Reginald Barclay's History
Lieutenant Reginald Endicott Barclay III (often referred to as "Reg") was a highly talented Human Starfleet systems diagnostic engineer who lived in the 24th century. In his early days aboard the Enterprise-D, he frequently displayed nervous behavior, demonstrated a noticeable lack of confidence, stammered frequently, was extremely introverted, and occasionally bumbled. These traits aroused the derision of some of his shipmates on the USS Enterprise-D – with some even going as far as calling him "Lieutenant Broccoli" behind his back or, on unfortunate occasions, to his face.
During Barclay's attendance at Starfleet Academy, his "seclusive tendencies" escaped the attention of neither his classmates nor his service record. Despite this, Barclay graduated and received a commendation by serving competently in Starfleet for many years. During his service aboard the USS Zhukov, he earned satisfactory ratings, and when he transferred to the Enterprise-D the Zhukov's commanding officer, Captain Gleason, spoke highly of Barclay to his new ship's crew.
Due to his nervousness and lack of confidence, many members of the Enterprise crew initially referred to him as "Lieutenant Broccoli", a play on his surname, coined by Wesley Crusher. He was initially disliked by members of the crew, not only due to the fact he seemed constantly nervous and on edge, but also because he was routinely late for duty and often wound up on report for seemingly not performing to the best of his ability. As a result, he was given an 'unsatisfactory' rating in his evaluation. Riker and La Forge attempted to get him transferred off the ship, not believing he was competent enough to serve on the Federation flagship (with Riker even suggesting that Captain Gleason had exaggerated his assessment of Barclay to hasten the departure of a troublesome officer). Captain Picard, however, refused to simply transfer him away from the ship, and it was because of Picard's support and Geordi La Forge's encouragement (at Picard's behest) that Barclay's confidence began to increase.
During the first major Borg incursion into the Federation in late 2366, Barclay worked on repairs with Sherbourne after the Enterprise-D crew, in an unsuccessful attempt to destroy the Borg cube, emitted a burst of energy from their ship's deflector dish.
As time passed, Barclay slowly grew in confidence and became one of La Forge's best engineers. Following an encounter with an alien probe in 2367, Barclay's IQ rose to somewhere between 1200 and 1450 as a result of a neurological enhancement he received from the probe. During the time he possessed this enhanced intellect, Barclay was more confident, outgoing, and sure of himself – even arguing grand unified theories with a hologram of Albert Einstein on the holodeck. Barclay was able to use the holodeck to integrate his mind into the ship's computer, effectively taking complete control. Unknown to Barclay, the Cytherians (the creators of the probe) set this in motion so that he would bring the Enterprise-D to them, as this was their species' preferred method of investigating new races. All attempts to disconnect or dissuade him were unsuccessful, and he created a subspace distortion that brought the Enterprise-D to the Cytherians. After this encounter, Barclay was returned to his previous self, but he did retain a bit of the confidence and intelligence that the experience gave him.
In 2369, Barclay assisted Alexander Rozhenko with writing a holodeck program of Deadwood, South Dakota in the Ancient West. Barclay included a prostitute and brothel in the simulation (likely forgetting it was to be a child's program), which Lieutenant Worf did not appreciate for his son's sake.
Later that year, Barclay inadvertently released the holographic representation of Professor James Moriarty from his confines in the computer memory core of the Enterprise-D, while conducting a diagnosis of a failure of the holodeck matrix diodes, which turned out to have been caused by Moriarty himself. Upon activation, Moriarty briefly explained his history to Barclay and, realizing that over four years had passed, deduced that Captain Picard had merely promised to research a way for him to live in the real world in order to get him to release a hostage he had taken at the time. Barclay defended Picard, saying the captain would never go back on his word, and promised to report the incident to his superiors, which he did.
Barclay, Picard, and Data then reactivated the program to speak to Moriarty, who expressed his desire to leave the holodeck. Barclay proposed using transporter pattern enhancers to beam Moriarty off the hologrid and into the "real world." This idea, however, was a ruse by Moriarty to trick the three officers into giving him control of the ship by use of a holographic simulation of the Enterprise-D within the Sherlock Holmes program. The failure of the experiment led Data to discover the trickery, and on Captain Picard's suggestion he and Barclay managed to create a separate simulation within both programs, thereby fooling Moriarty with his own plan. Thinking he was free, Moriarty relinquished control of the Enterprise, allowing Barclay to store his program in an enhancement module, where Morirarty could safely explore the galaxy without causing any further trouble.
Barclay, along with the senior staff, later convened in the observation lounge to discuss recent events, and Captain Picard instructed him to keep the module safe. Picard also jokingly wondered if their reality "might be nothing more than an elaborate simulation being run inside a little device… sitting on someone else's table," which prompted Barclay, after the meeting had concluded, to test the idea by ordering the computer to "end program." Satisfied his life wasn't a simulation when nothing happened, he picked up the module and left as well.
The following year, Barclay had the dubious honor of becoming the eponymous person for a new illness, "Barclay's Protomorphosis Syndrome". He, in common with the rest of the crew, became affected when a treatment for the mild Urodelan flu provided by Doctor Beverly Crusher activated one of Barclay's recessive genes, causing him to mutate into a spider-like creature. It was due only to the efforts of Captain Picard and Lieutenant Commander Data that Barclay and the rest of the crew were saved; as Picard and Data were off the ship when the incident occurred, they were able to develop a retrovirus and release it using the ventilation systems. As Barclay was the first-known patient of the disorder, Dr. Crusher decided to name the newly discovered illness in his honor.
In 2371, the USS Voyager's EMH became trapped in a malfunctioning holodeck programe and encountered a simulation of Barclay, who claimed they were on Jupiter Station and that The Doctor was Dr. Lewis Zimmerman and Barclay was his assistant. At another point, the Doctor believed himself to be in Voyager's sickbay, where a simulation of Harry Kim claimed that Barclay had been assigned to test the The Doctor's interpersonal skills.
Barclay was assigned to the new USS Enterprise-E before the Battle of Sector 001 in 2373. He traveled into the past with the rest of the ship's crew to the day before Earth's First Contact with the Vulcans and met the noted inventor Dr. Zefram Cochrane. Barclay was thrilled at the opportunity to shake Cochrane's hand, so much so, in fact, that Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge found himself having to remind Barclay to calm down and continue his work, helping Cochrane repair the Phoenix. Barclay also obtained La Forge's approval and input on a makeshift component that Barclay and other engineers from the Enterprise-E intended to use to replace the Phoenix's warp plasma conduit.
In 2374, Barclay was transferred to the Pathfinder Project at Starfleet's Communications Research Center, endeavoring to return Voyagerto the Alpha Quadrant from the distant Delta Quadrant. As a result, Barclay relocated to Earth and kept an apartment in San Francisco. Barclay created a holographic recreation of the vessel and its crew to enable him to experiment with different solutions.
Later that year, Barclay, with the assistance of The Doctor, devised the idea of using the MIDAS array to direct a tachyon beam towards an approaching class B itinerant pulsar, thus generating an artificial micro-wormhole. This wormhole could then be directed towards Voyager's likely locations and used to communicate with the ship. Unfortunately, Commander Pete Harkins turned down his idea as impractical.
However, Barclay was unable to contain his enthusiasm during an inspection of the research facility by Admiral Paris. This prompted Harkins to send Barclay home for the rest of the day. Barclay disobeyed and instead returned to his simulation to refine his ideas. When Harkins later discovered him in the simulation, Barclay was suspended pending a psychological evaluation, as the Commander believed Barclay had suffered a relapse of his holo-addiction.
Barclay was unable to accept this and appealed to Admiral Paris, then broke into the communications center. He attempted to go forward with his plan, but was discovered. To prevent himself from being interrupted, Barclay activated the holographic recreation of Voyager, using the holographic crew to protect and assist him. Just as Harkins used a simulated warp core breach to end the program, Captain Kathryn Janeway hailed the Communications Center from the Delta Quadrant, having received Barclay's message. With this (albeit brief) two-way communication with the ship, ship's logs, research data, a personal message for Tom Paris from his father and instructions in order to improve the communication systems of Voyager were able to be transmitted, and Barclay's ideas were vindicated. The crew of Voyager later toasted their unmet hero who had established the link, honoring Barclay as an honorary member of the crew.
In 2377, Barclay found a way to use the MIDAS array to transmit a data stream to Voyager once a month, allowing Starfleet to send the crew information and letters from home. He later returned to Jupiter Station with Voyager's EMH, who had been transmitted to the Alpha Quadrant using the connection. Barclay had informed The Doctor that his creator, Doctor Zimmerman, had been diagnosed with acute subcellular degradation and was dying. Although Zimmerman initially refused The Doctor's assistance, Barclay – who had also enlisted the aid of Counselor Deanna Troi – helped The Doctor persuade Zimmerman to realize that The Doctor's assistance was the best course of action to save his life.
Later that year, Barclay (possibly inspired by The Doctor's trip to the Alpha Quadrant) attempted to send a hologram to Voyager in order to assist the crew. This failed when the hologram disappeared, costing Voyager's crew that month's data stream. Barclay later discovered that a romantic acquaintance of his, Leosa, had been using him to gain information on Voyager and the Pathfinder project. It turned out the information she had obtained was sold to a group of Ferengi who had used it to alter the holographic program Barclay sent to Voyager, with instructions to kill the crew and reprogram the shields to withstand a geodesic fold they had created between the Alpha and Delta Quadrants. Even though their plan was to steal the Borg technology in Seven of Nine's body (which was worth a fortune in latinum), Barclay, with the help of Counselor Troi, was able to deceive the Ferengi into abandoning their plan, thereby saving Voyager.
In 2378, Barclay created the first-ever transgalactic com link when he used a quantum singularity to establish daily (if brief) real-time contact with Voyager, an incredible achievement. Later he informed Admiral Paris that a draft version of the holonovel Photons Be Free, written by The Doctor, had been released early, becoming popular in thousands of holosuites across the Federation. Barclay was present during a hearing to decide The Doctor's rights as the creator of the work.
Later that year, Barclay was on duty at the Communications Center when long-range sensors detected a Borg transwarp conduit opening just outside the Sol system. He quickly reported this information to several visiting admirals. When a Borg sphere emerged from the transwarp conduit and exploded to reveal Voyager, Barclay was one of the first to welcome the starship's crew home.
