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A starship for a stage, captains to act, and directors to uphold the Roddenberry dream.
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00:00Once looked down upon by your serious movie stars, the power and prestige of television these days
00:05means that A-listers are lining up around the block to appear on the small screen.
00:10Moreover, every Star Trek episode of the Kurtzman era feels like in order to get the full experience,
00:16you should really be sitting in a large darkened room with complete strangers whilst covered in popcorn.
00:22The cinematic scope of the contemporary Trek series might well prove irresistible to the actors on this list.
00:28For this list, we'll be focusing on actors who, through no fault of their own, have not yet been in Star Trek,
00:34but who really, really need to be.
00:36A big thank you to Andrew Hyde for reaching out on Instagram with the original idea for this list.
00:41So with that in mind, I'm Ellie with Trek Culture, here with 10 actors who should be in Star Trek.
00:47Number 10, Anya Chilotra.
00:50Anya Chilotra is a relative newcomer to the acting world, but she has certainly proved her might as Yennefer in Netflix's The Witcher,
00:57which quickly became one of the most watched series on the platform.
01:00Given the subtleties of her performance in The Witcher,
01:02we have previously recast Chilotra as the ever-stoic but bubbling mass of Vulcan emotions beneath the surface
01:09to pole in a Star Trek Enterprise reboot.
01:12However, the talented British actress is now set to star in a very different role
01:16that should make her an ideal fit for another arm of the Trek franchise.
01:19Already in production, Chilotra will be voicing a character in the animated series New Gen,
01:25based on the Marvel comic book series.
01:27Set in a utopian future, where nanotech is commonplace,
01:30the series will be aimed primarily at young children, hashtag save Star Trek prodigy.
01:35Assuming that all goes well and that prodigy finds a new home,
01:38Chilotra could join up with Janeway and her warrant officers in training
01:42as an entirely new character from anywhere in the galaxy,
01:45or she could even lend her voice to Lower Decks.
01:47Number 9, Dominique Tipper.
01:49Listed by IMDb as one of their kick-ass women of sci-fi,
01:53alongside Star Trek alum Nichelle Nichols, Kate Mulgrew, Jerry Ryan,
01:57Celia Rose Gooding, Rebecca Romijn and more,
02:00British actress Dominique Tipper made her name in the role of battle-ready belter
02:05with a heart of gold Naomi Nagata in Amazon Prime Video's The Expanse.
02:10Naomi is certainly one of the most likeable characters on the show,
02:13but my oh my is she made to suffer, both physically and emotionally.
02:17Hopefully on Star Trek, Tipper can have a calmer journey through the galaxy.
02:22The Expanse was also noted for its use of belter creole,
02:24and for the intricate code-switching employed by Naomi
02:27depending on whether she was around inners or belters.
02:30Such an ease with language and the diversity that brings to the screen
02:34would make Tipper an excellent choice for Trek,
02:36a series in which the dialogue is by and large still given
02:39in the somewhat euphemistically named Federation Standard.
02:42Number 8, Nicolas Cage.
02:44Nicolas Cage is another Hollywood A-lister to have claimed his Trekkie credentials of late,
02:49and we think it's about time he was given a role in the show.
02:52I mean, his last name is literally Cage, for Pike's sake.
02:56I mean, technically it's actually not, but whatever.
02:58Much to the chagrin of Pedro Pascal,
03:01Cage told Yahoo that he wasn't down for joining Star Wars
03:05as his unbearable weight of massive talent co-star might have hoped.
03:08Cage was firmly in the Star Trek family.
03:11Commenting on Cage's I'm a Trekkie reveal,
03:14Ansem Mount retweeted the Yahoo interview to Akiva Goldsman saying,
03:18Must. Make. This. Happen.
03:20To which the Star Trek showrunner executive producer simply replied,
03:24Aye aye, Cap.
03:25Now it's a bit late for Strange New World Season 2 by now,
03:28but perhaps next season Cage could play Jonathan Archer Dawes,
03:31an enterprising Starfleet historian in search of lost galactic treasures,
03:35the map to which is written on the back of a Federation charter.
03:38But more seriously though, Cage would make just as good a Cardassian
03:42as he would a Starfleet captain.
03:44The possibilities are endless.
03:46Someone might want to check nonetheless if bees are still about by the 23rd century.
03:50Number 7. Lawrence Fishburne
03:52Lawrence Fishburne is a multi-talented, award-winning actor,
03:56with films and TV series under his belt as diverse as Apocalypse Now,
04:00The Color Purple, CSI, and Hannibal.
04:02His stint as Morpheus in The Matrix also makes him a veritable sci-fi legend.
04:07So convinced in fact are people that Fishburne is Morpheus,
04:11the actor jokingly once stated that he considered carrying around red and blue M&Ms
04:16to blow people's minds.
04:18This time, let's take both pills and slide down the rabbit hole into Trek Wonderland.
04:22Fishburne has an intriguing link to Star Trek, albeit a very tenuous one.
04:27In 1997, the actor played another ship's captain, Miller,
04:31in now-cult sci-fi horror classic Event Horizon.
04:34With Fishburne's star power and sci-fi captaincy previous,
04:38he'd be perfect for a leadership role in Star Trek,
04:41although he's surely earned the Admiral pips and stripes by now.
04:45Number 6. Mila Kunis
04:46One of her most famous characters, Meg,
04:49might well have good reason to hate the show
04:51after contracting the mumps from a fan at a convention,
04:54but Mila Kunis, much like Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane,
04:58clearly loves Star Trek,
05:00often citing The Next Generation as her favourite.
05:02When the actress appeared on the penultimate The Late Late Show
05:05with James Corden earlier this year,
05:08she could barely contain her excitement
05:09to be sitting next to a certain Patrick Stewart.
05:12Trying to play it cool,
05:14Kunis admitted that back in the days of those classic Nokia phones,
05:17she bought a ringtone that went,
05:19Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise.
05:22Although she would gladly play Deanna Troi as Marina Sirtis once suggested,
05:27Kunis has expressed some hesitancy when asked about joining the franchise.
05:32Watching Star Trek with the fourth wall firmly in place
05:34is for her more fun than being a part of it.
05:37We certainly wouldn't want to take any of that enjoyment away.
05:40Mila really should be in Star Trek.
05:42We definitely know she has the voiceover chops
05:44for a role in Lower Decks or even Prodigy.
05:47Number 5. Adrian Dunbar
05:49Adrian Dunbar needs to be in Star Trek.
05:52The Northern Ireland-born actor has enjoyed a prolific career
05:55on stage, screen and behind the camera for over four decades.
05:59No stranger to a sci-fi franchise or two,
06:01Dunbar starred in the BBC's 2005 live broadcast film remake
06:05of 1950s sci-fi series The Quatermass Experiment.
06:09He even played a role in Star Wars Episode I, The Phantom Menace,
06:13but his scenes were cut from the theatrical release.
06:16Dunbar is no doubt most well-known, though,
06:18for his role as Head of Police Anti-Corruption Unit 12
06:21in the hugely popular Line of Duty.
06:23AC-12's no-nonsense SI would certainly have fit right in,
06:27chasing alien OCGs in STTNG, DS9, VOY and ENT.
06:33But these days, we could see the gaffer actor as an admiral,
06:36or at least a captain, in SNW.
06:38Mother of God, just give Adrian Dunbar his own long trek, in fact.
06:42Number 4. Stephen Graham
06:43One of the finest, most sought-after actors of his generation,
06:48Stephen Graham is equally at home in big-budget Hollywood
06:51with DiCaprio and De Niro as he is in an intimate BBC drama.
06:55Known for playing criminals, or at least the multifaceted wrongan type,
06:59in films and series such as Gangs of New York, The Irishman,
07:02This Is England and The Odd Guy Ritchie work,
07:05the Merseyside native is a master of accents
07:07and recently showed off his keen comedic timing and culinary skills
07:11in Roald Dahl's Mathilda the Musical and Boiling Point, respectively.
07:15Not to typecast, but if it's complex, morally ambiguous undercover operatives you're after,
07:20Star Trek has a few organisations for that.
07:22Section 31 might be the obvious choice,
07:25but why not a Romulan Tal Shiar agent,
07:28or a long trek about the Orion Syndicate?
07:30Graham could equally play an operative or head of the Department of Temporal Investigations,
07:35now that the time travel police are getting some more attention in Star Trek Strange New Worlds.
07:39Our very own Sean Ferrick also casts Graham as Rom in a Star Trek Deep Space Nine reboot,
07:45so for fear of going back to Coffee Duty,
07:47I must say that is absolutely the only and most magnificent choice.
07:51Number 3, Hannah Waddingham.
07:53Now anyone who follows me personally on social media
07:56won't find it difficult to guess who made this suggestion for this list.
08:00From a family of opera singers,
08:01Waddingham is an accomplished West End performer in her own right,
08:05having starred in shows such as Spamalot and The Wizard of Oz.
08:08Of course, Waddingham rocketed to global fame
08:11with the role of Rebecca Welton in the much-lauded Ted Lasso.
08:15Now as I mentioned earlier,
08:16I made the suggestion for Hannah Waddingham on this list,
08:19and the character of Rebecca Welton
08:20fits the mould of my favourite characters in anything I watch.
08:24Now my favourite Star Trek character, again if you're not aware,
08:27is Captain Janeway.
08:28There are some real parallels between those two characters.
08:32And of course, they are also very different characters,
08:34but the fundamentals are the same.
08:36But in Star Trek, whilst it would be great to see Waddingham
08:38as an admiral or a captain,
08:41she would be the perfect Romulan badass villain.
08:45And the basis for that conclusion comes from her superbly villainous role
08:49as Magdalena in the third season of Twelve Monkeys,
08:53where she became good friends with Terry Metallus and Todd Stashwick.
08:57So a Star Trek role for Waddingham
08:59seems practically predestined at this point.
09:02Number two, Lena Headey.
09:04Lena Headey and the previous ray of sunshine on this list,
09:07Hannah Waddingham, became fast friends on the set of Game of Thrones,
09:10in spite of, or even in part owing to,
09:13the challenges of that waterboarding scene
09:15and the naked walk of shame.
09:17It would be an utter delight to see the pair reunite on screen in Star Trek,
09:22either as opposing forces once more
09:24or as colleagues chums in Starfleet or elsewhere.
09:27Evidently, at home with fantasy,
09:29science fiction is also familiar territory for Headey.
09:33The English actress played the titular Sarah
09:35in the woefully cut short series Terminator the Sarah Connor Chronicles
09:39and Mama in 2012's Dread.
09:41Headey could happily catch up, nay, to pass,
09:44her Terminator co-star and Star Trek stalwart Thomas Decker
09:47who has previously had roles in Star Trek Generations,
09:50Star Trek Voyager and in Star Trek Picard.
09:53In fact, Headey has already been cast, so to speak,
09:56as half-Vulcan, half-human Captain Tessara Frost
09:59in the Star Trek Courageous Fan Universe,
10:03set just after the end of Star Trek Deep Space Nine
10:05and before Star Trek Nemesis.
10:08Number one, James McAvoy.
10:10What do goat legs and that bloody hell it's hot in here gif
10:13have in common with Captain Picard?
10:15James McAvoy, of course.
10:16The internationally renowned Glaswegian actor
10:19has taken on a host of characters in his career,
10:22but most notably for our purposes,
10:24he played a young Professor Charles X Xavier.
10:27McAvoy not only has precedent, then,
10:29to play a younger version of Picard,
10:31but he's practically been canvassing for the role
10:33for a good while now.
10:35A proud geek through and through,
10:36McAvoy is an avid Star Trek fan,
10:38telling GQ of his admiration for Stewart's work
10:41in The Next Generation.
10:43Asked by Jimmy Fallon in a 2020 interview
10:45if he'd like to take on the Picard role,
10:48McAvoy replied,
10:49I'm doing the virtual lockdown equivalent
10:50of rubbing my scent all over Patrick's face
10:53and saying this territory is mine.
10:55If you haven't seen McAvoy's lockdown sci-fi-solation
10:59Star Trek parody homage,
11:00then do yourself a favour.
11:02The utterly hilarious,
11:03quite literally made-on-a-shoestring at times,
11:05Star Force stars McAvoy as the captain,
11:08Katrina Balfe as second-in-command,
11:11and has guest actors the likes of
11:12Florence Pugh, Kit Harington, and Sam Heughan.
11:15Give them all their own Trek series, I say,
11:17and see what happens.
11:19And that concludes our list.
11:20Let us know which actors you'd like to see
11:22in Star Trek in the comments down below.
11:24And while you're there,
11:24don't forget to like and subscribe
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11:29Also, head over to Twitter and Instagram
11:32to follow us there,
11:33and I can be found across various social medias
11:36just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
11:37I've been Ellie with Trek Culture.
11:39I hope you have a wonderful day,
11:41and remember to boldly go
11:42where no one has gone before.
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