Lawrence Styles

For the mirror universe counterpart, see Styles (mirror).

Lawrence Styles
Captain Styles on the bridge of the Excelsior (2285).
Known aliases:	Lawrence Stiles, James Styles, Robert Styles, Edward Styles
Species:	Human
Gender:	male
Born:	23rd century
Died:	2289 (Korvat colony)
Affiliation:	Federation, Starfleet
Family
Spouse(s):	Carolyn Styles
Children:	Eric Styles and Paula Styles
Career
Occupation:	officer
Previous Assignment:	CO, USS Excelsior
Final Assignment:	CO, USS Exeter
Rank:	captain
Insignia:

Lawrence H. Styles (also known as Edward Styles, James Styles or Robert Styles) was a male Human Starfleet officer in the 23rd century. Throughout his career he became known for his pompous and self-righteous attitude. He also became known for the swagger stick that he once took from a Klingon in personal combat. (TOS novel: Prime Directive)

Career history

USS Farragut

By the mid-2250s, Styles was serving aboard the USS Farragut under the command of Captain Garrovick. Also serving aboard at the same time was Ensign James T. Kirk, and the two had a very keen dislike of each other. When the Farragut was attacked by the dikironium cloud creature in orbit of Tycho IV in 2257, Styles was one of two hundred crewman who survived. (TOS novel: Prime Directive)

USS Monitor and Talin IV

By 2269, Lieutenant Styles was serving aboard the USS Monitor, when he was reassigned to take temporary command of the USS Enterprise to oversee the refit of her engines following the Talin IV disaster. He became an annoyance to Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott for his arrogant attitude, proclaiming himself to be a 'real' captain compared to Kirk, and attempted to wreck Kirk's chance at clearing his name. However, after Kirk discovered evidence that outside intelligences had been responsible for escalating the Talin IV disaster, Styles ruined his image when he vehemently protested to his superiors when they agreed to give Kirk the Enterprise- Kirk pointing out that the Enterprise was not currently warp-capable in the Talin system as her new nacelles needed to be tested outside of a gravity well to prevent the ship hitting a wormhole- despite Styles's belief that the ship was his. Although Styles promised that he would catch up to Kirk some day, Kirk simply amusedly noted that the important thing was that some day was not today. With Kirk having officially regained command, Styles was sent back to the Monitor. (TOS novel: Prime Directive)

Great experiment

The USS Excelsior, shortly after her engines failed.

By 2285, Styles had risen to the rank of captain and was assigned command of the prototype transwarp vessel, USS Excelsior. He took great pride in his command and was determined that he would break the speed records of the USS Enterprise and all other starships. He even managed to poach Captain Scott as his chief engineer as the Excelsior was getting prepared for trials.

However the triumph was short lived, when Admiral Kirk and his command staff plotted to hijack the Enterprise from Spacedock in order to retrieve the body of Captain Spock. Knowing that the Excelsior would be the only threat to the Enterprise, Kirk had Scott sabotage the Excelsior's transwarp engine so they could not pursue. (TOS movie, novelization & comic adaptation: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)

Styles was humiliated by the Excelsior's engine failure, which was magnified by others in the fleet who had taken to calling the man "Styles Without Substance" as well as "Drydock Styles."

Mirror invasion

A few weeks after the Spacedock incident, the Excelsior was ordered to Regula I to collect Admiral Kirk and his command staff, to bring their stolen Klingon bird-of-prey and them back to Earth, to face trial for their actions. Styles relished marching Kirk through the corridors of the Excelsior clapped in irons and certainly exercised his active dislike of Kirk. However, en route back to Earth, the Excelsior was ambushed by the ISS Enterprise, which had crossed over from the Mirror Universe. The mirror James T. Kirk and his crew were able to take over the Excelsior and place her command crew in the brig. However, the primary Kirk was able to engineer an escape and began an attempt to recapture the ship. His first action was to place Styles in an escape pod in order that Starfleet Command would be warned of the incursion.

Following the warning, Styles was given command of an armada, with at least four refit Constitution-class and three Miranda-class vessels, ready to repel invades from the mirror universe, with the refit Constitution-class starship USS Christopher Pike as his flagship. While Starfleet were able to repel an invasion from the Mirror Universe, the assignment also cost Styles his command. In response to his efforts to once again save the Federation, Kirk was assigned command of the Excelsior. (TOS comic: "The Mirror Universe Saga")

USS Exeter

By 2287, Styles was in command of the Constitution-class starship, USS Exeter. Admiral Karl Tomlinson ordered Styles and the crew of the Exeter to test the Lamver unit interdimensional gateway device, which had been delayed since the test system at Claneia was found to be home to the Worthy, who had been stranded there by Apollo. (TOS comics: "Great Expectations!", "Tomorrow Never Knows!")

USS Excelsior revisited

At some point between 2287 and 2289, Captain Styles was once again given command of the USS Excelsior, relinquishing his command over the USS Exeter, and yet again retained his former Excelsior first officer, Lt. Commander Miguel Darby during those later years.

At first announcing a decision to retire (along with Lt. Commander Darby) in November 2289, Styles reversed this decision, remaining in command of the Excelsior alongside Commander Hikaru Sulu as his new executive officer. Three weeks later, Styles was killed during a peace conference at the Korvat Colony in an attack by the Albino. (ST novel: Excelsior: Forged in Fire)

Styles was not given a first name on screen. He is named Lawrence in the FASA RPG module: Star Trek III Sourcebook Update and in Forged in Fire, while the Decipher RPG module: Starships calls him Robert Styles. Starship Creator names him James Styles. Who's Who in Star Trek, Issue 1 calls him Edward Styles. The FASA book and the last page of "Who's Who in Star Trek 1" both spell his surname as "Stiles".

Appendices

Appearances

2269 TOS novel: Prime Directive 2285 DS9 - The Lives of Dax short story: "Infinity" TOS movie: Star Trek III: The Search for Spock TOS comic: "... Promises to Keep" TOS comic: "Double Image" TOS comic: "Homecoming..." TOS comic: "Deadly Reflection!" TOS comic: "Stand-Off!" TOS comic: "The Apocalypse Scenario!" 2288 TOS comic: "Great Expectations!" TOS comic: "Tomorrow Never Knows!" 2289 TOS comic: "Class Reunion" TOS novel: Excelsior: Forged in Fire

External link

• Lawrence Styles article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.