10 Most Pointless Deaths In Star Trek

For a huge portion of its run, The Next Generation firmly established the power of its Monster of the Week by throwing Security Officer Worf at the threat, before having him unceremoniously brushed aside with minimal effort. From time to time, however, said villain could dispense with all pleasantries and just get straight to the murder. In the second season episode ‘Where Silence Has Lease’, this unwanted honour falls on to Conn Officer Ensign Haskell.

Whilst investigating a void in the Morgana Quad-rant, the Enterprise-D is ensnared by an extra-dimensional immortal being known as Nagilum. Having no understanding of corporeal concepts due to their advanced nature, Nagilum decides to hold the ship as a sort of science experiment, in an attempt to understand life at a different level. Understandably, as an immortal, the first thing that Nagilum wants to get a look at is the unfamiliar concept of ‘limited existence’.

Putting it in a less euphemistic tone, Negilum wanted to watch something die, and this something happened to be the un-fortunate Ensign. After Negilum alludes to its intentions, Haskell grabs his skull and begins screaming, before falling from his station and being pronounced dead on the spot. As a means of establishing the threat involved, it’s effective, but as a motivation, ‘curiosity’ probably won’t cut it for Haskell’s family.