Season 3 saw a lot happening to the crew of Discovery as they flung themselves nearly 1,000 years into the future, far ahead of any official canon Star Trek has given us in the past. It allowed the show to make it’s own way without wreaking too much havoc on the timelines we all know and love.
One of the bright spots of the season was the introduction of Admiral Charles Vance, the commander in chief of starfleet in what remains of the United Federation of Planets. He’s very skeptical of Discovery’s sudden emergence, especially since their very being has broken the temporal accords set forth sometime after the 31st century. He would turn out to be a father figure type ally who was both firm and understanding and willing to listen to reason, even if it wasn’t considered the most calculated of moves.
If Admiral Vance, played by Oded Fehr, seems familiar it is probably because you’ve seen him in several movies and TV shows over the years.
Ardeth Bay, the Mummy
Fehr’s first big break came in “The Mummy” where he played Ardeth Bay, a Medjai Chieftain whose sole goal was to prevent anyone traveling to Hamunaptra from resurrecting the High Priest Imhotep from death. Ardeth and Rick O’Connel, played by Brendan Fraser, found themselves at odds with each other several times as O’Connel tried to locate what he believed was treasure at Hamunaptra only to resurrect the Mummy. At that point Ardeth and O’Connel begin working together to bring down Imhotep and stop a potentially world ending scenario.
Fehr would return as Ardeth Bay in the Mummy Returns and has since brought the character back on YouTube for a couple of comedy shorts in 2020.
Antoine Laconte, Deuce Bigalow Male Gigalow
After his turn as Ardeth Bay in the Mummy, Fehr would go on to play a wealthy Gigalow in the Rob Schneider led comedy Deuce Bigalow Make Gigalow. Deuce is a down on his luck, not very attractive guy who cleans extravagant fish tanks for a living when he makes a house call at Antoine’s place. Antoine, who has urgent business, asks Deuce to look after his fish and take care of his house making it very clear that if anything was out of place, he would shove a crossbow up his ass. As things would have it, Deuce quickly and comically ruins the apartment when he breaks the large exotic fish tank.
Deuce then follows Antoine’s footsteps becoming a Gigalow who takes on unusual clients of his own to pay for and restore Antoine’s apartment before he returns.
Carlos Olivera and Todd, Resident Evil Franchise
Fehr would pop up for the next few years in various small roles and a short lived TV show called UC: Undercover where he played Frank Donavon before finding a role as Carlos Olivera in the Resident Evil movie series. Carlos was a former Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service operative before the fall of Racoon City. After the fall he joined an anti-Umbrella corporation vigilante team and would later sacrifice himself to save Alice and the rest of the survivors. He returns as a Carlos clone in Retribution.
Zankou, Charmed
an 8 episode arc as Zankou, an intelligent upper level demon on the long running Charmed series. Zankou would first help the charmed ones fight against the Avatars before turning against the sisters as he worked to possess the spiritual Nexus that lie underneath the Halliwell mansion by eventually stealing the Book of Shadows, shutting down Piper and Phoebe’s powers. All of it would wind up being for naught as the sisters found a way to trick Zankou into absorbing the Nexus as they used a spell specifically designed to destroy the nexus.
Various Characters
Fehr would find himself traveling across the TV landscape in various roles over the next several years popping up in the alien invasion series V as Eli Cohn, a leader of the Fifth Column Visitor resistance fighters. He would find himself as the mystical Jafar based off of Disney’s Aladdin in the TV series “Once Upon a Time”.
He is known for being a voice actor including his run as Batman/Justice League villains and heroes Equinox, Ra’s Al Ghul, Mr. Freeze and Dr Fate. Even taking a turn as The Living Mummy in both Spiderman and Hulk Agents of SMASH.
