10 Actors Who Were In The Orville AND Star Trek
There's nothing more fun in the world of Sci-Fi than a good crossover.
A cry heard as often as 'Engage!' these days is this:
The Orville is Star Trek, whether it's got the name or not!
Seth MacFarlane's tribute to The Next Generation and beyond features many familiar tropes of Trek. However, the stand-out element about his take on the final frontier is that it never feels in spite of, merely in honour of.
The Orville is an homage, as well as its own thing. The stories may touch on the familiar but how many episodes of television can say the same thing? It is the approach, rather than the execution, that may decide an audience's reactions. Part of that approach is casting.
While the wide universe may seem enormous, it's all filmed in a Hollywood basement, so there will inevitably be a crossover of casting. For The Orville and Star Trek, there is a deliberate pool of talent that appeals to MacFarlane. In three short seasons, many Trek alumni have popped up to say hello on a Union Ship.
This article isn't going to cover the most obvious name on the list - Seth, himself. Though he appeared in Star Trek: Enterprise, it might seem a little bit of a cheat when he created one of the shows we're discussing. So Ed Mercer/Ensign Rivers may have to wait for a later list - but never fear, there are plenty more names to sift through.
10. John Billingsley
John Billingsley, of Enterprise Dr Phlox fame, appears in the second season of The Orville. He plays Cambis Borrin, a grieving Xelayan father who has turned to murder in his pain.
Home sees the Orville's Chief of Security, Alara Kitan, return home to her family (more on that later in this list). The episode was designed to highlight her physical struggles aboard a Union starship. Xelayans come from a planet whose gravity is many times higher than Earth's norms, so they appear much stronger than their human counterparts.
Kitan's strength begins to fade, so she returns to Xelaya to reset her body, so to speak. It is here that she encounters Cambis and Floratta. They have been driven mad with grief by the death of their son, a young scientist who had suffered a career setback thanks to Alara's father, Ildis.
Billingsley gets to stretch his dramatic, and more frightening, acting chops here. Much of the episode is spent threatening the Kitans, including a scene where he forces Ildis to dip his hand in boiling sauce.
And they said The Orville was a comedy...
9. Steven Culp
Steven Culp appears as Publicity Officer Willks in Majority Rule, an episode from the debut season of The Orville. He was the MACO Major Hayes in Star Trek: Enterprise's third season, as well as Commander Martin Madden, Riker's replacement as first officer of the Enterprise-E, though his scene was deleted from Star Trek: Nemesis.
Majority Rule was based on Jon Ronson's 2015 non-fiction book: So You've Been Publicly Shamed. Hated In The Nation, an episode of Black Mirror with a similar plot was based on the same work.
The novel, as indeed do the episodes, explores the notion of public shaming. In The Orville's case, this involves citizens being 'upvoted' or 'downvoted', with their social standing reliant on the same. The episode doesn't end with any seismic changes on Sargus IV, rather it centres on Lysella, a single citizen who chooses to live another way, by the episode's close.
Culp's Willks serves as a publicity officer to Navigator LaMarr, attempting to swing the public in his favour, serving as a Sargus example of a public defender.
8. F. Murray Abraham
The second season episode of The Orville, Sanctuary, was directed by Jonathan Frakes. Several of the guest actors from this show appear on this list, but we will begin with F. Murray Abraham.
Abraham is an Academy Award-winning actor who was previously directed by Frakes in Star Trek: Insurrection. Here, he plays a Xelayan officer in the Planetary Union. His credit specifies him as 'Chairman', though in an interview before the episode aired, Frakes referred to him as an Admiral.
In an episode as stacked with guest stars as this one, it would have been easy for any one of them to be short-changed by their roles. Abraham, like the others, is living proof that the size of the script doesn't determine the impact of the role. It is the performer who can bring it to life. It is, to date, Abraham's only appearance on The Orville, but as this time he wasn't incinerated in an explosion, there is always hope.
7. John Fleck
John Fleck has appeared in several iterations of Star Trek, beginning with The Next Generation, though he is best known for his role as Silik in Star Trek: Enterprise. In The Orville, he appeared (once again under heavy makeup) as the Krill Ambassador K.T.Z. in the episode Blood Of Patriots.
This episode explores the trauma that veterans face when the fighting stops. Malloy's old friend Orrin is rescued by the Orville, only for the crew to discover that he is waging a form of eternal war against the Krill, threatening the burgeoning peace talks between the Krill and the Union.
The episode bears a striking similarity to The Wounded, with Orrin playing the role of Captain Maxwell. Orrin is the more openly villainous of the two, stealing a shuttle and attacking his former friend before he is stopped. Fleck, as the Krill ambassador, demonstrates his usual control and clipped speech to great effect, even in some of the episode's more comedic moments.
6. Robert Picardo
The second of Star Trek's doctors on this list, though the first to appear in The Orville, Robert Picardo donned the Xelayan forehead, nose, and ears to portal Ildis Kitan, chief of security Alara Kitan's father.
Picardo is no stranger to appearing in multiple Sci-Fi properties, with appearances in Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis to his name as well. He first appears in the season one episode of The Orville, Firestorm, on a monitor, discussing Alara's fear of fire - and her underperformance academically, in his eyes.
Picardo returned in Home, appearing alongside John Billingsley and Molly Hagan, who plays Drenala Kitan, making the episode a Trek reunion of sorts. Picardo's Ildis is Billingsley's Borrin's primary target, as the latter blames him for the suicide of his son.
Ildis represents the struggle between academia and the military, if not in conflict, then in terms of perception. For Ildis, Alara's 'slower' mind was a source of shame, as was her decision to join the military. He finally comes around when she demonstrates her skill in saving her family.
5. Jason Alexander
Jason Alexander is a prolific Star Trek fan, having appeared in Voyager as Kurros, in the episode Think Tank. His arrival in The Orville was a bit of a surprise to fans - and the production team as well.
Alexander played Olix, the affable reptilian barman of the ship. He appeared in several episodes through the show's second season, though the character was created as a last-minute replacement for another.
The original barman for the ship - Kanoot, played by Ralph Garman - had to be retired. Garman, having struggled through his appearance in the first season, was overcome with his claustrophobia while filming scenes for his return. Despite a streamlined prosthetics process, and copious amounts of Jack Daniels from Seth MacFarlane, Garman elected to leave the show.
Despite the rushed nature of his arrival, Alexander's Olix proved a successful addition to the series. He appeared through the second season, including a final (to-date) cameo at Isaac's leaving part in Identity, part 1.
4. Tim Russ
Tim Russ, who of course is best known for appearing as Tuvok for all seven seasons of Star Trek: Voyager made a guest spot in Lasting Impressions, a second-season episode. He played a historian, Doctor Sherman, who examines a time capsule recently dug up.
Russ credited MacFarlane's enormous love of Trek with getting the role and was glad to work on an elaborate starship set again. In an interview with TrekMovie, he spoke about his enjoyment in being with people who genuinely cared about what they were doing, and that he felt his character - in being a historian - suited his personality perfectly.
Though the role was relatively minor, Lasting Impressions is one of creator Seth MacFarlane's favourite episodes of the first two seasons of the show. It was a little shorter than normal, but this helped the writers in constructing a tight, emotional script - one that Russ was particularly proud to be a part of.
3. Marina Sirtis
Marina Sirtis guest starred in Sanctuary, the second-season episode of The Orville already mentioned on this list (and will be again!). As Deanna Troi, she appeared in The Next Generation, Voyager, Enterprise, Lower Decks, and Picard, as well as appearing in four films. Here, she returned under the experienced eye of director Jonathan Frakes.
Frakes and MacFarlane had been searching for the right performer to play the schoolteacher aboard the ship, though their search was frustrated by no one quite meeting the part. MacFarlane also wished to cast Sirtis, though had been waiting for something a little bigger to come along.
It was Frakes who convinced him to approach her for Sanctuary, which led to both men reaching out to her at almost the same moment. In a whirlwind of schedules, she was on set less than 48 hours later. She described the experience as like returning to The Next Generation, crediting Frakes with understanding exactly how to direct (and light) her properly.
2. Tony Todd
The late, great Tony Todd appeared as the Moclan Dojin in the episode Sanctuary. He represents the male-dominated Moclans who find females abhorrent, thus the discovery of an all-female Moclan colony results in a Planetary Union council meeting.
Todd is well-known to Trekkies as Kurn and Jake Sisko, while also appearing under heavy latex as an Alpha Hirogen hunter as well. Despite the make-up, Todd was instantly recognisable thanks to his iconic voice.
As Dojin, he had to walk the line between diplomacy and intimidation, reminding the other council members of their reliance on the Moclans, lest they lean on the side of the female colony. Sanctuary represents not only a large number of Trek guests in The Orville but also a move toward deeper character exploration than had been previously showcased.
1. Penny Jerald Johnson
Penny Jerald Johnson has been with The Orville since its pilot episode, playing Dr Claire Finn, the ship's chief medical officer. Star Trek viewers will know her both as Dobara from The Next Generation episode Homeward, though more prominently as Kassidy Yates from Deep Space Nine.
Finn was written for Johnson from the beginning, though she was unaware of this when she met with Seth MacFarlane about the part. In previous interviews about Star Trek, she described her husband as the primary Trekkie, though she would later become one herself as her time on Deep Space Nine progressed.
In The Orville, she plays both the ship's doctor and a mother to two young boys. Finn's arc allows the series to showcase a family aboard a starship, balancing the show's tone of drama and comedy. Johnson hit back at critics of the show, some of whom were puzzled over the intended genre, by asserting The Orville was neither pure comedy or drama, but rather a dramedy, balancing both.