Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is starting to bring back legacy characters from Star Trek: The Original Series. It has already brought back Scotty, played by Scottish actor Martin Quinn, Sam Kirk, played by Dan Jeannotte, and Cillian O'Sullivan who will be portraying Dr. Roger Korby, Nurse Christine Chapel's ill-fated fiance. So the announcement at New York Comic Con [via Whatculture] of Rhys Darby [Our Flag Means Death and Flight of the Conchords] joining season three for a guest starring part in a legacy role has fans scratching their heads as there are so many possibilities as to who this actor could be playing.
The announcement on Star Trek on Paramount+'s X page met with a great deal of enthusiasm from fans who begn speculating who this character could be portraying. Some mistakenly guessed Roger Korby, but there were also guesses for Trelane, which got the majority of votes, Gary Mitchell, Dr. Piper from his one appearance on "Where No Man Has Gone Before," and perhaps even Doctor Leonard "Bones" McCoy.
One would think it would be too soon to bring in Dr. McCoy since it will be seven more years before he takes over as Chief Medical Officer aboard the Enterprise. And prior to that, he was on other planets like Dramia II and Capella IV. While Dr. Piper is a possibility, it doesn't seem like a necessity to bring his character back as he only played briefly in one episode and didn't have a major impact like Trelane. Some fans call Trelane the first "Q," and it would be great to see how Captain Pike deals with him.
Since The Original Series didn't have a Q and Darby is known for his humor and energy, it sounds like Trelane would be right up his alley. But I'm not taking any bets on the role Darby will play on Strange New Worlds. The Original Series had seventy-nine episodes, which means Strange New Worlds has a lot of characters it could bring in.