Jetrel Behind the Scenes

TREKCORE > VOY > EPISODES > JETREL > Behind the Scenes
 

James Sloyan plays Doctor Jetrel, also plays the Romulan Admiral called Alidar Jarok in the TNG episode "The Defector," K'mtar in the TNG episode "Firstborn," and Dr. Mora Pol in the DS9 episode "The Alternate."
   
Jeri Taylor: "It's pretty clear that it was a Hiroshima metaphor, but it also gave us the opportunity to show a completely other side of Neelix. I thought that Ethan Phillips was masterful in the way he plays something heavy and serious as well as he plays some of the lighter stuff. A thought-provoking episode, it had substance, was really about something, and those are the things that I think work very well for Star Trek."
   
Brannon Braga: "It removed Neelix from being just comic relief, which I think is important. You don't want him to become the joke of the ship."
   
Kenneth Biller admits that writing the script was extremely depressing for him - "I did all of this research about Hiroshima, yet it was a fascinating idea to say, 'What if Oppenheimer was confronted by a survivor?' and then make that person see how he would respond. I thought Ethan was great and James Sloyan did a great job. They were wonderful together, and it was great to sink my teeth into something serious."
   
Michael Piller: "I was very impressed with that show. It was a very complex show to make work, and we had a lot of trouble making the story interesting enough. Fortunately, the two actors [Phillips and Sloyan] working together was just terrific. And I found it extremely moving." He rejects the idea that Jetrel's metreon cascade weapon was a metaphor for the atomic bomb. "You can't say that every show is making a comment. It's not. Basically, we're using the Oppenheimer character as an inspiration to tell something about one of our guys. So is it unsympathetic? I don't know. I look at that show and I find the Jetrel character tortured. And I think Oppenheimer was. He's trying to correct a grievous wrong. I think that the character is not an unsympathetic one." The episode also further develops the relationship between Neelix and Kes. "They work very well together. Jennifer [Lien] is just terrific. There's something about an actor who gives you honesty that you can't buy or teach. It just comes from inside. She's twenty-one years old, and there's a depth in her eyes that just comes through every time she's on camera."
   
James Sloyan's make-up for the character Jetrel consisted of heavy eyebrow appliances with ridges running up the sides of their temples to the hairline, a sharp appliance over the ridge of the nose, and a chin piece.