Soap Legend Deidre Hall on Her Strange New Worlds Debut and Why She Wants to Do a Star Trek Convention

Did anyone predict, despite the signature genre-riffing of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' fourth season, that daytime drama icon Deidre Hall would be beaming into the seventh episode? Even those who recognize its title, "Like Chronitons Through the Hourglass," as a riff on the opening narration of Days of Our Lives, the soap opera she's starred on for exactly five decades (the show itself launched nearly 61 years ago in 1965, a little less than a year before Star Trek: The Original Series debuted)?

Yet who better than Hall, legendary for her longtime portrayal of Days of Our Lives' intrepid psychiatrist Dr. Marlena Evans Black, to make a surprise appearance? In the episode, the Q-child Trelane (Rhys Darby, reprising his role from the previous season, a character originated on The Original Series by William Campbell) uses his reality-bending cosmic powers to impose a layer of soap opera-style melodrama onto the Enterprise, one that only Captain Pike recognizes as low-budget TV artifice.

And not only does her ship's psychiatrist Dr. Lorraine Chivers — shot in glorious soft-focus glow, naturally — add a meta-wink-and-a-nod to the surreality of the proceedings, Hall resurfaces at the end of the episode as Chivers helps Pike work through his unresolved grief — a sly twist that marked Chivers as an actual ongoing Enterprise crewmember, existing outside of Trelane's manipulations.

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The soap superstar joined TV Guide to share her SNW experience, as well as her recent status as an in-demand guest star, bringing her full-circle from her earliest TV experiences on classic series as she celebrates 50 years in daytime. And Star Trek convention bookers take note: Hall's already armed with stacks of 8x10s of herself in full Trek uniform just waiting to be autographed.

Tell me about your initial reaction to the call when you first heard that they were interested in having you come aboard the Enterprise.

Deidre Hall: My agent called and said that there had been a request and I said, "What? Oh my word — Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!" And because, as you know, they shoot in Toronto, it would have to fit in with my work schedule and their script schedule, but it was able to be worked out and it was a thrill.

You have already been part of so much iconic television, but to add Star Trek to your resume at this point must have been a special kind of treat.

Hall: Doesn't get any better. Does not get better than that.

What surprised you or fascinated you about the process on a show like Strange New Worlds? What didn't you expect when you showed up on set?

Hall: Well, I was surprised that I got a fantastic costume because I thought I would be wearing the little jumper, the flat pants and think: "Oh, now I've got to lose five pounds." Bernadette Croft is the woman who designs all their special costumes. And we had a chance to talk and she said, "Well, what do you like? What do you not like?" And I said, "Well, I like a long leg and a high neck and long sleeves." And then she showed me, hours later, a drawing of the costume that I should post because I said, "How did you do that? That's exactly it! Can it be made?" "It can be made." And it was made in a matter of a day and a half. I came in for a fitting, it was nearly completed, did the fitting, and there it was.

This show has gotten really adept at adapting the various genres they're exploring in episodes like this, but nobody knows daytime drama better than you. Did you give them any little pointers or suggestions, as far as soap authenticity?

Hall: You know what? They didn't need any from me and they were doing fine on their own. And if I were to give an after-note, it would be simply something like, "When you do that long gaze, hold it longer. It'll hold." But they did great. I thought it was wonderfully done.

I was pleased that you got to step out from the daytime drama mode at the end and actually play a scene straight and genuinely with Anson Mount. And it's an especially powerful sequence for him to play, so tell me about sharing that scene with him.

Hall: I didn't have a lot of time with Anson while we were at work. He was obviously busy doing everything that he had to do. Plus he had a baby on the way and every time he answered his phone, we all went, "Just do one more scene!" Obviously we got it done and he had a daughter safely delivered.

So I didn't know what he would do with that [scene]. We didn't rehearse it, obviously, and before we shot it, they gave us our marks and it was just "You're sitting here, he's going to come in, he's going to sit down and he's going to say it." And Anna Dokoza was our director and she was brilliant at all these things and she just said, "OK, well I'll follow whatever you do." And he came in and sat and that was one take. I didn't know what he would do with it, and I just thought, "OK, hang on. Let the audience do it. Let the audience do it. I don't have to do anything." But I thought it was so brilliant and Anna just let it roll.

Your career started shortly after the original series went off the air. Had you ever had any close calls with the Star Trek franchise prior to this? Had you auditioned for anything or gotten calls before this?

Hall: Never. Never. Had nothing to do with it. Was never invited to audition. No. What a thrill, huh?

Something I found interesting is that a few decades ago you did get to work on Days of Our Lives with John de Lancie, who as the Q is sort of the template/father-figure for the modern take on the Trelane character that we see in this episode. Give me a favorite memory about your times with John.

Hall: Do you know John? He's a crazy-ass, you know that, right? [Laughs] Working with him on the soap, we have a schedule. We have to adhere to a schedule and he was profoundly irreverent. And at one point they said, "OK, we got to break for lunch. We're going to tape this one time. Let's do it." And we're walking through a little park and we had to stop at a fence and have a conversation. And he is following me and we're walking and we're walking and I hear him go, "Ewww!" and look at his foot. And I went, "That's it — he stepped in dog-doo and we'll never get out before lunch." And it didn't matter. He's so deeply irreverent. Doing the joke was better for him than having to break for lunch and come back and do it all over again. So that is John. That is John.

Tell me what you've enjoyed about this sort of fun period where you've gotten to step out now several times, step out of the Dr. Marlena Evans character that you know so well and try on different TV shows for size and play versions of yourself as you did on Hacks, or kind of tweak the Marlena character like you do here. What's been the joy in that for you?

Hall: I always play from a place of reality, so whatever's going on with the character is what I like to bring to it, but I don't tend to veer too much in jobs that I'm given from the Marlena character. She's got to be honest and trustworthy and caring and emotional and present at all times. So that's who I get to play. I guess it is what I always play. It would be fun to do some comedy, I think. That would be great fun sometime. I look forward to that.

Tell me about your early days in the business when you were doing guest shots on all of these great television shows, as you were kind of finding your foot in the industry — you got to do Adam-12, Emergency, Kung Fu, Columbo — so many classic series. What was that time like for you?

Hall: Well, I was a little more than a day player, so I would only have a couple of scenes. But it was fascinating to watch the real pros do what they do, how they get ready for it, how they... I was going to say find their mic, because it isn't daytime, but how they prepare for their scenes, how they do them, just wonderful to watch that process.

It must have been a great education. Was there anybody that was particularly fascinating for you to study while you were hanging out on set and getting ready for your scenes — Peter Falk or somebody like that who was a great sort of model for you to follow?

Hall: Peter was brilliant, as you know, and so himself in every moment. But I wasn't thinking to be an actor. I was doing it to pay for college. It was better than a nine-to-five job and I got enough of them to make ends meet, so it was never going to be a career.

I'll confess to you, at one point he'd had a monologue and I was so fascinated by him that I was watching him do it and I'm playing his secretary, so I wouldn't be doing that. And at the end of the scene, the director came out and he said, "How long have you been sitting there?" I said, "The whole scene." He said, "OK, you're in the shot, and you're in the shot watching him do the scene. So now we'll just do it again." And that's when he said, "Get into acting class. Now if you don't want to do it, that's fine, but you can't mess up other people doing what they want to be doing."

And [after that] I was in acting classes for 10 years, I think from dance and movement to improv — I was in Stella Adler's masterclass for a couple years. I really thought, "Learn the craft, and now you have the right to go and do it."

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And here you are celebrating 50 years this year on Days plus more life as an actor before that. Having that opportunity to have a career, to have a life in the arts like you've had, what has it come to mean to you?

Hall: Wow. Gosh, I've said it so many times, but the privilege of being able to do a job that I love and get paid for it, and I get to keep coming back over and over and over, and that's the joy of it. From the old Universal days of, "OK, come in and audition. It's only six lines, but you've got to audition for it. OK, fine." Not to ever have to audition, oh my goodness, is such a joy, the privilege of that!

But it's a sense of belonging and knowing every day I go to work, I've got people that I love to spend my time with, that I appreciate and respect. Same place, same parking place. I brought my kids to work for years and brought a nanny along. It's the best life. Daytime, I'm persuaded, is the very best life.

I know how actors think, so did you happen to ask the producers, given the reveal comes that she is actually a member of the ship's crew, "Will she be back?"

Hall: I didn't ask that. It would be charming! I mean, I think there may be a place for a psychiatrist on that particular ship, but hopefully they find a little home for her there.

And lastly, I know you have done many daytime conventions and met the devoted fans there. Are you willing and ready to do a Star Trek convention and meet an entirely different type of die-hard fan?

Hall: I would adore doing a Star Trek convention! Wouldn't that be fun? I've got pictures in the costume now. I could autograph those and meet people once they've seen the show. I was at a convention ages ago and Star Trek was there and I said, "Oh, could I come over and meet..." "You haven't aired yet. They have no idea who you are." "OK, maybe next time." I would love to do that.

New episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds drop Thursdays on Paramount+.