10 Actors You Didn't Know Were In Star Trek Twice

10. Ned Romero

Ned Romero is likely best known as Chakotay's grandfather in the Star Trek: Voyager episode The Fight, from season 5. The episode revolves around Chakotay's attempts to communicate with a race of aliens that exist in chaotic space. During a Native American vision quest ritual, Chakotay meets his grandfather, who the chaotic aliens have assumed the form of to warn him of the dangers of remaining in their realm.

Romero had previously played the Native American colonist Anthwara in the Next Generation episode "Journey's End", which saw Picard attempt to negotiate the fate of their colony with the Cardassians. It was an empathetic allegory for the treatment of Native Americans in contemporary US society, and inspired Wesley Crusher to leave Starfleet.

However, Ned Romero's links to Star Trek go back even further than that, all the way back to 1968. 29 years prior to his appearance in The Fight, Romero played the Klingon warrior Krell, who manipulated events on a primitive planet to gain an advantage for the Klingon Empire. His attempts to become leader of the planet were eventually foiled by Kirk and the native peoples.