Top 10 Deaths and Resurrections in Star Trek History

Star Trek Voyager Lyndsay Ballard resurrected as Jhet’leya

#6 – Lyndsay Ballard

Though Lyndsay’s death wasn’t shown on screen the effects of her revival would throw the entire crew through a loop in the episode Ashes to Ashes.

One of the most interesting character death’s in Star Trek history, and we didn’t even get to see it happen on screen, this could easily have been a higher ranked death and resurrection if only Ensign Ballard had appeared in even a handful of episodes prior to her resurrection, and with the number of crew members who died during the USS Voyager’s trek back home its an incredible lost opportunity that the writers didn’t save this storyline for one of them. However Kim Rhodes, to her credit, played the part to perfection.

How it happened:

Though it occurred off-screen Ensign Ballard was killed during an away mission in which a Hirogen hunting party had laid a trap for one of Voyager’s shuttles luring them into an ambush, during the fight Ensign Ballard was shot with a neural disruptor and killed instantly. Her friend Harry Kim gave the eulogy at her funeral and she was launched into space in a torpedo casing.

How she returned:

During the Star Trek Voyager episode Ashes to Ashes a ship carrying a Kobali female approaches Voyager, the Kobali female, Jhet’leya claims to be the reanimated version of Ensign Ballard. As the episode goes on we come to understand that this is the way the Kobali reproduce, by repurposing the bodies of other species. As much as Ensign Ballard wants to stay aboard Voyager she eventually comes to realize that she is now more Kobali than human, and gives in, returning to her new family, but this time with a chance to say goodbye to those she had served with.

It’s a touching episode, and had it been revolving around a character we had some attachment to previously it would have been an amazing episode, but it still ranks high enough to be number 6 on our list.