Captain Picard

Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) was the real hub of the crew, not just because of his rank, but also because of his balanced personality. Star Trek is fun and I wouldn’t change anything in it, but for this sort of show, an over-confident, adventurous he-man wouldn’t have worked as the ship’s captain (leave that part for Commander Riker!).

Picard had to be extremely educated and a real diplomat. He had to be tempered yet firm, confident yet willing to rely on the judgment of others, and also something of a salty dog (or a stardust dog or whatever the space equivalent of a salty dog might be! He had to have the equivalent of sea air in his veins). He was a visionary and a realist, but he was also deeply sentimental at times. His “home” was a place where there was no horizon, and that was thrilling to him. Yet he was sentimental for the memory of his Earth home. He wasn’t a very good singer though!

Commander William Riker

Commander William Riker started out as sort of an action hero, and even a bit of a ladies man. I believe it was the third season in which he first appeared with his beard. The creators of the series actually designed the look of his beard and it suited him well. He seemed more like a commander: more contemplative and patient. He seemed to be following Picard more closely, trying to learn from and emulate him. He was more mature but he still kept his charming ways (i.e.: turning on the ladies or playing practical jokes with his friends). He also played a mean trombone.

Lieutenant Commander Data

Lieutenant Commander Data (or “old yellow eyes”) was of course an android, and was the most colourful and interesting character on the ship. He had even greater capabilities than the ship’s computer, yet the innocence of a child. Like Spock in Star Trek, he saw things in a literal, logical way. He kept his cool at all times, and he spoke in a mild, calming voice without contractions or emotion (although his comments were occasionally peppered with “hmm”s). And he was very gentle, despite being capable of incredible strength. As an android, there was something built into his system that was always looking to improve his functions. Therefore, he had a curiosity of humans and wanted to understand them.

Many of the shows’ most humourous and touching scenes revolved around this fact. Unfortunately late in the show’s run and in all of the Next Generation movies, the writers created Data to actually have desires to be human. It seemed an obsession with him, which was not only illogical, but also dangerous. A healthy android should know that he can only be fully functional if he is what he was programmed to be. The creators of Star Trek, even in the movies, never changed Spock’s Vulcan behavior. It was a shame that Data was “fleshed out” so to speak.

Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge

Lieutenant Commander Geordi La Forge was interesting to watch because one automatically tends to look at a person’s eyes when they talk. But as he was blind and had to wear a visor to see things through infrared radio waves, we could never see his eyes. The windows to his soul had to be viewed through his voice and mannerisms, yet I found it very easy to adjust to Geordi as a person without eyes. He was overall a friendly type who was not terribly interesting, but he was nice to have around.

So that’s my geeky time over! I’ll continue with the rest of the cast in a next post, so until then, keep on trucking, lads.