Happy Birthday, Alex Datcher (tomorrow – June 6). Datcher played Ensign Taitt in TNG’s “Descent, Part II”. Memory Alpha describes her role as follows:
Taitt was one of the few officers of the skeleton crew left behind after most of the crew transported down to the Borg planet in search of Lieutenant Commander Data. Taitt served as a tactical officer while Doctor Beverly Crusher was in command. She was slightly hesitant to accept responsibility and was later relieved after Lieutenant Barnaby returned to the ship, although Crusher ordered her to remain on the bridge at the science station. The Enterprise-D was subsequently forced to hide in the corona of a star, trapped by the Rogue Borg ship. Using information from her honors thesis, Taitt developed a plan to fire a carefully aimed particle beam to create a solar fusion eruption which would engulf the Borg vessel and allow the Enterprise-D to escape. The plan worked, and Crusher commended Taitt for her original thinking.
Taitt is a good example of how you can write and portray a named, relatively complex female character of colour within the span of a single episode, even without making them the centre of the entire plot.
Alex Datcher was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1962 and is still appearing in TV and movies.
