Clearly, the Best Thing To Be is an Actor on Star Trek

January 23rd, 2009Blog1 comment

In Wil Wheaton’s book “Just a Geek”, he describes the regret he felt at departing from Star Trek: The Next Generation early to pursue a film career that never materialized. I respect this guy a lot and admire his ability to own up to a decision he made when he was only 18 and admittedly didn’t know any better.

But after careful study and analysis, I know that one of the best things an actor can do for him/herself and their family is to be a regular on a Star Trek TV series.

Case Study: Here is Michael Dorn -

You might not recognize Michael Dorn if he was walking down the street, but we all know him as Worf from TNG. Now that Michael Dorn has done seven years on the series, a few more on DS9, and done multiple movies, he can now do (and he does) whatever he wants as an actor.

Plus I think Michael Dorn is fairly solid financially. He owns two jets. His hobby is flying them.

If you book a gig as a regular on a Star Trek series that runs the whole seven seasons, you’re pretty much set for life. Afterwards, no matter what you do, you will have a built-in audience of fanatics who will appear everywhere to support you. Geeks and nerds are a highly supportive and enthusiastic bunch, and they have deep pockets due to their IT jobs.

I think it’s safe to say that this also applies to actors on BSG, Stargate, LOST, etc.. Being an actor on any long-running Sci-Fi series is gold.

Now there are some people that might be like, “Hey — what about doing things that are artistic and creative and serve a higher purpose? What about that?”

To this I say the following: Altruism is good, but to make your dream projects happen you need to have money to fund them. Capital. You need to have the economic stability to be free to do as you choose. And with the line between “TV Actors” and “Film Actors” blurring (for good and for ill), it seems like the danger of being pigeonholed has been dramatically reduced.

If I were an actor, my dream job would be being a regular on a Star Trek series. Hell, it still is my dream job. If offered the shot, I would put my career on hold for seven, eight, ten years and do it. Getting paid thousands of dollars a week to say things like “The containment field in the antimatter intermix chamber is destabilizing!” would be the most awesome fucking thing ever.

Also I would get to have pointy sideburns, which would be really cool too.