Jeffrey Combs responds to Star Trek fan’s suggestion he play Dr. Boyce in new series Strange New Worlds

John Hoyt as Dr. Boyce and Jeffrey Combs as Weyoun in Star Trek

Over the weekend, Star Trek fans across the internet were abuzz with the news of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. The newly-announced series from CBS All Access picks up Captain Pike, Spock and Number One where Star Trek: Discovery left off: continuing their own journey exploring (you got it!) strange new worlds.

When Discovery reintroduced us to Pike, Spock and Number One, 50-something years after the original Star Trek pilot “The Cage” was filmed, it was a significant event. While we had (of course) gotten to know and love Spock over the years, we’d only seen Pike one other time, in the TOS episode “The Menagerie”. And Number One, played by Majel Barrett, never made it out of the pilot, although Barrett herself did, as Nurse Chapel.

But there was one other major character from “The Cage” who we never got to see, and while there’s been no indication yet that he will make an appearance in Strange New Worlds, it’s not unreasonable to think he will. Dr. Phil Boyce was the Enterprise’s chief medical officer in 2254, and a confidant of Captain Pike’s. It was Boyce who said to Pike in the pilot, “A man either lives life as it happens to him, meets it head-on, and licks it. Or he turns his back on it and starts to wither away.”

Cue the speculation of who will be chosen to play the part of Boyce in Strange New Worlds. Never mind that executive producer Akiva Goldsman has “no idea” when the new show will actually begin production! Over the weekend, one intrepid fan made the astute observation that Boyce, originally played by John Hoyt in 1964, looks not dissimilar to prolific Star Trek character actor Jeffrey Combs. In a tweet on Saturday, Andorian Soup (@AndorianSoup) posted pictures of Boyce and Combs side by side with the caption, “WAAAAAAAIT A MINUTE”.

WAAAAAAAIT A MINUTE 🤔 pic.twitter.com/CpKybYzMD8

— Andorian Soup 🖖 (@AndorianSoup) May 16, 2020

That tweet, of course, caught many fans’ attention, and was retweeted hundreds of times. Eventually, even Combs himself saw the discussion, and chimed in. He replied to one fan’s comment, saying, “Thank you. Nice thought, but the chasm between what fans want and what the studios want make the chances of it happening slim to none.... and Slim left town.” But when another fan asked whether he would generally be open to returning to Trek, he said, “Of course. I love Star Trek. Star Trek is life.”

Of course. I love Star Trek. Star Trek is life.

— jeffrey combs (@jeffreycombs) May 18, 2020

So Combs himself is not optimistic about the prospect, but theoretically speaking, if he were to take on the role of Boyce, it would be his ninth distinct character across four Star Trek series.

If you’d like to brush up on either the character of Boyce, or on Combs, you can do that on CBS All Access. You’ll want to re-watch “The Cage” or “The Menagerie” for Boyce, and pretty much any other episode ever for Combs. That’s only a slight exaggeration.