They killed Hengist!

[Christopher]

You should know me better than that. There are plenty of production memos where they discuss discarding guest-of-the-week characters in favor of the regulars.

But they still also did episodes where guest stars played central dramatic roles. Again, the only part I object to is the overstatement that it "had to" be a regular, as if there were no alternative. If you know me at all, you should know I don't believe in binary thinking. Just because there are arguments in favor of using a regular doesn't mean it "has to" be done in every single case.

 

[cooleddie74]

Hengist had been compromised and was no longer the human Hengist who'd migrated to Argelius to serve as an official. He was killed because it was the only way to destroy the Redjac entity, and deservedly so. Whomever Hengist was at one point in his life or career he clearly was no longer that person, and his death was an acceptable loss for the Enterprise crew and the populations of both Argelius and future worlds that might have been victimized by the entity.