Kurt Bendera was a Maquis fighter who served on the raider Val Jean under Chakotay until 2371. In 2371, the Val Jean and the USS Voyager were both stranded in the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker's array. The Val Jean was destroyed by ramming a Kazon warship while fighting the Kazon-Ogla, and as a result the crew of the Val Jean, Bendera included, joined the crew of the Voyager as Starfleet personnel and traveled on Voyager on its historic trek home from the Delta Quadrant. He served in the ship's engineering department.
While Bendera was still in the Alpha Quadrant, he was present when Chakotay was attacked by an angry group of miners on Telfas Prime, who "disagreed with Chakotay's sense of humor." Bendera, a complete stranger to Chakotay, backed him up and forced the miners to stand down. After Chakotay thanked Bendera, he just grinned and said "I like a good fight." The two were friends afterwards. Bendera also once saved the life of B'Elanna Torres near the Cardassian border. He was also close with fellow Maquis member Hogan. (VOY: "Alliances")
Bendera was on duty in engineering when the Komar took over several crewmembers and when Chakotay took over the body of B'Elanna Torres and ejected the warp core. (VOY: "Cathexis")
He was part of the engineering team which worked in engineering when B'Elanna Torres beamed samples of atomic fragments from the Metreon cloud around Rinax into a test cylinder in engineering. He was seated behind Torres and worked on a console. (VOY: "Jetrel")
Bendera and the other engineers watch the Maquis trainees pass
Bendera was working in engineering when Kenneth Dalby talked to B'Elanna Torres about his training with Tuvok. He was also present in engineering when the Maquis trainees passed to get access to a Jefferies tube. He watched them sceptically. Later, he was working with another engineer on a console behind Torres in engineering when the ship's systems were malfunctioning. (VOY: "Learning Curve")
He was on duty in engineering and worked on a console while talking to another engineer when B'Elanna Torres suggested a solution for the problem with the space-dwelling lifeforms to the captain. (VOY: "Elogium")
Bendera was working on the bridge at an aft station when Voyager discovered a distortion ring in space. He took over at the tactical station while Tuvok was in command of the ship and remained at this station until the senior staff solved the situation and returned to the bridge. He then took over the operations station when Harry Kim left. (VOY: "Twisted")
He was in the mess hall and talking to a fellow officer when Harry Kim and Tom Paris entered and stopped to avoid being seated with Kes. (VOY: "Parturition")
Bendera worked as relief tactical officer while the ship orbited a planet controlled by the Mokra Order and Tuvok was on the planet's surface. (VOY: "Resistance")
Kurt Bendera was killed in 2372 while on duty in main engineering when the ship came under attack from the Kazon-Nistrim. Chakotay arranged the memorial service and gave the eulogy at his funeral, held in the mess hall aboard Voyager.
Bendera was sadly the third crewmember lost to the Kazon. Chakotay and several other Maquis crewmembers tried to convince Voyager captain Kathryn Janeway that the violence was a sign that the ship should perhaps disregard strict Starfleet protocol and adopt some Maquis attitudes. (VOY: "Alliances")
Bendera was played by recurring background actor Ken Gruz who received no credit for this appearance.
He was identified by name in the episode "Alliances".
The character's name is mentioned on a bridge panel of the USS Dauntless as being an active member of the crew. He was listed as an engineer who was on special duty. He was assigned to computer repair of the holodeck. A clear view of the information panel was provided by Dominique Rossier of Wardenlight Studio. [1]
External link[]
- Kurt Bendera at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works