^Yes, that's Bob Justman on Roddenberry's right (our left).
Season 1 Roles (or lack thereof)
- Thread starter MatthiasRussell
- Start date
I've been watching the first season of TNG, and Picard does seem to send LaForge to engineering on a regular basis. He may not be "chief", but considering how often they used him as such, I'm not surprised he got the post when they decided to create it as a permanent shipboard role.
Yes. I'm rewatching the show and it seems LaForge was set up for that post. I'm also more convinced the more I watch that Data should be in blue.
What they did introduce was the cliche of the warp core blowing the whole ship up every other week because the first thing that ever goes off line when you breath on the E-D is the emergency ejector for the very explosive thing you've idiotically stuck in the belly of the ship instead of in the engines where Jefferies originally put it. Not to mention there's no way to do it manually.
Not even nuclear subs explode when damaged. Neither did the Constellation or the Excalibur in TOS. On the whole I prefer TOS's cliches.
They tested him in various uniform colors, and the gold worked best with his makeup.
When "Contagion" introduced the term "warp core breach" into the Trek universe, it made it very clear that it was a staggeringly improbable event and it was a huge mystery how it could've happened at all. Unfortunately, subsequent writers latched onto it as an easy and convenient shorthand for "mortal danger" and it became hugely overused.
Cough! Brannon Braga Cough!
apples to oranges - glorified steam turbines (which nuclear engines are) that make a sub go 40 knots underwater cant compare to 23rd/24th century anti-matter reactors that warp space for a starship to travel.
anywho the 1701 a couple times was stuck going warp 14 (or whatever) sounds like a warp core problem to me, not to mention how the warp core would randomly burn up all its dilithium
I don't see any reason to single him out other than kneejerk hostility. Like most of the Braga-bashing on the Internet, it's in direct contradiction to the facts. If you look over the list of episode transcripts that contain the words "core breach," you'll find that only a few are written by Braga, and that the term was used in scripts by most of Trek's major writer-producers, including Michael Piller, Ira Behr, Ron Moore, Rene Echevarria, Naren Shankar, Kenneth Biller, and others. Warp core breaches were established as a recurring source of danger in TNG before Braga rose to any prominence in its staff, and the term was used at least seven times in DS9, a show that Braga never worked on in any capacity.
They couldn't have made him an Andorian android!?! Lal was given that choice.
It's more than that. Braga is on record saying how much he loved blowing the ship up as many times as he could. And his scripts (Parallels, Cause and Effect, AGT, Generations) bear that out.
I always thought the lack of science officer was deliberate - the Ops position was to manage and report all the information coming from different areas of the ship, including all the li'l guys running around manning the individual sensor pallets and such. THOSE guys would report to Ops (or Tactical for some reason, as in "A Matter of Honor") all the important stuff who'd then report it to the senior staff as needed.
Perhaps in TOS the science doodads were much less complicated such that one science officer could handle it all, Spock was simply THAT good, or as time went on they realized that the science nerds were better suited overall to doing science stuff and not management thereof, dumping that off onto the new Ops guy instead...
Mark
Perhaps in TOS the science doodads were much less complicated such that one science officer could handle it all, Spock was simply THAT good, or as time went on they realized that the science nerds were better suited overall to doing science stuff and not management thereof, dumping that off onto the new Ops guy instead...
Mark
Roddenberry's goal at the start of TNG was to avoid reusing familiar races from the original series and strike out in new directions.
Yes, but TNG established warp core breaches as the go-to mechanism for starship destruction before Braga rose to prominence, and as I said, the majority of references to core breaches are in non-Braga scripts.
Yeah, it was deliberate in the sense that TNG's creators wanted to change things up rather than just copy the crew composition of TOS. There was initially no chief engineer, there was no science officer or communications officer, helm and navigation were combined, the ops, security chief, and counselor roles were added, etc.
But that's a good rationalization for why the ops officer would fill the story role of a science officer (and that's as true of Harry Kim as of Data).
From what I rememer reading that scene was added so that an Engineering set would be built as the cost of building one wouldn't likely have been approved during the series.
Right, and when combined with no "Chief Engineer" character, what does that tell you about the importance of Main Engineering as originally envisioned for TNG?
It tells us what I believe we've already discussed, that the creators' intent was that engineering would not play an important story function, because the technology was meant to be so advanced and reliable that it could take care of itself and be mostly invisible. You can see that same philosophy in the bridge design, which was mostly comfy chairs and wood paneling and carpet like a lounge, with only a few small display panels here and there betraying the presence of high technology. And in the tech design that replaced the boxy communicator with a simple insignia pin.
But since most of the show's development team was gone within a season, that idea, like so many of their other ideas, didn't last very long.
As far back as TOS, Jefferies thought the engine machinery would be so advanced to be completely automated so the chief engineer could control/monitor everything from the bridge console. Of course it didn't work out that way; in TOS the phasers needed someone in phaser control pushing the fire button. But even if engineering is automated, I would imagine the chief engineer would still be important and frequent enough at staff meetings to need to be a regular cast member.
doubleohfive
Fleet Admiral
I used to think Geordi was the flight controller (CONN) and Worf was the assistant security chief and general mission ops officer.
In retrospect, and taking uniform color scheme into consideration, as well as both their extreme low rank (both were JG lieutenants), and given that they both moved up the ladder in season 2, it makes more sense to just go with the idea that they were junior officers on the ship being trained in every area of starship operation, we just saw them at CONN and Tactical a lot more than any of the other positions.
We can assume this because we did see them at various stations and jobs throughout season one, whereas the others had their main jobs throughout:
--Worf and Geordi were in that weird sensor room in "Lonely Among Us" (where they even discuss being junior officers).
--Geordi got to take command of the ship in "Arsenal of Freedom."
--Worf was Tasha's backup at Tactical; he also filled in at OPS and CONN when needed.
--Worf also seemed to be master of all the "backseat" stations in the rear of the bridge also.
In retrospect, and taking uniform color scheme into consideration, as well as both their extreme low rank (both were JG lieutenants), and given that they both moved up the ladder in season 2, it makes more sense to just go with the idea that they were junior officers on the ship being trained in every area of starship operation, we just saw them at CONN and Tactical a lot more than any of the other positions.
We can assume this because we did see them at various stations and jobs throughout season one, whereas the others had their main jobs throughout:
--Worf and Geordi were in that weird sensor room in "Lonely Among Us" (where they even discuss being junior officers).
--Geordi got to take command of the ship in "Arsenal of Freedom."
--Worf was Tasha's backup at Tactical; he also filled in at OPS and CONN when needed.
--Worf also seemed to be master of all the "backseat" stations in the rear of the bridge also.
No, Geordi was created specifically to be the conn officer (there were a lot of jokes early on about the blind guy driving the ship -- I think there may even be one in the writers' bible). If he was occasionally given other roles, that was an exception to the rule, like when Uhura filled in at the helm that one time. As for Worf, he never took on any security duties specifically until Tasha died. He was the bridge watch officer, filling in on any stations as needed and holding the conn when the senior officers were not on the bridge.
Sulu took the conn on several occasions, but that didn't mean he wasn't the helmsman. Geordi was established as being both the conn officer and on the command track. Both of which were retconned by the second-season producers when they decided they wanted a full-time chief engineer.
doubleohfive
Fleet Admiral
Something being in the writer's bible vs. what actually is said on screen and presented are two different things.
I don't recall there being any jokes about Geordi being a blind man flying the giant Galaxy-class starship that made it to the screen; the nearest I can recall would be Riker's joking about "a blind man teaching an android how the pain" in "11001001."
Was there ever an occasion during season one where somebody said "This is Geordi. He's our chief navigator/pilot/whatever" ?
It's all well and good that this is what the writers intended, but if they didn't go out of their way to reference it directly, like how Data is the ship's second officer. I'm pretty sure we can all agree that this was the case given how many times it was verified on screen. As it is, Geordi's official position during season one, if we are going strictly by what was presented on screen is pretty much still open to interpretation. Likewise (though I don't necessarily agree with it) whether or not Data was the ship's science officer. I myself think he was, but again, it's open to interpretation.
A great example would be Laura Roslin on BSG. Her initial backstory had a major tragedy occurring in her family when she was a little girl (according to the writer's bible). The same tragedy was later retconned for the series finale to have happened right before the attack on the colonies. Simple background change despite the initial intention behind the actual characterization to better suit the needs of the finale. As it had never been brought up before on screen, the writers were free to take this plot point and mold it to fit their story needs. It happens all the time in television.
I get what you're saying, but for myself, I like my interpretation better.
I don't recall there being any jokes about Geordi being a blind man flying the giant Galaxy-class starship that made it to the screen; the nearest I can recall would be Riker's joking about "a blind man teaching an android how the pain" in "11001001."
Was there ever an occasion during season one where somebody said "This is Geordi. He's our chief navigator/pilot/whatever" ?
It's all well and good that this is what the writers intended, but if they didn't go out of their way to reference it directly, like how Data is the ship's second officer. I'm pretty sure we can all agree that this was the case given how many times it was verified on screen. As it is, Geordi's official position during season one, if we are going strictly by what was presented on screen is pretty much still open to interpretation. Likewise (though I don't necessarily agree with it) whether or not Data was the ship's science officer. I myself think he was, but again, it's open to interpretation.
A great example would be Laura Roslin on BSG. Her initial backstory had a major tragedy occurring in her family when she was a little girl (according to the writer's bible). The same tragedy was later retconned for the series finale to have happened right before the attack on the colonies. Simple background change despite the initial intention behind the actual characterization to better suit the needs of the finale. As it had never been brought up before on screen, the writers were free to take this plot point and mold it to fit their story needs. It happens all the time in television.
I get what you're saying, but for myself, I like my interpretation better.
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