From: CXMP@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA (CXMP)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current
Subject: Let's put this on a FAQL (Re: O'Brien's Rank)
Date: 8 Oct 92 00:50:39 GMT
Organization: McGill University

In article <Bvqnuz.EGp@acsu.buffalo.edu> v075q5fr@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Scott J Gorcey) writes:
>> >Perhaps, instead of resolving it one way or another, we should ask another
>> >question.  What happened, in Trek terms, to change his rank to this
>> >previously-unseen combination?

You know, it wasn't that long ago that Mark Holtz' Lists of Lists came
out.  He didn't give the source (The Writer's Guide?  TNG Tech. Man.?)
but he did give the following discription of ranks on TNG:

Fleet Captain            Five solid gold pips
Captain                  Four solid gold pips
Commander                Three solid gold pips
Lieutenant Commander     Two solid gold pips and one hollow one
Lieutenant               Two solid gold pips
Lieutenant Junior Grade  One solid gold pip and one hollow one
Ensign                   One solid gold pip
Ensign Junior Grade      One hollow gold pip
Midshipman               One gold starburst worn on the right uniform
                         lapel

OK, so the rank O'Brien had in "The Realm of Fear" was that of Ensign
(either full of JG) whether the pip was solid or not.  Fine.  But
wasn't O'Brien a Lieutenant in earlier episodes?

>     This is what happened (not made up: ask Meaney or Ron Moore
>     to tell the story of O'Brien at a con sometime).  During
>     the third season, it was decided Meaney's character, the
>     main TRANSPORTER CHIEF, would be given a name and a backstory.
>     It was stupid to keep having him appear arbitrarily; if Meaney
>     was going to continue to recur with the frequency he had during
>     season two and the opening part of season three, he should BE
>     SOMEONE.
>
>     O'Brien was created in these story sessions.  Details were
>     later laced into some scripts: first a name; then some past
>     details, more interaction with the regular cast; a first
>     name; a wife; a kid; a fuller backstory...
>
>     The most important detail decided on during O'Brien's creation
>     was that he would be an ENLISTED MAN, to offset the all-officer
>     cast.  He would be down to earth Irish and ENLISTED MAN.
>
>     We find out in "Realm of Fear" that O'Brien's run the transporter
>     for 22 years.  This is entirely consistent with the excitement
>     a CPO can expect during a long career in the military.

OK but O'Brien was always treated as though he was an officer.
>
>>By FAR the clearest "spoken dialog" was when Riker called
>>Miles a Lieutenant.
>
>     Here's an impasse.  This reference comes from "Loud as a
>     Whisper," doesn't it?  This is early second season: in
>     the script for that episode, Riker is addressing TRANSPORTER
>     CHIEF.  If Meaney had been unavailable to come in that week,
>     Riker could have been talking to Gary Coleman just the same.
>
Fine so they *hadn't decided* whether the TRANSPORTER CHIEF should
be an officer or not and yet he always wore a Lieutenant's Uniform?

>     Let me explain wardrobe: you are measured once for your
>     costume.
>     The costume is made or bought, the proper acoutrements
>     (rank pips included) are put on the costume.  The uniform
>     O'Brien wears was therefore FIRST CREATED FOR 'Transporter
>     Chief'

or rather for the actor Colm Meany who could have done Lieutenant
Generic for all time.

>     New Measurements are taken at the beginning of work each
>     season if needed - a change in actor's size or change in
>     the costume itself.
>     TNG changed costumes between the second and third season.
>     DURING the third season.  And Colm Meaney was wearing
>     season two's wardrobe most of the third season, wasn't he?
>
>     Maybe what you're not seeing is this: NOBODY but Star Trek
>     geeks watches the show SO CLOSELY as to be irked by the
>     appearance or disappearance of a couple of buttons.
>
>> >O'Brien WILL be promoted from CPO to Chief Operations Officer on DS9.
>
>>That would be a perfect position for a Lt. Commander,
>>which would have been O'Brien's next step up in rank...
>
>     It wouldn't be a perfect position for a Lt Commander when
>     the Commanding Officer of DS9 is himself a Commander in
>     rank.
>     Wake up and get over yourself - whatever the inconsistencies
>     you remember from the second season, it really is CLEAR
>     O'Brien is being written as a CPO  NOW AT THIS POINT.
>
Someone else suggested that someone at Paramount might read the net.
This is not necessarily true.  However, I'm sure that if they had
gotten wind of the controversy surrounding O'Brien's rank, they might
have thought "Oh @#$%!  Are we to fit Colm in a new uniform just to
satisfy these people?"  Nevertheless, from episodes like "Disaster"
in which O'Brien is featured prominently I saw no indication that
O'Brien *wasn't* a Lieutenant.  What's a producer to do?

I think we're now supposed to forget what uniform O'Brien wore during
seasons two through five.  It seems quite plausible that O'Brien may
have recieved a commision between "TAII" and "Realm of Fear".  After
all, didn't he save the day in "The Wounded"?  Didn't he save three
lives in "Power Play"?  What does it take to get a commision?

It looks to me as though O'Brien is *now* an Ensign and the O'Brien-
is-a-CPO people were right.  Fair enough?

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