What happens when you leave the USS Enterprise? For some people... not a whole lot. Here are the actors who vanished from our screens after appearing in Star Trek.
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00:00What happens when you leave the USS Enterprise? For some people, not a whole lot. Here are
00:05the actors who vanished from our screens after appearing in Star Trek.
00:09The great George Takei is one of the most iconic performers to have ever graced the
00:12Star Trek franchise. Nowadays, though, he doesn't appear on screen as often as he used
00:16to. Takei portrayed Sulu in 52 episodes of Star Trek The Original Series, 22 episodes
00:21of the animated series, and no fewer than six movies.
00:24And while he doesn't appear in front of the camera much these days, he hasn't vanished
00:30for good — not by a long shot.
00:32Takei has been a prolific voice actor for several decades, working on shows such as
00:36The New Adventures of Johnny Quest and The Smurfs back in the 1980s. His current work
00:40keeps him in the voiceover booth most of the time, where he's arguably as ubiquitous as
00:44he's ever been.
00:45In recent years, he's appeared in projects including Blue-Eyed Samurai, Hit Monkey, and
00:50The Gremlins' Secrets of the Mogwai. And even though he's now well over 80 years old,
00:54his career as a voice actor is showing no signs of slowing down.
00:58Walter Koenig portrayed Chekov in Star Trek The Original Series from 1967 to 1969, appearing
01:04in 36 episodes of the show. While he didn't appear in that first season, and though he
01:08didn't come back quite as often as his co-stars, Chekov has long played a critical role in
01:12the Star Trek universe.
01:13Can you tell me where the nuclear vessels are?
01:15Koenig turned 88 in 2024. He hasn't fully retired from Hollywood, though, as he makes
01:20occasional appearances in a variety of off-kilter film and TV projects. His only regular TV
01:25role of the 2010s was in the animated series Stretch Armstrong and the Flex Fighters. Other
01:30than that, Koenig has mostly appeared in small roles in lesser-known movies and shorts, like
01:35Unbelievable and Who Is Martin Danzig? And in 2023, Koenig returned to the Star Trek
01:39universe for a brief voice-only appearance as Chekov's son Anton in an episode of Picard.
01:46Jonathan Frakes was a prolific TV actor before he took on the role of Riker in Star Trek
01:50The Next Generation, but Riker quickly became his legacy. He appeared in 176 episodes of
01:55The Next Generation, four movies, and many other projects to boot.
01:59Fear is the true enemy. The only enemy.
02:04Frakes took to directing while he was working on The Next Generation, and he still directs
02:07today. Most recently, he has directed several episodes of Star Trek Discovery, Picard, and
02:12The Orville. Outside of the Star Trek universe, Frakes has been involved with shows ranging
02:16from Leverage to The Librarians to NCIS Los Angeles. He also does a lot of voice acting
02:21and frequently returns to play Riker in that capacity, including on Star Trek Lower Decks
02:26and in the video game Star Trek Resurgence.
02:29Marina Sirtis portrayed Counselor Deanna Troi in 176 episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation.
02:34I never met a chocolate I didn't like.
02:37Her story in the franchise initially ended with Star Trek Nemesis, which saw her leave
02:41the Enterprise with her husband Riker, but the character has returned to the franchise
02:44several times since. Sirtis popped up in seven episodes of Star Trek Picard between 2020
02:49and 2023, and she has taken on supporting roles on a handful of little-known action
02:53movies. Sirtis also provided voice-only performances in Star Trek Lower Decks and the Doctor Who
02:58podcast series The Year of Martha Jones. In 2023, she enjoyed a central supporting role
03:04in Love's Greek to Me for Hallmark.
03:07Michael Dorn first portrayed the Klingon officer Worf in Star Trek The Next Generation
03:10in 1987. Over the following decades, he racked up the most on-screen appearances of any main
03:15cast member.
03:16Death to the opposition!
03:18Worf soon became an integral part of the Star Trek universe, appearing in 175 episodes of
03:22The Next Generation, 102 episodes of Deep Space Nine, five movies, and countless multimedia
03:28appearances. For many years, Dorn actually tried to get Worf his own spinoff series,
03:32and though he garnered widespread fan support, that sadly never came to fruition.
03:37Perhaps unsurprisingly, considering Worf's highly recognizable voice, Dorn began voice
03:41acting shortly after he started his work on Star Trek. He now spends most of his time
03:45in the recording booth. One of his most notable roles was I Am Weasel from the classic cartoon
03:50network series I Am Weasel.
03:52Dorn's voice can also be heard on a number of video games, including Fallout, New Vegas,
03:56Saints Row 2, and Indivisible. In the 2020s, Dorn took roles on a number of animated shows,
04:03including the hit Amazon series Invincible.
04:05Roxanne Dawson joined the Star Trek franchise when she took on the role of Torres in Voyager,
04:10appearing in 168 episodes of the late-90s series. In perhaps her most iconic episode,
04:15Faces, Dawson took on the challenge of playing both the human and Klingon halves of her character,
04:20nailing one of the most impressive performances of the series.
04:23Star Trek was Dawson's biggest acting role to date, and the show turned her career in
04:27a new direction. Dawson directed two episodes of Voyager while she was on the show, allowing
04:31her to branch out into directing full-time. Today, she's well-known for directing episodes
04:35of dozens of TV series, including Star Trek Enterprise and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Dawson
04:40directed her first feature film in 2019, too, the moving biographical drama Breakthrough.
04:45And in the 2020s, she helmed four episodes of Foundation and a couple episodes of Dark
04:49Matter, both on Apple TV+.
04:53John Delancey portrayed the most iconic iteration of Q in a long succession of Star Trek shows,
04:58starting with the 1987 pilot episode of The Next Generation. The character — and Delancey's
05:02performance — stretched long beyond that series, however. He later appeared in Deep
05:06Space Nine, Voyager, Lower Decks, and Picard.
05:08Get out of here, Q! No, we are done with random stuff today! We're not dealing with any of
05:13your Q bulls—
05:14Most of Delancey's non-Star Trek career has been taken up with voice work, and you'll
05:17hear his dulcet tones in various games, movies, and animated shows. For example, he portrayed
05:22Discord in the enduringly popular My Little Pony Friendship is Magic cartoon. And he also
05:26appeared in Dota, Dragon's Blood, and Masters of the Universe Revolution.
05:31Garrett Wang portrayed ensign Harry Kim in 168 episodes of Star Trek Voyager between
05:361995 and 2001. Wang rarely took the lead during his years on Voyager, however, and his career
05:42never really went far beyond that early role. These days, Wang doesn't appear in much at
05:46all. He's taken on small roles in such films as Rock Jocks and Alongside Night, and his
05:50biggest recent gig was a six-episode part in the TV show Phoenix.
05:54Wang also returned to the Star Trek universe in 2024, when he provided his voice to an
05:58animated version of Harry Kim in Lower Decks. Wang also co-hosts a podcast called The Delta
06:03Flyers with his former co-star Robert Duncan McNeil.
06:07Robert Duncan McNeil first appeared on Star Trek as a one-off character on The Next Generation,
06:11but he's far more famous for having played Tom Paris on Voyager.
06:14I am a pilot, Harry, not a doctor!
06:17The creators of Voyager took a lot from that one-off TNG character as they created Paris,
06:22eventually going so far as to bring back McNeil to complete the connection. And while
06:26fans no doubt loved Paris as a character, McNeil has since stepped out of the spotlight.
06:31McNeil's last on-screen performance was a brief appearance in an episode of Chuck in
06:342012. Nowadays, you'll more likely find him directing and executive producing. Like many
06:39other Star Trek actors, McNeil directed a few episodes of the show that made his name.
06:44After that, he went on to helm four episodes of Enterprise.
06:46Chuck was also one of his first directorial successes, with McNeil directing 21 episodes
06:51and executive producing 75. McNeil also executive produced multiple episodes of Resident Alien,
06:57Turner & Hooch, and The Gifted.
06:59Jennifer Lean's performance as Kes on Star Trek Voyager arguably stands out as the best
07:03of her career. Sadly, she was written out of the show after its fourth season. The exact
07:08circumstances of Lean's departure have never been made fully clear, but what is clear is
07:12that she struggled to find work afterwards.
07:14After Voyager, Lean took on one regular voice acting role as Agent L in the Men in Black
07:19animated series, but that was to be her final noteworthy part. Her last Hollywood credit
07:23of any kind was an executive producer nod on her husband's film Geek Mythology in 2008.
07:29In 2015, she was arrested and charged with a string of offenses, including indecent exposure,
07:34reckless endangerment, and aggravated assault. The charges were dropped a year later, but
07:39Lean has remained out of the public eye ever since.
07:42Armin Shimmerman portrayed Quark, a beloved Ferengi bar owner who operates a shady tourist
07:46trap on Deep Space Nine. Shimmerman portrayed the character in 172 episodes of Deep Space
07:51Nine and a handful of other one-off appearances. The tragedy of tying himself to that stellar
07:56role, however, is that his future prospects became few and far between.
08:00Shimmerman's face was mostly hidden by makeup in Star Trek, and he continued that trend
08:04in many of his other most popular roles. As a voice actor in video games, Shimmerman delivered
08:08one of the most celebrated performances in the history of the medium. In 2007, he portrayed
08:12the villainous Andrew Ryan in 2K's instant classic Bioshock, cementing him in the annals
08:17of video game history. He also plays the slightly less iconic Doctor Nefarious through most
08:22of the Ratchet & Clank series, and portrayed several DC Comics characters in various projects.
08:27Shimmerman is also one of a few Star Trek performers to still hold a day job, namely
08:31teaching Shakespeare to actors and writing novels.