The Terminator Star Linda Hamilton Played A Small Part In Batman History

Linda Hamilton had a guest role in a 1999 episode of "Batman Beyond," playing a scientist who has a brief love affair with none other than Mr. Freeze himself. Sadly, her character didn't survive long enough to show up again, but it's nice to know an '80s icon was part of the show. 

The moment Linda Hamilton's Sarah Connor crushed Arnold Schwarzenegger's T-800 in an industrial press and uttered that immortal line, "You're terminated, f****r," she instantly became one of the most important action heroes of the 1980s. James Cameron had designed it that way, having written the script for "Aliens" prior to "The Terminator" and allowing some of that Ellen Ripley energy to find its way into his small-budget sci-fi slasher. When Hamilton returned as Connor in 1991's "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," she was even more of a badass, handling all manner of assault weapons with ease as she laid siege to Cyberdyne Systems, creator of the sinister AI Skynet.

As such, Hamilton will forever remain legendary for representing one of the most empowered female heroes in cinema history. Soon, however, she'll be subverting that reputation when she joins the "Stranger Things" cast for season 5 of the uber-popular Netflix series. Hamilton is set to play a villain in "Stranger Things," and not just any villain. The '80s icon will be portraying a government scientist who steps in to fill the gap left by the death of Matthew Modine's Dr. Brenner. But this won't be the first time she's played such a role.

In 1999, Hamilton lent her voice acting talents to one of the best DC Comics shows ever made with "Batman Beyond," playing a scientist who works for the sinister Derek Powers and who ends up reviving a long-since incapacitated Mr. Freeze.

In the fifth episode of "Batman Beyond," "Meltdown," business magnate Derek Powers (Sherman Howard) — aka Blight, one of the best villains in "Batman Beyond" — struggles with the synthetic skin doctors created to hide the fact that his actual body became radioactive following a horrible accident. The skin keeps disintegrating, so he enlists a new recruit at Powers Technology to find a solution: Dr. Stephanie Lake. Linda Hamilton voices the ambitious doctor, who suggests using an experimental procedure that would transfer Powers' mind into a new, non-radioactive clone of his body. Before going through with this, however, Powers tests the procedure on Mr. Freeze, whose head has been kept alive for almost 50 years.

Thanks to Dr. Lake's actions, Victor Fries (Michael Ansara) gets a new body and sets about trying to make amends for his life of crime. He even strikes up a romantic relationship with Dr. Lake, but he soon returns to his villainous ways after his body reverts to its previous, heat-intolerant form. Unfortunately, Dr. Lake doesn't make it out of the episode alive after she pleads with Mr. Freeze to stop his attack on the Wayne Powers building and is promptly iced by Mr. Zero (as he was originally known before the 1960s "Batman" TV series changed his name).

In fairness, she had it coming. Earlier in the episode, Dr. Lake traps Fries in her laboratory and cranks up the heat in an attempt to biopsy his organs as a way of testing whether he's reverting. But the villain escapes at the last minute, returning later to finish the job. Anyone who remembers Sarah Connor's nuclear apocalypse nightmare from "T2" will be instantly reminded of that grim vision when they hear Dr. Lake scream as she's frozen solid.

Dr. Stephanie Lake didn't stick around for long, but she remains a notable addition to the DC Animated Universe and to Batman history in general. Not only was she voiced by a living legend, she also had a relationship with one of Batman's greatest rogues before being taken out by that same villain.

Interestingly enough, this wasn't Linda Hamilton's first foray into the DCAU. She actually voiced another character on "The New Batman Adventures," a continuation of "Batman: The Animated Series" that aired from 1997 to 1999. Hamilton voiced Susan Maguire in the 1998 episode "Chemistry," playing a plant minion created by Poison Ivy (Diane Pershing) as a way to seduce Bruce Wayne (Kevin Conroy) before killing him and inheriting his fortune. Maguire was another one-and-done character, though this time she perished not at the hands of a Batman rogue but as an indirect result of Bruce Wayne trapping her in a cruise ship, only for the vessel to sink with her inside. The episode ends with a particularly tragic image of Susan desperately peering out of a porthole as the ship goes down in a bleak portent of things to come for Dr. Stephanie Lake, whose death is similarly glimpsed through a window in the Wayne Powers building.

Hamilton's Batman characters didn't have much luck when it comes down to it, really. But it's sort of neat to know the actor was part of our childhoods without us necessarily realizing. Hamilton had a knack for that sort of thing, having played a hidden guest role on the enduringly brilliant "Frasier" as a caller on the good doctor's talk radio show. Now, however, there'll be no mistaking her presence in "Stranger Things," which promises to give the venerable star the full showcase she deserves.