Character Insight No. 254: Admiral Gregory Quinn and Inspector General Dexter Rimmick

Welcome back to Character Insight!  This week, we review Admiral Gregory Quinn and Dexter Remmick, who appeared together in a couple episodes of TNG.

https://archive.org/details/CharacterInsightEp254

Admiral Quinn is one of the first recurring characters who shows up on TNG, as a critical part of the season one story regarding an attempt by an alien parasite to take over Starfleet Command.  In the episode Coming of Age, the Admiral helps uncover this secret plot and then sets Inspector General officer Dexter Remmick to investigate whether the crew of the Enterprise-D has been infiltrated in any manner.  This was a bit of a witch hunt similar to the Dominion storylines in latter seasons of Deep Space 9.  Indeed, the secretive nature of the investigation causes serious tension between Remmick and the Enterprise crew.

Ironically, Admiral Quinn and Remmick would both later become victims of the alien parasite.  In the episode Conspiracy, Captain Picard and Commander Riker must track down the mother creature of these aliens before the infiltration of Starfleet Headquarters is complete.  The mother creature turns out to be within Remmick, and when this creature is destroyed, all the other parasites are also killed.  That allows Admiral Quinn to make a full recovery.  The same cannot be said of Dexter Remmick, who has his head explode in an iconic, disgusting, and memorable scene, which sounds something like this.

QUOTE (from Conspiracy):
Remmick: "We mean you no harm...we seek peaceful co-existence"...(Picard and Riker shoot him).

There's also this from the same episode, because of course:
"Code 47" quote

Admiral Quinn and Remmick are not seen again outside prior footage in a Riker memory scene in the episode Shades of Gray.  Perhaps being taken over by an alien parasite is enough to make a man retire.

Here's to you, inspector general officer Dexter Remmick.  You may have been an annoying character in an interesting deep state conspiracy story, but at least you went out with a bang like the Fourth of July.  Much like Jim Shimoda and his isolinear chip Jenga, you will not be easily forgotten.  Or cleaned off the carpet.

Dexter Remmick was played by Robert Schenklan, while Admiral Quinn was played by Ward Costello.  Schenklan's acting career ended in the 90s but he has remained a prolific award-winning screenwriter in Hollywood, with recent credits on Hacksaw Ridge and All the Way.  The Admiral was one of Costello's final acting roles, as he wrapped up a 35 year career and enjoyed two decades of retirement before his death in 2009.

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