Sulu.

"If they had done an Excelsior series I'd have a whole second career," she stated. After Rand appeared as the Excelsior communications officer in Voyager's "Flashback", fans lobbied for an Excelsior TV series, and Takei said that if Paramount was interested he would be as well. But the idea never went beyond discussions.

"I suggested they do four TV movies a year," Whitney recalled. "That way we could bring really good writers in and bring in some of the Trek actors...it's just too bad that it didn't happen."

Upon learning that Next Generation star Brent Spiner (Data) would be appearing on Enterprise, Whitney added, "Tell Rick Berman to expect a call !"

The full interview is in the new issue of DreamWatch available in the UK. These excerpts are from TrekWeb.

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