Display MoreThere's some fun news about the upcoming fourth season of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds today. Trek Central reports that Wing Commander veteran Saffron Burrows will play a character named Cassel. Burrows played Angel in the Wing Commander movie, delighting all. We'll let you know when her episode airs!
That got me thinking: what other actors have appeared in both Wing Commander and Star Trek? Here's the list of the ones we came up with! First up, the easy one: everyone knows that Malcolm McDowell played Admiral Tolwyn in Wing Commanders III, IV and Academy and that he played Captain Kirk's killer, Dr. Soran, in Star Trek: Generations.
The 'other' Admiral Tolwyn was a Star Trek regular, too. David Warner played Rhinehart in Privateer 2 and Admiral Tolwyn in the 1999 Wing Commander movie. In Star Trek, he was kidnapped Federation ambassador St. John Talbot in Star Trek V, the doomed Klingon Chancellor Gorkon in The Undiscovered Country and Gul Madred in Star Trek: The Next Generations' Chain of Command (6x10 & 6x11), the Cardassian interrogator who tortures Captain Picard.
John Rhys-Davies was Paladin in Wing Commander III and IV and he played the holographic Leonardo da Vinci in two episodes of Star Trek Voyager (3x26 "Scorpion" and 4x11 "Concerning Flight").
Michael Dorn played series regular Worf on Star Trek: The Next Generation (and his ancestor Colonel Worf in Star Trek VI) and later seasons of Deep Space Nine. He voiced the Warrior King on Wing Commander Academy's "Recreation".)
Jeremy Roberts (no relation to Chris) played space marine Dekker in Wing Commanders IV and Prophecy. He played Excelsior crewman Valtane in Star Trek VI and returned to that role in Star Trek Voyager's Flashback (3x02). He also played a renegade Jem'Hadar on Deep Space Nine's Hippocratic Oath (4x04)!
Richard Riehle played Pliers in Wing Commander IV and three different Star Trek characters! He's Captain Picard's friend Batai in The Inner Light (TNG 5x25), holographic villager Shamus on Voyager (6x11 "Fair Haven" and 6x17 "Spirit Folk") and a human scientist studying augments on Enterprise (4x05 "Cold Station 12" and 4x06 "The Augments").
Robert Rusler played Seether in Wing Commander IV and Orgoth, the pilot that Captain Archer tortures, on Star Trek Enterprise's Anomaly (3x02).
John Schuck played Hobbes in Wing Commander III and he was Star Trek royalty! He played the Klingon ambassador in Star Trek IV and VI, a Cardassian Legate on Deep Space Nine's The Maquis Part 2 (3x22), part of an alien chorus on Star Trek Voyager (6x22, "Muse") and the Klingon doctor responsible for making the TOS Klingons so smooth on Enterprise (4x15 "Affliction" and 4x16 "Divergence").
Ron Perlman is pretty famous today but at the start of his career he did several voices on Wing Commander Academy, including Daimon Karnes, Drak nar Kulrag and an unnamed Kilrathi commander. He played the Reman Viceroy in Star Trek Nemesis.
Michael Cavanaugh plays Captain DeSoto in Star Trek The Next Generation's Tin Man (3x20). He's Dr. Clivers, the Telamon scientist in Wing Commander IV.
Saxon Trainor played Lieutenant Larson on Star Trek The Next Generation's The Nth Degree (4x19); she tries to stabilize the Argus Array when it is attacked. She played the Circe V Comm Specialist who appears ever so briefly in Wing Commander IV.
Joel Polis played the Telamon Citizen who meets you when you laned in Wing Commander IV. He played Ny Terla on Star Trek Voyager's Time and Again (1x04), a local who helps Captain Janeway.
Richard Garon played Ensign Bennet, a doomed redshirt on Star Trek Voyager's Innocence (2x22). He played Confed Redshirt #1 (far left) in the Wing Commander IV introduction.
And then Suzanne Ircha played Confed Redshirt #4 in the same scene. She played a go-go dancer in Deep Space Nine's Our Man Bashir (4x10).
Scott McElroy played a Federation security officer in Deep Space Nine's "The Darkness and the Light"... and in Wing Commander IV he killed Vagabond as Com Base Guard #3!
Linda Li was a background extra on Star Trek Voyager. She appears in Alter Ego (3x14) and Favorite Sun (3x20) as well as as a violin player at the start of Star Trek Insurrection. She played "Lisa" in Wing Commander Prophecy, the bubbly extra pilot often seen in the lounge.
And here's a strange half example: prop maker Chris Bergschneider constructed the alien relic that Captain Picard's mentor gives him in "The Chase"... and then he went on to play Melek in Wing Commander IV!
Some people remember Tom Wilson being on Voyager. He wasn't on the show but he did appear in a role in the popular Voyager "Elite Force" computer game!
Finally, we have to admit that Chuft-Captain from Star Trek The Animated Series' "The Slaver Weapon" appears in the original Wing Commander as Dakhath Deathstroke.
