Barlow, holding the rank of Lieutenant Colonel within the Imperial forces, existed in the era of the Galactic Civil War. Following the Battle of Yavin, his assignment placed him at the Imperial Fortress situated on Yavin 4.
The character of Barlow was featured as a non-playable entity within the Star Wars Galaxies video game, a massively multiplayer online role-playing experience created by Sony and distributed by LucasArts, before the game's service ended on December 15, 2011.