Star Trek: Every Chief Engineer Ranked

Being Chief Engineer on board a starship can often be a thankless job. It is their responsibliity to ensure that the lifts are working, the sonic showers never break down and that the replicators are delivering something palatable. If any of these cease to function, they can quickly find themselves on the receiving end of harsh words from the captain.

Some of the entries on this list very clearly struggled in their roles. Not everyone is cut out to be the Chief. Sometimes, it is better just to be part of the team, rather than having to be the one who makes the tough decisions. When your role is ensuring that the very ship you're flying in doesn't explode thanks to a misaligned system, that can be tough on the nerves.

Thankfully, most examples in Starfleet seem up to the task. It is also clear that one doesn't have to be the Chief on a ship named Enterprise to excel in their role. There are other ships and there are many challenges facing them, breaking them down and getting in their way.

How many times must a system keep breaking? How many calls must come in from an officer who can't work their console? Have they tried switching it off and turning it back on again?

These are the Chiefs who must deal with these issues on the day to day.

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.