Editing Reginald Barclay (section)

==Analysis==
Describing the character as "an average person who was fallible [and] prone to mistakes," Schultz thought Barclay was quite unlike any previous ''[[Star Trek]]'' character.  Schultz was surprised to be asked back to ''The Next Generation'' for "[[The Nth Degree (Star Trek: The Next Generation)|The Nth Degree]]" in [[Star Trek: The Next Generation season 4|season four]], not realizing how popular the character was with [[trekkie|fans]].  After [[Patrick Stewart]] ([[Jean-Luc Picard]]) insisted that he join the [[science fiction convention|convention]] circuit, Schultz was "overwhelmed" by the reaction: "[People] really do identify with Barclay because he has difficulties.  He's not the super-perfect [[Starfleet]] officer you often see on Star Trek, and the audience loves him because of that."<ref name="2001 TV Zone" /><ref name="1997-08 STTOMM" />

{{blockquote|text=I immediately identified him as a [[trekkie|Star Trek fan]].  If you put a fan on the [[Starship Enterprise|''Enterprise'']] [[bridge (nautical)|bridge]] they would probably behave just like Barclay.  I love the character.|author=[[Dwight Schultz]]<ref name="2001 TV Zone" />}}
In ''[[Star Trek: First Contact]]'', Schultz relished playing Barclay as the character he had always envisioned him to be: "a [[fan (person)|fan]].  In his case, he was the ultimate fan of [[Zefram Cochrane|the scientist who invented warp drive]]."<ref name="2001 TV Zone" />  Authors Lynne Joyrich and Robin Roberts, and "[[Hollow Pursuits]]" writer [[Sally Caves|Sarah Higley]] all came to the same conclusion as Schultz: that Barclay is meant to be a mirror to the [[trekkie|''Star Trek'' fan]], with Higley saying, "Barclay is a ''Star Trek'' fan, making these wonderful ''Star Trek'' characters in the [[Holodeck]] say and do whatever he wants them to do."<ref name="1996 Cinema Journal" /><ref name="2001 Extrapolation" /><ref name="1991-09 official TNG mag" />  In the book ''The Influence of ''Star Trek'' on Television, Film and Culture'', Sue Short goes even further, suggesting Barclay is a [[Mary Sue]].  The authors describe Barclay as an "archetypal Trek-nerd, opting to exist in a fantasy world due to inadequacies that prevent him from fully engaging with the real one."  Writing about Barclay's introduction in "Hollow Pursuits", the character seems to endorse a perception of fans as "psychologically disordered" or "dangerously delusional".<ref name="2008 Influence of Star Trek" />  Both [[showrunner]] [[Michael Piller]] and [[television director|director]] [[Cliff Bole]] disagree with the perception that Barclay was meant to represent "self-absorbed ''Trek'' fans who are so obsessed with the show that they are oblivious to reality."  Piller felt "Hollow Pursuits" was more about the theme of 'fantasy vs. reality' while Bole felt the audience would instead be attracted to the holodeck vignettes such as the ''[[The Three Musketeers|Three Musketeers]]'' allusion.<ref name="1995 Captains' Logs: Season Three" />

In his analysis of [[stuttering]] in visual media for ''[[The Journal of Popular Culture]]'', [[PhD candidate]] Jeffrey K. Johnson puts forward that stuttering is a sort of "storytelling [[shorthand]]" for nervous and weak characters.  Barclay is portrayed not simply as a person who stutters, but a "shy, backward, [[phobia|phobic]]" [[hypochondriasis|hypochondriac]] whose stuttering is a symptom of these deficiencies.  "On a [[starship]] filled with courageous and often heroic personnel[,] the one character that is shown to have multiple anxieties and weaknesses is also the one who stutters."  In "[[Endgame (Star Trek: Voyager)|Endgame]]", when Barclay becomes confident and assertive in the future, he has also stopped stuttering.  Johnson contrasts this depiction of stuttering with ''The Next Generation''{{'}}s depiction of other disabled characters: [[Geordi La Forge]] ([[LeVar Burton]]) is blind, but nonetheless capable and heroic, and Riva ([[Howie Seago]])—from the episode "[[Loud as a Whisper]]"—is deaf, yet "is revered for his strong character and excellent communication skills."<ref name="2008-04 Journal of Popular Culture" />

Terry L. Shepherd, a professor of [[special education]] at [[Indiana University South Bend]], wrote in ''[[Teaching Exceptional Children]]'' about how showing disabled children likewise disabled ''[[Star Trek]]'' characters can improve their situations at school.  Shepherd uses Barclay as an example of this, stating how even though the character does not completely overcome his [[social anxiety disorder]] by the end of "Hollow Pursuits", he has made steps towards improving his self-confidence.<ref name="2007-07 Teaching Exceptional Children" />

In discussing ''[[Star Trek: The Experience]]'' and its emphasis on the masculine aspects of ''Star Trek'' for the academic journal [[Extrapolation (journal)|''Extrapolation'']], Robin Roberts notes how the [[holodeck]]-centric episodes of ''The Next Generation'' focus on men using the simulator.  Roberts goes on to say that when Barclay "is no longer in control of his holodeck simulations, [he] is feminized and faces being fired from Starfleet."  Roberts also explains how Barclay is intended to be not only "[a] stand-in for ''Star Trek'' fans", but also representing both ''Experience'' participants and home viewers "who are not in control of the fantasy narrative."<ref name="2001 Extrapolation" />

In ''The Influence of ''Star Trek'' on Television, Film and Culture'', Sue Short described Barclay as "the most improbable member of Starfleet" due to his propensity for [[daydream]]ing and solitary pursuits.  Yet it is Barclay's outside-the-box thinking that saves the day more than once.<ref name="2008 Influence of Star Trek" />