Did they ever explain how Geordi...

I liked Argyle.

 

Eh, i dunno if it was short sighted. BSG never had a chief engineer on screen.

 

What's this? I haven't heard about this

 

He tried sleeping with Gene. Didn't pan out.

 

I'm not quite sure about the switch but the reason for Geordi bein the conn officer was to have a blind man flying a ship and all the symbolism associated with that. As far as the switch I think it was mainly to let Geordi's character have more screen time.

 

Yeah, I'm sure we've all heard this before.

Anyway, I'm glad they made the change -making Wes the helmsman. It was an idea based on a rather lame joke considering, really, Geordi wasn't blind.

 

According to the memory of a 14-year-old Wil Wheaton:

http://www.aoltv.com/2006/10/27/star-trek-the-next-generation-where-no-one-has-gone-before/

 

Yep. I've been watching Season 1 of TNG, and Geordi was frequently sent down to Engineering by Picard. I just assumed Geordi was shooting for Command when his love for engines caused him to rethink his career path.

 

This really makes a lot of sense and ties in the rotating Chief Engineers nicely.

 

And if you add in the Technical Manual's reference to Starfleet initially only putting six Galaxies into service at a rate of one a year), and keeping the parts for more in reserve, a year of that would have built up all the Galaxy-experienced chiefs they needed for the immediate future.

 

Was it ever explained how Geordi was able to play the Game?

 

No. But it's possible the game was able to produce images that worked with his VISOR. The bigger question is how they got Picard to voluntarily play the game.

 

Picard isn't that big a man - he probably got the Wesley treatment from a few fellow officers in his nicely soundproofed Ready Room...

Timo Saloniemi

 

They bribed him with a newly concocted blend of Earl Grey.

 

I realise this isn't so much his shift to Engineering, but a pretty good argument for Geordi's promotion is given in 'The Arsenal of Freedom' where he commands the Enterprise rather bloody well.

 

He was, what... #4 on the Command Chart?

Picard
Riker
Data
Geordi

 

I don't know about that. If things were bad enough that command fell to LaForge, then he might be needed more in Engineering than on the Bridge. Worf might make a better choice for command, because if the shit has hit the fan, then Worf's "shoot first, ask questions at the inquiry" approach might be the best one for them to survive to reach an inquiry!

 

Simple

 

I wonder if any of those first year engineers ended up serving on the Yamato or the Odyssey...

 

You know, for a ship that is basically totally automated, they sure had a lot of Engineers on board.

I know there is a need for diagnostics and things, but you think the build quality of components would have improved by the time the Enterprise came around.