"Star Trek" Universe - "B" Characters Quiz

Answer: Benjamin Sisko

Commander (later captain) Benjamin "Ben" Sisko was assigned the command of an abandoned Cardassian ore processing space station called Terok Nor. The Bajorans took it over and asked for the Federation's help in operating it. The Federation renamed it Deep Space 9. ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine")

Soon after taking command, a wormhole was discovered near Bajor that led to the Gamma Quadrant of the galaxy. Sisko had the station moved out of orbit of Bajor and near the Alpha Quadrant entrance of the wormhole. ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode "Emissary")

Ben Sisko was portrayed by Avery Brooks.

Answer: Nustopher Braka

Nustopher "Nus" Braka was a Klingon-Tellarite hybrid who operated as a pirate in the 32nd century.

Braka was portrayed by Paul Giamatti

Answer: Boothby

Boothby was the groundskeeper at Starfleet Academy in the 24th century. He provided helpful advice to the cadets, endearing himself to many classes of cadets. He was a valuable source of information to Captain Picard when a training flight involving Cadet Wesley Crusher was more than met the eye. ("Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "The First Duty")

Boothby was also the boxing coach for some time, working with Chakotay during his time at the Academy. An image of Boothby appears in Chakotay's visions as aliens in chaotic space are trying to communicate with him. ("Star Trek: Voyager" episode "The Fight")

When Species 8472 was training to infiltrate Starfleet, they had created a simulation of Starfleet Headquarters and Starfleet Academy. The leader of this particular simulation took on the form of Boothby. ("Star Trek: Voyager" episode "In The Flesh")

Boothby was performed by veteran actor Ray Walston. Walston is best remembered as Uncle Martin/Exigius 12 ˝ on the sitcom "My Favorite Martian". He also played teacher Mr. Hand in the movie "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", Judge Bone in "Picket Fences", and Glen Bateman in the mini-series "The Stand".

Answer: Bradward Boimler

Ensign (later lieutenant j.g.) Bradward "Brad" Boimler was a command division Starfleet officer who served on the USS Cerritos under Captain Carol Freeman. He grew up on a grape farm in Modesto, California. But instead of growing the grapes to make wine, his family made raisins. ("Star Trek: Lower Decks" episode "Grounded")

He was transporter-cloned while on a mission after he'd been promoted and re-assigned to the USS Titan under Captain William Riker. Starfleet said it was a bad idea for two identical officers to serve on the same ship, so one of the Boimlers volunteered to return to the Cerritos. The one who stayed started kissing up to Riker, renaming himself William instead of Bradward. ("Star Trek: Lower Decks" episode "Kayshon, His Eyes Open")

While investigating the Krulmuth-B portal, he was accidentally sucked into it when it reactivated, sending him to the mid-23rd century. In the past, he met the crew of the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Christopher Pike. ("Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" episode "Those Old Scientists")

Brad Boimler was voiced/portrayed by Jack Quaid. Quaid is the son of Dennis Quaid and nephew of Randy Quaid.

Answer: Beverly Crusher

Dr. (and Commander) Beverly Crusher was the first and third chief medical officer of the USS Enterprise-D. She took a one-year break to serve as the head of Starfleet Medical before returning. She was married to Jack Crusher, an officer under and best friend of Captain Jean-Luc Picard. She had two sons: Wesley, who lived with her on the Enterprise-D for 4 years before he went to Starfleet Academy; and Jack, a son she conceived with Picard after she was no longer under his command.

Dr. Beverly Crusher was portrayed by Gates McFadden. Although explained in the narrative that Dr. Crusher had become head of Starfleet Medical, the truth was that McFadden had been fired. She was vocal about the development of her character and some of the sexist leanings of the show's plots. She said she spoke her mind "in a way that really pissed people off." But a letter-writing campaign and references from Patrick Stewart and Rick Berman led to her being re-hired for the remainder of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and subsequent productions.

Answer: Leah Brahms

Dr. Leah Brahms was a 24th-century scientist. She was considered a leader in warp field theory. She was a key architect in the design of the warp engines of Galaxy-class starships, such as the USS Enterprise-D. She became a professor at the Daystrom Institute.

Geordi La Forge once referenced her research files when he was trying to devise a way to escape an ancient booby trap that was draining the Enterprise-D's energy and irradiating the crew. He found that creating a holographic interface was a quicker way to go through her files. This created a hologram of Dr. Brahms, with which he talked and argued. He developed an attraction to this hologram, and being an incomplete version of Dr. Brahms, the hologram reciprocated. What the hologram didn't possess was the fact that the real Dr. Brahms was married. ("Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Booby Trap")

The real Brahms later visited the Enterprise-D on an inspection of the modifications that La Forge had made over the years. Geordi expected a version of Brahms similar to the hologram he'd created, but the real Dr. Brahms was cold and dismissive. Then, when she saw the holographic recreation of her, she was deeply offended. But then, an extremophile creature sensed the Enterprise-D as an energy source and started to syphon energy from it, similar to nursing in mammals. Brahms and La Forge joined forces to get the creature to leave the Enterprise-D and travel over to a herd of its kind. ("Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Galaxy's Child")

In an alternate timeline, La Forge was married to someone named Leah, probably Dr. Brahms. They lived on Rigel III and they had three children together. ("Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "All Good Things...")

Dr. Leah Brahms was portrayed by Susan Gibney. Gibney also portrayed Commander Benteen, an adjutant to Admiral Leyton, on two episodes of "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine": "Homefront" and "Paradise Lost". She also returned to "Star Trek" to voice a sphere-created image of Dr. Brahms to tempt Ensign Rutherford in "Star Trek: Lower Decks" episode "Mining the Mind's Mines".

Answer: Benny Russell

Benny Russell was a 20th century African-American author who wrote for a science fiction, notably for a sci-fi magazine called Incredible Tales.

During visions put into Benjamin Sisko's mind by both the Bajoran Prophets and the Pah-wraiths, he portrayed Benny Russell. In his first visions as Benny, he worked through the author's difficulties in getting a story published that had a black protagonist. (Incredible Tales had a reputation of hiding the identities of its non-male and/or non-white authors, similar to how Dorothy Fontana hid her gender with nom de plumes: D.C. Fontana, Michael Richards, and J. Michael Bingham.). ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode "Far Beyond the Stars")

Later, the Pah-wraiths again gave him visions of being Benny, but this time placing him in a psychiatric hospital. He was writing his stories on his room's walls, but Dr. Wykoff was trying to have him paint over his writings, which symbolized what was happening in real life: Sisko unburying the Orb of the Emissary, and the Pah-wraiths wanting him to re-bury it. ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode "Shadows and Symbols")

Avery Brooks portrayed Benny Russell. In his visions, the other characters were played by other "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" cast members, but in 1950s Earth attire and as humans.

Answer: B-4

B-4 was a failed prototype of androids designed and built by Dr. Noonien Soong on Omicron Theta. He didn't have a positronic brain as sophisticated as his brothers Lore and Data. This hampered him in understanding concepts and processing information.

Rather than being found on Omicron Theta, the disassembled B-4 had his pieces placed on Kolarus III by Shinzon as a lure to capture Captain Picard. Once found and re-assembled, Shinzon's programming became active, making B-4 download vital information about Starfleet starships, their locations and coded communications. He was discovered, and Data posed as B-4 to give erroneous information to Shinzon. (movie "Star Trek: Nemesis")

B-4 was portrayed by Brent Spiner.

Answer: Balok

Balok was the Captain and sole crewmember on the First Federation starship Fesarius. When he encountered the USS Enterprise (Kirk as captain), he tested their character and ethics by using a fearsome puppet to communicate with the Enterprise, eventually taking the Enterprise with a tractor beam to an undisclosed location. As he was towing the Enterprise, the Enterprise managed to resist and apparently disable Balok's small vessel. Balok sent out a weak distress signal, that Uhura said would unlikely reach his mothership. Kirk decided to mount a rescue, taking Dr. McCoy and Ensign Bailey over to the disabled ship. Once there, they discovered the puppet was a ruse to test their true intentions. Balok revealed himself to them, a short, child-like being. He offers them drinks and a tour of his small vessel, and invited Kirk to assign a representative so that he can learn more about their Federation. Ensign Bailey volunteered. ("Star Trek" episode "The Corbomite Maneuver")

Balok had scanned the Enterprise's computers, where he found out about Earth's culture. He was able to reference this in the short time before he revealed himself, calling himself Jekyll and his puppet Hyde.

Balok was performed by then-child actor Clint Howard. Clint Howard is the first actor to appear in both "Star Trek" and "Star Trek: Discovery". He also can claim a long time between appearances - 51 years. He has made five appearances in five different productions of Star Trek: 1) Balok ("Star Trek"); 2) Grady ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine"); 3) Muk ("Star Trek: Enterprise"); 4) Dr. Martinez ("Star Trek: Strange New Worlds"); and 5) Creepy Orion ("Star Trek: Discovery").

An alien that resembled Balok's puppet was seen as an information broker on the "Star Trek: Lower Decks" episode "The Inner Fight". Captain Freeman thought he was a puppet, and attacked it. When he proved to be a real being, she set him down and apologized. But it was too late: he then sold the information that she wanted to a mysterious alien (who turned out to be Billups in disguise).

Answer: Barnes

Ensign Barnes was an unjoined Trill who was an operations division officer on the USS Cerritos. She was mainly seen at the operations station on the bridge. She dated Ensign Rutherford several times. She was a fan of the 20th-century band The Monkees. Her sister was a joined Trill, and her father was a cyborg.

When Rutherford's previous personality resurfaced, he ran into her, but didn't know her. He insulted her and made her cry. ("Star Trek: Lower Decks" episode "Reflections")

It's never stated why she has an Earth surname. It may be a Trill surname as well, or perhaps she has Human ancestry.

Ensign Barnes was voiced by Jessica McKenna. McKenna also provided the voice of the USS Cerritos's computer and several other incidental characters on "Star Trek: Lower Decks".

Answer: Brunt

Brunt was a liquidator, or as actor Jeffrey Combs described him: "[Brunt] was the IRS guy from hell." Brunt's job was to basically monitor the commerce done by any Ferengis and fine them for any infractions. Before the ascension of Rom as Nagus, these infractions included: allowing female Ferengi to earn profit, allowing employees to organize into a union, and other violations counter to the Rules of Acquisition. ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine")

Whenever Brunt arrived, he would introduce himself simply with, "Brunt, FCA."

Brunt was performed by Jeffery Combs.

Answer: B'Etor

B'Etor was one of the sisters of Klingon councilman Duras, the other being her older sister Lursa. Both sisters tried to get their nephew Toral installed as chancellor after the death of their brother Duras (who was killed by Worf in retribution for K'Ehleyr's murder). ("Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Redemption")

The sisters of Duras later aided El-Aurian scientist Dr. Soran in obtaining trilithium in order for him to make a bomb with it. Both she and her sister were killed when their Bird-of-Prey was destroyed, resulting from a battle with the USS Enterprise-D. (movie "Star Trek: Generations")

B'Etor was portrayed by Gwynyth Walsh in her three appearances on "Star Trek: The Next Generation", one appearance on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", and in the movie "Star Trek: Generations". A picture of her also appeared in the "Star Trek: Lower Decks" episode "Cupid's Errant Arrow" on Mariner Beckett's conspiracy board.

Gwynyth Walsh also appeared as Chief Examiner Nimira in "Star Trek: Voyager" episode "Random Thoughts".

Answer: Berlinghoff Rasmussen

Berlinghoff Rasmussen was a 22nd-century inventor, but not a very successful one. He happened upon a time traveler's time pod from the 26th century and stole it. He figured out how to operate it and traveled to the 24th century. Once there, he pretended to be a 26th-century time-traveler acting as a historian investigating an upcoming event that the USS Enterprise-D would be involved in. In actuality, he was surreptitiously stealing devices from around the ship and storing them in the time-pod. He planned to then return to the 22nd century and profit from the "inventions" he developed. However, the Enterprise-D's crew noted the missing technology and were able to de-activate them when Rasmussen opened the time-pod one last time. When he went in with Data (to also kidnap him), he found the phaser he stole was de-activated, as was all the other tech. Data escorted him off the time-pod, and shortly after the time-pod returned to his time without him. ("Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "A Matter Of Time")

Berlinghoff Rasmussen was portrayed by Matt Frewer. Frewer is perhaps best known as the computerized character Max Headroom, which appeared in advertising and TV shows in the 1980s.

Answer: Lyndsay Ballard

Ensign Lyndsay Ballard was a Starfleet officer who was aboard the USS Voyager when it was taken to the Delta Quadrant. She served in engineering.

She was a close friend of Harry Kim's from their time at Starfleet Academy. They were on an away mission searching for dilithium ore, and were lured to a planet by a Hirogen device that was simulating dilithium readings. They were ambushed by a Hirogen hunting party. As they were retreating to their shuttle, Ballard was hit by a neural disruptor and died on the way back to Voyager. Harry gave the eulogy at her funeral, and she was buried in space.

Her remains were found by the Kobali. They reproduced by reanimating dead beings, and did so with Ballard's remains. She was renamed Jhet'leya and given to a Kobali family. Unfortunately, she remembered her life as Ballard, and escaped to return to Voyager. She tried to reassimilate into her former life, but her new alien senses, as well as an attacking Kobali rescue ship, convinced her to return to the Kobali. ("Star Trek: Voyager" episode "Ashes to Ashes")

Lyndsay Ballard was portrayed by Kim Rhodes. Rhodes is better known for her role as lounge singer Carey Martin and mother to Cody and Zack in Disney's "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody".

Answer: Les Buenamigo

Vice Admiral Les Buenamigo was a 24th-century flag officer who was secretly developing a class of automated starships, the Texas-class. When one of the engineering officers who was working on the project, Samanthan Rutherford, was injured on the job, Buenamigo had him fitted with a cybernetic implant that suppressed his knowledge of the Texas-class project. This also vastly changed Rutherford's personality, making him more easy-going. When finished with the development of the Texas-class ships, he used unscrupulous means to get the ships approved for service, including attempted murder. ("Star Trek: Lower Decks" episode "The Stars at Night")

Buenamigo was a family friend of the Freemans, to the point where Beckett Mariner referred to him as Uncle Les. ("Star Trek: Lower Decks" episode "Grounded"). His last name translates to "good friend", which is ironic since he betrayed Captain Freeman and the USS Cerritos.

Buenamigo was voiced by Carlos Alazraqui. He also voiced the AI of the USS Aledo.