Whoopi Goldberg joined the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation in season 2 and added her star power as the mysterious bartender Guinan.
Summary
- Whoopi Goldberg’s addition to the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation legitimized the series and attracted new viewers.
- Despite initial skepticism from the producers, Goldberg’s persistence proved that she was serious about joining the show.
- Goldberg’s decision to join TNG, a major movie star at the peak of her career, made a significant impact and helped the show be taken more seriously.
Whoopi Goldberg joined the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation in season 2, and Brent Spiner says her presence legitimized the series and brought in new viewers. TNG got off to a bit of a rough start with an inconsistent first season plagued by difficulties behind the scenes, but Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) and the crew of the USS Enterprise-D still managed to captivate audiences. A fan of Star Trek: The Original Series, Whoopi Goldberg credits Nichelle Nichols’ portrayal of Lt. Nyota Uhura as being an inspiration for her as a child. Goldberg loved Star Trek so much, that she reached out to Gene Roddenberry and the producers of TNG to request a part on the show.
At the time when Goldberg asked for a role on Star Trek: The Next Generation, she had already been nominated for an Academy Award for her role in The Color Purple. At first, the TNG’s producers didn’t believe Goldberg, and it took some convincing on her part to prove she was was serious about joining Star Trek. In The Center Seat: 55 Years of Trek by Peter Holmstrom, the companion book to the documentary of the same name, Brent Spiner spoke about the impact of Whoopi Goldberg’s addition to the cast of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Read his quote below:
It may be just my opinion, but I think we became legit when Whoopi came on the show. Whoopi was a major movie star, and she came on in the second season. That was a big deal. Whoopi Goldberg is going to be on your show, and not just doing a guest spot, she’s going to be a semi-regular on the show. I think everybody had to say, ‘Wait, what? Let me watch this now.’ A major movie star decided, at the peak of her acting career, to do this show… I think it made an enormous difference to us being taken seriously.
Brent Spiner has played many characters in the Star Trek universe, beginning with the android Lt. Commander Data in TNG and its subsequent films. Spiner also portrayed Data’s evil twin brother, Lore, as well as several members of the Soong family.
Related
Guinan’s Complete TNG & Picard Timeline Explained
Guinan, the Enterprise-D’s mysterious bartender, is one of the most intriguing and popular recurring characters on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Many Prestigious Actors Have Been A Part Of Star Trek
Whoopi Goldberg is not the only award-winning Star Trek actor.
Whoopi Goldberg won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 1991 for her portrayal of Oda Mae Brown in Ghost, but she’s not the only Star Trek actor who has won an Oscar. Louise Fletcher played Kai Winn Adami on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, whose religious fanaticism often put her at odds with Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks). Fletcher had previously won the Best Actress Oscar for the role of Nurse Ratched in 1975’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. In Star Trek: Insurrection, F. Murray Abraham portrayed Ru’afo, the villainous leader of the Son’a people. Abraham won his Best Actor Academy Award for 1984’s Amadeus, in which he starred as composer Antonio Salieri.
Christopher Plummer also played a Star Trek villain, appearing as the Klingon General Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. He won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2012 for his role in Beginners. Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Section 31’s Michelle Yeoh is the most recent addition to this group, having won the Best Actress Oscar for starring in 2022’s Everything Everywhere All at Once. Many other Star Trek actors have been nominated for Oscars or won major film and television awards, proving that there’s something special about the Star Trek franchise, and that Whoopi Goldberg’s presence on Star Trek: The Next Generation was not just a fluke.
