Before They Were Stars: Charles Napier as a Space Hippie on “Star Trek”

Two weeks ago, I did a bunch of Star Trek-themed “Before They Were Stars” features and it turns out that the late, great character actor Charles Napier, who passed away a few days ago, had one of his earliest acting appearances on an episode of the original series. However, it wasn’t just any old episode, but the infamous “The Way to Eden”, which is regarded by many Trekkies as the goofiest, most bizarre episode in the history of the show. The story involves the Enterprise being taken over by a group of space hippies, one of whom is played by Charles Napier. The episode is particularly infamous because of a bunch of a hilariously outdated music sequences and most of the singing for them is done by Mr. Napier himself!