Armin Shimmerman was just as good as Principal Snyder as he was as Quark.
I met him at a convention once and got him sign a letter as Principal Snyder, suspending my friend (who’s a huge Buffy fan) from Sunnydale High and threatening to expel her. He read it and thought it was hilarious.
There’s a an admiral in Star Trek Beyond that looked familiar, I had to look it up and it’s Shohreh Aghdashloo. A forgettable role, only noteworthy because I recognized the actor.
She plays Avasarala in The Expanse. Total powerhouse performance.
Whoopi Goldberg for The Color Purple.
Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All at Once
Louise Fletcher in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
Oh hell yes for Louise Fletcher…!
curiously, the podcast “the incomparable” made an episode exactly about this topic (more specifically, performances before their trek appearances ) https://www.theincomparable.com/theincomparable/823/
Oh fun I will have to check it out
Brent Spiner was brilliant in Master of Disguise, a phenomenal movie
Damn, nearly did not recognize Keating, his performance in that gif gives heavy David Tennant to me.
He should have won best actor for his performance as “Ian” in Jungle 2 Jungle.
Andreas Katsulas had a recurring role as Commander Tomalak on TNG, but he absolutely shone as G’Kar on Babylon 5, especially in later seasons.
TIL Tomalak was G’Kar. I don’t know how I didn’t know.
He gave me goosebumps in several scenes, especially this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJmuHNDcXLQ
It would be easy to just gesture vaguely at all of Sir Patrick Stewart’s career. But your question was about better performances than in Trek, and I actually think he did an excellent Picard during the original TNG run. Not quite a hot take, I know.
However, for a double off-Trek billing, I suggest Green room (2015) where he plays against Anton Yelchin among others. It’s a pretty taut little thriller about a punk band on the road that realise to their horror that their gig for the night is at a neonazi club out in the sticks. It goes downhill from there.
Oh fuck yeah. That movie was wild and Sir Patrick Stewart delivered a truly evil performance.
It’s jarring if you only know him for his cool-headed leader or mentor roles like Picard or professor Xavier… He really lets rip as this extremist POS.
Mulgrew. Flemeth. (Kidding).
Levar Burton will always be reading rainbow guy, no matter what he does.
Zachary Quinto. Silar. One of the better villains, until the writers went on strike and the show fell off the rails. Granted, this likely just marks the man’s range as an actor.
John Cho. The Rise and Fall of Sanctuary Moon.
Koenig. Bester.
You could argue that everything Stewart does is equally well done. Scrooge. X. Gurney.
Karl Urban was an okay Dr. McCoy, but the 157 different roles he played on Xena Warrior Princess was where he really shined the brightest.
I honestly enjoyed him more in Dredd (where he had to do more with less) than in Star Trek.
TIL!
Really only a handful, but that hilarious he had a few characters
He really did have range with them. I watched Xena when I was a kid, and I had no idea they were the same actor
Jeffrey Combs must have been busy.
Walter Koenig was a great Chekov, but his role as Bester the PsyCop from Babylon 5 was a more nuanced role that gave him way more to do.
I came here to say this. I first saw Walter Koenig as Chekov, but I really loved him as Bester. I’ve heard that he lights up when people bring up Bester at conventions and such.
Can confirm. I was an avid 90s Star Trek convention attendee, and got to hear a couple quick Bab5 anecdotes from him years ago.
Bester was so great. Great vilain
Bester still gives me the creeps.
Best character in the entire series. Never before would have imagined Walter making my skin crawl.
For me Colm Meaney wins this hands down. Good in Star Trek but great in other things.
Layer Cake, It’s always sunny in Philadelphia and Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa are the 3 that come to mind first.
Colm Meaney’s performance in Layer Cake is simply astounding!
He’s great in intermission. And it’s a good movie.
And the snapper!
Con Air, as the baddie.
The Man Who Went Up A Hill And Came Down A Mountain, as a goodie.
The Commitments.
great villain in stargate atlantis
pretty good in the “Hell on Wheels” series. It also features Anson Mount.
Gangs of London
Bakula on “Quantum Leap”
Eve Harlow on “Agents of SHIELD”
There’s an episode of Scrubs where Bakula plays a janitor and secretly wants to leap back as a little Easter egg
Also, "It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Bakula on “Men of a Certain Age”.
Whoopi Goldberg, Sister Act II
Definitely Scott Bakula.
At the same time, I’m getting the feeling they weren’t given the greatest scripts or directors to work with on Enterprise.
I was excited to see where Archer and Malcom would go with their characters, but now they’ve been distilled too far into an angry little men.
I get the reasoning, but come on. Malcom’s a complete wanker past season 3, and Archer’s face never changes beyond “It’s all about the mission!”
Conversely, I believe Robert Picardo nails his hammy characterization of The Doctor perfectly.
I love the fact that even still with shows like Prodigy or Academy, he’s still willing to show up with that trademark EMH snark
