Episode 60: Paul Mattingly

In this episode we speak with improv actor, podcaster, and former cast member at the Star Trek: The Experience Paul Mattingly.

Topics

• The King’s Island Theme Park and Paul’s first gig as a Klingon
• Reminiscences about TNG
• A bit of history on the ill-fated Paramount theme park initiatives
• Jobs of the Future!
• It wasn’t always easy to catch up on old Trek before streaming
• Favorite Captain theories
• Klingon revisionism bothers Paul
• Everybody ends up in the Federation
• Paul realizes he must get over himself
• John is of the opinion that DSC rejected its own premise intentionally
• Quick discussion of the current state of animated Trek
• How do you pronounce Mugato?
• A little bit of chat about The Orville
• Secret tips for preventing head sweat in your eyes while wearing prosthetics
• Another secret for making that flesh tone look good while in alien makeup
• About Star Trek: The Experience
• Moving across the country just to work as a Star Trek performer
• The Groundlings improv group in Los Angeles
• Second City and Paul’s experiences with the Las Vegas location
• Moments that stand out from the floor at the Experience
• Ventriloquist Ronn Lucas
• Make the original versions of the drinks from the Star Trek: The Experience
• Remembering Omni Magazine
• The Language Lab CD-ROM that was included in Star Trek: Klingon
• Working in Star Trek while bring a fan
• That one time someone tripped up Paul while in character
• John specifies one of the most disturbing moments in TOS for him
• The wealth of Klingon backstory in Trek
• Love for Klingon Chef
• On the idea that too much FX can hinder rather than help
• The “AR Wall” in use
• When Trek performers from the show would go to the Experience
• The immersive experience at the Star Trek Tour in Ticonderoga, NY
• On the long and glorious history of the Star Trek reset button
• Klingon revisionism
• Comparing Star Trek to Spiderman
• The fans need to grow too
• John recommends Live-Tweeting episodes
• Struggles in the ENT episode Damage
• Should Trek use old favorites or create new ones, when it comes to aliens?
• Paul has a soft spot for buddy episodes
• Appreciating Michelle Forbes
• Michael Chabon’s background documents for Star Trek: Picard
• Honorary Star Trek title awarded: Headliner at the Chuckle Hut on Risa

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Episodes Discussed

• The Undiscovered Country (Movie, 1991)
• wej Duj LWD S2E09
• Yesteryear TAS S1E02
• Day of the Dove TOS S3E11
• Year of Hell VOY S4E08-09
• Blood Oath DS9 S2E19
• The Next Phase TNG S5E24

Connect

• Check out Paul’s podcast: Matt and Mattingly’s Ice Cream Social
• You can follow his show’s Twitter here
• Or follow Paul’s personal Twitter here

Support

This show is a labor of love. If you’d like to show your support for Trek Profiles, please consider a donation to the official charity of the podcast: The Children’s Fund for Glycogen Storage Disease (GSD). Click here to donate. Or click here to learn more about GSD.

Acknowledgements

• Background photo by Ameer Basheer on Unsplash
• Some portions of the Kobayashi Maru lightning round questions in this episode were written by listener Adam Saunders. If you’d like to submit questions for possible inclusion on the show, you can send me a message via Twitter or email me. I give some suggestions on good questions here.