INTERVIEW: James Darren, of ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,’ in his own words

Photo: James Darren will appear at a virtual Creation Entertainment event and talk about his time on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Photo courtesy of Creation Entertainment / Provided with permission.

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James Darren has enjoyed decades of excellence in film, television and music. He has many beloved roles, including the lead character on The Time Tunnel and as Vic Fontaine on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and few can forget his many cinematic ventures, including in Gidget, The Guns of Navarone and All the Young Men. Add to that résumé many successful music albums and stints on Melrose Place, T. J. Hooker and Fantasy Island, and it becomes clear that Darren has lived Hollywood history.

This Saturday, July 18 at 11:15 PDT (2:15 p.m. EST) he will virtually meet his Star Trek fans via StageIt and Creation Entertainment. The 45-minute Q&A session will allow audience members to ask Darren questions about his career and his beloved DS9 role. Creation is also plugging an exclusive virtual meet and greet with the actor Wednesday, July 22 at 1:45 p.m. PDT (4:45 p.m. EST), and auction tickets are now available for that more intimate setting.

“I love it,” Darren said in a recent phone interview about his convention appearances. “I’m a ham, you know. … What’s not to like? There were times when you do the autograph signings for four, five days in a row, and you get kind of beat after a while because you’re there nine, 10 hours a day. And I would tell my son on the fifth day or sixth day, ‘Oh, this is it. I’m quitting. I’m tired.’ He said, ‘How can you not enjoy the fact that you have these people come to you and really love you and want your autograph? What’s not to love about that?’ And I said, ‘You know, you’re right. You’re right. I should appreciate it more.’ But after you’ve done it for five consecutive days, you really get tired, like with anything else. Yes, I enjoy it. I love it. I love being asked questions and talking to the fans. I’ve never done it on Skype or Zoom or anything like that. I really prefer doing it in person. I like meeting the people and talking to them, so this will be my first experience doing it virtually.”

Darren has many fan bases that are scrambling to get an autograph from him, but his Star Trek fans are undoubtedly the most loyal. He calls the Trekker/Trekkie fans “incredible,” and they have stuck with him over the years.

“You would think we just started the show six months ago,” he said. “I was doing it in 1999 … and the people who like Vic Fontaine, the character I played, they’re just as enthusiastic and loyal today as they were from day one.”

When Darren was offered the role of Fontaine by Ira Steven Behr, showrunner for DS9, the actor actually turned down the role. The lounge singer was too similar to his own singing career, and he wanted to flex his creative muscles.

“I wanted to play a Ferengi or something, anything, something that would be a bit of a stretch and a little fun,” Darren said. “In fact, I turned it down three times, but once I read the script, my agent and my wife said to me, ‘Gee, the least you can do is read the script and make your decision after that.’ And once I read the script I loved the role. … I wanted to do it badly, and I’m happy I did, to say the least.”

Darren tried to craft a character that was equal parts Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. Fontaine is, after all, a singer cut in the same style as the legendary Rat Pack, and Darren comes from that era as well. “The period was the Rat Pack era, which I was quite familiar with and spent a lot of time with Sinatra,” he said. “It was a combination of both of them, and it was written in that style, too. It didn’t take much to create the character.”

He was fairly new to the Star Trek franchise, though he counted himself a fan of The Original Series starring William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. Back in the ’60s, he was actually in The Time Tunnel, a successful sci-fi series, so it was only logical — to use a Spock phrase — for Darren to like another sci-fi series on TV.

“I had watched a little bit here and there of DS9,” Darren said. “But I wasn’t a real follower, no, not until I got to know the show and fell in love with the characters like Kira and Odo and people like that. When I started doing the show, they literally became part of my family.”

The Time Tunnel sticks out as a strong bullet point on Darren’s résumé. Although the TV project didn’t last more than a couple of years, he had a lot of fun with the character of Dr. Tony Newman.

“I didn’t want to do that either, to be honest with you,” he said with a laugh. “I had come off motion pictures, and Irwin Allen had contacted my agent. And then Irwin insisted that my agent give him my phone number. He called me because I had turned it down. … I turned down a lot of good things, it seems, but Irwin called and said he wanted to have lunch with me in his office. And, of course, I did because I had tremendous respect for him as a producer, writer. I met him, and he convinced me to do The Time Tunnel. Again, I’m happy he did, and I’m happy I did it. Then Irwin and I became great friends. I loved Irwin Allen. He was just an outstanding guy, just super. He couldn’t have been a nicer person, like Ira Behr. Ira Behr became a real, real close buddy.”

He added: “When I did The Time Tunnel we shot for a lot of hours, 15-16-hour days, and the same with Star Trek. I enjoyed it. Literally when I did T.J. Hooker with Shatner and Adrian Zmed and Heather Locklear, my call time to be in makeup was 9 o’clock. I’d be there at 7. I just loved it. The hours didn’t bother me. The only time the hours really, really got to me was when I was directing. I started directing with T.J. Hooker and then went on to a whole bunch of shows, Sting Ray and Melrose Place and Beverly Hills 90210 and Walker Texas Ranger, a whole bunch, about 40 some odd shows. That’s a tremendous responsibility when you direct. I used to be at the studio probably 4 o’clock in the morning, 4:30 at the latest, and go through all my shots even though I had a shot list and a storyboard. I would be there early, and then, of course, you would work those long hours. … But as an actor, it was just pure fun. I would love to do it today. I would love to do a series.”

Being on DS9 introduced Darren to the convention scene. Although he was in several genre shows, it was his Star Trek role that got him invited to Creation Entertainment gigs. “I had never been to a convention before, ever, but Star Trek had been the first time I had ever been to a convention, which I loved because you get to meet the people, the fans,” he said. “Then, of course, they knew a lot about me from The Time Tunnel and from T.J. Hooker because of the association with Bill Shatner.”

In recent years, Darren has focused on his singing career, but unfortunately 2020 seems a bit of a wash because of the coronavirus. He has had concerts rescheduled, and he doesn’t know when the live gigs will get back on track.

“I love it,” he said of singing live. “Before this whole being sequestered thing happened I was rehearsing every single day. … I was talking to a buddy of mine, Ron Dante. He and the Archies did ‘Sugar, Sugar,’ one of their hits. I told him, ‘My enthusiasm to rehearse is leaving me because I don’t know when my next date is because everything is closed down, shut down. I’m going to beat that. I’m going to force myself to rehearse because when I do I feel as though I’ve accomplished something, and I’m staying up with my craft.’ So I’ve begun rehearsing again. I rehearse in my car. I have a CD that has my vocal exercises on it, and I rehearse at home. I stopped it for a while, and that got to be a little depressing. … As a kid, like anything else, you can jump to attention in a second, but the older you get, you’ve got to keep that voice exercised all the time, you know what I mean. I used to curl 35-pound weights, and now I curl 15-pound weights. So there you go. Your body changes, and the same thing applies to your vocal chords. They get older, a little tired, so you’ve got to keep them in shape.”

Darren’s latest album, which came out a year ago, is called James Darren Live, and it captures the songs from a recent Texas concert. He went into that live gig not thinking that the sound would be perfect for a future recording.

“I had no intention of ever releasing that as an album, but I was listening one day,” Darren said. “And I thought the gentleman who did the mix from the board did a great job considering it wasn’t planned to be an album. It was only one track, so we couldn’t fix anything, if you know what I mean. We couldn’t bring up the horns. We couldn’t bring down the horns. We couldn’t bring me up, so when I listened to it, I thought it was really good and worthy of being released. I though the fans especially would like it because it’s live, and you hear the response of the audience. There’s nothing like a live album. It’s great. I listen to a Judy Garland live album, and they’re not as perfect as studio albums. But they have a special quality that people like, people enjoy.”

He added: “I’m never going to retire. I don’t know what I would be retiring to do. I spent years riding my motorcycles. I miss that, but how much can you do. When you get older a lot of friends either moved or are gone, and the groups you used to ride with are not riding anymore. So I have to abandon that little escape. I will be working until they close me out.”

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

James Darren will host a virtual Q&A Saturday, July 18 at 11:15 a.m. PDT (2:15 p.m. EST), courtesy of Creation Entertainment and StageIt. Click here for more information.