Tim Russ

There’s something kind of sweet about the fact that Tim Russ is an amateur astronomer. It kind of makes up for some of the other bonkers behind-the-scenes stuff on Star Trek: Voyager, some of which is bad enough that I look up every new person I’m writing about in the franchise with mild dread. But Russ not only owns three telescopes and is a member of the Los Angeles Astronomical Society, he’s a member of a group of amateur astronomers who helped NASA locate asteroids to which the Lucy probe has been sent. It is still six years until the fruits of that effort will be seen, because science is like that sometimes. But Russ is clearly well acquainted with patience.

In 1987, Russ was very busy pretending to be in space. He was, most notably, combing the desert for Mel Brooks in Spaceballs. In fact, he’s the one with the comb. But that same year, he did an episode of the Starman TV series and a space-themed episode of The Twilight Zone. (He also did a made-for-TV movie called Time Stalkers which may or may not involve space travel but honestly time travel works for this information as well.) And he auditioned for a new show that would be running in syndication. A little role called Geordi LaForge on a show called Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Obviously, he didn’t get the part, though it seems to have been a near thing. And he kept on auditioning for roles on the show, it seems, eventually landing a part on the sixth season episode “Starship Mine.” And for some actors, that would have been enough. However, he kept auditioning, and he holds the distinction of having shared scenes with more captains than anyone else in Star Trek history, a whopping eight. That’s Picard, Kirk, Sulu, Sisko, Harriman, Shaw, and of course Janeway, though I think they’re stretching it by including Tuvok—his own character. Still, he’s definitely tied for the most seasons of the franchise appeared in at ten, not to mention Generations. And a fan series he directed himself, which also includes his appearing with Admiral Chekhov.

And even if you don’t count all his Star Trek appearances, he’s been a busy man over the decades. He has over 200 credits on IMDb as an actor, plus writing, directing, and producing. He’s another of the musicians of Star Trek—and he’s far better than Leonard Nimoy. Perhaps that’s why he was on two episodes of Cop Rock; since he’s credited as “Juror,” I assume he’s in the Murder Cop plotline. His first TV appearance was in an episode of Hunter; his first movie credit was in Crossroads, that weird Ralph Macchio blues movie, where presumably he also got to use his musical ability.

It’s also sweet that so many Trekkies get to go on to work on Star Trek. Apparently Russ came into the show deeply familiar with Vulcan lore already. I don’t want to say with certainty that he was the first black actor to play a Vulcan, but he was certainly the first one I remember, which meant he was also expanding what we knew about Vulcans and became an important part of Vulcan lore himself. That’s something to be proud of, just as much as everything else he’s done. And his determination.