The Grimmest Ensign Deaths on ‘Star Trek’

Lots of people die in Star Trek, and achieve this fairly horrifically. Boldly going is lethal enterprise, however there’s at all times one thing significantly grim when tragedy strikes on the lowest rung on Starfleet’s officer ladder: the lowly ensigns that hold any good starship or house station buzzing alongside as they attempt to survive lengthy sufficient to eke it out to lieutenant junior grade and past. In last week’s episode of Unusual New Worlds, we received to sadly see poor Ensign Gamble pay the final word value in a very terrible manner, so to… rejoice? We’re looking again at a few of his fellow ensigns who’ve additionally met equally grim fates.

O’Herlihy

The unique Star Trek could have the popularity that gave us “redshirt” as a broad cultural time period for an simply doomable help character, however actually, the present didn’t kill off lots of ensigns. As an alternative, it a lot most popular killing off crewmen, the enlisted rank beneath ensigns, and did so with suitably reckless abandon, no matter division.

Anyway, that brings us to an precise TOS-era ensign demise within the type of Mr. O’Herlihy, who received instantly vaporized by a Gorn disruptor as one of many first Starfleet casualties encountering the species (properly, in years, given Unusual New Worlds‘ Gorn adventures). Enjoyable truth: O’Herlihy was performed by Jerry Ayres, who would return to Star Trek—to be killed off once more—as Ensign Rizzo a season later in “Obsession.”

Sito Jaxa

Maybe one of the vital well-known ensign deaths in any respect—to the purpose it grew to become a pivotal emotional crux for Decrease Decks, a present virtually fully in regards to the plight of ensigns—and undoubtedly grim. Sito Jaxa, from the well-known TNG episode “Decrease Decks,” was an ensign assigned to an extremely harmful covert mission after being put by means of the wringer by the Enterprise-D senior workers. Assigned to help a Cardassian defector re-enter Cardassian house, the younger Bajoran was finally detected by Cardassian operatives and killed whereas trying to return to Federation house in an escape pod.

Dern

A conn officer aboard the Enterprise-D, Dern was discovered mauled to items throughout the episode “Genesis,” by which the crew started to devolve into grotesque monsters by means of a viral outbreak. Not solely does that imply that Dern was mauled at his station by a member of the crew, however Knowledge confirmed, scanning his corpse, that Dern himself was within the early levels of the an infection, in addition. Oof.

Harry Kim (Duplicate)

Voyager discovered as some ways to kill Harry Kim and undo it because it did to cease selling him past ensign, however these largely received undone for probably the most half… apart from that point the place Harry truly died after which was changed by his personal quantum duplicate throughout the occasions of “Impasse.” Voyager‘s encounter with a spatial scission resulted in two variations of the ship, each the “authentic,” making an attempt to exist in the identical house however out of section with one another. One Harry Kim dies, sucked into house by a hull breach, whereas the opposite, alongside the new child Naomi Wildman, goes over to the “different” Voyager whereas one of many ships self-destructs.

Once more, they’re each technically the identical Harry Kim, give or take a couple of hours of alternate recollections attributable to the scission. However meaning a part of Harry nonetheless died, and he needed to simply… go about residing on with that.

Hogan

Think about getting stranded on a hostile planet, your ship stolen, and then you definitely virtually instantly get eaten by a large eel creature. And then your skeletal stays go on to spark a non secular disaster for a wholly totally different species of aliens!

Unnamed Subnucleonic Radiation Sufferer

Not solely is that this poor ensign (we are able to inform by the only rank pip on his collar) unnamed, however he’s additionally the one member of Voyager‘s bridge crew to not survive the ship making an attempt to plow its manner by means of a Mutara-class nebula, bombarding the ship with radiation. Everybody else simply will get to wince in ache and have a headache; this dude’s total face will get burned off.

Jetal

Jetal’s demise was already fairly nasty—she was shot by an unknown alien whereas on an away mission with a devastating vitality pulse that labored its manner up by means of her backbone and into her mind, inflicting huge synaptic harm alongside the best way. However the motive she truly died was resulting from the truth that there was solely time for Voyager‘s EMH to function on one of many two injured crew within the assault… and the opposite was Harry Kim, whom the physician picked as a result of he knew higher. Positive, it led to the Physician himself having to discover some private trauma within the aftermath, however nonetheless, dying as a result of the working medical officer didn’t know you that properly is tough.

Burrows

From the Enterprise episode “Daedalus,” Burrows was killed after touching a spatial distortion that was ultimately revealed to be a nascent transporter sign from a fancy experiment. Encountering the distortion precipitated Burrows to endure “mobile disruption,” primarily his physique imploding on a mobile stage, leaving his face hideously warped upon demise.

Connor

One other entry on this listing that’s a sufferer of being spaced, Connor died throughout the Battle of the Binary Stars in Discovery‘s premiere. However what makes his demise specifically grim is the truth that he form of wasn’t conscious of what was occurring: injured on the Shenzhou‘s bridge throughout the battle, he was despatched to sickbay for therapy solely to, in a state of delirium, wander into the brig moments earlier than it suffered a hull breach.

Cortez

One other Discovery ensign, one other spacing. Ensign Cortez dies making an attempt to remain too lengthy to restore harm to the ship earlier than emergency drive fields kick in, stopping his escape in time, however except for that layer of tragedy, he additionally will get sucked out right into a subspace rift the ship was exploring right into a void of nothingness that we’d already seen violently disintegrate a robotic probe.

Niko and Angie

Technically certainly one of these could not essentially be a grim ensign demise, if solely as a result of the ensign concerned could by no means have truly been an actual ensign in any respect. Two courting officers who have been associates of Beckett Mariner aboard the USS Quito, Niko turned out to be a Harvongian shape-changer, who grotesquely remodeled into his true kind, seemingly triggered by Mariner joking that he would possibly be a Harvongian shape-changer. Niko devoured his girlfriend, Angie, earlier than being phasered into submission by the Quito crew.

Alvarado

Alvarado’s demise is extra existentially horrifying than the rest. A soldier combating on the planet J’Gal throughout the Klingon-Federation warfare, he was mortally wounded throughout fight and, in an try and triage restricted medical assets, held in a transporter sample buffer by Dr. M’Benga and Nurse Chapel till a starship with a surgical procedure bay might arrive. Sadly for poor Alvarado, a Klingon assault disrupted the medical base’s energy provide, necessitating a reboot of the transporter’s programs to get them functioning in any respect… purging the backlog fully, together with his organic sample. Loss of life by having your pc’s recycle bin emptied.

Middleton

Is it demise in the event you technically by no means existed within the first place? That was the destiny of poor Ensign Middleton aboard the Voyager-A throughout the Prodigy episode “The Devourer of All Issues, Half II.” Attacked by a transdimensional creature referred to as a Loom, Middleton was eradicated from time and house fully in order that he was fully forgotten, by no means present… and solely remembered by folks carrying temporal discriminators on the time of his demise.

Gamble

And that brings us all the best way updated with Ensign Gamble. He’s fortunate sufficient to get a mixture of each grotesque demise and existential nightmares: the younger medical officer, simply months into his posting aboard the Enterprise, Gamble is immediately killed when a small orb containing a hostile spirit referred to as a Vezda. This not solely gorily explodes each his eyeballs but in addition results in him being promptly possessed by the Vezda, killing him and shuffling his corpse round in an try and sabotage the Enterprise and acquire management over its programs earlier than Dr. M’Benga realizes that Gamble’s not house.

Need extra io9 information? Try when to count on the newest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on film and TV, and every part it is advisable to learn about the way forward for Doctor Who.