Vaughn Armstrong Talks 'Experience' Klingon Role

Vaughn Armstrong easily holds the record for having played the most characters on Star Trek, having appeared as characters of five different races. But one of these characters is probably rather unknown for Star Trek fans: the Klingon Korath, appearing in several segments filmed especially for the Star Trek Experience.

"Korath was a lot of fun," Armstrong recalled in an interview for the new edition of Radio Free Decipher. "When I auditioned for this role - Ron Surma, the casting director, is very helpful in describing what characters should be, if you have any questions. He is very helpful by letting you do whatever it is you want to do, without trying to stop you. When I walked into the audition for [Korath], he said, 'Just go for this.' So I said, 'We're not talking subtly here, Ron? We're talking everything out, just go for it?' And he said, 'Yes!' And so I did."

In the Star Trek Experience, visitors on the special Starship Ride are 'abducted' by the Klingon Korath and taken to the year 2371. Onboard the ride, they are told that the Klingon wants to kill them, because of the visitors is an ancestor of Captain Picard. In a shuttlecraft, the visitors then try to escape from Korath and get back to 21st-Century Earth. The role of Korath gave Armstrong a great opportunity to really go all the way with his acting.

"I went all the way over the top, and [Surma] said 'Perfect!' And I got the job!," Armstrong laughed, and wnet on to describe his character. "I am the bad guy chasing you. I haven't seen it yet, but I hear it's a lot of fun. [...] I did enjoy that character, because, you know, there were no holds barred. And, you know... we may see him again. We just may see him again."

After providing this interesting little hint, Armstrong talked about how the 'Experience' segments were filmed. "What was interesting about shooting that was that we did it on the Deep Space Nine set, after they had finished, so we started at about 11:30 or 12:00 in the evening. [We] used their sets after they had a day of a shooting. And at that time, I saw Micheal Dorn again."

Armstrong had first met Michael Dorn (Worf) when he appeared in the TNG episode 'Heart of Glory' as Commander Korris. "[It] was years after I had done the Klingon with him, and here I am in full make-up, and he says, 'Oh, I know you! You're Vaughn Armstrong! You did that first great Klingon!' And he just stood up and to the whole set said, 'This guy was the first Klingon ever! He was great!' And that was just - he didn't have to do that, it was just a fun, nice thing for him to do."

In the full, 25-minute interview with Radio Free Decipher, Armstrong talked about many of his other Trek roles, such as the Borg Two of Nine in 'Survival Instinct,' Seskal on two DS9 episodes, and Telek R'Mor on Voyager, but also about his experiences meeting Trek fans. Click here to listen to it.

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