"The opportunity to be such a changeling is an incredibly rare event in an actor’s life," Armstrong says. "The aliens in STAR TREK have always been so rich and intricately related to our own human frailties. The chance to live in so many different skins and brains is and hearts is such a blessing. This actors dream!"

He says his face is one who fans may recognize in Forrest, but may not be able to place.

"People are often surprised when I tell them I’ve done more different characters on the various STAR TREK series than any other actor," he says. "They see me as Admiral Forrest and, if they are avid fans of Star Trek, know they have seen me before but often don’t know where."

In his first role, Armstrong played a ferocious Klingon in "Heart of Glory."

"My first character was in Next Generation," the actor recalls. "I was the first Klingon on that show other than Worf. I like to think I was the prototype for all that followed."

In DEEP SPACE NINE Armstrong played different Cardassian charcters: 'Gul Danar' in "Past Prologue" and 'Glen Seskal" in season seven's "When It Rains..." and "The Dogs of War."

"I must say, I think I succeeded in finding the character of the second Cardassian more than I succeeded with the first one. In the first, I played Gul Danar far too much like a Klingon. I understood the elite egotism that comsumes the Cardassians in the second character a little better. I believe Glen Seskal, my second Cardassian, was less strained and more conniving than the first. I also had a great, fiery death scene as Seskal. Those are always fun."

On VOYAGER he played a Romulan, a Vidiian, an ex-Borg and a Hirogen. The latter was particularly daunting.

"An interesting breed," he remembers affectionately. "Their instinctive ability to hunt was a great fantasy to pursue. The make-up of the Hirogen has bumps all over the head that look much like the scales of a Lizard. I imagined that those were part of how we evolved as hunters, that each of the bumps had a different function, a different sensory duty. Scientists think that the scales on an iguana may actually absorb nutrients from the sun. I kept that in mind as I placed importance to the individual scales. I thought one might sense electronic devices, one might sense lies, one might sense fear. It added to the depth of the character."

Although he's now been playing Admiral Forrest for two years on ENTERPRISE, he also managed to play a Klingon in "Sleeping Dogs" and then a new species--a Kreetassan--in "A Night In Sickbay."

"I see great possibilities for them," he says of the aliens with quite exotic makeup. "The make-up for all the aliens helps me to discover who they are. The make-up for the Kreetassan was incredible. Lot’s of evolutionary material for me to play with. The make-up for this alien took 6 /12 hours to apply. And believe it or not, just when it was done, just when I stepped out of the trailer, the producers came to me with the news that they were running behind and would not be able to get to my scenes that day. I would have to take it off and start again the next day. A buck is a buck."

For much more from Armstrong on his various characters visit this page.