What was Worf's job before he became Chief of Security?

[sbk1234]

Similar to what has already been mentioned, in my mind, I declared Worf a Bridge Relief Officer. The idea was when someone had to leave the bridge, he would be there to take over. The advantage of using someone who was already on the bridge is it would create a better consistancy, since he'd already be up to speed on the ship's condition. Also, in this official capacity he'd be fully trained on all of the different bridge systems.
What the Hell, it works for me.

 

[ndcarlin]

When he first appeared i think he just rode up and down on the lifts in engineering.

 

[SoM]

..merging the two must have happened across the whole of Starfleet, and not just on the Enterprise. In Voyager Tuvok was both Security Chief and Tactical officer.

That doesn't convince me. Voyager was but one ship, not a representative example of Starfleet at large. And she was a ship making do with replacement personnel after suffering major casualties. Tuvok only assumed the combined Tactical and Security position after those casualties - until then, he was spoken of as the Security Chief, off to an assignment.

Really, those casualties were later said to have included at least one unseen Commander and two Lieutenant Commanders in addition to the XO, LtCmdr Cavit. One of those LtCmdrs might have been the Chief Medical Officer, but we would need other top positions to accommodate at least one LtCmdr and one Cmdr, and preferably the latter should be out of the chain of command since he or she outranked Cavit yet Cavit held the highest position in the chain of command below Janeway...

With Security already taken by Tuvok, the remaining LtCmdr could well be Tactical. Or then Chief of Ops, another known casualty because his or her loss allowed Ensign Kim to take over that position. Or Chief Engineer, who also was lost. And the mysterious Commander could be Chief Science Officer, to keep him or her out of the chain of command.

Why not make the full Cmdr the Chief Medical Officer? Science officers aren't necessarily out of the chain of command, as Spock and Jadzia Dax proved.

 

[Finn]

They sort of returned to the LaForge thing in "Next Phase" and "All Good Things", explaining that he had been a shuttle pilot (and later a helm officer on the Victory) but had always demonstrated aptitude and willingness to fix and tune the vessels trusted to him. So Picard might have always been grooming LaForge for an engineering position, knowing that he'd be good at it, even if the ship didn't have that position open during the first season yet.

Timo Saloniemi

the job opened at least 3 times in season one

 

[C_Miller]

I'm not sure how much I buy Worf being the tactical officer while Yar was Chief of Security. I mean, Yar fired phasers and torpedoes quite a bit during the first season, which is the job of the tactical officer.

I like the idea that he was a Relief Bridge Officer a lot better. I imagine that he wanted to try and shed his Klingon heretage a bit. Try not to be as much the warrior, he decided to go into command and since to command a ship, you need knowledge of all the ship's components, this was the best way to the command chair. I mean, we saw him in engineering, flying the ship, filling in at ops, he took over for Yar after she died, and the main station he worked at was science II. Or at least that's how I see it.

 

[milo bloom]

Similar to what has already been mentioned, in my mind, I declared Worf a Bridge Relief Officer. The idea was when someone had to leave the bridge, he would be there to take over. The advantage of using someone who was already on the bridge is it would create a better consistancy, since he'd already be up to speed on the ship's condition. Also, in this official capacity he'd be fully trained on all of the different bridge systems.
What the Hell, it works for me.

The wife and I are doing a TNG re-watch here lately, and we're about midway through season 1, and A) Season 1 is not nearly as bad as one might remember and B) having an officer like Worf as a Bridge Relief Officer is something all ships should have (which they very likely do, they're just not a main-title sequence name-worthy character).

 

[alte]

A Pinata Instructor...?

 

[ndcarlin]

A Pinata Instructor...?

You have MISSED! You have no HONOR! (Children cry)

 

[USS Excelsior]

They never explained Gordi switching to engineering and they never really showed Worf officially take over for Tasha I would have liked to have seen that.

He was told in "Skin Of Evil" that he's now acting Chief Of Security, and took over that station.

And the role is a merger of 3 roles. Tactical, Security, and Communications.

 

[USS Excelsior]

Worf always was a senior member, he always sat on staff meetings.

A good question is why was Wesley at these meetings, and the Chief Engineer was never at any of them.

 

[CaptainStoner]

An Electrician...?

"COMMANDER! I HAVE FOUND THE SHORT!"

Worf's another main S1 duties included falling down in physical altercations, and cleaning the Bridge replicators.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

Worf always was a senior member, he always sat on staff meetings.

A good question is why was Wesley at these meetings, and the Chief Engineer was never at any of them.

Would you really want that jerk Logan or "Lieutenant Commander Leland T. Lynch" (emphasis on the T) on the staff meetings though?

 

[USS Triumphant]

Worf was in Starfleet Apple School. The only reason he did not go on to ride in the rodeo was that he had to take Yar's job, instead.

(Sometimes, I amuse myself too much. )

 

[milo bloom]

They sort of returned to the LaForge thing in "Next Phase" and "All Good Things", explaining that he had been a shuttle pilot (and later a helm officer on the Victory) but had always demonstrated aptitude and willingness to fix and tune the vessels trusted to him. So Picard might have always been grooming LaForge for an engineering position, knowing that he'd be good at it, even if the ship didn't have that position open during the first season yet.

Timo Saloniemi

the job opened at least 3 times in season one

As I mentioned recently (this thread or another), the wife and I are rewatching TNG and are about 2/3's through S1. I still think Picard was grooming La Forge for the chief engineer's job as there are more than a few instances where Geordi is mucking about in engineering doing things the CHENG or even the Asst CHENG should be doing.

If I were to really whip out the fanwank, I would say Picard wanted La Forge for CHENG, but accepted that he was just a smidge too young/inexperienced, but he didn't want to lose him to another ship. So he brings him in as a bridge officer and then keeps finding excuses for him to brush up on the -D's engineering specifics and tolerates the other CHENG's for a year until Geordi is ready for his bump.

We could say something similar for Worf, he knew he wanted him on his ship, he just didn't have a specific job in mind yet and also didn't want to lose Worf to another ship in the meantime.

 

[Davros]

His job was to be tossed around the bridge by whatever alien had shown up that week to demonstrate how tough it was.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

^^

Worf's job title was "permanent redshirt". They picked a Klingon for the job, because Klingons aren't killed so easily.

 

[USS Excelsior]

A better question would be what would Worf's job be if Denise Crosby didn't decide to leave the show.

 

[Ensign_Redshirt]

A better question would be what would Worf's job be if Denise Crosby didn't decide to leave the show.

La Forge would still have become chief engineer, and Worf would have ended up at the Conn?

 

[CoveTom]

In the first season, the original concept was supposed to be that there was no chief engineer, or at least not one that we ever saw. Roddenberry's original thinking, as I understand it, was that by the 24th century the technology that runs a starship would be so advanced and so foolproof that there wouldn't ever be a dramatic need to go to engineering. Yeah, right.

Originally, Roddenberry wasn't even going to build an engineering set. However, the others on the team convinced him that because engineering would be such a massive set, if they didn't use their huge pilot budget to build it at the time of Farpoint, they'd never have the money to come back and build it later. So he changed his mind and had the set built.

 

[milo bloom]

In the first season, the original concept was supposed to be that there was no chief engineer, or at least not one that we ever saw. Roddenberry's original thinking, as I understand it, was that by the 24th century the technology that runs a starship would be so advanced and so foolproof that there wouldn't ever be a dramatic need to go to engineering. Yeah, right.

Originally, Roddenberry wasn't even going to build an engineering set. However, the others on the team convinced him that because engineering would be such a massive set, if they didn't use their huge pilot budget to build it at the time of Farpoint, they'd never have the money to come back and build it later. So he changed his mind and had the set built.

Your second part jives with my memories, but your first part seems different. What I had read was that he didn't want the crew to have the exact same positions as the TOS crew so he could try to avoid fans comparing the old helmsman to the new one, or the old chief engineer to the new one. That's why the bridge is so different, the first officer didn't have a permanent station, etc, etc.