Ensign Dan was a Starfleet officer in the late 24th and early 25th centuries, seemingly never ranking up beyond Ensign due to always being relieved of duty. Over the years, he served as science officer, security officer, operations officer and helmsman. (Star Trek: Phoenix-X)
History
During the Occupation of Bajor, Ensign Dan lived on Earth's moon. ("Factors of Xenology")
USS Xena
In 2374, Ensign Dan was serving aboard the USS Xena. During a mapping mission on the shuttlecraft Lime with Commander Night Gotens in the Tiloniam system, the USS Phoenix stumbled upon them minutes before they were all ambushed by a Dominion attack that also served as a test run for the J3 torpedo. During this test, the Tiloniam star was exploded, forcing him to witness several Starfleet starships to help evacuate a small population of colonized Tilonians. ("The Tiloniam System")
USS Phoenix-X
After the destruction of the Tiloniam system in 2374, Ensign Dan and Night Gotens were transferred to the USS Phoenix-X at Deep Space 9. While questioning the legitimacy of his new Captain being a Changeling, Daniel relieved Ensign Dan of duty for the first time. ("The Tiloniam System")
During the Phoenix-X being in transit to rendezvous with the USS Enterprise-E, upon reporting for duty, Ensign Dan was relieved by Captain Daniel.
Later, when Deep Space 9 was trapped in the Bajoran wormhole, Daniel relieved Ensign Dan six times in one hour. When the crew were brainstorming how to save the station, Daniel relieved the Ensign for forcing credit for ideas.
When the Phoenix-X set out to find the USS Voyager, Ensign Dan was relieved for an overt outburst of joy. Later, he was relieved in his quarters when he questioned Daniel for pouring out of his faucet. ("Capital Shakedown")
In an attempt to stop being relieved, Ensign Dan pledged to always know what was going on but was too late when he missed the key inciting incident that escalated prisoner-exchange tension between the Phoenix-X and the Tarak. Investigating in the background, he learned, through Ensign Whui, that the conflict began with a disagreement at Cetacean operations between Daniel and Agenos. When revealing that he learned Cetacean ops was going to be turned into a library, he was scolded for rehashing information everyone already knew and was thusly relieved of duty. ("Missed the Mishap")
Later, Ensign Dan introduced the Bajoran trove drink to Gotens, unintentionally causing him to become relentlessly nostalgic. At the same time, Daniel recruited Ensign Dan to observe and take notes during their first meeting with Task Force Epsilon. During this, a poor performance by Ensign Dan frustrated Daniel enough to put off the other Captains and it wasn't until Ensign Dan saved Gotens in front of everyone that the other Captains gained confidence in the Phoenix-X. Despite the success, Daniel relieved Ensign Dan of duty for causing it all in the first place.
Immediately after, during the Dominion incursion in the Flortarios system, Ensign Dan was unrelieved in order to remotely instigate a computer virus onto the Dominion attack ships. When learning the virus was the Bajoran trove in gaseus form and that it caused the Jem'Hadar and Vorta to fall into a ridiculous frenzy, Daniel re-relieved the Ensign. ("The Bajoran Trove")
In 2375, Daniel failed to relieve Ensign Dan of duty when the Ensign overtly listed the Phoenix-X's unique characteristics as he was vacuuming the carpet. Later, Ensign Dan chased a kid who had evidence to clear Red's dishonor and, by the end of the ordeal, had moved onto an upgraded vacuum. ("Betrayal and Honor")
Later, after being rejected by Elly in BOB's ad-hoc night club, Ensign Dan changed his demeanor to come off tougher. During this, he failed to connect with Gotens and was relieved by him, failed to connect with fellow Bajorans Keno and Ligus, and lost a fight with Cardassian visitors Loma and Charco. Learning his lesson, he stopped exploiting real issues for himself and was relieved once again by Daniel after revealing the Phoenix-X had a night club. ("Factors of Xenology")
Vagrant service
In 2391, Ensign Dan concluded his official service aboard the Phoenix-X, however he, along with his crewmates, would often be recalled to the ship by Night Seifer for short missions under the guise of supporting a decades-long project to defeat a known future Omni Nest coming to the Tilonian system. ("Celestial Dynamics")
In 2393, he was sent to support Teketekon Station's preparations for its upcoming full Cardassian compliment but ran into Seifer there and was promptly relieved of duty. ("The Next Lower Decks")
In 2404, Ensign Dan, the crew of the Phoenix-X and a large number of other starships were caught in a massive molecular reversion field, intermixed with an ion storm, caused by Night Seifer. The result of being trapped in this phenomenon caused him and everyone involved to undergo a reduction in age. The trauma from the accident caused all included to temporarily lose years of memories and retake Starfleet Academy. ("Delta Recruit", "Celestial Dynamics")
- Retaking the Academy aligns Ensign Dan with Star Trek Online.
USS Phoenix-X redux
In 2410, Ensign Dan was serving aboard the Phoenix-X again, this time under Oroku Seifer and as helmsman. ("Nightmare Anomaly")
Biography
No matter what, Ensign Dan was always referred to with "Ensign" before his name, and was known for constantly being relieved of duty almost every shift due to stubborn behavior. Captain Daniel once speculated that "Ensign" was his first name. ("False Management")
Appendices
| USS Phoenix (NCC-65420-X) senior staff | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2374-2377 (Season 1) |
Daniel/Cell | Night Gotens | Armond | Kugo | Red | Kayl | Lox | Shane | Wallace | Ensign Dan | |||||
| 2377-2379 (Season 2) |
Night Seifer | ||||||||||||||
| 2379-2383 (Season 3) |
RaeLuna | Amp | Trunks | ||||||||||||
| 2383-2391 (Season 4) |
Armond | Red | Kayl | Omega | Mayhem | Wallace | |||||||||
| 2391-2397 (Season 5/6/7) |
Night Seifer | Tong | Gewdeque | Hachi | Briggs | Xyrenia | Veker | Elly | |||||||
| 2397-2404 (Season 6/7) |
Night Seifer (clone) | ||||||||||||||
| 2410 (Season 4/5/6) |
Oroku Seifer | Armond | Kugo | Ensign Dan | Kayl | Lox | |||||||||
Background information
- As the first episodes of the first season were role-play, characters Gotens was played by Hawku, and Daniel was played by DL. Ensign Dan was an accidental creation, misunderstood to be played by DL at the beginning (as "Dan", in the first scene of "The Tiloniam System" with Gotens on the shuttle). When it was changed to not be, "Dan" was quickly re-written as "Ensign Dan". This miscommunication led Ensign Dan to be constantly be written as "relieved of duty" in nearly every episode as an in-joke.
- In Star Trek: Phoenix-X, Ensign Dan was always written with "Ensign" as part of both his name and rank. Even in descriptive paragraphs where other characters would normally be referred to without their rank, Ensign Dan would consistently be described as "Ensign Dan". Although, it is not necessarily the character's first name, it is the name of the character.
- Ensign Dan, in his fused title and name only, is also a parody of Lieutenant Dan from Forrest Gump.
- For nearly every episode of Star Trek: Phoenix-X Season 1, Ensign Dan was relieved of duty at least once. The same went for Season's 3 and 4, although it is certain that every episode in those seasons had him relieved of duty.
- In Season 2, not one single episode has Ensign Dan relieved of duty.
- Several Captains and their crew, from Star Trek: Phoenix-X, share the same experiences from the video game missions of Star Trek Online. It is a soft-break of the fourth wall that they all are semi-conscious of this whilst interacting with each other. The only differing experiences between Captains and crew are depicted through in-story from the Star Trek Online: Literary and Unofficial Literary Challenges.
Images
