Tricia O'Neill's 3 Star Trek Roles Explained
Summary
- Tricia O’Neill played multiple Star Trek characters, including the memorable Captain Rachel Garrett in TNG.
- She auditioned for other TNG roles before landing the captain role, showcasing her dedication to appearing in Star Trek.
- O’Neill also portrayed a Klingon scientist in TNG and a Cardassian spy in DS9, highlighting her versatility.
Best known for playing Captain Rachel Garrett in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Tricia O’Neill has actually played three characters in the Star Trek franchise. An actress with a prolific career as a stage performer and TV guest star, Tricia O’Neill has appeared in hit 1980s TV shows like Dynasty, Murder, She Wrote, and The A-Team. When O’Neill later appeared in two episodes of TNG, she didn’t have any scenes with her former A-Team co-star Dwight Schultz as Lt. Reginald Barclay. However, Tricia O’Neill did share scenes with her The Fall Guy co-star, Marc Alaimo, in her one-and-only appearance in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Interestingly, Tricia O’Neill was considered to play the recurring Star Trek: DS9 character, Kai Opaka in season 1, but the role went to Camille Saviola instead. Perhaps because O’Neill was so recognizable as the captain of the USS Enterprise-C, it was decided that a Bajoran nose ridge wouldn’t be enough to hide Kai Opaka’s physical resemblance to Captain Rachel Garrett. This could also be the reason why Tricia O’Neill’s subsequent roles after Star Trek: The Next Generation season 3, episode 15, “Yesterday’s Enterprise”, required heavy alien prosthesis.
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Captain Rachel Garrett in “Yesterday’s Enterprise”
Star Trek: TNG, Season 3, Episode 15
Tricia O’Neill played the first female captain of the starship Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation season 3, episode 15, “Yesterday’s Enterprise”. Captain Rachel Garrett was the captain of the USS Enterprise-C, which was lost in battle defending a Klingon colony from Romulan attack. When the starship fell through a temporal anomaly and caused a dark alternate timeline, Garrett and her crew bravely make the decision to sacrifice themselves by returning to the past to meet their fate. Garrett was briefly honored with the Red Lady statue in Star Trek: Picard season 3, until it was destroyed by terrorists.
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: The Next Generation is the third installment in the sci-fi franchise and follows the adventures of Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew members of the USS Enterprise. Set around one hundred years after the original series, Picard and his crew travel through the galaxy in largely self-contained episodes exploring the crew dynamics and their own political discourse. The series also had several overarching plots that would develop over the course of the isolated episodes, with four films released in tandem with the series to further some of these story elements.
- Release Date
- September 28, 1987
- Seasons
- 7
- Writers
- Rick Berman , Michael Piller , Brannon Braga , Jeri Taylor , Ronald D. Moore
- Directors
- David Carson
- Showrunner
- Rick Berman , Michael Piller , Jeri Taylor
According to the Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion, Tricia O’Neill had been a big Star Trek fan prior to being cast as Captain Garrett. This is presumably why, in an interview with StarTrek.com, O’Neill states that she’d auditioned for a handful of TNG roles prior to “Yesterday’s Enterprise”. It was those auditions that ultimately led to the TNG team calling Tricia O’Neill and outright offering her the role of Captain Rachel Garrett. In the same interview, O’Neill reflected on the experience of being captain of the Enterprise, saying:
“Everything becomes very real and, if you let go of not believing, you can sail right into a whole world. Sitting in that chair as captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise, that’s who I was for a week or so. It was an extraordinary experience.”
Kacey Rohl has been cast as a younger Rachel Garrett in the upcoming streaming-exclusive movie,
Star Trek: Section 31
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Kurak in “Suspicions”
Star Trek: TNG, Season 6, Episode 22
Tricia O’Neill returned to Star Trek: The Next Generation, although audiences would be forgiven for not recognizing her. In Star Trek: TNG season 6, episode 22, “Suspicions”, O’Neill played a Klingon warp field specialist, Kurak, who had been invited aboard the USS Enterprise-D to observe a metaphasic shield test. Kurak is a fascinating character, who provides insight into how Klingon scientists are regarded in the wider Star Trek universe. Watching her scenes in “Suspicions”, it’s clear that Tricia O’Neill relishes the chance to play such a complex character; a great scientist that also has the fiery temper of a Klingon warrior.
Discussing the role with StarTrek.com back in 2013, Tricia O’Neill reflected on these conflicting aspects of Kurak’s character. It was clear that the role of a Klingon scientist was something that greatly appealed to O’Neill, despite the hours spent in make-up to become Kurak. Read Tricia O’Neill’s quote below:
”
The makeup was difficult, but once I saw it, it was such a support to believe the world, to get into character [….] I knew the difficulty this particular Klingon was involved in because she was advancing. She had the great weight on her shoulders of being intelligent, of being a scientist, and she was crossing barriers. But she was still a Klingon, so she was very… not savage, but physical…”
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Korinas in “Defiant”
Star Trek: DS9, Season 3, Episode 9
Having appeared together in an episode of The Fall Guy, Tricia O’Neill reunited with Marc Alaimo in Star Trek: DS9 for the season 3 episode, “Defiant”. O’Neill played Korinas, a member of the Obsidian Order, who was assigned to observe Commander Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) and Gul Dukat (Alaimo) as they led the search for the stolen USS Defiant. It was revealed that Tricia O’Neill’s DS9 character had a lot to lose if the rogue Thomas Riker (Jonathan Frakes) unearthed the Obsidian Order’s plans to build a new fleet of Cardassian warships.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, also known as DS9, is the fourth series in the long-running Sci-Fi franchise, Star Trek. DS9 was created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller, and stars Avery Brooks, René Auberjonois, Terry Farrell, and Cirroc Lofton. This particular series follows a group of individuals in a space station near a planet called Bajor.
- Cast
- Avery Brooks , Rene Auberjonois , Cirroc Lofton , Colm Meaney , Armin Shimerman , Alexander Siddig , Nana Visitor , Michael Dorn , Nicole de Boer , Terry Farrell , Andrew Robinson
- Release Date
- January 3, 1993
- Seasons
- 7
- Writers
- Michael Piller , Ira Steven Behr , Ronald D. Moore
- Showrunner
- Michael Piller , Ira Steven Behr
Having previously played a Klingon in Star Trek, Tricia O’Neill was still surprised by the oppressive feeling of the Cardassian make-up required to play Korinas. In her StarTrek.com interview, O’Neill revealed that it was “hard breathing” in the “rigid” Cardassian costume. However, despite this, Tricia O’Neill turns in an engaging performance as the enigmatic Cardassian spy, further proving the versatility she’s shown as an actor throughout her career before and since Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Source: StarTrek.com
