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.
9. Rekha Sharma
Rekha Sharma grew up as a fan of Star Trek: The Original Series. In 2017, she joined the Star Trek universe, first as Avi Samara in the episode Still Treads the Shadow of fan production Star Trek Continues, then as Commander Ellen Landry in Star Trek: Discovery's first season.
Landry's time on Discovery was short. She was ripped apart by a very big tardigrade she had named 'Ripper' when she let it out of its cage. The deep-fake despot on the bridge soon jumped the ship through the looking glass. As a result, Sharma returned as Landry in mirror form in What's Past Is Prologue, to be blown up along with the ISS Charon. A little later, for Terra Firma, Parts 1 & 2, mirror Landry was resurrected by the magic of Carl, the Guardian of Forever, and of print news media.
Battlestar Galactica introduced the character of Tory Foster in its second season episode The Captain's Hand. Played astutely by Sharma, Foster was "precinct captain for the Federalist party in Delphi [a city on the planet Caprica]" before the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies. One of the survivors, Foster made it to the civilian fleet. There, her political acumen would prove particularly useful when she became President Laura Roslin's chief aide, advisor, and campaign manager.
8. Rick Worthy
Rick Worthy has played more roles in Star Trek than anyone else on this list. Close as close can be to a Cylon — if we're talking 'chrome job toaster' Cylon — Worthy first appeared as Automated Unit 3947, and Automated Commander 122, in the Star Trek: Voyager episode Prototype.
From there, Worthy would portray Klingon Kornan in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine's Soldiers of the Empire, an Elloran officer on Ru'afo's ship in Star Trek: Insurrection, and Jannar, Xindi council member, in several episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise. In that time, he would also return to Voyager as the less-than-likeable Noah Lessing in Equinox, Parts I & II.
Worthy's first appearance in Battlestar Galactica was in the second season's bone-chilling episode The Farm, though the actor was already an avid fan of the show. Worthy's character, Doctor Simon, is quickly revealed to be a humanoid Cylon — one of the Number Fours. Quite the upgrade from his Automated Unit days!
Worthy returned as Number Four, also called Simon O'Neill in one of his guises, in a further eight episodes across the remaining seasons, as well as the 2009 TV movie The Plan. If a lot of the Simons were medics, as in The Farm, it was best, as a rule, not to ask for a second opinion from a Number Four.
7. Callum Keith Rennie
Let's get one minor spoiler out of the way first. In Battlestar Galactica, Callum Keith Rennie played a humanoid Cylon model — Number Two of the so-called 'Significant Eight'. That model was also known as Leoben Conoy. His 'skin job' status was revealed early, in the mini-series, much to his detriment. For most of those aboard Galactica, that Leoben's death at Ragnar Anchorage was the knowledge that "the Cylons look like us now".
"There are many copies," the preamble to the opening credits of the full series would go on to remind us. Leoben was no exception. 'Number Two' was number twos. He was specifically a bit of a s**t to Kara 'Starbuck' Thrace. Rennie would return as Leoben/Number Two in several episodes across all four seasons, as well as in 2009's TV movie The Plan.
Rennie made his first foray into Star Trek only very recently, as Captain then Commander Rayner. Rayner was gruff and to-the-point but ultimately endearing. The Kellerun's entire family was also killed by the venom of a viper. BSG Connection? Doubtful. Tempting, nonetheless.
Rayner and Rennie's time was cut short by Star Trek: Discovery's cancellation. There is still a chance for a download into Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. The Cycle of Time is also the Cycle of Television.
6. Mark Sheppard
British actor Mark Sheppard is well known for playing demon Crowley in Supernatural. Before that, he had the dubious distinction of portraying Icheb's father-in-all-but-genetically-modified-material, Leucon, in the Star Trek: Voyager episode Child's Play.
Both Leucon and wife Yifay sent their son packing (a deadly virus) to the Borg, the Cylons of the Delta Quadrant, twice! Whether Icheb ever forgave them for getting him assimilated is another matter. In any case, he wasn't given many years to think it over.
Now, if you need a good lawyer who won't worry overly about ethics, don't call Saul, call Romo Lampkin, Sheppard's character on Battlestar Galactica. Don't jump to conclusions about the guy either. He did have a cat called Lance, the last vestige of his life on Gemenon.
A cat and a curious kleptomania. Lampkin also had the habit of getting his sticky fingers on anything in arm's reach. If it helped him win a case, he would grab it. President Roslin lost her glasses. Gaius Baltar lost his pen, although that was the least of his concerns. Whatever his thievery, Lampkin did ultimately have a heart and a keen sense of justice. The universe could do a lot worse than his "Legal Dynamics".
5. James Callis
Double the Baltar, double the Star Trek connection. Lord Baltar of the original 1978– Battlestar Galactica was played by John Colicos. Colicos was famously Klingon Kor in Errand of Mercy, returning three times with the ridges in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Drop the 'Lord,' add a first name, the reimagined BSG's Doctor Gaius Baltar was then portrayed by actor James Callis.
Without giving too much away, Baltar plays a pivotal role in the reimagined Battlestar, and that from the start. Though in far fewer episodes, Callis' turn in Trek was no less crucial. In Star Trek: Picard's second season, Callis took on the part of — the recollection of — a younger Maurice Picard (father of Jean-Luc). An older Maurice had previously appeared via the ministrations of Q in Star Trek: The Next Generation's Tapestry, played by Clive Church.
It would be tough to draw parallels between Maurice and Gaius. The former was a largely misunderstood man with an aversion to replicators. The latter was a prominent computer scientist of the Twelve Colonies whose hubris — and frakking — directly led to the Fall.
Gaius was no moustache-twirling villain, however. He was every bit the genius he claimed to be, but, like us all, he was flawed. The series skilfully played on traitor versus troubled throughout.
4. Kate Vernon
In Battlestar Galactica, Kate Vernon played Ellen Tigh, wife of Saul Tigh. If that seems like a rather diminutive description, then it's because it is. It is because it has to be. There is no way of doing justice to Ellen without spoiling, nay ruining, one of several of the greatest moments in contemporary television. Our hands are Tigh-ed.
Let's just say that Ellen is an infinitely complex character, one half of a mutually toxic couple flung back together after the Fall of the Twelve Colonies. Her introductory episode of the first season is appropriately called Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down. The rest is relativity. One thing always evolves in relation to another. Some things stay the same. The rest, if you haven't, you'll have to watch.
As for Star Trek, Vernon has so far had only one canonical appearance. She played 'Commander Valerie Archer' — a member of Species 8472 in deep disguise — in the Star Trek: Voyager episode In the Flesh. In the fan film Prelude to Axanar, Vernon was also Captain Sonya Alexander of the USS Ajax.
Double Battlestar Galactica alum Richard Hatch starred in Axanar, too, as Klingon Commander Kharn. Hatch was the OG Apollo in the 1970s, then political terrorist turned politician, Tom Zarek, in the 2000s. Ellen would have an… interesting relationship with Zarek in politician mode.
3. Michelle Forbes
Ensign, lieutenant, then later commander in Star Trek — and not to forget Kaelon civilian, Dara — Michelle Forbes got a promotion in Battlestar Galactica to Rear Admiral of the Colonial Fleet. Helena Cain, her character, was, shall we say, a little less redeemable than Ro. In fact, Cain was downright despicable at times. As ever with Forbes, she was always most powerfully portrayed.
Forbes first appeared as Cain in the second season episode Pegasus, named after, and featuring, the only other battlestar to have survived the Cylon attack on the Twelve Colonies. Reunion with the fleet did not go well… at all. The situation quickly escalated. Pegasus and the two episodes that followed — Resurrection Ship, Part I and Part II — rank amongst the tensest of the entire series. With BSG, that is saying something! Far be it from us to tell you how it all turned out.
Forbes returned to the role in 2007's direct-to-DVD film Battlestar Galactica: Razor, largely considered to be a prelude to season four, though set some time before. There is another Star Trek connection via Admiral Cain. Lloyd Bridges, who played Commander Cain in the original Battlestar Galactica, was sought out by Gene Roddenberry to play Captain Pike in The Cage. According to Star Trek: Where No One Has Gone Before: A History in Pictures, Bridges "turned [Roddenberry] down".
2. Dean Stockwell
The late, great Dean Stockwell was an Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe-winning, acting and sci-fi legend. Stockwell's film and TV credits stretch all the way to Caprica and/or Tandar Prime, but most will remember him as Rear Admiral Albert 'Al' Calavicci, holographic sidekick to Scott Bakula's Doctor Samuel Beckett.
Bakula and Stockwell would act alongside each other once more in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode Detained. In it, Stockwell played the decidedly more antagonistic Colonel Grat, jailor of Suliban, and of Captain Archer. In a behind-the-scenes interview at the time for Extra, via TrekCore, Bakula called the reunion, "the greatest thing ever". Stockwell admitted, jokingly, to being a little confused by the dialogue. "I don't know what a Tandaran, Suliban, Cabal, boogie-boogie booty is. […] I'm just in the dark," he added.
Stockwell brought that fine, dry sense of humour to his character in Battlestar Galactica. There, he was the altogether dastardly, but perceptively funny, humanoid Cylon model Number One, known also as John Cavil and Brother Cavil. Cavil/Number One first appeared in the season two episode Lay Down Your Burdens, Part I. He would play a pivotal role in the shape of things to come. "Well, this is an awkward moment."
1. Nana Visitor
Nana Visitor is to Star Trek what Tylium ore is to the Fleet in Battlestar Galactica — essential! As we know, she played Major then Colonel Kira Nerys in all seven seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, most recently reprising the role in the Star Trek: Lower Decks episode Hear All, Trust Nothing.
In 2024, Visitor turned her hand to writing for her pathfinding work Star Trek: Open a Channel: A Woman's Trek. The previous year, Visitor also voiced 'Mom' alongside Tim Russ' 'Dad' in Starfield, the video game. Both characters could often be found paying a visit to Constellation, an organisation which counted Walter Stroud (Armin Shimerman) and Sam Coe (Elias Toufexis) amongst its members.
Visitor's time on Battlestar Galactica was brief but impactful. She played Emily Kowalski, a terminal cancer patient under the palliative care of Doc Cottle aboard Galactica in the fourth season episode Faith. It was well named.
Unlike Kira, who never wavered in her devotion to the Prophets, Kowalski openly questions the wisdom of belief in the Lords of Kobol — the gods worshipped in the Twelve Colonies. Dying, Kowalski at least wants to hear out a certain someone's message about the "One True God". "I don't need metaphors," Kowalski notes to Laura Roslin. "I need answers." So say we all. So say we all…