10 Behind The Scenes Reasons For Star Trek Characters' Quirks

There's an old saying in the creative arts that you should always "write what you know". Now, hilariously, it's always been attributed to Mark Twain - a man who never particularly stuck to it - but there's still a nugget of wisdom in there all the same. The best stories are always the ones the writer has some stake in.

That might seem to be an odd lesson to apply to Star Trek, though; being a franchise that always seemed to push the boundaries of the imagination and set, awkwardly, in the far future. But while the setting might not be grounded in our own reality, that doesn't mean the characters can't be.

For every backstory of an aspirational Starfleet officer growing up on an alien world, there's a real person in the role who has decades of their own story to help bring the part to life. Sure, they've never so much as been to space, but when so much of the show's appeal is the personal level on which it all plays out, the more real these characters are, the easier it is for us to follow them into the fantastical.

Thus, there are countless three-dimensional heroes and villains in the Star Trek franchise, and more than a few of them owe their brilliance to the extraordinary lives of the actors who played them.

The Naked Time was an early episode of the Original Series, which centered on a virus that makes those infected act drunk and, yes, it was as ridiculous as it sounds. If it's ringing a bell for you, that's because the idea was copied wholesale for The Next Generation's third episode, The Naked Now.

Despite how absurd it all is, George Takei is incredible here. He was approached early into filming by director Marc Daniels, who informed him that Sulu would be removing his shirt and going berserk in the episode. In addition to this, he would wield either a Samurai sword or a fencing foil. Takei asked him to select the latter, citing the reason that while a Samurai sword would be culturally appropriate, by the 23rd century a man should be free to pick his hobby regardless of his ethnicity.

For the next three days, Takei spent all of his free time practicing with the weapon and doing as many push ups as possible. He recalled an incident where James Doohan very nearly found himself skewered when he stepped around a corner at the wrong moment. This story spread across the lot and, per Takei, the fear in Shatner's eyes was very real during their showdown on the bridge!

This is now an iconic image, thanks entirely to a savvy choice by George Takei.