It’s more surprising that there’s a Reservoir Dogs video game than that Armin Shimerman is one of the voice actors in it. It’s not surprising when Armin Shimerman turns up anywhere. Sure, his CSI episode is in the Ted Danson/Elisabeth Shue era, which exists, but he’s still on it, and it’s not surprising. It’s more surprising that it took as long as it did. He’s so ubiquitous that he’s in one of the most famous Cop Rock musical numbers, the “He’s Guilty” one from the pilot. And, yeah, he’s Quark and is perfectly willing to roll with that.
His career doesn’t go back quite as far as his Deep Space Nine foil Rene Auberjonois. (He also isn’t descended from Napoleon’s sister.) Still, since about 1979, he’s been everywhere. If you haven’t heard of his TV debut, Women of West Point, wherein he was nineteenth-billed, you’ve probably heard of his film debut, Stardust Memories, from the next year. Oh, sure, he’s so low-billed in that one that it’s easier to just say he’s fifth from the bottom, in the sterling role of “eulogy audience.” (Well below fellow Star Trek person Brent Spiner, in fact!) Still, between the two, he was on his way.
It does kind of seem as though Deep Space Nine was cast with Solid TV People. He appeared on Remington Steele and AfterMASH. The Paper Chase and The Facts of Life. Alien Nation and Who’s the Boss? Okay, so he never made it onto Murder, She Wrote, which is a little surprising, but would you accept Alice instead? Or maybe Cagney and Lacey? He did have the kind of TV career where you’re more surprised by what’s missing than what’s there.
Like Auberjonois and unlike a lot of other Trek people, he kept right on with that kind of career when DS9 went off the air. It is fully possible to coast on having been on the show even if you were only on about three episodes, it sometimes feels, provided you don’t mind doing the con circuit for the rest of your life, but that isn’t Shimerman’s style. He’s even on what I’m pretty sure is my favourite episode of Crossing Jordan, the 12 Angry Men episode. That Reservoir Dogs video game is from 2006.
He’s also puttered in writing. His only screenwriting credit is for an episode of Evil Con Carne, of all things, but he’s written several books. Yes, a DS9 book, but a DS9 book wherein the Ferengi are an analogy for the Japanese-Americans during World War II, it seems. (I haven’t read it; I’m not sure I’ve ever read a DS9 book.) He’s also written science fiction novels about Dr. John Dee’s being abducted by aliens and returned to Earth in 2099, as you do. And, just to keep things interesting, he’s an adjunct professor of Shakespeare at USC. Because I guess he needed more to do.
I’m sure Quark would disapprove of supporting my Patreon or Ko-fi, but consider doing it anyway?
