Star Trek: 10 Secrets Of The USS Excelsior
6. Up Your Shaft
In the Star Trek: The Next Generation season three episode "Evolution", Data tells us that "there has not been a systems-wide technological failure on a starship in 79 years". According to the (semi-canon) Star Trek Chronology by Michael and Denise Okuda, this is actually a reference to Scotty sabotaging the Excelsior during the iconic "Stealing the Enterprise" sequence in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
Though brief, this sequence featured scenes aboard the Excelsior, depicting a fittingly smug Starfleet crew, including Captain Sytles played by character actor James B. Sikking and an unnamed first officer played by Miguel Ferrer of RoboCop, Mulan, and Blank Check fame. The ship's computer also happened to be pretty smug (much to Scotty's chagrin) with several lines of dialoge delivered by actor Frank Force... otherwise known as Leonard Nimoy.
Along with a blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo as a hospital visitor in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Nimoy's role as the Excelsior computer voice (credited using the aforementioned pseudonym) is the only time the actor and director appeared in the franchise outside of his role as Spock.