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by thaumaturgy
3117 days ago
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I always hated that scene, because it fundamentally changed the character of Mr. Scott from engineer to engineering manager. Which, he was, but that wasn't what made his character so compelling to begin with. LaForge was a competent engineering manager. The writers tended to focus more on the character's people management skills (and, sometimes, terrible personal relationship stuff). He kept things running smoothly. He was smart. You could imagine a detailed maintenance work log for every system on the ship, and there'd be no gaps in it ever since he took the position of chief engineer. But while Scotty cared about his staff, it was the machinery that he knew inside and out. He never needed to conjure up a hologram of the designer of the warp engines, because he knew them as well as anyone else. His maintenance logs would have gaps because he'd know which things actually needed regular attention, and which ones were just bureaucratic nonsense. He didn't just understand all of it on the technician level, but on the theoretical level too, enabling him to pull off some unlikely saves. He actually was a miracle worker and maybe one of the best fictional representations of an engineer, and that one scene was written to make him look a little more like a bureaucrat. |
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LaForge is competent, he's also newer in his overall career. Scotty has been around the block so many times he knows where every crack and seam is.
That was a moment where Scotty's wisdom was being handed down; it's OK to know what it will take, but stuff happens, and there's also the potential to hand tasks off to less senior staff that might not do it at perfect speed. Giving a padded estimate gives you options and room for corrections if there are issues.