Who Else Loved Lieutenant Barclay?

[GemHaters]

Honestly, when he's first introduced in 'Hollow Pursuits' I found him a bit annoying, but the more I saw him the more he grew on me to the point of looking forward to the next episode he was in. I guess my overall point here is, why the hell wasn't he given some kind of role on DS9? He was obviously a fan favorite, or he never would have been brought back so many times.

And on that note, Q only got ONE episode on DS9??? Preposterous! He didn't have to come back as frequently as he was on TNG, but come on!!!

 

[GalaxyX]

Honestly, when he's first introduced in 'Hollow Pursuits' I found him a bit annoying, but the more I saw him the more he grew on me to the point of looking forward to the next episode he was in. I guess my overall point here is, why the hell wasn't he given some kind of role on DS9? He was obviously a fan favorite, or he never would have been brought back so many times.

And on that note, Q only got ONE episode on DS9??? Preposterous! He didn't have to come back as frequently as he was on TNG, but come on!!!

His first episode they played him off as an imbecil. He improved after the incident with the Cytherians (sp?).

They always played him as the stereotypical loser who pines for Deanna but is content to just be her friend, instead of letting the guy develop some type of better relationship with someone else.

 

[7thsealord]

I always thought Barclay successfully managed to be both funny and a very sympathetic character - his lack of confidence with other people is something I think a lot of us can identify with. I know I did.

Would have been very easy to play him solely for comedic effect but, thankfully, they didn't.

 

[JustKate]

I *love* Barclay - love love love 'em. What a great idea for a character and what a great job Dwight Schultz did of portraying him. I'm not equally thrilled with every way in which the character was used - sometimes the writing verged on stereotypical - but I think it was great having an alternative the near-perfect Starfleet officers that surrounded him.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Q only got ONE episode on DS9??? Preposterous! He didn't have to come back as frequently as he was on TNG, but come on!!!

Q didn't have the kind of onscreen chemistry with Sisko that he had with Picard or Janeway. All Sisko wanted to do was punch Q in the face...otherwise Sisko wanted nothing to do with him. At least Picard and Janeway sort of enjoyed sparring with Q. Sisko would have none of it.

As for Barclay, I totally identified with that guy. Barclay was much more realistic than any other character we've seen, IMHO. At least Barclay had faults. He wasn't the ultra-perfect type that Gene was always trying to put out there.

My favorite Barclay line in Trek history (from 'The Nth Degree'):

(on being told by the computer that there is no 'neural scan interface' in the records)
Barclay: No problem...here's how you BUILD it!

I just love how totally exasperated Reg sounds, like it's the most obvious thing in the world.

 

[7thsealord]

Naturally, Memory-Alpha has quite a lot on Barclay. Especially noteworthy is a very nice excerpted interview with Dwight Schultz (Appendices, Badkground Info) which fits in well with how many here see the character.

http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Reginald_Barclay

 

[RAMA]

Nth Degree was a great episode, and he was the perfect character for it.

RAMA

 

[Owain Taggart]

Agreed. I liked him and would have liked to have seen him on DS9. I think he was wasted on Voyager, though I did like that he had showed a gain in confidence.

 

[A beaker full of death]

The introduction of the character was very disturbing - wrongthink is bad! Lustful thoughts? You're not pretty enough to have lustfull thoughts! Privacy? What's that?
Sadly, 20 years later, we're well down that road.

 

[dtoliaferro]

I certainly identified with Barclay, still do.

For all his faults, he was still a Starfleet officer.

 

[davejames]

I miss Q. It's a shame two movies were wasted on boring nobodies like Ru'afu and Shinzon, while a fantastic villain like Q was relegated to making guest appearances on freakin Voyager.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The problem with using Q in a movie is that he's so powerful, any situation involving him is likely to be over too quickly to stretch out into a feature film.

 

[davejames]

The problem with using Q in a movie is that he's so powerful, any situation involving him is likely to be over too quickly to stretch out into a feature film.

Yeah it's a challenge, but I'm sure they could have figured something out. Q was rarely the immediate threat in his episodes anyway-- just the guy hovering in the background instigating things and putting the crew in difficult situations.

No reason he couldn't have done the same thing again.

 

[You_Will_Fail]

What's the OP's obsession with shoehorning TNG cast members into DS9..?

 

[Mage]

I loved Barclay, both as a character and how he was portrayed. It was good to see that not EVERYONE is perfect in The Next Generation.

Funny thing, the new A-Team movie was on tv a few days ago, and the scene where they were about to bust Murdock out of the nuthouse was on. Funny scene, so I kept watching. As a diversion, the rest of the team sent a movie to screen on a wall, to keep everyone busy. And I couldn't help but notice one of the 'actors' listed in the credits of that movie: Reginald Barclay.

 

[7thsealord]

Funny thing, the new A-Team movie was on tv a few days ago, and the scene where they were about to bust Murdock out of the nuthouse was on. Funny scene, so I kept watching. As a diversion, the rest of the team sent a movie to screen on a wall, to keep everyone busy. And I couldn't help but notice one of the 'actors' listed in the credits of that movie: Reginald Barclay.

Good movie. You will undoubtedly also have noticed, during Murdoch's electroshock scene, who one of the doctors overseeing the procedure was.

 

[Owain Taggart]

The problem with using Q in a movie is that he's so powerful, any situation involving him is likely to be over too quickly to stretch out into a feature film.

Yeah, though they could have made a movie version of Q-Squared or something similar in which he isn't the problem, but rather the one asking for help.

 

[PKS8304]

I do think they missed an opportunity with Q after Worf came aboard DS9, even if it had been during one of their tangents off station on the Defiant.

Barclay was able to fit into the crew on TNG which was a personal accomplishment given his issues, I think he would have had a harder time on Deep Space 9 and its enviroment.

 

[JB2005]

What's the OP's obsession with shoehorning TNG cast members into DS9..?

She's suffering from "Small-Universe Syndrome!"

 

[CaptainMatt]

I was never a fan of Barclay in his earliest appearances, but he grew on me much later. The fact the actor playing him was once known as Howlin' Mad Murdock was not lost on me.