TERRA NOVA 3

Lyn Hearn’s view

Time constraints meant that I missed the opening and closing of the convention, but I certainly enjoyed the bits in between.

After receiving my bag of goodies, I sat down in time to see John Billingsley escorted in by two Imperial Storm Troopers (à la Star Wars). His wife of 14 years, Bonita Friedericy soon became actively involved as chief heckler and assistant, running the microphone through the audience as people asked questions.

Much of what was said was not new to me as I had seen the pair in Sydney in 2003. I was pleasantly surprised that John had raised the tone for this occasion, only using the ‘f’ word once and apologising in advance. Once again he worked the audience admirably.

He does a great scream, which he’s used for voicing video games (he accepts pretty much any gig), but his dance moves are perhaps not so flash.

Being a character actor has its advantages (though Bonnie said he would always be buff to her, and he had such dreamy blue eyes as Phlox), so he could have 6 days off on Enterprise and still get paid.

He thought the writing improved when Manny Coto was brought in for season 3 – Rick Berman and Brannon Braga had been writing for Star Trek for 15 years, and the final episode of Enterprise seemed to fill a writers’ need rather than satisfy the fan base.

He and Bonnie did an on-the-spot commentary for ‘Regeneration’ which was a lot of fun. Audience participation was encouraged.

All the actors were really gracious during photo sessions at lunch time.

The Starhyke DVD trailer revealed a comedy science fiction which could prove to be very entertaining if we ever get to see it here.

Then came the moment I’d been waiting for. For years I’ve been trying to see Claudia Christian at a convention, overseas and in various states of Australia, and it was finally happening in my own home town – excellent! She said the show was better than the trailer and that ‘boldly going where no one else wants to go’ was her idea. She plays Captain Belinda Blowhard. A number of times she said it was a low budget $1.99 an episode production. The food consisted of potatoes and a ‘meat thing’ so the actors all put on weight during filming and had trouble fitting into their uniforms.

In London she won a role in the second audition she did (for Broken News). In the costume department she was described as ‘tall and slender’. She likes it in the UK! She’s been there a year and a half and plans to be there for another five. She moved there because she felt her life was over (even her cat ran away) and she wanted a new start. She’s now sold her home in LA and bought a unit in Notting Hill. She’s getting more dates in London but with 25 year olds doing Southpark voices, so it’s not serious.

The opening question was about her Playboy photo shoot. She rather quashed further discussion on that with her ‘wouldn’t you, for half a million dollars?’ response.

‘Q versus Janeway’ started as a fun show with Dean Haglund for conventions, rather than just hanging in the evening. She does a ‘helium’ voice for Janeway, but doesn’t keep it up because it would get really annoying. She did it last in Tel Aviv, where she’s a huge attraction because her Babylon 5 character is Jewish.

Hourglass is a time travel show Claudia developed and wrote scripts for. She had a recurring role in it, and met Clare Stansfield and Alex Higgins through Holly, who’s been working for her for 12 years now. She doesn’t see them any more. They’re both married and Alex has had a baby.

Space Rangers was so long ago she doesn’t remember a lot about it, except that she worked with Linda Hunt (Year of Living Dangerously).

Claudia’s brothers work in genetics and veterinary science – her talents definitely lie elsewhere. Her step-father told her she doesn’t need to think – she can pay people to do that for her. She’s reached the point in acting where she’s no longer suitable for ‘babe’ roles and not ready for real ‘mom’ roles, so plays cops and reporters, but she enjoys creative pursuits. She’s done a creative writing course and is about to begin journalism. She plays piano fairly well (by ear), and guitar sufficiently to write music. She loves doing audio work, though she said reading all the parts makes her feel like a dork.

She was disappointed not to continue in her role in Highlander. She would love to appear on the new Doctor Who. Her recent stage work involved a rather demanding bipolar role in What the Night is For. Not many actresses can say they’ve played a bisexual Jew in space (actually Ivanova is a catholic Russian name!) and transsexuals (in L.A. Law, and Family Law).

She’s written scripts, and a couple of children’s books (with her nieces and nephews in mind), as yet unpublished, and a novel about what happened to Ivanova after Babylon 5, called Baptism by Fire. Can’t wait to read that one!

That Claudia’s remained so close to her Babylon 5 experience could surprise, but for the fact that she needed to watch the entire series in preparation for writing the novel. Previously she didn’t have a TV (she reads) and is not good with VCR’s (and ‘DVD things’, and mobile phones). Any way, she discovered that it was a really good show, despite the limited budget. That meant no overtime, though, so it wasn’t as gruelling as other shows.

Babylon 5 had its own studio in a converted soda (drink) factory, so everything and everyone was on site. Creator/writer Joe Michael Straczynski was readily accessible. One evening she broke her foot, so after her return from the hospital (late!) she rang to let him know it would have to be written in for the next day. Also she and Jerry Doyle (Garibaldi) were in competition to see who would be in more episodes. When she didn’t have any lines in one, she managed to persuade him to write her in so that she wouldn’t lose. Actors’ style and personality can influence the way a character is written, but the producers probably had a lot of it in mind already during casting.

Her favourite episodes include the Drazi one with the broken foot (Geometry of Shadows), and Acts of Sacrifice with Paul Williams. That was where she had to choreograph her own dance (sex with an alien) at around the time of Walk like an Egyptian. She did it in one take, refusing to do any more. Emotional scenes are draining, but appreciated to stretch acting skills, especially after a series of ‘voice of the resistance’ TV announcement episodes. Such was the case with Rising Star, where she had to deal with Marcus’ sacrificing his life for her.

On leaving the series, she said she was written out because she needed four weeks off to do a movie. She loves Tracy Scoggins and she’s not bitter, really! JMS was the one who received death threats.

Doing the telemovies was pretty much the same as doing episodes – there was just a bit more time and money. She fought to be in In the Beginning as her younger self and ended up almost doing it for nothing, to preserve the integrity of her character. The wig she had to wear, variously described as a chinchilla, a ferret, or a dead squirrel on her head, did not sit comfortably, however. She thought the movie she was in a lot was good (Thirdspace).

Being in a ‘star fury’ was quite uncomfortable. They had to be strapped in, and needed assistance to get out. There was a small fan to defog the helmet (otherwise viewers would complain about the lack of authenticity). The actors all used to tape their lines to various positions in the cockpit. She happened to be strapped in during the big earthquake. Two pet wolves (not hers), normally really quiet, began howling about 10 minutes before. When it happened everyone else left the set, leaving Claudia alone with the little fan blowing. 20 minutes later they all came back…

The buttons in C & C had different labels like ‘pizza’ and ‘chicken’. In the White Star, Bill Mumy (Lennier) used to press different controls every time. Claudia commented that it looked fake. He responded ‘Claudia, it is fake!’ She needed to get a life…

She liked the black uniform better than the blue – it was more comfortable. The blue one was woollen and uncomfortable in hot weather. Also the leather wouldn’t sit right and she had to have a lot of fittings for it.

The producers kept tight control of the props (to later hawk them on ebay) but she did manage to keep the odd earring she forgot to remove – a couple ended up in her car ashtray.

She found Walter Koenig to be a very serious actor. He got into character and prepared his costume very precisely before a scene. As opposed to Claudia and Bruce Boxleitner (Sheridan) who could be in the middle of an intense political discussion and switch straight into character when the cameras rolled.

Jason Carter (Marcus) persistently claimed the superiority of things British over things American, so she didn’t feel bad about playing tricks on him. Once when he hadn’t received the latest script, she kidded him that his character had been written out, and JMS went along with the joke – about six episodes later Marcus sacrificed his life for Ivanova.

Peter Jurasik (Londo) is the nicest man in the universe – funny, smart, warm, sensitive and down-to-earth.

Jerry Doyle has his own radio show in Florida now.

Andreas Katsulas (G’Kar) had to spend long hours in the ‘alien’ trailer having makeup applied – rather a Zen mood prevailed, with opera music – he tended to keep to himself. But he did buy her edible underwear as a gift once.

It was a good group of people to work with and she still sees them, but finds it hard going back from the UK now, since it’s recently been for funerals: Andreas, Rick Biggs (Franklin) and Tim Choate (Zathras). All the more because two of them left young children.

Claudia seemed extremely relaxed, occasionally bursting into snippets of song, and concluded by asking who was going on the ‘wino’ tour the next day.

She drew the raffle, John presented the costume prizes, and all three actors did their utmost to inject more spirit into the bidding at the auction. Then it was time for autographs. All in all, a most enjoyable convention.

Written by club member Lyn Hearn. May 2006.