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SciFi Diner Podcast Ep. 114 – Our Interview with John de Lancie who played Q in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Allen Shapiro in Torchwood: Miracle Day

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 SciFi DSciFi Diner Podcast Ep. 114

Our Interview with John de Lancie

who played Q in Star Trek: The Next Generation

and Allen Shapiro in Torchwood: Miracle Day

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Tonight’s Diners: Scott & Miles

Welcome to the Diner.

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The Music at the end of this week’s show is from Star Trek: The Next Generation.  The episode Inner Light from season 5.

Menu:

  • Our Interview with John de Lancie
  • Trivia
  • TV News:   More Terra Nova ratings
  • Movie News:  In Time and Robert Downey Jr. talks about his feelingsregarding IRON MAN 2
  • Cool Movie Trailer:  Avengers
  • Image of the day:  Imperial Undead
  • DVD Blu Ray News:  Justice League: Doom
  • Twist: Brent Spiner talks Star Trek & Big Bang Theory, Seth McPharlane want’s to rebbot Star Trek for TV?  Zachary Quinto Is “Shifting” Into Star Trek Mode For XII
  • Sci Fi 5 at 5: Top Star Trek episodes according to Colin

Trivia:  

 Trivia Question:  What does the American version of Life in Mars  have in common with the new upcoming show Terra Nova?  
Answer: Jason O’ Mara  (Sam Tyler, Jim Shannon)

Prize: Eddie MvcClintock

Winner: Deana

 

 

Miles, john de Lancie, and Scott

Miles, john de Lancie, and Scott

 

Interview:

John de Lancie (born March 20, 1948) is an American actor. He is best known for his recurring role as Q on the various Star Trek series and as Frank Simmons in Stargate SG-1.

De Lancie was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the son of Andrea and John de Lancie, who was principal oboist of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1954 to 1977, and in his time one of the best known oboists worldwide.[1][2] As a child, he was diagnosed with dyslexia.[3] He is married to actress-singer Marnie Mosiman, and they have two sons, Keegan and Owen.

De Lancie was the narrator for a General Motors (GM) commercial in the early 1980s that featured a robot that drops a bolt and talks about the future of the auto industry.

De Lancie has appeared in numerous television shows. He starred as Dr Deroy in three TV movies of Emergency! (1977-1979): “The Steel Inferno,” “The Convention” and “What’s A Nice Girl Like You Doing.” In 1988 he played assassin Matthew Drake in the premiere episode of the Mission: Impossible revival series. He also starred in a first season episode of MacGyver, “The Escape”, where he played a gunrunner. In 1997, de Lancie lent his voice to The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest as Doctor Quest. He also recently appeared on AMC’s Breaking Bad. From 2001–2002, he was Agent Dark Booty on the television series Invader Zim. He also starred in the eighth, ninth and tenth episodes of Torchwood: Miracle Day.

De Lancie is best known for his portrayal of the iconic, all-powerful Q, a recurring character on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Q is one of few characters appearing in multiple shows of the Star Trek franchise: in eight episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation (Encounter at Farpoint, Hide and Q, Q Who, Deja Q, Qpid, True Q, Tapestry, All Good Things…), in one episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (Season 1, Episode 7), and in three episodes of Star Trek: Voyager (Death Wish, The Q and the Grey, Q2). De Lancie’s son, Keegan de Lancie, appeared with his father as Q’s son in Star Trek: Voyagers seventh season episode “Q2“.

De Lancie co-starred in Star Trek writer Michael Piller‘s short-lived creation Legend as eccentric scientist Janos Bartok. He had a recurring role as NID Colonel Frank Simmons on Stargate SG-1. He has also appeared as Beka Valentine’s Uncle Sid in Gene Roddenberry‘s Andromeda, as pollster Al Kiefer on The West Wing, and as an Elder on Charmed.

De Lancie also played:

  • An air traffic controller and father Donald Margolis on the AMC series Breaking Bad.
  • A middleman who dealt with dangerous arms dealers in CBS’s The Unit during the fourth season of that show.
  • A judge on Law and Order: LA.
  • Allen Shapiro, a CIA Official in the BBC Sci-fi Drama Torchwood: Miracle Day.

He has also voiced:

His film credits include The Hand that Rocks the Cradle, Get Smart, Again!, The Fisher King, Bad Influence, The Onion Field, Taking Care of Business, Fearless, Arcade, Multiplicity, Woman on Top, Nicolas, Good Advice, Patient 14, The Big Time, Teenius, Pathology, Evolver, and Reign Over Me, You Lucky Dog (1998). He also had a small voice part in Saving Private Ryan (1998)

He has been a member of The American Shakespeare Festival, The Seattle Repertory Company, South Coast Repertory, The Mark Taper Forum, and the Old Globe where he recently performed Arthur Miller’s Resurrection Blues.

De Lancie has performed and directed for Los Angeles Theater Works, the producing arm of KCRW-FM and National Public Radio, where the series The Play’s the Thing originates. He recently returned from a national tour of the Scopes Monkey Trial.

Star Trek: The Music was a multi-city tour with Robert Picardo. De Lancie and Picardo narrate around the orchestral performance, explaining the history of the music in Star Trek.

De Lancie is co-owner, with Leonard Nimoy, of Alien Voices, a production company devoted to the radio-style dramatization of classic science fiction. De Lancie produced, co-wrote, and directed audio dramatizations of: The Time Machine, A Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Lost World, The Invisible Man, and The First Men in the Moon; as well as three television specials for the Sci-Fi Channel. In addition, he played the lead in Yuri Rasovsky’s award-winning audio version of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. He also narrated the show “Black Holes”, an educational show produced by the Clark Planetarium for use in full dome planetarium star theaters.

De Lancie provided the voice of the character Antonio Malochio in the PC game Interstate ’76, as the angel Trias in the video game Planescape: Torment, and as Dr. Death in Outlaws. He also played Q in the PC Video Games Star Trek: Borg and Star Trek: The Game Show.

In the world of music, John de Lancie, Jr. has performed as narrator with a number of major orchestras including: Kurt Masur, Sir Colin Davis and the New York Philharmonic; Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Los Angeles Philharmonic; Charles Dutoit and the Philadelphia Orchestra; Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra; the National Symphony Orchestra[disambiguation needed] and The Montreal Symphony. His repertoire includes: Peer Gynt, King David, The Bourgeois Gentleman, Lincoln Portrait, St. Joan, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Oedipus Rex, The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, The Soldier’s Tale, The Nightingale, and Peter and the Wolf.

De Lancie was the host of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Symphonies for Youth for four years where he helped conceptualize the student concerts “Don’t Educate–Stimulate”. In addition, he’s written and directed ten symphonic plays. These ninety-minute programs are fully staged productions with orchestra; titles include Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Bourgeois Gentleman, and The Abduction from the Seraglio. They were produced with the Milwaukee, St. Paul Chamber, Ravinia, Los Angeles, and Pasadena Orchestras.

De Lancie makes frequent appearances with the Pasadena Symphony, which holds concerts of orchestrated music in the Fall and the Spring. In spring 2004, he gave pre-concert lectures where the symphony is held in Pasadena, California, at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.

He was also the writer, director, and host of First Nights, an adult concert series at Disney Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic which explored the life and music of Stravinsky, Beethoven, Mahler, Schumann, and Prokofiev. These were fully integrated, fully staged productions. John de Lancie has performed and directed for L.A. Theater Works, the producing arm of KCRW-FM and National Public Radio, where the series The Plays the Thing originates. He recently returned from a national tour of the Scopes Monkey Trial. He was co-owner, with Leonard Nimoy, of Alien Voices; a production company devoted to the dramatization of classic science fiction.

In 2006, de Lancie made his opera directorial debut with The Atlanta Opera performing Puccini‘s “Tosca” on May 18 to May 21.

In September 2007, de Lancie provided dramatic narration to the Cleveland Orchestra‘s performance of Peer Gynt. He performed this role again with the National Symphony Orchestra in June 2008, under the direction of Vladimir Ashkenazy.

De Lancie co-wrote the Star Trek novel I, Q with Peter David, as well as co-writing the novel Soldier of Light with Tom Cool. He also was the writer for the Star Trek: The Next Generation Annual #1 DC comic book story “The Gift.”

TV News:

Fox sets ‘Terra Nova’ finale

terra-nova-dino_175.jpg

Fox’s grand dino experiment has set a (first season?) conclusion: As Futon Critic first reported, Terra Nova will finish its 13-hour run on Monday, Dec. 19. The show will finish how it ended, with a two-hour episode (see last night’s recap, “What Just Happened,” here). Last night’s Terra Nova ratings were disrupted by Fox’s baseball coverage, but it looks like, after holding steady the first two weeks, the show might have dipped a bit.

Fall-TV-ratings

UPDATED: Another week of fall TV data, and the rankings are definitely starting to shift: Some lucky shows have climbed because DVR data has been added to the mix. But not everybody benefited from delayed viewership. (Sorry, Up All Night and Terra Nova.) Here is how the new shows are faring among the ever-crucial adults 18-49 rating and our thoughts on which ones will (or will not) survive the winter: Terra Nova (Fox): 3.1
Status: This would be a solid number — for just about any other show. The bar is set high for the expensive and heavily-hyped dino drama, and the premiere rating didn’t leave a lot of wiggle room. Terra Nova will not get a full season (Fox executives have confirmed that it will complete its 13-hour run in December); the question is whether the drama will get a second year for next fall.

Movie News:

In Time (2011)

In the future people stop aging at 25 and must work to buy themselves more time, but when a young man finds himself with more time than he can imagine he must run from the corrupt police force to save his life.

In the not-too-distant future the aging gene has been switched off. To avoid overpopulation, time has become the currency and the way people pay for luxuries and necessities. The rich can live forever, while the rest try to negotiate for their immortality. A poor young man who comes into a fortune of time, though too late to help his mother from dying. He ends up on the run from a corrupt police force known as ‘time keepers’.

Robert Downey Jr. Was Disappointed by IRON MAN 2

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While Paramount Pictures and Marvel Studios‘ 2010 sequel Iron Man 2, directed by Jon Favreau and starring stars Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Mickey Rourke and Sam Rockwell earned over $600 million worldwide at the box office, the film didn’t garner the acclaim as the original Iron Man film, from both fans and critics alike.

If you were one of the fans disappointed by the second big-screen outing for Ol’ Shellhead, you weren’t the only one. The film’s star, Robert Downey Jr. recently spoke with the LATimes and echoed some of the fan’s sentiments about the sequel.

Downey Jr. said,

“With the second ‘Iron Man’ there were certain aspects that were dissatisfying and disappointing to me but at least they lit me right”

After referring to the first Iron Man as the film that “changed everything” for him, Downey Jr. admitted that the second film did not live up to its potential:

“[The first one] was a meditation on responsibility and an exploration of how a small group of people can take a two-dimensional idea and, if the winds are right, create something that makes people say, ‘That was my favorite movie of the year,’ ” Downey said. “To me, Tony Stark’s story is a karma story and a technology story. I love a good action movie — a Steve McQueen or Tom Cruise or Clint Eastwood, Bruce Willis or Mel Gibson in the right spot, and you smile and say, ‘That’s what this kind of movie is all about.’

If anyone ever thought that RDJ didn’t take the character of Tony Stark seriously, the actor had the following to say:

“There were two times in my life I prepared for something manically, it was this and ‘Chaplin,’” he explained. “I became the expert on this guy.”

Iron Man 2 stars Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Jon Favreau, Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell, Samuel L. Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Garry Shandling, John Slattery and Clark Gregg.

Cool Movie Trailer: 

DVD/Blu Ray News:

Nathan Fillion, Claudia Black, Tim Daly and Michael Rosenbaum Join an All-Star Cast for Justice League: Doom

Here comes the Justice League! An all-star cast has been assembled to provide voices for the iconic team of superheroes in Justice League: Doom, the latest animated DVD-movie in Warner Home Video’s series of DC Comics adaptations. Castle star Nathan Fillion will reprise the role of Green Lantern, which he first played in Green Lantern: Emerald Knights. He’ll be joined by Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy, the longtime voices for Superman and Batman, respectively. Rounding out the cast are several of Conroy’s old costars from Cartoon Network’s 2001-06 Justice League series (known as Justice League Unlimited in later seasons): Smallville‘s Michael Rosenbaum as the Flash, Alias alum Carl Lumbly as Martian Manhunter and veteran voice actress Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman. Cyborg, a character not seen on Justice League, joins the group for this movie and will be played by Bumper Robinson (The Game).

The movie, due to be released in early 2012 on DVD, Blu-ray, digital download and on-demand, is based on the popular DC storyline JLA: Tower of Babel, written by Mark Waid. The plot: Batman’s secret contingency plans to defeat his own teammates (should any of them go rogue) are stolen and put into action by a group of super villains.

Once again running the show behind the scenes is executive producer Bruce Timm, the man responsible for dozens of beloved animated superhero projects, including the original Justice League. Lauren Montgomery, a veteran of several animated movies in this series, including the upcoming Batman: Year One, is the director. The script was written by acclaimed animation/comic book writer Dwayne McDuffie, who passed away earlier this year.

Image of the Day:

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This Week in Star Trek :

Brent Spiner Talks Data, TNG and a Reunion with Wil Wheaton on Big Bang Theory

By TrekNews

Brent Spiner as Data

Brent Spiner, who played Lt. Commander Data on Star Trek: The Next Generation, recently sat down with StarTrek.com to discuss his time with the franchise along with some of his current projects, including his web series, Fresh Hell.

Spiner will also be a guest star, along with former TNG castmate Wil Wheaton, on tonight’s episode of the CBS hit comedy, Big Bang Theory.

“It’s very brief. It’s not even a cameo. It’s a cam. By the way, I have my own terms for everything. My appearance on Big Bang Theory is a cam, not a cameo.” Spiner joked.

Spiner discussed working with Wheaton again, saying “I see him a lot because we’re at conventions together, but we were standing backstage waiting to make an entrance and he said, ‘I think this is the first time in years that we’ve worked together.’ He was in Nemesis, but his scene got cut, so that doesn’t count. And I don’t think I was in the scene with him.”

Brent Spiner & Wil Wheaton on Big Bang Theory
Brent Spiner, Jim Parsons and Wil Wheaton on the set of Big Bang Theory

He went on to discuss the role of Data on TNG and how quickly he got a handle on playing an android, saying “I think fairly quickly because I realized pretty early on that there was really no precedent for it, that I could do pretty much anything I wanted and the audience would either accept it or they wouldn’t. But there was nobody to say, ‘Oh, that’s not what an android would do’ or ‘That’s not how an android would behave,’ because there weren’t any other androids at that point on weekly television.

Even in the audition process, there was the question of, ‘Should we play this character like a machine, like a robot, or should we make him closer to being a person?’ And we all agreed, finally, that it would be really tedious if I played him like a machine and a robot for seven years, if we went that long. So we decided to make him much more of a person who was growing in his humanity as time went on.” he continued.

In the mid-nineties Spiner was vocal about not wanting to play the character of Data indefinitely, because unlike an android, he ages.

“I was 38 when I started playing Data. So it occurred to me, ‘How long is this going to last?’ I looked pretty young for my age at the time, but I thought, ‘If I was 10 years younger, I could play this for 30 years.’ But I wasn’t. I was pushing 40. I thought, ‘How long am I going to look acceptably young to keep playing this part?’ Fortunately, it lasted as long as it did.”

After seven seasons of TNG and four films, Spiner returned to the role of Data in a few episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise.

“That was fun. It was a nice bunch of people and it was a lot of the crew I was used to working with. LeVar (Burton) directed one of the episodes. It was a blast. And I knew Scott (Bakula) from before, so that was fun. ”

MacFarlane wants to ditch Family Guy and reboot Star Trek for TV

Family Guy is a blockbuster animated series that made its creator and star Seth MacFarlane a household name, but in a new interview MacFarlane says he feels like the show has run its course. What would he like to do instead? A new Star Trekseries.MacFarlane became a megarich superstar on the back of Family Guy, the FOX sitcom where he weekly serves as executive producer, creator and voice of a talking dog, evil baby and loudmouth New England beer lover. The show is so beloved that fan campaigns to rescue it from the brink of oblivion helped bring it back to the airwaves in 2005 after a three-year hiatus.

But as Family Guy embarks on its 10th season, MacFarlane admits he’d almost prefer it if the show was already over:

“Part of me thinks that Family Guy should have already ended. I think seven seasons is about the right lifespan for a TV series,” he says of a show that launched its tenth season last month. “I talk to the fans and in a way I’m kind of secretly hoping for them to say we’re done with it. There are plenty of people who say the show is kind of over the hill … but still the vast majority go pale in the face when I mention the possibility.” As he sees it, there’s something to be said for wrapping up the series and doing a movie once every couple of years. “Creatively, that would be the way to do it for me. Do a really fantastic final episode while the show is still strong,” he says, acknowledging that there are plenty of powerful reasons—including the viewer demand and the amount of people employed by the series, some 300 people in total—to give him pause. (There is a deal in place for a Family Guy movie, which he is writing with series co-producer Ricky Blitt; it’s now a matter of finding time in MacFarlane’s schedule to make it happen.)

So, if MacFarlane had his way and Family Guy was off his plate, what would he be doing? Well, apart from several other projects—among them a new Flintstones series he’s developing for FOX—he says his dream would be to bring Star Trek back to television:

“I don’t know who would give me the keys to that car,” he jokes, acknowledging that the films have been so profitable for Paramount that he isn’t so sure they have a lot of interest in getting back into the TV business. “But I’d love to see that franchise revived for television in the way that it was in the 1990s: very thoughtful, smartly written stories that transcend the science fiction audience.”

So, the guy whose greatest contribution to science fiction is a trilogy of Star Wars parodies in which a giant chicken plays Boba Fett wants to try his hand at a serious, smart Star Trek show a la The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine? Well … that Family Guy episode with the Next Generation cast guest-starring was kinda cool.

Is it so crazy it just might work?

Zachary Quinto Is “Shifting” Into Star Trek Mode For XII

By Captain Pyke

While we know that Star Trek XII is heading into production in early 2012, we’re kind in the dark about the true nature of the film. We’ve been trying to stay away from the rumor mill and focus on hard facts about the next installment of the JJ-verse. We do, however enjoy hearing from the stars of Star Trek XI and Zachary Quinto is no exception. He recently sat down with the Orlando Sentinel to discuss his upcoming movie Margin Call and of course the topic quickly switched to his role as everyone’s favorite pointy eared Vulcan… No, no…Sybok.

During the interview, Zachary talks about the opportunities that his role in Star Trek provides; “Starting my production company is something that ‘Star Trek’ allowed me to do, I could utilize that exposure and parlay it into opportunities that would allow me to tell my own kind of stories instead of stories other people see me in. It’s all tied into Star Trek. It put me in a position to have access that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. I wanted to use that access to tell my own sorts of stories, with me involved in telling them.”

When asked about the upcoming sequel, Star Trek XII, Zachary states: “I’m starting to shift into that mode of preparation, I have physical training and other ways of prepping for it. None of us have seen the script. We’re all very curious to see where he’s taking us this time. We’re going on rumors, little hints here and there, stories we’ve been told.”

Be sure to check out the full interview with Zachary here.

Sci Fi Five at Five:

Hello Scott and Miles
Well first of all let me express my commiserations on not winning the award. I’m convinced it’s s travesty and a massive over sight on there part.   But being recognized is a major thing in this Market, so there’s always next year. I’ll get section 31 right on it.
Which is a nice link to my five in five.
My five favourite episodes from Star Trek.

1) inner light tng
2) pale moon light DS9
3) chain of command Tng
4) scorpion voyager
5) in a mirror darkly enterprise

The wonderful thing about this list is Miles can explain the episodes, Miles your on!.

Live long and podcast

Colin

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2 Comments

  1. Geoff Gentry (xforce11) October 17, 2011

    Great ep. Loved that song from STNG is it on iTunes?

  2. Scott October 19, 2011 — Post Author

    Are you talking about the song underneath This Week In Star Trek?

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