Ben Finney

Lieutenant Commander Benjamin "Ben" Finney is a one-shot character from the Star Trek franchise, appearing in Star Trek: The Original Series in the episode "Court Martial."

Finney was formerly an instructor at Starfleet Academy, where he befriended one of his students, future Enterprise captain James T. Kirk; the two were close to the point where Finney named his daughter, Jame, after Kirk. The two were later assigned to the USS Republic, where Kirk later relieved him on watch for a negligent act that would have resulted in the destruction of the ship. Finney was reprimanded and sent to the bottom of the promotion list, and he held a bitter grudge against Kirk for making it impossible for him to advance through the ranks to Captain.

Finney was later assigned as Records Officer to the USS Enterprise under the command of Kirk. In 2267, he is apparently killed during an ion storm while in an observation pod, and the ship's records show that Kirk is responsible for his death, leading to Kirk being put on trial. It eventually comes out that the Enterprise's computer records were tampered with and that Kirk is in fact being framed by Finney, who is revealed to still be alive.

Kirk goes to confront Finney in the ship's engineering section, where Finney appears and holds him at gunpoint. After disarming Kirk, he reveals that he was trying to frame Kirk out of revenge. Worse, he's also sabotaged the Enterprise, causing its orbit to decay and thus endangering everyone on board. Kirk tries to talk him down, but when Finney rants about a conspiracy within Starfleet to keep him down, he informs him that Jame is aboard the Enterprise. This causes Finney to babble worriedly and thus give Kirk the chance to fight and defeat his former friend.

Once defeated, Finney tearfully reveals what he did to sabotage the Enterprise, allowing Kirk to enter a Jefferies tube and repair the damage, saving the Enterprise.

Finney is later said to be on trial, with Samuel T. Cogley (who represented Kirk during his court martial) acting as his lawyer.