Star Trek: Voyager’s Tanis was almost the show’s star
Gary Graham first made a guest appearance in the “Star Trek” universe as Tanis, an Ocampan in “Star Trek: Voyager” Season 2, Episode 10 – “Cold Fire.” Ocampans were a humanoid species with telepathic abilities, one of which was Voyager’s field medic, Kes (Jennifer Lien), whom Tanis tried to persuade to leave the Voyager and join his space station. It was the only time Graham appeared on the show, although if things had gone differently, he could’ve been its star, given that he actually auditioned for the role of Janeway.
Gary Graham’s almost Star Trek stardom
In a 2012 interview with Star Trek Vulcanology, Graham revealed that he was in the running for being Captain of the Voyager before Mulgrew won the role, as well as Captain Benjamin Sisko in “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine” before it went to Avery Brooks. Graham told the site, “That’s what I heard from my agent and also from another source at Paramount. I never heard it from either [Rick] Berman or [Brannon] Braga [“Star Trek” producers], so I can’t give it full veracity. You’ll have to ask them.” Discussing the process of going after the mystery role, Graham admitted, “And the audition for any lead is always pretty exhaustive. I think I remember the initial audition and two subsequent callbacks.” Perhaps in a mirror universe, he may have actually landed one of them.