She’s the face (and body) of the Starship Andromeda. Lexa Doig talks about her roles as a sentient computer and its android personification in Andromeda. Words: Ian Spelling

“I think I know the character by now and that’s a good and a bad thing,” says Lexa Doig of her role – make that roles – on Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda.

“It’s good because you know how to play the character, but you also want that challenge and sense of discovery you felt in the very beginning. Rommie is kind of in her mid-teens, I’d say, in terms of her psychological and emotional development. She’s may be even a little bit cocky. But there’s a lot to explore yet. She hasn’t been forced to deal with falling in love. She hasn’t been forced to deal with the different emotional situations that [humanoids] may find themselves in, especially by the nature of the fact that she’s an android and a warship and a character on a syndicated action/sci-fi hour! I’m sure that we’ll see more subtle details about pseudo-human development as we go on. Right now I’d say that she’s pretty much a teenager.”

New Directions Andromeda’s latest season – its third – kicked off recently in both the US and the UK, and has brought a few changes for the characters. These are largely due to the show’s change of executive producer – since Andromeda’s launch, the position had been held by Robert Hewitt Wolfe. Now, Robert Engels has filled the unexpected vacancy and his style is very different.

“I’ve spoken to Bob about my thoughts and concerns and he said: ‘Absolutely, we’ll take a look at that.’ There are 22 episodes in a season, so there’s plenty of time and I’m not worried. Bob has this very interesting way of writing. He sort of has this Twin Peaks-y, non sequitur style that’s very exciting because we haven’t experienced that up until this point. Periodically you get stuff and you go, ‘Huh? Oh my God! What? I don’t understand!’ There will be three different characters all in the same scene having three different conversations, but they’re talking to each other.

“I often make these phone calls and ask, ‘What does this mean? Can you please explain this to me?’ It’s taken a little bit of getting used to that, but Bob’s great. He’s got a great sense of humour and great ideas and visions for the show.

“I’ve been a little light so far this season, which is fine. I’m sure that will change. We’ve actually been doing a bunch of shows that feature the whole group working together. In the season opener, If the Wheel is Fixed, I’m trying not to die, but you can probably say that about every episode. I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining, because I’m not! There’s one episode in which Rommie is really busy. The guest lead is Tony Todd. It’s very funny having me in scenes with him because he’s six-foot-five. I had to wear these KISS army boots – huge platform boots – and they still had to put me up on a half-apple box. I’m still six inches too short!”

Andromeda fans – and Doig – would love to see a bit more female bonding on the show, and it’s possible that viewers will bear witness to an increased number of scenes between Rommie and Beka (Lisa Ryder) and Rommie and Trance (Laura Bertram). Andromeda fans (but not Doig) would also love to see a romance between Rommie and Dylan Hunt (Kevin Sorbo). That, Doig says, is unlikely.

“A relationship between Rommie and Hunt has been hinted at, but I doubt they’ll go with it,” she explains. “I think it would be a little too weird, just from the standpoint that she’s an android. That’s something we’ve never really explored, and it would be interesting to explore the idea of a love relationship between an android and a human. But it’s the kiss of death for most series when you get two of the leads together. I’m sure it could happen in a dream sequence or something like that because this is science fiction, but I don’t think they have any intention of going there...”

Taking the Heat

During the show’s recent hiatus, Doig spent her off-season relaxing, travelling and acting. As well as looking for a house she also visited Europe, and made time to put in a guest appearance on The Chris Isaak Show.

“I loved doing comedy and Chris is a very funny guy,” Doig enthuses. “The best part was that I got to wear cotton. That was a big thing for me! They’ve actually put me into a very comfortable costume now on Andromeda, but I was working last week here in Vancouver and it was very hot. The studio isn’t air-conditioned because it affects the sound, so it gets quite hot in there.

“They have these big hose things that pump in cold air between takes, but it’s not really enough to cool everything down unless you stand directly in front of it. This costume I have is a long-sleeved catsuit that’s made out of leather, so it doesn’t breathe at all. I’m always thinking I’m going to drop dead from the heat, but then I think of Brent Stait, who played Rev Bem in the first two seasons and wore a yak fur suit and 11 pieces of prosthetics, and I go, ‘Damn, I’m a whiner.’ [Anyway], that catsuit of mine will be fabulous in October, when it gets really cold! It’ll keep me nice and warm in the winter.”

With over half of Andromeda’s third season already in the can, it seems the show will definitely be around for a fourth year. It’s also not out of the question that the series could run for a couple of seasons beyond that. That begs the question: will Doig remain aboard for the long haul?

“I don’t know,” she replies. “I sort of take it year by year. I’m not contractually obligated for anything beyond the third and fourth year, so I just take it as it comes. I’m very happy. I really enjoy the people that I work with. So until I think I’m going to lose my mind I’m quite happy where I am.”

Interestingly, Doig’s partner is Michael Shanks, the Stargate SG-1 star who asked to be written out of his long-running series after publicly voicing his disenchantment with the development of his tremendously popular character, Daniel Jackson.

Doig reports that Shanks’ state of affairs did not affect her. “Michael’s situation on Stargate was very different from my own, in that the dynamics and the people involved are very different from Andromeda,” she notes. “His decision to leave Stargate made absolute sense from a lot of perspectives. I’ll be honest with you; if all of a sudden Rommie was written completely differently, where storylines were going in directions where it was hard for Rommie to be included in the stories productively, I would probably want to leave too. So has Michael’s deciding to leave Stargate rubbed off on me? Not really. I know that they’re both syndicated sci-fi shows shot in Vancouver, but the situations are so different. It hasn’t rubbed off on me in any way.”

This interview was originally published in Dreamwatch Issue 99 (December 2002).