The Top 20 most impactful deaths in Star Trek history

Copyright Paramount / CBS Jennifer Sisko

08. Jennifer Sisko

Let us never forget those we lost at Wolf 359. While the battle ultimately slowed the Borg incursion towards sector 001 and gave the Enterprise time to neutralize them and save their Captain, the lives that were lost there would forever change the quadrant.

Her husband Commander Benjamin Sisko served as first officer aboard the USS Saratoga at the time of the Battle of Wolf 359, Jennifer and her young son Jake were unfortunately caught in the middle of the action when the ship was destroyed, while Jake was saved, along with Ben, unfortunately Jennifer was not as lucky.

We never knew her in life, but her impact would be felt for the entire run of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and beyond.  Appearing regularly as a voice of the prophets, the aliens who lived in the wormhole and watched out for Bajor, Jennifer’s death changed Commander Sisko’s life forever. Had he not been as broken by her death as he was he may not have been transferred to a fledgling station on a distant border with the Cardssians where he would find out, and eventually even accept that he was the Emissary, a celestial creation  of the wormhole aliens meant to save Bajor from an evil force that would eventually come to inhabit the body of his predecessor Gul Dukat.

But it was more than just his spiritual life that would be affected, the way his son would grow up before our eyes, his future relationship with Cassidy Yates and indeed his interactions with his entire crew were the result of Jennifer’s Death.

For a character we never saw alive, she sure had a deep impact.