Never to be seen/heard from/used again

[USS Triumphant]

Jeremy Aster, from "The Bonding". Barash, the insectoid child who masqueraded as "Ethan" in "Future Imperfect". They were made family members of Worf and Riker, respectively... and then promptly disappeared forever when the end of episode reset button was pressed.

 

[F. King Daniel]

The serum that gave the crew telekinetic powers in "Plato's Stepchildren"

Giant Spock Clone from "The Infinite Vulcan"

 

[The Wormhole]

Robert Fucking April

 

[Karp666]

Sub-commander T'Rul, who was assigned to operate and guard the cloaking device on the Defiant. I found her quite interesting and it is still disappointing and puzzling that she has not made a single appearance after "The Search" - especially taking the Romulan secrecy under the consideration.

 

[UnknownSample]

Incorrect. Both episodes used the slingshot effect to travel back in time, not a controlled implosion as demonstrated in "Naked Time."

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I'm not sure what the point of your post is. The idea of this thread was to point out things that we had only seen once. I don't think it was to say that that was stupid per se, so I'm not sure why you're making a bunch of (damp or outright incorrect) excuses for these things. I wasn't implying these were flaws..just that they were things never seen again.

(1) I'm generally hazy on this. I remember it had something to do with something like a neutron star, or maybe a "black star"? I never get the impression they used the slingshot effect there, OR that it was a "controlled implosion". I think the slingshot effect was improvised by Spock at he end? And I always wonder each time why ST didn't have them get there with that controlled implosion, after having given it that big build-up.
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(2) Just making conversation, probably.
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I think the untapped potential of the transporter to work almost like a magic wand to solve most of their problems accounts for most of these matters on which we're left hanging. Their reasons were pretty obvious though, and I guess I'm g lad they avoided all that ...

 

[Bry_Sinclair]

Sub-commander T'Rul, who was assigned to operate and guard the cloaking device on the Defiant. I found her quite interesting and it is still disappointing and puzzling that she has not made a single appearance after "The Search" - especially taking the Romulan secrecy under the consideration.

I enjoyed T'Rul as well. She could've been a recurring character, throughout S3 then have a little more involvement when Worf came aboard (the two of them butting heads over various matters), then becoming the Romulan Fleet Liaison after the Empire joined the War. They could've done a lot with her character and help us explore the intricacies of Romulan culture (as well as cut down on an abundance of Klingon episodes).

I could imagine T'Rul/Odo or T'Rul/Garak episodes being really good to watch.

 

[t_smitts]

I enjoyed T'Rul as well. She could've been a recurring character, throughout S3 then have a little more involvement when Worf came aboard (the two of them butting heads over various matters), then becoming the Romulan Fleet Liaison after the Empire joined the War. They could've done a lot with her character and help us explore the intricacies of Romulan culture (as well as cut down on an abundance of Klingon episodes).

I could imagine T'Rul/Odo or T'Rul/Garak episodes being really good to watch.

Indeed. I've stated before that dropping her was a missed opportunity.

Setting aside the fact that it makes little sense for the Romulans to just decided to trust Starfleet with a cloaking device unsupervised (especially less than a year after the Pegasus incident), having a non-Starfleet perspective (like Kira, and later Seven of Nine provided) could've been interesting. Plus just the idea of having a ROMULAN on the bridge could've been as big a deal as having a Klingon on the bridge once was.

On top of that, we never really had a major recurring character during the run of the show who functioned as the face of the Romulan Empire, the way Martok did for the Klingon Empire.

Robert Fucking April

Actually, depending on whether or not you consider the Animated Series canon or not, he may not have even been seen or referenced the first time.

And to the person who responded above, no need to get so defensive.

 

[The Wormhole]

It's funny, after just re-watching The Search I was about to post in here about T'Rul. She really could have made an interesting addition to DS9's cast. Both because it would have been interesting to see a Romulan with a regular presence on a starship's bridge and she was a really enjoyable character. I wonder if the fact Martha Hackett ended up with a regular role on Voyager impacted on T'Rul in any way? Still a shame, regardless, even if Seska was a good character too.

depending on whether or not you consider the Animated Series canon or not,

I do. And besides, the post above mine mentioned something from TAS, making it fair game for this thread, IMO.

 

[uniderth]

Gillian Taylor

Odd she was assigned to a science vessel rather than staying on earth and being the resident expert on humpback whales.

 

[t_smitts]

Odd she was assigned to a science vessel rather than staying on earth and being the resident expert on humpback whales.

Maybe a science SEA vessel?

 

[Spot261]

Or a science ship with whales on board?

 

[RPOW0614]

Why did we never have contact with the space faring whales ever again? Intelligent whales capable of space travel would be a cool species. (The Xindi Aquatics are close)

 

[The Wormhole]

^^Well, there supposedly are whales and dolphins serving on the Enterprise D.

 

[Timo]

...Although whether as expert navigators or Thursday's menu, we don't know for sure.

Some of the characters mentioned above had no particular reason to pop up again. Gillian Taylor for example had no connection to our heroes other than "them's the bunch that brought me to my whales". April made no promise to return, either. T'Rul is quite a different case, introduced with a rationale that never goes away even though the character does!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Scotchy]

Seems like using the kironide from Plato's Stepchildren would have had advantages. If they had secured a supply of it or programmed the replicator to include it in food rations a starship crew with telekinetic abilities would have had a definitive edge. Kirk didn't seem to think it was too outlandish "remember, we can reacquire this ability whenever we want!" or words to that effect. They could make enemy Klingons sing and dance, how funny would that be?

 

[Timo]

OTOH, Federation science already knew about kironide beforehand (indeed, its well-known energy signature was the first thing our heroes noticed about the planet). There must be more to kironide than merely having it (because McCoy apparently had some in his black bag all along).

...Quite possibly the stuff only works as a telekinesis-inducing agent on a planet made of kironide. Elsewhere, it's just stuff polluting your bloodstream.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Captain Rob]

Seems like using the kironide from Plato's Stepchildren would have had advantages. If they had secured a supply of it or programmed the replicator to include it in food rations a starship crew with telekinetic abilities would have had a definitive edge. Kirk didn't seem to think it was too outlandish "remember, we can reacquire this ability whenever we want!" or words to that effect. They could make enemy Klingons sing and dance, how funny would that be?

Imagine "Spamalot" with Klingons.

 

[Scotchy]

I don't recall anyone saying a person had to stay on the planet to enjoy the telekinetic powers, but it's been a while since I saw that episode. My impression was that if you got enough into your system (like Kirk did) you gained that ability.
Also, rarity of materials was something of a mystery as well. In Catspaw Kirk disdains the jems offered by the aliens, stating they could "manufacture these by the ton" on their ship. Then, in Devil in the Dark, the head mining official is glad to have the Horta to obtain rare minerals. Bit of a conflict there, I think. With kironide, if they already knew the molecular structure of it, why don't they just program it into the food replicator? The food replicator is already producing some pretty complex molecules, one more shouldn't be a problem. It would've made that mission a lot easier (and less embarrassing) for our heroes.
Spamalot with Klingons. Maybe HMS Pinafore with the Borg?

 

[FormerLurker]

As I recall, they didn't figure out the deal with the Kironide until the Platonians wouldn't let them go back to the Enterprise. Therefore, no access to the food processors (they didn't call them replicators until TNG).

 

[UnknownSample]

I don't recall anyone saying a person had to stay on the planet to enjoy the telekinetic powers, but it's been a while since I saw that episode.

They didn't. This was being suggested as a way to explain the lack of later consequences from the kironide genie having been let out of the bottle.