IDW TNG characters

This is a list of characters who have recurring appearances or mentions in the Star Trek: The Next Generation (IDW) series of comics.

Regular characters

 * Jean-Luc Picard
 * Captain of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D). In 2365 at the colony of Armada, Picard assisted in manual labor with one of the farmers, expressing his regrets at never wanting to help his own father when he was younger, and rued the lost opportunity.  Picard also expressed surprise to Riker when Wesley Crusher appeared to tell a lie to them to protect some of the colonists. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Space Seeds")
 * He was a long-time friend of Dr. Marjorie Devarona, an archaeologist. In 2368, after the Spock incident on Romulus, he took a leave of absence for a week to visit Rajatha Prime and help Dr. Devarona on an archaeological dig in an old city.  When the team discovered Harmonic Diamonds, he gave his share to Schwin, the Andorian cook.  He ended up as the only surviving member of the dig team. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Captain's Pleasure")
 * In late 2368, he dealt with Tomalak when the Romulan captain tried to kidnap Data. When Tomalak finally succeeded on Rete Mire, he beamed to the location with Worf and Riker.  There they assisted Data in closing an inter-dimensional rift. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - Intelligence Gathering: "Valued Intelligence", "Disgrace")
 * In early 2369, Picard was forced to deal with Kommandant Ghud, a Scientist who had destroyed the ecology of the planet Wyath for profit. Ghud had to be taken to Wyath by a certain time for his trial due to the laws of the planet when La Forge, Ro Laren, and Worf were lost in their shuttlecraft.  Picard allowed Ghud to help him find the missing crewmembers, thanking him and wishing him luck at the trial. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Light of the Day")
 * In mid-2370, after encountering a remote drone, he and Data recalled that the Romulans had a history with similar remote-controlled vessels. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Strategy")
 * Later that year, he and Data discovered that someone appeared to be using the Enterprise logs to create weapons. He contacted Admiral Nechayev about the matter and she told him that he should be careful with these dangerous accusations.  Not long after, on the grounds of Starfleet Academy, he was attacked by a Tellarite, just after Boothby, the groundskeeper had left him alone. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Space Seeds", "An Inconvenient Truth")
 * A few days later, he visited Andoria to talk to the Chancellor in order to try to get Andorians more involved in the Federation. (Alien Spotlight: "Andorians")
 * In 2372, Picard informed Spock of the events surrounding the actual death of James T. Kirk on Veridian III. He then met up with Spock on Earth when Spock brought Kirk's body to his actual gravesite in Iowa.  Picard told Spock that he would be welcome to return to Starfleet duty, but Spock declined, further telling Picard that he remembered how he once worked with remarkable friends and comrades, and suggests that Picard treasure those times in his own life, since they will someday end. (Star Trek: Spock: Reflections: "Issue 3", "Issue 4")
 * In 2374, after returning from the past, Picard encountered Q, who took possession of Picard's body right before some important negotiations. Picard watched from within his mind as Q found it more difficult to do a Human's task than he had previously thought.  Picard stepped in to resolve the situation once Q found it impossible to sort out and then asked Picard, "How do you Humans do it?  So many choices, so many possibilities, and practically blind.  Only what your eyes and ears can tell you.  Barely anything."  Picard pointed out that Humans have no other choice.  At the end of the conversation, Q pointed out that Picard was not alone, and that Locutus was still within his mind, and offered to remove him to free Picard of the memories and pain, but Picard refused, noting that Locutus was part of who he was. (Alien Spotlight: "Q")
 * By 2387, Picard had retired from active duty and had become the Federation Ambassador to Vulcan. When Spock wanted to return to his home, Picard convinced the Vulcan High Command to allow Spock on Vulcan, calling it "an old captain's prerogative." After the attack on the Klingon fleet by the Narada, Picard tried to reason with Nero, but failed.  When Spock sacrificed himself to stop the singularity, Picard lamented, "May his soul live long... and prosper." (Star Trek: Countdown)


 * William T. Riker
 * The first officer of the Enterprise-D, in 2364, he led an away team consisting of Data and Tasha Yar down to the planet of Tigan to meet Chancellor Lomac. When they met a new man, Kadec,  claiming to be the Chancellor, and no records of Lomac, Riker inquired, he was shot by a graviton gun.  Data was taken to another facility while Riker and Yar were imprisoned together.  Riker distracted a guard while Yar incapacitated him so that they could escape and they encountered Kadec, and kept him under guard until the deposed Chancellor arrived to take control of the situation. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "History Lesson")
 * In 2365, he noticed that Wesley Crusher was having difficulty adapting to his mother's absence and brought the matter to Picard's attention. On Armada, when they discovered the ruined crops, Riker suggested that it might have been a mutation due to pesticides or fertilizer, but the methods were Federation approved.  While on the colony, he fetched a jar of uttaberries for Deanna Troi.  When the use of chroniton particles was detected on the colony, he alerted Starbase 112.  Not long after, he commented on Wesley's poker face to Picard when they thought that he may have lied to them. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Space Seeds")
 * In 2368, when Picard went on leave for a week to Rajatha Prime, Riker took command of the Enterprise. He arrived at the planet in time to save Picard from Gest, the Bolian. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Captain's Pleasure")
 * In late 2368, Riker and Data visited Daystrom One, the Federation's new information archive. While inside the tesseract, they were attacked by four Romulans, who were all captured by archive security.  During the incident, the two argued about sentience of machines and technology, including Data himself. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - Intelligence Gathering: "Valued Intelligence")
 * In mid-2370, after Troi was injured, he went to see her in sickbay. He later reminisced about the past with her, ending in a pillow fight, interrupted by Worf.  Riker had also given her a Ktarian chocolate puff and told her that Worf asked him to bring it for her. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Strategy")
 * At the end of the year, he took part in an away mission with Worf, the two easily overpowering the foes they encountered. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "An Inconvenient Truth")


 * Data
 * The second officer of the Enterprise-D, he joined an away team with Riker and Tasha Yar in 2364 to the planet Tigan. Data was intrigued about the Tigan's Gravimatrix, a microscopic black hole being used as a power source. He also noticed the "interface," on the Tigans, a surgical implant allowing communications to be directly beamed into the brains of the Tigans. When the away team noticed changes had been made to the Tigan society, Data noticed that the Tigan computers had been hit by a low-grade gravimetric pulse at the same time as they beamed down and suggested that someone may have rewritten the Tigan history at that time.  After Yar and Riker were taken captive, the Tigans accessed Data's positronic brain, attempting to rewire it so that Data thought that his time on the planet was pleasant.  Fortunately, Riker and Yar interrupted the process.  Later, back on the Enterprise, Data reflected on whether his quest to become Human was worth the trouble. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "History Lesson")
 * In 2365, Data took over sickbay to research soil samples from the Armada, much to the chagrin of Dr. Pulaski. He apologized and told her that he would try to use another lab, taking no offense at her comments.  During his research, he discovered chroniton particles in the soil. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Space Seeds")
 * In late 2368, Riker and Data visited Daystrom One, the Federation's new information archive. While inside the tesseract, they were attacked by four Romulans, who were all captured by archive security.  During the incident, the two argued about sentience of machines and technology, including Data himself. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - Intelligence Gathering: "Valued Intelligence")
 * When with a medical away team beamed to the surface of Rete Mire, Data was grabbed by a pair of Romulans and beamed away. Fortunately, La Forge, Picard, and Data had discussed this possibility earlier and implanted a subcutaneous homing beacon.  It was tracked to a desert installation where Data was assisting a small Romulan crew led by Tomalak to attempt to close a strange Iconian rift.  Data figured out how to solve the issue, but before he could act, a Romulan sacrificed himself in Data's place to close the rift. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - Intelligence Gathering: "Disgrace")
 * In 2369, Data locked out all of the systems except long range sensors and the deflector grid when Kommandant Ghud was helping the Enterprise crew search for the lost shuttle. When the ship arrived at Wyath to deliver Ghud for his trial, Data asked Picard about right and wrong and how the concept of "free will" applied to the situation. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Light of the Day")
 * In mid-2370, when the Enterprise encountered the drone ship, Data reconfigured the ship's sensors to detect the drone's unusual warp signature. When investigating the ship with Worf, Data noticed that the ship had received several subspace communications and knew where to target the Enterprise.  After the incident, Picard discussed the situation with Data in his ready room. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Strategy")
 * Later that same year, Picard asked Data to cross-reference logs from the Enterprise and the rest of the fleet, and to find events where past encounters appeared to be used as weapons. Data discovered two such events.  As part of the infiltration away team, he helped Riker and Worf navigate through the ship they were on by having them reset their combadges to a higher frequency. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Space Seeds", "An Inconvenient Truth")
 * By 2387, Data had been "returned" to life as his neural nets were successfully imprinted onto the existing programming of B-4. He had also been promoted to Captain and was in command of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) after Picard's retirement. (Star Trek: Countdown)


 * Deanna Troi
 * The half-Betazoid Enterprise-D counselor. In 2368, she was surprised to find Dr. Crusher using the holodeck for a simulation of the disco era in New York City in 1975. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Captain's Pleasure")
 * Hours after the Mantleau wave incident with the USS Jackson, Troi was assigned command of an away team when the Enterprise-D encountered three Pakled vessels. She took Dr. Crusher and Ro Laren along with her.  Soon after, only those three returned to the Enterprise-D.  They were possessed by an external influence using a Ferengi thought maker and they tried to take over the Enterprise-D using the battle bridge to steer the starship to a specific location. Riker was able to bring Troi back by calling her Imzadi and reaching out to her.  None of the three remembered anything that happened to them. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - Intelligence Gathering: "Matters of the Mind")
 * In 2369, she tried to help Picard with a difficult decision about Kommandant Ghud, telling him that Ghud believed that he was innocent, a possible side-effect of his new belief, as he considered his crimes irrelevant, because, as Picard stated, "he committed the acts before his conversion. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Light of the Day")
 * In mid-2370, she was badly injured when a remote drone attacked the Enterprise, her life saved by Worf rushing her to sickbay. She almost died twice while recovering, and when Riker held her hand as she came to, she mumbled Worf's name.  She pushed her way to the bridge, telling them that the ship attacking them was receiving a remote command, and was unmanned.  After she'd recovered, she and Riker engaged in a pillow fight in her quarters while reminiscing about the past. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Strategy")
 * Later that same year, she went on an away mission with Data and La Forge, infiltrating a vessel, and was able to sense an approaching foe before he could ambush them. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "An Inconvenient Truth")
 * On their next mission, she approached Sharad, an Andorian taking passage on the Enterprise en route to Andoria. While talking with him, she asked if his trip had been alright and tried to ascertain what was troubling him, without success. (Alien Spotlight: "Andorians")


 * Worf
 * The Klingon security officer aboard the Enterprise-D after Yar's death.
 * In 2365, Worf took offense at the tone that Dr. Pulaski used with Data and complained to Riker about it. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Space Seeds")
 * In late 2368, Worf was assigned to lead a diplomatic away mission to the Votar VI colony to help resolve a dispute between some Kaylar and Rigelian colonists. After finally discerning the real circumstances, after some advice from Captain Picard, Worf confronted the administrator of the facility where the dispute was centered and resolved the situation. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - Intelligence Gathering: "A Matter of Dates")
 * In 2369, he was returning from Starfleet briefings with Ro Laren and La Forge on the shuttlecraft Goddard when it was damaged by solar flare activity and they were forced to crash land on Riat near a Dracon Monastery. When the group was split up as La Forge fell through a floor, he and Ro made their way down to save La Forge from the infected monks.  After the fights, he complimented Ro, telling her "Bajorans do not glorify war as Klingons do. But you fight with honor." (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Light of the Day")
 * In mid-2370, Picard dressed Worf down for not following orders immediately after Worf assisted Troi during the drone ship attack. Worf later investigated the patterns of the drone ship's attacks with Data, but neither had much luck.  When he visited Troi in sickbay as she was recovering, she told him that the vessel was unmanned and being controlled from elsewhere.  After the incident, he interrupted a pillow fight between Riker and Troi, and she thanked him for telling Riker to bring her a Ktarian chocolate puff, something that Riker had told her that Worf asked him to do. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Strategy")
 * Later that same year, he infiltrated a Galaxy-class starship with Riker, and they met up with La Forge, Troi, and Data after Data guided them through the ship to them. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "An Inconvenient Truth")
 * By 2387, Worf was a General in the Klingon Empire and commanded an armada against Nero's Narada. When his fleet was devastated, Worf boarded a shuttle and went to the Narada to deal with Nero directly.  The shuttle stopped short of the hull and Worf and a number of his subordinates left the shuttle in EV suits and cut their way into the Narada's hull.  While his Klingons and the Romulans engaged in hand-to-hand combat, Worf headed to the bridge, where Nero attempted to persuade him that the Federation was using Worf before attacking Worf from behind using a mechanical tendril, impaling him critically.  Worf was beamed to the Enterprise, allowing his life to be saved. (Countdown: "Number Three", "Number Four")


 * Beverly Crusher
 * Chief medical officer on the Enterprise-D. She was a fan of dancing, and used Program Crusher 54 on the holodeck to go disco dancing in 1975 because she sometimes found tap and jazz dance restrictive and that she found disco to be a good way to lose weight. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Captain's Pleasure")
 * Hours after the Mantleau wave incident with the USS Jackson, Troi took Dr. Crusher and Ro Laren along with her on an away mission. Soon after, only those three returned to the Enterprise-D.  They were possessed by an external influence using a Ferengi thought maker and they tried to take over the Enterprise-D using the battle bridge to steer the starship to a specific location.  None of the three remembered anything that happened to them after the incident, and Crusher was in a coma-like state for a couple of days afterward, but recovered fully. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - Intelligence Gathering: "Matters of the Mind")
 * In 2369, she was able to neutralize the organisms in the monks on Riat, returning them to normal. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Light of the Day")
 * At the end of 2370, she told Admiral Adams that the Enterprise was in quarantine for 48 hours due to an outbreak of the Andorian Measles, and that half the crew was in isolation. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "An Inconvenient Truth")


 * Geordi La Forge
 * The chief engineer of the Enterprise-D, La Forge was fitted with a VISOR due to the fact that he was blind since birth.
 * In late 2368, Reginald Barclay brought some strange readings to La Forge's attention that they had difficulty deciphering until Picard had Worf give them access to the Starfleet Intelligence encryption database. They deciphered it and discovered that Romulans were after Data for some reason. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - Intelligence Gathering: "Valued Intelligence")
 * Soon after, the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) was called to the assistance of the USS Jackson from a priority one signal. La Forge beamed over to the Jackson with Miles O'Brien due to O'Brien's familiarity with  vessels.  The chief engineer of the Jackson, Carll, told them that he'd discovered a Mantleau wave in the warp core, but they were unable to find it on diagnostics until Carll made a small change in a plasma flow.  They were able to track it to a device in a Jefferies tube.  Removing it stopped the wave. They found a similar device on board the Enterprise-D and disabled that too. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - Intelligence Gathering: "Chasing Shadows")
 * In 2369, La Forge was returning from Starfleet briefings with Worf and Ro Laren when their shuttle, the Goddard, was damaged by solar flare activity, forcing them down on the planet Riat near a Dracon Monastery. La Forge's VISOR was suffering interference from the solar flares, leaving him almost completely blind and causing him headaches.  He was separated from Ro and Worf when he fell through a floor, stranding him a few floors below, facing a number of infected monks.  Just as his vision begins to return, he is reunited with Ro and Worf, and they are beamed to safety. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Light of the Day")
 * In 2370, when the Enterprise was being attacked by a drone ship, he suggested sending a class 9 probe to Starbase 122 with information about the attack, since it would only take two days. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Strategy")
 * Later that same year, he was part of an infiltration team with Troi and Data, and was unable to get the computer systems on the Galaxy-class ship they were on to give him any useful data. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "An Inconvenient Truth")
 * La Forge had retired from Starfleet by 2387 in order to design starships. He was the designer of the Jellyfish ship for Spock.  After his arrival on Vulcan, he reminisced with Data about their past adventures together, commenting that he thought that he had left adventure behind when he left Starfleet. (Countdown: "Number Three", "Number Four")


 * Ro Laren
 * In late 2368, Worf asked her to join him on a diplomatic away mission to the Votar VI colony to help resolve a dispute between some Kaylar and Rigelian colonists. After finally discerning the real nature of the dispute, Ro was left with Counselor Troi as "muscle" to ensure that a satisfactory agreement was reached. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "A Matter of Dates")
 * Hours after the Mantleau wave incident with the USS Jackson, Troi took Dr. Crusher and Ro along with her on an away mission. Soon after, only those three returned to the Enterprise-D.  They were possessed by an external influence using a Ferengi thought maker and they tried to take over the Enterprise-D using the battle bridge to steer the starship to a specific location.  None of the three remembered anything that happened to them after the incident. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - Intelligence Gathering: "Matters of the Mind")
 * In 2369, she was returning from Starfleet briefings with Worf and La Forge on the shuttlecraft Goddard when it was damaged by solar flare activity and they were forced to crash land on Riat near a Dracon Monastery. When the group was split up as La Forge fell through a floor, she and Worf made their way down to save La Forge from the infected monks.  After the fights, Worf complimented Ro, telling her "Bajorans do not glorify war as Klingons do. But you fight with honor." (Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Space Between: "Light of the Day")

Recurring characters

 * Tomalak
 * A Romulan starship captain. In late 2368, he attempted to kidnap Data in order to get assistance with closing an inter-dimensional rift. He finally succeeded on Rete Mire and they were able to close the rift due to the sacrifice of a Romulan Centurion. When Picard asked him why he had gone to such lengths rather than simply asking for assistance and Riker answered by saying "Romulans fear disgrace more than death."  Tomalak pointed out that at least one of the Enterprise-D crew understood Romulans. (Star Trek: The Next Generation - Intelligence Gathering: "Valued Intelligence", "Disgrace")