Hansen ( Lieutenant ) Lieutenant Hansen was a male Human Starfleet officer who lived during the mid - 23rd century . He served in the command division aboard the under Captain James T . Kirk , during a historic five - year mission that starship undertook . Hansen served as one of the ship ' s helmsmen in 2267 . That year , Hansen was at the helm when the " Enterprise " encountered an extremely powerful ion storm , during which the ship ' s records officer , Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Finney , was apparently killed . Later , as the " Enterprise " was trapped in a decaying orbit over Starbase 11 , Hansen manned the helm as Captain Kirk initiated attempts to repair the ship ' s primary energy circuit s , which had been sabotage d by Finney . ( ) Later that year , during a return visit to Starbase 11 , Hansen was placed in temporary command of the " Enterprise " when Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Commander Spock , Kirk ' s first officer , transported to the surface in order to investigate a mysterious message that apparently had been sent from the starbase . Spock later relieved Hansen of command while secretly attempting to illegally transport Fleet Captain Christopher Pike to Talos IV . When Spock was forced to confess his subterfuge , he transferred operational command back to Hansen , who subsequently transferred it to Kirk , upon Kirk ' s return to the ship . ( ) Appendices . Background information . Lieutenant Hansen was played by Canadian actor Hagan Beggs . The role Hansen plays in " Court Martial " and the " The Menagerie " two - parter was originally written for Sulu . As such , Hansen wasn ' t included in either of the scripts for those episodes , which featured Sulu instead , as did the shooting schedule for " Court Martial " . Although he knew both James Doohan and William Shatner prior to appearing on , the casting of Hagan Beggs as Lieutenant Hansen wasn ' t due to either . " " It came about by my agent at that time sending me out to see about that role , " " Beggs clarified . " " It wasn ' t a case of Doohan saying you gotta see this Canadian guy . " " ( " " ) Clearly using the actor ' s first name as a basis , the call sheets for " Court Martial " consistently referred to this character as " Hagan " . The part of Lieutenant Hansen was discontinued by Gene Roddenberry . Hagan Beggs remembered , " " Gene brought me in to his office after we finished shooting and said , ' Everything is fine with your work but I ' m making a change in the helmsman ; I think I need to spread this out a bit more . So thank you very much , but I want to try to make it bigger – I think it ' s got great possibilities . ' I said , ' Okay , ' and went on to do some other shows , and didn ' t think much about it . " " ( " " ) Beggs further related , " " I believe I was removed from the helmsman position because they decided to have more of a flavor than the basic North American white person . They went with someone else . " " ( " " # 130 , p . 75 ) Hagan Beggs was initially very humble about having appeared as Hansen , but , years after leaving the role , Beggs reassessed this viewpoint . " " It wasn ' t until a few years later , when the show was gaining renewed popularity in reruns , that I even thought I should put it back on my resume as being involved , " " Beggs explained . " " I ' d always felt slightly embarrassed because I ' m thinking , ' My God , I ' m literally sitting at a board pushing a couple of levers and people are giving me this great credit for being on this show , you know . ' Yes , I did take the captain ' s chair at one point , but didn ' t see my part as being that important . In time , I became awakened to how popular this show was and how much it meant to so many people . It ' s phenomenal . Where it has all gone is totally amazing . It ' s by default that I ' m luckily in the iconic grouping , and it was simply , honest to God , by me just being there . Because what I had to do was pretty simple . " " ( " " ) Talking approximately twenty years after appearing as Hansen , Beggs speculated , " " I don ' t think those who are avidly interested in " Star Trek " would put me together [ with Lt . Hansen ] at all . I ' m bald now , and in those days , I had hair . " " ( " " # 130 , p . 75 ) The " " novel " Best Defense " gives his character the name of " Beggs Hansen " .