Posted in: Fox, Hulu, Star Trek, TV | Tagged: John Billingsley, Star Trek: Enterprise, The Orville, The Shift

Star Trek: John Billingsley on "Enterprise," "The Orville" & Streaming

John Billingsley (The Shift) spoke with Bleeding Cool about streaming, The Orville, Star Trek: Enterprise & his possible franchise future.

John Billingsley is one of the most versatile character actors on film and television. With a career spanning nearly five decades, Billingsley has been a reliable screen presence since his debut in 1988's Seven Hours to Judgement. There's a good chance if there's been a hit procedural, drama, or action series on network TV, he's been on it. Billingsley has recently appeared on ABC's The Good Doctor, CBS' NCIS: Hawai'i, FX's Pam & Tommy, and Netflix's Emily the Criminal (2022). Arguably his biggest is the Denobulan medical officer Doctor Phlox on UPN's Star Trek: Enterprise in all four seasons. He's also one of the few actors to appear in the Trek-inspired series in Fox/Hulu's The Orville, playing the villain Cambis Borrin. While promoting his sci-fi film in Angel Studios' The Shift, Billingsley spoke to Bleeding Cool about the fallout from the SAG-AFTRA strike, his Enterprise-Voyager crossover in The Orville, clarifying a misunderstanding with a current Paramount+ Trek series, and future in the franchise.

Star Trek: John Billingsley on Streaming & His Franchise Future

Bleeding Cool: You've been around for quite some time, and you've done a lot of guest spots on dramatic television in addition to sci-fi. What are your thoughts given your diverse roles on the trend of the industry creatively?

Billingsley: On a personal level, the reality is you get older, and you get at least me, you get that. To a certain extent, your casting changes on a grander level than what I would say in terms of what I see in the industry. We're going to have to see how things sort of shake out after this strike. One of the great challenges of streaming is, in essence, sort of kiboshing the money that can be made through advertising. The industry has killed a bit of the golden goose. I expect we're going to see a retrenchment now. I don't know whether it's going to be a particularly fertile time for creative arts in Hollywood. That's a little scary. The broader trends in terms of the kind of things that get made, I'm not sure I would feel capable of weighing in on that right now.

You were one of the few Star Trek actors, along with Robert Picardo, to also make an appearance on 'The Orville.' I was wondering did it feel like a similar atmosphere when you were on 'Enterprise?' How do you compare being on 'The Orville as opposed to being in the universe of 'Star Trek?'

That [season one] episode [Home] I thought was maybe a little anomalous in that, although I didn't watch a lot of 'The Orville,' it seemed as if the Orville was trying to balance 'Star Trek' themes with a tongue-in-cheek, almost frat boy sense of humor. The episode I was in was not, or at least the part of the episode that I was in was not particularly humorous. On one level, I'm not sure I had the full 'Orville' experience. That said, a lot of the people behind 'The Orville,' including Brannon Braga and some of the other names of the writers, are folks who had a lot of Star Trek background. It certainly felt like a familiar set of shoes to set. It was great fun to work with Bob Picardo, who's a dear pal of mine, along with Molly Hagan, also a dear pal of mine. It was humbling for me, as is always the case with all the character actors. There's a pretty good chance when you work with other older character actors that you've been around the rodeo together a lot.

You were approached to do Star Trek in the Paramount era, and that didn't come off well. Would you have any interest in returning to that realm, like maybe doing voiceover work on 'Lower Decks,' perhaps reprising Dr. Phlox, or even coming back as an original character in some capacity?

To clarify, I'm not sure if I fully understood the way you phrased that question. I had an audition come up for one of the shows, and I can't remember which one it was. In all candor, my mind, it might have been 'Prodigy,' but the way it works is the casting director, who may not even necessarily know that you had been on 'Star Trek.' Put the call into your agent. My agent called and said, "Hey, do you want to come in and read for a relatively small part? That was scale." I said, "Well, no, I mean, I'm happy to come in and read for something more substantial given my relationship with history, I probably want an offer. You might want to consider whether the character I played has a life." I'd certainly be delighted to come back as Dr. Phlox. I wouldn't rule out the possibility of doing other things. In that instance, it wasn't so much a snub from the creators of Star Trek. It was just the casting director who might not have known my personal history.

The Shift, which also stars Kristoffer Polaha, Neal McDonough, Sean Astin, Elizabeth Tabish, Jason Marsden, Paras Patel, Rose Reid, and John Walker Ross, is in theaters.

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