The Star Trek character you probably didn’t realize was played by Jeff Bezos

Many Trekkies may find it strange that someone like Jeff Bezos (Who gave bad advice to the showrunners of “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.”) would be a Trekkie. Star Trek takes place in a post-capitalist society, where humanity is no longer driven by the accumulation of wealth. Class has basically been erased, and technology allows everyone to live comfortably, without want. Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos is one of the richest people on the planet, reportedly worth over $237 billion. He owns Amazon and the Washington Post, and in recent years, he has been spreading his money around America’s right wing, demonstrating financial support for the country’s most hated politicians. He also prevented The Washington Post from endorsing Kamala Harris for president. Bezos has been described as an oligarch and is certainly one of the most insidious capitalists on Earth. These are not the philosophical views of Gene Roddenberry’s future utopia.

But where Bezos and “Star Trek” overlap is an interest in the stars. Bezos owns a private rocket building company called Blue Origin that has been launching vehicles into the upper atmosphere for years. In fact, in 2022, “Star Trek” star William Shatner will take a flight on a Blue Origin rocket, kind of spiritually bringing Trek and Bezos together in an abstract way. Bezos is certainly not the pacifist communist one might see in Star Trek, but he seems to want to send people into space. Bezos is also a major investor in Fandom.com, the site that hosts Memory Alpha, the largest Star Trek fan site on the web.

As it happens, Bezos had a previous encounter with Trek in 2016, where he had a small role In “Star Trek Beyond” by Justin Lin, The thirteenth feature film in the series. According to Memory Alpha, Bezos played an alien doctor… named Bezos.

Jeff Bezos will not be recognized. Not only is he only on screen for a few seconds in Star Trek Beyond, but his famous bald head is covered in elaborate alien makeup. He appears near the beginning of the film when the character Kalara (Lydia Wilson) is introduced. Kalara appeared on the escape pod and was rescued by the USS Enterprise. She is brought aboard the ship and interrogated by Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) when she reveals that she escaped a disaster she encountered around a planet called Altamid and that her ship is now stranded there. The Enterprise goes to Altamid for help, but it turns out to be a trap. A massive swarm of miniature attack ships tears the Enterprise apart, and the crew must escape to the planet’s surface to survive.

When Kalara was interrogated, she was examined and examined by a cadre of Union doctors, clearly ensuring that she was okay. One of the doctors was Jeff Bezos.

According to Memory Alpha, Bezos’ love for Star Trek has manifested itself in several ways. He bought one of the eight-foot-tall shooting models of the USS Enterprise, which had been used in some of the Trek feature films. He named his dog Kamala after Character played by Famke Janssen In “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Bezos also loved “next generation” voice-activated computers, and apparently modeled Amazon’s Alexa after them.

Bezos’s politics may be the exact opposite of Star Trek, but one would hope that one day he would rewatch the series and realize that. Since he was in a movie, maybe he would be encouraged to do so. The man understands the technological element of Star Trek, but he doesn’t understand the message that unity, pacifism, and anti-capitalism are the means to achieve it.