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00:00As the lowest commissioned rank, Ensigns haven't always gotten the fairest end of the deal
00:04in Star Trek.
00:05Having spent years at the Academy, they still have to bunk up, share sonic showers and eat
00:09from the dodgy replicators, aboard some ships at least.
00:13They can often be found toiling away in the background whilst their superiors bask in
00:16all the glory.
00:17That, they could just as well end up as cannon fodder.
00:20We all know that the first appearance of Ensign No Name is an immediate red flag.
00:24Of course, if your name is Harry Kim, you'll be cannon fodder and never make it past Ensign.
00:28But you will get some bigger quarters, so small blessings.
00:32On numerous occasions, however, Starfleet Ensigns have been elemental to mission success.
00:37We have seen them save ships from disaster, protect the lives of individuals or entire
00:41populations, and even traverse timelines to help their fellow officers.
00:45So with that in mind, I'm Ellie with Trek Culture here with 10 incredible times Star
00:50Trek Ensigns saved the day.
00:52Number 10.
00:53First day on the job, Ensign Lang It's a baptism of phaser fire for this Ensign
00:59on her first day as Acting Chief of Security aboard Voyager in the episode Displaced.
01:04She may well accept Shikote's humorous comments to that effect, with a degree of sarcasm of
01:08her own, but the crew are being slowly replaced by a shifty and thermostat-enthusiast alien
01:13race called the Nirians.
01:14In the midst of all the action, and at a moment when it's not at all clear what's going on,
01:19it is indeed Ensign Lang who takes Tuvok Station at the bridge.
01:23There are 40 Voyager crew members remaining, and falling, and over 100 Nirians and rising.
01:29Lang is then ordered by Shikote to organize the lockdown of the ship's critical systems.
01:33She takes to the task with Panache, and is unfazed when Shikote leaves her alone on the
01:38bridge.
01:39When the Nirians start breaking down the doors, Lang confidently issues orders to two crew
01:42members who have just arrived before taking out her phaser and firing.
01:46She is stunned in return and falls to the floor, but her heroic efforts and assured
01:50command of the situation have already ensured that Voyager will win the day.
01:55She also allows Shikote the time to grab the Doctor, whose duties as tricorder were later
01:59key to the crew's escape.
02:019.
02:02NX-2L4 – Ensign Mayweather
02:05When Earth is brutally attacked by the Xindi in the Star Trek Enterprise episode The Expanse,
02:10the Klingon Juras decides to use the moment to get a little revenge on Captain Archer.
02:14Juras has been holding a grudge ever since he was demoted following the pair's encounter
02:19earlier in the second season.
02:20In the present episode, Juras first attacks when the NX-01 is arriving home, but he is
02:25fended off by other Earth vessels.
02:27He strikes again when Enterprise is on course for Vulcan, but is readily fought off.
02:32It's not until the ship reaches the thermobaric clouds which surround the Delphic Expanse
02:36that Ensign Mayweather's extraordinary flying skills truly come into play to save the day.
02:41Those dastardly Klingons attack once more, but this time Enterprise's upgraded weapons
02:46some fancy new photonic torpedoes prove ineffective, as Juras has transferred his aft shields forward.
02:53The solution?
02:54Get Travis to perform a spectacular L4 manoeuvre at full impulse, which basically means flying
02:59the ship up and over the Klingons in a loop to arrive facing their unprotected stern.
03:04Lieutenant Reed then fires torpedoes, and the Klingons are expedited to Grethor.
03:09This wasn't the first or the last time Ensign Mayweather saved the day at the helm of the
03:14pioneering Warp 5 starship, but it sure was impressive.
03:18Nice going, Travis, indeed.
03:208.
03:21Saving Dramer IV from disaster, Ensign's Hildebrandt, Davies, Allens, and acting Ensign
03:26Crusher
03:27The Season 2 episode Pen Pals of Star Trek The Next Generation is a bit of an anomaly.
03:31It is strange not least for the creepy long-distance communications between Data and a young girl,
03:37Sargenka, from a pre-warp planet, Dramer IV, which is facing catastrophe.
03:41The ramifications for the Prime Directive most certainly shouldn't have been the only
03:45consideration when judging Data's behaviour.
03:47Still, Data's actions have consequences, and it's up to a group of Ensigns to sort things
03:52out for Sargenka.
03:53Whilst the senior staff are comforting themselves with the luxury of philosophical debate, only
03:57ever self-serving in this instance, Ensigns Hildebrandt, Davies, and Allens, led by acting
04:03Ensign Wesley Crusher, are doing the hard work to discover the cause of the planetary
04:07breakups in the Sulkundi-Dramer sector.
04:10Struggling at first in his position of authority, Wesley manages to rally his team of Ensigns
04:14behind him.
04:15When he finally summons the courage to order an icospectogram test, it is this that leads
04:20to the discovery of the cause of the planetary instabilities, funky interactions with dilithium
04:25in the planet's crust essentially.
04:27The Ensigns are then able to use this information to develop a solution to the problem via some
04:31modified probe torpedoes at it, which returns geological stability to Sargenka's previously
04:36doomed homeworld and saves the lives of every inhabitant.
04:407. Linguistic Licence, Ensign Sato
04:43Poshi Sato's journey to self-confidence is certainly one of the greatest of any Ensign.
04:48She was always a prodigious linguist, mastering several languages and picking up new ones
04:53with apparent ease.
04:54Later, in Enterprise's mission, she would make major improvements to the Universal Translator
04:59and developed the Lingua Code translation matrix that was still in use centuries later.
05:03In the beginning, Sato's nerves and lack of self-esteem were often a hurdle for her to
05:08overcome.
05:09This struggle is most visible in the Enterprise Season 1 episode Fight or Flight.
05:13Despite her reservations, Archer convinces Sato to join the away team that was to board
05:17an unresponsive and seemingly damaged alien vessel.
05:20When the team find a string of alien bodies hanging upside down, Sato has a rather visceral
05:25reaction.
05:26I mean, wouldn't you though?
05:27A sense of embarrassment and doubt follow her from the incident.
05:30When Enterprise is attacked, the Universal Translator struggles to process the language
05:35of the alien race in a position to come to the crew's aid.
05:38Searching for synonyms that don't arrive, Hoshi is understandably more and more frustrated.
05:43Archer suggests that she forget the Universal Translator and communicate with the aliens
05:46directly.
05:47Whilst trepidatious, she hasn't even had time to learn the language's basic conjugations,
05:51Hoshi accepts.
05:52Doing what she does best, we see her confidence grow with each line she speaks.
05:57The alien is convinced and saves Enterprise from the hostile species, all thanks to the
06:01exceptional skills of a gifted ensign.
06:036.
06:04The Empire Ship and Timeline, Ensign Anna Jameson
06:08Lieutenant Carey wasn't any the wiser, but you might recognise this ensign as Seven of
06:13Nine.
06:14This is left field or maybe even flirting with a bit of a cheat, but long before Picard's
06:18field commission, Seven was recruited by the USS Relativity.
06:21It is reasonable and a little bit of fun to assume that she officially carried the rank
06:26during that period.
06:27When a mysterious saboteur from the 29th century, it turns out to be a rancorous future, future
06:33Captain Braxton, places a Force III temporal disruptor somewhere, sometime on Voyager.
06:39Seven is enlisted to save the day.
06:41She is beamed back and forth along Voyager's history to prevent the ship's destruction,
06:45risking temporal psychosis in the process.
06:48She even dies at one point.
06:49Now, that's an incredible sacrifice for our technically speaking first time ensign.
06:54Her future, present, past self, also will be, has been, was, is, starting to agree with
07:00Braxton about those tenses, afflicted by some dizzying sensory aphasia as a result.
07:05With a little help from a reluctantly drafted Captain Janeway, Braxton is stopped and Voyager
07:10saved.
07:11Let us all look backwards at the time when Ensign Anna Seven Jameson gets the praise
07:16she clearly deserves.
07:175.
07:18An Enderprisean Ensign, Ensign Garrovick
07:22As Star Trek prodigy writer Aaron Waltke tweeted regarding the Star Trek Ensign,
07:27I wanted to give him a slightly bigger fanfare send-off and tribute to all the other redshirts.
07:32And that he most certainly did for this bearer of crimson.
07:36In the prodigy episode All the Worlds Astage, the motley but endearing crew of the protostar
07:41answer a distress call to find a pre-war planet whose inhabitants are, nonetheless, cosplaying
07:46their hearts out to Kirk-era Starfleet.
07:50From one of their plays, filled with uncanny impressions and fabulously familiar overacting,
07:56we learn about Ensign Garrovick's time on the planet.
07:59Over a hundred years before, Garrovick had flown a lone shuttle mission to the planet
08:04to attempt to resolve an unknown problem without the inhabitants' knowledge.
08:08His shuttle, the Galileo, crashed instead.
08:11Doing his duty, he went to warn the population of the danger that the damaged Galileo, now
08:16leaking warp plasma, posed.
08:18Before his death, the heroic Ensign did everything in his power to prevent the inhabitants from
08:22falling victim to what they interpreted as the Curse of the Gallows.
08:26His actions no doubt saved countless lives before the arrival of the protostar, whose
08:30crew were able to find a definitive solution to the curse.
08:34Going out saving the day is a much better end for the character, who appeared quite
08:38significantly in one episode of the original series and then was never seen again.
08:434.
08:44When Did He Not?
08:45Harry Kim
08:46Poor old Harry Kim, the archetype of the unsung hero Ensign.
08:50He saw his jailbird friend demoted and promoted back without the whiff of a little box on
08:54his console.
08:55Seven years is a long time at the bottom, even if he was senior staff.
08:59But it was a small ship, and if Harry got a pip, then everyone would want one.
09:03The times Ensign Kim saved the day, or was a major part of it, are legion.
09:07They may outnumber the times he died.
09:09For example, when Voyager is duplicated by a subspace divergence field, Kim Mark II runs
09:15through a ship full of Vidians to get the then-newborn Naomi Wildman and cross over
09:19to the original Voyager.
09:21When he gets to sickbay, he phases one Vidian almost immediately and performs an epic forward
09:26roll move that allows him to shoot the other.
09:28He rescues the baby and, by extension, saves himself.
09:32All the while, his counterpart, technically speaking the real Harry, is presumably still
09:36floating through space.
09:38He deserves a mention simply for retaining his sanity.
09:41Weird really is part of the job.
09:43Later, when Kim gets a taste of command, he saves Captain Janeway and Chakotay in the
09:47nick of time from Chronoworks, torts down a smart bomb, although he did argue to bring
09:52it on board, gets a reality check on the Nightingale, and helps rescue an amnesiac crew with some
09:57explosive escape pods.
09:593.
10:00Lower Decks, Lower Decks, Lower Decks Ensign's Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, and Rutherford
10:06It was about time they got their own series.
10:09After all, Lower Decks of the Next Generation was first broadcast in 1994.
10:13There was an episode of Voyager with similar intent, but they were all crewmen.
10:17Now aboard the Kali-class, we see just how often the Ensigns save the day, or, to phrase
10:22it more in the style of the show itself, the number of times they kick Impossible's arse.
10:26For the most part, not yet tired or jaded by the rigours of rank and command, or precisely
10:31to avoid it in one case, Ensign's Mariner, Boimler, Rutherford, and Tendi have repeatedly
10:37innovated their way out of danger.
10:39Either collectively or individually, they have helped cure a zombie rage virus, defeated
10:43Romulan guards, and uncovered spy plots.
10:46They have fended off the Paklet, the Drukmani, and Billips' mum, outsmarted a megalomaniacal
10:52computer, compromised with the Ferengi with clever economics, and generally saved each
10:56other's lives countless times.
10:58In the Season 2 finale First First Contact, Mariner inspires Rutherford with the plan
11:03to remove the outer hull of the Cerritos, and the entire crew then work around the clock
11:08to save the Archimedes from crashing into an inhabited planet.
11:11Tendi also saves Boimler with Cetacean Ops CPR.
11:14Again in the Season 3 finale, all three are crucial to saving the day.
11:18They prove that Starfleet needs people, especially as Ensigns are not a bunch of machines, to
11:24ensure its mission.
11:25Let's just hope that history doesn't really remember Boimler as the laziest, most corner-cutting
11:29officer in Starfleet.
11:312.
11:32A Dutiful Sacrifice, Ensign Ceto
11:34Ceto Jackson got off to a bad start in her Starfleet career.
11:38At the Academy, she was part of the cadet flight team Nova Squadron, which included
11:43Wesley Crusher.
11:44The new group had attempted an illegal and highly dangerous Colvord Starburst manoeuvre
11:48that ended in disaster and the death of fellow cadet Joshua Albert.
11:52Ceto and the others then lied to a Board of Inquiry in an attempt to cover up the cause
11:56of the accident, and shift the blame to Albert until the truth was finally revealed.
12:01All but the squadron leader Nicholas Locarno, Tom Paris in another life, were allowed to
12:05continue at the Academy, but obliged to repeat the year.
12:08There's nothing like a redemption story, however, and this one stands out both in its
12:12heroism and tragic consequences.
12:15The next time we encounter Ceto is as an ensign and original Lower Decker aboard the Enterprise
12:20D.
12:21After a dress-down fake-out from Picard, it is in fact he who ensured her transfer, and
12:25an equally fictitious to-the-death Klingon ritual, Ceto learns that she has in truth
12:30been assigned to the mission to ensure the safe return of the Cardassian defector Jorette
12:35Dahl to Cardassia Prime.
12:37Even given the enormous risks and, of course, the history between Bajorans and Cardassians,
12:41Ceto accepts.
12:42The mission succeeds as Jorette makes it back, but Ceto's escape pod is destroyed in the
12:47process and she is presumed dead.
12:49As Picard says in a solemn ship-wide announcement, Ensign Ceto was the finest example of a Starfleet
12:55officer.
12:56All aboard, and especially her friends, are devastated by her loss.
13:001.
13:01Dicey Dyson Sphere-Driving Ensign Rager
13:03The Next Generation episode Relics is most remembered for the reappearance of Captain
13:07Montgomery Scotty Scott via a little transporter wizardry.
13:12It equally features an on-screen realisation of an actual theoretical concept, a Dyson
13:16Sphere, a gigantic structure that encompasses an entire star to utilise its power, and not
13:21the latest model of a certain type of vacuum cleaner.
13:24When the Enterprise-D is accidentally pulled into the Dyson Sphere by an automated mechanism,
13:28the ship's power systems are knocked out and it begins to fall directly towards the star
13:33inside.
13:34Riker manages to divert some powers to thrusters, but it is Ensign Rager at the helm who manoeuvres
13:38the ship into a stable orbit, thus avoiding total destruction.
13:42Later, LaForge and Scotty hatch the plan to free the Enterprise using the latter's ship,
13:47the USS Janolan, as a doorstop, however, it is the exceptional flying skills of Ensign
13:52Rager that once again save the day.
13:54When the Janolan is destroyed, the doors of the Dyson Sphere begin to close.
13:58Rager performs a magnificent 90 degree roll at breakneck speed, and she does so with such
14:03calm composure that it makes this seriously advanced bit of flying look effortless.
14:08The Enterprise squeezes through the ever-narrowing opening and escapes the sphere.
14:12Ensign Rager, you are a legend.
14:13We don't really see if anyone congratulated you, as it's back to the engineers for some
14:17ego stroking, but we sure hope someone did.
14:20And that concludes our list.
14:21If you think we missed any, then do let us know in the comments below and while you're
14:25there, don't forget to like and subscribe and tap that notification bell so you never
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14:31Also head over to Twitter and follow us there and Instagram as well, and I can be found
14:35across various social medias just by searching Ellie Littlechild.
14:38I've been Ellie with Trek Culture, I hope you have a wonderful day and remember to boldly
14:42go where no one has gone before.