Star Trek: The Next Generation, Conn Officers and More

As I was going through the seven seasons of TNG, I couldn't help but notice certain background players being used more than once. Or even just once, in some cases, if they were visually memorable enough. 

These characters are in each section of the ship, and some cross-over into multiple of them. Way too many to mention here, but I thought I'd showcase all * the ones that were at the Conn / Flight Ops station. That's the screen-left/stage-right ops station, between the Captain's chair and the main viewscreen.

* Not quite all, it turns out. Memory Alpha was way ahead of me here. They pretty much picked the show clean over there and should be the definitive resource for anything like the non-exhaustive list below. 

For most of his time on the show, Wesley Crusher was at Conn. After he left, there was a rotating Ensign. Including some that shared the station before and during Wesley's time on the ship, here they are, in no particular order:

Not you.

Ensign Solis
(George de la Pena)

Ensign Torres
(Jimmy Ortega)

Ensign Allenby
(Mary Kohnert)

Ensign Anaya and Ensign Clancy
(Page Leong and Anne Elizabeth Ramsay)

Ensign Dern and Ensign Gibson
(Carlos Ferro and Jennifer Barlow.
Not to be confused with Jenn Barlow, the YouTube Disney Princess.)

Ensign Felton
(Sheila Franklin)

Ensign Graham
(Mary Grundt)

This character from "The Chase" is also listed as Ensign Graham, but I don't think she's actually named in the episode. She's played by Debra Dilley, who was in numerous episodes as numerous species.

Ensign Haskell
(Charles Douglass)

Ensign Levelle
(Dan Gauthier - I tried not to include anyone with a speaking part or too many lines - or larger roles like Ro or O'Brien who sat at Conn sometimes, but made an exception here. Lieutenant, I guess, not  Ensign!)

Ensign McKnight
(Pamela Winslow)

Ensign Monroe
(Jana Marie Hupp)

Most of the above only appear in an episode or two. Not the case with the next three:

Ensign Gates
(Joyce Robinson) Of the later seasons, she seemed to appear the most.

Ensign Rager (Lanei Chapman, showing two of her two-plus hairstyles. She wasn't in as many episodes, but she was one of the kidnapped personnel in "Schisms, below.)

Finally, here's Ensign Jae (Tracee Lee Cocco) who only appears in one or at most two episodes at Conn but is all over the show as a background player.

She's the Captain's date to Data's poetry reading.

And also Riker's date (clearly just to make the Captain jealous, whose neck I'm sure received nothing but eye daggers from her, sitting behind him) to Data and his Faux Mom's violin duet.

Here she is later in life as flanked by Elizabeth Dennehy (Lt. Shelby) and Hallie Tod (Lal)

Here are some Conn folks where I couldn't get a name - I'm sure the answer's out there somewhere - maybe even at Memory Alpha, but I couldn't find it. 

This Ten Forward extra did not sit at Conn. Maybe she was studying for the exam or something.

The woman on the left is a Science Officer of some kind. She's in a few different episodes. The woman on the right is unnamed, but her bowl haircut is somewhat memorable and she appears in several episodes and several stations.

And finally, just a few folks I saw over and over again throughout the show but didn't always catch a name. Most of these got a line or two here and there. There's actually a surprising amount of these; once I started looking at them I realized how many I missed.

Wait, this was an actual guest star, Maddy Calloway (Johanna McCloy). She makes out with Worf.

Here's both of the girls they tried to make work as workplace romances for Geordi: Ensign Gomez (Lycia Naff) and Ensign Tyler (Gina Ravvara).

Ensign Lopez (Tony Cruz.) He was in tons of episodes but only identified once, in "Birthright." Ditto for Michael Moorhead (known only as "Nurse.")

Nurse Martinez (Michel Braveheart). He's listed as "Medical Assistant" but I think he's referred to as a Nurse once or two.

~

Where disagreement exists between any source, Memory Alpha or otherwise, the fault is undoubtedly mine. I like the verisimilitude that recurring background players, used sparingly, lends the show. I'm sure someone would make a more Identity-Politics-oriented argument for (or possibly against) it nowadays. I can't get behind any argument that doesn't look at TNG's lawful and forward-looking (and iFriendly) future as an unsullied positive.