Picard assumed captaincy of the
U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701-D on SD 41124, having hand-picked much of his senior staff — such as two young officers who impressed him enough upon first meeting to win a place in the senior staff:
Geordi La Forge once piloted his inspection tour shuttle and stayed up all night to refit an engine part he'd made a passing comment on, and he witnessed
Tasha Yar risk her life to save colonists amid a Carnelian mine field. Finally, he had picked
Riker from among simple resumes as his first officer and promoted him to commander sight unseen, impressed by his record of independence. His command presence and ethics persevered even through the
Satarran memory wipe—despite orders, he would not fire on unarmed people.
Designed and built by Doctor
Noonien Soong, Data is a
sentient android who serves as the second officer and chief operations officer aboard the
starships USS Enterprise-D and
USS Enterprise-E. His
positronic brain allows him impressive computational capabilities.
[2] Data experienced ongoing difficulties during the early years of his life with understanding various aspects of
human behavior[3] and was unable to feel
emotion or understand certain human
idiosyncrasies, inspiring him to strive for his own humanity. This goal eventually led to the addition of an "emotion chip", also created by Soong, to Data's positronic net.
[4]
2364 – Took up residence aboard
U.S.S. Enterprise-D under guardianship of mother, CMO Dr. Beverly Crusher. After playing key roles in saving
Enterprise from recently collapsed star and helping the "
Traveler" return
Enterprise to Federation space, granted rank of Acting Ensign by
Capt. Picard effective Stardate 41263.4. Just prior to 16th birthday, underwent Starfleet Academy entrance exams at
Relva VII; failed to gain admission, but scored high enough to allow resubmission in a year. Continued studies aboard
Enterprise, gaining advance academic credit.
Although actually of mixed human and
Betazoid heritage, Troi is one of many from her planet active in the Starfleet counselor corps and was ship's counselor for the
U.S.S. Enterprise throughout its service life and now aboard its successor namesake. Troi's race is known for its inter-species telepathy and its emotional empathy with most other species whether on board the ship, in a ship at close proximity or on the planet below. While such a capacity has heightened her counseling skills, they have also aided her captain's command mission decisions on several occasions, including hostile encounters, negotiations, and first-contact missions. Most notably, she recently took part in the temporal restoration of Cochrane's
Phoenix flight and human first contact.
As the only Klingon in Starfleet, Worf has already achieved an illustrious and honorable career aboard the
U.S.S. Enterprise as well as played a key role in Empire politics, but he keenly feels the effects of an often tragic life caught uniquely between the two conflicting cultures — immediately evidenced by the traditional Klingon baldrics he wears over his Starfleet uniform. This inner-felt conflict stems in part from his perception of honor as taught but not always practiced by his native people, and is complicated by family relationships which echo his duality of culture in both his personal and public life. Worf has even been put on report.
The outstanding characteristic La Forge shows is his longtime adaptability to and satisfaction with life, symbolized by the fact that his birth-blindness until recently was overcome not by direct surgery but by the unique VISOR instrument — which, though painful allowed him to "see" throughout the electromagnetic spectrum, from heat and infrared through visible light to radio waves. It attached at the temples via implants which connected directly to the brain and provided such a complex and broad-based input that the user had to concentrate to focus on one area. It was perhaps this intense focusing ability that has enabled him to master the complexities of warp engineering and other starship systems.
Enterprise Second Officer
Data once estimated that Riker uses traditional tactics only 21% of the time. After winning admission to the Academy, Riker began acquiring this lifelong reputation for unorthodox solutions when, during a simulation, he figured out a
Tholian ship's sensor blind spot for use as a hiding place. Riker finished eighth in his graduating class; one fellow cadet was
Paul Rice, who would later fall victim to the computer weapons systems on planet
Minos.
Dr. Crusher has consistently shown to be not only thorough but conscientious in her daily work and routine. She is a superior scientist in various fields of research medicine such as xenoimmunology, curing or treating the so-called
Tsiolkovsky virus, the airborne virus known as Ligonese poison, and
Barclay Syndrome, which she discovered and named after its first patient,
Reginald Barclay. Her contributions in practical forensic medicine have had galactic import, leading to improved trust with the
Klingon Empire after her investigation of former
Chancellor K'mpec's murder, and with the
Ferengi Alliance regarding the murder of
Dr. Reyga by the
Takaran rival
Jo'Bril. Unfortunately for this office, her unorthodox methods bordering on cultural insult proved quite troublesome at times in the latter case even though she was later exonerated.
