Straight.com posted a report of TNG actors Marina Sirtis and Michael Dorn panel at the Fan Expo Vancouver 2012 and here are excerpts.

On Trek fans


Dorn: "The first season, before the show even aired, I think we were doing this publicity…and there was a lot of hostility. And we were like going, 'We're just actors on a TV show. What are you talking about?' 'Who do you think you are? Do you think you're Spock ? Who do you think you are? What are you supposed to be?' There was really this kind of animosity about it."

Sirtis: "The older fans who were fans of the original show were not happy that we were coming along. They were like, 'We are quite content watching our heroes in syndication' and 'How dare you?' And the most frequent question that we were asked by the press was 'Who's the new Spock?' And we're like, 'Well, actually, we don't have a Spock. There is no new Spock.' And they just couldn't get their heads past that. It took about two years actually to get the adoration that we fortunately get now."

On screenwriters

Sirtis: "The one thing I learned doing TNG , I would often say to the writers, 'What does Troi do when she's not on duty? I mean, we know she works out. Duh. What else does she do?' And they would say, 'Well, what do you want her to do?' And I would say, 'Well, I'm an actress. You know, I just show up and say my lines. You're the writers. Think of something.' That was wrong. The people who got a lot of interesting stuff to on Star Trek —people like Brent [Spiner, who played Data], people like Bob Picardo—they actually would think of stuff and take it to the writers. And now I realize that the writers are so rushed off their feet having to write all these scripts every week that they really appreciate a little input from the actors. So that it is a lesson that I've learned. If and when I do another series, I will definitely contribute a lot more."