List of minor Star Trek: The Next Generation characters
This is a list of minor characters from the science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. Characters are ordered alphabetically by family name, and only characters who played a significant recurring role in the series are listed.
For further information about the primary cast of this show see List of Star Trek: The Next Generation cast members. Due to the use of Star Trek characters elsewhere in the franchise and the frequent re-use of non-regular cast members, the order in which they appear in the list is necessarily imprecise.
Overview
The line between the regular cast, a recurring character, and a guest star is sometimes a grey area on TNG. In particular, Tasha Yar was in 28 episodes, fewer than the recurring characters Guinan and O'Brien. Pulaski was given the credit line "special appearance by" for her Season 2 shows, also fewer than that of O'Brien.Two well-known people that had roles on Star Trek were the NASA astronaut Mae Jemison and astrophysicist Stephen Hawking.
Jack Crusher
Jack R. Crusher was portrayed by actor Doug Wert. Dead before the series' beginning, Crusher is the late husband to Beverly Crusher, the father of Wesley Crusher and the former second officer aboard the USS Stargazer, Jean-Luc Picard's first command. He was killed in action at the age of 32, for which Picard blamed himself until Beverly Crusher first reported on the USS Enterprise. Crusher assured Picard she had signed on the Enterprise-D voluntarily and not due to Picard's influence.Jack Crusher once made a holographic recording of himself in which he explained his life and recent happenings to his son Wesley shortly after his birth. Crusher intended this to be the first in a series of messages, one every couple of years, but due to his death, only one recording was made. By the time Wesley first got to view the recording, Jack was already long dead.
In the seventh season episode "Journey's End", Jack appears before his son Wesley Crusher in a vision quest in which he encourages Wesley to find his own path. Wesley takes the vision of his father as a sign and resigns from Starfleet Academy in order to explore the galaxy with a powerful being known as the Traveler. In the third season of Star Trek: Picard, Beverly Crusher would reveal that she had a second child, with Picard, whom she named after Jack.
Appearances
Lieutenant Commander Crusher appears in the following Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes:- "Family", episode # 402, via holographic recording
- "Violations", episode # 512, via Beverly's memory flashback
- "Journey's End", episode # 720, via Wesley's vision
Guinan
The character first appears in the season two premier "The Child". She appears as a recurring guest between seasons 2 and 6. She does not appear at all in the final seventh season.
Casting
According to Whoopi Goldberg, she approached the producers of TNG with her desire to be on the show, due to her childhood admiration of Uhura, a character from the original Star Trek, played by actress Nichelle Nichols. Goldberg hoped to play the new ship's doctor after Gates McFadden was fired, but the producers did not see her as suitable for the role. They did not think a suitable role could be created, until Goldberg said that she did not care how big or small the role was, even if she just swept the floor in the background. It was from this they decided to give her the role of a bartender; the character is named after a Prohibition bartender, Texas Guinan.Overview
Guinan is originally from El-Auria. Her people, the El-Aurians, are sometimes called the "listeners". As a refugee aboard the El-Aurian vessel Lakul, she is rescued from the Nexus by the USS Enterprise-B in the film Star Trek Generations. In "Best of Both Worlds, Part I", Guinan states that when the Borg destroyed her homeworld her people "were scattered throughout the universe." The subsequent diaspora and reintegration of her people, and even their traditional clothing, that Guinan still wears, are interpreted as a reference to questions about race and colonization.Her species is long-lived, and she was between 500 and 700 years old when she joined the Enterprise-D: "Time's Arrow, Part I" reveals that she visited Earth in 1893, and "Rascals" establishes that her father was around 700 years old in the mid 24th century.
Guinan reveals in Star Trek: Nemesis that she has been married 23 times. She states in "Evolution" that she has many children, including a son who went through a phase when "he wouldn't listen to anybody" – something unusual "in a species of listeners".
Her wise counsel occasionally proves to be quite valuable to the crew. In one episode, for example, she tries to show Troi that she has other abilities she can use when Troi's confidence is shaken because her telepathic powers stop working temporarily. In particular, she and Picard are especially close, to where they trust one another implicitly, although the full nature of their connection is never revealed. She does indicate that Picard stood by her at a time when she was in serious trouble and that their relationship is "beyond friendship, beyond family". Also, she reveals that one of the first things she notices in men are their heads, having a fondness for bald men.
While by no means hostile or belligerent, she keeps an energy rifle of alien design behind the bar in Ten-Forward, which she used in the episode "Night Terrors" to quell a rowdy bar brawl. She also has exceptional aim, as seen when she was almost effortlessly able to outshoot Worf during a target practice session in the episode "Redemption, Part I".
In "Yesterday's Enterprise", which involves the timeline being altered, Guinan is able to sense the disruption, even though everyone else believes the altered reality is the natural course of events.
In "Q Who?", Q retorts, after hearing her called "Guinan" in the Enterprise-D's Ten-Forward lounge, "Guinan? Is that your name now?" He claims that Guinan, "is not what she appears to be." Q 'offered' to remove her from the Enterprise and Guinan raised her hands against him.
Kurn
Kurn, played by Tony Todd, is Worf's brother and a Commander in the Klingon Defense Force in Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.Officer exchange
Commander Kurn is introduced in the episode "Sins of the Father" as part of an officer exchange program, he is posted to the Enterprise, where he is temporarily assigned as first officer. Kurn specifically requests the Enterprise so that he can observe Worf closely, eventually revealing that he is Worf's younger brother.Kurn tells Worf he was too young to go along to Khitomer, where Worf had always thought that his entire family had died. The Starfleet officer who rescued Worf had been told by the Klingon government that he had no living relatives, but Kurn was taken in by his father's closest friend, Lorgh, and raised as Lorgh's son. At the age of ascension, Kurn was informed of his true bloodlines.
Kurn also informs Worf that the council has judged Mogh and his family to be traitors, and that Mogh had betrayed Khitomer to the Romulans. The Enterprise goes to Qo'noS so that Worf may challenge the accusation. Duras, the son of Mogh's greatest rival Ja'rod, leads the prosecution of Worf. Duras tries to have Kurn assassinated, but Kurn is rescued by the Enterprise personnel, and makes a full recovery. The Enterprise crew soon discovers that it is actually Ja'rod who collaborated with the Romulans. But K'mpec refuses to clear Mogh, and is prepared to execute Worf. Worf agrees to accept discommendation on the condition that Kurn's true bloodlines be kept secret, and that he be allowed to continue to serve.
Gowron's ascension
Worf meets with Kurn again right before the Klingon Civil War, in the two-part episode "Redemption". By this time, Kurn is a captain, and has his own vessel, the IKS Hegh'ta. When the two brothers save Gowron's life, Gowron returns to Worf and Kurn their family honor.After the Klingon Civil War, Kurn becomes a member of the Klingon High Council. He serves in this position until the breakdown in relations between the Klingons and the Federation following the Klingon invasion of Cardassian space. When Worf refuses to join Gowron, Gowron casts him out of Klingon society. When that happens, Kurn is forced from his seat on the council. Kurn becomes concerned over the future of the family since he has no male heirs, making Worf's son Alexander the next leader of the house. Kurn worries that Alexander will not be ready to lead the house when the time comes.
''Deep Space Nine''
Kurn next appears in the Deep Space Nine episode "Sons of Mogh".After being forced from the council, Kurn finds that he has lost the will to live. Kurn then goes to Deep Space Nine to ask his brother to kill him to restore his honor. Worf tries to fulfill Kurn's request but is stopped by Jadzia Dax and Odo. Captain Sisko is furious over this and forbids Worf from taking Kurn's life. Worf is then forced to try to get Kurn to regain his will to live. Odo agrees to make Kurn a member of the station security force. Kurn soon discovers a visitor is smuggling illegal items and the smuggler raises his gun at Kurn. In a twist of suicide by cop, despite having the ability to easily disarm the criminal, Kurn does nothing, and allows himself to be shot because dying in the line of duty would be an honorable death. Because a man with a death wish is a danger to himself and everyone else, Odo dismisses him from the security force. At about the same time, the Klingons are discovered attempting to mine the Bajoran system. Worf recruits Kurn to go onto a Klingon ship docked at the station, where they are able to uncover information about the mining program.
Realizing that his brother will never recover from his losses, Worf allows Dr. Julian Bashir to erase most of Kurn's memory. The procedure is successful: Kurn remembers nothing of his past life when he wakes up. Worf contacts an old family friend, Noggra, who agrees to take Kurn in as his son. Noggra tells Kurn that he has suffered an accident that has erased most of his memory, and that his name is Rodek.
A subsequent non-canon novel series shows Kurn, in his new identity, continuing to serve the Klingon Empire aboard a Klingon Defense Force warship named for Chancellor Gorkon.