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to captain of the USS Lakota and orders her to stop the Defiant from reaching Earth, telling her the entire crew had been replaced by Changelings.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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Character Insight No. 285: Emory Erickson

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we'll continue to have faith of the heart and review Emory Erickson, a character from Enterprise, based on a suggestion from regular show contributor "Chris on Twitter."

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp285 

Unlike the story of Zephram Cochrane, the inventor of warp drive, there had been no stories or investigation into the invention of transporter technology before the show Enterprise aired.  That left an opening for show runners to have an episode featuring the inventor of this technology, and that character is Emory Erickson.

Erickson is a human inventor with several inventions, but most notable is of course the molecular transporter.  We learn that Erickson is a bit of a father figure to Captain Archer thanks to being close friends with Harry Archer, the Captain's father, before Harry passed away of Clarke's Disease.  Thus, it was only fitting to see Erickson appear on Archer's ship later. 

Before we get to that appearance, in 2139 Erickson developed a sub-quantum teleportation device.  Several volunteers including his son Quinn tried out the device, but they all disappeared, never to be seen again.  Erickson tried the device himself, but it left him mostly paralyzed.  When he discovers that his son and the others were trapped in subspace rather than dead, he spends all his time trying to find a solution to bring his son back.

QUOTE (from Daedalus)

That brings us to 2154, 15 years later, and the wheelchair-bound Erickson arrives on the Enterprise to apparently test a new transport method.  But rather than actually perform this test, he was on the ship in an effort to try and track down his son, who was found to be in a subspace bubble called The Barrens.  Ericsson does retrieve his son Quinn with the help of the Enterprise crew, but Quinn dies seconds after re-materializing.  While this is a tragic end, Erickson believes it was a better fate than the purgatory of being lost in subspace.

Just like how Zephram Cochrane becomes a complex character with flaws in the movie First Contact, this episode of Enterprise makes a similar character out of the inventor of the transporter.  For example, Erickson evokes President Franklin D Roosevelt with his insistence on standing and supporting himself at a transport controller despite being wheelchair-bound.  Erickson will go down in lore as one of the most important innovators of the era, despite being haunted by his past and his life just like Cochrane. 

Emory Erickson was played by Bill Cobbs.  Cobbs started acting in the 1970s and continues to do so today at the age of 84.  He grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and served as an Air Force radar technician for nearly a decade before entering acting as a profession.  It's perhaps fitting that one of his most memorable TV recurring appearances came on The Drew Carey Show, because..."Cleveland Rocks."

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Character Insight No. 284: Michael Rostov

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we'll have faith of the heart and review Michael Rostov, a recurring character from Enterprise.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp284 

Rostov is an engineer with the rank crewman second class on Archer's Enterprise.  In his few roles on the show, he appears to be a primary assistant to Commander Tucker.

Rostov's first appearance is likely his most memorable, as he and several other officers, including Captain Archer and Commander Tucker, are caught up in a strange, gooey, fibrous alien creature in the episode Vox Sola.  His good work in this appearance made the showrunners want to bring Rostov back a couple more times as a recurring character.  Scott Bakula is said to have referred to the actor who plays Rostov as "Goo Boy" thanks to the memorable events of this episode they shared together.

Rostov is next seen serving as a shuttle pilot who ferries various crew members between the ship and shore leave on Risa.  I guess he drew the short stick, having to be the Uber driver for all those party animals coming to and from the pleasure planet.  He was to have a couple speaking lines in this appearance, but those were cut in a final edit of the episode.

QUOTE (from The Crossing)

This quote comes from Rostov's final appearance, in which he reports Commander Tucker being taken over by an alien called a Wisp before he is also taken over by one of the creatures.  Some of his dialogue is notable when he is taken over by the Wisp because he claims to not know how to prime the engine pumps because the engine is very complex.  Of course a regular engineering staff member would know how to do this task, so Commander Tucker sees right through the problem and detains Rostov to quarters.

Rostov is referred to a couple more times a season later, but he does not appear on screen any more.  So we will just have to live with alien possession and goo coverage for our memories of this background character.

Michael Rostov was played by Joseph Will.  Will auditioned to be chief engineer Trip Tucker and made it to the final 2 before Connor Trinneer was chosen over him for this role.  That likely explains why this actor was brought back in the engineering department later.  Will continues to act in many TV series today, with recent appearances on American Horror Story and Criminal Minds.

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Character Insight No. 283: Kalita

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we review Kalita, a recurring character who appears in TNG and DS9.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp283 

Kalita is a Maquis resistance movement fighter who holds a lieutenant leadership role within the organization.  While in the resistance cell led by Macias, she kept a close and suspicious eye on Starfleet officer Ro Laren for potential subterfuge and undermining of the Maquis agenda.  However, Ro Laren proves her loyalty to the cause by fooling Federation sensors and helping steal medical kits from the Enterprise-D.

Ro Laren then fully defects from the Federation to the Maquis following these events.  She is rescued by Kalita's vessel when she abandons her ship in this defection process.  Thus Kalita serves a critical role in the fallout of the Ro Laren story line.

We later see Kalita in DS9, as she works with Thomas Riker to steal the U.S.S. Defiant from the space station.  She mans the helm for missions and strikes against various Cardassian targets.  But the Federation catches up with the Maquis and takes back the Defiant, at which point Kalita is arrested and put into custody.

QUOTE

Kalita is one of those characters who made for a good tie across TNG and DS9, as those series were taking place in the same timeline around the same set of years.  The Maquis is one of a few things that spans from TNG to Voyager, and this was another memorable small role in that organization and the complicated stories it presented for various regular cast members of these series.

Kalita was played by Shannon Cochran, who also played alien characters in another DS9 episode as well as in the movie Star Trek Nemesis.  She's run the gamut from human to Klingon and Romulan, basically achieving the entire Star Trek experience.  She continues to act today, with small TV and film roles including on ER, Frasier, Seinfeld, and the movie The Ring.

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