During the Star Trek Universe panel at New York Comic Con 2022, which took place on Saturday, October 8, 2022, lots of new details about upcoming trek releases were revealed. During the panel’s second segment, which focused on: Star Trek: Prodigythese include the fact that not one but two characters that originated in Star Trek: The Next Generation would appear in the upcoming second half of the animated show’s first season. Although we already knew that William O. Campbell would reprise the role of Thadiun Okona, Star Trek Universe panel revealed he would be joined by an additional alum of TNG: Admiral Edward Jellico (Ronny Cox).
The character of Jellico was first introduced in TNG Season 6, Episode 10, “The Chain of Command: Part I.” In that episode, Jellico was originally assigned to the USS Cairo. He took command of the USS Enterprise-D after Captain Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stewart) was assigned to Celtris III on an undercover mission. Jellico appeared again in the next episode, “The Chain of Command: Part II”, but at the end of the story, command of the Enterprise-D had returned to Picard, and Jellico returned to the Cairo.
However, in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season Six, Episode Nineteen, The Fate of the Cairo had been revealed. The ship was presumably destroyed by the Dominion… but it was commanded by Captain Leslie Wong, not Captain Jellico. This reassignment allowed Jellico to survive to reappear in child prodigya series that takes place about ten years after the character first appeared on TNG.
An animated Jellico also appeared in Star Trek: Lower Decks
This isn’t Jellico’s only recent appearance in Star Trek canon. Star Trek: Lower Decks has previously paid tribute to the character on several occasions. In one instance, in the season two finale “First First Contact”, Beckett Mariner (Tawny Newsome) worries that Captain Carol Freeman (Dawnn Lewis) will be replaced by “a babysitter Jellico-type”. And in the Lower decks season three opener, “Grounded,” the news sticker under an FNN: News of the Galaxy report reveals that Jellico had banned a popular band known as the Zebulon Sisters from performing on active starships.
But you may recognize Jellico’s name from another source: social media. The unofficial Twitter parody account “Captain Edward Jellico” (@STDeltaShift) revolves around the captain of the same name, using stills by TNG and others trek shows to illustrate memes in which Jellico often tortures people under his command with unbearable puns.