Canada Day Week: Where Some Canadians Have Gone Before

Where would the world be without Star Trek?



Where would Star Trek be without Canada?


The original series had Montreal native William Shatner in the captain's chair and the late great James Doohan as Scotty, who- despite his awesomery- could not change the laws of physics.


But that's not all.


How could we forget the late great John Colicos as Kor (who then made a terrific villain in the original Battlestar Galactica with another Canadian, the late great Lorne Greene).

Bet you didn't know he was Canadian.

And where would Star Trek 6 be without Christopher Plummer or Kim Cattrall?



That rounds off the original series but what of the others in the franchise?


The Next Generation had William Riker as second-in-command. But he was from Alaska, you say. That's Sarah Palin territory. Come now. We know what country Alaska really belongs to.

I not only can see Russia from the bridge of the Enterprise, Tina Fey, I can fire a photon torpedo at you.

Saul Rubinek and Gwyneth Walsh also flexed their arch-villain muscles on The Next Generation as Fajoy the sinister collector and B'Etor, one of Duras' sisters who either did not know or care how Worf dispatched with his enemies.


Then there is Deep Space Nine, the darker and more stationary of the Star Trek franchise. Nicole de Boer wriggled onto the scene as the new Dax incarnation, Ezri. SCTV veteran Andrea Martin starred as Ishka, Quark's mum, and one could certainly see the resemblance.


Voyager was light but not entirely bereft of Canadian references, much to its great detriment. Derek McGrath donned blue paint to play the chatty Chel and what might have been had Genevieve Bujold stayed on?


And let's not forget the Northwest Passage in the episode, "Scorpion".


Ladies and gentlemen, "Northwest Passage".


Enterprise, an unfortunately forgotten part of the Star Trek family, had two tenuous connections to Canada. Captain Archer promised to take Hoshi to Canada after the Xindi mission and Dominic Keating, who played the rigidly martial Lt. Malcolm Reed, shares a birthday with Canada. Many happy returns the both of you.


Bruce Greenwood played the doomed Christopher Pike in the latest Star Trek movie, which was either amazing or completely uncanonical, depending on how vested in the franchise you are.


This is, by no means, an exhaustive list of Star Trek connection but it is an admiring one.


For many more Star Trek references, please go here or here.


Now go where some others have gone before!