Was Picard Grooming Geordi For Chief?
- Thread starter Mojochi
- Start date
Could be "Chief of the Watch/shift" though I doubt it.
The first-season TNG writers' bible says that Geordi "wants to be Captain Picard when he grows up," which is consistent with his clear arc in season 1 of being on the command track. The bible also says his shipboard responsibilities include the ship's school and being a liaison for its children -- which might be because they already intended to cast LeVar Burton in the role, or maybe was a factor in their decision to cast him. There was no intention for him to be engineer.
As stated, the original intent in season 1 was to avoid reusing TOS-era roles like chief engineer and communications officer -- partly to differentiate the new show, but also because of the utopian philosophy the show bible called "Technology Unchained," with the ship being so advanced that it could largely operate and repair itself and didn't need as much maintenance by the crew, so that the crew could focus on exploration and research and command decisions and personal enrichment and so on. But the episode writers kept finding situations where they needed a character to report on the status of the ship's systems, which is why they dropped in various guest engineers as needed. So for season 2, they decided they needed a regular engineer character, and for whatever reason, they decided on Geordi. Which was as big and random a swerve as astrophysicist Sulu becoming a helmsman and assistant science officer Chekov becoming a navigator and then moving to security in the movies. (Why is it always the people who fly the ship?)
I've said this before, but I think it would've been more interesting if they'd made Worf the chief engineer and Geordi the security chief. Geordi's VISOR, with its sensory and lie-detection abilities, would've been a superpower for a security officer or investigator, and Geordi's personality would've made the job of a security chief come off as more protective rather than aggressive, which is how I think it should be. (A security officer's job should be to prevent conflict; if a fight breaks out, they've already failed in their job.) And making Worf the engineer would've broken him out of the "stereotypical Klingon grr arggh warrior kill" mode he was stuck in until he moved to DS9.
And yes, Worf filled in for Tasha as security chief after she died, but his job in season 1, as the bridge watch officer, was to fill in for everybody. He filled in at command when Picard was off-shift, at ops when Data was away, at helm when Geordi was away, etc. So if anything, it would've made far more sense to promote a free-floating pinch hitter like Worf into the permanent chief engineer position than to transfer the command-track conn officer to engineering out of the blue. (Or out of the red, uniform-wise. Although officially the command uniform color was burgundy, science/medical was teal, and ops/security was mustard.)
As stated, the original intent in season 1 was to avoid reusing TOS-era roles like chief engineer and communications officer -- partly to differentiate the new show, but also because of the utopian philosophy the show bible called "Technology Unchained," with the ship being so advanced that it could largely operate and repair itself and didn't need as much maintenance by the crew, so that the crew could focus on exploration and research and command decisions and personal enrichment and so on. But the episode writers kept finding situations where they needed a character to report on the status of the ship's systems, which is why they dropped in various guest engineers as needed. So for season 2, they decided they needed a regular engineer character, and for whatever reason, they decided on Geordi. Which was as big and random a swerve as astrophysicist Sulu becoming a helmsman and assistant science officer Chekov becoming a navigator and then moving to security in the movies. (Why is it always the people who fly the ship?)
I've said this before, but I think it would've been more interesting if they'd made Worf the chief engineer and Geordi the security chief. Geordi's VISOR, with its sensory and lie-detection abilities, would've been a superpower for a security officer or investigator, and Geordi's personality would've made the job of a security chief come off as more protective rather than aggressive, which is how I think it should be. (A security officer's job should be to prevent conflict; if a fight breaks out, they've already failed in their job.) And making Worf the engineer would've broken him out of the "stereotypical Klingon grr arggh warrior kill" mode he was stuck in until he moved to DS9.
And yes, Worf filled in for Tasha as security chief after she died, but his job in season 1, as the bridge watch officer, was to fill in for everybody. He filled in at command when Picard was off-shift, at ops when Data was away, at helm when Geordi was away, etc. So if anything, it would've made far more sense to promote a free-floating pinch hitter like Worf into the permanent chief engineer position than to transfer the command-track conn officer to engineering out of the blue. (Or out of the red, uniform-wise. Although officially the command uniform color was burgundy, science/medical was teal, and ops/security was mustard.)
There were several times in season 1 where Geordi was doing stuff in Engineering. (As early as "The Last Outpost".) Add to LeVar Burton's excellence at saying technobabble dialogue, plus his cool, level headed deneanor when in command ("The Arsenal of Freedom" is a perfect example of this), it made sense to have him be the Chief Engineer from season 2 onward.
Besides, the running gag of the blind man being the pilot had run its course by the end of the season.
Regarding his VISOR lie detecting abilities, Geordi himself said it doesn't always work with aliens in "Up The Long Ladder". Humans, yes... but not every security situation is going to involve a human.
Regarding Chekov bouncing departments, I don't think that's unrealistic. Starfleet has shown to cross-train their officers plenty of times. (In "BALANCE OF TERROR", Stiles worked in weapons before, for example. Sisko was an engineer before he went to command, Janeway was a science officer, etc.) If anything, it made Chekov a MORE rounded and skilled character and officer. If and when Chekov became a captain, having worked all those areas only helps him as a leader. (Jack O'Neill in SG-1's "SHADES OF GREY" said he likes to do every job under his command himself at least once. That's a good mentality to have because they would understand each job better than someone who never did it.)
Besides, the running gag of the blind man being the pilot had run its course by the end of the season.
Regarding his VISOR lie detecting abilities, Geordi himself said it doesn't always work with aliens in "Up The Long Ladder". Humans, yes... but not every security situation is going to involve a human.
Regarding Chekov bouncing departments, I don't think that's unrealistic. Starfleet has shown to cross-train their officers plenty of times. (In "BALANCE OF TERROR", Stiles worked in weapons before, for example. Sisko was an engineer before he went to command, Janeway was a science officer, etc.) If anything, it made Chekov a MORE rounded and skilled character and officer. If and when Chekov became a captain, having worked all those areas only helps him as a leader. (Jack O'Neill in SG-1's "SHADES OF GREY" said he likes to do every job under his command himself at least once. That's a good mentality to have because they would understand each job better than someone who never did it.)
The same goes for Worf, IIRC. They were both intended to be command-track officers, hence the red uniforms, and thus were expected to learn the ropes in every department.
Which is an obnoxious ableist joke and should have no bearing on how the character was written, since of course his VISOR actually gave him far superior vision in many ways -- something the later writers basically ignored, treating the VISOR as little more than a piece of jewelry that bad guys occasionally hacked to torture or brainwash Geordi.
This is so obvious that I saw no need to point it out. Naturally lie detection for humans would just be one of many potential security applications of the VISOR, e.g. spotting bad guys behind cover, locating hidden bombs or spy devices, diagnosing injuries or causes of death, seeing through disguises, etc. (I've often wondered how Geordi could enjoy the holodeck when he can probably see right through the illusions.)
No, it isn't. But I have a harder time buying Sulu going from astrophysicist to helm, or temping as an astrophysicist before getting the piloting gig he was trained for. An astrophysicist is a Ph.D.-level profession, requiring years of specialized study.
The point, though, is not about realism, it's about writers arbitrarily shifting characters' professions in ways that don't feel organic. Nothing in TOS ever suggested that Chekov had any interest in security, unless you count his Mirror counterpart. And TNG season 1, especially "The Arsenal of Freedom," made it very clear that Geordi wanted to command a ship, so making him an engineer instead was a fairly radical and random change in his characterization.
I often joke that was his cousin/brother, Walter Sulu. And of course it was a pilot, so thing would change once it hit series. GR and the other PTB probably liked Takei, but realized Sulu as astrophysicist takes away from Spock's gig, so they put him at helm. Which probably gave him more screen time than an astrophysicist would,
With both Sulu and Geordi, just because I understand the metatextual reasons for the change doesn't mean I think it was well-justified in-story. Ideally you want these things to feel organic to the characters, so that it isn't obvious that it's just the writer's hand picking up a playing piece and putting it down somewhere else.
Worf never did anything engineering wise in season 1. The closest we ever saw was him and Geordi working in sensor maintenance on a sensor diagnostic. Worf never even set foot in engineering in season 1 except in "Heart of Glory", and that DEFINITELY wasn't an engineering task.
Also, I don't think Worf and Geordi shifting to Security Chief and Chief Engineeer, respectively, didn't feel organic. It actually made sense and felt oragnic to me. Never seemed like a 'random characterization' for either of them, especially when you look at how often Geordi did engineering work in season 1. If anything, "The Arsenal of Freedom" proved he had a cool enough head to be a leader, and Engineering is arguably the most important department on the ship. (Might even have the most crew of all departments, too.) You need someone like that as your Chief Engineer. Simply being good with machines is not enough to be a Chief Engineer. That takes a level head and good leadership skills to run it. Look at Scotty... he honestly could be a starship captain if he wanted because he was always nailing it when he was in command.
Having said all that, I do like that Worf was in a command track for DS9. Haivng him be in Security again would have been redundant, and this did open up arcs for him. He had a lot of command lessons to learn when he arrived ('STARSHIP DOWN", "RULES OF ENGAGEMENT", etc.), in addition to adjusting to how life is on the station "HIPPOCRATIC OATH", "BAR ASSOCIATION", etc.). I do think he was better written on DS9 tha TNG.
I agree with you.
As I said, Worf's job in season 1 was bridge watch officer, which entailed understudying other officers in every department as needed. That would logically include engineering even if we didn't see it onscreen. It's no more unlikely that he'd take over as chief engineer than as security chief. And my point is that it would've had more interesting possibilities for developing him as a character, because it would've contrasted with the racial-essentialist assumptions about Klingons that the security role just reinforced, and thus potentially allowed him to develop more depth and nuance in TNG instead of having to wait until DS9. I care vastly more about what would serve the characters' growth and generate interesting stories than I care about whether something "makes sense" in-universe. The in-story logic only exists to serve the stories and characters, after all, not the other way around.
Anyway, why do people around here have to turn everything into an argument? Can't we just share different ideas and musings without people trying to shoot them down all the time? It's not like what I'm proposing could actually happen, since the series ended decades ago. So there's nothing to argue over. I'm just saying it's an interesting hypothetical to think about.
I'm just saying I don't think it was an unorganic move for Worf and Geordi and stated my reasons. How is that an argument?
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