Lieutenant Pete Durst was an operations division Starfleet officer, assigned to USS Voyager prior to it becoming stranded in the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker in 2371.
That year, on Captain Janeway's orders, Durst escorted Lieutenant Paris from the bridge to sickbay, when it appeared Paris had altered the ship's course and had no memory of doing so. Along with Ensign Kim, he later discovered Kes and Tuvok unconscious in a turbolift, apparently having been incapacitated by a heretofore unknown alien. (VOY: "Cathexis")
Later that year, Durst, Paris, and the half-Human, half-Klingon Lieutenant junior grade B'Elanna Torres were inspecting magnesite deposits on the planet Avery III when they were taken captive by the Vidiians. Initially used as a slave laborer, Durst was later killed and had his organs harvested by the Vidiians. The Vidiian chief surgeon Sulan had Durst's face grafted over his own, in an attempt to appear more appealing to the Klingon half of Torres, from whom Sulan had separated her Human side. This attempt was unsuccessful. (VOY: "Faces")
Background information[]
Since Sulan was depicted as having grafted Durst's face onto his own, Brian Markinson portrayed both roles.
Durst was the first on-screen crewmember to die after Voyager's arrival in the Delta Quadrant.
Brian Markinson didn't audition for the role of Durst, though he did audition to play Sulan. "I think they set Durst up in 'Cathexis' to end up having him sacrifice his face for the lust of a Vidiian," the actor reckoned, laughing. "Durst was always meant to bite the dust." Being given the opportunity to portray Durst in two different episodes pleased Markinson. [1]
Durst was additionally once referenced in the first draft script of "Lifesigns" (which meanwhile had the working title "Untitled Doctor"). In that instance, Paris reminded the rest of Voyager's bridge crew, while they were considering whether to aid a terminally ill Vidiian female, that her species had killed Durst.