Mark Castanaveras

Marcus Aurelius "Mark" Castanaveras was a Starfleet medical officer on active duty in the 23rd and 24th centuries.

Castanaveras was born in an early settlement of Cestus III in 2263, only a few years after the planet was discovered by the USS Coronado. He had one older sibling, Keith, who had been born on Earth. Due to a condition of Keith's that could only be treated by an Earth facility, the family returned home in 2265, leaving behind some relatives on both sides.

In 2267, the human settlement on Cestus III was attacked by a ship from the Gorn Hegemony. (TOS: "Arena")

Castanaveras' bias against the Gorn would inform his thinking, though not so much that it affected his entrance into Starfleet.

When he was in his 30's, Dr. Castanaveras was a participant in a Kobayashi Maru test of J'rrreshar, a Gorn who had become a Starfleet command school cadet. (Star Trek: Malverne: "Tales of the Kobayashi Maru: J'rrreshar's Story")

Ca. 2303, Castanaveras joined the crew of USS Malverne as a flight surgeon.

Callsign

Castanaveras's initial callsign, while in flight school, was "Encantado", after healer-spirits in Filipino mythology. However, he soon found out that the word also meant "Enchanted" in Spanish as an adjective, or a response to a greeting, the equivalent of "Pleased to meet you."

Background

The character's surname is taken from that of the genetically-engineered family from some novels by Daniel Keys Moran.