Crew Profile: Reginald Barclay

The extraordinary career of Dwight Schultz

When Dwight Schultz was first approached for “Hollow Pursuits”, as detailed in the WAM for that episode, he had been a long time Star Trek fan. He had wanted to appear in TNG, but didn’t have a way in until he appeared with Whoopi Goldberg in 1990s The Long Walk Home. I rather imagine that at the moment this idea came up and was taken seriously, Schultz was a shoe-in for a guest spot. But nobody at the time could have realised that he was going to become a recurring role that would pop up once more for every TNG season until the end of its run - and then six more times in Voyager, as well as guesting in Star Trek: First Contact.

But Schultz, who has more than a hundred credits for TV and film (and another hundred for videogames), was entirely unknown when he debuted in 1981, and it was one single lucky role that was to shoot him to international stardom...