Many Trekkies might find it curious that someone like Jeff Bezos (who admittedly gave bad advice to the “Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power” showrunners) would be a Trekkie. “Star Trek,” after all, takes place in a post-capitalist society wherein humanity is no longer motivated by the accumulation of wealth. Class has essentially been erased, and technology allows everyone to live comfortably, without want. Jeff Bezos, meanwhile, is one of the richest people on the planet, said to be worth over $237 billion. He owns Amazon and the Washington Post, and has, in recent years, been spreading his money around the American Right Wing, showing financial support for the country’s most unsavory politicians. He also prevented the Post from endorsing Kamala Harris for president. Bezos has been described as an oligarch and is certainly one of Earth’s most insidious supra-capitalists. These are not the philosophical viewpoints of Gene Roddenberry’s futuristic utopia.
Where Bezos and “Star Trek” overlap, however, is an interest in the stars. Bezos owns a private rocket-building firm called Blue Origin that has been launching crafts into the upper atmosphere for years. Indeed, in 2022, “Star Trek” star William Shatner took a ride on a Blue Origin rocket, sort of spiritually bringing Trek and Bezos together in an abstract kind of way. Bezos certainly isn’t the pacifist communist one might see on “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 web’s largest “Star Trek” fansite.
As it so happens, Bezos had a previous brush with Trek in 2016, as he had a cameo 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 played an alien doctor in Star Trek Beyond
Jeff Bezos will not be recognizable. Not only is he only on screen for a few seconds in “Star Trek Beyond,” but his famously bald head is covered by elaborate alien makeup. He appeared near the beginning of the film when the character of Kalara (Lydia Wilson) was introduced. Kalara appeared on an escape pod and was rescued by the U.S.S. Enterprise. She was brought on board and questioned by Captain Kirk (Chris Pine) when she revealed that she fled a disaster she encountered around 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 huge swarm of miniature attack vessels rip the Enterprise to shreds, and the crew has to escape to the planet’s surface to survive.
When Kalara was being questioned, she was being scanned and examined by a cadre of Federation doctors, clearly making sure that she was okay. One of the doctors was Jeff Bezos.
According to Memory Alpha, Bezos’ love of “Star Trek” has manifested in many ways. He bought one of the eight-foot filming models of the U.S.S. Enterprise, used in some of the Trek feature films. He named his dog Kamala, after a character played by Famke Janssen on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” Bezos also liked the voice-operated computers on “Next Generation,” and clearly modeled Amazon’s Alexa after them.
Bezos’ politics may be the polar opposite of “Star Trek,” but one might hope he’ll rewatch the series someday and realize that. Given that he was in one of the movies, maybe he’ll be encouraged to do so. The man understands the technological element of “Star Trek,” but not the message that unity, pacifism, and anticapitalism were the means to achieve it.
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