Cadet First Class Nicholas 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.
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 the moons of Saturn. 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 - to 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 was outraged and confronted Wesley Crusher about it. Locarno, who had always insisted that everything he did was for the team, took full responsibility for the accident and was subsequently expelled from the Academy, while the others were severely reprimanded. (TNG: "The First Duty")
Appendices
Background
Locarno was the inspiration for Star Trek: Voyager's Tom Paris. When the writers were trying to cast for the part, they could not find anyone that seemed to match Robert Duncan McNeill's persona, so they eventually just asked him to read for the role, and he got the part. Reasons for not simply bringing back the Locarno character have varied; it may have been because they would have had to pay royalties to the writers of "The First Duty" during every episode of Voyager where Paris appeared. In interviews, the producers of Voyager claimed Locarno's actions made him irredeemable, making redemption unbelievable for audiences. (TNG Season 5 DVD) McNeill himself has stated that, despite their apparent similarities, Locarno and Paris are two very different characters. [1]
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".
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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.
External link
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