L
ook beneath the skin of Dr. Julia Heller
of Earth 2 and you'll find a complex
human being. She's someone strug­
gling to juggle her duties as a medical pro­
fessional on a frontier world with her forced
obligations as an uneasy government liai­
son-i.e. spy-for the Council, the ruling
body of the TV show's space stations orbit­
ing the original, nearly dead Earth. For
Canadian-born actress Jessica Steen, it's a
meaty but unexpected duality for her charac­
ter after a foggy beginning.
CRAIG W. CHRISSINGER. \'e1eran STAR­
LOG correspondent, profiled John Gegell­
huber in issue #212.
48 ST ARLOGI April 1995
"Initially, I approached Julia with great wasn't really sure what my responses were
confidence about who she was," says Steen.
"She was involved with Dr. Vasquez, who
developed the theory for the Syndrome,
which affects children on the space stations.
"But then it got foggy because they took
the whole Vasquez issue out. I wondered if
Vasquez was still part of it. Why wasn't he
on the advance ship with me? In an early
script, we got a recorded message from
Vasquez aboard the colony ship and his wife
was standing beside him. Without him. it got
murky as to why I had given up my life on a
space station, and said goodbye to everyone
and all the professional perks of being a doc­
tor to go on this massive, endless journey. I
to everything that we dealt with in the first
few episodes, because we didn't have a his­
tory. It felt like it wa. just skating, because I
really didn't have the grounding that I prefer
when I'm working."
The revelation that Dr. Heller was an
unwilling agent for the government is a wel­
come aspect of the character, helping flesh
her out for Steen. ·' It became a much fuller
picture. The fact that I was a liaison for the
Council is a bigger job than just being a doc­
tor. Once I got something to sink my teeth '
into and my characterization became fuller, I
felt more contident. It certainly made me
worry about the first bunch of episodes.
because I wondered whether things I had
done during them reflected this coming rev­
elation, Maybe it shouldn 't, but having it
come out of nowhere kind of made me
frightened. How prepared was I to be a spy
before I left? I wondered if I was a bad guy
or just a good guy caught in a bad situation.
Are my intentions honorable or am I truly
nasty?"
Government Agent
In Earth 2, the original Earth can barely
sustain human life. and most people live
instead on crowded space stations. When
Devon Adair's (Debrah Farentino) son
Ulysses becomes afnicted with the
Syndrome-believed to be caused by the
stations' sterile environment-Devon orga­
nizes a group of colonists to sell Ie on a
planet 22 light years away. Opposed to the
mission. the Council plants a bomb aboard
the advance ship when red tape can no
longer delay it. The ship crash-lands on G­
889. where Julia reports back to the Council
on the group's activities and contacts with
the native life forms. especially the mysteri­
ous Terrians.
Despite being a government lIgent, the
doctor isn't privy to all of the Council's deci­
sions, actions and knowledge. "If I'm a bad
guy. then I should be savvy to many of the
things the Council has been doing. but the
way it has been described to me is that I was
not supposed to be on the advance ship, but
on the colony ship. All of these things are
coming as new information to me, like the
penal colonists. their knowledge of the
Terrians and the bomb. Of course. I'm
resentful toward the Council. They casually
sent me oft' with no regard for my life. The
fact that I'm not privy to all this information
means Julia comes from iI more innocent
place and her intentions can be honorable.
Suddenly. Julill is being ilsked to do these
things on the planet by Citizen Reilly that go
way beyond her duties.
"Obviously, if I had known about the
bomb, I would have to be some kind of
kamikaze idiot not to have wormed my way
off of the advance ship. And then I should
have known more about the Terrians.
because as Reilly said, 'We 've known for
years that the Terrians possess a quality that
keeps the planet alive: There are definitely
details that they've known that they haven't
told us. If I had been a very valuable spy, I'm
sure they would have valued my life more
and kept me informed."
In a unique twist, it is through Julia that
most of the Council's knowledge and
motives concerning Earth 2 are revealed. "A
lot of the notion of the stilte 01 the Council
comes from my conversations with Reilly:'
she states. "In 'Redemption,' we tind out the
Council is testing five planets for resellle­
ment and this planet is the most promising
candidate. They've given Devon years of red
tape 10 deter her. but primarily they didn't
want the general population to know this
planet existed. and was so promising and so
similar to Earth, because then there would be
a mass exodus. That's why they tried to bury
it in red tape and put Commissioner Blalock
in charge of it. As Reilly tells me. Blalock
went too far. He was a loose cannon and was
put out to pasture. I guess Blalock planted
the bomb because he didn't want to report
back to the Council that he hadn't done his
job. They don't want anyone on G-8!l9. They "They've developed this relationship, and
have their whole plan set up and running, It's not an easy or a comfortable one,"
says Steen of the bond between Julia
and they don't want interference from the and Alonzo Solace (Antonio Sabato Jr.).
Eden Project.
"It turns out that their way of testing is to information from the penal colonists and
jellison prisoners-criminals like Gaal [Tim 'thin' out their numbers. The Zeds have been
CurryJ-from the space stations onto the jellisoned here as well because they're super
planet. These people are doing the legwork android soldiers who have gOllen out of
for the Council. The Zeds. which came into hand. So, they've sent a bunch of slightly
play in 'Redemption: are sent out to collect over-the-edge folks to do the legwork on the
planet, play guinea pig, and see how it is for
all of us."
Despite her obligations to the Council.
Julia considers her Hippocratic Oath her pri­
mary concern in all actions. When Reilly
asks her to harvest a gland from Ulysses
Adair's brain beclluse he's beginning to
exhibit Terrian traits in "Church of Morgan,"
she protects Devon's son by telling a lie.
"My job is doctor tirst and Iillison second.
I've told Reilly that and I've put myself in
frOll! of danger rather than put Uly at risk.
This whole expedition is because of this tiny,
sick boy. He gets healed by the Terrians, and
I'm suddenly supposed to sacrifice him to
find out how he's connected to our survival
on the planet. It's a really tough decision.
"In 'The Enemy Within,' she tries to
make Morgan Martin [John Gegenhuberl
privy to the whole thing. She thinks she can
convince him to be on her side and to explain
to the government that we cannot just take
the planet and control it. The Terrians are
very important-it's beyond government.
It's not ethereal or the second coming, but it
is so out of our hands. It just seemed to Julia
to be such a monumental discovery and an
STAR LOG/April 1995 49
 environmental miracle. If she can just con­
vince Morgan and they go together to the
Council. this company man should be able to
explain what I alone could nol. But he won't
go for it, so I deal with him."
Crash Survivor
Her actions have repercussions on rela­
tionships with other survivors. In fact, Dr.
Heller is expelled from the group, and the
only one who will go after her is pilot
Alonzo Solace (Antonio Sabato Jr.)-a rela­
tionship begun in "Water" as he begins to
recover use of his broken leg. "He has
picked up enough of her intentions from
their interactions that it's worth)t for him to
get her," she reveals. "Wft've definitely
developed a rapport, and it's also a lot of
U
.5
o
III
Z
i On the other hand, Julia has no
Trust is a dangerous thing on Earth 2, Dr,
Julia Heller has earned the trust of Devon
Adair (Debrah Farentino), Only Jessica
Steen knows if her character will betray it.
instinct on his parI. The doctor part of me
has shown through the most to him, so to
him, I'm a doctor first and a spy second.
Warrior Pilot
thanking, 'Oh, come
P ondering her first venture into , ience
fiction. the 1986-7 . yndicared allempt at
Interactive TV, Cap,ain p(,wt'" allJ till!
Soldiers of'h~ Future, JessIca Steen
remembers being upset by the how' built­
In merchandi. 109 a~pect , "It , emed that
there was , 0 much negativity and anger. and
the future wa.~ po~t-apocalyptic, My
involvement wa.~ pohucal and an
agent/ca, ring director thmg. IW(l, ,,', happy
about h, but I learned a lot, made rome
good (rienm, and had a good time with that
group.
"I'm almost tempted to go back and
look at all the: tapes f the pisode, We
went through all the , tories, and I often
wa iUing in the cockpit Pilot. There
were all the button ' and levers. I wru;
thinking, 'Whar doe. this stuff do'!' And
they would put all these words together that
looked like they had gone through a big, fat
dictionary of long word!. I wasn't fully
savvy to the work or the concept. I would
go, 'Beep, beep, Oh. beep: and then take
out my proton spanner. which was II Black
& Deck~r screwdriver. I just 'hook II over
here and it would do all sort of tuff. I was
"They've developed this relationship,
and it's not an easy or a comfortable one.
She's very uneasy about the way it comes
about, and it's very unnatural to her. Because
he's the injured party in the crash landing,
she has to deal with him a 101. His leg has
become a nightmare. I came up with leg
braces, then physical therapy and trying dif­
ferent pills like plasma DNA to build up his
strength. He isn't the kind of gUy that Julia
would be drawn to on the space stations.
They just wouldn't have hooked up because
they're not of the same clique, She tries to
keep everything under control and has a very
good undl!rstanding of who she is; he's
much more raw. He's just going by the seat
of his pants, and is very confident and
macho. When he speaks to her or calls her on
things, that catches her off-guard.
She's drawn to him because he's SQ
much easier with himself than she
is. That's very intriguing."
natural rapport with Devon at the
mission's beginning, having to eam
her respect as a medical profes­
sional. "In the pilot, there's resent­
ment on Devon's pari simply Debrah and me that it's established that we
because I'm the one who's there, I have this respect now and we're a team in the
have lillie experience and I'm not care of Uly.
the person she wanted. And Julia "This whole spy thing has made it very
doesn't like the disrespecl. She says, difficult for Julia to keep her loyalties clear
'I am capable of doing this job and and execute the job that she must do because
you are immediately assuming I'm unquali­ of an ultimatum. Julia's redcmption is
tied.' There's a level of respect where we are importanl. By the end of 'Redemption,'
now and it's a healthy relationship, which is Devon says, 'And we're glad to have her.'
why this whole government spy bit blows and I'm back in good graces."
Devon away. After all the time she has spent Julia Heller may have little practical
building up her confidence in Julia, this experience as a doctor, but she docs havc one
comes out of left field. It's important to advantage over others training in the lield-
on: The series had ils many fan!!, "In the let­
You have to
suspend your dl behef when you do sCience
fiction, You really have to believ what
ters we got, people remarked that we had
put a lot of thOUght into how thi. all came
you're domg." about, what our role.<; were and how th
'" knew from the beginning that I was going to die," says Jessica Steen of
Captain Power.
she has been genetically engineered to be
predisposed toward the medical sciences.
"Much of her genetic enhancement at this
point is instinct:' Steen remarks. '" have the
information, but' don't have the tools or the
knowledge of the local flora and fauna. It's
helpful. but now' have to take whatever'
know and try to make it practical.
'" can see that the genetic enhancement
would have been a way to determine success
-you would huve a focus, a prolcssion and
an income determined. It set her at an advan­
tage over others, and it became something
she got a lot of flak about and people even
resented. She's driven to prove herself to be
a good doctor despitc this unfair advantage."

Pioneer Medico
Julia soon proves hcrself to be skilled as
a physician on a brave new frontier. "Her
confidence is based on the Vasquez issue,
be<.:ause she initially would have worked
hand-in-hand with him . The fa<.:1 Ihatthe rea'
do<.:tor DeVOll has been working with all
along isn't there docs put pressure on Julia.
It ·s almost like being the undersludy.
Although you may know the lines. be well
prepared and have gone through rehearsals.
you're still on shaky ground .
"When' see the Terrians, I'm at square
olle with them . Reilly says we 've known
about them for years, but nobody told me.
When the Koba zaps Morgan and he has lost
his hcartbeul. I'm just stupefied. , don't
know that the Grendlers' saliva will bemme
the answer to the plague that we encounter
from other landing survivors, or tlmt the
Terrians can walk into a tent with a handful
of sui I. drop it on Uly and he gels beller. 'I's
(continued 0/1 puge 70)

Soldien. 01 Ihe FUlure "JlCfilled. And rve
had people come up 10 me OUI of Ihe hlue
and ay. 'Wow. We were the biggesl fun!>:
Wlls surpn d because 10 me. II was all rub­
ber rock!> and lurr.
"The: maillllUght m lhal people see
thing. thai 1 mighl 001. There would be
whol fral hOlm: thaI wrole in. Ilhoughi.
'Oel a life. gu s. Aren'l you 'upposed 10 be
pluyinll foolball or somethlng?'1 didn',
realize: wtulllh were ing beCIlU ' ,
neycr really watched the hows WIth any
focu~ . It woe only lrom my bad-sport
posilion Ihal , saw II. rm nol belillhng lhe
peoplc who walched because they saw
Ihing\ in il Ihal I didn'l ,see. II's my jl1b til
find Iho e Ihmgs becau.~e you have 10 value
everything in which you inyulve yourself"
Looking fur Ihe good in ('tll1ttJlII PII",l!r.
the Tomnto notive remembers the octllr.;
with whum she worked. "Tim Dunigan,
\\;ho was Caplaln Power. was n gTCai guy."
he remark . "We had so much fun beCilUM:
Ih re we would be. sillang in these
ridiculous ,uitli. We were all in pande and
high leather bOOls and gloves. lind we w re
vcrv on or Pm\'I!1' RUIII:l'ri 'h. We would
spend hour.; and hours on sel jusl boiling
hm Ir freel.ing cold in ur uils. and we had
a ho\\ I laughing al allihe silualions we
found u I e in. We had grealltmc.
When we would pow r on, I would go from
my faligu . which wen: prell 001. Dnd
..uddenl I would hn Ihe huge ,"'Unlcul
!!old hoob!.. Ihnl am OUI of nowhere. 1 W1l5
king. 'Whal happens when I pow~ron. 1
seem to have become Ihis robust gal ,
"We did II 'air amounl of itunlwork with
a 101 !!quib and e pIOlln)O.s . The
ompuler-generated images W~ very ditli­
cull. We had to d a 101 fblu screen ;tulT.
Peter Me elll Will Hawk and he would
ha I.' 10 spend day. slnlppi:d up lind 11 109
around in hiS !iUIt. He war danghnll from
Ihe ceiling for hours in fmnt of Ihls hlue
!I :ft.'!!n. II wa.o; painful \(I wlltch And Sven
Ole-Thorsen Ia.t; Tonk) WII) dressed In Ihls
huge c(I!ltume Just lik a lank. He wa. hilar­
ious. hUI he could harely muve. And we
always had 10 react to IheSt: nasty metallic
bird. III L()rd Dread·s. They would 11
around. wreaklOg havoc on U ' whilc we
Slo(ld lhere. fcarful or a liule lape •II' on a
grip' stand. W would cringe and have 10
freeze. II wo" hilariow . .
AI Ih serie..· end. Jenmfer "Pilol"
Chase wa.t; kIlled oil". WhIle fan were
U~I . Sleen was steeled for Ihe evenl
durin~ her whole Capta;It Pm"'r tenure. " I
knew from Ihe beginmng thai I WII. goang
10 dIe. and I WBII read ," she ays. "When I
Signed un. , . aid Ihal if I WIIS gllin,; to do
thi serie. , I wanted 10 be killed off allhe
firsl se "'ion' cnd.and lhey agreed, 1dldn' l
wanl \l C mmilmenl for five yeal'S. II WIIS
according 10 plan. It' jusllhal the tOYIi
dldn'l sell at Chrt bl1L'I and that Willi the
how'. nel. 100. 1 WII prepared rur the
d~lh. lind 1 liked the WoIY it happened, II
Wll very louchlng and heroic how Pilot
ru back an and Vel the wh< Ie bu.'Ie
camp. People were up!iel by II because I
wa.\ Ihe rm/\' regular aclor on Ihe how who
WII) female."
Art r 11:11 iog CClptmn P(III ('I'. tcen hod
II co- tarring role II~ LInda in Han/rlmnt.
Most people know her 'mm Ihal crillcally
acclaimed drama serie.... bul she
(lCca.'iiunaIly till run... Intu a Cllptllm P(IK'C'I'
fan. "I gave all my toys IIWI! jusl this pit I
year. 1 had a whole pile of Sluff and 1 Wit
moving. I saved a tuuple of my aclion
ligures. ThaI wa~ alw 'y. n hoot I me
because. of course. they wenl with lhe
. ilv r and big gold hoobs version of Pilol.
The show comes up Ilt lhe weirde.sl 11m .
You Jusl never knew whal people though I
!oince: Captam Pml"" wa yndicated and it
Wll. n' l a huge hit,"
 steen
(continlled jimn page 51 )
a new world and I don't know everything,
but I'm certainly trying to keep up."
Not everyone in the group reacts well to
the native creatures, while Julia naturally is
curious about them and respects their exis­
tence. "She has an absolute fascination
about them, especially in the pilot when we
see them and Morgan begins shooting. Julia
says, 'You idiot. We're the aliens here.' We
have to have respect for them. We come to
know through Alonzo's dreams that the
Terrians fear us because we've been there
before and they feel threatened. I see them as
being shamans and very much a part of the
Earth. They are very, very curious about us
initially, but the penal colonists being there
blew all our chances for an amiable first con­
tact. The Terrians are healers and are at one
with the Earth. They're in the food chain, the
web, and that's something that we aren't."
Although not all of Julia's equipment
made it safely to the planet, she does have a
few tools to help her treat the ill and injured.
Her chief tool is a diagnostic glove, which
gives vital signs and much more. "Gosh, the
glove does everything from dishes to win­
d0ws," Steen jokes. "It's the 'handy glove!'
What I know of the glove is that it can take a
heart ratc, pulse, EKG, temperature and test
for things. I do so much with it and yet often
times I find it doesn't speak to me. I know
that the fingers can scan, detect, tlnd, locate
and probe. It is just a fabulous, must-have,
don't-leave-home-without-it kind of thing,
and it does so much. Primarily, the glove is a
scanner of body functions and vital signs. It
also gave Morgan a jolt of electricity when
his heart was in arrest.
"I have a lot of other little gizmos that I
use to take skin samples and spinal fluids
and things. If someone has a virus, I have to
take samples for my fabulous microscope
that docs all sorts of fun things. And the
sedater comes in awful handy, too. We zap
all sorts of thiI1gs with it."
Future Soldier
Serving as a doctor is important to Steen,
but episodes dealing with Julia's undercover
government work have provided the actress
with a chance for the action and personal
drama she enjoys. ''I'm into ,[Ullts ano, ot
course, the drama too," she comments.
"That's why I've liked these couple of
shows. The decisions have been rough for
Julia and it has been intense. Although the
virtual reality stuff is very draining to do
because your eyeballs burn, it's hot and very
claustrophobic, it is the most focused work
that we've done. I like it. Terry O'Quinn
[who plays Reilly] and I have had lots of dia­
logue and interaction. That's what I really
like. I find it very diftlcult to do snippets of
things, because you have to keep the pace up
and it's all out of order. So, I've enjoyed the
stunts, Y.R. and the location shoots."
While she was a cast regular on the syn­
dicated SF series Captain Power and the
Soldiers of the Futllrc and now works on
Eartlt 2, the actress, who enjoys kayaking
and rock climbing, has never been a big fan
of the genre. ''I'm not an SF person by
nature," she admits. "The future is always
portrayed so negatively and bleak. It's all
angUlar, burnt-out, grey and metal. It almost
always looks like we blew it. That's the sci­
ence fiction part to me about Earth 2-that
we would get a second chance."
Thinking back to her days as Jennifer
"Pilot" Chase, one of the Soldiers of the
Future on Captain Pow('/', Steen has mixed
feelings. "Capf(Jin Power was a weird job
for me. I was young and I got bamboozled
into doing it. It was frustrating on an acting
level because we sometimes had the corniest
stuff to say. In many ways, I was angry
because I knew Captain Power was geared
toward children and it was going to make
piles of money at Christmas selling all these
interactive toys to all those kids. I felt there
was this huge moral obligation as TV pro­
gram makers, and as babysitters and teach­
ers. I felt guilty about shooting everybody all
the time and all that firepower. That made
me very uncomfortable. The Soldiers of the
Future were the faction out there trying to
get Lord Dread and all his nasties, and curb
all their actions. So, yes, we were the good
guys, but overall, it was a show about selling
toys, shooting and running around.
"I was amazed, once we were well into
production, the mail that I got from all over
the world, saying how my character was so
intluential, so important and how she had a
good impact on their daughters. It was such
a learning experience for me, because I'm
not a good sport about Cajitain Power. And
yet the mail showed people were seeing a
great deal of good in it, and they valued my
character because she tried to prevai I in this
situation. I was young, and it taught me to
see how valuable your work can be."
Thinking of the happier aspects of
Captain Power reminds her of Earth 2. "It's
a monumental undertaking to fathom what
an entirely different world would be like.
First, there arc the space stations, which are
our history and where we came from. That's
enough of a task in itself. but to go to a
whole new planet and try to see it for the
first time is a major task. What do you focus
on') The fatigue~ We must be exhausted
Irom wagoll-trallling along, walk ing and
carrying stuff, and packing and unpacking.
And then there's this constant awe of every­
thing we're seeing. It's so beautiful, so dif­
ferent."
For Jessica Steen, the biggest challenge
of Earth 2 is making a statement about the
condition of the original Earth and trying to
get people to change their habits before it's
too late. 'Tm in awe of the beauty in which
we work. This is Earth I and we still have a
chance to watch our step and clean up our
act. If we show enough beauty, maybe it'll'
become more important to the people who
cqunt." '*