| “ | Jean-Luc, I was too harsh. | „ |
| ~ Galen apologizing to Picard on his death bed. |
Professor Richard Galen was a human male featured in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode The Chase.
He was portrayed by the late Norman Lloyd.
History[]
Born around 2269, for many years Galen served as a professor of archeology at Starfleet Academy. Among his more famous students were Jean-Luc Picard, Donald Varley, and Jadzia Dax. Galen was especially close to Picard, almost to the point of the two having a father-son relationship. Picard took so well to archeology that he considered a career in the field instead of continuing on in Starfleet, but ultimately decided to continue his Starfleet career, disappointing Galen. In the following years the two men lost touch with each other.
By the 2360s Galen was one of the foremost experts on Kurlan civilization in the Federation. In the 2360s Galen found that there were a number of worlds throughout the Alpha and Beta quadrants - including Earth, Qo'noS, Vulcan, and Cardassia among many others - where particular DNA strands had compatible protein configurations that could be linked together. Realizing that it was too well built to be natural, Galen knew that it was part of an ancient computer program that could be very profound or very deadly. Knowing of the possible danger, Galen went about collecting DNA strands in secret.
In 2369 Galen reached out to Captain Picard for assistance in completing the computer program, even though it meant Picard would have to leave Starfleet. Picard turned him down again, causing the Professor to leave the Enterprise in a huff. While on his way to Indrii VIII to see if that world's DNA had a piece of the program, Galen was attacked by a Yiridian destroyer. He was able to encrypt portions of his computer files but his ship was boarded and he was shot at close range by a Yiridian. The Enterprise soon arrived and destroyed the Yiridian attackers.
Beamed to the Enterprise sickbay, Doctor Beverly Crusher found there was little she could do for Galen. In his last moments of life Galen apologized to Picard for becoming angry over his refusal to give up the Enterprise. Using the information collected by Galen, along with those collected by the Klingons and Cardassians, Picard was able to complete Galen's work and assemble the computer program.
Instead of being a weapon or power source, the program turned out to be a message from an incredibly ancient progenitor race which had seeded a whole host of worlds with proteins which were incorporated into the DNA of the life forms that evolved on those worlds, and led to many worlds developing sentient bi-pedal life forms similar in form to the progenitor race. Picard believed that Galen would have appreciated the message but was disappointed of how the Klingons and Cardassians did not appear receptive to the message. He was pleasantly surprised that some Romulans were receptive to the message, and hoped the realization that humans and Romulans were not so different would lead to improved relations.
Legacy[]
A year after Galen's death, Picard used his name as an alias while infiltrating a raider ship searching for pieces to the Stone of Gol, an incredibly destructive ancient Vulcan weapon.
