In just about any story, whether it be a TV show or a written work of fiction, the writer often finds he or she needs to include a nameless character in the mix in order to make the story more interesting or carry a scene. I used to refer to these as throw away characters since many of the ones I included in my stories shared the same fate of the extra crewman Captain James T. Kirk often included in his away team. You know the guy, (and they were always guys in the early Star Trek days), the one who went behind the boulder and was zapped.