• This is Q's first visit to the Voyager.

• John de Lancie is Psi Phi's first Honorary Member.

• A special Press Release about this episode is available, as is a copy of Q3's Newspaper Column.

• [[9/4]] Tim Russ:

  In "Death Wish," a Voyager episode, Q tells Tuvok that if it weren't for him, he would have wound up chief engineer on the Enterprise-D. What's the story behind that?

  I read for Gene Roddenberry and Rick Berman for the Geordi LaForge role on Star Trek: The Next Generation. It came down to either LeVar Burton or me. And Gene Roddenberry chose LeVar Burton over me. No. 1, because LeVar is right for that role. But also because LeVar had name-recognition. He was the only one in the cast that had American name-recognition. But Rick Berman had always liked the work that I've done and he wanted to work with me. So over the next two or three years I read for the show, for guest-starring roles here and there. And then Deep Space Nine began. He brought me in to read for that, and then the role was changed. The whole part changed. So that didn't happen either. And I subsequently read for more parts here and there. And then finally, a Next Generation guest part came. I played a humanoid terrorist. And I did that episode and then shortly thereafter did another episode of Deep Space Nine, playing a Klingon. And then finally Rick said, "You know, we're doing a series called Voyager in the summer. I'd like to have you come read for it."

  And you said, "OK, give me the guest-star script..."

  Yeah. I said every time I come in there, it never happens. But he told me twice that he wanted me for a recurring role. So I talked to my agent about it, and I said, "You know, we shouldn't take any work that will interfere with my being able to read for this project because we know that it will go. We know it'll be on air for X number of years. It will be a very good ship to get on, as it were. So let's not take anything. Let's not be in--I don't know, Omaha, shooting episodes of Baywatch or something, when this opportunity comes up." So we waited. Didn't take any work for about three or four months.

  Then the breakdowns for the show came out, and my manager calls me--I don't know what hour in the morning it was--screaming, hollering about the fact that the part that was the breakdown did not have a part that was specific for me. And she's all excited and upset. I said, "Well, you don't have to worry about it just yet--let's see what happens."

  In your most Vulcan tone.

  I said to myself, Well, that's the way things are. Which is never used in a positive context. It's only negative. When you get a role, you never say, "Well, that's show business." It's only when you don't get it. In this case, I said, "It's the way it goes." So I went to my agent and said, "Look, maybe we should just take some other work, because this isn't going to happen." I was about to leave his office, and as I turned around--and this actually happened--I turned around to walk out of his office and his secretary came in and said, "They called and want to have you come and read for Star Trek." They had changed the part. The character was--whatever it was, they changed it to somebody like me. And so I went in to read twice and that was it.

  You bet on Star Trek and you won.

  We bet and we won. It was the logical approach, if you'll excuse the term.

Captain Janeway endures the universe's most notorious troublemaker and Commander William T. Riker is called to testify on Q's behalf

"Death Wish" - The omnipotent Q makes his triumphant return to a Starfleet vessel in a riveting episode of "Star Trek: Voyager" airing MONDAY, FEB. 19 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET/PT) on UPN. The hugely popular character, portrayed by actor John de Lancie, is an entity with near godlike powers, child-like petulance and a sense of playfulness. Jonathan Frakes, as Commander William T. Riker, also makes a special guest appearance in the episode.

A rebel Q (Gerrit Graham) escapes imprisonment from inside a comet and demands asylum aboard the U.S.S. Voyager. Just as quickly, the well-known Q arrives to force the escaped Q back to the Continuum, the extradimensional domain in which their immortal kind exist. Meanwhile, the escaped Q proclaims that if Captain janeway grants him sanctuary, he intends to commit suicide to end the tedium he has endured as an immortal being.

Noting the dictates of Starfleet protocol, Janeway holds a hearing to consider the request for asylum. The tables are turned on Q as Federation personal preside over a trial in which he must defend the Q Continuum and the ever-logical Tuvok acts as counsel for the escaped Q. A courtroom drama ensues when Q calls himself to the witness stand along with a varied group of other people including Commander Riker, whose lives were profoundly changed by Q's influence.

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