Just how did Reg Barclay get to where he was?
- Thread starter infinix
- Start date
Here is the relevant line.
Riker:"In retrospect I wonder if Captain Gleason wasn't buttering our bread a little... he knew we needed a diagnostic engineer"
Are most engineers generalists? It would seem to reason that some skills must be short supply if even the flagship has problem attracting applicants.
/
Yes. Repeatedly. Especially in his early appearances, but also in later eps. He almost got kicked off the Enterprise for it, before Picard intervened. Most other captains, he probably would have been.
That's one reason he was made to see Troi. Having said that, he learned to contain his symptoms and perform well, so I'd say he's a Federation success story.
Dusty Ayres
Commodore
Here's a simple solution and answer to your question, Infinix: Barclay has Asperger syndrome. That's why (IMHO) he is the way he is.
There we go, one problem solved.
Isn't it possible that he spent most of his career in quite solitary environments? Small space stations, and such. For all we know he is an exemplary engineer. His quirks might not have been noticed that much, and when that captain noticed Enterprise needed an engineer, he thought of him? It's not necessary that he was under the captains immidiate command, after all.
Geordi was never shy in social situations, was well liked and had many friends on board. Plenty of men don't always succeed with women, it doesn't mean they're autistic. He also helped Data the most in his quest to understand humanity.
That captain was also trying to get rid of him, as it's implied. Poor Reg... examining plants at parties and being disliked by his superior officers.
I have a number of people who work for me and I have to say if I had a "normal" one among them I would be lucky. (And I mean that in the nicest way possible.)
Everyone goes throught crisis in their lives and some of those events can damage a person for years...or even for their entire life.
I always believed that something happened to Reg while he was serving on a starship and it made him that way.
Riker may have been a little intolerant, but Picard who has more experience than him knows you don't get rid of a person because they are going through a bumpy patch in their life. You give them respect and dignity and friendship and most of the time they will work their way through it.
Everyone goes throught crisis in their lives and some of those events can damage a person for years...or even for their entire life.
I always believed that something happened to Reg while he was serving on a starship and it made him that way.
Riker may have been a little intolerant, but Picard who has more experience than him knows you don't get rid of a person because they are going through a bumpy patch in their life. You give them respect and dignity and friendship and most of the time they will work their way through it.
As the DVDs were coming out I'd watch them with a buddy who hadn't seen all of the episodes/seen them for quite some time and when we watched Hollow Pursuits when the first act was over he remarked that he thought everyone was acting out of character since Riker and Geordi waere being such asses towards Barclay. Which I agree they're both a bit out of character and it was nice to see Picard take something of a stand and tell Riker and Geordi to act like fucking grown ups and deal with the man.
But, to be fair, like most upper-management types, he's not in the situation and hasn't dealt with the man, so...
But, to be fair, like most upper-management types, he's not in the situation and hasn't dealt with the man, so...
I would tend to agree with those that say Reg got lost in the shuffle because of his pesonality, bless his heart. I did want to say my fave eps for him are The Nth Degree as he becomes a super-Barclay, and the one where he suffered from transporter phobia. He reminds me of the alternate Picard we saw in Tapestry, only a bit more self-confident. I think he was used better in the VOY eps we saw him in.
I don't really see how Barclay stands out of the E-D crowd. The ship was full of misfits: a socially hopelessly blundering android, a Klingon with anger management problems, a foul-mouthed helmsman/chief engineer with a perverse sense of humor, etc.
Starfleet never struck me as an organization that would put a great significance on "mental hygiene". There are psych tests for commanding officers, yes, but we have seen what they amount to: liars, cheaters and psychopaths get the center chair and then start collecting medals. For all we know, those tests screen for personality traits that would send a civilian to jail for life, and favor them because they are highly beneficial for a starship commander.
Where do we get the impression that Starfleet would be picky about the personnel it enrolls? Wesley had a set of demanding exams, but he was trying to get in while underage for his species (as suggested by examples of other humans enrolling or enlisting at 17 or 18 at the very earliest) - it's only natural that his special "whiz kid quota" would feature special exams as well. Not that those exams would have been particularly effective in weeding out people like Barclay, from what we saw in "Coming of Age", though...
Timo Saloniemi
Starfleet never struck me as an organization that would put a great significance on "mental hygiene". There are psych tests for commanding officers, yes, but we have seen what they amount to: liars, cheaters and psychopaths get the center chair and then start collecting medals. For all we know, those tests screen for personality traits that would send a civilian to jail for life, and favor them because they are highly beneficial for a starship commander.
Where do we get the impression that Starfleet would be picky about the personnel it enrolls? Wesley had a set of demanding exams, but he was trying to get in while underage for his species (as suggested by examples of other humans enrolling or enlisting at 17 or 18 at the very earliest) - it's only natural that his special "whiz kid quota" would feature special exams as well. Not that those exams would have been particularly effective in weeding out people like Barclay, from what we saw in "Coming of Age", though...
Timo Saloniemi
I'd imagine that they'd be fairly strict in their recruitment process. In the UK, to join the Royal Air Force in a technical capacity, a candidate needs to go through numerous competancy tests, aptitude and personality tests. SO taking that forward, its only logical (sorry, had to get it in!
) to assume that for technical positions in Starfleet, they'd be similar criteria.
Maybe Starfleet has to be more flexible because of all the different non-Human applicants that might otherwise fail because they didn't act like perfect Humans?
And note the larger context of that line -- Riker's implying that Gleason wanted to get rid of Barclay and lied his ass off to make him sound like an outstanding officer.
You can be the best and the brightest and still suck at parties. Who would you rather have in a crunch: the guy who shows up late for staff meetings but can pull your ass out of the fire with the answer to a technichal problem? Or the guy getting laid and doing card tricks on Captain Picard Day?
As for Barclay's rank, he wasn't in the command track so maybe his department had a glass ceiling. If you're gonna be an assistant engineer, you're not gonna have a higher rank than the uppity intolerant dude with the banana clip over his eyes. Anyway, the hell with Barclay's personality, if there was a prick in the Enterprise, Geordi was that guy.
Picard: "Maybe more women would dig you if you weren't such a douche all the time, LaForge."
Riker: "That's cold."
As for Barclay's rank, he wasn't in the command track so maybe his department had a glass ceiling. If you're gonna be an assistant engineer, you're not gonna have a higher rank than the uppity intolerant dude with the banana clip over his eyes. Anyway, the hell with Barclay's personality, if there was a prick in the Enterprise, Geordi was that guy.
Picard: "Maybe more women would dig you if you weren't such a douche all the time, LaForge."
Riker: "That's cold."
FWIW, it was indicated the the Pakleds were smart but just didn't have a very good way of communicating it.
This post made my day
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