Jeffrey Combs’ return to Star Trek in Lower Decks as an evil computer seems right

Jeffrey Combs has returned to Star Trek in Lower Decks.

For many fans of Star Trek, Jeffrey Combs is many things, or more specifically, many characters. He’s been 16  different characters in Star Trek over his tenure with the franchise, and while eight of them were as different versions of Weyoun (they count), it still is an impressive number on its own. His run with the franchise may have been one of the sadder or perhaps more disappointing of endings.

While he had a prominent role in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, he was not a regular cast member, appearing in over 20-odd episodes. Then Star Trek: Enterprise, he was again brought back as a guest star of sorts but this time as Thy’lek Shran, a beloved character that fans latched onto.

Talks were picking up of making him a regular cast member for the fifth season of the show, as his story arc with Captain Jonathan Archer fit perfectly with the events of the Andorians (his race) joining up with Earth and Vulcan to form what would become the Federation of Planets.

The show would not get a fifth season and Combs’ run with the franchise ended after that point.

Jeffrey Combs played an evil computer in Star Trek Lower Decks

It’s fitting that after all the time Combs spent in Star Trek as a variety actor, playing numerous roles, that eventually he’d end up back in Trek, this time playing an evil computer. The character in question is AGIMUS, your run-of-the-mill, self-aware, evil computer.

Aware of the cliche, the show really amped it up, especially in the final bits of the episode, “Where Pleasant Fountains Lie“; but it’s all topped off with Combs’ brilliant and at times, over-the-top portrayal of yet another evil artificial lifeform.

It’s fantastic to see Combs back in the fold after all these years, and we’re still hoping that the folks who run this franchise will smarten up and add him to the cast of a Star Trek series as one of the leads.

He’s earned that.

It’d also be nice to see him as a hero for a change. While Combs has historically embraced the villainous role in some of his bigger outings, he does play a likable hero or anti-hero type. Bringing him onto a Star Trek series as an out-and-out good guy would be a pleasant change of pace.

Until then, he makes for one entertaining bad guy, even if he’s just a voice of a computer terminal.