By Nigel Powlson

MAURICE Roëves is the perfect guest for a cult TV convention being one of only a handful of actors to have featured in the big two sci-fi franchises Doctor Who and Star Trek.

"At one stage I was the only person," he says. "They are icons, legends, these kind of programmes, so to be part of them is, I guess, an honour."

That sci-fi double is why Maurice is a special guest at TV 2010, Quad's convention dedicated to the kind of small screen programmes that provoke fanboy fervour.

He will be joined by Nicola Bryant (Peri in Doctor Who); Ruth Boswell (writer and producer of Timeslip, The Tomorrow People and the Jukes of Piccadilly) and Steve Hardy and Andrew Thompson (both from Timeslip: Beyond The Barrier).

But Maurice has the top credentials having featured in Star Trek: The Next Generation and having played Stolz in Doctor Who: The Caves of Androzani (voted the Timelord's best adventure by the fans).

"It was the changeover episode from Peter Davison to Colin Baker and there was hardly a monster in it," says Maurice. "It was censored in Australia because of a scene on a cliff top they thought was a little bit to nasty

"I was in Star Trek 15 years ago and Doctor Who further back than that. And what's fascinating is that I'm getting letters from children who are watching it because their parents originally did and some of them prefer it to the modern ones.

"In Star Trek I played a Romulan or something like that. He was in it all the way through but invisible, you never saw him. But they phoned me up and said 'this guy has a speech to give to Patrick Stewart – he makes contact, a ray of hope'. It was a nice speech so I did it. Unlike over here, the Americans are great they treat you very well and pay you top whack. That's why I love working over there."

Maurice got the Hollywood call for films such as Michael Mann's Last of the Mohicans, starring Daniel Day Lewis and Judge Dredd. He's also played Matt Busby in a TV drama and was Jimmy Gordon in The Damned United. Which is perhaps why Maurice takes his cult claim to fame with a pinch of salt and admits that, personally, he prefers shows like Casualty. "I haven't seen any of the new Doctor Whos at all," he says. "They all seem to be more technical wizardry rather than about acting. It's like if you go and see Avatar – it looks fantastic because of the technical stuff they do but it's the same old story. It's just cowboys and Indians, the cavalry coming in at the end. It's an awful plot.

"Sadly there's not much on British TV to watch – you think 'where has the entertainment gone?' So I watch the American stuff. The best British series I saw recently was Casualty 1909 when they went back in time and did real cases. Great stories and terrific acting. I watched that faithfully. In fact I'm doing Casualty at the moment, unfortunately not the old fashioned sort but the current one. I'm a psycho who comes out of prison and has to go to hospital, a very nasty man. But I might have to give up on him. I don't like playing psychos."

In the meantime, he's expecting some tricky questions from ardent fans who probably know the shows better than he does.

"There's a convention in Birmingham in May," he says. "You have to be prepared to answer questions on anything sometimes very technical, which you really don't have answers to."

TV 2010 takes place on Saturday, March 20 at Quad.

First up is a Saturday Morning Picture Show (10am to 1pm, tickets are £6 (£5 concessions/Quad members).

The afternoon programme will include The Lost Worlds of ITV Children's Drama.

In the evening The Caves of Androzani will be screened from 8.30pm until late. Tickets for are £9 (£8). Whole-day tickets are £25 (£22).