Lawrence Styles

Captain Styles was a Starfleet officer in the late 23rd century. He was known to carry a swagger stick, as well as an attitude that could be viewed as self-righteous and even pompous.

By 2285, Captain Styles was placed in command of the USS Excelsior which was, at that time, a testbed for the experimental transwarp drive. He had the utmost pride in his assignment, believing his ship would be able to break the warp speed records of the legendary USS Enterprise.

When Admiral James T. Kirk hijacked the Enterprise from Earth Spacedock in 2285, Styles was ordered to stop him. Although confident of his ship's capabilities, he did not succeed, as the Excelsior had been sabotaged by Styles' own captain of engineering, Montgomery Scott. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)

By 2290, Styles had been replaced as Excelsior ' s captain by Hikaru Sulu. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)


 * Styles was played by James B. Sikking.

Apocrypha
In the Pocket TOS novel Prime Directive, a younger Lieutenant Styles is the annoying nemesis to Lieutenant Commander Scott (and a discharged Kirk) when he is given temporary command of the damaged USS Enterprise during its refit. He regards himself as superior to Kirk, stating that, with him in charge, Enterprise would have a 'real' captain. However, he loses his position after Kirk is allowed to take the Enterprise to investigate the possibility of foul play; Styles, outraged at this, told a superior officer that he couldn't do that. This also reveals that Kirk and Styles once served together on the Farragut, and developed a keen dislike of each other. He picked up his swagger stick from a Klingon that he beat in personal combat.