Meetings & Events
Club Activities
All Austrek meeting are held at St Pius X Catholic Church Hall. 419 Westerdale Rd, Heidelberg West.
Entry fee is $5.00 for members and $9.00 for visitors (unless otherwise specified). All visitors welcome!
All AUSTREK events/meetings are family-friendly and alcohol-free (unless otherwise advertised).
For further information contact us at [email protected].
All Austrek meeting are held at St Pius X Catholic Church Hall. 419 Westerdale Rd, Heidelberg West.
Entry fee is $5.00 for members and $9.00 for visitors (unless otherwise specified). All visitors welcome!
All AUSTREK events/meetings are family-friendly and alcohol-free (unless otherwise advertised).
For further information contact us at [email protected].
Austrek Event with Evan Evagora, January 2024
Story by Jan McNally.
“Sem n’ hak kon” - Now Is the Only Moment – Sharing a candid afternoon with Evan Evagora, Star Trek Picard’s Elnor
Reported by Jan MacNally
While most Star Trek fans can only dream of seeking out new life and new civilizations in the farthest reaches of space, one Melbourne man has fulfilled that dream.
During an exclusive appearance at the January 2024 Austrek meeting, Melbourne born Evan Evagora, also known as the peace-loving yet deadly Romulan warrior Elnor, delighted and mesmerised fans over three hours with stories from his time working on Star Trek Picard and surviving his challenging introduction to working in American TV and films.
The first thing I noticed about Evan was his humility. Stardom hasn’t turned his head or made him unapproachable. He looked like any other fan, dressed casually in jeans, a t-shirt, and wearing his mother’s pearl necklace just because he liked it. He mingled with Austrek members, chatting, laughing, sharing stories, happy to pose for photos and sign copies of glossy production stills. He was generous, tirelessly giving and seemed genuinely interested in everyone he met. There was even time to chat about footy.
Evan’s appearance at the January Austrek meeting came about at his suggestion initially, but thanks must also go to club president Colin Parkinson and the rest of the committee for enabling this special event to happen. It was well promoted and organised, luring a lot of past and current members to attend. Hopefully the club will be able to organise more events with special guests in the future (and get Evan to come back again for another visit!).
Q&A session
During his Q and A session later in the afternoon, Evan admitted he didn’t know about Austrek’s existence until a few years ago, despite living in Melbourne and being a die-hard Star Trek fan. He thinks it is “cool to be the first Australian in Star Trek, and now be part of that family”. (Jess Bush, another Aussie, appears in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which first aired two years after the first season of Picard.)
As to that distinctive voice, Evan noted, “I was able to keep my Aussie accent but toned it down. We Aussies don’t speak so formally, so I had to emphasise my ‘r’s’ more and say words in full. It was one less thing to worry about instead of doing an American accent”.
Prior to getting a prime acting role in Star Trek Picard, Evan appeared in a remake of Fantasy Island (2020), and also voiced a character in The Quarry video game (2022). “It was like following in the footsteps of Ricardo Montalban,” Evan recalled, because Ricardo was in the original Fantasy Island after appearing in the Star Trek TOS “Space Seed” episode, as well as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). He also did one day’s shooting on Home and Away – “I played a guy in a band”.
Auditioning for the role
The burning question for most of us present for Evan’s talk was how did he land the role of the Romulan warrior Elnor in the first place? “Blind luck,” Evan said modestly. “I had tried auditioning for the reboot of The Lost Boys (Kiefer Sutherland’s role), and then received a script called ‘Writing Room’, by Patrick Stewart – Producer. It wasn’t obvious that it was Star Trek until later.” He added in jest, “I wanted to play Elnor because they offered it to me!”
Evan was still working on Fantasy Island at that time so used a bedsheet as a background for his audition tape (for Star Trek Picard). “There were ten people, then five, including me, being considered. I’d just finished Fantasy Island when I got the news that I had the Elnor role”. He recalls being so tired that he wasn’t sure the next day whether he had imagined the phone call and wasn’t convinced until he received a follow-up call!
“I was so stressed (after getting the offer of the role) that I put a note on the fridge with answers to predictable questions,” (to save having to repeat answers all the time).
Evan has a background in martial arts, specifically boxing, but stopped around the age of 18, saying, “it made me comfortable with anything”. He didn’t have a background in sword fighting, so was drilled for 5-6 hours per day during training for the fight sequences (in Star Trek Picard), which he says were “more like a dance routine”.
The “stunties (stunt people) make you look good – they’re the real heroes”. On his first day in America he started training, with production already underway on Episodes 1 and 2, which were filmed in a block. The shooting schedule was weekly, with weekends off, and Evan noted, “I spent a lot of time on set, training when I wasn’t filming”.
Typically, with fight scenes “you learn sections, so it’s more like a dance, going through the motions. Scenes with lots of characters take the longest to get full scenes (to set up and shoot)”.
Meeting the Picard cast
The first time Evan met Sir Patrick Stewart, he was so star struck that he responded to Patrick’s greeting of “Hi, I’m Patrick” with “Good, thanks”. Evan admitted to having panic attacks in the early days of filming, feeling like a fraud when surrounded by all the other established actors on set. Patrick was kind enough to reassure Evan that he felt nervous, too! “I kept thinking I’d get kicked off the show in the first season.”
It was actor and director Jonathan Frakes who really looked after Evan – “I felt easier in Jonathan’s company than in Patrick’s”. Evan explained further that “Jonathan even arranged accommodation on the lot to save me having to get an Uber to the set from my place in Santa Clarita (“the boonies”, where he was practically homeless until he received his first pay cheque), and then walking 40 minutes from the front of the lot to the back, where filming took place”.
His knowledge of America was based solely on TV, so he didn’t realise Santa Clarita wasn’t a good place to live! He was also fortunate to have the support of cast mates Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd later on, with whom he bonded, and who “encouraged me to speak up if things weren’t right, to get better working conditions”. He also bonded with the young Isa Briones (who played android twins).
Becoming Elnor
In terms of how Evan approached playing Elnor, the first peaceful Romulan, he explained, “I drew comparisons with the character, looked for similar, relatable things. Elnor was an alien boy struggling to live somewhere else, just how I felt”. He added, “I have five sisters and a mother, so it was like living with a commune of women”.
The main difference between them, Evan says jokingly, “is that Elnor is more honest than me. He has an innocence and naivete. Romulans are secretive and don’t trust each other. They marry in threes, don’t know their true names, whereas Elnor was raised as part of a sect of warrior nuns, practising absolute candour”. Evan also prepared for his role by watching videos featuring Romulans, as well as Data’s daughter Lal, from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Make-up, hair, and costume prep took 3 hours in Season 1 but this was trimmed down to 2 ½ hours then 2 hours by Season 2.
When asked about any souvenirs he might have kept from filming Star Trek Picard, Evan said, “I wanted to keep my Starfleet uniform afterwards, but the production company wouldn’t let me!” He also noted, “I lost my first set of Romulan ears as I was homeless at the time, but I did hold onto my sword, and I knew it was my sword (from filming) because it had a chip in it from when I was doing a fight scene”.
Trivia
Some other interesting facts about playing a Romulan: Evan didn’t shave his eyebrows for the role, “but Ethan Peck in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds did”. Evan also grew his own hair out longer by Season 3, rather than having to wear a wig. He also tans very easily, so whenever there was exterior day time shooting, such as at the Vasquez Rocks in 48 degrees temperatures where the Raffi character lived (and which has featured in many other films and TV shows including TOS Star Trek episode “Arena”) he said, “I always had to remain under an umbrella. It would have changed continuity if I was more tanned in some shots than in others”.
He also proudly admitted, “I mastered the Vulcan salute from birth!” He was happy to share the fact that Elnor in Elvish means “to trek the stars”, and how cool it was to have not one but two catch phrases: “Sem n’ hak kon – Now is the only moment” and “Please, my friend, choose to live” (both of which phrases he signed for people on his photos).
The philosophy of Star Trek
The Star Trek writers, according to Evan, “tell stories about injustice, people’s struggles, a future that could be. There is a lot of distrust in government, wars, the climate ruined – what aren’t we being told? Science fiction is a more digestible experience, it’s not thrown at you but couched in a way that’s acceptable”.
Evan reflected on his character, “Elnor permeates my way of thinking. I want to help, give support, speak up. We should all have something and someone to represent us”.
Star Trek versus Star Wars
When Evan was young, he loved Star Wars “because of the lightsabers, people choking each other, the basic idea of black and white, good versus evil”. His mother persisted in getting him to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation, which he came to realise was more philosophical, showing the world wasn’t black and white. “Star Trek: The Next Generation has some of the best writing out there,” Evan said. “The Measure of a Man episode – you’d never see that in Star Wars”.
The Andor series (pre-Star Wars: Rogue One) with its gritty, adult setting and plots “is really a Star Trek series”. Evan mentioned Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, “look at that lightsaber scene between Anakin and Obi-Wan – you realise a great villain is the logic behind his actions”.
The future
Now that Hollywood is open for business again (following the end of the Writers’ and Actors’ strikes), Evan would one day like to try his hand at directing (he has been offered a chance to shoot a short film in New York but isn’t sure if he will take it on).
When asked what other roles he would like to play, Evan said, “an Elf in Lord of the Rings, or The Crow, or the Night Stalker (Richard Ramirez),” which shows he has a taste for action and is keen to expand his acting repertoire.
As to the possibility of the Star Trek Legacy series going ahead, Evan replied, “Everything is up in the air. (Producers) don’t know what to do with all these intellectual properties”. According to him, there are more fans signing petitions for Legacy than for Strange New Worlds.
Evan’s parting words about acting tips were: “use TikTok and social media to learn more about acting and storytelling”.
Thank you, Evan, for your generosity, candour, warmth, humour, and genuine interest in meeting some of your fans. Live long and prosper – and come back to visit us again one day.
_______________________________________________________________________________
About the reporter
Jan MacNally first joined Austrek in 1985 while attending AussieCon 2 (the 43rd World SF Convention), joining the committee around 1987 and serving as Membership Secretary for a few years. Her preferred Star Trek group is the Klingons (she made her own armoured costume!). Her Austrek membership lapsed around 1993, when she pursued other interests, renewing her Austrek membership in 2023 (alas, not with her original membership number!), and hopes to become more active again in club activities. When not working full-time in a government department, she is the Chief Content Editor and writer for Hearts Talk, the monthly e-magazine of Romance Writers of Australia, and also contributes articles to the Melbourne Science Fiction Club’s Ethel the Aardvark bi-monthly newsletter.
Story by Jan McNally.
“Sem n’ hak kon” - Now Is the Only Moment – Sharing a candid afternoon with Evan Evagora, Star Trek Picard’s Elnor
Reported by Jan MacNally
While most Star Trek fans can only dream of seeking out new life and new civilizations in the farthest reaches of space, one Melbourne man has fulfilled that dream.
During an exclusive appearance at the January 2024 Austrek meeting, Melbourne born Evan Evagora, also known as the peace-loving yet deadly Romulan warrior Elnor, delighted and mesmerised fans over three hours with stories from his time working on Star Trek Picard and surviving his challenging introduction to working in American TV and films.
The first thing I noticed about Evan was his humility. Stardom hasn’t turned his head or made him unapproachable. He looked like any other fan, dressed casually in jeans, a t-shirt, and wearing his mother’s pearl necklace just because he liked it. He mingled with Austrek members, chatting, laughing, sharing stories, happy to pose for photos and sign copies of glossy production stills. He was generous, tirelessly giving and seemed genuinely interested in everyone he met. There was even time to chat about footy.
Evan’s appearance at the January Austrek meeting came about at his suggestion initially, but thanks must also go to club president Colin Parkinson and the rest of the committee for enabling this special event to happen. It was well promoted and organised, luring a lot of past and current members to attend. Hopefully the club will be able to organise more events with special guests in the future (and get Evan to come back again for another visit!).
Q&A session
During his Q and A session later in the afternoon, Evan admitted he didn’t know about Austrek’s existence until a few years ago, despite living in Melbourne and being a die-hard Star Trek fan. He thinks it is “cool to be the first Australian in Star Trek, and now be part of that family”. (Jess Bush, another Aussie, appears in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, which first aired two years after the first season of Picard.)
As to that distinctive voice, Evan noted, “I was able to keep my Aussie accent but toned it down. We Aussies don’t speak so formally, so I had to emphasise my ‘r’s’ more and say words in full. It was one less thing to worry about instead of doing an American accent”.
Prior to getting a prime acting role in Star Trek Picard, Evan appeared in a remake of Fantasy Island (2020), and also voiced a character in The Quarry video game (2022). “It was like following in the footsteps of Ricardo Montalban,” Evan recalled, because Ricardo was in the original Fantasy Island after appearing in the Star Trek TOS “Space Seed” episode, as well as Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). He also did one day’s shooting on Home and Away – “I played a guy in a band”.
Auditioning for the role
The burning question for most of us present for Evan’s talk was how did he land the role of the Romulan warrior Elnor in the first place? “Blind luck,” Evan said modestly. “I had tried auditioning for the reboot of The Lost Boys (Kiefer Sutherland’s role), and then received a script called ‘Writing Room’, by Patrick Stewart – Producer. It wasn’t obvious that it was Star Trek until later.” He added in jest, “I wanted to play Elnor because they offered it to me!”
Evan was still working on Fantasy Island at that time so used a bedsheet as a background for his audition tape (for Star Trek Picard). “There were ten people, then five, including me, being considered. I’d just finished Fantasy Island when I got the news that I had the Elnor role”. He recalls being so tired that he wasn’t sure the next day whether he had imagined the phone call and wasn’t convinced until he received a follow-up call!
“I was so stressed (after getting the offer of the role) that I put a note on the fridge with answers to predictable questions,” (to save having to repeat answers all the time).
Evan has a background in martial arts, specifically boxing, but stopped around the age of 18, saying, “it made me comfortable with anything”. He didn’t have a background in sword fighting, so was drilled for 5-6 hours per day during training for the fight sequences (in Star Trek Picard), which he says were “more like a dance routine”.
The “stunties (stunt people) make you look good – they’re the real heroes”. On his first day in America he started training, with production already underway on Episodes 1 and 2, which were filmed in a block. The shooting schedule was weekly, with weekends off, and Evan noted, “I spent a lot of time on set, training when I wasn’t filming”.
Typically, with fight scenes “you learn sections, so it’s more like a dance, going through the motions. Scenes with lots of characters take the longest to get full scenes (to set up and shoot)”.
Meeting the Picard cast
The first time Evan met Sir Patrick Stewart, he was so star struck that he responded to Patrick’s greeting of “Hi, I’m Patrick” with “Good, thanks”. Evan admitted to having panic attacks in the early days of filming, feeling like a fraud when surrounded by all the other established actors on set. Patrick was kind enough to reassure Evan that he felt nervous, too! “I kept thinking I’d get kicked off the show in the first season.”
It was actor and director Jonathan Frakes who really looked after Evan – “I felt easier in Jonathan’s company than in Patrick’s”. Evan explained further that “Jonathan even arranged accommodation on the lot to save me having to get an Uber to the set from my place in Santa Clarita (“the boonies”, where he was practically homeless until he received his first pay cheque), and then walking 40 minutes from the front of the lot to the back, where filming took place”.
His knowledge of America was based solely on TV, so he didn’t realise Santa Clarita wasn’t a good place to live! He was also fortunate to have the support of cast mates Jeri Ryan and Michelle Hurd later on, with whom he bonded, and who “encouraged me to speak up if things weren’t right, to get better working conditions”. He also bonded with the young Isa Briones (who played android twins).
Becoming Elnor
In terms of how Evan approached playing Elnor, the first peaceful Romulan, he explained, “I drew comparisons with the character, looked for similar, relatable things. Elnor was an alien boy struggling to live somewhere else, just how I felt”. He added, “I have five sisters and a mother, so it was like living with a commune of women”.
The main difference between them, Evan says jokingly, “is that Elnor is more honest than me. He has an innocence and naivete. Romulans are secretive and don’t trust each other. They marry in threes, don’t know their true names, whereas Elnor was raised as part of a sect of warrior nuns, practising absolute candour”. Evan also prepared for his role by watching videos featuring Romulans, as well as Data’s daughter Lal, from Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Make-up, hair, and costume prep took 3 hours in Season 1 but this was trimmed down to 2 ½ hours then 2 hours by Season 2.
When asked about any souvenirs he might have kept from filming Star Trek Picard, Evan said, “I wanted to keep my Starfleet uniform afterwards, but the production company wouldn’t let me!” He also noted, “I lost my first set of Romulan ears as I was homeless at the time, but I did hold onto my sword, and I knew it was my sword (from filming) because it had a chip in it from when I was doing a fight scene”.
Trivia
Some other interesting facts about playing a Romulan: Evan didn’t shave his eyebrows for the role, “but Ethan Peck in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds did”. Evan also grew his own hair out longer by Season 3, rather than having to wear a wig. He also tans very easily, so whenever there was exterior day time shooting, such as at the Vasquez Rocks in 48 degrees temperatures where the Raffi character lived (and which has featured in many other films and TV shows including TOS Star Trek episode “Arena”) he said, “I always had to remain under an umbrella. It would have changed continuity if I was more tanned in some shots than in others”.
He also proudly admitted, “I mastered the Vulcan salute from birth!” He was happy to share the fact that Elnor in Elvish means “to trek the stars”, and how cool it was to have not one but two catch phrases: “Sem n’ hak kon – Now is the only moment” and “Please, my friend, choose to live” (both of which phrases he signed for people on his photos).
The philosophy of Star Trek
The Star Trek writers, according to Evan, “tell stories about injustice, people’s struggles, a future that could be. There is a lot of distrust in government, wars, the climate ruined – what aren’t we being told? Science fiction is a more digestible experience, it’s not thrown at you but couched in a way that’s acceptable”.
Evan reflected on his character, “Elnor permeates my way of thinking. I want to help, give support, speak up. We should all have something and someone to represent us”.
Star Trek versus Star Wars
When Evan was young, he loved Star Wars “because of the lightsabers, people choking each other, the basic idea of black and white, good versus evil”. His mother persisted in getting him to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation, which he came to realise was more philosophical, showing the world wasn’t black and white. “Star Trek: The Next Generation has some of the best writing out there,” Evan said. “The Measure of a Man episode – you’d never see that in Star Wars”.
The Andor series (pre-Star Wars: Rogue One) with its gritty, adult setting and plots “is really a Star Trek series”. Evan mentioned Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, “look at that lightsaber scene between Anakin and Obi-Wan – you realise a great villain is the logic behind his actions”.
The future
Now that Hollywood is open for business again (following the end of the Writers’ and Actors’ strikes), Evan would one day like to try his hand at directing (he has been offered a chance to shoot a short film in New York but isn’t sure if he will take it on).
When asked what other roles he would like to play, Evan said, “an Elf in Lord of the Rings, or The Crow, or the Night Stalker (Richard Ramirez),” which shows he has a taste for action and is keen to expand his acting repertoire.
As to the possibility of the Star Trek Legacy series going ahead, Evan replied, “Everything is up in the air. (Producers) don’t know what to do with all these intellectual properties”. According to him, there are more fans signing petitions for Legacy than for Strange New Worlds.
Evan’s parting words about acting tips were: “use TikTok and social media to learn more about acting and storytelling”.
Thank you, Evan, for your generosity, candour, warmth, humour, and genuine interest in meeting some of your fans. Live long and prosper – and come back to visit us again one day.
_______________________________________________________________________________
About the reporter
Jan MacNally first joined Austrek in 1985 while attending AussieCon 2 (the 43rd World SF Convention), joining the committee around 1987 and serving as Membership Secretary for a few years. Her preferred Star Trek group is the Klingons (she made her own armoured costume!). Her Austrek membership lapsed around 1993, when she pursued other interests, renewing her Austrek membership in 2023 (alas, not with her original membership number!), and hopes to become more active again in club activities. When not working full-time in a government department, she is the Chief Content Editor and writer for Hearts Talk, the monthly e-magazine of Romance Writers of Australia, and also contributes articles to the Melbourne Science Fiction Club’s Ethel the Aardvark bi-monthly newsletter.
