Читать книгу The Unauthorized Trekkers’ Guide to the Next Generation and Deep Space Nine - James Hise van - Страница 23

GUINAN

The mysterious Guinan serves exotic drinks and meals in Ten Forward, but her most important role seems to be that of counselor, as she is also a fount of wisdom, giving advice and support, sometimes unsolicited but always needed, to members of the Enterprise crew. She has Captain Picard’s complete trust, as when she alone sensed that something was amiss when the time lines shifted in “Yesterday’s Enterprise” and Picard believed her. Their shared background has never been revealed. In “The Best of Both Worlds,” she says that she was “more than family and more than a friend” to Picard, and elsewhere it is revealed that the two met before the Enterprise-D was commissioned (“Time’s Arrow, I and II”).

What is known is that Guinan is thousands of years old, and that her homeworld was destroyed by the Borg and her people dispersed. She was not there at the time, however, and did not witness the destruction. She is an old nemesis of Q, who obviously fears her. She undoubtedly possesses powers that have never been revealed. Her encounter with Q, two centuries ago, is another mystery, deepened by Q’s revelation that she wore a different form at that time. Supposedly, her relationship with Q has something to do with her presence on the Enterprise, but, as usual, revelations about the character only deepen the mystery that surrounds her.

More about Guinan’s background was revealed in “Time’s Arrow,” the fifth-season cliffhanger. Here we learned that she had met Data and other Enterprise personnel hundreds of years before on Earth in San Francisco in the nineteenth century. She has kept silent about this incident, never speaking of it until she urged Captain Picard himself to pursue Data, who was lost in the past, because his presence was necessary there, as she knew this to be a fact.

Still, to most crew members who encounter her, Guinan is the twenty-fourth-century equivalent of the classic bartender, who not only serves up just the right variety of synthehol, but also lends a caring ear and freely gives a touch of humane wisdom wherever and whenever it is called for.

WHOOPI GOLDBERG

Whoopi Goldberg describes her character Guinan as “a cross between Yoda and William F. Buckley,” but freely admits that she’s put a lot of herself into the role as well. Growing up in New York, young Whoopi was inspired by the harmonious message of the original Star Trek, and especially by Nichelle Nichols.

When Goldberg learned that her friend LeVar Burton would be on a new Star Trek series, she asked him to tell Gene Roddenberry that she wanted to be on the program, too—but the producers of The Next Generation thought he was joking. A year later, Goldberg took matters into her own hands and contacted Gene Roddenberry; the two worked together to create the mysterious alien bartender who runs Ten Forward, a popular gathering place for the crew of the Enterprise.

Although Whoopi’s first showbiz experience took place at the age of eight, there was a large gap in her career as she raised a child and, at one time, contended with a heroin addiction. She worked at a variety of jobs, including one in a funeral parlor whose owner had a curious sense of humor, and “initiated” his employees by hiding in a body bin and playing “zombie,” scaring them witless in the process. Whoopi was not amused.

By the time the 1980s rolled around, however, she was active in theater and comedy, working in southern California with the San Diego Repertory Theater and putting on a number of one-woman shows. (She also washed dishes at the Big Kitchen restaurant, where the menu still carries a special named after her.) In 1985 she got her big break, in Steven Spielberg’s film of The Color Purple, in a role that earned her an Oscar nomination and the Golden Globe Award. Since then she has starred in Jumpin’ Jack Flash, Burglar, Fatal Beauty, Clara’s Heart, and Homer and Eddie.

Her role as psychic Oda Mae in Ghost netted her the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, and she continues to work in such films as The Long Walk Home (with Sissy Spacek), Soapdish, the hit film Sister Act, and Corrina, Corrina. She won an Emmy for her 1986 guest appearance on Moonlighting, and starred in the CBS sitcom Baghdad Cafe with Jean Stapleton.

She is concerned with the plight of our nation’s homeless and has, with Robin Williams and Billy Crystal, been a prime force behind the annual Comic Relief benefit concerts. In 1989, her various charity projects resulted in her being named the Starlight Foundation’s Humanitarian of the Year.

Still active on stage, Goldberg has performed in Moms, The Spook Show, and Living on the Edge of Chaos, as well as returning to the San Diego Repertory Theater, a.k.a. The Rep, to take part in fund-raising performances (along with Patrick Stewart) for that organization.

Goldberg continued to reveal new aspects of Guinan in The Next Generation, but, as always, each new revelation only raised more questions than it answered—and that’s the way Whoopi Goldberg likes it.