Star Trek: 20 Supporting Characters That Deserved More

15. Kevin Riley

Granted, when we first meet Kevin Riley in The Naked Time, he doesn't make the best impression, locking himself in Engineering, declaring himself acting captain and singing I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen so many times that no one could have blamed Kirk for throwing him out the airlock...

But to be fair, he was under the influence of a virus that made people act as if they were three sheets to the wind.

He doesn't fare much better in The Conscience of the King, though, when the daughter of a travelling actor poisons him to conceal her father's past as Kodos the Executioner. He almost kills the man responsible for the murder of his parents, but Kirk manages to stop him in the nick of time.

And then...he just vanished from our screens.

After two such iconic appearances, it seemed like the character was building up to more. And with bags of personality and a memorable performance, there was plenty of scope to shape him into a recurring, lower-decks style character.

Not to mention that after two such extreme adventures, it would have been nice to get to know the mellower side of the man who had Uhura singing so sweetly to him.