The Star Trek On-Set Mistake That Set Marina Sirtis' Bottom On Fire
While technically, Enterprise-D is usually under Captain Jean-Luc Picard's decisive command, plenty of other folks get their turn in the captain's chair at one point or another. But the first time Marina Sirtis, the actor behind the ship's counselor, Deanna Troi, finally got her chance in the hot seat, she didn't expect it to literally burn her behind. But that's exactly what happened when the pyrotechnics on "Star Trek: Generations" got wild.
While filming their first big-screen production and the crossover film that ends in the death of Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), the "Next Generation" cast had to rely on practical effects and models to help tell their story. Much like the later "Star Trek: First Contact" scene that would leave Alfre Woodard scarred for life, this meant using real pyrotechnics as opposed to CGI. "You actually do have to destroy the bridge," Marina Sirtis recalled at Dublin Comic Con 2017. It also meant putting in loads of rehearsal time to ensure everything would go perfectly since they'd only have one shot at filming. For safety reasons, she noted the effects team used burnt cork that would fly through the air and typically, burn out.
"Everyone's ready — action!" Sirtis narrated. After punctuating her tale with an animated description of explosions and flying burning cork, she then recalled William Riker (Jonathan Frakes) telling Troi to take the helm — and that's when things went sideways. "Troi runs down, 'cause she runs like a girl, and she gets to the seat, which I stayed in for about this long before I leapt screaming from my seat." That's when she realized that when the other actor had left the seat she was moving into, a burning ember had fallen into the seat one instant before Sirtis' backside landed in it.
Sirtis says Troi got a raw deal
The fact that the incident had left Sirtis with a huge hole in her uniform — not to mention one heck of a fright — didn't save her from getting snapped at for ruining the take. It also meant the set would have to be quickly rebuilt, forcing everyone to stick around for another five hours, which Sirtis said made her the target of everyone's ire for the evening. When the reshoot finally came around, Sirtis was understandably nervous. Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 1994, she said, "On the next take, I went over to the chair, and in what [was supposed to be] a life-or-death situation, I stopped and wiped down the seat. It gave [the crew] a good laugh." She'd also had to remind the frustrated director that they could cut that part from the film.
While the good-spirited Sirtis was able to find humor in the experience, it was a frustrating exclamation point on another example of Hollywood's mistreatment of women. Recalling her excitement after discovering Troi would finally get her chance at the helm, Troi told Dublin Comic Con that she called up her best friend Michael Dorn (Worf). "I said Dorny! Dorny! I get to drive the Enterprise!" But her enthusiasm had waned when she got to the script's ending.
Listing some of the people who got a chance to captain before Troi, Sirtis lamented, "The first bloke — it was the blind dude ... then it was the child. Then it was pretty much any chick in red who happened to be passing." And until Troi got behind the wheel, Sirtis noted, the Enterprise came out just fine. "Never a scratch on it until Troi got to drive!" she laughed. "To be fair, that planet just came out of nowhere."