‘Star Trek: Discovery’: Did You Know That Starfleet’s New Leader Was Also in ‘The Mummy’?

Great news for fans of late ’90s/early 2000s horror franchises: Oded Fehr, a.k.a. Ardeth Bay from The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, is back on your screens as Charles Vance in the latest episode of Star Trek: Discovery. And yes, sure, Fehr is an accomplished actor with a ton of credits to his name. But if you’re like me and were watching this week’s episode of Discovery wondering where you’ve seen that Starfleet officer before, try to picture him fighting side-by-side with Brendan Fraser as a budget Indiana Jones, and it’ll suddenly snap into focus.

Who does Oded Fehr play on Star Trek: Discovery?

Spoilers past this point for this week’s episode, “Die Trying,” but Fehr plays Charles Vance, the new leader of the crippled Federation in the year 3189. In case you’re a Mummer (is this what Mummy fans call themselves? I don’t know!) and just popping in for this week’s episode, the crew of Discovery blasted themselves to the far future at the end of Season 2, finding themselves about a hundred years past an event called The Burn.

Not much is known about The Burn, but it did cause most of the Dilithium in the universe to become inert, triggering the anti-matter/matter reaction in starships’ warp cores to explode. That hobbled the galaxy, and naturally the Federation as well. Right at the top of this week’s episode, Discovery finally finds the remnants of the Federation, a handful of starships all huddled and cloaked inside a massive power structure in space. Their leader is Vance, a man who seems wary of Discovery, if not outright hostile. He has them all interrogated, including by the mysterious Kovich played by none other than director David Cronenberg (so may guest stars this week!), and threatens to split up the crew and study Discovery as a museum piece, rather than the beacon of hope Burnham (Sonequa Martin-Green) and Saru (Doug Jones) want it to become.

The crew manages to turn things around, and Vance agrees to let the crew stay together — tentatively accepting the Discovery‘s help. He’s not wrong to not trust them, of course: he references the Temporal Cold War that locked down all time travel, an event documented extensively in Star Trek: Enterprise that led to an agreement not to violate the timeline… An agreement Discovery unwittingly broke. More than that, the Federation has nearly no resources, and little respect in the galaxy. They’re in survival mode, though Discovery‘s galaxy-spanning spore drive could turn that all around. Vance seems to understand that, even if he doesn’t completely trust Saru and crew. More, as they say, to come.

Where have I seen Oded Fehr before?

Fehr is an Israeli actor fond of genre fare. He’s appeared in multiple Resident Evil movies as Carlos Olivera, including Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Resident Evil: Extinction and Resident Evil: Retribution. You might also know him as Jafar on ABC’s Once Upon a Time, or his voice as Ra’s al Guhl on Young Justice. And he’s also had recurring roles as a Mossad agent on Covert Affairs, NCIS, and The Blacklist.

Oh, and he’s in the frickin’ Mummy. Ardeth Bay is the narrator of The Mummy and Mummy Returns, the leader of the Medjai, a group dedicated to stopping anyone from resurrecting Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo). He’s, as you may guess, unsuccessful, and ends up teaming up with Fraser’s Rick O’Connell in two films to first take down Sandstorm Billy Zane, and then Bad CGI The Rock (a.k.a. The Scorpion King).

Look, I’m betting there’s other work Fehr is prouder of, but if you’re in The Mummy, you’re in The Mummy for life. Rachel Weisz would have it no other way.

Star Trek: Discovery streams Thursdays on CBS All Access.

Where to watch Star Trek: Discovery