Memory Alpha
Register
Advertisement
Memory Alpha

Captain Wainwright was a member of the United States Army Air Forces in the 1940s. In that capacity, he assisted Lieutenant General Denning in investigating the crash landing of an extraterrestrial spacecraft in Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947.

Wainwright was responsible for ordering an Air Forces member in Roswell to retract his statement to the press that a spacecraft had been recovered, and issued a statement claiming that they had only recovered a weather balloon. In the meantime, the three alien occupants of the craft, who were actually the Ferengi Quark, Rom, and Nog, who had accidentally traveled back in time via time warp from the year 2372, were kept in an examination room on a military base, while Denning and Wainwright attempted to ascertain the possible national security threat that they posed.

Although Quark insisted that they only wanted to make a profit by selling advanced technology from the future to the Humans, Denning and Wainwright remained convinced that they were part of an alien invasion force. Interrogating the three Ferengi, Wainwright attempted to force them to admit to their true intentions, and even threatened them with a scalpel. In response to this, Garland, an Army nurse, and her fiancé, Professor Jeff, incapacitated Wainwright and helped the Ferengi to escape.

The Ferengi subsequently retrieved their shuttle from Hangar 18 on the other side of the base, and were able to return to their own time by recreating the time warp. Afterward, General Denning issued orders that the cover story of a weather balloon-recovery remain intact, and that the public not be made aware of the actual events which had transpired. (DS9: "Little Green Men")

Wainwright was played by James G. MacDonald.
The short story "The Aliens Are Coming!" features Wainwright interviewing John Christopher soon after the events of TOS: "Tomorrow is Yesterday". Wainwright also appears in the novels From History's Shadow and Elusive Salvation. In all three stories, his first name is given as James. From History's Shadow stated that he was born in 1917 and depicted him as still being alive in 1996, suffering from Alzheimer's.

External link[]

Advertisement