DeSalle Lieutenant DeSalle was a Human male of French descent . He served as a Starfleet officer in the mid - 23rd century . He was assigned aboard the under Captain James T . Kirk , during a historic five - year mission that starship undertook . In 2267 , he served in the command division as one of the ship ' s navigator s . Later the same year , he transferred to the operations division , where he became an assistant chief engineer in the engineering department . During that time , on stardate 2124 , DeSalle was one of three people who beam ed down to the planet Gothos in search of Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Sulu , who had been abducted by Trelane , a powerful alien . Expecting to arrive in an inhospitable climate , this landing party was surprised to discover an oasis of Earth - like conditions . When communications failed , DeSalle attempted to contact the ship using a laser beacon , but this method also failed . DeSalle later attempted to shoot Trelane with his phaser , but Trelane momentarily paralyzed DeSalle , procured the phaser and delightedly experimented with it , disintegrating several bizarre trophies he owned , before returning the weapon . ( ) Later that year , on stardate 3417 , DeSalle accompanied Captain Kirk on a landing party to the Omicron colony , on Omicron Ceti III . DeSalle discovered that , anomalously , the colonist s themselves had been the only animal being s to survive exposure to the planet ' s berthold ray s . He also performed an analysis on crop s grown by the colonists . Like the rest of the " Enterprise " crew , DeSalle fell under the influence of the Omicron spore s and mutinied , though he later recovered , thanks to a subsonic transmitter . ( ) On stardate 3018 , DeSalle was placed in command of the " Enterprise " while the rest of the senior staff ( including the captain , first officer , chief engineer , and the helmsman ) were off the ship , and spearheaded an effort to pierce an alien barrier , which had been erected by Korob to prevent the " Enterprise " from sending help to a landing party that was trapped on Pyris VII . The " Enterprise " crew were close to escaping the field when Korob removed it himself , as part of his effort to help the Starfleet explorers escape ' s attention . ( ) Appendices . Background information . DeSalle was played by actor Michael Barrier . DeSalle ' s first name is not established on - screen but was given as " Vincent " in a cast list that was written for the final draft script of " The Squire of Gothos " , dated . The main body of the script described the character as follows : " " Navigator Vincent De Salle – a tall , strong featured man . " " He was also listed as having that first name in Bjo Trimble ' s " Star Trek Concordance " ; Trimble directly used many of the episode scripts in compiling her work . The FASA " Cadet ' s Orientation Sourcebook " remained true to the given name " Vincent " as well . The script of referred to the character as " Lieutenant Timothy Fletcher " . However , when Michael Barrier was cast in the role , the production staff realized he had previously played a character named " DeSalle " in " The Squire of Gothos " , and changed the name accordingly . This explains why DeSalle was a navigator in the earlier episode , while he is a science officer in the later installment ( and yet still wearing a gold uniform ) . DeSalle ' s promotion to assistant chief engineer and his change in uniform color in was devised by Gene Coon . Since Scotty was in command of the bridge whenever both Kirk and Spock were on an away mission , Coon figured they would need someone in charge of engineering during these occasions . He intended to make DeSalle a recurring character . However , as incoming scripts didn ' t feature any interaction between the bridge and main engineering in such situations , this was finally abandoned . ( " " ) According to the " Catspaw " script notes ( ) , " Assistant Chief Engineer DeSalle " , was described as " " a strong , capable man cast in the same general mold as Scotty , Uhura , Chekov , and the rest of the standard command crew " " Apocrypha . Diane Carey ' s " " novels refer to DeSalle as " Anton " ( nicknamed " Tony " ) . His mirror universe counterpart appears in the novel " The Sorrows of Empire " . He succeeded as the chief engineer of the when Scott became ' s first officer in 2267 . The novel gave the mirror DeSalle ' s first name as " Michael " . In the novel " Forgotten History " , the prime universe DeSalle was named " Vincent M . DeSalle " , in an attempt to explain why his mirror universe counterpart was called " Michael " .