Paskey also appeared occasionally as a stand-in for Shatner in certain long scenes. He was the hand-double for James Doohan, who was missing a finger, in "Wolf in the Fold" and "That Which Survives." He appeared in most of the episodes from the first two seasons of the original series. A bad back and cluster headaches from an old injury, which worsened from the set lighting, led to his leaving the show in the third season. Paskey admitted in a July 1988 "Starlog Magazine" interview that once the pain had gone, he tried to return to acting but had lost many of his Hollywood contacts while working on "Star Trek," and eventually retired from the profession.