Stephen Joseph Bartowski is a recurring character on the television series Chuck portrayed by actor Scott Bakula.

Stephen is the estranged father of Chuck and Ellie Bartowski, and under the government codename "Orion" was the chief designer of the Intersect.

Stephen is a computer and software genius who attended graduate school with Ted Roark, whom Bartowski would later allege stole all of his best ideas.

He worked with Dr. Jonas Zarnow[3] and Howard Busgang[4] on the Intersect computer database, where he was the head of the project under the codename "Orion."

[2] Stephen's mastery of computer systems allowed him to stay one step ahead of his pursuers, to the point that the NSA issued a directive that all communication pertaining to the hunt for Orion be carried out via non-electronic means.

Stephen later attempts to arrange a meeting with Chuck, but interference by Beckman allows Vincent to catch up with and ambush him.

Stephen escapes by faking his death by directing his Reaper drone to shoot down the helicopter Chuck thinks he is aboard.

The reunion with his daughter goes less smoothly, and Stephen is upset to learn Chuck has accepted a job with his rival, Ted Roark.

It is later revealed that the reason why the Ring was looking for Stephen is because he possessed the Governor, a device designed to prevent a human Intersect from falling into dementia and eventually insanity due to continual flashing.

Stephen revealed he was working in secret against Volkoff Industries, a threat that the government couldn't deal with, in which his wife was somehow involved.

In "Chuck Versus the First Fight", it is revealed that Stephen had left behind a 1968 Ford Mustang for Ellie, which secretly hides one of his laptops behind the driver's seat.

As later explained in "Chuck Versus the Leftovers", the laptop contained Stephen's research on the human brain and the Intersect, which he intended Ellie to follow up.

At the end of the episode, Clyde Decker reveals that it was no coincidence that Chuck received the Intersect and had to face Fulcrum, the Ring, Daniel Shaw, and Agent X. Scott Bakula was announced to be playing the role of Stephen Bartowski in January, 2009 as part of an extended arc to close out the season.

[11] In addition to his resemblance to Zachary Levi, Bakula was cast as Stephen Bartowski because Josh Schwartz and Chris Fedak consider themselves huge Quantum Leap fans, and found Bakula's ability to jump from comedy to drama to action reminiscent of Zachary Levi's.

[12] Chris Fedak has stated that Stephen Bartowski being Orion was part of the show's background mythology from the conception of the series, describing Chuck as Luke Skywalker and born into his role, rather than Peter Parker, who stumbled into it.

Amusingly, Chuck wore one of his father's suits to Bryce Larkin's funeral,[3] despite actor Zachary Levi being several inches taller than Bakula.

On January 8, 2010, Michael Ausiello reported that Bakula would be returning for an arc over the final six episodes of Chuck's third season, which Schwartz called "the biggest thing we've ever done on the show.

Chuck and Ellie both call him a little crazy, as he insists on having played a part in the development of touch-screen, plasma television, and other technologies, as well as for his accusations that Ted Roark stole all of his best ideas (however, later revelations suggest his claims were true).

Stephen was brilliant and tech-savvy, and after revealing his true identity to Chuck also proved to be competent in hand-to-hand combat, easily taking control of the security doors and disabling Vincent when the Fulcrum operative attempted to capture them in Roark's campus.

Although Stephen abandoned them many years earlier, he loved his children dearly and only left to protect them from those who wanted his knowledge.