12 Actors Who Hated Being On Star Trek

Not everyone enjoyed the intrepid journeys where no man had gone before...

Jeffrey Dean Morgan Star Trek
CBS

Some people would give their left arm to appear on Star Trek and some other people feel it cost them the equivalent of it. Many of the actors on this list have recent experience and many have historical experience. There has been 60 years of Star Trek history and in that time, hundreds of actors have passed through the final frontier. It stands to reason that not all of them would have had an amazing time.

Many have spoken openly about how much their time on the show affected them and their careers. Some names have come around in the years since appearing and some have not. Several of the names on this list had such a bad time that they have refused all work within the franchise again, refusing to acknowledge their part in Star Trek.

Some of these names belong to guest stars who had a rough few days but some of these actors are main characters, unlucky enough to have had some of the worst experiences of their careers in Gene Roddenberry's bright, bright future.

12. Denise Crosby

Jeffrey Dean Morgan Star Trek
CBS

Lt. Tasha Yar was a key character of the first season of Star Trek The Next Generation. She was tough, brave and strong, filling the role of security chief aboard the Galaxy Class star ship. It looked to be a juicy role to sink an actor's teeth into and Denise Crosby was brought in to play the part. However, she quickly became frustrated with the way her character was being used.

She has commented in recent times that she felt that if a matte painting of her legs had been done, it could have been slotted in behind the command chairs, underneath the security station. That was the impact she felt her character was having based on the stories she was being given.

In what Sir Patrick Stewart has since described as a mistake, the show failed to keep Crosby on board and she quit before the end of the season. Her character was written out by being killed by Armus, the black slime embodiment of evil. It was both a shocking and underwhelming end to a character with a lot of potential.

She was however brought back for one episode in the third season's great Yesterday's Enterprise, where we see her in an alternate timeline. Fan reaction was such that Crosby then pitched the idea of Yar having a half-Romulan daughter and Sela would go on to appear in three stories. However her first year was somewhat wasted in what could have been some real ground-laying work.

Contributor
Contributor

Writer. Reader. Host. I'm Seán, I live in Ireland and I'm the poster child for dangerous obsessions with Star Trek. Check me out on Twitter @seanferrick