Redshirts Always Die
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Ten strange, unexpected, and interesting Star Trek guest stars

By Michael Atkins-Prescott

LOS ANGELES, CA - DECEMBER 28: NASA Astronaut Mae Jemison and actress Nichelle Nichols arrive for her 85th birthday celebration held at La Piazza/The Grove on December 28, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - DECEMBER 28: NASA Astronaut Mae Jemison and actress Nichelle Nichols arrive for her 85th birthday celebration held at La Piazza/The Grove on December 28, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images) /
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Rock icon and political activist Tom Morello, who is known for his seminal work with Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, and the Nightwatchman, met with survivors of solitary confinement in New Jersey prisons during an event hosted by the ACLU of New Jersey and New Jersey Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (NJ-CAIC) at the Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church in Asbury Park, NJ Tuesday May 7, 2019.
Rock icon and political activist Tom Morello, who is known for his seminal work with Rage Against the Machine, Audioslave, and the Nightwatchman, met with survivors of solitary confinement in New Jersey prisons during an event hosted by the ACLU of New Jersey and New Jersey Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement (NJ-CAIC) at the Allen Chapel A.M.E. Church in Asbury Park, NJ Tuesday May 7, 2019. /

Tom Morello

Speaking of famous musicians who cameoed in Star Trek in make-up that made them unrecognizable, just because they were happy to be there…

The Rage Against the Machine guitarist is also a Star Trek fan and appeared as an unnamed Son’a crewman in the movie Star Trek: Insurrection. However, because he could barely be seen, he was asked to appear in Voyager, as a human Starfleet officer, crewman Mitchell, who Captain Janeway stops to ask directions from when venturing Voyager’s shadowy unfamiliar lower decks.

Morello’s scene in Voyager must be among the strangest moments in the show, aside from “Get this cheese to sickbay”. I remember seeing it as a kid, and even though I didn’t recognize Morello, I remember thinking ‘That must be someone famous’, because the scene doesn’t seem to serve any purpose, other than to provide a role, especially since it’s not just a line or two of exposition, but rather, Morello and Janeway also make awkward small talk for some reason.

Despite being incongruously purposeless, the scene does provide some nice color that fits the episode. Janeway realizes that there are a handful of crewmembers who are not pulling their weight; if they were in the Alpha Quadrant, those crewmembers would be deemed unfit for serving on a starship and transferred, but Voyager, being stranded in the Delta Quadrant, so she decides to make a project of them. So the captain being familiar with a random crewmember fits the theme; it’s still distractingly weird though.

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