Since its debut in 1966, Star Trek has grown into eleven shows and thirteen movies, and with the future of Gene Roddenberry’s creation looking brighter than ever, it doesn’t look like fans will be left waiting for more stories any time soon. Star Trek tends to focus on great men and women, heroes who stand above all others in confidence, intelligence, and skill. Because of that, it can sometimes be hard to connect with some of the characters. Fans love Captain Picard, but it can be difficult to relate to his life.
Luckily, Star Trek has plenty of characters who share the more common issues that humans tend to get caught up in. These are the characters who are rarely the focus of the story, but when they come into the spotlight, their tales connect with fans in ways many of other episodes and movies don’t.
10 Scotty Felt The Pressure
Originally portrayed by James Doohan, Montgomery Scott, or Scotty to his friends and co-workers, was the chief engineer of the Enterprise. On more than one occasion, he was referred to as a “miracle worker” by Captain Kirk with good reason.
It was Scotty’s ability to work under extreme pressure that made him one of the great engineers of the future. Just about anyone who has had a job knows the pressure that can come when the boss needs something that is pretty much impossible to do and they need it right away.
9 Jadzia Dax Liked To Party
A joined Trill, Jadzia Dax is actually two characters who share one body. There is Jadzia, the humanoid body and voice that fans normally see and hear, and then there is Dax, the symbiont who lives inside her. The Dax symbiont had lived in a number of hosts before Jadzia, and brought those life experiences with it, giving Jadzia multiple lifetimes of knowledge.
All of this taught Jadzia to enjoy life while she can. Jadzia loved to play tongo, spend the night drinking, and mix it up with Klingons. There’s a little bit of a partier in everyone, but in Star Trek, Jadzia Dax is the rare character to really gets to show that side off.
8 Doctor Phlox Loved Food
The doctor of the first Enterprise, Phlox was one of the first aliens to be part of a Starfleet crew along with the Vulcan T’Pol. While Star Trek is famous for its moody doctors, Phlox is very different. Not only was Dr. Phlox filled with enthusiasm for his work and love for his crewmates, but he was also always excited to eat.
Mainly, Dr. Phlox loved to try human foods, especially desserts, because they were unlike any foods he had tasted in his travels across the universe. And just like Phlox, most people love a nice bit of chocolate or some ice cream after a long day.
7 Tilly Is A Nerd At Heart
A theoretical engineer and Starfleet officer who serves on the Discovery, Sylvia Tilly loves her job. While most of the characters in Star Trek keep a constant professional demeanor while coming up with ways to bend or even break the laws of physics and save the day, Tilly can never hide her nerdy enthusiasm for solving huge problems or creating new concepts.
As a matter of fact, the character of Sylvia Tilly made Star Trek history when she became the first character in the franchise’s decades-long journey to drop an f-bomb because she was so excited, as seen in the fifth episode of the first season of Star Trek: Discovery, “Choose Your Pain.”
6 Boimler Has Ambition
While Ensign Tilly may have been the first Star Trek character to get so excited she cursed, she wasn’t the last. Star Trek: Lower Decks, the animated series that brings the laughs to the 24th century, is filled with characters who are not only Starfleet nerds that can break down the adventures of Riker, Kirk, and Janeway with ease, but also tend to let their mouths loose when things get wild.
And while Beckett Mariner is the face of Lower Decks, it’s her best friend Brad Boimler who audiences can really relate to. Like so many, Boimler finds himself trapped between wanting to work his way up to the captain’s chair and wanting to have fun with his friends. Finding that balance between work and personal life is all too familiar to many people these days.
5 Geordi Yearned For More
Over the years, Geordi La Forge, the chief engineer of the Enterprise-D and Enterprise-E, has become one of the most beloved Star Trek characters, and with good reason. Like so many fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation and the other shows in the universe, Geordi is an amazingly intelligent person who sometimes struggles to make human connections.
Geordi’s work life was wonderful, but what saddened the genius engineer was how he would go back to his quarters alone after each shift. Geordi, like most people, wanted to share his life with someone, and finding that person proved to be difficult for him. Thankfully, Geordi did find love in time.
4 Rom Stood Up To Family
Families can be tough, and they can be even tougher when they expect very specific things from each family member. For Rom, the Ferengi brother of Quark on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, his positive, if naive, demeanor and belief in treating people fairly and equally often put him at odds not only with his brother but with the very Rules of Acquisition that Ferengi lives their lives by.
Rom joined with the other workers at Quark’s bar to start a union, let his son join Starfleet, and supported his mother’s decision to not only earn profit but wear clothes. Sometimes, standing up to family can be the hardest thing to do, but Rom always did what he felt was right.
3 Sulu Was Everyone’s Friend
Hikaru Sulu is a character who has existed since the earliest days of Star Trek, but his importance to the universe, and to fandom, has only grown over time. Originally played by George Takei, Sulu was the only member of the Star Trek: The Original Series crew to go on to become a captain himself, helming the USS Excelsior. But what really makes Sulu relatable is just how smooth he is.
Sulu is one of the rare characters in any form of fiction who is well-liked by everyone. There’s no reason to ever question a love for Sulu, even in the Kelvin Universe where he is played by John Cho. From the earliest days of Star Trek, Sulu always seemed to be there to help anyone who needed a hand.
2 O’Brien Was The Everyman
Star Trek is filled with lifelong Starfleet members making their way up the ranks from cadet to ensign to captain and beyond. It’s rare that any of the shows focus on someone who is a non-commissioned officer, or someone who starts their career as an enlisted member and works their way up instead of going through Starfleet Academy. Chief Miles O’Brien was an enlisted man, meaning he earned his stripes the hard way.
O’Brien stood out as the blue-collar worker of not only the Enterprise but on DS9 as well. Adding to his relatability, O’Brien was one of the few Star Trek characters to have a spouse and a child.
1 Bones Was Grumpy
Doctor Leonard McCoy was the most famous of the Star Trek doctors and the man behind one of the most used phrases in pop culture history — “Damn it, I’m a doctor, not a (add whatever you aren’t here).” Better known as “Bones,” he set the standard for the grump space doctor trope that everyone knows and loves.
Bones’ arguments with Spock, with the doctor acting as the human heart to the Vulcan’s rational thinking in order to give Captain Kirk both sides to consider, helped create the format that Star Trek still follows to this day — the never-ending debate of emotion over logic.
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