Reginald Barclay
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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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 (Star Trek: First Contact) of The Next Generation, as well as six episodes of the spin-off series Star Trek: Voyager. Barclay also appears in non-canon Star Trek novels and video games.
Before writing "Hollow Pursuits", Higley knew that she wanted to write about the less-exceptional members of the Template:USS 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, [and] 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.<ref name="1991-09 official TNG mag" />
