For most actors, recording their voice for use in a video game is just another job. For some, however, it’s more of an adventure. Or at least their chance to be in one. Such is the case with actor Tim Russ, who  plays Tuvok on Star Trek Voyager and in the new game, Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force. 

Believe it or not, Russ is more computer literate than you might suspect.  He plays flight sims and other games on his computer. “On occasion I’ve played such war strategy games as Command & Conquer,” the amiable actor explains, “but I mostly play flight sims like F18 Hornet and Apache Helicopter.”

An admitted sci-fi buff, Russ counts Stephen King, Arthur C. Clark, and Greg Bear among his favorites writers, Alien as one of his favorite movies, astronomy as a hobby, and “planetary travel” as a fantasy. He even had a part in Mel Brook’s sci-fi spoof Space Balls, though he’s also had roles in such non-science fiction films as Bird, Crossroads, and Night Eyes II.

In addition, Russ is also an accomplished guitarist and singer who recently released an eponymously-titled album he recorded with Neil Norman’s Cosmic Orchestra, who are best known for doing the music for Star Trek. But ultimately it was his love of games that made his involvement in Elite Force that much sweeter.

Even so, the Trek vet does admit that it could be a while before he plays the game himself. “I’d like to play it,” he admits, “but I’ll have to wait until they have a Macintosh version.”   Last week Russ sat down with GameSlice’s Greg Edwards to discuss what it was like to lend his vocal talents to Elite Force.

You’ve been playing the part of Tuvok on Voyager for years now, but for the game you just had to do the voice. Was there a big difference?

Well, because I was playing my own character, there wasn’t a lot mystery as to how the character worked. However, you don’t have your face to show your expression, so you have to focus on that a lot harder and have to use your voice to show emotions.

How much work was actually involved? Was it something you just did on your lunch hour?

[The game] is a space age version of a SWAT team, and since Tuvok is the team leader, he’s basically the main character of the piece. So there was a lot dialog, which took a lot of time to record.

Did you have any input on the look of the character? Like if they gave Tuvok a bad haircut, could you have said something?

(laughs) Well, there was no way they were going to do that because they wanted to get the characters to look real. But I certainly would’ve commented if they had done something silly.

Did the other stars of Voyager do the voices of their characters as well?

Yes, most of the other actors on the cast did their voices too. Though we did them all individually. You can’t get us to do anything at the same time (laughs).

Have you had the chance to play the game at all?

I have. It’s very tough, and very intense. The way the story is structured, there’s times when you have to make decisions where one option is only slightly better than the other, and it’s a moral choice more than anything else.