If you’re a Trekkie, you might have heard Canadian actress Clare McConnell’s name from her appearance in three episodes of the first season of “Star Trek: Discovery” (2017), as the Klingon character, Dennas.
And if you’re a fan of the long-running CBC period show “Murdoch Mysteries,” you will probably recognize her as series regular Effie Newsome, an attorney and now the wife of Const. George Crabtree.
Fans of both franchises will likely be excited to hear that McConnell is a special guest at Sudbury Graphic-Con, which runs tomorrow, June 24. There will be a Q&A with McConnell on the main stage starting at 2:45 p.m.
McConnell, as well as Graphic-Con’s other special guest, actor Harlan Blayne Ktywayhat (who you may remember from the Letterkenny spinoff “Shoresy,” which is filmed in Greater Sudbury), will be available for autographs and photos with fans.
Sudbury.com recently caught up with McConnell prior to her appearance at Graphic-Con. She said this is her very first fan convention as a guest, so she’s pretty excited.
“I’m honoured, and so excited to meet everyone,” she said.
McConnell, who comes from Calgary, is an alumna of the Toronto company The Second City, and received a Canadian Comedy Award nomination for best breakout artist at the Canadian Comedy Awards in 2017.
Besides the notable roles mentioned above, she has appeared in the TV series “Wynonna Earp,” “Coroner,” “American Gods,” “Killjoys,” “Nurses,” “Hudson & Rex” and “Slasher,” and the films “This Is What It Sounds Like Falling Out of Love with You,” “Dim the Fluorescents” and “Stealing School,” and the web series “Avocado Toast.”
McConnell admits she’d never really watched any of the Star Trek iterations growing up, but she started watching it after she got cast.
She said “Star Trek: The Next Generation” is her favourite Trek franchise (“there’s something so comforting about it,” McConnell said), and her favourite captain is accordingly TNG’s Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
Her favourite Klingon comes from her own Trek franchise, Discovery — L’Rell, played by Mary Chieffo.
McConnell said she was cast as Dennas after auditioning for the role in Toronto, where the TV shoot was later held. It was the first TV gig she ever booked.
“I didn't know what I was going out for,” she said. “They sent along a scene about calling people into battle, and I just got really lucky and was given the opportunity.”
Referring to the fact that Klingons are usually of a tall stature, McConnell said “I don't think it hurt that I'm six feet tall.”
Wearing Klingon prosthetics, McConnell wouldn’t be recognizable as Dennas to fans of her very human Murdoch character, Effie Newsome. “I think if someone did, I'd be a little bit concerned,” she said.
Asked about the notoriously uncomfortable Klingon prosthetics, McConnell said “it's constricting in one way, but it's also really liberating, because you look in the mirror and you don't see yourself, which is such a treat as an actor, to fully be able to transform.”
While not a veteran of conventions, McConnell said she’s had other encounters with Trek fans.
“I've been really lucky to meet them outside of conventions, just at other events, and they are consistently the warmest, loveliest people,” she said. “I really think that the morals of the franchise are so strong and inclusive and just bringing really, really special people.”
In terms of “Murdoch Mysteries,” McConnell, who first appeared on that show in season 12, is now in the middle of filming season 17.
“I was only booked for two episodes initially, so every year I just feel more and more lucky to be a part of that show,” she said. “I was so excited to join the cast even just for those two episodes, because a lot of my family have been watching the show for years.”
With “Murdoch Mysteries” known for its strong, intelligent female characters, McConnell said Effie’s uncompromising nature is both her strength and her weakness.
“I think that playing that character has helped me to understand that part of myself a little bit better,” she said.
Asked what’s next for Effie and her honey-bun George, McConnell said the writers always come up with unexpected things, but she hopes that the couple will “get to enjoy being newlyweds for at least a few episodes.”
Another female “Murdoch Mysteries” series regular, Dr. Julia Ogden, ended up having a baby on the show when the actress who plays her, Hélène Joy, had a baby in real life.
“I can guarantee that that won't be happening” with Effie, McConnell laughs. “There will be no true to life.”
With “Murdoch Mysteries” being such a long-running show, the cast and crew are very much a family. It’s “pretty magical” to work with people who have developed relationships over, in some cases, 17 years.
“It's very rare in this industry to have any kind of stability,” McConnell said.”You kind of build these little families, and they break apart at the end of the run of a play or at the end of a season and don't ever renew.”
The show’s set at a back lot in Scarborough has become equally storied, with the early 20-century police station having become filled over the years with case files and newspapers from the episodes, giving it an authentically cluttered look.
McConnell said it’s a truism that appearing on “Murdoch Mysteries” is almost a rite of passage if you’re a Canadian actor, and it’s always fun when friends come on the show, and she gets to play host.
Connecting “Murdoch Mysteries” back to Trek, fellow Canadian actor William Shatner, Captain James T. Kirk himself, has actually appeared on “Murdoch” as well, playing author Mark Twain on the season 9 episode “Marked Twain.”
If you’d like to take in Graphic-Con, the event runs Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Sudbury Community Arena.
Besides the special guests described above, the event will feature around 90 exhibitors and a number of panel discussions, including forums on BIPOC in the arts and art and mental health.
Cosplay groups, including those depicting Star Trek’s Klingons, as well as Star Wars characters, will be taking part in the event. People are also invited to wear their own cosplay gear, and there will be a cosplay contest.
Organizer Neil Stephen (better known as the Klingon 'IwnoH, when he’s in his cosplay gear) said Graphic-Con has not been held since 2019, before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I'm very excited about the fact that we're now in a position to be able to relaunch Sudbury Graphic-Con and bring this event back to the city,” he said, adding that he’s also excited to bring the aforementioned special guests to the event.
Purchase tickets online here or at the Sudbury Community Arena box office.
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s associate content editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.