Changes: M'Ress

Starfleet career

M'Ress' primary role on the Enterprise was that of the relief communications officer, a role she fulfilled in the absence of Lieutenant Uhura. Her duties included activating intership and intraship communications, as well as the activation of any alert signals ordered by the Captain. Occasionally M'Ress, as with Uhura, also acted as temporary science officer when first officer Commander Spock was part of landing parties or on away missions.

In 2269, M'Ress operated the communication channels for Captain Kirk when he was contacted by a Romulan commander whose battle cruisers had intercepted the Enterprise for violating the Neutral Zone. (TAS: "The Survivor")

During the Enterprise's visit to the Shore Leave Planet, later that year, M'Ress was key in coordinating between Captain Kirk's landing party and the duty officer, Lieutenant Commander Scott. Among the messages she coordinated was a notice to the crew that all shore leaves were canceled until further notice, when it was determined that the planet's master computer had malfunctioned. During the attempted recovery of Uhura, who had been taken hostage, M'Ress arranged for the transport of a phaser bore. As the rescue attempt continued, M'Ress coordinated between the shuttlebay and Scott, relaying notice of the emergency rescue party's attempted shuttlecraft launch. When it was finally realized that the planet was somehow responsible for the ship's malfunctions, M'Ress became concerned about the change in the planet's behavior – from providing fun and amusement to hostility. When Scott tried to maneuver the ship from orbit, he requested a printout of the guidance computer's last orders. In reviewing the orders, she noted that something was very strange, and that the only reason why the new orders were not being carried out was because Lieutenant Arex had had all the engine controls manually locked. As the Enterprise crew continued their attempt to rescue the landing party, M'Ress reported that communications remained jammed. Once the situation on the surface was resolved, and communications were restored, M'Ress passed along word from Kirk that shore leave was to commence immediately. (TAS: "Once Upon a Planet")

She was again on duty on the bridge when Harry Mudd was taken aboard the Enterprise from Motherlode. She monitored ship-to-shore communications with the rescue party after Mudd had taken Christine Chapel hostage. When Spock beamed down to the surface of the planet to help Kirk find Mudd and Chapel, M'Ress also manned the main science station, for Spock, to keep track of the whereabouts of Spock and Kirk. (TAS: "Mudd's Passion")

During the Enterprise's visit to Lactra VII, M'Ress was stationed on the bridge when a Lactran youth, who had been inadvertently beamed on board the ship, came onto the bridge. M'Ress was initially startled by the creature's sudden appearance. She then inquired what she wanted everyone to do after the Lactran had picked Scott up. She and the rest of the crew left the bridge while Scott attempted to communicate with the creature. (TAS: "The Eye of the Beholder")

M'Ress continued duty as the relief communications officer in 2270, where she was stationed when Uhura was temporarily in command of the bridge during the Enterprise's mission to Delta Theta III. (TAS: "Bem")

M'Ress was again on the bridge later that year, when the Enterprise's computer fell under the influence of an energy field. As the crew of the ship fell victim to numerous practical jokes, M'Ress noticed fog emerging from the turbolift door. When she pointed out the anomaly, Kirk – who suspected her observation was another practical joke – told her, "Really, M'Ress, you're going to have to be a little more clever than that." M'Ress later reported McCoy, Sulu, and Uhura were still in the recreation room and not responding to the captain's call to stations. (TAS: "The Practical Joker")

During an account that was anything but canon detailing an attack on the Enterprise by several D7 class battle cruisers; moments before the ship was destroyed by the Klingons, the captain of the Enterprise told Spock that he knows what to do. Spock asks him how they should go about it, since their warp drive and impulse drive was down, making retreat an impossibility. The captain then tells Spock "there's more than one way to skin a cat."

M'Ress immediately turns around from her console, looking at her commanding officer, clearly offended by what he had said. The captain then apologizes to her, not meaning anything by it. She then extends her claws and asks him how he would feel if she said "there's more than one way to disembowel a Human." The captain continues trying not to offend her, only to end up offending many other crewmembers on the bridge. Due to being distracted by everyone's resistance to his use of figures of speech, he was unable to properly give his orders to get them away from the Klingons, and as a result, the ship was destroyed. (VST: "Skin a Cat")

Another account that described a nonsensical setting in which the crews of the Enterprise and the USS Cerritos were actors in their own cartoon shows, a party was being celebrated on the bridge of the Enterprise in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of their show. Unfortunately, the fun turns into an argument when the TOS era crew became offended by a remark that Tendi made, which implied that there show wasn't as good as her show. M'Ress was offended when Tendi told her that their animation was a little stiff. M'Ress then told Tendi that "maybe you guys move around too much; you ever think of that?" At one point Scotty and Arex took their pants off to mimic the orgy scene from Tendi's cartoon and M'Ress took off her bra and they all ran around in circles on their bridge pretending to have an orgy.

Tendi asked them to put their pants back on, and then she told them what she meant to say was that she's standing on the shoulders of giants. M'Ress was offended by this metaphor since it implied that they were to be pack mules. The argument continued until William T. Riker with his trombone and Hikaru Sulu with his keyboard exited the turbolift and stepped onto the bridge. They once they realized that there was an argument instead of a party going on they decided to tell them that love was the answer. They even decided to play their own brand of music to celebrate. M'Ress joined in playing a tambourine. However, the party was interrupted by an attack from another fleet of Klingon D7 class battle cruisers, which caused an explosion on the bridge. (VST: "Walk, Don't Run")

In 2381, a framed photograph of M'Ress was among several others displayed on the walls of a bar on Starbase 25. (LD: "An Embarrassment Of Dooplers")

Relationships

Arex

In 2270, M'Ress shared lunch in the mess hall with Arex, who invited Scott to join them, but Scott declined because he was just going to grab a sandwich and get back to work. At the time, however, the ship's computer was under the influence of an energy field, which caused the food synthesizer to go haywire. Observing the resulting effect, a mountain of food piling up at Scott's feet, M'Ress began to laugh, apologetically, before Scott accused the two of causing the practical joke. When Arex defended himself and M'Ress, Scott told them to tell that to the captain, because he was going to put the two on report for the incident. (TAS: "The Practical Joker")

Spock

In 2269, upon hearing Spock's passion-filled request to accompany an away team to rescue Christine Chapel, she responded to Montgomery Scott's surprised reaction, "Spock? In love?" by agreeing with the engineer's disbelief: "I can't imagine." (TAS: "Mudd's Passion")

Montgomery Scott

M'Ress had a brief romantic interest in Scott, while the ship was under the influence of Harry Mudd's love potion which had inadvertently spread through the ship's ventilation system. M'Ress' interest in Scott came in response to a joke he had made, to which she replied, "You're funny, and very attractive for a Human." Once the effects of the potion wore off, and Scott began to complain of a "hangover to shame all previous hangovers," M'Ress snarled, "Not so loud, you fool." In response, Scott snapped back, stating, "Yeah, well, all of a sudden, I don't like you much, either." (TAS: "Mudd's Passion")

Appendices

Appearances

Background information

The voice of M'Ress ^file info was provided by Majel Barrett in Star Trek: The Animated Series, and by Cristina Milizia in Star Trek: very Short Treks.

In the final draft script of "Mudd's Passion", M'Ress was described as "a felinoid female, delicate, sleek, reminding one of an Earth Siamese or Abyssinian cat." The same script went on to say, "Her fur is a soft cream color; her voice has a distinctive purr in it."

According to M'Ress' Lincoln Enterprises biography, she graduated from Starfleet Academy "three years ago", specializing in communications and computer translator systems. She quickly rose in rank to lieutenant in a mere two years after graduation. Prior to her assignment on board the Enterprise, she had served aboard a scout and the USS Hood. The same biography states that M'Ress was close friends with Uhura and Nurse Chapel. In her spare time, she pursued her interests in Federation and galactic planetary histories, including the areas of anthropology and archaeology. Her artistic interests included writing free-form poetry and performing in the ship's small theater company.

Apocrypha

In the Star Trek: New Frontier novels, her full name is given as Shiboline M'Ress.

M'Ress appeared in the Peter Pan Records story entitled "Passage to Moauv". However, in the comic that accompanied the record, she was shown with green hair, blue skin, and no feline features.

She also appeared briefly in the novels The Galactic Whirlpool and Provenance of Shadows. She later made several appearances in the first volume of DC's Star Trek comics, which was set after Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home and, after a time jump into the 24th century, became a regular character in the New Frontier novel series.

In the DC Comics series, from "The Stars in Secret Influence" to "Haunted Honeymoon", Hikaru Sulu and M'Ress have a brief relationship.

The novels and comics provide the following information about her family:

• M'Mar is her mother
• M'Nault is her sire ("The Ambergris Element" novelization in Star Trek Log 5)
• M'Nass is her little sister
• M'Rest and M'Sitt are her brothers

She is briefly referenced in The Face of the Unknown as being Uhura's trainee, indicating that her assignment to the Enterprise predated Arex's, as his transfer was imminent, but had not yet happened by the end of the novel.

External links

• M'Ress at Memory Beta, the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• M'Ress at Wikipedia