Character Insight No. 289: Admiral Leyton and Erika Benteen

Welcome back to Character Insight! Sorry I missed last week buried in tribbles, but to make up for that, I'm covering a doubleheader this week.  We review Admiral Leyton and Erika Benteen, two recurring characters who appear together on Deep Space Nine.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp289

Admiral Leyton personally recommended Ben Sisko for the commanding role on the DS9 station based on his past experience working with Sisko.  We learn about their time together on the USS Okinawa in the episode Paradise Lost.  Leyton was captain and Sisko was executive officer, and in flashbacks we see how Sisko learned to respect the chain of command from Leyton when he provided honest counsel and disagreed with his superior officer during the Federation-Tzenkethi war.  It's a bit reminiscent of the lesson Michael Burnham learns from Captain Georgiou in Discovery.

When Odo learns that some Changelings have infiltrated the Federation during the build up to the Dominion War, he informs the Federation and Leyton, now a vice admiral, leads a contingent of high-ranking officers to try and convince the Federation President to implement sweeping security measures to discover and clean out the changelings.  We are introduced to Commander Erika Benteen at this stage, as she is the right hand of Admiral Leyton and helps him in trying to implement these security measures.  The President refuses to implement such measures, calling them too extreme.

Later, when the Dominion bombs a diplomatic conference between the Federation and the Romulan Empire, Admiral Leyton decides to take things into his own hands and stage a military takeover of Earth to remove the President from power.  

Leyton assigns Sisko to be head of Starfleet security, and then uses an elite Starfleet cadet squad to sabotage Earth's power grid to spread paranoia about Changeling infiltration.  Sisko uncovers Leyton's plot and captures one of Leyton's conspirators at Deep Space 9, intending to bring him to Earth to testify against Leyton and his plot.  Leyton then promotes Erika Benteen to captain of the USS Lakota and orders her to stop the Defiant from reaching Earth, telling her the entire crew had been replaced by Changelings.

QUOTE (Paradise Lost)

Benteen does have the Lakota attack the Defiant, but the Defiant's ablative armor prevents her from disabling the ship.  Benteen defies Leyton's orders to use quantum torpedos to destroy the Defiant, as she talks with Sisko and becomes convinced by his impassioned arguments that Leyton was the one deceiving her.  Thus, Benteen ends up saving the day as she escorts the Defiant safely to Earth to let them uncover Leyton's plots against the Federation leadership.

This set of episodes is Star Trek at its best, as it shows complex character dynamics and echoes political problems we still face in some parallels today.  Erika Benteen finds a way to do what is right even in the face of orders from superior officers who are trying to do right, even if their plans are contrary to the core ideals of the civilization.  We hope we can all be like Benteen when the situation demands it.

Erika Benteen was played by Susan Gibney, who had previously played Dr. Leah Brahms on TNG and can more recently be seen as a regular on Crossing Jordan and in bit roles on The Mentalist and Lost.  Admiral Leyton was played by Robert Foxworth, who still provides voice work today such as for the character Ratchet in all of the Transformers movies.  Both of these actors have provided multiple characters to Star Trek in long acting careers primarily based in TV.

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Character Insight No. 288: Danara Pel

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we cover Danara Pel, a recurring character from Voyager.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp288 

Danara Pel is a doctor from the Vidiian race who appears in a couple episodes of Voyager.  In Lifesigns, which focuses primarily on her, she is seen in her role as a doctor treating many of her fellow Vidiians who have contracted the Phage.  She herself has had the Phage since childhood, and it is beginning to break down the brain tissue connected to her cortical stimulator when she contacts Voyager for help.

The Doctor saves her by putting her real body in stasis and her brain patterns into a holographic body so that he can work with her and use her expertise on the Phage.  She ends up falling in love with the Doctor, and it almost leads to her sabotaging her real body's treatment because she doesn't want to go back to dealing with the Phage.  However, the Doctor still shows compassion for her regardless of her appearance, which is a good lesson for viewers as well as her.

QUOTE (from Lifesigns)

Pel calls the Doctor Shmullus, which was the name on one of her favorite uncles from childhood.  The Doctor refers to himself a few times by this name, calling back to this episode and his brief relation with Pel.  In the episode Resolutions, the Doctor reaches back out to Pel to help him treat a poisonous insect bite that Janeway and Chakotay have contracted, and she is able to provide the antiviral serum they need before they suffer permanent damage.

It might be inferred that the romantic relationship between the Doctor and Pel turned into a sexual relationship, as he later indicates in another episode that he has engaged in such activity but Pel is the only character to that point we see that close with him.  Regardless, Pel is the only character in her holographic form that we see who is a healthy Vidiian without the Phage.  Perhaps someday her race can return to that state, if the efforts of this doctor are any success.

Pel provided an interesting story to add some depth to the holographic Doctor, but she also taught viewers some valuable lessons about life, including dealing with disease and appearances.  She therefore provides a key character central to one of the best episodes of this series.

Danara Pel was played by Susan Diol.  Diol has acted in countless TV shows and movies over a 30 year career, including in the TNG episode Silicon Avatar.  One of her most notable appearances is as Audrey, George's girlfriend with the big nose in the Seinfeld episode The Nose Job.

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Character Insight No. 287: Mot

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we cover Mot, a recurring character from TNG.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp287 

Mot is the Bolian barber who serves aboard Picard's Enterprise in several episodes.  As with today's barbers and hairdressers, Bolian interacts with people all day and so often provides advice to the crewmembers within his chair.  We see him do so with Picard, Riker, and Worf in different occasions.

QUOTE (from Schisms)

Although not seen on screen in the Unification two-part episode, it is mentioned that Mot provides the wigs that Data and Picard are to wear when going to Romulus to track down Ambassador Spock.  This episode was made into a novel, and in the novel, the interaction with Mot is expanded further.  Another novel where Mot and his fellow Bolians on board become more important is the Genesis Wave series, which I personally recommend for those who like multi-novel epic stories.

Although Mot is mentioned as having a reputation as the best barber in Starfleet, he does not appear to be the only Bolian on board who trims hair.  We see three different Bolians in the barber uniform in the episodes Data's Day, The Host, and Time's Arrow, Part II.  It is unclear whether these were all supposed to be Mot, or if there is a rotating crew of Bolian barbers on board.  If it's the latter, it may be an inside joke because Bolians have bright blue heads and no hair.

Another time when Mot is mentioned is when Picard is captured by some mercenaries, and he says he is the ship's barber instead of the Captain.  

Characters like Mot and Guinan bring interesting outside perspectives to the main crew and characters we see every episode, just like those same bartenders and hairdressers do this for us in our current lives.  His character adds to the feeling that this is a functioning city or society in space on the Enterprise, and if nothing else, it would've been better to see even more of this Bolian in the show.

Mot was played by Ken Thorley.  Other than a short appearance in the first Men In Black movie, his acting career over two decades was mostly defined by one-off appearances in various television shows spanning from Baywatch to Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm.  He has retired to other pursuits since 2004.

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Character Insight No. 286: Helena Rozhenko

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we cover Helena Rozhenko, a recurring character from TNG.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp286

Helena Rozhenko is married to Sergey Rozhenko and these human characters serve as foster patents to Worf.  They had their own son as well Nikolai, and these boys grew up as brothers while the Rozhenkos lived on a farming colony named Gault and then on Earth.

As many foster parents do, Helena adapted to her foster child, including learning how to cook many Klingon dishes for Worf.  Their many years together provided a bond that is exactly like biological parents, and we see this in the couple of appearances of Worf's parents on the show.  

The first of these is the episode Family, which was the episode where the Enterprise crew recovers from the events of the Borg incident in Best of Both Worlds.  Helena and Sergey visit Worf on the Enterprise and help support him after he had recently accepted a discommendation.  The complicated process of understanding the mix of his Klingon and human backgrounds is on full display.  Combined with the similar stories presented for Wesley Crusher and Captain Picard in this episode, we better understand both who these characters currently are as they cope with trauma, and where they come from.

QUOTE (from Family)

We also see the Rozhenkos later as they take in their grandson Alexander following the death of his mother K'Ehleyr, as Worf does not think he can provide a proper home and family for Alexander.  Of course they end up returning Alexander to Worf in the episode New Ground because Alexander fails to adjust to the human way of life.  Despite this, Alexander's grandparents remain involved and supportive as he makes his way through childhood and eventually to the Klingon Defense Force.

One interesting production anecdote is that the outfits designed for Helena and Sergey were carefully made to give the impression that these humans were strong emotionally and physically so as to survive raising a Klingon child.  Of course, the outfits were but one aspect of the family, which added depth to the already interesting character of Worf.

Helena Rozhenko was played by Georgia Brown.  Brown's acting career stemmed back to the Ed Sullivan Show in the 1960s through the TNG episode New Ground, as she passed away less than a year after this Star Trek performance due to complications from surgery.  She is known for her roles in the 1971 movie The Raging Moon, as well as a notable guest appearance on the TV show Cheers.

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