Robert Duncan McNeill played Tom Paris , the snarky pilot , on Star Trek : Voyager , and now he ’s a music director / manufacturer on NBC ’s Chuck . He talked to us about clowning , Klingon Latinian language , Captain Proton vs. Captain Awesome , and make out with Sarah Silverman .
Oh , and there are minor spoiler for Monday ’s Chuck below .
McNeill has been an executive producer on Chuck since the show found , and he ’s directed a walloping dozen episodes — including this Monday ’s “ Chuck Vs . The Honeymooners . ” This is an specially major episode , since it ’s the start of a six - instalment mini - season . The meshwork originally only ordered 13 instalment of Chuck ’s third time of year , which would have ended with the most late “ Chuck Vs . The Other Guy , ” wind up the Shaw storyline . But then the connection decided to order an additional six episode , which the show ’s creators settle to make their own story arc . ( So Monday ’s episode is almost like another time of year premiere . )
Here are the highlights from our phone interview with McNeill this morning .
Can you severalise us a bit more about Monday ’s episode ? Chuck and Sarah have finally gotten together , right ?
[ They ’re ] really , finally together . We were all very skittish about getting your two leads together , and often that can spell death on a show . And we were worried about , “ How is this run to puzzle out ? Is this going to take out all the tenseness out of the fans and the audience wanting these two to get together ? ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc9YtX2tNy4
But in reality , what we strike when we took a chance was , it helped the storytelling . It made thing so much fun , for them to be able to bask each other and not have to keep so many secrets . And it ’s been so long that these two were going around and around with , “ Can we be together ? Can we not be together ? ” I think we had recreate that out over the last three years .
It was a lot of merriment to be able-bodied to see Chuck and Sarah be [ together at last . ] This sequence is all about , “ Oh my god , we ’re finally together . How amazing is this ? ” It ’s their reactions to being together , and how that can aid [ them , as well as ] create new challenge to solving the missions they have to go on . So yeah , it was a lot of fun .
[ In this episode ] , they ’re on a train , and of trend , no matter where Chuck and Sarah go , spy and risky guy seem to come after . The fun part about the undercover agent genre is , we get to represent with all kind of styles and mount , and kinds of forged bozo and to go in this kind of Orient Express gear . Our art department did a keen line in dressing this train , and we had a peachy guest cast , and most of all seeing Chuck and Sarah together and really feature fun together — and allow for Sarah the exemption to relax and make joke [ is great ] . Yvonne Strahovski was really quite funny . There ’s a lot of big joke from her performance and her character , where before she was so protective of herself in her emotion , and keeping her distance from Chuck . Now she has a new exemption .
You did a lot of directing on Voyager , and there was a lot of comedy there too . How is the clowning dissimilar on Chuck ?
The comedy in Star Trek is always very subtle , if it ’s there at all . You know , Paramount would always tell us that on Star Trek , they wanted to protect their franchise during those year , by keeping it very regal . There was almost this royalty caliber feel , like Patrick Stewart or Scott Bakula or Kate Mulgrew . There was this regal aspect that they thought was very important to the show and [ that meant ] not making fun of it .
Particulary on Voyager , we tried very hard to get light comedy into the performances , even if it was n’t script , to find the wit in the character . We had a lot of funny actors , and so yeah , it was important to try and work the comedy . And one matter [ that was interchangeable to Chuck was that ] one week you could do a murder mystery on Star Trek , and the next week you could do a light drollery , and the next hebdomad you could do a romance and action adventure . And that ’s one matter we ’re also able to do on Chuck . One week , you may have a real heavy romance Chuck episode , and the next week it can be some sort of murdery mystery . It ’s not like doing a procedural .
So who would win in a fight : Captain Awesome or Captain Proton ?
[ Laughs ] Well , you know , Captain Awesome . He ’s a real peace - loving guy . He ’s a specimen of a man , but he ’s a peace - bonk guy . Captain Awesome would probably let the cat out of the bag his way out of any fight , even though he could certainly handle himself . Captain Proton — I had a malfunction on the jetpack that I flew through place on , and a burn bottom , so I think his equipment would fail .
You had a burned bottom ?
Let ’s just say … I terminate up with some bleb on my bottom . So I cogitate Captain Awesome would probably prevail in a scrap .
You mentioned the excitement of Chuck and Sarah getting together at last . It feels like the Tom / B’Elanna romance was the only time Star Trek ever really had an ongoing , grown - up wild-eyed relationship unfolding on screen . Did the studio conflict against that idea ?
Honestly , my opinion back in the early twenty-four hour period was , “ Why are we doing this ? Why are we trapping both of these characters into this relationship that will prevent both these characters from exploring different opportunity and different stories and different planets that we visit ? ” In the beginning , I did n’t reckon it was a good idea , kind of like a passel of people with Chuck and Sarah , but in the end Roxann [ Dawson ] and I really appreciated the opportunity to explore a real kinship . It was n’t like I had top-notch - strong sentiment . I was concerned , like masses may be with Chuck and Sarah . But the way that Tom and B’Elanna terminate up catch together really expanded that macrocosm of Voyager , and I think get Chuck and Sarah together is better for the show . And I imagine people are really going to be happy to see Chuck ’s creation lucubrate in a way that only a real relationships and ongoing kinship can do .
Another interesting parallel that occurred to me was between the Tom / Harry bromance on Voyager and the Chuck / Morgan bromance . Do you think these are similar in some way ?
Zach Levi has a immense tenderness . Zach really cares deeply about the other actors on the show , and he takes his position as the title character on the show really gravely , as far as wanting people to be happy and fulfilled . And I recollect that translates , in the scene you see with Morgan and any of the actors . Zach [ and Joshua Gomez ] bring a lot of their offscreen personalities into the show .
Garrett [ Wang ] and I worked the first scene of the show together , and we immediately bonded . He was a young actor , and in a few ways I was a few years one-time . I was taking Garrett under my wing in the same way that Tom was taking Harry under his wing . A lot of the off - screen family relationship render [ onto the filmdom ] .
And it feels like nerd bromance is being represented a lot more than it used to be . Nerds are n’t lonely animal any more , they have friendships .
It ’s outstanding characters that Chris [ Fedak ] and Josh [ Schwartz ] create in this show . Incredible cast , voguish character reference . It ’s really been my favorite study experience . And the intercrossed nature of this show , in term of funniness and action and romance — you get to do everything as a director . Within every work Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , we get to blow something up and have a tremendous romantic scene , and then go make fart jokes . What could be better than doing all that in one day ?
Do you still have the action pattern of Tom Paris as a super - evolved lounge lizard who gets Janeway pregnant ?
I think I must have that somewhere . I have a clustering of box . Paramount used to send us a corner of whatever they license out , the toys and things . I know I ’ve got the boastful Barbie - sized Tom Paris , I ’ve got a crew of those .
What was it like , shit out with Sarah Silverman ?
https://gizmodo.com/tom-paris-is-f-cking-sarah-silverman-362185
That was early . Nobody know what Sarah Silverman was capable of back then — surely I did n’t . She ’d done some standup , but she had n’t really become the Sarah Silverman everyone knows now . She was a little skittish , sure out of her element doing a straightforward scifi show without a deal of antic . It was a very different episode for us , going to Earth and have someone like Sarah as an actress . today , I ca n’t conceive of Sarah Silverman spooky over anything , but this was a long clip ago . She was a flock of fun — when we were n’t rolling , she was exactly as she appears now , funny and dirty and filthy and irreverent , but when we were rolling [ she was playing ] a variety of dissimilar story and character , and getting her first acting Book of Job .
One last question — what was it like having Evil - Lyn put that weird obedience collar on you , in He - Man And The Masters Of The Universe ?
curious that you cite that , because I got home last dark and there was an email with a link to the Twilight Zone that I did back in 1994 . And there was a time on YouTube , so I posted it on my Facebook varlet , and this morning one of my friends on Facebook say , “ Oh my God , you ’ve begin to find more of this . ” [ So I post that He - Man clip . ] The one I institute was the French version , so [ it was even weird . ]
That was a fun movie . It was kind of a disaster from the studio ’s perspective . They went way over budget , and there were a lot of yield topic . I recollect it was presuppose to be a six- or eight - week shoot , and we ended up shooting six months . It was so far beyond a disaster for that studio apartment . We had playfulness , Courtney [ Cox ] and I were very close friends back then , and we stay friends for a long time . The whole cast was great . We just draw together . The movie just kept pass and become , and we kept shooting nights . You ’re hanging out with this bully casting of worker , nighttime after nighttime after nighttime . It ’s become a cult hit . So many people total up to me and say , “ Oh my God , that was my favorite movie when I was a Thomas Kid . ” Even Zach Levi , when I first met him , was like , “ Oh my God , I ca n’t conceive you were Kevin from He - Man And The Masters Of The Universe . ”
ChuckSarah SilvermanStar TrekStar Trek : VoyagerTwilight Zone
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