10 Historical Figures That Appeared In Star Trek

Flint (presumably he got sick of choosing longer names) is an exceptional case when it comes to historical figures in Star Trek. Gifted or cursed, depending on your point of view, with instant tissue regeneration, Flint was immortal and had lived for thousands of years (born in Mesopotamia in 3834 BC) before the Enterprise caught up with him in The Original Series episode Requiem for Methuselah. Over the millennia, he had assumed a vast number of identities; he became some of the most noteworthy people in history.

Deep breath! As the episode states, Flint was Methuselah, King Solomon, Alexander the Great, Lazarus, Merlin, Leonardo da Vinci, Johannes Brahms, and might have been Reginald Pollack, Melozzo da Forlí, and Shakespeare (or he might have just nabbed a first folio). He claimed to have met Moses, Socrates, and Galileo, and, not content with that, in the first draft of the script he would have been Jesus, Picasso, and Beethoven.

Flint's quest for a love eternal led to a jealous showdown with Kirk, a broken android, and some serious starship shrinkage. In the end, Doctor McCoy discovered that, having left Earth, Flint had lost his immortality and was showing signs of ageing.

For a man who probably had the largest impact on Earth history of any singular human being, Flint is never mentioned again in Star Trek canon aside from an oblique reference by Captain Janeway in the Voyager episode Concerning Flight to Kirk claiming to have met da Vinci.