Star Trek Day falls on September 8th, but it’s an extra special one this year: it’s the 55th anniversary of the iconic sci-fi show.
Even if you were never the biggest fan, it was almost certainly a part of your life. It was probably on in the background in your grandparent’s house every weekend. You might have went to check out the reboot films in the 00’s to see why your dad kept shouting at you, “It’s better than Star Wars, shut up son!”, all those years. You definitely know how to do a Vulcan Salute after hundreds of failed attempts at mastering it.
These past 55 years has encompassed many movies, lots of TV series, even some animated spinoffs, and enough memorabilia and fan conventions to last a lifetime.
And you wouldn’t also be surprised to know that five decades means there’s been a truckload of guest stars. With that in mind, we thought we’d mark this special date in the Trekkie calendar by looking at some of the famous actors you (probably) had no idea starred in Star Trek since 1966. Seriously, some of these names are unbelievable.
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Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson
Before becoming the most bankable action star in Hollywood, Dwayne was famously a WWE superstar. In between, he guest starred in an episode of Voyager as The Champion. So not a big leap for him then.
Iggy Pop
I Wanna Be Your Yelgrum the Vorta. Punk icon Iggy has been spotted in several films and TV shows, particularly popping up in the works of Jim Jarmusch, but he also found time to guest on the Deep Space Nine episode ‘The Magnificent Ferengi’.
Stephen Hawking
When you’re the greatest theoretical physicist of all time, you don’t play any old character. Hawking got to appear as himself in The Next Generation episode ‘Descent’ in 1993, enjoying a holodeck card game with none other than Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein. It probably beat having to talk to Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory.
Kelsey Grammer
If you’ve ever seen Grammer as Frasier Crane, you’ll know that there’s a little of the William Shatner School of Acting in his hammy style. In between portraying the famed radio psychiatrist for 20 years of his life, the actor got a nice little reprieve in 1992, playing Captain Morgan Bateson in The Next Generation episode ‘Cause and Effect’.
Jason Alexander
George from Seinfeld in Space. Now there’s a spinoff I’d watch. Alexander, another sitcom legend like Grammer, also got his chance on Star Trek, appearing in the Voyager episode ‘Think Tank’ as Kurros, the spokesperson for a group of alien scholars.
