Gav


Ambassador Gav was a male Tellarite politician in the 23rd century. In the 2260s, he served as a prominent representative from Tellar to the .

Gav had met Ambassador Sarek of  and debated with him in a council session. He had lost the debate and became especially aggressive with him going forward. In 2268, his mission was to represent Tellarite interests at the historic Babel Conference. He opposed the Coridanite admission into the Federation, due to Tellarite mining interests on Coridan. He was an outspoken opponent of his Vulcan counterpart, Ambassador Sarek. While traveling to the Conference aboard the , Ambassador Gav quarreled openly with Sarek about the admission of Coridan into the Federation at a cocktail party. He demanded to know how Sarek would vote, but Sarek would not respond. He confronted Sarek later, and again demanded to know how he would vote. Sarek then decided to tell him he would vote for admission and, when he alluded to illegal Tellarite mining operations, Gav physically confronted him but was knocked back by Sarek, only to be stopped from continuing by James T. Kirk. 

Gav was later killed by Thelev, an Orion spy posing as a member of the Andorian delegation. Gav's body was hidden in an engineering circuit bay located on Deck 11, Section A3. Thelev then used the tal-shaya, a Vulcan technique, to incriminate Ambassador Sarek. ()

Appendices

Background information 
Gav was played by John Wheeler in his first acting credit and only Star Trek appearance.

The script for "Journey to Babel" gives a description of Gav's voice, calling it "rough, grating, and accented in some way... as though English is very alien on his tongue."

In what was an expensive design at the time, John Wheeler wore makeup that consisted primarily of a one-piece foam latex appliance that covered the central part of his face. The piece was glued on in such a way that the actor's eyes could hardly be seen, and, as a result, Wheeler could barely see where he was going. Subsequently, he had to tilt his head back when he was reading his lines, in order to see through his makeup appliance. It was this tilt that gave the impression of Gav's being aloof and superior, and it added immeasurably to Wheeler's performance, even though it was unintentional. In order to complete Gav's makeup, a beard and mustache were hand-laid to blend off into the rest of his hair. The mustache helped to conceal the edge of the snout and formed an interesting effect with the character's bushy eyebrows. Gav's look was topped off with character gloves. (Star Trek: Aliens & Artifacts, p. 49)

Apocrypha 
In the Star Trek: Myriad Universes novel A Less Perfect Union, in one alternate timeline, Gav was the Tellarite representative to the Interstellar Coalition, and represented Tellar when United Earth petitioned for membership into that body.

External links 
 
 
 

de:Gav
fr:Gav
Tellarites
Ambassadors