Lifstyles of the Rich and Famous

Ever wonder how our Star Trek heros seem to be so well aquainted with so many VIP’s? How many presidents and popes do you know personally? Yes, yes, of course they’re bound to know some important people, being in the heroic positions that they are. But how many times can one guy realistically save the universe? How many main characters can be gods? How many actually become political leaders themselves before we start scratching our heads? Well, the answer is: this is Star Trek, and this list is all in good fun....

I’ll focus on both the connections the main characters have with political and religious high muckity-mucks, as well as their impacts on galactic politics and war. I’ll start with the original series and go on from there—have fun!


James Tiberius Kirk

Kirk and Company directly saved Earth twice in the movies—from V’Ger (Voyager VI) in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and from the Probe in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Kirk also personally saved the President of the UFP at the Khitomer Peace Conference. Kirk also had the pleasure of jouneying to the center of the galaxy (never mind that it really would have taken almost as long to accomplish this from Federation territory as it will take the Voyager to get home), and when he got there he got to talk to ‘God’ (must have been a novel experience for him—the reason he realised that ‘God’ was a fraud is, of course, that he already knew the true identity of the almighty...himself, of course :-).


Spock

Spock’s father, Sarek, is one of the most respected Federation ambassadors of all time. Spock himself has become a great ambassador in his own right. Spock was responsible for preventing the Romulans from sending an invasion fleet to Vulcan.


Jean-Luc Picard

Picard, for a short time, became the spokesperson for the Borg. It was also Picard who, after being separated from the collective, offered the suggestion that allowed the Borg cube to be destroyed (and consequently saved Earth). Later in his career, Picard went back in time to prevent the Borg from stopping humanity’s first contact with an alien species (in other words, he saved not only Earth but the whole Federation). Picard once stopped parasitic aliens from invading and taking control of Starfleet Command. Picard met the legendary James T. Kirk and saved him from oblivion (in the nexus). He also met the legendary Spock and the legendary Montgomery Scott. For some reason or other, Picard got to be the one to choose the next leader of the Klingon Empire (Gowron). And finally, it was Picard who actually saved not Earth, not the Federation, but the entire universe from an anti-time rift that threatened to destroy it before it began.


William T. Riker

Will’s father, Kyle Riker, is a respected ambassador in the Federation.


Deanna Troi

Deanna’s mother, Lwaxanna Troi, is very ‘high up’ in the aristocracy of Betazed. This may not be worth noting, but Deanna seems to be the only officer in Starfleet who is privilaged enough to wear a bunny suit alternative to the usual uniform.


Data

Data is the first (and only, unless you count Doc Zimmerman) artificial life form to serve in Starfleet. Data had a brief relationship with the Borg Queen, she who brings “order to chaos.” When he was thrown back to 19th century San Francisco, he (and other crew members from the Enterprise-D) happened to bump into Samuel Clemens, also known as Mark Twain. As if this isn’t enough, the bellboy at the hotel that Data stays at happens to be Jack London.


Worf

Worf was an aquaintance of Gowron, former political leader of the Klingon Empire and Kahless, spiritual leader of the Empire, and is a close friend of General Martok, Gowron’s former second in command. Recently, Worf killed Gowron, making Martok the new leader of the Klingon Empire. Worf had also been somewhat instrumental in getting Gowron into power earlier, since he had killed Gowron’s only rival, Duras. Worf was the first and is currently the only Klingon to serve in Starfleet (not counting the half-Klingon B’Elanna Torres, who is not officially serving in Starfleet, per see). He has had the pleasure of serving on both the flagship (The Enterprise-D) of and later the most important strategic location (DS9) in the Federation. Worf is currently serving as an ambassador between the Klingon Empire and the Federation (wonder how long THAT's going to last?).


Benjamin Sisko

Sisko is actually a religious figure—the ‘Emissary to the Prophets.’ Although he balked at first, he is now happily acting as the virtual messiah for the Bajorans. He has a personal connection to the Prophets—they speak with him rather frequently. In recent episodes, we learned that Sisko’s mother was actually possessed by a Prophet from the point when she married his father to sometime after Sisko was born. In addition to his religious connections, Sisko commands Deep Space Nine, which is located at the Bajoran Wormhole, the gateway to the Gamma Quadrant. This is a strategically significant location because the Dominion—the powerful enemy of the Federation—is based in the Gamma Quadrant. In fact, since Sisko discovered the Wormhole, you could say that he is the reason for the Dominion’s presence in the Alpha Quadrant and therefore the war. Sisko once worked closely with Starfleet Command and the President of the United Federation of Planets, Jaresh Inyo. He has personally negotiated with the leaders of the Klingon Empire (Gowron), the Dominion (Weyoun), and the Cardassian Union (Dukat, then Damar). Sisko was also responsible for bringing the Romulans into the war (though through somewhat questionable means). He is also partially responsible for saving the Federation by convincing the Prophets to destroy Dominion ships that tried to come through the wormhole.


Jadzia/Ezri Dax

The Dax symbiant has occupied 9 hosts at this point; some of them—Curzon among them—have been highly regarded ambassadors. It should also be noted that Emony Dax, while on Earth for some gymnastics event or other, had some sort of relationship with a medstudent called Leonard H. McCoy (“He had the hands of a surgeon”).


Julian Bashir

Although Julian Bashir doesn’t have as many connections as some of the others, he does have the honor of being the only known successful result of genetic engineering within the Federation. Partially as a result of this, Bashir was subjected to scrutiny and a holographic scenerio by the Federation’s version of the CIA, and later offered a position in this elite organization.


Odo

Odo is a god (how much higher can you get?). His species is worshipped by the Vorta and the Jem’Hadar, two races of the Dominion, which controls the Gamma Quadrant and hopes to control the Alpha Quadrant. Odo has had an on again, off again relationship with his kinsmen, the Founders, who control the Dominion. Currently, he is living with them on their broth planet.


Garak

Although Garak isn’t a main character, he resides on the station, and I’ll just mention that he was once a member of the Obsidian Order, the Cardassian secret police; his father was the head of the Order. He also helped to save Cardassia from the Dominion (and killed Weyoun, the Dominion’s top administrator).


Quark

Quark actually served as Grand Nagus, or leader of the Feringi people, for a short time. Since then, he has had a close relationship with Grand Nagus Zek, and his mother is currently involved in an intimate relationship with Zek. Recently, Quark was instrumental in unseating Grand Nagus Brunt (Acting Grand Nagus Brunt!) and restoring Zek to power. In addition to his Feringi connections, Quark was probably responsible for thwarting the Dominion’s plans to bring many reinforcements from the Gamma Quadrant, which could have tipped the scales of the war in the Dominion’s favor. (Although the sabatours on the station failed to stop the detonation of the minefield, they did disable the weapons, allowing the Defiant to enter the wormhole and Sisko to talk to the Prophets—whew!!)


Nog

Nog, nephew of Quark, was the first and is currently the only Ferengi in Starfleet.


Rom

A recent addition to this list, Rom (lowly brother of Quark, husband of Leeta, and father of Nog) was appointed to the position of Ferengi Grand Nagus. The old Grand Nagus, Zek, wanted the Ferengi to change their ways (instate taxes, social programs, clothed females, etc.), so he appointed the cutest, sweetest Ferengi he could think of to the post. Kinda makes you wonder, doesn’t it?


Kira Nerys

At one point, Kira was chosen as a ‘vessel’ for the Prophets to combat the Pah Wraiths (don’t ask me why they needed to involve humanoids in the first place). Kira has also had many connections with the Bajoran leaders. She was aquainted with Kai Opaka (think of the Kai as the Pope of Bajor), and is the arch-rival of Kai Winn. Kira is also well aquainted with the ‘Emissary’ (aka Benjamin Sisko) who is virtually the messiah for the Bajoran people. Kira also seems to have a taste for powerful men. First, she had an intimate relationship with Vedek Bariel, who was in the running to be the new Kai. Then, she was with First Minister Shaakar, the political leader of Bajor. Then, she was with Odo, who, as I’ve already mentioned, is considered a god by the members of the Dominion. In addition, she has maintained a dubious flirtation with Gul Dukat, who was at one time the leader of the Cardassian people, and later was occasionally the personification of the Bajoran devil. Kira also worked closely with Weyoun, the Vorta who is the virtual leader of the Dominion, while he was on Deep Space Nine.


Thomas Eugene Paris

Paris’s father is a very respected Admiral in Starfleet. Tom Paris was the first human to travel at warp 10 (with rather interesting consequences).


Doctor Zimmerman (‘The Doctor’)

The Doctor has the honor of being (as far as we know) the first and only hologram to have a mobile emitter, allowing him to move about with complete freedom.


Tuvok

Tuvok was, earlier in his career, an officer on the Excelsior, serving under the great Captain Sulu.


Seven of Nine

Seven is, as far as we know, the first Borg to have been seperated permanently and successfully from the collective consciousness (unless you count Third of Five (Hugh) and the bunch from “Descent,” but I wouldn’t call that successful, and the bunch from a third season Voyager episode may have been separated from the main collective, but they created their own).



Well, what did you think? Perhaps some of these connections are to be expected...after all, these are the heros, and they’re bound to meet up with certain muckity-mucks in their travels. But is it really just coincidence that we have, on one simple Federation Starbase:

the Emissary,
a deity,
a former Grand Nagus,
a current Grand Nagus,
the only successful product of genetic engineering in the Federation,
a former lover of Dr. McCoy,
the son of the head of the Cardassian secret service,
the lover of 2 high muckity-mucks of Bajor (and one of the Dominion, not to mention the flirtation with the former head of Cardassia),
the man who determined the next leader of the Klingon empire by killing a rival (TWICE), and later became the Federation ambassador to the Klingons,
and the only Starfleet officer who can hold the bloody station together!

And that’s not even getting into the other three series.