I was about to make a TJ Hooker/Denny Crane joke about comparing those characters to the captain of a starship
But then it hit me that it has been said the 1970s LA based private investigator Jim Rockford shares much more DNA with a wild west era gambler and do-gooder Brett Maverick than the same actor performing them,
Both James Garner and creative team members of Rockford Files have said Jim was essentially a modern day Brett Maverick,
Nothing to do with an actor getting a key role in multiple genre specific projects, and the idea of fans seeing too much of the earlier character(s) in the latter one(s), BUT legit cases have been made for intentional or not, through-lines
But then it hit me that it has been said the 1970s LA based private investigator Jim Rockford shares much more DNA with a wild west era gambler and do-gooder Brett Maverick than the same actor performing them,
Both James Garner and creative team members of Rockford Files have said Jim was essentially a modern day Brett Maverick,
Nothing to do with an actor getting a key role in multiple genre specific projects, and the idea of fans seeing too much of the earlier character(s) in the latter one(s), BUT legit cases have been made for intentional or not, through-lines