I'd love to star in a television series of my own. I love the idea of living with a character for a number of years, watching him grow.

After doing STAR TREK for so many years, to do just regular makeup is such a treat. Just put some makeup on and "thank you very much," you're on your way.

I love good comedy. I don't like bad comedy.

I was diagnosed with an early, early stage of prostate cancer. I was almost a vegetarian then. I was heading that direction. What pushed me over the edge, was the doctor who did the diagnosis. He said in a discussion about prostate cancer that he had never seen a vegetarian with prostate cancer. And this is not a holistic doctor, this is a regular, mainstream doctor. And I was just blown away.

It was seriously just a name. They didn’t tell you what to do. They didn’t tell you how they wanted the character to be - nothing. You went in to audition for this character name and that was it. When I started, before I came onto the set, I went to Gene Roddenberry and said: hey, what do you want from this guy? Who is he? And being as smart as he is, he said: don’t listen to what you’ve heard or read or seen in the past, nothing. Just make the character your own. And that’s what I did.

When you're on a series, it's tough to go on and do something else afterward. If you're smart, save your money and you can wait out the bad times, until something else comes along.

I've spent so much time in that makeup that I'm now unrecognizable. The business doesn't know who I am.