Simon Tarses

Simon Tarses

Simon Tarses was a Human (who was one-quarter Romulan), originally from the Martian colonies. He was an enlisted crewman first class, serving as a medical technician aboard the USS Enterprise-D under Doctor Beverly Crusher.

In 2367, an explosion in the Enterprise warp core lead investigators to discover that J'Dan, a Klingon exchange officer on board the ship, had been involved in smuggling secrets to the Romulans. J'Dan admitted to his espionage, and hinted that there were co-conspirators on board the Enterprise as well. Simon Tarses, who occasionally administered a medicinal hypospray to the Klingon traitor, was extensively questioned by a Starfleet board of inquiry, which uncovered that Tarses was a quarter Romulan and not a quarter Vulcan, as he had falsely claimed on his Starfleet entrance application. His falsehood threatened to end his Starfleet career. (TNG: "The Drumhead")

Appendices

Background

Tarses was played by Spencer Garrett. This episode established in dialog that he was an enlisted crewman who had not gone to the Starfleet Academy; therefore, he wore a blank collar. This lack of rank insignia for crewmen and noncoms was used throughout Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager, although chief petty officers were assigned different insignia.

It was not revealed what punishment, if any, Tarses might receive for lying in his documentation. It was only mentioned it might mean "the end of his career."

Apocrypha

Outside of his canon appearance, Tarses has been mentioned in the Pocket TNG and Pocket DS9 series of novels. In these later stories, Tarses has overcome the hindrance of his misdeeds and gone on to obtain his doctorate.

In the TNG novel Sins of Commission, Tarses came to terms with his origins. He also plays a role in the TNG novel Do Comets Dream?, where he falls in love with a Thanetian.

And, as he was one-quarter Romulan, it could be that his birth-mother (like Lt. Saavik)was a Vulcan/Romulan mixed-blood. Part of the failed attempt, by the Romulans, to disprove their joint heritage with the Vulcans.

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