The Ice Queen
After making First Contact with the Enterprise, Alice Krige comes down to Earth
by
Mike Thomas
Quite possibly the finest Star Trek film to date, First Contact's successfully revitalized the flagging SF franchise and proved to be a smash hit with Trek fans and casual cinemagoers alike. Packed with action, drama, comedy and stunning special effects, the movie's many highlights include a chilling star turn from Alice Krige, whose portrayal of the evil Borg Queen made an indelible mark on the hearts and minds of Trekkers across the globe.

Although many actresses would dislike being associated so strongly with such a specific type of character, Krige is quite happy to be remembered as the sexy cyber-organic conqueror. "It's fine because I actually loved playing the role," she tells Starburst. "I had a great time with the character - which is possibly a rather disturbing admission to make!"

                                                                     Rhythmic structure
Krige, whose credits include such diverse films as Chariots of Fire, King David, Barfly and Sleepwalkers, was cast as the Borg Queen after participating in a series of auditions and interviews. "I do know they were specifically looking for someone who could handle the dialogue. The language Star Trek employs has a rhythm and structure all its own; it has a kind of formality and heightened quality. It's not Reservoir Dogs - it's not colloquial [language]. So I suppose the fact that I've worked in the classical theatre with quite formal, heightened language might have been kind of reassuring for them."

Prior to starting work on First Contact, Krige took a crash course in Star Trek, viewing all the Next Generation episodes that feature the Borg. "It was very interesting to watch the episodes, because I found that it is actually quite addictive," the actress reveals. "The storylines are sufficiently imaginative and plausible to leave you thinking, 'What if that were true?'  'What if that's the future?' 'What if that's really going to happen?'  Also, I suppose the tenets on which [Star Trek] is based - the idea of community and communal responsibility and a society without money - is quite a wonderful idea. The vision is as potent now as it was when Gene Roddenberry created it."

                                                                     Collective thoughts
In order to play the Borg Queen, Krige had to spend an average of seven hours a day donning make-up and prosthetics, and a further two hours per session having it all removed. Surprisingly, however, the actress feels that the biggest challenge of working on the film was defining the charcter of the Borg Queen.

"Not one person I spoke to had the same take on who she was," Krige explains. "Everyone had a different concept of the Borg, who they were and where they came from. So in the end, I had to come up with my own idea. In my mind, the Borg Queen is the collective. She's the mind. She's the imagination. And the Borg population simply exists to serve her."

Her time in the make-up chair not withstanding, Krige thoroughly enjoyed making First Contact with captain Picard and the crew of the Starship Enterprise. "It was wonderful," she beams. "Everyone, from the producers to the cast to the make-up crew, were just a joy to be around. Patrick [Stewart/Picard], Jonathan [Frakes/Riker], and Brent [Spiner/Data] are all very fond of each other, and they tease each other mercilessly. They have a lot of fun together, but at the same time, they never lose sight of what they are doing, and at the end of the day, they all really want to do a good job. It was a wonderful environment to be in, and I think that shows in the finished product. It's just a terrific film."

                                                                             Cool as ice
Despite the huge success of Star Trek: First Contact, Krige is pleased to report that she has not been typecast as a SF villain. Indeed, she happily points out that her follow-up to First Contact, Twilight of the Ice Nymphs, just couldn't be any further removed from the Star Trek universe. Directed by Guy Maddin, the film is a fairy tale-style drama in which Krige plays Zephyr, a fisherman's widow with a dark secret.

"Twilight of the Ice Nymphs was about the polar opposite of Star Trek," the actress notes. "Star Trek was a big, big budget production - the [press and advertising] budget alone was enormous. The film had a huge studio behind it and was literal, consecutive story-telling at its best. Twilight of the Ice Nymphs, on the other hand, was so small that they didn't even have enough money to hire a space that was soundproof! We shot the film on a disused section of a functional soap factory; they were making soap on one side of the building and we were making the movie on the other! The original soundtrack was inaudible, so we had to re-record all the dialogue after principal photography."

"It was a completely surreal piece. What it does, I suppose, is use film as poetry - whereas Star Trek is film as prose. It's actually very beautiful. Guy Maddin uses colour in a completely non-realistic fashion; there's a scene where my character is digging her own grave in a frenzy of misery and rage, and the entire sky is magenta... It's bizarre but very, very beautiful. Ultimately, I'm not sure it quite works," Krige concedes. "But as a sort of exploration of film and the capacity for juxtaposing images, either in a way that builds up an image or blows it apart, it is simply facinating."

Following the fall of Twilight, Krige went on to star in George (The Vanishing) Sluzier's upcoming political thriller The Commissioner, the TV drama Indefensible and a five-part BBC mini-series, which is due for transmission later this year. Among other projects, the actress is currently considering a starring role in her first American sitcom. Unsurprisingly, she has absolutely no complaints about the way her career is developing in the wake of her Fantasy forays.

"Almost everything I've done has been very good to me," she declares. "I've got at least something from everything I've done. And it's brilliant to be able to do some like Star Trek or Sleepwalkers, and then do some very straight, mainstream television and theatre. I've had a very interesting time."

When asked if she would ever return to the Final Frontier, Alice Krige doesn't have to think about her reply. "Sure I would do another Star Trek," she states. "And I would certainly play the Borg Queen again. It would obviously depend on the storyline, buy yeah - why not?"

                                                                Starburst, Issue #237, May 1998
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