Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Spock’s funeral
As the old saying goes, nothing in life is certain except death and taxes, but when it comes to the final frontier death is far from final.
With the surprise return of Doctor Hugh Culber, who was brutally murdered in the first season of Star Trek Discovery in a shocking scene we thought it would be fun to take a look back at the top 10 characters to come back to life after their death on their various Star Trek series and movies.
While just about everyone in every Star Trek series has been killed and resurrected in some way, be it through time manipulation, or alternate realities, or mistaken reports there are far fewer examples of characters actually dying only to be resurrected later on.
With that in mind we open this list with the honourable mention:
Honourable Mention: Everyone
We won’t name them all, but here are three times everyone died and was resurrected:
Star Trek The Next Generation Cause and Effect
Star Trek: The Next Generation – Cause and Effect
During this episode the Enterprise D is repeatedly destroyed by a ship emerging from a temporal anomaly, fortunately for the crew the anomaly caused them to relive their deaths over and over resurrecting them every time they died until Data was able to send himself a message through the loop and save the crew.
Star Trek Deep Space Nine Visionary
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine – Visionary
During this episode Chief O’Brien is pulled forward in time and witnesses the station destroyed at the hands of a cloaked Romulan ship, fortunately he is able to change the events leading to the attack and save the crew from being killed.
Star Trek Voyager Timeless
Star Trek Voyager – Timeless
During this episode Voyager is destroyed and all but two hands lost on two separate occasions, both of which oddly happen at the same time. While trying to right a wrong from the past Ensign Kim and Commander Chakotay use temporal communication technology to try to save the crashed Voyager, altering history. While their first attempt kills the crew for the second time their second attempt is successful and the crew is saved from this fate.
Star Trek Voyager The Mortal Coil
#10 – Mr. Neelix
He may have had multiple specialties but who knew returning from the dead would be one of them? That’s exactly what he did in the episode Mortal Coil.
Admit it, at one point or another Neelix drove you nuts, you were hoping something would happen to him, right? It’s ok, you can say it, I won’t tell.
Ok, maybe not, or maybe you just won’t admit it. But either way Neelix had an up and down relationship with fans, he could be seen at any time as either an expert or a fish out of water, as a chef or a disaster, as an ambassador or a liability. Maybe that was his quiet charm, maybe it was poor writing and development, but every now and then he had a really good episode, and The Mortal Coil was one of them, it marked one of the several times Neelix would die during the run of the series, the other most notable one that we won’t cover here was Tuvix, which was a far superior episode, but we’re classifying it as an alteration rather than a death, so it doesn’t apply to this list.
How it happened:
During a voluntary mission to check out a nebula, something Neelix claimed early in the series was a danger the Captain had no right to subject him to, a protomatter transport goes wrong and Neelix is struck and killed by an energy discharge.
In an interesting parallel Protomatter is the reason the Genesis device was able to reanimate Spock in Star Trek III The Search for Spock, yet counter to that parallel its the reason Neelix dies and cannot be immediately revived.
How he returned:
Amazingly assimilation has its benefits, eighteen hours after his death Seven of Nine injects Neelix with nano probes from her own bloodstream and uses them to revive him, he spends the rest of the episode questioning the afterlife, scaring a child and believing that he will become a Borg drone.
It’s actually some of his best work, even though it can be a little over the top at times, leaving us to rank this revival as number 10 on our list.
Star Trek Discovery The Wolf Inside Hugh Culber and Paul Stamets
#9 – Hugh Culber
The depiction of his death during the Star Trek Discovery episode The Wolf Inside was one of the most jarring in Star Trek history, and his loss one of the saddest, despite his loss after less than one season of his series.
It was a strange decision by the writers of Star Trek Discovery to kill off the first openly gay character of colour to be a part of the main crew of a Star Trek series, and the decision sent fans into a frenzy, however there were clues right from the beginning that this may not be the end for the lovable Dr. Hugh Culber.
At the time of his death his partner, Paul Stamets, was partly trapped within the Mycelial network and unable to come to his aid when he was brutally attacked, however there were signs that something stranger had happened, when Paul saw Hugh appear to him within the network.
How it happened:
Ash Tyler was once known as the Klingon torch-bearer Voq, but after he was surgically altered, and his conscious overlaid with that of Ash Tyler he became a sleeper agent ready to strike at Starfleet when the time was right, unfortunately for all involved Dr. Culber inadvertently triggered him and in a brutal scene he grabbed Hugh by the head and snapped his neck, leaving him to drop lifeless to the ground in Sick bay. Hugh was discovered by his disoriented and partly lost partner Paul who sat on the ground cradling Hugh’s body and drifting in and out of reality.
How he returned:
During the second season episode The Saints of Imperfection during a mission to rescue Ensign Tilly from the mycelial plane Stamets and Burnham are faced with a supposed beast that has destroyed the environment and killing the mycelial’s, when they approach the beast they discover that it is actually Hugh Culber.
Hugh had passed through the conduit that was Stamets while he was connected to the network and been recreated in spore form, thanks to some fancy mycelial organic transporter pod technology Hugh was reanimated with a brand new body and returned to the USS Discovery.
Copyright CBS – Dr. McCoyStar Trek The Changeling
#8 – Montgomery “Scotty” Scott
“He’s dead Jim!” Doctor McCoy declared shortly before the show cut to a commercial break.
It wasn’t the first time a crew member in a Red Shirt had been killed, but it was the first time a major cast member had been. Fortunately for fans of Star Trek The Original Series Scotty was a certified miracle worker, and even in death he managed to pull off the impossible.
We knew the series would kill characters on a regular basis, some of them in their first episode, others after they had been seen a few times, but to kill off one of the main cast was an unprecedented move at the time. Even if it was only briefly.
How it happened:
The Enterprise is visited by a small life-form named Nomad who disables their shields and comes aboard to investigate them and their technology, during his investigation Nomad has an encounter with Uhura until Scotty intervenes and is thrown across the bridge. McCoy examines him and declares “He’s dead Jim!”
How he returned:
Fortunately for the crew of the Enterprise Nomad is under the impression that Captain Kirk is his creator and offers to repair the now broken chief engineer. After scanning some information on human physiology Nomad, the Doctor and Captain head down to sick bay where Nomad instantly revives Scotty.
It was a short trip to the other side that seemed to leave no lasting ill effects on him, but as it was the first major death and revival we felt it warranted number 8 on this list.
Star Trek Voyager Emanations – Harry Kim dead on the sickbay table
#7 – Harry Kim
Harry was always intended to die after the first season of Star Trek Voyager to prove the writers room would be willing to kill off major characters. Ultimately, he did die on several occasions but thanks to some well-timed resurrections Harry Kim still made it home.
It’s a strong statement when a major character is planned to be killed off simply to prove that nobody is safe, not even the bridge crew, only to have him last all the way through the series because they couldn’t bring themselves to kill the character when the time came. It’s just not the statement they wanted to make.
Despite the writers unwillingness to permanently kill Ensign Kim they did manage to have him die on no less than two occasions, both of which would end with a timely resurrection and his return to the bridge.
How it happened the first time:
During the first season episode Emanations While investigating an asteroid with mineral deposits that turns out to be an alien burial ground, Harry is accidentally pulled into a subspace vacuole and ends up on a distant world where the dead are sent to an unknown place so their energy can be released to the next emanation.
The only way Harry can find to escape and return to Voyager is to place himself in one of the alien burial pods and let it kill him to send him to the next emanation, his plan is successful and his dead body is returned to Voyager.
How he returned:
Fortunately for Harry, the Doctor was able to revive him after practicing trying to revive one of the aliens who had traveled to the next emanation earlier in the episode, within minutes Harry was revived and ready to return to action. He wouldn’t be so easily returned the next time.
How it happened the second time:
During the second season episode Deadlock Voyager is crippled when a second parallel version of its self is created and the ship begins to tear its self apart, during the chaos Harry tried to seal a hull breach when it suddenly opens below him and he is blown out into space and killed. Moments later the newborn Naomi Wildman also dies in sick bay.
How he returned:
Kes is accidentally sent to the parallel Voyager and fills them in on what’s happening with the other ship, they come up with a plan to separate themselves but are attacked during the attempt and the more intact version of Voyager is destroyed, but not before the alternate Harry Kim and Naomi Wildman are sent back to the prime Voyager to take their counterparts places.
Technically the entire crew died during Harry’s second death, but his two resurrections in two seasons earn him the 7th spot on this list.
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.
Star Trek Generations Captain Kirk’s Death
#5 – James T. Kirk
When you’re James T. Kirk risk is a part of your business, and despite taking risks every time the Enterprise went on a new mission Captain Kirk survived a lot of risky situations, there were two, however, that he could not survive.
There have been two on screen versions of James T. Kirk, both of whom have died and been resurrected, both times to protect the crew of the USS Enterprise. The first was set in the Prime Timeline, and the second in the Kelvin Timeline.
How the First time happened:
During the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-B’s initial launch and first shakedown cruise the living legends from the Enterprise and Enterprise A were asked to attend as guests of honour, as the Enterprise B encountered an energy ribbon which was traversing space and had caused the destruction of a refugee ship, the Lakul, during the rescue mission Kirk tries to save the ship and he along with the bulk of the deflector dish are blown out into space and he is declared dead.
It could be argued that this wasn’t the true death of Captain Kirk, that his death actually occurred later in the film when he helped Captain Picard fight off the El-Auron villain Soran, we’ll also take that into account as we look at his resurrection.
How he returned:
It turns out that the energy ribbon was actually a phenomenon known as the Nexus, a sort of alternate reality where anyone caught inside of it is allowed to live their life in their own idillic setting, for Kirk this meant his home in Iowa, with his beloved horse. Ultimately Picard would persuade him to exit the Nexus and return with him to fight Soran, thus reviving him.
Some have argued that this is not his true death, that the fight with Soran is where he died and was never resurrected, however, I disagree with this assessment, with all the spacefaring lifeforms we’ve seen during the run of the franchise the closest analogue to the Nexus is the telepathic pitcher plant in Star Trek Voyager which was able to make people see what they wanted as it digested them. I submit that when Kirk entered the Nexus he was dead.
In the non-Canon world of Star Trek Novels Kirk is resurrected from his final burial site after re-entering the Nexus once again, proving, though not in Canon, that the Nexus can revive the dead, which Kirk was when he entered it the first time also.
How it happened the second time:
During the events of Star Trek Into Darkness the Kelvin timeline version of Captain Kirk, in a scene that mirrored the events of the ending of Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan sacrifices himself by locking himself in a radiation filled chamber in order to realign the engines of the USS Enterprise allowing the ship to escape it’s certain destruction. The radiation is more than his body can handle and Captain Kirk ultimately dies of radiation poisoning.
How he returned the second time:
Thanks to some brilliant Deus Ex Machina by Spock, he realizes that the blood of their enemy, John Harrison, aka. Khan can reverse the damage caused by the radiation, and revive the now dead Captain Kirk. Spock captures Khan and extracts enough blood to inject Kirk and bring him back to life.
A heroes death on two separate occasions, saving many lives both times, including the Captain’s of two future Enterprise’s has given us enough to rank his deaths #5 on our list.
Star Trek Deep Space Nine Visionary – Miles Edward O’Brien views his own dead body.
#4 – Miles Edward O’Brien
During the Deep Space Nine episode Visionary the chief was seen jumping through time repeatedly, unfortunately for him the jumps turned deadly for him and the station.
The character with, perhaps, the most growth during The Next Generation era of the Star Trek franchise, Miles O’Brien started his on-screen tour of duty as the relief fight controller aboard the Enterprise D and subsequently progressed to transporter chief, family man, Chief of Operations and later Professor of Engineering at Starfleet Academy. from the guy who stood in the transporter room with absolutely nothing to do, to a Professor is quite the arc for any character to take.
He was always one of my favourite characters, so getting to see as many O’Brien centric episodes as we did, especially during Star Trek Deep Space Nine was a real treat, but none stand out for me more then the fantastic third season episode Visionary in which he travels to the future every few hours and witnesses a series of events that he tries to stop from happening, each more devastating then the last.
How it happened:
Thanks to an orbiting quantum singularity, which turns out to be a cloaked Romulan ship, O’Brien is cast in to the future where he dies not once, but three times during this episode. The first time he died as the result of a laser planted inside of a panel, he witnesses his own death during one of his time jumps and manages to stop it, the second death was the result of radiation which is also a part of the reason he is jumping through time, he is also able to stop this death by having Dr. Bashir run a basilar arterial scan.
But his true death is also the cause of his ultimate resurrection, during his final random time jump he witnesses the destruction of Deep Space Nine and volunteers for a final controlled jump which he knows will most likely kill him, which it does.
How he returned:
At the last minute the dying Chief hands his radioactive isotope injection device to his future counterpart sending him back to the past where he is able to warn Captain Sisko that the singularity orbiting the station is actually a cloaked Romulan Warbird which is preparing to attack the station. The result is the first Chief O’Brien died so that the future version of himself can take his place.
This great episode and the Chief’s sacrifice of his own life has allowed us to rank his death and resurrection number 4 on our list.
Star Trek The Next Generation Skin of Evil
#3 – Tasha Yar
Her meaningless death during the first season episode Skin of Evil wasn’t enough to end her run on the series, in fact it led to her returning in two different and unique ways.
Denise Crosby who played Tasha Yar was concerned as the first season progressed that the series would focus only on the three highest ranking officers aboard the Enterprise D, leaving characters like hers underdeveloped and with largely unexplored backstories. We know the series would go on to explore its. Chief of Security extensively with many episodes being dedicated to her successor, Lt. Worf.
While her death happened in a meaningless way, it did have an impact on the crew, most notably on Data, who almost seemed heartbroken at her loss, despite it being impossible for him to feel it in an emotional way. As time went on, however, she would have a greater impact on the series through her revival then she did through her death.
How it happened:
During an away mission to rescue a downed shuttlecraft the crew encounters a life form named Armus, a black pool of tar consumed by hate who is amusing himself by causing the entire situation. As Yar tells Armus that she is going to rescue the shuttle crew, and that he will no be harmed he hits her with a blast of energy throwing her several feet and killing her instantly.
The crew manages to outwit Armus and rescue the crew of the shuttle, leaving him to suffer alone, as the sole lifeforms on the planet, but the damage has been done, Tasha is dead.
How she returned:
The funny thing about Tasha’s resurrection is that it had technically already occurred before she ever died. During the third season episode Yesterday’s Enterprise a temporal anomaly pulls the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-C into the present where it meets the Enterprise NCC-1701-D, as a result the timeline has been altered and the Federation is at war with the Klingon Empire. With the war ongoing the events of Skin of Evil never happened, meaning Tasha was still alive and well aboard the Enterprise D.
Guinan knew that Tasha wasn’t meant to be there, that she had died in the prime timeline, and after speaking to her about it Tasha volunteered to join the Enterprise C as it returned to the past where it faced certain destruction at the hands of the Romulan’s.
We would learn later in season 4 through the appearance of the Romulan Commander Sela, also played by Denise Crosby, that Tasha had survived the final battle of the Enterprise C and been taken prisoner of the Romulan’s. She had been killed in the years that followed, but not before giving birth to her daughter Sela.
We may never have seen the final months of her life on Romulus, but Tasha’s death and revival nearly lead to the Romulan’s take over of both the Klingon Empire and the planet Vulcan. Because of the unique circumstances regarding her revival we rank Tasha Yar number3 on our list.
Star Trek The Next Generation Tapsetry Patrick Stewart and John De Lancie
#2 – Captain Jean-Luc Picard
Welcome to the Afterlife Jean-Luc, You’re dead. It was a simple line, with potentially devastating consequences for the entire Federation. Fortunately God has a sense of humour, and may or may not be Q.
There had been a plan as early as Season 3 of Star Trek The Next Generation when a dispute between Patrick Stewart and the studio nearly lead to Jean-Luc dying after being capture d and turned into Locutus, at the hands of his first officer Commander William T. Riker. Fortunately for fans cooler heads prevailed and Captain Picard remained aboard the Enterprise for many more years, which allowed for his actual death in Season 6.
How it happened:
While on a diplomatic mission Captain Picard and the away team are attacked by a group of Lenarians and he is shot in the chest using a compressed tachyon weapon which causes his artificial heart to stop. He wakes up in what appears to be the afterlife standing before a man in white robes claiming to be God, Q.
How he returned:
Q gave him the chance to change the events in his life that lead to him requiring an artificial heart, a fight with a group of Naussican’s resulting from him and his friends cheating them during a game of dom-jot, the result of which was a knife through the young Starfleet cadet’s heart.
Picard initially made the change, avoiding the confrontation and keeping his heart intact, but that event had helped shape him into the man he would become years later, without it he was a shell of his former self, a middling officer unwilling to take the chances needed to excel and become the Captain of the Flagship of the Federation. He would quickly grow to hate his new life and beg Q to give him another chance to die as the man he was, rather than living another moment as this new version of himself. Q showed apparent compassion, allowing Picard to come back to life with his history intact.
The episode featured one loose thread from Picard’s life, but it would show us how quickly those threads can cause the entire tapestry to become unraveled, this solid lesson has lead us to ranking Picard’s death and revival as number 2 on our list.
Copyright Paramount Spock – Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan
#1 – Spock
Fan favourite character Spock died horribly in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, but fortunately for us his Katra lived on in the mind of Doctor Leonard McCoy.
“Remember… Remember…” It was a scene shot late, one with no concrete plans, but it opened a doorway for one of the most beloved, and the longest running character in the franchise, to be resurrected and continue his run as Spock for another 33 years, spanning seven more movies, the foundation for a whole new timeline and a guest appearance in Star Trek The Next Generation.
Not only was Spock’s death an emotionally impactful moment for many fans, but the joy of his possible return in the next movie, though they kind of gave it away in the title by calling it Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, sparked a continued interest in the franchise that allowed the movies to continue for many years.
How it happened:
Spock died sacrificing himself to save the critically damaged USS Enterprise during the final moments of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan as he immobilized Dr,. McCoy and locked himself in a radiation filled chamber to bring the Enterprise’s engines back online. Though a version of this scene would be recreated in a later Star Trek movie, the gravity of both the actors involved in the original version, and the deep relationship between characters have made this scene one of the most famous in any movie.
How he returned:
Fortunately, knowing he was going to die, Spock implanted his Katra, or soul, into Dr. McCoy before his death. In a continued fortunate circumstance Spock’s coffin was deposited on the Genesis planet, which with the detonation of the Genesis Device caused Spock’s cells to regenerate bringing him back to life. Once his Katra was returned we slowly saw the Original Spock returned to how he had been before.
The needs of the many may outweigh the needs of the few, or the one, but the strength of this character have made him outweigh all the others and land at number 1 on our list.
Considering the stories that would come from all of these characters after their deaths we can be thankful that none of them ended up being permanent, unfortunately for us these types of resurrection rarely happen outside of the world of television and movies.