10 Star Trek Characters That Just VANISHED
7. Argyle
The first season of the Next Generation featured a revolving door of Chief Engineers, so this really could apply to most of them. Leland T. Lynch managed to stand out by the inexplicable use of his full name, first, middle, and last when hailed by the bridge.
Argyle, however, is a bit of a different story. The rumour goes that far from just disappearing like the others, this particular engineer was informed he would not be returning, regardless of a series of letters received by the studio to keep him on.
Argyle’s actor, Biff Yeager, was part of an initiative to send those letters to the studio, encouraging them to keep the character around. Perhaps he had seen what happens to engineers on the Enterprise-D and wanted to get ahead of the curve, or perhaps he wanted that one thing that eludes so many of us - job security.
Unlike Bjo and John Trimble’s successful letter writing campaign of the 1960s, this one didn’t pan out. He was not asked back, though he does hold the distinction of being the only Engineer in the first season to appear twice.
That may have to be the win for this grease monkey, and who could begrudge the great Geordi La Forge the post as the show went into its second season? Not this writer, that’s for sure.