10 Star Trek Characters Who Didn't Deserve Their Fate
7. David Marcus
David Marcus is a particularly tragic case on this list. He was introduced in The Wrath Of Khan as Admiral Kirk's hitherto-unseen son, working alongside Dr. Carol Marcus aboard Regula 1. Their experiments on Project Genesis were unfortunately of interest to the mad Khan Noonian-Singh, and resulted in the creation of the Genesis Planet - though not without significant cost.
David's true fate arrives in The Search For Spock. A scouting mission on the Genesis Planet goes awry, stranding Marcus and Saavik, along with a revived Spock, on the rapidly crumbling world. The Klingons are now searching for the secrets of this 'terrible weapon', despite the fact they needn't have bothered - Genesis didn't actually work.
In David's haste to see results, he included protomatter in the Genesis matrix. Despite promising early results, it led to the breakdown of anything the project created. His crime, as it were, led to the deaths of the crew of the USS Grissom, as well the capture of his trio. But, did he deserve to die, really? He wasn't to know the effect of his machinations, nor that it would be created before final testing.
As that Klingon officer brings their d'k tang down into David's chest, one wouldn't blame the man for thinking 'this sucks'. At least the soldier responsible ended up stranded on the exploding planet for their efforts.