Warning: SPOILERS for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 2, Episode 7 - "Where Pleasant Fountains Lie".
Jeffrey Combs returned to Star Trek and played his 10th character on Star Trek: Lower Decks, which turns out to be even eviler than Weyoun, his best-known role from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. In Star Trek: Lower Decks season 2, episode 7, "Where Pleasant Fountains Lie," Ensigns Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) and Brad Boimler (Jack Quaid) are stranded during a mission to deliver Agimus (Jeffrey Combs), an evil sentient computer, to the Daystrom Institute in Okinawa. Agimus manipulates Boimler and pits him against Mariner before the Starfleet Officers turn the tables on the malevolent A.I.
One of the most prolific Star Trek actors, Jeffrey Combs has played memorable roles on DS9, Star Trek: Voyager, and Star Trek: Enterprise as well as the video game Star Trek: Elite Force II. Combs usually plays villains, with Shran, the Andorian ally of Captain Jonathan Archer (Scott Bakula) on Enterprise, as an exception. On DS9, Combs has played multiple roles, including Liquidator Brunt, the Ferengi rival of Quark (Armin Shimerman), and Combs has also appeared without prosthetics on a few occasions, such as when he played Officer Kevin Mulkahey in the classic episode "Far Beyond The Stars." But Jeffrey Combs is arguably best known as Weyoun, the Vorta henchman of the villainous, shape-shifting Founders of the Dominion. In fact, since Weyoun was a clone, Combs played 8 versions of the scheming Vorta on DS9, although each Weyoun was slightly different from the last.
Jeffrey Combs' new role on Star Trek: Lower Decks is his most diabolical yet since Agimus had already enslaved a planet when it was liberated by the crew of the USS Cerritos. Stripped of his power, Agimus was taken into Starfleet custody but he took advantage of a freak accident to toy with Boimler but the clever Ensign fooled Agimus and used the evil computer's power cell to send a distress signal. However, had Boimler actually helped the A.I., Agimus' master plan involved creating a legion of attack drones to subjugate their planet before conquering the entire United Federation of Planets - a scheme none of Combs' other villainous characters would dare attempt on their own, not even Weyoun.
In contrast to Agimus, who Mariner and Boimler locked up in the Daystrom Institute with other evil computers who have attempted intergalactic conquest, Combs always maintained that Weyoun wasn't truly evil since he was genetically built to serve the Founders and had to follow his programming. But Agimus turned out to be an amusing riff on Hal 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey as well as other nefarious computers in Star Trek, including Landru (who was also seen in Star Trek: Lower Decks season 1), Nomad, and the M5 computer from Star Trek: The Original Series, and Control from Star Trek: Discovery season 2. Agimus is certainly as evil as Control, who wanted to wipe out all organic life in the galaxy, and Landru, who also manipulated an entire planet.
Although Jeffrey Combs appeared in several Star Trek series, he's most strongly associated for his DS9 roles as Weyoun and Brunt, which makes Combs the most high-profile actor from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine so far to appear in a new Star Trek series on Paramount+. Many of the actors from Star Trek: Voyager have reprised their roles on Star Trek: Picard, Star Trek: Lower Decks, and soon, Star Trek: Prodigy, but DS9 fans have been waiting to see their favorites from the majestic space station stage their comebacks. Jeffrey Combs may not be Weyoun on Star Trek: Lower Decks, but playing the evil Lord Agimus is a triumphant and welcome return to Star Trek for the popular actor.
Star Trek: Lower Decks streams Thursdays on Paramount+.