TNG cameos in Voyager episodes

[Kilana2]

It's well-known that TNG characters like Riker, Barclay, Troi (and I count also Q among them) appeared in Voyager episodes.

IMO it worked well with Troi, Barclay and Q. But Riker's cameo was .... how do you say in English - surplus to requirements? Unnecessary. It should have given at least a better written episode.

Oh, I almost forgot La Forge.....

Q was entertaining/unnerving as ever. Would you prefer to have seen another foe. Different from Q?

Any thoughts?

 

[hux]

Frakes would turn up to the opening of a paper bag (and bring a pen for signing autographs). I bet he even has a uniform at home just in case he ever needs to do a cameo in a local school play.

Majel Barratt's line in Q2 was noteworthy as I don't recall the Voyager crew ever having question and answer dialogue with the computer the way they regularly did on TNG (might be wrong but I honestly can't think of another example of it).

When Janeway orders coffee and Q's son has reprogrammed it to say......."make it yourself."

EDIT - just remembered that in Caretaker, Tom wants tomato soup and the computer keeps asking what kind.

 

[Kilana2]

There could have been Chuckles turning up in one of the ENT episodes as his own ancestor.

The Doctor as one of Zimmerman's ancestors as inventor of the newest forms of contraceptives........etc etc.

 

[Tosk]

Q was entertaining/unnerving as ever. Would you prefer to have seen another foe. Different from Q??

Like maybe...The Borg?

...Or the two Ferengi from The Price!

 

[Kilana2]

Q was entertaining/unnerving as ever. Would you prefer to have seen another foe. Different from Q??

Like maybe...The Borg?

...Or the two Ferengi from The Price!

There were Borg in abundance.....

Neelix as Grand Nagus was hilarious.

The few episodes with and Ferengi were enough, they were cast away in the DQ after all....

Speaking of Ferengi...... Quark had a cameo, too.

 

[Triskelion]

Riker in Voyager was the character we know and like (or not?). But DeLancy's Q - that was an interesting cameo. He was not brought into the new series from TNG as a stock villainous foil with a sinister motive. The producers wanted to have a story impacting him and revealing his character, also by showing the Q continuum. So I would say DeLancy's cameo was the more significant; though it's always good to see Frakes.

Still, for a character so powerful - you've got to use him sparingly or at some point there's no drama, you just say "So why not just snap his fingers and fix everything all the time for everyone?"

It might have been interesting seeing Q interact with Kes, too, sort of that Q vs The Intern dynamic from TNG (True Q, the one with Amanda Rogers, the blonde chick Dr Crusher was mentoring).


Speaking of cameos, do people know that Bruce Campbell (Army of Darkness) had a role in Escape from LA? I didn't realize it until yesterday, but yeah, real screen time and everything! And just for sport I won't mention which character he played, and let the question float for a bit. Unless everyone in the world but me knew it, which is entirely possible too!

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Campbell also was offered a role on DS9 ("Jack" from the Jack Pack) but turned it down.

 

[Kilana2]

^ Campbell also was offered a role on DS9 ("Jack" from the Jack Pack) but turned it down.

I can't imagine anyone else playing Jack than Tim Ransom. Obviously he is not genetically enhanced, he's grown quite old....


Riker's cameo in Voyager was odd. I'd have prefered to have seen him as flesh-and-blood Riker in one of the AQ scenes like Deanna. But not as damned hologram.

 

[Catarina]

^ Campbell also was offered a role on DS9 ("Jack" from the Jack Pack) but turned it down.

I can't imagine anyone else playing Jack than Tim Ransom. Obviously he is not genetically enhanced, he's grown quite old....


Riker's cameo in Voyager was odd. I'd have prefered to have seen him as flesh-and-blood Riker in one of the AQ scenes like Deanna. But not as damned hologram.

Riker's was definitely fan/rating service. Sooo unnecessary.

I remember when the first Q (Quinn) appeared and I had not read the synopsis of the episode before it aired. I thought, "Hey, they could at least try to make him look like De'lance." hahaha. Then our Q appeared and I went, Oh good. :-)

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Riker's cameo in Voyager was odd. I'd have prefered to have seen him as flesh-and-blood Riker in one of the AQ scenes like Deanna. But not as damned hologram.

Eh?

When Riker appeared on Voyager, it wasn't a hologram. Q had summoned him to testify at Quinn's "trial" (along with Sir Isaac Newton and the Woodstock hippie). Q really did bring those people to the ship, they weren't holograms.

 

[Kilana2]

Riker's cameo in Voyager was odd. I'd have prefered to have seen him as flesh-and-blood Riker in one of the AQ scenes like Deanna. But not as damned hologram.

Eh?

When Riker appeared on Voyager, it wasn't a hologram. Q had summoned him to testify at Quinn's "trial" (along with Sir Isaac Newton and the Woodstock hippie). Q really did bring those people to the ship, they weren't holograms.

Sorry, confused it with others episodes. But Riker's appearance was short and not to my liking. They could have handled it differently at least. Don't ask me how, Voyager is over for years.

 

[hux]

The most annoying thing about "Death Wish" is the fact that it isn't even Riker whose life has been affected by Q, it's his ancestor Thaddeus Riker.

Why didn't Q bring a descendent of Newton to the hearing if that's how he's doing it. Or a current descendent of Ginsberg?

He brought these people to the hearing who were directly affected by Quinn.....and one bloke who wasn't (but had a distant relative who was).

I think Q just wanted to screw with Riker one more time.

 

[Kilana2]

Speaking of Q.... Suzie Plakson is another familiar face from TNG....

 

[hux]

Saw Suzie Plakson give a talk about Klingon make-up at Destination Trek. She seemed to really enjoy being there and being part of Trek. Others meanwhile (name rhymes with bizarre curtain) did not seem so thrilled to be constantly talking about Trek and actively appeared irritated.

If someone told me I could travel the globe getting extremely good money to talk crap about being a Blorgon, I'd bite your hand off.

 

[stardream]

bizarre curtain

I had forgotten all about about the Riker cameo until my rewatch. It didn't make that strong of an impression on my me so in my opinion yes, it was pointless.

 

[Triskelion]

^ Campbell also was offered a role on DS9 ("Jack" from the Jack Pack) but turned it down.

I can't imagine anyone else playing Jack than Tim Ransom. Obviously he is not genetically enhanced, he's grown quite old....

Cool bit of trivia! Seeing Bruce Campbell on DS9 would have been superb, but I think Bruce would have upstaged Bashir. It might have been difficult seeing Bashir manage to control him; though Campbell would have brought something different to the role, for sure.

I wouldn't mind seeing him as a Laas the shapeshifter, or even - oh yes - Shakaar. Yes, that's the role for him.


Pop quiz: Which VOY episode featured a quick shot of Neil Armstrong walking on the moon?

 

[2takesfrakes]

Riker's cameo was .... how do you say in English - surplus to requirements? Unnecessary. It should have given at least a better written episode.

I agree, completely, that the "Riker" episode should've been much better written, for a guest star of Jonathan Frakes' stature. On the other hand, seeing Janeway swooning over Riker, all starry-eyed and such is sweet ... if unsurprising.

 

[DonIago]

I thought "Death Wish" was one of the more highly-regarded VOY episodes.

Yes, Frakes' cameo is pointless...but it's a cameo, not a primary role within the events of the episode.

I would have been amused if they'd brought Frakes in but had him play the role of his ancestor. Obviously the point to having Riker rather than his ancestor there was that Janeway knew who Riker was but would have no idea who some "random" soldier was. Though it might have been a fun development to have the solider Quinn saved show up first, and then when Janeway asked what his relevance was, bring in Riker.

In any event, I'm not really following the criticisms of the writing of the episode vis a vis better utilizing Riker, since utilizing Riker wasn't the point.

 

[Karzak]

What's ironic about "Death Wish" is that it was originally supposed to be Geordi who Q brings in as the cameo, not Riker. But at the time they were shooting the episode, LeVar Burton had shaved his head, so he looked nothing like Geordi, and it quickly got re-written for Frakes.

There are actually a bunch of in-jokes in that episode, and one that actually got cut because Berman thought it was just too much - referencing "If not for the Q, you (Tuvok) would have been chief engineer of the enterprise!" i.e. referencing that Tim Russ had auditioned for the role of Geordi La Forge years earlier and lost it to LeVar. They discuss it on Memory Alpha, citing the TV Guide article with the Frakes interview:

Regarding his appearance in this episode, Jonathan Frakes stated, "I had no reservations about this story. I was very happy to return." According to Frakes, he almost didn't get a chance to return because the original draft script slated LeVar Burton to make an appearance as Geordi La Forge instead. Frakes added, "But LeVar has his head shaved these days. He doesn't look much like Geordi – so I lucked out." (TV Guide, 17-23 Feb.) La Forge eventually got his chance to appear on Voyager in the Season 5 episode "Timeless", after audiences had already seen the changes in Burton's appearance in Star Trek: First Contact. He also wore a beard in the subsequent films related to TNG – Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek Nemesis.

LINK

 

[2takesfrakes]

Though he'd had much more than a mere cameo in VOY, I thought that "The Q and The Grey" was dipping into the TNG well once too often. I liked the beginning part, when he was chasing Janeway around her quarters and whatnot, but ... the whole bit about Q's having a wife (!!!) and the American Civil War costumes and setting for the Q wars seemed really beat and tired. There wasn't anything really "fresh" or "alive" about the whole thing. It was just kind of going through the motions while, once again, trying to Humanise Q and his species for no apparent reason ...