Lawrence H. Styles

Captain Lawrence H. Styles was a Starfleet officer and commander of the prototype vessel , in 2285.
== History ==
Styles was a somewhat arrogant man, coming off with an attitude of superiority. He took extreme pride in his assignment as master of the Excelsior, which had been outfitted with an experimental transwarp drive. The night before the Excelsior was to be launched from spacedock, Styles encountered Montgomery Scott, his newly assigned captain of engineering, telling him that he was "looking forward to breaking some of the 's speed records."
That same evening, Styles was informed that Admiral James Kirk was attempting to steal the Enterprise, and immediately mobilized the Excelsior crew to stop him. Upon the Enterprises emergence from spacedock, Styles contacted Kirk, reminding him that, if he followed through with the illegal action, his career in Starfleet would be over. Kirk ignored him, however, and took the Enterprise to warp. Styles expected to quickly catch up to the Enterprise utilizing the Excelsiors transwarp system, but was unpleasantly surprised to find that Scott, who was Kirk's former chief engineer, had sabotaged the transwarp drive. ()
Under his command in 2285, there were initial performance tests of the transwarp drive. These tests were a failure, and by 2287, Styles had been replaced as commanding officer of the Excelsior by Hikaru Sulu. (; )
== Appendices ==
=== Background information ===
Styles was played by actor James B. Sikking. According to the film's script, "Styles is an officer about Kirk's age. If he's a little stuffy, it's pardonable; he does, after all, have the plum assignment in all of Starfleet."
Styles' full name was revealed in a for the USS Excelsior in the episode "The Star Gazer".
=== Apocrypha ===
Styles was called "Lawrence Stiles" in FASA's Star Trek III Sourcebook Update RPG supplement. Other sources have called him "Edward Styles" (Who's Who in Star Trek 1), "James Styles" (Starship Creator), "Lawrence H. Styles" (Forged in Fire) and "Robert Styles" ().
According to the video game Star Trek: Starship Creator, Styles has a wife named Carolyn, a son named Eric and a daughter named Paula.
In the Pocket TOS novel , a younger Lieutenant Styles was the annoying nemesis to Lieutenant Commander Scott (and a discharged Kirk) when he was given temporary command of the damaged USS Enterprise during its refit. He regarded himself as superior to Kirk, stating that, with him in charge, Enterprise would have a "real" captain. However, he lost his position after Kirk was allowed to take the Enterprise to investigate the possibility of foul play; Styles, outraged at this, told a superior officer that he could not do that. The novel also revealed that Kirk and Styles once served together on the , and developed a keen dislike for each other. He picked up his swagger stick from a Klingon that he beat in personal combat. In the novel, Scott, mightily annoyed by the behavior of Styles, broke the stick over his knee.
Styles also made a brief appearance in the Pocket TOS novelization of by Vonda N. McIntyre. Here, still in command of Excelsior, he was ordered by Starfleet Command to intercept and destroy the Whale Probe before it reached Earth. However, he never even made it out of Spacedock before the probe's transmissions rendered his ship and the massive space station around it completely useless.
In the original comic "Tomorrow Never Knows!" by DC, Styles was humiliated by Kirk and Scott's sabotage. Around the Fleet, he was given the nickname "Drydock Styles" along with "Styles without Substance". As such, he sought to embarrass Kirk at any opportunity as revenge for humiliating him.
According to the novel Forged in Fire, Styles was killed in late 2289 at an early peace talk on the planet Korvat between the Klingons and the Federation when a bomb set by a Klingon pirate named Qagh – who became known simply as "the Albino" – detonated in the main chamber. It was at that point that Sulu, Styles' first officer, became captain of the Excelsior.
Styles made an appearance in the comic book series titled The Mirror Universe Saga created by DC Comics. At this point, he was still captain of the Excelsior. At the start of the story, he was trying to retrieve Kirk to answer for disobeying orders, and is captured by of the mirror universe and placed in a stasis chamber.
=== External link ===
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