Seifer

Seifer (previously joined as Gotens, and previously referred to as simply Night) served as a Starfleet first officer aboard the USS Phoenix-X. He was a Trill whose host name was Night; and was joined to at least two main symbionts in his lifetime: first the Gotens symbiont and then, against his will, the Seifer symbiont. During his joinings, he was most commonly known by his Symbiont (last) name.

Night

 * Night's original last name before joining is not known as of yet.

Night graduated Starfleet Academy and served Starfleet for quite some time before applying at the Trill Symbiosis Commission. In 2365, he completed the program and joined to the Gotens symbiont after Rivera Gotens. Fourteen years later the Gotens symbiont was removed and replaced by the Seifer symbiont.

Night Gotens (2365 - 2379)
Night Gotens (more commonly known as just Gotens) served as first officer on both the USS Xena, and the USS Phoenix-X.

First in command of the USS Xena
Gotens was promoted to first officer aboard the USS Xena. While there, he served under Captain Aeris, with a mostly female populated crew except for Ensign Dan and Lieutenant Commander Wing.

Sometime in the late 2360s, Gotens and the USS Xena responded to a distress call from the Cardassian starship Tarak. The Tarak was engaged in battle with a Romulan starship and it became apparent that the Tarak was quickly losing the fight. Captain Aeris then decided to give aid before it was too late and through opening a communication with the Cardassians, Gotens was introduced to Gul Meloneus. Meloneus was quick to turn on the Xena when the Xena came under attack by the Romulan ship, and Meloneus denied requests for assistance. He decided to allow the impending doom as a distraction while he geared his efforts into taking over the Romulan ship. He and Gotens would not forget each other after this encounter. ("Missed the Mishap")

On Gotens' last mission, in 2374, he and Ensign Dan took a shuttle to the Tiloniam system in order to explore its vast mystery. Unfortunately, they were ambushed by a Jem'Hadar attack fleet, which required the nearby USS Phoenix to save them. After a battle that nearly totaled the Phoenix, both Gotens and Ensign Dan were re-assigned to the USS Phoenix-X - a previously embarked starship for the X-Project. ("The Tiloniam System", "The Tilonian System")

First in command of the Phoenix-X
Gotens spent the better part of his career proving that he was the 'good' Starfleet officer. His performance and sense of duty were well executed. Unfortunately, an occasional lapse in professionalism proved otherwise. None-the-less, Gotens on more than one occasion, would pull through and be one of the Phoenix-X`s most valued officers.

In 2374, Commander Night Gotens was instrumental in saving his own away team from capture within a small Jem'Hadar base on Flortarios III. He executed impressive computer hacking skills over Dominion technology, enabling contact with the Phoenix-X. ("Flortarios III")

In the same year, both Commander Gotens and Captain Daniel were captured by Gul Meloneus and placed in a cell within his ship. The two worked together in escaping and retaking the vessel. The Cardassian ship, Tarak, was then towed back to Starfleet. ("Missed the Mishap")

In 2375, Gotens misinterpreted orders from Captain Sisko and accidentally stole the Defiant from Deep Space 9. The issue was quickly averted with help from the USS Xena. Gotens was then taken back to the Flortarios system where the Phoenix-X was in command of a small fleet. There, both he and Jadzia were helpful in capturing a renegade Changeling that Captain Daniel was on mission to apprehend. ("Home, Part I & II")

Night Xen (briefly in 2375)
During a mission to the Breen homeworld, Night Gotens encountered a dying Trill carrying a symbiont: Xen. According to Admiral Theseus, the Xen symbiont had hit legendary status as being the oldest and most intelligent symbiont to live. In order to save the symbiont's life, Night Gotens had to temporarily house the Xen symbiont long enough for he, the Captain, and the Doctor to get out of the Breen system. ("Guinea Pigs")

Night Seifer (2379 - present)
Night Seifer (more commonly known as just Seifer) served as first officer aboard the USS Phoenix-X, where he was joined against his will to the Seifer symbiont by Trill thieves.

His time on the Phoenix-X has always been anti-productive. On several occasions, Seifer has been known to deal in the black market trades, or been known to steal technology from other ships. His bad-guy actions are said to be caused by the Seifer symbiont's influence itself, since the Symbiont's life in Lex previously was never a law-abiding one. ("Phoenix Restoration", "Departments")

Seifer has also been known to have an obsession with getting his old Symbiont back. During a time-loop in which he was forced to live aboard Vector 3, Seifer hijacked the ship and tried to force it into the mirror universe three times. ("Secret Shuttles, Part IV", "Avalon Battlefield, Part I")

In 2377, Commander Seifer was forced to question his own desire to be loyal to his crew after his actions during a battle with the Ceavon were criticized. But he quickly re-established his loyalty when he risked his life to save the Phoenix-X crew from death when the crew's minds were taken over by Thalia particles. ("Loyalties, Part II")

In 2380, Seifer took command of the Phoenix-X for a short period when Section 31 forced him to force Cell off the ship. Section 31 believed the Captain had become too powerful with omni'X ability. But with Seifer's help Cell was able to remain as Captain on board the Phoenix-X. ("Power Levels")

In 2393, Seifer went rogue and broke into Starfleet's Latinum Storage facility. He also time-traveled back over ten years, where he engaged in further criminal activities. In the early 2380s he was caught and jailed by Starfleet. ("Transphasic Meltdown")

Relationships
Before becoming Seifer, Gotens worked closely with Captain Aeris aboard the USS Xena. But he never began seeing her until his move to the Phoenix-X. In 2374 Aeris beamed aboard the Phoenix-X for dinner with the Commander, but the two were unfortunately part of the crew's capture when the Phoenix-X was taken over by Dawn Relic. ("Crash Bandicoots")

Half a year later, Gotens dated Astrometrics officer Jineen. But the relationship barely lasted due to Jineen cheating on Gotens with Lieutenant GoyCho. ("Retrieval")

In 2376, the Phoenix-X was decommissioned by Commander Avery, forcing the crew to transfer to other postings. Gotens himself had returned the Xena, but found his relationship with Aeris growing even more to the point of asking her to marry him. Aeris had expected this, but unfortunately the Commander then received a clue to the missing whereabouts of Captain Daniel. He placed his relationship on hold to search for Daniel, beginning a distance between himself and Aeris. ("Experimentalism")

Commander Avery
Avery was first officer of the Phoenix in 2374. He was known for his temperamental short bursts of rage, and his attachment to upholding Starfleet's rules.

He was unfortunately never transferred to the USS Phoenix-X with the rest of the crew when the Phoenix was nearly totaled in the Tiloniam system. When he realized that Gotens had taken his place on the Phoenix-X, he immediately fell into a spite and promised Gotens that he'd be "watching" him for any slip-ups.

Two years later Avery got his chance for revenge when he was given the authority for an official inspection of the Phoenix-X. While there, Gotens ran several experiments boarding along the lines of practical jokes in order to test the theory that Avery was susceptible to short bursts of rage.

Meanwhile, Avery took his authority one step further and decommissioned the ship, which would force Gotens and the crew to relocate to other ship postings. Avery wouldn't even listen to Gotens' offer to drop his own personal Starfleet commission. Avery found that decommissioning the ship was a far better form of revenge.

A few months later, Avery attempted to have the Phoenix-X dismantled at a starship dismantling station. Gotens found out about it and got to the station as fast as he could. But Avery was already there, anticipating Gotens. While trying to take control of the Phoenix-X before the dismantling procedure, Gotens was forced to fight Avery aboard the ship - who used holographic opponents as obstacles for Gotens.

Using an advanced neural-holo chip attached to his temples, Avery was able to merely think of certain holograms and make them appear. When the Gordarions captured both Avery and Gotens, they enabled the chip to control previously experimented Changelings Daniel and Shane for use against a rebellious Gotens. Avery's mind itself was placed under the control of the Gordarions.

Gotens admitted that Avery was missing from his previously known location within the Throne room after Gotens' second visit to there. He speculated that Avery may have been taken by the Gordarions in an escape pod before the large Gordarion ship was destroyed. ("The Tiloniam System", "Experimentalism")

Mirror universe Trill thieves & symbiont self-awareness
The Commander was horribly abused by two Trill thieves and then by his own Symbiont who became self-aware and active after a genetic experimentation by the Gordarions.

James
In 2375, the Phoenix-X encountered its mirror universe counterpart, the mirror Phoenix-X (or Phoenix-V) via the striking of an iso-star. Upon this striking, the mirror Gotens was killed thanks to an exploding console on his ship. Although being in this "original Universe", Doctor Lox from the Phoenix-V decided to call the Trill government (posing as the Doctor from the Phoenix-X) to request a symbiont transfer of the Gotens symbiont to a new host.

The Trill to answer the call was named James. He received the mirror Gotens symbiont and escaped the Phoenix-V before its destruction by the Phoenix-X. After his joining he became a "mixed-Universe" creation of being an "original Universe" host with a mirror universe symbiont. His offical name was then James Gotens. ("Pure Evil")

James kidnapped the crew of and stole the Phoenix-X, in an attempt to return to the mirror universe, four years later. He and a partner, Lex, tried selling the crew as slaves to the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance in exchange for a position within the Alliance - but was thwarted by the Seifer symbiont. ("Mirrorlyness!")

Lex
Still in the "original Universe", James met a joined female Trill named Lex; her full name was Lex Seifer, due to her joining with the Seifer symbiont. Due to a possible freak self-dislike of the Seifer symbiont, James was able to convince Lex to join him in changing the Seifer symbiont with the Gotens symbiont that was, at the time, joined with the Commander.

Thus, using an advanced holographic medical program to execute the procedure in 2377, Commander Gotens was kidnapped on his own ship and given the Seifer symbiont: turning him into Commander Seifer.

Lex received the Gotens symbiont and remained partners, if not, lovers, with James after their successful escape. She then became Lex Gotens. ("Secret Shuttles, Part I, II, III, & IV")
 * It is quite possible that Lex's joining somehow poisoned the symbionts she joined with to the point of the symbionts becoming slaves to her will. That would explain the Gotens' symbiont easy and sickly turning to partner with his mirror double within James. It is also an explanation to Commander Seifer's evil characteristics, as explained in later episodes.

Both Lex and James tried to sell the Phoenix-X crew as slaves to the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance in the mirror universe, four years later, but were foiled by the Seifer symbiont. ("Mirrorlyness!")

Seifer symbiont
A temporal rift was formed in the Narendra system, in 2379, due to the intersecting Rockono Galaxy. Upon the examination of this rift, Commander Night Seifer was kidnapped and his symbiont tampered with by the highly experimentational Gordarions.

The Commander was saved and returned to the ship - unfortunately, due to the quantum-shift effects of the rift combined with the genetic tampering by the Gordarions: the Seifer symbiont within the Commander was somehow given sentience.

This sentience led to a mouth, eyes, tiny arm and legs to morph onto the symbiont - and the symbiont itself to unjoin itself and walk around the ship on its own free will.

One of the more stranger transformations to ever happen, the Seifer symbiont used its sentience to command dominance over the crew and order them around. Naturally, with the new perspective, the symbiont cared less about returning to the Night host and more about its own desires for command. A simple quantum shift alteration forced the symbiont back to the way it was. ("Occurrence, Part I & II")

In 2382, the Phoenix-X was taken over and brought to the mirror universe where the Seifer symbiont was quantum shifted back into sentience. Un-joining, the symbiont dominated James' and Lex's plans to sell the already contained Phoenix-X crew as slaves to the Klingon-Cardassian Alliance. The exchange was to allow him to join the Alliance, but the plans were unfortunately foiled by quick thinking of the Phoenix-X crew. ("Mirrorlyness!")

Medical
At the very end of 2374, before he was Seifer, Gotens was incapacitated by a drug found within a cookie. It was implemented upon the entire Phoenix-X crew by a renegade Klingon and Andorian working for the Dominion. In early 2375, Gotens began to feel recurring effects of the drug, which unbalanced his chemical link to his symbiont. While on Deep Space 9, Doctor Julian Bashir operated on Gotens to fix the problem. ("Cookies", "Home, Part I")

Later that year, Gotens was infected by the Bajoran drink called the Bajoran Trove. The drink had adverse effects on Gotens' symbiont connection, prompting the Commander to unconsciously divulge in telling stories of his past lives. He was quickly saved with the help of Ensign Dan during a meeting of fleet Captain's and Commander's on Flortarios III. ("The Bajoran Trove")

Commander Gotens was one of the non-humans who were unaffected by a type of radiation, in the form of a weapon, that was launched by the Gelomira. ("Bio Level 4")

Background information

 * When the character was named Gotens, he was named after and Gotenks from the Dragon Ball series.
 * Seifer was named after Seifer Almasy from the video game .

Nomenclature timeline
The Commander's name was always an inconsistent element at the beginning of the Season 1. In Season 2 it finally changed to Seifer and remained that way onwards.

At the beginning of Season 1, from Episode 1 - "The Tiloniam System" to Episode 6 - "The Cloud Aloft", the Commander was known as Night. In some instances, he is simply written as Commander.

In the second part of Episode 6, "Home, Part I" and Episode 7 - "Home, Part II", the Commander is randomly referred to as both Night and Gotens.

From Episode 8 - "The Bajoran Trove" on to the end of Season 1 in Episode 24 - "Secret Shuttles, Part I", he was referred to as Gotens.

In the four part mini-arc, "Secret Shuttles, I, II, III, and IV", the Commander undergoes a radical name change through the storyline of losing his old symbiont and gaining a new one. In the beginning he is still referred to as Gotens, but then when his symbiont is exchanged for the Seifer symbiont, he differs his name back to Night. Although he contains the new Seifer symbiont, it isn't until the end of Secret Shuttles, Part IV, that he accepts and is finally referred to as Seifer.

From Episode 28 - "The Invisible Enemy" and onwards through every consecutive episode, he is known as Seifer.