Robert April
| Species | Human |
|---|---|
| Affiliation | Starfleet |
| Position | USS Enterprise commanding officer |
| Rank |
|
| Partner | Sarah April |
| Portrayed by | James Doohan (voice) |
| First appearance | "The Counter-Clock Incident" (TAS) |
Robert T. April is a fictional character in the Star Trek universe. April is listed in the Star Trek Chronology, The Star Trek Encyclopedia and at startrek.com as the Enterprise's first commanding officer, preceding Captain Christopher Pike.
The character's only television/movie appearance is in the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode "The Counter-Clock Incident", in which he is voiced by James Doohan and portrayed as the first captain of the USS Enterprise. However, the decision by Paramount Pictures, studio owners of the franchise, and series creator Gene Roddenberry not to consider the animated series to be part of the official Star Trek canon has led to debate as to whether April's place as first captain is actually a part of Star Trek continuity.
April appears in the novels Final Frontier and Best Destiny by Diane Carey as the captain of the Enterprise.
When Roddenberry submitted his first proposal for Star Trek to MGM Studios in 1964, his name for the starship commander was "Robert M. April" (another name, Captain James Winter, was also considered). The proposal was rejected, and Star Trek did not become a television reality until later that year when NBC accepted the premise, by which time the captain was changed to "Christopher Pike".
Fred Bronson (writing as John Culver) created the character Commodore Robert April for his episode "The Counter-Clock Incident". Bronson came up with the idea of the Enterprise having a first Captain, a predecessor to Christopher Pike. He selected the name "Robert April" from the list of names from which Roddenberry selected the name of the Enterprise Captain, as published in the book The Making of Star Trek. In "The Counter-Clock Incident", the character's middle initial is T and not M as in Roddenberry's original proposal. In the episode, the Enterprise crew begins to rapidly age in reverse. Commodore April's and his wife Sarah's (voiced by Nichelle Nichols) old age affords them more time at maturity, allowing them to save the crew and undo the reverse aging process. The episode establishes that Sarah was the chief medical officer of the Enterprise during Robert April's time as the ship's commanding officer.
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