A Starfleet lieutenant who handled communications on the bridge of the USS Enterprise in 2265 during the ship's disastrous attempt to cross the galactic barrier and the crisis over Gary Mitchell.
Lieutenant Alden serves on the bridge of the USS Enterprise in 2265 and appears in the second pilot, Where No Man Has Gone Before.
He mans the communications station as the ship recovers the recorder marker of the lost SS Valiant and then tries to pass through the energy barrier at the edge of the galaxy, an attempt that kills nine of the crew and burns out the warp drive.
When Kirk takes the crippled ship to the lithium cracking station on Delta Vega, Alden is one of the officers put to work on the repairs alongside Lee Kelso, stripping the automated plant for parts to regenerate the engines. He survives the episode but is not seen again; by the first regular episodes Uhura holds the communications post. He was played by Lloyd Haynes.