Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we review Tess Allenby, a recurring character from TNG.
Tess Allenby is a human ensign who serves as a flight controller on Picard's Enterprise. In this role, she is seen manning the conn in the episode Final Mission, in which the Enterprise assists natives from Gamelan V with pulling a waste barge out of their orbit. She helps move this waste barge and dispose of it in the sun of that planet.
Another appearance for Allenby at the conn is in the episode The Loss, where the ship encounters two dimensional lifeforms. She also runs the ship again in Suspicions, so we are provided numerous examples of her time on the bridge. An interesting factoid about this latter appearance is that the footage used actually came from stock footage filmed for her first appearance in Final Mission. This was done because two years had passed since the character had appeared. Regardless, this character still gets credited with 3 appearances.
Although we hear her last name in the episodes, the first name Tess appears in the scripts only. Unlike some other recurring characters who serve as regular faces in the crowd, Allenby does not show up in many books or other licensed works, except in the video game Starship Creator.
Mary Kohnert played Allenby. Before appearing on Star Trek, she had mostly small TV and film appearances, including in the movies Mr. Baseball and Hunter. Trek was her final acting role, and she moved into film development at TriStar Pictures and later spent many years at Michelle Pfeiffer's film company Via Rose Productions. She does not serve an active role in filmmaking any longer, as she has apparently settled in the Portland, Oregon area as an average joe you might see at the grocery store...you know, just like her character Tess Allenby.
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