Why Do We Hate Reginald Barclay?
Broccoli or Barclay This Nervous Enterprise Crewmember. Will Provoke You
Broccoli tastes awfully good with melted cheese. Lt. Reginald Broccoli loves playing around naughtily in starship holodecks.
Yes, my terrifically trekking Trekkers, both these things are true, however, Reginald Barclay, serving on Captain Picard’s Enterprise, likely eats his broccoli au gratin while lustily admiring Counselor Troi and Dr. Beverly Crusher attired in fetching period dress. Why? Let’s try to be kind. It’s simply his way.
Is our way to resent or even hate him for his playful private time? I certainly don’t hate Lt. Barclay. I actually dearly love the character. If you do hate him, it probably all depends on just how much you’ve followed this quirky character over the years.
Barclay Au Gratin Invites Us Into His Cruciferous World
Dwight Schultz plays his Star Trek: The Next Generation originated character with the kind of stark believability which any actor would envy. When we’re first introduced to Reg - as his shipmates tend to call him - he’s frankly a hot mess. Oh, they call him something else, a green, crunchy veggie, but that’s strictly on the down low. How do you like your broccoli? I love mine steamed!
Reg works in Engineering on the USS Enterprise, but you wouldn’t exactly call him a Starfleet superstar. His superior officer is the cracker jack Chief Engineer Geordi LaForge, played by Levar Burton. Although Reg is a competent - even at times brilliant engineer - his social skills are completely nonexistent. In fact, like bad choices or failures in our wardrobe, you could call him a social malfunction.
We meet him first in the Next Generation episode, Hollow Pursuits. Reg Barclay’s pursuit is strictly holographic, in that he practically lives his life interacting with computer simulations of his Enterprise colleagues. Since the holographic playground is a shared facility, Reg must trade in all sorts of things with his colleagues to get as much holodeck time as possible.
Hey, Data, I’ll give ya a quick lube job for extra Holodeck time.
By the end of the episode, Barclay has more than proven his worth as an Enterprise 1701-D crew member, and we cheer his success in helping to solve the tech problem of the week. In a subsequent tale, Barclay reveals himself to be something of a hypochondriac and, like Dr. McCoy he’s no friend to the transporter.
Realm of Fear sees him obsess over transporting over to a damaged Federation vessel to complete a mission. By the time it’s over, we realize how scared he is of transporters, but he’s correct in identifying a tech problem which helps to save the lives of an entire crew. Yay! Once again, Reg is a hero!
Hmmmm. Maybe Reg Barclay doesn’t deserve the haters doing what they do best.
The Human Plastic Adventure
Another reason many don’t take kindly to Reg Barclay is his stutter. Takeaway: Don’t utter a stutter around some of us.
Many may be put off by it, not exactly discriminating him for the burdensome condition, but not exactly thrilled to hear it coming from a central character in episodes. He’s improved over the years, and in Voyager’s finale, Endgame, he’s a confident speaker without a trace of his old stutter.
But what of the actor himself - how does Dwight Schultz view the character he helped to flesh out?
I immediately identified him as a Star Trek fan. If you put a fan on the Enterprise bridge they would probably behave just like Barclay. I love the character.
Of all the reasons why Barclay may connect to fans or not may involve the creation of his action figure from Playmates. Originally, a Voyager Barclay action figure was limited to 1,701, but increased to 3,000 after an enormous fan demand cried out for more little plastic Reg Barclays. All this, and he even earned a place in a TNG feature film, Star Trek: First Contact, where he praised his hero, warp drive creator, Zephram Cochrane.
Reginald Barclay remains a mostly unique presence in the Star Trek universe. He’s a competent engineering professional, yet his extreme social anxiety can sometimes limit his potential. Think of him as the Charlie Brown of Star Trek: The Next Generation - he’s wishy-washy, but he always means well, and always seems to rise above in the end. Ultimately, he overcomes this challenge to go on to become one of the more complex and beloved Trek personas ever. Hate him? Nope. More like be highly inspired by his extremely unusual exploits. Reg Barclay is forever searching to improve, to explore strange new worlds, and he’s doing a bang up job along the way.
Barclay was one of favourite characters. I was thrilled when they transported ;) him over to Voyager, and I loved how his arc evolved.