10 Unlikely Characters Who'd Be Perfect For Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

One interesting opportunity for a show like this is to stack the crew with familiar characters we know very little about. Morgan Bateson fits that bill perfectly as a single episode character whose future predicament maintains a certain amount of fan interest.

For those unfamiliar with the TNG episode, Cause and Effect, Bateson was the captain of the USS Bozeman, a ship that was stuck in a causality loop along with the Enterprise-D. However, while the Enterprise was only stuck in the loop for seventeen days, Bateson was trapped for almost a hundred years.

Bateson isn't on screen for very long. After establishing his unenviable predicament, the episode ends and fans are left to speculate about what becomes of this character. While it would be awesome to bring Kelsey Grammar back to reprise the role in Picard or even Lower Decks there is another way to expand on his story.

Bateson's background is essentially a blank slate and as a captain in his middle years it's reasonable to assume that he would have been in Starfleet for some time, probably at least twenty years. If he had served at the beginning of his career as an ensign aboard the USS Enterprise, it would change his random encounter with the Enterprise-D into something more profound.

Exploring Morgan Bateson's past could be just as rewarding as exploring his future. Because he is such an untapped character he could fill any role the writers need on the show. Turning his character from a twist ending into someone people can really care about would make the end of that episode all the more impactful.