VOY: The Gift

[Mark]

The only thing I can think of was by TNG, a criteria was established for command officers. Perhaps it was because at the time LaForge was in command red (thus he MUST have received SOME kind of command training) whereas the engineer was out of the direct line of command. Did we ever see LaForge assume command again after HE became Chief Engineer?

In TOS I'm guessing it was a toss up. We saw BOTH Scotty and Sulu take command at different instances.

[Mikey]

Was the guy questioning LaForges authority the Chief Engineer?

No. IIRC, he wore red.

[SomosFuga]

Was the guy questioning LaForges authority the Chief Engineer?

No. IIRC, he wore red.

He wore yellow with two pins and he was chief engineer but there is something about having several people in that position at the same time in this period.
Here his Memory Alpha article:
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Logan

[Mark]

You know, now that I think about it.....how the hell did LaForge jump from conn and junior bridge officer to Chief Engineer. That's a pretty big promotion.....especially as up until season two we'd never seen any hint of these wonderful engineering skills.

[Aaron]

You'd think Data would have been the Eng O, that's usually the Third Officers position in RL and you can't deny that being a walking encyclopedia wouldn't be an asset there. Guess his position as exposition officer was more critical.

[Mark]

You'd think Data would have been the Eng O, that's usually the Third Officers position in RL and you can't deny that being a walking encyclopedia wouldn't be an asset there. Guess his position as exposition officer was more critical.

Well, you DO need a technobabbler on the bridge at all times, per regulation

[kostmayer]

You know, now that I think about it.....how the hell did LaForge jump from conn and junior bridge officer to Chief Engineer. That's a pretty big promotion.....especially as up until season two we'd never seen any hint of these wonderful engineering skills.

They did retro it in somewhat in "The Next Phase" - Picard tells of how Geordi stayed up all night refitting the fusion initiators of their shuttle after Picard made an offhand comment about their efficiency.

They seemed to do the same thing with O'Brien somewhat. Although he does admit to Sisko that he doesn't come from an engineering background, and only found out he had talents in that area when he had to get a transporter working in an emergency situation. I wonder if he fixed it the same way he fixed the transporters in Emmisary when he was trying to beam Odo back. Great bit of old fashioned engineering there.

[Mark]

You know, now that I think about it.....how the hell did LaForge jump from conn and junior bridge officer to Chief Engineer. That's a pretty big promotion.....especially as up until season two we'd never seen any hint of these wonderful engineering skills.

They did retro it in somewhat in "The Next Phase" - Picard tells of how Geordi stayed up all night refitting the fusion initiators of their shuttle after Picard made an offhand comment about their efficiency.

They seemed to do the same thing with O'Brien somewhat. Although he does admit to Sisko that he doesn't come from an engineering background, and only found out he had talents in that area when he had to get a transporter working in an emergency situation. I wonder if he fixed it the same way he fixed the transporters in Emmisary when he was trying to beam Odo back. Great bit of old fashioned engineering there.

Still....that's a hell of a promotion. But then Picard IS a member of the ol' boys club. Brownie points with him go a long way. Only one question.....what about all those other poor schmucks working in engineering and paying their dues, and actually spent their time in Engineering training in the Academy instead of the Command track? It's these little things that drive me nuts watching TNG. Plus, did anybody think that poor Data got shafted on the promotion thing? How long did he serve as a Lieutenant Commander, poor guy?

[Aaron]

26 years in the fleet as of the Klingon Civil War.

[Mark]

I'd SERIOUSLY start to consider a new career if I was still an O-4 after 26 years.

[Tyyr]

Anti-android prejudice?

[Sionnach Glic]

Undoubtedly. I can easily see a lot of people being uncomfortable with having a machine too high up in the ranks, regardless of how loyal and capable he's proven himself to be.

[Mark]

Especially since it seems his "firewall" was barely better than the E-Ds.

[Praeothmin]

Don't forget that for most of his "life" he wasn't even considered as a life form, so had limited rights.
And when he was first given his command during the Klingon civil war, people on his ship seemed unconfortable about his temporary promotion, not because he was incompetent, but because he was an Android...

So yeah, anti-Android bigotry feels like the reason he was passed-over for promotions for so long...

[Captain Seafort]

Don't forget that for most of his "life" he wasn't even considered as a life form, so had limited rights.

I'm not so sure things were that bad until Maddox decided to test things - he enlisted in Starfleet, rather than being assigned to a ship as equipment, and seems to have progressed through the ranks in the normal manner. Sure there was prejudice, and I expect that is why he was still a Lt Commander, but I don't think he'd been generally considered as Starfleet property - Maddox simply went digging and found some ancient regulations that supported his case.