10 Star Trek Characters You Didn't Realise Died Horrible Deaths

The final frontier is a scary place filled with countless examples of horrendously awful ways to die.

We've seen disruptor weapons that can rip you apart from the inside out, transporter accidents that can turn your body into a mangled mess, and exploding consoles galore. These brutal deaths can be a bit easier to stomach when they happen to some random redshirt or one-off character, but when they involve named characters that we've gotten the chance to know, it's an entirely different situation.

Of course we all remember the gruesome deaths of main characters like Kirk and Jadzia, but this list will instead be focusing on some of the most painful and disturbing deaths in Star Trek that you may have forgotten about. Some were only mentioned in dialogue, while others were seen on screen, but were never really focused on.

With that in mind, then, here are ten such examples of the brutal, twisted demises of Star Trek - with even the biggest of Trek fans likely not realising just how grim and gruesome these deaths were.

The Next Generation episode Family came right after Captain Picard's traumatic assimilation by the Borg in The Best Of Both Worlds. In the episode, Picard, recovering from his experience, returned to Earth to visit his family.

There was a few harsh words shared and things briefly got physical between Picard and his brother Robert, but it was clear by the end of the episode that the Captain deeply loved his family, although they had some unaddressed issues (issues that got explored further in the second season of Star Trek: Picard).

Interestingly, Star Trek: Generations included a tragic detail that many fans may have missed: the death of Picard's brother Robert and his nephew René (who also appeared in the episode Family). Their deaths happened off-camera, and were only briefly mentioned in the movie, but both Robert and René died horrifically in a fire. Picard broke down crying telling this to Deanna in the movie, but was almost immediately distracted by an exploding star.

René appeared later in the movie as a Nexus illusion (as part of Picard's perfect idyllic reality), but still, their deaths were barely touched on, and easy to miss if you haven't seen the episode Family recently.