Who was the best chief engineer

Discussion in 'General Trek Discussion' started by Gabriel, Dec 19, 2018.

?

Who’s the best

Poll closed Jan 2, 2019.
  1. Commander Tucker (Trip)

    7.7%
  2. LT/LCDR Stamets

    1.5%
  3. LCDR/CMDR/CAPT Scott (Scotty)

    61.5%
  4. LT/LCDR La Forge

    7.7%
  5. Senior Chief petty officer O’Brien

    16.9%
  6. LT JG Torres

    4.6%
  1. Discofan

    Discofan Admiral Admiral

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    I am told it's because the writers didn't like Garrett Wang which is bizarre. BTW did you know that Garrett Wang is actually incredibly rich? I don't think he got all his money from acting.
     
  2. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I think authority should fall to the officer who is the head of arguably the ship's most important department.
    The both received their ranks at the same time. Maybe Tom's record is first since Paris does come in alphabetical order before Torres, but all that means is that Tom's "seniority" is likely only a matter of minutes. Regardless, as mentioned above, Tom lost his seniority when he was demoted.
    I don't know how truthful it is, but a story I heard was that after Tom was demoted in Thirty Days, the writers kept writing "Lieutenant Paris" in the scripts anyway. After a year and a half, Braga got sick of having to correct Lieutenant into Ensign, he just decided to hell with it and arranged to have Tom re-promoted so that everyone else would be correct when they wrote Lieutenant Paris.
     
  3. Discofan

    Discofan Admiral Admiral

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    At the very least that seems quite plausible.


    Like when we saw Picard as a Lieutenant Junior Grade, we knew it couldn't last.

    I completely disagree with his speech though, I even find it insane: "I'd rather be the man I was but dead than this man and alive."

    I am sorry but if it was my only choice I'd rather be "Junior grade" and ALIVE than Emperor of the galaxy and dead!!!

    That's why I think that Picard is a bit insane.
     
    Last edited: Dec 25, 2018
  4. Farscape One

    Farscape One Vice Admiral Admiral

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    At that time of the series, he still had seniority because he got the commission days, not minutes, before Torres. Plus, he DID graduate from the Academy, AND was in Starfleet before. That was also part of the reason Janeway made Chakotay XO, since he graduated AND had Starfleet command level experience.

    And despite Torres being a head of possibly the most important department, she still needed to get orders from the Bridge, because they know more about what is going on in a situation and can help guide Engineering in helping to solve whatever crisis occurs.
     
  5. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    From what I can tell he's not.
     
  6. MacLeod

    MacLeod Admiral Admiral

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    Yes I've heard some of the stories regarding Garrett Wang annoying the production team, but that doesn't alter my original opinion that it was yet another wasted opportunity.
     
  7. Discofan

    Discofan Admiral Admiral

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    Google "Garrett wang net worth" and you get 4.2 BILLION DOLLARS!!!

    I don't know about you but to me, it's a lot of money!!
     
  8. Gabriel

    Gabriel Captain Captain

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    But Tom served his time. In fact during the episode. They even let him wear a uniform Torres was still a criminal. And by the way to give out full commissions to a group of criminal just because Circumstances put them together is wrong. And by the way it doesn’t make if it was “silly” he still out ranked her at the time whether you like it or not. Because full rank LT jg our ranks field/provisional LT jg every time unless field is a First Officer. But that was not the the case this time since nether was Fist Officer.
     
  9. Gabriel

    Gabriel Captain Captain

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    No he wasn’t he was released because he helped starfleet try and find the maquis. Don’t judge against ex cons. And also harry was no angel him self. In fact he disobeyed orders at least twice in “ The disease”. No I’m not raging on Kim,because in fact I think he was great. And another thing according from dialogue from scorpion Tom was possibly the third officer. And another thing Tom worked very hard during late season 5 and season 6. He earn back his rank.
     
  10. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    It's a bit more than that. Harry was originally going to be written out of the show in the fourth season to make room for Seven of Nine. That is until People named Garrett Wang one of the most beautiful actors on television and UPN decreed that he was staying on the show because of it. So for season 4 onwards, they had a character the writers didn't like writing for, played by an actor who pissed off the producers that they were forced by the network to keep. Kind of rules out him getting any interesting storylines.
    He wasn't really released. He was on a work release for the mission to track down Chakotay's ship, a similar situation to Michael Burnham. Had Voyager not been tossed into the Delta Quadrant, then after the mission was finished, he'd have been sent back to prison until his next parole hearing, which Janeway promised to put a good word in for.
    They didn't "let" him wear a uniform, he had to wear it. Also note that throughout Caretaker Tom has no rank insignia at all. The reason why the Maquis don't wear Starfleet uniforms in Caretaker is because they aren't part of the Voyager crew yet, they still have their own ship until the battle in the episode's climax. After its destroyed, and the decision is made to integrate the Maquis onto Voyager's crew, they wear uniforms immediately.
     
  11. Discofan

    Discofan Admiral Admiral

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    To me, the situation of the Maquis being integrated into a Starfleet crew is unique and likely not anticipated in Starfleet regulations. They just had to make everything up on the spot. Was there another way to do that? Most likely! At any rate, it was irregular and contrary to Starfleet normal regulations.

    Imagine a bunch of cops and the criminals they were chasing isolated on an island and forced to live together. Would their modus vivendi make law and then exonerate the criminals from being prosecuted once they all returned to civilization? I don't think so. At best the criminals would get reduced sentences but they wouldn't become regular citizens because of that.
     
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  12. Gabriel

    Gabriel Captain Captain

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    No where in Star Trek do civilians helping a ship have to wear a starfleet uniform. Just because he is on a ship does not mean he gets to wear a uniform or there’s some rule that says that. Also to wear the uniform is a privilege. Many people have help the hero ship and not get to wear the uniform. And all he was going to release right after the mission. From Janeway “When it’s over you’re be cut loose” And by the way don’t insult me I know why the maquis didn’t wear uniforms intill the end. Also Tom was discharged from starfleet. That means he earn a commission. All Janeway would have to do was reactivate his commission. they use to do it all the time in the Navy. So except for Chakotay all the maquis probably did not have a commission to be reactivated. So Janeway gave them what we could provisional ranks. Now why Chakotay had a rank is probably because he wanted his crew to be connected to him or it could just be because he was still an active criminal which Tom wasn’t.
     
  13. The Wormhole

    The Wormhole Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    No? Then how else do you explain why Tom Paris, Ro Laren and Michael Burnham, all officers who were granted a work release from prison to serve on a starship all wore a uniform?
    The actual line from Caretaker:
     
  14. Gabriel

    Gabriel Captain Captain

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    First of all Ro’s commission was reactivated by an admiral which is why it was easy for Picard to assign her to the crew after she was combine to not be discharge again. Also with Tom he was reactivated by starfleet as an observer. So he was Affiliated with starfleet again. While it was only for that mission he was technically a member of starfleet. Also explain every civilian who worked on the enterprise and the civilian who were assign by starfleet to ass the crew. They never had uniforms. Sirna Kolrami is an example he work on the enterprise during peak preformance and never did he wore a uniform. Also Andrus Hagan served on the starship Brattain. He was a civilian scientific advisor and never wore a uniform. So what are you saying only ex con starfleet Officer get to wear a uniform or does everyone who works on a starfleet ship wear a uniform. And one last thing this may be redundant but why did Tom “have” to wear a uniform.
     
  15. Gabriel

    Gabriel Captain Captain

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    P.S. from what I can tell Lorca made burnham a member of starfleet again jus with no rank.
     
  16. Takeru

    Takeru Space Police Commodore

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    Stamets is not the chief engineer, he's a science officer.

    I voted for Torres, she may have broken a few noses but she was a pretty good engineer and I liked her character a lot.
     
  17. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    I did and all that did was lead me to the same unsourced information. Further research showed not even Wang believes it and someone confused him with another person named Wang.
     
  18. Discofan

    Discofan Admiral Admiral

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    It's possible but the info mentioned StarTrek, so I didn't think it could be someone else with the same name also linked with Star Trek.
     
  19. Nerys Myk

    Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

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    The "link" to Star Trek is from mistaking this person for Garrett Wang. They found a guy named Wang who was a billionaire and assumed it was the actor from Star Trek.
     
  20. Discofan

    Discofan Admiral Admiral

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    It's possible or he could be rich for some other reason than his acting career.