By Steve Krutzler / 21:42, 13 March 2005 / TrekWeb Features

Linda Park: Coming Into Her Own

by Jacqueline Bundy

Rumors about the potential cancellation of ENTERPRISE have been hanging over the heads of the cast and crew all season so when UPN and Paramount made it official on February 2nd of this year it didn't come as too much of a shock to those who have worked on the series over the past four years. Actress Linda Park, who plays ENTERPRISE'S young Communications Officer Ensign Hoshi Sato, has chosen to view the series cancellation in a positive way.

"I really felt it was the right thing," replied Linda when asked how she felt upon getting the official word that ENTERPRISE would not return for a fifth season. "I can only speak for me personally, I love the show and I have loved my time on the show and I really would not change this experience for anything, it's given me so much. However, I really felt that it was time to move on for myself. I do really believe in destiny, that things work out the way they should, and I felt that in this instance in my life that it worked out the way that it should and I'm really excited for the next stage in my life."

While Linda does think that Hoshi saw significant growth over the course of ENTERPRISE'S four seasons, she admits she isn't certain how much more potential there was for the character. "I don't think there was anywhere else to go based on how the writing was going for her character, with what they were allowing her to do. They were still keeping her in a position that she was in when she was a child and not giving her a lot of room to grow. The character had outgrown what they were giving her to do. Many times, especially during season three, I felt like there wasn't much happening but as an actor, you have to find it for yourself. There were times I really had to find movement in her life for myself because none of that showed up on screen."

Saying goodbye won't be easy however. "There's a really good energy on set with everyone, everyone has really come to accept it," Linda added. "We all have such a great relationship and that's difficult to leave with the feeling of such camaraderie."

One direction Linda's career seems sure to take is more feature film roles, something that's difficult to pursue while filming episodic television. Despite the difficulties, Linda has managed to find the time for a couple of small film roles including a role along side Marina Sirtis and ENTERPRISE alum Tucker Smallwood in the dramatic ghost story from Shadowland Films SPECTRES. "I know Marina pretty well and I just love her. She's a great lady."

Marina Sirtis will be appearing in the ENTERPRISE series finale "These Are The Voyages" along with fellow TNG alum Jonathan Frakes, although Linda doesn't get to share any scenes with Marina in that episode. "I don't get to work with her but I got to see her quite frequently on the set and we got to chat and catch up."

In SPECTRES, Linda plays a young mother named Renee, a character that is pivotal to the movie, especially to the emotional payoff at the end. Linda was offered the role without an audition. "Initially I hadn't read the script. Phil (SPECTRES Director Phil Leirness) called me and told me about it. Phil had met me once before, he's very much an instinct or gut person; it was something he felt should be played by me."

Shadowland Films, which produced SPECTRES, is dedicated to making uplifting movies that inspire the mind. The concept behind the script required the actors to be tolerant of new ideas and broadminded about paranormal experiences such as the theory of walk-ins, where one soul abdicates a body to make room for another. "I am very open minded about the idea that there are things that cannot be explained by logic alone and that there is more to this world than what we can see and that includes the paranormal and magic," says Linda. "That's what drew me to it."

SPECTRES made it's U.S. premiere in Linda's home town at Cinequest 14 in San Jose, California last March, which was exciting for Linda. "I was very involved with the arts in San Jose, in theater and also in film, what film there was there. It was so nice to go back home with the film being shown in a theater where I had seen many films, art films, growing up myself. It was very sweet."

After being extremely well received at several film festivals in 2004, including winning the Best Science Fiction Feature at the Shockerfest Film Festival, SPECTRES is coming to home video and DVD this April 19th.

As she gets ready to say good-bye to Hoshi, Linda could not help but reflect on the changes that her character has undergone and she is very aware that many fans were initially disparaging of the character of Hoshi, saying she was too naive in the series first season. "I think that was a very important thing, for me to start her where she was," says Linda. "There are a lot of critical people who say that she was too fearful, or too this or that, but I really felt that it was important for a character to go on some kind of a journey. Being young and having what experiences I have had I think that everything that I do I tap into some experience of my own. I think life and acting are very much combined for me."

Having won the role of Hoshi Sato shortly after graduating from Boston University where she took full advantage of the university's study abroad program to further her acting skills at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Linda could empathize with her characters inexperience.

"I think to have had her be tough would not have made her a realistic character in the beginning given the circumstances, given who she was. I didn't want her to be bravado with a nothing bothers me attitude. I did not think that would have been realistic and I really do disagree with those who call her very negatively 'whiny'. I don't consider her whiny. I think in the first season she was insecure and not yet sure of herself. She's a bit unsteady. She was very emotional because she's so heart based. In the beginning she did wear all of her emotions on her sleeve and she was very alive and in the moment to all that and I loved it and I'd never take it back."

"It gives you no where to grow if in the beginning you know it all and you're tough and you're wizened and you can handle anything. I'm interested in journeys and people and how life experiences change them. I went into a new experience straight out of college so we were very much parallel she and I, and now I feel, as she does, very centered and very strong. I'm coming into my own as a woman for the first time. People in my life are noticing it, I'm noticing it and that's why I'm really excited to move on to the next stage in my life."