Robert April?

So... Enterprise was launched in 2245. Spock served on board from about 2248 or thereabouts. That gives Robert April two or three years as her captain until Pike replaces him.

I have this 2380's game I'm playing, and I was thinking of having the Enterprise fall through a wormhole/time rift/whatever and encounter the Sovereign (my PC's ship).

I figure the crew of the Enterprise could be something like this:

Capt Robert April
Cmdr Christopher Pike.
A LtCmdr who looks a lot like Pike's Number One. (does anyone know her name?)
and some nosy Ensign named Spock

I could fill in the other characters later.

On to my point: I need a conflict for the two crews to struggle against, before they try to send the Enterprise home. There's this real touching scene where my ship's counselor and Spock re-tune everybody's mind to forget what they'd seen in the 23rd century. Not to mention that my crew can easily research and discover that April died on the exact date the Enterprise vanished into that wormhole all those years ago.

So? The series is set in the Romulan Civil War following the events in Star Trek: Nemesis. Certainly, a ship that had seen Actual Romulans(tm) would need that information scrubbed from their brains, right? How about a second Scimitar-class vessel? That's a huge problem... and not unlikely, I figure.

Thanks in advance.

Nice concept. Thogh I don't think Capt. April and Capt. Pike ever served together. No big deal. Theres no Canaon info to dispute it. As far as the mind scrub goes, yes the crew from the past would need to forget the Romulans. Another way to handle it would be the same way that Dr. Polaski "erased" short term memory from Sharjenka.

As far as your Romulan advasaries....one or two of those new Attack Warbirds from Nemesis would be a good choice. Just remember that any damage the Enterprise takes has to be explainable.

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Interior: Bridge of the Enterprise Circa 2247

Capt. April leaning forward in his seat gripping the armrests as his ship moves closer to the spatial anomoly. Suddenly in a flash of light everyone awakens on the floor...

The Captain...always the first to rise rubs his temples to ease the newfound ache in his head....."Damage Report" he comands.....and the Engineer answers.....We have some moderate damage to the starboard warp nacell.....the blast patters are consistant with a high energy plasma disruption..... The captain frowns....We were attacked...but by whom?

The entire encounter having been completed whle they were "Asleep".

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Sorry, I go into storyteller mode a lot..... :D

I think "Number One" was only ever referred to as such, no further name.

Does anyone else have other information on that topic?

*nods* That was the gist of her... just the mysterious "Number One", with no actual name.

I thought, though, that The Cage, and later The Menagerie, Parts I & II, insinuated that Spock had just recently come aboard the Enterprise shortly before the episodes began. IIRC, The Cage was dated circa 2254, which was about a year after Pike assumed the captaincy of the Enterprise. Further, I think the Star Trek Chronology made the Enterprise Spock's first duty posting, and I believe he graduated from Starfleet Academy in 2252-3. So, I think Spock came aboard the same time as Pike... but bear in mind, these are solely my opinions on the matter, and considering how Rick Berman seems intent on completely re-writing the timeline to mess with all of us in trying to figure this sort of thing out... you never really know.

Captain Robert April 2245-2249
First Captain of the Enterprise, it is possible to speculate that he was also the cpatain of the ship during its construction as well. His crew includes First officer Shundresh, Cheif Engineer Kursley, Navigator Lt. Po and Helmsmen Lt. Nobis (these came from the Dixion chronology and themselves come from sources such as the novalization of TAS in Star Trek Log 7).

While by no means "canon", the Star Trek: Early Voyages series that Marvel Comics did a few years ago (excellent series, btw, and part of my PERSONAL canon), gave her LAST name in a latter issue as "Robinson".

Take that as you will.

As far as I remember Aprils XO was Kirk's father, George Kirk, at least in a novel where Enterprise is launched.

And of course... just to confuse all these conflicting non-canon sources... :D

Number One has appeared as a Flint-like Immortal, and the mother of Robin Lefler (and somehow related to Laxwana Troi???) in the recent New Frontier novels by Peter David... But whilst I know he gives her name, I cant remember it as I stopped reading them a long time ago as that was the point they got crap too...

Which makes that non-canon sourse even less useful than the others! :D

However, Robert April doesn't die, as Commodore April (with his wife) arrives on the Enterprise during Star trek TAS (is it the episode Yesteryear?), which is also a non-canon source! Arggghhhh.

Personally, the only information on the matter is pretty much non-canon, and so you are in a good position to make it up as you go along.

In fact, the only canon information is that;
a - The Enterprise was commander by Captain April.
and b - The photo record they used for Captain April, was a photo of Gene Roddenberry (so at least you know who he looks like).

The easiest thing to do would simply create a name and background for her as close to canon as you like and run with it. The lack of information on this era was part of the reason I had considered running a series during the time period of the Constitution classes first launch. Other than the names of a few people and a few events stated from various sources the history of that time was pretty much open.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Dan Gurden
Number One has appeared as a Flint-like Immortal, and the mother of Robin Lefler (and somehow related to Laxwana Troi???) in the recent New Frontier novels by Peter David... But whilst I know he gives her name, I cant remember it as I stopped reading them a long time ago as that was the point they got crap too... [/B]

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Her name in the David novels is "Morgan Lefler", IIRC.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Dan Gurden
and b - The photo record they used for Captain April, was a photo of Gene Roddenberry (so at least you know who he looks like).

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I was not aware of that. That is funny.

I love ST:the Early Voyages.My attempt at a CODA ST game is set in that era (2248),aboard an Antares-Class Scout(USS Birkoff NCC-725).I'm using ST:TEV comics for plot ideas in the campagin.Number One's name was Robbins in the comic. I'm rereading them to see if they listed a frist name for her, I'm missing a few issues though.When the novel Final Frontier(w/Capt. April & 1st Off Cmdr G. Kirk ) came out Roddenbery was quoted as saying he considered it to be the 1st mission of the 1701. But then within a year he changed his mind. To bad ,I really liked that book.

"The photo record they used for Captain April, was a photo of Gene Roddenberry (so at least you know who he looks like). "

"I was not aware of that. That is funny."

Now here's the funny bit... The image they grafted GR's head onto is the infamous "airbrushed ears" shot of Spock. :)

Does no one read closing credits of episodes they watch?

I haven't seen it in a while, but there is some light garnered from reading those. Get a copy of The Menagerie, damage your eyesight be reading the closing credits, and you'll see that there is a "name" granted the character. I don't remember off hand what it is, but it was not a name in the sense we know a name to be. It seemed to be a designation of sorts. IIRC, I think it refers to her as The Number One.

Further, her write up in the bible designed for the proto-series had her not listed as human, or alien or anything other than female. She had no family listed, no real background. Only that she was a woman of, "a mysterious quality, a Nile beauty. A coldly logical woman who is a walking encyclopedia." From this, and she is of no Vulcan decent since spock in that same bible is listed as possibly being "half Martian," she might be considered, a telepathic woman who uses logic as a defense against rampant emotions she feels from the crew, an android, a cyborg (possibly with data storage implants), or simply a woman who was meant to portray the feminist ideal of the time.

In the end, it is your series, make her who and what you wish her to be.

'Only that she was a woman of, "a mysterious quality, a Nile beauty. A coldly logical woman who is a walking encyclopedia." '

Why is the above in quotes - it's not a quote, its a bad paraphrase. Paraphrased commenst do not properly belong in quotes.

The original series treatment's description of Number One is as follows:

"The Executive Officer. Never referred to as anything but 'Number One,' this officer is female. Almost mysteriously female, in fact - slim and dark in a Nile Valley way, age uncertain, one of those women who will always look the same between years twenty and fifty. An extraordinarily efficient space officer, 'Number One' enjoys playing it expressionless, cool - is probably Robert April's superior in detailed knowledge of the equipment, departments, and personnel aboard the vessel. When Captain April leaves the craft, 'Number One' moves up to Acting Commander."

Sorry, thought I had it memorized. But I don't have the bible at hand. I was doing what I remembered as the quote, I stand corrected.

IIRC (which is always a big if :) ), D.C. Fontana (story consultant on TOS) wrote a TOS novel (Vulcan's Heart? Vulcan's Glory? I'm not sure...it was like book # 45 or something) which took place on Pike's Enterprise.

Her explaination for Number One was that she was a genetically engineered perfect specimen created from generations of work -- literally she was the "Number One" and this was the only name she had.

YMMV, but I like it.

Number One genetically engineered? Hmmm... I smell story possibilities.

Right off the top of my head: After hearing how Kirk exiled him to Ceti Alpha 6, she volunteers to visit Khan and try to rehabilitate him. She thinks she can talk to him as one superior being to another and make him a productive member of society. Khan sticks a worm in her ear and uses her to attempt an escape. Mayhem ensues as the PCs try to keep Khan caged. I'd also manipulate the situation so that the PCs were responsible for the explosion that destroyed Ceti Alpha 5.

Personally, I find her much more interesting a character as a very competent normal Human woman than as yet another genetically engineered superhuman, just as I found Julian Bashir less interesting after he was revealed to have been genetically enhanced.

Besides, the legal restrictions on genetically engineered individuals serving in Starfleet have quite explicitly been a fundamental part of Starfleet regulations since its inception, based on evidence in the Deep Space Nine episode Dr. Bashir, I Presume? where they cite Khan Noonian Singh and the Eugenics Wars as a basis.