SAMANTHA WILDMAN

Greetings everyone! As this article releases the same day as Star Trek Voyager: Across the Unknown, I wanted to wish everyone who has the game a Happy Launch Day!

For the fans of the adventures and crew of NCC-74656, this is a great day to celebrate all things Voyager. And, with thanks to Tony Pi, who gave me his blessing to add to the extensive “Featured Crew” series, I get to talk about one of my favorite members of Voyager’s crew: Ensign Samantha Wildman.

Most of us know and remember Ensign Wildman as the mother of the beloved character, Naomi Wildman. While being Naomi’s parent is an undeniably important part of Samantha’s life, this article will focus mostly on her professional experiences while serving on Voyager.

Nancy Hower, the actor who played Ensign Wildman, presented a character that was not only a competent officer, but also grounded, devoted, kind, and eminently likable. “Sam,” as Tom Paris referred to her affectionately, brought out a softer side in every major crew member with whom she interacted. Even the most stalwart, such as Seven of Nine and Tuvok, lost a bit of their edge in her presence, in their own ways.

IMAGINING SAMANTHA WILDMAN
FOR STAR TREK ADVENTURES

According to the fan wiki, Memory Alpha, the character of Ensign Wildman either appeared or was mentioned eight times in the seven seasons that Star Trek: Voyager aired. She took part in some crucial storylines, and it is from these plots that we can fill in the different elements of her character sheet (available in PDF format at the end of this article). Because I am focusing on Wildman during her final years of service aboard Voyager, I skipped over the “Novice” option typically chosen for a junior officer at the Career Length stage of character creation, and went with “Experienced” instead.

So, what do we know about Samantha Wildman?

She was a science officer: Established early on as an exobiologist, much of Wildman’s contribution was within the discipline of the sciences. During a Vidiian attack, she suggested a biochemical means of defeating their boarding parties. When Voyager’s sensors detected Omega particles, she was assigned a position on Seven of Nine’s team to construct a harmonic resonance chamber. Based on these examples, let’s give her Focuses in Xenobiology, Biochemistry, and Molecular Physics. Rounding out her scientific duties, Talents such as Applied Research and Technical Expertise are helpful.

She worked well in groups: Sam was almost always seen serving as part of a team or as a helper. While the main characters took the lead on mission directives, she worked steadily behind the scenes, supporting them with her expertise when needed. As a background scientist, she most likely had stronger ratings in Attributes such as Control and Reason, and less emphasis on Daring. Working well in groups is aided by good social skills and empathy, so we can give her Presence and Insight Attributes some attention as well. Finally, we can choose the Collaboration (Science) Talent, to reflect her frequent team contributions.

She was cross-trained: Although primarily a science officer, Ensign Wildman was seen a handful of times assisting in Engineering, often around power systems. In addition, she was skilled with the functions of the Delta Flyer, serving as a specialist on away missions. Let’s give her a strong allotment of points in the Science, Engineering, and Conn Departments, as well as Focuses in Power Systems and Delta Flyer Operations.

She had a rich personal life: Through her daughter, we saw aspects of Samantha’s life off-duty. We know she was married to the Ktarian named Greskrendtregk. She engaged in a number of hobbies with Naomi, such as kadis-kot and children’s holoprograms like “The Adventures of Flotter,” as well as swimming. A Focus in Ktarian Culture is reasonable, and an argument could be made for any of those activities to serve as her pastime. Let’s go with Swimming, since it seems children’s holoprograms and kadis-kot were mainly Naomi’s interests.

She was full of parental guidance: We can discern a lot of Ensign Wildman’s Values through the life-lessons she passed on to Naomi. Mottos such as “cooperation is more important than competition” and “two heads are better than one” were touchstones for her precocious daughter. Samantha also instilled a value of service in Naomi, and trusted Neelix enough to make him her godfather, so let’s give Sam the Values of “pull your own weight” and “I trust Neelix to look after my daughter.” Naomi also talked about her mother’s belief that exploration was important. We can represent this mindset with the Talent available to Humans, Spirit of Discovery.

SAMANTHA WILDMAN – POST VOYAGER ERA

Much like Harry Kim, Wildman was probably not able to be promoted above the rank of Ensign due to a lack of positions available within the static nature of the ship’s command structure. However, thanks to information gleaned from the Commemoration Wall of the U.S.S. Athena (Star Trek: Starfleet Academy: “Kids These Days”), we now know the highest rank Wildman achieved during her career in Starfleet.

WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW FOR STAR TREK: STARFLEET ACADEMY

CLICK TO REVEAL IMAGE

Original screen capture from Star Trek: Starfleet Academy. (2026) Alex Kurtzman. Paramount +

(Image credit: Jörg Hillebrand on Bluesky (@gaghyogi4.bsky.social). Also, many thanks to Hillebrand for his extensive efforts to compile and organize all of the names on the Athena’s Commemoration Wall).

Outside of novels and other beta canon media, we can only guess what happened to Ensign Wildman after Voyager returned home. So, I put the question to you: What do you think Samantha Wildman’s Starfleet service history looked like after Voyager returned to Federation space? Let me know your ideas in the comments below.