The Star Trek: The Original Series Actor Who Played A Vulcan, Klingon & Romulan

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One actor from Star Trek: The Original Series played a Vulcan, a Romulan, and a Klingon throughout his Star Trek career. Mark Lenard is best known as Spock’s (Leonard Nimoy) father, Vulcan Ambassador Sarek, who debuted in Star Trek: The Original Series season 2, episode 10, “Journey to Babel”. Mark Lenard appeared as Sarek in four TOS movies, from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. Sarek joined other TOS characters in Star Trek: The Next Generation with Star Trek: TNG season 3, episode 23, “Sarek”, and TNG season 5, episode 7, “Unification I”.

“Journey to Babel” is Sarek’s only Star Trek: The Original Series appearance, but Mark Lenard made other Star Trek appearances feature the actor playing completely different characters, who are also different species. Star Trek still re-hires working character actors to portray different aliens. Star Trek actors who return as a different species are known to be comfortable with the potentially long hours and application processes associated with prosthetic makeup. Recurring alien actors have molds of their faces, hands, or ears already available for the Star Trek makeup team to create new prosthetics for Star Trek’s changing alien species.

Mark Lenard Portrayed A Vulcan, Klingon & Romulan In Star Trek

3 Major Star Trek: The Original Series Era Aliens Define Mark Lenard’s Star Trek Career

Besides playing Vulcan Ambassador Sarek, Mark Lenard also portrayed a Romulan and a Klingon at different points in his Star Trek career. Before playing Ambassador Sarek, Mark Lenard appeared as the Romulan commander in Star Trek: The Original Series season 1, episode 8, “Balance of Terror”. Lenard’s unnamed commander represents the mystery surrounding the Romulans at this point in the Star Trek timeline. During a tense dialogue with Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner), Lenard’s Romulan delivers a line that encapsulates a pillar of Star Trek’s ethos: “In a different reality, I could have called you friend.”

Mark Lenard’s third Star Trek role is a Klingon in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Lenard’s Klingon is captain of the IKS Amar, and one of the very first Klingons to appear in Star Trek with their now-characteristic forehead ridges. When the possibility of Sarek appearing in Star Trek: The Motion Picture fell through, Mark Lenard was instead offered the role of the Klingon captain in the first Star Trek movie, and he took it. As a result, Lenard has the honor of being among the first Star Trek actors to deliver lines in the codified version of the Klingon language.

Other Actors Who Have Played 3 Or More Major Star Trek Species

Jeffrey Combs And Other Actors Build Their Star Trek Careers Playing Multiple Alien Species

Many actors have played 3 or more major Star Trek species, and Jeffrey Combs may be the best example of an actor playing multiple Star Trek roles, with appearances throughout the franchise. Combs made his Star Trek debut in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 3, episode 8, “Meridian”, as Tirok, a customer of Quark’s (Armin Shimerman). Since then, the most frequently recurring of Jeffrey Combs’ 10 Star Trek roles have included the repeatedly-cloned Vorta Weyoun and Ferengi Liquidator Brunt in DS9, Captain Jonathan Archer’s (Scott Bakula) Andorian frenemy Thy’lek Shran in Star Trek: Enterprise, and evil computer AGIMUS in Star Trek: Lower Decks.

Neelix actor Ethan Phillips played Voyager’s Talaxian as a Klingon and a Ferengi, and a different Ferengi in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Suzie Plakson’s Star Trek roles include half-Klingon Ambassador K’Ehleyr and Vulcan Doctor Selar in TNG, Miss Q in Star Trek: Voyager, and an Andorian, Tarah, in Star Trek: Enterprise. Majel Barrett-Roddenberry has 4 different Star Trek roles, from Number One to Lwaxana Troi. Star Trek: Voyager’s Tim Russ played 5 different Star Trek species; as a versatile actor and prominent Vulcan, Russ may be the Star Trek actor with a career most closely resembling Mark Lenard’s in Star Trek: The Original Series.

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