It's become a common "trope" in sci-fi where a character (most especially a main character) is doubled or "twinned" in some way: Kirk and Riker were both doubled in transporter accidents; Picard was once time-shifted and interacted with himself; multiple copies of the Soong-type android were created, all played by Brent Spiner; TOS, DS9 and ENT all ventured into "Mirror Universe" territory.
It's also common practice for the same guest actor to play multiple different characters over the life of a series (mostly because, if the series is long-running enough, there aren't enough professional, quality actors to fill all the roles that get written, so they need to recycle a bit. Especially for a show like Star Trek, since many professional actors aren't able to handle the makeup needs, so that reduces the number of available actors they can hire.)
On Star Trek, Jeffrey Combs and Vaughn Armstrong almost made a career out of playing multiple characters, some of them recurring. Honorable mention goes to other actors like Majel Barrett or Susie Plakson.
What intrigues me the most is when the same actor is cast for two recurring roles on a series, who are not necessarily connected to each other through the storyline, but who need to interact (or at least appear in the same script) due to story needs. Examples:
- DS9 had an episode where Brunt and Weyoun shared a scene, both played by Jeffrey Combs
- TNG had at least one instance where Lwaxana Troi had a conversation with the ship's computer (Majel Barrett playing both "roles")
I've seen examples in other shows as well (any time in Farscape where Crais and Pilot interacted; most famously, Jack Nicholson played two entirely unrelated roles in "Mars Attacks".)
Are there any other Star Trek examples I'm missing? I wouldn't be surprised if K'Eylehr and Dr. Selar met each other at some point, for example.
It's also common practice for the same guest actor to play multiple different characters over the life of a series (mostly because, if the series is long-running enough, there aren't enough professional, quality actors to fill all the roles that get written, so they need to recycle a bit. Especially for a show like Star Trek, since many professional actors aren't able to handle the makeup needs, so that reduces the number of available actors they can hire.)
On Star Trek, Jeffrey Combs and Vaughn Armstrong almost made a career out of playing multiple characters, some of them recurring. Honorable mention goes to other actors like Majel Barrett or Susie Plakson.
What intrigues me the most is when the same actor is cast for two recurring roles on a series, who are not necessarily connected to each other through the storyline, but who need to interact (or at least appear in the same script) due to story needs. Examples:
- DS9 had an episode where Brunt and Weyoun shared a scene, both played by Jeffrey Combs
- TNG had at least one instance where Lwaxana Troi had a conversation with the ship's computer (Majel Barrett playing both "roles")
I've seen examples in other shows as well (any time in Farscape where Crais and Pilot interacted; most famously, Jack Nicholson played two entirely unrelated roles in "Mars Attacks".)
Are there any other Star Trek examples I'm missing? I wouldn't be surprised if K'Eylehr and Dr. Selar met each other at some point, for example.
