First season chief engineers

[TenLubak]

I know of 3 of them. MacDougal, Argyle, and that jerk Logan. This popped in my head as Logan was used in Carmen Carters book number 3 The Children of Hamlin. Also he was again referenced in giant novel The Devil's Heart. *no number. So this made me think why the rotating door, how long were they each there?

Do these characters appear elsewhere? I always thought of Argyle as the Chief Engineer in my mind when i thought of season number one. Where did he go in the star trek world?

Its so strange to me.Does anyone kno? Thank u! Happy Monday!

 

[JayTheTrekkie]

As we already know, they didn't appear again beyond season 1...they were only shown once in season 1 for those episodes they were in (one episode each but spread out throughout the season). After each one of them left...they would have assigned to other ships or somewhere else.

As for your question on how long each of them were on the Enterprise D...its hard to say when they were first stationed on the Enterprise B and when they left before the next one took over.

I would have to say that each of them were on the ship for 4 months but lets not forget we haven't seen a Chief Engineer in Encounter at Farpoint part 1-2 so we don't know if she was in those episodes but not shown. We could have had 4 for season 1 but we only seen 3 in season 1

 

[Trek Survivor]

They didn't appear again beyond season 1...they were only shown once in season 1 for those they were in (one episode each but spread out throughout the season).

After each one of them left including Logan before Geordi took over for good, they probably got assigned to other ships somewhere....never mentioned or seen again throughout the remaining TNG seasons.

Actually, Argyle appeared at least twice - in "Where No One Has Gone Before" and "Datalore"; I think he was the only one to recur.

 

[JayTheTrekkie]

Oops, I took too long to edit lol

As for Argyle, I forgot about Datalore

 

[MikeS]

Gene wanted to show how far they'd come technologically. Starships would no longer need a chief engineer - they would fix themselves. They nearly didn't build an engineering set for the pilot because of this. Someone convinced him to do it whilst the money was available for it. Otherwise we may never have seen engineering.

The writers thought that having a chief engineer would add a little more drama to their stories so they came up with the idea of a "rotating" Chief. That's why Riker introduces Argyle as "one of our chief engineers" in WNOHGB.

It's been retrospectively suggested that LaForge was doing a years bridge training before being moved into engineering - that Picard had seen something special in the young lieutenant that he decided to nurture. The other Chiefs were just "temps" that were training before joining the crews of other Galaxy's in production.

 

[Borjis]

This popped in my head as Logan was used in Carmen Carters book number 3 The Children of Hamlin.

Wow I forgot about that Book.

That was a great novel!

The environment in the alien ship was creepy too, a breathable liquid.

 

[SPCTRE]

Gene wanted to show how far they'd come technologically. Starships would no longer need a chief engineer - they would fix themselves. They nearly didn't build an engineering set for the pilot because of this. Someone convinced him to do it whilst the money was available for it. Otherwise we may never have seen engineering.

The writers thought that having a chief engineer would add a little more drama to their stories so they came up with the idea of a "rotating" Chief. That's why Riker introduces Argyle as "one of our chief engineers" in WNOHGB.

It's been retrospectively suggested that LaForge was doing a years bridge training before being moved into engineering - that Picard had seen something special in the young lieutenant that he decided to nurture. The other Chiefs were just "temps" that were training before joining the crews of other Galaxy's in production.

Fascinating, thanks for clearing that up with some juicy background info

 

[Timo]

TrekCore used to have older versions of early TNG scripts, and the one for "Arsenal of Freedom" is especially interesting in that it doesn't consider Logan a "chief" engineer and it doesn't feature a stardate that would be higher than the one for "Skin of Evil" where Tasha Yar, very much alive in "Arsenal of Freedom", died...

Too bad the final script came to feature these two "errors"!

The idea of "temping" Chief Engineers makes sense, not as stand-ins for the Boy of Destiny, but as people training to serve the new fleet of Galaxy class ships. The ship was supposed to be radically new, so there'd have been little in the way of training opportunities elsewhere. Perhaps USS Galaxy and USS Yamato were also processing multiple Chief Engineers during their first year of operation, to get the pool filled?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Sam_I_Am]

Perhaps they were all heads of major engineering sub-departments, like Propulsion, Systems, Computing etc. and there wasn't one overall Chief Engineer. They might all have reported to Picard through Data. Then perhaps Picard decided this arrangement didn't suit the Enterprise and named one and promoted him to senior staff too.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

^ That's not a bad idea.

"Chief Engineer" could have been a role akin to "Officer Of The Day".

 

[Rom's Sehlat]

But wouldn't one person have to be in charge of it all? Picard has to be able to call up one person and chew him out because the warp drive is still offline. He doesn't want to call directory services and find out the officer of the day.

 

[Timo]

The only S1 Chief Engineer who played such a "leading" role in any of the plots was Logan; it would be a bit odd if he weren't the Chief of Chiefs when he felt he should be in charge of the entire vessel. Yet he was a lowly Lieutenant, while Argyle had been a full Commander, suggesting that the two weren't sharing the ship but rather that Argyle had already departed.

Argyle in "Where No One" appeared to be the engineer Riker decided he could "spare" for the task at hand. The same might apply to "Datalore" where Argyle helped with a hobby project while somebody else (McDougal?) might have been running the ship. In "Lonely Among Us", Argyle did seem to be the highest (if offscreen) engineering authority, though.

We might argue that that the ship during her shakedown year was extremely labor-intensive, and that not even Picard dared order the CEO away from her or his work, instead consulting with an Assistant EO like Singh even in medium-sized crises.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Trekker4747]

A story Picard tells about Geordi suggests that he was selected for the special purpose of being a CE.

I came up with the theory that Geordi was chosen to be the CE but had to get more "time" in at a Lt. J.G. rank before he could get a promotion and become the CE, in the mean time the Enterprise served as a "training ship" for other CEs going to Galaxy-Class vessels whose new technology would be unfamiliar with them.

 

[SchwEnt]

Perhaps they were all heads of major engineering sub-departments, like Propulsion, Systems, Computing etc. and there wasn't one overall Chief Engineer. They might all have reported to Picard through Data. Then perhaps Picard decided this arrangement didn't suit the Enterprise and named one and promoted him to senior staff too.

I have thought of this many times and would have liked to see this. I can understand one person as Chief Engineer. But the number one person in charge of the warp engines should be a different person than the expert in the LCARS computer systems, and a different person in charge of the EPS power systems, and is different from the structural/hull engineer expert.

Yes, all engineering--but really different technical specialties. It could have been similar to the sciences department--one science officer, but different geologists, physicists, biologists, astronomers, and so on.

 

[Rom's Sehlat]

Yes, the chief is the go-to guy for the captain. But the individuals who know the most about each field report to him.

As MikeS wrote, the writers had plans for using different chief engineers. I'm glad they settled down and decided on Geordi. I didn't really like any of the 1st season chiefs.

 

[msgplacide]

Yes I think your right.

 

[Tomalak]

But wouldn't one person have to be in charge of it all? Picard has to be able to call up one person and chew him out because the warp drive is still offline. He doesn't want to call directory services and find out the officer of the day.

Picard probably figured an efficient system that worked well was more important than having one person to blame when stuff went wrong.

 

[Rom's Sehlat]

Is that how a [however pseudo]military would operate? I would think they would use the "chain of command" that they even reference in the show. Perhaps I misunderstand, but I understand the phrase "chain of command" to mean one person gets the talking-to from the boss and then has his underlings get it done.

But anyway, it certainly changed to one chief of engineering with Geordi's promotion at the beginning of season 2.

 

[Sam_I_Am]

But wouldn't one person have to be in charge of it all? Picard has to be able to call up one person and chew him out because the warp drive is still offline. He doesn't want to call directory services and find out the officer of the day.

I'm not sure - Picard could easily have Data or Worf (who didn't seem to have an official position at the time) liaise with departments not represented on the bridge. A lot of what Data did was to do with ship's systems.

It fits in with what Roddenberry thought - that the ship was so sophisticated, engineering wasn't as necessary as on Kirk's ship.

 

[Timo]

Yes, all engineering--but really different technical specialties

We got some of that in TNG with the concept of "systems engineer", a special kind represented by Barclay, Dern and Timothy's unnamed mom ("Realm of Fear" and "Hero Worship"). Stron from "Carbon Creek" was a (Vulcan) warp engineer; Rom was a maintenance engineer. There were probably more sub-professions like that, and any of our chief engineers might have represented any of them. But the main job of the Chief Engineering Officer would still be taking responsibility for everything, and his or her special sub-profession would have to take a backseat to that.

Timo Saloniemi