TWITrek Character Insight No. 71: The Traveler

This is the latest installment in a series of "Character Insight" articles regarding the rich history of characters in the Star Trek universe.  An audio version will appear on the This Week in Trek podcast, available for direct download here.
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Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we profile The Traveler, a recurring character on TNG.

 

The Traveler is a mysterious all-powerful being that the crew of the Enterprise encounters shortly after the initial meeting with Q. Unlike Q, The Traveler takes more of a curiosity-based and exploratory interest in humanity and other races than the Continuum, which sees humanity like we see insects on the ground. That leads The Traveler to be far less adversarial than the iconic character played by John de Lancie.

The Traveler is first seen as an undercover agent helping Starfleet propulsion expert Kosinski develop a revolutionary new method of warp drive, perhaps an early predecessor to the transwarp drive discussed at length in Voyager. Unfortunately, the transwarp theory turns out to be bogus and Wesley Crusher sees right through Kosinski to the true genius in The Traveler. He reveals the true power of his mind and explains that his abilities are based on focusing the energy of thoughts to alter time and space.

The Traveler explains his admiration of what he sees in Wesley to Captain Picard, who subsequently give shim a field commission of ensign. So we have The Traveler to blame for all those dumb Wesley episodes throughout the length of TNG. Thanks, Mr. The Traveler. <>

However, we eventually have The Traveler to thank for ridding us of the Wesley phneomenon. The Traveler helps Wesley begin to understand his innate potential of harnessing thoughts when he helps Wesley save his mother from being trapped in her own universe. A few years later, The Traveler encourages Wesley to resign his commission and be mentored on the path to becoming like The Traveler. The Traveler was intended to be revealed as Boothby, but that revelation was scrapped in the final cut of the episode Journey's End.

Just like that, Wesley exit stage right. However, his legacy as a Traveler lives on in the books for TNG.

 Our notable quote this week comes from Where No One Has Gone Before:
The Traveler: You do understand, don't you, that thought is the basis of all reality. The energy of thought, to put in your terms, is very powerful.

Actor: Eric Menyuk played The Traveler, and the role was a consolation prize for narrowly losing out on the role of Data to Brent Spiner. He retired from acting in 1998 following some minor roles in movies such as The Babysitter and The Air Up There (yes, with Kevin Bacon).

TWITrek Character Insight No. 70: Maxwell Forrest

This is the latest installment in a series of "Character Insight" articles regarding the rich history of characters in the Star Trek universe.  An audio version will appear on the This Week in Trek podcast, available for direct download here.
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Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we profile Admiral Maxwell Forrest, a recurring character on Enterprise.

 

Maxwell Forrest was the officer in charge of the NX Project and made many critical decisions as humanity learned to develop better warp drive capability. For example, he was the driving force behind convincing the Vulcans that Starfleet should continue working on the warp ships following setbacks such as the NX-Alpha exploding upon reaching Warp 2. He also puts Jonathan Archer in position to lead the Enterprise.

Thanks to a pair of flashback episodes, we see Forrest as a commodore as well as his role as admiral. We see the commodore begin to walk the balance between appeasing the Vulcans and encouraging the natural human tendency to explore.

Forrest therefore found himself in position to begin laying the foundation of the future Federation by giving orders and assignments to the crew of Enterprise that advanced those goals. Archer and his crew began to mend the damaged relationship between the Andorians and Vulcans, which became two of the founding members of the Federation. Archer even started a positive dialogue with the Klingons, although they would remain an antagonist throughout Kirk's time.

Although Forrest is often at odds with Vulcan Ambassador Soval, he shows the ultimate respect by pushing Soval out of the path of a terrorist blast while taking the brunt himself. That ended up killing Forrest, one of the few major characters to die in a Star Trek series.

Forrest was named in honor of DeForest Kelley, the late TOS actor. In many ways, Forrest is one of the first admirals that the viewers understand, as his decisions and role are more fleshed out than the "badmirals" seen commonly in movies and other series. This is a nice change of pace for a top level character in Star Trek.

 Our notable quote this week comes from Broken Bow:
Admiral Maxwell Forrest: When Zefram Cochrane made his legendary warp flight ninety years ago, and drew the attention of our new friends, the Vulcans, we realized that we weren't alone in the galaxy. Today, we are about to cross a new threshold. For nearly a century, we've waded ankle-deep in the ocean of space. Now it's finally time to swim.

Actor: Vaughn Armstrong played Maxwell Forrest, and he is possibly the most prolific actor on Star Trek. In addition to the 13 characters he played in 28 episodes across four series of Star Trek, he has appeared in television classics such as Cheers, Seinfeld, Frasier, NYPD Blue, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Desperate Housewives, and CSI.

Armstrong is also the lead singer of The Enterprise Blues Band, a folk band made up of four former Star Trek actors. Here's a sample.

TWITrek Character Insight No. 69: Ensign Vorik

This is the latest installment in a series of "Character Insight" articles regarding the rich history of characters in the Star Trek universe.  An audio version will appear on the This Week in Trek podcast, available for direct download here.
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Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we profile Ensign Vorik, an engineer and recurring character in Star Trek Voyager.

 

Vorik appears in a handful of episodes spanning from the third season to the final season of the show. For the most part, Vorik is seen assisting Chief Engineer B'Elanna Torres with important engineering tasks such as reconfiguring plasma injectors and building the Delta Flyer. He shows partiuclar expertise when working with tachyon matrices, but he is unable to make a transwarp conduit back to the Alpha Quadrant.

Although Voyager explores many Vulcan story lines that focus on Commander Tuvok, Vorik gets his day in the sun in the third season episode Blood Fever. Vorik experiences a pon farr and chooses Torres to be his mate. However, his physical contact with her gives her the same neurochmeical imbalance, and this culminates in an always-entertaining Klingon on Vulcan combat.

This is one of a couple of episodes where it looks like Vorik may become a love interest for Torres. However, despite his nice actions such as reserving a table for two with her favorite view at a luau held by Neelix, she is meant to be with Tom Paris. Thus, Vorik remains a friendly engineer and bit character rather than a more major role.

Every show needs some background regulars like Vorik, especially when the crew is limited and cannot be changed out as in Voyager. It was nice for the writers to give another Vulcan some face time, especially after the absolute dearth of Vulcans in Deep Space Nine. This was a good recurring character for Voyager.

 Our notable quote this week comes from Demon:
Ensign Vorik: Indeed. According to my calculations, environmental systems will cease to function in two hours.
B'Elanna Torres: You say that like you're giving me the weather report.
Ensign Vorik: I agree the situation is dire, but losing our cool will not help matters.
B'Elanna Torres: "Losing our cool"? Where did you pick up that expression?
Ensign Vorik: Mr. Paris.
B'Elanna Torres: [pats his arm] Well, there's hope for you yet.  
Actor: Alexander Enberg played Vorrik, and he also played a similar small role as Ensign Taurik in the TNG episode Lower Decks. Outside Star Trek, Enberg has appeared in the movies Junior and America's Sweethearts.