10 Actors Who Appeared On Star Trek In Unusual Ways
3. Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking's appearance in Star Trek is unusual in that he is, to date, the only person to ever appear in Star Trek who plays themselves on-screen. His fellow holograms in his scene with Data, Sir Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, were shockingly played by actors.
His guest-starring role came about while he was due to tour Paramount Studios on the promotional tour for his book, A Brief History of Time.
During his tour, he asked to visit the Star Trek: The Next Generation set. He was helped into the Captain's Chair, after which he commented that it was 'a lot more comfortable, and a lot more powerful' than his own chair. While touring the Main Engineering set, he looked at the warp core and quipped 'I'm working on that.'
After this visit, he asked if he could appear on the show. Naran Shankar recalled that there was a lot of pondering on set as to how best to write the most profound scene for him to appear in. Eventually, the poker game won. Brent Spiner recalled working with Hawking as being one of his favourite experiences in all of Star Trek.
Hawking was even able to get some jabs in at Einstein. When he reveals his winning hand, he gloats 'Wrong again, Albert,' which alludes to the fact that Hawking had disproved several of Einstein's theories in the course of his career.