Ronny Cox on how Captain Jellico helped Star Trek: The Next Generation

Captain Jellico was a polarizing character when he first appeared on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Not a particularly well-liked character, Captain Jellico came aboard the Enterprise in the sixth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation. In the two part episode, Chain of Command, he made abrupt changes that, while the fans might not have liked, the actors actually did. And some of those alterations helped the show.

In a recent interview with Trekmovie, Ronny Cox talked about the lack of conflict among the characters as it wasn’t allowed. But when he took this role, they were able to introduce conflict between his csharacter and Will Riker (Jonathan Frakes), which Cox says brought a new dimension to the show.

Captain Jellico had some rules of his own that didn’t sit well with the Enterprise crew.

According to Cox, Marina Sirtis (Counselor Troi) had asked to be able to wear a uniform on the series so when Captain Jellico ordered Troi to wear a uniform, it was actually a good thing despite how it disappointed some fans. Troi got to do more things after that as well.

"That’s another thing that Jellico did that scratched a lot of it. She actually asked. Jellico gets a bunch of beef pork for making her put on a uniform, but she asked for that and she got a lot more stuff after that. And the fish in the ready room. Patrick Stewart always hated the fish in the ready room. He said, “We’re doing a series about the dignity of all creatures in the universe and we’ve got captured fish in the ready room?” But the producers like shooting through the fish swimming around there. So Jellico did that for Patrick! [laughs]"

It sounds like Jellico’s orders were the producers’ way of responding to some of the actors’ wishes. With Troi having been “out of uniform” for the first five seasons, it wouldn’t have made sense for Captain Picard to suddenly order her to start wearing one. And he wouldn’t have gotten rid of his fish, either, even though Patrick Stewart disliked them. So, with the introduction of Captain Jellico, some issues were resolved, although, it’s doubtful this information will earn him any fan favor after all this time.