Everybody's Favorite Alien: Frank Ashmore

By James Van Hise.

Returning from the grave is an action usually reserved for horror films but sometimes it happens to an actor on a television series. Such an occurrence is rare, although in a science fiction series it's a bit easier to pull off convincingly.

Kenneth Johnson created the original four hour V movie for television casting Frank Ashmore in the role of Martin, an alien who did not support the invasion of humanity.

"The response from the audience was strongest in the six-hour story, The Final Battle," Frank recalled. "I believe that was because it was more of an ensemble then and people looked at V as a total context. They really didn't separate the characters from it. They were viewing the four-hour miniseries as a whole unit and I think that was good for all of us." But the character of Martin almost didn't make it into The Final Battle at all.

"When it went into the six-hour sequel, Ken Johnson left the project and I suddenly found myself without a job. I didn't understand why. I went to the producer and talked to him about how strongly I felt about the character and how essential he was to the story. The producer and director both agreed that Martin was a viable character and that he should stay. So I continued along in the six-hour series when all of a sudden I started getting this tremendous onslaught of mail from fans. I had no idea that my character was having that kind of effect on people. On the original four-hour I got a little bit of mail, but no more than you would get if you were on a soap opera."

"In the six-hour it was incredible. I realized from that that people really did enjoy the fact that the aliens were neither black nor white-that there were gray areas there. There was an area that we could go into and explore where there was a soul and integrity. There was a need to understand right and wrong and allow your integrity to step in and dictate what moves you would make whether you were an alien or a human."

“I think that's really what the audience reacted to in Martin--the fact that he wasn't a blatant hero by any stretch of the imagination. His heroics came out of the fact that he was in a position where he just didn't believe in what was going down. He was going to do whatever he had to do to stop it. Once that was set into motion, the story pretty much propelled me as an actor to react the way I did and it seemed that the audience really took to it. That's why I'm back on the show. The audience demanded that the producers bring that element back."

A Double with a Difference

When the character of Philip, Martin's twin brother, is introduced, he seems to be a very staunch supporter of the alien cause. "However, he is an inspector general and he's there to inspect the circumstances around the death of Charles, which seem to be out of whack. He needs to find out what's going on, but he's also there to investigate the death of his brother. Philip is very much into justice and into making sure that his people's system of justice is maintained."

"It's only during his third episode that you discover that he does have some of the qualities of Martin and is capable of being sympathetic to humans. He's out to learn who killed his brother and Diana leads him to believe that it was Donovan."

"There's going to be a lot of conflict between Marc Singer's character and myself. It's only after a few episodes that Philip learns that Donovan and Martin were friends. Our relationship will take off from there and will probably be pretty much what Martin and Donovan experienced."

The difference this time is that Philip is a general. By being in a position of power, Philip has much more control than Martin ever did. "Because Philip will be in a better position to pass on information to the humans, it may be possible to develop storylines which go beyond the simple fact that we're always at war with one another. I think that with this device the storylines will be limited only to the imagination of the writers."

The End of Martin, The Beginning of Philip

The decision to write Frank Ashmore out of the series came from the group of writers gathered by producer Dan Blatt to work out the directions for the series. "A whole new group of people with new creative energy were brought in. They looked at what they had and saw Donovan, Ham Tyler, Diana, Julie and so on. And then they had this guy Martin who was an alien and an exposed traitor and they really didn't know how to write for him. They needed something, an impetus to move the action forward. They chose to use Martin as the catalyst for that to happen."

Ashmore recalled, "In the first episode Diana was going to trial when she was kidnapped. Martin finds her and wants her dead. He knows from his upbringing that when people do what Diana has done they're exterminated. That's just the way it's done. There's no fooling around with trials. Obviously they don't exist on that planet and he didn't want to see that happen with her. By allowing her to live he saw Donovan as weakening." "I think that it worked, although it took me out of the show. I did get the action going because Martin released Diana and she killed him."

Even after he was written out of the series, Ashmore still kept tabs on the show to see how it was developing. Watching the episode which introduced the brief reign of Charles allowed him to codify his thoughts about where the show had been going in his absence and where it could now go. “I thought that the action in that script came out of a viable situation. But I would like to see more close relationships begin to develop. In television that's all that we can really go for-the relationships-unless you're doing something like The A-Team or The Fall Guy, strictly action/adventure."

"V will ultimately work better when it is a show about relationships and the action comes out of people trying to cause an effect or affect a cause. Saving your water is what V is all about. That's a pretty scary thing when our resources are being taken away from us. That's the basis for the action."

Ashmore found the introduction of Charles to be a positive step in spicing up the character of Diana. "She's a wonderful villain, but now Diana has done about everything she can that's awful, scary and unpredictable. I think that Diana has to get the heck scared out of her somehow. If she's scared of something then she'll become that much more dangerous. Maybe that's the next step, next season."

With the show extended six more episodes beyond the initial thirteen we didn't have to wait for a next season to see the return of Frank Ashmore. Even he was surprised when he was invited to rejoin the series after his departure in episode one last October. "I really was surprised. They made the offer on December 22nd, so it was a really great Christmas gift."

Pretty Scary Stuff

What does Ashmore like in the way of entertainment?

"I like a good horror film. The last ones I saw were Psycho II and Terror in the Aisles. It had a lot of good footage from a lot of classic movies and it scared me. Alien was the ultimate effect. I'd never seen anything like it in my life. When that little bugger came out and ran across the table...That film has a great ensemble of actors reacting to this thing. John Hurt's performance was right-on!"

"As a kid I loved all of the classic horror films--Frankenstein and the werewolf. If I hadn't become an actor I probably would have gotten into makeup. As a kid I recreated Frank, the werewolf and the mummy at least twice for Halloween. Now I'm doing it again as a father. I have two sons, 9 and 12, and I get to go through all that again."

What do his sons think about the characters he plays on TV--particularly when one like Martin dies?

"They love Martin. They don't know anything about Philip yet, but they loved Martin and were very proud of him and were sorry to see him go. I explained to them that it's a character limited only by the time it takes to film and then it belongs to the public. It was kind of hard for the family to let go of the character."

With a love of horror films permeating his childhood, it should be no surprise that Ashmore appeared in one recently, Monster in the Closet, which is now being edited for release within the year. "I don't think it's ever explained where this monster comes from but he has a thing about closets. He hides in them. There's a real thin line which runs through this story, though. For instance, the monster takes off for San Francisco and in the end, rather than capturing the leading lady, he...well, you'll see. They don't hammer you over the head with it but it's cute."

When the Fans Are Heard

Ashmore doesn't want the bottom line reason for his being back overlooked. "I'm back because the fans voted. They took the time to write to the network and the producers and voice their opinions about something that neither I nor the producers knew existed. Sometimes you're so involved with a project that you don't know the soul that's being created. They liked Martin and I hope that they're going to get the same from Philip. It will definitely be different and perhaps even stronger. That's where the producers and I are heading."

On March 1, NBC announced that V was cancelled.

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