reginald barclay, overlooked engineer
- Thread starter varek
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THIS is a show I would watch. They could fire phasers at everything and not hit anybody, flip shuttles over, have Mr. T (he would have to be a Klingon) hit people, have lots of "putting the tool that saves the day together" montages. Good stuff.
Perfect. Let's have lunch and hash this thing out.
I'm buying.
Back on topic, Barclay was a fine character. He just got overused in VOY.
Maybe in the future they don't over-diagnose and over-medicate personality disorders.
I liked Barclay in Hollow Pursuits but I don't think his future appearances in TNG expanded his character much at all. His Voyager appearances were more interesting than his other TNG appearances.
And I don't think it's unrealistic for him to have made it to lieutenant and made it onto the Enterprise. Having social skills is crucial if you don't stand out from the pack in other ways. It gets you noticed more for delivering the same results. But if you're as gifted as Barclay clearly is, people notice that you do deliver results. You tend to become the guy who doesn't go up very far in rank but gets trusted with the most important technical tasks.
I liked Barclay in Hollow Pursuits but I don't think his future appearances in TNG expanded his character much at all. His Voyager appearances were more interesting than his other TNG appearances.
And I don't think it's unrealistic for him to have made it to lieutenant and made it onto the Enterprise. Having social skills is crucial if you don't stand out from the pack in other ways. It gets you noticed more for delivering the same results. But if you're as gifted as Barclay clearly is, people notice that you do deliver results. You tend to become the guy who doesn't go up very far in rank but gets trusted with the most important technical tasks.
What bothers me is not Barclay but the senior staff's reaction to him, especially Riker, Geordi, and even Wesley. They basically acted like a cadre of high school jocks picking on the awkward new kid because he wasn't as cool as them. This, to me, is a shocking bit of hypocrisy from Gene Roddenberry.
You see, earlier in the season he rejected Ron Moore's original treatment for "The Bonding" because it had young Jeremy Astor bonding with a holodeck recreation of his dead mother, and Gene insisted that 24th century people (even 10-year-olds) were too "evolved" to grieve just because their closest relative had frakking died. And then a few episodes later we have most of the senior staff treating a fellow officer like crap just because he suffers from social anxiety, and Gene apparently has no problem with this.
This means that according to Gene Roddenberry's Rules of Perfectly Evolved 24th Century Behavior:
But maybe I'm being too hard on Gene. Maybe he was in a Jacuzzi being serviced by Susan Sackett and never saw the script until it was too late.
You see, earlier in the season he rejected Ron Moore's original treatment for "The Bonding" because it had young Jeremy Astor bonding with a holodeck recreation of his dead mother, and Gene insisted that 24th century people (even 10-year-olds) were too "evolved" to grieve just because their closest relative had frakking died. And then a few episodes later we have most of the senior staff treating a fellow officer like crap just because he suffers from social anxiety, and Gene apparently has no problem with this.
This means that according to Gene Roddenberry's Rules of Perfectly Evolved 24th Century Behavior:
- Believing in God = WRONG
- Grieving for your dead mother = WRONG
- Making fun of someone because they're different than you= TOTALLY OKAY
But maybe I'm being too hard on Gene. Maybe he was in a Jacuzzi being serviced by Susan Sackett and never saw the script until it was too late.
I saw the frustration with Barclay more because he was flaking on his duties. Mendan was not treated any different and he thought he wasn't supposed to report a threat to the safety of the ship to the captain if he didn't have a solution. If Barclay had been just a little odd but always showed up on time nobody would have been down on him.
Gomez was mentioned as another example of someone with anxiety issues, previously. But she was, first of all ... smoking hot. Her insecurity probably came from being away from her clique of hot girlfriends, where she's the one in control and in her comfort zone. In engineering, where are these babes she hangs out with? Comparing the size and worth of their engagement rings, probably, to see who's the most successful in Love. So Gomez doesn't really count, as far as I'd be concerned ...
First Season Worf: "I ain't gettin' in no ship flown by no blind man!"
This. They weren't just picking on him in a social situation...they were his superiors looking into his discipline and job performance.
If it was just his job performance that'd be one thing, but its clear they just didn't like the guy and found him weird. They weren't very tolerant of his differences except for Picard. Geordie in particular was a total jerk towards him, and Riker's annoyance came from the reports Geordie was giving.
It's a wonder Troi didn't pick up any of his extreme anxiety before, does she never go by engineering or bump into him in the hallways?
It's a wonder Troi didn't pick up any of his extreme anxiety before, does she never go by engineering or bump into him in the hallways?
I'm sure his job performance was a much greater factor. I doubt every single person on the ship is a great person to pal around with, but they at least can manage to get to work on time rather than dicking around in the holodeck.
It seems that his lateness is a result of them being hostile towards him rather than the other way around as Guinan senses.
I agree it's not very evolved of the crew. Picard makes up for it though. Highly immature of the rest of the crew if they really are so hostile towards crew members that just don't "fit in."
I did not mean that it is good to laugh at someone like Barclay, but as others have mentioned, his imperfections made him more realistic than the other, usually perfect Starfleet officers.
And, perhaps his genius was why Starfleet Command continued to overlook his social weaknesses and give him opportunities to utilize his skills and to shine.
Perhaps there is hope for even a reticent, socially inept Vulcan engineer like me!
And, perhaps his genius was why Starfleet Command continued to overlook his social weaknesses and give him opportunities to utilize his skills and to shine.
Perhaps there is hope for even a reticent, socially inept Vulcan engineer like me!
True and social ankwardness/shyness can feed itself in a vicious circle, because of how they are treated they can become more socially awkward etc..
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