From his wonderful villainy as the Romulan Tomalak in various memorable episodes of Star Trek - The Next Generation, to his effortless, captivating, glorious performance as Ambassador G’Kar in Babylon 5, Andreas Katsulas always managed to turn his rich, evocative voice, and his passionate acting style into creating characters that will live on for a long time in the memory of many people.
The best memorial I can give him is to share the lovely preamble to the Alliance Declaration of Principles (which I’ve slightly edited for length), given incredible weight by Katsulas’ goosebump-raising narration as G’Kar, from the B5 episode The Paragon of Animals. As G’Kar, he gave voice to the ideals that we all strive for…and we need many more such voices in today’s violent world. Thank you, Andreas, from a thousand fanboys and girls of the mid-1990s…you gave voice to so many passions, ideas, and characters — all of which were equally wonderful. Rest peacefully.
The Universe speaks in many languages, but only one voice.
It speaks in the language of hope; it speaks in the language of trust,
It speaks in the language of strength and the language of compassion. It is the language of the heart and the language of the soul, but always…it is the same voice.
It is the voice of our ancestors, speaking through us, and the voice of our inheritors, waiting to be born.
It is the small, still voice that says: we are one.
No matter the blood, no matter the skin, no matter the world…we are one
No matter the pain, no matter the darkness, no matter the loss, no matter the fear…we are one.
Here, gathered together in common cause, we agree to recognise this singular truth and this singular rule: that we must be kind to each other.
Because each voice enriches us and ennobles us and each voice lost diminishes us.
We are the voice of the Universe, the soul of creation, the fire that will light the way to a better future.
We are one.
