10 Actors Who Appeared In Star Trek AND Battlestar Galactica
You know what they say - you can't spell 'frakkin' toaster' without 'Star Trek'!
All this has happened before. All this will happen again. That most memorable line from Battlestar Galactica (BSG) of the 2000s could not have been more apt for a series which was itself a reimagining of what had gone before in the late 1970s. Named 'the best thing on television' by Time Magazine mid-run in 2005, Battlestar Galactica (2003; 2004–2009) was, and is, a groundbreaking, standard-setting piece of art. The quality of the work owed in good part to its acting talent.
Over the years, much of that talent has criss-crossed with Star Trek. Battlestar reimagined was the brainchild of Next Gen, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager alum Ronald D. Moore and producer David Eick. Trek writers such as David Weddle, Bradley Thompson, and Michael Taylor also wrote for Battlestar. One shot of the refugee fleet in the mini-series even featured the original Enterprise NCC-1701 in the top right-hand corner.
The Trek connection doesn't end there. Edward James Olmos — aka William Adama — reportedly turned down the role of Jean-Luc Picard. Before that, director Leonard Nimoy had wanted him for Commander Kruge, but writer/producer Harve Bennett had other ideas. Battlestar Galactica equally had two, sadly short-lived, prequel series — Caprica and Blood & Chrome. There might be another list in there, too.
One Final thing. We will do our utmost to avoid the biggest spoilers, but like the humanoid Cylons themselves, some will inevitably slip through. Don't worry! Like that other memorable line, turned film, we have a plan… We'd better get frakkin' started!
10. Sam Witwer
In 2024, Sam Witwer had three separate roles in Star Trek. In the fifth season of Star Trek: Lower Decks, he played both Legnog — the faking-it Klowahkan food critic with all the plumage — and Malor — the hapless but extremely helpful Klingon, brother of Ma'ah. Then, in the best of anniversary surprises, Witwer was James T. Kirk himself, under an eerily good digital mask of William Shatner for OTOY and the Roddenberry Archive's 765874: Unification.
Before all that, Witwer had been equally unrecognisable beneath another kind of prosthetic as a Xindi Arboreal in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode The Shipment. Un-masked, many would soon come to know the Illinois-born actor's face as Lieutenant Alex Quartararo on Battlestar Galactica.
'Crashdown,' Quartararo's call-sign, or 'Crash' if you were familiar, was an officer of the Colonial Fleet who previously served aboard the Battlestar Triton. After the Fall, he became Raptor ECO (Electronic Countermeasures Officer) on Galactica. We first met him in season one's debut episode 33. Crashdown would go on to play a key role in the Colonials' continued survival and provide a look at their past. To tell you more than that would be to tell you more than you'd want to know.