A Star Trek character you might not have realized was played by Jeff Bezos

Many Trekkies might find it curious that someone like Jeff Bezos (who, of course, gave bad advice to the Lord of the Rings showrunners) would be a hike. After all, Star Trek takes place in a post-capitalist society where humanity is no longer motivated by the accumulation of wealth. Class has essentially been erased, and technology allows everyone to live comfortably without need. Meanwhile, Jeff Bezos is one of the richest people on the planet, worth more than $237 billion. He owns Amazon and the Washington Post, and in recent years has spread his money around America's right wing, lending financial support to the country's most unpopular politicians. He also prevented the Post from endorsing Kamal Harris for president. Bezos has been described as an oligarch and is certainly one of the most insidious crony capitalists on Earth. These are not the philosophical views of Gene Roddenberry's futuristic utopia.

Where Bezos and “Star Trek” overlap, however, is an interest in the stars. Bezos owns a private rocket company, Blue Origin, which has been launching crafts into the upper atmosphere for years. Indeed, in 2022, “Star Trek” star William Shatner rode a Blue Origin rocket, mentally bringing Trek and Bezos together in an abstract way. Bezos is certainly not the pacifist communist you'd see on Star Trek, but he does seem to want to send people into space. Bezos is also a major investor in Fandom.com, the website that hosts Memory Alpha, the web's largest “Star Trek” fan site.

As it happens, Bezos had previous experience with Trek in 2016, as he had a cameo. Justin Lin in Star Trek Beyond 13th feature film of the series. According to Memory Alpha, Bezos played an alien doctor … named Bezos.

Jeff Bezos will not be recognizable. In Star Trek Beyond, not only is he seen on screen for a few seconds, but his vastly bald head is covered in elaborate alien makeup. He appeared at the beginning of the film when the character of Kalar (Lydia Wilson) was introduced. Kalara appeared on an escape pod and was rescued by the USS Enterprise. She is brought aboard and questioned by Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) when she discovers that she escaped the disaster she encountered around a planet called Altamid and that her ship is now stuck there. The company goes to Altamid to help, but it was a trap. Enterprise is blown to pieces by a massive swarm of miniature attack ships, and the crew must flee to the planet's surface for survival.

As Kalar was interrogated, she was scanned and examined by a cadre of Federation doctors, clearly making sure she was fine. One of the doctors was Jeff Bezos.

According to Memory Alpha, Bezos' love of “Star Trek” has manifested itself in many ways. He purchased one of the eight-foot filming models of the USS Enterprise used in some of the Trek feature films. He named his dog Kamala the character played by Famke Janssen on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Bezos also liked the voice-activated computers in “The Next Generation” and clearly modeled Amazon's Alexa after them.

Bezos's politics may be the polar opposite of “Star Trek,” but one would hope he'd watch the show again someday and figure it out. Given that he was in one of the films, he might be encouraged to do so. The man understands the technological element of Star Trek, but not the message that unity, pacifism and anti-capitalism were the means to achieve it.