The fictional Jerry Seinfeld (played by his namesake, the real Jerry Seinfeld) has never had much luck in love. Sure, he dated a lot of women over the course of the show's nine seasons, but he didn't have long-term, meaningful relationships with any of them. His closest female relationship is with his ex-girlfriend and ever-present friend Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), which is kind of refreshingly free-spirited for a guy like Jerry, but that means there just haven't been many long-term girl guest roles on "Seinfeld." In fact, Seinfeld's longest on-screen romance lasted just four episodes, and that was with Rachel (Melanie Smith), who he got on during the run of Schindler's List and was absolutely awful. Seinfeld's nemesis, Newman (Wayne Knight). While she's not the most memorable of the Seinfeld girls because she's at least somewhat normal, Smith gives a good performance and manages to hold her own alongside some of the funniest TV comedians of the 90s.

Maybe it was time for her to play a character dealing with the crazy narcissism of the Seinfeld gang which helped her land her next big role as she was set to play the daughter of a megalomaniacal eccentric dictator from the deep reaches of space. Just three years after Rachel said goodbye to Jerry on Seinfeld, Smith returned to our screens in a completely different role: as Thora Ziyal, the half-Bajor daughter of Cardassian warlord Gul Dukat (Mark Alaimo) on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine ".

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was a he wants to get into complicated a bit moremorally sticky themes from his franchise brethren, and Ziyal was a prime example of a challenging character for whom existence held no easy answers. Ziyal was half-Cardassian and half-Bajoran, the result of an affair between the married Cardassian Gul Dukat and a Bajoran woman who somehow fell in love with her colonizer, Thora Naprem. Dukat sent them to live away from Cardassians or Bajorans, unable to kill them, but knowing their existence was a liability. In the end, father and daughter are reunited, and Ziyal becomes close friends with Bajoran freedom fighter Major Kyra Nerys (Nana Visitor), although it was not an easy relationship for all involved. Ziyal would also befriend Cardassian tailor/spy Garak, played by Andrew Robinson, the only other Cardassian regular on Deep Space Nine.

The Cardassian occupation of Bajor has many real-world consequences and serves as the backdrop for some of the show's darkest episodes, including one inspired by an Agatha Christie novel which examines the corruption of morality that may be required to survive in a time of war that pits Kira against a Cardassian assassin. Ziyal is one of the only good things to come out of the occupation, but she is unfortunately killed helping her friends escape during the Cardassian takeover of the space station, leading to her father's eventual total mental breakdown. She's a truly tragic figure in every way, but thankfully Smith injects a great deal of humanity into the half-Cardassian, half-Bajoran with a heart of gold during her time as the character. (Younger versions of Ziyal were played by Sia Batten and Tracy Middendorf.)

Rachel Smith's claim to fame came when she infamously caught George in a buffalo hide in a scene that introduced many of us to the word "downsizing", away from Ziyal's role as the catalyst for her father to eventually start a doomsday cult, but she's not the only "Seinfeld" guest actor to have a place on "Deep Space Nine." Phil Morris, who played Jerry's neighbor Kramer's (Michael Richardson) lawyer Jackie Chiles, played several roles on Deep Space Nine, including places like Klingon and Jem'Hadar, which is stinkin' fun. Brian George, who played cafe owner Babu Bhatt on "Seinfeld," also played the father of Dr. Julian Bashir (Alexander Siddig) on ​​"Deep Space Nine." In fact, there are dozens of crossovers, which is kind of surprising considering the fact that one of Deep Space Nine's most important cast members absolutely hated his time on the show-for-nothing sitcom.

In Florida SuperCon in 2017Shimerman was asked about his time guest-starring as Kramer's caddie on a season seven episode of "Seinfeld," to which he said he "hated them" because "they were uncommunicative, ugly, unresponsive, what's the word?" It's not hard to imagine that some of the cast will resemble their self-centered characters and become a little isolated after seven seasons together, but it's still hard to hear that Shimerman has had such a hard time. Fortunately, he fared much better on "Deep Space Nine," because Quark is one of the best characters in the entire Star Trek franchise.. No Tarkaley tea for you!