From: v075q5fr@ubvmsb.cc.buffalo.edu (Scott J Gorcey)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current
Subject: Re: O'Brien's Rank [THE FINAL ANSWER]
Date: 4 Oct 92 23:57:00 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: University at Buffalo
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41

In article <BvM6uz.Gy9@news.cso.uiuc.edu>, btd43733@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (BTDonovan) writes...

"Realm of Fear" and O'Brien:

>I must wholeheartedly disagree.  First of all: he DID have two filled circles,
>therefore, (surprise), he is a lieutennant.

     Watch the episode again.  O'Brien's rank indicator now holds only
     one open pip.  (Can we think of any reason why?  Oh, I dunno,
     could it be... O'Brien's a CPO?  Could it be that the costume
     specifications for Colm Meaney have always indicated two rank
     pips... and that this was never altered when some third season
     scripts quietly created a character for Meaney called Miles
     O'Brien?  Could it be that this two-pip error has finally been
     corrected with the onset of DS9, where O'Brien is a major
     character?  Could it be that this correction in costuming
     on DS9 carries over to "Realm of Fear" (the first O'Brien
     apprearance of this season) because the two series are
     filming CONCURRENTLY?
     Could it be that we finally do have a "FINAL ANSWER" to this
     eternal flame war?

     I think so.

  The reason he is 'chief' is
>transporter chief is because he is the top officer in the (for lack of a better
>explanation) "transporter division" much like Lt. Cmdr LaForge is the Chief
>of Enginnerring 

     Agreed... but for one detail: Geordi is O'Brien's immediate
     superior.  (Until January, that is).

>  O'Brien
>obviously earned his commission and rank as a security chief (as mentioned in
>"The Wounded"- or whatever that episode was with that renegade captain in the
>cool Nebula class ship.)

     Or: Since that ship was much smaller than the Enterprise,
     a CPO or lower-ranked enlisted man serving as Tactical
     Officer would have been NORMAL.  Or: The commissioned
     officer who was Tactical Officer was killed - this was
     "wartime" with the Cardassian Conflict, remember - and
     O'Brien served out his tour of duty as Tactical.

     There are thousands of scenarios you can concoct.  Thousands
     that I can concoct.  The simple answer is: O'Brien is an
     enlisted man, and Meaney's costume has finally been altered
     to reflect what scripts in the past several seasons have
     shown.

>I think that the deal with "Realm of Fear" is that some writers got extremely
>LAZY and with little regard to the flamewars which could occur on r.a.s.*
>temporarily demoted O'Brien in order to put a cute scene in where Barclay
>could order him around.

     Yeah, that's not contrived.  Get over yourself, man, and
     realize something: O'Brien has ALWAYS been a CPO.

  I wish that whoever is in control of series contenuity
>and quality control down at Paramount (or wherever) would get off their
>rear and actually fine tune and clean up the stories/scripts so we, the
>audience, don't have to put up with as much _TRASH_ as we've been getting
>in the last year or two.

     Hm.  Look at that from another point of view: O'Brien has
     always been a CPO, but the Costume Department has never
     been, through small tho continuous oversight, instructed
     to reflect that in Colm (the extra) Meaney's costumes.
     This has now been corrected - quality control and fine
     tuning, finally.
	
                 Shortly  thereafter, the health of  Annie
                 Blackburn still in question, the behavior
                 of Special Agent  Dale Cooper was noticed
                 __________________________to have changed.
                                              Scott Gorcey.            
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.current