Reginald Barclay
Reginald Endicott Barclay III is a fictional engineer from the Star Trek media franchise. On television and in film, he has been portrayed by Dwight Schultz since the character's introduction in the Star Trek: The Next Generation third season episode "Hollow Pursuits". Schultz played the character for five episodes and one feature film of The Next Generation, as well as six episodes of the series Star Trek: Voyager. Barclay also appears in non-canon Star Trek novels and video games. His meek nervousness contrast Star Trek stereotypes.
Schultz was cast in The Next Generation thanks to Whoopi Goldberg. Initially disappointed not to be playing an alien character, Schultz never anticipated becoming such a fan-favorite. Barclay underwent changes from, as first conceived, a malicious character—someone that aggravated the crew to compensate for his inferiority complex—to the softer and more benign engineer that made it to air. Schultz and others saw Barclay as a tribute to the average Star Trek fan, though the producers said that was unintentional.
During The Next Generation televised run, Barclay was stationed aboard the. He was then posted at the Jupiter Station Holoprogramming Center before being aboard the Enterprise-E for the events of Star Trek: First Contact. For his season six and seven Star Trek: Voyager appearances, Barclay was assigned to the Pathfinder Project, a Starfleet Communications endeavor to communicate with the stranded in the Delta Quadrant.
Conception
professor Sarah Higley created Reginald Barclay in her script for the Star Trek: The Next Generation third-season episode "Hollow Pursuits". Before writing the script, Higley knew that she wanted to write about the less-exceptional members of the crew, saying, "I thought there wasn't enough emphasis on the less outstanding, less wunderkind-like crew members." She described her initial conception of Barclay as "a repulsive guy wrapped up in himself, brilliant in his field, socially a wash-out." She gave him the pompous name Endicott Reginald Barclay III to suggest he "had always suffered from an inferiority complex and just couldn't deal with the ultra-maturity and shining qualities of the rest of the crew." Higley based Barclay on Till Eulenspiegel, a prankster from German folklore: the original Barclay pranked the crew, taunted them about their weaknesses, and called their bluffs before being sent to a psychiatric hospital.Paramount Television bought "Hollow Pursuits" within a week of Higley's submission, but wanted to change the script to make Barclay save the day while being less acerbic and sarcastic. Higley would later recall how she had made Barclay "repugnant" while the studio wanted somebody with whom the audience could identify: someone "whose stuttering, shyness and lack of self-confidence would speak to shy and socially maladjusted." As the character's actor, Dwight Schultz described Barclay as a ground-breaking character in terms of his normal fallibility. In the British magazine, TV Zone, Schultz thanked Roddenberry for creating the character, saying, "He realized that that type of character was missing from the programme and, eventually, said, 'Let's fill that spot.
In a script for "Hollow Pursuits", Barclay is described as a "shy individual with a perpetual frown born of stress and unhappiness between his brows. What we notice most about him is that he is uncomfortable around other people to the point of agony… he rarely makes eye contact… when he speaks, he hesitates, desperately afraid of saying the wrong thing… which he occasionally does."
Casting
Schultz was a fan of the original Star Trek; it was the first television series he watched in color. Schultz would wait for each episode to air, and then meet with friends after school to discuss the themes and plot of each one. The Next Generation showrunner Michael Piller recalled that sometime prior to casting Schultz, the actor had told executive producer Rick Berman that he would love to appear on the show. Schultz himself credits Whoopi Goldberg with his opportunity to play Barclay. In 1990, Schultz was working with Goldberg on The Long Walk Home when he discussed with her that he was a big fan of The Next Generation and knew Brent Spiner and Jonathan Frakes from his time in New York City. Then, approximately a month after returning from The Long Walk Home, Schultz heard from his talent manager that the powers-that-be at The Next Generation had extended a job offer. Piller and Berman did not think they would actually be able to land Schultz for the spot because the actor had done Fat Man and Little Boy with Paul Newman and "was very hot". Schultz anticipated playing "a large vein-throbbing, bulbous-headed alien," and was initially disappointed to be offered Barclay instead. Schultz thought Barclay was going to be merely a one-off character, and did not anticipate it becoming a recurring gig.Character history
Canon
In the Star Trek canon, Barclay has appeared in twelve discrete productions from 1990 to 2001.Lieutenant, junior grade
In his inaugural appearance in The Next Generations third season episode "Hollow Pursuits", Lieutenant Junior Grade Barclay is addicted to using the holodeck and recreates the crew of the Enterprise-D on the holodeck with attributes and in settings which allow him to more easily interact with them. Crewmembers find him difficult to work with, and Wesley calls him "Broccoli" behind his back. Counselor Deanna Troi and Guinan both support Barclay in escaping to his fantasies, though Troi is annoyed to later find herself recreated as "the Goddess of Empathy", in what Dr. Lynne Joyrich—Brown University professor of modern culture and media—described as "a clear sexual invitation". Despite his embarrassment, Barclay saves the Enterprise, "gaining both self-confidence and a newfound respect from his peers as a result."For the fourth season, bringing back Barclay was on executive producer Michael Piller's to-do list, but they were having trouble finding a vehicle for the character; they did not want to return to the well again for the "nervous chap in the holodeck". Joe Menosky wrote "The Nth Degree" about a crew member who becomes superintelligent, and it was suggested that they could slot Barclay into that role. Barclay is affected by an alien space probe which induces the superintelligence. Under the influence of the probe, he modifies the ship extensively and propels it to the center of the Milky Way. After losing his heightened intelligence, Barclay explains that it was the probe's creators who impelled his actions as a way of meeting new species.
Barclay returns in the season six episode "Realm of Fear". It is revealed that Barclay is phobic about using the transporter, an aspect of the character that was derived from episode writer Brannon Braga's own fear of flying. After transporting back from another vessel, Barclay insists he sees creatures in the matter stream. Overcoming his fears, Barclay is repeatedly transported until he grabs hold of one of the creatures which turns out to be a missing crew member from the Yosemite.
In the second season's "Elementary, Dear Data", a troublemaking self-aware holoprogram of Professor Moriarty was accidentally created and then stored in long-term memory at the end of the episode. That episode's sequel, season six's "Ship in a Bottle", finds Barclay inadvertently releasing Moriarty, who wrests control of the Enterprise by trapping Picard, Data, and Barclay inside nested holodecks. Barclay was included because it was initially felt that the episode needed a character ignorant of season two events. Though this characteristic was ultimately unnecessary, episode writer René Echevarria opined that only Barclay could have pulled off the episode's final moment where Barclay momentarily questions whether he was still in a simulated reality.
Season seven's "Genesis" was Barclay's last episodic appearance on The Next Generation. After Barclay comes down with the Urodelan flu, the attempted cure accidentally becomes a virus, spreading among and devolving the crew. Episode writer Brannon Braga described choosing to devolve Barclay into a spider as the natural choice: "I just thought it would be fun to make Barclay a spider because I can't imagine anything more awful to become. It just seemed natural since he's a kind of nervous and wiry guy, that maybe he would have had more arachnid ancestors than" other crewmembers. After Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Data cure the afflicted, Doctor Beverly Crusher names the virus "Barclay's Protomorphosis Syndrome".
Schultz next appeared as Barclay in Star Trek: Voyager second season episode "Projections". Originally, the guest star was going to be The Next Generation LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge, but episode writer Brannon Braga decided it would be much more fun to couple Barclay with the Doctor, holographic software called the Emergency Medical Hologram. In "Projections", Barclay is a delusion of the Doctor's program, trying to convince the Doctor that he was not a hologram but instead a flesh-and-blood being running a simulation of the and its crew. According to the Star Trek: Voyager Companion, Barclay was a part of the original engineering team at the Jupiter Station Holoprogramming Center that developed the Emergency Medical Hologram, and that Barclay himself was in charge of testing the program's social skills. The Companion further infers that Barclay took a leave of absence from the Enterprise to work on the EMH because the character is aboard the Enterprise-E in the 1996 film, Star Trek: First Contact.
Barclay was not originally supposed to be in the feature film Star Trek: First Contact; it was director Jonathan Frakes who suggested including Barclay as opposed to "a new lieutenant character". Schultz was contacted on a Tuesday, asked if he could come in that Friday, and the actor said, "Sure". In his only scene, Barclay uses an interaction with La Forge as an excuse to meet Zefram Cochrane and shake his hand.