Star Trek's First Klingon Played An Important X-Men Villain

Sir Patrick Stewart is a nexus between "Star Trek" and "X-Men." For geeks, his two most famous roles will always be Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Professor Charles Xavier, and the two roles have a lot in common. The characters are both wise and fatherly leaders, even if Professor X is much warmer than the reserved Picard could ever be.

Stewart is not the only actor to appear in both a "Star Trek" and an "X-Men" production, though. (Heck, future Jean Grey actress Famke Janssen even appeared as a guest star on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," sharing the screen with Stewart years before "X-Men.") But one overlap you may have missed is the late John Colicos, who played an important villain in both "Star Trek" and "X-Men."

On the original "Star Trek," Colicos played the first major Klingon character, Kor, in "An Errand of Mercy." About 30 years later, he voiced Apocalypse in the animated "X-Men" series, being the first actor to ever do so. (This was Apocalypse's animation debut, because it took place in the first ever "X-Men" cartoon aside from a failed pilot.) Apocalypse was recast with James Blendick later in the series, but Colicos set the tone for his successor to follow.

In his behind-the-scenes book "Previously on X-Men: The Making of an Animated Series," Eric Lewald, a writer on the show, discussed how Colicos' casting was extra rewarding for Lewald, who grew up as a Trekkie. "To my ear, the late John Colicos had the most extraordinary voice for which I have ever written words," Lewald wrote. "John died in 2000, so I was unable to thank him for his performances as our Apocalypse. No matter how many other performers play this role, I will always hear him."

The "X-Men '97" season 1 finale featured Apocalypse voiced by Ross Marquand, and his younger self played by Adetokumboh M'Cormack. Both actors have Colicos' big shoes to fill.

The first Klingon episode in "Star Trek," 1967's "Errand of Mercy," aired at the end of the first season. It's an anti-Vietnam War allegory; the Federation and Klingons are contesting a more "primitive" planet, Organia, which sits at a vital strategic point. (These original Klingons are rendered with brown-face — Colicos included — and his Fu Manchu goatee adds an uncomfortable orientalism to the episode.)

Kirk and Spock beam down to the planet to infiltrate the Klingon occupation of Organia, only to be discovered by Kor. Kor is Kirk's equal and opposite, a man who sees the Captain as a worthy opponent and wants to meet him in battle. Therein lies the crux of the episode: The Organians, who are actually advanced energy beings, enforce a peace treaty on the Federation and Klingons. When even Kirk at first objects, only to catch himself, the episode shows how no one is immune to tunnel vision during conflict and even our heroes can become too gung-ho.

Colicos never got the chance to play Kor again on the original "Star Trek," but Trekkies (including a young Eric Lewald) remembered him. So three decades later, on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," Colicos had three guest appearances as an elderly Kor, now depicted with the evolved Klingon make-up of forehead ridges. 

In the long gap between his "Star Trek" appearances, Colicos continued to have a prolific film and TV career. He also played the evil Baltar in the original 1978 "Battlestar Galactica," the man who betrays all of humanity to the robotic Cylons. Far from the honorable or iron-willed immortal Apocalypse, Baltar is a shameless coward who even Colicos' charisma couldn't render likable. Then, in 1993, a year before he played Kor again, Colicos joined "X-Men" as Apocalypse.

Credits on "X-Men" are unfortunately incomplete (after season 1, the end credits would only list the main voice cast), so sources differ on when the recasting happened. By my ear, though, Colicos voiced Apocalypse in four episodes: "The Cure" and "Come The Apocalypse" in season 1, and the two-parter "Time Fugitives" in season 2. Even with his limited time, Colicos got to deliver some unforgettable lines:

"I know more of this world than you have even dreamed! That is why I must destroy it!"

"The old world passes away. Together, we shall forge a new one in fire and blood! From the ashes of this world, I will build a better one!"

"Go forth my Horsemen, and let chaos cleanse the world!"

My personal favorite is in "Time Fugitives," when a man looks at Apocalypse in fear and exclaims, "A mutant!" A steel-eyed Apocalypse scowls and declares: "I am as far beyond mutants as they are beyond you!"

When "X-Men" premiered, Apocalypse had only debuted in the comics six years prior; Louise Simonson and Jackson Guice created him in 1986 as a villain for their comic "X-Factor." Tellingly, Apocalypse's first appearance on "X-Men" adapts the one and only thing he was known for at the time: Turning the X-Men character Angel into one of his Four Horsemen, with new wings of steel.

As the first actor to ever play Apocalypse, when the character was still quite young, Colicos' voice set the standard — for Blendick, of course, but also for future Apocalypse actors like David Kaye and Oscar Isaac. That voice became a key part of why young "X-Men" fans (and even some future "X-Men" writers) remembered Apocalypse, with his dominance in the animated series ensuring a continued A-list role in the comics. 

Apocalypse's true name, En Sabah Nur, supposedly means "the first one" in Marvel Comics. (In reality, the three words are Arabic for "The Seven Lights," i.e. dawn.) Just as Apocalypse marked the dawn of the race of mutants, every future Apocalypse actor draws on John Colicos' exemplary work as they keep the character alive.