INTERVIEW: Chase Masterson on the enduring legacy of ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’
Photo: Chase Masterson records her part for Star Trek: Online. Photo courtesy of Chase Masterson / Provided with permission.
Although the coronavirus pandemic has thrown pop culture into disarray, the folks at Creation Entertainment have started to pave a path forward by uniquely connecting fans with celebrities in a virtual environment. The company, which annually hosts the big Star Trek convention in Las Vegas, has unveiled a suite of online meet-and-greets and Q&A sessions, utilizing the StageIt platform.
Stars from beloved shows like Supernatural and Star Trek are meeting fans in the comforts of their personal quarantines, and the “con” experience is still being enjoyed — at least in a modified fashion.
One of the actors who is partaking in the Creation virtual experiences is Chase Masterson, who played Leeta, the Bajoran Dabo woman, on the beloved series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. This past weekend, she met her fans virtually with a 45-minute Q&A (a session that ended with her singing a DS9-inspired parody tune), and now she’s set for an exclusive meet-and-greet for 10 lucky people.
Masterson, who also founded the nonprofit Pop Culture Hero Coalition, has acted in everything from the movie Yesterday Was a Lie (she also sings on the soundtrack) to the TV shows The Flash, Presidio Med and General Hospital. Her music career also includes a couple albums and live gigs, where audience members can hear her jazzy renditions of memorable standards.
Her years on DS9, acting alongside Armin Shimerman, Avery Brooks, Alexander Siddig, Max Grodénchik, Nana Visitor and others, were cherished by Trekkers and Trekkies.
Masterson also heads the nonprofit Pop Culture Hero Coalition, which uses the “universal appeal of comics, film and TV to create anti-bullying programs at pop culture events, and in schools and communities,” according to its official website. Also, she has a couple new film projects in the works: Manipulated, in which Masterson plays the highly ambitious ringleader of a group of women on trial for murder, and Skipping Stones, which finds the actor playing an overprotective, broken mother.
Masterson will answer questions about her time on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine at an exclusive meet and greet open to the winners of an online auction. The event is scheduled for Thursday, May 14 at 4 p.m. PDT / 7 p.m. EST. Click here for more information.
Recently Masterson spoke with Hollywood Soapbox about her passion projects and career. Here’s Part II of that conversation (click here for Part I) …
On how she came to the world of singing and acting …
Masterson: “I started my career at 5 years old in community theater productions, playing ‘Child’ in the chorus of Oklahoma!, and I remember the special part of that experience really wasn’t being in front of an audience, so much as it was the joy of the work, of singing with the cast and the camaraderie. So music has always been a huge part of my career. It’s more recently that I’ve done several CDs. I love recording, and I’m working more at singing live these days. It’s a wonderful form of communication, and we’re having a lot of fun.”
On how she gravitated toward jazz music for her recordings …
Masterson: “I’ve always loved the music of the Golden Era of the ’30s, ’40s, ’50s and ’60s. When I was 13 years old, I choreographed a Rodgers and Hart’s musical … and Lorenz Hart was Richard Rodgers’ first composing partner, before Rodgers and Hammerstein. And I fell in love with his music and have really always regarded it as the best written, the most romantic, the best lyrics, the most playful and poignant lyrics. I absolutely love it, so all of my CDs are Golden Era music. And they’re available on my fanclub website, which is ChaseClub.com.”
On how the COVID-19 crisis has disrupted her life …
Masterson: “It has been disruptive. I will say I’ve been really enjoying singing live and got some great reviews recently, and yet that’s the tiniest part of this whole equation. My heart really goes out to all of the essential workers. I think about them nonstop and how hard they are working. Obviously medical workers of all kinds, from the top doctors and nurses to the maintenance people, the janitors, the hospital staff of all kinds, these people are obviously risking their lives. Then there’s food delivery and food processing and grocery store workers that have also been working tirelessly.
“I hope that something we take away from this lockdown and crisis is another [Gene] Roddenberry credo of equality. No life is more important than any other life. Job or career or social standing or money does not make any one life more important than any other, and I think what we’re seeing is … how necessary and important and respectable these jobs are, and that we really need to approach life with that knowledge and frankly that we need to vote with our feelings.
“The people who are taking care of us now, people with minimum-wage jobs, difficult jobs, we need to keep that mind the next time we go to the polls and vote for people who are actually taking care of this world, which very much includes underpaid workers. I hope that we can keep that sense of equality, which Roddenberry stood for, in the front of our minds and hearts.”
On why Deep Space Nine is so beloved by fans …
Masterson: “Deep Space Nine is the well-loved show it is because the writers took risks. Michael Piller decided he wanted to create a show that was serialized long before other shows on television did that. To create a serialized show is placing a lot of faith in the audience, faith that they will love and respect and be compelled by these characters and storylines. It respects the audience and knows that it needs to give audiences a throughline and a depth of character and depth of situation. That was not done before Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
“There were a lot of great episodes in The Original Series and Next Gen and any other show on television prior to Deep Space Nine, but you could go in and with little other knowledge watch an episode out of context and enjoy it. Deep Space Nine typically demanded that the audience tune in for episodes consecutively. That was also difficult because in some markets, this show was syndicated and shown at odd hours — late at night, in the morning or not shown at all in some markets.
“Very interestingly Ira [Steven] Behr in the fifth season saw that this was the way the internet was going to be. He could foresee streaming, and he knew that this show would retain its popularity and even increase in popularity in the days of streaming, and so now people can binge-watch much easier and fall in love and be compelled by stories where one leads to another. In the ’90s, that was a huge risk, and I have so much respect to our writing team for the way this show was written.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Chase Masterson will participate in a meet and greet limited to 10 people, scheduled for Thursday, May 14 at 4 p.m. PDT (7 p.m. EST). Click here for more information on this virtual experience. Click here for more information on Chase Masterson. Click here for more information on Pop Culture Hero Coalition.
