Who had the oddest career path?

[Thespeckledkiwi]

Kegek said:
Worf. He starts out as a lonely Lieutenant J.G. on the Enterprise, who does odd jobs like being a backup conn officer. When Yar dies, he switches to Security and takes over as Security Chief (picked over the heads of the entire pre-existing staff. Favouritism!)

This is explained pretty well in one of the Star Trek books, in which Worf wanted to be in security but because he had little experience outside of it, Picard thought he would do better at other positions to gain some experience.

 

[captcalhoun]

Worf's resignation came BEFORE NEM in 'A Time for War, A Time for Peace', wherein Adm. Ross gives him the Titan no. 1 slot. The epilogue then explains that he's staying put as it takes place in between the wake for Data and the B4/Picard scene. Worf's position as number 1 on the E-E is given in 'Resistance'.

His temporary-filling-in is pretty obvious given he's in command red. plus, the novels explain that the SecChief was on leave on Earth during NEM, which is why she didn't appear...

 

[Timo]

Since Worf was wearing command red in Nemesis I'd say he was only the acting head of security and it was just a temporary assignment.

Yeah, Worf could easily have been a mere passenger in ST:NEM, taking a few liberties with the bridge consoles because the skipper was friends with him.

However, red would go nicely with being Tactical Officer, as opposed to the dual job of Security and Tactical that Worf held after Yar's death (or that Tuvok held after the deaths of something like half the Voyager crew). Indeed, Worf's original red in the first season of TNG might well have denoted a dedication to Tactical as well, even if he did sometimes sit in other chairs.

Also, while Worf's career path is an odd and winding one, I don't think it is unexpected or unnatural in any way. After all, Worf was a celebrity, a showpiece and a political pawn. Of course Starfleet would put him through all sorts of hoops, trying to get maximum lightyearage out of this exotic addition to its ranks.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[KJM]

JiNX-01 said:
Ensign Harry Kim to Ensign Harry Kim.

He goes nowhere and does nothing.

 

[TGTheodore]

JoeZhang said:
Is it ever explained how Geordi becomes chief Engineer? I remember him being Helmsman and then "blam!" he's the boss.

Yeah, I wondered about him, too. And he took command in "The Arsenal of Freedom" as well.

--Ted

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

TG Theodore said:

JoeZhang said:
Is it ever explained how Geordi becomes chief Engineer? I remember him being Helmsman and then "blam!" he's the boss.

Yeah, I wondered about him, too. And he took command in "The Arsenal of Freedom" as well.

--Ted

It seemed by AoF that Geordi was on the command path; even Scotty in "Relics" makes the comment that Geordi is much more suited for command and that Scotty has always wanted to be Chief Engineer, while Geordi seems to be the opposite. Since TPTB thought that there should be a permanent engineer, they picked Geordi because out of all the regulars he spent the most time in engineering in the first season, in episodes "The Last Outpost" (he is sent to check on engineering), "Lonely Among Us" (with Worf) and the one with the binary number title that I never remember.

 

[Kegek]

captcalhoun said:
Since Worf was wearing command red in Nemesis I'd say he was only the acting head of security and it was just a temporary assignment.

A temporary assignment for a guy who went out of the fleet and became an Ambassador. If he's going to be wearing his proper uniform, it'd be fully bedecked Klingon regalia. But now apparently he's no longer an Ambassador and he's on some kind of temporary assignment (could they get nobody else, really?).

You can rationalise this stuff, but it is still fairly ludricous.

Timo said:
Indeed, Worf's original red in the first season of TNG might well have denoted a dedication to Tactical as well, even if he did sometimes sit in other chairs.

That would be inconsistent with every officer known to be assigned to tactical besides Worf himself in TNG, the TNG films, DS9 and VOY, where tactical/security officers were always denoted by yellow.

 

[captcalhoun]

blame Dorn, then. he was asked if he wanted to be in Ambassadorial regalia or his uniform and he said uniform.

never let the talent make creative decisions...

 

[Timo]

A temporary assignment for a guy who went out of the fleet and became an Ambassador.

Assuming he did. He's not exactly the type, you know. Once he got over the bloodwine from the victory celebrations, what are the odds he actually went for the job Martok suggested he take? And what are the odds the Federation really offered the job to him?

That would be inconsistent with every officer known to be assigned to tactical besides Worf himself in TNG, the TNG films, DS9 and VOY, where tactical/security officers were always denoted by yellow.

Well, if you want to nitpick...

But to be sure, the guys who controlled the ship's weaponry were yellow in TOS, too - meaning red in TNG terms.

And we only ever saw three regulars at the Tactical stations of the assorted ships: Yar, Worf and Tuvok. The latter could have been double billet simply because there was no redshirt qualified for the job after the "Caretaker" casualties - none of the redshirt extras were senior to Tuvok, at least. The irregulars were all over the pallette: Picard had a redshirt at the Tactical station on his Stargazer flashback bridge, Keogh's bridge had redshirts at the likely Tactical railing, but Picard put a yellowshirt at his Tactical in "Peak Performance" and "Descent" alike (in addition to placing a blueshirt in command!).

Which reminds me, Crusher's career path ranks pretty high in the oddness scale, too. Young MD rushes past more senior folk in getting CMO position on the Federation Flagship, then departs for heading Starfleet Medical (chief to the entire Starfleet division, at Commander rank?), then gets back and gets stuck aboard that ship, and later her successor vessel, for a decade or so. Wait another decade, and she is commanding a ship of her own.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Kegek]

Timo said:
But to be sure, the guys who controlled the ship's weaponry were yellow in TOS, too - meaning red in TNG terms.

They weren't in security, though. In TNG not only are the colours flipped, but the duties are reassigned as well. Data essentially does Spock's job, but he wears a yellow uniform. All the security guys on TOS wore red, just as their TNG/DS9/VOY equivalents wore yellow - only in the latter case, those guys also fired the torpedoes.

Keogh's bridge had redshirts at the likely Tactical railing,

The first officer manned the tactical console. He was a redshirt, but he was also the X-O. Aside from real world reasons (i.e, not wanting to hire too many guest speaking parts) it's left unexplained why he does that. He may be doubling like Spock did.

 

[JoeZhang]

KJM said:

JiNX-01 said:
Ensign Harry Kim to Ensign Harry Kim.

He goes nowhere and does nothing.

he had a duel role - shouting out "shields down to 59%" and "Captain, I'm picking up a sub-space taychon pulse" - that's a lot of work!

 

[Timo]

In TNG not only are the colours flipped, but the duties are reassigned as well.

Perhaps more accurately, in Picard's crew these duties are reassigned. For example, we know that other ships have dedicated Chief Science Officers even if Picard's doesn't. Captains, at least prominent ones like Picard, might have considerable leeway in customizing their bridges...

It doesn't really make much sense to combine the roles of the Security Chief (responsible for things like organizing ground combat forces or protecting the ship from hostile boarding) and Weapons or Tactical Chief (responsible for fighting the space battles), because the same person would have to split two or three ways in a typical battle. This, unfortunately, is a problem that even 24th century automation won't make easier to solve.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Kegek]

Timo said:
Perhaps more accurately, in Picard's crew these duties are reassigned. For example, we know that other ships have dedicated Chief Science Officers even if Picard's doesn't.

Well, we know there are science officers, like Nella. They just don't appear to be part of the senior staff. The same is true for Voyager, so I don't think it's solely a Picardian perogative.

It doesn't really make much sense to combine the roles of the Security Chief (responsible for things like organizing ground combat forces or protecting the ship from hostile boarding) and Weapons or Tactical Chief (responsible for fighting the space battles),

It only makes sense ideologically; it is downplaying the importance of conflict by embodying it in one person.

 

[JoeZhang]

In terms of the narrative, doesn't Data generally fill the hole of the science officer in the script?

 

[Kegek]

^
Yes, but his title is Chief of Operations. In plot terms, no difference at all, but he wears a yellow uniform. Harry Kim also has this title. I've read somewhere they went with a yellow uniform and the new post basically because the Data makeup didn't go well with blue, but I don't know how reliable that is.

 

[CaptJimboJones]

Wesley: From student wunderkind to, for all intents and purposes, Enterprise helmsman to troubled Starfleet Academy cadet to multi-dimensional "traveler" to briefly-noticed-but-non-speaking wedding reception guest.

 

[Nerys Myk]

Picard: Captain to Captain to Captain. With a brief stop as Borg spokesmodel.

 

[Dorothy_Zbornak]

Kegek said:
^
Yes, but his title is Chief of Operations. In plot terms, no difference at all, but he wears a yellow uniform. Harry Kim also has this title. I've read somewhere they went with a yellow uniform and the new post basically because the Data makeup didn't go well with blue, but I don't know how reliable that is.

I heard that too and after some Photoshoppery, more or less agree:
[image]http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1283/1027971692_e5b0475848.jpg?v=0[/image]

I think also they wanted to re-invent the roles so much they avoided having another "alien" in blue.

 

[Kirby]

JiNX-01 said:
Ensign Harry Kim to Ensign Harry Kim.

You can throw in Ensign Travis Mayweather in as well. He goes from having logged the most space time out of anyone on the ship, only to wind up still being an Ensign at the end of their 10 year mission according to TATV.

 

[InstantKarma]

Worf for sure.

Jonathan Archer in second place...

He went from a commander in the experimental warp program, to Captain of an exploration mission, to Space Rambo, to Space Ghandi, then to Admiralty and finally to President of Everything.