Kevin Riley Lieutenant Kevin Thomas Riley was a male Human Starfleet officer who lived during the mid - 23rd century . In 2266 , he served in the command division as one of the ship ' s navigator s , aboard the , under Captain James T . Kirk . Early life . Riley was born in Ireland . ( ) Riley and his family lived on the Tarsus IV colony in 2246 . In that year , a massive food shortage struck the planet , leading Governor Kodos to institute a eugenics program in which he personally selected 4 , 000 colonists to be executed , thereby ensuring enough food for the survivors . Among those killed were Riley ' s father and mother . ( ) The " Enterprise " . By 2266 , Riley was serving as navigator aboard the " Enterprise " as a lieutenant . In that year , Riley was one of the first crewmembers to fall victim to an unusual disease which caused those affected to act out and lose their inhibitions . Under the disease ' s influence , Riley commandeered the ship ' s engineering section , and rerouted all command functions there , prohibiting the rest of the crew from controlling the ship . This posed a significant danger to the " Enterprise " , as it was locked in an unstable orbit of the planet Psi 2000 , and in the process of spiraling down towards the surface . Proclaiming himself " Captain Kevin Thomas Riley , " he deactivated the ship ' s engine s and regaled the crew with repeated renditions of the song " I ' ll Take You Home Again , Kathleen . " Eventually , Captain Kirk and crew were able to regain control of the ship , and institute a full - power restart of the engines , narrowly avoiding destruction of the " Enterprise " . ( ) Later that year , Riley was serving in the communications department of the " Enterprise " . When Captain Kirk came to believe that an actor which had been brought aboard the ship was , in actuality , Kodos the Executioner , who had murder ed Riley ' s family twenty years previously , he had Riley transferred back down to the engineering section in an attempt to keep Riley out of harm ' s way . Riley , who was unaware of Kirk ' s true motivations , viewed the transfer as a demotion , as he had previously been transferred up from engineering . Despite Kirk ' s attempts to protect him , Riley was almost killed by Lenore Karidian , Kodos ' daughter , who was attempting to eliminate all survivors of the massacre who could identify Kodos . After surviving the attempt on his life , Riley learned of Kodos ' presence on the ship , and attempted to take revenge by killing him with a hand phaser , although he was eventually talked out of the attempt by Kirk . ( ) Appendices . Background information . Kevin Riley was portrayed by Bruce Hyde . Despite wearing lieutenant rank insignia in , his rank wasn ' t established in the final draft script of that episode , which instead referred to him merely as a navigator . The same script also commented , " " He is no singer . . . should hold the pitch but not much more . . . " " Bruce Hyde was cast as Riley because he had a contract with Desilu . " " My family has never traced our genealogy back , and I don ' t even know that I ' m actually Irish , so that had nothing to do with my getting the part of Kevin Riley ! " " he exclaimed . " " But I " was " lucky : [ . . . ] I got to sing and joke around , which was unusual for the series . " " Because he was mainly a theater actor who hadn ' t done much television when he first appeared as Riley , however , the " joking around " part didn ' t come easily to Hyde . " " I remember doing all of that stuff [ as Riley ] in engineering , staggering back and forth , and singing ' Kathleen ' , " " he continued . " " What I was doing was " supposed " to be funny , but everybody was just quiet [ because they were supposed to be ] . That was difficult for me , so the director , Marc Daniels , started choking me kind of playfully , trying to get me to loosen up and make me comfortable on the set . " " ( " " , pp . 054 & 055 ) In the script of , the character whose parents were murdered by Kodos was named " Lieutenant Robert Daiken " ( colloquially abbreviated as " Daik " ) . However , when Hyde was cast in the role , the character was renamed to fit with his previous appearance as Riley in " The Naked Time " . This explains why , whereas Riley is a navigator in that episode , he is a communications officer in " The Conscience of the King " . Despite appearing in only two installments of TOS , Riley became one of the most popular " Enterprise " crewmembers in the series . ( " The Star Trek Compendium " , 4th ed . , p . 37 ) During the twentieth anniversary of the original series , it was revealed that , " " Admitting he enjoys the " Star Trek " movies , Hyde comments that if the producers ever decide to write the character back into the film series , he thinks he wouldn ' t mind returning , though he reserves the right to decide until he ' s asked . " " ( " " , , p . 60 ) For the thirtieth anniversary of the original series , the name and assignment " Kevin Riley , Navigator " was printed on a sign above a corridor door as an in - joke for production on . ( " Cinefantastique " , Vol . 29 , Nos . 6 / 7 , p . 77 ) Apocrypha . Kevin ' s son was featured in the novel " " , where he released Captain Scott after Scott stole the in search of Spock , who had been captured with a group of Unification believers . He released Scott on the promise that he would retrieve Spock and bring back the " Yorktown " to the museum it was in . He did so because he felt that his father owes Spock for his life after the events of " The Naked Time " . It was also noted that Kevin must have had children relatively late in his life , and that his son commanded a starship . Kevin Riley was also featured in the " " series , set between the end of TOS and . Promoted to Lieutenant Commander , Riley became chief of staff to Admiral Kirk at Starfleet Command . Flashbacks in " The Lost Years " also revealed Kodos ' reign of terror from Riley ' s perspective , including a memory in which a teenage Kirk hid the then four - year - old Riley from execution . Riley appeared in the novel " The Galactic Whirlpool " , as a prominent member of the team sent to contact inhabitants of a lost generation ship . Hyde commented on the novel and the role of his character therein , stating " " I thought it was great . I ' ve enjoyed David Gerrold ' s work before and was honored to be selected by him as a subject , " " Hyde says , adding , " " And by the way – Kevin Riley isn ' t " back " . He has never been gone . He has been studying , learning , risking , growing , getting ready to bust out into the universe ! " " ( " , , p . 60 ) He also appeared in the novel " , set after , where he was a protégé of Ambassador Sarek and later became an ambassador himself during negotiations with the Romulans . According to the book " Probe " , his father was executed when he was very young . His career as an ambassador was also explored in " Foul Deeds Will Rise " , when he was assigned to supervise crucial disarmament talks with the aid of the " Enterprise " - A ; during the novel , he encountered Lenore Karidian once again , suspecting that she had suffered a relapse when two of the delegates were killed in a manner implicating her , but accepted that she had changed when Kirk identified the true culprit and Lenore risked her life to destroy a protomatter warhead . According to " Who ' s Who in Star Trek 2 " , his parents were Joan and Thomas Riley . In the video game " " Riley ' s parents were named Jane and Quentin Riley . In the book " " , his name is spelled " Kevin Reilly " . His mirror universe counterpart was depicted in the " " novel " The Sorrows of Empire " as succeeding as captain of the after Spock became the ruler of the Terran Empire in 2277 . Captain Riley commanded the " Enterprise " until 2284 , when he was succeeded by Saavik .