5. Lieutenant Van Mayter

Episode: ‘In Theory’’ (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Season Four)

Actor: Georgina Shore

Death by: Decking.

Captain’s log: Poor Lt (Junior Grade) Van Mayter. One minute she’s calmly performing her duties, helping Commander La Forge investigate a series of dark matter deformations that are causing holes to appear in the ship randomly, the next… she’s in one.

Van Mayter’s death is never actually seen on screen – the budget conscious producers chose to simply have her appear half sunk into the deck. Not good for the body, that.

And she’s only an engineer, to boot – the poor woman didn’t even sign up for truly dangerous security work.

Sample from death note to family: “Dear Mr Van Mayter, Your wife has tragically met her end here on the Enterprise D. I won’t got into details, but suffice to say, she’s half the woman she was.

Just a little joke to lighten the grief, there. We have decided to leave her where she is, just with a freshly replicated tablecloth draped over her so no one stumbles across her – literally.

You are welcome to take the next shuttlecraft out and lay flowers on her head. Yours, Jean-Luc Picard, Captain.”