GEEKDOM | Star Trek Casting Call and Which Star Trek Aliens I Would Like To Be

This is for all Star Trek fans. J.J. Abrams has started casting for his new Star Trek project - which will apparently star Eric Bana and Karl Urban. Be still my beating heart!

They are seeking (emphasis in BOLD totally mine):

[MALES & FEMALES] - Ages 18-70, any ethnicity: to play Cadets: young, fresh-faced, Military types: marching experience preferred, thin, regal talent with BROWN or BLACK hair AND are OK with their eyebrows being shaved from the arch outward to portray a Vulcan-type eyebrow shape.

Talent with interesting and unique facial features such as: long necks, small heads, extremely large heads, wide-set eyes, bug eyes, close-set eyes, large forehead, short upper lip, pronounced cheekbones, over- or undersized ears and/or nose, facial deformities, ultra plain-looking people, ultra perfect-looking people, pure wholesome looks, twins, triplets, emaciated talent, regally poised and postured talent, or other visually unique characteristics.

I am just glad in this day and age they do not prejudice against any ethnicity or age -- as long as you have "interesting and unique" facial characteristics, you are fair game.

So, dear readers - do you think you have what it takes to guest-star on Star Trek?

Personally a Vulcan is my race of choice. But if they do shave my eyebrows, it will be difficult to tell when I'm being ironic (one eyebrow raised) or surprised (both eyebrows raised).

I would need a really good make-up artist that could render me as beautiful as T'Pol ------->

Why T'Pol? Because she is played by Jolene Blaylock with those sensual lips, and this Vulcan oozes repressed sensuality. Oh wait, look: she has eyebrows.

I have a geek confession: I really liked Star Trek: Enterprise. I love the theme song -- it has this optimistic, homely feel, which really fits the theme of the series. ST: Enterprise afterall, is about the very first Starship Enterprise. True adventure begins with the first step -- and ST: Enterprise is about the first baby steps of the human race. The series had this sense of truly seeking new frontiers, meeting strange new life, exploration and adventures. Plus, it has Scott Bakula as Captain Archer -- whom I've loved since Quantum Leap. I almost expect him to go "Oh boy" at times. Captain Archer also has a really cute Beagle who always warms my heart when he appears.

It also helps that Star Trek: Enterprise is younger and sexier than all the other Star Trek series. Even the nerdy engineer has six-pack abs. (Although I have a problem with the Communications Officer. My problem with her -- well, she talks too much. Chatter is not the only form of communication, you know?) Sometimes they get to strip down (mostly to their tight underwears) to decontaminate. I really liked that about the series.

If they can't make me up like T'Pol, then I want to be Bajoran like Ro Laren, who is played by Michelle Forbes. Michelle Forbes by the way, will also plays Admiral Helena Cain on the forthcoming Battlestar Galactica: Razor. Hoo-raah!

Ro Laren was one of the more interesting characters they wrote for Star Trek: The Next Generation, because she started off as a character who had fallen from grace, but who managed to redeem herself.

She was angry, a disgraced soldier, a member of a conquered race. She was the perfect foil to all the other picture-perfect main cast; a viewer never expects Riker, Picard, Deanne Troi or Dr Crusher to EVER make any morally dubious choices. If they do make any mistakes, it will be resolved by the end of the episode one way or another. While these characters stand as yardsticks of the idealised evolved humans, it can be hard to identify with these characters at times. I prefer my characters more complicated with visible flaws -- more human.

With Ro Laren, it was different. While people like Riker believes it is an honour to serve on the USS: Enterprise, the reason she gave was more pragmatic: "It was better than prison."

I like the rise and fall of Ro Laren. The character started as someone whom everyone distrust, but through much effort, she earns Picard's trust and gradually begins to find herself, and her place in Starfleet. She rises from her situation as an orphan of a conquered race -- until the end when she abandons Starfleet to join the Bajoran resistance against the Cardassians. She made her choice knowing in doing so, it meant betraying Picard's faith -- but to do otherwise would be to betray herself.

Damn. I can't believe I can write so much about Star Trek -- and Star Trek isn't even my favourite sci-fi show! Don't even get me started on Babylon 5, Space: Above and Beyond, Farscape, and most of all, (the "re-visioned") Battlestar Galactica!