Star Trek fans surely got a kick out of seeing Star Trek II: The Search for Spock villain Christopher Lloyd co-starring as Doc Brown alongside Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly in Back to the Future. And those same fans no doubt loved it when Marty, disguised and masking his voice, identifies himself to his future father as “Darth Vader… from the planet Vulcan,” and proceeds to offer the patented split-fingered Vulcan greeting.
But… a document from 1984, from the office of Back to the Future’s casting directors, Fenton-Feinberg Casting, reveals that several other familiar Star Trek names were considered before director Robert Zemeckis chose Lloyd. Among those considered: Joe Piscopo, Rene Auberjonois, Paul Dooley, Kevin Conway, and Gerrit Graham. Piscopo later played The Comic in the Star Trek: The Next Generation second-season episode, “The Outrageous Okona,” which premiered in 1988. Auberjonois joined the Star Trek universe in 1991, playing Colonel West in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. He went on to co-star as Odo for the entire run of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and to guest star as Ezral in an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise. He also directed eight episodes of DS9.
Dooley guest-starred in four episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine as the Cardassian character Enabran Tain, making his first appearance in 1994 with the second-season episode, “The Wire.” At 97 years old, he’s one of Star Trek’s oldest-living actors. Conway portrayed the Klingon, Kahless, in the TNG episode, “Rightful Heir,” which aired in 1993, during the show’s sixth season. Graham guest-starred as a Hunter in the first-season DS9 episode, “Captive Pursuit,” which premiered in 1991, and Quinn, a suicidal Q, in the second-season Star Trek: Voyager episode, “Death Wish.” He was also reportedly up for the role of Odo on DS9 that eventually went to Auberjonois.
For the record, some of the other names on the list of potential Doc Browns included a few total head-scratchers as well as options that make you think, “Wow, he could have been cool in the role.” Among the actors: Jeff Goldblum, Peter Boyle, Dabney Coleman, Robin Williams, John Cleese, Mickey Rourke, Gene Hackman, Gene Wilder, Harold Ramis, Albert Brooks, Steve Martin, Robert Klein, Danny De Vito, Bob Balaban, John Candy, Henry Winkler, Eddie Murphy, Bill Cosby, Randy Quaid, and Michael Keaton.
And since we're talking about Back to the Future and Star Trek, let's not forget the lady in the photo above with Lloyd and Fox. That's Lea Thompson, who played Lorraine in Back to the Future. She later directed two episodes of Star Trek: Picard and guest-starred as Diane Lerner in the Picard installment, "Fly Me to the Moon."