Did they have something against engineers in the first season?

[Zulu Romeo]

You forgot "Leland T. Lynch!"

To nitpick, he wasn't a CHIEF engineer. Just somebody down at the Engineering who felt he needed to identify himself by full name and rank the first time around - thus, probably some underling, or perhaps a visiting specialist.

Actually, Lieutenant Commander Leland T. Lynch™ is a registered trademark in the 24th Century.

Interestingly, Memory Alpha lists him as a Chief Engineer, albeit somewhat controversially:

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Lieutenant_Commander_Leland_T._Lynch™

 

[BrownShatner]

My theory is that they added an Engineering character because they wanted to ramp up the technobabble. Previously, Trek had always treated the ship's operation largely as a black box. Scotty did something to increase power output or reinforce the shields, but it was never clear exactly what.

However having a character to saying things like "Reverse the tacheon emitters and realign the warp foils!" gave certain situations more dramatic depth, before it became completely cliched later in Trek.

You could also argue that a good chunk of the audience were engineers themselves and therefore identified with an engineering character. So it was successful from a ratings standpoint.

 

[Praetor]

I'm not so sure that a regular chief engineer was purposefully added to allow for more technobabble, but I would agree that it did result in there being more technobabble. Being a Trek technophile myself, there's still something to be said for the black box approach and thus allowing the series to not feel dated by the theoretical science of a particular real-world era. They avoided rocket ships on TOS for a reason.

In fact, the original concept for TNG emphasized a 'technology unchained' premise which focused heavily on the idea that starship technology had evolved to the point that you didn't need much attention devoted to the running of the ship; hence, the bridge only having a few duty stations.

 

[BrownShatner]

I tend to agree with you about the technobabble, but I think it was somewhat justified as a novel dramatic device, versus later on when it became a generic "push button, solve problem" plot fallback.

I also fully believe it was intentional, because the original TNG concept fell flat in most ways, including poor ratings with the traditional male sci-fi audience. Technobabble and a focus on engineering helped bring in the technical manual crowd, and was one of the big factors that made the show successful.

 

[Praetor]

Agreed with regard to the idea of 'push button, fix problem' being a dramatic joy-kill. And I didn't mean to suggest that they explained away everything, because they certainly didn't. I'll concede they probably meant to introduce a more hands-on aspect to the ship's functioning, I just don't think they meant to do away with the black box entirely.

But even I have to admit that there is such a thing as technobabble overkill.

 

[RAMA]

I think they just wanted a change in the main characters to make it different than TOS. Obviously including an engineer in TOS was a good decision in the first place.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

You forgot "Leland T. Lynch!"

To nitpick, he wasn't a CHIEF engineer. Just somebody down at the Engineering who felt he needed to identify himself by full name and rank the first time around

And every other time he opened his big fat yapper.

 

[Prydonian]

You forgot "Leland T. Lynch!"

To nitpick, he wasn't a CHIEF engineer. Just somebody down at the Engineering who felt he needed to identify himself by full name and rank the first time around

And every other time he opened his big fat yapper.

Clearly, he didn't want to get confused with Lt. Leland J. Lynch the security officer, Lt. Leland R. Lynch the helmsman, or Lt. Leland X. Lynch the science officer. Little known fact: "Leland Lynch" is the single most common name among 24th century humans.*

On the subject of TPTB having something against engineers, wasn't there a storyline in the DC TNG comics about someone going around killing off all the 1701D's chief engineers who preceded Geordi?




*This may not actually be true.

 

[Myasishchev]

Considering how often Geordi got laid, I think they had something against engineers in every season.

By that logic they only liked engineers on DS9, VOY and ENT.

I'm pretty sure they didn't like engineers on DS9.

 

[Timo]

Clearly, he didn't want to get confused with Lt. Leland J. Lynch the security officer, Lt. Leland R. Lynch the helmsman, or Lt. Leland X. Lynch the science officer. Little known fact: "Leland Lynch" is the single most common name among 24th century humans.*

Or then he'd married a Vulcan, and his surname was Leland-T'Lynch.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Myasishchev]

Clearly, he didn't want to get confused with Lt. Leland J. Lynch the security officer, Lt. Leland R. Lynch the helmsman, or Lt. Leland X. Lynch the science officer. Little known fact: "Leland Lynch" is the single most common name among 24th century humans.*

Or then he'd married a Vulcan, and his surname was Leland-T'Lynch.

Timo Saloniemi

Or Leland-It's Unpronounceable.

 

[Hober Mallow]

At the first, the ship would not even have an engineering section! Something about the ship being all automated/controlled from the bridge...
But Gene Rodenberry thought it was best to use the pilot episode budget, bigger than the average one, to have one built, in case he would regret his decision.

The set was already there. It was the engineering set built original for Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

 

[Praetor]

At the first, the ship would not even have an engineering section! Something about the ship being all automated/controlled from the bridge...
But Gene Rodenberry thought it was best to use the pilot episode budget, bigger than the average one, to have one built, in case he would regret his decision.

The set was already there. It was the engineering set built original for Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

It was there, but it was in the movie setup and disrepair and would likely have not been 'updated' with the rest of the standing sets at the beginning of TNG had that scene not been written. They routinely extended the curved corridor by closing off parts of engineering with moveable walls, so I imagine it would have just been closed off. I once read that had that scene not been written, they didn't believe that it would ever been done due to the nature of syndicated television production budgeting - they can usually get the most money for standing sets when filming a pilot, and the engineering set was apparently quite expensive.

 

[USS Excelsior]

Another thing is you don't see the season 1 chief engineers in staff meetings which may mean they weren't even senior officers, but at the same time you see Geordi and Worf in them and sometimes even Wesley!