Sam Witwer may have played James Kirk but it wasn't his first romp with Star Trek

Sam Witwer is most known for his work with the Star Wars franchise but the sci-fi veteran has done some work with Star Trek before.
The Game Awards 2017 - Arrivals
The Game Awards 2017 - Arrivals / Greg Doherty/GettyImages
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Fans of science fiction will likely know who Sam Witwer is. If something exists that has had a science fiction tinge to it over the last 25 years, he's likely been involved in it to some degree. He was on shows like Dark Angel and Angel before landing his first recurring role on SyFy's Battlestar Galactica reboot. He appeared as Crashdown, one of the more interesting characters on the show.

He would later pop up on Smallville as the human form of Doomsday, before appearing in the pilot episode of The Walking Dead as the tank walker that tries to eat Rick Grimes. After 2008, however, his career would take off.

He'd start starring in various Star Wars properties, mostly as the character Starkiller in the two Forcec Unleashed video games. He'd then go on to voice Darth Maul in various projects for the franchise as well, while also serving as the model for the main character of Days Gone.

During all that he'd end up starring on the SyFy remake of the British series Being Human, and would later appear on Supergirl as Agent Liberty.

Yet, most recently, Witwer appeared as James Kirk. Not just Kirk, but William Shatner's Kirk. Witwer appeared in the Star Trek short, Unification, as Shatner's Kirk. Through a combination of prosthetics and computer generation, Shatner's Kirk returned for one more ride but pasted on the face and body of Witwer. The short is getting rave reviews, despite the lack of any real dialogue that can be heard.

While he's prolific in the world of science fiction these days, his role with Star Trek for Unification wasn't the first time he's ever rolled through our part of the universe. In a fun little piece of trivia, before he was voicing Darth Maul and starring in various sci-fi shows, Witwer was a nameless Sloth in an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise.

In the seventh episode of the third season, entitled "Shipment", Witwer played a member of the Arboreal (sloth) Xindi. It wouldn't be his only work with Star Trek being carrying Shatner's legacy as Kirk through a short. Witwer would later appear in an episode of Lower Decks in two separate roles. in A Farewell to Arms, he appeared as Malor and Sir Legnog respectively.

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