Star Trek: Every Chief Engineer Ranked

9. MacDougal, Argyle, Logan And Lynch

The first season of the Next Generation had something of a revolving door of Chief Engineers. Initially, the show had not been written with any scenes in main engineering, with a preference to stage scenes on the bridge. Thankfully, Gene Roddenberry added a line to Encounter at Farpoint that necessitated the building of a Main Engineering set.

However, that called for a Chief Engineer. First up was Lt. Commander Sarah MacDougal. She appeared in The Naked Now, where she is outwitted by Wesley Crusher, losing complete control of her section. Her contract was not renewed.

Next up was Lt. Commander Argyle, who was in control of Engineering in Where No One Has Gone Before. Under his command, the ship ended up stuck in another Galaxy. His contract was not renewed.

He was followed by Lt. Logan (who would later appear in the pilot of the Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Angel as a nasty Vampire), appearing in The Arsenal of Freedom. He was quite horrible to La Forge when the latter was commanding the ship. Guess what happened with his contract?

Last up was the oddly formal Lt. Commander Leland T. Lynch, who is in charge of Engineering in Skin of Evil. He probably does the best job of the lot, though unfortunately he would only appear once.

Each of these characters is both unmemorable in most cases, incompetent. Thankfully, when the show returned for its second year, a new Chief would be in charge.