USS Voyager vs USS Bellerophon

Gosh I love this episode. It's my favorite Sloan episode, Favorite Ross appearance. That Romulan that tortured Geordi shows up. Having the Intrepid class was a bonus, and a clever, classy decision.

I love seeing Voyager's sets under the DS9 lighting scheme, with the DS9 uniforms on board. They did a really great job. And it was only the messhall, and conference room, that they used, right?

 

Not the same character.

 

Prove it!

 

It was the same actor (John Fleck), yes. He's a popular Trek veteran.

But the Romulan he played on TNG was named Taibak. His character on DS9 was Koval.

 

He's a spook. Does anyone think Sloan is...Sloan's real name? He goes by a few different names.

 

It is according to the novels.

 

Novels schnovels. What if his real name is Wendell Greer?

What if Taibok's real name is Koval? He might also occasionally go under the name Silik.

 

I'm sure none of those names were on his birth certificate.

 

I see absolutely no reason to suspect any connection between Taibak and Koval. That's small-universe syndrome if there ever was one.

You might as well ask if there's a connection between any of the 13+ characters Vaughn Armstrong has played. And if you can make that work, then kudos to ya.

 

Spatial genetic multiplicity. It's why Caelcilius looked like John Frobisher

Mark

 

Did Armstrong play two different human Starfleet Admirals with different names in the 2150's?

 

No, that's why Gwen Cooper resembles Gwyneth.

 

No. Your point?

(Re-use of actors has existed before Trek, and will exist long after it. It doesn't mean they're the same character. Why assume otherwise?)

 

You said, I might as well ask if there's any connection between the 13+ characters Vaughn Armstrong played. You also said something about "small universe syndrome."

The analogy is moot, and it IS a small universe. It's a TV show. In the very same episode, we have "Praetor Neral," a character from TNG's "Unification," and also "Senator Cretak," a character from earlier, unrelated DS9 episodes.

In Koval's case, we have the actor playing basically the same role, same character, but more expanded. In the TNG episode, he's an unnamed, high ranking Romulan intelligence officer. Ten years later, he plays the chairman of Romulan intelligence, with same make up, same mannerisms, demeanor, personality, ethical disposition, etc.

What's even smaller than the universe, is the Tal Shiar, which was small to begin with, then was wiped out.

 

Yeah. It's the same character, dramatically speaking. We can only debate whether it's also the same person... And count me in the "Why the hell not?" camp, too.

Timo Saloniemi

 

If it was the intent of TPTB for them to be the same character, why bother giving them different names? We don't see them in any context where they have any clear reason to want to use aliases.

 

He's not named in TNG

 

^ Actually, yes he is. In the script, anyway.

 

Another thing to consider is that RDM (who wrote 'Inter Arma...') might have wanted to use Taibak for that episode, but would have had to pay royalties to whoever wrote "The Mind's Eye" so he had to invent a new character. The same reason why Nick Locarno wasn't used on Voyager...