Gerry Anderson’s television and film work spanned six decades, so it’s only to be expected that many familiar faces voices and names from his productions also turned up attached to many other long-running and equally popular franchises. The most prolific of these would be Doctor Who, with Star Wars and 007 close behind, but a surprising number of Anderson-related names also crossed the pond to appear in one or more of the various Star Trek shows and films. Here are as many of those as we’ve been able to think of!
Robert Easton (the voices of Phones and X-20 in Stingray) later appeared as a Klingon judge in the 1991 movie Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
Joan Collins (Kara in Space:1999’s Mission of the Darians) had previously appeared in the Star Trek episode The City on the Edge of Forever as Kirk’s doomed love interest Edith Keeler.
Karl Held (Jerry Travis in Space:1999’s The Immunity Syndrome) had previously appeared in the Star Trek episode The Return of the Archons, in which he had played Enterprise sociologist Lindstrom.
Nick Tate is perhaps best known for playing Alan Carter in both seasons of Space:1999, but he also made two appearances in Star Trek; as Dirgo (coincidentally a pilot who crashes his shuttle) in The Next Generation episode Final Mission, and as Liam Bilby in the Deep Space Nine episode Honor Among Thieves. Rather wonderfully Nick also attended an early Star Trek convention in Maryland in 1976 to promote the then-upcoming second season of Space:1999, where he wore his original costume from the series and also posed for photos aboard a mockup of the Enterprise’s Galileo shuttlecraft.
Clifton Jones (who played David Kano in the first season of Space:1999) appeared in both episodes of the two-part Next Generation story Redemption, albeit as a different character in each. In part one he played a Klingon officer, and in part two the Starfleet officer Ensign Craig aboard the U.S.S. Sutherland.
Ed Bishop (UFO’s Commander Straker and the voice of Captain Blue in Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons) provided the voice of the Megan prosecutor Asmodeus in the animated Star Trek episode The Magicks of Megas-Tu.
Idris Elba infamously made his first screen appearance in Space Precinct playing the pizza delivery bike driver in Double Duty, and has since taken over the world. In 2016 he appeared in the movie Star Trek Beyond as the lead villain Krall.
Jeremy Kemp (Dr Ernst Linden in Space:1999’s Voyager’s Return) later appeared in the Star Trek The Next Generation episode Family, as Captain Picard’s brother Robert.
Georgia Brown made two appearances in The Protectors (as Maria Ghardala in One and One Makes One and as Ilona Tabori in Border Line) and later made two appearances on Star Trek The Next Generation as Worf’s adoptive human mother Helena Rozhenko in the episodes Family and New Ground.
Carolyn Seymour (Eva Lewis in the Space:1999 episode The Séance Spectre) holds the record for most Star Trek roles by an actor who also appeared in a Gerry Anderson series. She appeared in three episodes of The Next Generation; as the Romulan Sub-Commander Taris in Contagion, as Mirasta Yale in First Contact, and as another Romulan Commander Toreth in Face of the Enemy. She later played Mrs Templeton, the housekeeper in Captain Janeway’s gothic holonovel, in the Voyager episodes Cathexis and Persistence of Vision.
Kathryn Leigh Scott (Yesta in the Space:1999 episode Dorzak) later played Nuria in the Star Trek The Next Generation episode Who Watches the Watchers?.
Steven Berkoff (Captain Steve Minto in UFO and later Dr Paul Jorry in the Space Precinct episode Deadline) played Hagath in the Star Trek Deep Space Nine episode Business as Usual.
Christopher Neame (Glen Bailey in The Protectors episode Blockbuster) later appeared as Unferth in the Star Trek Voyager episode Heroes and Demons, and a German general in the two-part Enterprise story Storm Front.
Olaf Pooley (Commissioner Braun in The Protectors episode WAM Part Two) later played the Cleric in the Star Trek Voyager episode Blink of an Eye.
John Neville (Charlie in The Protectors episode Triple Cross) later appeared on The Next Generation as a holographic Sir Isaac Newton in the episode Descent, during the famous scene where Stephen Hawking finally made his much-requested cameo appearance in Star Trek.
Stephanie Beacham (Sarah Bosanquet in the UFO episode Destruction and Chrissie in The Protectors episode Your Witness) played the Countess Regina Bartholomew in the Star Trek The Next Generation episode Ship in a Bottle.
Malachi Throne appeared in two two-part Star Treks; as Commodore Mendez in The Menagerie from the original series (for which he also provided the voice of the Keeper) and as Romulan Senator Pardek in The Next Generation‘s Unification. He later revoiced The Hood in the first two episodes of Turbocharged Thunderbirds before leaving the show.
The man behind the mask of Space Precinct’s Officer Orrin once played a Klingon in a Pizza Hut advert that was itself delivered entirely in Klingon. Sadly the advert was very quickly pulled – who knew you’re not allowed to advertise in a fictional language? – but we’d be cruel not to share that with you right now.
Behind the scenes;
Fred Freiberger was the producer of the third and final season of the original Star Trek and later produced the second and final season of Space:1999, for which he also wrote three episodes under the pseudonym of Charles Woodgrove.
Art Wallace wrote two episodes of the original Star Trek (Obsession and Assignment:Earth) before being asked to write a script for Space:1999. The result, Siren Planet, was reworked into Matter of Life and Death.
Marc Scott Zicree, writer of the Space Precinct episodes Enforcer, Body and Soul and Illegal, also contributed story ideas for two Star Trek episodes; TNG’s First Contact, and DS9’s Far Beyond the Stars.
Nick Sagan, writer of the Space Precinct episode Predator and Prey, also wrote two episodes of The Next Generation (Attached and Bloodlines) and was the story editor on the fifth season of Star Trek Voyager, where he also wrote the episodes In the Flesh, Gravity, Course:Oblivion, Juggernaut and Relativity.
Hans Beimler and Richard Manning, co-writers of the Space Precinct episode Time to Kill, also shared joint writing credits on ten episodes from The Next Generation’s first three seasons. Beimler was made co-producer of TNG during its third season and later returned to Star Trek for twenty-six episodes of Deep Space Nine from season four onwards. Manning’s final Star Trek contribution was to co-write the DS9 season two episode Paradise, again with Beimler.
David Bennett Carren and J. Larry Carroll co-wrote the Space Precinct episodes Double Duty, The Snake, Deadline, Seek and Destroy, and Takeover. The pair had previously written The Next Generation episode Future Imperfect, and afterwards story-edited the final eighteen episodes of the show’s fourth season.
David Bischoff, writer of the three Space Precinct novels, also wrote The Next Generation episodes Tin Man and First Contact.
Paul Robert Coyle, writer of the Space Precinct episode Two Against the Rock, also wrote the Deep Space Nine episode Whispers and contributed the idea for the Voyager episode State of Flux.
Ron Thornton worked on CGI visual effects for seventeen episodes of Star Trek Voyager and seven of Enterprise (plus the final Next Generation movie Nemesis) before becoming the line producer of New Captain Scarlet.
Finally Jonathan Frakes, director of the 2004 live-action Thunderbirds movie, is easily best known for his role as Commander Riker on Star Trek The Next Generation and directing multiple episodes of the franchise.
Phew! We’re pretty sure that that’s everybody but there’s always a chance there’s more! Please let us known in the comments below if we’ve missed off anyone who appeared in both the Anderverse and the Trekverse!
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