Lieutenant Reginald Endicott "Broccoli" Barclay III, played by Dwight Schultz, is a recurring character in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation. He later had a recurring role in the last few seasons of Star Trek: Voyager where he plays a vital role in re-establishing regular contact with the stranded ship.

University of Rochester professor Sarah Higley created Reginald Barclay in her script for the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Hollow Pursuits". According to Higley, Barclay is a satirical depiction of Trekkies and their excessive obsession with imaginary characters. He has characteristics associated with many negative nerd and geek stereotypes. While possessing great technical skill and sincere enthusiasm, Barclay seems anxiety-ridden, socially awkward, and self-conscious in ways that may indicate Asperger syndrome, avoidant personality disorder or social anxiety disorder. He has an obsessive interest in fantasy, which seems to serve as an escape from personal interaction. Barclay's anxieties extend to idiosyncratic fears (such as fear of being transported) and hypochondriasis. The overcoming of his fears and social avoidance became a running plot point across many seasons in multiple Star Trek series.

Sir Patrick Stewart, OBE (born 13 July 1940) is an English film, television and stage actor, who has had a distinguished career in theatre and television. He is most widely known for his television and film roles, such as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation and its successor films, Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men film series, and as the voice of Avery Bullock in American Dad!.

Stewart was born on 13 July 1940 in Mirfield, near Dewsbury in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. He is the son of Gladys (née Barrowclough), a weaver and textile worker, and Alfred Stewart, a Regimental Sergeant Major in the British Army who served with the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and previously worked as a general labourer and as a postman.

In a 2008 interview, Stewart said: "My father was a very potent individual, a very powerful man who got what he wanted. It was said that when he strode onto the parade ground, birds stopped singing. It was many, many years before I realised how my father inserted himself into my work. I've grown a moustache for Macbeth. My father didn't have one, but when I looked in the mirror just before I went on stage I saw my father's face staring straight back at me."

Jonathan Scott Frakes (born August 19, 1952) is an American actor, author and director. Frakes is best known for his portrayal of Commander William T. Riker in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and subsequent films and as David Xanatos in the animated series Gargoyles. Frakes also narrated the television series Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction, challenging viewers to discern his alternating stories of fact-based phenomena, or fabricated tales. In June 2011, Frakes narrated the History Channel documentary, Lee and Grant.

Moving on to directing in recent years, Frakes directed and also starred in Star Trek: First Contact as well as Star Trek: Insurrection. He is also the author of a book called The Abductors: Conspiracy.

Frakes was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, the son of Doris J. (née Yingling) and James R. Frakes. He grew up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of the state. A 1970 graduate of Bethlehem's Liberty High School, he ran track and played with the Liberty High School Grenadier Band. Frakes received a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Theater Arts at Penn State University in the early 1970s, where he was a member of the Thespians.