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Set phasers to scream! Star Trek icons in horror movies.
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00:00Star Trek legends have been known to dip their toes in the fetid swamp that is the horror movie
00:05world. The novelty of seeing these actors away from the clean and family-friendly Star Trek
00:09universe and getting covered in gore or fighting terrifying supernatural forces is enough to make
00:15any of these flicks worth your time to watch. So with that in mind then, I'm Ellie with Trek
00:19Culture, and here are 10 Star Trek legends who starred in horror movies.
00:24Number 10. Andrew Robinson in Hellraiser 1987. The Cardassian tailor Garrick, played by Andrew
00:32Robinson in Star Trek Deep Space Nine, is beloved by fans for his cutting remarks and witty sarcasm.
00:38In 1987, before becoming Garrick, Robinson played Larry in Clive Barker's iconic genre-changing
00:44masterpiece Hellraiser. Julia, Larry's adulterous wife, seduces and kills men to feed Frank, her
00:50dead brother-in-law, who was also her lover before he died. Frank has escaped from Hell and grows
00:55stronger each time she brings him another victim. He is eventually strong enough to take over the
00:59body of his poor brother Larry. Cenobites, demons to some, angels to others, including Hellpriest
01:05Pinhead, come up from their realm of pain to drag Frank back down. Seeing Larry turn from the mild-mannered
01:11family man into leering sadist chasing daughter Kirstie displays the extent of the actor's talent.
01:16Robinson was offered the opportunity to appear in the first sequel, Hellbound Hellraiser 2, but,
01:22despite the success of Hellraiser, the pay was less. He ultimately turned it down and never returned
01:27to the franchise.
01:29Number 9. DeForest Kelly in Night of the Lepus 1972.
01:34The grumpy, no-nonsense Dr. Bones McCoy was a major part of the original Star Trek series.
01:39His arguments with Spock produced some funny moments as well as thought-provoking philosophy
01:43across the series and the movies. His character's catchphrase,
01:47I'm a doctor, not a...
01:49Bricklayer.
01:49Mechanic.
01:50Coal miner.
01:51...made him a favourite amongst fans. In his final non-Star Trek movie,
01:56DeForest Kelly plays college president Elgin Clark. Clark, wanting an ecological alternative
02:01to poison for his friend's rabbit infestation, contacts zoologist Roy for help. While experimenting
02:07with hormones and chemicals on lab rabbits, a test subject escapes, leading to the already pesky
02:12rabbits becoming giant, bloodthirsty killers that terrorise the town and surrounding farms
02:17and ranches. It may not be a big-screen classic, but Night of the Lepus is a fun watch nonetheless,
02:23even if it is just for the goofy special effects and Kelly's moustache.
02:28Number 8. Patrick Stewart in Life Force 1985.
02:32This movie comes from horror icon Toby Hooper, the director of Poltergeist and the original
02:38Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Three shapeshifting vampires, one female and two males, are found
02:43by astronauts in a comet and brought to Earth. Instead of feeding on blood, they drain their
02:48victims of their life force. Stewart plays Dr. Armstrong, a hospital manager whose body
02:53is used as a hiding place by the perpetually nude female space vampire. The aliens transform
02:58a large part of London's population into zombie-like creatures, causing chaos in the capital.
03:04This movie also features Stewart's first on-screen kiss, shared with co-star Steve Railsback.
03:10Life Force came two years before Patrick Stewart would take the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard
03:14in Star Trek The Next Generation. Jean-Luc is a role he would play across 176 episodes and
03:21four movies, and later his own series, Picard.
03:25Number 7. Jerry Ryan in Dracula 2001, 2000.
03:30Seven of Nine, the Borg drone rescued from the collective, became a valued crew member in
03:35Star Trek Voyager. Jerry Ryan reprised this role in the recent Picard series. In 2000's
03:40Dracula 2001, though, she played Valerie Sharp, a TV news reporter who was turned into a vampire
03:46by the seductive titular vampire. Resistance was indeed futile.
03:50When thieves steal the silver carcet containing the imprisoned Dracula, they unwittingly release
03:55the monster. Drac learns he has a telekinetic link with a young girl called Mary, all because
04:01Van Helsing, her estranged father and Dracula's old enemy, has spent years injecting himself
04:06with the legendary vampire's blood in order to prolong his own life. During this time,
04:10he conceived Mary, who is now a young woman pursued through New Orleans by her father's nemesis.
04:16Ryan isn't given much to do here beyond being one of Dracula's sultry and scantily clad minions.
04:22In 2019, she also starred alongside fellow Star Trek legend William Shatner in another
04:27horror movie, the frankly awful Devil's Revenge.
04:31Number 6. Robert Beltran in Knight of the Comet 1984.
04:36Before he was the wise and charming Commander Chakotay on the Starship Voyager, Robert Beltran
04:41played Hector in post-apocalyptic sci-fi horror cult classic Knight of the Comet.
04:46Regina and Samantha navigate the streets of Los Angeles the morning after a catastrophic
04:51event. The Earth has passed through the tail of a comet, which has turned humans into piles
04:55of red dust. The only survivors are those who, like Regina and Samantha, have spent the night
05:00surrounded by steel. Those who were only partially surrounded by steel have become cannibalistic
05:04mutants. Regina and Samantha meet Hector at a radio station where their broadcast is heard
05:09by scientists surviving underground. The trio not only have to fight off comet zombies and
05:14learn to survive together, but they must also contend with the pursuing scientists who wish
05:18to harvest their uninfected blood. Beltran turned down this role three times before eventually
05:23being enticed by money, billing, and the opportunity to adjust the character of Hector. The character
05:29became more of a reluctant hero than what he described as just a rehash of his role in eating
05:33Raul, a Mexican immigrant and a professional thief.
05:37Number 5. Nichelle Nichols in The Supernaturals 1986
05:41After playing Yohura in Star Trek on TV and film for around 20 years, Nichelle Nichols starred in
05:48the mostly forgotten supernatural zombie action horror The Supernaturals. This film came out just a few
05:54months before the release of Star Trek IV The Voyage Home, where she would once again return to the
05:59role of Yohura. Nichols played Leona Hawkins, a tough U.S. Army sergeant. Hawkins and her platoon,
06:05consisting mostly of cowards and morons, head down south to the woods for a training exercise.
06:10It just so happens that the woods they have chosen was the site of a historic atrocity,
06:15where the inhabitants of a confederate town were killed by northern soldiers during the American
06:19Civil War. When the platoon loses radio contact and becomes isolated, the bodies of those cruelly
06:24murdered a century ago begin to rise as ghouls looking for revenge. It's pretty basic stuff,
06:30and it's easy to tell Nichols is not putting in her best effort, delivering lines with little
06:34passion. Future Star Trek hero LeVar Burton also has a role in this film as Private Osgood,
06:40a year before he would star as Geordi LaForge in Star Trek The Next Generation.
06:45Number 4. Leonard Nimoy in Invasion of the Body Snatchers 1978
06:49The remake of 1956 sci-fi masterpiece Invasion of the Body Snatchers comes over two decades after
06:57the original. This version of the movie is considered one of the greatest remakes of all
07:01time, along with The Fly and The Thing. Leonard Spock Nimoy stars alongside Donald Sutherland,
07:07Brooke Adams, and Jeff Goldblum in this terrifying chiller that had much to say about modern society
07:12that is still relevant today. It is more than just mere paranoia, as life forms from a dying planet
07:18have begun replacing humans with replicas. Nimoy plays Dr. Kidna and gives a genuinely creepy
07:24performance, delivering the chillingly deadpan line, we adapt and we survive. The function of
07:30life is survival. Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a masterclass in eerie suspense and tense paranoid
07:36drama, aided by great performances from the cast. This 1978 film presented an opportunity for Leonard
07:43Nimoy to escape the Spock typecast, though it was only the following year that he would return to his
07:48most famous role for Star Trek The Motion Picture.
07:51Number 3. LeVar Burton in Rise of the Zombies 2012
07:56LeVar Burton earned his title as a Star Trek legend due to his part as Geordi LaForge in Star Trek The
08:02Next Generation, and because of his work behind the camera across multiple series of the franchise.
08:08Ten years after playing LaForge for the last time in Nemesis, Burton landed a role in the 2012
08:13undead tale Rise of the Zombies. This film comes from the infamous movie studio The Asylum. The
08:19Asylum has a reputation for...
08:21...and plots with upcoming films from the larger studios. A group of survivors fleeing the zombie
08:29infested city of San Francisco take refuge in the Alcatraz prison. Among the survivors is Dr.
08:34Halpern, who is frustrated with the lack of a live specimen. The undead eventually make it to the famous
08:40prison island, meaning the group must vacate and go on the run. It is unlikely you have ever seen
08:45LeVar Burton in anything as gory as this.
08:49Number 2. Scott Bakula in Lord of Illusions 1995
08:53Clive Barker directs this chilling adaptation of his own short story, The Last Illusion.
08:59For Scott Bakula, Lord of Illusions comes between his role in the classic science fiction TV series
09:04Quantum Leap and his time as Captain Archer on Star Trek Enterprise, the prequel to the original series.
09:10Throughout his long career as an actor, this marks Bakula's only horror movie in which he plays the lead.
09:16Before he can perform a sacrifice, Nix, a cult leader with supernatural powers, is killed by followers Swan and
09:22Quaid. Thirteen years after his apparent death, Nix's cult remains fanatical. When Quaid is found dead all those years
09:30later, Dorothea, the wife of Swan, hires private detective Harry D'Amour to investigate the murder.
09:36Dorothea fears her husband, now a famous magician, will be next as the dangerous cult await the return
09:41of their leader. Although Lord of Illusions only made a small profit at the box office, the picture
09:46was generally praised, with the visual effects in particular impressing critics.
09:51Number 1. William Shatner in Kingdom of the Spiders 1977
09:56Kingdom of the Spiders came almost a decade after the original series of Star Trek ended.
10:01The 1977 series of Star Trek ended. The 1977 sci-fi horror was unleashed two years before Shatner took
10:09the Captain Kirk role to the big screen for the first time in Star Trek The Motion Picture.
10:13This skin-crawling caper was released during the bug horror boom of the late 1970s, along with the
10:19likes of the Savage Bees, It Happened at Lakewood Manor, and Squirm.
10:23William Captain Kirk Shatner plays a small-town veterinarian,
10:27Rak Hansen, fighting wave after wave of killer tarantulas. The killing starts with farm animals,
10:32but it quickly becomes clear that any living thing in the path of these arachnids is in deathly danger.
10:38The vet must use all his cunning and bravery to ensure that as many of the locals as possible
10:42survive the onslaught from the army of creepy, crawling killers. This is not for the faint-hearted,
10:48nor is it for anyone remotely concerned about animals.
10:53After filmmaking adopted by the crew of Arachnophobia in 1990, many, many spiders were killed during the
11:00production of Kingdom of the Spiders. Shatner later expressed regret about this fact in his
11:052008 autobiography, Up Till Now.
11:08And that concludes our list. If you can think of any other examples, then do let us know in the
11:14comments below. And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell.
11:19Also head over to Twitter and follow us there, and I can be found across various social medias
11:23just by searching Ellie Littlechild. I've been Ellie with Trek Culture. I hope you have a wonderful day,
11:28and remember to boldly go where no one has gone before.
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