Star Trek's Most Overlooked Ensign - An NPC Storyline

Having recently finished playing through Star Trek Elite Force II (and writing about it extensively) I wanted to highlight something that it does which caught me off guard. It’s a level-based first-person shooter set in the Star Trek universe, in case you haven’t heard of this 20-year-old game, and after every level you return to the USS Enterprise-E, commanded by Captain Picard. The budget wasn’t great, so there are only two characters voiced by their original actors, and yet not even Patrick Stewart captured my imagination like botanist Ensign Alison Pearson.

While walking around the Enterprise, the first time I arrived, I decided to stop and listen to two NPCs having a discussion. NPCs talk in lots of games, and honestly I just like to listen and find out what dialogue was written for them. It was Ensign Pearson and an Andorian named Namkcots Sirhc. The Andorian had been assigned to the Hazard Team, while she had just received her dream assignment; Hydroponics. The Andorian mentioned that there were few plants on Andoria, and they were quite exotic, which really captured the human’s attention.

I honestly didn’t expect to see the Ensign again, but upon returning to the ship after a mission there she was, talking to Ensign Derek Russel, the assistant ship's counsellor, in a shuttlebay control room. She explained that plants on Andoria were carnivorous, which he seemed upset by, because he had once been attacked by a Galadorian Venom Weed on an away mission.

After an away mission of my own, I actively began searching for Pearson to see if she would pop up again. Sure enough, she was talking to Russel again, near Astrometrics. She invited him to participate in a holodeck program she was going to use to check out the flora of Andoria, but warned that he might need to bring a weapon. For some reason he needed reminding that the plants were carnivorous, but then he reminded her about holodeck safety protocols, but she brushed it off. After all, how can you truly study plants if you eliminate their ability to interact with their surroundings? He made his excuses and left about as quickly as the game would let him.

Returning to the ship with the Idryll scientists, I located Pearson in the Hazard Team crew lounge, speaking to the ship’s counsellor, N’Tol, about how she had been injured on the holodeck. Pearson explained that she had overrode the safety protocols. When N’Tol heard that it was without authorisation, she decided to cancel the rest of her day’s appointments to focus exclusively on Pearson. More than that, she was going to get Pearson’s shifts covered for the next few days, to allow her to reflect on her actions.

Back on Enterprise, after destroying the Exomorph facility, Pearson was in the transporter room trying to convince the transporter operator to let her beam some lichen into space. It was genetically engineered to survive in a vacuum, so she needed it sent out, then brought back in. However, her proposal hadn’t yet been authorised by Captain Picard, and she clearly didn’t think she needed to wait for it. When the operator suggested she spend more time with sentient life, she complained that she had been assigned to be Recreations Officer by N’Tol for that very purpose.

After interrogating the Ferengi trader, Pearson was talking to Russel again, who brought up the fact that she was the new Recreations Officer, which she showed utter disdain for since it took her away from Hydroponics. He asked why she didn’t want to get out of there and have some fun, but she dismissed it as “your kind just doesn’t understand”. Pearson was human, so this statement should probably have been reported to N’Tol…

The final time that Pearson can be found speaking to someone can actually be missed, as near the end of the game you have to make a decision to visit Ensign Murphy in her quarters or Kleeya in Astrometrics. If you choose Kleeya, then you miss your chance. However, if you choose Murphy you can find her talking to Ensign Chell outside of his quarters!

Pearson is impressed that someone on board finally agrees with her that pure research is more important than anything else. It came out that Chell was aboard Voyager in the Delta Quadrant, and he went on to explain that he had been researching plants. Pearson desperately wanted to read his research and insisted that they go to his quarters right away to do just that.

So, in all I think that Pearson had a happy ending to her storyline, finding someone else on a crew of hundreds actually interested in plants. I do wonder if the game’s writer, Daniel Greenberg, intended on Pearson speaking to Sirhc again but it was cut for whatever reason, as there are gaps between Stardates where missions could have taken place. He didn’t vanish, either, as he can be found speaking to other characters. There are other NPCs who have ongoing conversations — a Vulcan and Denoblian chat about chess a couple of times — as well as characters who appear once just to have a chat, most notably on the Klingon space station.

The whole time that I was looking for Pearson, I was trying to think of another time that I had met NPCs with their own little plotlines and honestly drew a blank. But that can’t be true, surely? I’ve obviously not played every game, but given how much this stood out to me I can’t imagine that I simply glossed over some completely background NPCs being engrossed in their own ongoing plots.

Check out the whole Pearson saga in the video below: