10 Historical Figures That Appeared In Star Trek

In an example of the snake eating its own tail, and performing some triolic transformation tricks, Samuel Clemens (i.e., Mark Twain), known for his interest in science and technology as well as his love-hate relationship with humanity, appears in The Next Generation episodes Time's Arrow Parts One and Two. In part two, the character of Twain makes reference to his novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, a precursor of the time travel genre, the plot of which the TNG episodes replicate and reverse somewhat by having the future come to the 19th century, and then Twain visit the 24th. Jerry Hardin, who played Clemens, was so enamoured with the role that he toured his own one-man show about the author for years.

Clemens' work is mentioned further in episodes of Voyager such as Spirit Folk, and various characters across the series and films (Picard, Kassidy Yates, and The Doctor in Seven of Nine's body) paraphrase what is already a slight misquote of the author: "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." Twain, in fact, said, as he was originally cited in the New York Journal in 1897, "The report of my death was an exaggeration".

Clemens is not the only renowned American writer to appear in Time's Arrow. Jack London (real name John Griffith Chaney), probably best known for his novel The Call of the Wild, also features as the inquisitive bellboy who obtains all sorts of items for Data.

The two-parter also stars Star Trek alum Alexander Enberg, who would go on to play the Vulcan Ensign Taurik in TNG and Ensign Vorik on Voyager, as the budding reporter, and Marc Alaimo (of Dukat fame) as Frederick La Rouque.