Age: 60
male
Neal McDonough was trained at the London Academy of Dramatic Arts and Sciences. His theatre credits include 'Cheap Talk', 'Foreigner', 'As You Like It', 'Rivals', 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', 'Bald Soprano', and 'Waiting for Lefty'. The young actor won a 1991 Best Actor Dramalogue Award for 'Away Alone'. McDonough has been a 'Star Trek' fan since he was a kid. Playing Lieutenant Hawk in 'Star Trek First Contact' was a life-long dream. McDonough has three pictures on his bedroom wall. One is a picture of his mom, the other is the Holy Virgin Mary, and the third is William Shatner as Captain Kirk. He has numerous television credits including 'NYPD Blue', 'Quantum Leap', and the voice of Bruce Banner in the animated series 'The Incredible Hulk' among others. He graduated Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1988.
William Mandella is a physics student conscripted for an elite task force in the United Nations Exploratory Force being assembled for a war against the Taurans, an alien species discovered when they apparently attacked human colonists' ships. The UNEF ground troops are sent out for reconnaissance and revenge. The elite recruits have IQs of 150 and above, are highly educated, healthy, and fit. Training is grueling – first on Earth and later on a planet called "Charon" beyond Pluto (written before the discovery of the actual planetoid). Several of the recruits die during training due to the extreme environments and the use of live weapons. The new soldiers complete training and immediately depart for action via interconnected "collapsars" that allow ships to cover thousands of light-years in a split second. However, crucially, traveling to and from the collapsars at near-lightspeed has enormous relativistic time effects.
