Forget Cumberbatch, Check Out Weyoun As Doctor Strange

While Trek alum Benedict Cumberbatch is dazzling fans and critics as Doctor Strange, almost 25 years ago one popular Star Trek actor donned the Sorcerer Supreme’s cape – kind of.

In 1992, our very own Jeffrey Combs starred in Doctor Mordrid. A direct-to-video film studio by the name of Full Moon Features had an option to bring the Marvel Comics magician to life, but their rights expired before production could begin. So the studio changed the name from Doctor Strange to Doctor Mordrid and tweaked a few details.

Combs’s Anton Mordrid is no Stephen Strange, but he frankly comes closer to the character than Cumberbatch did to Khan.

It’s not exactly cinematic wizardry, but the special effects are pretty good for the time. Combs played eight different, mostly antagonistic, characters in Star Trek – notably DS9’s Weyoun and Enterprise’s Shran – so it’s fun to see him in a heroic role for a change.

The villain of the piece is played by Brian Thompson, who fans may recognize without the make-up for his role as several aliens in Trek, including a Romulan and a couple of Klingons. Trek would later reunite Thompson and Combs on screen in three episodes of Enterprise and DS9’s To The Death, where Thompson played a Jem-Hadar and Combs’s first appeared as Weyoun.

 

 

The whole movie is available on YouTube here. C’mon. The Founders want you to watch it.

22 Comments
oldest
newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

A very rigid performance in this video. Love the guy and his voice is amazing in anything. Surely he would do it differently now…I just wish he could have more nicer roles in more interesting movies.

Director: We used the entire budget to make the books fly off the shelf. So… stand in place and say your lines.

Gotta love direct-to-video films. (Jeffrey Combs is great nonetheless!)

Are the saying that Shran wasn’t a heroic role?

Jared obviously never watched Enterprise, if that’s what he is implying.

Well, he was antogonistic, and even villainous at first, but you said “its fun to see him in a heroic role for a change.” Shran was certainly a hero, even if he could also be a jerk at times.

Am I the only one that thinks Jeff Combs is a bad actor?

Yes

Yes.

Probably :)

I rather liked the 1970s Doctor Strange film that featured Jessica Walter as Morgan Le Fay. It’s years since I saw it, so it might not hold up now, but I notice it’s out on DVD!

Another headline could be ‘Forget Cumberbatch, check out Montalban as Khan Singh!’ of course! ;)

Dom & El Chup — Am I the only one who thinks Cumberbatch is a limited actor? Sure, he’s good in some roles, but I’ve seen him in things where his performance flies around the room and never lands on a character. Case in point: Khan.

@CmdrR:

No.

Just to check, have you seen/listened to everything Cumberbatch has working in ?
Here are some things you may not have seen/heard his performance in :
1. Cabin Pressure – Radio Sitcom by John Finnemore – 26 episodes
Absolutely brilliant _comedic_ performance, where he plays a very unsure of himself pilot. Not the “cool, calm” Cumberbatch most people are familiar with
2. (small) Role in Nathan Barley by Charlie Brooker and Chris Morris – Robin
Another tongue-in-cheek comedy about “media types” – quite a prophetic series

I myself have not yet seen all the series he’s been involved in, but having seen him deliver significantly different characters very convincingly, I certainly don’t think he’s limited.

What’s stopping Axanar from doing this?

This looks totally like a b movie. Doctor Strange was good…don’t know if this would be watchable though. Although it couldn’t be any worse than Warriors of the Wasteland. Remember that Italian film from the ’80s?

I agree on Dr. Strange.
Good Film.

You know, I actually kinda liked that, in it’s own cheesy, I’m-bored-on-a-Sunday-night way………..

Great archeological finding. The sets reminded me of the first season of the HIGHLANDER tv show.

Didn’t Bakula do something along these lines? Was it called, LORD OF ILLUSION?

When I was writing/producing a low-budget ($265,000 +/-) feature film during 1990-92 with Angus (Phantasm) Scrimm in a dual role, to be directed by a friend who has made over a dozen sci-fi/horror features (one in the ’70s for WB, the rest lower budget indie films), we inquired of Mr. Combs’ availability with his agent, and my director was told basically that if he liked the story/script, he’d do it. Alas, once we had most of the rest of our team assembled, the financing fell through, followed by two deaths in the immediate family. And that was that. But Combs is terrific IMHO and would have made a great lead in our film. :/

alien bounty hunter v the reanimator!