The Star Trek character you probably didn’t know Jeff Bezos played

Many Trekkies may find it strange that someone like Jeff Bezos (who admittedly gave the Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power showrunners bad advice) would be a Trekkie. “Star Trek” is ultimately set in a post-capitalist society in which humanity is no longer motivated by the accumulation of wealth. Class has essentially been erased and technology allows everyone to live comfortably and without hardship. Jeff Bezos is now one of the richest people in the world and is said to be worth over $237 billion. He owns Amazon and the Washington Post and in recent years has spread his money across the US right wing to show financial support for the country’s most contradictory politicians. He also blocked the Post from endorsing Kamala Harris for president. Bezos has been described as an oligarch and is certainly one of the most insidious supra-capitalists in the world. These are not the philosophical positions of Gene Roddenberry’s futuristic utopia.

Where Bezos and “Star Trek” overlap, however, is in their interest in the stars. Bezos owns a private rocket building company called Blue Origin, which has been sending rockets into the upper atmosphere for years. In fact, Star Trek star William Shatner took a ride on a Blue Origin rocket in 2022, spiritually bringing Trek and Bezos together in an abstract way. Bezos is certainly not the pacifist communist you see in 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 largest “Star Trek” fan site on the Internet.

Coincidentally, Bezos had an encounter with Trek back in 2016 when he made a cameo appearance in Justin Lin’s “Star Trek Beyond” the 13th feature film in the series. According to Memory Alpha, Bezos played an alien doctor…named Bezos.

Jeff Bezos will be unrecognizable. Not only does he only appear on screen for a few seconds in Star Trek Beyond, but his famous bald head is also covered in elaborate alien makeup. He appeared at the beginning of the film when the character Kalara (Lydia Wilson) was introduced. Kalara appeared in an escape pod and was rescued by the USS Enterprise. She was brought aboard and questioned by Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) when she revealed that she had fled a disaster on a planet called Altamid and that her ship was now stranded there. The Enterprise goes to Altamid to help, but it was a trap. A massive swarm of miniature attack ships tears apart the Enterprise and the crew must escape to the planet’s surface to survive.

When Kalara was questioned, she was scanned and examined by a group of Federation doctors to clearly ensure she was okay. One of the doctors was Jeff Bezos.

According to Memory Alpha, Bezos’ love for Star Trek has manifested itself in a variety of ways. He purchased one of the eight-foot-long film models of the USS Enterprise that were used in some Trek feature films. He named his dog Kamala after him a character played by Famke Janssen on “Star Trek: The Next Generation”. Bezos also liked the voice-controlled computers in “Next Generation” and was clearly modeled on Amazon’s Alexa.

Bezos’ politics may be the exact opposite of Star Trek, but one would hope that he watches the series again one day and realizes that. Given that he appeared in one of the films, perhaps he will 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.