5 Sci-Fi Shows James Doohan Appeared In (That Aren't Star Trek)

James Doohan is best known for playing the Starship Enterprise's chief engineer, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, in "Star Trek," and while that role alone would earn Doohan a spot in the sci-fi actor hall of fame, it's hardly his only credit in the genre.

Doohan, a Canadian who served in World War II before getting his start in acting doing radio work in Ontario, started appearing in movies and shows in the '50s. Some of his earliest credits were in the sci-fi genre, including a part in the Canadian children's television series "Space Command." All but one episode of this CBC show is believed to be lost, unfortunately, for those interested in seeing Doohan's time aboard a sci-fi spaceship that wasn't the Enterprise. His future "Trek" co-star, William Shatner, a fellow Canadian, also appeared on the series.

Luckily, "Space Command" was not Doohan's last time in the sci-fi genre. Here are five other sci-fi TV shows the actor appeared in, including a few that he acted in before "TOS," premiered and a couple from after he'd already become famous for beaming people up.

Like William Shatner, George Takei, and Leonard Nimoy, James Doohan appeared in an episode of the iconic anthology series "The Twilight Zone." Doohan starred in "Valley of the Shadow," which aired on January 17, 1963, as Episode 4 of the CBS show's fourth season.

Doohan plays a resident of a small New Mexico town that the episode's protagonist, Philip Redfield (Ed Nelson), finds himself stuck inside. It turns out that residents of the town were given fantastic, near-omnipotent technology by what's implied to be an alien from an advanced race many years ago. They must keep this secret until such a time as humanity can be trusted not to abuse this incredible gift, but as the actions of their unwanted guest prove, that moment may be a long time coming.

Doohan's part isn't large; He plays the father of a young girl whose young daughter and her cat cause Philip's dog to run off. While at first, he claims he'll go look for the pooch, he instead just uses the advanced technology to re-materialize a new dog.

There are a lot of connections between "Star Trek" and "The Outer Limits." "Star Trek" took The transporter effect from "The Outer Limits," and plenty of future "TOS" stars like Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner appeared on the ABC anthology series. James Doohan acted in an episode of "The Outer Limits" as well, starring in Season 2, Episode 4, which aired on October 10, 1964.

In the episode, "Expanding Human," Doohan plays Lt. Branch, a policeman investigating a strange crime scene at a university. A researcher, Dr. Roy Clinton (Skip Homeier), has been experimenting with a new serum that can expand his consciousness, but the concoction also unlocks something dangerous. It's sort of a riff on "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde," and while "Star Trek" fans might be disappointed that Doohan's playing a member of law enforcement rather than transforming into a monster, it's still neat to see him show up.

James Doohan made two appearances in "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea," director Irwin Allen's TV adaptation of his 1961 movie of the same name. On the ABC series, which was a hit show in the '60s, Doohan only had a minor role, playing an assistant to the President of the United States in a pair of season one episodes in 1964. That said, Doohan almost had a much bigger part in the underwater adventure and espionage show.

Actor Henry Kulky played Chief "Curly" Jones, who headed up the high-tech submarine the show was set on. When Kulky died, a new character, Chief Francis Ethelbert Sharkey, was created to replace him. Doohan – who at this point had auditioned for parts in both "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" and "Star Trek" — was offered the role of Sharkey, but turned it down. He eventually got the part of Scotty on "Star Trek," which ended up being the much better choice for his career considering how popular "Trek" got compared to "Voyage." Terry Becker ultimately got the role of Sharkey.

"Star Trek" creator Gene Roddenberry nearly wrote Doohan's engineer character out of the show, too, but Doohan's agent convinced him to change his mind.

James Doohan's next sci-fi role on TV after "Star Trek" ended in 1969 was "Star Trek: The Animated Series," where he voiced Scotty and also Arex, an alien character created for the show that replaced Walter Koenig's Pavel Chekov. Another non-"Trek" sci-fi role would come a few years after with the Filmation series "Jason of Star Command."

Originally airing on CBS as part of the package program "Tarzan and the Super 7," "Jason of Star Command" was a clear attempt to cash in on the popularity of the previous year's "Star Wars." The TV show was inspired by old movie series like "Flash Gordon" the same way the blockbuster film was. Doohan played Commander Canarvin, commanding officer to the titular Jason (Craig Littler), as they fought in spaceship battles against the evil evil space lord Dragos (Sid Haig) each Saturday morning. Doohan left the show after the first season, which ended in 1978. 

One of James Doohan's final sci-fi roles before his death following a struggle with Alzheimer's disease in 2005 was not what you might have expected. In 1996, UPN premiered "Homeboys in Outer Space," a sci-fi comedy that put Black comedians, Flex Alexander and Darryl Bell, inside of a spaceship that looked like a lowrider and had them patrol the galaxy as bounty hunters. It was lambasted at the time, drawing comparisons to a sci-fi "Amos 'n' Andy," though it's possible the genre parody was ahead of its time. On the other hand, perhaps not.

Doohan appeared in two episodes of the first and only season of "Homeboys in Outer Space," playing a character named Pippen, a joke name that referenced NBA player Scottie Pippen to parody Doohan's famous "Star Trek" character. Throughout his post-"Star Trek" career, Doohan complained about feeling typecast. It's either a nice full-circle moment or a little sad that one of his last roles leaned into his association with Scotty, depending on how you look at it.