And I think half of Insurrection worked - which was the F. Murray Abraham story. I thought it was a very clever character.
As an actor, you're in many ways responsible for your character and your storyline and your arc, and focusing on that is fulfilling when it's a great part - and it's less fulfilling when it's not.
As an executive producer who's not a writer, my responsibilities are obviously to hire the best people for the jobs and to contribute notes to the scripts and then to the cuts as the shows come in.
But nothing really felt like it was going to take off the way that Star Trek did, before that.
Don't get me wrong, I'm very thankful for all the aliens I've met and loved.
I allow actors to take chances, and I think levity is valuable, and especially peppered properly in a story like this.
I always enjoyed going into the holodeck.
I always thought that it was a missed opportunity not to put Q in the films.
I always was - and still am - somehow able to use the amount of money that we have to make the project.
I can fix scripts, I can doctor them, I can edit them, I can tell you what I think works and what doesn't work, but I have never been able to start with a blank page.
I didn't know anything about the original Star Trek outside of the fact that it was a cultural phenomenon.
I don't think one controls... It goes back to what I said earlier, about choosing to do that profession - if you could control when you went up a tier as an actor, everyone would do it.
I don't think there's any reason to be an actor unless you feel deep in your soul that you have to be, because it's not a career that one can count on working in or making a living at.
I don't think you ever leave Star Trek for good.
I have a lot of kid in me, and I have kids of my own and I like the energy.
I like contemporary American literature and I like biographies and I like jazz and I like baseball and I like writers who write about the human condition and sci-fi is just something that I happened into.
I must say I was thrilled that that happened for Roswell; that was kind of a treat.
I sort of made a deal with myself that if I was going to spend a year on a project, I wanted my kids to see it at the end so they know where Dad has been.
I think by the end of the first season it was pretty clear that the numbers, if you will, were greater than the projected numbers, and that we were going to be around for awhile.
I think in general, you need a bad guy to have someone to root against and I think kids understand a story more clearly if there's an evil element for them to cheer against and to root for the good guys.
I think my people skills get used more effectively as a director, because as a director you deal with all the departments from pre-production through postproduction.
I think Star Trek has been very double-edged for all of us - as actors, writers, directors.
I think that I've been pigeon-holed by virtue of the fact that I've spent so much time in front of a green screen.
I think the director on a film set is given a little more respect, perhaps, because when you're doing a series - as a series regular - the directors come and go, and you, as a member of the regular cast, are a constant.
I think the problem with the soaps is that because they make 280 shows a year, the writing suffers.
I think, frankly, that I'm a better director than I was an actor.
I think, unfortunately or fortunately, the reality of Hollywood is that if your movie makes money, they'll make another one.
I understand that Enterprise is on thin ice to even continue to get its full seven seasons in.
I was a psych major until I saw how much fun the actors were having, and I decided I'd transfer over to the theater arts department.
I was pretty lucky - I was able to string a bunch of those guest spots together so that I could continue to pay rent. So it was steady but not spectacular, you know what I mean?
I wasn't surprised, because I know that there's been that kind of loyalty about Star Trek, historically, certainly in the original seasons; the original series was picked up partially because of fan support.
I'm proud of the show on a lot of levels, but the idea that people are inspired to study anything is good news to me.
I'm sort of in for a penny, in for a pound with Star Trek, It's my life at this point. To deny it would just be foolish.
I've always thought that we, as human beings, would be naive and arrogant to pretend that we're the only life form in the galaxy.
I've been so busy for the last 2 years, that there haven't really been any windows of time, but I would be thrilled to wear just one hat again.
If it was a guest part, you'd only go in once and read for the producer and director, and you'd know the next day if you were going in to work.
If the prime directives were followed a little more accurately here on earth, I mean it sounds somewhat Pollyanna, but I think people would certainly get along better.
In the theater, we were sort of happy to do what we could get.
Ironically, I had virtually no interest in science fiction.
It evolved, in all honesty, into a show much more about the mythology of the aliens than about the angst about teen romance.
It took me a long time to get off the Enterprise, but I finally did.
It's pretty evident even when you're a guest actor on a show - you know where the power is.
No, I was a psychology major in college.
No, the type-casting didn't happen until after Star Trek. I don't think that you get typecast until you've been cast!
No, though I had done some plays as a kid, because it was fun. But I hadn't considered it as a profession.
Not that a B.F.A. in theater arts has been the most useful degree one could ever acquire.
Outside of that, the concept of the show has been to explore our aliens' background.
The contracts were always written in favor of the producers so that you were expendable. They were skeptical about the success of the show because of how successful the original show was.
To get that script as my first movie was just amazing.
Very key to a good episode is to have something not work, and have our brilliant science team somehow fix it magically in the fifth act.
Well, I've been much more active about pursuing the directing, I will admit.
Well, there's much more time to do a weekly show, and much more coverage - as it turns out, it was all preparation for the stuff I'm doing now - but it was interesting to see how much time was spent on how little airtime, compared to knocking out a show a day on the soaps.
When I produced Roswell, it was clear to me that my value to that show was as a director, because I was not a writer, and I wasn't a line producer.
When I was just acting on the show, I learned my lines, went to sleep, then woke up and went to work. Now it's sort of become an obsession. I like the success. I'm thrilled with the way things have gone-but my life was simpler 10 years ago.
While we were on the WB we were certainly not the number one show.
You were actually chasing your Equity card, because that was the Stage Union. So you weren't chasing your SAG card, you were chasing your Equity card.
Jonathan is the son-in-law of actor Ivor Francis.
He lent his voice talents to Gargoyles as, David Zanatos, along with fellow Star Trek: TNG cast members; Michael Dorn, Brent Spinner, Marina Sirtis and Star Trek Voyager's Kate Mulgrew.
Jonathan is the only Star Trek regular that appeared in 4 different Star Trek shows.
Jonathan is married to former General Hospital star Genie Francis (Laura Spencer).
Jonathan marched trombone in Blue Band at Penn State University.
Jonathan shares a birthday with Star Trek creator, Gene Roddenberry.
Jonathan is interested in doing a Roswell movie based on the TV show.
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