4. Tuvok: The Return of a Vulcan to a Starfleet Bridge
The Tuvok character was instrumental from day one of the Voyager series for two reasons: the character itself was an homage to the classic and original Trek series by once again having a Vulcan as part of the ship's senior staff for the first time since Captain Kirk's reign; but more importantly the Tuvok character was also largely responsible for landing Voyager in the Delta Quadrant as the ship pursued the rebel Maquis vessel on which Tuvok was an undercover agent in the series pilot episode. These two reasons alone are enough to warrant the Tuvok character a place in the top 5 awesome reasons in this column; not to mention that Tim Russ did an awesome job carrying the Vulcan torch for the full 7 seasons while constantly taking a "#2" backseat to the lackluster Chakotay character and his "#1" position on the crew.