#captain material

He waited for them all to come off the pitch and spoke to each and every one of them.

We see Lt. Hansen three times in The Original Series. The first two appearances occur during both Menagerie I and Menagerie II. While Kirk and Spock were on Starbase 11, Hansen seems to have been in command at that point. But if not then, Spock definitely turned over command to him when he was about to turn himself in to Dr. McCoy for treason. The first photo depicts Lt. Hansen returning control of the ship to Captain Kirk. In the second half of The Menagerie, Hansen appears in his assigned duty as helmsman. 

The third time comes during Court Martial. Lt. Hansen mans the helm again as he did in The Menagerie. What is interesting, though, is that he is a member of the skeleton crew who stayed on the ship when the rest had been transported down to Starbase 11. 

It’s always dangerous to make assumptions based on so little evidence. But it appears perhaps Hansen was another one of those wearing command gold who had already risen to the level where he could be entrusted with the command of the Enterprise for brief periods of time. And his skill as helmsman (in absence of Sulu) must have been regarded highly enough to be one of the few considered to be essential personnel during the events of “Court Martial.”  Again, this is all speculation on the writer’s part and is no way stated in any episode he appeared in.  The actor who portrayed Lt. Hansen, Hagan Beggs, already knew James Doohan before getting the part. Beggs was born in Northern Ireland but raised mainly in Canada, the two had run into each other before in the Canadian acting circles. Beggs not only had acting experience, but he had experience as a set decorator and props coordinator as well.  But Hagan claims he did not get his part because he knew Doohan. His agent had sent him over to audition for the character of Lt. Hansen. Once he had the part, he remembers being in awe of the Enterprise bridge set. He had acted on TV sets before, but nothing like this one. Since he was already in “The Menagerie” and it was being filmed back to back with “Court Martial,” he was again given the part of Lt. Hansen for that one as well. Beggs remembers that most of the crew, such as Leonard Nimoy and Nichelle Nichols, were very nice to him on the set. But as soon as William Shatner finished his lines on the set either during rehearsal or filming, he immediately returned to his trailer. So Hagan never had a chance to get to know Shatner, although he remembers Gene Roddenberry as also being very friendly. At the end of Court Martial, Roddenberry expressed his regret that he would not be keeping the part of Lt. Hansen because he wanted to spread the role of helmsman out more, which Hagan took to mean he needed a more diverse crew. However, Beggs did not suffer for work after Star Trek. In fact, at some point, he decided to remove his role as Lt. Hansen from his resume because he thought pushing a few levers did not look too impressive. However, he later realized the phenomenal popularity of the show and put it back on.