Rish as Commander Gant on "Star Trek: Outpost"

Rish here.  You know, I watched "Star Trek: The Next Generation" from the very first episode.  I noticed early on that every single character on that show eventually got their own episode, every single season, and in reading up, it was interesting how difficult it was for the writers to come up with an interesting spotlight episode on, say, Wesley, or Deanna Troi, or Doctor Crusher.  But they certainly did try.*  Perhaps they were eager to avoid the shortcomings of "The Original Series," where Uhura never had anything to do . . . ever(?).

I bring this up because, over the years, I have had the pleasure and difficulty of voicing the character of Commander Gant on "Star Trek: Outpost," which is a long-running serialized audio drama set in Roddenberry's universe.  It's an enormously elaborate and detailed show, with every episode running an hour or so, and airing on a pretty regular schedule.  And in the most recent episode, "What Price Survival," is as close as we've come to giving the Tellarite Gant his own show.

In this episode, Gant and another engineer beam over to a derelict spacecraft, and end up exposed to an alien life form of the type that the Enterprise(s) always seemed to run into: the kind that takes over the body of a crewman in order to express itself.  But what happens when that invader refuses to leave?  (I don't know; I receive these scripts, and the episodes are released about five minutes after I get my lines in)

Here's the link, if you'd like to check it out (though it is Episode 65, so . . .).

I never felt the Tellarites got enough screentime on any of the Star Treks, so it's been fun to see how many different ways the writers can make Gant argue or question orders, which is typical of his species, but would make him a huge pain in the arse to work with.

You may actually work with a Tellarite already, and not even realize it.

Rish

*Indeed, it's fair to say that every single character on TNG (with the possible exception of Captain Picard) got at least one bad episode during the show's seven year run.  And Equal Opportunity programme if there ever was one.