Hello and welcome to the Personnel File, the series where we look into the career and personality
of some of Star Trek’s Iconic characters and this time we’re examining the hapless
and intermittently genius, Reginald Endicott Barclay the third.
As is usual for this series, we will included primarily the canon materials, that is the
episodes he was in and flesh out some of the gaps with Memory beta content, which comes
mostly from Novels, games and the like where it doesn’t conflict with the primary.
So Reginal Barclay was born in 2340, Cleveland, Ohio, Earth. His parents were Reginald Barclay
the second and Alicia Barclay. Wait, 2340? That would make the character 26 by the time
of Next Generation? Seems a little low to me but alright, that date is given from a
game and I don’t have an alternative. So in 2358 at the age of 18 Barclay applied
not to Starfleet Academy, but to the Daystom Institute where he spent the next four years
obtaining his master’s degree in Computer Systems.
He graduated in 2362 and was offered a commission by Starfleet to work on one of their vessels,
the USS Zhukov NCC-26136. He was granted the rank of lieutenant junior
grade and accepts the position of diagnostic engineer.
He worked on the Zhukov for four years and received a commendation from Captain Neil
Gleason. He transferred to the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D
in 2366 where he continued in his role as diagnostics engineer.
His reclusive behaviour was soon noted by his chief and issues were soon raised when
they began to affect his duty. He was written up several times for tardiness. Soon he began
to receive counselling for his addiction to holodecks which had been adversely affecting
his performance. In 2367, the Cytherian’s probe increased
Barclay’s IQ and he led the Enterprise into first contact with the species.
In 2368 during his spare time, he was assisting his crew in their own holodeck programming
endeavours. In 2369, he was involved in the safe rescue
of the crew of the USS Yosemite through a transporter incident in which he overcame
his transporter phobia. In 2370 Lt. Barclay leads his first away mission
to Tarvo. That same year, the Intron Virus, also known
as Barclay’s Protomorphosis Syndrome was inadvertently created and exposed the crew
of the USS Enterprise to its mutative effects. In late 2370, Barclay transferred to Jupiter
Station to work alongside Doctor Lewis Zimmerman in the creation of the EMH Mark I.
He was Promoted to lieutenant in 2372 and transferred to the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E
to take a role in the engineering staff once again.
In 2373 the USS Enterprise E responded to the Borg incursion culminating in the Battle
of Sector 001. At the conclusion of the conflict, the Time Travel Incident took the ship back
to 2063 to Earth’s First Contact. During his time in 2063, he worked on restoring
the NX Phoenix to working order to maintain the timeline.
In 2374, he discovers that the bio-neural gel packs can absorb the energies of the galactic
barrier. Later that year, he applies to “Project
Pathfinder” and transfers to Starfleet Communications Research Centre on Earth. This project’s
goal was to establish long range communications with the USS Voyager in the Delta Quadrant.
During his time here, his addiction to holoprograms risked relapse.
In 2376, Barclay hijacked the Mutara Interdimensional Deep Space Array System to create a micro
wormhole through which real-time two way communication is established for the first time between
the Alpha and Delta quadrants. In 2377, Barclay returns to Jupiter Station
to visit Doctor Lewis Zimmerman and transfers Voyager’s EMH to meet his creator.
Not long after, the Pathfinder project sends through its own Holographic assistant in the
form of Reginal Barclay to help the stranded vessel. However this software had been compromised
and was terminated. From this point on, it’s all content from
beyond the shows. In 2380, Barclay had returned temporarily
to the Enterprise E to act as chief engineer until in 2381 when was reassigned to the prototype
USS Galen NX-86350 2381 saw the USS Galen test its Slipstream
Drive to explore the fringes of the Delta Quadrant.
Throughput 2382 Barclay continued to work on the Pathfinder Programs with a new goal
of using it as a transporter relay and tested it on himself. He now holds the record for
the longest distance transport in history. In 2382 Barclay was requested by Captain Scott
of the USS Challenger NCC-71099, the Starfleet corps of engineers vessel. He was promoted
to Lieutenant commander and assigned as the Second Officer.
When command of the vessel transferred to Commander Geordie LaForge, Barclay was made
chief of Operations. By 2385, Barclay had returned to the USS Galen
NX-86350, possibly around the year 2383 with the transfer of Geordie LaForge to Utopia
Planetia. So that’s all I could piece together for
the timeline of Reginald Barclay the Third. But I would add that an alternate timeline
version of Barclay in 2404 was a commander in Starfleet and had taken a teaching position
in Starfleet Academy, something I could very much see as being his eventual outcome considering
his predilection for roles in laboratories and research.
The recurring trait that makes him such a fan favourite is also his most relatable and
that is his lack of confidence. This affects him on an interpersonal level, which has the
knock on effect of damaging his professional performance.
Many of his ailments and neuroses are symptoms of this self-doubt and therefor perpetuated
by and fuel this destructive mind-set. It was established early on that the man is a
very capable officer, so much so that on graduation from Daystrom, someone in Starfleet took a
gamble on him and offered him a commission. Starfleet does after all accept officers with
a comparable level of education to Starfleet academy, but to see him immediately promoted
to Lt junior grade on his first assignment? Honeslty, I wonder if this would have contributed
to his feelings of inadequacy because after this, he does not advance in rank for 10 years.
As a graduate outside of Starfleet Academy he would never have gone through all the training
that the other officers did for life aboard a Starship, but as a systems engineer, a programmer
in effect responsible for diagnostics and software, the likelihood of him need such
skills was rather small. That is until he managed to secure a position on the USS Enterprise
D, out there on the frontlines of exploration. I suspect that comfortable with his position
on the USS Zhukov, he began to flourish and his natural talent and proficiency shone through
leading to his selection as Enterprise-level material and his transfer, only to once again
withdraw from his new environment and question his own capability. This had the knock on
effect of damaging his work and earning him note in a bad way from his colleagues.
With time and continual counselling however, he was eased into his role although he would
continue to display hypochondriac like behaviour and numerous phobias centred around the unknown.
His experiences with the mind altering probe, transporter incidents and a morphing into
a spider-Reg served as a baptism by fire and after these events, he became noticeably more
inclined to take risks. Without the assistance of his friends to prepare him and help him
through these events, its likely that he would have broken and run back to a research post
somewhere on the first outing, but they helped him uncover the strength he needed to continue
on. Although a lab is where he ended up, I don’t see it as him running away from the
dangers of space exploration and I’ll get to why in a minute.
His passion for holo novels eventually presented him with opportunities several times in his
career, but of course also came with the pitfalls of creating a simulated environment that he
had control over, a safe space that was intoxicating to the easily-flustered man. However, as with
his general work and research, his genius in finding unorthodox solutions catches the
attention of Zimmerman and the Pathfinder lab even had an entire complex holodeck system
for testing purposes that Reg made frequent use of.
He did eventually return from the enterprise to take up more sedate positions such as the
Pathfinder Project, but from “First Contact” and other sources, we can see that he is no
longer scared by the final frontier and routinely returns to ship-side posts, even charting
into the delta quadrant and testing long range transporters on himself.
By the end of his career, he is willing to take risks because the struggle of his life
has not been about overcoming battles or solving puzzles, the latter being something of one
of his strengths to be honest, but by overcoming his own mental blocks. The first step and
achieving anything is choosing to act and if you fail at that first hurdle, which many
of us do, then nothing is achieved. This has been Barclay’s biggest flaw and it’s a
relatable one. No amount of natural talent or hidden genius in one field will help you
if it’s not applied. Watching Barclay overcome these trials is compelling and we see him
develop, not instantly, not premade at the academy, but over time and with help from
his friends and peers. So as usual, I like to drop three episodes
of Star Trek that are my favourite portrayals of a character, or that I think offer a good
grounding of his personality and I think the first one his, his first one. The first appearance
of Barclay in “Hollow Pursuits” where we see his core neuroses in full effect and
the beginnings of his character growth. Secondly, I think “Realm of Fear” is a good indicator
of how far he’s developing and arguably he takes one of the biggest risks so far in
directly confronting a phobia of his. Finally, I think “Pathfinder” shows that by the
time of his reassignment, even though he’s taken up a safer position in a lab, it’s
not because he’s afraid to take huge risks as he gambles his entire career to prove his
work, although he clearly still struggles with the allure of the fictional.
So thank you for watching this dive into the career of Reginald Barclay. There’s a lot
more we could dive into about his actual personality and he is something of a psychiatrist’s
field day, but the personnel file tries to look more into the timeline centric happenings
of a character so I’d point you to some excellent videos by Steve Shives and SF Debris
. So, thanks again for watching and until the next video, I’m Ric and I’ll see you
again, goodbye!