Why Admiral Reeger From Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Looks So Familiar

This article contains spoilers for "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" Season 4, Episode 8, "Orders of Magnitude."

"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" has a guest star this week. Admiral Simon Reeger takes command of the Enterprise while Captain Pike (Anson Mount) is away. The characters treat Reeger as a living legend; he was captain of the Federation flagship, USS Constitution, during the Klingon War. (Note the Enterprise is a Constitution-class ship; the Constitution is the original ship and namesake of its class.) 

Jim Kirk (Paul Wesley)'s dad, George Kirk, was Reeger's first officer on the Constitution, and Dr. Joseph M'Benga (Babs Olusanmokun) served on the Constitution under Reeger too. But any experienced Trekkie knows to get suspicious when a Starfleet admiral shows up. During "Orders of Magnitude," M'Benga tells Kirk: "Some say [Reeger's promotion to admiral] was to acknowledge his service, others that it was to move him off the bridge of a ship." 

When Reeger tries to enact Starfleet General Order 24 (destroying all life on a planet's surface), Kirk drugs him so that M'Benga can relieve him of command. Afterwards, M'Benga takes the fall for Kirk, viewing it as penance for concealing some of Reeger's past actions, and Reeger (who's still an admiral) promises to ruin the doctor's career. Incidentally, this finally opens a possible reason for why M'Benga has been demoted from Chief Medical Officer by the time of the original "Star Trek," when he still serves on Enterprise but under Leonard "Bones" McCoy (DeForest Kelley).

Just as Reeger arrives on the Enterprise, La'an (Christina Chong) talks up what a legend the Admiral is. That means the actor playing him needs to match that reputation — as well as have the range to play a villain. Joe Morton, who science fiction fans will recognize from "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," meets both qualifications.

In "Terminator 2," Joe Morton plays Miles Dyson, a computer programmer working at Cyberdyne Systems. Dyson is scheduled to create the technology that allows for the development of the AI Skynet, which in turns nukes the world on "Judgment Day," August 29, 1997. Dyson can only do this, though, because Cyberdyne salvaged remains from the time-traveling T-800 (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in "The Terminator," including a metal arm. That primes Dyson to believe the truth when another T-800 shows up and peels the skin off its own arm.

Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) initially tries to kill Dyson to prevent Judgment Day, but can't go through with it. While his work dooms humanity, he's not really a bad guy. In fact, once he does know where his work will lead, he not only abandons it, he helps the heroes raid Cyberdyne to destroy everything that can lead to Skynet's creation. (Dyson's story wound up being perhaps too optimistic about real-world AI developers.)

Morton's role as Dyson – a role that was originally offered to Denzel Washington – is likely what got him cast in "Justice League" as Silas Stone, a renowned scientist who saves his son Victor's (Ray Fisher) life by turning him into a cyborg. Much of the Stone family's screentime was cut from "Justice League" by fill-in director Joss Whedon, but was restored in the later director's cut, "Zack Snyder's Justice League."

While "Terminator 2" remains Morton's most famous role, he's quite a prolific film and television actor outside of it. As recently as 2021, Morton was part of the main cast of TV series' "Our Kind of People." Joining the "Star Trek" franchise, even for a one-episode guest role (presuming Reeger doesn't return) is another impressive notch on his acting belt.

"Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" is streaming on Paramount+.