Star Trek: Enterprise had some surprising faces during its run.
Star Trek: Enterprise turns 20 this year, and it feels like more and more people are discovering how good of a show it really was. Set as a prequel to the entire franchise, Enterprise tells the tale of the first NX class ship and crew as they traverse the Alpha Quadrant and deal with issues like the Vulcan and Andorian conflict, the Xindi weapon, and of course time travel.
With fans now giving the show more and more respect, we figured it’d be nice to look at some of the surprises that this has to offer.
One of the things that people are noticing is how many surprises the show holds. Besides great storytelling and interesting plotlines, the show also had a host of surprise guest stars. That’s not uncommon for Star Trek, as they’ve routinely gotten big names to pop up from time to time.
What’s interesting with Enterprise is how rare people actually talk about their guest stars. While former franchise actors returned on Enterprise, which in itself is a different list, this list is about those actors who popped up that you completely forgot about or never even noticed.
Now, some of the more die-hard fanbases will know each and every one of these, but there’s a lot of people who aren’t aware of them and that’s who we’re writing this for. When you’re done reading, go check out the episodes that these famous faces popped up in, because they are actually some of the better ones of the series.
Seth MacFarlane
If you’re unfamiliar with Seth MacFarlane, it’s probably because you’re one of those people that doesn’t really pay attention to who does what; especially with animated series. When someone brings up a name, you might be the type of person who’d say “Oh, that’s right, I have seen his stuff before!”
If that’s you, that’s ok. So for a quick recap in case you aren’t familiar with him, MacFarlane has created and starred in Family Guy, American Dad, and Star Trek-like series The Orville. He’s also created tons of movies as well, like Ted and its sequel and a Million Ways to Die in the West.
Now that we introduced him, what many of you may not remember or ever knew, was that MacFarlane guest-starred in not one but two episodes of Enterprise as “Rivers”. The character appeared in the 20th episode of season three; “The Forgotten” and the 15th episode of season four; “Affliction”.
He didn’t have a major role in either episode, but he was fresh off of Family Guys’ first run after cancellation (the show would end in 2003 and be brought back in 2005) and was a popular name for fans to see. He was also a huge fan of Star Trek and clearly wanted to be part of the brand in some way.
His love of Trek would also be the catalyst for why The Orville was created.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan
Jeffrey Dean Morgan is a man many people know these days. Whether you’re a fan of the hit CW series, Supernatural as the main heroes father, John Winchester, or have seen him take the reigns of AMC Dead-vers’ flagship show, The Walking Dead as Negan. He’s been in a bunch of films, like Dawn of Justice, The Watchmen, and The Losers, and was a standout in just about everything he’s done.
He’s a pretty impressive talent, needless to say. Yet, because of Star Trek, fans may have never gotten anything that Morgan participated in. Why? Because Morgan’s short turn on Enterprise nearly made the man retire. The episode Morgan appeared in was the 11th episode of the third season, called “Carpenter Street”, where he played a Xindi-Reptilian named Damron.
The problem Morgan had to deal with during his time with the show had to do with the grueling process of makeup. Being a Xindi-Reptilian, he had to undergo some of the most extensive prosthetics work that a guest actor would have to deal with.
Morgan would go on to say that during his time on set, he was claustrophobic and would go home in tears. Thankfully he stuck with acting and fans got to see him do some great work because of his persistence.
Paul Wight (The Big Show)
Paul Wight is most known as a professional wrestler, where he worked under the names of The Giant and The Big Show between his stints with World Championship Wrestling and World Wrestling Entertainment. Now he’s with All Elite Wrestling as a part-time wrestler, and commentator but despite his time in the world of pro wrestling, Wight has been a pretty well-known actor as well.
He was in The Waterboy, Jingle All the Way, MacGruber, Fighting with My Family, Fast & Furious Spy Racers, Van Helsing, and his own series on Netflix, The Big Show Show.
Yet, he also appeared in the fourth episode of Enterprise‘s fourth season, entitled “Borderland”. In this episode, Wight was actually quite green, as he played an Orion-slaver. It wasn’t a very big role but he was there. The WWE was airing one of their flagships shows on UPN at the time so crossovers happened quite a bit. This would ramp up even more when UPN and the WB combined into the CW; with other wrestlers-turned actors appearing on the network. Notably Guardians of the Galaxy star Dave Bautista, who appeared in the Smallville episode “Static”.
Wight’s large frame of 7’, nearly 300 lbs, makes him an ideal individual to appear in Star Trek, as there aren’t many human beings his size, with his charisma. It would be interesting to see him return to the series as a Klingon.