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For other uses, see Clifford.
See Brent for other articles with titles that contain, either by relationship or by coincidence, this character's surname.

Lieutenant Clifford Brent was a 23rd century Human man Starfleet officer who served in the command and sciences divisions aboard the Federation starship USS Enterprise as a specialist and medical technician in the 2260s decade. (TOS novel: A Choice of Catastrophes; TOS - My Brother's Keeper novel: Constitution; TOS episodes: "The Corbomite Maneuver", "Charlie X", "The Naked Time", "Balance of Terror", "Shore Leave", "The Squire of Gothos", "The Galileo Seven", "Court Martial")

In TOS episodes, Brent was only referred to by name in TOS episode: "The Naked Time". His other appearances listed here were occasions throughout TOS that the same actor, Frank da VinciMA, appeared wearing a staff officer's command division or science division uniform.

Biography[]

Lieutenant Brent was assigned to the Enterprise primarily as a medical technician at some point before the starships' mission to the edge of the galaxy. However, in accordance with Captain James T. Kirk's standing orders to have all junior officers be trained to work in all departments, Brent secured himself a secondary assignment to the bridge and worked in both the command and sciences division. (TOS novel: A Choice of Catastrophes)

Following the mission to the edge of the galaxy and subsequent visit to Delta Vega I in 2265, Brent was called upon to take over as navigator on the bridge whilst the senior staff were attending Lieutenant Lee Kelso's memorial service in the ship's chapel. (TOS - My Brother's Keeper novel: Constitution)

In 2266, Brent was on the bridge helping at the weapons sub-system station when the Enterprise engaged the First Federation. A bit later that year he was working at the life support station when Charlie Evans, with telekinesis powers from the non-corporeal Thasians wrecked havoc on the Enterprise. (TOS episodes: "The Corbomite Maneuver", "Charlie X")

Also that year, Brent relieved Lieutenant Uhura at navigation after Commander Spock had her relieve, earlier, Lieutenant Kevin Riley because Spock had thought he was inebriated (Riley was suffering from the Psi 2000 polywater intoxication). While at navigation, Brent successfully helped plot a course so the Enterprise would not be dragged into the gravity well created by the rapidly deteriorating orbit of Psi 2000. Brent did not suffer from the polywater intoxication. In late 2266, Brent attended the aborted wedding of fellow Enterprise crew members Robert Tomlinson and Angela Martine before it was interrupted by Romulan sightings. (TOS episodes: "The Naked Time", "Balance of Terror")

As Brent's secondary bridge assignment continued, he became unsure on how to handle working beside Captain Kirk and the senior staff so he sought out the advice of Doctor Leonard McCoy, who gave on excellent advice on how to handle all the bridge staff, especially Commander Spock. (TOS novel: A Choice of Catastrophes)

Brent was present in a corridor during a few of Kirk's (and one of Spock's) speeches to the crew. (TOS episodes: "The Corbomite Maneuver", "Balance of Terror", "The Menagerie, Part I", "Assignment: Earth")

In the two years of 2267 and 2268, Brent was serving on the Enterprise during some of the most interesting missions of the Enterprise during it's historic five-year mission. Some of those missions required both Brent's knowledge of both the command and sciences divisions, as well as medical technician that he had learned so well. Brent was also very much respected by Spock and Uhura, despite his misgivings, when he was asked on several occasions to assist both officers. There were also more than a few times during those two years that Brent was put in danger, as were most of the crew during the five-year mission, although none left Brent with any long term physical injuries. (TOS episodes: "The Squire of Gothos", "The Galileo Seven", "The Alternative Factor", "Tomorrow is Yesterday", "Space Seed", "The Immunity Syndrome", "By Any Other Name", "The Mark of Gideon")

During the first few weeks of 2267, Brent was on the bridge when Lieutenant Sulu and Kirk were abducted by Trelane. When Dr. McCoy, Lieutenant DeSalle and Lieutenant Karl Jaeger beamed down to the planet Gothos to find the missing Kirk and Sulu, Brent replaced DeSalle at navigation. He left the bridge on the turbolift with Lieutenant Bill Hadley, Lieutenant Ryan Leslie and an unnamed operations division crewman when Kirk, McCoy, Sulu, DeSalle and Jaeger returned to the bridge. Brent would not be on the bridge when Trelane suddenly appeared there a short-time later. (TOS episode: "The Squire of Gothos")

A few months later, Brent was at the bridge's main science station relieving Spock, when Spock was in command of the crew of the shuttlecraft Galileo as it was investigating the Murasaki 312 quasar. When the Galileo was lost in the quasar, Brent assisted Uhura who Kirk assigned to head up the investigation as to where the Galileo may have been lost. Uhura had Brent coordinating all of the efforts of the bridge at sciences, engineering, environmental and communications in finding the Galileo and it's missing crew. A few weeks later, Brent was at navigation when the Enterprise encountered an ion storm. (TOS episodes: "The Galileo Seven", "Court Martial")

A few months after that, Brent was working on repairs at the life support station on the bridge when the Enterprise was preparing to leave orbit of an iron-silica uncharted planet when the whole universe, including the ship, winked-out of existence. The shock wave from this winking-out caused Brent to be unsteady and he had to kneel and hold on to the control panel of the life support station so as not to fall. But apparently a few weeks later, Brent hadn't learned his lesson about hanging on. Brent was at the weapons sub-systems station when the Enterprise got dragged into a black star with a high gravitational attraction and to avoid a disaster, Lieutenant Commander Scott had to use a sling-shot effect to try and pull away. Unfortunately all the crew started falling (nearly flying) sending Brent to the floor of the bridge and throwing the ship back two centuries to Earth over Omaha Nebraska's 498th Air Base on July 13th, 1969, eight days before the first Apollo 11 moon landing. After a few memorable and nearly disastrous few days in July 1969, the Enterprise again used the sling-shot effect using Sol to return to 2267. When the ship got to 2247, the drag again became too much for the bridge crew to keep gravitation on their side. Unfortunately, Brent was the only one this time that went falling to the floor, with Spock assisting him to stand upright when the ship returned to 2267. (TOS episodes: "The Alternative Factor", "Tomorrow is Yesterday")

Brent was assigned bridge duty during a mission to investigate the discovery of the sleeper ship SS Botany Bay on stardate 3141.9. During the course of the mission, Khan Noonien Singh and 72 of his "supermen" were rescued from the Botany Bay hulk.

After the reanimation of Khan, Captain Kirk invited Brent and other members of the crew to an officer's dinner to investigate their guest's origins and motivations. After Khan's identity became known, the genetically engineered superman escaped from quarters and sabotaged the Enterprise engineering control systems, trapping Leslie on the bridge and cutting off that deck's life support. Leslie and the bridge crew lost consciousness from oxygen deprivation.

Khan had Brent and the unconscious bridge crew brought to the briefing room, where he tried to get them to pledge loyalty to him as the new commanding officer of the Enterprise, making them watch as Joaquin Weiss beat Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, and piped in viewscreen images as another of Khan's supermen slowly suffocated Captain Kirk in sickbay's decompression chamber.

When Marla McGivers helped Kirk escape, Kirk and Spock flooded the briefing room with anesthesia gas, rendering Brent unconscious, along with the captors. (TOS episode & Star Trek 2 novelization: Space Seed)

Brent would learn his lesson about holding on to the railing when the Enterprise engaged the Klingons and later Nomad a short time later. (TOS episodes: "Errand of Mercy", "The Changeling")

A few months later, Brent was manning the life support station on the bridge when the Enterprise discovered the planet Gateway. (TOS episode: "The City on the Edge of Forever", TOS - Crucible novel: The Fire and the Rose)

A few weeks later, Brent was assisting Dr. McCoy packing up and beaming up the possessions of the colonists on the planet Omicron Ceti III due to the bombardment of deadly berthold rays. But when Lieutenant DeSalle introduced to Dr. McCoy the pod plants, Brent was one of the first Enterprise crew members to be infected by the spores. This was the first and only time that Brent deserted the Enterprise and mutinied against Kirk. When Brent and the other crew members were free of the spores influence Brent returned to duty. (TOS episode: "This Side of Paradise")

In 2268, Brent temporarily relieved Spock at bridge's main science station when Kirk spoke to Bela Okmyx and couldn't suppress giggling when Kirk tried to explain to Okmyx how he, McCoy and Spock were going to beam down to Sigma Iotia II. Brent's giggling was so bad that the rest of the time Spock was on the planet Sigma Iotia II, Brent had to be relieved of duty by Lieutenant Hadley. (TOS episode: "A Piece of the Action"}

A few weeks later, Brent assisted Dr. McCoy and Nurse Christine Chapel in sickbay when McCoy ordered stimulants administered to the crew when the Enterprise encountered an unexplained "zone of darkness" of space, even devoid of stars. Brent had to keep fellow crew members steady as Chapel administered the stimulants, due to many of them feeling devoid of energy and faint. A little later that day, Brent continued to assist McCoy and Chapel, in sickbay as even more of his fellow crew members started to feel even more litheless to the point where McCoy told Kirk that both the whole crew and the ship were dying. A few hours later, when the "zone of darkness" was discovered to be an enormous single-celled organism, that fed off energy enough to kill, and Spock in a shuttlecraft and the whole ship moved in closer to investigate and then destroy the organism. The Enterprise was again rocked violently. Brent then stationed on the bridge at life support station was, as with the rest of the bridge crew, thrown by the rocking. Unfortunately for Brent, he was thrown the worse and farthest, as he was thrown all the way from the life support station to the floor, on his back, in front of the turbolift. (TOS episode: "The Immunity Syndrome")

A few months later, Brent was working in environmental engineering when the Kelvan Milky Way Expedition attempted to hijack the Enterprise to return to the Andromeda Galaxy. Kelvan Drea suddenly appeared and put Brent into temporary 'frozen' and motionless stasis. A few days later, the Kelvans neutralized and reduced Brent into a dehydrated porous cuboctahedron solid, the size of a human fist, composed of Brent's base minerals which represented the "distilled" essence of Brent's being, along with much of the rest of the crew because Brent was considered non-essential. Brent was reconstituted after Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty, the only four members of the crew not neutralized, regained control of the ship. (TOS episode: "By Any Other Name")

A few months later, Brent was stationed at main science on the bridge when Spock was in temporary command and Hodin from the planet Gideon's High Council reported that Kirk had not arrived, in beaming down, in the council chambers. A few hours later, a very somber (along with McCoy, Scotty and the rest of the bridge crew) Brent seemed confused, but persistent and stubborn, as McCoy, Scotty and Uhura were that Spock stand his ground -- with Spock concurring -- that the Gideon High Council and Hodin (as well as Admiral Fitzgerald not concurring), were hiding the truth as to where Kirk had disappeared to and Hodin was too evasive on the subject. (TOS episode: "The Mark of Gideon")

A few months later, Brent was in a corridor during Captain Kirk's announcement of the clearance of all ship's passageways while Ambassador Kollos was transferred from the transporter room to his quarters. Later that evening, Brent assisted Spock in accompanying Dr. Miranda Jones to the bridge after an insane Larry Marvick, after looking at Kollos, commandeered the Enterprise via engineering and temporarily stranded the ship in an uncharted void in the Milky Way Galaxy. Brent would temporarily man the weapons sub-system station, but wasn't on the bridge when Spock mind melded with Kollos to assist Chekov in guiding the ship back to normal space or when Spock-Kollos forgot to put back on their protective visor and Spock went temporarily insane. (TOS episode: "Is There in Truth No Beauty?")

A few weeks later, Brent attended Captain Kirk's memorial service following his supposed "death" aboard the USS Defiant. A few weeks later near the end of 2268, Brent attended with Sulu, Hadley and Ensign Pavel Chekov, in the recreation room, the speech by Lokai regarding how his people had been oppressed on his home planet of Cheron for many centuries. (TOS episodes: "The Tholian Web", "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield")

In the first few weeks of 2269, Brent beamed down to the Federation maintained Elba II asylum for the criminally insane to assist Dr. McCoy and an operations division lieutenant to administer a new medicine that potentially could eliminate mental illness. A few more weeks later, Brent was walking in a corridor in front of the briefing room when Scotty and Lieutenant Mira Romaine walked in. Later in 2269, Brent was stationed at the bridge's life support station, when Dr. Sevrin with his followers, held up in a locked out from the rest of the ship in auxiliary control, applied ultrasonics to the Enterprise to knock the crew unconscious so Sevrin and his followers could steal the shuttlecraft Galileo II and head into Romulan space to get to the planet Eden. Brent passed out from the ultrasonics in front of the life support station, although he recovered a short time later. (TOS episodes: "Whom Gods Destroy", "The Lights of Zetar", "The Way to Eden")

Appendices[]

Connections[]

USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) sciences personnel
under Charles Rasmussen & Robert April AllinskyGriggsN'a'tt'n'a'iOstermanRamirez under Christopher Pike CaymanChiaDaviesKirkLuceroReedShinobiSpockT'PrisViolaYu Starfleet emblem. USS Enterprise sciences assignment insignia.
under James T. Kirk
(first five-year mission)
AckroydAldenAmstelAristeidesAvittsBennitBerganzaBergdahlBerkleyBerryBerrymanBistieBomaBordellBradBrentCallowayCarstairsCharvatClarkD'AmatoDarnellDimasDomberwickyDurbanEllisEricksonErrgangFaustFerriterFisherFollettFrankFreemanFreyerGalwayGeorgeGiacomoGildenGreeleeGreenburgHainesHarrisonHelmanHernandezHerradaHintonHomeyerHopkinsHurstIrizarryJaegerJamesonJaramilloKarrasKearlyKrispKwanLawtonLindstromLowreyMaiManprasadMargolisMasonC. MastersMaynoothMcGiversMeierMejiaMendozaMoreauMorrisMulhallNelsonO'HaraO'SheaOwensPalamasParhamPearsonPerezPhillipsPittaresePlikinRandallRathboneNiall RawlinsRodinoRodriguezRomaineRoseRussellSanchezSchaferSpockStewartSturgeonSuluSydneyTambolineTormolenTracyTremainValjeanVedamaVigelandD. WatleyE. WatleyWeaverWeinbergWellsYbarra
subsequent missions under Kirk & Spock AmaarBolekChangD'HennishFisherFreemanGreywolfHaleyHester-JonesKwanW. MeierNakashimaNarahtSaavikSagadySonakSpockTenaidaThemonTherasT'YeeUuvu'itWhitehorse UFP emblem. USS Enterprise sciences assignment insignia.
see also: administrative personnelcommunications personnelengineering personnelmedical personnelpilots & flight control personnelsecurity & tactical personnelsenior staff • unnamed (2240s and 2250s2260s2270s and 2280s)
USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) medical personnel
under Charles Rasmussen & Robert April S. Poole-AprilP. Boyce under Christopher Pike P. BoyceG. CarlottiCastelanoC. ChapelM'BengaYang Federation icon image. Enterprise medical icon image. Starfleet Medical icon image.
under James T. Kirk
(first five-year mission)
R. AbramsP. AielloM. AndrusTaurusJ. BrennanC. BrentP. CarmenC. ChapelConnorsE. Cortejo AlvarezDarrellE. DehnerA. DickinsonD. DysonElayneA. EricksonA. FerraraHarrisonHinchHoffmanC. IversR. LeslieJ. LevineL. MayerM'BengaL.H. McCoyMichaelsH. NoelZ. OdhiamboPetersonS. PetersonPiersonM. PiperPrentissM. RaymondR. RigelRussellI. SanchezI. SoongTail-Kinker to-EnnienC. ThomasWallaceS. WestC. White
subsequent missions under Kirk & Spock AmekentraL. BurkeC. ChapelDuaneGuindonT. KrejciLiftigL.H. McCoyN. MoktarRixilSpanlaH. TanzerWeinstein Federation icon image. Enterprise medical icon image. Starfleet Medical icon image.
see also: administrative personnelcommunications personnelengineering personnelpilots & flight control personnelsecurity & tactical personnelsciences personnelsenior staff • unnamed (2240s and 2250s2260s2270s and 2280s)

Background[]

Brent was played by regular stand-in and background actor Frank da VinciMA, who also played the recurring Enterprise crewmember Vinci.

External link[]

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