"Star Trek" - "G" Characters Trivia Quiz

Answer: Elim Garak

Elim Garak was an expatriate of Cardassia after the Cardassians left their occupation of Bajor. He purportedly was just a tailor who owned a shop on the Prominade of Terok Nor, renamed Deep Space Nine after the Federation and Bajor took over ownership of the station. He continued to use his contacts on Cardassia to aid various people who needed his help. He even went so far as to set a bomb on Romulan Senator Vreenak's vessel (killing the senator) in order to cement Captain Sisko's attempt to deceive the Romulans into believing that the Dominion was about to start a war front with their empire. ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode "In the Pale Moonlight")

An alternate reality version of Garak appeared in "Star Trek: Lower Decks" episode "Fissure Quest". In this reality, he was a Starfleet doctor serving on the USS Anaximander under Section 31 Captain William Boimler. They were pursuing a ship that was tearing fissures in-between the fabric of different realities. He was also married to an EMH based on Dr. Julian Bashir.

Andrew Robinson portrayed Elim Garak in his 33 appearances on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" and voiced him on "Star Trek: Lower Decks". Besides acting, he is also an author and director.

Answer: Guinan

Guinan is an El-Aurian, an extremely long-lived humanoid species. She first met Captain Picard when he and some of his crew time-traveled to San Francisco in 1893 ("Star Trek: The Next Generation" two-part story "Time's Arrow"). She then later met Picard's younger self in the 24th century, creating a unique who-met-who-first situation.

In the 23rd century, the Borg attacked her homeworld and assimilated it. She and a few dozen other El-Aurians escaped, only to be trapped by a phenomenon called The Nexus. As she was being rescued by the USS Enterprise-B, part of her was taken by the Nexus. In the Nexus, she lived in a fantasy world that presented whatever the souls trapped there envisioned. She sensed Captain Picard entering, and guided him to Captain Kirk, who had been trapped there in the 23rd century during the USS Enterprise-B's rescue attempt. The two captains left the Nexus to fight Dr. Tolian Soren, an El-Aurian who wanted to re-enter the Nexus after he'd been beamed away. However, Soran was destroying stars in order to direct the Nexus to Veridian III where he could be re-taken. (Movie "Star Trek: Generations")

Guinan was played by Academy Award-winning Whoopi Goldberg. She has been a "Star Trek" fan since she was a girl. She saw Nichelle Nichols on "Star Trek", and ran to her mother, shouting, "There's a black lady on TV and she ain't no maid!"

Answer: Geordi La Forge

Geordi La Forge was initially a helmsman/navigator on the USS Enterprise-D ("Star Trek: The Next Generation"). In the premier of the second season, he was made the chief engineer, which he served as for the remainder of the show and into the four movies of "The Next Generation".

Captain La Forge also appeared in the "Star Trek: Voyager" episode "Timeless", set in a future where Chakotay and Harry Kim made it back to the Alpha Quadrant via the Delta Flyer and slipstream drive, but USS Voyager (following behind them) crashed, killing all their crewmates. Chakotay and Kim were going to use a Borg temporal transmitter to send Seven of Nine information so that Voyager wouldn't crash, but also make it back to the Alpha Quadrant. Captain La Forge, commanding the USS Challenger, was trying to stop them from altering the past. Just as La Forge was forced to destroy the Delta Flyer, Kim managed to send information to Seven that would make Voyager leave the quantum slipstream safely. This, of course, changed history so that Chakotay and Kim were never killed.

LeVar Burton portrayed Geordi La Forge. Burton rose to fame playing the young African Kunta Kinte who was captured and brought to the United States as a slave in the 1977 mini-series "Roots". He also was the host of the children's educational program "Reading Rainbow".

Burton also has directed episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine", "Star Trek: Voyager" (including "Timeless"), and "Star Trek: Enterprise", for a total of 29 episodes.

Answer: Rachel Garrett

Captain Garrett was commanding the Enterprise-C a couple of decades before the events of "Star Trek: The Next Generation". She responded to a distress call from the Narendra III outpost of the Klingons. They were being attacked by Romulan warbirds. During their fight to defend the outpost, a temporal rift was created by the energies used to attack each other. The Enterprise-C went through the rift, but came back out. It was ultimately destroyed. Nonetheless, the act of a Federation ship coming to the aid of a Klingon outpost did much to ease tensions between the two powers.

However, what happened was that the Enterprise-C traveled to the future and met up with the Enterprise-D. But without the former performing their heroic acts in the past, the galactic history changed. Instead, tensions increased between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, igniting a years-long war that the Federation was losing. The Enterprise-D was not an exploration vessel, but a warship. During an attack by the Klingons, Captain Garrett was killed. The El-Aurian Guinan sensed something was wrong with the situation and persuaded Captain Picard to send the Enterprise-C back to the past, to die heroically, and secure peace in their present. ("Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Yesterday's Enterprise")

Captain Garrett was portrayed by Tricia O'Neil. O'Neil has also played Cardassian Korinas, an operative of the Obsidian Order ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode "Defiant") and Klingon scientist Kurak in the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Suspicions".

Answer: Amanda Grayson

Amanda Grayson was the Human wife of Vulcan diplomat Sarek and mother to Spock, the first Vulcan/Human hybrid to survive to adulthood. She accompanied her husband to a diplomatic conference on Babel aboard the USS Enterprise. During the trip, Sarek became incapacitated with heart problems. Spock was ready to aid Dr. McCoy with the surgery by donating blood. However, after Kirk was attacked by an Orion spy, he said his duties precluded him from being a part of the surgery. She begged her son to reconsider. It was only when Kirk, secretly concealing the extent of his injuries, returned to the bridge and ordered Spock to go to Sick Bay that Spock acquiesced. ("Star Trek" episode "Journey to Babel")

Besides giving birth to Spock, she also raised human orphan Michael Burnham. ("Star Trek: Discovery")

Amanda was played by Jane Wyatt. She was best known as Mrs. Anderson, the mother on "Father Knows Best".

She returned to play Sarek's wife and Spock's mother in "Star Trek: The Voyage Home". She was trying to aid her son with his mental difficulties, as he had died and been resurrected on Genesis.

Answer: Gary Mitchell

Lt. Commander Gary Mitchell was a helmsman aboard the USS Enterprise under Captain Kirk. He and Kirk were friends since their time at Starfleet Academy. Mitchell was a cadet in one of upperclassman Kirk's classes. To distract him and make the class easier, Mitchell set Kirk up with a "little blonde lab technician", who Kirk almost married.

The Enterprise was investigating the disappearance of the SS Valiant, which had disappeared 200 years prior, after finding its disaster beacon/recorder. This took the ship to the edge of the galaxy, where an energy barrier assaulted the ship with strange energies and caused trauma to several crew members. Mitchell was affected more than others, because his ESP rating was higher than average. As he was recovering in sick bay, he began to develop several powers: telekinesis, telepathy, energy, and matter manipulation. His eyes also began glowing silver.

The ship was damaged, without warp drive. The only outpost they could reach at sub-light speeds was an unmanned dilithium cracking complex on Delta Vega. They go there and cannibalize parts from the complex's equipment. Meanwhile, Mitchell's powers keep growing exponentially. This causes Spock to advise Kirk to either strand Mitchell on Delta Vega or to kill him.

Before they can implement any such plan, Mitchell kills a repair crewman and escapes with Dr. Elizabeth Dehner, who has also begun to manifest powers. They go to a valley away from the complex, where Mitchell creates a garden where there had been none. Kirk goes after him with a phaser rifle. After fighting him for a while, Dr. Dehner attacks Mitchell too, protecting Kirk. While Mitchell is distracted, Kirk fires the rifle into the cliffside, causing a rock slide that knocks Mitchell into a grave he'd created for Kirk. More rocks fell, burying and killing Mitchell. Dehner also dies from her fight with Mitchell.

Kirk's log reported that both Mitchell and Dehner died in the line of duty, because neither had asked for what had happened to them. ("Star Trek" episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before")

In "Star Trek: Lower Decks" episode "Strange Energies", Commander Ransom also was hit by strange energies and became a super-powered menace. Dr. T'ana kept suggesting "smushing" him with a boulder would stop him, which she did after Mariner kept kicking his groin to distract him from attacking the USS Cerritos.

Gary Mitchell was portrayed by Gary Lockwood. Lockwood is best known as Dr. Frank Pool in the sci-fi classic movie "2001: A Space Odyssey".

Answer: Gabriel Lorca

Captain Gabriel Lorca was the captain of the USS Buran. Through some unknown events, the mirror universe Lorca replaced the prime universe Lorca. This Lorca managed to get assigned the captaincy of the USS Discovery. On Discovery, he kept a private lab where he developed weapons that he planned to use when he managed to return to the mirror universe and claim the emperorship of the Terran Empire. ("Star Trek: Discovery", first season)

Subtle clues were given that the Lorca shown was not from the prime universe: 1) He was seen self-medicating with some eye medicine, since mirror-Terrans had more sensitive eyes; 2) Upon coming upon a gormagander, he made a statement that he thought they'd all been hunted to extinction. Perhaps in the mirror universe they were, but in the prime universe they are a protected species ("Star Trek: Discovery" episode "Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad"); 3) When he was captured by the Klingons, he was put in a cell with Lt. Tyler/Voq and Harry Mudd. When they had a chance to escape, he left Mudd in the prison. A Starfleet captain would not be inclined to abandon a Federation citizen, no matter how criminal. ("Star Trek: Discovery" episode "Choose Your Pain")

Jason Isaacs portrayed Captain Gabriel Lorca. He is best known as Lucius Malfoy from the "Harry Potter" series of movies.

Answer: Philippa Georgiou

Captain Philippa Georgiou was a Starfleet officer, commanding officer of the USS Shenzhou. When the Shenzhou encountered Klingons, she believed a peaceful approach was warranted. However, her first officer, Michael Burnham, had contacted her foster father, Sarek. He said that Vulcans had shown aggressive strength rather than diplomacy towards the Klingons. When Georgiou wouldn't take Burnham's advice, Burnham Vulcan-neck-pinched her and took command. However, Georgiou was able to recover, took the ship back, and arrested Burnham for mutiny. Sadly, Burnham was right but had acted wrongly. Georgiou's outright pacifism was the clarion call that the Klingon leader T'Kuvma was waiting for, and began the Battle of the Binary Stars. ("Star Trek: Discovery" episode "The Vulcan Hello")

Philippa Georgiou from the mirror universe was the Terran Empire's empress. After mirror Lorca's failed attempt to claim leadership of the Terran Empire, mirror Georgiou ended up coming back to the prime universe. Then, when Discovery time-jumped to the 32nd century, the combined effects of universe-jumping and time-travel put a strain on her molecular structure.

Michelle Yeoh portrays both prime Georgiou and mirror Georgiou.

Answer: Grilka

Grilka was the wife of Kozak, a Klingon officer who died in Quark's bar on Deep Space 9 by falling on his own knife. Quark took credit for killing Kozak because it increased his reputation and drew in customers. Grilka came to the station to demand Quark marry her so that she could retain control of the House of Kozak, as females couldn't be the heads of Klingon Houses (estates). Once married, Quark did a forensic analysis of her house's ledgers, and found that one of Kozak enemies -- D'Ghor -- had been attacking the House of Kozak for years financially, weakening it. Grilka demanded that Quark present this to the Klingon High Council. Though bored by Quark's presentation, they agreed on D'Ghor's guilt.

Indirect and deceptive attacks are dishonorable, and Quark's presentation of D'Ghor's deceit was basically a challenge for a duel to the death. But when they were face-to-face, Quark simply dropped his bat'leth. Quark reasoned that to fight D'Ghor would simply be his execution. D'Ghor was more than ready to simply strike Quark down, but Gowron stopped him. Striking a defenseless opponent was even more dishonorable, so Gowron had D'Ghor discommendated. He then granted head of household status to Grilka, making the estate the House of Grilka. She then divorced Quark, at his request. ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode "The House of Quark")

Mary Kay Adams portrayed Grilka on her two appearances on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine". She is a descendant of US presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams.

Answer: Sonya Gomez

When Sonya Gomez was introduced, she was an engineering ensign who had just been assigned to the USS Enterprise-D, under Geordi La Forge. She was nervous about her assignment; when first meeting Captain Picard, she accidentally spilled hot chocolate on him. ("Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Q Who")

She later helped rescue La Forge from the Pakled ship Mondor when they kidnapped him by pretending to be in need of engineering help. ("Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Samaritan Snare")

Rising through the ranks, Gomez became the captain of the USS Archimedes. She was an understanding captain, remembering her first gaffe when meeting Picard. Her ship was assigned to first contact missions. They were assigned to make contact with the Lapeerians, with the USS Cerritos providing second contact support. However, a solar flare from the Lapeerian sun destroyed an unstable planetoid. This created a wave of magnetized ionic plasma and debris. The wave hits the Archimedes, overloading its systems, causing the ship to fall into a blackout and go adrift. Since it was headed to Lapeeria, this created a crisis, since a starship crashing into the planet will cause catastrophe world-wide.

Fortunately, the USS Cerritos sees what has happened. To get to the Archimedes, the Cerritos's crew has to remove their ship's outer hull, which attracts the destructive remains of the planetoid. They are able to get through, and save the Archimedes with a tractor beam. As a thanks, Gomez defers to Captain Freeman, allowing her to make her first contact with the Lapeerians. ("Star Trek: Lower Decks" episode "First First Contact")

Sonya Gomez was portrayed and voiced by Lycia Naff. Naff is best known as the mutant prostitute Mary in the movie "Total Recall" (1990).

Answer: David Garrovick

Ensign David Garrovick was a security officer under Captain Kirk on the USS Enterprise. He was the son of Kirk's former captain on the USS Farragut. Two hundred of the Farragut's crew -- including Captain Garrovick -- were killed by a dikironium cloud creature. Kirk blamed himself because he had hesitated when the creature attacked them. Almost the same situation arose with David Garrovick when the USS Enterprise encountered what ended up being the same creature on Argus X. Several of Enterprise's security personnel were killed, and Ensign Garrovick blamed himself for not responding quickly enough.

The Enterprise pursued the creature when it left Argus X. Sensing it was the same creature that attacked the Farragut, Kirk ordered course to Tycho IV, where it had attacked the Farragut. He and Garrovick beamed down with an antimatter bomb, lured the creature with themselves (it had "eaten" the blood bait they'd brought), then beamed away just as the bomb was detonated, killing the creature. ("Star Trek" episode "Obsession")

Later during USS Enterprise's 5-year mission under Kirk, Garrovick was on a solo mission piloting the Galileo-7 shuttlecraft. The shuttle crashed on Planet 0042692. He had wounds that would eventually claim his life. He also saw that the crashed Galileo-7 was a hazard because it was leaking toxic warp plasma. He contacted the natives and taught them the principles of the Federation and Starfleet. He also warned them to stay away from his shuttle's wreckage.

A century later, the USS Prodigy intercepted Garrovick's century-old distress signal. They saw that the natives understood that they weren't ready to join the Federation, but that they had based their system of ethics on Federation principles. ("Star Trek: Prodigy" episode "All the World's a Stage")

In the "Star Trek" episode, David Garrovick was played by Stephen Brooks. Brooks was known for playing Agent Jim Rhodes on "The F.B.I.", (1965-1968). Garrovick's voice in "Star Trek: Prodigy" was provided by Fred Tatasciore, who voices Cerritos's security chief Lt. Shaxs, as well as other incidental voices.

Answer: Gwyndala

Gwyndala (nicknamed Gwyn) was a Vau N'Akat who lived on the Tars Lamora prison colony with her creator, The Diviner. When several of the young slaves on the colony found the USS Protostar, she was taken hostage by Dal R'El to aid them in escaping the colony in the Protostar. She later accepts that The Diviner was wrong in holding the others as slaves, and becomes an integral part of the young crew. ("Star Trek: Prodigy" episode "Lost and Found")

Gwyndala was voiced by British actress Ella Purnell.

Answer: Gary Seven

Gary Seven was a human who was descended from humans taken from Earth centuries before. He and his fellow descendants are agents who are then sent to Earth periodically to ensure that Humans thrive instead of destroying themselves.

Seven was a supervisor, and was sent to Earth (with his cat Isis) to check on two other agents -- Agent 201 and Agent 347. As he was being transported across the cosmos, he accidentally was intercepted by the USS Enterprise, which had time-traveled to 1968 to do historical research. Materializing on a ship staffed by Humans made Seven realize that the Enterprise was from Earth's future and their interception of him would compromise his mission and their future. He managed to escape, and he and Isis transported to his fellow agents' office in New York. He had scrambled his coordinates so that the Enterprise couldn't accurately track him.

In the agents' office, a young woman arrived. Seven assumed it was one of his missing agents. Instead, it was Roberta Lincoln, a secretary the agents had hired to put up appearances that they were a valid business. Seven then found that the agents he was looking for had died in an auto accident, so he took over their assignment. This assignment was to sabotage the launch of a space-based nuclear weapon, then detonate it safely, but in such a way as to scare the world's powers that nuclear weapons in orbit were a bad idea.

In the meantime, Kirk and Spock had traced Seven to his office. When they entered, Kirk chased Seven into his inner office, where Seven used his own transporter to leave. Spock had been holding Roberta at bay. In their struggle, she had removed a hat he'd been wearing, revealing his alien ears.

Seven had transported to the launch site of the rocket, programming it to fail according to plan. However, the Enterprise had again tracked him to that site, and tried to beam him away. But Roberta, back in the office, was fiddling with some controls she'd found and managed to intercept the transport and bring Seven back to the office. He then went to his computer console and began to finalize his sabotage, but Roberta stopped him when she realized what he was doing.

Kirk and Spock catch up with Seven (after being held by security at the rocket site). Seven pleads with Roberta, Kirk, and Spock to let him finish, or else the rocket will explode in the atmosphere, instead of safely in space. They relent, and Seven gets the rocket to detonate 104 miles above ground. ("Star Trek" episode "Assignment: Earth")

This episode, "Assignment: Earth", was meant to be the pilot for a new show featuring Gary Seven and his ongoing mission. But the pilot wasn't picked up, and "Star Trek" went on with one more season.

Gary Seven was portrayed by Robert Lansing. Lansing was a prolific actor from the 1950s to the 1990s before his death from cancer in 1994. His ex-wife married Jeffrey Hunter, the actor who played Captain Pike in the first "Star Trek" pilot.

Answer: Gowron

Gowron was elected as Chancellor of the Klingon Empire after the death of K'mpec. K'mpec had been slowly poisoned by Duras, who aspired to take over the Empire. Without definitive proof, it was up to Picard, the Arbiter of Succession, to weigh the worthiness of Gowron versus Duras.

Meanwhile, the mother of Worf's son, K'Ehleyr, was suspicious of Worf's discommendation. Her investigation revealed that it was Duras's father, not Worf's, that had betrayed the Klingons at Khitomer. She confronted Duras with this evidence, but was then killed to continue the cover-up. Worf, who discovered her dying in her quarters, showed her to their son, Alexander so that he'd never forget her. Knowing who killed her, he dropped his communicator badge, transported to Duras's ship, and challenged him to a duel to the death. He was successful, and this paved the way for Gowron to ascend to the chancellorship.

Gowron was played by actor Robert O'Reilly. O'Reilly's other "Star Trek" appearances are: Scarface (a Dixon Hill character) ("Star Trek: The Next Generation" episode "Manhunt"), Accountant (a Vic Fontaine holodeck character) ("Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" episode "Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang"), and Kago ("Star Trek: Enterprise" episode "Bounty").

Answer: Garth of Izar

Garth was a legendary captain, whose exploits were required reading at Starfleet Academy. However, he suffered an accident on Antos IV. The beings there nursed him back to health, teaching him their technique of cellular metamorphosis to help him heal. His body healed, but his mind was warped. He wanted to lead the Antosians to rule the galaxy, but they refused. He then ordered his ships to annihilate the Antosians, but his crew refused the order. He was then taken by Federation authorities and committed him to a criminal asylum. He ended up in the asylum on Elba II.

Garth used his metamorphosis power to trick the guards into releasing him by imitating the form of Governor Cory. He then captured and tortured the real governor of the asylum, as he convinced the other inmates to follow him.

The Enterprise, not knowing of the downfall of the Federation staff at Elba II, arrived to deliver a medicine that would hopefully bring those inmates back to sanity. Kirk and Spock went down, and were subdued by Garth's trickery. They eventually regained control and Governor Cory administered the treatment to Garth, apparently to good effect.

Garth was portrayed by Steve Ihnat. Though Garth appeared senior to Kirk (as his character was already in the history books at Starfleet Academy) with thinning and graying hair, the actor Ihnat was actually 3 1/2 years younger than Shatner. He had a vast resume of guest appearances on TV shows in the 1960s.

Ihnat died of a heart attack in 1972 at only 37 years old.