10 Star Trek Characters More Important Than You Realised

10. Lieutenant Hawk

At the start of Star Trek: First Contact, this blue-eyed, square-jawed lieutenant can be found at the helm of the Enterprise-E as it flies through the vortex created by the Borg sphere. By the film’s end, however, we are left wondering if he is still drifting alone in his EV suit above 21st-century Earth.

About mid-way through the film, we learn that the Borg are attempting to use the Enterprise’s main deflector dish to send a message to the Delta Quadrant. Hawk is instrumental in the mission mounted to stop them, but is assimilated and attacks Picard. Worf arrives just in time to shoot Hawk, who flies off into the abyss, and the Borg’s inter-quadrantal phone call is permanently hung up. Let’s hope they did at least recover his body before the return trip to the 24th century!

Yet, this zero-g sacrifice is not why our hero is cited here; he is far more important than you realise for other reasons. Before filming began, it was rumoured (and widely publicised in contemporary press), that there were plans to make the character of Hawk gay.

This would have been of groundbreaking importance at the time. It would have made Hawk the first openly gay character in Star Trek history in an era when LGBT+ representation in mainstream film and television was practically non-existent. In various apocrypha, such as the excellent novel Taking Wing of the Titan series, it is confirmed that Hawk was indeed gay and married to Trill Starfleet officer Ranul Keru.