Star Trek Memories by Whoopi Goldberg

I was reading the article in TrekToday in which Goldberg talks about her role as Guinan in Star Trek: The Next Generation and in fact, that is the last character Gene Roddenberry ever wrote for the Star Trek series. I have heard her interviewed in the past about her strong desire to be part of TNG, but at the time, the producers did not take it seriously until she got on the phone and said she really was interested. From the article:

But those in charge of The Next Generation weren’t keen initially on having her at first. “When I got the opportunity, I asked to be part of it. But they were like ugh, they don’t wanna … The person I asked was LeVar Burton because he was doing it. I said, ‘Tell them I wanted to do it very much,’ and told them all the reasons. He said OK.”But it took a while before Goldberg got her chance. “A year went by and nothing happened. When I saw [Burton] next I said, ‘What happened?’ ‘They didn’t believe me.’ I said, ‘Give me the phone number,’ and I called them. We had a meeting with Gene Roddenberry who asked me the same question you just did (what drew her to Star Trek). I told them the same thing I told you. I never thought about it that way. So he wrote the last character that he wrote for me, and that’s how it happened.”

The episodes I like the most with the character Guinan are "Time´s Arrow" and Yesterday´s Enterprise and I have to say, Yesterday´s Enterprise has to be one of my favorite episodes of TNG.