For a more "serious" discussion then the "Facts..." thread. How does he stack up compared to the other engineers we've seen like Scott, LaForge, Torres, O'Brien? Tell me your honest opinion (hate or love) but don't just say, "I love him because he is awesome!" or, "I hate him because he sucks!" Give me some empirical examples of why he is good or bad as a chief engineer.
Let's take a look at his record: Fight or Flight: repairs alien communications technology. Unexpected: repairs alien warp drive (yeah, it didn't last, but he accomplished more than the chief engineer on the Xyrillian ship). The Andorian Incident: repaired a radio the Vulcans couldn't fix themselves. Fusion: Helped repair the Vulcans' ship. Oasis: Worked on repairing an alien holographic projector. Shockwave II: Fakes a warp core breach aboard Enterprise while the ship was occupied by Suliban. The Communicator: Repaired the cloak on the Suliban shuttle. Precious Cargo: repairs the stasis unit bearing the "princess." The Catwalk: Figures out a way to save the crew from the radiation wave front and sets up a remote "bridge" and other facilities in the catwalk on a few hours' notice. Dawn: Jury-rigged a communicator using Enterprise and alien technology to get rescued before the sun rose. Canamar: Rigged the ship so the bad guys wouldn't get away right under the nose of one of the "hijackers." First Flight: Figured out what the problem was with the warp engine. Similitude: Trip figures a way to law the NX-01 go at warp 5 for longer periods. His clone -- benefiting from Trip's knowledge -- figures out a way to save the ship from the magnetic asteroid field. Damage: Trip figures out a way to fit an alien warp core into the Enterprise engine. In succeeding days, he manages to keep the ship running despite casualties and injuries among his engineers. Deadalus: He realizes there is something suspicious about the "test" Dr. Daedalus is working on. Romulan arc: He's able to analyze the machinery in the probe. In "The Aenar" he works with T'Pol and Phlox to build an ESP machine. In a Mirror Darkly I/II: He figures out how to tie the Suliban cloaking technology into the ship's systems. He also is able to figure some of the technology aboard the Defiant and quickly reverses the damage done by Phlox. Terra Prime: He MacGyvers his way out of a locked cargo bay, and undermines the bad guys by messing with their weapon right under their noses. Seems to me to be a pretty respectable record.
I think he was the most hands-on engineer (ahead of Scotty). He wasn't just punching equations into a computer to fix a problem. I liked that about his character.
JiNX did a nice job detailing all of the good stuff that he's done. I think he's a good engineer, probably along the lines of Scotty. Not sure who is better, but Scotty had that 'miracle worker' moniker... O'Brien would be 3rd, followed by Torres. Geordi probably had the easiest job of all of the engineers.
He was also one of the more realistic engineers. More work, less techno-babble. I'm glad they got away from instant-fix solutions like using the transporter or the deflector dish every time they needed a miracle.
This was my immediate thought, as well. ENT has those great hands-on working scenes with Trip holding a flashlight with his teeth, soldering stuff. He seemed to understand how the ship worked, with little short cuts and ideas, rather than solving everything with technobabble. I think he came across as a smart, handy, resourceful engineer.
IMO Trinneer created the best Engineer in the franchise, bar none. JiNX-01 and SFRabid said it all; can't add more than that.
JiNX-01 That does seem to be a pretty impressive list of examples. It has been a while since I have seen the show on a regular basis so the details were forgotten. I had forgotten about how hands-on Trip was and he did deem to be a work-a-holic. Also, lets not forget that he was the Chief Engineer of Earth's very first warp 5 ship, the pinnacle of space tech at the time. He was learning on the go and getting it right, managing to make working with this new tech look "routine" in my opinion.
I think the other Star Trek engineers run rings around him with their expertise, experience and raw brain power. However, I don't think Trip's fun came from being the wisest engineer we ever knew, just like Archer wasn't the best captain. They were first out there and had to do a lot of stuff the others didn't. Blue's comment about Trip being good with his hands is a good point -- I think he was more of that type of engineer than a LaForge, for example. So my opinion? Good character, mediocre engineer (but obviously one of the best Starfleet had). I never thought he was a workaholic. Even when he was supposed to be repressing the feelings about his dead sister, and was supposed to be an insomniac, I felt other members of the crew were staying up a lot later and doing more. In fact, I kinda got irritated at that in season 3.
I liked him because as before stated, not so much techno-babble, and he firmly believed in the GET A BIGGER HAMMER mentality of engineering. He was more like Scott in that regard, not afraid of jury-rigging something to get it to work. If you need it to work and have to cut some corners, DO IT. At the time he was the most experienced they had and did an exceptional job not blowing the ship up in a tight spot. They were out there all alone with no support from starfleet for a long time, and they didn't have the option of repairing bad damage at a Starbase they could limp to at low warp. It was up to him to make sure they could get home...
Trip was the Chief Engineer on Earth' first Warp 5 Starship, he was the best in the Fleet. In the Xindi arc Archer compromised his morals to create Sim to save Trip's life because he knew without Trip they couldn't finish the mission. No ifs or buts. Other people have posted heaps of examples from the show that highlighted his skill and inginuity.
He couldn't figure out simple time/distance/velocity equations (Shuttlepod One), so I don't know how he graduated engineering school. He was a fine technician though.
I believe that was just one of Braga's countless brain farts. Not being able to solve basic math problems (time / distance / velocity / acceleration) kinda makes a person... I don't know, retarded? Letting such a person run the engine room would have made Archer a retard too. However, this... ...is not a vocabulary of a person without an advanced degree. In my field (civil engineering) a simple technician is just a little more than engineer's errand boy.
Indeed. Trip got Columbia out of dry dock in record time. In IaMD after some persuasion by T'Pol's lips and tongue, and oh yes, a mindmeld, used the cloaking device to cause some sort of feedback hocus pocus in order to facilitate T'Pol's rescue of Capt. Forrest. In Divergence, after executing the first ship to ship "transfer" while in warp, rebooted the warp engines, something that heretofore was thought to be impossible without exploding the warp core (or something like that).
There is no disputing that he was the franchise's best engineer and the character was intentionally written that way at Connor's insistence.
Oh come on dude, you can't run around saying stuff like that before having seen all of Trek first, especially DS9. In the end, Miles O'Brien may not have been as brilliant as Trip (though I think he was, actually), but you need to see that guy in action first, before making any conclusions.
Hey, what does it matter who was the best engineer in the whole franchise, it's not a competition! We can easily admit that each one was the best in their time and place, respectivelly . I believe Tucker was a very good theoretical engineer and a very good techician at the same time, something that is actually quite rare. Lots of examples of his abilities are posted here.