Issue: #322

I've certainly tried since the very beginning of Enterprise to do as much outside of the show as possible. So, on that level, it has been an odd plus for me. In terms of the character's development, I anticipated that this was going to happen coming into the season and so I didn't expect that much in the way of Phlox's progression. Generally speaking, I don't think that we've gotten any additional information about him up until ?Doctor's Orders.? And that's all right.

?I don't mean in any way to suggest that I'm viewing this as a problem? he clarifies. ?Believe me, in this market especially, one's just happy to have a job where everyone is great to be with and play with. However, I do believe that there's probably more that could be done to make Phlox the guy who stands up and puts forth the forceful counter-argument, or moves the forceful counter-argument forward. You know, we become that which we condemn when we start behaving in that fashion., and I think to a certain extent, they're using, oddly enough, Archer [Scott Bakula] in his different manifestations as the countervailing argument to himself. Sometimes, Archer will be the torturer, and then he'll turn right back around and say ?I cannot be the torturer.?

?One of the things that they might be able to do is let some of the other cast members occasionally be the opposition. But they've been motivated by the decision to make it a more action-orientated and Captain-centric show. And I understand that choice because it makes perfect sense. That has always been the case 

[with Star Trek], because there's an extent to which the fans sign off on the show. I'm not a marketing maven and so I won't profess to throw my dime in there, but I understand the motivation behind the changes we've seen this year.?

DOCTOR VISITS

The overall effect of those moves is up for debate. The ratings are low but at least steady, and Billingsley, ever the journeyman actor, isn't one to sweat them or the future. No one can deny, however, that individual episodes now move far faster than before. Also the Xindi arc, for those who are hooked by it, prompts return viewing in order to check out what will happen next. That said, in the eyes of a good many fans, the show seems to have strayed much too far from the original mission statement. Enterprise , to that contingent ,no longer follows a hastily assembled crew trying to come together as they explore the known and unknown universe. Those same fans argue that the series has stopped serving as a prequel to Star Trek adventures, species, vernacular, procedures and characters to come.

?Well, my argument has always been that the appealing element of Enterprise's concept is that we shouldn't know what the hell we're doing,? Billingsley says. ?We're flying by the seat of our pants and things break down. We don't have these incredible hand scanners that diagnose illness in a snap. We can't cure cancer yet, nor have we eliminated crime, vice, sin, poverty or hunger on Earth. What's interesting to argue is that there's a peculiar way to exist in this world, one in which we have this incredible material and scientific progress and yet are, in so many ways, morally backward. That dichotomy intrigues me, and if you want to put Star Trek closer to our current era, that's what we should be exploring.

?However, they aren't necessarily going after the pointy-heads. They're trying to get that 18-39-year-old audience. That guy isn't as interested - or at least they don't perceive him to be as interested - in that philosophical conversation about blah, blah, blah. So, my own tastes and inclinations don't really matter. 

As an actor, you always set aside your own tastes and inclinations. If you want to live in your own aesthetically pure universe, you should be a writer, and even then, some of the writers I know aren't getting any of that, either.?

So what do we know about Phlox that we didn't when STARLOG caught up with Billingsley last (in issue #294)? The actor shrugs. ?As I said, we haven't really learned anything new about him this season,? he says. 

?However, one of the things that's interesting about ?Doctor's Orders? is that it's become more apparent - and this is something that I may have talked with you about before - that Phlox is someone who comes from a world where there's an extreme amount of sociability and intimacy between people, and that's witnessed by the fact of their multiple marriages.

?On the ship, Phlox is in a position as an anthropologist amongst an alien species. They have considerably more - for lack of a better phrase - tight-ass attitude about fraternization. So there's a level of loneliness and isolation that is separate and distinct from that which involves him. For instance, Vulcan's are trained to actually enjoy, relish, need and thrive on isolation. That's part of their make-up. The Denobulan philosophy is ?Come on in! You, too! Come on in!? Phlox can't have that on the ship, and ?Doctor's Orders? actually starts to explore what that tends to do to him, what that begins to do to him. But it's an isolated episode for me, in all candor.?

MEDICAL PRESCRIPTIONS

That's not to say that Billingsley hasn't liked shows this season and last that centered on Doctor Phlox. He can rattle off a stream of positive comments about ?A Night in Sickbay?, ?Similitude? and ?Regeneration? for example. ?I enjoyed ? A Night in Sickbay? quite a bit,? he remarks, speaking of the episode in which Phlox spends the night in sickbay with Archer and a deathly ill Porthos. ?That was one of those stories that divide the fans into two camps. There are people who feel that episode was too silly, and there are those who believe that ?Sickbay? made the Captain seem like he wasn't tough enough. Personally, I liked that episode a lot. It was much more along the lines of a show that I would be inclined to watch, in which people have frailties, flaws and run-ins with each other. There was friction, a neurosis and a sense of humor. I usually don't prefer the episodes that are slam-bang, in which everyone is immediately able to rise to their full heroic stature and there isn't any grit. So, I dug ?Sickbay? and that we got to learn about Phlox's background and multiple wives. We saw some of his playfulness and signature characteristics begin to emerge.

? ?Similitude? is another good one to bring up,? adds Billingsley, referring to the LeVar Burton-directed episode in which Phlox takes the controversial step of whipping up a Trip (Connor Trinneer) clone in order to save the gravely injured commander. ?I think that's my favorite episode of not only this season but all three seasons. It has all the elements that make Star Trek compelling, and it has an interesting story in which you have to take a moral position. You see both sides of the story, but, at the same time, it's done in such a way that it emotionally engages almost everyone in the cast. It actually advanced the arc of the overall storyline and gave a real depth of feeling to the show that has, for me, been missing.

?Scott is fabulous in that episode, as is Connor. I have to say that as much as I love Connor, I particularly watched Scott. That was some of his finest work in the three years that we've been working together.

He's a terrific actor, but the thing that has carried this season through for the fans is seeing how strong

the Captain has to be to achieve his goal - how many challenges, how many feeling-based obstacles come up for him. Not letting the Sim-Trip [played by Trinneer and a series of increasingly younger actors] emotionally effect him was his biggest challenge. Scott did a fabulous job with it.?

Billingsley also appreciated Season Two's ?Regeneration.? That, of course, had a little something to do with the fact that his wife, actress Bonita Friedericy, played Rooney in that episode. ?When we started in 

Enterprise , I wanted Bonnie to play all three of my wives,? he explains. ?I wanted all to be all the Denobulan males and for her to be all the Denobulan females. When you saw any Denobulans, I wanted them to be us. However, [ for ?A Night in Sickbay?] they opted to cast a younger gal as my second wife. 

She was like a college coed rather than a Denobulan, and I robbed the cradle with her.

?Regeneration? was a Borg episode and, unfortunately, Bonnie and I didn't get a chance to do anything together. But I watched her get Borgified. I was in the background when she gets shot. It was great to have her meet everybody, because she now drops by and says hi. She's a wonderful person and everyone fell in love with her, and so now they like her more than they like me.?

Away from the set, Billingsley keeps busy with any number of projects. He's a familiar face at conventions. He's readying a one-man stage show about Ambrose Bierce, the editor, literary critic and writer known for his dark wit and supernatural tales (like ?An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge?). And, as Billingsley noted,

He has filled his Enterprise down time with other acting gigs.

? I like the conventions,? Billingsley raves ?Germany and Europe in general, still have the same amount

Of ardour for Star Trek they I think the States had during the Next Generation years. You can still go to a convention in Germany and be greeted by 3,000 absolutely nutty, beer-drinking German fans. The German convention was held in this giant auditorium. Bonnie was there, and as the Germans are great drinkers, I decided as a gag, that I would have Bonnie sit in the audience and heckle me. It was sort of a George and Gracie thing, and then, as part of the shtick, I decided that I would drink beer through the whole thing. The fans were great, because I would finish a beer and there would be another one in my hand. So, I was pretty much on a bender for the entire convention and Bonnie went along with it. I got her on stage and we danced. That was definitely the highlight.

?And I believe this show about Bierce is going to happen. Bierce was extremely political and, I don't want to say cynical, but he was called ?Bitter Bierce?. He had absolutely no patience for anyone who wanted to be a Pollyanna and pretend that things were other than what they were. I think Bierce was every bit of a craftsman and as smart and as shrewd as Mark Twain, but because he was such a sourpuss he was somewhat reviled. Yet, if you read his work, you will see tremendous parallels to our society today.?

HOUSE CALLS

So far as other acting work, Billingsley guest-starred in the fifth season Angel episode ?Unleashed?, in which he played the baddie, Dr. Royce. An expert in werewolves, Royce eventually becomes one.

?It was fine,? he recalls of the experience. ?It wasn't a part that necessarily required much of me. Some of these shows, they need to have a villain of sorts, but it's a type of villain who's essentially designed to allow the principals to have scenes that they need to have with each other. And so I bopped in and pretended that I wasn't conniving, when I really was conniving. I had my six or seven scenes and then I was out, but everyone was very nice. It's a few doors down here at Paramount, and the best thing was that I got to eat their catering. This is a bone of contention with the Star Trek folks because Angel is right there and they really have fabulous catering.

?I also just did a couple of days as a serial killer in a small movie that I hope sees the light of day because it's very intriguing. It's called The Nickel Children , and it's about teenage prostitutes. It was a bleak script, but they somehow managed to build a relationship between a 14-year-old and a 12-year-old, a couple of teenage prostitutes. It has a sense of humor, warmth and a real tenderness to it, and then, of course, one terrible thing after another happens to them. I can't imagine that it's going to play at the multiplexes in Peoria. It's one of those movies that's done on a dime - a SAG independent, low-budget feature where if they ever make any money, you get your money back. We all agreed to kick a portion of that back to an organization called Children of the Night, which essentially helps to take kids off the street and get them into schools and shelters and what have you. That's a fabulous cause and I was happy to do that.?

And last year, Billingsley won critical kudos for his performance as the layabout best pal of sheriff and murder suspect Denzel Washington in the steamy thriller Out of Time. ?Now, that was a blast,? Billingsley enthuses. ?It was terrific but taxing, because I shot it simultaneously with the first four episodes last season. I was back and forth between LA and Miami, pretty much working every day for about three months, but [Out of Time director] Carl Franklin is such a prince. He's a nice guy and took a real liking to me, and I'm incredibly appreciative because he didn't have any particular way of knowing that I was up for that part. He had cast me in a very small role in High Crimes and then offered me this, and I'm sure it was against the studio's preference. It was a blast to do, and Denzel is a great guy to work with. He has a wonderful in-the-moment-ness that made the whole thing feel very improvisational. Everyone was cool about letting the camera run after the scene was up and letting us riff, which was fun?

Billingsley needs to return to the Enterprise set momentarily, and so he must excuse himself to take a few more bites of his lunch and pop his contact lenses back in. Before he does so, though, he - in the best tradition of his predecessors Michael Dorn, Armin Shimmerman and Ethan Phillips - grouses and grumbles about life in Star Trek prosthetics. ?It's all down to a little under two hours, which is fabulous,? John Billingsley says. ?But it's longer than it would be if I had my druthers. If it were up to me, I would just rip the prosthetics off. I would rather have the pain and go home and scrub my face. But they're professionals and they won't let me do that.?

Submitted by Jo Healy

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