In the past few months, I’ve been able to get caught up with back episodes of the comedy-spy-action-adventure TV series Chuck. Anyone who knows me knows I’ve had a celebrity crush on Adam Baldwin for a very, very long time. So now that I’ve cut out so much of what I had been watching on TV back in the days when I had a DVR, it’s allowed me to start watching shows I wanted to watch but never had time for, like Chuck.

The show is fun (though I could live with a whole lot less of Jeff and Lester), and one of the things I’ve found the most fun about it is being surprised by the special guest stars in almost every episode—some for a series of episodes. I purposely avoid reading anything that might have spoilers (though I did find out who would be playing Chuck and Ellie’s mom before I even started watching the series)—I even try to avoid reading the opening list of guest stars because I like to be surprised when the guest star first appears on screen.

The casting directors have done a fabulous job getting the cream of the sci-fi/fantasy crop when it comes to guest stars, and I’m excited to see who’ll show up this season (especially given who’s already shown up). So I thought it would be fun to see just how geekilicious the guest stars on Chuck have been.

Chuck vs. the Season 1 Guest Stars
With “A Man Called Jayne” (Adam Baldwin) as one of the main characters on Chuck, the series was already off to a great start. But here are some of the highlight sci-fi/fantasy guest stars of the first season:

Tony Todd as CIA Director Graham: I first came to know Tony Todd through his role as Worf’s brother Kurn on Star Trek the Next Generation (and Deep Space 9) and as a Hirogen on Voyager. But he’s been in many, many sci-fi/fantasy shows (and a bunch of horror movies) as a guest star or regular cast member including: Night of the Living Dead, The X-Files, Xena and Hercules, Smallville, and Stargate SG-1.

Kevin Weisman as Reardon Paine (“Chuck vs. the Truth”): He just popped up in Flipped, and I’ve loved him ever since I first saw him on Alias. His geek creds also include Moonlight, Ghost Whisperer, Charmed, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The X-Files.

With only thirteen episodes, Chuck didn’t get off to too bad a start with “special” guest stars. But things started picking up when the show got picked up for another season.

Chuck vs. the Season 2 Guest Stars
Michael Clarke Duncan as Colt (“Chuck vs. the First Date”): Did you recognize him as soon as he came on screen? I first noticed MCD in his “biggest” role to date: as John Coffey in The Green Mile, but he has a pretty impressive geek movie resume: Armageddon, Planet of the Apes, The Scorpion King, and Daredevil.

John Larroquette as Roan Montgomery (“Chuck vs. the Seduction”): Okay, so he’s not really known for his sci-fi/fantasy creds, but come on, it’s Dan Fielding from Night Court . . . playing Dan Fielding as a washed-out CIA agent!

Melinda Clarke as Sasha Banacheck (“Chuck vs. the Seduction”): While I have known of her since my college days when she was a regular on Days of Our Lives, MC has some geek credits under her belt: The Vampire Diaries, Firefly (Nandi in “Heart of Gold”), Charmed, Star Trek: Enterprise, and Xena.

Mark Pellegrino as “Fulcrum Agent” (“Chuck vs. the Fat Lady”): As soon as he came on screen, the first words out of my mouth were: “It’s JACOB!” But only because I saw season two of chuck after LOST ended. Funny thing, in the episode, he was looking for “LaFleur’s list.” So did the LOST writers take Sawyer’s alias “LaFleur” from this episode of Chuck? He’s also appeared on Supernatural (as Lucifer—hmmm…), Being Human, Dexter, The X-Files, and as “Dude” in a episode of Doogie Howser, M.D..

Bruce Boxleitner and Morgan Fairchild as “The Awesomes” (“Chuck vs. the Sensei”): Were these not the perfect people to play Awesome’s parents? I mean, hello, Bruce Boxleitner was TRON. Have you seen the poster on Chuck’s wall??? (There’s also Scarecrow & Mrs. King, Chuck’s forerunner; Babylon 5, Heroes, and Tron: Legacy). Morgan Fairchild is better know for her soapy background, but has spent time in geekdom with guest spots on Roswell, The New Addams Family, Lois and Clark, and The Amazing Spiderman (1978).

Dominic Monaghan as Tyler Martin (“Chuck vs. the Third Dimension”): Charlie Pace was on Chuck!!! So now we know what actually happened to him when the grenade exploded in “Through the Looking Glass”—he was transported to Burbank. 🙂 He also gave Flashforward a whirl, but that didn’t last long. So it’ll be interesting to see where he shows up next.

Robert Picardo as Perseus (“Chuck vs. the Lethal Weapon”): “I’m a doctor, not a toaster.” Who doesn’t remember Robert Picardo as The Doctor from Star Trek: Voyager (and then across the Star Trek universe)? Okay, how about from the Stargate series?

Arnold Vosloo as Vincent Smith (“Chuck vs. the Predator/the Dream Job/the Colonel”). Unlike Imhotep in The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, at least in Chuck he didn’t spend part of the time partially decayed and the other part mostly naked (although . . .)

Tricia Helfer as Agent Alex Forrest (“Chuck Versus the Broken Heart”): Oh, no, the Cylons are invading! As Number Six in Battle Star Galactica, Tricia Helfer cemented her place in every geek boy’s pantheon of hot babes.

SCOTT BAKULA as Steve Bartowski: Though he looks nothing like Chuck and Ellie, who could have been more perfect as their slightly loony, paranoid, but brilliant father than Dr. Sam Beckett/Captain Jonathan Archer? Though he’s run the gamut of TV sitcoms from Designing Women to Murphy Brown to The New Adventures of Old Christine, Scott Bakula is a king of the sci-fi/fantasy world because of Quantum Leap and Star Trek: Enterprise. And as if Scott Bakula weren’t enough . . .

Chevy Chase as Ted Roark: What a coup, to snag an actor of this magnitude for a 3-episode arc! Which leads us to…

Chuck vs. Season 3 Guest Stars
Armande Assante as Premier Allejandro Goya (“Chuck vs. the Coup d’Etat/the Angel de la Muerte”): Okay, so not really a lot of geek credits, but still, a pretty big name for this little show.

BRANDON ROUTH as Agent Daniel Shaw: Did John Williams’s “Superman” theme start running through anyone else’s head when the star of Superman Returns walked onto the set? And the male-eye-candy count just went up that much higher for this show that already boasted Awesome and Adam Baldwin (and, some would say, Zac Levi—not me, but some). And to have Chuck call Shaw “Superman” on screen—priceless!

Robert Patrick as Col. James Keller (“Chuck vs. the Tic Tac”): I recognized his voice before he even appeared on screen. And he’s one that once you’ve seen/heard him, you won’t easily forget him. Especially if you first saw him as T-1000 in Terminator 2: Judgment Day or as John Doggett in The X-Files.

Mark Sheppard as Ring Director (“Chuck vs. the Other Guy/the American Hero”): Another Joss Whedon/Firefly and Battle Star Galactica Alum. Geek central!

Christopher Lloyd as Dr. Leo Dreyfus (“Chuck vs. the Tooth”): Who better to diagnose Chuck’s descent into insanity but Dr. Emmett Brown from Back to the Future except for maybe Rev. Jim Ignatowski from Taxi?

Chuck vs. Season 4 Guest Stars ***Episode 1 & 2 SPOILERS***
LINDA HAMILTON as Mary Bartowski: When I heard over the summer that they’d cast Linda Hamilton as Chuck and Ellie’s father, that was before I knew Scott Bakula played their father. But after I saw SB as Steve Bartowski, I had to wonder if Chuck and Ellie are adopted! But they’ve wisely given Linda Hamilton a dark wig that makes her look a little more like Ellie. It’ll be interesting to see how her storyline plays into this season.

Harry Dean Stanton as The Repo Man (“Chuck vs. the Anniversary”): With 175 titles on his IMDb profile, need I say more (except The Green Mile)?

Lou Ferrigno as The Body Guard (“Chuck vs. the Suitcase”): I wish I hadn’t seen his name scroll across the screen, because being surprised by the presence of The (Original) Incredible Hulk would have been so fabulous! (And if Bronson Pinchot’s name hadn’t also flashed up on the screen, I never would have known that was he who was on the screen for all of about five seconds.)