[Kenneth] What is it like to be a part of this family?
It has a lot of meaning to me.
I was one of the very first people cast on the show.
And right from the get-go, I knew I was a part of something special.
[theme music playing]
My name is Kenneth Alexander Mitchell III.
We joke around on set with Jonathan Frakes.
He likes saying all three names.
And I always go, "The III."
I play four different characters on Star Trek: Discovery.
And I voiced a couple of things on the animated series.
I played Klingon general leader Kol.
I played his father, Kol-Sha.
I played Tenavik,
the keeper of the Time Crystals.
The pillar of the past.
And I play Aurellio, brilliant scientist who worked for the Chain.
I cannot believe this is 900-year-old technology.
[man 1] I've been in the business for 31 years.
And I've never worked with somebody with such spirit and tenacity.
[man 2] I was lucky in season one when James ask me to lead the makeup.
I did two characters with Kenneth.
We have him in the chair and experience how into the characters he was
and much he wanted to make that performance come through the makeup.
I mean, I love him.
Should be louder, right?
[Hugo] Just to see him up there and bring that character to life was so great.
Who is that?
You speak Klingon. Show yourself!
[Kenneth] Your instinct on television is to be small
and the camera will pick up your motions,
but in this case, you really need to go bigger,
almost like a stage play or an opera,
to really emote and get your emotions across.
I kind of try to give him a physicality,
like give myself permission to tilt my head and be on time
and move my hands to really make gestures.
And I think that really helped, you know, bring his power across.
[roars]
I was actually thinking about the very first moment
that I heard Ken speak as Kol.
Ken and Shazad and I met at Shazad's apartment.
I think maybe we ran it once in English, just to be like, "Okay, that's the scene."
"Okay, let's just stand it up and play around
and use our Klingon voices."
[in Klingon]
Ken just starts: [grunting as Kol] You know, the Kol voice.
Kol is like:
[in deep voice] "You wish to meet your death as your captain did.
Well, I admire your loyalty."
I accept your challenge, human.
[in normal voice] And then Kol-Sha, he would say those same lines.
He'd be more like:
[in deeper voice] "I admire your loyalty.
And I accept your challenge, human."
[in normal voice] There's some distinctions in there.
As you see in the show with Kol, Kol-Sha, Tenavik,
all of the characters that he's created in the Klingon world are so distinct
and so very Klingon in their own beautiful way.
Star Trek...
it's been there for me.
I'm not going to abandon the things that make me who I am
because of the future.
It contains an ending that...
I hadn't foreseen for myself.
I honor you, captain.
[Kenneth] In 2018, I...
I was diagnosed with ALS.
[dramatic music playing]
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
It is a neurodegenerative disease.
Which...
affects your motor neurons.
And, um... they are dying off.
And they affect your ability to use your body muscles...
including your diaphragm and your throat.
Um...
So...
I have... experienced...
so much...
um...
emotionally and...
physically...
over the last two years.
[woman 1] He's inspiring us, the way he's handled it...
with such love and light and gratitude.
Um...
You know, I think we all watch, and we can only hope to...
you know... be like that one day.
Um...
And, you know, we love the fact that he's been able to come back
and do what he loves and do what he's been gifted to do.
Play File 73 for Invigilator Aurellio.
[opera music playing over speakers]
Thank you.
[woman 2] We really wanted to bring him back this season.
It was just a matter of finding the right thing for him.
By the time we were able to bring him on in the character of Aurellio,
it was a bit more challenging for him to walk by that point
and there was no hesitation on this end.
The question was just, "How do we make this possible for Ken?"
I'm so proud of the response of everyone on our production team in Toronto.
Mario, our props guru, came out to Los Angeles
and worked with Ken in person so that we could custom-build a wheelchair
that would allow him to get around on set and be this character
and just focus on playing the character
and doing what he needed to do emotionally as Aurellio.
So, uh, Michelle and Tunde, just imagine I'm not here.
[Michelle] When the VFX is done, it will look like it's floating.
[Mario] I knew that I wanted him more eye level
as opposed to what we see as traditional wheelchairs.
So I pushed for this more of a standing position
and that led to some challenges, balance.
A lot of pressure on my shins against it.
-[Mario] Okay. -I feel like throughout the day...
-[Mario] You'll start going down. -Start to maybe hurt.
One of the main features about it is that it actually is custom-designed
to Kenneth Mitchell's shape.
I took a skeleton frame of this shape to a scan facility, and he sat in that chair.
We did some adjustments, made sure it was sort of comfortable
and actually scanned him in that frame, and then we modeled the prop.
What we discovered at that meeting was
the more he was cinched into the chair, the more comfortable it was,
so we actually built the rig,
the upper part here around a Steadicam rig.
So when you see Steadicam operators really cinching themselves in
to hold the camera rigs on, this is all that piece.
So this all cinches in around him, tucks him right up and in.
And then all these pieces are just built to his legs,
and they push him right back up and in.
-We're in. Okay, you are secure. -[Kenneth] Yeah.
And we've got a little air plug here and that pumps up the back,
so it gives him a nice tight squeeze there on the lower lumbar
and into the stomach.
-Lumbar. -Lumbar support time.
We were afforded the time by Production to really get it right.
So we actually had multiple fittings with him
in the chair as it was being painted, as it was being, you know, wired up.
We were able to learn a lot of things through those fittings on comfort level.
Just getting his hands to the right distance from where his elbows were
was a little bit of trial and error.
But he's now able to sit in this thing for most of the day.
-All right, let's go on set. -[woman 1] Okay, one second.
-Just gotta pull it in... -Well done, team.
-[man] Cheers. -Hey, uh, Team Aurellio.
-[Mario] We'll use less people next time. -[chuckles]
Uh, Kenneth named the chair "Frakes."
-[woman 2] Oh, I like it. -Yeah.
[Jonathan] Action, please.
He wanted to be back on the show and recognizable as himself.
I think so his kids could see him.
And... he's a fabulous actor.
And he's so handsome.
And it's so great to see him without all that plastic on his head.
You communicate with the spores.
That's how you navigate the Mycelial network, isn't it?
His name is Hugh. He's still inside the Verubin Nebula.
[man 3] It's really special.
And he's a wonderful actor, and to get the chance to see his face
and his eyes as they look, not covered...
I'm gonna remove the neural locks.
There's no need for such things amongst scientists.
It makes it hard for me to ask you questions.
[Anthony] When I read that script and learned that he was playing that role,
I felt so fortunate that I got to play those scenes with him.
And it also says so much to me about Alex Kurtzman as a human being
with his sense of loyalty, his sense of, um, integrity.
I won't let it happen, Ossyra.
[man 4] He did a wonderful job.
It keeps coming back to the same theme, which is you make connections
with your cast members and then you figure out how to build them
and the things that they are into the stories
and into the characters they play.
Ken is heroically managing with ALS,
and we talked about differently-abled representation on-screen.
And we thought, "Let's build that into a character."
And how interesting, that when you think of the future
where you imagine there's no disease in the future, right?
That medicine has reached a place where you can cure anything.
That there still may be things that have to be faced down.
[Kenneth] It's not lost on me
that the themes of the show of hope and discovery,
inclusion, love,
that's where my life sits right now, with science.
And I feel like I'm surrounded by this...
incredible blanket
of love and support and warmth.
And I am proud to collaborate
with all of these people and to give back.
[opera music playing over speakers]
The man is brilliant. He's a brilliant pal.
He's a brilliant friend.
He's a brilliant husband. He's a brilliant actor.
And, uh, the brilliance that he brings to the television is unforgettable.
If you take the crystal, your fate will be sealed forever.
You speak Klingon.
Show yourself.
I'm very, very lucky to call him my friend.
[Michelle] Just as a person in the world, he means a lot to all of us.
We really love him and value him,
not just as an artist for what he brings onto the screen
but for the person that he is.
And the way he's been moving through
this massive shift in his own life is, um...
I mean, I don't even know the words for it.
He's just, um...
He's moving through it in...
In ways that I don't know that I would be.
The strength that it takes to do that,
just in himself and with a family and kids...
I wanted to tell a story about my son.
My son's name is Kallum.
And my daughter is Lilah.
They too have been introduced to the Star Trek world.
Seeing their dad, uh,
plaster up Klingon all over the house so he can memorize his lines.
My son mimicking the sounds.
He'd be like: [speaking in Klingon]
Wielding a foam bat'leth that we have around the house.
But it's been really beautiful seeing their connection to Star Trek as well.
And the meanings and the themes behind it.
Think about "live long and prosper."
What does it mean?
And my son and I would, uh...
say it to each other right before bed.
When I got diagnosed with ALS,
I still would walk my son to school every day.
[dramatic music playing]
Uh...
Yeah. The poor fellow, I mean...
He's too young to...
fully understand, you know.
And that's okay, it's, um...
When I would say goodbye to him and hug him at the door...
and he would go put his stuff in the cubby...
And he would, uh, always run over to the window.
And I'd meet him there.
We'd put our hands up on the glass
and say, "Live long and prosper."
And smile.
And he'd go back to school.
And I'd walk home...
with a heart full of love.
Sometimes there'd be tears, but that's okay, it just...
It gives me hope.
Children are so beautiful that way.
Star Trek gives me hope.
I love it so much.
There's so much hope and fight out there
and inspiration,
that I just soak it all up.
And every once in a while,
I will adhere to the Klingon culture and philosophies...
[speaking in Klingon]
Which is, "Today is a good day to die."
But...
I think that really means is just, you know, fill yourself with honor
and face the moment...
fearless and with love and passion.
And so even though those two things,
"Live long and prosper" and "Today is a good day to die,"
there's a dichotomy between the two of them.
Somehow I feel...
part of both of them.
[dramatic music playing]