McDowell appeared in the action film "Blue Thunder" (1983) as F.E. Cochrane, and the horror remake "Cat People" (1982). In 1983, he starred in "Get Crazy" as Reggie Wanker, a parody of Mick Jagger. Also in 1983, McDowell starred as the Wolf (Reginald von Lupen) in "Faerie Tale Theatre"s rendition of "Little Red Riding Hood" (his wife at that time, Mary Steenburgen, played Little Red Riding Hood). In 1984, he narrated the documentary "The Compleat Beatles". He is known in "Star Trek" circles as "the man who killed Captain Kirk", appearing in the film "Star Trek Generations" (1994) in which he played the mad scientist Dr. Tolian Soran, and several overzealous "Star Trek" fans even issued death threats for this. McDowell appeared in several computer games, most notably as Admiral Geoffrey Tolwyn in the "Wing Commander" series of computer games. His appearance in "Wing Commander III" marked the series transition from 2D pre-rendered cutscenes to live-action cutscenes. His appearance in "Wing Commander IV" was during the final days of video game live action cutscenes.