Star Trek and The Twilight Zone have had a lot in common over their long runs, including a lot of actors who appeared in both series. Many Star Trek: The Original Series actors were in The Twilight Zone‘s original version, which ran from 1959 to 1964. The Twilight Zone‘s first revival overlapped with Star Trek: The Next Generation for two years with a 1985 to 1989 run, and featured several actors who would go on to be main cast members in TNG, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager. Its hour-long episodes were broken into segments, allowing for the short-form storytelling that made the original The Twilight Zone so powerful.
Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone premiered as a CBS All Access original in 2019, just two years after Star Trek: Discovery made its debut on the same streaming service, now rebranded as Paramount+. This 21st-century revival of the classic anthology is haunting and atmospheric, with long, lingering shots that heighten each episode’s sense of uncertainty. Peele takes the reins as the series’ narrator, weaving his progressive viewpoint through the individual stories in much the same way The Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling did. This Twilight Zone lasted only 2 seasons, but also included Star Trek actors like its predecessors.
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9 Nana Visitor (Col. Kira Nerys)
The Twilight Zone (1985) season 1, episode 9a “Dead Woman’s Shoes”
In this remake of the original The Twilight Zone episode “Dead Man’s Shoes”, Nana Visitor plays Lori, secretary to a widower whose dead wife strides back into his life through an old pair of shoes. Visitor’s part is relatively small, but she’s recognizable as Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s future Major Kira Nerys, with a similar short hairstyle.
8 Ethan Phillips (Neelix)
The Twilight Zone (1985) season 1, episode 22b “Devil’s Alphabet”
Best known to Star Trek: Voyager fans as the Talaxian Neelix, Ethan Phillips appears in The Twilight Zone as a member of the Devil’s Alphabet Society, a secret fraternal order in the 1780s that makes a pact to meet annually, regardless of however many of their members may or may not be alive. Naturally, such an oath portends one less member around the table each year, but whether the pact itself is the cause of the society members’ death remains a mystery, even as ghostly specters begin to appear at the meetings. Phillips’ bespectacled brother shares a certain nervous demeanor with Neelix, but the similarities end there.
7 Jonathan Frakes (Captain William Riker)
The Twilight Zone (1985) season 1, episode 13b “But Can She Type?”
Karen Billings (Pam Dawber), a secretary frustrated with being demeaned in her workplace, finds a magical copy machine that sends her to a parallel dimension where secretaries are treated like celebrities. Jonathan Frakes plays a man at the bar who’s suitably impressed with Karen’s career choice, and very interested in asking her out, thanks to her prestigious job. It’s not a far stretch for the man who would become Captain William Riker, with his charming smile and progressive appreciation of women.
6 Tim Russ (Lt. Tuvok)
The Twilight Zone (1985) season 1, episode 3c “Kentucky Rye” and season 2, episode 13 “Voices in the Earth”
Star Trek: Voyager‘s Tuvok, Tim Russ, makes two appearances in The Twilight Zone, first as a police officer with a single line at the close of season 1’s “Kentucky Rye”, then in season 2’s “Voices in the Earth”. A far-future starship closes in on a forgotten planet seeking valuable resources, with Russ’ crew member — interestingly named Archer — providing commentary on the planet’s history and sensor readings. Russ only appears in a few scenes, but the episode’s references to warp travel and subspace, and message that all life is worthy of respect, no matter what form it takes, make it an episode of The Twilight Zone clearly inspired by Star Trek.
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5 John deLancie (Q) & Brent Spiner (Lt. Commander Data)
The Twilight Zone (1985) season 1, episode 19b “Dead Run”
“Dead Run” imagines the afterlife as a corporation, with John deLancie as an executive within its ranks who’s responsible for determining where souls eventually end up. It plays out sort of like Q paying his dues as middle management in the Q Continuum before showing up on the Enterprise in Star Trek: The Next Generation. If Q’s statements in TNG season 6, episode 15 “Tapestry” are anything to go by, that just might be the case. Brent Spiner has a smaller role as a deceased draft dodger proclaiming his innocence on the road to hell. His face is obscured when he first appears, but Spiner’s voice here is awfully close to Data’s when trying to tell jokes on the holodeck.
4 Tawny Newsome (Lt. Beckett Mariner) & Paul F. Tompkins (Dr. Migleemo)
The Twilight Zone (2019) Season 2, Episode 4 “Ovation”
In The Twilight Zone (2019) season 2, episode 4 “Ovation”, aspiring singer Jasmine Delancey (Jurnee Smollett) receives a cursed coin that brings her fame, but at a cost. Star Trek: Lower Decks’ Tawny Newsome plays Jasmine’s sister Zara, a medical doctor who supports Jasmine financially. Zara’s fluctuation between enthusiasm for and criticism of her sister’s musical career echoes Lt. Beckett Mariner’s conflicted feelings about Starfleet in Lower Decks, though Newsome’s Twilight Zone performance is much subtler. Paul F. Tompkins appears briefly, but with characteristic gusto, as late night talk show host and Jasmine superfan Jimmy O’Malley.
3 Robert Duncan McNeill (Lt. Tom Paris) & James Cromwell (Zefram Cochrane)
The Twilight Zone (1985) season 1, episode 6b “A Message from Charity”
Robert Duncan McNeill stars in “A Message from Charity” as Peter Wood, a lonely 1980s teenager who becomes psychically connected to a Puritan girl named Charity (Kerry Noonan) as both come down with a similar fever. Through the bond, the pair learn about each other’s worlds and become friends, despite the 200-year separation between the two. In Star Trek: Voyager, McNeill’s Tom Paris also has a fascination with history that earns him a 20th century friend in Rain Robinson (Sarah Silverman). Long before Star Trek: First Contact, James Cromwell features as Charity’s father, Obadiah Payne, who defends Charity when she’s accused of witchcraft.
2 Terry Farrell (Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax)
The Twilight Zone (1985) season 2, episode 4a “The After Hours”
In another remake of a classic Twilight Zone episode, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine‘s Jadzia Dax actor, Terry Farrell, stars as Marcia, a woman compelled to visit the mall after it’s closed. When questioned by a mall employee, Marcia can’t remember anything about her life prior to one month earlier, and the mall’s mannequins seem to follow her, calling her name as she runs from store to store with increasing panic. It’s spookier than the original episode, and reminiscent of Jadzia Dax being haunted by Dax’s murderous past host Joran in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 3, episode 4, “Equilibrium”.
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1 John Cho (Lt. Hikaru Sulu)
The Twilight Zone (2019) Season 1, Episode 5 “Wunderkind”
John Cho’s episode of Jordan Peele’s The Twilight Zone sees Cho as a down-on-his-luck Presidential campaign manager determined to turn his career around after his candidate loses the previous election in a landslide. Cho’s Raff Hanks finds a tween YouTube star, Oliver Foley (Jacob Tremblay), with a wholesome demeanor and promises of video games for every American that, with Hanks’ help, endears Oliver to a jaded American public and lands him the Presidency. Cho navigates the whims of the prepubescent President as best he can, but even J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek‘s Lt. Hikaru Sulu can’t turn the helm from the disaster that awaits him … in The Twilight Zone.
The similarities between Star Trek and The Twilight Zone have enriched both franchises, despite their very different approaches to storytelling. The Twilight Zone uses its dystopic lens to examine the ways that reality seems off-kilter with its explorations into the unfamiliar, while Star Trek keeps its eye on the possibility of an optimistic future. Both series have enjoyed revivals in the same eras, when changing cultural paradigms inspire stories that provide commentary on society. Actors common to both Star Trek and The Twilight Zoneget a chance to explore both sides of this critical coin, and ask audiences to do the same.
Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine are streaming on Paramount+. The Twilight Zone (2019) is streaming on Syfy and Freevee. The Twilight Zone (1985) is available on YouTube.
