The Most Devastating Deaths In The Star Trek Franchise

Spanning nearly 60 years, nearly a dozen TV series and 13 feature films, "Star Trek" has had its fair share of stunning surprises, nail-biting climaxes, and adrenaline-pumping excitement. From its earliest days in the 1960s when Captain Kirk led the way to the newest episodes of "Star Trek: Discovery" set in the 32nd century, the franchise's intrepid explorers have faced down all kinds of enemies, solved perplexing problems, and explored those strange new worlds.

Though "Star Trek" has been known for its optimism and sense of pioneering adventure, going toe-to-toe with the Klingons, the Borg, and the Cardassians hasn't been without consequences. While it's not a franchise known for killing off its cast members with the kind of wild abandon seen on "The Walking Dead" or "Game Of Thrones," it's not been without its gut-wrenching losses either. But thanks to its optimistic nature, almost every loss is felt in "Star Trek," whether it was a one-time guest star or a beloved franchise favorite. 

Some deaths we may have seen coming, but were no less traumatic, while others were shocking and unexpected. From 1966 to today, we've taken a look back at the most devastating deaths we've seen in the "Star Trek" franchise. Here's a list of the ones that moved us the most, and reminded us that every life is precious.

"Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan" is a classic for many reasons, including its brilliant villain, its dramatic climax, and of course, the death of Mr. Spock. After the release of "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" in 1979, actor Leonard Nimoy made it clear to producers he wasn't enthusiastic about returning to play Spock again. But they were able to get him back for one more, thanks to a terrific script. "Leonard was very ambivalent about doing another 'Star Trek' movie," said "Wrath of Khan" director Nicholas Meyer. "[Producer] Harve Bennett lured him with the promise of a terrific death scene, which (Shatner) and he played so touchingly." 

In the film, the Enterprise is locked in combat with Khan's stolen Starfleet ship, the USS Reliant, and the ship's engine is damaged. Spock heads down to the engine room to fix the problem, but to do so he must enter the engine core itself, an act that will kill him with deadly radiation. He saves the ship, and gives one final emotional speech to Captain Kirk, uttering the immortal words, "I have been, and always shall be, your friend."

Thankfully, a change of heart on Nimoy's part during filming led to reshoots that set up his return in the follow-up film, "Star Trek III: The Search For Spock." But at the time, his death was a first for Trekkies, who had to watch a beloved and iconic character die before their eyes, while Captain Kirk was helpless to save him.

Though not a major character on "Star Trek," the young Bajoran officer Ensign Sito Jaxa, like Edith Keeler, made an impression on audiences with her wide-eyed optimism and soulful personality. Her first appearance came in the fourth season episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" titled "The First Duty," in which she got caught up in a scandal at Starfleet Academy to cover up the death of a fellow cadet. She would make a surprise return in the Season 7 episode "Lower Decks," where she was now assigned to the Enterprise and up for a promotion.

A relatively light-hearted affair, the episode revolves almost entirely around the lives of four young officers aboard the Enterprise during their crew evaluations, in an offbeat episode that took the spotlight off the main cast. But during the episode, a Cardassian double agent arrives looking for safe passage back home after a debriefing, and Jaxa is recruited by Captain Picard to help. Pretending to be a Bajoran prisoner, she will make his trip more believable, with him posing as a returning bounty hunter. 

At the conclusion of the story however, it's revealed that the plan to return Jaxa to the Enterprise fails, and the young officer is killed by a Cardassian patrol. It's a grim, dark ending to what was otherwise an upbeat episode, and a devastating end to what was a promising new character.

Making her debut in the "Deep Space Nine" episode "Indiscretion," Tora Ziyal is the half-Bajoran, half-Cardassian daughter of the series' main villain, Gul Dukat. The product of an affair while he was the prefect of Bajor, Ziyal and her mother were sent to a neutral planet after the Cardassian Occupation came to an end. But their transport ship, the Ravinok, was lost after an attack by the Breen. Years later, evidence of the Ravinok's crash site surfaces, so Major Kira and Dukat mount a rescue mission and discover Ziyal alive. 

Fearing his daughter's existence might threaten his powerful position in the Cardassian military, Dukat plans to kill Ziyal, but is talked out of it by Kira. Eventually, Ziyal forges a new relationship with her father, and comes to live aboard Deep Space Nine. She forms a sisterly bond with Kira, and even a romantic relationship with the enigmatic former spy Garak. But when the Dominion takes over the station, Ziyal helps the resistance fight back, defying her father. In the climactic moments of the two-part episode that sees Starfleet re-take the station, Dukat can't convince her to leave. In a shocking final twist, Dukat's top lieutenant Damar forces his hand by murdering Ziyal in cold blood. 

Like Sito Jaxa, Ziyal was an upbeat, optimistic character, and one whose presence had added a warmth and earnestness to the series. Her death at Damar's hand did more than devastate the audience too, sending Dukat into a psychotic spiral and turning him from a powerful figure into a broken man.

Though not exactly a death per se, the series finale of "Deep Space Nine" did see the end of corporeal existence for the series' longtime captain, Benjamin Sisko. Having finally accepted his role as the Emissary of the Prophets, Sisko battles against their greatest enemies, the Pah Wraiths. Meanwhile Sisko's most insidious adversary, the Cardassian villain Gul Dukat, has been cast out by his own people, and embraces the Pah Wraiths as a way of getting revenge on his nemesis. In a final showdown in the Bajoran fire caves, the two have it out once and for all.

Though Sisko and the Prophets prevail, the captain's physical body is destroyed, and the crew of Deep Space Nine, the Bajoran people, and his wife and son all mourn his death. It's only in one of the final moments of the series' last episode that it's revealed that Sisko isn't gone, but has simply transcended his physical existence: he is now a Prophet himself. While Sisko vows to return one day, his wife Kasidy openly weeps in his arms before he disappears. The closing shot of the series finds Sisko's son Jake looking longingly out the window of the station in one of the show's most bittersweet moments. 

It was the first time in "Trek" history that a series had ended with the death of a major character. Of course, Sisko is still out there somewhere and could theoretically return, though actor Avery Brooks hasn't performed on screen in more than 20 years.

The "Star Trek" franchise was rebooted in 2009 by J.J. Abrams, and became the kind of fast-paced roller coaster ride the director had become famous for. But if there's one thing Abrams loves more than lens flares, it's tugging at an audience's heart strings in devastating emotional moments, and he did just that in the opening of his first "Star Trek" movie. The film begins aboard the USS Kelvin, a Federation starship that has just encountered a mysterious spatial anomaly, and out of it comes an enormous Romulan starship. After the Romulans kill his captain, first officer George Kirk — played by a then-unknown Chris Hemsworth — takes command and attempts to fight off the enemy ship.

But the battle does not go well, and Lieutenant Commander Kirk, whose wife is about to go into labor in sickbay, orders all hands to abandon ship, while he stays behind to pilot the Kelvin. Having lost their auto pilot, he realizes the only way to save his crew is to set a collision course with the Romulan vessel. The last man on the bridge, Kirk calls to his wife aboard a shuttle, and tells her an emotional goodbye. With the bridge falling apart around him, the husband and wife pick out a name for their son — James Tiberius Kirk — and he tells her he loves her just as the two ships collide in a massive fireball.

Despite only knowing the elder Kirk for a matter of moments, his death is a devastating gut punch for audiences to start the film.

A holdover from "Star Trek: Voyager," the character of Icheb made a surprise appearance in the "Star Trek: Picard" episode "Stardust City Rag" in a flashback to Seven of Nine's days before joining up with the Enterprise captain. But the ex-Borg's return was short-lived, as it was revealed that it was his death that motivated Seven Of Nine's vendetta against the villain Bjayzl. 

Found by Captain Janeway and the starship Voyager aboard a damaged Borg vessel in the sixth season of "Voyager," Icheb and several other Borg children were eventually taken aboard the ship and disconnected from the collective just as Seven Of Nine had been. While the others were returned to their people, Icheb's tragedy was compounded when it was revealed that his parents had bred him as a living weapon against the cybernetic tyrants. Ultimately Icheb would remain on Voyager and return with them to Earth in the series finale. It's later shown that Icheb joined Starfleet, but in "Stardust City Rag" we're shown his grisly end.

Abducted by Bjayzyl so she could harvest his remaining Borg implants, Icheb is ripped apart in an intense and graphic torture scene. Bjayzel is searching for his cortical node, which as it turns out, had been removed and given to Seven Of Nine years before. After Icheb's death, Seven would never be the same, and neither would audiences, many of whom felt that Icheb's graphic death scene had gone too far for "Star Trek."