10 Actors You Didn't Know Were In Star Trek Twice
Prosthetic make-up and missing credits are robust disguises...
Having been around for almost six decades, it's understandable that there have been some repeat appearances by actors in the various Star Trek shows. The most notable of these is Majel Barratt, the wife of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry who has played Number One, Nurse Chapel, Lwaxana Troi, and the voice of Starfleet's computers across multiple Trek shows and movies from the 60s to the early 2000s.
Similarly, Tim Russ who is best known as Tuvok in Star Trek: Voyager has also played a Klingon in Deep Space Nine and a hijacker in The Next Generation. But what about those actors that have made less obvious repeat performances in the show? Due to the very nature of Star Trek, actors can return multiple times, hidden beneath layers of prosthetics.
Star Trek legend Jeffrey Combs has played Ferengi, Vorta, Andorians and has recently voiced the nefarious computer AGIMUS in Star Trek: Lower Decks. However, in Combs' significant shadow, there are many other Star Trek actors who have appeared more than once, often hidden by bulky costumes or heavy alien prosthetics. Here are 10 of the most surprising...
10. Ned Romero
Ned Romero is likely best known as Chakotay's grandfather in the Star Trek: Voyager episode The Fight, from season 5. The episode revolves around Chakotay's attempts to communicate with a race of aliens that exist in chaotic space. During a Native American vision quest ritual, Chakotay meets his grandfather, who the chaotic aliens have assumed the form of to warn him of the dangers of remaining in their realm.
Romero had previously played the Native American colonist Anthwara in the Next Generation episode "Journey's End", which saw Picard attempt to negotiate the fate of their colony with the Cardassians. It was an empathetic allegory for the treatment of Native Americans in contemporary US society, and inspired Wesley Crusher to leave Starfleet.
However, Ned Romero's links to Star Trek go back even further than that, all the way back to 1968. 29 years prior to his appearance in The Fight, Romero played the Klingon warrior Krell, who manipulated events on a primitive planet to gain an advantage for the Klingon Empire. His attempts to become leader of the planet were eventually foiled by Kirk and the native peoples.