Star Trek’s Nicest Actor Part Of Franchise’s Greatest Feud
While there are some Star Trek actors who are nothing like their characters, Garrett Wang is not one of them. He has a well-earned reputation for being just as affable and approachable in real life as his Ensign Kim character was onscreen in Voyager. That’s why it is fascinating (as Tuvok might say) that Wang is at the heart of the franchise’s greatest feud—specifically, he hates controversial producer Rick Berman right down to his warp core, and he has publicly dragged the man for filth in a particularly brutal way.
Rick Berman
Before we can get into this Garrett Wang drama bomb, it’s important to bring you up to speed on Rick Berman: in short, he was the executive producer of Star Trek: The Next Generation and helped create the spinoff shows Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise.
After TNG ended, Berman also produced and cowrote the four TNG films. Because of all this, it’s fair to say that he played a fairly major role in what many consider the golden age of the Star Trek franchise.
Wang Didn’t Mind Talking Smack About Berman
Because of his power and prominence, it was relatively rare for anyone working on these shows to speak out against Berman, despite the fact that everything from his rules to his behavior allegedly offended many of the actors and creative staff.
Voyager actor Garrett Wang was one of them, and many years after his show left the air, he made his feelings toward the acclaimed producer known. According to the actor, Berman was “an idiot” who only visited the set of Voyager twice during its seven long years of production.
Berman Didn’t Want Emotion
In case anyone doubted how Garrett Wang felt about the other man, the actor summed up his feelings quite well: “if there is a h*ll in this existence that we have that people can go to, he’s first on the list.” Aside from the lack of set visits, one reason he hated Berman was one of the stranger rules the producer had.
According to Wang, all of the actors playing human characters were told to make their lines “as military–and subsequently devoid of emotion–as possible” in a bid to make the alien characters come off as more realistic.
Wang Felt Singled Out
Garrett Wang remembers bristling at that edict for the simple fact that “we were human, not androids!” That might have been enough to drive a wedge between them, but Wang has also claimed that Berman consistently refused to let him direct an episode: “everyone from Next Generation gets a guest shot, everyone from DS9 who has an inclination gets a shot, and everyone but Garrett from Voyager gets a shot.”
While the actor acknowledged that it was ultimately Berman who “holds the reins” and makes such decisions, it was very difficult not to “take it personally.”
Wang Isn’t Alone
As many Star Trek fans already know, Garrett Wang is hardly the only franchise actor to have major beef with Rick Berman. Deep Space Nine actor Terry Farrell has accused the producer of some weird misogynistic acts, including calling her flat-chested and expressing a desire that her breasts were more like those of other women on the set (which he tried to remedy by making her breasts look bigger).
This culminated in her requesting to only appear on DS9 part-time and Berman subsequently killing her beloved Jadzia Dax character off at the end of season 6.
To this day, when you mention Star Trek actors who hate Rick Berman, Farrell is the first name that people think of. Nobody expects such a grudge from mild-mannered Garrett Wang, but it sounds like the talented actor would have liked to take a phaser to his old producer.
Fortunately, none of this dulled Wang’s love for Trek, and he currently hosts the recap podcast The Delta Flyers with old Voyager colleague, Robert Duncan McNeill.
