Robert April

Robert "Bob" April was a prominent 23rd century Human male Starfleet officer. In 2245, he was given command of the . Captain April's command of the Enterprise came to an end in 2250 where he turned command over to his first officer Christopher Pike. By 2256, he was considered one of the most decorated captains in Starfleet history. ()
At some point following his stint as captain of the Enterprise, April was promoted to fleet admiral. By the time of his mandatory retirement at age 75, April was a commodore who had served as a Federation ambassador-at-large for twenty years. (; )
==Early life==
April was born in 2195. He eventually joined Starfleet and married his wife, Sarah. ()
==Starfleet career==
===Early career===
In the 2230s, he sponsored Una Chin-Riley's application to Starfleet Academy. After her many years of service under his command, he also promoted Chin-Riley. However, he was forced to admit at her court-martial that had he known about her Illyrian heritage, he would not have sponsored her application. ()
====2240s====
During the early 2240s, April oversaw the construction of components for a starship at the San Francisco Navy Yards. That vessel eventually became the . ()
===Commanding the USS Enterprise===
====2245====
Robert April's mission as captain of the Enterprise began on April 11th, 2245 when the Enterprise was launched from the San Francisco Fleet Yards. His wife Sarah served as his chief medical officer while Christopher Pike served as first officer. (; ; dedication plaque)
====2246====
In 2246, April chose to break General Order 1 and warn a pre-warp civilization, the Perricans, about a possible apocalyptic meteor shower that was due to hit their planet. ()
====2248====
In 2248, April sent his science officer to the industrial-age planet Na'rel to solve the imminent threat of an extinction-level drought by sharing Federation technology. The same year, April was involved with the aftermath of the Marcel disaster. ()
He also visited Man-us II without his security officer, during which he chose to reveal the Enterprise to the Ohawk, a pre-warp civilization. ()
===Admiralty===
Following the end of his five-year mission in 2250, April was promoted to fleet admiral and passed command of the Enterprise to Captain Pike. (; )
====2259====
In 2259, April traveled to Bear Creek, Montana where Pike was staying on Earth to inform him that Pike's own first officer, Lieutenant Commander Chin-Riley had gone missing on Kiley 279. ()
After the Enterprise return from Kiley 279, April informed Pike, Chin-Riley and Spock that he had to use all the pull he had to convince the Federation High Court not to throw them all in jail for violating the Prime Directive on Kiley 279. He also informed the trio that he went to Starfleet's commander-in-chief personally to be read in on the events surrounding the . ()
On stardate 2341.4, April was tasked with convincing the R'ongovian Protectorate to join the Federation as they controlled a vital piece of territory in between Klingon and Romulan space. ()
He was assigned to Starbase 1 later that year. After acting-Captain Spock stole the Enterprise in order to thwart the threat of a renewed , April chose to be lenient with Spock, despite his anger at being disobeyed. He confided in Commodore Tafune that Spock had unknowingly averted a potential war on two fronts, as they were aware of the incursion of a Gorn attack ship near the Galdonterre system. ()
April was called as a witness during Commander Chin-Riley's court martial and was attacked by Chin-Riley's lawyer, Neera Ketoul, for his past decisions that violated Starfleet regulations. April's testimony was ordered to be stricken from the trial records, and he expressed to Captain Pike his anger at not being able to defend Una as he had wanted. ()
He later informed Commander Chin-Riley that the improbability field had spread to 12 Federation starships. He let Chin-Riley know (in a 'surprisingly beautiful baritone' singing voice) that he wanted the Enterprise to stop it. ()
On stardate 2344.2, April informed Captain Pike of the Federation's relationship with the Gorn Hegemony when the was attacked and destroyed over Parnassus Beta. April informed Pike that he was to exercise caution when looking for survivors. April later ordered the Enterprise to withdraw from Paranassus Beta after the situation with the Gorn escalated. ()
===Retirement===
By 2270, April held the rank of commodore and was a respected Federation ambassador-at-large. Along with his wife, Sarah, he was transported to Babel aboard the Enterprise, where April would retire from Starfleet. ()
During his trip, the Aprils, along with current Captain of the Enterprise, James T. Kirk and his crew would encounter Karla Five and her reverse universe. That encounter would cause everyone to age backwards, including April and Sarah.
Following this incident, exceptional circumstances made Starfleet consider his appeal to have his mandatory retirement rescinded. ()
==Awards and honors==
By 2256, April was one of Starfleet's most decorated captains, ranked among other legends such as Jonathan Archer, Matthew Decker, Philippa Georgiou and his former first officer Christopher Pike. ()
File:Starfleet database, decorated captains.jpg|April's recognition
File:Robert April's awards, 2259.jpg|Robert April's ribbon rack, 2259
File:Dress uniform April.jpg|Robert April's ribbon rack, 2270
==Relationships==
===Sarah April===
At some point in his life, Robert fell in love with Sarah and married her. In 2270, the two were given a chance to relive their youth, as the two had become de-aged. Robert explained that they didn't want to relive their lives, as he felt he could not improve one bit on what they had together. ()
===Christopher Pike===
April chose Christopher Pike as his first officer. During their tenure aboard the Enterprise together, April learned that Pike never did downtime well. Even after April left the Enterprise and command was transferred to Pike, the two kept a close enough friendship for Pike to frequently call him "Bob". (; )
April would tell Pike that every good captain needs a first officer who will tell him when he's wrong. Pike would later recall those words during a conversation with Captain Marie Batel in 2259. ()
Sometime prior to April's promotion, he and Pike took a picture when they were both still wearing an earlier version of the Starfleet uniform. ()
==Key dates==
*2195: Year of birth
*2245: Appointed captain of the 
*2250:
**Transfers command of the Enterprise to Christopher Pike
**Appointed Federation ambassador-at-large
*2259:
**Holds the rank of fleet admiral
**Assigned to Starbase 1
*2270:
**Holds the rank of commodore
**Destined for Babel for mandatory retirement
**Temporarily suffers from reverse aging and regains command of the Enterprise
==Appendices==
===Appearances===
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===Background information===
April was voiced by James Doohan in and portrayed by Adrian Holmes in . His was the first character introduced in an animated Star Trek production to later appear in live action.
The name "Robert April" originated from the first Star Trek pitch, as the name of the lead character ("Robert M. April"). On StarTrek.com and in the , his name is listed as "Robert T. April".
Prior to this, the name "Robert April" was used by Gene Roddenberry for a prison chaplain in two episodes of . The name for the featured Enterprise captain was later changed to "Christopher Pike" for and then to "James T. Kirk" for later episodes.
According to the script for "The Counter-Clock Incident", April was described as "a 75-year-old man whose looks belie his age. He has a full head of grey hair; he is rather trim and in good physical condition. He is wearing what we would consider a "fulldress" uniform, more formal than the Enterprise crew."
The uses an image of Gene Roddenberry (manipulated from a photo of William Shatner by Michael Okuda) in an early-style uniform to illustrate its entry on April, as does the for its entry on 2245.
When "The Counter-Clock Incident" writer Fred Bronson first heard about the prequel premise of , he mistakenly assumed, much to his excitement, that April was prominently featured in the upcoming series. He was later disappointed to discover this was not the case. Added ENT Co-Executive Producer Chris Black, "I was not the uber-fan that would have said, 'Wait, it should have been Robert April." (The Fifty-Year Mission: The Next 25 Years, p. 646)
Unused material for Jonathan Archer's bio, featured in , stated that Archer passed away one day following the christening of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), in 2245. If canonical, it would suggest that April and Archer knew each other.
Roberto Orci once revealed he had considered a rogue April as a villain in . 
===Apocrypha===
In the books and Best Destiny, both written by Diane Carey, it was stated that Captain April was born in Coventry, UK. In developing April for Final Frontier, having only the Animated Series episode as a basis, Carey decided to give him "a warm, funny, visionary personality, and made him a gentle and wise counterpoint to the very volatile and action-oriented George Kirk [... The] idea is that somehow James Kirk is the composite of the better qualities of both April and George Kirk, the visionary wisdom with the proactive reactionary hero." ()
In the Star Trek: Early Voyages comic series, April made several appearances and was often referenced. The first issue, "Flesh of My Flesh", established that April commanded a USS Tiberius for three five-year missions prior to commanding the Enterprise on his fourth five-year mission and that J.M. Colt and José Tyler served under April on the Tiberius. In the same comic, April walked Christopher Pike to the Enterprise in spacedock, and in another scene, set two years later, it was shown that it was due to April's recommendation that Pike recruited Spock to the Enterprise crew.
The fourth issue, "Nor Iron Bars a Cage", stated that April, then a commodore at Starfleet Command, personally reassigned J.M. Colt to the Enterprise to take up her position as yeoman. In the final story in the Early Voyages series, presented in the comics "" and "Thanatos", April, then an admiral, returned to the Enterprise to temporarily take command while Captain Pike conducted an undercover mission. April displayed questionable conduct in the story, but the tale was never concluded, as the series was canceled.
The alternate reality version of appears in the IDW comic mini-series Star Trek: Countdown to Darkness. In the new timeline, he was captain of a previous , which existed subsequent to , but prior to the launched in 2258 with as his first officer. While surveying the planet Phaedus IV in 2239, he was declared killed in action, when in reality, he deliberately went against the Prime Directive to assist the planet's inhabitants in an ongoing rebellion until he was discovered by Captain and Commander twenty years later. Additionally, April recalled he had been captain "going on 10 years" in 2239, suggesting his prime reality counterpart would have also achieved the rank of captain in or around 2229, as this occurred before the creation of the alternate reality.
April later reappeared in the twentieth issue of IDW's Star Trek: Ongoing comic series, in which Captain Kirk visited April after the events of to let him know that his plan to start a war with the Klingon Empire had failed.
The novel Captain to Captain gives his full name as Robert Timothy April.
The reference book Star Trek: Federation - The First 150 Years depicts April as the principal designer of the , having grown dissatisfied with current Starfleet vessels' lack of self-sufficiency.
The tie-in novel Drastic Measures shows April in the year 2246 aiding the colony of Tarsus IV in the aftermath of Kodos the Executioner's infamous massacre. He is described as having an English accent and already married to his chief medical officer Sarah.
===External links===
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