Character Insight No. 336: Best of Nog (tribute to Aron Eisenberg)

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we honor actor Aron Eisenberg, who passed away this week, with a Best Of segment for his most notable TV character, Nog from Deep Space 9.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep336 

The character of Nog appears in over 40 episodes of the show and he arguably has one of the best character arc stories of Star Trek. A large credit of that goes to the superb acting of Eisenberg, who elevated some of the scenes he was in and the other actors around him.

Nog starts as a child character and a local foil to Jake Sisko, Commander Sisko's son who was recently moved to the space station.  In one of their first pranks and escapades together in the episode A Man Alone, they release some bolites on a dining couple to cause them to turn blue, green, and yellow for a short time.  

QUOTE (from A Man Alone, S1):

Jake and Nog's friendship grows and Nog learns many valuable things from Jake and also from Keiko O'Brien, who sets up a school on the station.  Nog proves his resourcefulness on many occasions, including in helping Jake escape from the Jem'Hadar while on a camping trip that turns into the first conflict with The Dominion.  That incident led Nog to desire to be the first Ferengi to serve in Starfleet.  He must convince Sisko as a command officer to endorse his application to the Academy, leading to this memorable scene in Heart of Stone where he convinces Sisko of his motives.

QUOTE (from Heart of Stone. S3):

Nog has a fast rise through the Academy, earning the rank of ensign after just two years as a cadet thanks to his help during the beginning of the Dominion War.  While there are many memorable missions from the Dominion War days, his accidental encounter with the USS Valiant, which was being run by the Red Squad cadets from the Academy, is perhaps his best character piece as an officer.  He initially joins the Red Squad crew and follows orders blindly despite his friend Jake's objections, but he discovers his mistake before it's too late and escapes the exploding Valiant in an escape pod with Jake.

QUOTE (from Valiant, S6):

We also see Nog deal with and overcome PTSD in another great episode It's Only A Paper Moon following losing his leg in later Dominion battles, and he ends up on the Defiant crew with the other DS9 officers to help end the war at the end of the series.  His arc completes with him being promoted to lieutenant junior grade by Sisko, a far cry from the mischievous child character Nog was in season 1.

Nog was played by Aron Eisenberg, who sadly passed away this week at the age of 50.  Despite struggling with health problems since birth and going through multiple kidney transplants in his lifetime, Eisenberg was one of the most fan-friendly and engaging actors you could meet at various conventions and events.  He only acted for about 10 years, but he had moved on to other passions including a photography business and parenthood in recent years.  The Trek world is truly richer thanks to Eisenberg's contributions to it, and we will greatly miss him in this community.

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Character Insight No. 335: The Roles of William Morgan Sheppard

Welcome back to Character Insight! This week, we continue our series on actors who played multiple roles in Star Trek, with a look at actor William Morgan Sheppard, who played 4 different memorable characters in Trek.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep335 

William Sheppard was born in 1932 in London and was educated in Ireland and the UK.  He started his career with a 12-year stint in the Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing in various stage plays.  In the 1970s he moved into TV acting, especially on British television shows.  Over the next 30+ years he generally showed up as a guest actor in small roles on all kinds of TV shows and movies, which brings us to his Trek appearances.

His first and most notable appearance was as the scientist Ira Graves in the season 2 episode of TNG entitled The Schizoid Man.  He is effectively a grandfather figure to Commander Data because he taught Data's creator Noonien Soong everything he knew.  Graves has a terminal illness when the Enterprise comes across him, so they are working on saving all of his research, leading Data and Graves to spend a lot of time together.  Graves transfers his consciousness into Data to try and live forever, but the Enterprise crew figures this out, and Graves surrenders Data's body by transferring his knowledge but not his consciousness to the Enterprise computer, dying once and for all.

The next we see of William Sheppard is as the one-eyed Klingon Commandant on Rura Penthe in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.  The Commandant welcomes Kirk and Bones to the prison planet and then helps try to entrap them in a conspiracy to kill them, but as well all know, Spock and the Enterprise foil this plan.  

His next character was as a pilot of a ship hunting a ship-devouring protoplasmic beast that creates illusions to trap and consume ships and their inhabitants, in the Voyager episode Bliss.  This character Qatai is a bit of a Captain Ahab here, trying to exact vengeance on the beast for eating his family 40 years before.  He helps the Voyager escape after they are fooled by the beast and continues his battle with the beast.

Finally, Sheppard appears as the lead Vulcan science minister who tells Spock that he has made the Vulcan Academy despite his disadvantage of a human mother in the 2009 Star Trek movie.  We'll never forget Zachary Quinto's Spock basically telling this guy off and going to Starfleet instead.

Despite only appearing a single time for each of these characters, William Morgan Sheppard left a memorable impact by playing interesting characters in great Trek stories.  He leaves a legacy that all other guest actors should aspire to for this series.

William Morgan Sheppard died in January of this year, with his wife and son by his side in the hospital.  His son has also appeared on Star Trek and on Doctor Who, making them two of the only actors to cross over in those two famous sci-fi universes.

Thanks to Jared on the Discord for this segment suggestion!

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Character Insight No. 334: Ensign Giusti

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Ensign Giusti, who appeared in the TNG two-parter Gambit.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep334 

Episodes like Gambit cause the chain of command to be invoked and put lower officers in command of the ship.  In this case, Captain Picard was believed dead and first officer Riker was off ship searching for him when both became abducted by a group of pirates seeking to reassemble an ancient Vulcan psionic weapon called the Stone of Gol.

As a result, Commander Data is left in charge of the ship, and that leaves his ops station open for a relief officer.  In this case, that relief officer is Ensign Giusti. What's notable about this character is that the actress Sabrina LeBeauf was a well-known TV actress thanks to her role on The Cosby Show over the previous years.  It's similar to when you see familiar faces show up in final seasons of popular TV shows today, like Aaron Rodgers and Ed Sheeran showing up in Game of Thrones, for example.

Anyway, unlike most short-term guest characters, Giusti has a relatively normal shift at ops and nothing horrible happens to her.  That's likely because the focus is really diverted between Data dealing with command and his superiors trying to foil their captors' devious plans.  In the end, she is just one of the 11 different faces we see at the ops station on Picard's Enterprise and unfortunately, one of the least memorable.

QUOTE - NOPE

This ensign has not made significant appearances in the books and other non-canon works.  According to production notes, she was named for a friend of Naren Shankar, one of the show writers and producers.

Ensign Giusti was played by Sabrina LeBeauf.  Outside the aforementioned role of Sondra Huxtable on The Cosby Show, she appeared regularly in only one other TV show, that being Fatherhood from the mid-2000s.  She spent much of her acting career on stage in Shakespeare plays in Washington DC, and she also continues a side career in interior design today.

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Character Insight No. 333: Li Nalas

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Li Nalas, a recurring Bajoran character from Deep Space 9.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep333 

Li Nalas served in the ore processing center aboard the Terek Nor station before becoming a leader in one of the minor resistance cells during the Cardassian occupation of Bajor. He became legend largely as a result of a mistake, after many of his cell were killed in an ambush by Cardassians in the Sahving Valley. 

Li and two companions survived, and when they left hiding to find food and water, Li was the lead scout and killed a surprised Cardassian coming out of a bath in the Valley lake. Li's companions found him with the Cardassian Gul collapsed on top of him and they assumed Li won a great hand-to-hand combat. That made Li a folk hero in the resistance, above his rejections of the story of this battle with the Gul.

Li was captured by the Cardassians and assumed dead for 10 years, but he is discovered in a labor camp by Major Kira and Miles O'Brien when they gain access to the camp to rescue Bajorans. When he comes back into free society, he is very uncomfortable with his hero status and fame. He tries to escape on a ship headed for the Gamma Quadrant, but he is found out and has to explain himself and the story of his legend to Ben Sisko.

For a short time, Li replaces Major Kira as the liaison officer aboard Deep Space 9 under orders from Minister Jaro Essa, who wants to get Kira out of power and move Li away from his plots on Bajor. However, Li doesn't stay in the role long, as he helps uncover another plot to do a coup d'état on Bajor and saves Major Kira from insurgents trying to take over the government. He defends the station against an attack and saves Ben Sisko's life, while sacrificing his own in the process, thereby finally living up to his hero status.

QUOTE (from The Siege)

Where are you running to? This is Bajor. We're Bajorans. We fought a war to regain our homeland. How can you abandon it like frightened Cardassian voles? These ships are for our guests who must leave because it's no longer safe for them. We're Bajorans. I say we stay and solve our problems together. Are you willing to join me?

Li Nalas provides more background on Bajoran history wrapped in a familiar hero discovery journey, and it allowed the show writers to shake things up on station for a brief period. Overall, this was a good addition to the series, albeit a brief one.

Li was played by Richard Beymer, who is best known for playing the starring role of Tony in the 1961 film West Side Story as well as his role as Benjamin Home in the Twin Peaks series. He's been retired from acting since 2000 except for a reappearance in the Twin Peaks reboot last year, at the ripe old age of 79.

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Character Insight No. 332: Captain Ransom

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Captain Rudolph Ransom, a memorable character from the two-part episode Equinox in Voyager. 

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep332 

Captain Ransom is the captain of science vessel USS Equinox, and he earns his command after making first contact with a species called the Yridians. However, this Captain was not as well suited to the rigors of command as others, as became apparent when he and his crew were stranded in the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker, the same entity that pulled Voyager to the Delta Quadrant.

The Equinox found themselves in a part of the Delta Quadrant controlled by the Krowtonan Guard, a territorial species that did not take kindly to others being in their space. As Ransom wanted to avoid being stranded for the rest of his life, he makes the command decision to try and go through the Krowtonan space to head back towards Earth. This decision was costly, as the Krowtonans attacked frequently and ended up killing 39 of the crew members on board Equinox.

This put the Equinox on a much poorer path than Voyager was on during the first 5 years after both ships were pulled away from home. The crew was starving and the ship's dilithium was drained, and they found themselves desperate to reach an M-class planet to try and survive. The planet they go to has an inhabitant race called the Ankari, who introduce the Equinox crew to nucleogenic lifeforms. The Equinox crew discovers that these lifeforms emit antimatter that could be used to modify their warp drive to get home faster.

Thus, Captain Ransom and his crew make the decision to begin murdering these lifeforms and converting their remains to augment the Equinox warp drive. They begin to come under constant attacks from the nucleogenic lifeforms, at which point Voyager discovers this other Starfleet ship and rescues them from destruction. When the actions of the Equinox are discovered, needless to say that's not copacetic for old Captain by-the-book Janeway.

QUOTE

"Starfleet Regulation 3, Paragraph 12: In the event of imminent destruction, a captain is authorized to preserve the lives of his crew by any justifiable means."
"I doubt that protocol covers mass murder."
"In my judgment, it did."
"Unacceptable."

We find out the history of Captain Ransom and the Equinox in this encounter, and Ransom proves to be someone who favors misdirection over direct confrontations. That gives Janeway and her crew the advantage when the Equinox and Voyager face off with one another over this mass murder issue. Seven of Nine saves the day by encoding the power relays to prevent the Equinox crew from using them. Ransom even goes so far as to order torture of Seven of Nine before he relents under the guilt of all the actions he has taken. When he finally decides to surrender, his crew mutinies and it leads him to transport all his crew to Voyager before going out on his ship in a warp core breach blaze of glory. 

The character of Captain Rudy Ransom provides an interesting comparison or look in the mirror for Janeway and the Voyager crew. While Voyager did tend to bend the rules to survive in the tough environments of the Delta Quadrant, they never got so desperate as to lose their core principles, as Ransom and his crew do. It's a really dark two-part episode, but one of the best in Voyager thanks to this leader of the Equinox.

Captain Ransom was played by John Savage, who had breakout moments as a Vietnam war prisoner in the 1978 film The Deer Hunter and as Claude in the 1979 film adaptation of the Broadway play Hair. He continues to act today, including in the recent movie The Last Full Measure. 

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Character Insight No. 331: Vosk

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Vosk, a recurring character from the Temporal Cold War storyline of Enterprise.

https://archive.org/details/characterinsightep331 

Vosk is a Na'Kuhl, a faction in the 29th Century that believes that it was their rights to use time travel to benefit their race. He leads the charge against Daniels and the Temporal Accord, the interstellar treaty that prohibited the use of time travel to change history, which was signed in 2769.  Instead of limiting his time travel to scientific pursuits and research, Vosk is firmly of the mindset to use the technology for personal gain.

In a callback to the appearance of Nazis in TOS, Enterprise brings in the Germans from Earth history in Vosk's story.  He travels back in time to 1944 thanks to a stealth form of time travel that could not be detected and stopped by Daniels.  He then helps the German Nazi forces, which in this timeline had successfully invaded the east coast of the United States.  In exchange for his advanced technology to wage the world war, Vosk receives the resources he needs to build a new temporal conduit to return to the future.

Nobody seems to be bothered by his alien appearance in the German military uniform in this timeline, but we are already in a strange world with the Nazis having military strategy discussions within the White House.  But I digress...

QUOTE

Vosk was in conflict with the German general major and ends up killing him to end his alliance with the Nazis after he acquires what he needs to travel back to the future.  He launches back into the future with attacks on Daniels and other factions, breaking the temporal cold war open into a full blown conflict.  Daniels relies on our his old favorite Captain Archer and the Enterprise crew to travel back to the 1940's and stop Vosk.  Which of course they do, because Nazis and bad guys are dumb.

Vosk added a bit of good flavor to the temporal storylines we see in Enterprise, but unfortunately, instead of making him a long-term villain, they use up the character and kill him in his first interaction with Archer's crew.

Vosk was played by Jack Gwaltney, who has enjoyed over 30 years in an acting career mostly focused on small television roles.  He is perhaps best known for his role as a detective in the Jason Statham movie Safe, and he can most recently be seen in the movie Mohawk.

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