Catherine Hicks Got A Hilarious Star Trek Crash Course From Leonard Nimoy Mid-Audition
"Star Trek" has never been the most popular show on television and the films, while generally successful, have only cracked the yearly box office top 10 five times (out of 13 total releases), but the major characters and tropes of the long-running franchise are instantly identifiable to most people around the world. Just about everyone knows Kirk and Spock, and they've probably heard of at least Bones, Sulu, and Uhura. They know what the Enterprise and Klingons are, and have surely heard the phrase "Beam me up, Scotty" a multitude of times. If someone couldn't tell you what a phaser is, you'd probably consider them sheltered.
Beyond these elements, however, people might be a tad hazy on the particulars. Romulans? Maybe. The highly intoxicating properties of Romulan ale? Not so much. The Kobayashi Maru? That's the hot dog eating dude, right?
Still, there are those who, through no fault of their own, have managed to go through life sans exposure to the greatest sci-fi television series of all time not called "The Prisoner," but this is not cause for shame. At least, not all the time. If you're not a total chode, it's very easy to hook people on the nerdy charms of "Star Trek." Just ask Catherine Hicks, who walked into her audition for "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" with zero knowledge of the Final Frontier.
Did you know it tingles when you transport?
During a visit to the Sci-Fi Diner podcast, Hicks confessed that she was a "Star Trek" noob prior to playing cetologist Gillian Taylor in the beloved 1986 film that sends the crew of the Enterprise back to the 20th century on a whale-retrieval mission. She did, however, like the character, so she gave it her all during the audition with Nimoy (who also directed this installment). Alas, she ran into trouble when she couldn't identify a piece of "Star Trek" equipment.
"I auditioned with Leonard Nimoy and I didn't know what a transformer was, I was reacting to something real tall and sparkly and he was like, 'Wait a minute, wait a minute! What do you think a transformer is?' And I said, 'I don't know, like a big Christmas tree.' He said, 'No, no, no!' and he went over to his desk and pulled out this little thing and ... So, I mean, it was all a big discovery for me, and I think it worked for the character because she didn't know anything either."
To be honest, I have no idea what a transformer is in the Star Trek universe. I know what an electrical transformer is, but that wouldn't fit in Nimoy's desk drawer. Maybe it was a communicator? I do know that Hicks was wonderful as Gillian, and it sounds like Nimoy and Shatner had a blast acquainting her with the mysteries of the series. As she told the Sci-Fi Diner folks:
"[I] said to Bill and Leonard before a take where we beam up, I said, 'Where should I be playing here? I mean, what does it feel like to beam up?' And they said, 'It tingles.'"
So now we know what to expect if we ever get to set foot in a transporter. Sounds a heckuva lot more pleasant than Seth Brundle's teleporter doohickey.