Cadet First Class Nicholas "Nick" Locarno was the leader of Starfleet Academy's Nova Squadron in 2368. He was expelled from Starfleet Academy after causing the death of a fellow cadet and forcing those under him to cover up the accident.

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History

Shortly before commencement, on stardate 45703, the Nova Squadron flight team was involved in an accidental collision trying to do the highly controversial and banned Kolvoord Starburst maneuver for the graduation ceremony on the Academy Flight Range near one of Saturn's moons, Titan. Cadet Joshua Albert was killed in the crash, while the other members of the team were able to activate their emergency transporters to escape their doomed ships.

Locarno convinced his team members – Wesley Crusher, Sito Jaxa, and Jean Hajar – that the accident was Albert's fault and persuaded them to ultimately cover up the fact that they performed a prohibited maneuver and lie at the subsequent hearing. However, the truth was discovered by Captain Jean-Luc Picard who believed that Locarno wanted to end his Academy career in a blaze of glory and that he convinced the other team members to learn the Kolvoord Starburst for the commencement demonstrations, allowing Locarno to graduate as a living legend. Outraged and furious, Picard confronted Wesley Crusher about it, asking him to either come forward or else he would do it for him. Locarno, who had always insisted that everything he did was for his friends and the team, took full responsibility for the accident and was subsequently expelled from the Academy. Locarno made a passionate plea to the inquiry board which saved the other members also from almost certain expulsion. (TNG: "The First Duty")

Appendices

Background information

Nicholas Locarno was played by actor Robert Duncan McNeill.

Locarno was the inspiration for Star Trek: Voyager's Tom Paris. In interviews, the producers of Voyager claimed Locarno's actions made him irredeemable, and therefore a new character was required. (TNG Season 5 DVD) Voyager Producer Jeri Taylor has stated, "We had liked the idea of a character like Tom Paris ever since we had done "First Duty" and had Lecarno [sic.]. We didn't make Lecarno the con officer, because he was somewhat darker and more damaged. We felt Lecarno couldn't be redeemed and we wanted to be on a journey of redemption." On the same occasion Taylor confirmed that McNeill had always been the first choice for the character, "We knew from the get-go we were going to read this guy," thereby squashing the contemporary rumor that it had been a stroke of inspiration from Executive Producer Rick Berman. (Cinefantastique, Vol. 27, issue 4/5, p. 62)

Robert Duncan McNeill said in an interview that while they may seem similar, Locarno and Tom Paris were actually quite different. He remarked, "Locarno seemed like a nice guy, but deep down he was a bad guy. Tom Paris is an opposite premise in a way. Deep down he's a good guy. He's just made some mistakes." [1]

Taylor even proceeded from the assumption that McNeill was to reprise the Locarno character for Voyager, as her preliminary story notes of 3 August 1993 during the development stage of the new series showed and where he was mentioned by name as one of the main protagonists, reiterated in her story notes of 10 August. However, by the time a preliminary version of the series' "Writer's Bible" was drafted at the end of September, the character's name was, for whatever reason, changed into that of Tom Paris. (A Vision of the Future - Star Trek: Voyager, pp. 178, 186 & 208)

"The First Duty" writers Moore and Shankar never bought into the "irredeemable" argument however, stating on a later occasion that they were "bummed" that the very same actor McNeill was recast as Tom Paris, instead of reprising his role as Locarno as they could see no valid reason as to why Locarno's actions should have been irredeemable whereas Paris' equally serious actions were not. Shankar took a jab at any claim the decision was due to royalties when he jokingly added that he would not have minded the cheques either, knowing full well that he, as then tenured staff writer, was not entitled to any. (TNG Season 5 Blu-ray: "The First Duty", audio commentary)

A photo of McNeill as Locarno was later used as a photo of young Tom Paris on Admiral Owen Paris' desk in the Voyager episode "Pathfinder". His uniform from this episode was later sold off on the It's A Wrap! sale and auction on eBay. [2]

Apocrypha

In the Star Trek novella Revenant, Nicholas Locarno joined the privateers of Celtic - a private starship - in 2380 where they boarded a vessel taken by the Borg. Locarno joined the boarding party, but it turned out that the away team had been sent there to be assimilated by the Borg. He subsequently allowed himself to be assimilated with the other members of the crew.

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