5 Forgotten Star Trek Characters That Deserve Their Time In The Spotlight

As one of the largest and longest-running science-fiction franchises in entertainment history, which has also inspired numerous real-life scientific developments, to say that "Star Trek" has had a positively sprawling cast of characters would be a hilarious understatement. Every series in the IP, from the original and "The Next Generation" to the newer entries like "Strange New Worlds," features an enormous roster of recurring characters on top of the primary Starfleet officers we follow. Naturally, many of these characters have gotten left in the proverbial dust over the years, from Captain Kirk's own son to the Enterprise's security chief before Worf.

As newer entries in the "Star Trek" franchise come and go, shows like "Strange New Worlds" and the more humorous "Lower Decks" have given us various opportunities to examine the existing mythos from different angles, focusing on characters who may have been underutilized in their prime. If given the chance, these characters in particular could make for some interesting subjects, whether for episodes of those newer shows or a future project.

Captain James Tiberius Kirk, played first and foremost by William Shatner, is a man who needs no introduction. In-universe, he's one of the most decorated Starfleet captains in history, and in real life, he remains one of the definitive faces of the entire "Star Trek" franchise. However, while Kirk himself has received ample attention over the years, both during and after the original series, his family hasn't gotten quite as much spotlight. You may not even know, for example, that Kirk has a son named Doctor David Marcus, played by Merritt Butrick.

David first appeared in the film "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan," working alongside his mother, Doctor Carol Marcus, on Project Genesis aboard the Regula I research station. David knew of Kirk, but never met him prior to the film's events due to his mother's insistence, though he exhibited some similar personality traits to Kirk, like his willingness to shirk rules. David came into greater focus during the events of "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock," where, in a confrontation with a group of Klingons, he was tragically killed in action while rescuing his ally Lieutenant Saavik.

This left a lasting impression on Kirk, negatively coloring his impression of Klingons, but outside of a brief reference in the fourth film, David never appears again. There are several long stretches of David's life that haven't been elaborated upon, mostly his upbringing, which could make good material for expanded universe stories.

In the original "Star Trek" series, Captain Kirk was assigned a yeoman by Starfleet HQ to act as his personal assistant. That yeoman was Janice Rand, played by Grace Lee Whitney, and while Kirk didn't appreciate her presence at first, the two gradually grew to respect and befriend each other, with their relationship maintaining an undercurrent of romantic potential throughout her presence on the Enterprise. However, following the original series episode "Miri," Rand inexplicably vanished from the Enterprise's crew, and wasn't brought up again for the rest of the series.

In her autobiography, "The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy," Whitney admitted that, following the completion of filming on "Miri," she was assaulted by a member of the show's staff and was fired from the production shortly afterward. This is likely why the character suddenly disappeared from the show with no explanation.

However, Whitney would reprise the role in small capacities years later, playing a newly-promoted Rand in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," attending Kirk's trial in "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home," and making appearances in "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country" and the "Star Trek: Voyager" episode "Flashback." There is ample room for new stories about Rand and her reasons for departing the Enterprise and subsequent promotion, though as Whitney passed away in 2015, someone else would need to play her.

If you were asked to name the Enterprise security chief in "Star Trek: The Next Generation," you would almost certainly say Lieutenant Worf. However, Worf wasn't originally the security chief of the ship, only assuming the role starting in season 2. In the show's first season, the Enterprise security chief was Lieutenant Natasha Yar, played by Denise Crosby.

Natasha Yar, Tasha to her friends, was an orphan from the colony planet Turkana IV, though unlike Worf, she wasn't adopted by a new family. She and her sister had to look out for themselves for many years, and the two lost contact after escaping the planet. Tasha joined the Starfleet Academy, and eventually became the security officer for the Enterprise-D.

However, less than a year into its voyage (specifically in the episode "Skin of Evil"), Tasha was killed in action by one of the series' most mysterious monsters, a malevolent entity known as Armus. While an alternate reality version of Tasha would appear in the episode "Yesterday's Enterprise," the original Tasha remained deceased, and the character was mostly relegated to passing mentions and cameos from then. We receive her backstory mostly in the episode "Legacy," where her sister Ishara is picked up by the Enterprise, but there is definitely some room to expand more upon her difficult upbringing and time in the Academy.

The Q are a recurring race of higher-dimensional, near-omnipotent beings throughout the "Star Trek" franchise, with the most prominent example, of course, being the Q played by John de Lancie, who first appeared in "The Next Generation." However, broadly speaking, we haven't seen that much of the wider Q species outside of Q himself, with only a handful of other Qs popping up throughout the franchise. One of the most interesting examples of a different Q is Trelane, who first appeared in the original series episode "The Squire of Gothos," predating the debut of de Lancie's Q.

Compared to the Q we know, Trelane was apparently very young by Q standards, which made him very childish and impulsive, and his reality-warping abilities less potent than that of an adult Q. Trelane technically appeared again in the "Strange New Worlds" episode "Wedding Bell Blues," though he wasn't specifically named as Trelane in the episode's credits, instead being confirmed as such in an interview between TV Insider and executive producer Akiva Goldsman. Giving Trelane a proper spotlight episode could be an interesting opportunity to see the growth process of the members of the Q and get some more insight into their higher-dimensional society.

In "Star Trek: The Next Generation," the Enterprise-D had a massive crew of officers and passengers beyond the major members of the crew we saw every episode. One such crewmember who got slightly more attention than the others, if only barely, was Ensign Sonya Gomez, played by Lycia Naff. Gomez joined the crew of the Enterprise-D right out of Starfleet Academy, serving under Lieutenant Geordi La Forge, who had scouted her for her fascinating thesis on antimatter. In her first appearance in the episode "Q Who," her defining moment had her stumble over herself and spill a cup of hot chocolate all over Captain Picard's uniform.

Following "Q Who," Gomez would only appear in one more episode in the series, "Samaritan Snare," where she helped to rescue Geordi from a Pakled vessel, before disappearing from focus. The character wouldn't be referenced again for many years until an appearance in the "Lower Decks" episode "First First Contact," where she had apparently been promoted to the rank of captain and given command of the USS Archimedes, a first contact vessel. Obviously, it's a big leap to go from ensign to captain of a major Starfleet vessel, so it goes without saying that Gomez's personal history is rife with opportunity for expansion.